Alucard

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Alucard (アーカード,) is the main protagonist of the Hellsing series created by Kohta Hirano. The same actors for Alucard in the original anime, reprised their roles as Alucard for Hellsing: Ultimate; with the Japanese seiyu being Joji Nakata, and the English dub actor being Crispin Freeman.

He is the most powerful weapon of the Hellsing Organisation which works against vampires and other such supernatural forces. Alucard is no mere vampire; it has been implied that he is the most powerful vampire alive and may be the most powerful character in the series, rivaled only by The Captain and Alexander Anderson.

Appearance
Alucard has stated on more than one occasion that he can appear as whatever he wishes, and that the forms he takes on any particular occasion reflect no meaning or purpose. His hair length changes according to his release states from short to knee length. His teeth may also change from those of a typical human with slightly elongated canines, to large and triangular in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a great white shark.

He appears as a tall, long-limbed, broad-shouldered adult man of indeterminate but reasonably young age, as is commonly seen among vampires. Alucard possesses blood red eyes, which may glow when he is experiencing strong emotions. Though as stated above, he can change his hair as it's a part of his shadow. He commonly has short, jet-black hair and his bangs fall slightly in his eyes, with strands on the sides of his bangs framing his face in this form. Alucard's physical body is very inconsistent; some shots depict him as very lanky, and some depict him as being slightly wide. The most notably inconsistent part of Alucard's body is his arms.
 * -|Normal Form=

His usual outfit is comprised mainly in a classic Victorian fashion. It includes a charcoal suit, leather riding boots, and an intricately knotted red cravat, covered by a full-length, red frock overcoat (similar to the duster coats often associated with cowboys) with cape. He also wears a wide, floppy brimmed red fedora and a pair of circular, heavily tinted, wire-framed orange sunglasses with goggle sidings. His gloves, which are engraved with the Hellsing seal (a pentacle decorated with occult symbols and several mottoes, reading: "Hell's Gate Arrested / Gott Mit Uns / And Shine Heaven Now") are also thought to be part of this mechanism and the source of Hellsing's control over him (Alucard's distinctive gloves are visible in the vast majority of his transformations, even when Alucard himself is not in a humanoid form).

Alucard's Level One form doesn't change that much in terms of physical looks. He was commonly seen in this form sporting long, black hair and a slender body. The form in which Alucard was in when he was found by Integra was in a black straightjacket that kept his arms behind his back. He broke free of the restraints in order to protect Integra Hellsing from death. Alucard's appearance changed since then, but every now and then he goes back to this form. He has used it in his fight with Luke Valentine, his fight with Tubalcain Alhambra , when he finally killed Anderson , and in his fight with Walter.
 * -|Level One Form=

One of Alucard's alternate forms resembles a little child, which is often nicknamed "Girlycard" by fans, however is referred to officially as "Young Girl Form" within the guidebook. In this form, he is petite and slender with straight dark hair that drapes just below his shoulders. He wears a black office shirt with a white vest on top of it, white pants, white shoes, a red tie, a white trench coat, and occasionally, a fuzzy white cap. Although he changed his looks, Alucard didn't change his voice.
 * -|Young Girl Form=

However, the colors are quite inconsistent in the OVA. In the ending credits of OVA I, Alucard's girly form was shown with a green coat, fuzzy white cap, and a brown office shirt. There was also a flashback where Alucard's girly form had his iconic crimson and black color.

Alucard is also capable of appearing as he did during his reign as Vlad Dracula. In this form, his general stature is unchanged, save for being perhaps slightly bulkier. His face appears to age from that of a young adult to that of the middle-aged man that he was when he died, and he grows a short, full beard and mustache. His hair also increases in length to his mid back and becomes wild and unkempt. His attire changes from his usual suit to a full set of gunmetal grey plate armor and a tattered black cape with red inlay and a high collar. He acquires a Broadsword, which hangs from one of three belts at his waist. He also appears more reserved and stoic.
 * -|Count Form=

Personality
As he is essentially immortal and invulnerable, Alucard is very egotistical. He freely taunts and belittles his opponents, often allowing them to inflict seemingly fatal wounds before healing himself and counterattacking. One of his favorite methods of fighting is to allow himself to be blown to shreds before simply flowing back together. Alucard has expressed extreme disgust with the vampires he has been hunting for the last 100 years, especially when they kill without purpose. He listed the two vampires' pointless killing in his catalog of how pathetic they are. Having being called a monster for countless of times, it's something he indulges the fact of, and takes pleasure from being so.

