Western Animation / Castlevania: Nocturne

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.

Castlevania: Nocturne is a 2023 adult animated action / fantasy / horror series and the Sequel Series to the 2017 adaptation of the hit video game franchise. The series is mainly based upon the installment Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, with elements from its sequel Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Set during The French Revolution, the series follows Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel), Maria Renard (Pixie Davies) and Annette (Thuso Mbedu) as they fight to prevent the rise of a "vampire messiah" in the form of Erzsebet Báthory (Franka Potente). The series premiered on Netflix September 28, 2023. A second season is in development.

Replacing Warren Ellis as primary writer is Clive Bradley, (Trapped (2015), City of Vice). In addition to Bradley, three critically acclaimed writers also contribute to the show: playwright Zowda Nyoni, author Temi Oh and writer/theatre maker Testament.

Previews: Announcement, Teaser, Trailer, First 7 Minutes

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Castlevania: Nocturne includes examples of the following:

• Action Mom:
  • Although ultimately slain by Olrox, Richter’s mother, Juila, is an experienced Belmont vampire hunter and she puts up a fierce fight using the Belmont whip, a sword and magical fire. She might have even won if it weren't for Richter putting himself in the line of fire and distracting her.
  • Tera, Maria's mother, is a Speaker who has formidable magic skills and slays several night creatures over the course of the first season.
• Actually Pretty Funny: During the final battle with empowered Erzsebet/Sekhmet, Richter casts a burst of magic fire point-blank in her face. When she casually inhales it and smiles at him, not even fazed by his attack, Richter can't help but smirk as well at the absurdity of the situation before he's blown away.
• Adaptational Attractiveness:
  • Drolta is the most clear-cut example. In Bloodlines she’s a gross old hag◊, here◊ on the other hand she’s a Hot as Hell female vampire Dressed Like a Dominatrix.
  • Olrox in Symphony of the Night was a pale, gaunt figure who clearly took visual inspiration from Orlok of Nosferatu, and he was an even more monstrous bat creature in Lords of Shadow. In Nocturne, he is instead a handsome dark-skinned man with long hair.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In Rondo of Blood, Annette was an ordinary woman with no combat ability, save for a bad end where she was turned into a vampire; in Nocturne, she claims lineage from the Yoruba gods of iron and wisdom. This grants her the ability to reshape metal and the earth into whatever shape she wants, frequently weaponry, which she uses in fights to great effect.
  • By this time, the Belmonts are depicted as spellcasters as well as whip-wielders, akin to battle mages, due to their Belnades heritage (implied in the games, explicit in the show). Richter and his mother are depicted as summoning flames from their hands. In the games, the Belmonts or their whipping stand-ins tend to use physical attacks in contrast to other playable characters being spellcasters, and what "magic attacks" the Belmonts use tend to be tied to items like their whip and subweapons like the Cross, Bible, etc. Even Juste, the most mage-like Belmont whose game mechanics most allow for spellcasting, uses his elemental spellbooks only in conjunction with the subweapons. In particular, the fire-blast spells used by Richter and his mom functionally replace the Holy Water subweapon which causes flames.
  • Tera like Annette was just another ordinary woman/Damsel in Distress in Rondo of Blood and Dracula X Chronicles who Richter needed to save. Here however she gets a major upgrade being Maria’s mother and distant cousin to Richter and as such is a Speaker Magician allowing her to fulfill a similar role to Sypha in combat.
  • Elizabeth Bartley aka Erzsebet Báthory, already a Historical Badass Upgrade in Castlevania: Bloodlines, in this continuity is supposedly the most powerful vampire of all time being the avatar of Sekhmet making her a Physical God. Richter and the other heroes’ best attacks against her are reduced to The Worf Barrage and she’s able to eclipse the sun with her power and create a forever night.
  • Olrox was a minor sub-boss in Symphony of the Night and far from being one of the most powerful or challenging antagonists in the game despite being able to turn into a monster. Here Olrox is an incredibly powerful vampire able to slay a Belmont in his first scene and has a variety of powers he lacked in the game such as turning into mist and telekinesis.
  • Drolta was a minor character in Bloodlines being a wretched old witch that brings her mistress Erzsébet back to life. Here she’s a Morrigan-esque extremely powerful Lightning Bruiser Succubus vampire with Flaming Hair who equals Richter in combat and nearly kills him and Maria on two separate occasions.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the games, Erzsebet Báthory showed up first in Castlevania: Bloodlines, which took place during World War I, much later after Richter's time (albeit under the anglicized and awkwardly translated Elizabeth "Bartley"), while she appears during the French Revolution in Nocturne during Richter's time.
