#westenra1897

[elisaintime]

I caught your video with Dacre Stoker, and there's one thing I'm wondering.. If Vlad the Impaler now has a more solid connection to the OG Dracula, what does that mean for Dracula as a medium? I'm not sure how to feel considering how contentious the Debate was around it. How do you feel about it?

From the way he was describing it, in the interview as well as our conversations before and afterwards, it seems he really believes that he still does not think Bram meant for Dracula TO BE Vlad III. Like Vlad being a real person who then BECAME Dracula?...no. He does not think that’s what Bram intended at all. He just thinks Bram heard about Vlad and was inspired by him to make his entirely fictional character Dracula, and used bits of Vlad in him along with bits of other historical ideas as well. The only difference between this info now and what was thought by scholars (especially Elizabeth Miller) prior to fall 2018, is that we now do know Bram even knew Vlad III existed at all. But otherwise, we believe Dracula still is his own (satanic) thing. Not meant to be literally the historical person, Vlad III. 

Here’s my interview with Dracula scholar, Dacre Stoker, for anyone who’s curious what we’re talking about: https://youtu.be/V2pY2Gn9wL0

[fragenherrdoktor]

Thoughts on Zorins backstory?

Ah, the Scythe Wife. This old post on LJ has always been my favorite on Zorin. It goes into a lot of detail about her name origin, the political climate, and how it might have affected her and how she used it to her advantage. Give it a read. It shaped my view of her.

She probably came from a middle-class family of farmers from Eastern Germany, given her pension for using a scythe.

Her background is probably pretty similar to most female concentration camp guards. I think she was raised on propaganda and leaned into it. She joined the army before the war and volunteered to be part of the Aufseherin.

I think she got assigned to work as a guard at the camp where Millennium was operating in Warsaw, liked the cut of the Major’s jib/they liked how insanely stacked and intimidating she is and saw potential. She was likely invited to join Mill’s Special Order #666 operation during the war.

I don’t think Zorin could ever be considered a kind person, even when younger. She subscribes way too hard to the extremes of Social Darwinism, aka “Survival of the fittest.” If the Nazis had never risen to power, I think she still would be a cruel jerk, just much lower level–like the worst middle manager you’ve ever had x10. Thinks anyone working below her is dirt. She’s cut from the same cloth as the Aunts in The Handmaid’s Tale imo.

To get her powers, I think it involved plucking out her one eye and somehow exchanging it. Her mismatching eyes, choice of scythe, brutal strength, and mystical powers make her feel like an attempt to create an ancient god. In Norse myth, Odin sacrifices his eye to gain wisdom. While it’s never stated precisely what this ‘wisdom’ is, one can gather it’s likely enhanced perception into the spiritual world. Zorin’s mind-bending abilities to see into another’s memories, I think, counts as enhanced “supernatural perception.”

I also believe part of her transition involved covering half her body in tattoos that I assume to be mostly armanen runes.

The division between tatted and clean skin reminds me of the giantess Hel, who rules over the realm of the dead. Hel is described as being half black and half white with a consistently grim expression. Although she honestly isn’t very developed in Norse lore, Hel is generally depicted as being cruel or indifferent to the concerns of the living and dead. Sounds similar to Zoirn to me.

She’s probably pretty sexually promiscuous. Her pants are like wide open in most manga panels you fully she her in, and she’s just chilling topless in the extras at the end of one of the chapters.

[bakhtaks-blog]

What do you think they could go with Carrie now that they've had a sequel, and a few remakes? Ghost Carrie?

I don’t think they should do anything more with Carrie, but I won’t be surprised if they decided to make a supernatural movie of Carrie’s ghost and have her haunt her destroyed house.

Or if they decided to make a new movie where it turns out Carrie has another sister, or a brother, because her dad likes going around.

[forthegothicheroine]

Have you heard "The Voyage of the Demeter"? It's an hour long bbc audiodrama that covers Dracula's passage to England and the Captain's Story. It's an original story, for the Show they were doing (Adaptions of horror stories) It's on youtube.

