Thread by @vampireharker, Okay, so, doing something different. We’re gonna talk about JonMina specifically, and [...]

Okay, so, doing something different. We’re gonna talk about JonMina specifically, and bcus this narrative skips around so damn much, this thread covers chapters 11, 16, 19, 20, 21, and 27 in one go.

This thread will probably piss you off. https://twitter.com/vampireharker/status/1316751618247983109

https://twitter.com/vampireharker/status/1316751618247983109

Interestingly enough, when I went into this book after reading the synopsis, I totally expected something a bit simpler. Asshole Jonathan is painted in a bad light much like he always is, and that narrative justifies Mina running to Dracula. This impression is only kinda true.

I did not expect Jonathan and Mina to, actually, be in love. Like, they are really in love in their flashbacks. And they are, in their messy way, *still in love* even now.

So why the FUCK would Mina run off to Dracula if she's written to actually be wild about Jonathan?

(pssst I just gave you a hint...)

But let's rewind a bit. Let's build up to the pissing off bcus, in my own sadistic way, I wanna see y'all get as furious as I did in real time.

I really wish I had recorded myself experiencing this and not just livetweeted. I almost threw my phone.

The last time we left off with Jonathan and MIna, they just had another fight. Jonathan storms off with Mina chasing after him, telling him that she still loves him. (We're not going to get into the bit of him driving off at 10mph, I'm gonna pretend he jumped on a horse.)

The relationship between Jonathan and Mina in this book is, surprisingly, actually really fucking *compelling*.

Hell, I wrote a fucking fic about it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27079024

The first thing that surprised me is Jonathan is not painted in a bad light AT ALL. Actually, he is written very sympathetically. His relationship with Mina is extremely complicated in a very realistic way.

I'm getting ahead a bit again, but the reason Jonathan won't divorce Mina is because he is still very much in love with her and wants to make their relationship right, and he has already tried several times but his own insecurities and alcoholism interfere.

When we start chapter 9, Mina has sensed that someone is hiding in the bushes. Turns out, it is Baby Quincey, who is a baby in everything but age apparently, hiding from Jonathan in order to avoid a confrontation. I guess I get it.

So Quincey has been gone for three years, and the dialogue feels pretty stilted for a mother who has not seen her baby boy in so long, and they go inside the house.

Quincey notices Mina has been crying, and she won't tell him why. Understandable. Do not involve your children in your marital issues. My own parents should have taken notes...

Lucy died when she was 19. Quincey is said to be 25 because it's supposed to be 25 years later, but I now I'm under the impression that his age was an afterthought. Given Quincey's behavior this entire book so far, 19-20 feels far more accurate than 25.

Are we sure Quincey is not Jonathan's kid, considering the fact that his MOTHER HAS NOT AGED AT ALL HIS ENTIRE LIFE *DOES NOT STRIKE HIM AS SOMETHING TO LOOK INTO.*

Cue Mina climbing down the house wall in lizard fashion and Quincey just says "What a peculiar woman my mother must be."

Mina: *starts smashing all the mirrors in the house* Foul baubles of men's vanity! Away with them!

Quincey: Our ways are not her ways...

YOU WERE ONLY GONE FOR THREE YEARS! And even if Mina aged normally, she would be ONLY FIFTY (50) if that! WOMEN DON'T SUDDENLY BECOME AGED AND SICKLY AFTER 25 CAN WE ALL AGREE ON THAT NOW

I’m not gonna knock on this too hard. I’m 34 and talking to my own parents immediately makes me revert back to 14. Idk what it is..

My mother: *says something*

Me, a grown-ass woman with children of her own: Moooom omgggg

Quincey’s all “Mom I met someone!” and Mina’s all “omg you’re bringing a girl home!” and Quincey’s all “wtf Mom no I’m gay.”

That’s actually not what he says but he does gush about how he’s met with his favorite Shakespearean actor Basarab so same-same.

(I’m in a car again..)

Mentioning Basarab starts a huge fight between Mina and Quincey because Mina also doesn’t want her son to be an actor and defends Jonathan’s obnoxious parenting. This family is something else for real..

Imagine having to say all FIVE (5) of your kid’s names in order to scold them.

Also, no the fuck wonder Quincey doesn’t act like a grown-ass man bcus apparently his own parents don’t treat him like a grown-ass man.

And so Quincey responds to his mother in a very grown-ass way and what I mean is he responds like the melodramatic drama student he is inside:

I will say I'm not knocking on Quincey for being pissed that his parents are obviously hiding things that he should probably fucking know and for infantilizing the shit out of him in the process. So melodramatic as he is, Quincey finally decides to leave.

Did I say this was chapter 9? Sorry, this is chapter 11. Chapter 9 was when Mina had her fight with Jonathan making HIM storm out. All this fucking family does is fight, and both Harker men have a habit of leaving.

Again, are we SURE Quincey is not Jonathan's?

Before we move on, this is a scene that I actually exists, and if I had to suffer reading it, so do you.

Apparently it's supposed to be the play the 1931 Bela Lugosi movie is based off of.

Chapters 12 and 13 are basically some major 4th wall breaking by making Dracula an actual novel in this world and Bram Stoker is indeed a character. Who doesn't like Quincey at all.

But we're not going to get into that bcus I'm staying focused on JonMina for this thread.

We fast forward all the way to chapter 16. Jonathan's chapter. For once there is no POV jumping. It's long. And, comparatively, it's pretty good.

///WARNING WARNING WARNING///

From here on out this thread is going to be NSFW, including implications of sexual assault.

