#Try Honesty

[heatseeker-22]

Billy Talent I turns 20!

On This Day in 2003, Billy Talent released their first album under their new name Billy Talent, as they had to change out their name Pezz due to another band in the US already called Pezz. This album is very special to me as it's my first Billy Talent album (outside of their Hits album) I purchased. This album really showcases Ben's vocal range and how much he can truly scream, hense why I really love this album. Can't go wrong with the old school stuff right?

#Billy Talent #ben kowalewicz #ian d'sa #aaron solowoniuk #jonathan gallant #Billy talent I #2003 #20 years #Try Honesty #Standing In the Rain #Spotify

[shotattheshow]

[PHOTOS] Billy Talent @ PNE Amphitheatre

#billy talent #vancouver #pne #pne amphitheatre #try honesty #punk rock #red flag #surprise surprise #viking death march #river below #fallen leaves #rusted by the rain

[alucienasmusic]

Billy Talent - Try Honesty - Official Video

#billy talent #try honesty #music #music video #bands #Canada #Youtube

[see-arcane]

Inspired by this lovely post, because I think it encapsulates Dracula and Jonathan’s whole deal over the length of the Vampire Hell Staycation.

#try to practice honesty Dracula come on now #jonathan harker #dracula #re: dracula #dracula daily

[zishuge]

The only thing I remember is killing people. You say I'm someone who saves people. I won't kill you — but I don't believe you either. Do you think I'm a fool? You're not a fool. Mysterious Lotus Casebook (2023) | Ep. 20

#mysterious lotus casebook #莲花楼 #li lianhua #di feisheng #cheng yi #xiao shunyao #cdrama #cdramaedit #cdramasource #asiandramasource #mlcedit #*gifs:mine #the fact that this is one of the rare occasions that li lianhua is actually being honest #because di feisheng ///did/// try to save him #(he didn't succeed but... semantics. *li lianhua voice* it doesn't matter. also — not too important.) #at the same time he's employing the honesty in the middle of taking advantage of his memory loss to get him to do his bidding #this man is unbelievable. #BUT what's even more unbelievable is that despite the manipulation #his smile at the end is 100% sincere. #and it says i know you; you know me #you see — we're a matching set #you have me written in your palm; i have you running in my veins #i know we all like to joke that li lianhua physically cannot stop himself from telling lies every time he opens his mouth #but actually sometimes #even when he's telling lies #he cannot help but be genuine #and every time i think about it too much i want to run into traffic

[obisamya]

DANI ROJAS & JAN MAAS Ted Lasso (2020-2023)

#ted lasso #tedlassoedit #tedlassosource #dani rojas #jan maas #cristo fernández #david elsendoorn #gifs. #they're literally best friends look at them #numbers right next to each other... no nonsense tall guy + silly smiley shorter guy... realist + idealist... #unstoppable force (jan's honesty & inability to read a room) vs immovable object (dani's positivity & inability to read a room) #in the first ep of s3 when they're talking about richmond being placed last on everyone's predictions for the season or smth: #jan spitting out statistics about relegations that no one wants to hear + dani's 'maybe they're trying to motivate us!' #the inability to read a room but on opposite ends of the spectrum is something that can be so personal ......

[thespoonisvictory]

also idc I love the citadel and all its wizard hubris I love the intersection of innovation and horror and progress and crushing others underfoot AND also clothes that magically put them on themselves and Citadel Made bouncy balls and secret societies and universities!!! and espresso and arcane discovery and and and

#worlds beyond number #yes citadel bad ALSO you cannot condemn the citadel wholeheartedly without understanding #that we are the citadel #(if you live in the 'west') #and I adore the depth of the depiction of wealth and excess but also knowledge and curiousity #the citadel is not the gatsby mansion. it is any college in the US #it is my university giving out free food and trinkets for no reason other than it is a wednesday #and there is beauty and joy in the science I study I try to understand and the resources available #AND there is abject horror in what has been crushed for millions of people to have this #and I am OBSESSED I love it as a setting in all its brutal honesty #wbn #anyway

[bluesgras]