Ooh, I need to find that!

[frankenbolt]

westenra1897 said: I mean he took his terrible orphanage and turned it into a Horror fortress that’s really something.

(I apologize in advance because I’m thinking out loud)

I suppose, but it always varies wildly on what he’s actually capable of. Part of the “charm” of his character to me has always been that he’s just this. Guy. He’s not like the doctors and engineers and scientists that make up Spider-Man’s rogue gallery. I like that about Brock too. Brock is a journalist. Cletus is a working class orphan high school drop out serial killer. 

What makes them terrifying (when Brock is a “villian” anyway), is that they’re so mentally unstable. Their behaviour and how they react to the world around them isn’t based on a plan. It’s not like they’re planning on threatening new york with some big ass doomsday weapon that Spidey can just deactivate with his sweet science skills. The symbiote amplifies all their bile and inner torment into this physical manifestation of pain and that makes it all the harder to fight.

And part of what is so great about Cletus is that he’s realer than most villians. There aren’t too many scorned scientists running around shooting lasers at people in the real world- but Serial Killers and emotionally stunted guys with mental illnesses who have access to weapons are amoung us and that is terrifying to me. The BEST Cletus/Carnage stories aren’t the ones where he’s on some big scheme to take over the microverse, or bring an elder god to earth or even when he’s luring people into a horror fortress.

What’s the one story that always comes back, time and time again, to remind us just how dangerous he is? Maximum Carnage. He’s terrifying and a huge threat when he’s being random, when he isn’t tied to one place when he’s out amoung the populace and causing as much chaos and bloodshed as possible.

Which is why I have such a problem with the Animated Series episode. I wouldn’t trust that idiot to microwave a burrito let alone put up reinforced steel doors in a downtown New York apartment. I have about as much faith in Cletus to hotwire a security system as I do in myself. 

The only times I’ll give the plot leniancy when it comes to Cletus using tech or having a plan far bigger than his usual scope is when he’s bonded to Red because at least that gives the illusion that the...wifi that symbiotes have (fucking codex) that they share information and pass down through their offspring is what is doing the intelligent heavy lifting.

...I really shouldn’t be that hard on the Animated Series because honestly, they were doing their best (TM). They had to shoe-horn in Dr Strange Mythos and Iron Man and War Machine...for some reason? Crossover mandates idk. They didn’t have enough time to really tell a Carnage story- let alone a PG one.

[thenightling]

I always chocked it up to Madonna Whore syndrome where the writers can only perceive women as pure and innocent or whorish.  

@westenra1897

[fragenherrdoktor]

Rip's backstory? Im gonna President's day this question, actually. Major's? Dok? Do you think Schrodinger is based (in universe) on a an actual Kid? (My Headcanon)

Whoa! Thanks for the questions! I’m going to break the answers up by character for length. I touched on some of these points in a past post, so I’ll expand on them. First up, Rip Van Winkle! 

Rip seems to be Zorin’s opposite; she’s the ‘Eva Braun’ to the latter’s ‘Brunhilde’. Zorin appears to represent the more agrarian population, while Rip is more the urban-dwelling socialite. She seems more refined in her style of dress and love of opera, so I would imagine she comes from a higher social class, possibly the daughter of an officer. That or she’s putting on airs to make one think she’s from a more affluent background than she really is.

I think Rip was likely born around the Rhineland, given her moniker is both Dutch and a literary reference to Irving's Rip Van Winkle because:

The Rhineland is closer to Holland than any other part of Germany. While the German ‘Von’ is more common in names, the Dutch ‘Van’ makes its way in there too: example Ludwig Van Beethoven who was originally from Bonn, Germany. So she might be of Dutch descent to some degree, too?

Irving’s novel takes place in the Hudson Valley, which Life magazine in 1939 called “America’s Rhineland” because they are a bit geographically similar.

