#anyway Jonathan has desires (so does Mina)

[thegoatsongs]

Jokes aside I think that Jonathan feels both an involuntary (vampire-caused, dubious consent-coded) and a very "base", all-his, desire to get bitten in That Scene with the Dracula brides. Both can co-exist. If anything, his being affected by a not-confined-to-marriage attraction could be consistent with the fact that the text says that he has "passion" more times than anyone else and that the only other characters who are described as passionate are the great Vampire and a "madman" (both characters Jonathan has got big parallels with), both of whom bear a hunger for more than for what's allowed. It's intense, but he feels resistance and guilt for the feeling because he is ultimately faithful and staunch (and given what we read later, it's a faithfulness more out of love than out of just propriety).

Desire that goes beyond a boundary is also present in his feelings for Mina; while yes their love is generally presented as good and adoring, it is also having those love=madness connotations. It's all-consuming enough for him to be willing to walk to a very real damnation (and he intimately knows it), to have the readiness to "sell my soul", and refuse to release his beloved from vampirism unlike what Arthur and the others did with Lucy. In that context, that too is a "burning, wicked desire".

The unspoken part of his vow is that if it comes to it, he will, now willingly, let Vampire Mina bite him like the brides almost did, which circles back to that "agonizing" temptation. Since vampirism has transgressive sexual connotations, here his desire to be with Mina no matter how fallen and debased she may be is connected with this as well. It also connects with Jonathan calling this desire "the holiest love" while describing ghastly, unholy vampire pairs lying on "sacred" earth, sharing the same "holiest" love that he feels for her. It's a duality that's both blessed and damning. And I think you're not supposed to pick only one because, in his case, it goes hand in hand. In context, it's darkly tragic, instead of purely condemnable or heroic.

#the guilt just... does not make him simply just repressed and anxious I'm sorry I will disagree with Experts #he has OTHER very Victorian flaws and opinions #also hey if you disagree feel free to hmu I'm not hostile to different thoughts #anyway Jonathan has desires (so does Mina) #also look if he were single? it would have been different but his relationship affects the reading of that scene #not mentioning consent here because it's another topic #jonathan harker #mina harker #the weird sisters #dracula #dracula daily

[vickyvicarious]

Mina today like 😒🙄 anyway as I was saying, I could feel my husband who is Jonathan...

Oh man, imagine how offended she will feel when she eventually reads Van Helsing's memorandum and sees what he thought she was talking about. I don't think she noticed before, especially given how hilariously matter-of-fact she is about sensing Jonathan in this entry. But I can easily see her scoffing and kind of just tossing the memorandum down on the table in disgust at that part. Maybe leaving the room to go give Jonathan a kiss (in front of Van Helsing for extra measure) just because.

About her being so matter-of-fact today... It's funny actually, because when she's had premonitions about his condition despite physical separation in the past (thinking he's not on the water in Whitby, her fear to think of him/certainty he's not in danger soon after they part when hunting Dracula) she sounds a bit uncertain. But on November 5 (since both today and yesterday's entries occurred on that day), perhaps as she feels his presence getting closer, she drops any self-doubt or logical justifying in favor of utmost certainty.

"Let us go to meet my husband who is, I know, coming towards us."

"It was late in the afternoon when the Professor and I took our way towards the east whence I knew Jonathan was coming."

"The two men might be Dr. Seward and Mr. Morris. I knew at all events that neither of them was Jonathan. At the same time I knew that Jonathan was not far off; looking around I saw on the north side of the coming party two other men, riding at break-neck speed. One of them I knew was Jonathan, and the other I took, of course, to be Lord Godalming."

Look at all that knowing! She's not admitting any possibility of doubt at all. It's her husband (who, yes Professor, is of course Jonathan) who she senses and she knows exactly where he's coming from and which one is him. Sure, I guess you could say that she knows he's coming because they're all coming according to the plan, and she could recognize her husband even at such a distance because she knows him so well. But that doesn't really explain her certainty that Jonathan is close even before she sees him, or her consistent focus on only mentioning Jonathan when everyone else is coming towards them too.

And while it's a little less certain, there's even a moment in the middle of the battle where she seems to know he is safe (unlike Quincey sadly):

I should have felt terrible fear at seeing Jonathan in such danger, but that the ardour of battle must have been upon me as well as the rest of them; I felt no fear, but only a wild, surging desire to do something.

She says this just before Jonathan's approach sends the men cowering before him. In my mind it fits well with her certainty that he's in no danger when traveling on the ship, even though as far as they know he might have caught up to Dracula on the river and been in trouble. (In fact, after she says that he has a restful sleep.) It doesn't feel like too far a leap to say that Mina is so tuned in to Jonathan here that she can tell nothing will be happening to him.

If we harken back to early Whitby entries, where Mina woke when Lucy was in danger and felt deep worry about Jonathan, I think it's a lot easier to read as just her being a light sleeper and knowing her friend/husband well enough to tell if someone's off about their behavior or letters. But there's also a possible reading that she has always been a little bit psychic. Maybe she's only really tapped into that power since her attacks, when she was actively trying to use mental powers against Dracula, but at least some of it can be seen as inherently her own, which she's learned to use/trust/strengthen over the course of the book.

(Also, about that last quote - here's a fun theory. Maybe Mina does "do something" here. Maybe she psychically aids Jonathan somehow, helps him bring out the full pissed-off-vampire vibes to stare people down till they literally cannot stand in his way. That could be kind of fun, regardless of whether you assume Jonathan already is supernatural enough himself to do so and she's just helping him make use of it, or if you think she's loaning him some vampyness. ...Actually, I feel like the wafer circle around her should stop her doing any such thing via vampiric methods, so then it would have to be Mina using her normal psychic powers to bring out the full force of Jonathan's Supernatural Weirdness stolen from Dracula in order to protect him. Dunno that I believe it really but it's a cool idea I think.)

#dracula daily #mina murray #jonathan harker #jonmina #replies #anonymous #maybe the psychic stuff depends on a strong bond with/love for the person she is sensing. which is why it comes out for lucy and jonathan

[dross-the-fish]

I never understand how people come into your inbox trying to get you to write/draw things that don't feature in your work or you've said no to before just because "high quality artists are rare". Your talent does not entitle them to your time and efforts. It's like going to a bbq and asking for pasta because the cook is great while knowing they don't like pasta.

Artists become better through practice driven by passion not " your work on a is good but you should do b because I want that".

