#lucy/jonathan parallels

[vickyvicarious]

On 11 September, Lucy receives a gift of white garlic flowers. While she's touched by the gesture at first, she finds them unappealing. Still, the person giving them to her frightens her with talk of dire consequences if she doesn't take them and is forceful enough in his belief of their use that she accepts and thanks him despite not understanding their helpfulness.

On 5 May, Jonathan received several gifts, including a crucifix, garlic, wild thorn, and mountain ash. While he was touched by the gesture, he didn't particularly want the gifts. Still, the people giving them to him unsettled him with their fear for him, and were fervent enough in their belief of their use that he accepted despite not understanding their helpfulness.

On 8 May, Jonathan began to realize there was a reason for the gifts, after one of them (the crucifix) protected him briefly from Dracula. He expresses gratitude towards those who gave him the presents and acknowledges they know more than he does about what threatens him.

On 12 September, Lucy begins to realize that her garlic flower medicine is useful after it briefly protects her from Dracula. She acknowledges that van Helsing was right and seems to know more than she does about what threatens her.

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #lucy westenra #lucy/jonathan parallels

[atombombkaytee]

I’ve watched the entire series again today in a hungover state and I CAN’T DEAL with all the parallels.

I mean, when Lucy finds out about her Dad’s true actions and origins - her whole world falls apart. She saw the vaults as safety - she looked up to her Dad more than anyone else in the world. She learns that he’s lied about who he is as a man and as her father, but also she must realise that the vault’s are hiding their own dirty secrets (especially after her experience at vault 4) and that her Dad is a part of that too. She even says to Max, after leaving vault 4, that if she destroyed a whole community to save him, he would be heartbroken: when that’s exactly what he did on an even grander and more terrible scale. Lucy’s life wasn’t even in direct danger to warrant that reaction - he’s just an insecure selfish arsehole.

At the very same time we see the flashback scene of Coop hearing Barb suggest that they drop the bombs on America. This woman that he loves and trusts and has made a family with - who he said he fell in love with because she always tries to do the right thing. Their reactions at the point of realisation - shock, inability to speak, almost dissociation - are both extremely similar. Him having gone through that betrayal before (and likely plenty of times since) is EXACTLY why he talks to Lucy how he does. He’s preparing her for the eventual heartbreak - because he has experience which states that nothing could ever be as perfect as she claims her life is. When he’s making ass jerky from Roger, he even tells her: there’s what people say they do and then there’s what they really do.

When you look at all of that, really, in the scheme of things, Coop - the man that she’s seen as this inhuman, cruel, murderous monster - he’s the good guy. He too thought his wife’s business with vault tec was abhorrent. Yes, he’s been warped and twisted by the wasteland and by his own trauma - but he does see this brightness in Lucy. He thought she was just naive and full of bullshit (especially being a vault dweller. Something which I’m sure triggered him considering his past with vault tec and the links to his wife) but when she proved herself by giving him the vials instead of letting him die, he’s probably amazed that there’s someone left in the world who isn’t just a liar and a terrible person. He’s so used to betrayal and violence by this point. She’s a good person - a trait that he literally said he was in love with his wife because of. She softens him.

But she also proves herself in another way - by shooting her feralled mother - showing that she’s also grown and learnt that not everything is black and white. It’s not just “good and bad” in this world. And although Coop has questionable morals, he’s honest, like her. He tells it how it is. Plus, after her Dad’s huge life changing betrayal and her time in the wasteland, she understands a little more why Coop has done all the things that she’s seen him do - I mean he did meet her pretty much day one out of the vault initially - hence why she goes with him. He has hardened her up to protect her in the wasteland.

Wilzig even says “will you still want the same things when you’re a different animal altogether.”

My god. It’s just genius. Absolutely genius.

“You comin’?”

Edit: Can we also talk about how Coop is basically the inspiration for the vault boy - who Lucy basically looks to (physically a few times throughout the series) for inspiration to do the right thing. AND the fact that her Dad was obviously a bit obsessed with Coop and probably still was when Lucy was born, seeing as he’d been in a pod and had only just woken up, retaining recent memories. So Lucy likely watched all of his films and her Dad maybe even saw him as a bit of a role model (or at least his in-film characters). AND the obvious exchange of index fingers. Yup. Honestly if this relationship doesn’t become cannon, I will start dropping bombs too.

