The True Vlad Dracula (A Video Essay)
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- Опубліковано 18 бер 2023
- To demonstrate that everything in this video is strictly for educational purposes and I have no desire to steal or misuse the sources and research of the people I am citing, this video will NOT be monatized. If any credit is to be given, it should be to the men and women whose work I read.
Sources and Citations:
Chalkokondyles, Laonikos. The Histories., Volume 1. Trans. Anthony Kaldellis. Cambridge; Harvard University Press, 2014.
Doukas, Manuel. Decline and Fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks. Trans. Harry J. Magoulias. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1975
Florescu, Radu R. and Raymond T. McNally. Dracula: Prince of Many Faces. New York: Back Bay Books, 1989
Ibrahim, Raymond. Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam. Bombardier Books. 2022
Mihailovic, Konstantin. Memoirs of a Janissary. Trans. Benjamin Stolz. Princeton: Markus Weiner Publishers, 2011
Treptow, Kurt W, ed., Dracula: Esssays on the Life and Times of Vlad the Impaler. Oxford: Center for Romanian Studies, 2019.
Vlad III Dracula is a man regarded as legendary and was the chief influence for Bram Stoker's vampire of the same name. Since the book's release, the Dread Lord Impaler has been featured, discussed, and sensationalized as a cruel, sadistic, and twisted monster. But is there more to him than this? In this video essay, I look into some accounts compiled by academics of the ancient world and scholars who have studied the Prince of Wallachia deeply, and today I'd like to share the full context of Dracula so that, perhaps, he can start to recieve the proper respect he deserves.
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In the anime Fate Apocrypha, Vlad is portrayed as a very tragic character: he truly wishes to be remembered as the noble lord of Wallachia and heroic defender of the faith. This side of him is empowered by fighting on his native Romanian soil. But, because he's known by most of humanity as a monster, he is forced to become what he despises: a blood-drinking demon, and in the end he's cast into the flame by a man of the cloth.
That's more nuance than just about any piece of media depicting Dracula that I can think of.
One of the best part in the anime... shame about the ending with Vlad.
@badgamemaster He was a Lancer. That's just how they go down.
I get the feeling historical Vlad would've _leapt_ at the opportunity to kill the monster he inadvertently inspired.
Definitely
I live in Romania, here, Vlad Țepeș is seen as a national hero. Even in schools, he is thought as a good ruler, not a blood thirsty "vampire"
We know that. I hope that some people will learn that too in the future
I just hope that Vlad would find his current fame amusing. I mean his name is known by pretty much everyone. A villain or a hero he's a favourite character of many people.
If it's any consolation, even in the novel it's pretty clear to anyone who knows what the hell they're reading that Vlad III Dracula and Count Dracula are not the same individual. Bram Stoker was under the belief, thanks to a wildly-inaccurate book about Romanian history, that the name "Dracula" was simply given as a surname to anyone with a reputation for cunning, courage, and/or cruelty; so he gave the name to his Count who existed in a later age than Vlad and actually tried to replicate one of Vlad's exploits. But the historic Voivode and the Count are not and have never been the same person, not in fiction and certainly not in real life.
And to those who are properly educated in history consider him one of the great heroes of the ancient world. Yet Prince Vlad would be highly amused at his current year reputation
Dude that's Bad Ass Ive always saw him as a fair but firm ruler who did what he had to to protect his people mad respect for the guy
Jean of arc: I get ya bro, savior of the people, betrayed and killed under false pretenses
In many ways the way that Vlad's history is told reminds me of how the Civil War hero General Sherman is remembered depending on if you are from the North or the South.
Dang! That is a good comparison!
My mom listened to this, and while she was disgusted and scared of the acts that Dracula did, she was surprised that he was a Christian.
He's one of the leaders throughout history who while not really kind are most certainly great. Vlad's tactics were brutal and they make it clear why he served as inspiration for one of literature's most infamous villains. And yet he brought an age of safety from the Ottomans, he through his work kept his home independent and even stable. Which is why it's also understandable that to this day he's revered in his home country.
Meanwhile, there's no nuance with the Austrian Painter.
@@lucascoval828 honestly, I'd say nowadays people are more empathetic towards Hitler as they learn more about his history. He was still an evil bastard at then end of the day but the question remains, what went wrong?
