Castlevania: Isaac Surpasses Dracula's Evil in Season 2

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Castlevania Season 2, streaming now on Netflix.

Season 2 of Netflix's Castlevania introduces us to several villains besides Dracula. Expanding from four to eight episodes this year, audiences get greater insight into the evil vampires the make up Dracula's War Council, including the likes of the Viking-vampire Godbrand and the usurper Carmilla.

As much as we assumed Dracula would remain the utmost interesting antagonist in the series, managing this band of crazy characters and whatnot, the most intriguing villain in the second season isn't even a vampire. While this person does belong to the War Council, it's none other than Dracula's human confidant: Isaac, the Devil Forgemaster.

Isaac was the villain from 2005's Castlevania: Curse of Darkness video game, a necromancer who was in charge of creating undead monsters for the vampire lord. However, his obsession with Dracula saw him become jealous of Hector, the other necromancer, who became Dracula's favorite. The show cleverly retains both necromancers, but their roles are flipped, with Isaac his favorite and Hector the rejected general who aids Carmilla's coup. This allows writer Warren Ellis and executive producer Adi Shankar to truly flesh out Isaac (a character they both constantly glow about) as something more than a war general -- he's also Dracula's best friend.

What makes Isaac the focal point is that Dracula unofficially anoints him as his successor, despite being human. Dracula's affinity for Isaac doesn't just come because of blind loyalty or because his own son, Alucard, wants him dead; it comes because Isaac truly understands the dark nature of humanity, which is why he wants to help destroy mankind. The War Council wants mankind alive to feed and Hector wants only the wicked folks killed, but Isaac believes they're an infection that needs to be totally purged. That's a perspective Dracula appreciates, as it comes from an unbiased source.

Isaac recognizes Dracula's pain, stemming from humanity killing his wife Lisa, although he's not as emotionally invested in his decision. Isaac just bases his views on logic and having seen things like slavery, racism and homophobia in a medieval world, which allows him to rationalize Dracula's plan. He knows the depths mankind will sink to, and encourages Dracula whenever some sort of regret sinks in.

In his own flashbacks, we see Isaac as someone pure, caring and loyal; he wasn't as callous or wicked as Dracula, yet humanity rejected him. In fact, Isaac had the makings of a hero, and this is why the vampire king uses him as his moral compass. Sadly, Isaac only points Dracula towards mass murder, because while the vampire was always meant to be a monster, Isaac was turned into one by his own species. Now, he's just trying to be proactive and remove what he sees as a virus towards the planet.

This ties into the very nature of the show: Duality. With Alucard, it's his humanity versus his vampire DNA; with Trevor Belmont, it's about his petulance versus honoring his family legacy; with Sypha Belnades, it's the battle within to believe in science or magic. But with Isaac, it's all about the internal battle between being a monster or a man.

As the season progresses, Dracula keeps looking to him for a reason to believe in the world of men, but in so doing he no longer acts as the mastermind. That agency's given to Isaac, who begins using Dracula as a puppet, but out of genuine love. This approach ultimately turns the Forgemaster into the real destructive force of the Castlevania story, and with Dracula finally dead it's now left to him to complete this mission. And as the finale illustrated, Isaac's ready to take up Dracula's mantle and finish the portrait of revenge they initially planned, all while drawing some measure of sympathy from the audience.

Now streaming on Netflix, Castlevania Season 2 stars Richard Armitage, James Callis, Matt Frewer, Graham McTavish, Alejandra Reynoso and Tony Amendola.

CBR

Netflix's Castlevania: How Season 2 Creates A Greater Villain Than Dracula