#AND a story about a vampire converting to Catholicism

[ahopefulbromantic]

@catwings-writes-things YOU WROTE A FIC ABOUT FR. EDWIN AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!?!?!

Things that are okay to make up if you wanna play with Catholicism in your story:

- Religious orders (just because there wasn’t an order dedicated to fighting vampires doesn’t mean there can’t be)

- Saints (just because there wasn’t a St. Kxchylian, patron saint of transporters, doesn’t mean there can’t be)

- Popes (see previous. You can also make up bad popes! We’ve had our fair share)

Things that are not okay to make up:

- Doctrines and teachings

- Sacraments

- Secret societies that hide the Real Truth from the unwashed masses (you can actually get excommunicated for trying to do this in real life)

[collinsportmaine]

I’ve been a fan of vampire movies and shows since the 1960s. (Yes, I was one of those kids who ran home from school to see the next episode of Dark Shadows.)

In 1985, I read Anne Rice’s second vampire novel, “The Vampire Lestat” and later found the first, “Interview with the Vampire”. What I liked about her take on vampire lore, was that she didn’t tied them down with all the religious claptrap of most vampire stories. But in 1995 she converted to Catholicism and retroactively added religion back into her stories. Her books became too florid as well and I gradually stoped reading them.

Around that time film of Interview came out. It was fun seeing the character come to life (death?). Although I’ve always thought Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt should have traded roles.

In 2022, AMC released a TV series based on Interview. They made some interesting changes: moved the timeframe up 20 years to the 1920s; and cast both Louis and Claudia with Black actors. These ideas refreshed the story and added the additional subtext of vampires as outsiders.

In the original book Claudia was a 5 year old vampire. In the Cruise movie they aged her up to about 12 (played by Kristin Dunst). For the series, she’s been aged up again to about 15 or 16. At first I didn’t think it would work. But by making Claudia a teenager, we now have a vampire with teen hormones coursing through her veins. Plus of course, teenage rebellion.

The second season of the series has just started. A major turning point in the series has been Louis and Claudia traveling to Europe to find other vampires. But the first episode of season 2 shows them making a detour to war ravaged Romania. They do find vampire but not what they expected.

The three main actors are all great in their roles: Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac; Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt; and Bailey Bass (season 1) and Delainey Hayles (season 2) as Claudia.

If you enjoy vampire or horror fiction, but haven’t seen the AMC series, I suggest checking it out. You could probably binge season 1 during the free week, then subscribe if you like it.

[thewritersplace]

WTW Planet Prompts | Jupiter | Religion

•The Road To Eternity Is Paved With Blood

Rose and Judas come from a very Catholic family, and as such even if their relationship with the religion fluctuated over the years, the religion was still a large and integral part of their lives. Rose's marriage to a man who had a complicated history with religion did not necessarily go over well with her family, but they came to accept him eventually. Vlad, a man who had been raised as Eastern Orthodox but converted temporarily to Catholicism at some point in his adult life, was no stranger to the controversy his background caused, and understood why her family felt the way they did. Unlike his wife, he did not judge or criticize them for their initial lack of acceptance, and tried to persuade Rose to let the matter lie, but she was anything if not stubborn.

After Rose and Judas became vampires, they dealt with their religion differently. Rose still considered herself a Catholic, but only in terms of the faith. The institution now firmly disgusted her, and she happily mocked those who were staunch supporters of it. Judas, meanwhile, became a priest, as he found the study of theology interesting, and found amusement in the irony of being the very creature that his religion so staunchly hated and opposed.

Vlad, for his part, is mostly amused by the entire thing, and delights in watching the two have endless debates on the morality, theology, and irony of being vampires who participate in a religion that is against their entire existence.

•The Wrath Of The Vampire Queen

The conflict between the Ottoman Empire and Wallachia was just as much about religion as it was about conquest. Both Vlad and his wife, Senka, — who were both of the Christian faith — did not want the Turks to take full control of their land, and subsequently force their religion on the people of Wallachia. Moreover, if Wallachia and the surrounding regions were conquered, then the Turks would reach Hungary, which was a much larger Christian region. By reaching Hungary, there would be a very real threat of a full invasion of Europe, and that unnerved not only the Pope, but all the other rulers as well. Thus, it was up to Senka and Vlad to keep the Ottomans out of their region, and prevent them from advancing further into Europe. Ironically, on a personal level, the two of them could've cared less about what religion their enemies were. Of course, they would never admit such a thing out loud, for if they did, it would certainly bring about some kind of unrest, and that was the last thing their region — and people — needed.

•For The Love Of A Goddess

In a world where all deities from all religions exist both on the mortal plane and on the immortal plane, there is a very real feeling of being a part of, and in the presence of, something much bigger than oneself. For Megara and Zarina, two normal, mortal girls, this is doubly true, as they are both dating goddesses who are literally leagues above them. Coming from different faiths in their own right, these girls have to contend with the reality of being involved with not just their partners, but also other deities, and navigate the messiness that is a carefully crafted — not to mention fairly fragile — pluralistic coexistence among said deities.

•The Other Side Of Paradise

As creations of God, and the first of all women, Lilith and Eve are part of the stories that make up mankind's first belief system, which later becomes mankind's first religion. Lilith's story, however, is not as widely known as Eve's, and where it is known it is often twisted into something almost unrecognizable. Eve's story is known far and wide, but there is often very little room for understanding. When it comes to the two together, they are thought of as rivals or perhaps sisters, but never as lovers. The very religion that they inadvertently helped in creating is the one that seeks to restrict and confine them, and prevent their true stories from being told.

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 2 - Side B

Propaganda below ⬇️

Dracule Mihawk

Okay so he wears a cross necklace and his sword looks like he has a cross on his back. Like yeah hes a gothy bitch but got that Catholic vibes trust me also got that catholic vampire 18th century facial hair

his weapon is a giant bedazzled cross sword and if he held up his arms he’d look like he was being crucified on it. he’s spanish *and* dracula coded. puss in boots has been accepted and this is his human counterpart.

he keeps sipping red wine, what’s that if not the blood of christ?? also his hobby is gardening and he adopted two orphans. catholic mom.

a vote for mihawk is a vote for all of the forgotten one piece characters

Kristen

Once known as a Chosen of Helio, Kristen lost faith, found out she was gay, escaped the abusive church, and helps a lonely abused goddess return from the dead and continue the goddess of mystery. She also ends up creating her own god in the middle there, but decides it's kind of super annoying and eventually nopes out.

