Castlevania, Season 3

Sypha:
[overacting] Oh, no! Night creatures! Whatever shall I do? Out here alone in the forest, with only my brain-damaged servant who talks about nothing but beer? I am certainly doomed!

Trevor:
Oh God, not this again...

Sypha:
Doomed, I say! I am defenseless and frozen to my seat with fear!

Trevor:
Laying it on a little thick, aren't you, Sypha?

Sypha:
It's always easier when we let them get in range.

[ship creaking]

Captain:
I have brandy. You know brandy? Fire and wine. Do you partake of alcohol?

Isaac:
I do not.

Captain:
Ah, thought so. Muslim?

Isaac:
Sufi.

Captain:
The spinning-around kind or the self-flagellating kind?

Isaac:
The latter. Or, I was.

Captain:
Well, I imagine it hurts. You can't be blamed for stopping.

Isaac:
It's not pain as you understand it. I've been hit by people. It's not the same thing, at all. It brings clarity. It stills the body and frees the mind to focus.

Captain:
So why did you stop?

Isaac:
I don't know. I'm too angry. I cannot find myself. I cannot pray. I cannot see God. [slurps]

Captain:
Tell me the story, Isaac. The night is long, and sailors like stories.

Isaac:
I was a member of Dracula's court.

Captain:
Dracula? [he sips his drink and chuckles] Oh, this should be good. Dracula the Vampire King? Dracula, who wants to kill everyone in Wallachia?

Isaac:
Everyone in the world. All the humans.

Captain:
Including you?

Isaac:
I assumed that eventually this would include me, yes.

Captain:
So working for Dracula was like suicide, the long way round?

Isaac:
Perhaps. I find the human race worthless, and I suspect a fresh start would be good for the world.

Captain:
Present company excepted, of course?

[both chuckle]

Captain:
So, you were planning on killin' everyone in the world. I knew you wouldn't be boring. I cannot, however, fail to note that I am still here. And you're not in Wallachia. What happened?

Isaac:
[sighs] His castle was attacked. Dracula threw me to the desert through a magic mirror. To save my life.

Captain:
That doesn't sound like someone who wants to kill all the people of the Earth.

Isaac:
He was confused. He was grieving. There were other vampires conspiring against him and they were aided by the other human in the court.

Captain:
He was certainly confused. And also betrayed. You just can't get the staff any more. Believe me, I know. You should talk to some of the freaks I have on my crew. And now you're sailing back to Europe to find Dracula?

Isaac:
I believe he is dead. I have other reasons to return. I was given this by a man in Tunis.

Isaac:
[claps] [glass tinkling]

Isaac:
[claps] [glass tinkling]

Isaac:
It showed me that the other human in the court is being kept prisoner by one of the vampires who schemed against Dracula.

Captain:
That's a nice gift, though.

Isaac:
The man who gave it to me said it was in exchange for saving him from Hell when he died. After which, the men-at-arms of Tunis attempted to drive us out, because they were full of hatred and fear, like all people.

Captain:
Did he laugh when he said it?

Isaac:
He did, actually.

Captain:
Then it was a gift. I mean, can you save people from Hell?

Isaac:
I am a forgemaster. I can take demons from Hell, and install them in dead bodies on Earth.

Captain:
That's quite a trick.

Isaac:
It is a skill, learned over many years. Vampires cannot do it. It requires a human connection.

Captain:
Why? Vampires can learn magic.

[fire whooshes]

Isaac:
Not this magic. Hell is populated by humans who went against the will of God. But the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, says that one day Hell will be emptied and its doors will rattle in the wind. Through my hand, God lifts the damned from Hell in his mercy to enact their penance on the Earth as my soldiers.

Captain:
That's... [he sips his drink and slowly lets out a breath] I thought I'd heard every story, but that's new to me. And you learned how to do this.

Isaac:
I did.

Captain:
And other things, too, I'll mark.

Isaac:
I have some other skills.

Captain:
And now you sail to Europe, to exact revenge on the people who betrayed your Dracula?

Isaac:
I do.

Captain:
Where will you go?

Isaac:
Styria, home to Carmilla, who rules that region.

Captain:
And then what?

Isaac:
What?

Captain:
Well, after you've had your blood. What will you do then? Take up your Dracula's cause and kill all the people in the world?

Isaac:
I might.

Captain:
Hmm. Have you ever heard this maxim? "If you don't have your own story, you become part of someone else's."

Isaac:
I have not.

Captain:
That's because I invented it. You're welcome. [he chuckles]

Isaac:
You saw that I have a knife, right?

Captain:
Hear me out. Why live out a dead vampire's story when you have your own story to tell?

Isaac:
Dracula's "story," as you put it, is right and good. The human race is poisonous and corrupt and should be wiped off the world.