I'm betting on leo winning ngl

@tmntaucompetition

Never Better by @less-depresso-more-espresso

Teenage Mutant Neglected Turtles by @nerves-nebula

#tmnt #tmnt au polls #tmnt au #teenage mutant neglected turtles #never better au #rottmnt snapdragon #honesty though #i have no idea who'd win that fight #on one hand tm(n)t leo probably is better with a sword than sd mikey is with just his fists #though mikey can go for the ankles #raph is just trying to keep it together #meanwhile sd donnie and tm(n)t donnie are out getting smoothies #they just needed somebody to pay #and supervise them too. i do not trust those two as a duo doing anything in public alone ngl

[shayberri789]

Something about how in chapter 4 of trc Adam is insecure about the fray on his second hand sweater, and how it's a symbol of his background and insecurities, and how most people don't notice it, and if they did, they didnt think better of him for it

And how Blue saw it immediately and it was something she liked about him, a girl too good at seeing the vulnerabilities of other people, but Adam didnt want someone to see his insecurities, didn't want someone to acknowledge that life

But Gansey did. Gansey needed someone to see him at his worst and love him for it, and blue did that

And how Adam needed someone to see him at his most unruly, and encouraged that

And Ronan makes Adam loud

#i love these ships sm. adam and blue were never going to work out because they needed different things out of a relationship #blue needed honesty. she needed someone who wouldnt try and hide from her or keep her seperate from their life #and adam didn't want someone who was always going to see what he tried to hide and would remind him of it #by virtue of coming from a similar place #gansey is always so strong for everyone and so repressed he didnt think he was ALLOWED to have bad days #and when he was vulnerable with blue instead of pushing him away she liked him more for it #while ronan looked at adam and *saw* him and then did not remind him of it #quite help in the background; treating him thr same as anyone else; showing him its okay to be wild and his life isnt defined #by the line between the poverty of love and money of his youth and his ambitions for the future #have i made a lick of sense #im tired and doint my second reread of the year #when will this series free me #shay posts #trc #trc brainrot #gansey my blorbo #the raven cycle #the raven boys #the dream thieves #blue lily lily blue #the raven king #gansey #bluesey #blue sargent #adam parrish #ronan lynch #pynch #richard gansey #richard campbell gansey iii

[fernfreakingtastic]

If you're having a bad day but think you don't deserve someone or even yourself being nice to you:

Shane, even at his lowest, has the farmer want to see him and care about hearing how he's doing. Even when he was at his meanest/lowest points in the game, everyone that collectively put in the effort to see those hearts with him rise up knew what they were walking into. They still came by sometimes every single day they could to give him something they hoped he liked and talked to him to see how he was doing. They genuinely wanted to see him smiling and happy with his aunt and niece and get better. Whether platonically or romantically they care for him

You deserve your own farmer.

You deserve to treat yourself like how the farmer treats Shane when they're trying to get his heart events

#stardew valley #sdv #sdv shane #me having feelings when someone accurately describes why i love Shane #i dont like how if you marry him his room in the house is an utter mess with cans but honesty #i look at my room especially on my bad days with the pop cans i keep forgetting to recycle or at least get out of my room #and i remember Shane probably has bad days to #i'd check to help him try to keep it cleaned up whether just as a reminder or actually helping him #i wouldnt make him feel like shit but still call him out if it was needed #i need to be like the farmer and care about myself like i care about Shane #If i wanna see those blue chickens i need to give myself something i like that makes me happy #add on: i do still understand why some people dont like Shane and honestly? completely fine with that! they see him differently than i do #also yes hi im not dead im just 🌟tired but trying🌟

[emry-stars-art]

What was Abrams favorite thing that Andrew gave him during his courting attempts?

