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thedarkone121 · 3 months

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How I would try to Adapt “Dracula”

Hello, resident Film student that is about to graduate here and I have been through the deep-dive of the Dracula by Bram Stoker waters. Suffice to say, I feel in love and was very disappointed that the cultural osmosis of adaptations that I grew up around to understand Dracula does not even come close to the masterpiece that I found within the original story. It’s Jonathan and Mina, by the way. Their relationship is the masterpiece of this story. Go away very problematic themes, stereotypes, and ideas, I will not let you take this relationship away from me.

Seriously, how was it possible for me to ship a Victorian couple so hard? Why do we not have this in more adaptations?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU HOLLYWOOD?!

…AHEM! Once again, I am sorry to my followers for another fixation has caught my attention. At least this is something I could probably put in a portfolio…

Moving back to my idea, I should make a point that I am a storyboard artist so my idea generally falls to making it into an Adult Cartoon Series. Something along the lines of the Legend of Vox Machina — because I really like that art style and it feels like it fits best with my plot.

Speaking of which, let me get into the plot! Strap in newcomers because I am a bit of a storyteller when it comes to explaining my whacky ideas, if you didn’t already figured that.

DARKY’S DRACULA ADAPTATION, GO!

The setting of my adaptation takes place relatively the same time period. In fact, things are largely the same as the beginning of the novel; Jonathan travels to the Count’s castle, he notices the strong ongoing, he has that horrible encounter with the Vampire Ladies, Dracula does who know what to him, he even has his refined taste for paprika!

You might ask yourself: “Well, how is your adaptation any different from the book?” Well, that’s easy, my good friends. Because Jonathan manages to kill Dracula that day on June 30th, where he successfully decapitates the monster that’s been tormenting him.

It all sounds well and good, right? That means no one to torment Lucy and she can have her big day with Arthur. Mina will be safe, no children get bitten. It sounds wonderful…

…But Jonathan can’t get out of the castle. He remains there, trapped, with the Vampire Ladies and a presence that won’t go away.

Months go by and Mina receives a letter, one from her missing fiancé. He is still in Romania working with the Count, but he would like for Mina to come by and look at the land. Thinking how it would be a wonderful place for a honeymoon.

Mina is confused by the contents of the letter, but it is her proof that her fiancé is alive. And now she has a location of his whereabouts.

With a sadden goodbye to Lucy due to the fact that she will miss her wedding, Mina heads to Transylvania in order to find Jonathan.

But when she arrives at the Castle, welcomed by the Three Women, Mina realizes what horrors had plagued Jonathan and now it will soon come to her.

And that’s the outline of the Pilot I had in my head. Do I think it’s possible for Jonathan to decapitate Dracula with the shovel? Probably not, but it needs to in order for this adaptation to work. And before anyone says, yes, this Adaptation is pretty much Mina Murray going all Resident Evil 7 on Dracula’s castle.

She deserves to have her rage moments. Also, she really wants to get married. If it means she has to storm a castle, then she will do that!

Some other facts that I wanted to include:

Lucy gets more of an active role in the story. She’s been poorly adapted for so long, I wanted to give her something more. She’s the Galinda to Mina’s Elphaba. You bet she’s going to lead a search party that involves her husband, their two best friends, and the silly Professor that was interested in the location in order to find her two childhood friends.

Also, yeah. Lucy and Arthur got married. I’m going to give these two a chance to be happy before things go wrong when they arrive at the castle.

The Vampire Sisters get a chance to be main villains for the first half of the show. Yes, I called them Sisters instead of Brides cause I read that two of the three look like Dracula and I’m just going to leave it at that. Also, I think the Blonde one is their mom? I’m not a hundred percent sure. It’s an adaptation. They’re getting more screen time and depth, is what I’m trying to say!

Mina has a gun, watch out.

Dracula still has a role in this story. That I can include.

I know I likened the plot to Resident Evil 7 so I ‘m just gonna go ahead and say this; Mina will not loose any of her hands.

Expect a lot of Jonmina moments, flashbacks and when they reunite included.

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flyingpurplepeopleeater42 · 2 years

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so I am aware that I should probably finish the book first before making any attempts to understand its themes/meanings but I'm very impatient so here I go: what if the whole blood sucking/giving in dracula is not a metaphor for sex but rather love/care in general. like:

as many people have noticed jonathan's experience in transylvania sounds a lot like an abusive relationship and dracula's controlling behaviour can easily be contrasted with mina's trust and care. (basically jonmina being the healthiest of healthy relationship really showcases how fucked up what dracula did to jonathan was)

lucy's ordeal is the one that does seem to be the closest to abuse of sexual nature but the opposing force here is not just arthur or even seward and quincy (aka the people who are said to have romantic and possibly sexual feelings for lucy) rather we have both van helsing (who cares for her as a father) and mina (who cares for her as friend) being the most active (and clearly most successful) in protecting lucy from the count. even lucy's mother who is clearly shown as someone that doesn't care about her daughter is the one who sabotaged van helsing's plans. (again confirming that unhealthy versions of love bring you closer to vampirism)

we also have renfeild whose whole thing is that he is unhealthily obsessed with dracula and (while I am very aware that this is a new term and is kind of anachronistic to pin it to a centuries-old novel) renfeild does seem to experience some very extreme version of a parasocial relationship with dracula. (or maybe the renfeild-dracula relationship is meant to be a "wrong" version of the relationship seward and van helsing have, aka the mentor-student one)

even the poor wolf that was tossed through lucy's window was the goodest of boys when he was handled with care by his owners that love him.

finally (the thing that made me go into this spiral) the 4 women vampires we have seen so far in the novel (dracula's girlfriends and luc- sorry i mean the "bloofer lady") have been shown to attack children which again could mean that vampirism twisted their "inherent motherly nature" to becoming child abusers . (using quotation marks bc I'm not super fond of the idea that femininity=motherhood but anyways)

in short on one hand we have the "polycule" = aka all the characters whose love for each other is confirmed in the text of the novel (without limiting the meaning of love to the one of romantic or sexual nature) and on the other other dracula (and the rest of the vampires) = lone predators who perform some twisted version of the love the main characters have for one another.

#dracula daily #dracula #evie.txt #tw abuse #just to be safe #also if you saw me post this before no you didn't

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qqueenofhades · 2 years

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1of 3) feel free to ignore this, but I'm doing Dracula Daily (never read it before) and I have a lot of feelings/thoughts and seeing as you've read it, I hope you don't mind if I rant a bit. I really want to shake Van Helsing until he starts telling people stuff. Like I can kind of get him not wanting to tell Seward that it's a vampire so he doesn't seem crazy and get institutionalized, but at some point, he should have told him anyway, or just made it clear that Lucy needs watching every night

2of3) and not just depend on telegrams/letters to tell him to watch her. But then she dies, and still instead of telling anyone what's going on, he just tells Seward that he needs to get him some surgeon tools so he can remove her head and heart (because talking about needlessly (at least to Seward) removing body parts of a corpse makes way more sense then mentioning a vampire and definitely makes him seem sane). He even talks about how they need to work together as one and need trust, of 3) and it's like my dude, have you even once considered how much easier it may be for people to work together with you as one, to trust you when you need it, if they have even a slight hint of what's going on? Personally if someone asks me to do something odd/hard/weird etc. I'm much more likely to do it, or at least complain less, if I know the reason besides a 'I'm so-and-so and you should do what I say' reason. Again, sorry for the rant.

Hush now. Of course I am delighted that people have so many feelings about a 19th-century classic horror novel that they want to come shout in my inbox about it! This is exactly why I love Dracula Daily as a concept, and think it's really clever. Everyone kind of.... already knows Dracula by cultural osmosis (he's a vampire! He has a swoopy dark cloak and he can turn into a bat! He sneaks around and Vants to Suck Your Blud!) but they are discovering they don't actually know many details about the text, and that modern adaptations have often totally slaughtered it in the aims of making it Sexy or otherwise introducing themes/readings that are not necessarily present in the original. So yes, I have read Dracula before, but I'm still really enjoying seeing the way Tumblr has gone ape for it and are all indignantly signing up for the Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray Defense Squad and drawing fanart and making memes and dropping casual references to the "polycule" and so forth. Yes.

Anyway, I wrote this post the other day discussing how everyone's over-reliance on traditional social conventions, and trying to follow the rules of how to be Good Victorians, has totally fucked them over. The whole point of what's going on is that they all keep trying to act like it's a normal situation and they need to be Decorous and Proper and Not Alarm Anyone, and like... that's the exact sort of thing Dracula feeds on (literally and metaphorically). Because he's weaponizing their extreme middle-class Victorian Englishness against them, where they can't talk to each other and they can't discuss how they feel and they can't be honest, all for fear of Offending Protocol, they're screwed. They can't coordinate, they can't do anything that might long-term help, and there is of course an interesting subtextual queer reading here, considering that Bram Stoker is universally considered to have been a repressed gay man who hid/denied his sexuality and lived in, to say the least, an openly homophobic society. Whether or not it was his primary intention to portray the rules of Good Victorian Behavior not working and instead actually actively harming people by forcing them to keep secrets and not trust that anyone else will believe them, it's an unavoidable theme in the text and one that a modern reader definitely picks up on with the benefit of hindsight.

Also, I think it's important to highlight that despite his 84 PhDs (of course he's a lawyer as well as a doctor) and generally being the book-smartest person in the story, Van Helsing has, at this point, comprehensively failed. He hasn't saved Lucy's life, he hasn't prevented her from turning into a vampire, he hasn't warned anyone else about what's really going on, he hasn't prevented Mrs. Westenra from being frightened to death, he hasn't told Arthur (poor Arthur!!!) anything about why he wouldn't even let him kiss his fiancee as she was dying, etc. And a huge part of this is because, as you point out, he hasn't told anyone anything. Van Helsing has often been narratively paralleled to Dracula, which I think is accurate: he is solely in charge of Lucy's health, as Dracula is the sole reason for hurting it. He tries to control Lucy, he tries to keep her loved ones in the dark, he tries to basically "have" her for himself -- all in the name of helping her, yes, but his treatment is just as ineffective as Dracula's assault is effective. Van Helsing means all the best, but he's kind of fucked it up!

