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tenebris-lux · 8 months

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Mina had a lot of time to think today. She told the rest of the of the group to kill Dracula because it must be done, but not out of hatred. There are a lot of reasons for that last bit. One was the reason she stated:

“I have been thinking all this long, long day of it—that … perhaps … some day … I, too, may need such pity; and that some other like you—and with equal cause for anger—may deny it to me!”

She’s had all day to wonder what’s going to happen to her. She’s been rejected by the holy through no fault of her own, and Van Helsing made it clear that she’s on her way to becoming a vampire. She knows about the changes in Lucy, and how the people who loved her most felt such hatred just by being in her presence. The sweetest girl turned into something that just threw a kidnapped child to the ground when a better prize was in front of her.

The very same could happen to her. She could become something awful and horrible and hurt innocent people.

So naturally, she has to wonder about the Count.

The story’s pretty clear that he was into some dark stuff that probably led to him becoming a vampire. But it does raise the question if he’s still the same person; if any change was made.

I’m not saying she feels sorry for him—but she is trying to be objective about it. She has to, to keep herself sane. So long as there is any doubt at all. Given how the powers of the Almighty are rejecting her for nothing she has done, she probably feels that she’s in no position to condemn.

Another reason is, because of that burn from the wafer, she’s probably feeling her imperfections more. What happened was not her fault, yet she’s still condemned, and she can feel the sting on her forehead. The whole situation points fingers at her. And under that kind of pressure, it’s not unusual for someone to look for the faults in themselves that could’ve caused this to happen.

Again, none of this is her fault, but that’s the kind of mental feelings that could follow.

Does she want Dracula dead? Yes.

Because of what he did to her? Yes.

But also because of what he did to Lucy, and Jonathan, and also Renfield, and how many others.

Does she hate him? Most likely.

And then she feels the sting on her forehead. That throws a wrench into the whole works. Possibly thoughts of self-blame, and a tangle of overwhelming thoughts and emotions … so she has to stay objective.

Finally, and this reason is more minor … being consumed by hatred isn’t healthy. Hatred is part of being human, but if one starts to obsess over it, it can change a person for the worse. When the men came home having so far failed to kill Dracula, it meant they had a job ahead of them, one that would take all their focus and attention. They have to kill Dracula because he’s dangerous; but it won’t be good if it turns into an obsessive quest for vengeance. That would blind everyone to the bigger picture. There lies a slippery slope that could result in “ends justify the means” or becoming completely detached from the people they had been prior. Which would mean they would never heal. There’s still a chance they won’t, but there’s also the chance they will, so long as they don’t become different people from who they are now.

Also, she probably couldn’t bear to see Jonathan become that. She loves him for who he is.

Dracula has to die because he’s dangerous. Not because it’s personal.

#Mina harker #count dracula #dracula #dracula daily

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vickyvicarious · 2 years

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I do love the way that the vampires kind of haunt the edges of the novel in London. Like, obviously not forever, we will see direct vampire encounters again (and are beginning to, even now), but...

In his castle, Dracula was a person. A terrible person, but a person. He spoke, he interacted directly with Jonathan, we got to know some things about him and his mentality. He is undoubtedly still a monster, but like several others have commented, the supernatural aspects are kind of bonus to him being an abusive, sadistic asshole. You could remove those aspects and still keep the essence of his character/the horror in that segment.

But as soon as he starts traveling to London, he begins to slip further and further out of the narrative. On the Demeter, he was an unseen (but still undoubtedly present) menace. He begins to show powers we didn't necessarily even know he had, like the mist, and it culminates with him manipulating the very weather into a giant storm before changing shape.

But then in England, he continues this descent out of the narrative. In Whitby Lucy and Mina see him once... by the time we are in London, the most anyone sees is a bat once or twice. No one even remotely connects that to Dracula except Renfield. Van Helsing comes closest but he just knows of the concept of a vampire, not anything about Dracula as a person/individual. Yet all the while, Dracula's presence is choking the narrative. He's killing Lucy, he's twisting good intentions and convenient illnesses, his mere presence is driving Renfield into an obsessive mania.

Dracula in London truly is a supernatural menace. Unseen, unknown, and all the more terrifying for it. He doesn't keep a journal, but more than that – no one interacts directly with him so we don't hear any words out of his mouth at all. (Not really counting Thomas Bilder here since it's very brief and we only hear of it later through the news. But even if you do count it, that's one brief encounter in how much time? And by a stranger who doesn't know the significance.) And one of the ways he has corrupted Lucy is by doing the same thing to her.

As her illness progressed, she stopped writing in her journal. She stopped writing letters. For as much as this whole arc was about saving her, most of the time she was "onscreen" it was asleep or in narration that summed up what people did. She had very little voice for a while there. It was only when she had just received transfusions, or was protected by the garlic flowers that we heard from her - only when Dracula's influence was being actively denied. This culminates in her final memorandum where she sees him at the window and doesn't let him in... only to fall victim to his worst attack yet. She tells us about that, but it's nearly the last we hear from her. She barely speaks the next day, and some of her few words are repeated and twisted by her vampire self. Lucy fights Dracula right to the end, as shown by her thanking/final request to Van Helsing, but then she dies.

We know she's a vampire now, but it's been several days and we don't see her. Instead we hear of the "bloofer lady"... now Lucy has completed her transformation, she too is unseen and distanced. We are learning about her deeds through newspaper articles now. I know it's only logical given the format, but I also just think it's really cool how immediately after she becomes a vampire Lucy also gains this same sense of distance/mystery. We don't know why she is hunting children, why she's leaving them alive, if she is in contact with Dracula, if any part of her is left or if she has become something completely different... we can make guesses but the story doesn't tell us yet.

Of course, this doesn't last. And that's because of Jonathan and Van Helsing. Jonathan, who knows the person Count Dracula, immediately recognizes him on the street which is the impetus for the gang all sharing information and which will eventually lead to more proper encounters. And Van Helsing, who knows the monster Lucy has become, is going to force an encounter there as well. But without the people who know what to look for, the vampires in London would remain complete terrifying mysteries on the peripheral of the story (no matter how much they affect it).

#dracula daily #can't tell if i explained what i meant well. anyway i enjoy this aspect #dracula meta #my meta

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coiled-dragon · 1 year

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Ok ok. Im addicted. 31 for Dracfield please? "Don't look at them. Look at me."

Hehehe ♥ This one was fun c:

"Don't Look at Them. Look At Me"+"I'm Not Going To Let Anyone Hurt You" [I stretched the latter a little]

CW: Canon-typical Violence

The church always found them eventually. It was a part of this seemingly endless cycle Renfield was beginning to piece together. His Master would grow strong and bold, leaving behind a trail of corpses - both figurative and literal - that would lead the church and their hunters right to their doorstep. So far, the vampire hunters had always failed in their attempts, but they had begun to grow less predictable in their methods.

Like now, attacking at the break of dawn rather than midday.

Renfield closed the door to his Master’s room, the count having laid down for his rest, when the sound of wood splintering followed by the shouts of men reached his ears. The thunder of feet came next, racing through their estate positioned in northern Italy, and Renfield knew it could be no one but vampire hunters. No one else would have need to attack the isolated mansion, Dracula having made himself a friend of the local nobility and bringing Renfield with him to gatherings… They were known in their half a decade of residence, but that meant the increase of life lost and the bizarre way bodies had been found would’ve reached the church all the quicker.

Cursing, Renfield ran back to the door he’d just locked, throwing it open as a pair of men made it up the stairs. One pointed and yelled in Italian, too quick for him to catch the meaning but he didn’t fancy it was anything nice. Slamming the door behind him, he ran to the coffin.

