I'm sorry, Dracula was never meant to be romantic or sexy. I'm talking about the original novel, not the movies. Dracula didn't look like Frank Langella, Christopher Lee or Gary Oldman. He looked dead, smelled dead and used everyone around him.
If you like toxic characters, I'm not kinkshaming, but as a fan of gothic literature, I have to set things straight here.
Lestat btw was not a nice person either and he is written in modern times, same as Edward Cullen ( or Christian Grey besides not being a vampire). I don't care, if you like toxic characters, but at least acknowledge, that they are toxic. From what I saw of ascended Astarion, I would kill him right away, if he would accidentally ascend in my games, because yes, he is toxic too.
And most vampires are offensive and toxic by nature. They kill people. Yes, you have the occasional good vampire, like in Barbara Hamblys novels or maybe Beckett, the signature character for clan Gangrel in Vampire the Masquerade ( there are actually some decent characters). There is Daedalus from Kindred- the Embraced and some others. I would say, that Louis from the Anne Rice novels at least tries to be as good as possible ( in Rice's novels, vampires have to kill their victims, unlike in other media/books).
The point is, I don't care, if you like ascended Astarion, Dracula, Edward Cullen or Lestat, I just want to set the record straight.
It's not about how it should and shouldn't have been, but how the audience perceived it. The image of a vampire has become dangerous and fascinating for a reason, you cannot dictate to people how they should perceive fiction.
Lestat is not written in our days, if you are talking about the first books. Of course, he is not as ancient as Dracula, but his image is not the same as Edward. Should we bring up the topic of some crazy clans from VtM? I hope not...
I didn't deny toxicity, I said it wasn't a problem and this image remains romantic. It doesn't matter if it's toxic or not. Most villains in literature will be toxic. And yet people look at Dracula and Phantom of Opera with adoration. They love them. Even 10-20 years ago, no one used word "toxic" or "abuser" for fictional characters. Let's admit this is a modern trend. You don't have to use these words for literal characters.
If you didn't care, you wouldn't have written it, let's be honest. And if you are actively trying to prove to someone "oh, this character is very toxic, so you should not love him and his actions should offend you" - then you really care about it. Which, by the way, is rly strange. Btw "something between" its not exactly the same.
The next time you "don't care", don't say anything.