If these people truly want certain content so badly, then they should focus that desire to create what they want. That's what I did, writing fanfic, because I wanted some niche content. Now I'm writing a book that I fully intend to publish with the help of a fan of mine turned best friend. Things that wouldn't have happened if I hounded other artists.

Personally I love Jonathan, hell he's the main character of my novel, but I wouldn’t try to sell/ justify him to someone who has expressed disinterest. You've made your opinion of him and the Dracula cast overall clear again and again with patience a saint would envy.

One last bit, I do adore how you're handling the Harkers. It makes sense practically and thematically. It's Quincy’s time to shine.

Sorry this ended up so long.

I appreciate it, it's nice to hear tbh I frequently worry I'm being too snappish.

Honestly, I don't actually dislike Jonathan at all, in fact I do plan to write him as a good father who would go to the ends of the earth for his children and Mina and I fully do intend to take at least a little time to show the extent of the damage done to the Harker family as seen through Quincey's eyes. That's the crux of it though, it is going to be through the lens of Quincey as the protagonist, not Jonathan this time.

Anyway, I wish you luck with your writing and I hope your book is successful.

[see-arcane]

Thinking about the scene with the wolves, the mother, and how some folks are writing Jonathan off as callous for the ‘she’s better off dead’ comment rather than reading into his literal conviction that death (or undeath) by vampire is the worse fate.

Thinking about how very soon we’re going to see exactly how convicted he is of that fear and his belief that an ending by any other means is preferable to a vampiric one. For at least there will be an ending.

(Mild spoilers under the cut)

I get doing it for a giggle, but it frustrates me when it looks like some folks are purposefully misreading Jonathan’s languishing bits as anywhere between genuinely hypocritical to selfish. 

Would it be hypocritical if you, the newbie on your first time abroad to Anyplace But Your Own City/Country on your first Big Deal business trip with a fiancée waiting at home, heard the locals muttering about vampires, did not immediately take their warnings at face value, (followed by throwing your job in the toilet and heading back to your boss and your love to tell them, “Well, they said there were vampires at the castle, sorry, couldn’t close the deal, too bad!”) but instead went off to do your job, only to be shocked at the fact that Oh Shit, Vampires are Real and Now I’m Their Prisoner?

No. That’s called ‘Not knowing you are Jonathan Harker in the novel Dracula,’ meaning you have no context, no reason to have context or to believe in something like vampires being real--a revelation that would obviously stun us too, no matter the jokes to the contrary. 

It’s dramatic irony! Absolutely! 

But being suddenly slapped upside the head with proof of the supernatural and its very real desire to stick a straw in your arteries, leading to you singing the same tune as the villagers who were afraid for you before the reveal, is just plain logic, not haw haw, hypocrisy. You learn a thing? React to that thing accordingly.

As to the death by wolves scene and Jonathan seemingly having no time to pity her? Of course he felt bad for her. He just feels that to end up as her child did would have been worse. As he sincerely believes his end will be.

We get the context and eye-rolling of our post-post-modern perspectives to play with. Vampires are a Sexy Metaphor, or an Other Metaphor, or an [INSERT YOUR LENS OF CHOICE HERE] Metaphor, so it’s stilting to have to rewind and view it through the POV of a character who was at the dawn of the vampire genre boom when they were meant to be genuinely terrifying. Because Jonathan is terrified of what it will mean when the Count and/or his lady friends get their teeth in him.

This isn’t What We Do in the Shadows or Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic fanfiction for him. This is “I will only get to die and stay dead if I am very, very lucky,” for him. Because he truly dreads the idea of not just loss of life, but loss of soul/self, and a forced conscription into the same monster club as Dracula against his will.

(Really there’s a whole other essay to be had when it comes to the Fear of Losing Free Will/Humanity and Fear of Violation for Dracula’s victims, but anyway.)

Jonathan Harker does not want himself or anyone else to die. But he sees undeath as far more appalling, as do all the characters to come. We’ll see soon that he is being extremely literal when he considers death by a vampire worse than any other fatality. 

((Which will come back to bite him--ha ha--when the trouble with Mina comes up. His dedication to her, and to whatever she might become, outweighs his own terror of turning. His new willingness to be converted will highlight not only that he holds Mina above death, but above the living Hell that vampirism is framed as. If he is too much a smitten fool to raise a hand against Mina as a Monster, he will ensure he is damned in the same way. With her.))

tl;dr: Victorian Solicitor Man is not a selfish hypocrite, he’s just a dude being hit over the head with progressively worse horrors and who is now in a situation where he has to weigh Terrible Fate A against Terrible Fate B while still trying to figure out a way to escape either and is rapidly running out of time and hope regardless

#in which I rant about Victorian Solicitor Man #jonathan harker #dracula #dracula daily #spoilers #kind of

[yallemagne]

Hmm Mina studying criminology independent of any usefulness to Jonathan (she kept up with his studies on property law instead, and like you said he's a solicitor), kind of reminds me... Jonathan also has no use for ghost stories. Mina though spends paragraphs talking about every spooky legend about her vacation spot. Not every young person researches about girl ghosts in ruins, and invisible mourning bells for their seaside summer break. (Now I also recall she reads an old poem about a buried girl while there? Marmion?). Further, she pokes old men there to tell her more about those. (And gets "oh don't be scared it's all fake! not for young girls like you!" but she keeps pestering). When Mr Swales told her that she and Lucy sit upon a suicide grave, Lucy jumped, disturbed (but resolved to remain there anyway because she likes the seat), while Mina didn't.

Also, she talks of the Vikings sacking a town there during a specific invasion, and this tracks her knowledge about Dracula's historical battles... though I can't decide if the latter is a newer research. But it does show she has an interest in old wars.

So, I feel that maybe she has an affinity for darker subjects in general, both legendary and real life?

um that got long but your post gave me food for thought sorry

Don't be sorry for the long ask. Do you know how long I've been waiting for people to come into my inbox? I have been starved.

Jonathan has no use for ghost stories, but we do see him express curiosity about the local folklore on his trip... too bad no one wanted to talk much about it. Mina's interest in ghost stories is definitely a mix of an affinity for the macabre and her desire to be a lady journalist. She knows Whitby has a lot of rich folklore, so she reasons that the most obvious subject to tackle in her interviews is that.

