Cyclops

:This enemy is sometimes called "Ogre". For the Lords of Shadow boss, see Ogre.
The Cyclops is a recurrent enemy in the Castlevania series, often acting as an area boss. It is a huge one-eyed giant. Slow, but few can compare for raw power. Fires a beam from its mono-eye.
==Origins==
In Greek mythology, the cyclopes were an ancient race of giants - the name literally meaning "round-eyed" or "circle-eyed". They were described as the sons of Uranus and Gaia, brothers of the Titans, builders and craftsmen. They were giants with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads, being strong and stubborn and with a foul disposition. They were often pictured at their forges.
Uranus, fearing their strength, locked them in Tartarus. Cronus later freed the cyclopes after he had overthrown Uranus, but later placed them back in Tartarus, where they remained until freed by Zeus. They fashioned thunderbolts for him to use as weapons and helped him overthrow Cronus and the other Titans. The lightning bolts, which became Zeus's main weapons, were forged by them. They also created Poseidon's trident, Artemis's bow and arrows of moonlight, Apollo's bow and arrows of sun rays, and Hades's helmet of darkness, which was given to Perseus on his quest to kill Medusa.
The epic poet Homer described them as mortal herdsmen, sons of Poseidon, with Polyphemus being the most well known cyclops in history. In a famous episode of the Odyssey, Polyphemus traps the hero Odysseus and his men in his cave after they entered to stock on provisions. He eats two of them alive that night and two more the next morning. Odysseus manages to get him drunken sleep and blinds him by plunging a giant wooden pole in his only eye. The next morning, as Polyphemus opens the cave's entrance to let his sheep graze, Odysseus and the rest of his men manage to escape by tying themselves to the animals' undersides.
==Description==
The Cyclops was responsible for turning Sypha Belnades into stone in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and then guarded her statue until he was defeated by Trevor Belmont. Several other Cyclops bosses appeared in that game teamed up with other bosses, such as Mummies and Leviathan.
In Japan, he is also considered an oni from Japanese mythology (usually translated as "Ogre") and is depicted with a single horn on his forehead. Because of the color scheme used in the Japanese instruction booklet, the Cyclops is shown to be red instead of blue, as depicted in the game itself, and shown with a horn on his forehead, possibly an origin for the "Red Ogre" palette swap found in later games. The "Red Ogre" version of the Cyclops also appears in the final stretch for the mascot platformer, Wai Wai World 2: SOS!! Parsley Castle.
The Cyclops returned as a boss in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, where he's quicker, stronger and can execute dashing attacks.
The Cyclops returned as powerful regular enemies in the 3D games Castlevania: Lament of Innocence and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. While he did not use stone-inflicting attacks in his 2D incarnations, some versions of him were shown to possess a stone gaze in Curse of Darkness.
In the animated adaptation of Dracula's Curse, the Cyclops is known as "Stone-Eye Cyclops". Trevor Belmont explains that it feeds on the fear of its victims while they remain trapped in their own body and that its petrification effect can only be undone by killing the creature.
==Appearances==
===Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse===
Making his first appearance in the series, the Cyclops can be encountered for the first time in the Forest of Darkness, keeping Sypha Belnades in a stone statue form. Later in The Haunted Ship of Fools, Morbid Mountains and Rampart and Lookout Tower, he may also appear during boss fights. In all cases, he is only vulnerable on the head (implied to actually be the eye).
At first glance, it may appear that the Cyclops never really tries to attack the player and simply makes round trips without taking their presence into account. However, he may attempt to crush them with his hammer if they get too close. He can also charge at the player if they are far enough. A good way to easily beat him is to use the Cross sub-weapon with the Double or Triple Shot, so that each weapon thrown can strike the head twice, once on its way out and another while returning.
For the encounter in the Forest of Darkness, there exists a secret trick that allows to severely damage the Cyclops: If the player is controlling Trevor Belmont or Grant Danasty and has brought the Dagger sub-weapon, they may instead climb on either of the two elevated platforms in the room and start jumping and throwing daggers toward the center of the screen; if the weapon is struck by lightning as it passes over the Cyclops, it will act as a conductor and unleash a giant bolt of electricity straight down that will take away one quarter of his HP bar. In later encounters, however, there is no lightning and such trick does not work.@oz_shiron (Michinori Ozawa) at X (May 24, 2020).
===Wai Wai World 2: SOS!! Parsley Castle===
===Castlevania: Rondo of Blood===
Only present in a hidden area of Stage 4, the Cyclops only does his work in the background, offloading boulders (complete with their riding Flea Men) from a lifting mechanism and placing them on their way to the adjacent room, where they'll roll down a series of stairs. He can neither be touched nor deal any damage, and is only there for ambience.
===Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance===
Apparently based on his Dracula's Curse incarnation, the Cyclops makes his second appearance as a boss in this game. He is found in the Shrine of the Apostates in Castle B, guarding a Heart max up, and his boss fight is completely optional, although clearing his room is worth as it connects this area to the Entrance.
He wields a massive metal mallet and is much more agile this time around. He retains his dashing attack, but unlike his Dracula's Curse counterpart, he's much faster now and can make it all across the room in one swift move. Fortunately, this move can be completely avoided just by standing on either of the two elevated platforms located in the room.
He also attacks by swinging his mallet with great force in an overhead motion, inflicting heavy damage even on high leveled characters, so it's advised to approach this battle more strategically, making use of the most powerful spells at the player's disposal but always prioritizing safety above everything.
===Castlevania: Lament of Innocence===
Two variants of cyclopes appear in this game, a blue-skinned one, appropriately called Cyclops, and a red-skinned one, known as the Red Ogre. Both are introduced in a miniboss fight near the end of the Ghostly Theatre, where both monsters must be fought at the same time before reaching the theater's stage, where the main boss battle takes place.
<tabber>Cyclops=
|-|Red Ogre=
</tabber>
===Castlevania: Curse of Darkness===
Both the Cyclops and the Red Ogre from Lament of Innocence return in this game. The Cyclops (blue skin) is a weaker version and thus has weaker variants of the same attacks. The Red Ogre (red skin), on the other hand, is a much stronger version and features a few unique powerful attacks, such as a ramming attack and a very damaging grab.
;Cyclops
The first Cyclops in the game is encountered in the very first level, the Abandoned Castle, and acts as a miniboss guarding the first Innocent Devil chamber, aided by a group of Skeletons. Cyclopes are encountered more frequently in Baljhet Mountains and onward.
While the Cyclops may look menacing at first, he isn't very aggressive and only has a few attacks at his disposal, which include a single swing with his club and shooting a series of rays from his eye to the ground in front of him, which after a moment produce explosions. His special attack consists on him dragging his club along the ground in a spinning motion, which he ends by quickly swinging the opposite way. It is at this point when he opens his stealing window.
<tabber>Lv.8=
|-|Lv.47=
|-|Lv.75=
</tabber>
;Red Ogre
While at first glance the Red Ogre may just seem like a different colored variant of the Cyclops, he is in fact one of the most powerful enemies in the game and features much stronger versions of the same attacks, as well as a few dangerous moves of his own.
Unlike the Cyclops, he always swings his club twice. When he shoots his eye ray, it instead traces an irregular line along the ground in front of him, which activates a few seconds later; if the player is caught by this attack, they'll turn to stone and become open to attack by any surrounding enemies until they manually break free from that state.
Among his new moves is a charge, where the Ogre suddenly starts rushing at the player at great speed, inflicting great damage and violently knocking them to the ground if he manages to run them over. Another attack –and probably one of the most dangerous in the entire game– is his grab; the Ogre will suddenly stop and slowly start raising his arm, then he will quickly grab the player if they happen to be standing in front of him. Once grabbed, the Ogre will lift the player in the air by the neck and start strangling them, taking small chunks of HP with each hit, which in conjunction add for a very damaging attack.
Furthermore, Red Ogres are usually encountered with Dark Warlocks, which can buff them up and temporarily make them even more powerful and resilient to attacks.
His special attack consists in a quick leap where he grabs his club and pounds the ground sitting on it, producing a small shockwave. This is also the moment when he opens his stealing window. This is a very difficult enemy to steal from, mainly because of the very brief moment he telegraphs the move, as well as the player requiring to evade the attack at the same time they're trying to steal. The item that can be stolen from him is the Galtite; while probably not very useful during weapon combining (that is, unless one's seeking to eventually forge the Gatling Gun), only two units are required in total to complete the combining list.
The player is advised to be wary of their Innocent Devils and consider to put them in "Guard" mode whenever there are Red Ogres around, as they can outright kill them in just one or two hits (especially Bird-Types and Mage-Types).
A special mention should be made about the Red Ogres encountered in the Tower of Evermore. While most enemies up until that point should likely have given little to no trouble to the player, the Red Ogres there are at level 75 and can easily take big chunks of the player's HP with just one hit (about 1/4 in most cases). In addition, the confined space where they're encountered at can make it very difficult to fight them properly (in addition to the rest of the enemies that appear with them); and once they start performing their charging attacks, the player runs a great risk of sustaining heavy damage.
