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A Thirsty Dish

So everyone talks about Jonathan not being able to handle spicy, paprika isn't spicy, Jonathan's too English to appreciate something spicy. . . but has it occurred to anyone that, when he says the paprika hendl was "good, but thirsty," he didn't mean "spicy," he meant "salty?"

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So excited to hear from my good friend Jonathan!

He's going on a business trip to some place called Transylvania. Sounds like such a lovely place! He's going to write me all about his trip, and the old nobleman he's helping with some real estate deal. Can't wait to hear all about his trip, must be so exciting!

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I love a happy ending.

Some may prefer more angst and open-endedness, and I don't mind that sometimes. . . but sometimes, a nice, heartwarming "and they lived happily ever after" is the order of the day.

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Pointed out on TV Tropes:

Quincey Harker's birthday being on the anniversary of Quincey Morris' death, and thus the day they killed Dracula, means it is impossible for Dracula to be Quincey's father in any way. He was born too late for Dracula to have impregnated Mina or for Mina to have been under Dracula's influence while pregnant with him. A neat little bow on the happy ending: Quincey Harker is a perfectly normal little boy.

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So, Dracula Daily Veterans:

I just want to confirm, we're still getting the epilogue too, right?

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What a climax.

Very tense and suspenseful. I read on TV Tropes that it's been pointed out the climax isn't a showdown between the Heroes and The Big Bad, it's the heroes rushing to defuse a bomb before time runs out. The attention paid to the position of the sun, the chase, the obstacles in their path, getting to Dracula, the triumph on his face as he sees he's almost won, then Jonathan and Quincey strike. And Jon hurling Dracula's crate off the wagon and Quincey's foe-tossing charge through Dracula's mooks! Thrilling!

But sometimes victory requires sacrifice. And Quincey P Morris, our bold American, our brave cowboy, paid the price. Yet he dies knowing his life was well spent, evil is vanquished, Mina is free. I'm not generally given to quoting scripture, but for Mr. Morris: "For a man hath no greater love than he lay down his life for his brother," or in this case, sister.

Rest in peace, Mr. Morris. Give Lucy a hug and a kiss from all of us.

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"The evening was now drawing close, and well I knew that at sunset the Thing, which was till then imprisoned there, would take new freedom and could in any of many forms elude all pursuit."

Uh, wrong horror movie there, Mina.

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though the doors were all open I broke them off the rusty hinges, lest some ill-intent or ill-chance should close them, so that being entered I might not get out, and be fucked.

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So, today:

"But she sleep on, and I may not wake her though I try. I do not wish to try too hard lest I harm her; for I know that she have suffer much, and sleep at times be all-in-all to her. I think I drowse myself,"

"Then I arouse Madam Mina."

Van Helsing arouses Mina, and they sleep together. Just had to point that out.

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Even the script is good. Hitting all the key points from the novel, some of which had never been in an adaptation before, and maintaining Dracula's evil deeds. Even the Drac/Mina romance is written pretty well. It's just that both those things have no business being in the SAME script.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897): Jonathan may know that I loved him and honoured him more than I can say, and that my latest and truest thought will be always for him.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992): Dracula is just so dreamy and sexy! Oh, right. I have a fiancé too, I guess.

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"They are very, very superstitious. In the first house where we stopped, when the woman who served us saw the scar on my forehead, she crossed herself and put out two fingers towards me, to keep off the evil eye."

Is it "superstition" when they're COMPLETELY CORRECT? Maybe don't be so dismissive, Mina, when you are literally wearing proof of a vampire's influence.

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Happy Halloween!

To all my Dracula Daily buds who've stuck it out so far! We're almost at the end!

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Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897): Jonathan may know that I loved him and honoured him more than I can say, and that my latest and truest thought will be always for him.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992): Dracula is just so dreamy and sexy! Oh, right. I have a fiancé too, I guess.

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A vivid mental image:

Jonathan writes his last entry by the light of the furnace door. Dim, flickering orange light, at night, all else is blackness. He concludes saying that Art is shutting the furnace door. Cutting off that flickering light, leaving them in darkness.

Not sure exactly what the symbolism might be, there are a lot of interpretations that spring readily to mind, but damn, it would be a chilling visual in a proper adaptation. Maybe as the last shot in the penultimate episode of a limited series. Flickering orange light. Jonathan’s voice over as he writes. Shutting the door. Cut to black. Credits and ominous music.

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Been awhile. . .

But we, yet again, get to see Mina flex her remarkable brain. "Not bad for a girl?" Sherlock Fucking Holmes and The Goddamn Batman would be impressed with her deductive reasoning.

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I've always wondered: why "monster hunters?"

In all manner of supernatural fiction, people who venture out to fight the creatures of the night are called "hunters" in some variation. I've always wondered why, since some of these hunters seem to do comparatively little "hunting," as I picture it. Seeking, searching, and tracking their prey, luring them to a time and place of the hunter's choosing to deal with them.

These entries, of the crew trying to track Dracula and him slipping their snares, really feels like a "hunt" to me, against a very canny and dangerous prey. Prey that could turn predator most unexpectedly if the hunters screw up in the least. And seminal as Dracula is to vampire stories, it makes sense it's equally important to stories about hunters.

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Oh, John, my friend, we are in awful fucking straits.