#Respect for my boy Johnathan Harker | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

limetameta · 9 months

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The worst thing to come from rewatching hellsing ultimate is that now YET AGAIN I am thinking of my cringe Canon divergence fic I made up as a wee child where Quincey Harker's grandson and Integra Hellsing are matched by the Queen of England (no Alucard, much to your detriment your 1940s sweetheart won't let you change her mind - no changing your form into girlycard won't help)

But you see he's American^TM. Because Mina and Johnathan took one look at Abraham biding Alucard to the Hellsing family AND keeping him in England and said: We will run! We are leaving, good sirs!

Abraham: But you have nothing to worry about! He is bound! A servant! He is nothing!

Mina and Johnathan, absolutely traumatized, holding their baby boy Quincey: WE ARE LEAVING!

So they move to America. And stay there. But something is a little up with Quincey, though. He's just a tad stronger than you'd expect. A really killer athlete that can outrun most folks in his school.

Because the whole thing with Mina not turning into a vampire is that Dracula got killed. By not killing Dracula let's still say: OK Mina is in the clear! She didn't turn into a vampire. She was cured! (I feel like my man Johnathan would never let Abraham experiment on Mina to see HOW she did not turn, because Johnathan is a good man and Van Helsing is a wacky old mad scientist)

So let's assume for the sake of this au that Mina is human enough to pass, but that progressively it gets... harder to hide the vampirism. Not in its most natural state. But the Harker family is a bit odd.

Cut to Quinceys grandson - I don't know called Jeffrey or something. And he is a professional American hunter on all things occult. Looks human. Can go in the sunlight. Blunt teeth. Eats food. Except he doesn't necessarily hunt like a human.

But that's not important yet. Alucard will sniff that out and come to Integra to debrief.

The entire premise of this would be that it follows the hellsing ultimate beat. So it'd have 10 chapters. The biggest divergence would be that McAmerican Man over there is at the right place at the right time and stops the Cat Boi from doing the thing, and so Alucard doesn't disappear for 30 years.

I remember reading fics where Integra is told she must marry and in those fics she always takes it in stride. She is always like yes of course I will do my Hellsing duty. I am an old woman of 22 and so of course I must make haste and pop out at least 5 children. All male.

So my big idea was that in this fic both Alucard and Integra would be SO in on it and they would collaborate and work together to drive this McAmerican Man away - without of course him knowing they are doing this on purpose.

But the bit continues- McAmerican Man succeeds in surviving all of their trials and tribulations - PLUS he is endearing. There is something about that Johnathan Harker rizz that gets passed down. Integra is actually beginning to respect this man. Fuck. In Integra speak this is as close to her finding him adequate as you will get.

But their ticket out of this conundrum is Alucards revelation that McAmerican Man is a vampire or something alike.

But then you get eugenics from the round table that's like: combining the blood of a Hellsing, the family that Alucard is bound to serve - with the Harker blood that is giving its family abilities to withstand grievous harm and has them endure many hardships to be found in the vampire hunting business seems like a brilliant mix. Think of what your children will be?

Alucard: Doesn't this sound like eugenics? I thought Britain was above such things? *grinning like a lunatic. Having caught the round table red handed*

Integra: *can't see her glare from the cigar smoke* yes... it does...

But anyway. Pretending anyone from the Hellsing verse is not mad is like pretending the sky is green. I wanted to say red, but with the London siege it very well might be red.

I cannot stress enough how MUCH Alucard is trying to get rid of the McAmerican Man. But as he is ordered not to KILL or MAIM him or HARM him he needs to get creative.

But is he pissed off? Yes he is. Especially because dearest American boi looks the spitting image of his good friend Johnathan. The Dracula in Alucard is VERY MUCH rearing his head. He feels like this is his do over to kill him and drain him. Integra will allow it, he just needs to find A WAY to get her to mistrust him. You must have secrets McAmerican Man.

Seras and the dude are good buddies. The wild geese take him out drinking one night.

Only Integra and Integra's pet vampire SEETHE at this man.

Alucard: Master...

Integra: It will be obvious

Alucard: Not if you lock me up as punishment afterwards

Integra: *puff* *puff* *side eyes him* *is considering it ACTIVELY* *sighs* No...

Both of them are disappointed 😞

Anyway Integra gets wun over by McAmerican Man but she refuses to take his name.

#harker hellsing au #hellsing

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dinoandrade · 4 years

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“DRACULA”: BOOK vs. MOVIES

Part 2: The Other Characters

Welcome to part two of my five part essay comparing Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula” to those film versions most commonly referred to as those “faithful to the novel.” To understand why I wrote this please check out yesterday’s part one.

BUT FIRST...

This essay is NOT spoiler free. And whether you love or hate any of the films being compared here is beside the point and a subject best left to posts dedicated to film critique. This essay is SOLELY about which films are the most faithful to the novel... period.

As a reminder: those versions most touted as “faithful” that I compared are:

“Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror” (1922) aka “Max Schreck Version”.

“Count Dracula” (1970) aka “Christopher Lee Version”.

“Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1973) retitled “Dan Curtis’ Dracula” aka “Jack Palance Version”.

“Count Dracula” (1977) aka “Louis Jordan version.”

“Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992) aka “Coppola version”.

And now...

PART TWO: THE OTHER CHARACTERS

JOHNATHAN HARKER

Johnathan is a young, naive English solicitor who, only having just passed his exams, travels to Castle Dracula in Transylvania in order to complete the sale of an English estate to the Count. No sooner is the deal signed that Harker becomes a prisoner and goes through Hell at the hands of Dracula and his three undead brides. All before an equally hellish escape and near loss of his mind leaving him psychologically and physically damaged. This drives him to become one of Van Helsing’s vampire hunters where he eventually helps incapacitate Dracula in the final battle by cutting the Count’s throat.

