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| The Pairing |
Ah yes welcome to the pairing page, where I try to explian the wonderful pairing of Van and Dracula.
As a reminder this be from
the movie 'Van Helsing' an incredibly badly movie but with so many
lines that invoke the rabid fangirl in me.
Ok the movie, as you know, starts out with Mr. Gabriel Van Helsing (Van from now on) being shown as a memoryless mercenary for a secret order of the church (aka Hollywood trying to make the Catholic Church look exciting…yet again)
He apparently was going to be sent to purgatory but was somehow saved.
Cardinal dude: You have already lost your memory for penance of past sins.
Past sins…hmmm so Van has sinned, and of course we all know (from wonderful years of sitting through church services) that according to the church sodomy (homosexuality) is a sin.
Leviticus 18:22: Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
- New International Version
(There are plenty other Bible verses condemning it but I didn't feel like finding them all) Apparently Van was in good enough graces with God and/or the Church to get a second chance.
But lets focus on the past sins now shall we?
I think that the only sin (other than sodomy) evil enough for the Church to consider condemning him for is defiling some sacred thing (perhaps the 18 out of 12 apostles buried in Spain). But I have a feeling that Van wouldn't defile the apostles, to disgusting… I mean who really wants to…ahem…fuck a dead guy? Plus, they're only bones.
Ah that reminds me of another thing to breach on. What is Van's position in the Church? Is he simply a mercenary or is he a priest? This is something that the movie gives us no clues to (that I am aware of). I am sure that if he were a priest he would dress as one (like Enrico Maxwell from Hellsing). But, as we all can see, Van doesn't seem to concerned about what's right religiously and what's wrong. He seems to live by the good ole golden rule "do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
So back to the whole past thing. He was not directly said to be the cause of Dracula's death, he wasn't even accused. And no where did it say that he was the left hand of God. In fact, according to recent theology the left hand if God is actually the Holy Spirit. But theology aside, the movie does not say that he is but it is hinted.
1. Dracula does not openly say "you killed me you homicidal bastard" But, lets say an old friend/lover came back from the dead and you had a chance of perverting them to your side would you accuse them of such a heinous crime? I think not. And love makes you do strange things.
2. When Carl speaks of the history of Dracula he mentions the left hand of God.
Carl: Some vague reference to the left hand of God
3. When Carl finds that 1800's color TV it shows a knight, representing God, light, holiness etc. locked in battle against the devil and/or the son of the devil. When the moon some out both transform and become a bat thing and a werewolf.
4. I noticed that the good knight looks a lot like the picture of the left hand of God that you get to see for about five seconds. (And the ever important clue that Van fulfilled the role of the weird holy knight dude)
Hm, all of that combined does make me think that Van is the LHG (but it would make for an interesting fanfic if he didn't kill Dracula…hmm…)
Ok now for the history of Dracula according to the movie.
He was born into the wealthy ruling class, the Valerious family. He was most likely not an only child as only children were rare back then. There is no mentions of his child hood and living situation, though we can assume he grew up in Transylvania.
Born 1422 murdered 1462 at the age of forty. That's the extent of information we get from him, albeit admits all the fighting and trying to resurrect memories of an ex-lover/friend it's kind of hard to get the whole history out.
But that aside we learn that he was murdered, most likely by the church as that would explain his not-actually-said hate towards God. We also learn that he came back from the dead as a vampire and his father (Valerious the Elder who from now on will be known as Fred) went brain dead for a while and made a pact with the Church that his family would not rest till Dracula was six feet under and dead…really dead. (Why the hell did he do that in the first place?) But Fred found out that he could not kill his son and so built a castle up in the mountains somewhere and put Dracula in it (how?) but then the devil gave him wings.
From the bits of knowledge we know we can guess that Dracula was raised like any other wealthy boy of his time. He was educated, trained in sword fighting, dance, ways of court life, language, religion (eastern orthodox to be exact, though according to the movie he was most likely Roman Catholic), and other things. We do not know if he was next in line or if he had an older brother so have fun with that in fandom.
He was most likely a great warrior as those time periods were war filled, Turks invading, Germans invading, Church bothering him…the list goes on.
So now that we have a bit of their history down we can move on to the dynamics of their relationship.
Both Van and Dracula were probably great warriors, most likely the best of the best. Van because it was his job and Dracula because it was his life (aka forced upon him). So being as both have led similar lives job wise they have similar ground in which to converse on.
Van: I hate my job, it's boring. Just chop chop here, chop chop there.
Dracula: Ya, same here. I just hack Turk's heads off all day; I mean it gets rather monotonous.
Van: Turks? I get to kill unholy things.
Dracula: Ooh fun.
They also have the same mentality of "antything that moves is a potential enemy" making them very wary of people therefore not the most social. The movie never tells you when in Dracula's life Van came into it so we don't know if they knew each other up the very end or not.
Anyway back to relationship stuff. Dracula and Van both lived in the 1400's, a time when women were not literate and just sat around and had babies. Everyone needs and spiritual, mental, and physical equal and back then men often found it with other men. In other societies of the time homosexual lovers weren't uncommon. Also if they knew each other they probably fought along side each other, and as we all know from watching Troy and Alexander one to many times that can lead to more intimate relationships.