“Master- Master, hunters, we must-”

The door was kicked open and Renfield dropped, a sharp pain lodging itself between his shoulder blades. The pain was brief, followed only by the fact he couldn’t move at all. In fact, he couldn’t feel anything.

There was a knife lodged in his spine.

“Good, with Dracula’s rat out of the way this’ll be easier,” a gruff voice said, half a dozen men spilling into the room armed with garlic, crossbows, and wooden stakes. “You lot, pull down these blinds, hurry. Before he wakes up.”

Renfield’s mind was racing, able to move his head but not much else. He reached for their bond in a panic, voice caught in his throat but loud in his mind.

Hunters, Master, hunters, please get up.

A few moved towards the windows and he felt a pressure as one man, the gruff voice that had spoken in English, stepped on his back.

“The Vatican would like you back alive,” the man said, Renfield’s bright blue eye rolling up to the bearded man. “Don’t know why they’d want a man who betrayed his humanity, but they also didn’t say I had to bring you back walking.”

He laughed, Renfield struggling to find his voice and still unused to the way his whole body felt incorporeal, like he was a head attached to empty space. It frightened him. It frightened him worse that one of the tall windows was now letting in brilliant early morning light.

The coffin lid stirred, all the hunters turning their attention to the sound of stone scraping stone. A clawed hand slid between the initial crack and nearly all of them pulled up their crossbows - silver-tipped bolts, aimed at the ready.

“Idiots, pull down the blinds first!” The man's warning was ignored as hunters drew closer. Dracula’s hand raised an index finger and wagged as though chastising their eagerness, then vanished.

A billowing cloud of fog erupted from the coffin and came at the man standing over Renfield, the familiar flinching when hot blood splattered on his cheek. A moment later, the commanding hunter fell next to him, throat cut open as Dracula materialized by Renfield. He sighed in annoyance, flicking the blood from his claws and looking about the room before kneeling down.

“Mas-Master, I can’t move…” Renfield said, his voice coming out in a panicked whisper. Dracula hushed him, paying no mind to the five crossbows trained on him. He pulled Renfield’s face up, his gaze rolling to each of the men as they came a little closer in a circle. The one window that had been stripped of its light-blocking curtain was too far to hurt his Master, but the men-

“Don’t look at them, Renfield,” Dracula said, eerily calm as he ran a thumb over his familiar's cheek. “Look at me.”

Renfield obeyed, looking into the blazing eyes of his Master. Normally, seeing him so angry might be upsetting, but this… This was not anger targeted at him. He could feel a calmness in that fury, subduing his fear as Dracula reached for the blade in his back. Renfield twinged when it was pulled free, though he couldn’t feel it. He couldn’t even feel the blood as it blossomed like a flower along the back of his shirt.

“I’ll heal you, but first…” Dracula laid Renfield back down, the familiar angling his head to watch as all five men flinched and raised their crossbows. His Master turned to them with the knife. “None of you get to touch what is mine, least of all the fucking Vatican.” He spat the final word with venom.

The first bolt was fired, and then a second, but Dracula easily evaded them both. He didn’t even need to turn into fog for it, avoiding them in a fluid motion before he spun at the first man. Renfield kept his eyes on him, the vampire attacking like he was leading them in a dance with death. Blood sprayed from opened arteries, the crunch of bone and screams became his music. It was ethereal and haunting, a slaughter performed like art.

It was over in seconds.

Dracula tossed the knife to the side after the last body fell, blood splattered up his arm. He made his way back to Renfield, wiping their blood on his pants with a wrinkled nose. Pure blood was his favorite, but it seemed that there was something else in the blood of a vampire hunter that put him off of it, purity be damned.

“Thank you, Master,” Renfield said, even before he’d cut open a vein to heal him. The butchering had been personal. A knife hadn’t been necessary to decimate the men, but it had been a statement to the hunters to take to their death. Dracula gave a noncommittal grunt.

“No one may hurt what belongs to me,” he said in a low voice, pretending like he hadn’t cared about it at all. Blood flowed from his wrist onto the open and bleeding wound on Renfield’s back. “No one may take what belongs to me, either.”

Renfield whined as feeling began to return to him. Pain was always the first, hot and searing like being dipped in molten iron, but at least this time it faded fast. The wound would have left him impaired for life, despite being small. It had been precisely aimed. He sighed in relief, opening and closing his hands as feeling rushed back into them.

As he stood, Dracula grabbed his face and looked him over.

“I won’t let them hurt you again,” he promised. Renfield’s brows quirked up at the statement. There was more than a sliver of care in the sentiment and it warmed him, nodding. “Now, I’m going to rest.” He let go of Renfield and made his way back to his coffin, huffing in irritation as he kicked one of the bodies. “These better be cleaned up by nightfall. And fix the damn curtain.”

Renfield smiled as Dracula slipped into his coffin and the lid began to close.

“Of course, Master.”

#my fic #drabble #drabble prompt #prompt fill #Zosalot #Anonymous #ski-raisingparanoidpotato #whump #hurt comfort #Dracfield #Renfield #Paralysis sounds terrifying im ngl #honestly this one is longer than a drabble I try to keep drabbles under 1k but whateverrrr #spoils u guys

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thesporkidentity · 7 months

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this was originally a discussion on another platform, but i decided i wanted it (edited for coherency lol) actually on my blog so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯. it is quite long because i was apparently more excited than i'd realized to talk about what a good villain drac is

i have to disagree in terms of assigning anyone but dracula himself the "fault" for what happened on october 3. without a doubt, there are certainly things that could have been done better, but nothing that i think could be attributed to any one person are any one action as the one avoidable thing responsible for mina's suffering.

like, was it the wrong choice to cut mina out of their plans after the big infodump and make her feel like she couldn't share her worries with the menfolk for fear of being labelled a hysterical woman and cut out even more? yuuuuup, stop doing that. but we also know from lucy and renfield that dracula can force silence on people. she'd still have been unable to tell them what happened on october 1 even if she'd tried. (frankly, i'm surprised she even managed to write it in her diary at all.) so were they in the wrong to keep her in the dark? yeah absolutely, communication is one of The Themes of the book and it's not subtle about it lol. but i don't think her knowing their plans about the dirt boxes would have changed those events except to give them a different flavor of horror.

could they have let her come with them to the carfax estate on october 1st rather than staying home alone? she might have managed to avoid that first bite by not being in the house. but the Big One where she was forced to drink drac's blood and bound to him was on october 3, when everyone else was still in the house. she hadn't been left behind; jonathan was in bed with her. because while it's easier for dracula to prey on people when they're alone, safety in numbers is not guaranteed. maybe he'll just throw a wolf through your fucking window and drug the entire household, maybe he'll hypnotize everyone because knowing about his trance powers does not stop one from succumbing to them. subtlety may be a preference, but it's not a necessity.

but maybe they could have stopped him from getting in at all by transferring renfield somewhere else like he'd requested even if they didn't actually free him. except dracula only needs an invitation from any resident. he could have worked his way through all the patients/inmates until he got one. heck, he could have waited until the crew were all out and then just gotten someone who works there to let him under the pretense of looking into facilities for a family member, who knows! renfield was just the one he already had a connection with who had shown a previous inclination to help him, but dracula has shown himself perfectly capable of rules-lawyering his way into places.

and one can run through a whole list of what if's, but just as easily as i can think of a scenario i can come up with a way around it, just an endless series of moves and counter-moves. so while we as a fandom can (and do) talk in circles about how someone was wrong and should have made a better/different decision (and boy, there were some Choices being made, i'm not even trying to defend some of them), i don't actually think they could have averted, at this stage, the horror of the october 3 events simply by making the Good And Proper decisions (as designated by each personal opinion). i think we'd have ended up in the same destination, or somewhere equally as bad, it's just that the road there would have looked a little different. (and while i haven't looked at the events leading up to lucy's death as closely, i think it's likely one could draw the same conclusion where Questionable Decisions were made, and yet none of them were actually the final cause of the disaster.)

and that's part of what makes dracula as an adversary so scary. it's human nature to want to play the blame game because if this could have been easily prevented by one action or by one character, then his victories would be by mere chance, something you could avoid by just being smart enough. but dracula is a strategist, and all these backups and failsafes and counters make him feel unavoidable, inevitable. not one path to victory but all paths.