In war, he believes that everything done is a gamble, a 50/50. Even if they are humans, they were the ones who came to defeat, and kill; so then, the fact that they are a mortal being doesn't matter, they will be treated the same way as arrogant vampires do. Alucard has a hatred over those who pathetically kill themselves in the midst of battle, his emotional outburst against Seras after witnessing one of the GATE officers commit suicide after not wanting to end up how his comrade did. Alucard fights with ferocity, and often extreme cruelty, rarely shooting to kill until his target has been completely disabled and humiliated.

However, even with his incredible powers, it is possible to take Alucard by surprise, usually because of his arrogance. In his first meeting with Alexander Anderson, he assumed he had easily killed Anderson with a single bullet but was caught off guard when Anderson regenerated. Alucard also expressed deep disappointment that Luke was not a more worthy adversary. Alucard states that he wishes to find an opponent, a human opponent, with sufficient willpower to destroy him despite his strength; multiple times stating that the one who always defeats the monster, is always a man.

Underneath his arrogance, Alucard is deeply sad and appears to be envious of humans. Alucard also has great respect for humans who have the willpower to endure old age and death because he had none of these qualities when he faced death. All of these feelings are shown at various points throughout the series, such as when Alucard tells the Queen that she is that "same spirited young woman" from 50 years ago and that now she is truly beautiful. He became infuriated when Anderson stabbed himself in the heart with the Helena's Nail, as he viewed it as Anderson making the same mistake Alucard made. While facing off against Walter's younger, vampire form, Alucard stated that Walter's old, aged body was "a trillions, quadrillions of times" more beautiful than his new, vampiric one. However, he does have some humanity left in him, as he is still capable of shedding tears and showing affection for those who are dear to him as he shows a great deal of it to Seras and Integra on occasions. In conjunction, Alucard also holds a great affinity for humans who take pride in themselves, often expressing his desire to die by a mere mortal.

Despite his disgust for homicidal vampires, he is not entirely against becoming something above human. Rather, he believes it is something one must earn. Presumably, he views his own transformation as an escape from death and a cowardly action. He happily let Seras choose to become something inhuman (despite his self-reflection) due to her indomitable will and courage, for continuing to fight against the monsters in Cheddar and not giving up even when she was about to die. Several characters were surprised by Alucard's actions. Alucard states that resignation is what kills people, and once they've rejected resignation like Seras, humans gain the priveledge of making humanity their footpath.

Another important aspect of Alucard's personality is his relationship with God. As a human, he was raised by the Turks and was raped by the Sultan as a prisoner and as a child soldier. As a warrior, he believed that words alone were not enough to establish one's faith. Rather, he believed that the only way to attract God's attention was to accomplish deeds in his name, a belief shared by his rival, Alexander Anderson. In accordance with this belief, he never asked God for favors, but instead did many great and terrible things. He became famous and feared for punishing and impaling evildoers and those who opposed his methods in his own lands and abroad, for waging a war against the Muslims in hopes of bringing down "the New Jerusalem," and for sacrificing his troops and his people to achieve his own goals. He believed that if he and his men put forth great enough effort and sacrificed enough, God himself would intervene on their behalf.

His actions caused even his own people to fear him, and subsequently, only a small amount of his peasants and soldiers showed up to aid him in his last battle. When he lost his war and was taken prisoner by the Turks, he realized that he had failed and that his country, his kingdom, his people, his friends, and his family (his wife and his child) had all been killed because of his desire for revenge, greed, war, violence and power. Because of this, he felt abandoned by God, so he abandoned God in turn, and drank up the blood of his scorched and besieged homeland, thus becoming a vampire. Over the years, his hate against God deteriorated and he accepts the truth that it was his own hatred against those who wronged him in his youth that drove his actions, and that he used the name of God to mask his own hate and lust for power and battle. This is similar to how Count Dracula was portrayed in Francis Ford Coppola's film, Bram Stoker's Dracula, which Hirano has cited as one of his greatest sources of inspiration.

Allies

 * Abraham Van Helsing: Before Alucard became Abraham's servant, Abraham was Alucard, or Dracula's archnemesis. He was the reason his empire crumbled and he was the one who created a group of brave, strong men that caused his downfall. Abraham's goal was to end Dracula once and for all; to end further spread of evil. However, after killing all of Dracula's servants and destroying his large empire, he finally got Dracula cornered and nearly killed him. Abraham, after punching, scolding, and insulting him, instead spares his life and brings his body to a place where he performs sorcery on Dracula's body to create the "Restriction" system to control his power, or got Dracula bowing down, and swearing to become his servant eternally after being saved by the man who defeated him. Abraham, later on with his friends, created the "Hellsing Organisation", whose mission is to cleanse the world from evil. Abraham's son, Arthur renamed Dracula, to "Alucard".


