The two major elements going into this week, as I approach the end of the semester, were to create some Gothic props and architecture for the scenes to make it more generally Dracula and to also start creating the final battle, with the dialogue and the battle setup.

The first of the two was the Gothic architecture. After a completely thorough and definitely intensive research session on Gothic architecture I determined that the Gothics really loved columns and arches and such. From that, I modeled a column and an arch and slammed them into my scenes. I actually did not use the column itself but built the arch using it, so it still made it there in spirit.

I then also made some big pots with some fire in them because that seemed pretty on-vibe and then modeled a pew quickly because it’s Gothic architecture, obviously, it needs to have some church furniture. I also threw these into my scenes as well and called them good. In the end-of-semester cram, I only have time for so much here, so I decided to call it there, though I would have loved to give more time to the construction of better walls and structures in general because I still feel like the scenes feel a little stock overall.

Regardless, I powered on and started creating the final battle. Mostly, I made the dialogue before and after the battle, which went pretty well. The pre-battle dialogue was super fun to write; I feel like I really got to embody the flustered, easily confused, and scandalized person that Jonathan really is, and the end dialogue is, admittedly, mostly ripped straight from the book itself. At first, I just wanted to look for some good Gothic terminology to work into my writing, but the original scene with the brides is already so extremely odd and queer-coded that I couldn’t resist just putting it in word-for-word. It’s such an amazing scene and I won’t claim to be capable of writing with the same repression and intensity as Bram Stoker.