#dracula #dracula daily

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beyondmistland · 4 months

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Thoughts on some stuff I've watched over the past few months

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once: Certainly, one of the most original takes on the multiverse I’ve ever seen.

Dune (Part I): Could have used less visions of Chani and more scenes fleshing out minor cast members, especially Doctor Yueh.

Matt Reeve’s The Batman: A Batman movie where he spends more time using his detective skills than his martial arts training? Hell yes. Plus, the soundtrack and aesthetic are just great.

Renfield: Gory and campy (and I mean that in a good way).

The Green Knight: While impeccably acted and sumptuously gorgeous (when it wasn’t so dark I could barely make out anything) it didn’t feel very Arthurian to me nor did I find it a good adaptation of the romance given the movie’s thematic inversion of said source material.

What If? S2: While I loved the last two episodes I felt this season as a whole was weaker than the first.

Loki S2: Hands-down, the best thing to come out of Marvel Studios since Endgame. Helps that its the only part of the MCU to have a memorable soundtrack.

The Fall of the House of Usher: Started and ended strong but sagged somewhat in the middle due to the one-death-per-episode format. (Also doesn't help that nothing ever topped the very first death in terms of intensity.)

Dnd: Honor Among Thieves: Good fun for the whole family.

Stardust: An interesting adaptation in that it feels tonally and thematically different from the book. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the movie a great deal but rather it feels like a different sort of fairytale, which is pretty fitting actually.

GoldenEye: My very first Bond movie. Good but nothing to write home about.

The Suicide Squad: Feels like an edgier version of the GOTG, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but an aesthetic that can grow tiresome upon repeat exposure.

#personal #about me #movies #mcu #dcu #the fall of the house of usher #james bond #dungeons and dragons #renfield 2023 #the green knight #dune part one #everything everywhere all at once #stardust neil gaiman #the suicide squad #loki series #book adaptation

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see-arcane · 1 year

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Renfield (2023) Thoughts fresh from the theater

Spoilers and so on below

If I had to summarize the whole movie, it would be, “First fanfiction ever written by a middle schooler who just finished watching Dracula (1931), fell in love with its version of Renfield, and made a clumsy attempt at updating and rescuing him with an AU that gives him a massive century-long body count and a happy ending at the cost of giving only him and Dracula any real effort in character while leaving the rest of the cast to be filler.”

Which is to say, C+.

Count Cageula and Houltfield were fun and you could tell they were putting energy and joy into their roles. Everything else? Oof.

Oof.

The supporting cast’s only highlights were the support group’s members and the actress playing the mob boss Bellafrancesca—big bonus points to her for so easily selling a camp villain counterpart to Cageula; instant evil MILF4DILF chemistry in their one scene together, 11/10.

Meanwhile, the majority of the characters delivered their lines like high schoolers stumbling through their first play. Awkwafina was already wince-inducing for making her play Token Good Cop with Quincey’s name tagged on, but she acted this whole thing like she was counting down until payday. There’s one scene towards the climax where she’s tricking Cageula to get close for an attack, and her delivery has less character to it than an Alexa response.

But then, there wasn’t exactly a ton of great dialogue to work with. The few plum lines were reserved for Hoult and Cage. Everyone else got raisins.

Other practical nitpicks would be the very odd choice to go 100% on some great monster and gore prosthetics, but then revert back to early 2000s-grade CGI blood spurts. These victims were goddamn gushers. Oh, sorry, not victims—the cannon fodder baddies in the action sequences.

The victims got some good classic bloodshed! Thankfully, the only murdered innocents on screen were killed by Cageula. But, like the trailers hinted, Cageula wanted Houltfield to fetch him some innocents himself. An order we’re led to believe was some ‘new’ order that Houltfield couldn’t bring himself to follow, which would’ve been a great callback to Original Renfield who hit the brakes on obeying Dracula when it threatened Mina. And maybe this really was the first time Cageula made that an explicit order! We do get a scene where Houltfield drags in some villain corpses for Cageula to snack on with him assuming this will satisfy.

But Cageula spits the blood out, declaring it trash. He wants blood from good people.

Which, as certain reveals show, Houltfield should already know, considering he’s spent the better part of a century getting Cageula’s meals. The fact that Houltfield seems surprised at this demand for innocent victims is either him being disappointed that his plan to reduce his own secondhand villainy has been thwarted, or else it’s just a flub in the writing.

And this comes on top of a reveal that Houltfield apparently left his wife and baby daughter behind for ‘greed and power’ offered by Cageula. It’s acknowledged in-dialogue that this wasn’t Cageula’s will, just an opportunity that Houltfield went for.

(An addition that makes me a little gladder that they didn’t try to swap Jonathan Harker (or, to nod back to the 1931 version, ‘John’ Harker) for this spot. Because any version where he would leave behind Mina and their child for Dracula’s sake, no matter the interplay of manipulation or Faustian nonsense, would have been a nail too many in the coffin.)

All that said, it’s very much a mixed bag. So much so that I feel I should give the caveat that I may be being too harsh, as I am a sour little gremlin who’s spent the last year with their head in a vat of Dracula fixation juice. And it also deserves saying that there were good bits worth seeing, Houltfield was very endearing, and the gleefully evil Cageula was a laugh and a half. Watch the movie for that if nothing else. It could be there’s some gold there I missed by being too prickly.

One major silver lining? I am doubly looking forward to having Hoult portray Thomas Hutter in Robert Eggers’ upcoming Nosferatu remake. Thomas Hutter and Renfield ala 1931 are already 90% harvested Jonathan Harker parts, and this movie proves how well Hoult can play the ‘sweetheart manipulated into a bad situation’ character. I’ll take it as a good sign for that role if nothing else.

#I'll probably grab the DVD at some point but I won't be in a rush #I knew it wasn't going to be a cinematic masterpiece #it's just there to be fun #and I did have fun!#but it was in spite of a lot of pitfalls that shouldn't have been there #r.m. renfield #renfield #renfield (2023)#dracula #spoilers #ramble ramble ramble

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yallemagne · 1 year

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So, on a plane yesterday, I skimmed through the rest of P.N. Elrod's book, Quincey Morris, Vampire.

It's not very good. It's poor fanfiction. I do not support attacking fanfic writers or the stereotype of fanfiction being the epitome of bad writing (most of my writing is fanfiction and I'm rather proud of some of it [some bc a good deal of my older work is amateur]), but it's a rather amateur plot where Elrod spends the entire book rewriting the book she's supposed to be building off of, not desecrating.

Now, Elrod has quite a few vampire books, so I think this story is just a self-indulgent take on a neat lil idea she had, but she felt the need to discard all of Bram's vampire lore and all of Bram's plot and squish her own in. I respect Elrod as a fellow fanfic writer, but I don't respect her character assassinations of Jonathan and Renfield and the attempts to justify the assault of Lucy and Mina. Though I guess that Dracula was an unreliable source? Hopefully, the intention was not for the reader to take Dracula's claims seriously.