Kristen might be skirting a couple lines here so I'll provide my reasoning for why I think she might belong in the competition but feel free to choose as you wish. Kristen used to follow Helio, and her entire relationship with religion and Helio is meant to show a story of a queer teen leaving an abusive Christian church (I'm not sure if it's specifically Catholic or not, I'm Jewish and don't really understand the differences very well). Throughout the story Kristen meets Helio, finds out how much of a dick he is, finds out how terrible the Church has been and becomes more aware of how her family and the Church are racist/homophobic/abusive/etc., learns more about the world and breaks her ties with the Church, and then goes to find her own faith and a god worth worshipping.

girl is miserable for so much of the first season. girl is battling the brain demons. girl is battling the actual demons. and the actual angels. and the football coach who she knows from church. girl has brothers named bucky bricker and cork. girl invents a new god and cannot get people to convert to her faith apart from a singular dude named craig because she is so visibly annoyed by her own god. girl is gay and has a werewolf girlfriend. girl is so kinky. girl has a dexterity score of 4. not modifier. score. i'm kissing girl on the mouth i love her a lot.

She was a chosen prophet of Helio but oops she’s a very lesbian and so she has to battle with her faith hating gay people as she realizes she is gay people. Early on dies and goes to heaven and discovers Helio is a frat bro and doesn’t really vibe with that. Eventually dies again and fights past angels to get to Helios office and finds her old principal (who died to resurrect her the first time she died, it’s a long story, watch dimension 20, shits wild). And so he makes a deal to help her if she helps him break out of heaven. And also while she’s in heaven she makes a new god whole cloth out of her current beliefs. (She later finds that god annoying because it’s the embodiment of “YES! WOW! YOU CAN DO IT!!” The god turns from YES! Into Yes? In her changing faith. She later resurrects an old god of dreams who was corrupted). But yeah so she has religious trauma out the wazoo. She went to church camp that was actually a front for a cult within the Helioic faith. Idk if it’s Catholicism exactly cause I’m not catholic but it’s clearly parallel so some real world Christ based religion.

At one point they drop 10 stories because they thought they could use their ribbon to fly. They couldn’t.

her entire arc over fantasy high's first season is realizing she was gay and also that her church and the people in it were basically a cult which like SAMESIES and she does end up going to heaven after dying by slipping on corn and getting incredibly disappointed by the jesus equivalent of her universe (his name is helio and he is a frat boy) and after she's resurrected she makes her own god (not very catholic sorry) and preaches about it (pretty catholic of her tbh.) aside from the religious trauma some other kristen fun facts and highlights are that she once ribbon danced down the center of a spiral staircase and lived, she carried a bible around for a good chunk of her freshman year of high school, and her last name isn't a reference to anything because applebees does not exist in the world of fantasy high.

View more propaganda in her tag

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Wednesday, September 21

Buffy and Faith are in the Deputy Mayor's office. Faith notices a picture of him with the Mayor. Buffy goes through papers. Faith picks up the picture and stares at it, cradling it gently. FAITH: He came out of nowhere. BUFFY: (sympathetically) I know. FAITH: (annoyed) Whatever. (She puts down the picture.)

~~Consequences~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Waste Of Time by badly_knitted (Buffy, Giles, PG)

A New Man. by Spander_Lover_Plus (Giles/Spike, Xander/Spike, E)

Doomed by Spander_Lover_Plus (Xander/Spike, E)

Ripper by GiveYouAngst (Giles, Warren, T)

Faith Helps Friends [and multiple other stories] by GiveYouAngst (Faith, Tara, T)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Ice Princess 2: Joyce - Ch. 1 by BrennaLynn (Dawn xover Ice Princess, T)

Dawn the Power Ranger - Ch. 1 by BrennaLynn (Dawn xover Power Rangers, T)

Miss World - Ch. 2 by Tasseomancy (Buffy, Dawn, T)

Bound - Ch. 22 by spnae (Spike/Buffy, M)

Fangs Out- Transfer of Control - Ch. 1 by Dynamite (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Ties to the World - Ch. 5 by The Danish Bird (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Slayer and the Vampire - Ch. 81 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Nemesis: To Give What Is Due - Ch. 6 by YouCutYourHair (Buffy/Spike, R)

The Worst Day Since Yesterday - Ch. 4 by Dynamite (NC-17)

Tales From Sunnydale - Ch. 160 by violettathepiratequeen (PG-13)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: Sailor Spuffy’s Tattoo Parlor - Ch. 1 by cawthraven (Spike/Buffy, worksafe)

Artwork: D-straction Day: All Night Long - Ch. 6 by HappyWhenItRains (Spike/Buffy, VERY NSFW)

Artwork: Can we rest? Art by me. by jamezkelske (Spike, worksafe)

Artwork: We’re slayers, girlfriend. The chosen [two is crossed out]. by doughnutcleric (Faith, Buffy, Kendra, worksafe)

Artwork: I got deadnamed recently and converted that rage into creativity... by boopsterliv (Spike/Buffy, worksafe)

Fanvid: faith lehane // united states of whatever by faith-thee-slayer (Faith, worksafe)

Artwork: Buffy & Spike Studies | Original graphite drawing and digital [1] by NMCIL (Spike/Buffy, worksafe)

Artwork: Buffy & Spike Studies | Original graphite drawing and digital [2] by NMCIL (Spike/Buffy, worksafe)

Artwork: Buffy & Spike Studies | Original graphite drawing and digital by [3] NMCIL (Spike/Buffy, worksafe)

Manip: Buffy & Spike Studies | Fun projects are doing faux commercials by NMCIL (Spike/Buffy, NSFW)