Marmion! So, I will have to read this poem. I just read the summary so far. Lord Marmion was lusting after this woman, Clara, so in order to gain access to her, he and his nun mistress, Constance, framed her fiancé, Ralph, for treason. Constance hoped playing wing woman would get Marmion to like her more, but he ditched her once Clara joined a convent to escape him, and Constance was walled up for breaking her vows. She got the last laugh when she revealed Marmion's deceit, and Marmion died in battle. It's such delicious drama. I'm sure you could project Dracula onto this poem the same way you can with the Ballad of Lenore (*cough cough* Jonathan is Clara, Mina is Ralph, Constance is Renfield, Marmion is Dracula-- *gets shot*).

Sorry for that aside lol. Mina only briefly mentions it: "Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes, and which is the scene of part of "Marmion," where the girl was built up in the wall.", and I'm like "honey tell us the whole story, would ya?"

Her knowledge of Dracula's military conquests comes from Jonathan's journal, where he interviewed Dracula about his family lineage. That is supplemented with Van Helsing's research done with the help of his friend Arminius. That was not really a personal interest thing, it was homework for killing Dracula.

But once again! Student of life. I don't know if I'd say she believed in any of the ghost stories before (hence her not being worried about the unconsecrated grave of the suicide victim, but Lucy, who is more sensitive, jumping from the seat), but she certainly has an interest in them for how they shape the world around her. She doesn't care for Mr. Swales trying to assure her that none of it is true because she isn't inquiring about the ghosts out of apprehension, she's asking because spooky legends are a part of history! They shape the cultures they are born from and inform the attitudes of the people who come from those cultures.

little bit of spoilers, read November 1:

Later on, we see that she doesn't seem very interested in Eastern European folklore. Now... a lot was going on at the time, but she does rather patronizingly call the locals superstitious. That could just be denial talking. The landscapes? Lovely. The people? Quaint. Their beliefs? Ohhhh, they're soooo irrational, psh. They acted like I was becoming a vampire right in front of them.

She's intrigued by English folklore and history, but she turns up her nose a bit when it comes to the mythology of other places... to be expected from a Victorian, but sad.

#dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula #mina harker #update #people ask me things

[moonsun2010]

Lowkey what they do with the Mold with the Winters reminds me of how Mina uses her vampirism against Dracula and the three sisters or how Jonathan imitates Dracula to get him or resembles him. Turning what infects you against the source of it.

Hi anon apologies for the delay!!! but this just sparked such a strong desire in me to do a comparative essay of RE7/8 and Dracula I just... ended up going on a tangent and postponing replying until I could craft a better response once my exams were over. That essay'll take a few months probably but here's just my super rough thoughts on this FANTASTIC premise (spoilers below the cut):

Yes!!! I think Resident Evil 7 + 8 just has something extremely Gothic about it—the usual fear of (er, usually racial) contamination here literalised as actual diseaseish fungus that infects you, turning you into something unfamiliar even to yourself. Ethan being irrevocably transformed by the mold and using the regenerative powers that we don't quite notice as odd or accept as part of videogame logic (which I have Thoughts on and better writers have alr wrote abt but it resembles so much how Jonathan is inducted into the supernatural realm by the gradual inclusion of the fantastical, which like players with Ethan is dismissed by Jonathan as just part of the unknown foreign landscape (David Seed in The Narrative Method of Dracula states he "constantly tries to normalize the strange into the discourse of the nineteenth-century travelogue" (64)). I haven't watched finish Re8 + the DLC 😔 so idk what Ethan does there but I'm willing to bet he utilises the mold beyind regenerative powers too; Jonathan similarly like you mentioned comes to resemble Dracula in not just appearence but demeanour (troubling connotations considering physiogomy biases but I'm choosing to interp it along destabilising the aristiocrat/middle-class hierarchy line).

Mina's reversal is even more obvious with the hypnotic trance and allowing others to share in that resistance against the supernatural (e.g Van Helsing and her cry). I think Mina actually shares some similarities with Mia too, if we consider how both possess knowledge on the supernatural events occuring that the other characters don't, and how its through their sharing of it and collaboration with the others that ultimately allows for the defeat of the monster. Like, Mina's whole Burial Service speech is incredibly self-sacrificial, she's not just pledging her life but sacrificing her relationship with the characters around her, and above all Jonathan's and her union—which parallels strikingly with Mia pushing Ethan away before she's forced to harm him on the ship... Anyways thanks for this ask anon I'm sorry it took so long!!

#dracula #note to self: dd2024 #resident evil #inbox #ask tag

[vergess]

well the author also quotes mina asking the men to kill her if she turns and his commentary is “In her acceptance of patriarchal ideology Mina asks that, if she transgresses patriarchal norms by becoming sexually assertive, the men should return her to normality–rendering her sexually passive, submissive, receptive”. but he also interprets jonathan not remembering what happened to him as lying for having been "effeminate" and that his disability came from not being able to cope with seeing that women can be masculine, including mina, and that he gets better only when she starts acting more womanly (after getting bit). well i don't wanna flood your inbox with more of the choice takes so if you're interested it's called "Vampiric Affinities". oh also careful because it victim blames a lot.

Oh god, okay, I see what's happening now.

This is why I kept hoping he would define any terms, or make any meaningful connections between his quoted evidence and his stated conclusions.

Dare I ask how old this essay is-

2005?

CAMBRIDGE 2005???

Fucking hell.

Sorry, sometimes I forget how... abhorrently pervasive rape culture was in our society at that time, without people so much as aware of it.

...god.

I see how this happened now, but it's so agonizingly difficult to remember that the entire idea that you can get PTSD from anything short of being in a war zone is still broadly debated in culture today, and thus things which seem self evidently to be symptoms of trauma in Mina's behaviour must be explained as subconscious desire in a framework that does not allow for the existence of unwanted compulsion.

It's... ideologically consistent. I'll give it that. More than most victim blaming has going for it, I suppose.

What a terrifically low bar.

Anyway, at least today's literary critique isn't as deranged.

.......also a low bar.

#answered asks #Anonymous #NOT TO BE A FUCKING SOCIOLOGIST ON MAIN OR ANYTHING BUT WHO ALLOWED THIS

[minimalnerdist]

Dracula Daily: June 29

(Warning for spoilers from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, via Dracula Daily)

Oooh so this is why Dracula took Jonathan’s clothes. He was posing as him as he posted the letters, which is interesting.

When Dracula tells Jonathan that he will be able to leave the next day, he starts to use these sort of manipulative/gaslighting type positions. He even dares to suggest that Jonathan may OPT to stay voluntarily! lol Does he truly not realize that locking guests in and stealing their stuff, having near-fatal brushes with the sisters, would definitely be a deterrent to a human? I think it highly unlikely, or if it’s true, then Dracula is more delusional than I expected.