And yes, the primary reason he's doing so is because he thinks that he alone is smart enough to solve the problem, he can't let anyone else onto his plans (even when Quincey strolled in, took one look, and was like "oh yeah this was like the time the vampire bit my horse" and asked the OBVIOUS FUCKING QUESTION of where all of Lucy's blood was going!) and he otherwise is the Only One. Just like Dracula's pride, arrogance, solitude, stubbornness, and insistence that his will/choices for Lucy are the only ones that matters, Van Helsing is doing the same thing, from the opposite side of the coin. That's why his methods can't possibly work to counteract Dracula and (as we will see in the latter half of the novel) they need to comprehensively rethink their entire strategy and discard all the old social rules and worry for "decorum" that has kept them from being honest with each other so far. But yes, we love us a good hero/villain narrative foil with the same flaws and the same methods. Which is what is definitely going on here. Because things such as Mrs. Westenra removing the garlic flowers happen because Van Helsing didn't even tell her that they were medicinal (you have one million doctorates, Abraham, make up a scholarly bullshit reason!)

So yes, as I said, and as we will see in upcoming entries, Following The Good Victorian Rules has fucked everyone over HARD, Van Helsing is acting like Dracula while trying to fix Dracula's damage and that's why it isn't working, and our heroes are going to need to have a comprehensive rethink of what they're doing and why, if they want to stop any of this in time. Dun dun dunnn!

#anonymous #ask #dracula #dracula daily #abraham van helsing #lucy westenra

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laconic-yet-voluptuous · 8 months

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Fandom: Dracula (1897)

Relationships: Mina/Jonathan/Jack/Arthur/Quincey, past Jack/Arthur/Quincey

Rating: Explicit

Tags: Dr Seward's diary, fivesome, sorry to Van Helsing, Mina getting what she wants, bisexuality, cunnilingus, coitus interruptus

Words: 4,438

"I want you to know me, here and now, as intimately as Jonathan knows me - as only a lover knows his beloved. That way you will all have knowledge of me, full knowledge, as I truly am; you will know my most intimate self, as it truly is. And so, if it should be that in the course of our mission, I grow changed, and I reach out to you lasciviously or speak to you voluptuously - you will know it is not my true self. Thus you may protect me from myself, when I am unable to do so; and you may be forearmed with the knowledge to protect yourselves also."

#dracula #dracula daily #dracula fanfiction #dracula fic #mina harker #jonathan harker #john seward #arthur holmwood #quincey morris #lucy westenra #(mentioned)#fivesome #crew of light #fanfiction #ao3 fanfic

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yallemagne · 1 year

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The people few loud ppl calling you a "victim blamer" for writing a character as the zealot that he was (and god forbid characters make mistakes they then learn from!) are weird af. As a Renflied stannie who likes him as he is for both relatability and writing reasons I don't wanna associate w/ them. He's an ol' gay obsessive but sympathetic and heroic man who sometimes did fucked up things and not a 100% hapless victim. And if they disagree fine but they're being so damn weird about it, like I love Seward and Van Helsing and you've depicted them say/do unpleasant things that weren't shown in the journals -but still are in character- and I strongly prefer Mina getting the blood ceremony, but I don't go around shittalking you wtf. Sorry you have to deal with that.

I think there are just some people who are very insecure to the point that if a character they identify with has flaws they perceive it as a personal attack against themselves. I hope they get better.

The only way to make Renfield a 100% hapless victim is if you went with the adaptations where he replaces Jonathan as Dracula's solicitor or was a previous solicitor for Dracula... But that interpretation doesn't gel very well with the fact that Renfield was friends with Lord Godalming. And if a previous solicitor came back from Dracula's place completely insane, I don't think they'd send another, younger, more malleable solicitor in his place.

This was a rich man who, because of some catalyst in his life, decided he wanted to try for eternal life. He sees a man who can grant that to him and decides to serve him. At first, he doesn't care who has to suffer/die for him to get what he wants, but when he speaks to Mina and realizes that not only is Dracula feeding on her, but he also doesn't intend on giving Renfield what he promised, he fights him.

I think the people obsessed with Renfield are also the ones who despise Seward (and probably to a lesser extent VH), so either it just doesn't connect in their minds that other characters are also depicted with negative traits (so I'm not solely attacking their man), or they're just deliberately ignoring vital details. And of course, I depict them saying and doing stuff that is not in the book. Am I supposed to copy-paste the entire novel into a word doc? It's fanfiction. If someone wants to read original book dialogue and book events, they can read the book over and over again like I've been having to do.

#update #people ask me things

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evies20dollars · 2 years

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Hi, I'm sorry to bother you but I am very curious about this dracula daily thing. I'm not sure what it is and how it functions, but I also don't want to spoil something for myself by googling and so would be most grateful if you could help me (and would you recommed it?)

Hi, not a bother at all! So Dracula by Bram Stoker is an epistolary novel, which means it is composed of letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, etc. and in the novel they all have dates, starting in May and ending in November. What Dracula Daily is is a substack subscription where you basically get in your email the entry of Dracula from that date on the day it actually happens. I don't know if you ever watched Skam or any of its remakes, but in some ways the experience is kind of like that? Essentially, what myself and everyone else who's participating in Dracula Daily are doing is reading the novel live instead of all at once. For example, today was August 11th and we got in our email inboxes Mina Murray's diary entries from August 11th.

I think Dracula Daily has been the gateway for a lot of people who haven't read the novel before because it's more digestible in this format, but it also creates a different experience than reading the novel straight up because everyone subscribed is on the same page and we have waits in between on dates where there are no entries, or we haven't heard from certain characters in a while (like the fact it's been 41 days since we've heard from our good friend Jonathan Harker) which all builds anticipation and a sense of dread in some ways compared to if you're reading the novel straight through.

Honestly, I know myself and I believe many others as well are sick of streaming binge-culture because there's no time to process or enjoy it with people. For me, a lot of shows like that have become more of a chore at this point-- it's not the same for books since that's a different medium, but nonetheless I think Dracula Daily is filling a void for some people in terms of just content that is ongoing and that we have time to actually digest and engage with.

In case this info dump didn't tell you, I would definitely recommend it! I've personally read Dracula before, but not since 2017, so it's been a while, and when I did I read the novel like normal. The timeline in the novel isn't actually linear though so this is a totally unique experience reading it too which is really cool.

If you want to subscribe to Dracula Daily, here is a link to do so!: https://draculadaily.substack.com/about

If you want to catch up, here is link to their archive of all the emails that have already gone out: https://draculadaily.substack.com/archive

#i hope this wasn't too long an answer lmao #dracula #dracula daily #ask #jonathan harker #count dracula #mina murray #lucy westenra #anon

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marlasomething · 1 year

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He compartido 4468 publicaciones este 2022

¡Son 3361 más que en 2021!

100 publicaciones originales (2 %)

4368 reblogueos (98 %)

Estos son los blogs que más he reblogueado:

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He etiquetado 194 publicaciones en 2022

#magnuspod: 62 publicaciones

#fanfic: 59 publicaciones

#the magnus archives: 56 publicaciones

#tma: 52 publicaciones

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#ao3: 38 publicaciones

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#self-promo: 22 publicaciones

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Longest Tag: 53 characters

#right after i finished a tma episode...it was...weird

Mis publicaciones más populares este 2022:

Well, I have finished Dracula ONCE AGAIN...am I crying? Maybe, yeah.

This has been the time I enjoyed most right next to the very first read (because I obviously didn’t expect Dracula to be THAT).

I KNEW, I BLOODY KNEW that the last parragraphs basically put Mina in the status of main hero of the novel and YET, it caught me

21 notas. Fecha de publicación: 7 de noviembre de 2022

Zutara Month (Day 23): This Isn't My Idea

Hello there!

As usual, I cannot see a "challenge" and let it go so...Zutara month it is! First time writing for the fandom, I won't be able to do ALL DAYS (today, for example, I wrote this still on the nick of time, but now it is already technically the 25th...eh, sorry @zutaramonth)

I promise to write something Zutara based after this month a bit longer, I swear.

As usual, do please forgive my quick tipper and non-native speaker mistakes, MarlaAllons-y!

Also in AO3

Everyone in every corner of the world agreed: Katara was a Hero, with capital H.

Not only had she helped The Avatar himself to finish off with the worst dictator that humanity had seen in ages, but she was now sacrificing herself by marrying off to his son; so the peace with the Fire Nation became even more undeniable and, therefore, unbreakable.

Obviously, everybody knew this was just an arranged marriage for, as much as Prince Zuko (he still insisted he wasn’t ready yet to be King Zuko ), he was still the man that once had been every person fighting for freedom’s foe.

Also, she was the best friend of Aang; it was crystal clear they ought to have been in love. This was a tale as old as time: best hero-friends always fell in love.

Still, as much as they commented how mad and sad it made them the two heroic figures ending up together, they understood and thanked the now already young woman (no longer a teenager) for taking up such heavy weight over her shoulders.

