I’m a sucker for a good enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance. And Team Kill Dracula – a silly non-namesmush of a ship name for the triad relationship between Alucard/Trevor/Sypha from Netflix’s Castlevania series absolutely provides that potential.
This ship is relatively popular in fandom with 188 of the 835 stories across the AO3’s section for the anime series. (No idea how many stories are on FanFiction.Net specifically for the anime, but I’m assuming that there are… some?) The only ship that’s more popular is solo Alucard/Trevor, which is still pretty darn quality.
For those of us who grew up with tragic and romantic vampires and the folks who hunted (and were haunted by) them, the ship offers a lot to love in terms of potential. Sadness, serious angst, shirtless vampires, a spunky Speaker –
Look, y’all. The ship basically sails itself. You can create pretty much any content for it and it’ll probably work because the ship is so so versatile. Interested in learning more about the next best thing to happen to triads in fandom since the Leverage OT3?
Let’s get started:
Alucard/Adrian Tepes
The people of Wallachia call him Alucard. His human mother named him Adrian.
Half-human, half-vampire, Alucard is all that Dracula has to remember his wife by outside of his memories and what portraits he might have of her.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop Dracula from trying to kill him like… twice across the series so far.
Alucard’s in-between existence comes up as a thing that does bother him and his relationship with his mother – whose love he certainly grew up with – shapes his view of humans as well as of the father that wants to wipe them all out.
It’s no surprise that conflict is a huge part of his character.
Trevor Belmont
The last son of the great Belmont family, Trevor Belmont is… a bit of a mess.
Ever since his family was all killed – by superstitious townspeople, it appears – he’s been wandering around the countryside killing things that need killing but mostly… getting drunk and getting in brawls.
At least half of the devil may care attitude that Trevor shows is put on because he’s clearly shown to be a sensitive person capable of leading – as he leads the people of Gresit to turn back the infernal beings that attack them in the last episode of the first season.
(I identify so hard with Trevor in terms of like… how he handles trauma and how snarky he is. I also wish I was tall like him because it’d make my life so much easier.)
Sypha Belnades
The granddaughter of a Speaker that Trevor rescues from the clutches of two corrupt priests in a Gresit back alley.
The first time we see her, she’s a statue frozen in place by a cyclops with the ability to turn its victims into stone. Trevor even steps on her head. It’s great!
Sypha is the calm voice of reason in the trio, but she’s always ready to throw down or smack some heads together when the situation calls for it. Sypha is a tough bean with a soft heart.
Despite the fact that she tends to be the science/magic-minded boss of the group more often than not, Sypha is also so gentle at times.
Ugh. I love her.
The Ship Itself
This is a misfit ship.
And that, my friends, is a very good thing.
All three characters are outsiders in their world. Alucard can’t find a home with humans – responsible for his mother’s death – or vampires – who, outside of Dracula, don’t seem to understand “family” as such. And since Dracula is out here trying to kill all humans… That’s not great either. Trevor is the last of his family line and he’s been alone for ages. Whenever someone finds out that he’s a Belmont, he gets into shit.
As for Sypha? She’s a Speaker, part of a group of people that collect oral stories and traditions and pass them on across the generations. In Gresit, thanks to a corrupt clergyman that needs to turn the people against them, Speakers aren’t even seen as human to many of the townspeople.
They’re all adrift as hell and then… they find each other.
That shit is romantic as hell.
(Especially if you ignore what actually happens when all three of them get together for the first time in the cavern under Gresit…)
Pros/Cons of the Ship
Pros
- Alucard has fangs, Trevor has a whip, and Sypha can conjure fire and ice. Just… think of the kink possibilities for this ship.
- You can write/have Sypha calling them “her” boys all fond like.
- So many potential kissing configurations.
- I love well-balanced polyamory in fiction (and in real life, obviously) and the ship is built for it
- Alucard and Sypha can take turns wearing Trevor’s big fluffy coat
Cons
- Is Alucard an immortal dhampir? If so, this ship’s gonna get real tragic in about fifty years. (Or however long people lived in the 1500s or whatever.)
- What if sometimes Alucard turns into a wolf and sticks his cold little wolf nose into Trevor’s armpit? What about that, huh?
- Yeah, I don’t have any real cons for this ship. Y’all caught me.
(Why) Do I ship it?
I’m weak for vampires (and dhampirs) in love.
Anne Rice may have sparked the fire within me by managing to make Lestat and Louis queer messes, but it was kept burning by years of reading about vampires and dhampirs finding love and family.
Team Kill Dracula is like… pretty perfection and the fandom for it is pretty great about making sure that the focus is on triangle and reciprocation and snark above everything else. So far I haven’t seen any glaring love “v” plots that leave a character out into the cold and like the fandoms seems to be in agreement that if a story/fanwork is tagged to show the triad relationship that that’s what we’re going to get.
It’s easy for me to ship things. That’s true. So yeah, I was already feeding the embers of my fascination with scenes from the fight underneath Gresit back in the first season, but then the three chuckleheads just had learn how to work together…
Ugh.
The nerve of them.
I love a good misfit ship, for sure. But I like Team Kill Dracula as the best misfit ship because it’s a bunch of hopeless misfits finding each other and, depending on the author writing fic and their take on dhampirs, staying together forever after kicking all the ass in the world.
It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Fanwork Recommendations
a doua şansă by starlightshiro
a doua șansă | Romanian | “a second chance”
Trevor Belmont’s not sure why he knows Sypha Belnades, but he does; or at least he used to, a long, long time ago. And he knows Adrian Țepeș, too, although he kind of wishes he didn’t.
All he has now are dreams that might just be more than dreams, and the threat of something far worse returning from his past to haunt him.
Glass Skin by ultimatebara (Explicit)
The trio steps into an abandoned house in the trip back from slaying Dracula.
Too much left unsaid and many issues to deal with: will they part ways? Will they stay together? Will they build a home to call their own?
The pressing matter is Trevor’s damaged boot.
Two cold and lonely travellers take refuge in a mysterious castle… a castle which contains AT LEAST 0.5 vampires. And then they get snowed in.
Flirtation ensues.
the ghosts’ moonshine by aquilaofarkham
During a snowy night, Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard celebrate their first Hanukkah together at Dracula’s castle.
Gravedigger’s Lullaby by feelslikefire
It’s been over five hundred years since Adrian Tepes last saw Trevor Belmont or Sypha Belnades, but he’d never forget their faces. So when they turn up in his life again without explanation or any memory of their past selves, it looks at first as though he’s somehow been given a second chance at happiness.
But not all is well. Fell creatures walk the earth, monsters stirring that haven’t been seen since Dracula’s great war on humanity. People are going missing, and Adrian has been hearing curious whispers from the part of the world that used to be Wallachia. So as he grows closer to his long-lost partners, he can’t help but wonder if what brings them to him is a blessing, or a curse.
Stitch's Media Mix 
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