Time Reaper

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“	I come from ten thousand years hence.	„
	~ Time Reaper

Background

The Time Reaper in Castlevania Judgment serves as Galamoth’s equivalent to Death, originating from ten thousand years in the future. In the Kid Dracula series, Galamoth has a reaper named Shinigami-san (translated as "Mr. God of Death" in Japan), a title also used for Death. Meaning that Time Reaper and Shinigami-san are the same entity.

In the European Kid Dracula Game Boy manual, Shinigami-san is called "Witchi Wench" due to his long eyelashes, giving him an effeminate look. He first appears as a common enemy in the original Famicom version but later reappears as a boss in the Game Boy version. He seems to be separate from Death, as he serves Galamoth while Death is aligned with Kid Dracula.

In Castlevania Judgment, Galamoth sends the Time Reaper ten thousand years into the past to erase Dracula by eliminating the era in which he resides. The Time Reaper serves as the game's final boss and is a recolored version of Death from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness.

General Information

Name: Time Reaper, Shinigami-san

Origin: Castlevania Judgment

First Appearance: Castlevania Judgment

Company: Konami

Creator: Koji Igarashi

Actor: Unknown

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Asexual

Pronouns: He/Him

Age: Unknown

Time Period: 10,000 Years Later (During Kid Dracula duology), N/A (During Castlevania Judgment, exists within the time rift, which is outside of the normal timestream entirely)

Timeline: Main Timeline

Homeworld: Unknown

Residence: Unknown

Story Role: Main Antagonist

Legacy: Unknown Legacy

Influence: Event Influence (Time Reaper appeared from 10,000 years in the future determined to destroy the very fabric of time^[1])

Language: Common Language

Classification: Servant of Galamoth, Child of the Night^[2], Grim Reaper, Shinigami

Species: Shinigami

State of Being: Regular

Physiology: Monster Physiology

In-Universe Creator: God^[3]

Occupation: None

Affiliations: Galamoth (He is a servant of Galamoth)

Enemies: Dracula (Attempted to erase Dracula from a specific point 10,000 years ago), Death (As Death is mocked by his visage, and attempted to challenge his lord^[4]), Aeon, Alucard, Carmilla, Cornell, Eric Lecarde, Grant Danasty, Maria Renard, Shanoa, Simon Belmont, Sypha Belnades, Trevor Belmont, Golem

Height: Unknown

Weight: Unknown

Status: Deceased (Defeated by various of the fighters in Castlevania Judgment)

Date of Death: Castlevania Judgment

Alignment: Lawful Evil (Follower of Galamoth who wishes to destroy the fabric of time in order^[5] to kill Dracula and make Galamoth the dark lord^[6])

Threat Level: Cosmic Threat (Time Reaper appeared from 10,000 years in the future determined to destroy the very fabric of time^[7], requiring Aeon to mend the fabric of time^[8])

Codex Statistics

Grade: A

Tier: 7-C. 2-C with Environmental Destruction

Cardinality: Finite

Power Source: Chaos (All monsters and creatures are Creatures of Chaos^[9], where they are empowered by Chaos, always rebirthing from Chaos with each rebirth, the creatures takes a new form^[10])

Dimensionality: 3-D

Attack Potency: Town level (Potency) (Can fight against Golem from Castlevania Judgment^[11]. Golem with his ultimate can shoot out a mouth blast that vaporizes everything it touches as far as the eye can see getting these results^[12]). Universe level with Environmental Destruction (Time Reaper appeared from 10,000 years in the future determined to destroy the very fabric of time^[13], attempting to destroy the specific era of time^[14]. Noted by Aeon that if the Time Rift is not erased, all beings everywhere will disappear, forever^[15]. The age during Castlevania Judgment was on the verge of collapse^[16]. Noted by Aeon that Time Reaper is attempting to destroy the era of time in order to ensure Dracula's downfall^[17])

Durability: Town level

Striking Strength: Town Class (Potency)

