What people didn't understand about the ending. (spoilers)

[Kaom]

PART 1


Personally, from the beginning, I found completely normal the ending. Maybe I expected more than "Let's see what fate has in store". Or maybe it is better like that because it is COMPLETELY linked with the first game.

Remember in the first game, the first time you play, you hear zobek doing his speech to introduce us to what is happening. At one moment he talks about "equilibrium", "the balance between light and darkness".



At this moment you must understand that the world as he is, will never change. The struggle for supremacy will NEVER end, this is eternal.
So now that we see Gabriel looking at the mirror, my thoughts (after thinking about it) was that in fact it the mirror would just show Gabriel always being the Prince of Darkness but with more "pleasure" because he killed his worst ennemy and he is with his son.

BUT, we can also think differently because maybe the equilibrium is eternal, but Gabriel could have seen himself returning in peace with Marie and his son by killing himself with the Vampire Killer (and also his son). Someone, after the Prince of Darkness' death, would take his place.

From these two propositions I think the first is much much better and much more logical.

It is not god himself who made Gabriel's destiny like that? Yes it is. Why would god make everything possible to create a Prince of Darkness, to finally let him go after defeating Satan?
Remember that Gabriel's soul is damned by god himselft. Now think about the equilibrium, it would be logical that Gabriel keep being the Prince of Darkness. As he is at the end, he is eased. The one whom he hated so much is now dead. The one who is responsible for his wife's murder (because he planted his plan into Zobek's mind, don't forget). At the end of the game, humanity almost lost, and the Prince of Darkness is calm. It is favourable for the growth of humankind (again lol). Finally, evil must survive because, when you see the God's plan for humankind, it separates the good and the bad people, who deserve to go to heaven or hell (I wish you understand this phrase because it is what Catholics believes in so... (the games are in this thinking)).
Dracula is the figure of the evil, men succumb or not to his grip upon them.
Sometimes evil almost win, sometimes heaven also almost win. It is all about a eternal struggle between light and darkness. So the first hypothesis fits more.

Now you will say "Hey you stupid moron, you forget about Alucard when he says "What if there was a way to destroy their evil forever...".

No I didn't forget. That's exactely what Gabriel said in the first game =) : "a fool's hope".
Considering the equilibrium, what Alucard said is impossible. We cannot destroy evil forever, we can only weaken it.

(By the way, when we see Gabriel feeding his son with his blood at the end. It underlines the fact that they're still vampires, nothing changed, and maybe nothing will never change, except if they find eternal peace by suiciding).

TO CONCLUDE THIS PART,
I would say that in the Castlevania Lords of Shadow trilogy, the end is completely logical and it is useless to think we're free when your destiny is always foreseen.
What Gabriel saw in the mirror is in fact God's will. Maybe everything I said before about Gabriel always being the Prince of Darkness is wrong. Gabriel surely smiled because he saw God's will and what he prepared for him. Maybe he smiled because he will (god) open his arms for him and welcome him in heavin for all he did. Or maybe he smiled because in fact Gabriel loves in a certain way his state of Prince of Darkness and that God let him be the Prince of Darkness.
There is so much interpretation, possibilities, that's what I love about this final.

END OF PART 1 (the biggest, I could talk about so much more things but it would be too long to talk about)



PART 2


Satan's death =). I am personally completely satisfied by his death. Why?
Very simple. Satan is a coward, he is a rat.
But no, he confronted Gabriel in the first game, you might say. Yes, but it another one of his countless flaws : arrogance. He thought that with the power of the God's Mask he could easily defeat Gabriel Belmont. That was his biggest mistake.
During his "journey" in hell, he obviously understood that now Gabriel's power was much greater than his.
But oh, I remember something, IT IS WHERE THE PLOT OF THE GAME BEGIN. Satan is so scared by Dracula that he doesn't want to leave hell. HE IS SCARED BY HIM. He is a coward.
When he decide to come back to earth it is because he knows that Gabriel's power was weakened to like 0.1% of his power.
HE TOOK ADVANTAGE TO GABRIEL'S WEAKNESS to hit ! Not a little weakness that could grant him victory with a harsh battle, no no no that's not how think Satan. He waited when Gabriel would have literally 0% chance of surviving against him.
That is how Satan's mind is.

I REALLY don't understand why people are shocked by his death AND the battle (Satan in Alucard's body).
Satan said "I am well aware of your power" and then "If I cannot rule the world of men, then NO ONE WILL". No one will... he just assumed that he had no chance of winning a fight against Gabriel when he saw him.
"I despise imcompetence", that's what he says when he kills his last acolyte, because he wanted them to keep Gabriel weak.

Then, what did he could do after the destruction of the only living being that could help him (The Leviathan)? Nothing.
BUT, he remembered at that moment, seeing Alucard's body falling down, that Dracula would HOLD BACK against him, if he possessed his son.
Satan clearly had no choice. Or he dies or he uses Alucard's body to control Gabriel because Gabriel would hold back and not want to kill his son (again).
We know the end, Satan misjudged Dracul. I am sure Alucard (if he was concious) would agree to sacrify himself to kill Satan anyway. And killing Alucard would grant him eternal peace anyway so it is more a liberation than something else.

SO, to everyone who criticized the final battle and death against Satan/Alucard, you didn't understand the game, from the beginning to the end.