It is November of 1893. You have just killed a vampire. Exhausted and worn, you close your eyes and rest.

You wake up. It is May of 1893. You are on a train en route to Transylvania. Your diary says you have had queer dreams lately.

You try to believe it.

(An old woman puts a rosary in your hands. You accept it without question.)

You are a guest in a castle you have never been in before (you recognize every hallway and know without trying that every door is locked). Your host is a man you have never met before (you killed him you killed him you killed him he had turned to dust and there was blood on the snow).

One morning you cut yourself while shaving.

There is nobody behind you in the pocket mirror’s reflection.

You turn fast, and the razor is like a Kukri knife in your hand.

Man I think the time loop aspect of Dracula that Dracula Season has introduced really adds something to the tale, especially the first part of the book - the hopelessness and total sense of loss of time of Jonathan's diary, along with the ritualistic killing aspect, that Stoker really couldn't have foreseen. Jonathan is endlessly stuck in that castle, they are forever fighting this ultimate evil

So I’ve seen more than one post joking about our poor friend Jonathan getting stuck in a time loop, which is certainly a valid way to see rereading some novels. But the thing is... this isn’t a normal novel with a narrative that we watch like a movie from the outside.

This is literally the collection of documents that the gang made and preserved and eventually hid away after their ordeal.

The loop here isn’t one of reliving, it’s one of rereading. If we assume Jonathan and Mina and co to be a part of it, it’s the sort of obsessive re-reading of trauma, an annual reminder of all they lost and suffered, reassuring them that it really happened, that it’s over, that God yes, they lost someone so dear to them, but they survived. They’re safe now.

Or are we rereading alone, unmentioned but assumed future descendants, finding this cache of documents while cleaning out Gram’s old attic, reading them and rereading them and filling in the gaps left by all the questions that Jonathan and Mina aren’t here to answer? Wondering if it’s fiction, tying it to the pieces we know are real, and maybe feeling just the tiniest bit of chill when we find ourselves out late a night, hearing the howl of a wolf?

Counter Theory: Jonathan is not the one who is trapped in a time loop. This endless repeating of his own downfall is Dracula's punishment in Hell.

Just got a letter informing me that my good friend Jonathan is going on a business trip to Transylvania in a bit under two weeks! I'm sure he will have a wonderful time on his travels! Can't wait to hear all about it through his letters!

“If this book should ever reach Mina before I do, let it bring my goodbye.”

i forgot about this line. god literally two days in and jonathan is already fearing for his life !!!!! he doesn’t even know the true horrors that await him but he knows something is wrong :(

I keep thinking about the Jonathan Harker Time Loop and how most posts are about the poor guy having flashbacks or trying to somehow sidestep The Horrors. You know, all reflection about how we see him.

But listen.

How about how HE sees US?

Imagine you are Jonathan Harker, and you are leaving for a work trip. You haven't really travelled much, and you are very excited, so you do research about that fascinating country called Transylvania, you write down your train schedules, the names of the cities you pass by, the recipes you find interesting or unfamiliar. You really want to remember everything, after all, you know you are going to spend some time away and you are sure Mina would love all the details of this little adventure! You are going to miss her so much, so making sure that everything is accurate so you can later faithfully recreate your journey makes you feel closer to her.

You could do without those weird dreams, though.

Moreover, since the beginning of your travels you have kept meeting more and more people.

They strike you as strange.

Most of them greet you as if you were old friends, clapping you in the back and talking about how happy it made them to receive the letter about your upcoming job trip, which you find mildly confusing, and the familiarity that they spark on the depths of your mind somewhat soothing.

Others smile at you and wish you fast and happy travels, something mournful gleaming in the depths of their eyes, and you feel like they are not really looking at you, but at some other man standing right behind you.

"Maybe this time it will go well, right?"

And you have nothing to say about that.

Some people you can tell recognize you, but don't really come near. They seem hesitant, and not as overtly familiar as the previous groups of people, acting instead in a manner more fitting to strangers. They follow you at a distance, looking torn between curiosity and dread, and you can tell that this is their fist time making this journey as well.

Then you get to Transylvania, and the entire crowd seems to go mad.

