#i know y'all probably wanted him to be a sexy dracula or something

[risingsunfish]

dang ol' FEH dragging me out of retirement for one last dumb Splatoon crossover with these guys

[yallemagne]

Oh my god. This is why I have no patience for complaints going waaaaah a couple of people on tunglr write fics where Renfield is too complex or Jonathan is too badass or whatever. Like spare me y'all, far worse shit butchering the characters and the themes is distributed to millions every year through musicals, movies and books

Even the worst fanfic writers... I dunno, some of them are very bad... no, no, jokes aside. Even the worst fanfic writers have nothing on fucking Frank Wildhorn and his crew. Dracula das Musical and Jekyll & Hyde the musical romanticize and fetishize rape, murder, and abuse so damn much and they make MONEY off of it. They do it with silly lil catchy songs that draw in audiences that are willing to overlook the bad because "haha this song is so romantic". It's a song about rape, but okay, hun.

You can depict awful things happening or being said without supporting those things. I'll give even the most self-indulgent fanfic writers a chance because that is what fanfic writing is supposed to be: self-indulgent. Even when it's obvious that a fic writer actually does romanticize bad things... it does overall less harm than actual big adaptations.

By rewriting Dracula into a romantic musical where Dracula is the romantic lead, the writers are posing Dracula as being in the right. There is no nuance. His evil actions are EVIL they cause SO MUCH PAIN, but they smush in a few more weepy ballads about being lonely and say "he's actually a good guy once you get over your girlfriend's untimely death and start huffing lead paint". This is unlike, you know, classical tragedies where the main character gets his comeuppance because of some fatal flaw. Dracula does not die at the end of the Dracula musical because of any of his actions or character flaws. He dies because the writers realized at the last second that Dracula getting the girl is a bad ending.

Now, part of this ask is evidently referring a bit to some... recent drama. I've ranted about it before, so I'll spare specifics. Now, Dracula from the Dracula musical is an awful person, but the narrative functionally treats him as the underdog hero of the story. Look at all these cuckolds trying to keep him down. All he's trying to do is harm women, is that so bad? So, when a story depicts a character doing something wrong, the people who adore that character will probably be fine with it so long as the story does not acknowledge those actions as wrong. Because... if your favourite character... did something bad... then, are you bad?

No. Your poor little meow meow is kind of an asshole, I thought you knew this. That's what made you like them, right? Renfield did bad things. It's only fair to acknowledge that. He attacked Seward-- and yes, I know a great deal of y'all were in support of murdering Seward, but he did it so Seward would be unavailable to watch Lucy. He's indirectly responsible for Lucy's death. He's directly responsible for Mina's assault (though he did try to stop it). He tries to atone and gets killed after going against Dracula, but it doesn't take away the damage his actions caused. There's not enough content surrounding Renfield, to be perfectly honest. Though, I dread the writing that will result from that godawful comp-het disaster of a movie coming out.

I've never seen any fics that make Jonathan "too badass", honestly. Most fanfics severely undercut his capabilities and agency because um *whispers* most fanfics are Dracula/Jonathan. For once I want a Dracula 2020 fic that gives Jonathan a gun and fr kills Dracula. But that aside, that aside, even the stories that do make Jonathan "badass"... they don't really. He's strong and sexy, obviously, but that's just canon. The fact they go more in-depth as to how and why he's strong and sexy doesn't make it unbelievable. And those fics don't strip him of his weaknesses, he retains his PTSD. No fanfic like... ever... has made Jonathan a macho man.