Another thing is that the men were away from home months at a time, and if I know men I don't think they can last four-six months (and at time a year to two if not more) without having sex, especially if they are riled up from battle. And at times lust turns into love. (There is no such thing as love at first sight)
Now to look at similarities and differences of the two. Most of the stuff here I inferred based off of the movie, the real historical man (Dracula as there was no Van Helsing ~ professors of Stokers don't count ~) and what I think would make since given the mentality of the time period.
Gabriel Van Helsing – He seems to be a loner, trying to find where he fits in. Of course back in the 1400's, if he worked for the church, he was most likely a knight. Possibly a Knight Templar as they where they ones running around doing the whole crusade-save-Christendom thing. He would have been tough, no over the top emotions as that can get you killed.
While he is tough and doesn't back down from challenges he seems bound to an honor code of sorts. He wants to do what is right and doesn't seem to enjoy killing.
He is resourceful, another thing that would have come with the job and he is intelligent. Being a knight means he would have been educated in Latin, his native language (Italian), math, astronomy, a dash of simple medicine, and theology… and possibly the arts and sciences depending on his social standing.
He appears to care about those close to him, or at least those who are within range and are innocent. While I did say that he was emotionally detached it doesn't mean he didn't love or anything, I believe that not loving someone is impossible, humans were made for it.
Vladislaus "Dracula" Valerious – Try saying that name ten times fast (though I am sure Van managed it ~ nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more ~)
Dracula was born into a wealthy family and educated from a young age. He was most likely taught to have a stiff upper lip and not let little things bother him. Most likely a little screwed up mentally because children raised by warlords often are.
He was born in war, raised in war, and died in war. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, you can't go through battle after battle and not have it. (Not to mention Van probably does too)
At that time I believe that Romania was Eastern Orthodox and therefore treated with contempt by the Catholic Church for the CC believed that they were outside salvation. It wasn't until Martin Luther shed light onto the fourth lateran council, which said that Salvation could be found outside of the church, just not outside of Christ. Anyway back to Dracula.
Dracula was most likely proud, egotistical (isn't that the same thing?), and probably had a bit of an Oedipus complex when it came to blinding himself to the truth. Raised to be a great warrior and leader, loss would have been hard to deal with and he most likely placed blame on others besides himself therefore making him hard to deal with. Though over the course of 400 years one can always hope he gained some good sportsmanship skills.
He was brought up in a culture where anything slightly feminine was weak and disliked. Homosexuality was looked down upon (though most likely practiced for the reasons that I have stated before) He was probably a loner and let no one near him as that would lead to weakness. In his mind there was probably nothing wrong with impaling a Turk and eating ones dinner out in an execution field (borrowing that from the real man…I did say he was fucked up didn't I?) Having grown up around death, torture, and disease he knew that he would survive, weak people didn't make it…especially in Romanian politics.
From what is shown in the movie we can deduce that he has a firm attachment to his past. He seems rather happy that Van was there and was…eager?…to remind Van of his past.
Dracula: We have such history you and I Gabriel.
Though he does show an attachment to his past relationships he doesn't seem to concerned about his present ones. If you watch the movie you notice that when Marishka died he wasn't to torn up about it, same with the other two brides. Of course they were most likely sex toys for him as that was the purpose of women in his mind.
Ok now to make it easy for you people I shall create a chart. (and there was much rejoicing…yay)
If you add them all up there are nine on each side…18 things. (I made it even on purpose) Now of course the saying goes that opposites attract, ne? But when looking at this in all honesty they aren't that different. But a few things stand out that would make a big deal in their relationship.
1. Cultural difference
2. Different religions
3. Lost and found thing
These three things are big components of their lives therefore their relationship.
1. Cultural Difference
There is nothing more fascinating than a person from a different area, and that's coming from people of our time where everything is hooked up electronically. Imagine being Van and arriving in a country that you knew barely anything about, major culture shock there.
The two could have easily bonded over sharing different things about their culture, sounds cheesy but it's true.
Of course if Van was planning on staying in Romania for any length of time then he would have had to have learned something of the way of life there, something a certain Prince could have taught him.
2. Different Religions
Again, like diff. Cultures diff. Religions provides an interesting insight in to what they had to deal with. While the foundations of the two religions are the same they vary in several ways, one being that the CC is much more symbol obsessed than the EO and each have their own hierarchy etc. I am sure Van and Drac got into some fun theological arguments over that.
Of course living in the 1400's meant that religion was a big part of your life and so to have even a slightly different religion than someone was a big deal, especially for Van who just came from a land of all one religion, Roman Catholicism. (EO is a branch of Catholicism)
3. Lost and Found thing
It appeared to me through out the movie that Van was lost (ok, it didn't appear it was clearly stated several times). I just have a feeling that he was in similar circumstances when he met Drac.
While Van is off doing the Buddhist/Daoist find your own way/path thing Dracula seems quite sure of himself. This could help Van in the long run as Dracula would act as an emotional rock, someone that is always there (quite literally as it turns out). As for Dracula Van is a friend/lover through and through.
My wonderful rendition of Dracula and Van…with my mad paint skillz.
Ahem…right… Onward ho with the Van/Dracula ness.
TBC when I get a chance...
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