A good strategy to deal with them here is to bring a Mage-Type Innocent Devil, cast Time Stop as soon as the battle starts, and start attacking each Ogre while the spell is still in effect. Even then, it can take up to six complete combos to fell a single Ogre (Hector level 70+ wielding the Laser Blade).
Alternatively, the Hien can make short work of both the Cyclops and the Red Ogre, as it will stagger them with each hit, not giving them time to retaliate.
<tabber>Lv.25=
|-|Lv.48=
|-|Lv.75=
</tabber>
===Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls===
===Castlevania: Moonlight Rhapsody===
The Cyclops, dubbed a Son of Gaia, is the first boss fought in the main part of Moonlight Rhapsody by Elvis. It is the boss of the Alchemy Laboratory and fights in the same room that Slogra and Gaibon did in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It was given a potion by the alchemist Thelma to increase its strength and tasked in slowing down the hunters' pursuit of her (see dialogue page). A second Cyclops is found in the area with the tower with the levitating platforms in the Castle Keep.
==Other appearances==
===Castlevania (animated series)===
This Netflix adaptation initially based on the events presented in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, portrays Trevor Belmont's encounter with the Cyclops as follows:
In 1476, Sypha Belnades, a member of the Speakers –a group of nomadic scholars–, ventured alone into the city of Gresit's catacombs, determined to find the rumored "sleeping soldier" that would save humanity from the Vampire Lord, Dracula; but when she ventured deep within, she was attacked by a Cyclops and turned into a stone statue.
Some time later, Trevor Belmont, an exiled monster hunter who was traveling through the city, was asked by the leader of the Speakers to seek and retrieve their fallen comrade's body, who happened to be none other than his granddaughter. And so, Trevor also set forth into the city's catacombs to accomplish this task with the promise that the Speakers would leave Gresit after his return.
Venturing deep into the catacombs, Trevor eventually found a statue of a human in robes. However, at that moment the Cyclops emerged from the shadows and attacked him too. After an intense fight, Trevor managed to slay the monster, causing the statue to topple into his arms and turn back to human form, revealing it to actually be Sypha herself, who even if a bit nauseous was still alive.
==Item Data==
==Gallery==
CV3 J Manual Cyclops.JPG|Cyclops from the Japanese Dracula's Curse instruction booklet.
CV3 J Manual vs Cyclops.JPG|Cyclops attacking Trevor, from the Japanese Dracula's Curse instruction booklet.
NP C3 Cyclops.JPG|Cyclops from the Nintendo Power - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse guide.
GVH Cyclops.JPG|Cyclops from the Legend of Satanic Castle: The genuine Vampire Hunter gamebook.
Wai Wai 2 Cyclops.JPG|Cyclops/Red Ogre from the Japanese Wai Wai World 2 instruction booklet.
HoD 097.png|Cyclops's enemy list entry from Harmony of Dissonance.
Cyclops COD Unused Portraits.PNG|Unused portraits of Cyclops from Curse of Darkness.
Red Ogre COD Unused Portraits.PNG|Unused portraits of Red Ogre from Curse of Darkness.
Animated Dracula's Curse Cyclops.JPG|Cyclops' concept art for the Dracula's Curse animated film.
DXC-Stage4.jpg|Cyclops from The Dracula X Chronicles.
Eng DXC 4kom 06 edit.jpg|Cyclops in the official Koma comic strips for The Dracula X Chronicles.
Cyclops-Netflix.PNG|Cyclops from the Castlevania animated series.
Cyclop model.png|Model for Season 1 of the Castlevania animated series.
Cyclop Model.jpg|Concept artworks from The Art of the Animated Series artbook.
Cyclopse MR.jpg|Cyclops artwork from Moonlight Rhapsody.
==Trivia==
*The Cyclops from Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance may have been partially inspired by the one seen in the 1958 fantasy adventure film, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.The 7th Voyage of Sinbad 1958 | Full movie at YouTube. This is noticeable by the hooved-like legs the Cyclops from Harmony of Dissonance has.
*The Hitotsu-Me Giant and Opticlops from the Yu-Gi-Oh! series (also by Konami) resemble the Cyclops, their names being "Cyclops" and "Red Cyclops", respectively.
==References==
==External links==
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Category:Greek Monsters
Category:Night Creatures
Category:Curse of Darkness Enemies
Category:The Dracula X Chronicles Enemies
Category:Dracula's Curse Bosses
Category:Harmony of Dissonance Bosses
Category:Lament of Innocence Enemies
Category:Moonlight Rhapsody Bosses
Category:Rondo of Blood Enemies