YMMV / Castlevania: Nocturne

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did the Abbott choose to sacrifice Maria to Erzsebet because he decided his cause was more important than his daughter, or was he hoping it was just a test of his devotion from God that would provide him with a way out at the last minute like what happened with Abraham sacrificing Isaac in the Old Testament?
  • Did Julia kill Olrox's lover out of Misplaced Retribution, or was it an act of mercy (considering Olrox reveals that he didn't even ask his lover for permission before turning them)?
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After learning just how monstrous Vaublanc truly is, Annette trapping the vile bastard in an inescapable cage and calmly brushing off his pathetic ranting as he burns to death beneath the sun's rays is very satisfying.
  • Likewise despite being devilishly sexy it is satisfying to see Drolta have an Oh, Crap! as she’s slain by Alucard in the show’s final moments after spending the previous seven episodes as a nigh unstoppable Smug Smiler who killed numerous innocent people in servitude to Erzsebet.
• Complete Monster:
  • Drolta Tzuentes is known as the "attack dog" of the "vampire messiah", the Countess Erzsebet Báthory. A ferocious and sadistic killer, Drolta leads her forces to slaughter entire villages and bring victims to Bathory to be tortured to death. Gleefully massacring a group of soldiers upon her arrival in Paris, Drolta proceeds to hand over a girl to Bathory for despairing torture. Upon the Black Sun's dawning, Drolta personally intends to lead Bathory's armies and massacre humankind into subjugation.
  • The Comte de Vaublanc was a slave owner in Haiti who ruled his plantation with an iron fist. Denying all hope for the slaves, Vaublanc also hunts them like animals for sport and killed the mother of Annette simply for practicing Vodun and giving her daughter hope. Joining the conspiracy of Bathory, Vaublanc intends to help bring the Hell on Earth Báthory wants and is caught by Annette attempting to drain an innocent man.
• Critical Dissonance: Professional review outlets were generally positive about the show but fan reaction was incredibly mixed due to how fast and loose the show played with the characters and general storylines of the games it was adapting.
• Genius Bonus: The Abbott's insistence on backing the aristocracy in the revolution, considering the revolution a threat to "God's Kingdom," and being so desperate to stop it he'll align with vampires and literal demons from Hell, may seem odd to some. While Maria flat-out accuses him of doing this for his own vanity and to hold on to the power his office in the Church affords him, those familiar with Divine Right will understand exactly where the Abbott is coming from. If the King is ordained by God, and the aristocrats are there to support the King, then revolution against the Crown and aristocracy is sacrilege, simple as that.
• Magnificent Bastard: Olrox is an Aztec vampire who begins the series challenging Julia Belmont in revenge for his dead Mohican lover. Using her son Richter against her, Olrox overcomes and executes Julia while vowing to kill Richter one day when he's grown. Arriving in France many years later, Olrox finds himself opposed to the ends of the vampire Messiah, Countess Erszebet Bathory. Subtly aiding the heroes with information to oppose Bathory, Olrox involves himself personally to save his new lover Mizrak, before rescuing him from certain death at Bathory's hands.
• Moral Event Horizon: The Abbott reveals just how much his fear of the French Revolution and alliance with Erzsebet have twisted him when he decides to sacrifice Maria, his own illegitimate daughter who he once protected, in order to prove his loyalty to the vampire queen.
• Narm:
  • For some viewers, Erzsebet Bathory is too ridiculous and try hard to take seriously as a villain. Her introduction in particular has dialogue that's laughable such as threatening the sun while swearing like a drunk sailor, and not helping matters is her VA's flat delivery. Even in the season finale where she shows off just how powerful she is, her One-Winged Angel form being a glorified cat lady makes it hard to really be scared of her despite the stakes.
  • Richter's Badass Boast in episode 4 raised some eyebrows when first shown off in trailers for Obligatory Swearing and the redundancy of clarifying that he's a Belmont that kills vampires, not helped in the actual episode as there is nothing to prompt him saying it and no reactions from the other characters. The unintentional humor only intensifies once Olrox shows up. Once his Trauma Button is pushed, Richter goes from the above Pre-Asskicking One-Liner to terrified sprinting, not just out of the building, but out of the town.
• Replacement Scrappy: Erzsebet is largely considered a step down from Dracula as the main overarching threat, with the latter's motivation and characterisation being considered a highlight of the previous series while Erzsebet has very little time on screen and doesn't have a significant presence in the story or as a character. Other fans feel she undermines Dracula's status as the most powerful vampire, as not only does he not return but he is never able to demonstrate his full power, making them question if giving him a happy ending was the best choice for the narrative.
