The Perfect Valentine

Myth:  The perfect man does not exist…

Fact:  He does!  But in print and on film.

(Image from: https://mymodernmet.com/leonardo-da-vinci-vitruvian-man/)

Welcome back readers, It’s Lady Kaie here with a topic near and dear to Valentine hearts everywhere!

I have cracked the code and found the perfect Valentine.

He, who knows how to love, cherish… obsess… stalk… and smother his woman in centuries worth of undying love…

DRACULA!

(Image From: https://www.facebook.com/LastExitToNowhere/posts/which-screen-version-of-dracula-is-your-favourite-jamie/1152954300212711/)

For all intents and purposes, M&M does not promote toxic relationship behavior.  This is a fictional setting, with fictional scenes that readers and writers alike have waded through for years.

(Image From: https://dayoneny.org/signs-of-a-healthy-relationship/)

With that in mind, let me introduce you to three of my top favorite iterations of Dracula for the past 40 years.  There were those who came before (Bela… you handsome devil), but these iterations in particular have pulled me into my forties kicking and screaming with delight.

Let’s begin, shall we?

A most beloved Dracula comes from Gary Oldman’s vision of the ancient vampire in the 1992 version of Bram Stoker’s popular novel.  

(Image From: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRATaKEkd-F/)

“I have crossed oceans of time to find you…”  Need I say more?!  Who doesn’t want to hear that?!  Dracula certainly knows how to woo his lady, but more than that, he means it.

After his victory against the Ottoman Empire, our brave soldier returned home to his precious wife Elisabeta… only to find that she ended her life because the pain of losing her prince had been too much to bear.  Someone wrongly informed her that Vlad fell in battle, and so she too fell – from a high tower – because living without him was unfathomable.

(Image From: https://filmobsessive.com/film/film-analysis/fantasy-films/bram-stokers-dracula-a-dark-and-divine-retelling/)

In his fury, Prince Vlad declared war on God, decreeing that he would avenge her loss and become the undead just to really stick it to the Almighty.  And so he does.  He becomes an immortal vampire and spends countless centuries in his castle, lovelorn for his lost beloved who has supposedly been relegated to hell for her offense of self-death.

(Image From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYpGP8jaV1M)

While Oldman’s Dracula was a bit gritty, with questionable morals such as feeding Harker to his brides, turning Mina’s (his reincarnated wife) best friend into a vampire, which meant she had to be killed, and then making dodgy choices after enduring the heartbreak of Mina marrying Harker…

There’s something painfully desirable about a monster who would forsake all mortal and moral code to have back the blessed love he lost.  Again!  We have MANY books written based on this trope… too many to count.  So it is clear that the public enjoys a man who would do anything and everything for the love of his life.  Dracula’s loyalty was to his heart, and finding the love he was robbed of by the misplaced words of an informant who sent Mina to her death.

Through the centuries and the love he harbored for Elisabeta, Dracula became a monster—but one that would never raise a hand, give an unkind word, or denigrate the soul bound to his.  Every look and desperate grasp for Mina to return to him showed just how honest his heart was, even if it was a bit off-kilter.  

(Image From: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dracula/comments/1ndkli7/i_have_crossed_oceans_of_time_to_find_you_gary/)

In the end, Dracula met his end by the hands of his beloved and gave himself over to death by requesting that Mina bring him peace.  Through his death, Mina was freed from turning into a vampire, and both the souls of Vlad and Elisabeta ascended to the heavens where they could rest in eternal peace.

If you haven’t seen this film… just go watch it, okay?!  Yes, it’s that crazy side of love, a perverted dedication that shapes monstrous actions… but in the end, our anti-hero does what is right.  Let’s be honest, though, after you watch it, you are going to prefer that he and Mina run off to live in vampiric sin until the end of time. 

(Image From: https://syd-film-blog.blogspot.com/2010/08/many-movie-deaths-of-gary-oldman.html)

There’s no point in lingering, however, because Dracula is a tale of sorrow and redemption and it will often end in tragedy (except in fanfiction, which is why it exists.)

