#dracula's rage

[starlee246]

Forced to say ‘Media is subjective and all interpretations are valid. Creative license is cool :)’ Born to say ‘Anyone who makes adaptations where Jonathan is a bad person so that Mina can fall in love with Dracula should be shot point blank’

[mothmore]

something i am utterly obsessed with is the physical copy of dracula that i recently purchased that has , as part of its foreword , some of the original idea notes that bram stoker had about what dracula’s vampiric powers/traits would be.

one of these is that dracula’s likeness cannot be captured in a painting , he always looks like someone else.

which only leads me to imagine a scenario in which the count lines many of his castle hallways with paintings of himself throughout the centuries but none of them look the same and none of them look like him but jonathan can’t help but notice they all somehow look eerily similar.

he brushes it off , assuming they are simply counts of generations past.

[carm3n-carm3n]

i’ve crossed oceans of time to find you

[see-arcane]

Me: "A whole week of waiting for an update"

Jonathan Harker today: "A whole week of waiting..."

Me: "RIGHT"

We are all rocking back and forth in the hotel room together waiting for pakidge*

*pakidge is a Dracula in need of dismembering

**pakidge has been delivered to wrong address

[vamprincessss]

— when the preacher’s daughter is marked by the vampire

[thegoatsongs]

Arthur day reminded me of the time Newman explained his (frankly baffling) reasons for making Arthur Holmwood an unsympathetic serial killer in his AU.

(I don't even think the other characters praise him much. Lucy obviously does, because he's honestly a good boyfriend. She praises Jack Seward for being "handsome", not Arthur! His wealth isn't even exceptional, since Mina points out Quincey is rich, funds parts of the trip like their weapons, and gives her gifts. As for "nobility and decency", the one who gets praised for those most by others is Quincey.)

[artverso]

Mike Krome - Vampirella

[newm8n]

“ Bite me. ”

“ Ask nicely. ”

[sweetangelssworld]

[princessofwallachia]

[vickyvicarious]

Dracula's actions today were interesting. His attack on Jonathan definitely was not what he intended on going in to his room. I think he wanted to make him jump, yeah, to spook him a little. He wanted to touch him more, continue being creepy in that way also. But I think he intended to spend more time in his company, continue to play the social manipulation game. I wonder if he wanted to be around when Jonathan discovered the locked doors... watching him panic at the realization that he's a prisoner but be forced to try and hide it because Dracula is right there would be absolutely the sort of thing he'd love. (I just can't picture why Jonathan would be trying different doors with Dracula right there. Maybe if he was 'working' in the library and encouraged him to walk around/explore as Dracula was too busy to be good company, then snuck up on him again as he's in the middle of learning how many/which doors are locked? But I dunno.)

Regardless, either Dracula's very thirsty or Jonathan looks very tasty (I suspect both) because he lost all control the second he saw his blood:

When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I drew away, and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there.

I don't even think this means Dracula didn't know about the crucifix. Probably not before now (and probably Jonathan just made some general statement about receiving gifts from the local people rather than naming the innkeeper lady), but not necessarily. After all, if Jonathan was still shaving he probably wasn't fully dressed yet, and anything worn about his neck should probably have been at least somewhat visible. I think Dracula just got tunnel vision at the sight of blood, and that could go whether he knew the crucifix was there or not. The instant he touches it though, he comes back to himself, and puts on the friendly host mask again.

His first instinct is to get rid of the evidence, and he does so in a way that once again is subtly insulting to Jonathan (implying he's vain here, before implying he was stupid) as well as some larger group of other people (men in general here, before it was 'peasants'). But it's also really over the top and I think despite the jolt of the crucifix, he's really struggling to maintain his control over himself. Hence flinging the mirror out the freaking window and then fleeing. Not just the room, either - the entire castle. This becomes apparent when he returns some time later through the front door: "I heard the great door below shut, and knew that the Count had returned." I really wonder where he went, what he did while gone, and exactly how long he was gone... Even after his return, he keeps his distance from Jonathan initially. Jonathan has to seek him out, or maybe waits until mealtime to talk to him.