I think Rip was born and raised on propaganda. In Dawn, her hair is braided similarly to girls and women in the BMD. She likely joined as a preteen and was active in it until her late teens or until 21. The BMD indoctrinated young women and taught a very romanticized version of German folklore and tradition coupled with the National Socialist system. That’s probably what lends to Rip’s more silly, girlish, and romantic personality and outlook on the events in Hellsing. A lot of the BMD’s teaching also focused on the “self-sacrifice’’ women should make to further the cause of the party, which seems to match her sacrificing herself to further Millennium's goals to keep Alucard stuck at sea for a bit to launch their attack.

She likely voluntarily joined the Aufseherin, too. I think Rip (and Zorin to an extent in terms of sheer brutality and rural upbringing) is based on Irma Grese the most. Grese is described as being beautiful, immaculately dressed, and one of the most sadistic female guards. That description seems to fit Rip and her gleeful enjoyment of Mill’s actions.

Given her entrance in Hellsing: The Dawn (she’s K.O.’d like immediately) and moniker, I think Rip is out cold for pretty much the entirety of the Hellsing Raid and misses the rest of WW2. In Irving’s novel, Rip Van Winkle falls asleep for 20 years and misses the American Revolution. This leads me to think that Hellsing Rip is out for an extended period as well due to the karate chop from Alu’s coffin to the back of her head.

I think the hit also caused some extensive head trauma and forced the Doktor to work on her shortly after the raid. In the opening of Dawn, Millennium is experimenting on POW’s and only seems to be able to create ghouls, not the more advanced bootleg vampires, yet. I think Rip was one of the first, if not the original successful FREAK. I also believe she fell flat on her face and chipped her teeth after being knocked out, and Dok filed them into points, giving Rip her signature smile.

Due to her unconsciousness and missing parts of the war, I think Mill’s higher-ups (namely Major) gave her the moniker Rip Van Winkle as a joke.

I believe the wack to the head messed with Rip’s memory too, possibly giving her amnesia, and is one of the reasons why she’s so attached to Der Freischütz. I think she always enjoyed opera. Those with amnesia, while they might forget past events, loved ones, have been known to have their musical memory still intact. I think this is one of the reasons she’s so obsessed with the opera and strongly relates to it; it’s one of the strongest things she can remember and thus relates to it waaay too hard. (Wouldn’t feel bad for her. The whole aftermath of the Hellsing Raid is pure speculation on my part. Rip’s scarily loyal to Mill, so she’s terrible through and through.)

Her being called Rip Van Winkle showcases how her, and by extent all of Millennium, are stuck in the past and are resistant to change. Irving’s story is a cautionary tale about wasting your life away, and Mill, well, they waste their lives trying to get revenge/overcome the supernatural/prove their superiority.

Her catchphrase “Tinker tailor soldier sailor, my bullet punishes all without distinction” is a reference to the old ‘Tinker, Tailor’ game/nursery rhyme children used to use to identify who was “it” in a game of tag. I think it highlights how childish Rip is, she views shooting someone kin to playing deadly tag.

In the novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, named after the same rhyme, British SIS agents track down a Soviet spy in their ranks. I think this also references how Rip got on the Eagle using British naval forces that betrayed the crown in return for vampirism.

I have no fucking idea where the hell she got the Jezail rifle from. They were really popular with Afghan troops, especially during the Anglo-Afghan war. I think it’s supposed to add insult to injury that she’s using a musket that devastated British forces in 1800′s before while also reinforcing how behind the times she is.

She seems to personally relate to Kaspar in Der Freischütz, who in the opera makes a deal with Samuel, an evil spirit/the devil known as Black Huntsman, for magic bullets. However Rip got her powers, I imagine it took her (with the help of Mill/Dok) summoning an evil spirit and making a deal with it that enabled her to shoot cursed bullets.

The fact that Rip and Zorin are a part of Mill highlights that they’re both highly effective soldiers. Their leadership roles are also one of the things that show how unorthodox Major is at running his organization. Women participated in military service, but it was very regimented because the Nazi’s were, in a word, conservative. Women served alongside men, but they could never give their male soldiers orders. Both Rip and Zorin are officers with troops under their command, so they must be good at what they do, even if Rip is a bit of a ditz at times.

