Dracula's characterisation in the comics...

POSTED BY: Unseen
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 4, 2008 22:02
VIEWED: 5970
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UNSEEN

Thursday, May 8, 2008 9:47 PM

Just curious but does anyone else find Dracula in the season 8 comics to be really "off character" compared to how he was in the show? For the second issue in a row it's more or less completely distracting to me to the point of annoyance. The Buffy vs Dracula episode was one of my favourites, but the comic version seems to "speak" and act nothing like him. Having all the other characters very much `in voice` as they were from the show it really seems to stand out to me. I just cannot imagine Dracula as he was characterised in the show speaking the lines the comic version does or being as constantly talkative and almost casual...
Or am I the only one seeing this..?

CHARLIEBZ

Thursday, May 8, 2008 10:10 PM

Well, didn't he have his mojo stolen? One thing hasn't changed: Xander is still his adoring minion.

EMBERS

Thursday, May 8, 2008 11:39 PM

I thought he was being subtlety ridiculed in BtVS S5 when he first appeared, and now they've just upped the anti by ridiculing him more openly (after all Buffy defeated him then, which made him less imposing, and he has had his mojo stolen...)

so actually it is working for me. He isn't an important character in the Buffy verse (though I think it is too bad Spike isn't around to demand that money Dracula owes him), and I think they are being consistent to use him for comedy...

New Firefly fans should check this out: http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=15816

BSCPANTHERFAN

Friday, May 9, 2008 3:24 AM

There was a mini-series (in 2006, I think) called Spike vs. Dracula that explained the whole "11 pounds" deal and also resolved it. There was also a one-shot story in one of the Buffy comics that had Dracula "kidnap" Xander for a while because he was lonely, and Buffy has to go "rescue" him. I think they are playing on the whole "lonely old vampire" shtick, which kind of fits in with his line in the TV show that he and Buffy are alike because they are "always alone".

It still works for me, mainly because they play Dracula for a few laughs, but he's still Dracula, so you don't want to get too comfortable with him around.

My big problem with this week's Whedonverse comic offerings is in the latest Angel:After the Fall, where Wesley threatens to "ring" someone's neck. How the @#*! did THAT get past the editing process? (It's "wring", in case anyone's wondering)

So who is he?
He's my husband.
Well who in the damn galaxy ain't!

EMBERS

Friday, May 9, 2008 4:25 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BSCPantherfan:

My big problem with this week's Whedonverse comic offerings is in the latest Angel:After the Fall, where Wesley threatens to "ring" someone's neck. How the @#*! did THAT get past the editing process? (It's "wring", in case anyone's wondering)

yeah, IDW (who publishes the Angel comics) really needs some better editors! I don't know if the mistake was Brian Lynch's or the letterer's but it should have been caught and corrected.

Someone had mentioned it at Whedonesque:
Chris inVirginia saying:

Quote:
*Ahem*, but one "wrings" a neck, one doesn't "ring" one.
Unless it's a musical neck, I suppose.

and Brian Lynch responded:

Quote:
Wow, Chris inVirginia, you really got me. I better hobble together a list of fixes for the collected edition. I'm gonna wring Ryall right now and tell him.

(because someone else had mentioned that Kate saying, " "hobble something together"
is also incorrect (should be 'cobble something together')

It is a fun thread... here:
http://whedonesque.com/comments/16272

New Firefly fans should check this out: http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=15816

GROOSALUGG

Friday, May 9, 2008 6:18 PM

I love the way Drac's being written in the comics... probably because I hated him in his one appearance in the show, so he's at least entertaining now.

I don't think he's so much being written differently than it's just that we're seeing a different side of him--the "Dracula behind the curtain". Who he really is when he's not trying to be the vampire rockstar. I have a feeling he was pretty much past his prime already in S5, and being so soundly trounced by Buffy finally made him realize that fact, and ever since he's been, "Oh, the hell with it--I'm not even gonna bother anymore."

But, just for the sake of argument, let's say he IS being written differently. Is one appearance, in one episode, enough to define a character and dictate that they have to be written that way forever after? If you think so, then I challenge you to go back and compare Anya in her appearances in "Doppelgangland", "The Prom", and "Graduation Day, Pt.1" in S3 with what she was like in seasons 4 through 7...

MISSTRESSAHARA

Friday, May 9, 2008 11:21 PM

So, they took the character that basically CREATED the genre' that Buffy and Angel are based around and piss on him and make him into a joke? I saw that episode. I wasn't impressed. If your going to make Dracula a joke why not go the whole nine yards and put him in his cloak and suit?

My OWN opinion..... but I think it's an insult, and Dracula fans would agree.

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WTE

Saturday, May 10, 2008 2:01 AM

You can mock things you like, MistressAhara. It's good-natured fun-poking, not malice.

HONKS

GROOSALUGG

Saturday, May 10, 2008 4:08 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Misstressahara:
So, they took the character that basically CREATED the genre' that Buffy and Angel are based around and piss on him and make him into a joke? I saw that episode. I wasn't impressed. If your going to make Dracula a joke why not go the whole nine yards and put him in his cloak and suit?

My OWN opinion..... but I think it's an insult, and Dracula fans would agree.

To quote the great Sgt. Hulka: "Lighten up, Francis."

It was a parody. Just like "Buffy" itself is a parody of the standard horror-movie staple of a blonde girl going into dark alley and getting killed by some horrible monster. The show never took any of the old classic horror mythology all that seriously, so why should their interpretation of Dracula be any different? If you're too sensitive to appreciate the joke, then maybe "Buffy" isn't the right show for you...

MISSTRESSAHARA

Monday, May 12, 2008 1:54 AM

Your right, it isn't for me, thats why I don't watch it. And serious or not, it was a crappy portrayal of an icon.

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DON'T FREAK OUT

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