[Reviews & Recaps]

[in comics] On one hand, it's nice to see the fake memory of Dawn crying... by oveliagirlhaditright

Buffy Rewatch 2k22: 4.15 This Year's Girl by handsofabitterman

Buffy Rewatch 2k22: 4.16 Who Are You by handsofabitterman

Buffy Rewatch 2k22: 4.17 Superstar by handsofabitterman

[Fandom Discussions]

Do you think Buffy ever saves Willow.... by three-blogs-in-a-trenchcoat

So Wikipedia is telling me that Spike was called William "the Bloody" ... by rowan94

Between the ages of 14 and 15, Dawn Summers... by nevergonnabemuchmorethanweather

i just really enjoy human villains in fantastic settings [the trio] by juniperhillpatient

Buffy Halloween headcanon: Buffy having been a 18th century woman... by imsorrythatusernameistaken

[discussion on Angel and Spike and Dracula] by disco-tea

In Consequences, when Faith’s trying to justify... by coraniaid

Okay but Angel coming back to Catholicism in ATS... by annyankers

I've always hated how easily the potentials kill the ubervamps (finale) by Mediocre_Paper

Which returning characters potential cameo hurts the most? by kimmycat88

It was like there were only three walls, and not a fourth by gimmesomespace

Question about the ATS episode "Five by Five" that I hope y'all can clear up... by jdean48

“Oh Oedipus Oedipus” by Perfect_Scream

Bargaining Part 1 and Part 2 - I can't believe the Scoobies didn't think about *THAT* crucial detail. by Opening_Knowledge868

"That guy just bugs me." by -intuit-

Watching Angel after watching Buffy, why is Faith so much better in Angel then Buffy? by Fun_Medium_2504

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Join the editor team :)

[aion-rsa]

Midnight Mass Ending Explained

https://ift.tt/39I2zkp

This article contains spoilers for Midnight Mass.

Ending a horror story is hard.

Perhaps no one knows that better than Mike Flanagan, the writer-director behind horror hits like Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Haunting of Bly Manor. After observing the occasional less-than-enthusiastic reaction to the endings of some of his other projects, Flanagan decided to end his latest, Netflix series Midnight Mass, on his own terms.

“I didn’t want to come up with an ending that I thought would please people,” Flanagan told Den of Geek and other outlets prior to Midnight Mass’s premiere. “I wanted to come up with the ending that would have the most to say down the line.”

So what, exactly, does the ending of Midnight Mass have to say? Let’s explain just what goes down in the conclusion of Midnight Mass and assess what it all means. 

What’s Up with Mildred Gunning and John Pruitt?

Monsignor John Pruitt a.k.a. Father Paul (Hamish Linklater) was, by all indications, a good Christian man. 

“The thing we kept coming back to is that authentically, through-and-through evil people are very rare. We’re all way more complicated. The humanity of Father Paul was something that was baked in relatively early,” Flanagan says.

Though Pruitt is not a bad man, per se, he is a deeply flawed one. A long time ago, before the “war” (probably World War II or The Korean War), Pruitt hooked up with the married Mildred Gunning and fathered their daughter Sarah Gunning out of wedlock. That is obviously a big no-no for a priest and Pruitt lived with the guilt of denying his daughter for decades. 

Pruitt finally got a chance to alleviate that guilt when he came across a curious creature in Damascus. In this fictional universe where the concept of a vampire is clearly not well known, John Pruitt made the understandable mistake of confusing a monstrous vampire for an equally monstrous angel. After all, the angels of the bible are so visually terrifying that they make a habit of telling those they visit “be not afraid.” 

Pruitt thought this angel had granted him the gift of eternal life, just like the Bible promises. He then decides to share that gift with his congregation. The priest’s major sin here though is pride. He didn’t share the angel’s gift with his congregation out of pure benevolence. He did it because he wanted many more years of life in his prime with Mildred and Sarah at his side. Catholicism means everything to Pruitt. And yet, he would cast it all aside for another chance to have the family he wanted. 

“If you showed up and asked me, I would have taken this collar off and gone with you. Gone with you anywhere in the world,” Pruitt tells Mildred after she’s been vampirified. 

That’s a touching sentiment from the artist formerly known as Father Paul but it’s unfortunately a destructive one.

“When it became clear that Paul could do bad things with pure motives, the show came into clearer focus. There’s only one character in the whole show who I think is evil and it’s not Father Paul,” Flanagan says.

Only one character who is evil? Who could Flanagan be referr….ohhh.

What Were the Vampires’ Plans?

Flanagan actually never confirms which character he sees as evil, but Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan) seems to be the best fit…unless we count the angel, and he just seems to be a hungry, growing boy.

Bev is, let’s say, a real piece of work. As beautifully depicted by Sloyan, Bev Keane is the officious church lady who can’t keep her nose out of other people’s business. After Mildred talks some sense into John Pruitt, he understands that he and his congregation “are the wolves” and refuses to participate further. That leaves a power vacuum at the top, which Bev is more than happy to step into. 

Read more

TV

Why Midnight Mass is Mike Flanagan’s Most Personal Work

By Alec Bojalad

TV

Midnight Mass Cast: Previous Credits From Hill House to Bly Manor, Legion & Sherlock

By Louisa Mellor

Now that Bev has a veritable army of superpowered vampires what does she intend to do with them? The same thing that all Bevs want to do: make more Bevs. Bev represents the worst of colonial Christianity and its historical penchant for converting all to its kingdom of heaven…through any means necessary.

When Erin Greene (Kate Siegel) finds out that Bev and friends have merely disabled the boats and not destroyed them, she realizes that their ultimate plan is to eventually take their vampire party to the mainland and create a whole planet of enlightened Christians who just happy to have an insatiable taste for blood and a severe UV-ray allergy. 

What Happens to Crockett Island?

Thankfully, Bev’s ultimate goal never comes to pass thanks to the careful plotting of the handful of human beings left in Crockett Island. Erin Greene, Sarah Gunning (Annabeth Gish), Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli), and Annie Flynn (Kirstin Lehman) get to work on finishing the destruction that Bev started.