• Adaptational Location Change: Factoring in the French Revolution at all since it was in progress around the time Rondo was set means that the entire setting itself shifts from the Überwald of Transylvania/Romania (as in most Castlevania games and the first Netflix series) to France, where the game characters are now from. This doubles down on stuff established in the first series like making the Belmont patriarch Leon and thus the Belmont clan originally French.
  • The real-life Belmont clan were mercenaries from around what is now known as France, so it actually makes sense in context; the name is derived from "Bello Monte" which means "beautiful mountain". The lineage continues to this day; though it's not publicly known if they do hunt vampires in their spare time; their ancestors were feared on the battlefield.
• Adaptational Nationality:
  • Annette was European in the games (though her exact place of birth is unspecified). In Nocturne she is Caribbean, therefore hailing from Central America.
  • In general terms, all the "French" characters in the show derived from the games are from Transylvania/Romania originally due to the Adaptational Location Change despite most of them not having French accents. ^note Even Maria Renard, whose localized surname is French, yet also a "Blind Idiot" Translation that stuck. In Japanese it's ラーネッド, (Rāneddo), closer to "Rarned" or rather a transliteration of "Learned".
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Downplayed with Richter who is still extremely badass and, unlike the games, has explicit magic running through his blood due to Sypha being his ancestor. However, in the games, Richter is touted by Alucard as the World's Strongest Man being “supreme” among the Belmont clan and overall only truly rivalled by Julius, Juste, and Simon. Here Richter is still a rookie vampire hunter and while he does epically power up when unleashes his magical potential, he’s nevertheless outclassed by Big Bad Erzsebet and has to be saved from Drolta killing him by Alucard in the climax.
  • Justified with Juste, it is clarified that in the past he was like in the games one of the most powerful Belmonts ever with his magical power letting him obliterate vampires. After losing Lydie and Maxim to a vampire however, the magic has left him and now he’s a sad old man. He's still good with a whip though, as one cocky vampire learns firsthand with his head getting sliced off.
• Adaptation Deviation: The plot of Rondo of Blood primarily centered around Richter assaulting Castlevania to face off against a resurrected Dracula, and rescuing some captive girls in the process, with the period mainly as a backdrop. As the 2017 adaptation ends with an already-resurrected Dracula utterly disinterested in continuing a life of villainy, Nocturne (as shown with the Netflix press release) instead pits Richter and company against Erzsebet Báthory, with the bloody and brutal French Revolution visibly looming over their efforts.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the two games Olrox has appeared in, Symphony of the Night and Lords of Shadow, he's just an obstacle to be overcome by Alucard and Gabriel respectively. In Nocturne, he's closely connected to Richter, being the one responsible for killing Richter's mother and offering an uneasy temporary alliance to get rid of Erzsebet.
• Age Lift:
  • Maria in Rondo of Blood was just 12 years old. Here, she is clearly at the least a young adult.
  • Juste in Harmony of Dissonance is a young man with an Alucard-esque Long Hair Pretty Boy appearance. Here he’s much older and grizzled being Richter’s grandfather meaning he’s in his late 60s at the very least.
• All for Nothing: Richter word-for-word calls the assault on the Abbey this, failing all of their objectives in hopes of crippling Erzsebet's growing army of Night Creatures. Not to mention Tera being forced to sacrifice herself to Erzsebet to save Maria's life, becoming a vampire in the process leaves them in far worse shape than how they came in as they forced to flee; the only thing keeping this from being an earnest Downer Ending for their predicament for how woefully underprepared they were to face the Big Bad this early is the timely arrival of Alucard to save them from the brink.
• All Myths Are True: All religions at least, so it seems. Despite multiple characters stating their disbelief in religion, those religions seem to have power. Annette's powers apparently come from the Yoruba god of metal (that she is a descendant of) and even though she is not a Christian, she uses metal crosses to great effect to trap a vampire who is burned just by touching them. Ancient Egyptian mythology, specifically the deity Sekhmet, is also said to be the main source of Erzsebet Báthory's power.
