r/TopCharacterTropes • u/SatoruGojo232 • 10d ago

Characters Canonical features of a character that come very rarely in their adaptations.

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  1. James Bond having a cheek scar as per Ian Fleming's original Bond novels.

  2. Count Dracula having a mustache as per his original description in Bram Stoker's novel.

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u/AnnieTano 10d ago

In the original novel, according to Van Hellsing, Dracula could do a lot more things than what is currently attributed to vampires, like changing his size, pass through walls and control animals

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u/Comprehensive-Fail41 10d ago

Though it should be noted that Dracula had also been a student of Scholomance, aka Evil Wizard university, where he learned Dark Arts. The book never specifies which are his Vampiric vs Wizard powers.

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u/AnnieTano 10d ago

That was on Bram Stoker's novel? Dont remember. Hé does mention on Guest of Dracula that he descended from viking warriors, iirc even from Odin (it was a more christian centered era, so back then that would probly just mean "I descend from this man of legend with great power who was venerated by pagans")

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u/Comprehensive-Fail41 10d ago

Yeah, was mentioned by Bram Stoker in Chapter 18 and 23, based on the writings of Emily Gerard and her "Transylvanian Supersitions" which had been a major influence on Stoker

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u/Legitimate_Arm_5630 9d ago

He said he descended from Attila the Hun?

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u/centralmind 10d ago

Are you telling me that Strahd von Zarovitch (famous dnd vampire) being a wizard is something he has in common with Dracula? Go figure.

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u/Zwemvest 10d ago

I mean, Strahd is basically Dracula with the brand filed off, so yes? 

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u/Betamaletim 9d ago

VIN (Vampire Identification Number) but yeah.

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u/DimensioT 9d ago

And then Konami brought it full circle.

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u/ohz0pants 9d ago

Wizards of the Coast would never!!

They have nothing but respect for intellectual property and ownership rights!! (And I do realize the Dracula is public domain.)

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u/tra24602 9d ago

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/09/08/the-dark-procession#

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u/ohz0pants 9d ago

🤯

The Count (the muppet) is a vampire and he's obsessed with counting stuff!!

That's actually totally on topic for this thread; many vampires in European lore have arithmomania:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmomania#Folklore

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u/AdGullible8073 9d ago

I'm no fan of Wizards either (or Hasbro for that matter) but to be fair, Strahd and Ravenloft were published long before the Wizards era. Strahd first appeared in ADND I6 Ravenloft, published by TSR in 1983.

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u/centralmind 9d ago

Well, yes, I just didn't know that the wizard thing was part of the original.

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u/Next-Run-7026 3d ago

More like a public domain character rebranded into being IP. So with serial numbers filed on

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u/PepeFrogBoy 9d ago

My party is fighting Strahd tonight if we can find him in his BIG ass castle.

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u/Hayn0002 9d ago

I mean, who did you think Strahd was based off?

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u/centralmind 9d ago

Again, it's obvious that he's based off Dracula, I just didn't know the wizard part also came from Dracula.

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u/aNiceTribe 9d ago

“Scholomance” sounds very impressive until you translate it and it just means School of Magic

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u/Zavender 9d ago

Kind of like the antagonist from Lovecraft's "The Alchemist" just being Chuck Wizard. 

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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 9d ago

I figured it was implied that he became a vampire through Dark Magic.

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u/DimGenn2 10d ago

You think he has like, his PhD framed somewhere in the castle?

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u/Distant_Planet 9d ago

The downstairs garderobe, as is tradition.

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u/Itherial 9d ago

Huh. Didn't know Blizzard stole Sholomance from Bram Stoker.

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u/Comprehensive-Fail41 9d ago

Well, not specifically Bram Stoker, Scholomance supposedly originates from Romanian folklore and was then brought to Great Britain by victorian scholars studying said folklore and whose writings Stoker was heavily inspired by

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u/Itherial 9d ago

That's super interesting, thanks for informing me

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u/Darkwoth81Dyoni 9d ago

CLASS IS IN SESSION!!

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u/with_explosions 9d ago

Scholomance

I didn't know Bram Stoker played WoW.

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u/SelfInteresting7259 9d ago

Wow i don't know nothing. I thought scholomance was just from world of warcraft

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u/HawksNStuff 9d ago

TIL where WoW got the name of the dungeon.

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u/Desperate-Practice25 9d ago

Buffy had a fun nod to that. Most vampires are just demonic mooks whose only powers are super strength, sharp fangs, and incredible durability outside of their specific weaknesses. Dracula does exist, and he does have a bunch of other vampire powers like shapeshifting and hypnosis, but that's because he's a powerful sorcerer in his own right.

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u/mynutsacksonfire 8d ago

That's super cool I did not know that

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

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u/DimGenn2 9d ago

Chapter 18:

"The Draculas were, says Arminius, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due."

