Dracula

Dracula
Game	Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Castlevania

Dracula is the main antagonist of the Castlevania series. He appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a boss in Adventure Mode: World of Light.

He is voiced by Patrick Seitz in English and Norio Wakamoto in Japanese.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Dracula will occasionally appear as a stage boss in the stage Dracula's Castle. He can avoid fighters' attacks by passing through them, and performs several powerful attacks including:

• Hellfire: Fires a wall of three fireballs from his cape.
  • Another version of this attack has Dracula summon four flame pillars from the ground in front of him. This attack was first used by Dracula in Castlevania III.
• Dark Inferno: Fires five magma fireballs from his cape. The magma fireballs are much larger and multilayered.
• Transforming into bats and flying into the opposite side of the stage. Anyone hit by the bats will take damage.
• Dracula can also transform into a demonic "true form".

Origin

Count Vlad Tepes Dracula has been the main antagonist of the Castlevania series since its inception on the NES. He is usually opposed by the Belmont clan, as well as son Alucard and various other vampire hunters.

Chronologically, Dracula's story begins in the PS2 game Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, set in 1094 AD. Originally, Dracula was a knight and strategist named Mathias Cronqvist, hailed for his cleverness as "Cronqvist the Wise." Although he and his wife Elisabetha had unwavering faith in God, Elisabetha died of an illness and Mathias grew angry at God for allowing this despite Mathias' undying loyalty. Seeking immortality in order to spite God, Mathias obtained the Crimson Stone, a vampiric relic that grants immortality and dark poers, then manipulates a vampire lord, Walter Bernhard, into kidnapping Sara Trantoul, the fiancee of his friend, Leon Belmont. After Leon assaults the castle and destroys Walter, Death takes the vampire's soul and confers his power to Mathias, although because Sara was killed during the ordeal and her soul used to create the Vampire Killer, Leon vows that he and his clan will oppose Mathias for eternity. After this, Mathias fully becomes Dracula.

In the 1400s, Dracula meets a woman named Lisa, a woman skilled in healing arts. The two fall in love and father a child, Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes (later known as Alucard,) but the people of Wallachia mistake Lisa's medicinal skill for witchcraft and burn her at the stake. This incites Dracula's wrath and he declares war on humanity. In 1476, the people of Wallachia call for the aid of Trevor Belmont. Trevor, along with a group of vampire hunters including Alucard himself, manage to defeat Dracula.

Despite this, Dracula is fated to return every 100 years or so, and a Belmont is fated to oppose him. As such, Dracula reawakens thanks to the greed and evil innate in humans and a new vampire hunter sends him back to the grave. In the late 1500s, Dracula is once more beaten, this time by Christopher Belmont. 15 years later, having survived the battle, Dracula kidnaps Christopher's son Soleiyu, but is once more destroyed by Christopher.

In 1691, Simon Belmont storms Dracula's castle and destroys the vampire, though Dracula curses Simon in his death throes. Simon manages to cure the curse seven years later by burning Dracula's earthly remains (his eye, ribcage, nail, heart and ring) to ashes. In 1748, Simon's descendant Juste Belmont would once more gather the remains of Dracula in order to destroy the vampire (who had taken a wraith form due to incomplete regeneration) and thus rescue his friend Maxim Kischine from demonic possession.

In 1792, Dracula is once more reborn by the dark priest Shaft. He launches an attack on Aljiba village and kidnaps a woman named Annette, though this rouses the anger of Richter Belmont, who, along with Maria Renard, rescues Annette and once more banishes Dracula, though the vampire promises his return in due time.

Five years later, Shaft manages to brainwash Richter into becoming the lord of Dracula's castle so as to turn the holy power of vampire hunters against the world whilst also helping to resurrect Dracula. However, Dracula's own son Alucard assaults the castle, frees Richter from Shaft's hold and defeats Dracula. As the vampire lord dies, Alucard passes along Lisa's final words: "Do not hate humans. If you cannot live with them, at least do them no harm, for theirs is already a hard lot." Alucard also states that Lisa declared her eternal love for Dracula.

Despite this, Dracula continued to resurrect over the centuries, with non-Belmont vampire hunters arising to stop him at each turn (including those who had inherited the Vampire Killer from the Belmonts, including Reinheart Schneider and the Morris family.) It wasn't until 1999 AD that Dracula was seemingly permanently defeated by Julius Belmont, who had allied with a priest of the Hakuba temple, as well as Alucard and another descendant of the Belnades clan. His castle was sealed away in a solar eclipse, ending his regeneration cycle. In the end, Dracula would instead be reincarnated as Soma Cruz.

In the year 2035, Soma is drawn into Dracula's eclipse-bound castle and confronted with his destiny as the new lord of Darkness, though with the help of the disguised Alucard, Soma defies his destiny and remains himself, escaping the castle. A cult of Dark Lord fanatics attempt to install a new dark lord one year later, though Soma defeats them and prevents this.

In the Lords of Shadow alternate universe, his origin is vastly different. Originally, this version of Dracula was Gabriel Belmont, a member of the Brotherhood of Light. After losing his love, Marie, to a demon attack, Gabriel is manipulated by one of the eponymous Lords, the necromancer Zobek, into hunting down and destroying the Lords in the hopes of resurrecting Marie. After realizing Zobek's dark plans, Gabriel destroys him and the true leader of the Lords of Shadow, Satan. However, his quest is in vain and Marie's soul, freed from Satan's clutches, goes to heaven rather than returning to life. A grief-stricken Gabriel, after slaying a powerful demon called the Forgotten One, takes the powers of darkness for himself, becoming that universe's Dracula. He is thus opposed by his own clan including his secret son Trevor, who he kills, only to desperately revive as that continuity's version of Alucard upon realizing their relation to one another. In Mirror of Fate, he is ultimately defeated by that universe's Simon Belmont, but resurrects many eons later in Lords of Shadow 2, once more doing battle with Zobek and Satan and once more confronting his son Alucard.

The character of Count Dracula in was first introduced in printed media in the novel Dracula by 1800s Irish author Bram Stoker. The character himself was based off of real life Wallachian prince and conqueror Vlad III, commonly nicknamed "Vlad the Impaler."

Trivia

• Dracula’s main seiyuu, Norio Wakamoto is known voicing the other antagonists Mumkhar/Metal Face from Xenoblade Chronicles and M. Bison from Capcom’s Street Fighter.