 * Sir Arthur Hellsing: Arthur Hellsing was Alucard's previous master before Integra Hellsing. It was explained that he was the one who changed Dracula's name to "Alucard." From then on, he's referred to as "Alucard."


 * Sir Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing:


 * Seras Victoria:


 * Queen of England: Alucard had previously met the Queen 50 years before the events of the Hellsing manga and OVA. Upon his return from Rio de Janeiro, they speak to each other as old friends. Alucard sees her as the "same spirited young woman he met fifty years ago," and that to his eyes, "time had made her even more beautiful." This is one of the few moments where Alucard and another character openly express affection for one another, as the Queen touches his face as she talks to him, and Alucard looks at her with a gentle and genuinely kind expression.

Enemies

 * Alexander Anderson:


 * The Major: Alucard, in some strange sense, seems to almost feel a sense of joy upon the return of the Major and the Millennium Organization, which is evidenced by him stating: "Excellent. I can't wait to destroy you again!" upon hearing the Major's declaration of war in OVA IV. Alucard seems to think of himself and The Major as "incorrigible warmongers" and the lust for battle never being enough for them. It could be possible that The Major reminds Alucard of his former life as Vlad the Impaler, and because of this, Alucard seeks to destroy him once and for all.


 * The Captain: Due to their limited interactions, it's unknown what Alucard really thought of him. In Hellsing: The Dawn, Alucard quickly departs after a very short 2v1 battle against the Captain, due to the fact that he noticed that the re-searches might escape if he does not go after him, but instead fight the Captain alongside Walter, so Alucard told Walter to distract him, while he go and kill the re-searchers. Alucard has also shown surprise to the Captain's lycanthropy, believing that his kind had been defeated long ago.


 * Luke Valentine:


 * Walter C. Dornez: Alucard and Walter are old and close friends, almost like brothers. Furthermore, Alucard commented on because of how many people they've killed over the years on their missions when Walter and Alucard was the organisation's trump card, Alucard described their relationship as "Blood brothers." Walter's first weapon was also Alucard's first ever weapon of choice, and had praised it throughout the years before the encounter with Anderson, in which, he asked Walter for a brand new gun and then, the Jackal was created and how it looked was already on Walter's mind, with "Jesus Christ is in Heaven" as the gun's inscription, as a mockery towards Alexander Anderson.

However, when Walter betrayed Hellsing, Alucard began to see him as a mere plaything, even going so far as to call Walter's younger vampiric body ugly and state that his elderly human body was "a thousand times more beautiful". Turns out, Walter has a growing grudge over the years when working with Hellsing, even during the events of The Dawn - because of Alucard's constant mockery and testing towards Walter, Walter holds a strong hatred towards him and wanted to prove to Alucard that he's his equal, or even, the one that'll put an end to Alucard. Walter thought that age is getting in his way, and because of Alucard's "immortality", he was jealous of him - he has an unlimited time to train and grow even stronger, while Walter doesn't and is fated to die of an old age - that's exactly why Walter betrayed Hellsing, to defeat Alucard.

Control Art Restriction System
Being too powerful to be left on his own, his power is restricted by the "Control Art Restriction System (拘束制御術式,)" and has to be accessed by the "Cromwell Invocation". There are shown to be six levels of restriction and four corresponding states, with lower numbers meaning greater levels of power. Alucard can release his power up to Level One by himself, but he needs his master's approval to release his final state - Level Zero, the lowest Level, allowing him full access to his most devastating powers. His gloves, which are engraved with the Hellsing seal (a pentacle decorated with occult symbols and several mottoes, reading: "Hell's Gate Arrested / Gott Mit Uns / And Shine Heaven Now") are the mechanism and the source of Hellsing's control over him (Alucard's distinctive gloves are visible in the vast majority of his transformations, even when Alucard himself is not in a humanoid form).

"Releasing Control Art Restriction System to Level Three, Level Two, Level One. Situation A. The Cromwell Approval is now in effect: Hold release until target is silenced."

The only real difference between each form is the preferred method of fighting. In his form as a young girl, he uses a Tommy gun, while in normal form, he uses his dual pistols, when in his Level One form, he uses his hands and shadows to fight, and in his Count form, he primarily uses his Broadsword. To sum it up, the release states are not just the markers of Alucard's growing powers, they also have an effect on his appearance and fighting methods as well. Up to Level One, Alucard usually takes his usual form, even with his new personality, he still takes the form he once had as Count Dracula. In this state, he usually fights with his guns, using his bare hands only against human targets or to finish off his vampire victims, often by impaling them.