And by "good" I mean, I was able to get from start to finish in one go, but that didn't mean I didn't want to throw my phone.

(But I didn't throw my phone because I still have two months before I can upgrade to a new one)

Jonathan is back in his office doing legal things as he's the guy who's supposed to take care of Jack's estate upon his death. Jonathan spends the next three days in his office drinking and legaling, which, tbh, if you really wanna write depressed Jonathan this feels way more IC.

I fully expected to get a lesson on how to be a solicitor to file away with the history, engineering, and acting lessons the authors have generously bestowed upon me but no, actually, we just go straight into Jonathan brooding.

Jonathan's firm isn't doing so great tho because this is the darkest timeline, so he is like the only one who works at his office as he can't afford to pay his employees.

You know, Jonny Boy, if you just saved your money and whacked it whenever you get the urge like the rest of us, you probably could afford having employees js...

We learn that Jonathan had actually stopped speaking to Jack a long ass time ago bcus Jack somehow learned that Dracula was still alive, and INSTEAD OF BEING LIKE "LET'S GO HUNT A BITCH DOWN" JONATHAN IS JUST GONNA THROW JACK OUT INSTEAD AND PRETEND IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Dracula: I have returned to have my revenge!!!

Jonathan: New phone who dis?

I was away longer than I thought, my bad.

Where were we? Oh yeah, Jonathan sweeping Dracula under the rug.

"But wait!" you may say. "Why is Jonathan being such an overbearing parent to Quincey, locking him away in law school instead of allowing him to be in the spotlight if he's pretending Dracula isn't a threat?"

Oh, OH, my sweet, sweet summer children.

We are getting to that.

While Jonathan is being a sad sack, he has a flashback about the day he met Jack. Jack is at Hawkins firm talking about Renfield, who used to be a solicitor.

If you are thinking this is kinda like the scene from the 1992 Coppola film, you would be correct.

In fact, Coppola's film is referenced a LOT in this book so it makes you wonder if this is more a sequel to the movie than the actual novel.

Anyway, because Renfield is out of the picture, Jonathan gets sent to Transylvania in his place (much like in the movie) in spite of Jonathan only being a clerk and having not taken his bar exam yet much less pass it.

Back to the present, Jonathan regrets having passed his exam and taken that assignment, feeling like if he had failed, he never would've been sent to Transylvania and none of this would have happened.

Jonathan feeling responsible for the events of Dracula is something I don't see explored often, so I actually really liked that.

This actually made me want to cry, like this is the most profoundly heartbreaking paragraph in this entire book. And the fact that it ties back to grown-up Quincey hiding in the bushes to avoid his father makes it worse.

There are a lot of implications throughout that Jonathan is still suffering from major PTSD from his experiences at Castle Dracula, which interferes greatly with his relationship with Mina, Quincey, and what drives him to drink.

If this was all this was, it would actually be an incredibly understandable explanation and very real.

Jonathan Harker is a male victim. It is no coincidence that a lot of these cis male directors, having typical internalized disdain for male victims, often write off Jonathan as being weak, boring, unable to stand up for himself against superior Alpha Male Dracula.

Vampires in Stoker's novel are predatory monsters on bestial levels. Jonathan's seduction by the vampire women may have been softer but he is as much of a victim as Mina in this regard.

We learn that Jonathan feels such shame that his first sexual encounter are with these women that he can barely stand to have sex with Mina at all. These are extremely common feelings of most sexual assault victims.

We could even go so far as to say Jonathan indulging in prostitutes is his way of getting his power and agency back, while keeping Mina out of it. It's not exactly healthy, but it is profound.

In fact, we can take this even further. This chapter thus far has provided excellent setup to having a narrative conversation about male victims and some of the toxic coping mechanisms they use because society loathes male victims.

BUT WE DON'T.

BECAUSE IT'S THIS. FUCKING. BOOK. AND THESE. FUCKING. WRITERS.

BECAUSE THE MOMENT -- THE *MOMENT* -- WE GET SOME EMOTIONAL MEAT IN THIS HORRIBLE STORY

WE GET *THIS*

I had my first sexual experience with an ex-bf when we were both 15. Nice kid but like clearly not the person I married???? That was a long time ago???? I literally have no idea where he is or what he looks like or if he's even still alive?????

Point is, uh, I'm very tired of men pushing that narrative about virginity.

Also, wouldn't this same logic apply to Jonathan and the vampire women? Like he has no room to talk if this is the case?

Circling back to Jonathan pretending Dracula isn't coming back while at the same time going out of his way to shield Quincey is because he doesn't want MINA finding this out otherwise she might wanna fuck Dracula instead.

You see Mina has become "insatiable" in bed, and Jonathan literally can't keep up with her. So he feels inadequate.

But instead of, y'know, communicating this to his wife, he's just gonna be sad instead I guess.

Do you see what I mean like how we could have had a really profound narrative conversation, and instead it's just gonna be cheapened by the fact that Jonathan is bad in bed?

It's going to get worse.

For me to make my point further, we're going to skip ahead for a moment to chapter 27.

A lot of things happen, but this line is going to give us context for this thread. Mina sleeping when she starts to get felt up by ghostly hands (much like in the 1992 movie).

YOU MEAN TO FUCKING TELL ME THAT -ALL- OF THIS -- ALL OF IT, EVERYTHING, THE BACKBONE OF THIS ENTIRE FUCKING BOOK -- IS BECAUSE JONATHAN NEVER ATE OUT HIS WIFE????????

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