Rip is the only one who is scared shitless of Alucard when she first sees him. She seems slightly more ‘realistic’ about her capabilities, but goes through with being bait, cementing her extreme loyalty to Mill’s cause. However, the way she talks about Alucard makes me wonder if she’s aware that they are truly fighting the actual Dracula. Rip seems to believe Alucard IS Samuel to some degree(???). The way Major builds up this idea in her flashback leads me to believe Major isn’t 100% truthful about what exactly Mill is fighting or their end goal (even to higher-ranking officers) and is fine letting his soldiers believe in whatever gets them to do what he wants (read: die horribly).

[fragenherrdoktor]

Sorry, this reply got too long, so I just made a post. Headcanon time. 

At the end of the novel, Mina and Jonathan have a son, so it’s hinted they go on to live happily ever after the start of the 20th Century. So I imagine she lived with her husband and son and probably ‘died’ as an older woman around WW1 of natural causes or because of the influenza pandemic running rampant near the close of the war. 

I don’t think Mina’s age is ever stated directly in the book, but people usually got married when they were around 26-28 in the 19th Century. So, she’d probably be in her late 50’s early 60’s by the time WW1 broke out if she and Harker got married in the 1890′s? 

At some point around the 1920′s, Mina becomes old, unwell, and then goes into a death-like stasis like how we first see Alucard introduced at the start when he’s locked in Hellsing’s basement. She’s presumed dead (no pulse, no breath) and buried in her family cemetery. In the 1930′s, Millennium exhumed her and took other occult artifacts (like how the Nazis took the spear of destiny in 1933’s after annexing Austria) in the lead-up to WW2. 

Since she’s still cursed because part of Alucard lives inside of her, Mina’s body doesn’t decompose. She’s still technically a fledgling according to Hellsing lore because she never drank another’s blood, but she’s not a full vampire like Seras. I imagine Mina looks a bit like Alucard when he’s chained up in Hellsing’s basement when she’s first found by Mill, like a dried-out husk, which is why she’s then wrapped up in bandages.

Imo it seems like the Doctor’s experiments ‘awake’ her to some degree? Idk the pose we first see her in looks pained. Her mouth is gagged, her legs are either kinked behind her or removed looking at her posture, which is just…wtf? Why? Unless she is awake and trying to escape?? But since she’s not a full vampire, she can’t get free, which is just….absolutely tragic if true. 

I think Mina officially ‘dies’ in Doc’s lab when she’s burned by Walter, as Alucard’s essence is finally removed by fire. But I think she goes through a period of being ‘woken up’ due to Millennium’s experiments followed by a death-like stasis again as Doc’s just keeps sampling her into nothingness. Which I imagine was an incredibly painful and creepy process…

[fragenherrdoktor]

"Dok was probably married" Was it a good marriage? :P

Lol, I think it started better than it ended.

Honestly, the idea of Dok's wife originally came from my fiancee @pennycatss. We wrote a few role-plays/short stories together, and she also drew some art for it.💕

In our verse, Dok and his wife Greta met at University/lecture, and they genuinely liked one another. She's beautiful, stern, intelligent, and has a better moral compass. Things go sour when Dok starts getting too into the political scene and meets the Major. It stops being 'just politics', and she realizes the party is incredibly hollow and self-serving.

Meanwhile, Dok starts becoming more the man we see in the series (obsessive, cruel, and incredibly secretive). Everything comes to a crashing halt when Greta finds the beginnings of his research in their home (photos and diagrams of SHI), freaks out and demands that he stop or she'll leave and divorce him. A day or so after their argument, a terrible fire breaks out in their home due to unknown circumstances (it's the fucking Major), and Dok chooses to save his research rather than his wife, firmly setting him on a villainous path.

