Castlevania: Nocturne Season 2

Hey, everyone, and welcome. Today, we will be talking about season 2 of the show Castlevania: Nocturne. Fun fact:  Robespierre, who was a deputy of the French National Assembly and campaigned for the right of all men to vote and their unimpeded admission to the National Guard, to name a few, makes an appearance in this show, considering it takes place during the French Revolution. This season came out in 2025 and stars Edward Bluemel, Thuso Mbedu, and Pixie Davies and was created by Clive Bradley. So, without further ado, let's get right into it.

Castlevania: Nocturne picks up where season 1 left off, with the team struggling to come together after losing the battle to the Vampire Messiah and her troops. The team is saved by Alucard, who informs them that part of Sekhmet is in Paris and that it might be the way to weaken the Vampire Messiah, so half of the group goes to Paris while the other half stays with Maria, who has a lot of anger that's affecting her powers and making her make rash decisions.

Castlevania: Nocturne is an action-adventure show based on a video game. It has similar vibes to Blood of Zeus, Arcane, or The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.

Castlevania and Castlevania: Nocturne Season 1 had me on the edge of my seat with the storytelling, the animation, and all the magic. Season two of Nocturne came in and really uped the ante by expanding the locations we go to, showing different fighting styles, and of course, more magic. The show picks up where the last season ended with the team facing defeat and Alucard coming to save them last minute, so it was interesting to see how that battle affected them.

Richter Belmont is who the story centers around and he’s a great character to focus on due to him on the surface being this person who is cocky but as you dig deeper he is filled with guilt and insecurities. He and Maria grew up together, and he views her as a sister. At the beginning of the season, she is mad at him because of the ending of the last season, but she eventually forgives him. He goes on a trip with Annette and Alucard to Paris, and while a romance blossoms with Annette, with Alucard, they clash, which brings up a lot of emotions stemming from his mother's death, which he feels guilty for. He is very confident in his fighting skills, which is understandable when you see him fight, and I love to see how much his magic abilities grow over the season. His final move in the fight against Drolta was dope and I love how he fights hard for the ones he loves.

One thing I always think about is how Richter’s magic use differs from Sypha’s in Castlevania, and I thought about it a lot and finally realized why. Sypha didn't do much hand-to-hand combat as she wasn't trained in that, but Richter was. Richter mastered the hand-to-hand combat before his magic abilities resurfaced, so when they did, he mixed that with his magic, so we really see him mixing the magic from Sypha with the fighting from Trevor. It's cool to show his different fighting styles and how even though they have similar magic, they handle situations completely differently. I appreciate both styles. Sypha seemed smarter in her use because she relied solely on her magic, but Richter's is cool to see him using it to protect him from direct hits and make his hits land harder.

Alucard made his debut in this show at the end of the last season but he has been around for a while considering he was in the OG show and hes extremely powerful as the son of Dracula.  Partnering with Belmont is something that just happens throughout generations, starting with Trevor. He’s kind of sassy, which is funny as long as you are a friend and not a foe, but behind this, you can tell he misses his family, even though it was complicated and probably Trevor and Sypha. Due to his age, he has lots of wisdom, and I love how he could bring in some knowledge of what happened with Erzsebet and how she became so powerful. His normal fighting style is either using a sword or transforming into a wolf or some other animal but I love it in the end when we see how when he is at full strength, his eyes turn red, and everything is elevated from his punches to his speed, and he summons this ball of darkness like his dad did in Castlevania. During the final fight, he said he encountered Olrox before, and now I’m curious about when this was and what it entailed.

Annette’s powers of voodoo have been a slight mystery, and this season gave us a moment to dive into them a little more. As we know, she can speak to her ancestors and has the ability to transform stuff that she will use as weapons. She realizes that Sekhmet might have stuff on the physical plane, but there also might be a part of her soul in the spirit realm, and she decides to connect with that side of things. She starts seeing dead people, and the spirits tell her to dig deeper, and when she does, we realize the scary thing taking these ghosts is Papa Legba, who met in season 1, and then she meets Ogun, the god of iron and war. She meets Sekhmet, who ends up controlling her, which is cool to see because she gets a new look, and while that is happening, she's in the spirit world fighting for her life. She is a fighter and is learning about herself, and when her mom meets her with the spirits, she lets her know how far she's come and how she's learned what she could from her and needs to be sure of her power moving forward. In the end, she wants to go home, and I'm excited to see what she can do and if they will go into the Haitian revolution.