@Kieran Adamson
Fair enough.
It's good to discuss these aspects of history without someone every 5 minutes going, "So what you're saying is?"
Not really he turned Wallachia and Ottoman Bulgaria to a battleground and rural people paid the price of his thirst for power
He was neither a villain nor a hero and like the every monarch of his time he had only one goal: power
For military matters he was mid and never faced an Ottoman army head on and only contucted a raid which was an ultimate failure and forced him to flee his country only to be imprisioned in Hungary like a clown and when he returned this time Turks captured and beheaded him
He was nothing mora than a nuisance for Ottomans compared to real threats like Skanderberg, Stephan the Great, Jon Hunyadi and Uzun Hasan
He’s only known today because of his vampire fan-fiction
@@rohansensei5708as stated in the OP, he is revered in Romania. He’s basically their George Washington figure and credited for his part in helping forming the country that went on to be what we know today. Because of this, a lot of his less stellar feats are swept under the rug. Every nation does this with their founding heroes, even if in reality those people were kind of pieces of shit. To suggest know that the Dracula story is the only reason he’s known today is just baffling. There is an entire country who revers him not for his part in the Dracula story, but for what he did in life. And he obviously was of some Notoriety to have been put into the story in the first place. Who knows how well known he would be today if that story had never been written, but it is most certainly not the only reason we know his name
Sometimes, the devil wore the face of saints in order to deceive others, in order to pursue its own selfish agenda.
And sometimes, a hero must don the facade of a villain to protect those he/ she sworn to protect, and to uphold the virtues that are sacrosanct to him/ her.
*Cao Mengde,* _the unscrupulous hero of turbulent times,_ understood this duality.
And so did *Oda Nobunaga,* _the great demon lord of sixth heaven._
And I believe that the same thing applies to *Vlad Dracula,* _the impaler Voivode of Wallachia,_ in one way or another.
Good stuff, Raven.
More videos like these please.
Raven, this was absolutely A-MAZ-ING, and I would love to see more of these! It’s so interesting to see his actual life and host desperation against not only the Ottomans, but everyone around him
Man, he is very heroic by this account. The two returns and works he gave to Ottomans were amazing. A note too, his brother being handsome and deceiving the other areas around Vlad remind me of Sauron in the second age when he deceived the Numenorians in his fair form. I wonder if Tolkien observed this and got inspired or is coincidence.
Fun fact: Humans are not the only living beings capable of impalement.
There exist a tiny little bird species called the shrike that does the same thing, but as a hunting method rather than a conscious act of sadism.
Shrikes are psychos birds man.
Not only they impale insects on the barbs of various plants, they make stashes of impaled corpses and use the said stashes to attract female shrikes.
He might have been a hero, but man, does he terrify me. The thought of a literal forest of corpses makes my hair stand on end.
Did you think that it would be like a movie where the protagonist is literally perfect to the point of being inhuman in how flawless they are? Reality is far less clear cut. Black and white give way to a lot of gray. Case in point; to us Romanians he's a national hero that fought tooth and nail for our independence and sovereignty, only to betrayed time and again , often be those closest to him, and yet it's because of his rule of Wallachia and his cousin Stephen the great who ruled Moldova that the seeds of what would eventually become the Romanian national identity were planted. I also see it as incredibly ignorant of history abd unfair to single out Dracula when everyone in that time period did things that when we look at them through a modern lense, seem so barbaric, and yet we must account for two things. The first is that in that time period everyone did cruel and unimaginable things to their enemies. For instance, polish raiders would sack our lands and rape our women. The Turks as well in their initial invasion, plus making many of us slaves, including Vlad Dracula (Dracula in old slavic/ Romanian is "son of the dragon") and his brother Radu the Handsome. If you were enslaved by the people that brutally murdered your father would treat them kindly once you became prince? Probably not would be my guess. The Hungarians west that occupied Transylvania which is on the western side of the country over the carpathian mountains were even more brutal than Vlad Tepes ever was. For instance they'd literally tie people up by hands and by their feet, the hand horses pull them apart, literally tearing them to shreds, and often for petty things too, like when a Hungarian garrison commander wanted the daughter of the village elder abd they refused, they'd do that to him , and probably the girl too at times. Another method used by the Hungarians as well as the Saxons was to tie people to spoked wooden or stone wheels and roll them down a mountainside. My point is, I don't understand why Dracula gets singled out when this was a very turbulent and excessively violent time period where such things we'd today consider atrocities, back then was just an average Tuesday. You can't judge history through a modern lense. You have to examine the circumstances and environment they found themselves in and that made them what they were. It would be equally unfair if I said Robert E Lee was a barbaric monster when in reality he was probably just a normal army Colonel, stuck between a rock and a hard place during a turbulent and uncertain time.
