Hrrm, On The One Hand Versions Of Dracula, Frankenstein Etc That Deviate From The Source In Egregious

Hrrm, on the one hand versions of Dracula, Frankenstein etc that deviate from the source in egregious ways can bug the heck out of me (such as Dracula Untold, which while trying to create a superhero origin for Dracula somehow whitewashes the actions of the historical Vlad the Impaler to do so… Or Dracula 2000, which while having some good ideas kinda tripped over its own feet by saying that Dracula is literally Judas from the Bible, hence his adversion to Christian imagery and silver)…

…But on the other hand, using public domain stories as a source of material to take and remix in interesting ways is fun, and it’s interesting to come up with extended versions of stories from elements that were hinted or referenced in the original story but weren’t elaborated on because they weren’t the focus.

Such as…

- Mina’s journey across Europe to visit Jonathan in the nunnery he’s recovering from after escaping Dracula’s castle.

- Van Helsing’s dead son and his wife who is in a mental institution.

- What Elizabeth Lavenza and Justine Moritz were up to in the literal years Victor Frankenstein was away at university creating life.

- What reaction did Elizabeth, Henry etc. have to Victor’s actions if they ever actually found out about it, he’s explicitly an unreliable narrator, and a self-obsessed one at that, so we aren’t really aware of what he knows.

- What happened to those kids Lucy was eating after being turned into a vampire? What would a story be like from their perspective, dealing with the horrors of being a poor kid in Victorian London and then literal monsters start coming to get you?

- Dracula mentions being related to Attila the Hun, a historical figure who notably bled to death on his wedding night. While Dracua’s implictly plans of conquest certainly could be read as him trying to emulate his ancestor (just as Attila attacked Rome, Dracula attacks London), it could be interesting to tie things into Atilla’s wife (who IRL may have poisoned him) being a vampire maybe? Food for thought.

- What happened in between the death of Elizabeth and Victor’s pursuit of the Monster into the Arctic? Did they attempt to revive her using the techniques he knew worked (like in the Kenneth Branagh movie)? If so what was her reaction to it?

- In Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, it was implied that an unknown impurity in his chemicals enabled him to bring about the change in appearance. Was this the same chemical impurity responsible for the personality change in a character in the Arthur Machen story The Novel of the White Powder (although he ends up melting while transforming into something evil)?

- What did Dorian Gray do while travelling around the world being hedonistic for an several years long stretch in his book? Could you make a story about people interacting with his strange but unsettlingly hot British kid that seems to suck people into his orbit and promptly destroy them? What would happen if he were to meet Dr Polidori’s Lord Ruthven, a character who predates Dracula and notably exact in a similarly destructive manner to Dorian when it comes to folks that he takes an “interest” in.

- Ruthven doesn’t actually die at the end of his story, and he escapes to continue “ruining“ and eating people. He could conceivably show up in a story where he meets Dracula or Carmilla, with his more free-wheeling, hedonistic approach to vampirism constrasting with Dracula’s interests in sorcery and domination and Carmilla’s whole deal. …That actually could have legs, with a vampire from the 1700s interacting with vampires from the 1600s and 1400s respectively, with all three instantly loathing each other.