Since I skimmed, I cannot say that I am the best source. I did read the beginning part up until Dracula starts claiming Jonathan is an insane adulterer. Then I just couldn't take any of it seriously. I mean, I couldn't really take it seriously when Dracula and Quincey were just... having a calm conversation but whatever.

Spoilers of course.

So, in the story, Quincey's body is dragged from the sleeping team's side by wolves and they cannot find him once they wake. Why did the wolves drag him? Because Dracula is apparently alive and has figured out that Quincey is a vampire. Dracula blackmails Quincey into coming with him back to his castle. If he had refused, Dracula would have murdered Quincey's whole team.

And yet after that, the book tries to claim that Dracula was secretly in the right the entire time.

Dracula has green eyes. It has no plot relevance, I don't believe Quincey remarks on the change from red to green, it's just a dumb detail that keeps being shoved down our throats.

Through Dracula's guided questions, Quincey realizes that a woman he had sex with years ago that drank his blood and forced him to drink hers was a vampire (apparently she's also a character from one of Elrod's other books). Why didn't he change into a vampire sooner? Dracula claims there are two different types of vampires, and he's the cooler one while Quincey is the lamesauce one. So Quincey only has to drink animal blood. Quincey worries that his tainted blood may have killed Lucy but Dracula's like "... nah".

Quincey confronts him on everything, but Dracula has a bullshit answer for anything. I feel the only bearable way of reading this is the interpretation that Dracula is gaslighting Quincey. Quincey says "you killed Lucy, you fed on her repeatedly and she died of blood loss". Dracula says "no that was your fault. she would have gotten better if you just left her drained of blood". Dracula claims that Mina's still gonna become a vampire, but bc she wished hard enough I guess she got to not be hated by God anymore. And he claims he broke off his connection with her amicably, and they're totally cool now.

He claims that he was in the right to kill Renfield because Renfield was a madman and would have hurt the team... when he only attacked Dracula in defence of Mina. This is so damn ableist. Dracula, you can't claim self-defence when you are a fucking vampire with the power to hypnotize people. That was a gratuitous use of force against a mentally ill man that was of no great threat to you.

Worst of all, when told of Jonathan's account of the Weird Sisters assaulting him, he's like "oh, I didn't interfere. I watched. they had their way with him several times. and he liked it. I mean, he had an ensuing mental breakdown, but he was totally down with being raped in his sleep every night." He claims that Jonathan was just oversensitive to the paranormal and that everything he wrote in his journal was delusions. He gaslights Jonathan. Apparently, there were servants in the castle. Dracula, you fucking twit, that would be the strangest thing to fucking lie about, and you know it. When questioned why he locked Jonathan in his castle and left him for dead instead of taking him to Whitby with him, Dracula waves his hand like "eh. couldn't. don't ask me to elaborate. I'm still an amazing host."

Quincey later denies Dracula's claims about Lucy's death being all their fault, but he never contradicts the claims about Mina and Jonathan. In fact, he constantly repeats the part about Jonathan being oversensitive. So? He agrees with Dracula that Jonathan and Mina being assaulted was okay? He agrees with the ableist notion that Renfield needed to be "put down". Maybe I just skimmed over a part.

Dracula forces Quincey to drink animal blood and stuff. Shows him the ropes. Quincey goes out and actually finds Arthur and Jack still grieving him. He does not reveal himself. I was glad that Arthur and Jack don't have their characters assassinated. They end up shooting a wolf and Dracula gets mad and Quincey is like "you literally had my body dragged away by wolves, they were acting in retribution, you don't get to kill them for it".

Blah blah I dunno, Quincey moves back to London. He tries out his cool vampire powers to harass some lower-class people. He bites a sex worker (super uncomfortable with this part, he says himself that he felt betrayed by the fact his vampiric paramour forced vampirism onto him without his consent while he was in the throws of passion, and he does it to someone else?) He meets Elrod's OC.

Bertrice Holmwood is a Mary Sue. Okay? She's a manic pixie dream girl, she's a strong independent woman that needs no man (except that she sorta blackmails Quincey into sleeping with her), and she doesn't feel like a real human being.

She's yet another hastily shoved-in plot device. She's Arthur's older sister by exactly one year and her whole deal is that she's the black sheep of the family because she's a girlboss. Ugh. She's less of a character and more of Elrod's vague idea of a cool woman.

"Black sheep", Arthur loves her! They're on good terms and they're very protective of one another. She's not ostracized at all. But here's the thing, if she always existed and she and Arthur had such a close relationship, why was she never mentioned in the original book? Now, I'm not gonna get mad that Bramothy didn't make Elrod's OC canon. I'm gonna get frustrated that Elrod so poorly shoved her in. If Arthur is not an only child, why did all the managing of his father's funeral fall to him? Why was she never present or mentioned in scenes pertaining to Arthur's grief? Because she's not... real. And it doesn't fit the original story for her to be real.

I would have vouched for her role in the story if she had been Jack's secret sister instead. Jack having a sibling that he doesn't really interact with during the course of Dracula is realistic because he has a job and he's not a noble. You could even make her Quincey's sister visiting from Texas upon receiving news of Quincey's death. But. Well. They're not Alabamian so the sex would be out of left field then /j.

She is told the events of the book and is like "I'm gonna kill VH for hurting my baby bro" and like. Fair. Honestly, I appreciate that the book calls out VH's manipulation methods instead of trying to twist it like VH was the secret evil all along and Dracula was the good guy. It seemed like that was how it was gonna play out in the beginning, but Quincey empathizes with VH while still criticizing his methods. It's a human take on VH. Sucks what Elrod did to Renfield, Mina, and Jonathan, though.

Bertrice hangs out with Quincey a lot, but my eyes glazed over for those parts bc of all the written-out lower-class accents. Despite her being rich, she hangs out in exclusively the slums of London apparently. It makes her less likeable honestly. Stop gentrifying the neighbourhood, Bertrice. But one scene I did read was when she took him to a fortune teller that used tarot cards to explain his whole situation. One of them was "you've been lied to" and from Quincey's later insistence that Lucy's death was none of their faults, I think he rightfully took it to mean that Dracula was lying? But he doesn't apply that logic to his interpretation of Mina and Jonathan's story, nor Renfield's death...

Quincey reaches out to Arthur and Arthur is a bit spooked.

Arthur: You're dead! You're a vampire! Begone! Quincey: I'm actually a good vampire. 'Just drink animal blood. Arthur: You're lying! Quincey: I'm not. Arthur: Oh, okay. It's good to have you back.

Quincey tries to talk to Van Helsing, but Van Helsing refuses to believe him. Jack on the other hand...

Jack, on the other side of a door: Quincey, is that you? Quincey: Yeah. Jack: If it is you, open this door. Quincey: Okay, but don't freak out. VH: DON'T LISTEN TO HIM HE'S A MONSTER. Quincey: *opens door* Hey. Jack: Ah, hey bud, good to see you again.

It's funny how easily Jack accepts that Quincey is alive and totally chill, especially with VH screaming at him that it's all lies. You would think that he'd at least be equally as unsure as Arthur. VH storms out I think, and Quincey explains to Jack everything-- that VH is probably just defensive bc if Quincey is a vampire and totally chill, that opens the door to the possibility VH was wrong about Lucy. But he restates numerous times that Lucy was dead, she died of blood loss, the Bloofer Lady was not Lucy because that vampire fed off of children, and there was no part of Lucy left to reason with.