They just wished Prince Zuko was more as he was trying to be in public lately than the way they all still pictured him in their minds…

~~~~~

As the doors closed behind them, Zuko buried his face in Katara’s shoulder, who just laughed, with relief.

“I guess now we can stop pretending we are just good friends without risking demonstrations all around every nation.”

He smirked at her comment and raised his head to look into her eyes. He still remembered the first time those eyes had truly seen him, back when they were still rivals and, yet, she had trusted him…

“I guess so…You know, I would have understood, if you hadn’t wanted to keep them. We are still young and now for a lot of people you are going to just be Zuko’s wife.”

She punched him in the arm.

“First of all; it is more hat you are going to become Katara’s husband and, secondly…I…I mean, we are only in our early twenties, but we have lived so much I feel ready to be a mom…as long as Iroh is around to help.”

Both laughed.

“How could he not be?” he held her hand. “Still…I am sorry so many people are going to think this is just an arranged marriage.”

“Well, I mean, as Toph said…all marriages need to be arranged, whatever the reason for said arrangement, that is our personal fucking business.”

And theirs was as good as they came.

25 notas. Fecha de publicación: 25 de abril de 2022

MARLA’S 2022 AO3 MASTERLIST

Hello there, Marla here!

This year I won’t be as messy as last year with my writing organisation so I am doing a 2022 Masterlist of everything published on AO3 to be updated as new stuff arrives! Yaih! All my nonsense at your disposition!

And, if you want to see what I wrote the previous year, not to worry, here it is my 2021 AO3 Masterlist

Now, with further ado, allons-y!

Long life and prosperity,

Marla

(The) Amelia Project

Amelia Caller: Dawn of the Characters: script I based my phone call recording ON THE AMELIA FEED on

Manage Your Clon-ishgo: Cocoa Challenge 2022 (Day 1)

This Could Be Me: Cocoa Challenge 2022 (Alternative promp)

Last of the Real Ones: Cocoa Challenge 2022 (Day 2)

The Fools Who Dream: Cocoa Challenge 2022 (Day 3)

Louder than the Weather: Cocoa Challenge 2022 (Alternative promp)

Goodbye To My Life: Cocoa Challenge 2022 (Day 4)

It’s the Hitmen’s Life: Cocoa Challenge 2022 (Alternative promp)

Fakenniversary: Cocoa Challenge 2022 (Day 5)

Everything Just Here All At Once: Cocoa Challenge 2022 (Alternative promp)

ATLA

Go Now: Zutara Month 2022

This Isn’t My Idea: Zutara Month 2022

Tea Nation: Zutara Month 2022

...Let Your Heart Decide?: Zutara Month 2022

Lonely Nation: High-school AU Zuko-centric

(The) Evil Dead

The Sorta Kinda Winding Road: Original Trilogy + 2013 Film crossover-ish

Good Omens

So Unaware Of My Status: A Visit From Miss Crowley Challenge

The Sound Of Leathered Women!: A Visit From Miss Crowley Challenge

Girl With A Tongue: A Visit From Miss Crowley Challenge

Descúbrela

43 notas. Fecha de publicación: 5 de enero de 2022

Lucy’s (My) Mom

Ok, a lot of people have already commented this, but from the very first time I read Dracula as a teen (right when I was starting to discover ‘sometimes parents do harmful things and even if the intentions are good there is no compulsory reason to automatically forgive them) I just couldn’t help but being extremely UPSET about Lucy’s mom.

It is not only this whole garlic incident, that is the equivalent of, for example, ‘I don’t understand why you keep going to the psycologist if you are not depressed anymore’: it doesn’t matter wether you have all the data or not, if someone is doing something that is ‘out of the usual norm’ and is very clearly related to a Health issue...let it BE or try to understand it, don’t take matters into your own hands and then BE PROUD OF ACTING OUT OF IGNORANCE.

The worst part, though, it’s all the previous behaviour. The whole not letting her sleep with her when it was clearly something HER DAUGHTER NEEDED, her being upset about Lucy’s FRIEND taking care of her (likely bcs she believed she knew better than her own daughter the people around her and their true intentions -again, been there-)...

...so yeah, I dislike her and, even though it is true more could have been communicated to her:

a) it is a horror story, lack of communitacion is almost a must

b) none of her actions should be done, no matter how much you know about the matter

69 notas. Fecha de publicación: 13 de septiembre de 2022

Mi publicación más popular de 2022

About Dracula Daily..

I know I am constantly saying this but...I am in TEARS about how much people are enjoying Dracula for the first time. It is one of my favourite novels of all times, I have read it three times and a half (I am counting Dracula Daily as the Fourth) and I usually having such a hard time trying to convince people about how AMAZING this(these) story(ies) is(are).

Fuck, whoever began Dracula Daily...I owe you my soul (and, please, we should do this with more classical pieces of literature)

Also, for today’s update: Farewell dear Captain, you will be remembered

247 notas. Fecha de publicación: 4 de agosto de 2022

Descubre tu resumen del 2022 en Tumblr →

#tumblr2022 #resumen del año #mi resumen del 2022 en tumblr #tu resumen del año en tumblr #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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zoophagist · 2 years

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I honestly love seeing different people's explanations on how Renfield even met Dracula and came to worship him, because Stoker really didn't think it through did he. So, what's your opinion? Both your version of Renfield-wise and book-wise?

oh MAN this ask got buried in my inbox for a while, sorry! awesome question to dig into! answer below the cut because i get lengthy, as usual.

my version of renfield's backstory is largely based in 'the book of renfield,' and that takes the angle that renfield has been groomed for vampire nonsense since his childhood.* in this set up, he was indoctrinated by another vampire, likely a bride of dracula, who brought him into dracula's service, but renfield did not meet dracula in the flesh until the events of the novel, consistent with his crying out to dracula "i have worshipped you long and afar off." he's been psychically linked to dracula the whole time, and can have frenzies or dreams that get him closer to seeing/communing directly with dracula, but nothing more until dracula comes to england in stoker's canon. i have a backstory page that goes into more detail about why renfield comes to accept worshiping him, but the main thrust is that he's a well-simmered stew of religious trauma, parental issues, and a very particular fear of dying and facing judgment.

strictly book-wise, as i interpret stoker, though? hmm. i mean, yeah he really didn't think it through, and i know that there are those that posit renfield has no prior connection to the count outside the book timeline, but i am personally in the camp of the long-game reading. i do think renfield has been in dracula's service for a long time, again, referencing his declaration "i have worshipped you long and afar off," but also on the grounds that by the time dracula is in england, renfield is already incarcerated and it is a Significant Point in the text that dracula cannot get into the asylum without invitation when mina is there later, so he has not been previously invited in. consequently it seems highly unlikely that he could have had the blood-drinking contact necessary to give renfield that kind of psychic link to his comings and goings,** as this would have given him access to renfield's cell. if we say renfield is not already a thrall of dracula when the book starts it would force us to assume dracula immediately arrived in england and his number one priority was making a minion of a man trapped in a not-yet-relevant-to-him asylum, effectively useless for vampiric bidding, which makes very little sense. renfield also has a reaction to the storm in whitby, before dracula would even have gotten to purfleet's asylum, ruling that option out entirely, as i see it. but given the fact that dracula has never been to england before, it is also necessary to extrapolate an explanation of how renfield crossed his path prior to the novel's timeline. renfield was at some point a man of standing and means (we know this from his reference to knowing the late lord godalming and membership to the windham house, and it is also implied by his educated thought, remarked on by seward). this makes it possible to imagine that renfield could have had the means to travel, either for business or pleasure, to the continent. why he would ever be in transylvania is a mystery to me, but we can have some leeway in how far we imagine dracula to have previously traveled. his limitations are needing native soil and an inability to cross moving water, and if we generously assume waterways are comparable today to what they would have been during the mid- to late-1800s when renfield could have been in europe, the count could likely get as far as the rhine river (taking a large detour to avoid the danube)! so... possibly renfield got attacked by dracula on a trip to europe? that's my best guess: blood exchange in europe, brought back to england when he showed signs of being ill, and at that distance, able to recover enough without further feedings and avoid ending up like lucy but maintaining as mina did the mental link to dracula. how that became worship and not just a chance encounter i think might have to do with renfield's religious leanings, since he seems a little zealous (maybe was a devout man before dracula?) and with the continued, inexplicable feeling of connection to something supernatural, possibly voices in his head or visions of an immortal being, one can imagine a conflation between god and dracula occurring for him. it is also implied that dracula can communicate with renfield enough if not to directly order him, then to motivate him to take actions (see his knife attack on seward when the crew begins transfusing blood to try to save lucy; renfield attacks him the same night as the wolf attack on the westenras, and seems satisfied to have made him bleed, not kill him, indicating it's an attempt to prevent him from being able to transfuse more of his own blood to lucy). knowing this, we could maybe extrapolate that renfield was previously drawn into more acute worship of dracula by the count's orders and compulsions.

god, okay, essay over. i think that's all i wanted to say. if anything's unclear or if you have differing thoughts, please do send more asks! i love pulling out all the little details to try to work out drac facts :)

* there is an argument to be made that renfield's oral history of his own life is unreliable and that he may omit things or intentionally choose to misrepresent them, which is equally great as a literary perspective on the text, but i take him largely at his word because it seems consistent with stoker's renfield's compulsion to feel important and drop clues/truths without being able to say the most crucial, vampiric truth. so, do with that what you will.

** the characters of the novel do not acknowledge this directly, but it is canon that renfield's apparent ability to sense dracula's doings and the symptoms around their psychic connection are the same as those that mina gains from exchanging blood with the count. the implication is, as a result, that we must understand renfield to have exchanged blood with dracula at some point.

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myfanfictiongarden · 8 months

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The Words Spoken, The Mind Healed- Dracula (1897)

Because we were left out of the evening of 25th of September

----

Mina Harker´s Journal

26th of September- Early morning. The clock had just stuck half past eight as Jonathan went out of doors to bring over the good professor from his hotel to breakfast at our place. Because I will have a few minutes before they arrive, I shall put down what went on yesterday evening, my head full of thoughts and impressions that are so convoluted and entangled, that it seems like I carrie the Gordian knot itself and desperately need Alexander's sword to make end of it. To think that all is true…