While you had only been meeting people in groups before, now they seem to cover almost every free inch of the country, coming together in thick clusters that somehow never actually seem to encumber your travel. They read what you write over your shoulder, they nod at the scenery and watch all the people getting in and out of your carriage.

They seem to be specially fond of the villagers, in spite of the country people's apparent lack of interest in them, since as far as you have seen the two groups never actually cross words.

In one particularly noteworthy morning you have paprika for breakfast, which is met with great approval by all.

You get closer to Castle Dracula, and the amount of people still increases, although a low number of them appear and disappear just as quickly, checking on you and then departing. They explain that they will come back later, or that they are waiting for someone else, and sometimes you swear you can hear the sound of waves in their steps.

Of the ones that stay, some get close enough to stand with you, while others prefer to stay by themselves, either taking notes on their own journals or -something that baffles you every single time you see it- sitting behind some kind of canvas and mixing colors while they wave away your worries at the bumping of the carriage ruining their work.

And at last, after weeks of travel that somehow only feel like three days, you arrive at Castle Dracula.

You stand before a great door, waiting for great man, while a great multitude surrounds you, all their eyes on you.

You hear steps approaching through the wood, and the very universe around you seems to hold their breath, waiting for the beginning of a path that seems new but well tread, a path that just for that endless second you feel extending behind and in front of you, strengthening and waning, with its first knot waiting at that door.

So the strong wood opens, a Count makes his greeting, and you, together with all the people next and behind you, friends new an old, step through the door.

jonathan harker is emailing again. surely this time things will go differently for him.

The Dracula Daily experience is so interesting on a third re-read. The first time reading was interesting for a similar reason--the small pieces of the story unfolding in real time allowing the horror of it to sink in, allowing for analysis and prediction and discussion to build on itself. But the third? We've been here before. We feel like we should have been here before. Jonathan has been here before--how could he not? We're sending him on his business trip again, watching him stumble into every choice because he can't change a bit of it, he's a book character he's not a person with agency but it feels like he should be because we've been on this ride twice now, both times over the same stretch of time as the characters. The reason the Daily experience is so interesting is it isn't like re-reading a book for the third time normally, where as much as you read with a new lens each time your pace will be different, you'll end up skimming over some things and focusing in on others. We're stuck on this train along with our good friend Jonathan Harker and it will move along the tracks as fast as Bram Stoker intended, goddammit. So we sit here yelling at this character written over a hundred years ago to just stop, turn around, don't start the story you're stuck in again. But he does.

I love that instead of saying "we are rereading Dracula again" we're saying "my good friend Jonathan Harker is stuck in a timeloop. I hope this time things will go normal and everything will be fine"

24th May I will never forget you

Johnathan Harker - stuck in a time loop and knows it. Does nothing differently each time despite knowing what is to come. That same paprika dish over and over. The repeating fate of the Demeter. He is stuck, but not because he has to figure out how to get out of the time loop but because he has to make sure Dracula stays in it. If something in the time loop were to change, if Dracula were to realize that he too were stuck in a time loop ....

“I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.” <3

(augh)

“I have just had a few hurried lines from Jonathan from Transylvania. He is well, and will be returning in about a week.” <3 <3

(AUGH)

“I am longing to hear all his news. It must be so nice to see strange countries.” <3 <3 <3

(AAAAAAAAAUUGHH)

Mina, the Narrative is coming for you and Lucy. Mina, the Narrative’s got your boy and won’t let him leave or shave or sleep. Mina, take your Victorian airpods out, it heard all your benign and loving dialogue and is coming to subvert it in the cruelest way possible, Mina--

Im against the Dracula Daily time loop because it makes me sad actually to think of anyone stuck in a forever timeloop and making their victory meaningless. However, I am more than happy to imagine everyone cramming into a time machine to go back before this all started and hover along watching the characters while shooting off memes and yelling through mouthfuls of popcorn.

Dracula is backula!!!

Do you think the villagers and the couple running the Golden Krone know about Jonathan's time loop? Do you think that's why they were trying so hard to stop him, to save him? How many times have they seen this young man walk blithely into peril, unaware that he's been here before? How many times has he forgotten them, while they remember again and again every detail of his face, his clothing, committing him to memory, so they can try and find him, try and free him?

How many times have they failed?

How many times have they kept trying?