ANOTHER EDIT: Sorry one last thing but, I just want to add: nothing that post-war Coop does is personal. It’s either: to get a job done, survival, because he’s been triggered by something (understandable after what’s he been through) or, in Lucy’s case, to teach a (admittedly often harsh) lesson. He doesn’t just mindlessly kill - or particularly enjoy killing - he just has no issue with it, it’s all just means to an end. He even still remembers to pay for his tomatoes in Filly ffs haha… I imagine he’s extremely numb and devoid of all feeling - except for when it comes to his wife and little girl. That’s the only time we see more visceral reactions in either actions or dialogue from him. He’s such an intricate character and Walton did an amazing job of portraying him.

#fallout #post apocalyptic #cooper howard #ghoul #bethesda #ghoul fucker #ghouls #Lucy Maclean #Hank Maclean #subtext #series #writing #ghoulcy #the ghoul #walton goggins #ella purnell #jonathan nolan #fallout amazon #tv adaptation #vaultghoul #spoilers #parallels

[biscuitrule]

It’s the way that Lucy’s public persona and vibe is more reserved subtle smiles, and Lockwood’s is big charming grins, so while Lucy’s big grins are important and meaningful, for Lockwood it’s the opposite, his small subtle smiles hold even more meaning than his grins.

Like Lucy masks her emotions by toning them down and keeping them in (which makes sense given her home life) so when she’s really experiencing happiness and joy she full on grins because she just physically can’t contain it. But then Lockwood masks his emotions by performing, so when he holds back a smile it’s because it’s real and precious and he’s enjoying the moment just for himself and no one else and a small smile is just as, if not, more meaningful than a big grin from him.

And I think that’s so beautiful.

#it’s just the small ways they parallel each other #stroud is a genius #Lockwood’s grins are still one of the most iconic things ever though #they’re perfect #locklyle #lockwood and co #lucy carlyle #anthony lockwood #lockwood and co netflix #lockwood and co show #l&co #l&co. netflix #lockwood & co #lockwood #lockwood and lucy #lockwood x lucy #lockwood netflix #jonathan stroud #my post #commentary #lock nation #locknation

[thegoatsongs]

Mina about Lucy:

She is so sweet with old people; I think they all fell in love with her on the spot.

Sister Agatha about Jonathan:

He has won all hearts by his sweetness and gentleness. 

#they are parallels in so many ways #dracula daily #jonathan harker #lucy westenra #dracula

[see-arcane]

#Look at what happened to Jonathan 'Lenore-Scheherazade-Bluebeard's Wife' Harker!

To be fair, Jonathan ended up escaping his "groom" unlike the two women he referenced (Lenore, Scheherazade) when he was in Transylvania.

(Though he did end up a madman)

But Jonathan hasn't escaped his role(s). He played and is still playing them out to their extremes.

Lenore does die at the end of her ride with Death disguised as Wilhelm--going to her wedding bed in a cemetery--and without giving away certain future events, Jonathan is still very much in a limbo state when it comes to intermingling death, love, and being coerced into giving himself away over a powerful force's machinations.

Scheherazade lived because of her cleverness and engaging charm, staying her homicidal husband's hand so long he desired to keep rather than kill her. He wouldn't be alive today if he'd failed to do the same.

And Bluebeard's last wife was the one who survived! ...If only because the bastard just so happened to get slaughtered at the climax of his tale.

( :) )

Lucy, meanwhile, is tap-dancing on the razor edge between Ophelia and Persephone, swinging between the lands of the living and the dead every other night. But I'm sure she'll be fine. She has all those garlic blossoms to shield her, right?

...Right?

#the parallels are a-piling #lucy westenra #jonathan harker #dracula #re: dracula #dracula daily

[burekstation]

With Lucy, we have now been fully introduced to the "Just have entered Adulthood and I'm eager to complete my first major milestones in life!" trio. Jonathan, Mina, and now Lucy are at the threshold, young blood to the new and the unknown.

