Greetings fellow Hellsing fans!

For introductions, please allow me. My name is Robert H., fan of Hellsing and Kouta Hirano, and freetime fanfic writer. I just discovered the beutiful mythology of vampires a few years ago, when I became obsessed with the Hellsing manga. I was inspirated by Hirano's story so much, I wanted to write a book more than ever before, and for that I needed material. From that second I started to analize myths, stories, books and legends of the dark world. In the last years I used large part of my freetime, to collect as many informations about these creatures, such as werewolves and vampires, as possible.

When the waste of Stepheine Meyer has reached my little country in Eastern Europe, I was shocked by the fact, that somebody who disrespects and disfigure mythological creatures this way, can become so popular. You can understand what I felt. After the work I've put into design my storyline and universe of my book, I see that someone can make millions just with making a shit as romance story and put the word „vampire" into it. I stopped writing my book, since I belive that no publisher would value the way I picture vampires anymore and the way Hirano or Bram Stoker or all great horror authors painted them. Of course there is always hope, and my hope is in you fellow Hellsing fans!

A few days ago I deciced to create this Fan made Hellsing Guide for everyone who admires the true nature of vampires. I try to use my knowledge to reveal the secrets behind the Hellsing universe and vampires just for 3 reasons. Once, I belive here is a lot talented and understanding young writers who are interested in informations like these. Second, I hope this little guide will help you understand the characters of hellsing, their personalities and the meaning of their presence in the story. And for the Third and last, I hope you will be also inspired and we will get even more hellsing fanfics and originality in the future!

Before I begin, I have to warn everyone about it that this Guide is about the manga and the OVA series, from the beginning to the end. That means, it will contain a lot of spoilers. I also inform you that I ignore the TV series. Simply, because Hirano had nothing to do with it. Real Hellsing fans are the fans of the guy who created Hellsing, Kouta Hirano. Means, we ignore the shitty love triangle created by the TV series director, Umanosuke Iida. So, if everyone is ready I suggest we begin our tour in the Hellsing universe with the first Article.

1, Bram Stoker's Alucard in Hellsing
The Fictional and Historical Dracula

What is Hellsing? Where is this Universe? Where is the story taking place.

Hellsing takes place in a paralell universe where vampires and other creatures exists. But can we really state it this way? Hellsing is one of the special universes where reality and fantasy mixes each other. Let's see a similar case. Hellboy or Captain America. Both have comics about themselves in their own universes, but the authors of these comics don't know them personally, and probably they have never done the things that they have done in the comics of that universe. They were only inspired by the rumors. Other case is when the author writes about a meeting between him and the character he created. Like Sten Lee, pictures Spiderman visiting him in his own universe. But the fact is that in these universes, the comics and the actual stories have nothing to do with each other. But not in Hellsing Universe. What am I talking about? Let me explain. Remember the first meeting between the Wild Geese and Integra? Well, you must also remember that Integra told them how they will fight vampires. And the final words "For further instructions consult Bram Stoker." This are the words I am talking about right now.

Bram Stoker's Dracula exists in the Hellsing universe, just like it exists in ours. The main difference between the Hellsing universe and other fictional universes, that in Hellsing universe, fiction is partly or mostly matches reality. In Alucard's flashbacks we can see an event of Bram Stoker's book happen, the defeat of Dracula. Also the hero of the book, Abraham van Helsing, is the ancestor of a main character, Integra. Even though the Bram Stoker's name is only heard in the OVA, and not in the manga, it's still interesting. Not just because Bram Stoker's Dracula is one of the most widely known vampire novels, Hirano himself used it as the base of his story. The whole Hellsing is based on the events and characters of the book. But why is that important, you ask? My question is: If Bram Stoker's book really exists in the Hellsing universe, and it has similarities with the real events of that universe, who was Bram Stoker in this world? And better question is, what he altered between reality and the book. Only thing that we can say for sure, that the ending was altered. Since Alucard is Dracula himself, it is obvious that he wasn't killed the way the book tells us. So who was Stoker? Member of the round table? They probably needed to cover up the murderings done by Dracula, like the missing ship crew. And the best way to do that was to make people belive that the rumor is only fiction. Like they say "If you want to hide the truth put it in a book".

Other thing that must be mentioned, that Hirano altered other events of the book. Just in case you haven't read the original Bram Stoker novel, forgot what you have seen in movies that claim to be "authentic adaptations". First of all, Bram Stoker never confirmed that Dracula is Vlad the Impaler. In his book this is only a theory of Van Helsing. But Hirano connects these two and makes it obvious, that Vlad Tepes and Dracula (and Alucard) are one and the same person. The events he had to endure as a human are perfect explanation for his behaviour, personality and hatred towards the weak.

