| “ | Well, you know what? That's it! First, you don't yell at me, and second, you will do as I say, because I'm your father! So, you go to your room and you're grounded from now on! If you want it to be this way, then so be it! Go to your room. GO TO YOUR ROOM, VIOLETTA!!! | „ |
| ~ German angrily ordering Violetta to go to her room for defying no-music rules after finding out that she has been attending the Studio behind his back |
Germán Castillo is the heroic (former) main antagonist of the Disney Channel Latin-American series, Violetta and a supporting character of its 2016 follow-up film, Tini: The New Life of Violetta. He is the patriarch of the Castillo family and the father of Violetta Castillo.
He was portrayed by Diego Ramos.
Personality[]
German is a honest and good man with a big heart, but sometimes, he can be very overprotective and too strict, especially for his daughter. He tries to protect her, and he thinks the best way to do this, is to lie to her. Deeply traumatized by the death of his wife, German tends to be always "there", trying to prevent Violetta from doing anything related to music and secluding her from the outside world.
Biography[]
Past[]
At some point, German met and married María Saramego, who would later go on to become his wife and together had Violetta. However, due to María's singing career, German did not approve the possessive way her father was managing it during her worldwide tours. Despite planning to give singing a break to focus mainly on raising Violetta, María's father still insisted that she give a farewell tour, a fateful day when María tragically passed away after an accident on the way. Because of this, German, blinded by grief and hatred, he blamed both himself and María's father for his wife's death that in turn, decided to hide from Violetta everything about her mother's career, in an attempt to prevent a potential similar fate to her, even if it meant excluding her from a social life, getting her a governess for homeschooling, but most of it all: prevent Violetta from continuing María's legacy as a singer. They often moved from country to country, including Madrid, Spain where they lived for quite some time, to Violetta's frustration because it left her unable to make any friends of her own age. He also started dating wealthy socialite Jade LaFontaine, believing her to be a good role model for Violetta, a relationship Violetta herself does not approve.
History[]
Season 1[]
German returns to Buenos Aires with Violetta who does not want a birthday party, because it is hosted by Jade. Fed up with her father's constant refusals of letting her be, Violetta runs away from home. As he starts looking for her, he meets Angie, who is Violetta's aunt and wants to meet her. However, German is oblivious of her true identity since he has cut off all contact with any relatives of Violetta. In order to get close to her (fearing that German might take her away to another country if he learns the truth), Angie claims she is here in the guise of becoming Violetta's governess. German agrees and hires her.
Their relationships starts a bit rocky due to them clashing over Violetta's preferences regarding music, but as time passes, German starts to fall in love with her and has some doubts about marrying Jade. In addition, he is also acquainted with Leon (because he was previously worked with his parents), whom Violetta falls in love with, and has a feud with Tomás, also in love with Violetta, only due to him being humble and believing he brings bad luck to Violetta. German's interference caused a disagreement between Violetta and Tomás, which was about him making a scene at Restó Bar when he threatened the owner, Luca, to have his business shut down if he had no control over his employees. Tomás blamed Violetta for having him fired from his job, also believing that Violetta lied about not being German's daughter when it was the other way around: Violetta tried to tell him her name but when German interrupted them calling out for his housemaid Olga, Tomás thought her name was Olga and that she worked for Germán. He fires Angie four times: when Jade finds out she is actually not employed by the governess agency, when German deduces she is the one who has been handing Violetta her mother's stuff from the attic (the only room where German wouldn't allow her in and having initially suspected Olga because of her having the key), when she let Violetta escape from his and Jade's engagement party but believing it was to spend time with Tomás (after almost finding out that Violetta is attending the Studio) and when Jade exposed her true identity in front of him.