After professor Van Helsing left to read the manuscripts at his room in the hotel, I was left again with Mary alone in this big house and decided to finish bookkeeping that needed to be done, but had a hard time concentrating. Yet, I was thankful for the distraction, for while concentrating on figures and numbers my mind stayed clear for a while of other thoughts that might have distressed me if dwelled on too long without rest. After I was finished with the calculations of expanses for the next week it was time to think of supper. A letter came from Van Helsing that lifted a heavy weight from my mind yet brought dark dread upon me as well. Jonathan was sane, my dear beloved the brave man I always thought him to be- but his captor was then real as well, as were the other beings of his kind, and he in London. While I sat down to compose an answer, a telegram arrived just at that moment from Jonathan, telling he would be back with the last train at 10:15, so Mary and I agreed on the meal, which I was to have earlier and later on then only tea and some biscuits as to keep him company while he sups. Night came and the last rays of sunlight disappeared behind St. Peter, the hours passing by too slowly. By 10 o’clock I had abandoned both the novel I had attempted to read, the printed letters morphing into bats and beasts and wolfs, as well as the needle work that hanged limply in my hands, and so kept watching through the window for his form to arrive and bring me peace.

Finally the knock on the door and a moment later I there to open it. Seeing his face, if even in the dim light of the hallway lamp, made my heart easy and some tears of joy about to sprung, so I drew my arms around him in embrace last he should see them.

“I am so glad you are back home.”

“Me too. I missed you, even if it was only one day.”

“Did you have a pleasant journey? Wait, let me help you. Mary has left some cold lamb and vegetables so you can eat right away.” With his coat and hat sat off I began to hasten to make the dining room ready, but he insisted late supper in the kitchen would do just as well.

“You are too humble for a lawyer.” I told him while he took the first bite after having set up the table by himself, like if he were still a simple clerk and not the master of a nice house.

“You are right. From tomorrow on I´ll set up the household as that we should live like the Tsars in the Winter Palace.” I knew he was jesting and loved him the more for it.

While he ate I asked him more about how his trip to Launceston went and if his client was satisfied, and he told me as much of his work as he could, continuing later to describe the picturesque town and landscape he saw from the train.

“How was your day?” He asked.

“I had a visitor today. You know the gentleman that wrote me concerning Lucy’s passing? He was her doctor and is the mentor of one of Mr. Holmwood´s friends. Wishing to learn more about her illness he received permission to read her letters and diary, and so came upon my name and wanted to meet me as to ask about our stay in Whitby.”

“I'm sorry that you should have such a distracting visit, she was such a dear friend of yours.” He said and placed his hand on mine in a gesture of comfort. I went on-

“He also asked me about you.”

“About me?”

“Yes, in the letters to Lucy, and my diary kept in Whitby, there was much mention of you. He asked me about your business trip and your health, and feeling bold in his presence I gave him your journal to read. He says- he says its all true.” My voice went to a whisper at the last part and the words hung now in the air, silence following them. He moved his hand from mine, his eyes widening for a moment, before his look settles on his half empty plate and stays there, long heartbeats without movement.

“I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please don’t be angry with me! You gave me your journal to keep and I promised you, upon my soul, that I shall have it safe, to only read if duty commands it, and I have kept my promise, for when that episode caught hold of you in London it became necessary to learn the cause of it, the cause of it all to save you from further distress!”

“It is all true, so I am sane.” He whispers finally, and before I know what’s happening he has moved his chair to mine and taken hold of both my hands in his, bringing them to his lips and kissing feverishly.

“My Mina, my darling Mina, most beloved in the world! What a blessed husband I am in you! But you, you had read it all, and must know now that I would battle all these demons again, imaginary or real, just to make it to you. It pains me, pains me so that you had to witness that horrors even if only in writing, yet part of me is glad to have a confidante in your collected mind.” We kissed, and tears streamed down both our faces.

It was getting late so we decided to move upstairs to our room, leaving the kitchen for Mary to clean in the morning. It was simply by going through the motions that I dressed for the night, glad when finally under the covers and Jonathan sitting by my side. The bells were toiling midnight through the silence of the night as we both waited for our mouths to form a coherent word.

“Tell me.” I said at last, and so he did. It was only a shorter account of his journey and his stay at the Count's castle, but hearing it from his own lips made it even more horrifying. He would stop at times, as if battling with himself and his memory to distinguish what had really happened and what might have been imagined, at times worried he might shock me too much, but he did not need to say everything in order for me to understand.

“And when I thought it all had just been an awful dream brought upon me by fever, and sure I had passed the worst, I saw him there across the street, in London, walking among people like he were a man too. And while he didn’t see me, I could see his eyes, forever burned into my mind as their were, so blazing red, like- like…”

“Red like the blood red setting sun.” I said as a memory washed over me.

“How do you now?” He asked, noticing my expression change as frightful realisation finally settled upon me.

“Because he was there that night with Lucy.” I told him finally the whole story of my stay by the sea, and that awful night that I had found her lying on our bench up by the old churchyard. He listened patently as I told of all her instances of sleepwalking that followed, of her ebbing spirits and the rattle of wings at night at our window.

“What ever illness she acquired there, he must have brought it with him. To think her sweet nature in his presence…”

“It truly is an illness that consumes body and soul. Don’t cry my darling, for what ever misplaced guilt you may feel- yes, I say misplaced for I know you already blame yourself for not having protected her better- it matters little when he sets his mind, believe me, I know from being in his presence and in the one of these frightful women, although that word is unfit to describe them just a he is little a man himself. I know not what he is, or what they are, nor what any of it means, but if this professor Van Helsing has as much wisdom as you say- and he seems to know a deal more than us poor people from Exeter- he will bring light into this terrible darkness and peace to our minds. There may be yet a way to fight this evil, and I am ready to take up my sword like St. George did when facing the dragon.” His voice was even and strong, and I could see a change in him, his old strength of mind returned.

Full of gratitude for seeing him not doubting his mind anymore, I leaned closer and kissed him gently.

“What ever we will have to face, we'll face it together. “

#I needed something sweet between the two of them #especially with what is coming soon for them #Mina&Jonathan are goals #<333 #bram stoker´s dracula #fan fiction #my fanfiction #my writing

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see-arcane · 8 months

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Van Helsing Venting (Vent Helsing)

Requisite apology goes here: I am sorry in advance to everyone with a soft spot for the funky old man.

But the reread combined with the podcast has helped put into focus an aggravation that has been nettling me forever without quite knowing how to articulate it.

I’ve brushed the edges of it more than once in several rants about how the Harkers are so constantly given the short stick in every single adaptation of Dracula for a hundred and a quarter years.

Jonathan is either erased, made into a bore, a brute, or unceremoniously killed off while all the amazing character traits and actions he’s responsible for in the story get stolen away and parsed out to others in the cast, often Dracula, Van Helsing, or [INSERT FEMALE THROWN INTO THE CASTLE TO BE BRIDAL CARRIED TO BED HERE].

Mina is alternately a feeble damsel who’s only there to be the pure maiden who gets to live through her seduction*** by Dracula (versus the suddenly scandalous-and-salacious Lucy), or a hashtag girlboss (reincarnated wife syndrome applied as desired) who divorces or otherwise abandons her milksop husband to hook up with a REAL MAN like DRACULA who sexily sex-liberates her. With sex. That she totally for sure wanted along with the bloodsucking.

But on one thing, the Harkers are equal—they never. Ever. Ever. Get to be the true protagonists of any Dracula adaptation, or spinoff, or offshoot, or revamp, et cetera.

This, despite Jonathan being the one to spend the most time with Dracula, alone, in his gothic horror novella of an opening, for Two Months, in which he got the most interaction and dialogue with the Count out of anyone else in the book.

This, despite him and his diary and his love to the point of blasphemy and his nerve and his kukri all being instrumental for the novel to work.

This, despite Mina being the one to literally compile the entire novel out of the transcripts it’s stitched from.

This, despite her connecting the dots to oust the bastard and showing immense courage all on her lonesome in confronting the Count for others’ sake more than once.

But why?

For the longest time, I was ready to grind my teeth and grouse over the obvious reasons of Jonathan and Mina Harker being so gloriously subversive then—and now!—that writers and directors of a certain sneering bent refused to acknowledge anything of their characters beyond the names when slathering their latest cookie cutter vampire bodice ripper with Stoker’s cast titles. The Harkers’ approaches to gender, to heroism, to defeating a villain whose entire role is being the worst of the Gothic Masculine Monster who bullies and preys upon pretty victims to collect for himself (hello harem and power fantasy combo, let’s make THIS guy the ultra-cool totally misunderstood sexypire star of the show!) all chafe against the mental rewrites too many filmmakers and writers make to turn the novel more palatable to their tastes. Assuming they read the book at all.

And that’s all its own pile of rants. But I’ve realized, only now, that this is just part of the problem. The other issue stems from Bram Stoker himself.

That issue being the conversion of an otherwise tight narrative and set of primed protagonist characters into the Abraham van Helsing Show.

I don’t know what it was about today’s entry specifically that made it all click home. Maybe it was already percolating since yesterday, or the day before. But somewhere in Van Helsing’s latest filibuster of dialogue—‘We must share everything! No, wait, tell her nothing! We must make all haste and not lose a moment! Let me turn five minutes’ worth of information into a monologue about bloom and blood and then suggest we all take a siesta on our laurels since we definitely have time to beat the Czarina Catherine! Jonathan, you stay at home with Mina while me and my non-questioning ducklings/the others who don’t really need lines anyway take care of the problem, doctor’s orders! And all my orders are followed, unquestionably, every time, despite them very clearly having only a 50/50 success rate, as is right!’—it all really hit me.

The moment Van Helsing turned into the never-doubted, never-need-apologize, yes, do kiss his hands like a fucking mafia godfather in gratitude for Doing the Things He Should Have Known to Do in the First Place After Lucy, ‘leader’ rather than ‘the lore collector/mentor’ is when the novel turns on its heel and starts breaking its back to accommodate him at the expense of everyone else.