@Eastern Rebel I wasn't making a moral judgment on Dracula or Romanians. I know it was a different time with different standards. I'm just taken aback by the brutality of that era in general.
@@chidoman1595 Oh yeah it absolutely was. In truth not that much has changed, we just pretend it is has, but in times of true crisis, we are still the same humans that all our ancestors were, perhaps worse. All it it takes is for the right conditions to present themselves and you will see everything that makes us think we're so sophisticated and "Civilized" vanish seemingly overnight, and all it takes is a set of circumstances that causes a switch to flip inside you. We are still Animals at our core
This was fantastic! I thought I had known the story of dracula before, but this opened my eyes. For example, I had absolutely no idea that impalement was a common practice in romania at the time. I knew the ottomans did it, but I assumed that bringing it to europe was what made Vlad stand out because it was taught to him by the turks. Turns out he was just the most prolific in that regard. As you went over his story and the things he said, I found myself loving the guy. Something I never would have thought possible before this point. I hope to see more videos like this in the future Raven. A shame this isn't monetized but it's some of your best work in my opinion. Best wishes and happy sabbath to you!
Yeah... I feel like if Vlad was born and ruled today, he'd end up doing things VERY differently to how he did them way back when. But you can't fault him for trying his damnedest to secure his nation and protect his people with the only means he had at his disposal.
Unsure if you have heard of the Fate series but they have their own interpretation of vlad the impaler who actually loathes the fact that his legacy is connected to dracula.
And his wish to make on the wish granting holy grail is to rid himself of the connection to Dracula.
Also vlad has the ability to transform into a form of Dracula due to his connection to it but he refuses to use said ability and it’s only under the order of his master using a command spell (basically a geass like seal that connects master and servant but once the master uses all three of their command spells the servant is no longer bound to their master) that he is forced to become Dracula.
To this day, Vlad Tepes 3, is held in high regard. A plan to build a Dracula theme park in Romania, was cancelled because of opposition of basing it on this Romanian national hero, as a sinister Vampire.
It was wrong for them to do that so by God Almighty may that be changed in Jesus name
I have two questions for you, RavenKnight.
1.) Who's your favorite popular figure/leader among World History? Details as to why would be nice.
2.) If all the popular figures/leaders were put against each other in a hypothetical battle, who would come out at top or prevail in battle?
Also, I loved the video about Vlad the Impaler. Especially how you included a clip of Hellsing Ultimate and mentioned it for Dracula. You should have more subscribers with the amount of work you put into this. Hope you have a fantastic day! :)
Lu Bu
Just finished watching, absolutely outstanding work raven. I was captivated from beginning to end, the structure was perfect and the way you told it with enthusiasm is so rare to see nowadays on YT. Thank you for this amazing tale man 🙏
A great video. I mentioned earlier that I had read a book on Vlad recently, here's the title in case people are interested "Prince Dracula: The Bloody Legacy of Vlad the Impaler" by Gavin Baddeley & Paul Woods. I found it a fascinating read.
Wow, this is kickass video good job Raven keep up the good work.
This has gotta be one of my favourite videos from raven now, my gosh that was incredible
God Bless America, good sir, the great United States of America government has received and has taken noticed of your exceptional valor in the FACT that you have the gift of ability to articulate emotions into words. Please remain strong for the day your name will be written in history.
I just started re-watching castlevania and you posted this on the same day. Amazing work on this video!
Hello from Romania :D , Much respect for you Raven Knight
Oooo imma LOVE listening to this. I greatly appreciate how educated and well put together these videos are. Keep them coming!