Lifting Strength: At least Class 10 (As his existence is enough of a threat to involve the likes of Dracula & Death, he should be superior to Hector's Battle-Type innocent devils who can move entire tree logs that are blocking roads out of the way^[18] where logs can weigh around 15 to 5 tons^[19] and Hector's battle-type innocent devils can lift open large iron doors that "no man could force open"^[20])

Travel Speed: Unknown: True level (Does not move from his spot that he attacks at)

Attack Speed: At most Faster Than Light (Can tag Dracula, who serves as the absolute evil, the opposite to God^[21], where for God to be perfectly good, there must be a being of perfect darkness^[22], being the entity opposite to God^[23], making him faster then enemies such as the Sky Fish who moves so fast that it appears as a beam of light and is only slowed down when time is stopped^[24] and the White Demon, who can move at the speed of light at short distances^[25])

Reaction Speed: At most Faster Than Light

Stamina:

Range: At least Tens of Meters through sheer size, Multi-Universal with abilities (The Time Reaper^[26] has trapped^[27], all the souls imprisoned in the rift^[28], an alternate universe^[29] where they are brought across different time periods, with his defeat sending them back to their respective eras^[30], including beings outside of time like Aeon^[31])

Intelligence: Cosmic Intelligence

Knowledge: Cosmic level

Powers and Techniques

Is a Creature of the Night, which gives:

Resistance to

Large Size ('Building Sized; The Time Reaper is as large as a regular building^[86]), Energy Absorption (Time Reaper can get hearts out of objects and enemies, where hearts are a measure of one's stored energy, thus one is absorbing energy when gaining hearts^[87]), Bestowal (The Time Rift is a place for one to get what they desire most^[88]), Battlefield Removal (The Time Reaper^[89] has trapped^[90], all the souls imprisoned in the rift^[91], an alternate universe^[92] where they are brought across different time periods, with his defeat sending them back to their respective eras^[93], including beings outside of time like Aeon^[94]), Energy Projection (Can shoot out dark energy balls^[95]), Homing Attack (Can send out three blue skeleton heads that home in on their target^[96]), Power Modification (Time Reaper had Cornell's powers run amok, trapping him in beast form while he was in the time rift^[97]), Space-Time Manipulation (3+1-D; The Time Reaper is responsible for the rift in time with his defeat mending the rift^[98]), Glyph Manipulation (Can create a glyph that shoots out a massive energy beam^[99]), Forcefield Manipulation (Created a time barrier that requires the souls trapped within the time rift to form together to make a key to reach him^[100]), Chain Manipulation (A symbol appears on the ground, and chain hands immobilize the opponent^[101]), Electricity Manipulation (Makes a large electrical orb that explodes after a while^[102]), Darkness Manipulation (Can do a slash in the air made of darkness^[103]. Can have a massive surge of darkness spring out of the ground^[104]), Logic Manipulation (The time rift is another world where the impossible is possible^[105], allowing people like Alucard to defeat Dracula in single combat at full power^[106], and artificial beings like Golem to gain a soul and granted him self-awareness, with it only being able to persist within the special dimension^[107])

Equipment

Nothing notable.

Notable Techniques

"Fall! DIE!!"

The Time Reaper swings his scythe up to two times, referencing Death's weapon. This attack can be blocked. In Brutal Mode, during his second health bar, a symbol appears on the ground while he swings, immobilizing the player if they’re caught.

"How CLEVER!!"

The Time Reaper summons several dark orbs that appear at random locations.

"Beg for mercy!"

Summons three homing skulls that can be blocked. When he reaches his final health bar (or second bar in Brutal Mode), he increases this to five skulls. In Brutal Mode, he also summons three skulls while performing his beam attack on the last health bar.

"Ashes to ashes..."

Moving his hands side to side, the Reaper summons flame pillars in groups of three. These can be blocked but are challenging to dodge.

Energy Blast

The Time Reaper gathers energy by holding his hands together, releasing a large energy blast after a few seconds.

