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| “ | Then, for the Master, I'll feast on your soul this night! | „ |
| ~ Death to Alucard right before their battle. |
| “ | When something is dear to you, its effect upon you becomes immeasurable. | „ |
| ~ Death explaining how he manipulates others. |
| “ | Do not interfere. Now, I shall extinguish the candle of your soul! | „ |
| ~ Death to Juste Belmont. |
Death, also known as the Grim Reaper, is the secondary antagonist of Konami's Castlevania franchise. Based on the Grim Reaper of folklore, he is the scythe-wielding master of the dead and Dracula's second-in-command, often trying to resurrect the infamous vampire or serving as his last line of defense against the Belmont Clan.
In Japanese, he is primarily voiced by Masaharu Satō, as well as Takuwo Kawamura in Harmony of Dissonance, Yasahiko Tokuyama in Portrait of Ruin, and Koichi Sakaguchi in Judgement. In English, he is primarily voiced by the late Tom Wyner, as well as Dennis Falt in Symphony of the Night, Patrick Seitz in The Dracula X Chronicles and Order of Ecclesia, and Douglas Rye in Judgment and The Adventure ReBirth. As "Zead", he was voiced by Yukitoshi Hori in Japanese and the late Ken Lally in English.
Overview
Death in Harmony of Dissonance.
Death appears in most games, save from Castlevania the Adventure, Belmont's Revenge, the mobile game Order of Shadows (though he fetches the dying hero), and the arcade game Haunted Castle. He dwells in the dungeons or the Clock Tower of the Castlevania, being most often the penultimate boss. Death can also confront the heroes as they storm the Castlevania, fighting them later. (as in Rondo of Blood, Symphony of the Night and Castlevania the Arcade).
Death is in most cases a formidable foe, sometimes even harder than Dracula himself, and the King of the Night is rarely a boss to be sneezed at. Still, in some games he only serves as a boss, sometimes skippable.
Characteristics
Death is a fallen angel who was condemned to hunt for souls for all eternity. Holding his silent grudge against God, he waited for the rise of the King of the Night, ruler of all Evil. He shares characteristics with the Shinigamis (Death Gods) of Japanese Folklore, but he is the real Grim Reaper. Some games show Reapers implied to work for him.
As the harbinger of death, Death and Dracula are natural allies. Death would help anyone trying to revive his liege, and would wander through the land spreading demises and sowing misery to make human's hearts hateful, so that their evil would bring Dracula back. He is stated to obey the wielder of the Crimson Stone, a soul-stealing jewel owned by Dracula, but is mostly described as Dracula's closest friend and confident, beyond just being bound to an artefact. He himself states to associate with those like him who follow the calling of Chaos.
He often disintegrates when beaten, but he is never gone for real. He is implied to only be physically destroyed, while his essence is sent back beyond the Veil until he recovers. In Castlevania 64, he is forcibly expelled from Earth, angrily claiming that he will await his victor in Hell.
Personality
Death is very poised, cold, uncaring, cruel, ruthless and imposing. He rarely loses composure, even when furious. He is confident and cocky, but never holds back in battle without a very good reason. He revels in demises and greatly enjoys taunting and tormenting both his foes and the dead souls in his grasp.
Death prefers keeping to his own devices, seldom working along Dracula's other vassals. He is absolutely loyal, taking great pride in working for Dracula whom he holds in very high regards. As demonstrated when faced with people coveting his liege's throne, for he considers the mere idea of the Castlevania being ruled by anyone else than Dracula "positively absurd".
He is rather cordial, if harsh, to subordinates so long as they obey, but scathing and ruthless if they disappoint him. He holds the heroes in contempt, but no outright hatred, showing them indifference or taunts following his mood, only insulting when outraged. He acknowledges their merits nonetheless, calling heroes he finds lacking a disgrace to their name. Moreover, he is honourable, willingly cooperating if their goals converge, though he insists that they remain enemies. He greatly respects Alucard, bemoaning his siding with humanity, trying to bring him back, and seeming reluctant to fight him. However, all the respect he can hold will never protect anyone opposing Dracula.
Finally, Death is a highly intelligent tactician and manipulator, who often uses the heroes when he shares their goal (like Ada and Lydie in Legacy of Darkness and Harmony of Dissonance or Brauner's downfall in Portrait of Ruin.) He skilfully predicts their action, or even stealthily guides them, before seizing the prize right under their noses. Moreover, he can devise elaborate schemes, orchestrating the situation through unsuspecting proxies and smoke-screens under a seemingly innocuous aspect, but he rarely bothers, preferring to seize opportunities as they go.