For Dracula number two, we have a tale that was perhaps a bit less talked about, which is a shame!  For those of us who love a family man, Luke Evan’s Dracula in 2014’s Dracula Untold, hit all the right buttons.

Image From: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/international-box-office-dracula-untold-740203/)

Unending love:  Check!

(Image From: https://x.com/LukeEvansRussia/status/558359065194397697)

Warrior hero who does what it takes to save his people:  Check check!

Dad… who refuses to sell his child into slavery to the Ottoman Empire and does right by his woman?!:  ALL THE CHECKS!

(Image From: https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/dracula-untold/)

Protect your ovaries, women, because Evans delivered FULLY on giving us a Dedicated Daddy that loved, lost, and waited centuries to be reunited.  

In Untold, we see Vlad the Impaler, caught between war and peace, precariously balancing the two while trying to maintain hope for his kingdom that was nearly out of his hands.  The Ottoman Empire came calling for his son, amongst other children, and Vlad decides to borrow incredible power, potentially sacrificing his soul, so that his people will know peace. He’s the perfect King.

(Image From: https://www.looper.com/1069115/the-ending-of-dracula-untold-explained/)

Now, while the love story isn’t as present, and there is less pining because this is a tale told through with swords and battle, we still feel the immense love Dracula has for his family.  He risks humanity to save his child and the children of his kingdom to not suffer the same fate he was forced into.  In the end, he loses his love who sacrifices herself to ensure that their son and their people will see another dawn…

(Image From: https://codysfilmandtvblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/vampire-flicks-dracula-untold-2014.html)

Theirs is a partnership that has no bounds.  This war is not his to fight alone, and he shows the depths of his desperation to maintain peace through short term blood shed.  Mirena (his wife) understands his world, and the monster he turned himself into, and not once does she judge him for it.  This depiction of Dracula pulls his ‘beloved’ beautifully into the picture as more than just a fragile woman who needs to be saved.  Her sacrifice turns him into Dracula, and gives them the opportunity to find one another again…

(Image From: https://www.tumblr.com/periodcostumefantasylover/695030876511272960/dracula-untold-ending-scene-vlad-meets-mina)

Now if only we had gotten that second film!  A Luke Evans Dracula Untold 2:  Finding my wife could sustain me for a while, but hey… fanfiction.  Am I right?

Love isn’t always loud or overstated, and though Evans’ Dracula doesn’t forsake God and go on an undead crusade to spite him, the dedication to his family is the clearest message in the film.  What person alive wouldn’t want that Dracula!  Luke… if you can hear me… You were amazing.

The raw beauty about Dracula that has stood the test of time is that he is an imperfect monster that only wants the return of his love and nothing more.  Nothing else matters… except her.  Only she will do, his eternal soulmate.

While all of the dracula’s that I have mentioned give a new facet to the Count’s bloody personality, I think that the best is yet to come…

But before we get to Dracula number 5:  Let’s give an honorable mention to Dracula from the Castlevania Netflix Series of the same name, not Nocturne…

(Image From: https://www.cbr.com/castlevania-dracula-lisa-love-proof/)

Just saying… if my man wants to eradicate an entire group of people who cheered for my death because I was bringing them medicine and advancement… I’d let him.  Step aside, Adrian, my little baby boy, and let your Papa work.  (Don’t worry.  Things end up pretty okay for them.  Go watch the show.)

Without further ado, it is now time to talk about Dracula number three, and our newest addition to the Dracula family.

Oldman provided us with a slightly immoral version of the Count who would stop at nothing to know happiness with his lost Queen…

And Evans gave us absolute Daddy Drac, who not only made our ovaries tremble from the weight of his dedication to wife and child, but provided insight to a tender, loving partner who could become a monster to protect those he loved.

Caleb Landry Jones (who is my Roman Empire of 2026) introduces us to the pain-ridden vessel that is his Dracula and the trauma he carries from the loss of his princess, who was his entire reason for being.