Whenever German tries to test Violetta's trustworthiness (him being always "there"), Violetta and Angie have to constantly maneuver so that the Studio deception won't come out. German initially contemplated breaking off his engagement with Jade, but after she found out about Violetta attending the Studio, she gave Violetta an ultimatum: convince her father to resume the engagement as planned or face the consequences regarding her lies towards him. With no other choice, Violetta is forced to give in so that her father's happiness won't be ruined. German eventually does find out about Violetta's attendace to the school through Jade telling him that Angie is a teacher there, becoming furious for being lied to and grounding Violetta as a result. Violetta's friends, including Leon, Tomás, Antonio, Pablo and Angie's mother, all try to convince German to change his mind, but he stays firm on his decision. After stopping his wedding with Jade, who admits to having lied about not knowing that Violetta was attending the Studio, German arranges for him and Violetta to move away to Qatar, so he can get away from the lies (including her daughter's) and everything. When all hope seemed to be lost and no one was able to convince German otherwise, there was one person who could: Angie. Before they left on their way to the airport, she secretly passed German an MP3 player with Violetta singing, along with an apology from Angie. Realizing how talented Violetta is and seeing her dancing to the rythm of some street performers, German at the last minute cancels the trip and allows Violetta to continue attending the school and at the same time participate in the final show.
Season 2[]
As promised, German allows Violetta to attend the Studio on a regular basis while also accepting Angie as his daughter's governess. Despite this, however, German still doesn't completely trust Violetta, for instance his great dislike and wariness of Diego, the new kid at the Studio with an arrogant attitude, who starts flirting with and then begins a relationship with Violetta (despite her initial rejections), making Leon jealous, or even when Violetta only wanted to arrange a pijama party with her best friends Camila and Francesca, which turned into a massive party at Violetta's house, after Ludmila, Violetta's archenemy, anonymously sends an e-mail to the others as revenge over not being invited, prompting the outraged German to forcefully kick all of them out, and ultimately freaking out when he witnesses Diego kissing Violetta, although she never meant for the kiss to happen. In addition, German hasn't had the courage to declare his feelings for Angie and start a relationship, something that leaves the door open for Esmeralda Di Pietro to cross paths in German's life and starts dating him. Unlike her disdain for the sour Jade, Violetta approves this new relationship, mostly because she reminds her and German of her mother. Unbeknonwnst to German, Esmeralda was actually a con artist and actress employed by Jade (German's now ex-fiancé) and her brother Matias to rob German's entire fortune, having him arrested by the police after emblezzing the money from his account to a fake one they created. To pay his bail, German sells the house but Esmeralda "helps" at the last minute by relieving them from eviction and moves in at Violetta's suggestion. Angie is jealous and distrustful of Esmeralda's motives whenever she finds some leads that are linked with her true colors. When German is about to marry her, however, Jade suddenly interrupts the wedding, betraying Esmeralda by exposing her as a phony but hiding the fact that she hired her in the first place, leading Esmeralda to escape and never be seen again, leaving both German and Violetta heartbroken.
Meanwhile, German, to make sure Violetta is safe and sound, gets a job at the Studio as a pianist disguising himself as Jeremiah as to not arise suspicions, dressing in a hippie-like appearance, thus allowing him to monitor every and one of Violetta's moves inside the premises. However, this starts to become a problem when Angie falls in love with Jeremiah (not knowing it is actually German and much to Pablo's jealousy) and Lena, Naty's sister, finds out about this and tells German off for lying to his own daughter. As Jeremiah, German also becomes aware of Violetta's division between Leon and Diego who are constantly fighting over her and determine who of the two is hurting Violetta, at one time catching them in the middle of a violent argument but almost exposing himself after addressing Violetta as his daughter. He covers it up by telling Violetta he has a daughter about the same age as her. Angie eventually finds out that Jeremiah is German and is devastated, calling him out for his selfishness and reminding him of similar situations when he was lied to by Violetta (when he forbade her from attending the Studio), Esmeralda (when she deceived him) and Angie herself (for being Violetta's aunt). Fed up with German's lies and no longer able to trust him anymore, Angie decides to move away to France to accept a job offer as a songwriter there. German does not tell Violetta about this, angering Angie more. Then Angie herself tries to tell Violetta, but can't bring herself to do so either. Angie is afraid to leave Violetta behind again and discusses this with Antonio, not knowing that Violetta heard them. Unaware about her father's deceit, Violetta decides to support Angie's dream and let her go before being given a farewell party. However, just as German was about to give up spying on Violetta, she caught him with the Jeremiah wig, finally realizing that she has been lied to by her father and regretting having let Angie go. Violetta runs away from home and returns hours later. German apologizes to her, but she won't talk to him or hear any of his excuses, deducing that Angie knew about this and he's the reason why she really left.
