Summary
More than an archnemesis, Dracula from theCastlevaniaseries is a force of nature. As much as the Belmont family and their successors struggled throughout the ages, they werenever able to vanquish Dracula completely.Of course, there were multiple occasions where a Belmont left him almost completely dead, and even in some cases, banished him so thoroughly that it took the Dark Lord ages to regain his corporeal form.
This list showcases all the occasions where Dracula almost perished at the hands of a Belmont descendant - from the patriarch of the family and his faithful allies sending him to hell, to the last of the bloodline outright vanquishing him during a tremendous battle.
Set in the original timeline as a sequel to Lament Of Innocence,Dracula’s Cursenarrates the story of Leon Belmont’s descendant: Trevor, who is called once more to fulfill the duty of his lineage and stop the Dark Lord (Mathias Cronqvist) Dracula. In the Netflix series,Castlevania, Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard are seen fighting together and banishing Dracula to hell, which in the games happened for real, but with the help of a fourth wheel: the warrior bandit Grant Danasty, who was turned into a demon by Dracula.
InDracula’s Curse,the events are quite similar, only that the group manages to effectively destroy Dracula, depriving the Dark Lord of his power and banishing him to hell. This effectively almost destroyed the beast, but as seen in theCurse Of Darknessgame, Dracula’s servants (and Death) were trying to resurrect him into a new body (Isaac’s). This premise continued for a long time, with the Dark Lord returning once more and the pledge of the Belmont family still intact.
The case of Christopher Belmont is a particularly strange one: he is one of the few Belmonts who faced Dracula twice, but in both cases failed to kill him or destroy him. Nevertheless, it is during the first encounter, inCastlevania: The Adventure, where Christopher left Dracula for dead, with only but a fraction of his power intact, and transformed into a cloud of dark mist. That proved to be a dire mistake, since the Dark Lord went on and about, and then possessed the body of his firstborn 15 years later.
Christopher had to rescue Soleil, his son, and wrestle control over his body from the Dark Lord in the only way a Belmont can: by hitting him mercilessly with the Vampire Killer (attaboy), and by the moment he managed to make him relinquish his ambition, Dracula was once more semi-corporeal. Instead of finishing the deed, Christopher only made him flee, for a second time. He prioritized the Belmont legacy over their pledge to destroy the vampire lord. A foolish mistake, or perhaps, a wise choice?
A century after Christopher Belmont vanquished Dracula, the Dark Lord managed to regain power and began his campaign of terror once more. A sole heir of the Belmont legacy, Simon, entered Dracula’s Castle on Easter’s Day, and began a rampage throughout his halls and grounds, destroying everything in his wake. At the tender age of 22 years old, Simon Belmont was determined to destroy the vampire once and for all, ridding his family of the quest weighing over their shoulders.
Simon faced Dracula,instilling terror in the Dark Lordsince he had never faced such a powerful and iron-willed foe up to that moment. Faking his own death, the Dark Lord put a curse on Simon through a wound he managed to inflict in his back, and fled. Simon believed he had vanquished his foe, but in truth, seven years later and with the curse consuming him, he was informed of the Dark Lord’s imminent return.Castlevania 2: Simon’s Questnarrates the events that happened afterward, with Simon seeking each of the body parts and heirlooms of the Dark Lord who had fallen into the hands of his servants. Simon was finally able to gather all body parts and the ring of Dracula, but a fang remained hidden, and thus, the Dark Lord returned once more. Curse and everything, Simon beat him down to a pulp once more, and banished him into oblivion, effectively ridding himself of the curse.
Richter Belmont was minding his own business with his betrothed Annette, when Dracula’s servants came and kidnapped her and other villagers, including Maria, Tera, and Iris, to use them as a sacrifice to restore the Dark Lord’s power. This, of course, pissed the Belmont’s descendant, who promptly crashed through the Castle gates and began to sow terror among the cultist forces and their minions.
Richter was so powerful that not eventhe most trusted of the Dark Lord generalswas able to stop him, and finally, he managed to stop the revival of the vampire. He not only destroyed Shaft, the leader of the cultist, but effectively destroyed all of his remaining forces, alongside Maria, effectively managing to prevent the Dark Lord from rising to power once more. However, this wasn’t enough to vanquish Dracula forever, as he would return years later, forcing yet another Belmont descendant to confront him in a tremendous battle.
Narrated in the events ofCastlevania Aria of SorrowandDawn of Sorrow,the story ofhow Julius Belmont finally destroyed Draculawas presented as an epic tale to the forces who inherited the will of the family who hunted vampires for generations. In the Demon Castle War happened around 1999, Julius Belmont, the last of the bloodline, entered the abode of the Vampire Lord accompanied by a priest and Alucard himself and forced a confrontation with the vampire.
Alucard and the priest had found a way to use a solar eclipse to finally seal the Dark Lord, banishing him from the mortal realm forever. When Julius encounters Soma Cruz, years later, he notices that he possesses some sort of Dark Energy which he finds pretty familiar, only later to discover that he is none other than Dracula reincarnated as a human. DespiteAria of SorrowandDawn of Sorrowhaving an ending in which Soma takes the mantle of the Dark Lord, and becomes once more Dracula, according to the lore, Dracula was effectively destroyed by Julius in that final battle.
