#implied dracula daily spoilers

[excentricat1]

The thing about blood types, which Stoker couldn’t have known anyway, is that they’re not evenly distributed.

If Lucy is A+, she can accept blood from A+, A-, O+, and O-. These are typically the 4 most common blood types, giving her a match to ~80% of the population.

For math nerds, this means she has an 80% chance of the first randomly matched blood transfusion going well. A 64% chance of two randomly matched transfusions going well. A 51% chance of three randomly matched transfusions going well. And a 41% chance of four randomly matched transfusions going well.

[burekstation]

#a whole dhampir? #would that also be their [redacted]?

....... OH

See it's like how both of them in their liminal states make one vampire or one hunter or one dhampyr or one alive person, they also can literally make one alive person 😎

[barghesthowls]

Now I don't personally believe that Dracula was for real terrified of Mina, however, he did flee after seeing this dainty girl (who saw him in the graveyard with his red eyes and immense figure) not faint or scream or freeze or flee despite her obvious fear but run straight at him.

Dracula is at his worst when something he wasn't anticipating happens. He wasn't expecting Jonathan to pick himself up and literally crawl up the castle walls and dare try to kill him. If he was expecting that, he'd not be having a scar now. He wasn't expecting the Captain of the Demeter to defy him by tying himself up on the wheel with a crucifix. If he did, the logs would have been gone now.

Mina woke up and ran into the night defying every fear, convention, risk, to save Lucy from man or beast. That wasn't on his Bingo card. He was forced to stop hurting Lucy and fled.

Then Mina wakes up again, sensing something wrong, and goes to the window and spots him. He flies closer a couple of times but she remains there. He's forced to flee again. Mina believes she scared the 'bat'.

To me, these two scenes establish a few things.

-Bravery as a core trait for Mina.

-Mina as the one who hunts Dracula down.

Jonathan wounded him in his box, the Captain denied him apotheosis, but Mina made him run.

[spider-xan]

Given my research that a single wax cylinder could only record two minutes' worth of audio and each one cost 50 cents in the 1890s, which would be equivalent to almost $20 USD today, someone should tally up the final run-time of Seward's phonograph diary entries and calculate how much he blew on wax cylinders just for whatever was included in the compiled documents.

[thethirdromana]

IIRC, one of the standard academic takes on Dracula is that Mina is rewarded for being a dutiful wife (she learns shorthand, she travels to Budapest) and Lucy suffers for not being that (she has three suitors and wishes she could marry them all, etc).

Today's entry, and the commentary around it, makes me realise how little that holds up, so far at least. Lucy is so painfully dutiful - to her future husband, to her mother, to her friends, to her doctor - and all it's done is made her more vulnerable.

If she eloped with Arthur right now, she might be safe.

If she risked being honest with her mother, she might be safe.

If she put anyone to even slightly more trouble (Arthur, Jack, the servants) and had them stay up with her, she might be safe.

But she behaves like the ideal of a Victorian woman, always deferring to other people and putting their needs first. And that's why she's in so much danger tonight.

[kitcatia]

Gotta love how Mina is a schoolmistress (fancy old word for teacher from what i managed to look up). Really explains her resilience and capability to endure horrors.

[wiliecoyotegenius]

Dracula burning the letter to Mina with her name written on it, with Jonathan's love in it.

Surely Dracula is not going to attempt to damn her and their love into the fires of hell!

[treespen]

Van Helsing expectations

Van Helsing reality

[artemisyates]

(Quick little sketch of Jonathan Harker as I try to settle on a design for him.)

[thebibi]

Bram Stoker: Here's a good guy, a more morally grey guy, and a very bad guy. They're all old, tall, commanding, and very strong. I don't have a type.

Bram Stoker Old Man Enjoyer

Also! Like, these three specific characters occupy such iconic parts of the book, it feels very intentional. There is a buff old guy to suit most people's tastes!

[excentricat1]

The captain steers his ship. Alone in the fog he commends himself to the hand of God. He knows he is not safe, one man cannot run a ship alone. But still, he thinks the killing has stopped. The first mate, mad, jumped overboard raving. The captain sets up a lonely vigil in the fog. Hoping to one day signal for help before he drifts too far. Hoping he will one day see home again. Hoping that with the loss of the madman, the worst is over.

But this is Dracula, and the madman is not the enemy, he is the warning.

[drac-kool-aid]

Jonathan taking refuge in the women's wing, feeling comfort and kinship with its previous inhabitants is soooo good.

The fondness and little laugh in Ben Galpin's voice, as he imagines the lady penning a letter to her lover, takes what could have been a very bitter line and instead, turns it into one of companionship.

This makes what happens later, with the ladies, all the more awful.

[barghesthowls]

Last night was very threatening, and the fishermen say that we are in for a storm. I must try to watch it and learn the weather signs.

For all the times Mina says she's been learning new things to be useful (journaling, shorthand, train timetables, typing, law, history) it's apparent she does it because she loves learning it might even bring her comfort. She has no justification for learning weather signs, she actually just wants to.

[spider-xan]

I'm happy to see all the meta this year, re: the parallels between Jonathan and Dracula at the castle versus Renfield and Seward at the asylum bc last year, it wasn't really a popular topic of analysis from what I remember, and without spoiling anything, I do think doing a read-through of Dracula last year put Renfield in a different light on a re-read, and it's honestly a relief to see Renfield being treated with more respect and sympathy this time around, as opposed to him being a joke character, prop for Seward's storyline, or his mental illness being stigmatized as something that makes him evil, creepy, and undeserving of sympathy and compassion.

Likewise, as someone who does like Seward as a complex and very flawed character, I'm glad to see more discussion about the way he and Dracula are foils to each other instead of such posts being dismissed as character slander - a lot of characters in the novel parallel Dracula in unique ways, so it's a legitimate topic of analysis if approached in good faith! - as well as viewing his treatment of Renfield in a more critical light bc while he isn't actively malicious in terms of intent, it was a little frustrating last year to see some of that critique reduced to how it's unfair to hold him to modern standards when his actions still nevertheless caused harm and some Victorian contemporaries would have seen them as wrong, not to mention that many of our 'modern' standards regarding mental illness are not progressive at all.

[thethirdromana]

I like the nuggets of Jonathan's daring earlier too, when Dracula turns his back for a bit, Jonathan is hurriedly peeking at Dracula's papers to see his further plans/why he may be interested in more solicitors, and writes it all down

Yea! He gets painted as this hopeless prisoner sometimes (not usually on tumblr, admittedly, but certainly elsewhere), but he's a very brave and active prisoner. He's terrified, he's severely sleep-deprived and Dracula is toying with him, but he doesn't stop trying.

[vickyvicarious]

"I do not know how I am writing this even to you. I am afraid to stop, or I should tear up the letter, and I don’t want to stop, for I do so want to tell you all."

Lines that make you remember What Happens Later

FUCK

I didn't even catch that one, holy shit-

Oh yeah. I'm remembering What Happens Later now, oh my god.