Using a vague excuse to ramble about more historical stuff
As y'all know: I freaking love history. And as such I could not help but perk up, as we saw the gang hang out in those ruins that clearly are near Machecoul. I instantly assumed that this was the Chateau de Machecoul, given that the ruins do indeed look similar and are located in about the same location in relation to Machecoul as the real ruins.
I was however informed by the crew that these parallels are coincidental and that indeed those ruins are not meant to be the Chateau. It is just a ruin by Machecoul.
And I mean, it is kinda fair, given that we are in Europe, and it is hard to throw a stone and not hit some medieval ruins over here.
But y'all know what? I am going to talk about the Chateau the Machecoul either way, and be it just to talk about one of my favorite historical figures. Gilles de Rais.
So, first things first: Indeed, in medieval Europe, there were a lot of castles. This had to do both with how much the different regions went to war at each others, and that nobles wanted to feel safe in some way.
Now, with Castlevania Nocturne I am still somewhat interested to see should we get a season 3, why the plot is originally set in Machecoul. My original thought was, that the show would go into the War in the Vandée. But so far that has not yet happened.
But Machecoul indeed for being a fairly small town was actually involved in several historical events.
And then we have its role towards the 100 Year War, and especially the stuff towards the end of it.
See, there are two figures in regards to the late medieval and early modern time that are quite similar in their reception today - especially in regards to how Japanese media treats them: Elizabeth Bathory (or more correctly Erszebet Bathory) and Gilles de Rais.
Why are those two so similar?
Well, because they were high ranking nobles who were sentenced for murdering children, and are by today's historians assumed to be innocent in fact.
Now, the details could not be more different though.
Erszebet is assumed by today's historians the target of a misogynist campaign for being a well-educated and quite opinionated woman. There is some assumptions also going on, that she practiced medicine, and at times could not save her patients. While historians are very sure that not even half as many people died due to her as people had said, they are also sure that there were at least six deaths attributed to her. But those were very probably just accidents due to her being unable to cure everyone. She lived in the 16th century. Those people mainly still believed in the four humors theory.
Meanwhile we have Gilles de Rais. Gilles de Rais was a noble and a commander during the 100 year war, and notably he was a close confidant of Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc). And from all we know he was very unhappy with the sham trial against her, and tried in fact to petition people to release her. After she died... Well, we have little in terms of first hand accounts of how he saw the situation. But what we know is, that after her death he stopped financially supporting the church, and instead focused on producing art (mainly a very extravagant theatre play), while also getting interested in some spiritualism. One way or another: He was first accused of heresy, as he got into a brawl with a clergyman in a bar. And then there were suddenly accusations coming up that he had killed a variety of young boys, which got him in front of a court, and eventually executed.
While in both cases historians are fairly certain that they were innocent and got eventually prosecuted for political reason, only Gilles de Rais eventually got post-humosly got declared innocent. He now is considered a heroic figure in France.
However, this does obviously not stop Japanese game developers to use both figures as the horrific mudery kind.
Of course they do show up in the Fate games.
I mean, what can I say? At the very least they did not turn Gilles into a loli? lol
And yes, obviously they also showed up as characters in the Castlevania games.
Generally speaking, they are definitely among those figures who do show up a ton in Japanese media that somehow features references to European history - and usually those will just assume that they are in fact the kind of murderers that they were prosecuted as back in the day. And also they are probably some sort of magic being. (To be fair, Gilles de Rais also got prosecuted for witchcraft.)
But yeah, to come back to the Chateau de Machecoul: Gilles de Rais was living there by the time that he got accused of those murders and of witchcraft. He was living there when he got arrested. So yes, he has a strong connection to Machecoul.
As some of you might know: I used Gilles in my own Castlevania writing in a big role, as he is the main villain of The lesser Evil. However, given that I personally am not a big fan of propagating those possibly false accusations, I made his entire plot hinge on the fact that he had been wrongly accused and now kinda was out for revenge - very willing to draw Europe into chaos for this goal.
But I absolutely think he is a very interesting historical figure.