Ironically, it’s part of Bev’s plan that eventually dooms her and her kind. When one of Bev’s lackeys proposes putting out a fire that the human crew started because the whole island could burn to nothing like in ‘84, Bev’s eyes light up.

“I mean…the church didn’t burn in ‘84,” she says.

Surely this is Revelation. And Revelation means a hale mixed with fire and blood. There will be a flood of fire that ends the world and St. Patrick’s church will be the arc. That’s a great plan and all…as long as something doesn’t happen to the arc.

Welp. Sarah Gunning burns down St. Patrick’s and Sheriff Hassan and Erin Greene (with an assist from Hassan’s son) burn down the rec center. As if burning a church designated as an arc wasn’t symbolically compelling enough, recall that the rec center next to it is equally as symbolic of Bev’s greed. It was Bev who convinced Crockett Island to take the oil company’s money for ruining their island rather than pursuing litigation. And all they got out of that settlement money was that stupid rec center.

With the church and the rec center gone, there are no man-made structures for the vampires to hide from the sun in the coming morning. And that’s how an entire island of 120-ish vampires perishes simultaneously when the sun rises. 

Why Do Leeza and Warren Survive? 

All of Crockett Island perishes save for two actually. Warren Flynn (Igby Rigney) and Leeza Scarborough (Annarah Cymone) are spared thanks to some quick thinking. Putting the only two remaining non-vampirized children in harm’s way is not an option for Erin, Sarah, Hassan, and Annie. Thankfully, Warren knows of one secret canoe to reach the “Uppards” that Bev’s crew wouldn’t know about. 

The canoe doesn’t take Warren and Leeza to the mainland but it does get them away from the carnage to come. The last shot of the series is Warren and Leeza floating peacefully and Leeza announcing that she can no longer feel her legs. This means that the last bit of “angel” blood has likely left her system and with it Pruitt’s vampire legacy is over. 

Saving Warren and Leeza has practical, emotional implications for Midnight Mass’s characters but it also has some symbolic ones as well. The concept of witnessing and witnesses themselves are very important in the Bible. As a second-hand text (though purportedly with every word inspired by God) there would be no gospel without witnesses. Good news is only half the battle. Someone to witness and report on the good news is the other half. Now Warren and Leeza can report on the ultimate good news that the world is saved.

The fact that the kids survive while the adults succumb to their own adult nonsense has some major implications for Midnight Mass’s creator 

“That last moment of the next generation looking out at the ashes of what the grown ups made – that’s what my kids are gonna get no matter what,” Flanagan says. “That’s what all of our kids are gonna get. I wish it wasn’t as on fire as it it. But it really is. We’re never going to be able to explain adequately to our children what happened to the planet they inherited.”

What Happens to the Angel?

With all of Crockett Island burned to the ground, the world’s vampire nightmare is over, right? Well that depends on how well you think an angel can fly with torn wings. No, that’s not an aphorism or a poem, it’s the real question facing the end of Midnight Mass.

As if saving Warren and Leeza and upending Bev Keane’s plans weren’t enough, Erin leaves one last little gift for humanity before she dies. While the angel attacks her and drinks her sweet, sweet blood, Erin begins systematically, yet carefully cutting holes in its leathery wings. At first the angel is kind of annoyed but his hunger supersedes any level of discomfort or pain he’s feeling. 

Later on, while Warren and Leeza watch their home burn they see the angel flying away but in a halted, loopy pattern. The kids aren’t sure if the beast will have time to find shelter before the sun rises. According to Flanagan, if Midnight Mass is a parable (and he assures us it is) then the ultimate lesson of all this isn’t too hard to glean. 

“The angel doesn’t represent vampirism or horror but corruption in any belief system,” he says. “It represents fundamentalism and fanaticism. That’s never gonna go away. You might chase it away from your community for a minute. You might send it off to the sunrise and hope that that corrupting ideology will disappear. But it won’t. And the show could never show the angel die for that reason.”

With that in mind, the angel’s flawed flight pattern isn’t so much Inception’s spinning top but rather a promise that evil will find a way. And then we puny human beings will just have to find a way to stop it all over again. If that’s not Biblical then we don’t know what is.

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All seven episodes of Midnight Mass are available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Midnight Mass Ending Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3ERuGMp

[thenightling]

Dracula The Vampire’s “Origin”

Now that Hotel Transylvania 3 and Castlevania have popularized two very distinctly different incarnations of Dracula there has been some question to what his origin is.  Well, there are several answers.   This post will discuss some of them, including some favorites and some... not so favorites.

There are many contemporary stories on how Vladislaus Drakulya (archaic: Wladislaus Dragulya) AKA Vlad III (the third) of Wallachia AKA Vlad Țepeș ( Țepeș means The impaler) became the vampire of Bram Stoker’s famous novel.

(Continue reading under the cut.)

First... Vlad the Impaler:

The first implication that Dracula’s backstory is that if Vlad the Impaler comes from the novel itself. “He must indeed be the Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk.” - Doctor Abraham Van Helsing in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Vlad the Impaler never answered to Țepeș as that literally just means ”Impaler.”  He called himself Vladislaus Drakulya (Dracula) because of his and his father’s membership to The order of the Dragon.  In modern Romanian Dracula means son of the Devil but in the fifteenth century it meant Son of the Dragon or Little Dragon.  The root word was the Latin Draco.

This was his chosen surname as a means to distance himself from the cousins whom he blamed for his father and older brother’s deaths. 

The first people to call him Vlad The Impaler were The Ottoman Turks, who were his sworn enemy, as they had held him and his brother, Raduk prisoner as children, and later demanded tribute of gold and boy slaves (which Dracula would not abide). The Ottomans called him Kaziklu Bey meaning (Impaler Prince or Impaler Lord).  This later evolved to the Romanian Țepeș but only after Vlad’s death. 

Though Dracula, the vampire, can grow older or younger (based on how much blood he consumes in the novel) it would seem his “base” (default or youngest) age is about forty-five or forty-six-years-old, the age Vlad the Impaler would have been at the time of his mortal death in late 1476 or early 1477.