Okay I’ve been sitting on this one because I was trying to give it my best answer and like. I still don’t know lol

I know that people in the replies and tags are going to have incredible answers as well so I want this to be more of a “here’s a collection of things he likes the most” and I get to start so here’s my take:

It’s a book. I hear your valid confusion but LISTEN. In the stretch before Abram finally realizes what’s been going on with the gifts/etc, Andrew gives Abram a book - could be poetry, could be a romance story, idk - with a ribbon just barely peeking out of one page. Abram, obviously, doesn’t think much of it and he’s never been big on reading (I don’t know why I never have Neil liking to read lol is that canon) so he keeps the book on his dresser or something like “I’ll get around to it if he insists”

And then after Abram actually, clearly says he can accept Andrew’s advances, Andrew remembers about it and realizes Abram must not have ever opened the book because he would have figured this all out before now if he had

He asks him about it, if he ever read it, and Abram’s like “…no”

So Andrew tells him to. Later, when Abram’s back in his room, he picks up the book and checks out the first page, and it’s something pretty obviously unimportant or unrelated. And the next page. Eventually he thinks to check the ribbon; he flips to the pages and somewhere on them a quote is underlined in steady deep blue ink:

My glances through the eyes of friendship grow more brief by the day. You remain in the kindest, softest embrace of my heart, but now I find myself watching, hopeful, and friends do not look at friends the way I sometimes look at you.

Stunned, in a word.

But this is something he can figure out. This isn’t flowers - they’re lovely but die so quickly, and Abram doesn’t know the language of them or which ones Andrew would like. It isn’t meals shared, because that’s too common by now. It isn’t direct words or actions of affection because those are far too awkward for someone with so little experience with them. But Abram looks at this book, sees exactly what to do with it, and he knows certainly that this is a way the prince wouldn’t mind communicating because he was the first to do it. Abram doesn’t even have to be around when Andrew reads it.

So Abram spends the next several days scanning the book when he has time, finding many quotes he could perhaps imagine returning, finding a few he keeps marked just in case. Then he finds one that he doesn’t even bother marking with a scrap paper, he immediately picks up his pen and underlines it.

I look at the moon and she has your face: the brightest thing in my sky, the most beautiful, and so, so far away.

(And @jtl-fics had the sweetest idea of Abram pressing and keeping the flowers from the bouquet Andrew gets him in this post; and that he uses some to make bookmarks probably because he knows how much the prince likes books. He would definitely use one of those bookmarks to mark the page he underlined rather than the scrap ribbon 🥰)

Anyway the next time Abram sees the prince he wordlessly hands him back the book. Andrew sees the new mark but doesn’t try to open it yet (which relieves Abram more than he’ll admit), just keeping it under his arm until he has somewhere to put it. But it doesn’t take him near as long to find another quote, since he tends to get distracted reading the context or surrounding passages; he underlines the very next sentence and gets the book back to Abram the next morning. Understanding the risk of Abram’s misunderstanding and completely willing to explain himself in plain terms when Abram asks. Still with the pressed flower bookmark.

To have you near enough to touch should surely destroy me.

When Abram opens it later he first sees that the pages look very familiar - those passages look very familiar - that quote is certainly familiar. And he gets very worried very quickly. Maybe Andrew didn’t like that one, maybe Abram had chosen wrong and he didn’t know how to do this as well as he’d thought. But he doesn’t close it fast enough not to finally, mercifully read on and realize that some of the ink on the page is not his own black ink. After it, dark enough to almost be black in the wrong light, is Andrew’s dark blue.

But after reading Andrew’s quote he does in fact close the book quickly, sitting back and just staring, mostly because he’d surprised himself; he won’t know Andrew’s intention for certain until he asks, but this time - likely for the first time - Abram looks at the word destroy and doesn’t immediately think of the harm he’s done. (Andrew’s new, unfamiliar way with words had to work it’s way into Abram’s understanding eventually.)

They go on as long as there’s still quotes they like in the book, and only once does Andrew get frustrated that Abram stole one of his before he could get around to using it.