During the chaos ensuing in London, Sir Integra issues the command "Control Art Restriction System, Level Zero. Released. Fulfill your preparation. Declare it." However, Alucard's power is not unleashed until he incants the words written on his coffin, "The Bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame." This demonstrates what is called "the two-man rule", a protocol requiring the actions of two persons to advance, used in cryptography and nuclear weapons launches. Alucard remains at release-state zero for his final fights with Alexander Anderson and vampirized Walter. In release-state zero, Alucard appears, at different times, in all forms seen throughout the series to that point. In the final minutes of his fight against Walter, Alucard adopts his form as a young girl to mock Walter's age-regression.

Identity
Alucard's true identity - that of both the historical Vlad Ţepeş and the fictional Count Dracula - is only hinted at in the earlier volumes. Such early hints include his anagrammatic name (Alucard is Dracula, reversed), the title of the series and the name of Integra's family, and the impalement of the GATE officers in volume 3. From there, the hints become much less vague, and his identity as the fictional Count Dracula is brought to light. In volume 4, a dreaming Alucard recalls his defeat at the hands of Abraham van Hellsing, which marked the beginning of his servitude to the Hellsing family. In volume 7, the narration alludes to the Count's arrival in London aboard the Demeter, from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.

In volume 8, his full identity is made plain when Integra places his control Level at Zero and greets him with, "Welcome back, Count." Reverting to the body he had at the time of his "death" at age 44-45 (as the historical Vlad III's death occurred in either December of 1476 or January of 1477 and his birth month is unknown), he summons massive hordes of souls he had devoured during the centuries. These include his own Wallachian army, his slaughtered peasantry, the Turkish Janissary, war horses, and countless others. Throughout his battle with Anderson, Alucard frequently compares his rival to the man who defeated him a hundred years ago - Abraham van Hellsing.

Additionally, in Hundred Swords (3), the other protagonists are spoken of by Alucard - Abraham van Hellsing, John Seward (mistakenly written as "Jack" Seward in the manga), Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood (Jonathan Harker is strangely omitted). The final chapter of volume 8 - Castlevania (1) - consists of a flashback of Alucard's life and "death" as the Voivode of Wallachia, Vlad III Dracula. Another indication that Alucard is Vlad is the fact that he frequently impales his victims; the priest and Leif with his bare hands in volume 1, the GATE officers in Brazil on flagpoles in volume 3, Rip Van Winkle with her own musket in volume 5, and hundreds of victims in London during the Millennium/Vatican siege.

Historically, Vlad Ţepeş was responsible for the deaths of between 40,000 and 100,000 of his enemies and various villains in his own country during his reign as the monarch of Wallachia (a major portion of what is now present-day Romania). His most well-known way of execution was impalement. For torturing people by impalement, it is alleged that his executioners learned how to have the victims placed so that the pikes, spears, or other shafts on which they had them impaled would pass most or all of the victim's vital organs, entering their lower nether regions and exiting near the back of their neck. In this way, the victims could be kept alive for days on end before they finally bled to death. When simply executing a person, they were typically impaled straight through the center of their torso, with the shaft entering their groin and exiting through the mouth.

Vlad was also known for his deeds as the Voivode of Wallachia, particularly the fact that any criminal, thief, etc. would be punished severely. When the Ottoman army attempted to invade Wallachia in the mid-15th century, they encountered several thousand impaled and rotting corpses staked on the banks of the Danube River. Historical records state that the Ottoman emperor saw his forces return shortly after, many of them sobbing and ranting that whoever had slaughtered all those people had to be the Devil.

Perhaps the best-known incident regarding Vlad's means of execution was the way by which he prevented the Ottoman Army from invading Wallachia again (following the fall of Constantinople) in 1462. Reports show that he had 20,000 captured Turkish soldiers and convicted criminals impaled and staked out on the borders of his capital city, Târgoviște. Mehmed II, the leader of the Ottomans (who was well-known himself for his use of psychological warfare), was sickened by the sight of the corpses outside the Wallachian capital and ordered his forces back to Constantinople.