Further comment: There is NO lore where the vampiric Dracula’s fangs are “straws.”   Often he is described as not only craving blood and needing it to maintain his strength, but also enjoying the taste. This would be exceedingly difficult to savor if he’s slurping up the blood with his teeth-straws. (God, that idea is so stupid...)   As far as I know he still uses the human digestive tract but burns all the components of the blood and therefore does not produce waste and this is why he “does not sup” (quote from the novel), as his body probably cannot process human food.

Many people got “bored” with the idea of Count Dracula being the historic Vlad the Impaler so they latched on to the historical inaccuracies of the novel, and the fact that the name was chosen late into the writing of the novel, as proof to argue that the vampire was not him, or they would pretend it was another relation of Vlad the Impaler even though Vlad the Impaler is the only Voivode (General or Warrior Prince) who won his name against the Turks.  And he chose his own surname of Dracula because he resented his own cousins, whom he held accountable for his father’s death.  Vlad The Impaler’s father answered to Dracul.  The “a” at the end is important as it implies “Son of”.

The fictional story by Bram Stoker loosely implies that after his death in 1476 (or early 1477) the historic Dracula rose from his grave as the infamous vampire.  There is no specific story in the original Stoker novel explaining how Dracula became the vampire, only a vague reference to his possible attendance of Scholomance (Folkloric school of magic.  Think darker Hogwarts.)

Many recent (within the last thirty years) fictions came up with stories to explain how Dracula became a vampire.

Examples of modern origin ideas:

The 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula claims he renounced God after he was told his wife was probably damned for committing suicide.  He then... stabbed a giant stone cross that bled and during his tantrum he drank the blood that poured out...  I like the movie but I’m not a fan of this origin for the vampire, I tend to ignore that part when watching the movie.

The film Dracula 2000 took another extreme approach and claimed Dracula was Judas.   Claiming that this is why he’s repulsed by silver (since he was paid in silver) and why he’s weaker by day (because he hung himself at dusk), and why he is repulsed by crosses. I don’t really like this version because it ignores all the events of Vlad the Impaler’s very obviously human life pre-vampirism. It’s also weird to imply that a Middle Eastern Jewish man somehow became an early renaissance Romanian Eastern (Greek) Orthodox who later converted to Catholicism.  

 I don’t think this particular origin is clever at all as it’s used far too often.  It became a trend to make Dracula or the first vampire into a Biblical figure.

Note: Dracula is NOT the longest lived / oldest vampire in the lore of the Bram Stoker novel.  That is never claimed.  He’s just a powerful vampire.  The idea that he is the king of the vampires was invented in the films and or is a self-given title.

Anyway, thanks to Dracula 2000 a trend started. DC Comics decided to attempt making Cain the first vampire during New 52, and the 2013 film Dracula: The Dark Prince (2013 film not to be confused with Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula, which is a far superior film, or even the Hammer Dracula: Prince of Darkness.) had it that Dracula was Abel and only a descendant of Cain could kill him... for some reason...  Honestly, I got tired of the idea of Dracula being a Biblical figure really quickly as this was just a result of people being “bored” with the idea of him being Vlad the Impaler post-Death.     The TV show Dracula (2013) that aired on NBC (not to be confused with the more enjoyable 1990 TV series of the same name), claimed that Dracula was turned into a vampire by The Order of The Dragon after they murdered his wife, to punish him for putting science before religion.   As... You know... it totally makes sense to turn your enemy into a powerful immortal who can rip your throats out...  (I’m not a fan of this show AT ALL!)  

The film Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (2000) told a slightly loose retelling of the historic Dracula’s life story and implied that he became a vampire because he was murdered as in many old legends someone with unfinished business or whom was murdered (or commited suicide) might return as a vampire.

The film Dracula: Untold (2014) told an even looser (and far less respectful) version of the historic Dracula’s backstory.  (I feel Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula did it better).  This one had an ancient vampire hiding out in a cave transform Vlad into his heir by feeding him his blood.  A human victim being fed the blood of a vampire is a common method of vampiric transformation in modern fiction.  Anne Rice uses it, and in the original Dracula novel by Bram Stoker, Mina had described being forcibly fed Dracula’s blood.    

The graphic novel series called Dracula: The Company of Monsters indicated that much like in Stoker’s novel, Dracula practiced Magick during his human life, and that the mixture of honey and herbs used to preserve his head when it was delivered to the Sultan of the Ottoman empire, was actually part of an arcane process (that he orchestrated to bring about his own vampiric immortality.    

The manga and anime Hellsing (and Hellsing OVA Ultimate) gives yet another origin and it’s one of the few to remember he had been decapitated during or after his assassination.  

The Castlevania video game franchise gave yet another origin to Dracula. Also note that Lords of Shadow is considered an AU (Alternate universe).  I’m not a big fan of this origin though I love the current Castlevania animated series on Netflix.   Despite what some viewers have theorized, yes, in the franchise he was originally human.  He was not born a vampire. Don’t expect any historical accuracy in Castlevania but it does have a great portrayal of Dracula, nevertheless. 

   Also note:  He bites a major artery.  No need for illogical and idiotic “straw” (I still can’t get over that there are people on Tumblr who like that idea) teeth.  You rupture the carotid artery and there will be a major torrent of blood and probable death. I’m sorry for harping on this but I still can’t grasp that there are people who “Like” the stupid fan idea that vampire teeth are straws.  Go home, you anatomically-confused children of mosquitos.  

Favorite origin for Dracula:

There are many recent stories invented to tell the origin of Dracula the vampire.   But my personal favorite is the one told in Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula book series.  Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula books (Sometimes called the New Tales of Dracula or The New Dracula, or The Dracula sequence) retell the novel Dracula from Dracula’s point of view and then tell further adventures.  It entails ten novels starting with The Dracula Tape and three short stories.  The sixth book in the series is called “A Matter of Taste” and it includes Dracula’s vampiric origin.