Powers and Abilities
Death, holding the hero's soul in the game-over screen of Dawn of Sorrow.
As expected of a minor deity, Death is extremely powerful. He has total control over Limbo, where he gathers all the departed souls under his rule, which he can summon, bind to locations, and do with them as he pleases.
He can cause all sorts of demise; though he seems unable to do so with the heroes, being forced to attack them upfront. Moreover, he is a master of Dark Rituals, he can shape-shift and alter his aspect, duplicate himself, warp through rifts in space he tears with his scythe, seal victims in coffins, raise undeads, rip souls from their bodies, among many others…
His signature technique consists in conjuring endless waves of sickles to harass his foes, that can intercept projectiles and must be destroyed to reach him. He also wields his huge scythe with immense proficiency and uses death-themed attacks: Firing dead souls like beams or whirling blasts; conjuring ghastly skulls of all shape and size; firing energy balls, energy scythes, conjuring chains or bone spears, or causing huge explosions.
When defeated, he sometimes transforms into a more powerful skeletal monster to continue the fight. As a chaotic being, he always resists the Dark element but is vulnerable to the Holy elements and holy powers in general.
Other Media
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
- Main article: Zobek
Castlevania Animated Series
- Main article: Death (Netflix's Castlevania)
Gallery
.jpg "Death (Castlevania Pachinko).jpg (66 KB)")
.jpg "La Mort (Castlevania Grimoire of Souls).jpg (362 KB)")
.jpg "Grim Reaper (Moonlight Rhapsody).jpg (114 KB)")
.jpg "Death on a Pale Horse (Resurrection).jpg (78 KB)")
Trivia
- Death usually has 4,444 life-points in games, as the number four is linked to death in Asian superstitions.
- Often, interestingly, this is a Japanese-language-specific pun, as the pronunciation of the number "four" and the word for "death" are phonetically identical ("shi").
- The fact Death is mostly fought in or near a clock tower may be because the inevitability of death in all living creatures is usually referred to as "a matter of time".
- Death shape-shifting as a human priest is a reference to Ingmar Bergman's classic 1957 film The Seventh Seal, in which Death does the same. Zead even looks just like Death's representation.
- The demonic creature Galamoth has his own version of Death ten thousand years in the future, the Time Reaper. Interestingly, the Time Reaper looks like Death himself in Curse of Darkness, even having Death himself acknowledge this in his True Story Mode.
- Despite his fealities to Count Dracula, Death fights Soma Cruz in both games that he has appeared in, even though, technically, Soma is the reincarnation of Dracula. In the light novel Akumajō Dracula: Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku, Death explains he shall serve anyone who is willing to heed the call of Chaos and take up Dracula's name. It is possible that Death wanted Soma dead to allow the power of Chaos itself to possess the young man, and therefore revive Dracula, or that he had no interest on Soma since he never wanted to heed the calling of Chaos while other candidates did.
- In the 1991 game sequel Belmont's Revenge, when the player walks across the bridge that leads to Dracula, statues in the background resembling Death can be seen.
- Death's appearance planned in the canceled videogame Castlevania: Resurrection looks like the infamous ghoulish skeleton riding a greyish-white horse in the sky, referencing his Biblical role as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in artist Gustave Doré's painting "Death on the Pale Horse".
- Aside from his own role as a boss in Dawn of Sorrow, Death also makes a brief cameo in the game over sequence throughout, where he was seen holding a white flame (implied to be Soma Cruz's soul).
- Similarly, even though Death does not have a major role in Order of Shadows, he does make a cameo during the game over sequence, where he appears and descends upon Desmond Belmont's corpse.
- Aside from his role as a boss in Castlevania: Bloodlines, the April 1994 issue of Beep! MegaDrive implies that Drolta Tzuentes may have actually been an alias for Death.
- Death being portrayed with wings in the N64 games might refer to the Angel of Death of Abrahamic religions.
- In Castlevania Judgment, you look closely at Death's head when he dislodges it doing his Hyper attack, you can see a decay human face behind a featureless (and eyeless) white mask. It was revealed that Death's head is really a mask, and the real head is the human countenance.
- Death's speech after Cornell loses to him in Castlevania Judgment's story mode references Legacy of Darkness, where Cornell's Wolf form is used to revive Dracula.
External Links
- Death on the Castlevania Wiki.
 Villains
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