The Glory of Soma Cruz ||The Alpha and Omega of Castlevania||

Castlevania is a series filled with fantastic and interesting characters all throughout its 30 plus year history so when it comes to picking a favorite character in the series there are a ton of options to choose from be it the variety of belmonts that we meet Alucard the son of dracula or even Dracula himself though for me I found my favorite character in the 2003 Game Boy game REM sorrow that being the next heir to Dracula's throne and wielder of the power of dominance soma Cruz [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so mcruiz was just a regular high school student in japan living out a pre normal life until September 2nd of 2035 because on that day soma and his friend Mina went to Mina's family shrine to witness a solar eclipse but little did he know during this trip that he and his friend would be pulled into a bizarre and dangerous castle and forced to venture through it to find some way home and the deeper soma got into this castle the more he learned about himself and who he really is though before we get too into that we should first understand the meaning behind someone's name so mcruiz is a fun name because it carries meaning with it both in japanese and outside of japanese starting first with the meaning in japanese and then will focus more on the english meaning so first we have so much family name which is cruise or kuru su in japanese and when broken down you have the kuru part of his name which means next or to be next in something and then you have the remaining su part of his name which means necessary or by all means so all together cruise or kuru su is necessary to come next or to come next by all means which isn't direct reference to somos position as the reincarnation of trakula and how he will be the next one to inherit the Dark Lord title and to parallel this meaning of his name in its relation to Dracula in English SOLAS last name Cruise is in direct reference to the Spanish or Portugal word for cross which is a symbol used to repel or harm creatures like vampires and dark lords and could hint at the fact that soma would overcome and defeat the chaos within him and not become the next Dark Lord then of course you have his given name soma which when broken down in Japanese translates to pale and truth and reality the pale part is in reference to his overall pale or white color scheme but it changes when paired up with the second half of his name becoming pale truth or pale reality but the pale part of his name that adopts the meaning of unripe so altogether sohma's name is actually unripe truth which is in reference to him being unaware to his identity as dracula then outside the japanese meaning of soma sohma's name takes on the meaning of the soma or the concept of the body separate from the mind psyche and soul which is in reference both to how soma is a reincarnation of the body of dracula which we can see this reflected in his design and promotional work as summer wears a large white coat over a dark undershirt representing soma containing a darkness within them that is dracula and in his promotional artwork he's paired with a small white Drake symbolically representing soma being a purified Drake which if you don't know Dracula's name originates from order of dracool or order of the Dragon so Dracula can be represented by a dragon but it can also be in reference to sohma's own unique ability that comes with being dracula that ability being the power of dominance the power of dominance is a supernatural ability akin to dracula that someone heritage through being his reincarnation how it works is it allows the wielder to steal the soul of a slain foe and store it within themselves to be called upon for future use gameplay-wise what this means is that when so much slays an enemy he has a chance to gain a soul from them and then if he does so he can equip this soul and gain a special power related to the enemy that he got it from these souls come in four varieties that being bullet soul guardian soul enchanted soul and ability soul and the first three of these varieties are interchangeable attacks and movement options that allow someone to do different things with bullet souls being the stand-in for sub-weapons guardian souls being so much changeable moveset that allows him to get to different areas quicker and it's at missiles being permanent buffs that soma gets as long as they're equipped the fourth ability souls are completely permanent and gives soma abilities like double jump and comet kick and don't need to be equipped or unequipped now the origins for the power of dominance in universe is likely a modification of the spells soul steel being fused with the soul of Dracula himself this spells functions very similarly to the power of dominance the main difference being that soul steel consumes the soul for healing purposes where the power of dominance merely stores the soul within the being for future use and the spell modification would make sense with the lore of the series given that Dracula and not only was a skilled Alchemist prior to his role as the Dark Lord but he also worked alongside devil forge masters during his reign so modifying a spell like this wouldn't be all that difficult we also see that previous Dark Lords like Walter lacked this ability and the same is true for future Dark Lord candidates outside of Soma as the game Don acero specifically has Dmitry copy the ability from sohma's memories of dracula stored within his soul and of course during aria of sorrow we learned that after you defeat grant a man who believed himself to be the reincarnation of dracula because he was born the same day that he died and seemed to inherit a portion of his power soma absorbs a large portion of the castles dark energy and it's revealed that the power of dominance in dracula