"It's futile."

("How CLEVER!" on repeat use) The Reaper releases a blue shockwave that knocks the player across the room, dealing no damage. This surprise attack typically occurs before a phase change.

"Ha ha, HA ha!!"

A symbol appears on the ground, and chain hands immobilize the player shortly after. While this deals no damage, the Reaper often uses it on his second or third (final) health bar, typically just before a scythe swipe. In Brutal Mode, on his second health bar, he may use this symbol mid-swing, a likely reference to Death’s chain hand attack from Portrait of Ruin.

"Nowhere to run!!"

The Time Reaper fires a sweeping, fiery beam across the arena. This unblockable beam requires careful dodging or jumping. On his last health bar (second-to-last in Brutal Mode), he fires two beams, increasing the difficulty.

"STAY OUT OF MY WAY!!!!"

During the final health bar in Brutal Mode, the Time Reaper accelerates his beam attacks and summons three homing skulls mid-attack. His beam becomes a one-hit kill, and he repeats the move continuously. This phase provides only a brief opportunity to counter during his prolonged charge-up.

Other

Standard Tactics: Time Reaper is in a state where he's unreachable without bringing the souls of all those he imprisoned together^[108], where the door will only allow a single being to enter^[109]. When fighting him, he will utilize various different dark attacks, along with homing skulls and shooting out a massive beam.

Weaknesses

Creature of the Night Weaknesses: Creatures of the night become weaker when exposed to the morning sun^[110]. Garlic significantly weakens creatures of the night^[111], and causes demons to die if its placed on the ground^[112]. If a vital soul is defeated, the grimoire will revert back to its original content^[113].
Unique Weaknesses: Nothing notable.

Note

Contrary to popular belief, holy attacks and the whips in Castlevania can affect and harm people that aren't apart of the creatures of the night. Leon's doppelganger can use holy water and holy attacks against him in this fight along with the alchemy whip despite Leon being a pure and noble warrior^[114]. Simon's doppelganger can harm him with the vampire killer, despite Simon being a noble hero. Holy Water even works and harms enemies such as the "Holy Armor"^[115], a knight who has natural holy powers^[116]. Corrupted enemies such as Charlie Vincent, use holy water attacks on Carrie and Reinhardt^[117]. Characters like Jonathan Morris wear armor like the Holy Mail, an armor that reduces damage from holy attacks^[118].
The Sky Fish feat moving so fast that it appears as a beam of light and only slows once time is stopped^[119] is a natural indication of Faster Than Light travel as at the speed of light, time is zero from its perspective. Soma Cruz having a hard time catching up with it initially does not mess with his scaling either as we know it's an unquantifiable level into Faster than Light at the most.

Explanation

Usage of games like Castlevania Legends & Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Castlevania Legends

The game was originally meant to be a prequel to all the other games in the Castlevania series, this can be seen with Sonia's boss fight against Dracula serving as the first time Dracula ever encountered a Belmont along with the ending of the game saying "this story marks the beginning of the Belmont family legend that has been passed on through many ages". Along with this, Sonia shared a relationship with Alucard, heavily implying that her child is between her and Alucard. The existence of Lament of Innocence already greatly messes with this. The game manual even mentions that Sonia was the first of the Belmont family to leave her name to posterity as a vampire hunter^[120]. Despite Leon Belmont being the one to start the legend of the Belmont Hunters being vampire hunters. Along with this, Trevor is canonically the first Belmont to defeat Dracula. Iga has gone out of his way to note too that Castlevania Legends was intentionally redacted from the timeline so that it doesn't conflict with the timing used in other titles.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Although it was in the original 2006 timeline, it was removed by Iga from the timeline, along with Castlevania (N64), Legacy of Darkness, and Legends.

