Count Dracula

Character
Name:	Count Dracula
Occupation:
Relationships:
Fandom:	Dracula
Other:
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Count Dracula, often known as simply Dracula, is a vampire from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the same name. He's become a pop culture icon over the years, having made many appearances in films, TV series, books, video games, comics etc, and his status as an icon of horror has influenced vampires in media for decades.

His character over the years has developed and changed somewhat from his original novel appearance, such that many readers during Dracula Daily were a little surprised at certain aspects of his character that hadn't been as frequently translated in subsequent adaptations, such as Dogula or his lizard-like way of climbing down the castle walls. Though mainstream media seems to focus on the Count, often emphasising the erotic subtextual nature of his feeding on Lucy and Mina, Dracula Daily fans were much more endeared by both his gradual menace and terror, and the comedy vibes of him as a host to Jonathan, with most of the sexual interpretations of his character being in regards to the homoeroticism between him and his guest.

Fandom

watching dracula daily through fandom osmosis, all I can say is that it’s genuinely fascinating how the audience reaction manages to prove J. Jerome Cohen’s Monster Theory incredibly well, and more coherently than any academic paper or theory I’ve read in years. specifically, with the context that Dracula was an antisemitic and orientalist caricature of the racialised Other, in making the Other into a monster Stoker’s narrative choices makes him into an object of first fascination and then, in turn, repulsion. his monstrosity encapsulates the fear of immigrants and foreign invasion. the audience reaction to its hunting and death is a real-time demonstration of how a monstrous Other justifies its own slaying, thus making slaying of the Other celebratory. watching tumblr go from “hee hee hoo hoo he’s just a funny kreature" to "THIS BEAST MUST BE SLAIN FOUR TOUCHING OUR PURENESS” is worth, like, seven graduation papers alone in sociology, immigration politics, radicalisation theory, and horror literature. monster theory (seven thesis) speedrun but liveblogged.

maybe part of the reason i’m disappointed with the discussions that came out of dracula daily last year (and the ones that are restarting this year) is bc a lot of them feel so... idk how to put it

early last year there were a lot of good posts about how dracula is this deeply queercoded character, using a cultural language that stoker and his contemporaries would have understood. about how stoker himself was writing dracula at least partially as a reaction to oscar wilde’s obscenity trials. about his personification of those dark and shameful secrets is a foreign monster threatening the Good And Wholesome british culture.

and it seems like most of the audience now has taken that portrayal at face value. they’ve accepted dracula as this one-dimensional threat, and they’ve accepted the protagonists as unilaterally good and moral victims and heroes.

it frustrates me, is all. i feel like yall are capable of more than this.

Fan Theories and Interpretations

Vlad the Impaler Connection

In the 1970s there has been a large uprise of interest in Dracula, great deal of which was caused by the publication of the book by Florescu and Mcnally that suggested he was based on Vlad the Impaler. After that, there has been a lot of discussion among both scholars and fans on whether or not it was the case, and portraying the Count as Vlad has become common in derivative works. It also has influenced Dracula-related fan tourism, leading to fans and fannish groups like The Dracula Society visiting the sites related to Vlad the Impaler and not just the novel. Popular at first, this theory has increasingly come under criticism in later decades, which also left its influence on the fandom. While the fanfiction of the 2000s and 2010s used the life of Vlad III as Dracula's backstory quite often, it is less common for the works written in the 2020s, especially after Dracula Daily.

Pairings

• Dracula/Jonathan
• Dracula/Mina
• Dracula/Jonathan/Mina
• Dracula/Brides
• Dracula/Renfield
• Dracula/Van Helsing
• Dracula/Lucy

Fanworks

Fanfiction

Novel

A lot of fic focusing on Dracula or set from his POV is darkfic about predations on his canonical victims. Such stories are often noncon or have noncon elements.

• The Castle by evremonde - "A slashy reworking of Jonathan Harker's stay in Dracula's castle."
• Mine by CatWingsAthena - "a snippet of Dracula's POV on the night of October 2nd-3rd."
• The Wolf in the Window by BlueCatWriter - Dracula's final attack on Lucy Westenra
• Kiss Him no More by Dribbledscribbles - Dracula spying on Jonathan and Mina through his mind connection with Mina
• I Too Can Love by RobberBaroness - "Three of Dracula's chosen loves."

Some fics develop Dracula's backstory, often showing how he became a vampire. In these, he's usually portrayed as Vlad III.

• Birth by g0ttak33p - a story about Dracula's death and rebirth
• The Tenth Scholar and The Pact by Dr. Algae - stories combining the premise of Dracula as a student of Scholomance with the interpretation of him being Vlad the Impaler
• Prism by Assimbya - "Dracula, from the perspectives of lovers over his vast lifetime."
• The Dragon by TheGhostofStonewallJackson

Count Dracula often appears in crossovers of other canons with Dracula.

• la petite mort by howlingmoonrise - viral Dracula/Barbie fic
• Omnia Mutantur by Amatoxin - Dracula/Frankenstein's Creature slash. A rare example of bottom!Dracula

Other:

• In Which Blood, Death, and Laughter Ensues by Currently Defunct - a humorous retelling of the novel from Dracula's POV

1992 Movie

• The Cross by Thyme In Her Eyes

Other

• Dracula - 1980 zine with fics based mostly on the 1979 adaptation starring Frank Langella

Fanart

• The Fate of the Demeter by Crepuscol
• Count Dracula by moonsun2010
• Redraw of this in honor of a very old book trending... by cupcakeshakesnake - a lot of artists during Dracula Daily explored the comedic potential of Dracula doing the chores in secret in the book