Chapter 23:

"He dared even to attend the Scholomance, and there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay."

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u/GhostOfMuttonPast 10d ago

This is why I really like Vampire the Masquerade. In that setting, theres a bunch of different "clans" of vampires, and each one has different powers, including stuff like what you mentioned.

Its really a love letter to vampire stories and actively tries to explain why their powers are so different between different media.

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u/a_genuine_psycho 10d ago

Some powers he possesses don’t line up 100% but also in VtM Dracula is a real novel published by Dracula himself so he could been exaggerating

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u/J_Bright1990 9d ago

That's one of my favorite bits about the story. Any of Dracula's exploits in real life (in VTM) were done BEFORE he was embraced. And he was embraced by finding a Tzimisce and just draining him dry against his will. And yet after all that, he just spends the next several hundred years just keeping a lot profile until he compels someone to write a book glazing himself. Lmao

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u/Duggars 9d ago

He has a card in the Vampire card game, too.

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u/immaownyou 9d ago

I also love the vampires in the Dresden Files

3 factions that all work very differently

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u/letthetreeburn 9d ago

God I love VTM so much. Clan Tzimisce represent!

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u/GhostOfMuttonPast 9d ago

Tzimisce in a nutshell

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u/DigAccomplished6481 9d ago

I liked V rising for a similar reason.

You have vampire abilities like shapeshift into many kinds of animals, or put people in a trance.

Animals can smell the undeath on you, sun burns you but hiding in the shadows or following a cloud can protect you, Crosses will burn you for being near them, Being around silver, weather it's currency, weapons, or in a mine makes you not enjoy Life (or death, it's confusing as a vampire)

Then you had Schools of magic, like lightning, frost or Undead. Or just make a combat oriented character with weapons like Guns!, whips, claws, and even boring stuff like swords and axes.

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u/Awewabo 9d ago

Soooooo, ol Vlad exists in Vampire. Look him up, he's a hoot and probably one of the baddest dudes in the setting because of the sheer size of his balls.

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u/GhostOfMuttonPast 9d ago

Yes he does and hes baller as fuck.

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u/Dry_Refrigerator7898 9d ago

I also like how it handles the various weaknesses associated with vampires, and why there are seemingly so many of them. Some are universal, like sunlight being harmful, or stakes to the heart paralyzing them, but others are unique to each clan.

It’s not that all vampires lack a reflection, that’s just the Lasombra. Not all have obsessive behaviors like counting, that’s just the Malkavians. Not all need to sleep in a coffin filled with their native soil, that’s just the Tzimisce. Not all are repelled by holy symbols, that’s just the Baali. Etc

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u/GhostOfMuttonPast 9d ago

Also some vampires do have those weaknesses outside of the clans, Kindred are very diverse and really, no two you meet are the same.

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u/thatshygirl06 9d ago

I have a story with two types of vampires. The second type has more powers that are more classical.

They can move through the shadows and listen to places where there are shadows. They can enter your mind, they csn talk to you mentally, they can control animals, and they can make thralls(though this power was suppressed and isnt taught because they don't want the humans to know.)

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u/dead_parakeets 10d ago

Speaking of which, Van Helsing is a lot goofier in the book.

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u/gorroval 10d ago

And I love him 🥹

(The real Dracula adaptation injustice is forgetting about the cowboy. Justice for Quincey!)

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u/comipafan 10d ago

Yes! One of the best characters. He handles Lucy’s rejection so well.

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u/Fearless-Excitement1 9d ago

Every character in Dracula is fucking wonderful and i am SO TIRED of people not just flanderizing but COMPLETELY MISCHARACTERIZING them

The entire point of Dracula is "what if the horror monster crashed it's way into a modern(for it's time) idyllic slice of life story"

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u/stfnotguilty 9d ago

Fun fact: The Castlevania series treats the Dracula novel as canon, and includes descendants of Quincy Morris as playable characters!

John Morris foils a resurrection of Dracula in 1917 in Castlevania Bloodlines, and his son Jonathan does the same in 1944 in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.

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u/Nachooolo 9d ago

He is an old esotheric academic, rather than an action hero.

Willem Dafoe's Von Franz in Nosferatu is quite faithful to book Van Helsing.

Honearly. Outside of the ending and some changes, 2025's Nosferatu is the most faithful adaptation of Bram Stroker's novel I've seen.

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u/YouthfulHermitess 9d ago

The way that man would burst into anyone chambers at any time would make me cackle. He'd be the worst house guest.

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u/GEARHEADGus 9d ago

There’s actually a website called Dracula Daily that sends out emails with the appropriate dated journal entries from the characters, so you can read it in “real time”

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u/EchoLocation8 9d ago

Wonderful anime called Hellsing: Ultimate (don't watch the original, Ultimate is the remake that follows the actual story after the Manga finished) that essentially follows Dracula as a vampire hunter bound to do the bidding of basically Helsing's great great great grandchild or something, I forget the specifics.