Captain:
And yet yesterday, a man gave you a gift and made a joke. But all you really remember is the port authority trying to run you and your beasties out of town.

Isaac:
Do you deny our species is cruel, Captain?

Captain:
[he takes another drink and sighs] No. I've been cruel. It's a cruel world. Maybe we do all deserve to die. But maybe we could be better, too. If you kill us all, you end human cruelty, yes. But you end human kindness, too. No more jokes. No more gifts. No more surprises. Why would a man with all your fantastic knowledge not use it to teach people how to be kind?

Isaac:
What?

Captain:
Revenge is good. Bastards need punishing. But after you win, and you control their region, you become a ruler of a place, Isaac.

Isaac:
I do not.

Captain:
You do. By right of conquest. You could lead, Isaac. Just like you lead your beasties up there. What could your rule be like if you just taught people?

Isaac:
I would like more water.

Captain:
Then you shall have it, Isaac the Forgemaster. My gift, given freely.

[pouring water]

[Having arrived at the dock in Genoa, Isaac and his horde of night creatures find their way blocked by pike militia]

Isaac:
[smiles] You have nothing to fear from me. We were just leaving.

Militia Sergeant:
No.

Isaac:
... No?

Militia Sergeant:
No! You will not enter Genoa. Get back on your ship, with your monstrosities, and leave.

Isaac:
[glances over his shoulder] ...It seems my ship has already left. It has a shrewd captain. It took his wit, to show me that I'd stopped praying. Can you imagine that? I stopped praying and devoting myself, and I hadn't even noticed... what a monster I have become. You don't want me to be a monster right here, in your nice port, do you? Let us pass.

Militia Sergeant:
No.

Isaac:
My ship is gone, and I need to go north. Let us through.

Militia Sergeant:
We'll drive you and your filthy creatures into the sea, if we have to! We know what's been happening in Wallachia! It will not happen here!

Isaac:
Ohh... I cannot believe this is happening again. It's absurd. I just... can't. [angrily] Why do I keep doing the same thing, and expecting a different result? Isn't that the definition of insanity? Am I mad? [pause] You know... one day, the last of you will ask me: "Why did you work with Dracula himself, to murder all the people?" And you know what I'll say? It's because you're all so fucking rude.

[He snaps his fingers, and the night creatures rush forward, slaughtering the militia]

Isaac:
[drawing his Forgemaster's dagger] Bring me fresh material!

[summons FlysEyes to him to talk about his former life]

Isaac:
I was curious. The night is long, and I have been given much to think of late. May I ask you a question?

FlysEyes:
Of course.

Isaac:
Do you remember who you were, before you went to Hell?

FlysEyes:
I... almost do. [thinks on it] It's like I remember how it was to dream. And to remember moments of the dream. But never the entire play. Do you see?

Isaac:
I do. What do you remember?

FlysEyes:
I was... a scholar.

Isaac:
Really?

FlysEyes:
I was. In a place called... Athens. I think it was a long time ago.

Isaac:
What did you study?

FlysEyes:
I was a philosopher.

Isaac:
And this was a thing that sent you to Hell?

FlysEyes:
I lived as a man during a time in the empire that ruled Athens, changed its religion and laws. I believed Philosophy to be the Studies of the Systems of the World and our purpose in it. And yet discussions of the nature of the Divine became a crime.

Isaac:
Who declared this a crime?

FlysEyes:
Christians. To be a philosopher was a sin. And one important Christian was heard to say, that the people should hunt down sinners and drive them into salvation, as a hunter drives his prey into traps.

Isaac:
To think about God would surely not be a sin in God's eyes.

FlysEyes:
Perhaps. And yet... here I am.

Isaac:
And perhaps you did not tell me all of your dream.

FlysEyes:
I was betrayed, Forgemaster. I was hunted, I was tortured, I lied for my life. In a church, before a judge. I gave up others, so that I may live. I became a sinner.

Isaac:
And?

FlysEyes:
They killed me... anyway. I woke up in Hell, because this world is insane, and I learned something about sin.

Isaac:
[Looking disturbed by FlysEyes story] And what did you learn?

FlysEyes:
I learned... to like it. [begins to crawl to Isaac] Yet here I am, back on the surface of the Earth... strong and free, in a world where thinking is considered something that should be tortured and murdered. [He stops crawling and then disturbingly begins to smile] Thank you for my second life. [Isaac looks at the Night Creature with remorse] I intend to use it well, and make wonderful new dreams of it.

[leaving Lindenfeld]

Sypha:
This could not have gone more wrong... what happened?

Trevor:
We've spent a couple of months living your life. Adventures and victories. And now... we're living my life.