Untitled attachment

Notices where this attachment appears

1. Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Monday, 18-Mar-2024 09:39:18 JST Christi Junior
   2/4
   
   (SPOILERS AHEAD FOR A 25 YEAR OLD FIRST GENERATION N64 3D PLATFORMER)
   
   However, Death has by now realized that a regular vampire is no match for Reinhardt – the most powerful of Dracula’s demons will have to kill the holy warrior himself. Their final, fateful encounter sees Death overwhelming the vampire hunter with his signature scythe spam – but when the demon goes for the killing blow, none other than Rosa jumps in between him and Reinhardt, absorbing the fatal attack and sacrificing her undead life for the one man who showed her kindness and mercy. Despite her heroic sacrifice, Rosa feels only despair – as a vampire, she is convinced that her soul is damned and bound for hell.
   
   Reinhardt however, can not accept this outcome – in perhaps the single most powerful scene in the game, we see Reinhardt cradling the dying Rosa in his arms, praying for God to forgive her sins and allow her soul entry into heaven. Finally, convinced that God will show Rosa’s tortured soul compassion, Reinhardt hands her a Cross – which does not burn her. As Rosa’s body fades away from this world, along with the Cross she holds, we can infer that this tragic young woman, who held onto her humanity to the very end, has indeed been Saved. Moreover, her death provides Reinhardt with just the Shonen power-up he needed to overcome and destroy Death, avenging Rosa in the process. Seriously, this whole scene is beautiful, and still holds up in my view:
   
   https://youtu.be/9iUjJEtcXI0?si=U4M9LXA7Jg9J2GZo&t=38
   
   Eventually, Reinhardt does succeed in slaying Dracula and destroying his castle. Moreover, in one of the most blatant divine interventions in Castlevania history, God rewards his strongest Vampire Hunter by bringing back Rosa to him, now restored as a human. Grateful, but not complacent, Reinhardt leaves us with these parting words, which I’d like to relay in full:
   
   “When desire rules people’s hearts, evil arises and Dracula can return. The fight between Dracula and humanity is endless. I know no way to escape this struggle against evil.”
   
   …
   
   “But we have faith in each other and we have love. That gives us hope, and the strength to fight against despair. As long as we have hope, evil can never defeat us!!”
   
   Faith, love and hope, huh? Man, those Godless Nips sure to know their stuff, better than many of today’s Cultural Christians in the West :)
   
   (SPOILERS OVER)
   
   I know I’ve talked a lot about religion and Christianity in this writeup so far, but I do think it’s extremely notable to see a mainstream Japanese video game THIS steeped in “our” religion. Now, I do know that the horror genre in general is even today considered to be unique in terms of its willingness to depict positive Christian characters and real, unironically demonic evil – however, I’ve seen insightful Christian film critics point out that while this is both true and good, horror movies do also generally depict a world where the forces of Good seem outmatched by Evil – and while His existence is undeniable, God seemingly prefers to remain silent, while Satan and his forces routinely flex their muscles, and often come out on top (at least in the short term).
   
   Castlevania 64, partly due to being a video game with where you the player expects to prevail, suffers from no such issues – beyond God’s direct intervention at multiple points of the story, this is a game where Evil eventually gets its ass kicked three ways to Sunday due to the actions of God’s holy warriors. At the same time, it avoids taking a smug, triumphalist attitude, as reflected in Reinhardt’s final words. The game would seem to strike as good a balance as you could possibly hope for.
   
   It’s not all religion either – Reinhardt’s story is one with no interest in feminist nonsense like “toxic masculinity”, instead promoting traditional masculinity as good and heroic – Reinhardt honors his father (not only his Heavenly Father, but also the human man who raised him), and faithfully follows his code of never harming the weak. Reinhardt believes that men are and should be Strong – after having rescued a young boy called Malus from a chainsaw-wielding Frankenstein’s Monster (Castlevania 64 can be delightfully silly sometimes), Reinhardt sends the boy off with the encouragement that “You’re a man, you can do it!”.