soul are literally one in the same which is what makes it so important when it comes to inheriting trakula's power as without it you aren't a true reincarnation of the man though someone doesn't want to become the next dracula or the next Dark Lord he just wants to leave the castle and retain his own identity in humanity thus he seeks out Kenya or Akkad Oh a mysterious man who's been aiding him so far through his journey in the castle and arakawa tells him that the only way to sever Dracula's influence is to enter the chaotic realm and defeat chaos a being which is the source of Castlevania and the Dark Lord's power though in doing so he risks falling to chaos his influence and losing himself completely but soma with his friends encouragement giving him strength ventures forth to face chaos and canonically defeats him and by doing so someone rejects Dracula's influence and suburbs his ties to Castlevania escaping it before its resealed in the Eclipse but thanks to soma being an actual reincarnation oh Dracula the power of dominance still exists within him and a year later a cult wishing to resurrect the Dark Lord attacks Ouma in hopes of killing him to free Dracula soul so it can be used for their ritual they even built a replica of Dracula's castle and have someone a bunch of powerful demons with regeneration abilities to it and even though he was warned to stay away from it someone still pursues the cult in order to stop them defeating their two candidates for inheriting the Dark Lord's power and sealing away some of the most powerful demons that the castle had to offer though during his adventure some encountered the cult leader celia fourtner who seems to have kidnapped mina so much love interest while he was exploring the castle in defeating the Dark Lord candidates and in a last ditch effort to awaken the Dark Lord celia kills Mina right before soma in order to trigger his chaotic energy within which appears to work because witnessing the death of his beloved Venus and someone to a blind rage and he slowly loses grasp over his humanity with the chaotic energy within him flowing outwards ready to forego his morals for the sake of revenge but if the player has Mina's charm equipped someone will be able to maintain his humanity long enough for Kenya or econo to appear and reveal that the Nina that Celia killed was actually a doppelganger but even so so much sudden surge of emotions caused him to be flush with chaotic energy which reawakens a soul that he absorbed earlier in the game this being the previous Dark Lord candidate Dimitri who was feed it earlier in the game and was strangely absorbed by so most power of dominance causing someone to question whether or not his dominance can consume human souls as well but now his soul alongside chaotic energy within soma is sent into the doppelgangers body and returns Demitri to his original form where he explains that he allowed himself to be absorbed because he needed a copy of Samos power of dominance and now flush with new chaotic power and a copy of Samos power Demetria becomes the cults most worthy successor to Dracula's lordship and he heads off to perform the ritual to become the next Dark Lord and even after he successfully pulls off that ritual and begins to ascend to his Dark Lord status the copy of the power of dominance begins to destroy his soul because you see unlike soma someone who was born with it Dmitry's power is nothing more than a mere copy and this copy is unstable causing the energy to consume his soul and explode outwards into a being only known as menace though soma is able to overcome this new demon and reduces it to the form of just pure chaotic energy that suddenly surges back into soma nearly overwhelming him and turning him into a Dark Lord instantly though through sheer willpower and focusing on his beloved Meena soma overcomes this influence once again escaping the replica of Castlevania with our econo and company but these last two adventures have left an impact on someone and he asks our kado not only about Dark Lords but if he's responsible for the harm these past two years of brought and our kata ensures him that even though Dark Lords are a necessary evil for the world soma becoming one is not necessary and tells him to go out and live his life as a regular human because if the world really needed a Dark Lord it'll find someone else someone warmly accepts this offer and returns with Meena to Japan but what makes this moment so great isn't just the offer from our kado being very kind towards soma but when you look more into it that offers downright heartwarming because all this time I've been referring to soma as the reincarnation of Dracula but he's also the reincarnation of Mathias crookedness the man that Dracula was before the series began Matthias was a knight in an alchemist who worked for the church in confronting those that opposed God until the death of his beloved Elizabeth her tragic death was heart breaking to Matthias and made him terrified of death itself so we took up researching how to become a mortal Soviet exact his revenge against the God that spite at him in killing his beloved thus becoming the immortal Dracula in the process which in itself is a direct reference to the 1992 film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula though through his years of rebelling and hatred against God he met with a holy woman who was the spitting image of his former love her name was Lisa and it appears to be driven specifically from Elisaveta implying that she is a reincarnation of Dracula's former love which is another direct reference to the 1992 Bram Stoker Dracula movie and upon meeting her he regained his sanity and humanity and fell deeply in love with her and viewed it almost as a second chance at the life that he so wanted as Mathias the two then got married and had a son