Oh and aside from their key personality differences, all three of them are hopeless romantics!

Jonathan, Lucy, and Mina, each pivot the three acts of the book. Their lives are intertwined, no matter what their fates or degrees of separation may be.

#me @ me oooh u want to write a lucy/jonathan parallels list so bad #but it is too early yet alas #dracula daily #re: dracula #jonathan harker #mina murray #dracula #lucy westenra

[yveni]

When adaptations do the thing.

Gif credit: @thisgameissonintendo

#lockwood and co #bridgerton #the duke and i #julia quinn #daphne bridgerton #anthony bridgerton #the screaming staircase #johnathan stroud #anthony lockwood #lucy carlyle #george karim #phoebe dynevor #jonathan bailey #ruby stokes #cameron chapman #ali hadji heshmati #save lockwood and co #lockwood parallel fandoms #lockwoodparallelfandoms

[small-witch-big-hat]

I am catching up on Re Dracula and I find myself wondering, what might have happened if, once Lucy started showing the signs of change, they gave her more transfusions than just Quincey.

Could she have been saved, in any degree? Would she have just died and turned anyway, or would she have turned vampiric while still staying alive - sweet Lucy while awake, demonic while asleep?

The text comments on the change in her thinking and behavior while she still lives, like two minds in one body. Stoker never makes it clear whether the vampirism is something that changes how the soul thinks and acts like some sort of mind control, or whether it's literally some kind of demonic parasite inhabiting the body - if the latter, then it still has access to the person's memories, and judging by Dracula, seems to still believe itself the person.

So, we've got some evidence that could support either possibility, and nothing to conclusively rule one or the other out.

If Lucy had lived - half changed as she was - could they have kept her demon down, tamed with transfusions of willing blood? Could she have married Arthur, and lived, changed and cursed but still with room for happiness?

Even in Dracula, is there room for a vampire to live in peace, if only theoretically?

Look, too, to Jonathan Harker. It's forever left unclear whether Dracula fed from him, though there are some strong implications - and he sees physical changes as well, though the characters attribute them to other factors (the fear, the shock, the privations of his escape). He, too lost weight, became haggard and drawn, and only slowly returned to a shadow of his former appearance - though white of hair (compare the blonde of Lucy!) and much thinner than before.

Jonathan, too, acted strangely after his time with Dracula. The characters speak of "brain fever", and of him being delirious - while he was under the care of a nun, in a religious hospital - holy ground, or something like it? Were they burning out vampirism already festering in him, without ever knowing it?

This is, of course, only a few of the parallels between Lucy and Jonathan through the text, the most obvious being Mina's love for them both. This supports my hypothesis that Jonathan Harker is strongly transfem-coded, and in this essay I will

#dracula daily #daily dracula #lucy westenra #jonathan harker #this is a transfem jonathan harker blog #only partly joking #there are SO many parallels between him and Lucy in character and plot #re dracula

[lindenforest]

all the men: we are doing so great that we are keeping mina out of this! 🥰🥰🥰 see this is so much better for her!

mina: gets bitten

#i see a parallel w mrs westenra being like 'look how good i did for lucy!' and meanwhile lucy is half dead #the women get bitten and isolated in their pain because they are denied agency 🙃 #(but also mina. girl. oh this is exactly like when vampires attacked jonathan and exactly like when vampires attacked lucy! #it must be a dream and im tired for no reason at all!) #dracula daily

[vickyvicarious]

With Lucy gone now, and Van Helsing saying that they found a diary she had just started, it reminds me how she had started it right after Jonathan had his own sealed up. And that he has not 'spoken' since the wedding or written since his escape. While he was silent, Lucy was starting he own story. Now her own voice is gone, too.

Both of them ill, but while Jonathan was beginning to move out of the bed after his rock bottom and slowly gaining some weight, she was moving to the bed and shrinking. He started his married life, learning to live again, while she was dying close to her own.

I'm answering this together with another ask I got shortly afterwards, talking about very similar things:

It's fascinating how much Jonathan and Lucy's life stages contrast. Even their beginnings and ends, with Jonathan starting out as a poor orphan who could not even dream of ever acquiring a great fortune, and now getting a large inheritance, and Lucy starting out rich and now dying disinherited!