The Max Schreck, Louis Jordan and Christopher Lee versions all come pretty damn close in terms of matching the exact story beats of the novel but then all three falter after Harker’s escape. In both the Schreck and Lee versions Johnathan’s actions do not follow the book. While in the Jordan version they technically do follow the book but Johnathan seems to recover fully with no lingering physical or PTSD effects.

So, say what you will about the hinky British accent of Keanu Reeves in the Coppola version but the psychological scarring after the ordeal with hair turning grey as in the novel and the manic drive to kill Dracula, all leading to the throat slashing in the final struggle with the Vampire, all seals it for me as the most faithfully done.

Winner: Coppola version

MINA MURRAY/HARKER

Fiancé to Johnathan Harker, “Madam Mina” begins the story as a genteel and naive creature. Mina first suffers greatly over the death of her best friend Lucy (whom she loved dearly) at the hands (or fangs as it were) of Dracula and then over the sight of her mentally and physically traumatized fiancé Johnathan whom she then marries.

To her horror Mina realizes that Dracula is slowly making her one of his vampire brides, especially when he forces her to drink his blood in what Professor Van Helsing calls a “baptism of blood”. It is then that a hardening Mina forms a plan to use a growing telepathic link with the Vampire against him. Her plot involves partnering with Van Helsing and the use of hypnosis to track Dracula as well as lure and destroy him and his brides with Mina bravely offering herself as bait - but she almost loses her humanity and soul in the process.

By stories end, Mina has undergone the greatest of changes, from genteel and naive to cunning (with flashes of the demonic) and so resolute that while in a state somewhere between the living and the undead, Mina even wields a revolver in the final battle against Dracula’s minions and fights with no fear.

While both the Christopher Lee and Louis Jordan versions do give their Minas some backbone, they fall way short of the novel. And I MUST give a serious honorable mention to the stout-hearted Kate Nelligan in the Frank Langella version.

But, in the end it is Winona Ryder in the Coppola version that goes the extra step of showing Mina’s transition from small and timid to cunning and resolute, as well as flashes of her becoming possessed by a demonic evil that eats away at her soul.

Though due to the film’s Dracula/Mina love story most of Mina’s actions in the final battle run contrary to the novel (such as picking up a rifle not to battle Dracula but to defend him), yet her actions during the climax are bold, strong, fearless and driven by inhuman supernatural power as befitting the novel. Coppola even gives his Mina the will to eventually drive a blade through Dracula’s heart and then lop off his head to give him eternal peace. I can’t imagine any other cinematic version of Stoker’s heroine performing such actions except maybe Kate Nelligan’s.

I have always felt that the most tragic and repeated disservice to Bram Stoker’s novel have been all the cliched portrayals of Mina. In the novel it is she and Van Helsing who orchestrate the final battle with Mina actually fighting while the elder Van Helsing is only a spectator. And yet, almost every cinematic telling of Dracula changes the story into a singular battle of wits between Dracula and Van Helsing with the Professor almost always being the one to deliver the final death blow. Meanwhile brave Mina has been reduced to nothing but a “Damsel in distress”.

This is NOT what Stoker intended. For in the novel it is Mina’s fortitude in the face of horror that is at the very heart of the original story. So much so, that Stoker even ends his novel with these words from Van Helsing said to Mina’s future child:

“... this boy will someday know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care. Later on he will understand how some men so loved her that they did dare much for her sake.”

Winner: Coppola version

PROFESSOR ABRAHAM VAN HELSING

A Dutch Professor who has studied the occult. He comes to England at the behest of his former student Dr. Seward when Mina’s best friend Lucy has become stricken with a mysterious illness of the blood. Realizing that they are facing a vampire, Van Helsing puts plans into motion to destroy Dracula and his brides - plans that turn all the younger heroes of the story into a band of vampire hunters. Soon Van Helsing becomes so moved by the growing bravery and fortitude of Madam Mina that he pledges his life to save her from becoming the demon that she is slowly turning into. In the end Van Hellsing himself kills the brides but it is traumatizing and he can only bare witness to the final battle with Dracula.

The Professor in the novel runs back and forth between scholarly, resolute and fatherly to overly-dramatic, eccentric and possessed of a passion for occult studies that boarders on mania. In short, Van Helsing is a bit of a loon. Unfortunately, like Mina almost all filmed versions only portray half of the character Stoker created, typically choosing to completely ignore the Professor’s manic, eccentric side.

There have been many fine portrayals of Van Helsing. Both Herbert Lom and Nigel Davenport in the Christopher Lee and Jack Palance versions respectively are wonderful, but Frank Finlay in the Louis Jordan version refreshingly is the first Van Helsing to truly display some of the oddball eccentricities, but he doesn’t go nearly far enough into that side of the Professor.

However, Anthony Hopkins in the Coppola version not only fully embraces the passion-filled, eccentric side of Stoker’s character (and goes a bit beyond it actually) but his actions in the film’s final act are also the most novel accurate.

The vast majority of screen versions of “Dracula” end with the cliche of Van Helsing killing the Count, even though in the novel Van Helsing was mentally spent after killing the brides and was only a witness in the finale. Coppola’s version is the only one that fully depicts the mental toll on Van Helsing from killing Dracula’s brides and his minimal participation in the final battle.

Winner: Coppola version.

COMING TOMORROW...

PART THREE: THE REST OF THE CHARACTERS

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