Later on, this whole mess would shift German back to his old habits and overprotective personality, after finding out that Violetta is going to Spain through a YouMix contest, so he makes a scene at the Studio forbidding Violetta from going, believing she hid this from him just out of spite for being lied to before about Jeremiah. Just like the non-attendance to the Studio, German is convinced by Violetta's friends, Leon & Diego (who are forced out of the house), Pablo and Antonio to let her go to Spain, but he refuses. German asks Violetta what was Diego doing, to which she responds that, unlike him, Diego has been supporting her a lot. When Violetta tries to escape on her own, German catches her, demanding to know where she's going. "You do know where I'm going", Violetta replies. German makes it clear that without his permission she can't go anywhere. In tears, Violetta recounts the efforts she had to make for her to enter the Studio, earn the respect of her friends and become very talented, but German won't just see this and that his way of loving her is harming her. Although German states he just wants to look after her, Violetta refutes him saying that he is always messing up and reminds him that she lost her mother, so she doesn't want to lose him too. Somewhat taken emotionally by this, German finally allows her to go to Spain, yet German's overprotectiveness of her still rests on his shoulders, annoying Violetta further, even after finding out that her father considers hiring a bodyguard for her. Saddened, Violetta tells her father that she feels him distant, like their special bond is gone forever and there is no fixing in their relationship. She wishes that something magical would get them close again and asks him not to come see her at the show. Now feeling truly remorseful, German turns to Leon for help and he gives him a song, originally written by him (from one of Maria's poems) and finished by Violetta. The day of the show, everyone is worried about Violetta and don't know why she is so depressed. With Pablo and Antonio's help, Leon has a surprise for Violetta: German is onstage playing the song on the piano. She then excitedly joins her father to sing the song and hugs him. He says that the three of them - Herman, Violetta, and Maria - are in this song. German finally recognizing that Violetta is growing up, thus mending the broken relationship between them.
Season 3[]
Tini: The New Life of Violetta[]
Trivia[]
- He is similar to Marlin from Finding Nemo as both of them are overprotective parents towards their respective children (Nemo for Marlin/Violetta for Germán) due to trauma regarding the deaths of their wives (Coral, who was eaten by a barracuda alongside their other children and María, who died in an accident on her way to a singing tour). Because of this, they forbid them from doing certain outside activities; Nemo wants to explore the ocean and Violetta wants to attend the Studio 21 in order to follow in her mother's footsteps. However, as both stories progress, Germán and Marlin eventually learn to let go and give more space to them.
- By the sequel Finding Dory, Marlin trusts Nemon enough to let him do what he wants, but mostly because of the film being entirely focused on Dory, while in the second season of Violetta Germán still struggled to accept that his daugther is growing up and started meddling in her personal life. Without counting Germán's wrong accusation against Violetta for supposedly sabotaging his relationship with Priscila, he grows out of this in the third season.
- He is also similar to King Triton during the events of The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning because they also lost their wives who had a singing talent (Queen Athena for Triton/María for Germán). Athena was crushed by a pirate ship while María died in a traffic accident on her way to a farewell tour concert. As a result, their deaths took a toll on them: Triton banned music from Atlantica and raised Ariel and his daughters very strictly through an evil governess (Marina Del Rey) while Germán attempted to put an end to her wife's legacy by forbidding Violetta from doing anything related to music, namely attending the Studio. In addition, Violetta had a governess who was a jerk, but she eventually quit and was replaced by the more warming Angie, her aunt. However, at the end of the day, they both grow out of this.
- Germán is somewhat villainous for the majority of the series due to his overprotective and grouchy attitude towards Violetta and distrustfulness of her friends and love interests, but entirely means well as he thought he was doing the right thing to protect her through lies and deceit and trying to prevent her from following in her mother's footsteps out of fear that she might suffer the same fate as her. He simply had to recognize that his way of protecting Violetta was causing her more pain than good. Even his unfair reprimands to Violetta and attempts to keep her away from her true passion were not out of malice, except for when Violetta was wrongfully accused of sabotaging his relationship with Priscila Ferro (basically his only unnecessary negative trait as a parent out of personal gain), which was actually the doing of her daughter Lumdila Ferro who strongly hates Violetta.
- Despite the series being named after and focusing on its titular character, Diego Ramos, Germán's portrayer, is always billed first in the opening title sequence, while Martina Stoessel is credited second.