The Harkers get it the worst, naturally.

Once they arrive in Purfleet and the documents are handed over, Van Helsing leads the pack in peer pressuring them into sequestering Mina away as their cheerleader who Need Not Suffer the Icky Horror of -checks notes- finding boxes. Not sent away anyplace safe and guarded by home rules and garlic and crosses; just left to Yellow Wallpaper her days away in the asylum suite.

Meanwhile, Jonathan proves to be literally the only useful member of this group project via hauling ass all over London to gather information to bring back to the table…which Van Helsing then oh-so-helpfully disseminates on top of the obvious point that, hey, yeah, there’s probably boxes there. We should do Wafers about it.

Now, in fairness, Van Helsing was a vital character up to a certain point. Jack called him in for his broader expertise, for how open his mind was as far as what he was willing to investigate or believe as a threat. Without him and his lore collection in Amsterdam, a lot of the details regarding anti-vampire tactics and Dracula’s history lesson wouldn’t have come into play. All this, plus providing the hideous proof of the Bloofer Lady’s reality, making the last three nonbelievers into members of the Drac Attack Pack. Last but far from least, he helps reassure Jonathan to free him from his crushing self-doubt, and then brings in both of the Harkers to create the full group. Fuck yeah!

All that considered, it does make some sense for him alone to give his little seminar on the Dracula Issue…

…except for the fact that Mina has absorbed and transcribed all the info herself. Literally all of it. And the fact that Jonathan personally knows the fucker. All three of these characters should have been at the head of the table, sharing what they know.

But they weren’t. It’s starting to become all about Dr. Abe—because that’s how Stoker keeps his OC self insert in the lion’s share of the spotlight.

This is also when Van Helsing is fresh off the nightmare with Lucy, fresh off of acknowledging that there is literally no reason at all to keep vampire secrets from anybody in this room, fresh off of being oh so thrilled with Mina’s helpfulness and canniness, fresh off of what should have been him learning his lesson and—in open-minded fashion—cutting off any benignly sexist chivalry at the knees to keep Mina in the loop and share the mastermind role.

And what does he decide?

Off to the tower, princess. It’s man work time! Man work here meaning: Investigate some scary dirt. Some rats are there. Everyone break up some Christ crackers, men. Thank God Mina isn’t here to suffer this, amirite? Oh, and Jonathan, be a dear and gather all the information on Dracula’s locations and properties while me and the others…do whatever. Read? Smoke? Something. Anyway, attaboy, such a good hard worker you are, Only Non-Titled Fresh-From-the-Lower-Class Man in the Group!

And then, after October 3rd?

He’s horrified. He’s upset. He’s King Laughing about Dracula’s good meal and within inches of being kukri’d. But you know what he isn’t?

Apologetic.

Oh, he says sorry for the crack about Dracula eating well—but all the actions that led up to the attack? Not a peep.

And when he falls right back into the ‘withhold as much information as possible until it’s time for a Big Specialboy Meeting and my Big Specialboy Corn-flavored Monologue of the Day, in which I’ll give more orders with full expectation that everyone here will hop to it like good little student-soldiers because the author says we can only follow me me me?’

The only saving grace is that Jonathan—not even Mina! JONATHAN!—finally puts his foot down and refuses to chase the stick without conferring with Mina first. Mina, who has always taken precedent to him, period, but also Mina, who has proven herself to be the soundest mind in the entire group and already well aware of the dangers Dr. Abe has been rambling about and trying to be oh-so-covert and sneaky about with Jack.

On that subject? Van Helsing is STILL living a fantasy world where he, and occasionally Jack, are the only ones who can put 2 and 2 together and consider taking anti-vampire measures against Mina.

When everyone has already read everything.

When Mina knows exactly what the risks and measures are.

When Jonathan ‘Would Sell His Soul for His Love and to Slaughter Dracula’ Harker knows all of this.

WHEN EVERYONE HAS EYES THAT CAN ALSO SEE MINA’S TEETH.

Brammy Pajamas. Bramothy Stokerton. Bramward Stokerbroker. My guy.

Your OC, by your own text’s rules, is not special here. He is not the protagonist. He is not the extra-clever center of the narrative’s universe, per your own fucking writing. Stop forcing this man and his refusal to evolve from his preconceptions and his main character pedestal-theft and his goddamn corncobs down our throats.*

*Note: This will not happen.

The one silver lining yet to come will be that Jonathan and Mina get to roughly shoulder their way back into the story’s forefront by the book’s climax. In a huge way. Jonathan even gets an upcoming scene in which he gets to finally, rightfully, chew Van Helsing to ribbons for casually declaring a Certain Horrifying Action has to be taken (Again! No questions asked! No explanation offered until after said chewing-out!) and the narrative treats this as the right move!

But still. Still. Van Helsing is showered with Stoker’s overblown attention to a character that should have had his influence and dialogue whittled down to a supporting role rather than crowding out the Harkers for two whole thirds of the book, complete with them batting their eyes at how brilliant~ he is for much of it.

Despite.

The facts.

In The Text.

That Mina and Jonathan could have led the the whole fucking thing themselves.

We’ll see in later chapters that Mina is ONCE AGAIN the one to figure out Dracula’s plans ahead of time and set everyone on the right course. Jonathan is ONCE AGAIN the one laser-focused on seeking and slaying the Count almost on a supernatural level. On top of all that? What galls me almost as much as the Harkers being robbed of their story spotlight IN THEIR OWN FUCKING STORY?

If Van Helsing hadn’t been one-man-showing the bulk of the dialogue to make sure Brammington got to wave his self-insert around as much as possible?

We could have let Jack, Arthur, and Quincey be actual presences in the book. Jack has a big role! Absolutely! But even he gets relegated to an orbiting figure rather than an active one once Van Helsing starts hogging the pages. Arthur is practically reduced to a mutely mourning money machine. Quincey gets a few moments to remind everyone Hi, Yes, I am a Cowboy. And that’s it.

THAT’S. IT. FOR ALL OF THEM.

Hell, even Lucy and Renfield get whittled down to wisps of dialogue compared to the whole trees’ worth of lines Van Helsing rattles off.

All because Stoker couldn’t bear to let Van Helsing be the character he should have been.

The support. The guide rather than the commander.

Star Wars isn’t about Yoda, but it wouldn’t be the same without the wise little weirdo! That’s what Van Helsing would and should have been great for! But no!

I see now that I owe at least one small retroactive apology to those movie makers and spinoff writers who try to spin Van Helsing as the very real definite archnemesis of Dracula despite the fact that they have exactly two (2) scenes together and no dialogue. It’s not just the cool name. It’s not just because all of the (frequently male and/or Dracula-crushing) directors and writers refuse to acknowledge Jonathan Harker’s existence or importance.

It's because Stoker himself damn near choked his own book to death with the old man’s screentime, backed up by an utter refusal to let the narrative or the characters acknowledge when he’s fucked up. He always has to be the wise scholar. He always has to command the room and the story when neither of them belong to him.

I’d genuinely like to see one of two adaptations in the future.

In one, we could see a Van Helsing who, following October 3rd, chooses to step back. One where he and others logically point out that he has misled everyone with forced unnecessary ignorance and following stodgy hindering social rules, again, and it has doomed someone precious to them, again. One where the Harkers finally get proper center stage, likewise for the Suitor Squad—the latter of whom are written in canon as having a legit history of dangerous adventures undertaken together. Flesh those out, writers! Let these characters be present in their own fucking story! It’d be a golden opportunity to highlight a point Stoker fumbles even as he champions so many other forward-thinking notions:

Sometimes the older generation has to let go of the reins. Sometimes progress doesn’t come just from following and nodding along, but from forging ahead with new concepts and fresher minds. Case in point, Mina and Jonathan, who are apparently still too radically-written to be bothered with depicting accurately in the 21st century apart from a podcast that is literally just reading their lines verbatim.

The other option an adaptation could take? Supposing it really wanted to lean into the horror and heartbreak and forcing the ducklings to stop grasping at the Dutchman’s coattails?

Kill Van Helsing.

Dracula would absolutely think to target him, assuming that he, the elder with his acquired lore and scholarly nuisance, must surely be the keystone keeping his young enemies together. Given the chance, he’d follow that assumption to its conclusion and, on top of burning what he assumes is all the documentation on him, murdering his fellow clever old man in cold blood, ala Renfield. Bonus points if this comes at a bittersweet cost of Van Helsing landing a parting blow on the Count as thematic penance for ‘failing’ Mina, the second young girl who trusted him and paid for it, giving the bastard his second scar to match the shovel blow on his brow. Double bonus if the mark comes from a Wafer burn.

“Any last words, old man?”

“God bless you.”

Cue him slapping the Son right in the fucker’s face. He doesn’t last long after that, but it’s still a good view to go out on as the Vampire curses and sizzles.

And, natch, he will have been wise enough to leave another memorandum for Jack and the others just in case this very thing should happen. A rousing farewell speech, some parting intel, some apologies made. Perhaps a more personal goodbye to his pupil; complete with Jack’s professional mien cracking like glass and the long-put-off tears finally pouring. Then, finally, the crew move forward as one; no longer leaning on or chafing against Van Helsing’s assumed lead, but using the exact same tools they’d always had at their disposal, along with their own wits that the narrative forced them into ignoring in favor of the Professor’s lectures.

Anyway.

Van Helsing is not a bad character. He’s richly made and interesting, as any worthwhile member of a cast should be! But Stoker crammed him into the wrong role and spread him far too thin across the whole book. Doing so has been detrimental not only to all the media which followed it, but to the actual leads of the novel.

#this is a l o o o n g one #I had a lot of rant and rambling to get out #dracula #re: dracula #dracula daily

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jackcinephile · 3 years

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LO Fans: "I love Lore Olympus because it deals with serious themes, like sexual assault, abuse, gaslighting, trauma, and mental health issues!"

Me, who spent my life discovering and obsessing over masterpieces like this:

"You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that to impress me."