(Image From: https://deadline.com/video/dracula-trailer-luc-bessons-caleb-landry-jones/)

Thanks to multiple platforms and fan videos (YouTube, Facebook and Instagram), it was EASY to fall for Jones’ Dracula with just one glance.

The dedication.  The rage!  The TEARS!  All of the vulnerability and merciless emotional beatings that Dracula went through over the centuries!  He felt so isolated, yet was surrounded by many – though none of the people who crossed his path could ever provide the love she had given him…

The feelings of being complete and entirely whole… only existed in the ferocity of her loving gaze…

Mr. Jones summoned the raw agony of love lost with such precision that he drew us in through one look alone… You know the one…

(Image From: https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt31434030/)

Over the decades, we have had Draculas in touch with their emotions, but they were expressed through anger and violence… 

This Dracula uses both of those, but he digs deeper.  He’s the walking dead man who comes about when one’s soul mate departs this earth, and the other is just waiting to return to it.  There is no beauty that can turn his head, taste that can thrill his senses, or nourishment that can sustain him because she doesn’t walk the earth!

This new telling of Dracula touched on the dark side of trauma when it holds you so tight that you cannot breathe and yet, you continue to exist.  There wasn’t just pain in this version, there was an internal agony that scarred him soul deep, and he succumbed to it until he found her again.

And even then… when he had her… when she was his once more… he refused to curse her soul by turning her into the monster he had been.  He willingly returned to God (after he killed the Pope and cursed Him by the way), to save Elisabeta because, to make her suffer in any way at all, was beyond his scope of possibility.

(Image From: https://www.praguereporter.com/home/2025/11/1/dracula-a-love-tale-movie-review-luc-besson-drains-the-horror-from-bram-stokers-classic/)

Everything that this Dracula was, existed solely for his Princess, and when he became her damnation, he continued to protect her by destroying himself and taking away another lifetime of happiness that they could have shared.

Mr. Jones gave the public a broken, tormented monster, that was far too easy to fall in love with.  He embraced trauma and put it on display without excuses to explain why he acted or did the things he did… it just was.  His devastation was acute, and he let us live in all of that despair with him.  That in and of itself made this form of Dracula refreshing, because we saw to the depths of his splintered heart and were truly able to understand facets of the character we didn’t before.

(Image From: https://geektyrant.com/news/us-trailer-unleashed-for-luc-bessons-dracula-starring-caleb-landry-jones-and-christoph-waltz)

The beauty of Dracula is that he isn’t one-dimensional, and there is something new and incredibly fascinating to learn from all of the versions of him.  The actors, authors, and creators who continue to bring Dracula into the fictive world create something special each time…

Because honestly, for all of these wonderful, flawed, and all too gorgeous forms of Dracula, how can anyone deny that they would want one for their very own?  

(Image From: https://www.imdb.com/news/ni65322677/)

He’s THE perfect Valentine.  

(Image From: https://x.com/LukeEvansRussia/status/558359065194397697)

And if you don’t want him… I’ll definitely take him.

(Image From: https://collider.com/bram-stokers-dracula-review/)

Until next time, darling readers!  Don’t forget to stay curious and question everything that piques your intrigue.  

If you have requests for other monster talk, let me know!  

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Thanks everyone!

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Information about Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Dracula Untold were taken from sources 1-4:

1. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992 Film).” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker%27s_Dracula_(1992_film). . Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
2. Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, performances by Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins, Columbia Pictures, 1992.

3. “Dracula Untold.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_Untold. . Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
4. Dracula Untold. Directed by Gary Shore, performances by Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, and Dominic Cooper, Universal Pictures, 2014.

Information about Luc Besson’s Dracula: A Love Story was taken from various videos on:

5. Instagram. Instagram, www.instagram.com..
6. YouTube. YouTube, www.youtube.com..
7. Facebook. Facebook, www.facebook.com..