Why abilities from them are still usable for main timeline

These games were at one point officially a part of the original timeline before ultimately being removed, making them hypotheticals that could be done. This is further supported by an interview in the History of Castlevania - Crescent of the Moon book, where executive producer of Castlevania Netflix Adi Shankar noted that even the "non-canon" games are parallel timelines in the overall multiverse, sharing the same spirit and lore^[121]. While one could argue his statement shouldn't be used, it comes from a book titled, "History of Castlevania - Crescent of the Moon", where it wouldn't make much sense if his statement was wrong and there was no correction over it. The book even has asterisks to give further context, yet they never claim him wrong. Along with this, it's consistent with the fact that most of the Castlevania games that are "non-canon" now were originally a part of the timeline. Thus this statement is usable. Thus abilities and the likes from these games can carry over to the main timeline games.

Trivia

The Time Reaper, aside from obviously being based on the Grim Reaper/Death, may have also been a reference to Father Time, who also wields a scythe.
His appearance is even noted by Death to look like him^[122].
As he is a servant of Galamoth and comes from 10,000 years in the future, it is clear that the Death fought in the Kid Dracula titles is actually him.

Misconceptions

"Gaiden" means "Non-Canon" or "Alternate Timeline"

This stems from the belief that when Iga or a producer calls a Castlevania game a "Gaiden" it is therefore non-canon or an alternate timeline and can be dismissed. This, however, is not the case.

The term "Gaiden" merely just means a side story, spin-off, or a separate tale. The term "Gaiden" does not determine the canonicity of a work, it just lets you know if the game is a spin-off/side-story or if it's a main story. Take, for instance, the Kingdom Hearts series. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories would be considered a gaiden, as it's a side-story and spin-off title that isn't a mainline numbered title, however, it is in all manners canon and important to play to understand Kingdom Hearts II.

The same can be applied to Castlevania itself, Castlevania Symphony of the Night is a gaiden game. Yet it is very obviously canon and pretty important to play to understand more of Alucard's backstory. The idea of a Gaiden game for the Castlevania series itself would be any game not dealing with one of Dracula's main 100-year-resurrections, which in this case, even Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest is in a way a gaiden, despite being completely canon.

This is all to say that Gaiden does not at all mean "non-canon" or "alternate timeline" and should never be treated as such, the term itself has nothing to do with the canonicity of a product.

IGA Statements Quoted by a Fan

Any statements Iga has made about Judgment that don't come from this IGN interview or a sourced and reputable article are not usable. This is, of course, referring to the popular statements used when discussing Judgment's Canoncity about a fan asking IGA about the game's Canoncity on Facebook, here are some of them below:

Fan: You mentioned Legend of Cornell was an alternate continuity. However, Cornell appears in Castlevania Judgment, which I believe is not an alternate continuity. How does that work? is he from a different universe than the other characters? It is not really explained in the game itself so I was hoping you could give some clarification on the issue.

IGA: Judgment is a work that surpasses space and time and brings them together.

Fan: I get it. So, is the explanation I suggested in the previous reply possibly correct?

IGA: I don't think it's exactly correct. Judgment is a work born of thinking it would be fun to remove all the hedges and bring characters that appeared throughout the series together. I think that you need to view it as an event from another world which does not consider things like timelines or parallel dimensions at all.

Now these seem like pretty clear-cut statements until you start to try to find where these come from.

They come from both a timeline archive discussion on the Castlevania Wiki back on January 15th, 2012 and from a forum post from the same user as the wiki article.

There is no way to find anything sourced or verifiably proven that this person spoke to Iga. Trying to look up the person didn't get any real results either.

Some other issues fall under the inconsistencies within these Iga talks, the person claims that Iga confirmed that Order of Shadows and the Arcade are non-canon because they were intended from the very beginning to be such, however, an officially sourced interview has the lead game designer of Order of Shadows state that Iga was actively involved with ensuring the game was consistent with the current canon, this would be a weird thing to do if he intended it to be non-canon from the very beginning.

He also claims that Iga said Super Castlevania IV was an alternate continuity, when the wiki also notes Iga saying that the games are all legitimate and the same scenario of defeating Dracula, however this quote is also unsourced, they just claim Iga says this with no link or anything.