Eduard is Annette’s friend who is a night creature now who has chosen to fight the battle from behind enemy lines. He is a singer, and he will remind you of that any chance he gets. I love how he reminds the other Night Creatures that they do have free will and they can do what they please. He leads some of the night creatures into a rebellion, which is great, and in the end, he reunites with Annette and wants to go home. He is worried that he will be judged, but she reassures him that he will be okay.

Sekhmet, aka Erzsebet aka The Vampire Messiah, is a mysterious character whose origins we didn’t know in season one, but we knew she was powerful, and in this season, via Drolta and Alucard, we see her backstory. She drank the blood of the goddess Sekhmet and then ate her heart, which is where all her power comes from, and we see how the weak cannot do that. Drolta is the one that gave her this power, guided her, and ultimately killed her. I loved how formidable she was and how she didn’t go down without a fight and gave the crew a good fight. They finish her storyline, and I think it was at the perfect time because they didn't keep dragging it out over too many seasons, which can get boring.

Drolta was killed by Alucard at the end of season 1, and in this season, Erzsebet can't live without her and asks the Abbot to bring her back to life, which he does as a cool hybrid night creature vampire. I hate Drolta but also love her because her design is so cool, and she's just a villain you kind of root for. With this new upgrade, she can survive in the sun, is stronger, and almost invincible. We see how she dedicated her life to finding someone who would be Sakhmet's host, but she didn't fully understand the deity she was worshipping, and she wasn't created by Erzsebet, but she created Erzsebet, which is something I was confused about. She is a menace throughout the show, as seen with her killing all these soldiers and then constantly going after Alucard. It was interesting that she decided in the end to kill Sekhmet when she realized she couldn't do what needed to be done even though Sekhmet had saved her. In the end, the spirit of Sekhmet takes her powers back, but Drolta is still strong, and it takes a mixture of Alucard's sword and Richter's powers to kill her.

Olrox is a vampire who is of native descent and aligns himself with the Vampire Messiah, but he actually is more concerned with himself and protecting Mizrak, which causes beef with Drolta because she doesn't believe he is loyal. She is, of course, correct, and that's what makes his character so interesting because some characters are very clearly good or bad, and then you get to him who walks that line in the middle. The show constantly gives us hints about his past, and that's one thing I'm dying to know more about. We know he was turned by white settlers from one of his conversations, he can see death which I’m unsure if everyone can, and he has met Alucard before, and he killed Richter's mom as revenge for something she did, and I really want to dive more into these things. I won't give him all the credit for being good because he would have stayed out of the fight if it wasn't for Mizrak. He can turn to mist, but one of the coolest things is him turning into a feathered snake-like dragon that resembles the Aztec deity, Quetzalcoatl, which is a nod to his ancestry. He helps the team in the end, but Richter still holds resentment for him, and he turns Mizrak into a vampire, which is going to be interesting to see unfold. The show gives you enough of Orlox and his backstory to feel satisfied and leaves room for so much more.

Mizrak is a soldier who worked for the Abbot before and now works with Richter and the rest of the team and has a secret relationship with Olrox. He is trying to protect Maria, and he also lets Olrox know that what he is doing isn't courageous. He always tries to do what's right and holds his religion close to his heart, and he doesn't put his faith in a person but in his own beliefs. He is the only powerless human who is one of the main characters, and he does everything in his power to fight even though the odds are against him. Olrox turns him into a vampire in the end, which doesn't seem like something he would want, so I'm interested to see how that conversation will go when he realizes what happened.

Juste joins Mizrak to help protect Maria after deciding to join the fight after seeing Richter's courage. After all he's dealt with, and even without his magic, he's a great fighter, as seen after the run-in with Tara. Because of his age and his experiences, he can offer a lot of knowledge, which I loved to see, and showed how you have ups and downs, but you have to pick yourself up and keep going. Even though he wasn't around for Richter, he is trying hard to be there now and help Richter on this mission and make sure Maria doesn't turn to the dark side. He tells her that they are like family, and you can see that in the way that he not only tries to give her advice but also keeps her out of trouble. Tara raised Richter and Maria and Juste was around watching and sending money to help, but now he is stepping up now that Tara is a vampire. He gets his magic back while saving her from one of her creatures that she lost control over, which was interesting to see because it seems like his magic came back so he could stop another person he cared about from dying, like his wife and daughter. It's cool to see 2 Belmonts in this show and see how powerful this family is.