Yeah, I never understood that kind of praise. For one thing, people act like LO is groundbreaking for that reason, despite there being countless movies, books, tv shows, comics, and video games that also deal with the same themes. That isn't to say there can't be more stories like this, however. I, for one, am begging for another video game that comes close to the emotional resonance of Silent Hill 2, or for a faithful adaptation of Dracula and/or Phantom of the Opera, or for a horror movie as unsettling as The Howling! But to say any new story that deals with these themes is unique for doing so, is just simply not true. Lore Olympus is no more unique than any of these stories. Also, I don't understand the praise that Lore Olympus is great just by virtue of having these themes in the first place. Just because a story has serious themes, doesn't automatically make it good. Far too often does LO use its themes as a crutch for a plot that is standard issue among romances, as opposed to stories like The Howling, which has a very intriguing, outlandish plot that serves as a catalyst to explore themes of very real and relatable horror. Lore Olympus, without its intense themes, is just another story about the CEO falling in love with his intern. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE those kinds of stories, but Lore Olympus just doesn't really do it for me. And the poorly executed themes just hamper it even further for me.

If it wasn't already apparent, has anyone noticed a pattern between these titles? All but one are horror stories. In my opinion, that is one of the key differences between them and LO: Horror! The themes within, are ones that illicit terror, and the stories reflect that (even Phantom of the Opera--don't listen to anyone who says it's a romance). Starting with Dracula, one of the scenes that horrified me the most in the book was the one where Count Dracula sneaks into Mina's bedroom. The book describes him slitting open his own vein and forcing her to drink his blood. Mina then expresses feelings of violation, much akin to what rape survivors feel. It doesn't pull any punches in its shocking, horrific portrayal, but it never comes off as exploitative. That's because the best horror stories rely on the audience's empathy. In this case, nobody wants to feel violated, so we feel as horrified as the characters do when we read about this grotesque event. And because it is about illiciting fear through empathy, Dracula succeeds where Lore Olympus fails. Lore Olympus, before all else, is a romance. And rape should not be in a romantic story. Especially not when the narrative of LO uses this trauma to validate the relationship between the two leads. I'm not a fan of stories that use trauma to validate a relationship between romantic interests, and I think that partly stems from reading the Phantom of the Opera.

If you ask me, Phantom of the Opera is one if the best books to discuss abuse and gaslighting ever written! Despite misconceptions generated by the popularity of the musical, PotO is very much a horror story with hardly any romance at all. And it's one of the best examples about why using trauma to validate a romance is a very bad idea! You see, all the conflict of the story begins with The Phantom and his trauma. He was born with multiple physical deformities that cause him to look like a living corpse. Because of this, he is despised and rejected by the world in order to escape the hatred of the world, he commissions the construction of the Paris Opera House, complete with intricate catacombs where he can live out the rest of his miserable days. Then one day, a woman named Christine comes to work at the Opera as a chorus girl. She is sad and alone due to her being orphaned, without a friend in the world. She too is emotionally damaged and the Phantom thinks this means she'll understand him. The trouble begins instantly when he claims to be a character from a folktale that Christine's father used to tell her. This is when the manipulation and gaslighting begins. Part of what makes this so effective is how we see it from an outside perspective. The protagonist, Raoul, is in love with Christine and we get to see his confusion and growing concern when he starts realizing Christine is showing signs of an abusive relationship. What makes the relationship even worse is the fact that Christine actually does understand The Phantom. So she doesn't run away not only out of fear, but also compassion. She knows what it's like to feel isolated and dead to the world and The Phantom uses that against her. The more I describe this, the more parallels I begin to see to Hades' and Minthe's relationship. Yes, Minthe abused Hades in much of the same way as The Phantom abused Christine. Notice how Minthe keeps convincing Hades that they're the only people who understand each other, even going so far as to say, "We're the same." The funny thing is, that's exactly what the narrative uses to validate Hades' and Persephone's relationship! It tries to establish that Hades and Persephone relate to each other and they say, several times, "We're the same," to each other. But this is exactly how Hades got stuck in a toxic relationship with Minthe, so why is it suddenly okay now? Relationships that use shared trauma to validate themselves are almost always doomed to become toxic, in one way or another.

So what about the healthy relationship in Phantom of the Opera? Well, it's kinda interesting actually. You see, Christine eventually comes to realize that she needs help, so she turns to the protagonist, Raoul, to get her away from the Phantom. Raoul has an interesting character arc because he starts the novel being pretty immature and kinda selfish. He doesn't really take Christine's feelings into consideration. It's more like a boy chasing his childhood crush (actually that's exactly what happens). However, over the course of the story, as he becomes increasingly concerned with her well-being, he learns to care more about her feelings and her needs. This culminates in the climax, when he's willing to crawl through hell itself for her sake. I bring all this up because I wanted to compare Raoul with Hades as well. Hades is a very consistent character. He doesn't need an arc like Raoul because, from the very beginning, he's willing to put all of Persephone's needs before his, to a fault! That is his entire purpose within the narrative of LO. He exists to serve Persephone. Raoul didn't exist to serve Christine. He had his own journey of growing and maturing. And Christine didn't exist to serve Raoul either. It bothers me that a novel from 1910 has a more well-rounded relationship than a modern comic! Actually, now that I think about it, isn't Persephone's entire character arc supposed to be her learning that she shouldn't exist to serve others? Well, that totally contradicts Hades' role in the story, doesn't it? He exists to serve her! I guess, in the eyes of LO, it's only okay if men serve women, but not for women to serve men. Newsflash: neither is okay.

Now Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) remains, to this day, one of the most terrifying movies I've ever seen! That's all thanks to its brutal depictions of domestic abuse. So Dr. Henry Jekyll believes the solution to enlightening the human race is to separate the good and evil in our souls. He solves this problem by creating a drug to do just that, which transforms him into Edward Hyde, but he becomes addicted and starts terrorizing a woman who was once a former patient of his. I think what makes this so effective, when compared to LO, is one simple factor: Fear. I am terrified of Edward Hyde, but whenever Apollo shows up, I'm just annoyed. That's because Hyde isn't being used to sell an agenda, while Apoll is. Apollo is all about making a statement about toxic masculinity, which always bothered me from the very beginning! Being an abusive cunt who rapes women has nothing to do with masculinity! It doesn't matter if you're masculine or feminine, anyone can be a cunting abusive rapist. If you are a rapist, it's because you're a monster who lacks empathy, not because of masculinity. And if you think masculinity has something to do with a lack of empathy, fuck off! Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is not about toxic masculinity. It's about how drug addiction can often hurt other people around us just as much, if not moreso, than ourselves. It also doesn't use rape to validate a relationship between characters. I'm sorry, but that is just the laziest storytelling technique. When the antagonist is a rapist OF COURSE the male love interest is going to look better by comparison! But when you take Apollo out of the equation, Hades stops looking like a desirable love interest real fucking quick.

So yeah, I think Hades makes for a bad love interest. That's mostly because he's so much like Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Yeah, the one title from the list above that's not a horror, but is no less relevant. The thing is, both Hades and Shinji have a lot in common, such as hating themselves, having a bad relationship with their father, and not caring at all about their own wants and needs. Oh, also Asuka's a better written character than Minthe, but that's a whole other topic. What makes Evangelion work, in my opinion, is that Shinji's whole journey is about learning to love himself, while Hades is portrayed as being perfect the way he is. Hades in LO is like a flawless beacon of virtue, solely because he worships the ground Persephone walks on. But the guy just doesn't care about himself at all! Like I said earlier, Hades guilty of the same self-destructive behaviors as Persephone but he's praised for it, while Persephone is encouraged to look after herself more often. Compare this to Shinji, whose life only gets worse the more he neglects himself. The only time Hades does something beneficial for himself is when he breaks up with Minthe, but immediately after that, he starts devoting every ounce of energy to Persephone! All that matters is her! He doesn't give a single fuck about himself. Sorry, but that's not good qualities in a male love interest. In all fairness, this is a problem with the romance genre as a whole. Most romances give priority to the protagonist (in this case Persephone) while neglecting the love interest (Hades). It's why I have a serious problem with the entire genre.

Now what could Silent Hill 2 have that is in any way relevant to Lore Olympus? Two words: Nightmare Fuel. Personifying trauma as literal demons is one of the smartest ideas anyone's ever had, because speaking from personal experience, that's how it feels. I just don't feel like the trauma experienced by the characters in LO is a waking nightmare like it is in real life. For one, the characters' trauma only pops up when it's convenient for the plot. Like whenever Persephone starts experiencing ptsd, it happens when she's with Hades so we can get a scene with Hades cuddling her. After that, it shows up in a scene to make her look badass by confronting Apollo. No, just no. The Howling did it better too, by making the protagonist's trauma such an inconvenience in her life! I never felt that way in LO. When you uss traumatic encounters to make your character look like a badass, kindly fuck off.

#lore olympus

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serialreblogger · 4 years

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Hey! I'm thinking of reading Dracula, and knowing that's your eternal hyperfixation, I wanted to ask your thoughts, if you had any comments, suggestions, ect.

HEY WHY DIDN’T I SEE THIS SOONER I’M SO SORRY FRIEND

okay okay okay okay (...several people are typing...) SO

the first thing you should be aware of when reading Dracula is that it’s quite Victorian, so you might find it easier, especially on a first read, to get an annotated version (the Norton Critical Edition version is quite good) that puts footnotes in to explain all the outdated references to like, London penny-meat merchants and stuff. I would say it’s significantly easier to read than Lord of the Rings, but because it was written 200 years ago the difference in language means it’s not a simple read. (However, if you have absolutely any attraction to the Gothic aesthetic, Dracula is so very much worth the brainpower to slog through the rougher sentences. Like. “...the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky.” The whole book is like that. A bit stilted to contemporary readers, but also breathtakingly spot-on in its Spooky Factor.)