• Arc Words: The "Natural Order." Vampires and nobility claim that slavery and serfdom is the natural order, which the Revolution denies. Annette later reclaims the phrase by declaring that the real natural order is that the sun will always break through the night.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Even discounting the fact that the Marquis, Comte de Vaublanc, and Countess Bathory are noble vampires who literally as well as figuratively feed off the lower classes, it's established by Maria and Drolta that the human aristocrats of many countries patronize vampires and allow them to feed on their subjects. Countess Bathory's grand plan starts with crushing democratic revolutions and reinstating the nobility so that she can control them behind the scenes.
• Artifact Title: Dracula's titular castle is nowhere to be seen.
• Ascended Extra: Olrox was just another boss monster to fight in his two video game appearances without much bearing on the plot, though he did have one significant role as the Big Bad of the novel Castlevania: Reminiscence of the Divine Abyss, which is set after the events of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. In Nocturne, he's the one responsible for killing Richter's mother and turns out to be a major supporting character.
• Ascended Meme: A shot of gravestones in episode 5 includes one for a Bradley S. Barkerville, a Shout-Out to Brad Shoemaker's invented lyrics for ''Bloody Tears''.
• Badass Boast:
  • Richter gets one as he confronts a vampire in the first episode:
    Richter: "I am Richter Belmont! [tosses throwing knives] Last descendant of the Belmont clan! [tosses more knives as the vampire collapses to his knees] And I! KILL! VAMPIRES! [lops the vampire's head off] Who's fucking next?!"
  • Alucard gets an impressive one during his Big Damn Heroes moment in the season's closing moments after killing Drolta.
    Alucard: I am Alucard, son of Dracula. And if you fight me, you will die. Like thousands of vampires before you.
• Badass Normal: Mizrak, the right hand of the Abbot, is just a normal soldier, no powers of any kind. Even without them he is able to cut down multiple vampires single-handedly.
• Bond One-Liner: Deliberately avoided by Richter, who says he was going to say something "witty, brutal and cutting" before finishing off Nikolai. What he actually says: Fuck it.
• The Cavalry: Alucard comes in when things seem at their bleakest in the Darkest Hour, with Drolta about ready to kill Richter and the others only to kill her before she is able to do so. Alucard amusingly calls attention to how conveniently his appearance lines up again on the "brink of utter defeat".
• Chekhov's Gun: One from the previous series. In Castlevania, Isaac spent some time speaking with a Night Creature and studying if they could regain their humanity. In this series, Edouard is able to regain his own humanity after turning into a Night Creature, and starts waking up the other Creatures.
• Cliffhanger: The first season ends on one, with Erzsebet having succeeded in her plan to block out the sun (and turning Tera), the heroes on the run, and the villains in hot pursuit. Then Alucard arrives, killing Drolta and making the other vampires flee, and turns to ask if he's too late.
• Composite Character:
  • Nocturne's version of Tera, rather than being based on her Rondo of Blood or Dracula X Chronicles appearance, instead uses a large portion of Annette's character design from Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, and additionally has magic abilities similar to Sypha Belnades. She also ends up fulfilling Annette's classic role by being forcibly turned into a lesser vampire by Erzsebet, albeit as a Heroic Sacrifice here to spare Maria a Fate Worse than Death.
  • Erzsbet while primarily based on her Bloodlines version takes many elements from both Dracula and Carmilla, having the Dark Messiah avatar of a God of Evil elements of the former and the powerful Lesbian Vampire who relishes young maidens’ blood of the latter. Her design is also a big Shout-Out to Vampire Hunter D’s Carmilla.
  • Drolta has the name and role of Bathory's minion in the Bloodlines instruction manual, an original Hotter and Sexier character design (with references to being a former Egyptian priestess possibly being a nod to Astartes from Portrait of Ruin), wears a horned tiara identical to that of the Succubus from Lament of Innocence, and has a One-Winged Angel form which resembles the Succubus from Symphony of the Night, right down to being able to extend the tips of her wings into spear-like tendrils. And just like the Symphony of the Night Succubus, she meets her end by Alucard's sword.
• Continuity Snarl: A minor one, but as Annette kills her old slave master, she does so by trapping him a cage made of cross-shapes, which burns him at the touch. Trevor in the previous series explicitly called attention to the fact that crosses do not actually have a holy effect against vampires on their own, instead disorienting them severely due to their Super-Senses having a difficulty comprehending geometric shapes in close proximity. So while her former slave master is appropriately disoriented that he cannot escape, even in bat form, he shouldn't actually have been physically burned by touching them by just making them from the environment without proper consecration. On the other hand, Annette's powers are explicitly stated to come from her ancestry connected to a Yoruba god, so it's very possible that the burning effect comes from her innate Semi-Divine magics imbued into the metal, and both assume that the more well-known effect of vampires and crosses is the true cause.