Maria is a character who was fascinating in season 1 with her powers of summoning these creatures from somewhere that she can control. We still don't know where the creature comes from or the extent of her powers, but we do see how her emotions guide her powers and can change based on her emotions. At the end of the last season, she finds out her dad is the one creating these night creatures and working with the Vampire Messiah, which leads her mom to be turned into a vampire. At the beginning of this season, she is angry about this but doesn't know how to control that anger and lashes out at Richter and Juste. Tara starts coming back as a vampire and is teaching her to use these dark powers to summon new creatures, which are hard to control, but I could tell that wasn't good because it was clearly tied to her emotions, and that dark energy was feeding off her hatred for her father. Juste makes a good point that we don't know much about her powers and hesitate to embrace these new creatures. She goes to her dad’s church and starts summoning creatures to take out her dad’s monsters in an impressive feat and then in a shocking turn of events she summons an evil dragon and I honestly thought she would just intimate her dad and realize that this is not the way to handle stuff but nope she bbq’s that man to a crisp. There was a cool moment in this scene right before she summons the dragon wher her hair is going crazy, and she drops one of the coldest lines in the series when she says most of what's bad in the world is because of stupid old men. It was a cool scene to show how powerful she is, with some cool animation, but also how deadly her powers can be if she is not in control.

After killing her dad, Tara is teaching her to control these creatures still, and Juste says this is a bad idea, which leads Tara to realize that she is having a negative influence on her. I don’t think it was intentional, but I think she was so focused on making Maria stronger and making sure she could protect herself that she wasn't looking closely to see how it was affecting her.  When Tara leaves, Juste helps Maria get back on track, and she can summon light creatures again. In the final battle, she summons a dragon, but this time, it's a good one, and we see once again how good she is at controlling these creatures as we see it mimic her fighting. In the end, she stays to help repair the city, and I hope to see if there are more creatures she can summon or learn where these creatures are coming from.

The show is filled with great animation, which fits the narrative they are telling as well as the action they want to show. I love how this is a show about witches and vampires and gods, but they make sure to understand the period and make this animation reflect that in the outfits and different locations we go to.  When they show fights, the animation style changes a bit, which I like to see as we move from more casual slow movements to these fast fighting movements. This show gives us these amazing fight scenes, which shows that animation is sometimes the way to go to show these intense fights cause l can't imagine seeing something this cool in live action. While they're fighting, there is this intense music that just makes the scenes so much better and just makes it super cool.

With this show taking place during the French Revolution, they mix in some historical aspects as well to really immerse the viewer in the time period. We meet Robespierre and see Louis the 16th being executed, and while it's not the main story, they weave it in so nicely that it doesn't feel out of place. Even though the history can be changed in this show that mixes non-fiction and fiction, I love that they include it because it may encourage some to look into it and figure out more about it.  We even see Richter and Anette chasing after vampires underground, and I was like, wait, are those the Paris Catacombs?  I was shocked to see that in this show and a bit shocked that I even remembered what that was.

This season takes us to different locations and realms, which is nice to see. We start where we were at the end of the last season in Machecoul, but we go to Paris, Egypt, and even the spirit world. It's cool to see all these places and how they tie into either present day or something that has happened in the past.

The show is filled with lots of magic, but everyone uses theirs differently and has different magical abilities. Richter and Juste come from the same bloodline, getting magic from the legendary Sypha, and their magic use is similar, but there are subtle differences, like Richter's fire being blue, while Juste is orange, and Richter tends to use ice way more. Annetes's powers are rooted in voodoo, and she uses them to change earthly objects into weapons and cross over into the spirit world. Maria can summon creatures from some other world and use them in battle. Tara is a vampire but still has her speaker magic, which seems to drain her. The Abbott has magic to create night creatures. It's so cool to see very different displays of magic in this show.

My favorite part of this season was the final battle. It had me on the edge of my seat. Everyone was holding their own, and I just didn't know what the outcome would be. Sekhmet is trying to help, but Erzsebet is just so strong. In the moment where you think Erzsebet is done, Drolta saves her, but instead of letting the story end there for another season, Drolta drinks her blood and takes the power. Then we get round two with an even more formidable foe, and the team is giving it their all, and it was just very intense. With the mix of Alucard and Richter's powers, they are able to stop her, but my god, was that such a fun fight to watch. It really showcased how this is a team, and they work well together.

Castlevania: Nocturne is a great addition to the Castlevania universe. The fighting is great, the setting is interesting, and the voice actors do such an amazing job. I am happy they keep expanding on the lore and explaining why we haven't heard about things before. I am interested to see what will be in the next season that will test them, especially since they won't all be together, but I think they are capable.