The story covers his death in historically accurate and graphic detail but after his death his body (and severed head) are retrieved by loyalists who spirit away his body and severed head (leaving behind a fallen soldier who resembled him).  They tend to his body for burial and as they do the candles keep going out and the head seems to be re-attaching to the neck.  Growing nervous they hastily bury him at a crossroads with the intention of retrieving him later for a proper burial.  The head of the false Dracula corpse was delivered to the Sultan in 1477, matching the historic record.   

After some time Dracula heals in this grave and rises as a vampire.  Where most vampires are created via a blood exchange in this book series (a human bitten and then drinking the blood of a vampire) Dracula claims to have never been bitten by another vampire, nor did he drink another vampire’s blood, making him unusual to the other vampires of the book series. 

He convinces himself it was a transition of will that he refused to die and so became the vampire but the reality is he actually has no idea how it happened and I kind of like that a lot. 

 It’s an explanation and a non-explanation while being respectful to the history and not undoing or changing any of the events of the human man’s life.  It just deals with posthumous unlife.

Also, contrary to popular modern beliefs, Dracula does have a soul in the original Bram Stoker novel and the heroes even became convinced they could save him (spiritually) after Mina scolded them about talking about Hell.  She said the better part of him might still be saved and ascend and that he should be pitied.  At the end of the novel they were relieved by the look of peace on his face when they destroyed him, implying that yes, despite all that he had done as a vampire, yes, he had been forgiven and had gone on to Heaven.

Fred Saberhagen also had an interesting theory as to why symbols of faith hurt vampires.  He believed it was psychosomatic.  That a vampire is easily influenced by the beliefs of those around him because his is naturally psychic he’ll pick up on the beliefs of those around him and if a believe is strong enough it can plant a suggestion that has a physical manifestation.  This also accounts for why you need faith for the symbol to actually work in such films as Fright Night (original 1985 film). 

An interesting thing to note is that in 1931, when they really dug up where Vlad the Impaler was supposed to have been buried, all they found were animal bones.  

In the book and documentary (narrated by Christopher Lee) “In Search of Dracula” it was suggested that his body may have been relocated to under the altar of the chapel where he had been buried.   This remains unconfirmed.  

[falsebooles123]

Ugh I'm late again - Diary of a Big Ole Gay 02/06/2023

Hey Whores sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I am one tardy ass whore lately, sorry about that.

(me casually forgetting what I'm doing on this app all the time)

so I it the I guess only 6 days since my last review huh I managed to set up a parttime gig with a local eatery so bitch your whores job search is over!!!!

(me when they ask me why I want to work for them)

on that note I have been very lazy this week. Also I have come down with a head cold which is very gross and has left me tired during my screduled "watching a movie because it gives me seratonin" hours.

So I have taken a couple days off this week but I still managed to watch a few, courtesy of Internet Archive. They pages don't always index in the search engine but I was able to 5 (additional) films on there. (for you queer cinema sluts Queen Christina, I was a Male War Bride, Olivia, The Strange ONe, Tea and Sympathy, and Reflections in a Golden Eye.), which is great because I have no budget for this project and that saved me 25 bucks. The only bad news this week is that HBO MAX no longer carries Cat People (1942). SAD

Draculas Daughter (1936) dir. Lambert Hillyer

Draculas Daughter is the sequel to the classic Universal Picture Dracula (1931), (yes I have seen the original), based on a short story excised from the original Bram Stroker Novel. That is that it is only tangentently related to said short story and the whole production rights is due to a lot of really boring behind the scenes drama. You get it its hollywood it has to be tied to some kind of IP.

In this one Dracula has a daughter who doesn't want to be a vamp and is fighting her vampiric origins going to the point of calling up a psychoanaylsist to cure her of her urges. Oh by the way this is protrayed onscreen is her ravising a young damsel with her titties out.

So yeah vampirism in this film is like totally not a metaphor for being a lesbian, HAES PRUDES, (wink).

Supposedly, the queer overtones were toned down in the final project but you still have what is objectable a pretty queer character and even the marketing plays into it, (she gives you that weird feeling).

Now this film while interesting is rather slow so this is definetly only for the serious lesbian vampire lover, for those more casual into the scene may I recommend its unofficial remake, Nadja (1994). Oh which we must always stan and simp for.

Queen Christina (1933) dir. Rouben Mamoulian

Queen Christina is a historical drama based on the biography of Queen Christina of Sweedan. so lets talk about her for a sec.

Chrisitina of Swedan was a monarch from 1626 - 1689, in which she abdicated her throne for a variety of reasons, including the fact that she had converted to catholicism. She was raised, "as a boy", in the sense that her father gave her a education and allow her to persue masculine persuits. She was well known for dressing in a masculine fashion which rose to rumors that she was either a lesbian or intersex. Oh wait theres a great quote for this.

 According to Veronica Buckley, Christina was a "dabbler" who was "painted a lesbian, a prostitute, a hermaphrodite, and an atheist" by her contemporaries, though "in that tumultuous age, it is hard to determine which was the most damning label".

The rumors of her being intersex seems to be unsubstantiated and it should be noted that when you look at a lot of historical gender varient people theres a lot of push to find a biological essentialist view on why. Famous Trans people like Lily Elbe and Christina Jorgensine had intersex qualities so people try to find out if some random butch dyke from the 17th century had overian cysts because thats clearly the only reason why a woman would like to wear pants.

However there is a lot stronger evidence that she liked to eat that kitty. Pictured above is a fictional version of Ebba Sparre who she has a sort of Rosalind relationship with. Its intimate but like they totally just friends. In real life its very likely that they were lesbain lovers.

The actually film itself keeps the butch elements of Queen Christina life but gives both of these women a nice little heterosexual romance. I feel that the strength of the film comes from Greta Garbos performance, she was a WLW and she has this type of Glamour.

Like Dietrich she plays this sexual vivacious almost femme tops. Its very bisexual, very commanding, and there is something just scruptious of all these butch dykes in 30s films. They were like we want woman wearing pants, we want mommy to step on us.

What I'm saying is that Cate Blanchette in Nightmare Alley is historcial accurate.