I also note that Dracula preemptively sets up a (flimsy) excuse for himself, saying, “Oooh /I/ won’t be here, I have to be ~away~, but my coachman will take care of you.” But we already highly suspect/are sure that he IS the coachman, along with almost everyone else in the house. lol

Jonathan ain’t being subtle, being all, “UM I’ll walk I wanna go NOW, fuck my luggage.” is very fair. It sounds like Dracula stole all his important identification papers anyways. XD

Dracula: “ Not an hour shall you wait in my house against your will, though sad am I at your going, and that you so suddenly desire it. “

God this is so much manipulations. He’s basically letting Jonathan KNOW that he knows Jonathan wants to GTFO, but at the same time suggesting that he was never REALLY imprisoned in the first place? I also noticed that we are getting hints that Dracula’s power of manipulation is not merely on a human level or verbal level - when he starts to act sweetly and courteously to Jonathan, and despite how unsettled and frightened Jonathan has been of the Count, he still has a hard time DIS-believing the Count’s truthfulness! It seems like such a small thing, but I think in stories we often forget the power of energies in a room to cow us into doubting ourselves. I think if Dracula wanted to fully set on Jonathan and force him to WANT to stay there, through some sort of vampiric powers over will, I think he probably could at this point. We mustn’t forget that when the sisters were coming at him, he was willing to admit (even for fear of hurting Mina’s feelings) that he WAS tempted to kiss the sisters. There’s something alluring and willful about the vampires, so even if we might feel frustrated that the rat isn’t leaving the trap directly, so to speak, I think this is an important detail. It may very well be that that power is exactly why Jonathan took so long to piece the facts together - it’s like leaving out Feliway for your cats to keep them calm. Sorry for the bad metaphor, lol. Jonathan was being manipulated into complacency by the Count, but it might be more difficult now that Jonathan HAS become aware. Or else the Count may be reducing his influence on purpose.

Jonathan KNOWS the Count locked him in, and shut off his attempts to communicate with the outside world. He KNOWS the Count is not normal, and is planning something dark and probably hateful. But even so, when the Count tells him he is sad at Jonathan leaving so soon, Jonathan feels compelled to believe him.

He KNOWS to distrust the Count saying, “Oh sure, you can leave whenever.” And it gets proven the next moment when he summons the wolves to keep him securely inside. Imagine how horrified Jonathan is in that moment, to not only have ravenous wolves so close by, threatening to come in, but to also now know that the Count has some sort of command over the wolves, AND that he was totally lying about allowing Jonathan to leave. The helplessness he must have felt as he covered his face to hide his tears and told the Count he would wait.. How terrible for our dear friend. He has good reason to deduce that the next night will be his death, his end.

As that time draws near, we can see the Count is starting to slowly, proudly show more of his hand to Jonathan. The sisters come and he hears for himself the Count promising them their due. 

I also think it interesting that he says, “Tonight is mine. Tomorrow night is yours!”

Jonathan decides to focus on that tomorrow night with his fate at the hands of the sisters. Myself? I wonder what Dracula’s “tonight” means, that he so determinedly wards the sisters away.

Also does this mean Dracula just hovers around outside Jonathan’s room all night sometimes? Because we can assume the sisters have known for awhile (probably since their run-in with him) where Jonathan has been kept, so they’ve probably been salivating at the door for ages now. Creepy.

Final Note: In case any of you weren’t aware of the pop culture reference in the Dracula Daily sub-title for this entry, it’s a lyric from Hotel California by The Eagles. “You can check out anytime you like / but you can never leave” being a part where the main character of the song realizes he’s essentially stuck in the limbo of the Hotel California, and that despite the temptations in the Hotel, he is still a prisoner.

#daily dracula #draculadaily

[atundratoadstool]

heya was wondering if u had any thoughts on what dracula was intending to do with jonathan in the castle? just cause like….i can’t quite work it out. if he just wanted jonathan to do his solicitor work, why keep him there - the longer he’s there the more likely it is he figures it out, and you have to kill him. if he was planning on killing him from the start, again, why take so long - why not just kill him as soon as he’s done with his solicitor-ing? if it’s bc dracula genuinely wants the english help - at least later in the novel it seems pretty clear that they’re not talking all that much anymore so any english help seems to have dried up after the first few days. anyway was wondering if u had any theories?

[Spoilers: Vague allusions to future entries, with more explicit spoilers beneath the cut]

We'll see at little more of the Count's schemes in general in the days to come, and I think some of them will start to make sense in relation to Jonathan's prolonged captivity. That being said, it's frequently been observed that the Count seems to genuinely enjoy having a mortal companion to whom he can speak to at first--that on some level he does desire Jonathan's company--and I think that people are not wrong if they read some sort of personal attachment/fascination into the relationship.

That being said, since it seems you're familiar with the later parts of the novel...

[Spoilers: Explicit reference to future events]

While he probably could have killed Harker before leaving Transylvania without that many hiccups, having Jonathan alive and available to write assurances to Mina/Hawkings as necessary means that theoretically no suspicion as to Jonathan disappearing/dying should arise until after the Count has left for England. Given the Count's vulnerability while traveling, making sure that nobody is looking for Jonathan and possibly looking for him would be an understandable priority.

#Bram Stoker #Dracula #Dracula Daily #The Count #Jonathan Harker #vampires #Dracula Daily asks #Dracula spoilers

[funkymbtifiction]

INTJ v. ISFP: The Men Who Renounced God

SUBMITTED BY H.

I recently re-watched Bram Stoker's Dracula and it struck me that ISFP Dracula (as portrayed in that movie, at least; the book diverges on some important points) and INTJ Salieri (from Amadeus) are strikingly similar in a lot of ways and would make for a good comparison between unhealthy SFP and NTJ cognition and behavior. They are also both core Enneagram 4's, albeit with different wings and fixes, so cognitive function order plays an even more important role in shaping their at times divergent behaviors and attitudes. I've compiled a small collection of observations and thoughts of mine below.

Both men decide to renounce God because they feel God did not live up to His part of the bargain they think they had with Him, and here's where the Fi-Te function axis comes into play; a Fi-Te user, regardless of function stacking, views the basis of morality, of trust, as an exchange of services. Quantifiable, verifiable services. Tit for tat. If you have let down a Fi-Te user, you won't get away with flattering their ego, as you might with an Fe-type. If they put in X effort they expect a Y outcome, and should the other party fail to deliver, you will have a very angry, displeased FP/TJ on your hands.

