Carmilla

Carmilla is the second main antagonist in the Castlevania animated series. She is the vampiress Queen of Styria, as well as the leader of the Council of Sisters. She is a scheming and manipulative noblewoman, and former ally and general of Lord Dracula, who sought to usurp control over the vampires from him and raise them as the world's new dominant species. She was voiced by Jaime Murray in the English version of the show. Carmilla bears the appearance of an elegant and majestic pale woman with crimson red lips, icy blue eyes, and long straight white hair. Although her face is mostly round, she has a notoriously pointy chin, which could likely be a reference to her mask initially seen in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. She is also seen wearing a black and crimson red ombre dress, sporting golden shoulder plates and matching heels. While in Styria, Carmilla always dons several long, elegant blood-red dresses with golden accessories and heels. Her nightgown had an open cleavage with a single button below the chest and golden, rounded shoulder pads. Carmilla is portrayed as a femme fatale, both seductive and manipulative. She is also selfish and will do anything to accomplish her goals. She proved very politically skilled as she was able to twist the affairs of Dracula's council on itself to even questioning him while maintaining the appearance that she was loyal. While cunning and cautious, Carmilla tends to be arrogant and overconfident. Despite Dracula's great personal power and his army of demons, she believed she could overthrow him by simply killing his vampire generals and attacking him directly. Given the extent of Dracula's power revealed later on in his confrontation with Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard, this was highly unlikely to succeed. Nonetheless, Carmilla is both persistent and opportunistic, and even though her attempted usurpation against Dracula failed and most of her forces were destroyed, she did not admit defeat, only viewing it as a setback. With Dracula dead at the hands of Alucard, Trevor Belmont, and Sypha Belnades, Carmilla aimed to fill the power vacuum in the wake of Dracula's death and that of his council, even taking a former General in Dracula's army as her personal pet and slave. Carmilla possesses a twisted and dark sense of humor with a penchant for violence, as is custom in Vampire culture. This is revealed when she confesses to Godbrand that she killed the vampire that turned her. According to Carmilla, after her old master went mad, he became 'old and cruel'. She then later went on to capture and enslave Hector, her 'pet', taking delight in beating and verbally berating the Forgemaster, and sadistically enjoying dominating him because he was a stupid man child. Carmilla is a natural leader, charismatic and visionary. She is acknowledged as first among the four queens of Styria because she sees a future for the kingdom and provides purpose. The execution of her vision falls to her sisters or those she manipulates. She rarely engages in any dirty work herself. Being more into scheming, conniving, and underhanded tactics than leading from the front. Carmilla has a pathological need to control and dominate her environment. She justifies her leadership by likening everyone else as "children, animals, and dying old men" unworthy of agency. Among her motivations for seeking power and control is her desire to be rid of the command of madmen, or in essence, anyone like her old master, who promised her the world before he grew old, insane, and unkind. Thus, it was one of the reasons why she turned against Dracula, another "old mad man" in her viewpoint. She has an insane hatred toward men and their cruel suppression of female vampires and women in general. Ironically enough, she showcased the same character dynamic, such as in her abusive relationship with Hector. Showing just how mean-spirited and deranged she really is. Moreover, her being viciously temperamental when not getting her way, someone doing or acting in a way she doesn't like, yet portrays those same personal faults like her maniacally childish way of forcing Hector under her heel in the dead of night, surrounded by what's left of her army. Carmilla has long abandoned any empathy for humans, if she had any, to begin with. Perhaps more so than any other vampire, Carmilla sees humans as being beneath her. She couldn't begin to understand how Dracula could love a human or respect Lisa's humanity enough to not turn her into a vampire. When she is being honest, Carmilla treats the intelligent and valuable Hector like an insect. If her plans came to fruition, humanity would be divided into cattle and corpses. In contrast to Carmilla's other arrogant traits, she appears to be wary of the Belmont Family, as she loudly apprised the other vampire generals that the Belmonts hunted vampires like them for many centuries and even just one remaining Belmont would be a problem. Carmilla's concern was correct, as Trevor soundly butchered vampire soldiers from her army, as well as the vampire generals, and helped Alucard and Sypha slay Dracula himself. Carmilla's fear of the Belmonts contrasts with Dracula's initial mocking indifference to Trevor. Later, a more kindhearted/tender side of Carmilla's personality is shown during her interaction with her "sisters", as seen where she would warmly interact with them in a joking, lighthearted, familial manner, in stark contrast to her usual cold, condescending attitude she usually portrays to all others; having been shown to be genuinely loyal, loving and caring toward all three of them and truly seeing them as her sisters in everything but birth; placing a great deal of trust in them in comparison to her usual manipulative disposition during her time in Dracula's court. This positive relationship with her sisters is fully evidenced when Carmilla listens to each of their inputs regarding her plans of conquest in their entirety, without her usual disposition of scorn and short temper, and patiently listens to them as they point out its flaws without snapping at them, showing how much she values their council and advice. It was later revealed that Carmilla trusts them enough to willingly allow them to know several personal issues regarding her, such as both Morana and Striga being aware of her recurring nightmares and her traumatic memories of the time she lived under her former vampire master, who subsequently became abusive and possibly attracted toward her in his old age, leaving her with deep psychological scars. All of these psychological traumas and fears from her previous life as a slave were unleashed in her final fight against Isaac. Eventually, Carmilla went completely insane and reduced to her base, primal instincts, revealing the true monster that lies beneath her otherwise calm and brilliant demeanor.