VH apparently kidnapped Arthur and Bertrice. Why? I dunno, because he was paranoid about Quincey. But he cages them and that's just super weird. Quincey tries to remedy this by having Jack reason with VH. When that doesn't work, Quincey tries to reason with him with a *bit* of hypnotism. It doesn't work. VH shoots him several times in the chest and, assuming Quincey is dead, crosses himself and leaves.

Quincey isn't dead, he's fine.

Uh? The End? The Harkers never show up, so they're unable to defend themselves against Dracula's claims against them. It really frustrated me. And of course, Renfield couldn't defend himself, and Quincey only barely argues on his behalf before blindly believing Dracula. VH serving as an antagonist felt okay seeing as he's not vilified, he's just painted as a grieving, irrational old man. That's realistic. Except for his kidnapping of Arthur and Bertrice... which was just... so melodramatic.

Also just... so I mentioned that Bertrice and Quincey have sex and it was kind of coerced. I don't recall when this happened, it's really that pointless to the plot. So Bertrice springs it on Quincey that she knows he's a vampire, and in the high stress of that confrontation, she asks him to have sex with her and bite her. He does. Eh.

All in all, the book kind of reads like a very self-indulgent work of fanfiction. Whatever Elrod wished to put into the story, she put in with disregard to the actual events of the book she was basing her work off of. It honestly wasn't the worst Dracula fanfiction I'd ever read, though the victim-blaming was atrocious. I appreciate that Bertrice was a bit more than just a fuck-buddy for Quincey. Her protectiveness over Arthur is a bit of a character trait. I also like that the Suitors are still bros. The conversations between Jack and Arthur that Quincey listened in on felt like I was reading a better story for a bit, their friendship felt real.

#dracula #dracula daily #quincey morris #quincey p morris #count dracula #arthur holmwood #jack seward #john seward #van helsing #abraham van helsing #book recap #and?? review?#tw sa mention #I would never talk about an unpublished fanfic this way #seeing as I haven't ever mentioned the worst ones I've read so far #but she's a published book author- nothing is sacred

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doomsayings · 10 months

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ooh, please tell me why Last Voyage of the Demeter was bad? I was literally not even aware another Dracula-based movie came out after Renfield this year and. the ship's log is the only part of the book I really loved (I have a severe Dracula criticism attack every time I hear the name lol but that's besides the point). I'm curious to hear how a movie based on such a fun concept could suck. so if you feel like sharing your takes I'm listening!!

Yeah no problem!! The ship’s log was also one of my favorite parts of dracula, it’s a part of the book I find legitimately scary and chilling every time I read so I was excited that concept!!

Unfortunately the movie failed because it had all the faults of a blockbuster that has passed through one too many boardrooms…at this point I find myself allergic to the overly-saccharine-yet-completely-hollow emotional beats that you find in these big Hollywood movies and this movie had those in spades. Very typical and corny hero’s journey moments and tropey characters that repeated AI-generated sounding dialogue. I always say I’m very forgiving of indie movies/passion projects even if they aren’t very good because at least they are usually trying to do something different. The opposite end of this is that I have no patience for generic Hollywood… and this movie was completely generic and charmless.

And not even scary! I think the best approach would have been emulating the slow gothic dread of the book, which it didn’t convey at all BUT even if you want to stick to the creature feature approach of this movie there are better ways to do it. They emphasized heavily a nosferatu type dracula as a slasher monster and showed him a lot but…he didn’t look good enough to warrant how much we saw him. He was wonky CGI and while the gore was practical I think, but at a certain point they just stopped showing it and ran out of ways for dracula to kill people, so, even from the slasher angle it fails completely. For a rated-R movie it literally didn’t take any risks at all in the violence or gothic transgression department so. ALL IN ALL. VERY SAD.

ALSO THE WAY HOLLYWOOD IS TOO PUSSY TO KILL THE WHOLE CREW. Literally.

#asks #it got very little advertisement tbh I hadn’t heard of it until friends bought it up with me either!!#thank you for ask!! I’m curious about renfield I must say I haven’t seen it

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lawyernovelistpersonal · 2 years

Text

I'm sure plenty has already been said about Renfield from today's entry, but I'd just like to highlight some stuff we see about Seward.

Warning for talk of medical experimentation, animal cruelty, and mental illness

It would almost be worth while to complete the experiment. It might be done if there were only a sufficient cause. Men sneered at vivisection, and yet look at its results to-day! Why not advance science in its most difficult and vital aspect—the knowledge of the brain?

As a quick note, He's not suggesting cutting Renfield open here. I think there are two interpretations of this: first, that he's suggesting that he could allow continued animal cruelty for the cause of advancing psychology (vivisection also being animal cruelty which he says has advanced science). Second, he's suggesting that continuing to study Renfield by allowing him to continue building up his own personal food chain and observing him would be considered unethical but could yield good results, again for the advancement of psychology (much as vivisection was considered unethical but he considers it to have advanced science).

If only there were a sufficient cause! I must not think too much of this, or I may be tempted

Here we see that he doesn't consider the advancement of knowledge (and, to take an uncharitable reading, his own advancement in his field) to be a good enough cause for unethical experimentation. He wants there to be a good reason because he does want that sweet, sweet knowledge, but knows there isn't one and so makes the decision that he's not going to carry out the unethical experiments.

This was actually a very active debate around vivisection at the time: the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876 said that researchers who carried out cruel experiments on (vertebrate) animals could be prosecuted unless the experiments were "absolutely necessary for the due instruction ... to save or prolong human life". Unethical experimentation could be carried out if the cause was considered good enough. In this case, though, there might be benefits, but those benefits don't outweigh the costs and Seward doesn't try to claim they would.

Seward also shows a lot of self-knowledge here, acknowledging that he's susceptible to temptation and thus needs to avoid thinking about what he could learn from letting Renfield carry on his food chain experiments to their conclusion because he might actually fall to that temptation, come up with a justification, and start acting in a way he knows to be wrong.

And that's important: he does know it would be wrong and resists the temptation to do it anyway.

A good cause might turn the scale with me, for may not I too be of an exceptional brain, congenitally?

There are a lot of headcanons about how Seward is neurodivergent and that's why he went into psychiatry, and for me this clinches that interpretation as canon.

First, we tend to use "exceptional" to mean "better than usual" but it really just means "unusual". Seward is acknowledging that he has had or may have had an unusual brain since birth, suggesting that, indeed, he has some kind of neurodivergence even though he can mostly hide it and he and others in his profession don't have the knowledge to analyse and name it.

The other part of what he's saying here confirms the idea that he got into psychiatry because of that knowledge about himself: he wants more knowledge in his field because his own mind is unusual. And, again, he has enough self-knowledge to be aware of his own susceptibility to this specific kind of temptation and be on guard against it.

To me it seems only yesterday that my whole life ended with my new hope, and that truly I began a new record. So it will be until the Great Recorder sums me up and closes my ledger account with a balance to profit or loss. Oh, Lucy, Lucy, I cannot be angry with you, nor can I be angry with my friend whose happiness is yours; but I must only wait on hopeless and work. Work! work!

If I only could have as strong a cause as my poor mad friend there—a good, unselfish cause to make me work—that would be indeed happiness.

That's really sad.

We can see from this that Seward hasn't moved on at all from being rejected by Lucy; just as in that first phonograph recording, it still hurts and he's still trying to throw himself into his work but here we also see that he feels hopeless and purposeless. He really hoped that she would accept him and when that hope was dashed it clearly sent him on a horrible downward depressive spiral that he's really trying to get out of but doesn't know how.