Dracula, being Fi-Se, is more direct and forthcoming than Salieri in both his desires and responses; finding his wife dead from suicide, he concludes simply that "this is God's 'reward for defending His church" and has a very immediate, visceral and violent reaction - and his feelings do not change from then on. He holds true to his first judgment about people and events, refuses to compromise on his stance, and he holds grudges - literally for centuries! There is nothing particularly abstract about it; Fi is his primary and conscious orientation, and it's running the show, backed up by easily accessible auxiliary Se, which gives him an impulsivity which does not always work in his favor, but allows him to adapt quickly to his physical surroundings and use them to his advantage, be it for attack, defense or seduction. Dracula, when threatened, frequently uses theatrical, Se-based scare tactics heavily dependent on his current environment.

As Fi-doms usually are (the unhealthy ones, anyway) he's easily offended and prone to lashing out with aggression, like when he tells Jonathan Harker about the history of his order and how their relationship with the church was not "entirely successful". Jonathan chuckles and Dracula perceives this as a grave insult against his person and points a sword at Jonathan, and hisses "It's not a laughing matter! We Draculas have a right to be proud!" Pure, unfiltered Fi, right there. His inferior Te shows too; he's not good at gauging what is culturally appropriate behavior for a situation, regardless of what century he's in (e.g. following Mina around London after she snubs him). He has another reactive, aggressive response when he finds out Jonathan has a mirror and impulsively breaks it; you can tell he knows he made a mistake then, with Harker, and tries to smooth it over with "You are in Transylvania. Our ways are not your ways. Some of what you see might seem strange to you." Fi and its general attitude to social convention can be observed here as well; Dracula alludes that since they are different people with different origins,  they do not have to conform to the same social, moral, or behavioral standards.

Both Dracula and Salieri become recluses late in life, but for different reasons. Dracula, having an inferior extroverted judging function, withdraws from the rest of humanity because he feels so alienated and disconnected from it that isolation becomes a preferable alternative. "I am dead to the world." He does not see the value in fostering or maintaining diplomatic alliances with other nobles or royals. He just... exists, marinating in his own misery, hatred and loneliness. Unlike Salieri, who is industriousness personified, Dracula doesn't actively work toward an over-arching goal, at least not until he spots Mina's photograph amongst Jonathan's possessions. Until that point, his plans for London were vague and oriented mainly toward pursuit  of sensory experiences - he wants to "walk the crowded streets of London and merge with the whirl and rush of humanity". Dracula, much like Salieri's nemesis Mozart - a fellow ISFP, does nothing to foster a sense of fellow feeling or Fe-based belonging in other people. He persuades, with somewhat uneven results, through the force of his own private and at times infectious passion. His pursuit for the finer things in life and in-your-face vivaciousness is what endears him to Mina, who is not used to such open displays of sensuality. "I have never met any man with such a passion for life". In contrast the pious Salieri, while in possessions of similar desires, does not indulge. You also see his Fi dominant orientation - and judgments - emerge when he realizes that Jonathan is engaged to a woman whom he believes is a reincarnation of his long dead wife. Until he spots Mina's picture on Jonathan's desk, he had been amicably disposed (or neutral) toward Jonathan, but once he begins to see him as a rival for Mina's affections, his attitude changes like the flip of a switch, and because he is a feeling dominant, he cannot suppress his true feelings even for an instant. From then on, he becomes increasingly hostile and cruel towards Jonathan, first in a passive-aggressive way (pretending not to understand him, knowingly startling him, breaking his mirror, alluding to the dangers awaiting him in the castle should he leave his rooms, etc.) but gradually escalating into open hostility and outright sadism (letting his brides ravage him and then feed on a human infant in front of him).

Conversely, when he is happy, Dracula's conscious orientation toward Fi and Se can still be seen in his open pursuit of his momentary desires (Mina, Lucy, excitement for the cultural and technological marvel to be found in a big city) and he is quick to create an exciting and enjoyable environment for himself and others to sample.

Salieri, being an Ni-dom and thus a perceiving dominant, is comparatively slow to reach lasting conclusions, but once he does, (about the path he wants to take in life, his opinion on Mozart, and his eventual decision to destroy his rival) he does so with absolute, unflinching certainty. Salieri's repressed Se and complicated relationship with this function can be seen in his compulsive avoidance of anything that he perceives as excessively indulgent - basically everything he hates about Mozart can be encapsulated into hatred of his inferior function and thus his own weaknesses. Salieri, like Dracula, feels wronged by God, "why implant a desire in me without the talent to match it?" but unlike Dracula's direct, straightforward conclusions about other people and their motives, Salieri routinely abstracts events and happenings and ascribes to them meaning way beyond what can be considered factually realistic or even in the realm of possible. "That was not Mozart laughing, that was God, laughing at me through that obscene giggle!" Salieri abstracts Mozart's entire person and existence into nothing but a personal affront against him, by God, and in his eyes, Mozart ceases to be an independent agent with feelings and desires of his own and becomes nothing but an instrument through which a spiteful God mocks Salieri and his efforts.

Emotional restraint - at least in the eye of the public - is one key difference between an ISFP and an INTJ, and it can be observed in these characters. Dracula does not hesitate to show or express emotion, even in its most raw and unbridled form, which gives this sinister character an unexpected air of vulnerability. He rages, he cries openly in front of Jonathan and makes spontaneous gloomy, morose statements such as "My life, at its best, is misery. I would be better off dead." Salieri, while intensely emotional, is surprisingly emotionally unreactive with excellent control over his temper, even in the face of blatant public humiliation. He does not "blow up", he retreats into solitude to nurse his hurt feelings and never lashes out with physical violence, regardless of the scale of the offense against his person. Salieri's auxiliary Te, when led by Ni and supported by his tertiary Fi, gives him a keen eye for politics and diplomacy; he is not a "divine" composer like Mozart, but he can easily intuit and deliver what other people, including the Holy Roman Emperor, want from him, which gives him a powerful and much coveted position at the Emperor's court.

