| “ | Don't you dare call me like that! Eu sunt Dracul! (Romanian translation: "I am Dracula!") | „ |
| ~ Dracula furiously admonishes Zobek for addressing him by his mortal name. |
| “ | What is a man, but a miserable pile of secrets... | „ |
| ~ Dracula, in the opening mission of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, referencing the original Dracula's famous quote. |
| “ | I am the Dragon, Dracul! I am the Prince of Darkness... I am and will be, forever, a Thorn in His Side! That... is my vengeance! | „ |
| ~ Dracula to Marie. |
Gabriel Belmont is the main protagonist of the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series. He is first introduced as the noble protagonist of the first game, before going through many tragedies that end up breaking and transforming him into the iconic villain of the series in this rebooted timeline, Dracula.
Yet he went on a road of redemption as he and his son, Trevor Belmont made a master plan to rid the world of his two arch enemies and free mankind from tyranny of the dark forces that Satan and his acolytes rules over
He was voiced by the late Keiji Fujiwara (who also voiced Axel in the Kingdom Hearts series, Esidisi in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, James W. Rutland Jr. in Tomb Raider: Legend, The Joker in Batman: Arkham Knight, Pagan Min in Far Cry 4 and Mewtwo in Pokémon franchise) and by Toshiyuki Morikawa (who also voiced Sephiroth in The Final Fantasy series) in Japanese and Robert Carlyle (who also played Francis Begbie in Trainspotting and it's sequel T2: Trainspotting, Rumplestiltskin in Once Upon a Time, Renard in The World is Not Enough, Durza in Eragon, Donald Harris in 28 Weeks Later, and Adolf Hitler in Hitler: The Rise of Evil) in English.
Biography[]
Past[]
Gabriel is born from the estranged merchant family of Cronqvist, but as a baby, he was dropped into the monastery belonging to the Brotherhood of Light. His first name came from one of the Archangels of God, Gabriel, and his surname is picked by himself due to his love of mountains (Belmont means 'Beautiful Mountain'). He's raised as a member of the Brotherhood, discovers his talent in fighting and eventually weds his childhood sweetheart Marie.
While he was away on a mission, Marie gives birth to his son Trevor Belmont. However, the Brotherhood knows through a prophecy that Gabriel will one day fall into the darkness, so they asked Marie to keep Trevor's birth a secret.
Lords of Shadow[]
Through means unknown, Gabriel finds out that Marie perished. Around the same time, the connection between heaven and earth shattered, plaguing the land with monsters. Gabriel is sent by the Brotherhood to investigate the events, also with the rumors about a powerful mask called "God's Mask" that may be capable to bring Marie back to life and ask if there's a way to save the world. Gabriel is more concerned of bringing the life of his love back but dutifully proceeds with the task with his weapon, the Combat Cross.
Gabriel is aided by an Old God, Pan, and a senior Brotherhood member Zobek, and learns that to save the world, he must destroy the Lords of Shadow, the Lord of the Lycanthropes, Lord of the Vampires and Lord of the Necromancers. Throughout his journey, however, Gabriel unconsciously did many horrendous things such as killing an innocent girl in his sleep, frightening him and slowly driving him into madness. He presses on his quest, however, with the promise that he'll be able to reunite with Marie once again. Slowly, the people he came to know of started dying, including Pan.
Gabriel finally manages to form the God's Mask, but then Zobek reveals his true card, he is in fact the Lord of Necromancers and was behind the horrid things Gabriel did, including even the death of Marie, Zobek has used his Devil's Mask to influence Gabriel to murder her. All while taunting Gabriel, Zobek proceeds to blast the warrior with his magic and gloats on how he'll use the God's Mask for his own purposes, only to be interrupted by Satan who reveals that Zobek has served his purposes in forming the God's Mask and he will use it to restart his rebellion against Heaven and God.
Gabriel is seemingly ready to join the spirits of the dead, but Marie resurrected him to fight against Satan and saving the world. Even after his victories, it turns out that the God's Mask he sought for cannot grant his wish of reviving Marie. As Marie bid farewell to her husband, Gabriel collapsed to his knees and wept.
Reverie & Resurrection[]
After being forever separated with Marie, Gabriel starts to lose his faith against God and humanity in general. He then receives a telepathic call from a vampire he met previously, Laura, warning him that his act of killing the Lords of Shadow has the effect of unleashing the creature known as "The Forgotten One", set on destroying the world.
Gabriel once again ventures to defeat The Forgotten One, but only to no longer feel the guilt of failing to serve humanity. However, to even enter the realm of the Forgotten One, Laura sacrifices herself so Gabriel can drink her blood and survive the realm... in turn, turning Gabriel into an immortal vampire.
Gabriel boasts to The Forgotten One that he's more evil than the latter, and eventually defeats the creature, absorbing him. But at this point, he's had enough with humanity for tricking him. He discards the Combat Cross and returns to the human world filled with desire of vengeance against men. He also discards his name, and refers himself as 'Dracul'... otherwise known as 'Dracula'.
Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate[]
As Dracula, Gabriel takes over the castle of the Lord of the Vampire and makes it his own, mastering various dark magic. The Brotherhood of Light, feeling responsible for his turn to evil, sent knights to slay him, all failing and slain by Gabriel himself... Until eventually, one certain member carrying a copy of the Combat Cross, his own son Trevor Belmont. Gabriel does not realize this man's identity until he inflicts a mortal wound of Trevor, and finally realizes his identity. Horrified, Gabriel tries resurrecting Trevor with his blood, to no avail. The least he could do is to give him proper burial and labelled the coffin with the name 'Alucard' as Trevor referred both of them as 'opposites'.