Penny also designed Greta to look a bit like Rip (dark hair, blue eyes, and freckles), which ended but being a point of contention in our side rps when Winkle finds a picture of her. (Did you make me because I look like her?) But we never really shared any of those writings, pictures, or comics online because they felt too personal.

[fragenherrdoktor]

Dok's backstory relating to this ask.

In the prototype manga Doc's Story, we see someone who looks like a younger Hellsing Doktor. He's working on developing a weapon that turns out to be a sexy catgirl. Some fans take this as the crux for both the Doktor's backstory and Schrödinger's creation. 

I don't because one, Dok's prototype gets shot and dies, and two it implies that Hitler and the Catgirl are Schrödinger's parents via rape. I don't enjoy either Coyote or Doc's Story, at all. Most of Hirano's earlier hentai works aren't a pleasant reading experience, in my opinion. 

Considering one of his aliases is the Grand Professor, and he's such a sadistic 'yes man' on top of all his awful medical works, I pull more of his backstory from the life and actions of Joseph Mengele. 

Keeping in line with this likeness, I imagine Dok was born in a small village in Bavaria to an enterprising family that developed farming equipment. 

He seems a little older than the Major, so Dok likely was born around the 1910s, making him in his mid to late 30s by the end of WW2.

He was probably incredibly academically ambitious, given that the man seems to create most of the technology that makes Millennium function. His title is a direct reference to the Herr Doktor troupe. He's such a mad scientist; one can speculate that he studied a ridiculous amount of subjects (anthropology, medicine, genetics, virology, engineering, etc.) and likely started a career as a researcher before joining the party. 

Since both Major and Dok are the worst type of otakus, he's deeply into esoteric thought and probably takes occult teachings as fact. I imagine he was a Thule Society member.  

His studying of Mina Harker's corpse mirrors how the original protagonists in Dracula study the supernatural to defeat the Count. Dok's goals, considering his rant to Walter at the end, are directed toward trying to surpass Alucard and create something indistinguishable from a miracle. His breakdown highlights his massive god-complex and that he wants something different out of the events of Hellsing than the Major. This makes me believe that neither Dok or the Major is ever 100% open about their true end goals to the rest of Millennium or even each other. They are both incredibly self-serving. 

I doubt he was ever that well-liked, even within the party. Probably one of the reasons he's so ambitious and got into medicine was to understand his genetic anomaly (Syndactyly). I don’t think that would have earned him much fondness from anyone but the Major, who seems to enjoy/not mind unorthodox people if they serve his needs. Dok is more than willing to be of service and lends his expertise to the Major, given how devoted Dok seems to him for the majority of Hellsing.

I imagine he was probably married at some point since you sort of had to be to rise up the ranks. His wife likely divorced him when he fled to South America with Millennium, if not prior, during the war (or died under mysterious circumstances). 

I don't think Avondale Napyeer is his real name and was something he picked to hide his identity.

If the party had never risen to power, Dok would have still been an uptight jerk who enjoys the suffering of others. None of the Millennium cast could ever be considered 'nice' people, just like Mengele, given this quote from a former inmate physician, "In ordinary times, Mengele could have been a slightly sadistic German professor." Even if events unfolded differently, Dok would have been that dreaded nightmare professor in college.

[thenightling]

@westenra1897   Saw this and I thought of you.

[fragenherrdoktor]

Tag game!

Tagged by: @hellsing-inserts

5 Things You’ll Find in my Bag:

- R&M Wallet

-  Half eaten lunch

- Charger

- Work laptop

- Empty cigarette pack

5 Things You’ll Find in my Bedroom:

- Andiiwalker

- Book collection

- Insect collection

- Nerd Shit

- Dried flowers

5 Things That Make me Happy:

- Being with my girlfriend

- Seeing my family

- Going on vacation with friends

- Learning new things

- Reading weird Amazon customer reviews

5 Things On my To-Do List:

- Moving apartments

- Going to the beach

- Getting new cosplays together

- Playing a shiton of Overwatch

- SLEEP

Tagging: @andiiwalker , @trekee12., @reapingtime , @westenra1897 ,