#now i made myself imagine a bad end au where dracula turned jonathan and brought him along back to england. got too possessive

[vickyvicarious]

I feel it's also how a bit similar to how Bluebeard told his bride not to enter the forbidden chamber, and gave her the key to it. He knew she'd disobey. (Though what will happen next is a bit more like with Shahryar, from the Arabian Nights that Jonathan referenced. Dracula might have surprised himself with how possessive he got with this seemingly disposable bride.)

You're absolutely right, my friend. I've seen others making this comparison as well and I totally agree. Love the combination of them as well... Dracula did the whole "I'm going out, don't go into these places" Bluebeard thing, with the punishment of (un)death awaiting Jonathan if he disobeyed... but then in the moment he took it all back in order to hang on to his entertaining new bride (Scheherazade) longer. He's too interested to kill him now. Actually, he wants to keep this going just as it is, at least for one more night month.

I have been warming up to "Dracula doesn't realize how possessive he feels over Jonathan until he sees him about to be 'loved' by someone else" ever since I first said it. The more I think about it the more fitting it seems. Of course, he does seem to have pretty firmly decided to only keep this diversion going until he has to leave for England so there are limits to that possessiveness, but at least in the meantime no one else gets to touch his solicitor but him.

I do think that Jonathan was slated for being turned after Dracula left if he hadn't escaped. It's very unclear if Dracula planned to return any time soon or ever bring his fellow vampires to England with him (and to an extent, if Lucy can be taken as an example, he tends to lose interest after turning them - same with the ladies in the castle maybe, but they do at least live with him/he feeds them so less so), but I do think Jonathan definitely qualified as vampire material instead of just food. It's just that Dracula personally prefers the torment before the turning so he dragged that out to the last minute and left the turning to them. Toying with human!Jonathan was only possible in the castle, he couldn't really bring him along in a box as well, so he called it quits then.

I guess you could say Dracula saw it more as an enjoyable but finite 'summer torture fling' of sorts and lost interest after that point. After all, he doesn't go after Jonathan in London. But I do think there's room to read it the other way as well, and it was only the anger/wariness about Jonathan not only having escaped but actively being in a group hunting him down that made him lose interest in that particular game. If when he'd seen Jonathan in England it had been under other circumstances I do feel like he would have had fun picking up where he left off. I mean, his canon attack on Mina was definitely at least a little bit about tormenting Jonathan further too. If he'd spotted him that day in Piccadilly, when Jonathan was still trying to repress/deny what he'd experienced... someone else might have gotten a visit at their window.