There is another one not related to the user who spoke to Iga, but a user on reddit who claimed that a magazine claimed that Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was stated to be in a "different time axis". Attempting to get it translated got no wording that said anything like that, with it not even mentioning anything about canon, timeline, time axis, or any other wording of the sort in a machine-translated attempt. Do note however that this is a machine translation so it could potentially be that it is there, but until a reputable and verifiable translator can confirm or deny this translation, the jury is out with it and it will not be used for the canoncity of Circle of the Moon.

Thus all of these quotes are merely hearsay until shown or proven otherwise.

Remakes/Remasters Being Non-Canon

This comes from an Iga quote that says:

"IGA: FC版とX６８０００版ですが、X６８０００版はFC版をベースにアレンジを加えたものになっています。ゲームのアレンジは、その時に応じて、色々と施されるものですので、正直どちらも正統であると思ってよいのではないかと思っています。結論として、ドラキュラと戦い勝つというシナリオで、中間部分の切り抜きが違うと考えてもよいのではないかと考えています。スーパーファミコン版も違いますし…。どうしてもと考えるのであれば、FC版を尊重すべきかと考えます。

Translation: Regarding the Famicom version and the X68000 version, the X68000 version is an arrangement based on the Famicom version. The arrangement of a game is the kind of thing where you add a lot of different things as needed, so honestly speaking, it think they both should be considered legitimate. In conclusion, I think they should be considered as the same scenario of fighting to defeat Dracula, just with a different middle part. The Super Famicom version is different as well... If you simply must have a clear answer, the Famicom version must be given deference."

Now the quote itself doesn't state remakes or remasters are non-canon despite what people believe. It's moreso a quote of Iga stating that all of them are the same scenario, just with differences. However, an interesting point is that Iga says the NES version should be given "deference", as in to defer to the NES version.

Of course, though, this has the same issue as the Judgment quotes, everyone claims Iga said this, but there is no source of him saying this. In fact, in Castlevania Chronicles, there's a reward interview you receive from Iga himself where he talks about the game, Iga pretty much explains how the game came to be and never says anything about the game not being canon or to defer to the original^[123], if anything he treats this as just an updated version of the original. Interestingly to note too, the original he's talking about is not Castlevania on NES but instead, he's talking about the computer version of Castlevania^[124], though it borrows a lot of elements from Castlevania NES.

Overall due to the quote itself having no source, it is unusable. The way we will treat remakes, remasters, or ports here however is that they are all equally canon unless stated otherwise. Most of these tell the same story with the only real differences being extra background information added, such as Haunted Castle having it be Dracula stole Simon's wife, though the same overall story still applies even here. Iga himself has already expressed that the original Castlevania's story is pretty simple^[125] and Simon having a wife does not affect anything in the overall narrative. Super Castlevania IV notes that Simon is a vampire, though this was due to a novel writer making him a vampire in their novel. The novel was originally supposed to be an adaptation of Super Castlevania IV but was then dropped and made its own thing. Super Castlevania IV itself is still canon, but the subplot of Simon being a vampire is not. The most recent timeline even acknowledges it as canon^[126].

Iga Only Allows Stuff He Works on To Be Canon

There is a weirdly believed idea in the fandom that Iga only considers works he worked on canon, however, an officially sourced interview has the lead game designer of Order of Shadows state that Iga was actively involved with ensuring the game was consistent with the current canon, along with this Iga did not work on a lot of Castlevania games considered canon, such as the NES trilogy and the Gameboy games. In fact, he has only made 12 Castlevania games, out of the 30 Castlevania games in total, and most of them from the older console eras are still a part of the canon. Thus Iga does not only allow stuff he works on to be canon.

Iga is a Producer of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

A Nintendo Power magazine calls Iga the producer of Circle of the Moon, with Iga talking like he worked on the game in that interview. However Iga can be found nowhere in the credits of the game. Making this Nintendo Power issue questionable as to if they were talking to Iga or if the game was mixed up. Though we have direct in-game proof that Iga was not a producer of Circle of the Moon.