• Contrived Coincidence: Richter just so happens to wander into the same bar where his grandfather, Juste, was eating dinner. Juste even assumes that Richter was there to see him and sent by Tera, because what are the chances he would just happen to stumble in at the same time Juste was there? He is shocked by the coincidence.
• Corrupt Church: It turns out the local abbot is the Forgemaster behind the Night Creatures return, doubly so when it turns out he also went against sacrament and had Maria with Tera out of wedlock before the events of the series, albeit he regrets having dragged his secret family into this crisis.
• Dark Messiah: The vampires Richter and Maria fight at the beginning speak of a "messiah" who will come to lead them. The abbot later mentions a Joan of Arc-esque figure returning to lead the church. Both are referring to Erzsebet Báthory.
• Distant Sequel: The first series is set in a somewhat vague timespan, but is roughly placeable at the tail end of the 1400s. Nocturne is instead set at the start of the French Revolution and shortly after the Haitian one, in the early 1790s.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • In episode 7, the Abbot is struggling with Erzsebet's demand that he sacrifice his and Tera's daughter to her as a gesture of submission and to confirm his commitment to their Deal with the Devil. Emmanuel specifically calls out to God in his prayers not to remain silent in his moment of need, as he's well aware his actions have almost slipped past the Point of No Return. At that moment, Maria, acting ahead of the other's plans to assault the abbey, enters the room and warns him to leave the building before the attack happens, in the process of trying to convince him, she lets slip her desire that he actually be a father to her for once. Despite the opportunity to flee and turn aside from his path, as well as potentially earning the love of his estranged daughter, Emmanuel fails to see the Last-Second Chance for what it is, believing that God sent Maria to him so that he can sacrifice her to Erzsabet and send her soul to heaven. After this, even his loyal second-in-command turns on him and the heroes sans Tera treat him as Beyond Redemption.
  • During the final battle of Season 1, Abbot Emmanuel quotes scripture to justify his willingness to sacrifice Maria. Specifically, he quotes the Binding of Isaac, wherein Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Tera reminds him that God did not allow Abraham to carry through with the sacrifice, offering a ram to take Isaac's place — something which ultimately comes to pass when Tera offers herself to Erzsabet in Maria's stead, telling Emmanuel "I am the ram!"
• The Dreaded: The Belmont clan as always invokes a sense of begrudging reverence in their vampiric enemies who know of them. But Alucard's reputation precedes him far more, as after effortlessly killing Drolta and invoking his name as the son of Dracula, all of Erzsebet's forces pursuing Richter and his compatriots immediately flee for their lives.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Despite Olrox being the one who killed Richter's mother and taunting the young Belmont that he will kill him too one day, it's highlighted in the official synopsis that he is the one who approaches Richter first in his older age due to disagreeing with the direction that Erzsebet Báthory is taking things and clearly needing his help to stop her ambitions. This is due to the fact that Olrox's former love was someone who fought in the Revolutionary War back in America and, despite the fact he had his lands stolen by the settlers there, fought for freedom alongside them before being slain by Julia Belmont for being a vampire — in turn, Olrox realizes quickly that if Erzsebet succeeds in conquering Europe, she'll stomp all over his love's ideals for a free world, and thus sees siding with Belmont as the lesser evil despite the animosity shared between the two.
  • Richter and Maria also try to get the local abbey on their side against the vampires; while Maria detests the church, they believe that they'd put their differences aside to slay vampires. Alas, the abbey already sided with the vampires because the Abbot believes that the Revolution will tear the church to pieces.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Olrox kills Richter’s mother and remarks that he will kill Richter one day but he doesn’t kill the unable to defend himself and terrified child before him right now, suggesting that he views child murder as beneath him or dishonorable even if the child in question is a Belmont. He's also extremely apprehensive of Erzsebet when she states her intentions to conquer the New World as well, willing to side with the Belmonts once her ambitions are made clear.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Marquis, a vampire that rules the region the show takes place in, has a vampire wife, who is utterly grief-stricken when the protagonists kill him, carries his head around with her, and eagerly takes part in a mission to try and kill Tera and kidnap Maria.