the second thing you should be aware of is that Dracula is extremely gay, but in a Tormented Victorian Closeted way. There’s a part where Jonathan climbs out a window that just. It’s uh. The descriptions are very,, metaphorical-sounding. Again, the whole book is like that, and sometimes it’s very fun and sometimes (lookin at Lucy’s whole thing) it’s significantly more unsettling if you pay attention to the weirdly sexy descriptions of how the protagonists interact with the vampires, but I think that’s part of what I find so fascinating about Dracula--it’s unsettling and strange and the pieces don’t fit together clearly, and I still don’t know quite what to make of it, but all the same the feeling of what Stoker’s saying comes through quite clearly. There’s a reason why so many Dracula adaptations have this narrative of a protagonist falling in forbidden love with the tormented Vampyre, yknow? There’s something so unmistakeably sympathetic about the character of Dracula, even when the narrative of the story goes out of its way to establish that he has no redeeming qualities or even proper personhood, that he’s just a monster. Because there’s something about the story (even without getting into the whole “Mina and Jon murked their boss” thing) that makes a reader wonder if that’s really the whole truth. If there isn’t something tragic about Dracula. If there isn’t something in him, if not of goodness, then at least of sorrow, instead of only fear.

Anyway I digress but I think we all knew that was gonna happen; point is: Jonathan and Dracula definitely had sex, Mina and Lucy were definitely in love, Seward’s got something weird goin on with the old professor (and also he’s just very weird, full stop. sir. sir please stop experimenting on your asylum inmates. sir i know this is victorian england but please Do Not), and Quincey, well, Quincey is an American cowboy with a bowie knife, and I think that’s all we really need to know.

ok and! the third thing you should be aware of is The Racism. Imperialist Britain, yo. Bram Stoker was Irish so like, it isn’t half as bad as some other authors of his time period (Rudyard Kipling anyone), but the racism is real and I don’t wanna gloss over that. The g**sy slur is used with abandon for a huge assortment of people groups, there’s a tacit as well as overt acceptance of the idea that West is superior to East, and because the educational system where I grew up is a joke and I can only learn things if I accidentally fall down the wikipedia hole of researching the insect genus hemiptera, i genuinely still don’t know how accurate the extensive history of Romania recounted in the first third of the book actually is. Oh also casual and blatant anti-blackness is verbalized by a character at least once. I’m pretty sure the racism has a metaphorical place in the framework of Dracula’s storytelling, but I couldn’t tell you what it is because I am not going to bother putting myself in the mindset of a racist white Victorian man. This is the mindset I am trying to unlearn. So: read with caution, critical thinking, and the double knowledge that even as the narrators are meant to be unreliable, so too is the author himself.

Finally, regarding interpretation: so personally I’m running with the opinion that Dracula is, at least partly, a metaphor for Stoker’s own queerness and internal conflict re: being queer, being closeted, and watching the torture his friend Wilde went through when the wealthy father of Wilde’s lover set out to ruin his life for daring to love his son. Whether this is true or not (I think it’s true, but hey, that’s analysis, baby), you can’t understand Dracula without knowing the social context for it (as with all literature--the author isn’t dead, not if you want to know what they were saying), and the social context for it is:

- Stoker was friends with Wilde, growing only closer after Wilde was outed

- Wilde was outed, as I said, because the father of his lover was wealthy and powerful and full of the most virulent kind of hatred. This is especially interesting because of how many rich, powerful parents just straight up die in Dracula and leave the main characters with no legal issues and a ridiculous amount of money, which is the diametrical opposite of what happened to Wilde

- Stoker idolized his mentor Henry Irving. Irving was a paradigm of unconventional relationships and self-built family, in a world where divorcees and children born out of wedlock were things to be whispered about in scandalized tones, not people to love and embrace. Irving was also famous for thriving off of manipulating those close to him and pitting friends against each other. Given the painstakingly vivid description Stoker provides for his titular vampire and how closely it matches Irving’s own appearance and demeanor, Irving was widely understood even at the time of writing to be the chief inspiration for the character of Dracula

- the book is dedicated to Stoker’s close friend, Hall Caine, a fellow writer whose stories centered around love triangles and accumulation of sins which threaten to ruin everything, only to be redeemed by the simple act of human goodness

- Stoker was Irish, but not Catholic (he was a Protestant of the Church of Ireland, a division of the Anglican Church). This may come as a surprise when you read the book and see All The Catholicism, Just Everywhere. Religion is actually a key theme in Dracula--most of the main characters start out your typical Good Victorian Anglican Skeptics, and need to learn through a trial-by-fire to trust in the rituals and relics of the Catholic Church to save them from Dracula’s evilness. Which is interesting. Because not only do these characters start off as dismissive towards these “superstitions” (in the same way they dismiss the “superstitions” of the peasant class on the outskirts of Dracula’s domain), but the narrative telling us “these superstitions are actually true!” cannot be trusted, when you know the author’s own beliefs.

(Bram Stoker is not saying what his characters are saying. This is the first and most important rule to remember, if you want to figure out Dracula.)

- The second-most famous character in the novel, after Dracula himself, is Van Helsing, whose first name is Abraham. Note that “Bram” is a declension of Abraham. What does this mean? I legitimately have no idea. But it’d be a weird coincidence, right? Like what even is the thought process there? “Oh, yeah, what should I name this character that comes in, makes overtly homoerotic statements willy nilly, and encourages everyone to throw rationality out the window and stake some vampires using the Eucharist? hmmmm how about ‘Me’”

ok wait FINAL final note: you legitimately do not have to care about any of this. I love Dracula because it has gay vibes and I love trying to figure it out, like an archaeologist sifting through sentence structure to find fragments that match the patterns I already know from historical research; but that’s not why you should love Dracula. The book itself is just straight up fun to read. Like I said, Stoker absolutely nails the exact vibe of spookiness that I love, the eerieness and elegance and vague but vivid fear of a full moon crossed by clouds at midnight. The characters are intriguing, especially Quincey gosh I love Quincey Morris but they’re very,, sweet? if i can say that about people i, personally, suspect of murder? They come together and protect each other against the terrible threat that is Dracula, and you don’t get that half as often as I’d like in horror media. I don’t even know if Dracula could qualify as “horror” proper, because it’s not about the squeamish creeping discomfort that “horror” is meant to evoke, it’s not the appeal of staring at a train wreck--it’s not horrifying. It’s eerie. It’s Gothic. It has spires and vampires and found family and cowboys, and to be honest, I don’t know what could be better than that.

#dracula #linden writes an essay #linden's originals #THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK FRIEND I WILL ALWAYS WANT TO INFODUMP ABOUT DRACULA #ask linden

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margridarnauds · 3 years

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Ooh Dracula for the fandom asks!

Thanks!

the first character i ever fell in love with: Lucy - Love of my life.

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: I don’t REALLY think I’ve changed that much, overall. I DID once have more of the “DARK PRINCE” interpretation of Dracula when I was a teenager, but I kind of grew out of that. I still appreciate him, but in a very different way. (You’ll note that when I write him now, I write him more as a broody, immortal toddler.)

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: See above. I DID used to have that fluffy/star crossed lovers take on Mina/Drac, though as time’s gone on...a part of me does ship it still, but in a different way. More focused on repression/guilt/tension/sparring, though, tbh, most of the time, if I REALLY want Drac fic, I’ll go for Jonathan/Dracula instead because it has more basis for that in book!canon/less....creepy overtones. Still creepy, because you aren’t getting wholesome from Count Dracula, but not. In the way Mina/Dracula is. (Though depending on the adaptation, that changes, see below.)

my ultimate favorite character™: The Countess from the Icelandic translation, Makt Myrkanna. I LOVE her. Love. Honestly, she’s pretty much my primary reason for loving Makt Myrkanna as much as I do.

prettiest character: ...see, I really want to say “Lucy”, but I know in my heart of hearts it’s Arthur. Stoker didn’t spend that much time discussing his looks for him to NOT come in first, sorry Lucy.

my most hated character: I don’t THINK I really hate anyone? Like, yeah, the vampires are absolutely terrible people, but they’re also responsible for the plot and are some of the most interesting characters, so. (Though I do hate the creepy, vaguely racist ape men from Makt Myrkanna. GO. AWAY. GO. GEHEN SIE WEG. Creepy pseudo-Lovecraftian fucks. I love Makt Myrkanna for some things, but...)

my OTP: Van Helsing/Mina; Lucy/The Countess

my NOTP: ...is it supremely petty to say Dracula/Van Helsing, after making a post about Mina/Van Helsing and getting a comment about how oh, no, they shipped Van Helsing/Dracula instead? I don’t even hate it, because I can SEE it, but also. I am first and foremost a creature of spite. That and Renfield/Dracula.

favorite episode:

saddest death: To stop myself from being repetitive and saying “Lucy” for every answer...I’ve always thought Renfield’s death was sad? Especially given that he TRIED to warn them that Dracula would kill him and yet-

favorite season:

least favorite season:

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: There isn’t really ANYONE I hate that much, and Dracula is a kind of.,,distanced enough fandom that I don’t think there’s really any sort of fandom consensus on this sort of thing. It’s the advantage of loving a 100+ years old novel. I’m not really THAT big on any of Lucy’s three suitors - They’re there, but I just...don’t care for them. (Though I have read some good Jack analysis in my time so I respect him.) It isn’t HATE, just. Indifference.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: The Countess, Drac himself, the brides...really, all the vampire squad.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: Lucy did NOT deserve that. Hence why, tbh, I kind of like Makt Myrkanna’s take better, where it just...forgot she existed, leaving the reader with the implication that she’s partying it up throughout Europe after the end of the novel, possibly with the Countess. Love that for her.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: ......look. I do. Like. Mina/Dracula. In a certain way and a certain context. (Say, musical!Drac/Mina. Or Langella!Dracula/Lucy, which is basically Dracula/Mina, because Langella!Dracula...look, he could get it.) There is so much wrong with it. So much. And yet. Also: Jonathan/Dracula, for the book-flavored trash ship. Let’s be real, here: I love my monsters.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: Jonathan/Mina

#Anonymous

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dyaz-stories · 5 years

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What if rumiko takahashi's mangas were reworked as 19th century classic novels include inuyasha ?

Ooh, that’s a really good question, however I’m sorry but I’m only truly familiar with two of her works, Inuyasha and Kyokai no Rinne ^^’

That being said! I had actually read Ego&Bias, which is some sort of Pride & Prejudice AU and was a lot of fun and very well done. I have a hard time seeing Inuyasha as Darcy though (though again, that story was really good, I’m not trying to criticize it at all).