named Alucard and over their time together Lisa taught Dracula to appreciate humanity and in turn learned from him these skills of Medicine who she would then go on to use to cure the sick and the poor but these skills would later be called into question as dark magic and witchcraft and Lisa would be tried and found guilty of being a witch which would result in her execution and with Dracula second attempt at a peaceful life snatched away from him he vowed not only vengeance on God but humans as well beginning his horrendous war on humanity that would last hundreds of years in multiple resurrections and assumedly over time he became more and more consumed with chaos maddening himself to the point that no matter what anyone would tell him he would continue his war until 1999 when he was finally slain for good in his soul lay dormant in the Eclipse for 18 years until during the Eclipse of 2017 it returned to Earth and was born as a new Japanese baby boy soma cruise and ironically at the time so most childhood best friend and love interest me nahi kava was also born that same year and it is implied that she is also a reincarnation of Lisa who is a reincarnation of Elisabetta which makes sense given that Mina Harker is the name of the woman who is a reincarnation of Dracula's former lover in the 1992 adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula implying that these two souls seem to be connected by fate in some way and that wouldn't be too much of a stretch given that aria of sorrow and lament of innocent were being designed around the same time and were both being headed by Igarashi creating both the beginning and ending of the Dracula saga at the same time creating the characters that would be the Alpha and Omega - Dracula the man himself they even seem to be designed to connect to each other as some was design is very influenced by Mathias as Mathias who was a man falling to darkness he wears a dark cloak with a fur neckline but somehow being designed as the reincarnation of the light that comes from that darkness he is wearing a white coat with a similar for a neckline especially in Somis original concept art also Mathias and lament of innocence forges a crimson stone a red stone that allows him to become Dracula whereas in dawn of sorrow soma is given a blue talisman by his beloved Mina which is both the polar opposite of the crimson stone and repels so most transformation into Dracula but also is a direct reference to his name which can both mean pale and mean blue so he is the blue - Mathias his friend the calm - Mathias is anger and the humanity - Mathias is lack of it also all the bad endings for soma involve him repeating Mathias his mistake either falling to the darkness in his heart or caving to a rage filled madness after the death of a beloved one though almost to oppose these bad endings so most good endings are him repenting or atoning for these sins of sorts with him not only destroying the chaos within his heart but preventing the next Dark Lord from even rising soma has earned his forgiveness and wants to return to his humble life as just a human and that's what makes this scene just so heart warm Alucard the son of Dracula under the guise of gana Erik Otto is not only able to give his father a second chance at happiness but he's also able to give it to his mother as well basically allowing them to live the life that he never got to see them live and one year later during the novel demon Castle Dracula reminiscence of the divine abyss we see the final book and to sohma's role as Dracula as with Castle Dracula seemingly returning yet again Death Comes to confront soma and Japan appearing only to ask him two things if you would assume his role as Dark Lord and questioning if recent events are his doing soma again refuses the role of Dark Lord and seems confused at what death is talking about and demand death gives him answers only for death to reply dryly that he no longer serves him and that he need not worry about being a Dark Lord anymore and that he would never confront him on the matter ever then death vanishes with the wind before someone's eyes Dracula's most loyal servant paying his master one final adieu and with that soma and in turn Matthias can truly be free of their thousand year long sin and finally able to truly return to their soulmate and live a peaceful and fulfilling life possibly getting the happiest ending for any character in the series and honestly I feel like it's almost a perfect book ending for Castlevania itself sohma's refusal to inherit the throne and lack of a Dark Lord leaves castlevanias universe in a pretty peaceful state and Somis ability to take this series and end it in such a nice peaceful way is why he's my favorite character in all of Castlevania taking a endless cycle of blood and violence and resurrection and rituals and chaos and murder and ending it with a peaceful retirement and showing us that even the oldest of sins can be forgiven is why he's just so great well that and he's just like one of the most attractive dudes in all video games I mean do you look at him I mean his last name can literally be mistranslated to buckets because that's exactly what he makes me do and if you enjoyed this video I want to see more videos like in the future I have a patreon at patreon.com slash May another bad guy and if you want to come buckets yourself well I recommend you head on over to buy shimoneta calm by yourself copy of shimoneta

Channel: Meti『Not The Bad Guy』

Views: 66,873

Rating: 4.9708028 out of 5

Keywords: The Alpha and Omega of Castlevania, Soma Cruz, Soma, Castlevania, Soma Cruz Castlevania, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Castlevania DoS, Castlevania AoS, Castlevania Soma, Alucard, Genya Arikado, Mathias, Dark Lords

Id: OAlVJuTsKe4

Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2019