Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse -- Stage 10

Dracula always turns into random stuff...except in Castlevania II.

I figure they didn't want to mess up the display with a two-character stage number, putting "BLK10-01" without spaces seems kinda sketchy. I don't really see it as an oversight, it's just a difference in numbering convention.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels) starts numbering its worlds A through D after nine...or rather eight, since you have to pass through worlds one through nine without a warp zone to get to nine.

What are some of the stranger things you've seen Dracula turn into? (He definitely has a lot of imagination, if anything.)

I figure they handwaive this by attributing the source of his dark powers as "chaos," also explaining why his castle changes shape every time somebody enters it...something specifically noted by characters who make a repeat visit.

The weirdest one might be subjective, but Harmony of Dissonance involves a deformed mass of organs and Circle of the Moon uses a bat-thing with foot-mouths and an eye-crotch. Order of Ecclesia uses a humanoid Dracula...who actually WALKS...and scissor-kicks! Crazy!

But this castle gets destroyed...He must have certainly built a new one. He must build castles in much the same way Bowser does, except he keeps it in mostly the same location whereas Bowser will put them anywhere sufficiently lava-filled.

But I guess as I've only seen the castle get destroyed, I'll assume this is an atypical ending.

"Castlevania" is the name of the castle itself, analogous to the Japanese title for the series, "Akuma-jo Dracula" (roughly translated as "Demon Castle Dracula"...or rather the demon castle of Dracula, bearing the same name as its owner), so it is indeed the same castle, a "creature of chaos" that is constantly changing whenever its Lord's powers again rise.

The castle itself also has a habit of not staying put, if you can believe that. Creatures of chaos need to roam, too.

So...did Dracula name the castle after himself, or is it an extension of himself?

And the castle rebuilds itself all the time? Why would the Belmont family just continue to let it reassemble? Couldn't they, say, take a few bricks with them so the castle could never complete itself?