Elements and Statements can be used from Lords of Shadows for the main continuity

This argument comes from Adi Shankar saying that even "non-canon" games are parallel timelines in the overall multiverse, sharing the same spirit and lore^[127]. However, the Lord of Shadow games are directly noted in an interview with the lead developer, that the game has nothing to do with the canon, sharing none of the lore or original stuff for the characters. This directly conflicts with Adi Shankar's statement and it was very likely he was not even thinking of Lords of Shadows when making this statement but moreso games like Castlevania Legends. On top of this, Adi Shankar has no actual position within Konami, and being an executive producer for the Castlevania anime, thus he does not have any true say in terms of how Castlevania canon works and can only be used at most as a supporting piece of evidence.

Codex Statistics Questions

Q: Shouldn't the characters be around Tier 2 for defeating the Time Reaper who would've destroyed the very fabric of time^[128], attempted to destroy the specific era of time^[129], cause all beings everywhere to disappear, forever^[130] and that the age was on the verge of collapse^[131]?

A: We actually never get a direct outright method of Time Reaper's plan for doing this, from what Aeon mentions to Golem, if the Time Rift is not erased, all beings everywhere will disappear, forever^[132], implying that it's the Time Rift causing this, this is further backed up by the fact that in Time Reaper's boss fight, there is a vortex in the background consuming everything^[133], meaning this is an overtime feat that scales to no one physically.

Q: Shouldn't they get tier 2 for Dracula's influence destabilizing the flow of time^[134]?

A: This is a potent ability but has nothing to do with Attack Potency, there is no quantification for "destabilizing the flow of time", along with this, even if it was taken as physically, then it would be overtime as the effects are not noticeable throughout most of Curse of Darkness. Thus this is merely potent Time Manipulation.

Q: Shouldn't Dracula and by proxy anyone that scales to him get tier 2 for him being able to sustain his castle?

A: This goes under our Stabilization Feats standards, which treats sustaining feats are non-combat applicable Attack Potency normally, though in Dracula's case the Castle is speficially powered by the existence of a Dark Lord, and doesn't necessarily need their strength to rise. In the Castlevania novel, the castle rose without a Dark Lord as an example. Along with this, no one scales to the collapse of the castle, in Curse of Darkness Hector would've died to the collapse of the castle if^[135] Julia didn't come save him, and Isaac died within the castle^[136]. In other cases the Castle does not collapse^[137], but instead slowly fades away^[138]. At the end of Dawn of Sorrow Soma Cruz and Genya Arikado (aka Alucard) must escape the collapsing abyss.

Q: Shouldn't Castlevania characters that scale to Death have Infinite speed due to Death being able to kill distance itself with his attacks?

A: Killing distance to attack is not a speed feat, it's a method of Spatial Manipulation by circumventing and ignoring distance, while one can say the attack spawns on you instantly, this is not really something quantifiable. Along with this, it would only scale to characters comparable to Death during post-Dawn of Sorrow, as Soma notes Death is far faster than he remembered from his fight with him in Dawn of Sorrow^[139].

Battle Records

0 - 14 - 0

None.

Alucard - Fight^[140]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Carmilla - Fight^[141]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Cornell - Fight^[142]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Death - Fight^[143]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Dracula - Fight^[144]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Golem - Fight^[145]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Grant Danasty - Fight^[146]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Maria Renard - Fight^[147]
- Conditions: Match was a rematch.
- Location: Time Rift

Shanoa - Fight^[148]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Eric Lecarde - Fight^[149]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Simon Belmont - Fight^[150]
- Conditions: Match was a rematch.
- Location: Time Rift

Sypha Belnades - Fight^[151]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift.

Trevor Belmont - Fight^[152]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Time Rift

Kid Dracula - Fight^[153]
- Conditions: None.
- Location: Stage 4