• Foreshadowing: Dolta wears high heel-less platform boots as part of her attire. Giving her a more goat-like motif as is more commonly associated with demons rather than vampires. This indicates her eventual reveal in Episode 7 as a succubus instead of a vampire.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Tera, Maria, and Richter live in a nice cottage in the woods without any apparent source of income; Richter even mentions that Belmonts aren't supposed to take money for slaying vampires. Maria claims that Tera hasn't paid taxes in years, too. Juste has been sending Tera money from his hunts.
• Heroic BSoD: Richter takes on vampires and demons without qualms but seeing Olrox, the vampire who killed his mother in front of him as a child has him suffer a temporary panic attack and fleeing in fear.
• It Can Think: Compared to the previous series, night creatures here display a greater sense of intelligence and individuality. Edouard even still recognizes his old friend Annette whom he saves from a sneaking night creature about to kill her, and another night creature is visibly alarmed that Edouard kills his own kind and yanks him away to prevent more unnecessary deaths.
• Last of His Kind: Unlike the games, and like Trevor in the previous series, Richter declares himself to be the last of the Belmonts. ^note In the classic game canon, Richter merely became the last of the Belmonts to wield the heirloom Vampire Killer whip until Julius centuries later. This turns out to be false, as Richter winds up meeting an old Juste Belmont, his grandfather, in the countryside who's long since hanged up the whip after he lost his wife and best friend.
• Masquerade Ball: There is a scene with masked vampire nobles enjoying themselves at a masquerade ball, during which Erzsebet and Drolta plot to have the Abbot sacrifice Maria.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": In the season finale Alucard killing Drolta like she was a minor nuisance causes the vampires to collectively shit themselves and flee in terror.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The series subtitle comes from Nocturne in the Moonlight, as the sequel to Rondo of Blood is known in Japan, whereas it's Symphony of the Night in the US.
  • Maria Renard's design is a wholesale throwback to her appearance in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, wearing a more masculine yet still very elegant outfit instead of the pink dress she wore in the Rondo of Blood era. Additionally, her sword is a reference to a concept design for Symphony of the Night where she was wielding one.
  • The second trailer features a cover of "Bloodlines", Richter's Stage 1 music from Rondo and its variations which is his de facto theme song.
  • Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow also had a plot-relevant eclipse, though that was set in 2035, decades in the future after it was released in real life.
  • Richter does a downplayed version of his Knife subweapon Item Crash in the second trailer.
  • Richter's farewell gesture towards the Abbot has been noted to look like a gesture he does in a cutscene during the game. Maria in her nightgown wearing a pink ribbon with her hair down makes her look like her Rondo of Blood counterpart.
  • The old man in the pub has a slight after-image as he approaches the vampire that calls him out. The old man is Juste Belmont, who had an after-image in his game Harmony of Dissonance
  • The moment when Richter regains his ability to use magic, he becomes surrounded by blue magical flames that form a giant cross shape, a reference to the Item Crash ability "Grand Cross".
  • When Richter regains his ability to use magic, he starts igniting his whip with a blue flame, clearly based on the flame whip from the games, which Richter can use if he performs an item crash with no subweapon.
  • Richter is given a mother named Julia, which brings to mind Julia from Curse of Darkness and Julius Belmont from the Sorrow duology.
  • Julia Belmont's attire harkens to Richter's character design by Ayami Kojima, which differs greatly from Richter's appearance in the original Rondo of Blood.
  • In the Season 1 finale, when Erzsebet turns Tera into a vampire, she goes so by slitting her own wrist and force-feeding her blood to Tera. This is how a desperate Dracula, formerly Gabriel Belmont, "saved" his mortally-wounded son Trevor in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, turning him into that continuity's Alucard in the process.
  • Olrox's main projectile attack involves summoning a number of large skulls that seek out his enemies, the same attack his Symphony of the Night version uses.
• The Night That Never Ends: One of the vampires defeated in the first episode states that the vampire messiah is "a devourer of light who will eat the sun". Fittingly, the villain of the series causes a solar eclipse.
• One-Woman Wail: A male variation. Edouard’s arias serve as themes to some of the battles.
