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| “ | More than a year I've been here, pretending to be the useful flunky. Pretending not to be who I am. Do you know what that's like?! Hiding my skills, hiding my mind. Pretending not to be the best vampire war fighter in the last 300 years in case it upsets somebody. Now Varney can f-ck off to give Dracula hand jobs for the rest of time and I can get on with what I'm good at! Killing you. | „ |
| ~ Ratko's speech to Trevor about his frustration with Varney and boasting of his superiority. |
Ratko is the supporting antagonist of Netflix's 2017 dark fantasy animated series Castlevania, being one of the secondary antagonists in the fourth and final season. He is Varney's top lieutenant, supporting the latter's plot to resurrect Dracula.
He's a brutal and bloodthirsty vampire war fighter who takes pride in his skills as a soldier and is bitter and frustrated over being forced to act as a lackey to the seemingly incompetent braggart. Despite this, he is willing to work with him as long as theyc n aaccomplish their common goal of resurrecting Dracula.
He was voiced by Titus Welliver, who also portrayed Maxwell Burke in Star Trek: Voyager, Tom Landricks and Rob Miller in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, War in Supernatural, Man In Black in Lost, Jimmy O'Phelan in Sons of Anarchy, Felix Blake in Marvel's Agents of SH.I.E.L.D., James Savoy in Transformers: Age of Extinction, the Trask Imperial Captain in The Mandalorian, and Carmine Falcone in Batman: The Long Halloween.
Biography[]
Not much is known about Ratko, with the only hints given are his past war crimes. He recounts having used underhanded and immoral methods in the name of achieving victory, from carrying out the assassination of enemy commanders to the poisoning of wells and mass slaughter of every baby in a town. He had gained enough of a reputation as a mass murderer that he had caught the interest of Death himself, who recruited him into his inner circle under the guise of the seemingly incompetent blowhard Varney.
Have taken part in Varney's takeover of the remains of Targoviste following Dracula's destruction of the city, Ratko would be tasked with finding the hidden court of Targoviste's royal family, specifically hoping the magic mirror hidden there so that Varney could meet up with Saint Germain to prepare for Dracula's resurrection. He and Varney are first seen watching Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, and later watches their fight with a pack of Night Creatures in an ambush before they are joined by the Hidden Courts deranged leader Zamfir, with Ratko mentioning that he wants to wear the couples' skins. He and Varney retreat after the fight, and he later has a pair of Night Creatures ambush Zamfir and attach a tracking stone to her, allowing them to find the Hidden Court.
After getting into an argument with Varney over the latter's ego and (seeming) delusional perception of himself, Ratko would lead the attack on the Hidden Court. He later gets into a duel with Trevor, who matches him blow for blow at first before being slowly overwhelmed by the vampire warrior's fast reflexes and heavy sword strikes. He has the Belmont pinned down by Night Creatures and prepares to kill him before a mother and her young daughter shove him to save the vampire hunter. Angered at being touched by the humans, he swings his sword to kill them, only for Zamfir to take the blow. With her remaining strength and last breaths, she holds his sword in place and vows that the people of Targoviste would survive him. Asserting his immortality, a recovered Trevor trips and pins him down before stabbing him in the heart with his cross-sword, causing Ratko's body to be consumed in flames as he dies screaming in defiance and anger.
Personality[]
| “ | Ratko: I've practiced war. Varney: War is armies meeting each other on the field of combat. That's not what you do. Ratko: Right! I'm a clever soldier. I'm a committed soldier. I don't go to pageants. I don't play games. Varney: (chuckles) Are you justifying yourself? Ratko: Eat sh-t! I fight wars! You have no idea, do you?! War is when you kill so many on the other side that they can't fight you anymore. Prancing around on a meadow isn't war. Stealing into a tent and cutting every throat in sight is war. Poisoning wells is war. Killing every baby in a town and disappearing. THAT'S. WAR! War is for winning! And tracking that lunatic down into her secret rooms and surprising them to death. That's what I do. That's what I did. |
„ |
| ~ Ratko explaining his twisted philosophy on war to Varney. |
Ratko is a ruthless vampire who takes pride in his accomplishments as a soldier and has a violent temper that is easy to provoke. He regards himself as the greatest vampire war fighter in the last 300 years. In his view, the only thing that matters in war is complete and total victory and believes in using any means necessary to win. This includes brutal but pragmatic methods such as assassinating enemy commanders in their tents to outright vile atrocities such as the mass murder of every infant in a village behind enemy lines, all of which he's implied to have done in the past. He's strategic and methodical in his approach to dealing with enemies, such as when he has his Night Creatures place a tracking stone on Zamfir so she would lead him and Varney to the hidden court of Targoviste, and scoffs at concepts such as honor, comparing the more traditional forms of war that involve directly confronting your enemies on the battlefield as "prancing around on a meadow". He takes sadistic pleasure in toying with his enemies in combat, as shown when he slowly cuts away at Trevor's body and wearing him down, with Trevor himself calling him out on "playing with his food". He even goes so far as to claim that he had been given to the Earth to feed on all life on it as he pleases, indicating that he has something of a superiority/God complex and sees himself as better than his fellow vampires for his skills, especially vampires like Varney.
He's shown to deeply despise Varney, regarding him as little more than a worthless criminal and looking down on him for his arrogance and showboating, admitting that he doesn't even consider him a true vampire (ironic given he's shown to not be a vampire at all but a death elemental in disguise) because of his obnoxious personality. He's especially furious at having to act as Varney's lackey and humor his delusions of importance, snarking at him every opportunity he can and finally losing his patience when Varney takes credit for his plan to trick Zamfir into exposing the hidden court. He only supports Varney in his plans so that he can cut ties with him altogether following Dracula's resurrection so that he can continue to fight and kill humans for his own pleasure. His assertations of being superior to Varney and his stated belief that he was the best warrior in the past 3 centuries show him to rather hypocritical since they demonstrate that he's just as arrogant and delusional as Varney.
Trivia[]
- In a twist, Ratko's speech to Varney about how he was "given to the Earth to feed on everything on it" fits Varney, aka Death, character far more than Ratko's due to his true nature as a spirit that feeds off the deaths of others, and implies this is the true reason he cooperates with Ratko. As such, Ratko's assertations of Varney being inferior to him end up falling humorously flat.
External Links[]
- Ratko on the Castlevania Wiki
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Netflix's  Villains
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