Talk about art / images / music that inspires your rendition of Vlad...
Time to gird your loins and Bram your Stokers..
ART & IMAGERY:
Gothic architecture! A given but nonetheless worthy of research considering... game title. I’m half afraid to list justifications of why because it already seems obvious when the setting is considered in the genre of gothic, as well as just the architectural style; when the two cooberate there’s not only an atmosphere of suspense/danger/terror etc. but a conceptual notion that the place itself has to Say Something about its inhabitant(s). The whole isolated, empty, delapidated castle, its rooms absent yet heady with the sense of a once tangible presence, is a well known analogical edifice for Dracula as it is. The exploration of his castle as a liminal space wherein the state of the vampire, in itself, is a liminal space between life and death.. I COULD GO ON !! Main point: setting is integral with own portrayal of him, visuals of such very easy to grab from slew of pre-existing Dracula media... one addition to the concept which will talk about later is the mechanical aspect of the castle.. Steampunk but not Victorian...
An overarching painter inspo would be Bosch, specifically DEMON ORGY IN HELL you can visit for yourself here. Resemblance between right panel and Night on Bald Mountain from Fantasia (reblogged gifset only yesterday) informs Dracula’s true form, the debased base of evil should it be allowed to party without parental guidance... In terms of DEATH, memento mori in vanitas still life works very well because of skulls being placed next to books, signifying more scholarly side of scientific pursuit Vlad shares with Lisa... Also informs environment! Many cabinets of curiosities being established in castle I imagine, especially with Lisa encouraging him to travel!
You can see more aesthetic references that I have/will reblog. Safe to say the visuals Ayami Kojima provides for games is paramount !!
MUSIC:
Biggest weakness !! Main aid in helping to understand and decipher characters. Will inevitably make a mix at some point but for now will indicate specific tracks and why influence is so important.
Halber Mensch - Einstürzende Neubauten (track ends at 4:11, tw for teeth in album art)
Casually picks song from renown industrial band as example of industrial being #1 Vlad genre -- Shyamalan twist! -- it doesn’t use any industrial sound effects. I’ll eventually get to my point but, as aforementioned, Vlad’s castle is buit on machinations which are incredibly elaborate & incredibly important when applying gothic genre theory of the place reflecting the inhabitant. He is (immortal) man of scientific progression! Industrial machine integration into classic Gothic architecture!! Enlightenment in Romanticism.. therefore metallic basis of Neubauten’s work is already applicable BUT I chose Halber Mensch because of its arrangement of a human choir (?) chanting to emulate the sound of a machine, thus using an organic body to create sonicality of mechanical texture. Castlevania lives as a machine!! Despite Dracula not living at all... half-living half-man.. If translated lyrics online are correct then also highly relevant considering the castle relies on Dracula’s power to function...
I WAS also going to pick a Ministry track but I’m very particular in use of applying industrial genre to him. Rather than using mechanical sound effect to emulate a beat or ‘pulse’, the song needs to be a breathing machine .. iykwim..
Bloodborne - Ryan Amon (Bloodborne OST)
I’m a PLEB who can’t play Bloodborne because I will never git gud. HUGE fan of soundtrack and concept art though and this track is ... . operatic levels of drama.. has inherent ‘danger closing in’ vibe with building brass and sweeping violins (point in which it see-saws makes me think of psychadelic hallucination due to blood-draining), etheral vocals... most theatrical gothic track honestly which is perfect for Dracula.
Fail (Cinematic Cut) - Depeche Mode
Lyrical content listing disillusionment with society = Vlad’s disillusionment with humanity, repetition of ‘hopeless’ has a sense of ‘omnipresent overlord looks down at ant ppl, imagines squishing them’. The 8-bit bridge also acts as a nice call-back to old Castlevania game soundtracks, with synth ambience also found in show. I’m sneaking Walking in My Shoes in here too for ‘self-victimizing villain tries to justify his reasons for being morally corrupt by blaming everyone else, thinks he’s hero of his own narrative (is not)’, video also references Bosch.. and I literally JUST noticed the castle on top of the hill in the background ...
The Weeping Song - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Good Son Alucard doesn’t agree with Dad Vlad’s ethos of human’s deserving nothing but suffering and bereavement and death AT ALL, alluded to in lyrics: ‘Father, why are all the children weeping? / They are merely crying son / O, are they merely crying, father? / Yes, true weeping is yet to come.’ BUT WHO’S REALLY WEEPING Over loss here HMM?? Last verse pinpoints conclusion of Symphony of the Night game efficiently..
I have a slew of Lisa/Vlad tunes but will only throw this one in and let it speak for itself...it was originally written for a Nosferatu musical ..