Orpheus (1950) dir. Jean Cocteau

This is the second film in the Ophic Trilogy by Jean Cocteau. The whole thing is a bunch of abstract experimental films playing around with these notions of the artist and more specifically the myths of Orpheus (duh) and Narcissis, (thats where all the mirror stuff comes in).

There are a lot better and more thourough essays on the topic but essentially the versions he uses are kinda gay Cocteau is super gay and its just him being a little gay having fun and having a blonde twink simp for a butch dommy mommy.

its not the most explicet gay film like Un chant d'amour but as an arthouse film its actually pretty cool. I would recommend you check it out.

Everything Else I Watched

So It turns out not much. I watched the Bowery (1994) by Sara Driver. It was a 10 minute experimental doc that she shot about the Bowery Street in New York. It is very cool and very fun to watch its on Le Cinema Club at the time of writing.

I also watched two random silent comedies that were on my watchlist but I was very drunk when I watched them so I don't remember much.

[shadowgamerwriter]

Otsuka Eiji

Height: 6′0 Age: 500+

Quirk: Blood manipulation. Alternative power: Vampirism.

(insparation: We drink your blood by Powerwolf)

Eiji’s story first begins on May 27, 1446, in early Romania, which was known as Wallachia. The day of his birth. During the reign of Vlad Draculea.

He and his mother lived alone on a farm in between the countries of Moldavia and Transylvania. His father was a soldier that left to fight in Vlad’s first battles when Eiji was 2, he never returned.

Eiji tried to help his mother as much as his little body could at the time, he had taken it apon himself to go foraging in the nearby grove for berries and mushrooms when his mother wasn’t looking. Sadly, or not so, this led to his death by the hands of Vlad.

Eiji was 5 years old when Vlad and Stephen fled Moldari after Bogdan II’s murder. It was the middle of the night when Vlad left to hunt while Stephen set up a rudimentary camp. That was the night Vlad found a little boy. 

You see, those rumors of Vlad being the first vampire are true, and after days of feeding off of rabbits and squrirrels and refusing to feed off of family (i don’t actually know for certain they are related but Bogdan was thought to be Vlads maternal uncle so roll with it) Vlad was starving. He was nearly feral as he bit into little Eiji’s neck, sucking him dry of his blood.

Eiji awoke in the middle of the day, cold and tired, he stumbled back to his home. His mother was in hysterics, believing her only son had disappeared into the night, only for him to return deathly pale and dead cold. For a while all seemed well, Eiji hadn’t gotten any color back but insisted he felt fine. He continued helping his mother with the daily chores and preparing dinner. Until Eiji started to lose weight.

No matter what his mother fed him, he would not grow plump, he would only get thinner and thinner. Despite being equivalent to a walking skeleton, Eiji still insisted on helping his mother. One day they decided on having chicken stew for dinner. As his mother went to the town market, it was his job to behead and pluck a chicken of his choosing.

It was that day that Eiji learned what he had become.

He still went foraging in the woods during the night for his mother, but he also fed apon any animal he could get his hands on.

As more time passed, Eiji learned more about his predicament. sometimes by accident. He had stopped aging by 19.

By age 29, mother dead from illness, he learned of the man that had turned him had been converted to Catholicism and the battle with Mehmed II.

By that time, he had perfected his control over his vampiric powers.

He was the one to tell the Ottomans to double their men, he was the one to guide spies into Vlad’s army, He was the one to slay Vlad the Impaler.

Since then, he flowed with the tide of time. Occasionally playing puppeteer with some gangs of England or mafia of America.

By the 1900s Eiji had become the most powerful vampire to date. Word of his power spread quickly to his brothers and sisters of the night. It wasn’t long before he became the leader of his own coven. Of course, a coven of this magnitude and the amount of power he wielded wouldn’t go unnoticed over time.

But did it fucking have to be the first group of heroes in Japan’s history?!

[blood-fangs-talons]

Headcanon: Dracula/Alucard as remaining faithful

Okay so this is counter to a lot of canon in Dracula and in Hellsing and counter to a lot of vampire mythos in general, but if you know me at all you know that I don’t really care.

I like to imagine that Alucard, in his own way, still has faith in God. Maybe something happened when he died, that he saw something. I’ve mentioned in some conversations that, if Dracula had still felt the same way about Turks (and muslims in general) in undeath as he did in life, there would have been a lot more deaths, and Dracula would be a lot more targeted in his victims, so SOMETHING had to have changed his view of religion.

But that doesn’t mean he stopped believing. Vlad was a man who was worried–fixated, even obsessed–with the future of his soul. This was not a man who went to church because of tradition or for lip service, he really believed in his religion. He killed so many people for his religion. He arguably tore his own country apart for his religion. He may have converted to Roman Catholicism near the end, but God was very much still a part of his life. After a life–and death–dedicated to God, there could be a couple interesting ways his theology could go.

The classic way is the way of the God-Hater. “God has abandoned me, so I will abandon him, even oppose him.” This cynical view of faith is so overused and edgy and grimdark that I’m not generally interested. It’s also very unlike Vlad. He always struck me as a ‘Do it yourself’, 'god helps those who help themselves’ kinda guy.* He wouldn’t have expected God’s aid anyway. Welcomed, yes. Expected, no.

Another classic way that faith might go is towards Athiesm. Stories like these usually go “AH YES TINY MORTAL I HAVE SEEN THE VERY EDGES OF THAT UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY FROM WHICH NO (other) TRAVELER HAS RETURNED, DEATH. I HAVE RETURNED TO TELL YOU THAT NOTHING MATTERS AND LIFE IS MEANINGLESS.” That’s such a cop out and makes inexperienced people feel smart for being nihilists. Very lovecraftian (Not necessarily a good thing) and very teenager. (Very much not necessarily a good thing.)

Another way is towards ultra religion. People who have near-death experiences often find refuge in faith. This does not make them cowards, or prophets. It’s just a way it could go.

I think Alucard would be none of these things.