Anyway thank you for the sweet ask, here’s a quick sketch of Andrew reading to Abram in the library

#imagining Andrew’s reaction to the bookmark… #like he’s already so relieved seeing Abram allow himself to accept a gift like that #but a bookmark? that must only have been made with Andrew in mind??? #too much #Abram’s ability to accidentally be the most romantic idiot on the planet because he’s never been exposed to it #he’s like ‘well might as well try be as clear as I can #because the prince values honesty’ #and bam andrew gets hit with things like ‘I can’t focus when your hands are on me’ #I would simply pass away #prince Andrew Minyard you’re so strong #uhh I think that’s all #fan art #my art #aftg #all for the game #neil josten #andrew minyard #andreil #royal au #asks #my writing

[that-really-dungeons-my-dragons]

"I think he feels like he just keeps fucking up with Gillion and he doesn't know how to... not do that."

Okay, stab me with a dagger, why don't you.

#like. god. the way Gillion values trust and honesty and it was a huge step forward for Chip to give Gillion the very thing that would let #Gillion read his mind. like that's such a big step forward and Chip did it with no hesitation! but the way it also caused a huge step back! #they are complex but they are trying!! #they are doomed by the narrative 😭 #jrwi riptide #jrwi fnc

[magicalgirlmascot]

When/if Jaller's team gets into their Mahri arc, are they going to be on the swim team? 😁

HGLDFGHLKJFSLKDG

I'm not gonna lie my immediate reaction was "wait are high school swim teams actually a thing" because in my area they exist as like. non-school stuff like at the sports center or whatever but not at actual schools. I've never been to a high school with a pool but presumably they do exist somewhere

I think when the Mahri stuff hits, honestly they just become even weirder. They were already weird as Toa go with the glowing eyes and the lightning thing but now they have, like, gills? Some of them have scales? Kongu's been trying to grow out his beard and for some reason it's got a weird chitinous texture? Jaller has made friends with a crab? Wait, aren't those invasive here?

Meanwhile Nokama "I Am Coping Just Fine With My Werebeast Past" Metru is losing her fucking mind

#bionicle #ficblogging #knps #in all honesty i haven't the first clue how i would even touch the mahri stuff in this au #it's so specific? the ignika needs them to be able to survive underwater so it's like 'oh i'll just fuck around with their biology :)' #meanwhile in knps like. a big part of the inika arc is them trying to do normal high school stuff in conjunction with being toa #(it's a glorified high school au out here i'm SORRY) #and i don't. really have a way for them to disappear into the lake for several months. or a reason honestly! #i'm still figuring out what the actual plot would be here. right now i just have character beats and general vibes

[laundrybiscuits]

(young man what do you wanna be tag)

“I’m pretty sure Steve is trying to kill me,” says Eddie.

“I’m pretty sure he’s not,” says Jonathan. 

“He’s always, like…lurking.” Eddie gestures, fingers fluttering to indicate the shadowy depths of villainy to which Steve Harrington has now sunk. 

Jonathan shrugs. “I think he might just be trying to date you, man.”

“Ehh.” Eddie gives this an appropriate amount of consideration, which is to say none whatsoever. “I’m just saying, last time we had a movie night, he followed me into the kitchen. Just to hang out. You can’t tell me that’s not suspicious.”

“I mean…do you want him to stop? Because I think he’d stop if you said something.” 

Obviously Eddie does not want Steve to stop. Obviously Eddie would very much like Steve to continue being close enough to touch forever, please and thank you. It’s just—Steve keeps saying stuff, completely random shit, like you look really, uh, metal today and tell me about that song you’re working on. It always leaves Eddie off-balance, which he loves and hates with every ounce of his shriveled soul. 

“I can talk to Steve,” Jonathan offers. “Get him to back off.”

“That’s, um. You don’t have to do that,” says Eddie weakly.

“No, man, come on. I told you we’re in your corner, right? For everything, not just the big stuff.” 

Eddie groans. “Okay, Byers, I get it. Jesus, I’m gonna get hives from all this sincerity. Thanks, I love you too or whatever, shut up. And please don’t—um. Please don’t talk to Steve.”

“What, like, ever?” says Argyle, which makes Eddie jump a little; he’d been pretty sure Argyle had been dozing quietly with his head on Jonathan’s lap for the last twenty minutes. 

“Actually, yes,” says Eddie, prodding at Jonathan’s foot. “Please never talk to Steve again for the rest of your natural life. Do this for me, to demonstrate your sincere commitment to supporting the gays.”

