John Seward - Tumblr Posts
I’m broke but I will rob five banks to fund you if that counts for anything
BBC dracula pissed me off so much that I'm considering writing my own adaption to give us those wholesome found family tropes and healthy gay relationships that we all deserve
You know, thinking about it more, I'm actually most surprised with how Van Helsing handled the Renfield situation. The love and respect he has for Jack are actually the only reasons I am willing to accept his actions in his entry, because without that, it would seem kind of OOC.
Because Renfield basically just said "I can't tell you why right now, I would if I could, but I'm begging you, please believe me that my intentions are good and I am only asking this for the sake of others." And that's exactly what Van Helsing said to Jack, Arthur, and Quincy for the duration of the "we need to kill undead Lucy" arc. And I think Van Helsing realized that parallel, I think that's why he was addressing him "as an equal," as Jack put it.
But ultimately, he did not take the leap of faith he asked others to. To be fair, the circumstances were a bit different, but all the same...it's quite unforunate.
On the flip side, I'm not surprised with Jack's response at all, even if I am frustrated by it. Dr. Seward is The Observer of the group, he's extremely good at absorbing nearly every detail and compiling it. But when it comes to synthesizing that data, he sticks to finding patterns in previous observations and using them as a predictive model. And that's exactly what he did here with Renfield—he saw parallels between how Renfield was acting here and how he acted when he wanted a cat, and responded accordingly. The internal logic there was completely sound.
Where Dr. Seward so often falls short is making conclusions that require you to step outside of that set framework of data, and that's something Van Helsing has repeatedly called him out on throughout the "we need to kill undead Lucy" arc. Unforunately, that kind of reasoning was the only hope Renfield had here, because he could not provide Seward the data he needed to make the correct conclusion his usual way.
you're cruel for this but imagine
seward: dr. helsing you MUST hear about my new patient he keeps telling me the strangest delusions he's having about men who drink human blood!
van helsing, sweating bullets: i'll be there in 5 minutes
Jonathan Harker and the ‘Brain Fever’
Because I can’t just let it be a nice update, I want to put the situation of Jonathan’s ‘brain fever’ under a magnifying glass. Then turn it into a period-accurate knife and twist it.
Because while I don’t doubt Jonathan might have gotten sick/addled during his nonstop Get the Hell Out of Transylvania Marathon, I think it’s important to mention that Sister Agatha brings up the horrors he was apparently raving about in what we’ll assume was his early time at the hospital. He was absolutely ranting and rambling about what had happened to him, what threat there was in Castle Dracula, the other now en route to England.
A tidbit that ties into the fact that he got off the train and went straight to a hospital and not, say, onto another lap towards the shore, a boat, and Mina, which was undoubtedly the only thing on Jonathan’s mind. Why is he there instead?
At a guess, he was not allowed an option. The same people who sold him the ‘Please Get Far Away from Us, Crazy Englishman’ ticket likely sent word ahead that, hey, there’s a crazy sick dude on this train, you might want to get somebody on that. That or he was clocked the moment he got off the train. Maybe he collapsed. Maybe it was just his behavior. Either way, Jonathan being Jonathan, you know this man would have dragged himself half-dead onto a boat home if he could.
But no. He was ‘helped’ to the hospital’s care—his physical needs and diagnosis of brain fever likely being the only buffer between him and a permanent stay in the sanitorium.
“He’s speaking madness, but it is a temporary symptom! Poor man. We must make him well!”
And Jonathan had to catch onto that quick and play into it. If he hadn’t? Kind as his new keepers are, benevolent as they are, once his physical maladies subsided, there would be a very real threat of them helping him into a padded room.
Assuming he didn’t miraculously overcome his ‘fever’ and shut right up about all that monster talk. Instead, let’s talk about how much better he’s doing. Let’s talk about his boss, who he simply must report back to. Let’s talk about Mina, his fiancée who he means to marry soon. Let’s send letters out to them to get confirmation that he is, in fact, missed, that these people exist and can vouch for him* (*bring him home to England). He will be a good patient. He was terribly sick, but he is on the mend. He is good. All is well.
(Please don’t lock me in my room again, Count.)
(Please let me go home.)
In a grimmer universe, I imagine Jonathan does get sent back to England, if not in the way he’d hoped.
And Mina visits him whenever she can in Seward’s asylum.
Love Dr. Seward my guy is just like “my patient is extremely emotionally unstable and violent, I put him on hard drugs…. Lucy so cute XOXO”
Guy who mostly interacts with asylum inmates, interacting with his mentor: Getting a lot of 'asylum inmate' vibes from this...
Quincey: “Looks like vampires, Jack. How else do you fit that much blood into a girl’s veins and she still has none left? What took it out?”
Jack, on the verge of tears: “Quincey, I will lose my mind if I have to make a guess right now.”
Quincey: “Well, what’s the Dutchman think it is?”
Jack, sobbing: “… corn? ᵍᵒᵒᵈ ᶜᵒʳⁿ?”
Favorite thing about Dracula Daily so far is that yesterday I read a post that had in-depth, well-researched analysis that could easily be mistaken for a published literary criticism of Dracula, except it casually makes a passing reference to "the polycule" without feeling the need to elaborate
Made this with much consideration (worked off vibes)
Seward watching Renfield use his food to attract more flies because he's feeding his flies to his spiders because Seward said to get rid of the flies
I'm curious, people who are reading Dracula Daily, but haven't read it before and have managed to avoid spoilers, what are your predictions?
Out of respect for my fellow students attending Tumblr University I will not say what I think of Jack Seward today.
Granted, I was already annoyed with Seward for being incapable of coming up with even the most basic theory to explain Lucy's regular exsanguinations. But while I wouldn't have been happy with him for reverting to skepticism today, if that was all he did, I'd have rolled my eyes and moved on.
No. The skepticism is not the problem. It's believable, although frustrating.
What makes today's entry far more damning, imo, is Seward's first official Theory. That Van Helsing is a madman. That he's behind "all the mysterious things." Benefit of the doubt, Seward is NOT implying that VH is responsible for the mysterious illness that killed Lucy. But even without that, what a jerkoff. VH is supposed to be his revered teacher, respected expert, and beloved friend. And Seward just jumps right to casting him as a madman capable of an elaborate hoax with nary a moment's hesitation??