Thank you for the video Raven. Not only was it awesome to listen to it gave a good in depth take on this great hero of wallachia. You were very critical to remove the myths from the truth and give clarity to a infamous legendary figure. The history of Vlad III Dracula tepes will help with my own legend for my black prior
It was your Dracula vids that introduced me to your channel, so I know I'm going to love this
Oh man this was such a well done video(except for the few slip ups). I hope it receives more attention
Great video Raven, very well done.
I loved this video and I would love to see more videos like this.
Despite what some boob using their name of says; The Turks were what could be seen as evil with what they were doing, did and going to do. Vald Dracula knew the enemy he was up against and he knew he had to be more then a man to them even. If that meant being seen as a monster, then so be it - and it was only his enemies that saw him as such.
Dracula is a historical badass.
Man I would love if the story of vlad became a Warmonger skin short story
“Imagine forests of corpses dripping on a buffet
You call that a nightmare, I call that a Tuesday
Vlad Dracula, Spawn of the Devil
Dipping my bread in your weeping blood vessel”
I love this music-track so much! XD
You did great covering Vlad in a nuanced and balanced way, finally. Question though, what song did you use for the video? I might have missed it in the description but can’t seem to find it.
I feel as though he would enjoy knowing his name still strikes fear although not for the reasons he wants
So, I must ask, what music did you use throughout the video. There were several tracks that I absolutely loved!
Edit: I'm aware that some of them are straight from Hellsing Ultimate. I was speaking about the other ones.
what an incredible video and story
When the Ottomans approached he more than likely said something along the lines of "This shit ain't nothing to me man"
Just a little nitpick:
It's pronounced "Tzepesh" not "Tepesh" and it's "Gee-ur-gee-u"(for Giurgiu), though I'm not really going to hold this against you, especially when all the information that you presented was accurate and factual.
If anything Vlad Țepeș can be summed as "Render evil onto evil"
Great job Raven!
Sabaton song about Vlad when?
I would love to see more video essays like these.
It would be cool to see a for honor character inspired by him
Funny enough, Raven himself made a warmonger legend, and her origin and personality is very similar to Vlad Dracula. ua-cam.com/video/dniTGugHmmo/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
A real life superhero.
Vlad III, Making Wallacika (Sp) Great Again, one implement at a time.
Wonderful video, and I always thought vlad was misunderstood, and now I know he really was. He seemed like a true Christian crusader, in every sense of the word. Christus Vinict Christus Regnant Christus Imerat!
What is the background music in this video?
He is story end in 40 years old of his life. Short but legendary. God raven. This thing was to Good. More . You 👌
GW must have took heavy inspiration for Conrad Kurze
Does anyone have a link to the music used here?
So it’s a prime case of history is written by the victors
19:00
The music that plays here has you're describing Dracula is so cool I want to know the name of it
I'll have to look over the full playlist, but the one at that point is called "Monster of God."
@@RavenKnightYT thank you very much God bless you and would you ever think there would be a animation of Vlad Dracula versus The Count Dracula what type of death battle do you think it would be something in a few minutes or a full-on series???
A dark hero❤😢. Only real man's kill by assassinations because no body can face them
A hero..through and through...He cracked down on crime..
He is seen to this day as a great hero of Romania, source a romanian
Vlad Dracula: Bastion of Christendom, and Bain of the Turks!
Vlad and cleo are in the same club.
Can you please do a legend of shaman on For Honor
Defender of Europe ❤Hail Vlad
Makes me wonder why he wasn't given Saint Hood
Probably because of his false reputation.
@@RavenKnightYT Didn't the pope like him though?
@@skeletonnoise6178 on what i heard the story of his conversion to catholicism are contested.
Also his cousin(Ștefan the Great and Holy,"Ș"="sh" noise) got sainthood (in the orthodox faith,by the Romanian Patriarch) in the 90' if i am not wrong.
@@alexandrub8786 As long as he saw Jesus of Nazerth as the son of God and the messiah. I would say he's a christan, rather stupid of us to divide are selves
@@skeletonnoise6178 pretty sure that the founding myth of Wallachia and Moldova were,"the king commands to convert to catholicism or you will lose you lands dirty orthos" and them going south of the carpathians or overthrowing the March of Moldova. It is kinda hard to ignore the religious division in the area when that was a big part of the area.