The goitre in the surrounding area implies Dracula has been feeding, but everything about his actions today really suggests he has been starving himself recently. Based on other stuff in the book, I don't think it can be possible that vampires always lose control of themself so much around the sight of blood. Also, his face immediately becoming angry... maybe part of that is just his hunting expression, but I wonder if a part of it is Dracula's frustration that once again things aren't going to plan with Jonathan. I wouldn't be surprised if he felt angry at him (how dare he bleed at me and ruin my suave game?!) and a little part of the way he throws the mirror away so violently is to punish him for being so 'provoking' or whatever.

[immediatebreakfast]

A lot of things happened today, a lot of horrible things. A full circus of errors orchestrated by the narrative to serve the high end of tragedy. Everything thrown to this poor young lady who just wanted to get married, and live happily.

And yet it's incredible to read how Dracula practically organized the worst way possible to deliver the last blow to poor Lucy.

Every action, and horrible moment translates into a domino effect that traps Lucy in her own house, surrounded by death, and then utterly alone.

Dracula is merciless as we have known. The poor mother with the wolves, those babies only knowing pain and then death, even the Weird Sisters as horrible as they were are subjected to this man's orders and treatment. Plus, all of the locals of Transylvania being terrorized for centuries.

Then it comes Jonathan, and now Lucy.

All of Dracula's actions feel full of rage. Rage of being foiled, of seeing how his target keeps on living despite being utterly drained of blood two separate times. He was capricious with Lucy in Whitby by capturing her nightmares as he drank in leisure, but now it became about power over a life.

"but I did not fear to go to sleep again, although the boughs or bats or something napped almost angrily against the window-panes." - Lucy Westenra.

Our dear Lucy doesn't fear the nightmares anymore, she doesn't fear the darkness, nor is worried about the fog inside her head ordering to do things that cause her harm because Lucy is now surrounded by love, by medicine, by people that care about her.

She knows about the horrors, about the nightmares, about the harm that has been inflicted upon her. However, lucy doesn't fear that anymore, with her beautiful garlic wreath around her neck, healthy, and clear of mind she doesn't fear.

And what happens when it's clear to Dracula that Lucy doesn't fear his power?

"I went to the window and looked out, but could see nothing, except a big bat, which had evidently been buffeting its wings against the window."

This single moment, this tiny moment of simply looking at Dracula directly, it's probably the drop that made the glass explode. This is all speculation of course, but just imagine the miriad of emotions, questions, and decisions that traveled through Dracula's brain in that single moment.

The girl, not dead, full of life, eyes as clear as the morning sky, with a wreath of garlic flowers (mountain ash to repel) around her neck looking right at him without a shred of fear... those wretched peasants arming themselves with their knowledge thinking that they could survive him. The young solicitor with the crucifix, denying him of what is rightfully his, and striking him down with a simple shovel.

What does she deserve after this? Death. Death to her mother, death to her loved ones, death to herself... or maybe something worse.

This ancient evil got so angry that this young lady was holding so much to her life that he orchestrated a living nightmare to kill her.

Because who is this mortal human to deny the orders of a lord defeating time itself?

[jasperjv]

I love you, nu metal. Thank you so, so much. They wrote songs about anger and frustration that most people can relate to, so it can be vague, and taken in bad faith, it's criticized for being low-brow and performative. And yes, some people do direct their anger toward other people, judge them as inherently stupid or evil, see themselves above those, instead of direct their anger toward the pain and fear and the other human flaws that cause people to treat each other like shit. But I don't see it that way. It's my alone time to validate my anger. It feels like a big warm bear hug through time and space. We've all been there. We've all been there— and these sorts of things happen sometimes. I'm so glad I didn't allow myself to be told what to think.

[see-arcane]

Me, for the first chunk of today's @re-dracula entry: :)

Me, when This Shit Happens:

Mina, in hypno-mode, Dracula's consciousness and voice overlapping hers: "This is the way." Van Helsing: "How know you it?" I ask. Mina-Dracula, smug as hell: "Of course I know it," she answer, and with a pause, add: "Have not my Jonathan travelled it and wrote of his travel?"

:)

In all ways but physical, I am ripping Dracula out of his dirt box and washing his mouth out with a loaf of garlic bread

Whose? Fucking whose Jonathan??

[primaphomet]

Mrs. Westenra is the type of person to stop taking prescribed antibiotics when she starts feeling better