I particularly note that he specifies he wants an unselfish cause and I wonder a bit what the selfish causes are: self-aggrandisement might well be one, relevant to what he said earlier about advancing his field more than other famous researchers had. Avoiding his own pain might be another. There may also be a dollop of self-loathing in there driving him to believe that if he finds joy in anything that means doing it is selfish, so if, for example, he did really help a patient he couldn't feel that doing that gave him an unselfish cause to work towards. It's an ugly catch-22 with the fact that he specifies that an unselfish cause to make him work would make him happy.

Finally, it is quite touching that he's very clear he's not angry with Lucy for rejecting him despite the pain that rejection causes him and doesn't resent Art for being her choice. Keep drinking that Victorian Respect Women juice, Jack.

#dracula daily #dr seward

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tenebris-lux · 10 months

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Missed yesterday’s entry (Aug 19), so I’m catching up today.

August 19

“It looks like religious mania, and he will soon think that he himself is God. These infinitesimal distinctions between man and man are too paltry for an Omnipotent Being. How these madmen give themselves away!”

… yeah, I kinda think they do indeed, JACK. (It is pretty repulsive how he just makes those assumptions about Renfield, when Renfield hasn’t actually done that. The arrogance is gross.)

Also, because I’m more in the habit of seeing parallels now, Renfield breaking out at night to go to “the Master” and Seward following reminded me of Lucy’s trek and Mina following. The details are completely different, but there is still some similarity. Also Lucy left sometime before 1AM and Renfield at about at 2AM.

What I’m wondering is how did Dracula get Renfield’s attention? Did he call him out, or did Renfield just show up and Dracula’s like, “… hi?” Don’t know how often he gets people running at him because they actually want to interact with his vampirism. I imagine Renfield is a first in all of Dracula’s unlife.

On Re: Dracula

~ I appreciated Seward’s cocky arrogance. It was unpleasant in the appropriate way. I was repulsed, and I love him for it.

~ I liked the effect done on the voices of Seward & Renfield when they were talking to each other in the asylum; gave a good impression that it was in an emotionally cold and uncaring chamber.

~ Hate to criticize such well-done audio drama, and it might be completely unfounded as I am no chemistry major, but … the chemical formula for chloral was different in the audio than in the book. The book says “C2HCl3 O. H2O!” In Re: Dracula, he said, “C2HCl2 O. H2O!” I try not to be a stickler for word-for-word down to every single detail, but in chemical formula, one letter or number can make all the difference. I think that one’s kind of important.

~ Once again, I love all the music choices. I don’t believe one would be forthcoming (because audio books/dramas don’t have them afaik), but I’d dearly love a soundtrack when the whole thing is done. I love soundtracks.

~ Felix Trench is an excellent voice actor. Renfield’s scorn for Seward and his admiring devotion to “the Master” came through strong.

August 20

… what is with today?? Apparently a whole week passed since THIS MORNING, and then 3 nights all today. Also (date spoiler here), we get another entry on August 23. So I wonder if it’s just a mess-up on Stoker’s part, and the “three nights has the same thing happened” was supposed to be on August 23.

Jack, are you okay?? Are you having some real intense dreams or something?

Again, I like Felix Trench’s deliveries. His “I can wait … I can wait …” really sells Renfield.

#jack seward #renfield #Dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula

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sidhewrites · 10 months

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Chapter 7! We get to meet Josie, but, more importantly, we get to meet Renfield. Cat Incoming!

Project Info

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

I nearly slip and fall in the mud on my way out of the graveyard, stopping just long enough to let a part-timer know I was heading out for a bit before sprinting through the gate, past the apartment block and into downtown to Mean Mug.

She's sat with two coffees at our table, the one we'd spent so long talking and laughing and staring into each other's eyes. But today is just one more failure in a pattern of [not being on time.] I don't know how it happens. I swear I try, but any time we make plans, I forget, or I get distracted, and I show up late.

I'm not going to pretend I'm the only wronged party here. Josie was the one who pulled the plug on our relationship, and I'm trying not to blame her for it. But I also see the way she purses her lips and checks her phone -- that hint of frustration she tries to subdue until it festers into bitterness -- and it sparks an old frustration in me that I have to fight back.

I swallow it. We're being civil today. I swallow my anger and waltz in with a smile. "What do you know, Jo?"

"Hey, Kaz." She looks at me with an uncertain smile that fades quickly.

"What's up?"

"Um..." She gestures vaguely, and sighs in that specific way that tells me I've missed something important.

I bite back the urge to snap. What is it this time? Look. I'm air headed. My skills lay in organizing other people's schedules, landscaping a historical site, and having big muscles. It took a while to figure out how to read her unspoken messages and the intricacies of every roll of her beautiful brown eyes, but I had yet to turn into a mind-reader.

[“Where’s the box?”]

Shit. God Jesus damn it shit. In my rush to get over here, I'd completely forgotten our whole reason for meeting. "Look, Josie, I..." I groan. There's no good excuse, but I try anyway. "It's been... you know, a real long day, and I completely forgot."

"I bet." She nods. "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I should have written it down, but there was the tree trimming to schedule, and Mr. Ngo's wife was sick--"

"Oh no. Is Phan okay?"

"She's doing better, but he's taking a few days off to look at her."

"Okay, yeah. Keep going."

"So I had to give an interview for the ghost hunters--"

"The what?"

Shit.

I had also, incidentally, been briefed on the NDA Mr. Ngo had signed to let the Archivists work in relative anonymity here. [maybe? hm.]

I groan, but make myself answer her. "There's some guys here looking into a bunch of local legends. They're going to take a few ghost tours, and they spent the day going around the graveyard with a tour guide to see the historically significant graves, and..."

"And...?" Her eyes shine.

"And they're spending a few nights ghost hunting in the graveyard, and I have to supervise."

"And...?"

"And...that includes tonight?"

"And...?" She looks me dead in the eye.

This time, I know what she means. "And it's the Haunted Archivists."

I wince as she shrieks, a hand over her mouth. "I knew it! I knew it. Oh my god, I'm so jealous." She hesitates, and I know she's trying to decide whether or not to ask me for a big, important favor.

"Absolutely not," I say, before she has a chance. "Mr. Ngo trusts me to handle things while he's away, and I'm not going to let someone into the graveyard at night!" Not to mention, I was still on thin ice with the archivists.

"You don't have to. Just leave the gate open just a smidge."

"No." She pouts, batting her eyes at me.

"Can I--"

I make a point of slurping loudly.

Josie groans, but accepts her fate.

Sunset falls on the graveyard, old trees and headstones casting strangely shaped shadows across the grass. I haven't had a chance to touch up that one portion, and wince. I take pride in my work, and this looks sloppy, half-finished. Still, nobody else seems to care. More than anything, they just grumble as I usher them out and lock the gate.

"Sorry, guys. You can visit again tomorrow."

There's some closing work to do -- sweeping the front of the office space, collecting any trash left over. It's nearing nine when I'm done, which means the Haunted Archivists are on their way for call time.

[transition, tbh could take out.]

A brief history of the Ouija board. [fill in with the ouija board history.]

And now, thanks to Hasbro and Hollywood's combined efforts, I'm sitting in a graveyard at the end of my latest double shift, loaded up on caffeine, watching a bunch of people figure out the best lighting by which to contact the dead.

"Do you guys need me for anything, or...?" I gesture helplessly. I feel useless standing around, but no visitors are allowed to be unsupervised at night, even if they do have filming permits.

"Um...No? Not really, sorry." Lourdes shrugs, but I don't think she's sorry.

"How long do you guys think you'll be setting up for? There's a patch of grass over there that I didn't get to mow this week, and I don't want to let it get much taller."

