#Jonathan Van Helsing

[witchofthemidlands]

i was trying to innocently watch young dracula when my yt did something cursed. i think this is the 4am post https://www.tumblr.com/witchofthemidlands/743528598169894912/i-am-still-battling-through-my-young-dracula-hyper i made the other day either coming back to haunt me or trying to warn me not to write the vlad vs a “dreamworld” 1931-2023 dracula multiverse 😅 i stand by what i said though vlad would see this version of dracula in his normal clothes & think a normal dracula? 🥹 for me? 🥹 with all his vlad dracula hope & optimism only to get scarred for unlife & after. the renfields are trading & discussing the consistency, the delicacy of insects, jonno's having a quarter life crisis, agatha wants to study them for science, ingrid's watching this like a sports match, vlad is rocking back & forth hoping he's going to wake up in the himalayas & the draculas are trying to out c(o)unt the other, they're battling their way through whitby, terrorising the nearest goth festival, the draculas are fightingggg.

who wins?

[see-arcane]

Van Helsing: “I hope it’s okay if I, a man-stranger, compliment your wife in front of you”

Jonathan ‘Does Not Know What a Jealousy Is’ Harker: “I have my entire schedule cleared in the hopes of hearing people talk about how great Mina is. Please go on.”

[treespen]

More things that get left out of Dracula adaptations

Van Helsing pulls 29 year old Dr Seward's ear like he's still a schoolboy

There's a relationship-establishment flashback between Van Helsing and Seward

In it, Van Helsing accidentally gets cut with something unclean. His then-student Seward immediately drops everything to start sucking on the wound raw

At one point, Seward asks to become his "pet student again."

Dracula has a big, permanent scar on his forehead from Jonathan Harker's shovel

Arthur Holmwood saying "Tally ho!"

Transylvanians conclude that the delirious, amnesiac Jonathan Harker is English due to "his violent demeanour."

Despite attempts to keep low profile, Dracula gets into the news twice in two months (in one of them as a missing dog)

Dracula getting misreported as a dog because English people have never seen a wolf

London newspapers treat Lucy's vampire attacks on children as a meme among kids because they don't believe in vampires

Dracula gets sworn at by a British sailor solely because he thinks Dracula is French

Van Helsing baffled why British sailors keep talking about blood and bloom (it's swearing)

Van Helsing is friends with real-life turkologist traveler Arminius Vámbéry, who is his source on the Dracula family

Van Helsing is friends with Hans Christian Andersen and references The Ugly Duckling

Van Helsing getting one-upped by MinaHarker every single time he says something sexist about her intelligence

Dracula failing to destroy the evidence against him because Mina backs up her files

Jonathan getting so mad he hunts Dracula down the walls like a spiderman with a machete

Mina and Jonathan kissing on the mouth in front of everybody

Quincey Morris spontaneously gifting Mina the Victorian equivalent of a MacBook Air

Quincey Harker

[tiffycat]

Felt like drawing a bunch of Dracula memes just to be silly :p

[moonsun2010]

6 November - It's finally over 🌅

these are part of an animatic summarising Dracula, which you can watch here (i would say new readers beware, it has spoilers for the book but well... we are at the end already)

✨️support me: tip jar|commissions

[lovelikehomicide]

He made a lot of mistakes as a father, but at least he taught his son healthy masculinity. He showed that you can absolutely be a badass vampire slayer and look fierce while doing it.

yk what i gotta respect van helsing for showing up to the final showdown in s1ep14 in full drag

[professional-rat-eater]

The entirety of Dracula by Bram Stoker is really just:

Dr Seward: I wish we could figure out what’s wrong with Lucy.

Van Helsing: I figured it out immediately but I’m just going to let you solve it yourselves.

Dr Seward: Or you could just tell us.

Van Helsing: Friend John :( I have known you for one thousand years and you have been one of my very good friends and best students :( Do you not trust me? Why do you not trust me, friend John? Have I ever given you a reason to doubt me? Do you not think I have a good reason for withholding vital information? :(:(:(:( Have faith in me, your very old and good friend.

