User blog:Dargoo Faust/Halloween Special: Dracula (Van Helsing) vs. Dracula (Dracula Untold)

The myth of an impaler was captured by Bram Stoker, continued with Nosferatu, and blossomed into one of the most overused recognizable characters on the face of horror and even the supernatural. Dracula is one of the first figures brought forward when one thinks of the genres, and due to this, there exists innumerable representations of the count as well as the blood-sucking monster he represents, the vampire. In cinema, many attempts have been made to capture the essence of this man, from a blood-covered warlord to an aristocratic monster in human skin.

Vlad Tepes III, Prince of Wallachia, the immortal warrior known as Dracula.

VS.

Vladislaus Dragulia, the impaler, ruler of Transylvania and father of all vampires.



HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2018

WHO IS THE DEADLIEST?!

Dracula (Dracula Untold)


"That is no longer my name. My name is Dracula, son of the devil."

- Dracula

Vlad Tepes III was the prince of Wallachia. As a child and prince he was abducted and taken to the Ottoman Empire, where he was trained to become an elite warrior under the Sultan himself. Due to his notoriety in battle and ruthlessness, he was dubbed 'Vlad the Impaler', eventually taking over his homeland and ruling it in relative peace.

However, as a similar conflict arises, and his own son is demanded as tribute to the Ottoman, Vlad refuses to continue this chain, inevitably striking war with the easterners. Hopeless and destitute, he travels to the Broken Tooth Mountain, where he meets an ancient vampire, who offers him blood to become a powerful vampire and defeat his enemies. However, if he did not resist the urge to drink the blood of others for three days, he would remain as a monster for eternity.

He effortlessly defeats the entire Ottoman army single-handedly, however at the cost of his wife's life, who urges him to become a full vampire to keep on protecting his kingdom, as Mehmed prepares to overtake Europe. He transforms any survivors into new vampire slaves, before leading an offensive and defeating the Ottoman in single combat. His job done, he clears the sky, killing the vampires around him and seemingly killing himself, if it were not for a man who took pity on his corpse and dripped blood onto it.


 * Weapon of Choice: One-Handed Ornate Shortsword

Vampiric Powers

 * Superhuman Strength and Durability: Vlad was a master warrior, who could fare on his own even when outnumbered seven-to-one. However, after he accepts the blood of a vampire, his physical abilities are enhanced tremendously. He "has the strength of 100 men", and can bend steel and shatter stone with his physical strikes alone. His casual attacks fodderize trained soldiers, and he was unharmed after falling from the top of a mountain.
 * Superhuman Speed: Similarly, Dracula can also move faster than the human eye can see, killing soldiers before they're even aware of what's going on.
 * Regeneration: As a vampire, Vlad can regenerate from grievous physical damage, even resurrecting himself from the dead after large exposure to sunlight. He regenerated his skin and muscles as they were being burned by flames, as well as the wound caused by a large stake being shoved into his chest.
 * Weather Control: With the gesture of his hand, Dracula can move entire clouds and cause stormy weather and vice versa, seen when he made an overcast day into a sunlit one to kill off the vampires he had created as a result of his attempt to save his wife. He can also summon lightning to strike his opponents.
 * Super Senses: He can detect the heartbeats of every single lifeform on an entire battlefield before even engaging in combat. He saw a spider making a web across an entire river, can see through large thickets of trees, and even see the stars though clouds.
 * Bats: Dracula's main form of offense. He can summon massive, cloud-sized swarms of bats that can plow through entire armies and cause massive shockwaves as they slam into the ground. He can also disperse into a cloud of bats to move swiftly around the battlefield and avoid attacks or achieve flight.

Weaknesses

 * Sunlight - Although he fares much better in it than lesser vampires, extended exposure to sunlight will incapacitate him and eventually kill him. That put, this is mostly stemmed by his ability to control the weather at will.


 * Silver - His strength and powers are drained in the presence of silver, allowing regular humans to take him on in combat.


 * Stakes - Despite his regenerative abilities, a stake to the heart would have killed him. Thankfully, his opponent missed before this weakness could be properly tested.

Dracula (Van Hellsing)


"Let me reintroduce myself: I am Count Vladislaus Dragulia. Born 1422. Murdered 1462."

- Dracula

The son of an aristocrat and bloody tyrant of Translvania, Vladislaus Dragulia escaped death by striking a deal with Satan. After being killed by the 'left hand of God', his spirit formed a contract with Lucifer that would resurrect him as a monstrous vampire. For centuries, he would fight with and outmatch vampire hunters and maintain his iron grip over the country, enslaving women as his vampiric thralls. That is, until he encountered the famed hunter Van Hellsing.

The Hunter slaughtered his children and his immortal vampire concubines, before he engaged Dracula himself, with the aristocrat taunting Hellsing with the nightmares the hunter had, knowing that they had fought previously. However, unknown to him, Hellsing was bitten by a werewolf, whose venom can bypass the regenerative abilities he has, eventually losing to the man in single combat under the full moon.


