Count Dracula

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.
== Canon ==
Dracula (no first name is given) is a Transylvanian nobleman whose decision to move from Austria-Hungary to Britain kickstarts the plot of the Stoker's book. During the course of the novel he victimizes multiple characters, including Lucy Westenra, R.M. Renfield, Jonathan Harker and Mina Harker; the last two and their friends end up uncovering his vampiric nature and eventually kill him.
Dracula is the most famous character from the novel and one of the most famous fictional characters in existence. He appeared in multiple works of fiction, most of which aren't even adaptations of the novel but rather wholly new stories. Many works featuring Dracula are horror, but some belong to other genres like action, comedy, romance or children media. It's not uncommon for book adaptations to enlarge his roleThis tendency started as early as 1901, when the Swedish "translation" (actually a rewrite) Powers of Darkness expanded on his character, increasing his page time, giving him new motivations and deeping his relationship with the blonde bride or give him more attractive looks, or at least more conventional ones. 
Portrayals of Dracula in fiction are often influenced by various movie incarnations of him. For example, he may be given the cape, hairstyle or accent of Lugosi's Dracula, burn in the sun like Orlok in Nosferatu or Lee's Dracula, have a reincarnated lover like Oldman's Dracula. Lugosi's Dracula, in particular, is the one who codified the image of Dracula in pop culture, and most references and parodies of Dracula refer to him rather than to the Dracula from the novel. 
== Fandom ==
Dracula was a relatively popular character in the 2000s fandom. Some of the active members of the fandom on Livejournal like Assimbya, Dracschick and Bwinter were fans of both him and Vlad the Impaler; he also often was the focus of fics posted on fanfiction.net in both the novel and 1992 movie sections. In contrast, the 2010s and 2020s Dracula fandom on Tumblr has been mostly hostile towards the book character, citing his cruel actions towards the characters beloved by the fandom, him overshadowing them in public conscientiousness, adaptations and scholarship for the novel, and the changes frequently made in these in his characterization towards a less brutal and more romantic figure as some of the reasons for their negative perception. Nevertheless, he still had his fans during this period, and creators like Dracupa, Trash-eating-demon, Crepuscol, Vanhelsingenthusiast and Lauralot made a lot of art and fic centering on him.
This negativity particularly increased during the Dracula Daily run, when people were surprised to discover how different their idea of Dracula was from the book portrayal. At first many participants were endeared by the Count's loneliness, unexpected wackiness and homoeroticism of his interactions with Jonathan; during the first months of DD, there were a lot of jokes, shipping of Dracula/Jonathan and meta on queer and racist undertones of Dracula. As the events of the novel were unfolding, the readers were slowly coming to the realisation how sinister the character of Dracula really was and how seriously the author treated the suffering brought by him to the heroes. A lot of meta was written about how the Jonathan captivity in the castle paralleled abusive relationship, and how vampire attacks in the novel were akin to symbolic sexual assault. By the end of the run, Dracula was almost universally reviled and his death celebrated by the fandom.
Some of the fans were dissapointed by the treatment of Dracula that they considered too uniform and one-sided:
In the fandoms for adaptations of Dracula like the 2020 series or Eggers' Nosferatu, or for original works with Dracula in them like Hellsing or Castlevania, Dracula is usually a popular character and the focus of many fanworks.
=== Memes ===
A lot of memes and in-jokes appeared during Dracula Daily, some of them about the Count.
* Lizard fashion - the early scene where Dracula crawls down the wall attracted a lot of attention as an image both scary and bizarre, and caused a lot of jokes about Dracula and lizards. The word "fashion" in the description of it (meaning here "manner") also lead to memes and art about Dracula wearing some kind of lizard-inspired clothes. "Lizard fashion" is still often mentioned as one of the defining moments of Dracula (both the character and the book)
* Foul bauble of man's vanity - Tumblr found the phrasing Dracula used to refer to Jonathan's mirror, and the whole scene where he ends up throwing it out the window, quite amusing and memorable; in the DD tradition of treating several entries in the novel as jokey "Dracula holidays", the whole of May 8 is sometimes called the "foul bauble of man's vanity day"
* Teaboo Dracula - Dracula's professed love of Britain has led to many jokes about him being a teaboo
* Train schedules - Dracula is shown reading a Bradshaw's Handbook, which led to jokes about him reading train schedules/his strange choice of reading material 
* Dracula doing chores - since Dracula has no servants, he has to do household tasks like driving a coach and making a bed himself; it's also implied that he's the one who cooks for Jonathan. This was a subject of many jokes and art during DD
* Shovel scene - the scene where Jonathan hits the sleeping Dracula in the face with a shovel strong enough to leave a scar was widely celebrated and memed about on Tumblr
* Dogula - Dracula turning into a dog (possibly a wolf) when arriving to England; readers were particularly amused by Whitby's residents wanting to adopt him
* Throwing a wolf into the window - during his final attack on Lucy, Dracula kidnaps a wolf from the zoo and compels him to jump into her window. A lot of comments and jokes were made about how hilariously convolted the whole scheme is, and about Dracula's habit to throw stuff through the windows
* Straw hat - a lot of jokes and art were made about the unflattering straw hat that Dracula wears when fleeing England, and the entry with it has become known as the "straw hat day"
=== 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. Many Dracula fan clubs back then were dedicated in large part to the study of Vlad's life or even founded by people interested in him. 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. 
