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Dracula Daily - Blog Posts
"So you see, my dear Lucy, this man here is bitchless, no bitch in sight, in fact, I reckon he never felt a woman's touch in his life"
- Abraham Van Helsing, September 3rd.
Things that Adaptions have robbed us from #5829:
Van Helsing having red hair! He doesn't have gray hair yet, which should tell you he's on the younger side of being "old"!
It'd be interesting to make a chart of various Dracula adaptations and how they deal with certain issues. Things like:
Dr. Seward is:
Lucy's ex
Lucy's father
Lucy AND Mina's father
some rando
non-existent
Renfield is:
Just some guy (old)
Just some guy (young)
Jonathan Harker
Jonathan's employer
Jonathan escapes the castle by:
Dying immediately
Getting killed by the Girlies
Getting turned into a vampire
Becoming Dracula's thrall
He just leaves
He was never in the castle in the first place
This character does not exist
Seriously the options are WILD. I haven't consumed nearly enough adaptations to do it myself but I think it would be a very funny group project
Jack Seward: Vampire Coded
I really like the theory of Jack being vampire-coded, not only because he is a foil of Dracula but because it shows how the abuse of power can come from within the house (or rather within the asylum). So here is a list of vampire-like traits he's exhibited so far:
-Has a good forehead and strong jaw, just like Dracula is described as having a prominent forehead and "strong chin"
-Doesn't sleep at night except for the help of chlloral
-Monologues about the "natural order of things". Dracula with his lineage and warrior blood and Jack with his superior rationality over Renfield.
-Jack is described by Lucy as having an intense stare and wanting to psychoanalyze her (later Renfield), which implicitly recalls how Dracula has power over Lucy through his hypnotizing red eyes.
-Uses a lancet, which is a small instrument for blood letting. Speaking of blood, he describes Renfield as having a "sanguine" temperament twice. What's next, drinking blood?
-Feels lonely and compelled to love someone, just like Dracula wants to "love" Jonathan. Now this is pretty interesting -- Jack is more like a gothic brooding hero that Dracula tries to be in a lot of media adaptations. He's in love with Lucy and yet he uses Renfield as a replacement.
-Being alone vs being lonely. Dracula is lonely, even though he lives with three vampire women who are familiar with him. Jack has friends who he keeps at a distance because of unrequited love. Of course this is a bit of a stretch as we tend to think of all three suitors as a parallel to the vampire women, but I'm throwing this in anway.
Again, this isn't like definitive, but I thought it was interesting!
The harrowing and heartfelt part 2 to this. Congratulations to the century-old sweethearts. đź’–
Took Alexandria Neonakis' Schoolism class on costuming, and the main assignment was to design the costume for a character in a book, movie, etc. Her example was Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, so I designed Mina Harker from the book Dracula! I tried to make her outfits as close to 1880/1890's designs as I could. Her clothes are of an older style, as she was a school teacher and Jonathan had only just been certified, so in my mind they didn't have a lot of money, and then...Dracula happened.
Very informative class, would recommend!
Made a Lucy and Arthur lockscreen for myself because I am completely normal about them…
This is coincidentally the first drawing of Lucy I’ve done with colour, so that’s a thing.
Getting nostalgic about early book Jonathan Harker writing down paprika hendl recipes for Mina. ♥
Some Mina and Jonathan Harker for the end of spooky season. ♥
Someone said "Jonathan Harker but what if he was a Vampire but also still a dork?"
That someone might have been me.
(Quick little sketch of Jonathan Harker as I try to settle on a design for him.)
✨ Mina Harker ✨
I love the Harkers so much! I really need to try to settle on a design for Jonathan too.
And just draw these two dorks more in general.
They're delightful ♥
I can’t believe I have to read about Quincey P Morris’s death the day after the election
Anyone trying to enter the Harkers' train compartment for the past week
Happy death to the vampire day!!!
May you enjoy hearing that bastard crumble to dust.
And may we remember our dearest cowboy friend who was the truest specimen of manhood
Mina: "Alright, everyone pinkie swear right now to put Vampire Me down if I hop the line between death and undeath."
Van Helsing and the Suitor Squad: "Depressing, but sure, absolutely."
Jonathan:
Mina: "...Jonathan?"
Jonathan: "Yes?"
Mina: "Will you promise to slay me if I get vampire'd?"
Jonathan: "Mina, I will not lie to you."
Jonathan:
Mina: "Jonathan. I need you to look me in the eye and promise to murder me martyr-style if I get too undead."