 * Weapon of Choice: Magic/Claws and Talons

Vampiric Abilities

 * Superhuman Strength and Durability: Dracula utterly outclasses humans and even fellow superhumans, able to shatter stone and steel alike with his casual attacks. He's comparable to monsters that can bisect human beings, and survived having massive equipment thrown at him by Frankenstein's Monster, and destroyed parts of a building in his fight with Hellsing's werewolf form.
 * Superhuman Speed: Dracula can outpace regular humans with ease, and clash with monsters who can move faster than the eye can track.
 * Elemental Control: Dracula has control over various elements and can summon and attack his enemies with balls of fire, bolts of lightning, the earth and water around him, and with large gusts of wind. He has a large range on this too, able to strike enemies from across an entire room.


 * Demonic Vampire Form: His go-to for combat, Dracula can shift into a massive bat-hybrid form, bulking up on his strength and gaining razor-sharp claws and wings. This is strong enough to combat strong werewolves like Hellsing.
 * Regenerative Powers: Dracula has a rather insane ability to regenerate from wounds, with his greatest feat being growing back all of his flesh after being reduced to a charred skeleton. It's implied his regeneration could go much farther than this. The only thing that can bypass this power is the venom of a werewolf, although it is slowed slightly by the typical vampire weaknesses.
 * Super Senses: He has night vision, and can hear heartbeats from across an entire castle. His scent is great enough to track people across kilometers of distance.
 * Transformation: He can turn into mist and a sort of shadow, although this typically isn't abused in combat.
 * Teleportation: Similarly isn't used in combat; mostly just a means to travel great distances.

Weaknesses
To clarify, these 'weaknesses' are more of inconveniences to Dracula; although they are potent enough to passively damage him and slow down his healing abilities.


 * Sunlight - Although it's never seen the exact effect it has on him, we only get this through a statement. Suffice to say he's likely weaker in the day.


 * Symbols of God - Grabbing a crusefix quite literally caused his hand to spontaneously combust and melt, although this was counteracted by his regeneration. Includes holy water and similar items.


 * Stakes - Only makes his healing slower in that area; although by 'slower' this means healing in several seconds as opposed to instantly.

X-Factors
Experience Edge: Helsing

Despite his experience as a soldier; Vlad Tepis is relatively speaking new with his powers. He hasn't tested the full extent of them, and while at the end of the movie it was shown that he would live for hundreds of years, it is unknown if he spent much of that time fighting. Meanwhile, Vladislaus is hundreds of years old and comfortable with his powers at the very beginning of Van Helsing, and has fought vampire hunter after vampire hunter for generations. That put, it likely has more to do with his insane powers than it does combat prowess.

Training Edge: Dracula Untold

Easily. Vladislaus is a cocky aristocrat who only steps into combat as a brute animal, and is hardly trained in the arts of combat; only gaining his powers after death. Vlad Tepis was able to single-handedly defeat seven knights without being tagged once before he was even a vampire, and would later out-skill and slice apart an entire army without being so much as touched. Even while depowered and weakened he was able to go toe-to-toe with trained experts.

Tactics Edge: Dracula Untold

Pretty much the same as training; Vlad is a far better tactition and overall combatant; whereas Vladislaus is dehabilitatingly narcissistic. Meanwhile Vlad Tepis controlled entire cloud-sized swarms of bats to outmaneuver soldiers, has swordplay that would put trained experts to shame, and takes absolutely no chances when in a fight. On the other side, we have Vladislaus who steps through someone's sword calmly just to show how cool he is.

Physicality Edge: Helsing

Of the superhuman vampires, Vladislaus is more powerful when it comes to physical feats. His fight with Werewolf!Helsing tore apart Frankenstein's laboratory and he was only brought down due to the venom on the claws of the vampire hunter. That put, Vlad Tepis is no slouch either, and can shatter stone and bend steel; he just isn't nearly as much as a tank as his more campy counterpart. Speed-wise they're pretty equal with similar feats. That put, the feats shown by Vlad Tepis' bat swarm do outclass what Vladislaus has survived, although that attack took a great deal of gesturing to execute.

Brutality Edge: Tie

By the end of the movie, Vlad Tepis is already a bloodthirsty monster who would main, kill, and destroy to achieve his goals. His goals are more noble than the sadist that is Vladislaus, but the methods the two use to meet ends are fairly similar. That said, Vladislaus is much more flashy with the gore.

Setting
Frankenstein Castle:

Think I won't sneak in a classic here? The battle arena here is Frankenstein Castle, seen in the original horror picture and its comedic counterpart, Young Frankenstein. It has lofty and open interiors and various courtyards and gardens, although the structure is highly elevated and has near-vertical drops right outside the doorsteps.

In 1880, Vlad Tepis hears about another Dracula who has been a tyrant over the lands that he had sworn to protect hundreds of years ago. He storms the castle, slaughtering Vladislaus' children and wives, sending the two into a bloody struggle.

Voting Rules
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Voting will close on Halloween.

Battle
TBW

Expert's Opinion
TBD