Castlevania: The Tragic Prince Author's Notes/Making Of
By Dawn Wilkins
I guess this is where I’m suppose to do a tell all–you know, explain the how, where, what, when, and why. How did I come up with this idea? Where was I when I it came to me? What exact time was it...But rather than fill you heads with irrelevant information you'd need not know anyway (and will undoubtedly bore you after a while) I will preanswer some of the questions you might be having. If you want more information than that I’m giving or to chat (and it needn’t be about THIS fanfic!) by all means email me at dawn_wilkins@hotmail.com and I’ll happily oblige. I will promptly answer all emails. So, mail me.
One question you probably have is: why did I do a Castlevania fanfic? As I’m sure most of you DON’T know I’ve actually never played much of SOtN. Sound crazy? Well, I’ve played earlier incarnations of the games but not much of this particular one. If anyone knows where I can get the game for the computer please TELL ME! Anyway, I decided on this because I love the characters of this game (especially Alucard, he’s so cool!) and the idea was such a great one.
You may also be curious about why Alucard’s bite so affected Maria and why one cross hurt him while the other protected him. Yeah, I was wondering that, too. You can thank the game’s creators for that confusion. Why they made a water-protection cross that can work for a VAMPIRE is beyond me but I never was one to veer from the game’s facts. Since Alucard is a half-breed I figured a cross meant for water protection probably wouldn’t kill him but cause him some minor discomfort (the coldness, remember?) and the cross designed to vanquish evil would have half the effect–hence, pain but no death. This, of course, makes you wonder why Dracula was affected by one cross and not the other. Maria’s cross was never designed for destruction. It did cause pain but the cross made for evil annihilation obviously had greater effect. As for the bite, Alucard’s fangs injected the infected blood of a vampire into Maria’s veins and that makes the victim a vampire (you read vampire lore, it’s there!). The death of his vampire side, through the cross, thus freed her from the curse.
Have I bored you yet? Not yet? Good. Another question may be what was the original plan of Alucard’s and how did he intent to betray it. Though it’s of little import the ‘plan’ that Alucard had told Richter and Annette was simply for the two men to distract Dracula while Annette rescued Maria. But this would undoubtedly risk all their lives so Alucard intended to ask his father to let his friends go while he stayed. After he secured his friend’s lives he would cast a spell destroying the church and threat of both he and his father. Evidently, neither happened.
Lastly, I’m sure there are those of you who are confused about the dream scenes. I’ll admit they may be a little deep. The first dream scene involved Dracula’s attempt to deceive his son into killing his friends and drinking Maria’s blood. He thought that using such an emotional sight would do the trick and that Alucard would become ‘in his image’ (that’s a biblical reference if you hadn’t notice). Because of Alucard’s little experience with emotion Dracula easily takes him. His love of Maria breaks the spell and only his ‘death’ could bring him out of the trance. The other scene is the kind you get at death. You get flashes of life and start accepting things you wouldn’t normally (therefore, Alucard realizes his guilt for his mother). But, since only half of him died he returned to the land of the living, happily ever after...sort of.
I must thank many sources such as Konami for making that cool game (I’ll play it someday, I promise), Sony for choosing to have this for their system (same to you), and to all the fans who’ve written me. I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Thanks to those of you who’ve written those wonderful comments on ‘Tragedy–>Haughty’, including, but not limited to, Magusprophet, Katolin, IceBlueKirby, Cain, Lauren, and so many others. Special thanks to Xyris for all those insightful talks, thanks to Kim for her helpful questions, thanks to my sister Marianne for tolerating more writing than anyone should have to. Will I write another SOtN fanfic? Maybe. If I get another killer idea or enough fans demanding it (hint, hint!). Well, I’m off to write other stories now. I hope I didn’t bore you too much. Until the next story...Farewell.
-Dawn Wilkins