What was Mehmet's plan if he actually beat Vlad in the final confrontation? The other vampires were outside slaughtering his entire army. Sure, he had silver, but it took a huge amount, far more than he could carry by himself, to slow Vlad down enough to make him beatable. Technically, Mehmet could still kill the other vampires with his silver sword, but they'd all be at full strength if he fought them outside of his tent, so it's doubtful he'd be able to kill one, let alone all of them. He could flee during the day, but was there really anywhere within a day on foot he could flee TO!?! A place with enough silver to keep him safe from a clan of vampires whose leader he just killed!?! Seriously, he was screwed any way you slice it.
Given what Vlad did it's likely Mehmet just wanted to take him out regardless of whether he survived. He may have also had a chance to escape since perhaps if the other vampires did not realize silver's effect on them they would have been scared to go near him, the former is probably more likely though the latter is possible (also was Mehmet's armour silver under that gold? It looked like it when Vlad enters the tent so perhaps he thought he had a chance wearing that?).
It's not like Mehmet knew there were going to be other vampires. As far as he knew Vlad was the only one.
Maybe he assumed that killing Vlad would weaken or even defeat those whom he had turned.
The only reason the vampires were able to attack was because Vlad clouded out the sun. If he died, maybe the clouds would disperse.
Vampires have a reflection...why? It's not even a production error; there's an extended scene that shows Vlad fighting entirely via reflection. Even with Our Vampires Are Different, that's a rule that never seems to be broken.
Actually it's been quite consistently broken since the 90s. Interview with the Vampire and Underworld (2003) to name just two examples. That said, it usually seems to be subverted when vampirism is established as viral, rather than supernatural (with Interview as something of an exception to this rule), so it is still a bit strange.
That happened before he was a full vampire, and he still lacks some powers and weaknesses. Maybe the no-reflection thing hasn't kicked in yet?
Having no reflection being part of vampire lore comes from the fact that mirrors used to be backed with silver. If that sword, or anything else he was reflected in, wasn't silver then the no-reflection thing doesn't apply.
It actually comes from the idea that a vampire is a soulless demon possessing a human corpse, and superstition that the picture that you see in the mirror reflects your soul, not body. Any connection to silver has been a later retcon. But I suppose it still fits; this version of Dracula is clearly the same person he was in life.
Everyone who dips into the realm of vampire fiction has strengths and weaknesses of vampires they find awesome and silly. Vampires turning into wolves or mist? Awesome. Vampires turning into one, regular-size bat? Silly. Vampires needing an invitation to enter and being repelled by garlic? Awesome. Vampires having to untie all knots and count all grains of rice they encounter? Silly. Reflections in particular are one bit that's gone back and forth, since it either makes them much more sneaky and creepy, or begs the questionhow do they look so fabulous when they can't even comb their own hair?
The Elder Vampire said that if he was free, he'd wage war against the demon that condemned him. Vlad is against that, finding it evil. So when he gives into bloodlust, the Elder Vampire is freed...and apparently does nothing or contacts Vlad until more than 500 years later. What's he waiting for?
He was probably busy actually finding said demon, and probably the other monsters he'd need for his revenge.
Maybe he hunted down and murdered the demon, and only then turned his attention to Vlad.
Why was the Elder Vampire never revealed as the Emperor Caligula, as the script and casting originally intended?
Most likely they wanted to keep things mysterious for the shared universe, following reshoots to make this movie a part of it.
They also didn't really have a decent point where they COULD do that reveal.
Seconded. It really doesn't add anything to the movie except maybe a Genius Bonus.
How exactly did Mehmet come to the conclusion that blindfolding his army was a good idea? Not being able to see what's killing them in droves would only serve to make the soldiers panic more.
It seemed it was some kind of trial thing he did years prior, to teach them, I assume, to fight without fear. The soldiers were used to fighting this way, so it made an effective way to keep them from being scared by what they saw of his power. Considering they were just a distraction so he could kill Vlad's wife and take his son, it didn't matter if they were effective, just that they weren't scared.