“Sorry.” Jonathan kicks back at Eddie, somehow managing not to dislodge Argyle. “If those are my options, I guess I’m homophobic now. You have to be the one to tell Will, though.”

———

“Hey, can I talk to you?” 

“Jonathan’s not actually homophobic,” Eddie blurts out.

Will blinks. “Okay. I mean…good? Wait, did he not know about you?”

“What, no, he knew before any of you little shits did.”

“That definitely isn’t true,” says Will dryly. He sounds a lot like Jonathan right now. “But this isn’t—I just had a question about gay stuff. Sort of.”

“Ask away,” says Eddie graciously, trying to sound wise and benevolent like an ancient gay wizard with all the gay secrets of the gay universe at his disposal.

“It’s just…” Will sighs, looking down. “You’re really, uh, loud. About everything, I mean. And I don’t get why you’re not trying to be…quieter. It just seems like asking for trouble.”

“Here’s the thing about trouble and safety, my young friend,” says Eddie. “There’s nothing we can do to make ourselves easier to swallow. They’ll lie about it and say they’ll put up with us if we just cut off the parts they hate the most, but they hate all of us, so you’re just gonna keep cutting until there’s nothing left. There’s no magical border between the friendly forest full of fluffy bunnies and the deep dark woods full of monsters, because it’s all the same thing.”

Eddie pauses. As gently as he can, he says, “You already know this, Zombie Boy.” He doesn’t miss the way Will flinches. 

“But,” says Will. “Isn’t it, like, a little bit safer?”

“Maybe. Sometimes.” Eddie mulls over his next words, feeling the weight and sharp edges of them in a way he might not have, a year or two ago. Finally, he says, “I think—you gotta decide for yourself what that’s worth. And you also have to know there’s no such thing as completely one hundred percent safe. You can end up making a bunch of little choices that feel like you’re not giving up that much, and end up trapped in a life you hate, just waiting to die. There’s not gonna be one right way to do this, there’s just gonna be ways you can live with yourself and ways you can’t.”

The part he’s not saying to Will is that he’s also loud so other people don’t have to be. 

When he was a freshman, so many years ago now, there’d been this girl—a real bull dyke, you know? Buzzed hair and men’s shirts and work boots. Her locker had had filth shoved in it and written on it pretty much every day, and one time—well, one time, some bad stuff had happened. Almost happened. A teacher had come along just in time, from what Eddie had heard. She’d walked into school the very next day wearing a leather jacket draped over her stocky frame, gorgeously defiant. 

To Eddie, she’d been a beacon of survival. A walking, talking proof that if you’re willing to pay the price, you can be yourself without compromise. 

She’d seemed so mature and worldly to him back in 1980, but now Will’s almost as old as she’d been at the time. Eddie would burn the fucking world down before he let anyone try that shit with Will, and he knows Jonathan and Argyle would too, but they can’t follow him around like guard dogs for the rest of his life. 

So instead, he can just be the thing he’s shaped himself to be, and draw fire. Better to be a lightning rod, standing tall, than to let some other poor sucker get dragged into the spotlight before they’re ready. Nobody’s gonna fuck with Eddie too bad, probably. He’s already got a reputation. He’s Eddie fucking Munson, he’s a cockroach, he survived the worst the underworld could muster and he’s got the scars to prove it. He can take whatever shit they want to throw at him. Wants it, even, because it means something to be the guy they hate. There’s power in that: in walking back into the lion’s den wearing a leather jacket, head held high. 

He doesn’t think Will’s going to learn to relish it the way Eddie does. They’re too different, at their cores. But they’re similar enough that Will’s nodding slowly like it makes sense to him; like he gets what Eddie’s trying so clumsily to say. 

“You don’t have to be the way I am,” Eddie says. “But whatever you decide to be, do it on purpose, and do the hell out of it. Don’t fucking settle for some halfway kind of life. Think you can manage that, Byers?”

“Probably not,” says Will. “But—I’ll try. Thanks, I guess.”