Jonathan: "Fine. I can promise to kill."
Mina: "Me? Vampire me?"
Jonathan, making unbroken eye contact with the four guys who just promised to behead and impale his wife if she stops being human enough: "I guarantee there will be killing involved if Vampire You happens."
Happy wedding day to the couple of all time
Illy Harkers may your marriage be less eventful this time around
Everyone shut the fuck up my good friend Jonathan Harker just emailed me. I'm so happy to hear from him again, I hope this trip doesn't forever alter the course of his life, and that he gets to go home and give Mina those paprika recipes. :)
More actual things that happen in the 1897 Dracula novel without context, as people kept pointing out things I'd missed:
The entire plot happens because Dracula is a teaboo
A character proposes marriage with a scalpel in hand and keeps playing with it throughout the conversation
Dracula roasts a chicken
A vampire bat (not a vampire) somehow drinks enough of a horse's blood to cause the horse to collapse
Dracula gets smacked in the face with a shovel
After attributing nightmares to paprika consumption, a character eats more paprika for breakfast
The heroes hire a locksmith to make their home invasion look more respectable
To prepare for raiding a vampire's lair, one character brings three small dogs
A character laments being unable to wed multiple people at once
A therapist starts speculating about elephants' souls mid-session
An official cause of death is written as "misadventure in falling from bed"
Dracula has a Krampus-esque sack that he shoves children into
A character realizes that his host has no reflection but is more concerned with shaving than investigating that
A reporter brags about his running speed mid-article
Dracula, while trying to maintain a low profile, goes by the incredibly subtle alias "de Ville"
A character is misled by phonetic spelling
A character receives three marriage proposals in one day
The SPCA tries to adopt Dracula
A doctor refers to a patient as his "pet lunatic"
We are told vampires can be defeated by putting branches on their coffins
A character gets slashed at with a knife and loot splatters on the floor, like a video game NPC
Dracula is a horsegirl
A character brings anti-vampire flowers but doesn't tell anyone the purpose of said anti-vampire flowers, which leads to another character moving them and enabling a vampire attack
A character's hair turns from dark to white literally overnight
Twice in the novel, Dracula says "Bah!" The second time is his final line of dialogue
There's a deleted scene of Dracula lying on top of the protagonist and licking him for hours
Hey, so I’m super excited that Dracula Daily is a thing, but I feel like I should warn people that one of the main characters in the novel is a guy that runs a lunatic asylum, and his scenes might be kinda hard to read for anyone who’s been through psychiatric abuse.
I would appreciate it if people reblogged this post and didn’t tag it with spoilers or put trigger warnings on it, since it’s important that this warning is seen by the people who need to see it. Thanks!
Edit: A lot of people are saying this guy shows up in August. This is not true. His first entry is on May 25th, and he’s a pretty big part of the book from then on. His name is Dr. Seward.
Edit 2: I’ve started making summaries of the potentially triggering scenes for anyone who wants to know what happens but isn’t able to read them. More information here.
AHHHH I DONT KNOW HOW TO DRAW MINA
THEYRE ALL SO PRETTY
People actually like my Dracula AU?? What??
Have a silly doodle I made :) vampire Jonathan doesn’t believe in gravity
He’d probably somehow sneak into Mina’s house after learning she followed Dracula back to Transylvania. Absolutely no warning… he just appears™️
Jonathan Harker is dead.
The official cause given by police was that he leaned too far out of a high-up window and fell. There are multiple witnesses that can testify to this, but that doesn’t stop the rumors that Count Dracula himself was responsible.
His body is brought back to England the same day the Demeter crashes on shore.
A few months later, Mina finds Jonathan’s journal inside the coat he died in. She reads it, horrified, and turns it over to the doctors examining her friend Lucy’s strange illness.
Van Helsing and Seward, after reading the journal and the supernatural death of Lucy, know what they have to do.
Dracula leaves for Transylvania once more, but not before attacking Mina. She, Seward, Arthur, Van Helsing, and Quincey follow with the intention to put an end to the vampire.
Seward fears one of Dracula’s brides spotted the group while they snuck into Castle Dracula, so they evacuate immediately. While leaving, Mina could have sworn she caught a glimpse of a familiar face…
So that’s my Dracula AU! A concept at least. I got the idea while listening to the song “I Know Those Eyes/This Man is Dead” I HIGHLY suggest giving it a listen!
Songs of the AU: The World has Gone Insane, I Know Those Eyes/This Man is Dead.