Judging by his speech to them, it was entirely a psychological device: his troops have seen that Vlad can do things they'd considered impossible (turning into bat swarms, throwing armored warriors around like rag dolls), and are intimidated by this fact. Mehmet proves that they can do things they'd thought were impossible too, like marching in formation while they can't see squat.
Why was sunlight so inconsistent at being harmful to Dracula? After becoming a vampire, there are multiple scenes where the light source is clearly sunlight, yet does nothing to Dracula. In fact, there is one scene where the light on him is so bright that it actually makes him so white as to be hard to see. It's almost like a spotlight. They are inside and the only other light around is from torches. Light in general is iffy during much of the movie. They establish early on that the cave of the Elder Vampire is pitch black without a torch. Yet later on, scenes in the cave are as well lit as outside scenes in the movie, despite the lack of any light source. Nearly all of the night scenes have clear sunlight in them that should be burning Dracula. There are definitely multiple scenes that are only lit by sunlight that do no harm to Dracula.
Maybe they went the Buffy route and only direct sunlight does damage.
How did Mehmed knew Vlad had a weakness for silver?
Presumably a major world-leader would have access to scholars who knew what a vampire was. It's not like Vlad had a lot of trouble finding out.
The Turks believed in vampires...to the point that some folklorists suspect that the Ottomans imported many of the "classical" folklore about vampires to the Balkans.
Source for that? There is nothing resembling a Vampire in any Central Asian mythology. On the whole, it's more akin to Germanic and Northern European myths, with giants, big angry wolves, demons and witches, but nothing about Vampires. The closest possible thing is that the Turkic word "ubyr" sounds a little like vampire, but "ubyr" means "witch" or "wise woman", and doesn't necessarily have a negative connotation like vampire does.
In addition to being a world leader, the real life Mehmed was known for being a very well-read person. It's likely this fictional counterpart could've heard reports from survivors, read up on what they told him and connected the dots.
If I understood things right, the Ottoman army killed all the people in Transylvania. Then, Dracula gave his blood to the last survivors, turning them into vampires. The vampires then killed the whole Ottoman army, and when they turned against Dracula's son, Dracula removed the clouds and the sun killed them all. Ingeras is then crowned king of Transilvania... but wait. King of which kingdom? If the Ottomans killed them all, and the survivors burned in the sun and died as well, which Transilvanians still remain? The monks?
He killed everyone in that particular fortress. That said, all the nobles were probably dead, and some neighboring principality probably stepped in and held the actual coronation, just because "legitimate rulers" being in power was important back then.
It was established early on that only a portion of Transylvania's populace was going to that monastery, meaning that there were others back home.
When Dracula charged the Turks assaulting his castle, why did all of them turn around to fight him? Why not have the front keep advancing to sack the keep while the rest fought the single man? Since no one knew what Vlad became, what justified having the whole army stick around for him?
They probably didn't all turn around to fight him; I imagine there were a few who made it to the castle walls, but were dealt with easily enough by the defenders. Also, Vlad didn't need the entire army's attention, just the attention of whoever was commanding the front ranks. Once he got them to turn around - out of curiosity and confusion, if nothing else - he could stonewall the rest.
In the final fight, why the hell is Vlad's armor evaporating when Mehmed is trying to stab him? I get that Vampires are vulnerable to having their hearts pierced, but even for a fantasy film, that doesn't explain why armor started evaporating. It's literally meant to protect Vlad from getting stabbed.
It's theorised that Dracula was preparing to turn into bats, as shown, his clothing changes with him, and what we were seeing was it starting in slow motion and Dracula was actually starting to change from the heart outwards, either that or if you take a wooden stake close to a vampires heart in this universe it has mystic properties that dissolve any protection, like some weird form of an act of God.