Sexuality and Violence 
The character of Dracula has been closely tied to sexuality in minds of many fans and scholars. A popular interpretation of novel in academia and to some extent in popular culture is that he represents the forces of sexuality reviled by the repressed Victorians; it may go as far as portraying him as sexual liberator. On the other hand, in the fandom it's common to put the emphasis on the nonconsensual nature of his attacks, equating them to metaphorical rape and interpreting the novel as the triumph of trauma survivors over their rapist and abuser. The contrast between these two interpretations creates a lot of hostility towards Dracula scholarship and adaptations in the fandom. 
In the recent decades it has also become common to interpret Dracula as a some kind of a queer figure, analyzing the homoerotic subtext of his dynamics with Jonathan and Renfield, Stoker's possible queerness and hypothetical influence of Oscar Wilde on his novel. This interpretation has been embraced by some fans, though they also often use it primarily for horror. 
=== Pairings ===
* Dracula/Jonathan
* Dracula/Mina
* Dracula/Jonathan/Mina
* Dracula/Brides
* Dracula/Renfield
* Dracula/Van Helsing
* Dracula/Lucy
Many fans object to any ships with Dracula, unless portrayed purely for horror. Nevertheless, AO3 statistics show that Dracula/Jonathan is the second most written pairing for the novel, and fics with the highest number of hits and kudos tend to have it.
== Fanworks ==
Besides fanworks based on the novel and various adaptations, Dracula often appears in fanworks for original stories that have him as a character, such as Hellsing, Castlevania, Penny Dreadful and Van Helsing.
=== 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
* Als es Sommer war by bwinter - Dracula/Von Krolock, crossover with Tanz der Vampire
Other:
* In Which Blood, Death, and Laughter Ensues by Currently Defunct - a humorous retelling of the novel from Dracula's POV
* A Look of Peace by Lauralot - Dracula's death
The most common pairing with the book!Dracula is Dracula/Jonathan.
==== Renfield ====
Majority of fics for the Renfield movie from 2023 is about Dracula/Renfield pairing.
==== 2020 BBC Series ====
Most popular pairings appearing in most fanworks for the series are Dracula/Jonathan and Dracula/Agatha.
* The Bright and Hollow Sky by Argyle
==== 1992 Movie ====
Most fanfiction for the 1992 movie focuses on the Dracula/Mina pairing. Majority of it is written from Mina's POV, but some Dracula-centric works also exist.
* The Cross by Thyme In Her Eyes 
* Child of the Night by Scribe Mozell - the reincarnation plot applied to Jonathan 
==== Hammer Horror ====
Most fanworks for Hammer Horror movies are Dracula/Van Helsing.
==== Nosferatu 2024 ====
Fanfiction for the Eggers' remake of Nosferatu usually has Orlok/Ellen or Orlok/Thomas pairing.
==== 1931 Movie ====
The fics for the Universal movie are often crossovers with Renfield 2023. They almost always center on the Dracula/Renfield pairing.
==== Other ====
* Dracula - 1980 zine with fics based mostly on the 1979 adaptation starring Frank Langella
=== Fanart ===
Count Dracula is usually depicted in illustrations of his scenes in the book or in solitary portraits. A lot of fanart with him is humorous, making fun of the perceived weirdness and stupidity of his actions. More serious fanart leans into horror, often showing him menacing his victims. 
Dracula is described as tall in the novel, and the artists often take it further by drawing him as unusually or enormously tall. The book Dracula is almost always portrayed with long hair, though there is no mention of it in the novel. The novel readers are often surprised to discover that he has facial hair, which is rarely seen in movie adaptations and other depictions of him, and the fandom members take care to include it into their fanart. He is sometimes given the iconic Dracula cape or has his clothes shown as more ornate than implied in the novel.
File:Southernstar3-11.jpg|Art by Pat Bradshaw, from Sourthern Star (1977)
File:Count Dracula by DocRedfield.jpg|Count Dracula by DocRedfield (2012)
File:Jonathan and Mina by AmbroiseC.jpg|Jonathan and Mina by AmbroiseC, also depicting Count Dracula (2013)
File:Dracula by mister bones.jpg|DRACULA by mister-bones (2008)
File:Christopher lee as dracula.jpg|Kiss the Ring of Dracula of PaulBaack (2013)
File:Dracula1979-5.jpg|Frank Langella's Dracula by Michael Goodwin (1980)
* 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
=== Meta ===
* Rant - Dracula’s Redemption Arcs by vanhelsingenthusiast - a rare argument in favor of Dracula getting a redemption arc
* on “dracula  (the novel) is problematic”, “stop making dracula (the count) cute, he’s evil”, Victorian mores, and modern woes by 999-roses
* Meta on differences between Dracula and the Phantom by yallemagne
* Meta by margridarnauds on the DD fandom, Dracula as a cultural icon, abuse and Dracula/Mina
== See Also ==
* Count Orlok
* Count Dracula (Renfield)
* Count Dracula (2020 series)
* Count Dracula (1992 movie)
* Count Dracula (Hammer Horror)
* Count Dracula (Van Helsing)
* Count Dracula (Castlevania)
* Alucard (Hellsing)
==References==
Category:Dracula