This mentor shit is easy, Eddie thinks victoriously. No big thing at all.

#fic: young man what do you wanna be #hey hi it's been a minute! I've been busy & I know I'm super behind on asks/messages/tags and whatnot! #I swear I'm trying to catch up #...in all honesty I might not though. soz.

[dreadfuldevotee]

jsyk i will be atributing 14's new found physical and emotional tenderness to the doctors sadness over fumbling yaz so fucking hard

#13th doctor #thasmin #14th doctor #doctor who #yasmin khan #char.txt #one day things will stop being about thasmin...that day is not today #literally tho what else would inspire such a 180 from 13 to 14? 13 was so violently averse to any form of vulnerability #and in potd you can seeeee the regret in her face that she wasnt more open with yaz #and now smash cut to 14 saying he Loves donna! and he Loves wilf!! #and now kissing her knuckles and holding her hand to his hearts? the doctor said Im Gonna Try Honesty

[see-arcane]

"a century and a half of him being a cowardly weakling who sometimes cheats" - about Jonathan Harker in one of previous asks I'm sorry, but that's not even true. Jonathan wasn't always some cowardly weakling in media. He wasn't a cowardly weakling in 1970 Count Dracula adaptation or in 1977 BBC adaptation or in that Czechoslovakian 1971  adaptation or in 1953 Turkish one - he was brave and badass in those. And even if you don't like 1992 version, Jonathan was not weakling there either - he was brave, he was badass chasing Dracula across snowy Transylvania with others and even cut his throat, mortally wounding him. It's an exaggeration to claim Jonathan has always been a cowardly weaking in media.

I don't know what specific ask you're referring to and I don't like my odds of sifting through the pile to find the exact quote, but it's a sentiment that's appeared in a few of my rambles before, so I'll take your word that it's floating around somewhere.

First, thank you for bringing up four whole Dracula adaptations where Jonathan Harker is done some justice that have never crossed my radar. The 1970 version has Christopher Lee himself as the Count, so it seems like a promising watch on principle, and I think I vaguely recall the 1977 BBC being mentioned as a hidden gem adaptation that actually brushed closer to the book's canon. The Czechoslovakian and Turkish versions I will trust you on, as my media saturation is drowning in 'murrican schlock. I will even give the 1992 Jonathan credit for letting Keanu have a fraction of Jonathan's character in Coppola's laughably named 1992 fanfiction.

But the thing is, those are five movies. Five whole movies you could point to in a very very very long list of Dracula media. Five where Jonathan is allowed to possess one sliver of his canonical self's character, courage, strength, and ability. I will say the line you picked is one to be rightfully upset about, if only because it isn't right to be angry over 'a century and a half of him being a cowardly weakling.' Fear is part of Jonathan's character.

Jonathan Harker was terrified for his entire stay with the Count. That is in canon. Then he escapes, goes through his magical girl transformation in reaction to Mina being attacked, and winds up beheading the Count. Him starting out afraid is key to his character arc and the catharsis of the climax.

An arc that is--and I will bet money on this--almost entirely gutted even in the four adaptations I wasn't aware of. I know it for a fact in the 1992 film. Keanu was given the same acting directions and script in the movie as you'd give a slice of dry toast or a broom.

Because, as has been the case in far more movies, shows and books with Dracula as a starring role, Jonathan Harker may not necessarily become a coward, but he is always, always gutted. Dracula becomes the dark seducer, now with Coppola's rendition becoming the norm ala 'blaspheming for love,' courtesy of stealing Jonathan's driving passion in the third act. Van Helsing becomes Dracula's badass personal nemesis, courtesy of robbing Jonathan and Mina of that co-owned role.

Yes, Jonathan is sometimes remembered, but it's a coin toss as to whether he gets to A) Participate in the narrative beyond filling screen space, B) Be interesting, C) Be faithful (and not a cookie cutter Victorian Man (c) cliche to poor Mina who needs a REAL VAMPIRE MAN, D) Have any of his importance as one half of the protagonist team with Mina acknowledged without handing everything to Van Helsing. You can only ever have one. If you're lucky.