Dr Seward: You’re right :(

Lucy: I love everyone so much and I’m going to tell them every day 🥰💕 also legalise polyamory wtf

Renfield: look at all my pets that I’m definitely not eating 🪰🪰🪰🪰

Dr Seward: What happened to all the birds I gave you?

Renfield, with a mouth full of a feathers: I have no idea.

Arthur: I think… I miss my wife… also how the fuck didn’t we realise Dracula’s house was right next door?

Quincey: I keep saying I’m not that smart but I’m the only one to immediately point out that something was actively taking Lucy’s blood. Brb need to go shoot a giant bat with a gun.

Mina: I am the only person keeping this shit show together. We literally would not have made it without me and no one who adapts my character seems to get that. Women are the heart of this story. I am the glue that binds this group together. I just want ONE MOVIE that understands that and values my intelligence, which is at the forefront of my character.

Renfield: I have an entire character arc but don’t expect any adaptations to show it.

Quincey: ok but what if… we shot Dracula with a gun??? Also stop fucking cutting me from all the adaptations.

Jonathan: has seen indescribable horrors, is a shell of his former self, will literally never be what he was before going to Transylvania

Dracula: oh Jonathan! 🥰🥰🧛🏻🧛🏻🥰🩸🩸🥰🥰

BONUS: everyone is constantly holding hands, especially all of the men, and talking about how they’re going to be best friends forever. The male friendships in this book are shockingly pure and the women are incredible. The Crew of Light are actually the only found family ever, I think.

[illmissthecrowning]

Dracula Daily hive it’s time to wake the fuck up!

[kastalani123]

Not my usual content, but I just. I wanna ramble, ig.

Do you understand how baffled I was about how the vampire book, written by a man in 1897, is essentially a PSA about how important proper communication is?? Even after I scrolled through Tumblr, saw the memes, read people geeking out about the relationships (platonic and romantic) in Dracula, I was still caught off guard, because. Like. Everything in this book is about communication.

Sure, it's kind of a given, considering it's an epistolary novel partially made up of letters between the characters, but. I dunno. From Dracula controlling Johnathan's lettres, van Hellsing refusing to tell anyone shit, the men keeping Mina out of the loop, to Mina using her telepathic link with Dracula, it's. It's literally all about how important actually talking to each other and sharing information is. Fuck, throw in the fact that "Harker", Mina and Jonathan's, arguably the main characters, last name means "to listen"/"eavesdropper", and that the book is Mina's in-universe creation to help compile, organize, and share what they know about Dracula, and the book's very essence becomes centered around information-sharing!

And I just. The narrative punishes just about every secret hidden, every time the characters don't communicate. There's the obvious, Dracula keeping Johnathan from sending out letters for help and Mina getting bitten because the men leave her home alone, but also. Van Hellsing not telling Lucy's mom that the garlic flowers and closed windows and so on are the treatment and she is not to touch them is what kills Lucy and her mom! They maybe could have survived if he just told them what's happening/what he's doing! And even the godsdamned telegram he sends to Seward! If he had just addressed it properly (communicated to the telegram boy properly!) then Seward wouldn't have been late and maybe could have prevented the massacre!

There's also Jonathan's diary right after he finally reunites with Mina, and obviously Mina's whole ✨ thing ✨ with the diary during their wedding is like. Peak romance, but Johnathan doesn't fully get better until Mina reads and shares it with van Hellsing and van Hellsing assures Johnathan that he's not insane. Sure, it's an oversimplification of PTSD and healing and such, but it makes sense, especially if you consider communication and information sharing as a major theme! Only sharing his experiences, reading through them himself after blocking off the memories, is what heals him! He cannot get better without knowing what happened, and without others knowing what happened, because knowing and sharing is important.

Renfield's also an interesting case. I don't have the book with me right now to check, but as far as I remember, he tries to talk about Dracula, tries to get Seward to release him from the asylum so Dracula can't use him against Mina, but is dismissed entirely; as a consequence, Dracula gets in the building, kills Renfield, and bites Mina.