• Orcus on His Throne: Averted. Unlike Dracula, who spent too much of his time grieving the death of Lisa to actively be a participant in the bloodshed beyond rallying his forces (at least, until he was actively attacked by our heroes), Erzsebet Báthory is not afraid to get down in the dirty with the carnage immediately upon showing up in her plans to Take Over the World. This proves to be what undoes the heroes' chances for victory. Erzsbet immediately beelines for the Abbey upon blotting out the sun to secure the Abbot's loyalty, running into the heroes there when they meant to remove her means of getting a Night Creature army. This renders their attempts to cripple her forces All for Nothing and leaves them down a hero after Tera pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to save Maria and allow Richter and the others to escape.
• Our Demons Are Different: Night Creatures make a return, with it being noted that its been centuries since they were around. And this time it's the Corrupt Church that's producing them.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Subverted. After regaining his ability to use magic, Richter while advancing on the last remaining vampire in the group that attacked him, he seems to be setting up a one-liner of some kind. He stops for a second, then notes that he was planning to say something witty or cutting, but "fuck it" and proceeds to incinerate the vampire.
• Psychosomatic Superpower Outage: After seeing his mother die, Richter loses the ability to do magic. His grandfather Juste suffered the same thing after losing his wife and best friend to a vampire.
• Race Lift: Annette goes from European to a former slave from Haiti, while Olrox, who was a more-or-less transparent Expy of Orlok i.e. Dracula himself from Nosferatu, is now of Aztec descent. Drolta, who was only ever mentioned in the instruction manual for Bloodlines but had an illustration as a typical European old woman, is now a young-appearing Black/Egyptian vampire.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: In stark comparison to the first series in which each season ends with a Bittersweet Ending before finally getting the happy ending, the first season of Nocturne ends with the heroes clearly on the losing end: Erzsebet has succeeded in her goals of creating an ever-lasting night and is far too powerful to be defeated by the heroes for now, the vampires are clearly starting to rampage around the world, and the heroes are forced to go on the run, but there are a few silver linings in that the main heroes are still alive and able to keep fighting and the season ends with Alucard appearing with more than enough power to easily kill Drolta, leaving the heroes with one more powerful hero on their side who could turn the tides against Erzsebet.
• Restrained Resistance, Reckless Rebellion: Discussed. The Abbot points out to Tera and Maria that, even if the Revolution is fighting for a good cause (which he doesn't personally believe is a good cause), there are members who are taking things too far. He specifically points to a young man who has forbidden his elderly, infirm mother to come to church, because to the revolutionaries the church and aristocracy are the same problem. While modern viewers will most likely side with the revolutionaries, the show does not hold back from the more despicable things that were done.
• Revenge: The first episode opens with Richter's mother fighting and dying against a vampire in front of a young Richter's eyes. The vampire (Olrox) then tells Richter that he killed her because she killed someone special to him.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Some of the villains are switched around from their place in the series' timeline.
  • Erzsebet Báthory was the main villain of Castlevania: Bloodlines albeit with her name anglicized and fudged as Elizabeth "Bartley". The game is set much later after Richter's time during World War I while Nocturne takes place during the French Revolution.
  • Downplayed with Olrox, whose game namesake is from Symphony of the Night which focuses on Alucard, but Richter is playable there too.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Barely subverted. Tera offers herself to Erzsebet to spare Maria being turned, but as soon as she's turned Drolta flies out to kill her or drag her back anyway. Fortunately, Alucard comes in and kills Drolta before she can.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: As another demonstration of the class differences between the heroes and villains, Richter, Maria, and Annette are all dressed sensibly for battle in clothes meant for everyday use, while Erzsebet has a Pimped-Out Dress with a Navel-Deep Neckline, Drolta has a vast wardrobe that tends towards leather and showing off skin, and Nikolai has an open shirt. When they level up, they get even skimpier, with Drolta being Dressed Like a Dominatrix in her Succubus form and Erszebet's dress turning into a golden bra and cape in her Sekhmet form. It's also a sign of perceived invulnerability: while Drolta can't back it up, Erzsebet certainly can.
• Shown Their Work: When talking to Richter, Juste mentions the name of the vampire who killed his wife and friends—Lord Ruthven. Ruthven first appeared in print in 1819, in John William Polidori's "The Vampyre" and is considered one of the first vampires in English literature, if not as well known as his successors. Notably, unlike Carmilla and Dracula, he has no game counterpart.