When people think of the Dracula media of today, or last decade, or the decade before that, and before that, who besides people who have actually read the book would think Jonathan Harker matters as a character? As the guy who opens and closes the story? As the guy who spent two months in captivity with Dracula, as the only person to have actual dialogue with him beyond a single villain rant? As the guy who did not just scratch Dracula's throat, but actively sent him running for his unlife in Piccadilly and ultimately chopped his head off?

The most he's gotten in recent years are the scraps that Moffat tossed him in his latest self insert OCified take on Dracula in his 2020 series, if we ignore the massive middle finger of a send off he gets in the first episode. Or we could look at the 2013 series' lovely depiction of Jonathan (now a jealous prick) and Lucy (an unfulfilled lesbian) having angry-cheating sex about Mina not being into them. Or 2022's The Invitation, featuring Count Ken Doll and his helpers, the elderly Harkers who are also his minions who attack and offer up an innocent girl to his Bride-cult. Or the 1999-2007 comic series of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan 'lol Jonathan Harker is a milksop' Moore, who wrote Mina has his own personal SA fetish stand-in while Jonathan is mercifully off-screen, having ditched Mina because he thought her vampire bite scars were ugly. Or we could give Anno Dracula a read and see Kim Newman's special warm welcome and farewell to the Harkers within the first few pages.

Or we could go back to the beginning. All the way to Tod Browning and F.W. Murnau.

Browning's Dracula of 1931 is, like Coppola's 1992 flick, one of, if not the most immediately recognized version of Dracula there is in cinema. Its climax features Jonathan Harker prancing around a crypt looking for Mina while Van Helsing stakes the Count. (I am being literal. The man is practically skipping. I know, I know, film acting wasn't at its peak back then, but come on.)

Murnau and the very definitely for sure not Dracula with its serial numbers filed off 1922 film, Nosferatu, has Orlok being appropriately menacing and weird at the Jonathan Harker stand-in of 'Thomas Hutter,' who is theatrically terrified--but at least one half of an earnestly loving couple with Mina Ellen Hutter!--and then gets sent away by Ellen on a ruse so she can die tricking Orlok into his death by sunrise.

Jonathan Harker mincing uselessly around while Van Helsing gets the work done.

Jonathan Harker quailing and afraid, contributing nothing to the Count's (or doppelganger thereof) destruction.

Jonathan Harker, however effete or earnest or able, loses the girl to the dark dramatic seducer.

This was the foundation people were given for this character well before anyone bothered to pick up the book. And much of that audience didn't bother. Same for the generations to follow. There's a reason the Dracula Daily wave has surprised, enthralled, and enraged so many new readers who thought that 126+ years of multiple mediums had to be working from some bedrock of comparison in the book, only to find how much had been erased or warped out of recognition.

I would be here all day if I threw myself into all the comic book adaptations. All the spinoff novels. The entire filmography and its neighboring heap of TV series. Even I'm not dedicated enough to comb through every single page and scene just to be reminded of how routinely snubbed or bastardized this character--and, honestly, the whole cast--is as time marches on and the writers and directors behind new Dracula media become increasingly detached from the actual content of the novel, relying only on pop culture osmosis and Wiki pages for Coppola's movie.

Anyway. I suppose it isn't perfectly fair to say Jonathan Harker has been portrayed as a coward through the century and a quarter of Dracula film, TV, and print in every single depiction.

But there is enough saturation in the trends of contemporary media that any crumbs the 20th century offered to him are drowned out to the point that we need a microscope to find them. And even if we're not talking contemporary?

I think it's telling that the examples you gave, bar what I can't not read as a hell of a stretch with 90's Keanu, form a list of four examples out of 126 years' worth of media.

#hope you guys like text walls #in all honesty I would love for some surprise Jonathan Harker-friendly recs to come out of the woodwork #I will try to find those four unknown examples if I can #or at least some synopses to see if I need to brace for some BS foisted on the rest of the cast #but yeah #I have Feelings about my good friend Jonathan Harker #jonathan harker #dracula #adaptation