Line #4 Awesome/Dracula


1	!Original Bram Stoker Novel
2	* One of the most powerful bits in the book comes very near the beginning (Jonathan is only starting to realise that there is something strange about the Count) when Dracula gives a truly epic speech about the history of his race. In a different context, the speech's content would be worthy of a particularly good RousingSpeech. This is sadly (though unsurprisingly) omitted from many film versions; however, the Creator/JessFranco film ''Count Dracula'' (1970) has Sir Christopher Lee dramatically reproduce it, as well as the Creator/FrancisFordCoppola version Creator/GaryOldman doing a heavily abridged one: "What devil or witch was ever so great as Attila, whose blood is in these veins?"
3	* The final battle between Dracula and/or his servants and the pursuing heroes, leading to [[HeroicSacrifice Quincey's death right after he slays Dracula]], is simply amazing.
4	** Jonathan jumping into the cart and ''heaving'' the entire coffin out of it, before slitting Dracula's throat with his kukri. While he isn't the one who ultimately kills him, he pays back the months the Count spent terrorizing him in full.
5	** If you take into account that the events of the book fall within the timeline of ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'', then Quincey's defeating of Dracula becomes much more awesome as he defeated the vampire without even using the Vampire Killer whip, and without being Dracula's son the way Alucard is. And the best part? This is actually canon, as Quincey Morris' son and grandson are both the main characters of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'' respectively, and what's more is that they - alongside Van Helsing - are confirmed to be distant relatives of the Belmont clan.
6	* A moment that's acknowledged ''in universe'', when Jonathan climbs down from the outside of a tower ''twice,'' and goes down into Dracula's crypt again in an attempt to finish him off. Van Helsing and Dr Seward both remark how it must have taken an incredible amount of nerve to do it.
7	** When the protagonists see Dracula all together for the first time, Seward notes that he still has a huge red scar on his forehead from where Jonathan whacked him with a shovel in his castle. Vampires can only be killed through specific methods, but Jonathan's sheer determination to murder Dracula left a permanent mark on him that his powers aren't healing months later.
8	* Jonathan escaping from the castle by scaling the wall, then traveling countless kilometers on foot through dense forest, heavily populated by wolves, before reaching safety. Estimates based on the possible location of the castle and the dates given in the book suggest he crossed somewhere between 50 and 150 miles in about ''two days'', only ending when he ran into the nearest train station. When he learns that Dracula is in England, he writes in his journal that he can no longer be afraid now that he knows what he's up against.
9	* Renfield trying to attack Dracula when the former realizes he's come to the house to feed on Mina. He was actually matching him blow for blow, enough so that Dracula needed his hypnotism to paralyse him to win.
10	* Mina realizing she can use Dracula's PsychicLink against him and telling Van Helsing to hypnotize her so she can see into the Count's mind and locate him.
11	** Mina in general, honestly. She compiles all the notes, journals, and letters into one coherent picture, it isn't until Van Helsing gets a hold of her and Jonathan's accounts that he becomes fully aware of what they're up against. In her function as the group's secretary, she keeps their notes in order and maintains redundant copies, this not only catches everyone up to speed quickly but also thwarts Dracula's attempt to destroy the information they had on him ([[FlingALightIntoTheFuture so even if the hunters fail in their task, there's a possibility their notes will be found and someone else will take up their mission]]). She keeps the men focused and determined, it may be a bit old-fashioned by they all rally to the idea of protecting her from Dracula's predations. And at the climax, she takes up a revolver and is fully prepared to help the men in gunning down Dracula's protectors so they can slay the monster before time runs out.
12	** Van Helsing saying Mina has "a man's brain" is rather cringe-worthy sexism to a modern eye, but pay attention to what he says next: "the brain a man should have if he were very gifted." He's essentially saying Mina is smarter and more put-together than most ''men'' he knows, and this is a Professor who largely deals with others in academia. Given how limited educational opportunities for women were at the time, Van Helsing is pointing out that Mina is truly exceptional by any standard.
13	* No one can forget Arthur Holmwood, after having been told by Van Helsing that staking Lucy would free her soul, doing it without any hesitation or wavering whatsoever.
14	* The captain of the ''Demeter'', the ship that unwittingly transported Dracula to England. Realizing that he had no hope of defeating the supernatural monster that has killed most of his crew, he resolved to permanently bind himself to the wheel with a cross and rosary in order to prevent Dracula from taking the helm. Even if this meant that he would eventually die of starvation or thirst. Unfortunately, the ship manages to safely arrive on the shores of England, with no bodies except the dead captain, and one delighted vampire.
15	* Seward's character development. When we first meet the doctor, he is a lonely and repressed person whose only methods of processing emotion are workaholism and taking chloral. Over the course of the story he bonds with the rest of TheTeam, decides to eschew drugs in order to properly feel his grief over Lucy, and finally breaks down and sobs at the prospect of Mina being turned into a vampire, giving full rein to his feelings at last.
16	* Quincey Morris' dramatic arrival when Lucy is in desperate need of a blood transfusion and both Van Helsing and Seward are already low on blood.
17	* Quincey excuses himself in the middle of Van Helsing's explanation of Dracula's various abilities, which include being able to [[FiveSecondForeshadowing turn into a bat]]. Moments later a gunshot rings out and when Quincey returns he explains that he saw a bat out on the windowsill and decided to shoot it. It's never confirmed whether it was Dracula spying or just a regular bat but Quincey isn't taking any chances.
18	* After doing a lot of detective work to figure out the locations of Dracula's earth boxes, the gang manages to destroy almost all of them to deny him places to rest in the daytime. They ambush him at his final home, during which Jonathan (now white-haired with shock from being restrained by Dracula the previous night so he could feed on his wife) charges straight at him with a kukri and nearly stabs him right there. Dracula only ''barely'' manages to escape his former solicitor, who goes so far as to climb out the window to keep chasing him in a rage.
19	** Dracula gives a BadassBoast as he leaves, dismissing their attempts to kill him. Van Helsing notes that this is empty bravado, they've sent the Count fleeing for his unlife. If not for the fact that he'd regroup and try again in century or so, and that Mina is condemned to transform into a vampire unless the Count dies, the hunters could have basically claimed victory right then and there.

Context Awesome / Dracula