• Signature Scene: The scene where Richter gets his magic back and uses it to devastating effect against the vampires who threaten to kill his loved ones and found family is by far the most famous part of Season 1. Between the catharsis of Richter overcoming his trauma to unlock newfound abilities to the beautifully animated fight scene where Richter dominates his foes with his restored confidence while Divine Bloodline roars in the background make it a true spectacle to watch.
• So Okay, It's Average: Though much more coherent and better-paced than the previous series, it lacks the spiraling tangents, ridiculous dialogue, and memeable moments that were a big part of the first series' appeal, making the series decent but much less remarkable.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Continuing from the previous series, some fans of the video games have much the same issues about this series's fast and loose treatment of the source material and argue that the "fanservice" elements like sticking to character designs and recreating some game attacks don't quite make up for it. In part this is also because of how the story in the previous series ended up, like writing out Dracula as a recurring antagonist and indeed out of villainy, seemingly ensuring that the plots of the games set later in the timeline just can't happen the same way without major rewrites.
  • The whole plot being more loosely "inspired by" Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night rather than following their plots, is a source of contention. In particular, common complaints refer to the choices to take elements from other games like Bloodlines and Aria of Sorrow, while moving the setting to France during the time of the French Revolution, something entirely unique to this adaptation. Fans defend the choices as the writers being creative with games that don't have much in the way of story. Detractors, meanwhile, accuse the writers of coasting on the Castlevania name to do whatever they want, instead of what their audience wants. By comparison, while the previous series went hard into Adaptation Expansion as well, which also had a mixed reaction, its first two seasons still had Dracula's Curse as a loose framework and ended with the heroes facing Dracula as in the game.
  • Further, for several characters (Annette and Olrox in particular), due to a lot of the Adaptation Expansion liberties taken, apart from their names tying them to the games, they're considered to be effectively adaptation Original Characters who could just be renamed with no additional consequence. The previous show's treatment of Isaac received a similarly mixed response for basically the same reasons.
  • While expected, given the much more serious tone of the animated adaptation thus far, promotional material indicating Maria won't be anywhere near as silly as her game counterpart hasn't gone over well. Many liked the blatant ridiculousness of playing what's essentially a Magical Girl with an optimistic, can do attitude in the games as a counterpart to Richter's stoicism.
  • The use of profanity continues, and while some continue to love it for the more adult feel, others have the opposite reaction in finding it more juvenile, often having chalked up the swearing in the previous series to Warren Ellis's involvement and hoped that it would stop with his departure. For them, it's especially jarring with stuff like the traditionally moe Maria calling Richter a "wanker".
  • Annette's total overhaul has caused a measure of controversy because of being too divorced from the original concept of the character for some:
    • Some are fine with the changes in her character, arguing that her changes could be far more interesting than a standard Damsel in Distress, and effectively incorporate the underexplored and contemporaneous Haitian Revolution into the plot.
    • Others question why the change even happened if most of the character traits associated with Annette from the games were simply transferred over to Tera instead including her becoming a vampire. They wonder if it would have been better if the new incarnation of Annette would have worked better as an adaptation of Tera or Iris.
  • Similarly, the revamp and expansion of Olrox is appreciated by some, but also has others scratching their heads due to taking him as, again, being too divorced from (admittedly) a very flat game character that was simply based on classic movie monster Orlok i.e. Dracula from Nosferatu (even his English name is just mistranslated). Some allege that making up stuff to revamp Olrox makes the rest of the story more complicated and departs further from the spirit and letter of the source material.
  • The expansion of Richter's backstory, by giving him an Action Girl mom just for her to be Stuffed in the Fridge, strikes a nerve with some fans of Sonia Belmont from Legends, who was just hit by Canon Discontinuity (and her planned second game, Resurrection, was canceled). It seems female Belmonts can't catch a break.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Julia Belmont, the aforementioned Action Mom of Richer and the only other female Belmont we have seen beyond the Ret-Gone Sonia solely served to get a cool action sequence before being Stuffed in the Fridge by Olrox. She doesn’t even appear in any flashbacks, unlike Anette’s lost loved ones.
  • Likewise, Juste Belmont, despite being a fan-favourite and very fitting for Richer’s Mentor Archetype as his grandfather, only appears for one episode and does not reappear for the finale. Presumably, he will come back for the second season, however.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Despite being set during The French Revolution, the story gives it little attention outside of providing motivation for Maria and Emmanuel, and (when it is given focus) presents a somewhat sanitized version of events.
• Unexpected Character: Nobody was expecting an old, semi-retired Juste to show up, much less be a key part of Richter gaining his magical abilities back, name-dropping Lydie and Maxim in the process.

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