Where Dracula, due to inferior Te and the consequent unwillingness to compromise or adjust, fails to forge alliances with other powerful people, which leaves him without a reliable defensive safety net, Salieri, with his higher use of extroverted judging, excels in this department. He does not necessarily agree with current social conventions, but he does not needlessly flout them either. For example, Salieri holds off passing judgment on Mozart's choosing an "obscene" German libretto for the first opera commissioned from him by the Emperor until he is sure of how the Emperor leans on the subject. Though his motives might superficially seem like Fe, they are not; Salieri simply does not volunteer his personal convictions in a professional setting because he does not want them to be held against him. He abjectly derides the Emperor's lack of musical skills once it's safe for him to do so, and mentions how much he hated playing duets with the man, when "the Emperor had no ear at all". I mentioned earlier Salieri's complex relationship with Se and all that it entails, and this can be observed throughout the course of the movie. Salieri tries very hard not to subject himself to situations that can be unpredictable and outside of his control, and once that happens, he responds with a "deer in the headlights" reaction, which can be seen during the visit from Mozart's wife Stanzi. Salieri had not expected Stanzi to take him up on his offer ("come back tonight, alone, and I will speak on behalf of your husband. Certain favors require favors in return.") and when she arrives and begins to disrobe, Salieri is caught in a state of paralyzing fear and calls for his servants to promptly remove "Frau Mozart" from his house. Salieri is also not a violent man does what he can to avoid a direct, physical confrontation; he confesses that although he passionately envisioned the death of God's Creature, Mozart, at his hand, he was not sure how to actual go about it. "How does one kill a man?"

At the end, Salieri chooses a coward's way of murder through poison to snuff out his rival and permanently silence The Creature. The only Se-driven urge that the pious Salieri appears not to resist at all is his massive sweet tooth; indeed, this urge stays with him even when he is dying and committed to an insane asylum where fresh sugar rolls become the highlight of his day! Salieri's extreme reluctance to engage in a physical altercation, despite obvious stress, becomes obvious when he is confronted by Stanzi while urging the dying Mozart to finish dictating the commissioned Requiem mass. He freezes and does nothing to stop a woman he could easily overpower from tearing the notes out of his hands and placing them in a locked cabinet - away from his reach. To compensate for his "cowardice", Salieri is extremely calculating and prides himself on his foresight and knowledge that he has the power to crush someone utterly through deliberate, systematic repuation demolition. As Salieri ages and becomes increasingly infirm, his mind begins to crumble and he is plagued by crippling guilt over his crimes. Unable to maintain the practiced psychological defenses found in his conscious cognitive orientation (Ni and Te), he falls prey to his unsophisticated tertiary and inferior functions. Now a recluse but nonetheless rich enough to live a life of opulence, the aged Salieri is shown relying on crude sensory comforts (sweets, alcohol) for distraction from his hellish conscience. Since he is an introvert, Salieri turns his capacity for destruction and cruelty against his own person, which finally culminates in an attempt to slit his throat. Dracula, while arguably more disordered, has a more sophisticated use of Fi and Se and never resorts to outright self-harm; he is able to maintain a purity of subject and thus a purity of the ego, which allows him to freely pursue his desires without being plagued by a conscience. His inferior function instead prevents him from drawing rational conclusions from events around him - such as when it's time for a tactical retreat. Now on to where their cognitions converge - both Dracula and Salieri use Ni and Fi, which together have a polarizing and singular effect on the dichotomy of the internal versus the external world. Fi and Ni help in create a relatively uncompromised, separate ideational world, and Te and Se in turn offer a corresponding counter-orientation towards the external world, that appears to them on objective and comparatively unfiltered terms. Both have a strong drive to make a direct impact on the external world that is in accordance with their personal desires. Both interpret certain seemingly incidental occurrences as signs of destiny compelling them to commit to a certain path (with Dracula, it was seeing Mina's portrait on Jonathan's desk, with Salieri it was the unexpected death of his father, freeing him). Both began their careers as devout men dedicated to what they believed was a divine path, one driven by purity of vision (Ni), the other by purity of values (Fi). Salieri nurtures his vision of becoming the greatest composer to have ever lived, and Dracula prizes his love for his wife above all else. The latter has a concrete outlet for his passion, while the former gravitates toward the cerebral and ideational. Both turn against God but make their peace with Him and are - supposedly - granted absolution on their death bed.

#submission #isfp #intj #intj x isfp #isfp x intj #type contrast #enneagram #enneagram 4 #unhealthy #dracula #bram stoker's dracula #amadeus

[cuprum63]

Pathfinders AN 3

Author’s notes for paragraphs 31-51 of Pathfinders.

P32:

I was the insult that broke her

Lucy was born into wealth and was turned into a vampire for no known reason. Cixi longed for eternal life, had a vampire for a teacher, and still wasn’t turned.

monster hunters that comprised the Yihetuan

The Yihetuan are the Boxers. In this universe, they were also legitimate monster hunters.

P33:

The conflict resurrected Dracula by the end of first month.

Circa early December 1899.

merchants who sold invincibility potions as late as 1748

Harmony of Dissonance: the merchant sells medicine jars for 10,000 gold.

the formula itself dates back to the mirage skeletons from before the First Crusade.

Lament of Innocence: the mirage skeleton drops the invincible jar relic.

P34:

Surprisingly, she wasn't in China because of him or the Boxers; she'd come in search of new recipes for her tinned foods empire.

Jonathan Harker wrote about getting recipes for Mina in Dracula. As he’s confined to Exeter by this point, she has to step up and get them herself.

The Harkers have diversified into canned foods by the time of the Boxer Rebellion. Mina’s idea is to see if any foreign foods were adaptable to British tastes. China happened to be next on her tour.

Her mission to build a teleportation node in Peking was a cover story to her own allies

Another parallel with Lucy. Mina’s not loyal to her own group.

she'd grown to hate Jonathan and their son by then

Again, Mina is the reincarnation of Lisa. Loving Jonathan and their son is betraying Dracula and Alucard. Loving at all is betraying herself. This is a reversal of Alucard’s words to Dracula at the end of Symphony of the Night.

I have to add that I wrote Mina and Lucy as two different aspects of Lisa. Lucy, until her turning, had Lisa’s personality and even her visage, but no skills. Mina grew up an orphan, acquiring knowledge and strength, but little of Lisa’s empathy.

and longed to feel the joys of adventure, battle, and good food once again.

A reference to Clan Murray’s motto. As for good food, check out all the food items in the Castlevania games.