"You mow the grass at night?"

"Sure. I mean -- usually I do it at four or five in the morning, but I can make do."

[They say no, and instead she goes to tend to some of the flowers around the headstones, straightening them and brushing off debris.]

She doesn't text back right away. Weird, but not unheard of. I leave it be, and turn on the lawnmower and take care of what I can before Maddie lets me know it's time to start filming. I guess I'm making too much noise for the sound tech, so instead I follow Maddie back to the circle of light where the rest of the Archivists are finding their places.

I stop just short of the light as my phone rings, and pull it out to check if Mr. Ngo needs anything. But it's only Josie. Of course. I groan, and reject the call, instead sending a text to let her know I have to turn my phone on silent when cameras are rolling.

Mick and Lourdes (who i s2g need better names) sit on the ground on either side of their ouija board

and as theyre filming, another call this one with the emergency ringtonew. "Josie, I told you, I'm busy with a film crew tonight." I'm half expecting her to tell me she's outside one of the gates and to pretty please let her in.

Instead, she's in tears. I can barely make out what she's saying, and I have to try a couple times to get her to calm down enough to speak in words.

I mouth an apology to the team and step away to continue the call. "Josie, it's okay. I'm here. Just tell me what's wrong."

"It's -- It's Renfield," she manages to cry out. "He's gone."

"What?"

My heart drops. Josie's ancient rescue cat, a fluffy black beast named Renfield. [something]

"What happened? Did you see where he went?"

"No -- I left the door open too long after bringing my box in, and he must have just..." She dissolved into tears once more.

"Okay, Josie, I'll help look for him. I promise. I can't... go too far right now, but I'll look around the apartment block, okay?"

"Okay."

I excuse myself to go look around the block closest to the graveyard, glancing back every now and then to ensure the lights and film crew hadn't gone too far. It wasn't going to be easy to find a black cat in the middle of the night, but I hoped sweeping my phone's flashlight around would be enough to catch his eyes reflecting in the shadows. But after a half hour of no luck, I feel obligated to return to the graveyard and check in on the film crew.

I'm just past the east gate when a shadow bolts past me. It's as tall as my shins, trailing a familiar smell of fur and tuna, and I take off after it without a thought.

Renfield's got his ears flat against his head, fur bristled so he looks twice as big as usual, but he's moving faster than I'd ever seen him go. I chase him across the green, twisting and turning through headstones, and part of me realizes that if it wasn't for my ex-girlfriend's ancient cat moving at super-feline speed, this would have been a fantastic workout.

"Come on, Renfield! Stop running!"

He doesn't listen. Instead, he bolts to the side, taking off towards the sphere of light where the Haunted Archivists have their ouija board set up. Lourdes and Mick sit on either side, hands on the planchette, but they're all watching with horror as Renfield nears the set.

"Catch him! Someone catch him!" I yell.

One of the gaffers makes a brave effort, but Renfield evades his grasp. He leaps between the two hosts, knocking the ouija board to the side and sending the planchette flying before disappearing into the dark.

"Sorry!" I yell, leaping after him, and finally tracking him to a large grave towards the back corner of the graveyard in the corner I hadn't managed to mow the other day. The grass is taller here, the headstones more faded and weathered.

He's snarling and hissing. It's more active than Renfield has been in years, and I hesitate, glancing around to make sure that nobody else is close enough to scare him. I flinch, catching sight of a shadowy figure over my shoulder, but it's nobody. Just a tree in the dark. I breathe out slowly, and bend down. "Renfield, it's me. Hi baby boy." He presses himself up against the wall, eyes bright and wild. "Come on, little boy, it's okay. It's me. Wanna smell?"

He hisses as my hand gets closer, but I must get close enough for Renfield to catch a whiff. He looks around, eyes fixated on a point over my shoulder, and refuses to move.

"What is it? Come on, it's just me." I look back anyway, but there's nothing there but the shadowy tree once more, naked branches casting strange shadows over the headstone. I recognize it as the place I'd first met Lucy, but it seems she decided against coming tonight. I force myself to ignore the disappointment, and tell myself I'm relieved instead. The last thing I needed was a troublemaker on top of everything else.

"There's nobody there, Renfield. Come on, it's okay. Come on."

Renfield's ears swivel towards me, and finally, he tears his eyes away from the tree and darts forward into my lap.

"There we go, good boy. Baby boy, you're okay." I hold him close, running a hand through his fur. "I've got him!" I shout over my shoulder, and the film crew's relieved cries echo over the graveyard.

He's too old to vocalize properly, but I recognize his snuffling and wheezing as his version of pleading meows. Poor thing hadn't been outside since he turned twelve a few years ago. He must be terrified.

I pause, looking to the side one last time. The tree remains a tree with the same heavy shadows as always.

"Come on, baby. Let's get you home." I press a kiss to the top of his head, and shift my weight, holding him with one arm to fish out my phone.

Josie picks up on the first ring. "Kaz?"

"I got him. He was in the graveyard."

"Oh thank god!" She starts crying all over again, but I hear the relief in her voice. "Is he okay?"

"A little scared, but nothing a good cuddle won't solve. Right, little man?" I hold the phone up to Renfield's face. He sniffs it, and wheezes his old, squeaky meow. "That's right, Renfield. We're taking you back to your mom."

Actually, hold that thought.

I glance over to the Haunted Archivists. Maddie held the ouija board awkwardly, but all eyes were on me.

Screw it. They hated me enough as it was.

I hold the phone up to my ear again, and say, "Josie, do you wanna come meet me down at the graveyard?"

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pinkiepiebones · 10 months

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Also

It was past 1AM when we got back to the room but sibling wanted to start Renfield so we did (this is my.... 25th time watching it I think). I had my laptop set on sibling's bed and sat on my own bed and kept looking from the screen to sib and for the most part sib was either going 😲 or cackling.

Highlights for me: when Drac exploded the pope, sib was literally the 😲 emoji. When the ska thing came up, much laugh. Apache Joe's head getting punch off, shock and then laughter. All of Teddy's scenes, laughs. The whole Mulate's fight, gasps and impressed noises. "Star wipe! Good for him!"

We stopped just as the makeover montage started, so 1/3 through. Sibling commented "everyone in this movie is a really good actor!" in that happily surprised tone you might use when the breakfast you ordered at a disreputable-looking greasy spoon ends up being quite tasty and well made. I've been supplying trivia (Hoult did most of his own stunts, the black and white bits were recreations from the 1931 Dracula, the hospital lair was in a real abandoned hospital and not a set, etc) and am mostly just so happy sibling is enjoying it so far. 😊😊😊

#renfield #robbie don't look

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unabridgedisbetter · 2 years

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Y’all, since I have NO impulse control and I was very worried about spoilers, (don’t worry friends no spoilers from me) I went ahead and finished Dracula the book during this dry, no email period. And when even THAT wasn’t enough I decided to start watching a bunch of “Dracula” movies. So here are my noodle thoughts

The first one I tried was the 1992 Dracula with Winona Rider and Keanu Reeves. I have a whole other post explaining the intense emotions related to that movie but the three biggest opinions is that 1) it is VERY inaccurate to the book all the while acting like it is Very Faithful 2) younger Dracula looks like a goth Willy wonka 3) it was so wildly horny I couldn’t finish it. (I wish we had an alternative reality movie with the same cast that was a good book to movie adaption) Over all the disappointment was so strong that I was wary of trying any other movies

Momma didn’t raise no quitter tho so my husband convinced me to try the 1931 hour long Dracula and this ALSO was NOT LIKE the book but I forgave them for a lot after the drama of the last movie. Honestly for me the best part was Renfield. the actor was old timey attractive, quoted book renfield, and was in general a Mad Lad. I’m sure there are some spoilers to the book because this one covered Main Plot Points but everything is glossed over because it’s only an hour long. Also the actress for Mina was adorable and any vampire violence couldn’t be shown on screen because of the time period, Which I found to be rather charming. That being said their biggest sin was reducing my boi Jonathan to a literal SIDE CHARACTER. He wasn’t even a Lawyer 😭.