I think a Dracula AU could be very interesting. And I am talking 19th-century-Dracula, not more recent versions (I’m looking at you, Coppola’s Dracula). I remember being so surprised when I read the book because I expected Mina to be, well, Bella, and I ended up thinking that she was so badass?

But seriously though, picture it. Naraku is Dracula, some sort of demon who survives by drinking people’s blood. Inuyasha is a half-demon, trying to prove himself by any way possible, so he doesn’t hesitate when he is sent to Naraku’s castle. He can tell something’s wrong, but he can’t smell anything but dirt on Naraku. He ends up nearly getting killed by his ex, who seems to have been turned into something and lives in the cellar of the castle. She’s nothing like what she used to be (Naraku’s turned her into another vampire/demon). Inuyasha miraculously escapes the castle but is severely wounded.

Meanwhile, Kagome, the only silver lining in Inuyasha’s life, is at home, with her dear friend Sango who’s there with her younger brother Kohaku. Kagome has a lot of success among men (Koga, Hojo), but she’s waiting for her fiancé to return. He comes back, seemingly traumatized, and she takes care of him. But Kohaku gets murdered by something.

A man arrives to help them (yes, Miroku is Van Helsing), and it ends up with Sango having to kill her brother once and for all (T_T). Then, Kagome’s targeted by Naraku. She can fight it to a degree, because she realizes then that she has spiritual powers, but it’s still very new and hard for her. Let the final race against the clock begin…

You know what? I’d be down to read this. I’d probably even be down to write this.

As for Kyokai no Rinne (sorry that’s going to be shorter), I think I could see it as Pride&Prejudice better, maybe in a reversed way? I mean Darcy has money so clearly Rinne cannot have that role x) And Sakura is very calm and expressionless. I can’t see her being rude to Rinne but I could see some misunderstanding coming out of her attitude maybe?

Hope that answers at least part of your question ^^ Thank you for coming in to talk about it!

#inuyasha #kagome #inukag #inuyasha au #dracula #asks #save

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socialismformilfs · 5 years

Text

Mutual appreciation post

So a lot of people did one so here I am hoes

@jungkooksbuttons Hafsa there is no word to describe how much you mean to me, for real I could write a novel about how I feel about you but I’m sure you already know that with all the paragraphs I sent you mon cœur lol: did you know you’re the only person in my life that I wrote paragraphs for? That’s how much you mean to me. I don’t know you’re just amazing and you inspire me to try harder because I know that even if times get harder for both of us we got each back’s and i don’t plan on giving up now that i found you my other half: you’re so damn amazing like I can’t put it into words but you’re funny, pretty, thoughtful and I feel so comfortable with you?? It’s like we can do and say everything to each other without judgment and that’s something I never done before with anyone else but you, i also love how we’re both crackheads and we can talk for hours about nothing but still have fun somehow. Seriously you became such an important part of my life, I actually didn’t expect that when I first joined the gc but now I realized that was the best decision I made this year because I got to meet you. I have so much to say but I’m going to stop now because it’s not a Hafsa appreciation post djjdj seriously babe I love everything about you: your qualities and your flaws and nothing will ever change that

@bloomingjiminie I have so much to say about you didi oml i don’t even know where to start, you were the first person that talked to me in the gc and we got along so well?? I was chocked because I usually get hated easily lol but no with you, it was so easy it’s like you have a power to make people feel comfortable talking to you and that’s amazing, you’re amazing. Honestly I was a bit sad when we stopped talking for a while but then we did our gc and BAAM you became one of my closest friends and soulmate. I’m so glad I honestly made this gc because it brought me closer to you and the others. You’re an incredible writer and I have the best ideas with you and joking around with you is so easy because you have a great sense of humor so I’m not scared to say the dumbest things to you because I know you’ll end up saying dumb stuff too. You also know when to stop joking around and being caring to me when I feel upset and that means a lot. I love you chicken to my frog legs even if you clown me but it’s fair because I clown you too lmaoo

@chen-stans-are-the-best KERI you living legend and my partner in crimes, you’re so damn cool like everything about you is wow, you’re so sweet and loving but at the same time we know we can count on you if we’re in trouble to defend us. You laugh and put up with my dumbass like no one else and that means a whole lot because I know that it doesn’t make everyone laugh like it does with you and I tend to be annoying. I know we tease you a lot about you driving for example but you never get mad and that’s nice to know I can joke around without making you upset. Also you’re a genius, the ideas you create and the evil plan we did once was hilarious and wonderful to do with you. You’re a cutie (even if you say you’re not) and I love talking to you my soul sister because I know you’re here to listen if necessary. Even if I’m bad at expressing how I feel, I want you to know that I won’t leave this gc even if I get banned somehow because you guys became my family and you’re dear to me Keri, I love you (I wanted to make it dark purple cause it’s your favorite color but I don’t know if it’s dark enough lol)

@little-bunny-jungkookie Rae the queen of moodboards and my close friend, honestly you’re so friendly and creative and kind to me, I’m honored?? You’re an angel and I’m not joking even if you may disagree and I’m so happy you consider me as your friend. I know I can talk to you about serious situations without hesitation and go to you anytime to ask you for some advices and I’m forever grateful for that. You might have joined recently but it’s like we’ve been friends for a long time and I can talk to you in vc or send you random pics without thinking about it twice because you have such a comforting and peaceful presence for me, I know I can trust you. You may have flaws but know that it doesn’t make you less of a good person because your qualities have more impact on others than your flaws and your feelings are valid no matter what anyone say. You’re a great person and friend to me and I love you very much Rae and sorry I pronounced your name wrong at first djdj

@seokjinownsmyass My bro Mina, you’re so talented with what you write and we have so many moments together like the time we were teasing Simon and Dee about their “platonic” relationship was iconic or the whole thread we did with the « 🌚🌝 ». I love listening to you rant because that’s so cute (Raena is thriving) and it makes me feel closer to you, I’m happy you’re my bro and I know I joke around a lot and tease you but you’re really an important friend to me and I miss you a lot when we don’t talk. I care about you Mina and I’ll fight you if you doubt yourself because I love you so does Rae and others and you and your memes are the best so don’t ever think for a second that we’ll stop loving you bro because that won’t happen, I’m stubborn af after all. I hope you’ll join the vc soon tho I want to hear you voice Mina jkjk you don’t have to if you don’t want to

@killcomet Starlight, you’re so precious I literally can’t, you always tag me in cute things and I just melt because that’s how adorable you are and I appreciate it because it feels like you’re thinking about me even if we’re not talking that much lately so it makes me feel better and your voice is beautiful, I could listen to it for hours. You may say you’re annoying but that’s not the case hon: your flaws, your insecurities, your doubts, everything about you matters to me and don’t ever hesitate to text me because you might believe you’re annoying, personally it makes me happy to know I can be here for you and I’m always here if you want to talk Drew. I may not be physically present but I still will do my best to help you in any way. I love you and talking to you until 5 am was goal (Simon was here but he kept leaving so technically it was just the two of us dhdh)

@lofisapphic Bee omg you’re so fun to talk to you because we do so many icon things together first it started with the Simon protection club then the crush squad and finally the pickup lines war, I can’t I’m actually screaming everytime you send a pickup line to me jdjdjd im still surprised honestly we haven’t been banned but I’m not complaining. Also you’re so pretty like stop sis that’s not fair and you’re great because even if we have different opinions sometimes, we still respect each other and you’re very mature and respectful on a lot of subjects and that’s impressive, i stan. Anyway I love you and your gay panicking ass

@puppieseokie fay sis you’re iconic seriously, l miss you ranting about your girlfriend on the gc and I was kind of sad when you and bee left but it’s understandable. Your mind is a gift from the god seriously: you love hoseok and bts, you ship shrek and Yoongi and you’re a gay legend. I respect you ma’am and if you have cute moments with your gf, don’t hesitate to talk to me about it~

@simonbunnyjunior SIMON my French talking little bro, you’re the kinkiest person I met in a while but that’s goal honestly. You’re kind af and you do your best to help and make everyone feel better. You’re shameless but at the same time you’re still respectful so i live for that. ALSO the nickname you gave me is so fucking cute, I’m screaming. I admire you for not giving up even tho things are hard for you sometimes and I hope you know you can talk to me anytime if you feel like things are getting too difficult for you to handle. Love you

@bangtansoftboys Robin it’s been a while since the last time you were in the gc, I hope you’re okay and I hope you know that we’re joking when we’re teasing you because we’re crackheads anyway love you cute king~

@sundaetae Dee I own you a lot honestly because without you I wouldn’t have joined this gc so thank you so much and you were the first person I directly ever talked to so I think it’s cause of you I was able to not be shy anymore and I’m grateful for that Dee love u sis

@diamondjoonie Andrea hello~ i know we interacted like once but you sound like a great person to hang out with because the only time we talked we did memes and I wasn’t feeling awkward talking to you so if you ever feel like chatting again, don’t hesitate to message me

@busted-aesthetic MEL you’re so cool seriously, I know we just started talking recently but you’re so funny and you have like an aura that says don’t fuck with me cause I’ll hunt you down djjd talking to you until 6 am with mon cœur was hilarious especially when you guys started teaching me how to pronounce things correctly, iconic. Anyway I hope things get better and love you queen

@kingdomzeldaquest LOTTe my murderer and non-existent friend, I love our inside jokes that we had because now we can confuse others for no reason and that’s goal. You’re funny af and talking to you is nice because you’re an intellectual and your taste in music is great. Love you and don’t get arrested lmaoo

@spraklecrackle Thomas heyyyy i remember talking to you once? When we created the « Simon protection club » and you were super nice and you join the club so you’re a legend. We should talk sometimes and I saw you’re French too so hell yes French squad

@alien-the-magician Yasemin you’re so djdjjd literally you join the gc once in a year but everytime you’re here it’s hilarious for example the Dracula is your ancestor thing and when you were drunk lmaooo I love you and your drunk ass

@justramblingaboutthings HEYYY Raquel how are you? It’s been a while since I saw you, I miss screaming about Dia’s talent with you. Take care of yourself and hope you’re okay

#mutuals #mutuals appreciation post #mutuals appreciation #hafsa💛#dia💓#mina #my bro #dee #lotte #robin #simon #andrea #thomas #raquel #bee #fay #yasemin #drew💜#rae ☀️#keri 💘

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