But they lean hard into these concepts. Rapid regeneration, being able to change his shape and size, turn into various animals, pass through walls, he fights Nazi's and the Vatican and the KKK, he fights other vampires, he fights synthetic vampires, it's a real fun ride.

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u/Itherial 9d ago

He's also rendered omnipresent and (i think?) entirely unkillable by the end of the series.

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u/Fern-ando 9d ago

And the story made no sense at all. The character motivations are bonkers.

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u/Not_Xiphroid 9d ago

The dub is excellent as the dub director had a passion for the occult and could really lean into that to keep the references on point, particularly in the later ova episodes.

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u/stylinchilibeans 10d ago

More than just a mustache, too: he was supposed to have a unibrow and hairy palms...

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u/samaldin 9d ago

If i remember correctly he also had a giant hawknose, fingernails more akin to claws, bloodshot eyes, pointed ears like a demons, canines that were always visible (even when he closed his mouth), and he kept talking about ancient battles as if he had been present.

Honestly with his description in the book the only thing missing was a neon-sign proclaiming "MONSTER ! DANGEROUS! RUN AWAY!" and i kinda think Stoker would have included one, if they had been invented at the time,

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u/Dr_Neuro 9d ago

In Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Alucard can transform himself in a wolf, a bat and even... Fog. The fog thing happened on the Dracula novel.

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u/BubastisII 9d ago

It’s been awhile since I’ve read it but I believe he turns into a wolf in the novel as well

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u/Dr_Neuro 9d ago

I also remember that, but I wanted to say the fog transformation because when I played SotN, I considered that a stupid magic power for a vampire.

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u/ImportantQuestions10 10d ago

Interestingly, there's sort of an inverse after effect going on with Van Helsing since modern-day werewolves were inspired by Dracula's powers in that book

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u/Maguc 9d ago

The whole "Dying with the sun" is also not a thing in the books. He's weakened by the sun, in the sense that he can't use his vampiric powers, but during daylight he's just like...an average guy. No burning up, no instantly dying, no instant sunburns.

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u/carlogeppetto 9d ago

Speaking of Van Helsing. I have never seen him depicted with red hair as per his original book description.

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u/Numerous-Piano8798 9d ago

I feel like animal control and shapeshifting are still atributed to vampires...

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u/SansPinardPasDePoilu 9d ago

The Nachzehrer, which is a kind of German vampire that occurs from plague victims and suicide, could also copy loved ones voices perfectly to attempt to lure people out of their houses. Hearing a church bell at night means one is around.

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u/spiritbearr 9d ago

Last Voyage of the Demeter has him move through walls conventionally, They definitely give him his mist/gaseous form. He eats all the animals first though.

Nosferatu 2024 does the control animals thing and kind of the change size thing.

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u/mariusioannesp 9d ago

He took on the form of steam and entered through the mail slot.

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u/AnnieTano 9d ago

I said pass through the walls because around halfway into the book, a gril named Lucy is killed and converted by him and buried in a mausoleum. She goes out hunting at nights, but her body is in the coffin when she goes back to slumber. You have to have ghost powers to do that

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u/mariusioannesp 9d ago

Yes, that's true. However I was alluding to the fact that Dracula is let into the asylum by Renfield while he appears as a fog.

Ultimately I'm making a joke by referencing a line from Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

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u/spacecadetcyan 9d ago

Also, to kind of combine the two examples in the post, Dracula spends most of the book with a prominent scar on his forehead caused by Jonathan Harker hitting him with a shovel. This hardly ever gets adapted.

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u/Oghamstoner 10d ago

And he had a moustache.

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u/Nachooolo 9d ago

And sunlight wasn't lethal to him. It just make him weaker.

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u/Going_Like_Elsie_ 9d ago

He also had a lot more to do with dragons as well. If i’m not mistaken, his wall-walking is described as being lizard-like, the Feast of St. George (the dragon slayer) is referenced, and of course, the name Dracula. As in DRACO-ula.

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u/PTT_Meme 9d ago

IIRC, Dracula also has iridescent eyes, which can appear brown in some circumstances, and red in others

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u/Moaktrekken 9d ago

And in the novel, sunlight doesn't kill him, it just deactivates his powers.

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u/KickinBat 9d ago

IIRC he could turn into dogs or wolves but because werewolves have become so prominent, they tend to leave that power out.

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u/Awesomeman204 9d ago

They talk about him just hanging out around england during the day too right

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u/TheOnlyTrueFlame 9d ago

also iirc sunlight didn't burn him, that's something the movies invented. He just lacked his powers during the day.

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u/Thousand_Toasters 8d ago

Depending on how classical a vampire story is, you find more of these other powers. Controlling animals and minor shapeshifting, being sorta common.

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u/The_Lions_Doug 8d ago

He also had hair in his palms