Concept and Creation
Alucard's name was generally thought to be inspired by Castlevania's Alucard, however; this turns out to be wrong. It actually originates from a choose-your-own-adventure novel by Irish author J. H. Brennan, in addition; it's the same fake name Alucard had used in Rio. Alucard was also previously the main character of the prototype of Hellsing; which he created after wanting to do a story about gunplay. Back then, Alucard was depicted as a man wearing a trenchcoat up to his neck as some kind of neck-protector, and the rest of his body acts to block any damage including physical, and from bullets, to which, Hirano states that he tried to make an invincible character. However, he thought that he ended up looking pretty bad, and therefore; he switched to a long coat instead. He makes Alucard so powerful that he doesn't need any kind of bulletproof vest to cover him any more.

Alucard's design was said to be inspired by Eat-Man's Bolt Crank, and Trigun's Vash the Stampede. Moreover, Alucard looks exactly like Vash during the first few chapters of the manga, to which, Hirano has admitted that he drew inspiration for Alucard's appearance from Vash the Stampede from the manga and anime series Trigun (with a similar jacket and glasses shared by the two characters). This is most notable in Volume 1, back when Alucard's art design was vastly different from the rest of the Manga. Alucard's weight is confirmed to be around 0 kg ~ around 100 kg, and is about 6'6 ft tall.

Below the star on Alucard's glove, it has the German words, "Gott Mit Uns", which translates to "God With Us". Interestingly, those words were used by the German military until the end of World War II, and during the Nazi era by the Wehrmacht (the regular German army) whereas the Nazi Waffen-SS used "Meine Ehre heißt Treue", which means "Loyalty is my Honor", instead. It is stated in the official guidebook that the term "The Bird of Hermes is my name/Eating my wings to make me tame" etched on his coffin is his pledge of loyalty to serve the Hellsing family after his capture. So his coffin not only serves as his resting place, but it also serves as the promise and contract he made to the Hellsing family.

Alucard's guns, the Jackal and the Casull, are drawn pretty carelessly; and that's because Hirano had stated that he does not, in fact, care about being accurate, and it truly shows; in many of the sequences, after Alucard receives the Jackal, he is seen using it alongside the Casull in a dual-wielding style. The Jackal has a left-facing case ejector, something most guns do not have, and this makes it appear as though the gun was meant to be used with the Casull. However, Alucard is almost always shown in the Manga and the Anime holding the Jackal in his right hand and the Casull with his left, causing the case ejectors to face each other (which would throw spent shell casings into his face). In addition, Hirano jokingly said that Alucard's Casull has an endless amount of bullets, saying: "They're all cosmoguns that can hold a million rounds".

Trivia

 * Interestingly, in the English commentary for the first Hellsing Ultimate OVA, Crispin Freeman notes that he was originally going to give Alucard a Romanian accent, but decided on an American accent instead. Most likely, the Romanian accent heard in the intro of the English OVA II, and the one in OVA VIII upon unleashing Level Zero is what Alucard was originally going to sound like. It's also likely that Alucard is meant to have a Romanian accent in the manga.
 * It has been noted by some that during Alucard's flashback, Prof. Abraham Hellsing is wearing a similar red outfit to Alucard's usual dress.
 * This could have been the inspiration for Alucard's well-known "Count" form.
 * In some scenes of the manga, the pentagram on Alucard's gloves changes to a hexagram or sometimes disappears entirely.
 * Alucard has two Paganism references on him. The obvious one is the Pentacle symbol on his gloves. The second is his epithet, "The Bird of Hermes." Hermes was the Greek messenger god, noted for his winged sandals and ability to fly. Hermes was also noted for transporting souls to the Underworld, while Alucard, in contrast, devours them.
 * "The Bird of Hermes is my name/Eating my wings to make me tame" is also part of the Ripley Scroll, a medieval work about emblematic symbolism. George Ripley was an alchemist who lived around Vlad the Impaler's time and is also said to have known the formula to create the Philosopher's Stone.
 * At the end of the credits of OVA 1, Alucard's girl form is shown, but with a dark greenish-brown jacket instead of white and the hair is purple instead of black.
 * In the manga, Alucard's gloves hold an easter egg, as one of the words readable was "Excel Saga" which is the name of an anime/manga made by Rikdo Koshi.
 * Before becoming a vampire, Alucard's eyes were a bluish-purple in the OVA. However, in his famous portrait, Vlad Tepes has brown eyes. There are also historical records that describe him as having "threatening" green eyes.
 * The character Solomon from Genndy Tartakovsky's Sym-Bionic Titan cartoon is a visual reference to Alucard.
 * Alucard makes his debut in his first video game; Call of Duty Warzone 2 as an operator including the reprisal of Crispin Freeman.