Sooooo i finally gathered enough energy to post, and guess what will good ol me post about? NATURALLYYYY an obscure ass character i got hyperfixated on. because that's what normal people do. of course. Only this time it's not dark souls, so that's new!!
Enormous yapping sesh below this world-healing fanart by xemnas178!
I LOVE JOACHIM ARMSTER FROM CASTLEVANIA LAMENT OF INNOCENCE SO MUCH IM GONNA SOB I LOVE HIM IMEIUEIFJWUSYYWGD.
He's an example of how ergodic or semi ergodic literature (which i adore) can AND WILL make you briefly look at a character and go "aight cool" only to then gently nudge you into having the most shocking, boom vine sfx requiring, life altering, soul shattering series of realizations.
So, we learn from the official art book that Joachim was Walter's lieutenant, and that he was quote "lured" by him with the promise of eternal life. Joachim then tried to usurp Walter, which backfired awfully, and he now lies imprisoned in the Palace of Dark Waterfalls. Eventually Leon Belmont gets to him and Joachim acts all cool and cocky only to miserably die (as a bossfight i found him way easier than most of the other orb bosses).
That's pretty bland at first glance isn't it? Just your average foolish, prideful, comedic relief prick right? No, not at all. Here we go analyzing:
Joachim's model has a very young-looking face, looking even younger than Leon himself, and he also acts quite angsty teen like in his dialogues, which already adds something more to him.
The real kicker is that the devs left in the game a window to access the sounds (someone here on Tumblr made a post about it!) and they all have their little comments below them; Joachim's OST's comment reads:
It's dangerous to be holding a knife, Joachim. Perhaps he is still just mentally young"
That post I mentioned commented perfectly on the "Melancholy Joachim" bit so I won't repeat what they said, I will instead focus on the two sentences that follow.
The first sentence sounds condescending, sarcastic, or alternatively it sounds like something you would tell a child. Perhaps it allegorically references Joachim's attempt at usurping Walter, and this sentence would be something Walter himself would tell him mockingly.
Meanwhile the second sentence seems like a repetition of "Joachim acts like a child" but the presence of the word "still" has us know that he doesn't just act like a teenager, he is one.
Or better said, he was one when Walter turned him, as we can presume by looking at his official art here (more yapping below it) that he's been in that cell for a WHILE.
However, his mental development was stunted by such egregious traumatic experiences, and thus he has the mind (and sort of looks) of a teenager.
All this certainly makes his character a lot more tragic, and now we can't even fault him for having been tempted by eternal life because, as old as he was, he probably didn't even understand the scale of the situation he was in, and what he was being offered.
We also know that Joachim, this goddam fucking teenager, was Walter's lieutenant. That fuckass ginger cunt had a teenager lead armies. ARMIES. ARMIES OF DEMONIC CREATURES BY THE WAY. Children being used in war is nothing alien to history of course, but obviously it still is undeniably very wrong and cruel both here and irl.
Nevertheless, could it be that Joachim, a child soldier burdened with leadership of an army of demons, wished to usurp Walter not for mere power lust, but to put an end to his tyranny over the land (and over Joachim himself)?
The man's character design doesn't strike me as overly evil either, in fact he has white-silver hair and a blue tunic, both white and blue are colors associated with purity, innocence (lament of innocence mention) and a noble spirit, it is no coincidence Soma and Hector follow the same color scheme.
It is also very worth noting that Walter had an entire smithing area, way more fit to hold a jail, but still chose to lock Joachim in a cave surrounded by water.
Friendly reminder that water is acidic to vampires, so Walter had this poor soul taken here with the specific intention of reminding him that if he were to somehow escape the cave itself, the water all over the place wouldn't let him get much further, also the cave is dark as all fuck, so that's fun.
In the art up there Joachim is clutching a knight's skull, almost as if he's lamenting the knight's death, even tho he is more than likely the one who killed him.
He's also seen letting the knight's blood drop to his hand, which reminds us that the only food he had available were the people coming to try to murder him. The very same cocky knights that perhaps, the first times they showed up, he excitedly hoped to befriend and help, but was always shocked, let down and hurt when they would attempt to kill him for the mere crime of being a vampire.
And about that, one can very much imagine that he heavily regretted having become one, and, to cope, his teenage brain gradually made him feel superior to humans because he was a vampire, so that he wouldnt feel hurt anymore when inevitably every human that came his way showed him no compassion.
Joachim clearly reached a point of complete distrust and spite for any human that arrives, which is why he is so dismissive and aggressive to Leon, whom at first showed no ill intent. He's also clearly gone insane, and still wishes to have revenge on Walter (which he gets to do if you play the game as him, which is something at least).
As a finisher I'd like to add that Walter and Joachim are an older, darker version of Dracula and Hector (if that manga about them is canon).
Yeah ok good lord above i yapped a lot.
I will now go eep, thanks to everyone who read all the way to here!