Enraged with how the Brotherhood sent his own son to kill him, Gabriel resumes his plan and sends a horde of werewolves to kill everyone in the Brotherhood's sanctuary, including Trevor's wife Sypha. However, Trevor's son Simon manages to escape in the mountains, is raised there and when he comes to age, Simon goes to confront Gabriel to avenge his parents.
Simon is not alone, however. Trevor, now embracing his new identity as Alucard, comes to aid Simon to defeat Gabriel and eventually Gabriel is forced to retreat with his castle crumbling.
Events before Lords of Shadow 2[]
Sometime after his defeat against Simon and Alucard, Dracula manages to reconstruct his body and the castle rebuilt itself with Dracula's powers, the Brotherhood of Light sent constant attacks but failed each time. By that time Dracula had grown tired of his immortality and yearned for true death, but was well stuck in the situation because there was no way to end his immortal life, and Zobek and Satan were just hiding and bidding their time, waiting for Dracula showed any weakness so they could take over.
Five hundred years before the main storyline of "Lords of Shadow 2", led by their Paladin, the Brotherhood launched a massive attack with half a million soldiers. Dracula defeated the Brotherhood of Light, and is reunited with Trevor, who refers to himself as Alucard. His son proposed a plan that will not only give Dracula the true death he hand hoped for, but also able to destroy Zobek and Satan at the same time. The downside of the plan is that it will require Dracula to lose all his powers and be forced to save humanity again. Dracula agreed and impaled himself on the Crissaegrim and fell into a deep sleep. Alucard then hid his body in the old church and waited for Satan's acolytes to prepare Satan's summoning ritual. After five hundred years, as Satan's acolytes prepared for the summoning ritual, Alucard removed the sword from his father's heart, then he went to collect the former's weapons and places them in the castle, and also defeats Zobek's lieutenant and took his place.
Lords of Shadow 2[]
Dracula woke from his slumber with no memory of what had landed him in his long sleep. When he first woke up, he was approached by Zobek, who informed him of Satan's imminent return, but having just woke up, Dracula's mind was not rational enough to hear reasons, which ended up in a fight where he got tossed out the church, and their talk ended where Dracula screamed and exploded into bats and dust. The second time he woke up, he is lured by the illusion of young Trevor, who lured him into a fight with Satan's demon and caused Dracula to pass out in exhaustion. Alucard then delivered him to Zobek, who fed him a small human family to help him regain his sanity and basic recovery. Zobek proposed a deal that Dracula would stop Satan's return; in return, Zobek will use the rebuilt Vampire Killer to give Dracula the truth death he had yearned for. Disgusted by the idea of helping his enemy, but even more determined not to become Satan's slave, Dracula agreed on the truce and proceed to investigate and stop the acolytes's plan.
In the meantime, he is approached by young Trevor many times and is constantly being sent back into the pocket universe of his castle to regain his powers and memories. Just before Dracula was going to stop the final acolyte from his summoning ritual, Alucard stopped him and revealed his identity, causing Dracula to finally remember the deal they made five hundred years ago. Enraged of being tricked by Alucard and Dracula, Zobek made a desperate attempt to kill both of them, only to be destroyed in a one-on-one fight with Dracula, who then reclaimed the Vampire Killer. After that, he and Alucard tracked down the final acolyte, who had then successfully summoned Satan. In the end, Dracula had managed to kill Satan with the Vampire Killer. With his revenge completed, instead of taking his own life, Dracula opted to live on with his son.
Other Media[]
Super Smash Bros.[]
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Gabriel Belmont appears as one of the game's many spirits, with his spirit being of the Neutral-type and the Advanced-ranking. In his spirit battle, the player must defeat a Simon Belmont on the Temple stage, with the Simon starting the fight with a beam sword, having stronger melee attacks, and a tendency to use their side special often.
Personality[]
As Gabriel, he is a brave and pious man who fights for justice. Though he sometimes slips into darker emotions, he is a kind-hearted man who constantly has his conscious weigh down on him. In the end, after all the betrayals, despair, and dark powers forced on him, he was consumed by all and became Dracula.
As Dracula, he is constantly filled with rage and hollowness. The vampirism drowned out the love, compassion and tenderness that once filled his heart, giving way to the merciless darkness of the dragon. The darkness reflects on his fighting style as well, as he fights with extreme brutality, often draining his opponents before shredding them with his bare hands. Having completely lost faith in humanity, he sees humans as nothing more than pawns controlled by the Brotherhood and are better off dead. After the Brotherhood pit his bloodline against him and caused Trevor to die by his hands. Dracula swore bloody vengeance and vowed to hunt humanity for all eternity. Piling up countless bodies and razing villages to the ground, he stroke fear in all men's hearts. Despite all his rage, he is depressed and feels a deep loathing towards himself as well.
Despite being consumed by darkness, the one thing that never changed was his love for his wife and son. Which became the key element of Alucard's plan and Dracula gaining some of his humanity back in the end.
Gallery[]
.jpg "SatanLos (1).jpg (166 KB)")
.jpg "Dracula (Gabriel Belmont).jpg (46 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Gabriel can be said as an amalgamation of Leon Belmont and Mathias Cronqvist. Like Leon, he is the first Belmont in history. However, unlike Leon, he fell into despair with tragedy like Mathias and renounced his faith, becoming Dracula.
- Despite being a creature of darkness, Gabriel is still God's chosen one and immune to his power.
- Due to not only being the first creature of evil and the manifestation of the Dragon itself, but also for remaining God’s Chosen One even after his transformation and his fall into madness and vengeance, Gabriel arguably serves as the most powerful version of Dracula in the entire Castlevania franchise as a whole, surpassing not only the original videogame version, but also the Netflix adaptation's version.
External Links[]
- Gabriel Belmont on the Heroes Wiki.
- Dracula on the Castlevania Wiki.
