WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Castlevania Season 4, available now on Netflix.

When it comes to LGBTQ+ character representation, Castlevania did far better than most shows. Whether it was the heroic Alucard or the villainous pairing of Striga and Morana the show put its queer characters at the plot's forefront without shying away from their sexuality. One triumph of the show's representation came in steering clear of a trope TV and movies too often fall into -- the Bury Your Gays trope.

Bury Your Gays refers to stories' tendencies to kill off queer characters and rob them of an opportunity for a happy ending. But Castlevania stands out as a notable exception to the trope, and its queer characters get perhaps the happiest endings of anyone.

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Striga with a ring on her hair and Morana on her ear.

Striga and Morana's relationship took a central focus in the latest season. Both women were introduced as powerful vampires who aided Carmilla in her takeover of Dracula's empire in the wake of the dark lord's death. Serving on the Council of Sisters, they each filled a different function in expanding and overseeing that empire. In Season 4, they discuss their commitment to the cause while in a war tent on the expanding borders of their campaign. The conversation centrally focuses on their relationship, as Morana is not accustomed to the rough lifestyle of a soldier whereas Striga lives and breaths it.

In a lesser show, such a conversation in the context of a lesbian relationship would have set up the doom of one or both women. As representation became a higher priority in media, TV and movies introduced more gay characters, but that representation came burdened with an uncomfortably high likelihood of killing the character off. One infamous example is the death of Willow's girlfriend Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, there are countless others, even today with Supernatural's Castiel and Lovecraft Country's Yahima.

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The same tragic setup also seemed in place for Alucard, the brooding hero, who not only frequently found happiness evasive, but also ended the prior season of Castlevania with a tragic bisexual encounter with two vampire hunters. While in sexual congress with the hunters, they turned on him, nearly killing the dhampir before he narrowly slew them in defense. Following that encounter, the message easily could have been not only that Alucard did not deserve love, but that he would be punished for indulging his bisexual side.

However, the final season of the show proved to be too good to fall into such pitfalls. Instead, Striga and Morana gazed at the collapse of Carmilla's empire and decided to retire together to live out their immortality in harmony. Alucard found his own companion, who notably shared his bisexual predilections. The two proved perfect for each other in exchanging barbs and resettling a village around Alucard's castle. For a show so abundant in death and gore to not only spare its gay characters but to reserve happy and healthy endings for them stands out as a progressive exception to the Bury Your Gays trope that should be applauded.

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Gay characters deserve better, and Castlevania delivers on that. The series constantly betrayed expectations throughout its four seasons, and this is perhaps the best expectation to defy of all. Such dark and violent shows often mire their endings in death and mayhem, yet it seems the biggest twist of all for Castlevania came in giving its characters a happily ever after.

Castlevania stars Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha Belnades, James Callis as Alucard, Theo James as Hector, Adetokumboh M'Cormack as Isaac, Jaime Murray as Carmilla, Jessica Brown Findlay as Lenore, Bill Nighy as St. Germain, Jason Isaacs as The Judge and Rila Fukushima as Sumi. The entire series is available now on Netflix.

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