• Superhero Speciation: A magical variation. In the first series, Sypha was the only mage and used elemental attacks. In Nocturne, there are more mages among the heroes and thus each uses magic differently: Maria summons creatures from the Spirit World, Annette has control over metal and rock, and Edouard has Magic Music. Richter and Tera, who both use Speaker magic like Sypha did, use it in different ways: Tera prefers direct magical attacks, while Richter uses it as enhancement for his martial skills.
• Time Skip: While the first series was set in the 1400s, Nocturne is set in the 1700s amidst the French Revolution. More specifically 1792, the year Rondo of Blood coincidentally takes place (being set in Transylvania/Romania).
• Total Eclipse of the Plot: Erzsebet causes one in the final episode, allowing the vampires to walk around during the daytime.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Several of the tragedies that happen are a result of impulsive actions taken by the heroes:
  • Richter interfered with his mother's battle against Olrox, resulting in her getting killed.
  • Annette drew attention when she was unable to keep her temper upon seeing her former slave owner vampire, resulting in her companion being killed and turned into a Night Creature.
  • Maria learning that the Abbot is her father leads to her sneaking away from the group and attempting to beseech to him its not too late to pull a Heel–Face Turn and flee with them rather than be forced to kill him. This ends up leading her into a trap where he, due to being too far into his allegiance with Erzsebet, attempts to sacrifice her to secure his loyalty. This leads to her mother having to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to save her.
• Unexplained Accent: Maria having a British accent and even using British slang like “Wanker” is more than a little strange considering not only her mother Tera is explicitly Russian but she’s grown up in 1700s France with father Abbot Emmanuel having a French accent. Granted the series has played fast and loose accents with most characters having a “default” British accent and everyone speaks English anyway.
• Vagina Dentata: Drolta mentions she has teeth in every orifice.
• Vampires Are Rich: Many vampires are aristocrats, and are bloodsucking parasites in more ways than one. The Marquis and his wife kill and drink from the local peasants, and many slave owners were vampires.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Despite the relationship Trevor developed with Alucard, and there are signs of more noble vampires than the typical bloodsuckers, the Belmont family 300 years later still holds a general extermination campaign against vampires regardless of their morality because of their general creed of "killing monsters", as explained that Julia ended up going all the way to America and killing Olrox's beloved despite wanting to help free people during the American Revolutionary War just because he happened to be a vampire while doing it. This ends up biting her hard following through on this as she's killed not too long after by a vengeful Olrox in front of Richter.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 2 - Horror Beyond Nightmares : After being introduced and contextualized as one of the protagonists, Edouard is killed by the Marquis’s court and transformed into a Night Creature by the Abbot.
  • Episode 3 - Freedom Was Sweeter : Even after his resurrection and transformation into a Night Creature, Edouard retains some of his humanity and memories.
  • Episode 5 - The Natural Order:
    • Erzsebet Báthory Is the reincarnation of Sekhmet - the Egyptian goddess of war and vengeance.
    • Abbot Emmanuel is Maria’s father.
    • The old man in the bar is Juste Belmont - Richter’s maternal grandfather.
  • Episode 8 - Devourer of Light - After creating an eclipse that blankets Europe in darkness, Erzsebet tries to take Maria as a sacrifice. Tera, however, manages to convince her to take her instead. Just as our heroes face their Darkest Hour, however, Alucard arrives to lend his aid.
• Wham Shot: The finale where Drolta is ran through by none other than Alucard.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: The first episode has Olrox, immediately after killing Richter's mother in front of the young boy, coldly stating his intent to murder him as well... one day, before simply leaving rather than tear Richter's defenseless throat out then and there.
• The Worf Effect: Erzsebet's Dragon Drolta is a formidable opponent throughout the season, with even an empowered Richter Belmont who had rediscovered his magic only able to fight her to a complete standstill in the season finale — which makes it all the more impressive and powerful when Alucard comes in and saves the group's lives while they flee by immediately killing her in a single hit in front of everyone.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: The heroes try to preemptively stop Erzsebet from beginning her campaign against humanity. They prove to be woefully underequipped to handle her, and she succeeds in the first phase of her plan, bringing about the everlasting night.
• Your Head Asplode: There is a brief shot of the top half of a vampire’s head being blown off by a signature Belmont whip.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The fervency of the French Revolution is on full display in the series, leaving everyone who isn't aligned with the cause fearing the end of their very way of life. Erzsebet Báthory exploits this fear to gain the favor of the humans.

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