You both (if different anons) are so right. It's super interesting. Both of them are interrupted right at the start of a new phase of life by Dracula, who preys upon them before they can get married. They both encounter three 'suitors' who hope to 'kiss' them, but Jonathan's are the nightmare version who wish to prey upon him while Lucy's are all honorable men and true friends to her. Jonathan's ability to see himself in the mirror is removed and then we get Lucy talking about how she looks at herself in the mirror. All throughout his time in the castle, the parallels between them tend to lean towards Jonathan having the worse and Lucy the better side of similar situations.

But then Dracula leaves Jonathan behind, and goes to Lucy. And then all the comparisons start to flip. Jonathan escapes, Lucy doesn't. Jonathan is recovering as Lucy is getting worse. Jonathan is reunited with his love and gets to have his wedding, while Lucy is barely able to spend any time with Arthur (most of it when she's asleep) and dies before her wedding. Lucy's mother hides her illness from Lucy and keeps distant from her, denies her comfort, removes her medicine, disinherits her. Jonathan's boss steps into the role of a father, tells him he doesn't have long left to live, gives him training and trusts him with responsibility even as he's recovering, makes him his heir.

There's other stuff too, less straightforwardly positive/negative but very impactful. As (one of?) you say, Jonathan doesn't speak when Lucy does. His journal ends before hers begins. And Jonathan is isolated when Lucy is surrounded by allies and friends. It's not total isolation, not after he escapes the castle - but he still is kept apart from the main plot, and so is Mina once she joins him. It is only now when Lucy has died, and thus left the side of her companions, that Jonathan sees Dracula and the Harkers are introduced back into the main plot/begin to hear from the other main characters with van Helsing's telegram to Mina. Lucy closes her eyes in death, and Jonathan's eyes are opened (not fully yet, but with him having seen Dracula, and Mina reading his journal, then it seems apparent they will be back in the thick of things).

And I'm not going to mention all the spoilers, but a couple reversals currently popping into my head are:

Lucy is turned into a vampire and tries to get her love to join her/tries to prey upon him. Then she is killed by him instead. Jonathan's love is (nearly) turned into a vampire and wants him to kill her, but instead he decides he would rather join her.

Lucy preys on children as a vampire, in some of her final waking acts. It's a dark inversion of the motherhood that might be expected in her married life. Jonathan ends the narrative by relating that he has a child who he and Mina are raising lovingly.

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #lucy westenra #dracula daily spoilers #only under the cut #anonymous #replies #lucy/jonathan parallels

[tachvintlogic]

I've been thinking about an idea from last year where the dumb "Mina is the reincarnation of Drac's wife" plotline that some adaptations used is reimagined so that Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula's greatest enemy.

You can make the argument that based on their descriptions, one of Dracula's roommates is actually supposed to be his wife, and the other two are his adult daughters.

Say there was a third daughter.

Her father turned himself into a monster, and then turned her mother and her sisters. Horrified and not wishing to become a monster herself, she either escapes or commits suicide to avoid being turned.

Perhaps one of her sisters chose suicide without realizing that death would only complete the transformation. So, if she chooses suicide, she ensures that she dies in a way that destroys her body and prevents it from persisting as a vampire.

But her soul cannot rest until her father is destroyed and her mother and sisters are freed. She reincarnates over and over, each time taking another shot at him and her family.

He despises this cat and mouse game she forces him to play. She'll lead a peasant revolt against him and burn down his strongholds. She'll track him down when he moves, carrying a sword and holy objects to ward him away. Even when he kills her, she's got a trick up her sleeve preventing a complete transformation.

Sometimes he'll try to hunt her down himself to try to catch her before she's prepared enough to face him, but she always slips just out of his grasp.

So now, in England, he sees her once again planning to destroy him with some friends.

Oh, but what's this? She's being left out of the plotting and scheming by the men in her party? And she's letting them do this?

He's never seen a more perfect opportunity to finally complete his collection.

You're evaded me long enough, my daughter, thinks Dracula, it's time you joined the rest of your family.