Even the language barriers! The villagers Johnathan meets on his way to Dracula's castle try so hard to warn him of the danger but they can't. They can't, because they don't speak enough of the same language, but they try so hard. But whatever does get through to Johnathan, such as that woman begging him to take the crucifix she gives him — that might've saved him. It keeps him unsettled and wary and he does keep the crucifix, which wards Dracula off. They can't communicate the full extent of the danger, but what they managed is probably responsible for him surviving.

And the whole idea is even mentioned in-text! Sure, Lucy saying that a wife ought to share everything she knows with her husband is definitely sexism-flavoured, but Johnathan says it too! He says that his idea of an ideal marriage is one without secrets! And Johnathan is effeminate, yes, he spends a good chunk of the book as the "damsel in distress", but he is still the hero! He is still the one who kills Dracula (with Quincey), and can therefore be assumed to be an intended role model. The (male) main character and hero of an 1897 novel says that a good relationship relies on communication. Sure, he doesn't always stick to it, mostly by agreeing to keep Mina out of the loop when van Hellsing pushes for it, but that doesn't discount that that is what Stoker set as the ideal.

I just. I love this book so much. It subverted just about all expectations I might've had about it and I'm so glad for it. It's undeniably a product of its time, with plenty of racism and sexism and ableism, but it's also so. Not, at the same time? It's so good.

[aquilacalvitium]

Dracula: Has survived hundreds of years. Has been through many wars. Has seen many many generations come and go. Has killed thousands of people. Finally sets his sights on England to continue his undead existance of murder and terror.

Three English men, one Dutch man, one American and a recently married, potentially newly pregnant woman:

[klc-archive]

“Digging through drawers and found this. OLD SCHOOL” - Posted by Clare Thomas.

[agentem]

My sister found the best thing at a second hand shop. Dracula! And this artist did the homework! Dracula, lizard style on the side is my fave. But there is also the Captain, the brides, three men proposing to Lucy, our friend Jonathan cutting himself shaving, and more!

[why-is-it-always-autumn]

hey why are the Van Helsings always the Vampire Hunting Family in modern Dracula stories. Abraham Van Helsing might be the guy who knows stuff but his family is off in the Netherlands and/or dead and totally uninvolved in the plot. Abraham's great-great grandson has no reason to be doing backflips and chopping off heads or whatever

You know who is a family who hates Dracula so so much and would totally teach their kids how to hunt vampires? The Harkers. Give me a modern vampire story where the protagonists are about to die when out pops Quincey Arthur John Lucy Abraham Murray Harker the Fifth, armed with a giant knife and an encyclopedic knowledge of train schedules

[evydraws]

Seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured. Jonathan Harker

art zine & prints | digital version

[moonsun2010]

Made an animatic summarising the entire book as a tribute to Dracula Daily and @re-dracula ! English subtitles provided, with translation by me and @ignitingthesky.

if you like this, do check out my kofi! there's a free pack of every single frame

[ambafaerie]

My major grievance against Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula film adaptation and why I think it is a travesty was the writing of Mina. She is a self assured brilliant woman, a caring friend and loving wife with no past connection to Dracula.

So the film decides to have her be the reincarnation of Dracula’s ex wife so now Mina considers Dracula her mysterious prince who makes her feel alive because Jonathan is so dull that being his bride makes her feel lost so much that even though she married Jonathan and Dracula reacted by killing her best friend Lucy, she is so in love with him that she becomes his willing accomplice and is convinced their love is so much stronger than death that it will release them from the darkness.

It is just so terrible because the Dracula the novel is no feminist politically correct masterpiece but at least it didn’t dumb down Mina to have her be romanced by the monster that assaulted her and killed Lucy and betray Jonathan, Van Helsing, Arthur, Jack, and Quincey because she is Vlad the Impaler’s reincarnated wife. But because film was so popular the general public thinks she is Dracula’s lover when it is anything but that with adaptations following suit to portray Jonathan a a terrible husband to justify why Mina should go be with Dracula who is portrayed as the progressive exotic partner.

The novel is pretty clear that without Mina the group would have died to Dracula. She was key to their triumph and she and Jonathan are passionately in love literally ride and die for each other.