Castlevania has hastily become one of Netflix’s best original series. With the end of the fourth season, the story also concluded. While our main cast of Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard got their epic ending, so did everyone else. Including Issac the Forgemaster, who might be the most profound character the series has to offer. Let’s dive into a deep character analysis of Issac and what makes him so well established in Castlevania.
Note: This article will contain spoilers.
THE BEGINNING
After the church burns Dracula’s wife, Lisa Tepes, at the stake for practicing science-based medicine, the vampire king declares war on the human race, while Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard do everything they can to stop him. Despite not being humans, Dracula entrusts the leadership of his army to Issac and Hector, his two forgemasters. But Dracula’s quest for extermination was not to be, as he met his end during a coincidental attack on two fronts. One from our central trio of vampire hunters, and the other a coup d’état from Carmilla, a ruling vampire from Styria.
Carmilla and Hector
A DARK ADOLESCENCE
To better understand Issac’s growth, it’s essential to detail the root of his contempt for humankind. Issac begins the story as an antagonist with a passionate hatred towards humans. Issac spent his early years as a slave, harboring love for his master, who used Issac’s love as an excuse to continually beat Issac until Issac finally hit his breaking point and kills the man he loves.
He then traveled Africa while learning magic until he was hunted by a group of magicians interested in selling his body parts, leading to his eventual meeting and rescue from Dracula. After enduring such a tortured existence, only to be saved from fellow humans by a vampire, it kindled the idea that maybe humanity is rotten to the core.
FORGING WITH HATE
Issac is Dracula’s most loyal follower, showing an obsequious loyalty even after death. In a sense, he revered Dracula as God himself. But after Dracula’s death, Issac searches for a sense of purpose. Before his master’s death, Dracula spared Issac’s life by forcing him through a transmission mirror, a type of magical mirror that allows for teleportation. So Issac finds himself back in Africa, and struck with the loss of his master, he takes up Dracula’s quest for destruction, constantly lashing out at other humans along his journey.
In episode 3 of season 3, Issac has a conversation with the Captain of the ship he’s traveling on, which is pivotal for his character. When discussing Issac’s plan to follow his former master’s goal, the Captain proposes Issac is playing a part in Dracula’s story rather than forging his own. Of course, Issac retorts that humanity is cruel and deserves extinction. But again, the Captain shows wisdom, admitting the world is evil, and so the people in it, but if humanity is gone, there can be no chance for improvement. And with Issac’s knowledge and power, he could lead people to better themselves.
The Captain
FORGING WITH FORESIGHT
This idea of bettering society through knowledge is precisely what Lisa Tepes was attempting to do by using Dracula’s wisdom to improve the state of medicine. And utterly opposite to Dracula himself, who hoarded his intelligence and refused any intimate relationship with humans. After the chat with the Captain, Issac’s demeanor is a lot more melancholy and calculated, showing he heeded the advice of the wise sailor. One could say his beliefs transformed from religious to humanistic. He no longer shares Dracula’s goal and now strives to do what his master couldn’t, what Lisa was trying to do. Help others and progress society.
WHAT ABOUT THE THEME?
One of the show’s central themes is Humanism vs. Religion, and Issac ingeniously exudes this theme. Humanism, at its core, fundamentally opposes religion. In a barebones explanation, Humanism is one’s ability to enact power over their given situation, to have the chance to thrive, fail, die or survive on one’s own will, not the will of some unseen God or expired Devil.
In Issac’s final scene, he’s talking to Hector while cutting a lime for their water, precisely as the Captain had done when he and Issac chatted. Hector wants to bring back Dracula to continue his war on humanity, but Issac is now the wise one. Issac disagrees and claims Dracula has earned his rest. We also see Issac admit criticism towards Dracula’s leadership, saying Dracula lived in an “eternal now,” never learning from the past or preparing for the future. He believes Hector and himself can do better than Dracula, which expresses his humanistic views, showing he values human agency over the beliefs of a man he thought of as a God. Rather than dismantle life, the Forgemaster chose to forge it.
(Video by Wisecrack.)