When I write Alucard, I write him as cold, intelligent, and playful. I write him as laughing, almost care-free. I write him as A-religious, but with a strong leaning towards Orthodoxy. While most vampires (Non-original) are affected by items wielded by people with faith, Alucard is not. He is shielded, in his own way, by his own faith. The non-vampiric magic he wields is channeled, Dresdenverse-style, through his faith. The spells binding him to Integra–spells that he constructed–are made with Orthodox symbology. He can enter churches and holy spaces, but he is reduced to defensive abilities–ultra healing, and his Base Vampire abilities like speed, strength, and senses.

((Personal opinion rambling time from ya girl Bat.

I think it’s sad if we consider all faith and all religion as a weakness, or a character flaw. I think so many of us have had bad experiences with religion that we can no longer tolerate any positive word towards Christianity.

We can have complicated, contradictory characters who still have faith. Who love God, or the idea of God, in their own way. Maybe for nostalgia, maybe for knowledge. He may not be part of a religion, but I like to imagine that

Faith is not trust. Nor is it idiocy. Or hope. Or knowledge. Or it might be. You decide for yourself what you believe. And faith goes beyond 'I believe there’s a big man in the sky who frowns when you play a little five-on-one with yourself’. Or 'I believe there’s certain energies in certain foods, and eating certain foods allows you to balance those out in you.’ Or 'I believe that, in the end, people are mostly good.’))

*(fun fact, 'God helps those who help themselves’ is not in the bible, and was made up, or at least the earliest recording we have of it, is from the fourth century BC. “Heaven never helps those who will not act” and “try first thyself, and after call in god. For it is to the worker that God Himself lends aid” a couple decades later. Good ol’ Greeks!)

Yo religion is a prickly topic so I’m gonna remind you this is just my personal headcanon about what makes sense to me, putting it out there cuz I think it’s fun.

[angelofseeking]

a rough timeline

one of my earliest memories of understanding the mutability of the human experience was in childhood when my mom told me a folktale regarding hindu devas playing a card game. one of the devas took a break from the game to nap beneath a fig tree. as this deva slept, they dreamt the life of a woman born on earth -- her birth, growing up, raising a family, and dying peacefully. when the deva woke, they returned to the card game. my mom has no memory of telling me this story, yet i can recall it vividly.

when i was five, my imaginary friend was a boy who wore white, had stark white hair, and was pale as plaster. he was kind and he would kiss my forehead and push me on the swing in my grandma’s backyard. his name began with an M.

i was coerced into converting to catholicism when, around second or third grade, i developed a curiosity for witchcraft. (mostly thanks to my obsession with the movie “hocus pocus”) i was nine years old and did not understand the significance of my own baptism, yet i took to the faith with the zeal of a child trying her hardest to do what she is told is right. i once had a tantrum and made a promise that i would get a “sex change” just to join the priesthood. i was only partially right.

we prayed the rosary almost every week. i remember feeling the holy spirit in the midst of a hymn at mass.

i was homeschooled for fourth and fifth grade. catholic home schooled, so all my textbooks had religious overtones. i was taught that angels were neither male nor female. they had long hair and delicate facial features, but were broad-shouldered with androgynous voices (and were always depicted as white, just like our portraits of a blue-eyed jesus). i envied their androgynous beauty.

i felt that i had a guardian angel primarily because i was told that one was watching over me. just as i was told that both god and the devil could read my thoughts, and that even thinking about committing a sin was as egregious as carrying out the act. i punished myself for even thinking any curse words. i imagined my guardian angel as having red hair, who i called oliver.

it was only after i left the church at fourteen when i was able to give words to the distinct feeling that i only occupied my body because i had “lost a bet with god.” i wrote an angsty poem about it in a creative writing class. i imagined myself standing with “Him” and peering into a scrying pool, seeing the earth and feeling obligated to be born into this life.

one of my favorite books as a teenager was called rapture by david sosnowski, about a bloodborne pathogen that caused people to grow wings, and the social implications that followed as the virus spread. it led me to read one of his other books about vampires -- the first step in an obsession with the lovely immortals and their eternal struggle with damnation.

in my later teenage years, i struggled with gender dysphoria. it may have been a general dysphoria with this form. i was not taken seriously as genderqueer when i began to question my identity, so i decided to be a binary man. i don’t regret starting testosterone, but trying to fit myself into the box of masculinity began to wear on me after two years. i eventually realized that i would never desire affirming surgery, and that i no longer minded if my long hair made me perceived as feminine. i liked that some referred to me as masculine while others did not, and that many more could not categorize me as either one. i stopped being ashamed of my lack of cisnormativity.

one of the most influential movies that set me on the path of transitioning was “to wong foo thanks for everything julie newmar.” i still cry during one of the last scenes, when Carol Ann says to Vida Boheme, “I don’t think of you as a man, and I don’t think of you as a woman. I think of you as an angel.”

i continue to use angelic androgyny to explain my gender identity to people. i think that most who know me use he or they pronouns. recently i was asked if i preferred they. i said that “they” was the most correct, but no pronoun is really correct.

around the time i began to take an interest in witchcraft and the occult, i developed an obsession with aztec history. this was when i was in graduate school for anthropology, and i also had an intense scientific curiosity regarding cannibalism. i frequently imagined myself being sacrificed, my flesh consumed so that no trace of my physical body remained, so that my divine self could be released from this form.

i once attended a meeting with those who subscribed to more new age leaning beliefs. i did not vibe well with them, as many of the members seemed to have an inflated sense of importance. the leader of the group described herself as a psychic, and frequently called on jesus, gabriel, and michael as servitors. at the time, i felt too burned by christianity to take her seriously, but when she spoke to her angels, i could see the outlines of two tall figures on either side of her.

as i went deeper into the study of mysticism, i began to practice meditation and hypnosis. although my mom had led me to catholicism, she was also the catalyst for my interest in the occult, and told me about transcripts of people channeling extraterrestrials while under hypnosis. it resonated with me so deeply and unexpectedly. my journeys in a trance state have been as incomprehensible, vivid, and varied as my dreams. they have told me little of my angel self, but perhaps i just needed a greater sense of direction.