P35:

section of her bodyguard

Lucy’s slipping into modern British Army terminology. Here, section refers to the unit size—around eight bodyguards.

only to find that every estate needed to be guarded and staffed

Ever hear of “lumpy assets”? This is a similar idea. You buy one thing and create so many other problems that you’re thrown all the way back to square one.

she employed even more servants and mercenary retainers from wherever they could be found

Mina’s solution, enabled only because of her marriage to Jonathan and the money she looted from Castlevania.

P36:

Unlike any hunter before or since, she infiltrated Dracula's hideout, evaded all detection, and slew him as he slumbered.

This is consistent with Mina’s secretiveness. She and Lucy started so many fires in their youth and were never caught. She taught Lucy a way to become independent. Mina even killed Quincey and covered it up. She’s a natural assassin.

Anyway, not the finest hour for Dracula’s minions.

P37:

She was fleeing up the Yellow River; I chose to outflank her at the Dragon's Gate.

There’s more than one Dragon Gate around; Lucy’s referring to the one in at Longmen. A Dragon Gate is a waterfall that in myths, Asian carp jump over…

old Chinese legend

The legend tells that a carp that successfully jumps the waterfall becomes a dragon.

P38:

one of their leaders neutralized

Pay attention of the word “neutralized.”

P39:

We shadowed Morris and Lecarde as they traveled across a war-torn Europe to eliminate Elizabeth Bartley.

Castlevania: Bloodlines, set in 1917.

one of the Draculinas was betrayed by her servant, Sandor,

Dracula’s Daughter (1936), meaning one of the Draculinas took an alias of Countess Marya Zaleska and was also plotting against Dracula.

At Dark Oaks, we prevented Caldwell from usurping Dracula's power for herself

Son of Dracula (1943). Dark Oaks was a New Orleans plantation and home to the Caldwell family. Katherine “Kay” Caldwell manipulated Alucard (Dracula) into marrying and biting her because of her fear of death. Obviously, in this universe, whomever she manipulated was neither of the Tepes men.

treasure hoard hidden on that Okinawan island

Among other things, the mythical M-Funds of Major General William Frederic Marquat. Here, the funds are named after Mina Murray, and they are not Japan’s property.

and on the mainland, the fifteen swords stolen with the help of Sergeant Cody Belnades

Sign Cody Belnades’ name in cursive. Compress and fudge the writing a bit. The ‘e’ looks like an ‘i’, the ‘n’ turns into an ‘m’, the ‘a’ becomes an ‘o’ if you end too high and especially if you mix it up in the ‘d’, the downward motion used for the vertical line in the ‘d’ looks like an ‘r’, and the ‘s’ blends into the end of the ‘e’ if it’s too small. 

His name becomes Cody Bilmore. He’s the one responsible for the Honjo Masamune’s disappearance, and the swords have never left Japan.

P40:

Schneider clan after they fell in with the Nazis

Reinhardt Schneider was a playable character in the noncanon Castlevania 64. Vampire hunting is still a type of genocide, and as his descendants were blond-haired, blue-eyed, tall, and strong, they embodied the Nazi ideal.

Holmwood LLC

Major antagonists to Arikado and crew in later fics.

Harkers felt our wrath in 1986

The first Castlevania was released in 1986.

elderly Quincey A.J.A.X. Harker's life

Quincey Harker was born on November 6, 1898 in this universe. He would have been 87-88 when he was killed.

His initials stand for “Abraham John Arthur Xavier,” as adding “Jonathan” would be redundant because of Seward. This is where Xavier Lecarde comes in: with his name, the X can be added.

AJAX, also called Typhoon is the name of another Konami game. From this game is the song “Command 770,” remixed as “Golden Bough” for Kokoro Belmont in Otomedius Excellent.

counterfeiting of the AH-64 and F-14

In A-JAX, you fly the Tom Tiger (AH-64) and Jerry Mouse (F-14). The A-JAX 2 Jerry Mouse is also a playable aircraft in Airforce Delta Strike.

P41:

Dracula had been vindicated, his evil surpassed many times over by other forces.

All the tyrants of the 20th century.

God's own flocks committed sins with abandon and still called themselves holy.

Look up any of the Abrahamic religions’ abuses in the 20th century alone, and how many people now belong to no religion. Mathias Cronqvist would be nothing unusual if he’d lived in modern Europe.

Church's crimes be revealed

Among these crimes was the war on Dracula. No matter how justified, the Church deployed a military force to assassinate a sapient being who had legally done nothing wrong. It sends a message that dissent will not be tolerated, and no matter where you run, you will be hunted down.

P42:

Madmen control nuclear powers or slaughter countless innocents while their lackeys gush at how wonderful it is to be creating their paradise.

Welcome to 2017.

Being weak or a victim has not only become acceptable, but desirable.

Tumblr in a nutshell. This is the same excuse used by the HIV+ to avoid being tested and therefore having to disclose their status. For that matter, it was the same mindset that Gandhi encouraged—weakness to invoke sympathy from others.

Meanwhile, people like me end up having to clean up their messes.

The masses have more tools available to improve their station in life than ever before, yet they are firmly committed to remaining ignorant.

You have computers. You have cell phones. You have the internet. You have search engines. Stop hiding in your echo chambers and use them.

P43:

Ecclesian who volunteered her unborn child to serve as the vessel for Dracula's reincarnation

In this universe, a baby receives a soul after birth.

She simply had to get pregnant with her husband from Japan seven months ahead of schedule.

Late April 2016, for a due date of late January/early February 2017. Shortly after the Iraqis retook Hit.

Japanese-Brazilian-American pilot

A clue to the Ecclesian pilot’s true identity..

who stepped up in late November.

Probably around Thanksgiving, if shooting for the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Also, this means Soma’s mother wasn’t the first choice.

Phoenix isn't one to leave survivors.

Survivors as in enemies or descendants.

P44:

San Diego hospital

The baby is automatically an American citizen by being born on American soil to parents subject to American law. The Japanese father means the baby is also a Japanese citizen, and while Japan doesn’t recognize dual-citizenship for adults, it does for minors.

P45:

This paragraph changes the meaning of a lot since P39.

Born into nobility, you died from disease and your husband declared war against God.

Elisabetha Cronqvist.

Returned as a doctor, you were burned as a witch and your husband went mad against mankind.

Lisa.

leave behind the drudgery of the match factory

Wilhelmina Murray from this universe.

You became a teacher, then a legal secretary,

Canon from Dracula.

then a vampire hunter and mercenary commander

Inspired by the Fury of Dracula board game and Mina’s role in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics.