#dracula daily #dracula #mina murray #mina harker #dracula's got a lot of connections with kinds of abusers #using his power inbalance with jonathan to keep him trapped in the castle #preying specifically on Lucy even when she become less accessible and there were plenty of people in London he could've targeted #commanding Bersicker the wolf and petting him even tho the wolf clearly didn't like him #if mina's past life is the one daughter that got away #then he's got a parallel to a very specific brand of abuser #the controlling parent that refuses to let their adult children be independent or treat them like adults #to the point their children want nothing to do with them

[sepublic]

All the Lucy and Jonathan parallels are driving me mad because I LOVE a good dynamic that revolves around parallels and/or foils. Between them being objects of Mina’s affection and you can see where her tastes lie, plus the idea of them tenderly understanding each other’s trauma and feeling seen by someone who also gets it... And I’m imagining not just Jonathan/Lucy, but just the whole Jonathan/Lucy/Mina polycule! And I guess if we throw in the suitors...

Damn, that’s one aspect of the source material that Castlevania seemed to understand; A polycule teaming up against Dracula!

#dracula #dracula daily #jonathan harker #lucy westenra #mina murray #Mina harker #castlevania #parallels #foils #meta

[immediatebreakfast]

"And to-night I shall not fear to sleep, since he is close at hand and within call. Thank everybody for being so good to me! Thank God! Good-night, Arthur."

Lucy Westenra writes on her personal diary on september 9 before falling asleep.

"God help me in my task! Good-bye, Mina, if I fail; good-bye, my faithful friend and second father; good-bye, all, and last of all Mina!"

Jonathan Harker writes on his travel journal on june 25 before jumping.

#I don't like parallels anymore #dracula daily #dracula #lucy westenra #jonathan harker

[thegoatsongs]

Lucy:

I am well enough to be left alone. Thank God for mother’s sake, and dear Arthur’s, and for all our friends who have been so kind!

Jonathan:

I doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul. God keep me, if only for the sake of those dear to me!

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #lucy westenra #jonathan and lucy parallels #dracula #re: dracula

[lauralot89]

Horny Dracula fans, take two

I made this poll already but I left off names like an idiot so let me do my spiel again

You have been given an unlimited budget and an unlimited run time to make your ideal adaptation of Dracula. You can be as faithful or unfaithful as you want, it's all up to you, with one caveat:

Dracula has to have a relationship, sexual or romantic or both, with one of the humans.

Now if I just made a poll right here, the answer would overwhelmingly be Jonathan Harker. Let's be real. Even if you don't personally ship it, he's the one Dracula spends the most time with, he's the one Dracula declares to be his and stares at while saying "I too can love," Jonathan's plot parallels so many damn "pretty lady with dangerous man" narratives like Bluebeard and Scheherazade and so on and so forth, it all writes itself

so I have removed him as a choice because I'm genuinely curious as to who your second choice would be and why

You don't have to vote on what you think would be cute or whatever (I mean you can if you want but given what Dracula is and his goals I don't think he can have a cute or even vaguely healthy relationship with a human), just whatever you think would be most narratively interesting. Whether within the narrative of the existing story or going off in some other direction.

Give me your vampire romance thesis

#Dracula #Dracula Daily #Dracula novel #Bram Stoker #Dracula by Bram Stoker #poll #polls

[wylansvanhendriks]

the way that jonathan stroud wrote lucy and lockwood as characters that directly parallel each other in everything!!! she Listens and he Sees. he’s the title character and she’s the narrator. she has this great power and he wants to build a great agency. when apart she’s just as reckless as he is. even down to their likes and dislikes: she hates orange juice pulp and he loves it if only to pretend he’s a whale. she leaves to protect him and he comes back to protect her. she wants to communicate with ghosts and he wants to fight them. they have matching white streaks!!!! they are the most alike and the most different and that is why they work. literally no one has ever created such a compelling relationship with such compelling characters!!!!

#and for a MIDDLE SCHOOL GRADE book series no less!!!!!! #i mean it when i say they are the natural successors to percabeth #cause WHO else is doing it like them??? NO ONE #lockwood and co #anthony lockwood #lucy carlyle #locklyle #text #userevaz #book: lockwood and co #otp: just an associate