straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2017-08-19 12:40 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2017-08-19 12:40 pm
157 | in which I talk about Dracula (the novel) and Age of Youth
► I reread Dracula the other day. I couldn’t remember it very well, though it hadn’t been that long since I first read it holy hell, I just did the math and it’s been seven years, so scratch that. Anyways. This time around, there were some things that either hadn’t stood out to me before (or did stand out to me but I just completely forgot about it, which. Is definitely plausible. ._.)
First, there was one Dracula and Jonathan Harker moment near the beginning of the novel that was… actually really shippy? It’s at the part when Dracula’s brides nearly attack Jonathan, and Dracula swoops in to beat them back and says:
But more importantly: Mina/Lucy. I can’t remember if I shipped them before or not, but I’m definitely all aboard for it now. Pretty early on I decided that I was going to assign a double-meaning to every mention of Mina “comforting” her, or them snuggling together. Also, Lucy as a vampire is smoking, hot damn. Some choice quotes:
(Though it did amuse me when every one of those descriptions of vampire!Lucy was paired with a description of how utterly horrified the men are by it, considering my own reaction.)
► Earlier this week, I found out that Age of Youth was getting a second season, and got really excited… for about three minutes. Then I came across a comment about how only 3/5 of the main girls was coming back and went to look up the cast list... and yeah.
Eun-jae’s going to be played by a completely different actress, Yi-na— Yi-na! of all characters!— is only going to be a guest character, and my enthusiasm just flew out of the window. The friendships between those five girls was my absolute favorite thing about the show, and without that, I’m pretty much out. Not watching this one.
And then, to add salt to the wound, I saw that Eun-jae’s boyfriend is listed as her ex-boyfriend and some wannabe idol (as in, that’s the character description, not the actor’s description) is listed as Jin-myung’s love interest, with no mention of the chef guy, and… okay, the romance was never my main interest in this show, but those were my two favorite romances. Especially Jin-myung’s! (Well, okay, I have a feeling Eun-jae might end up back together with her bf, but. The main draw of that relationship for me was how unconditionally supportive he was of her, and how cute they were, and I am not interested in relationship drama for them.)
...Also, there’s someone listed as Ye-eun’s love interest, and while I knew, logically, that Ye-eun/Yi-na would never actually be a thing, I was at least hoping that they’d let Ye-eun be single and have more time to be herself outside of the context of a relationship. Just give her time to heal! The fact that she has a listed love interest makes me think that ~new love~ is going to play a role in her healing from her trauma, and ugh, I’m not here for that. Give me more Bella Epoque friendships instead.
To be fair: I’m aware that I could be completely off with these predictions about how the relationship arcs will go, but… even if all of these relationships ended up being handled in the most ideal way possible, I’m still 1) not into any of these LI changes/additions, and 2) that still doesn’t solve the “whole new actress for one character” and the “one of the characters who still has the most story left to tell being cut down to cameo appearances” problems, so.
The bright side of all this is that it reminded me of how much I love this show, and I spent some nice hours looking through gifsets on tumblr and rolling around in all my Bella Epoque and Ye-eun/Yi-na feelings. Kind of want to rewatch it too, tbh, but I don’t know if I will. And— even though I’m not going to watch the second season, I was pretty satisfied with where the first season ended things. So it’s not all bad, just a little disappointing after that initial excitement. ♥
First, there was one Dracula and Jonathan Harker moment near the beginning of the novel that was… actually really shippy? It’s at the part when Dracula’s brides nearly attack Jonathan, and Dracula swoops in to beat them back and says:
“How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you’ll have to deal with me.” The fair girl, with a laugh of ribald coquetry, turned to answer him:—Just. How else am I supposed to interpret that? But none of their other interactions afterwards hit that same note, unfortunately.
“You yourself never loved; you never love!” On this the other women joined, and such a mirthless, hard, soulless laughter rang through the room that it almost made me faint to hear; it seemed like the pleasure of fiends. Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper:—
“Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so? Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him you shall kiss him at your will. Now go! go! I must awaken him, for there is work to be done.”
But more importantly: Mina/Lucy. I can’t remember if I shipped them before or not, but I’m definitely all aboard for it now. Pretty early on I decided that I was going to assign a double-meaning to every mention of Mina “comforting” her, or them snuggling together. Also, Lucy as a vampire is smoking, hot damn. Some choice quotes:
Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness. Van Helsing stepped out, and, obedient to his gesture, we all advanced too; the four of us ranged in a line before the door of the tomb. Van Helsing raised his lantern and drew the slide; by the concentrated light that fell on Lucy’s face we could see that the lips were crimson with fresh blood, and that the stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe.and
...when she advanced to him with outstretched arms and a wanton smile he fell back and hid his face in his hands.Seriously. Like, I know that Carmilla is the archetypal lesbian vampire novel, and I did like it when I read it, but I have to say that I wasn’t half as into Carmilla/Laura as I am into the idea of vampire!Lucy/Mina.
She still advanced, however, and with a languorous, voluptuous grace, said:—
“Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!”
There was something diabolically sweet in her tones—something of the tingling of glass when struck—which rang through the brains even of us who heard the words addressed to another.
(Though it did amuse me when every one of those descriptions of vampire!Lucy was paired with a description of how utterly horrified the men are by it, considering my own reaction.)
► Earlier this week, I found out that Age of Youth was getting a second season, and got really excited… for about three minutes. Then I came across a comment about how only 3/5 of the main girls was coming back and went to look up the cast list... and yeah.
Eun-jae’s going to be played by a completely different actress, Yi-na— Yi-na! of all characters!— is only going to be a guest character, and my enthusiasm just flew out of the window. The friendships between those five girls was my absolute favorite thing about the show, and without that, I’m pretty much out. Not watching this one.
And then, to add salt to the wound, I saw that Eun-jae’s boyfriend is listed as her ex-boyfriend and some wannabe idol (as in, that’s the character description, not the actor’s description) is listed as Jin-myung’s love interest, with no mention of the chef guy, and… okay, the romance was never my main interest in this show, but those were my two favorite romances. Especially Jin-myung’s! (Well, okay, I have a feeling Eun-jae might end up back together with her bf, but. The main draw of that relationship for me was how unconditionally supportive he was of her, and how cute they were, and I am not interested in relationship drama for them.)
...Also, there’s someone listed as Ye-eun’s love interest, and while I knew, logically, that Ye-eun/Yi-na would never actually be a thing, I was at least hoping that they’d let Ye-eun be single and have more time to be herself outside of the context of a relationship. Just give her time to heal! The fact that she has a listed love interest makes me think that ~new love~ is going to play a role in her healing from her trauma, and ugh, I’m not here for that. Give me more Bella Epoque friendships instead.
To be fair: I’m aware that I could be completely off with these predictions about how the relationship arcs will go, but… even if all of these relationships ended up being handled in the most ideal way possible, I’m still 1) not into any of these LI changes/additions, and 2) that still doesn’t solve the “whole new actress for one character” and the “one of the characters who still has the most story left to tell being cut down to cameo appearances” problems, so.
The bright side of all this is that it reminded me of how much I love this show, and I spent some nice hours looking through gifsets on tumblr and rolling around in all my Bella Epoque and Ye-eun/Yi-na feelings. Kind of want to rewatch it too, tbh, but I don’t know if I will. And— even though I’m not going to watch the second season, I was pretty satisfied with where the first season ended things. So it’s not all bad, just a little disappointing after that initial excitement. ♥