Memsahib

A term for married white women in India during the Raj. Also from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and a hint of the Harker business empire’s composition by 2017.

established a crime family to uphold your values as the times changed

To be covered in the fic where Quincey Harker dies.

P46:

Dracula and his son fought against each other in your name, interpreting your memory according to their own beliefs.

Castlevania 3 to Symphony of the Night.

Your former coven sister and apprentice, the first Draculina, still has flashes of self-doubt even now, when she has grown more powerful than any Dark Lord.

Lisa, in this universe, truly was a witch.

The first Draculina is a dark reflection of the games’ vampire hunters. She serves as the penultimate boss of my planned fic series, and the battle is planned to last several chapters against the entire Sorrow crew at once before they end up being whittled down.

The final boss, in case you’re wondering, is a duel between the instigators of the entire series.

Without you, Van Helsing's coalition fell apart.

Also from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Without Mina, her team of Allan Quatermain and Orlando fell apart in 1969 and would not reunite until 2009.

P47:

You won the duel that day at the Dragon's Gate.

Inspired by two Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes, of all things. Like the duel between Solomon Muto and Arthur Hawkins or their grandchildren, Yugi and Rebecca, Mina had Lucy dead to rights and surrendered instead.

You spared me and chose to surrender your mortality and identity for my sake

Here, Mina finally shows where her true loyalties lie: with Lucy.

and like a carp that becomes a dragon, you were reborn into the power you deserved

This is where the legend from P37 is explained if you weren’t reading these notes.

Lucy isn’t saying that she turned Mina into a vampire, but that the Dragon’s Gate was a place where a chosen hero can absorb power. Or it’s one of those locations where you can pick up permanent stat boosts, like the HP/MP/Heart Max Ups from the games.

There’s also the issue that Dracula means “son of the dragon.” By defeating Lucy, Dracula’s last bride, Mina has become a dragon herself. Partially inspired by the Yakuza series, where one of the themes is that there can be only one dragon.

demi-savage hidden under layers of trained refinement .

The demi-savage comes from Clan Murray’s coat of arms. Lucy is saying that under her mask, Mina is a warrior.

your name will be known as the harbinger of the end.

Again, a point from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (volume 3). While Mary Poppins is fighting the Antichrist (Harry Potter), Oliver Haddo tells Mina that she is to be the harbinger of the apocalypse.

Lucy says “your name” because Mina’s new identity is Mina Hakuba. The kanji for Hakuba mean “white horse,” and a white horse is associated with the first horseman of the apocalypse. Adding to this is if Soma doesn’t equip Mina’s Talisman at the right time, he ends up reverting to Dracula.

P48:

Only my sisters—you and the Draculinas—have ever remained loyal to me, and now I must choose a side.

Lucy’s never been loyal to the Draculinas, as she said long ago in P1 and P10.

I can save you from sacrificing yourself at the cost of damning the world, or I can let you be reborn once again as a mortal and become your enemy in the future.

Mina is the last person on Earth Lucy loves. Lucy doesn’t want to let Mina kill herself to be reborn, but she knows she must.

P49:

There never was a choice, was there? This is still your path to walk, no matter my wishes.

Two meanings here: Mina’s life is her own choice, and Lucy is loyal to her.

Maybe in your next life, I will be the one to help you find your path.

They won’t meet until 2045, but Mina has been on Lucy’s trail since around 2038.

P50 & P51:

Farewell, Mina.

And welcome back.

Mina is finally named. Mina Harker dies and her soul is transferred into Mina Hakuba.

#castlevania #fanfic #behind the scenes

[vickyvicarious]

Would you say Mina and Jonathan have some codependency? And, unlike Arthur and Lucy, did it get influenced by their being orphans and lower class?

I don't think so, no.

I think their behavior may certainly have been influenced by their background, a sort of "us against the world" mentality does seem possible to a slight degree, though by the time we meet them at the start of the book it's more just "we're a team" without any sense of the world being against them or whatever. (More just, they recognize the challenges they will face. Being realistic.)

But the thing is, their behavior is totally normal at first. They love one another deeply and their love drives them to achieve their goals, but they don't do anything unusual except work hard to do so. It's only thanks to Dracula that anything changes, and that still takes a lot of direct outside pressure.

What I was trying to verbalize in my meta to some degree is that while their motivations were in a sense selfish (because I love you it makes me happy to help you) all along, the outcome was usually either personal sacrifice or totally understandable behavior for most of the book. For example, almost anyone would have gone to their presumed dead fiance in the foreign hospital, since Lucy had her own support and wasn't that badly off at the time. They were 'selfish' in a way that hurt absolutely no one and was in fact usually very helpful. But when the Dracula attacks really kicked into gear, their desire to keep the other safe started to go against the other person's wishes and they began making their decisions independently in a way they hadn't really done before. This is where we got the divide from a 'selfish' motivation that they're united in and which harms no one, to each of them prioritizing their own individual desires and not consulting one another. This is where we get the vampire ultimatum at odds with one another (Mina: kill me. Jonathan: turn me). And those stated decisions seem to be selfless on Mina's part and selfish on Jonathan's in terms of effect (if those situations come about Mina reduces harm, Jonathan increases harm), but the core motivation is the same as it always was. Basically, their devotion to one another can turn darker but it's very situational (on an extreme situation).

Though their motives are selfish all along in the sense that it is their personal love for the other, it's usually in the "giving to charity makes me feel good so am I being dishonest?" way where the answer is obviously no, the result is doing good in the world. Their selfishness is not anything bad until we get to the vampire Mina question. They may always choose one another, but that's usually at the end of the day, not the drop of a hat, and in normal situations they're just a really dedicated couple. However, in this super-dire situation, their motivation stays the same and directs them to either extreme on the worst-case vampire question.

...Anyway, as regards codependency, that term is used typically for abusive and often one-sided relationships. The Merriam-Webster definition:

a psychological condition or a relationship in which a person manifesting low self-esteem and a strong desire for approval has an unhealthy attachment to another often controlling or manipulative person (such as a person with an addiction to alcohol or drugs)

And here is an article that lists some more signs of being codependent. JonMina are very dedicated to one another but they both can function very well apart. Their sense of self-esteem doesn't solely rest on one another, neither of them is truly any kind of dominant partner/they aren't unbalanced affection wise. I wouldn't call them codependent.

It's more that if the choice comes down to the wire, they pick their love for one another first. And again, the only time they get really unreasonable is when vampires ruin everything.

#dracula daily #jonmina #anonymous #replies