I watched Van Helsing the other night, and Hugh Jackman was The Best Part as a vampire hunting goth cowboy. At this point I had given up all hope of any movie being like the book which is good because this was DEFINITIVELY the REMIX. Over all I enjoyed the film (I want to know what shampoo Van Helsing uses because his hair was very luxurious) but it was SOOO not accurate to the book that anyone could watch it and still not have a clue as to what actually transpired in Bram Stokers telling.

It is rather odd to me that Dracula has inspired SO MANY MOVIES and yet as far as I can tell no one has sat down to create an accurate movie (or mini series). On one side the variety of movies is fun (I’ve seen Dracula untold and like it, though again it’s a very different retelling of Dracula) but on the other hand would it kill the directors to leave Van Helsing a middle aged man, have all three suitors, make Jonathan an ACTUAL MAIN CHARACTER, quote the book dialogue for more people then Renfield and let the horror slowly creep over everyone instead of investing in jump scares and crazy theatrics? Basically I want the people who made the six hour BBC Pride and Prejudice (that was faithful to the source material) to make a six hour Dracula (equally faithful to the source material 😂. )If anyone knows of a more or less faithful Dracula movie please let me know.

#dracula daily #daily dracula #van helsing #dracula movie #1992 bram stokers dracula #dracula 1931 #hugh jackman #young keanu #jane austen #shitpost #our good friend jonathan #jonathan harker #mina harker #pride and predujice

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lastwave · 1 year

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no energy or patience to write a full character study in character with plot. but i will write a lengthy post analyzing seward and his abusive tendencies because my autism rules. and unfortunately to write a good rewrite you have to have a good grasp on ur characters . so! under the read more . i have analyzed him. i break up my analyses in. semi chronological order

1. lucy

so like. seward's secondary motivation (the motivation that is easily pinpointed to keeping the character in the story) is lucy. not just because of his character but also the misogyny around lucy as a character but thats a whole other post. it'd be really easy to end it here and say sewards main motivation throughout the novel is an unrequited love and sense of dedication to her memory. but that leaves him very flat and a lot of his interactions with the main cast unexplained (how he acts with the other male leads, how he treats renfield, the fact even his proposal was so laden with self hate it became a guilt trip).

so then i need to ask. why does he propose to lucy? does he love her? it doesn't seem like it. in his proposal, he doesn't talk about lucy as a person, he talks about what she does for him. that it would make him sad if she turned him down, that he would be the happiest man in the world if she said yes. intentional or not, this isn't a profession of love, its emotional leverage. i mean. imagine if someone proposed to you like that. also keeping in mind that this is in the victorian era, its frankly a dangerous situation to put lucy in. had she not been sure that arthur was going to propose later, she wouldn't really be at liberty to say no, considering how much weight mens perceptions of a woman impacted how everyone in your social circle saw you in victorian high society. seward wouldn't even have to directly do anything, the people around her would deem her cold and uncaring for turning down the nice wealthy man propositioning her. it wouldn't even be a conscious decision on sewards part . point being, for a novel that writes a great example of a loving man in the victorian ages (jonathan), seward doesn't measure up. which leads me to my next point (i didnt even get to mention how he talks about her dead body, gross, but remember that. ok.)

2. authority figures, expectations and self esteem

so again we ask. why is he proposing? well. hes a wealthy, unmarried man nearing his 30s in victorian england. simply put that was seen as fucking weird. people start asking whats wrong with you that so many families turn you away. and seward cares a lot about his image. his image and accolades are half of what he talks about. theres three characters that are higher up the social ladder than seward is. arthur, avh, and renfield* (he gets hid own section). debatably quincey too but to be honest i think he just regards quincey as a curveball of a guy. and theres a lot of subtext implying quinceys an outlaw. again, another post.

easiest to break down is his dynamic with avh. he fawns to avh because to him, he's an authority figure. he's asking for his teacher's input, for approval. really thats what seward wants from avh, approval, that for one reason or another avh can't directly give (amsterdam medical laws had no bearings on wether or not a british citizen could be a doctor. avh is always trying to use lateral thinking exercises to get a message across to seward, that seward keeps missing. he seems used to this. this tidbit will be relevant later.)

secondly, arthur and quincey. lumping them together because their interactions with seward are kinda few and far between. seward fawns to them though, always speaking highly of arthur and quincey (more than enough examples in the text i shouldn't have to cite).

and you have to ask why. again, it goes back to his position in society. it's because he's expected to. you can't criticize someone above you, and it'd be even better to be in their good graces. he makes himself small, palatable to almost everyone we see him come across. its not a conscious decision, but he still does it. and you have to ask why. just like you have to ask why he refuses to take care of himself in his own privacy. just like you have to ask why he pursued medicine, psychology specifically.

that is where my thesis about his entire character comes in.

the fact of the matter is that seward aims to be someone everyone can like, that everyone will be proud of. when he talks about psychology, he doesn't talk about it with any sort of love for the craft itself, but rather the acclaim he could get. he talks about sonography with more love than he does medicine. psychology was in its very infancy, considered the cutting edge of medicine. they were still talking about fucking phrenology. in this pursuit, though, he lost what made him a person that people want to know. how well does any of the main cast know him, really? barring avh, who was there to see this whole development.

he wants to be liked. but he doesn't know the person he wants to like him is himself. hes a black hole.

3. renfield

"but hugh, you said he was an abuser, that doesn't sound like an abuser" that's because anyone can be abuser, especially when given institutional power.

renfield is everything that seward hates. hes smart, hes of good standing, he had friends, and yet and still he is unliked and unwanted by the world around him, and yet he is still assured of his personhood, of what defines him.

this is because renfield is psychotic. and seward is a psychologist. sewards been given the societal "go ahead" to be as shit to renfield as he wants, to exact everything he cant punish himself for onto renfield.

and, for the record, his abuses aren't even standard for the time. so stop using that as a justification lol. private asylums, like the one seward runs, at the time had a rudimentary idea of "don't encourage or argue with the delusion" (hey remember when seward considered encouraging renfields delusions just to see the end result?) and straightjackect confinement (still abuse. by the way.) was limited to a few hours by most guidelines (remember when he left him in a straightjacket for an entire day?)

and it just gets worse when he realizes he has parallels to renfield (both pursuing something unattainable, renfield wants undeath and seward wants to be liked by everyone). he won't hurt himself, so he will hurt renfield, because he can get away with it without hurting the reputation he worked so hard to make.

he cant stand the fact he has anything in common with a psychotic man, and that that psychotic man (who he fundamentally views as lesser.) once had what he never did. and you can only partially blame it on the times, bedlams reform happened nearly two fucking hundred years before the novel takes place. us psychotic people being. yknow. people is not a new idea

abusers arent going to be a caricature of evil. intentional or not, seward is actually a really well written example of an abuser, because abusers are people, and you'll rarely be able to just.. pick them out of a crowd.

#hugh txt #jack seward #dracula daily #r. m. renfield #lucy westenra #john seward #didnt touch on everything cause id get off topic so fast .#lucy and renfield stans rise the fuck up please.#ohh my brain is muuushy

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