🗿👍🏿
It seems that your entire account, including the sources you quote, are based on and quoted in Ray Ibrahim's account of Vlad in his book Defenders of the West. Even some of your statements, like "Vlad terrorized the Turks in ways no vampire could," are lifted verbatim from Ibrahim's intro on Vlad. As for the primary sources you claim to have consulted, these all also just happen to be the same exact sources cited in Ibrahim's bibliography. Come on, man! Give credit where credit is due.
Yes, Raymond Ibrahim was the major source I drew from.
Did I not add him as a primary source in the Works Cited? I never once claimed his work as my own. I even refused to monetize the video because I wanted to make sure that I did not profit from his (and other peoples) work.
I actually did look at some of the sources he cited in his bibliography. I quoted them because, like him, I wanted to ensure that those authors and researchers got credit as well.
So I did give credit. You’ll find I NEVER said that all this research was my own. This was a video essay compiling sources from far better than me.
@@RavenKnightYT Okay, fair enough. I'm a college professor with lots of experience in historical research and writing, and it's just my pet peeve when students read one secondary history book, and then rely entirely on that one book for their accounts, including by using and quoting the exact sources in that one book. But then, they cite the same primary sources that that one book cites, as if they did their own research from scratch, when in fact they never even consulted those primary sources. In watching your otherwise fine video, it became clear to me that it was entirely based on Ibrahim's account, which I recently read and liked, as even the primary sources you quote are the same ones quoted in Ibrahim's, implying you didn't actually consult those books and find quotes on your own, but rather used the quotes Ibrahim found. Anyway, like I said, it's just a pet peeve of mine -- one that I see all the time when grading.
Ah yes, the hero that was so big and demanding of others that his own ppl turnes on him and said tons of vile stuff out of fear and hate. Just like Nero, Caligula or Gilles de Rais
Is this meant to be sarcastic??
@@brotherlorcalthetheloyalis4928tbf, nero likely got framed for the fire stuff.
@@brotherlorcalthetheloyalis4928 😛
@@funbro99 that part….yeh probably
@@brotherlorcalthetheloyalis4928 and im pretty sure romania praises vlad as a hero, sorta how french praise napoleon.
Every nation has their own heroes thats a villian to another's nation
39:40 WTF man...come on man...do you even realize how much of an oversimplification that statement is?? You are disregarding 300 years of history of several nations here...the trials and suffering of people who weren't mostly Wallachians....ffs you only need to read about the battle of Vaslui in 1475 to realize that what you've said has no business in a historical "essay". I'd rename the video to something else...parts 1 through 4 i enjoyed tbh.
Interesting. You accuse me of oversimplification due to this one line...and yet your comment is also an oversimplification. You lost your shit over a single line that, quite frankly, isn't entirely inaccurate. I looked up the Battle of Vaslui, and yes, Hungary, Romania, and Poland were allied against the Ottomans for that battle. That doesn't detract from my point in the slightest as I specifically said "Hungary, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia." While these nations did often forge alliances temporarily or for show, they were often turned against one another again thanks to Ottoman interference. In THIS instance though, the alliance was only hindered by Dracula's assassination.
The trials and suffering were not mostly Wallachians, and I don't recall ever saying otherwise. If I did, I'll need to see the time stamp to make doubly sure about the context of why I said it.
I like how you put the word "essay" in quotes as if you're discrediting the video, and you tell me to rename the video to something else.........but you enjoyed parts 1-4.
So...I should rename it? Odd...seeing as none of your criticisms have to do with the historical information on Dracula, so why should I rename it? And it's not a good "essay," which is also odd since you liked over half of what I had to say, so why are you discrediting it? Your actions present you as an overly angry individual.
You simplified the crux of this video down to a single line that I said which you think I should not have said so loosely. Now who's oversimplifying?
You could have easily just said "Hey man, in this part, there were other moments where the nations allied themselves such as the Battle of Vasuli." I would have been grateful for the information. Your over the top and over dramatic reaction now only makes me see you as petty, emotional, and rather irritating.