Character Spotlight: Gabriel Belmont

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Name: Gabriel Belmont/Dracula

Game(s): Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series

Archetype: Fighter

Class: Weapons Master

Skills/Attributes:

• Incredibly skilled fighter.
• Void and chaos magic abilities.
• Vampiric strength, speed, and reflexes.
• Strong sense of familial loyalty.
• Complex desires and emotions.
• Significant inner turmoil.

Overview:

Gabriel Belmont is the protagonist/antagonist/what-have-you of the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series.  He, like Raoh, is a pretty complex good guy/bad guy.  Granted, he’s pretty uncaring in regards to normal humans, being happy terrifying/enslaving them as Dracula.  However, he’s also been manipulated, mind controlled, and made to do unpleasant things against his will, which is part of what has driven his madness.  He cares very strongly for his family, and his desire to see them alive and united is what drives him to do good.

He’s faced off against powerful vampires, demons, Satan, and Death itself.  He’s also battled his inner demons, in an attempt to save his own soul and die a true and worthy death.  His skills in battle were legendary before he even became a vampire, and grew massively when coupled with the abilities he picked up after turning.  In addition to this, pre-turning he is able to wield Light and Dark magic, and after turning he is able to wield Chaos and Void magic.  That’s a lot of power for one guy to possess!  With his ability to wield weapons ranging from combat crosses to chaos blades, Gabriel/Dracular is a fitting Weapons Master of the highest order, seated within the upper echelons of the Fighter archetype.

In The Gabriel Belmont Workout, we’re going to build a body meant to go toe-to-toe with vampires, demons, and gods.  We may not be able to gain vampiric strength, necessarily, but we will be building a body that can reach the upper levels of normal human strength, while still remaining fast, agile, and lethal.  We’re going to be looking at a solid powerlifting regimen, coupled with a fair amount of cardio, and some interesting drills.

In The Skills of Gabriel Belmont, we’re going to take a look at Gabriel’s combat styles, and they are many!  His primary neutral weapon is the combat cross, and later the shadow whip, both of whom have very similar movements to real life whip movements and tricks.  We’ve also got his sword and chaos claws styles to consider, so we’ll take a look at some real life counterparts there as well.  Gabriel’s vampire powers that he gains when he becomes Dracula are a bit more difficult to emulate, but we’ll talk about some of those as well.

Finally, in The Mind of Gabriel Belmont, we’re going to take a look at his internal conflicts, and how he handles the various betrayals,  manipulation, and otherworldly politics he’s endured in his long, long life.  He’s a man who has both a dark and a light side, and a good study in what can happen when people gain (nearly) unlimited power.  We’ll examine how his familial ties affect his decision making, and how he triumphs over his own dark inclinations.

It’s going to be a fun couple weeks!  Gabriel’s an interesting character, for sure, and his combat styles are hella fun, so I’m looking forward to it!  Thanks to Ken-Oh33 over on the forums for suggesting him, and for everyone who voted in the character poll!  The new poll will be up soon, so keep an eye out for it!  Also, Q&A Tuesday should be live with new questions later tonight, so watch out for that on the Youtube channel as well!

Live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome!

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace