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Dracula/Jonathan

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Pairing
Pairing: Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker
Alternative name(s): Harkula, Dracjon, Joncula, Drarker, Draculonathan
Gender category: Slash
Fandom: Dracula
Canonical?: no
Prevalence: popular
Archives:
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Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker is a slash pairing from the novel Dracula and its derivative works.

Canon

Fandom

The pairing went through several waves of increased fannish interest: in 2020 when the Moffat's adaptation with a lot of focus on Dracula's and Jonathan's relationship came out, and in 2022 with Dracula Daily. The first months of Dracula Daily run, which involved reading the chapters about Jonathan's stay in the Dracula's castle, caused a lot of interest in the pairing and led to the creation of many fanworks, but eventually the amount of shipping diminished as the Tumblr fandom's view of the characters' dynamic took a darker turn.[1] The pairing was enthusiastically embraced in Fail-Fandomanon discussions related to Dracula Daily. The May 16 entry in which Dracula rescues Jonathan from the Brides, regarded as particularly (and surprisingly) slashy, received a lot of positive attention on both platforms and became the subject of a lot of meta, art and fics.

Dracula/Jonathan is a relatively polarizing ship in the Dracula fandom. While the pairing is popular and perceiving some kind of homoeroticism between the characters in the book is very common, actually shipping it also draws criticism from some fans who take offence with its dark character, the prevalence of fanworks that, in their opinion, soften the original dynamic too much, and the ship's potential of "getting on the way" of the fan favorite Jonathan/Mina couple. Nevertheless, AO3 statistics show that Dracula/Jonathan is the second most written pairing for the novel, and tends to appear in fics with the highest number of hits and kudos.

#i've been in fandom for several years and this idea of shipping dracjon only when you put a whole fucking disclaimer that yes you understand #how it is in the canon text #yes you don't support abuse and etc #yes you will be careful about it #honestly made me not like some actually wholesome parts of the book because they are praised without questions by the same people #just let people have fun sometimes #'you can't reclaim dracula' #i better see gay people of tumblr reclaim dracula as their funny gay grandpa/uncle than see another wave of heterocula #we've had this one FOR DECADES #dracula is a good horror book but it's insanely hard to get scared by it after you watched people slaugthered on tv and you can't demand #from people to be scared and see it only as horror [2]

Fanworks

Fanfic

Novel

Dracula/Jonathan fanfiction tends to be darkfic, often featuring themes of abuse and sexual predation. Somnophilia is a popular trope, with Dracula feeding on and/or sexually assaulting Jonathan in his sleep.

The stories depicting more consensual relationship sometimes have themes of sexual repression and internalized homophobia, with Dracula tapping into Jonathan's repressed queer desires.

Many fanworks replicate epistolary style of Dracula, often presenting itself as the entries from Jonathan's journal that he destroyed or chose not to include in the documents that formed the novel.

It's relatively common, especially for earlier stories, to have dreamlike, hallucinatory atmosphere, with Jonathan struggling to distinguish dreams and reality.

A lot of fics end with Jonathan turned into a vampire, though this premise is rarely explored in detail.

Fics often portray Dracula's psychological torture of Jonathan, and some stories go further by making him also physically torture Jonathan in some manner.

  • Indelible by disgruntled_owl (2020)
  • Hospitality series by BlueCatWriter - a darkfic based on a headcanon that during Jonathan's stay in the castle Dracula was withholding food from him (2023-2024)

Most Dracula/Jonathan fics are set exclusively in the Dracula's castle, but some are AUs that have him take Jonathan with him to England.

Other subgroup of the post-castles stories deals with Dracula stalking Jonathan in London.

While it's not uncommon to depict sexual attraction between the characters as mutual, if romantic feelings are present, they are usually portrayed as one-sided, unreciprocated by Jonathan.

Some Dracula/Jonathan works are straight up whump or rape recovery stories. They may be written by non-shippers or even anti-shippers of the pairing.

2020 Series

1992 Movie

There are few Dracula/Jonathan stories in the movie fandom, but enough to call it the second most popular pairing after Dracula/Mina. Like many book-based fics, they tend to be PWPs set in the castle, and often feature noncon or dubcon.

Some stories explore the possibility of Jonathan and not Mina being Dracula's reincarnated lover

Published Fiction

Fanart

  • "Then the Count turned..." by nehezt - a May 16 art
  • Art by trash-eating-demon, Dracula/Jonathan shipper active in Dracula fandom in the early 2020s
  • An art from 2024 by heavendraven. A lot of Dracula/Jonathan arts portray vampiric or/and sexual predation

Meta

Communities

References

  1. ^ see meta by animate-mush on the change in DD's perception of the ship as the book progresses
  2. ^ thelawyerofdracula, May 21, 2022
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