Vlad II was forced to give his sons to the Ottoman Sultan as hostages. The years he enjured as hostage, hardened him, turned him cold, filled up his heart with hatred and despise against the Ottoman Turks, his brothers and father. He became a person who couldn't rely on anyone, couldn't trust anyone beside himself and god. After the Sultan was convinced about that the Dracul family is loyal to him, he released Vlad, who took back his throne. Since he didn't trusted anyone he quickly exterminated everyone who was a threat to his power. Many noble families ended up impaled, some of them were worked to death. In the meantime he was also disgusted by the human fallibility, the high crime rate in the country. In fact, Vlad didn't had any religion, since he couldn't do any religious services among the Turks, he wasn't actually aware of it where he belongs. But he did belived in god, and the Bible, so he possibly would've stated himself a christian. That two thing gave him enough reason to see criminals as useless freaks, and start a genocide against everyone who have done anything that the Bible considered as crime. A starving man stole a piece of bread or a young woman was charged with adultery. Both ended up impaled in the stake forest of Vlad Tepes. Vlad the Impaler was a monster when he was a human. He became cold and intolerant and mistrustful, who only relied on two things. Himself and god. And for god he was ready to kill anyone.

If we talk about Alucard's personality, we have to compare Hirano's Alucard with Stoker's Dracula. Many people misunderstand this character, giving him too much humanity. Picture him as a humble noble man, who tries to enjoy enternity, and searches for something or someone to fill up his empty days, sometimes even make him fall in love. That attitude and human like understanding of these creatures is the reason why this romantic vampire nonsense exists. The final realization of that trend is the Twilight series, which is literary garbage. Real enternal vampires like Dracula do not seek or feel love or any human joys, simply because they are too far away from being human. Hirano knew that and captured Stoker's Dracula perfectly, and that is one of the main reasons I respect him more than anyone, ever before. Four words: Dracula Is A Monster. Murdering a whole crew of a ship, raping and turning Lucy Westenra into a vampire, feeding a newborn child to his servants, kidnapping Mina Murray, forcing her to drink his blood, and some people still belive that he has any human feelings, especially „love"? I don't think so. Dracula is a horror novel. Horror novels need monsters. And there is no monster scarier than the one that takes the shape of a human but actually has nothing human within himself. Bram Stoker painted the nosferatu as heartless demons of the night, death inside and out. Simply at is, Dracula was once human, he knows the powers and weaknesses of humans, and he uses them well. Bram Stoker pictured Dracula as a selfish, inhuman sociopath who uses vampiric magnetism (or for hellsing fans "evil love beam") on his victims, acts like a gentleman to make innocent girls fall in love with him, than murders them, drinks their blood, and maybe turns them into his servants. It is widely suspected that Dracula is possibly not consideres his servants/ brides /daughters as human beings, persons to be loved. They were more like pets, things that he keeps around for his entertainment. The Dracula of Bram Stoker is not capable to feel "love", since such human feeling would picture him much less terrifying. It is also assumed that Mina wasn't even his main target. He was after the mens who would've tried to save her. That's the reason he turned her slowly. Bram Stoker's Dracula lives a self destructive lifeform, searching for conflict, provoke fight with the strongest opponents, like Jonathan Harker, who would've fight for his love, and Van Helsing, who obviously will try to save a young girl from a monster. Hirano understood this perfectly and pictured Alucard as an animal led by instincts and fighting. Monsters like Dracula, have nothing else left than death. Die by the hand of someone worthy. The whole point of Hellsing is this: Humans who were born with the instinct, that their time in this world is limited, do not have the willpower to enjoy this world forever. Seeking their own death, they wage wars, endlessly searching for the one who will set an end to their unlife. That is the reason Hirano's Alucard is perfect adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula character, in many ways.

Now, to the final, after we analyzed the personality of Alucard, and compared it with the most horrific version of Dracula and Vlad, we can see that Hirano did a great work with his charachter. But there is one main difference between Bram Stoker's and Kouta Hirano's Dracula. Namely, the change of lifestyle after the defeat of him. This submissive behaviour is unexplained by the creator, also it wouldn't make many sense if we would look at Alucard as a human being. For those who think that the pentagramm on Alucard's gloves has anything to do with controlling him, I must say that would be the most disadvantageous way to explain the situation. It is not explained by Hirano how Alucard became a servant. Perhaps he admired the courage of Van Helsing or simply was brainwashed to become a servant. Maybe it can be also explained with animal insincts, defeated dog becomes subordinate of the stronger alpha-dog? Whatever the answer may be, we can be sure that the personality of Alucard in Hellsing has not changed even a bit. He is the same bloodthirsty sociopath from Bram Stoker's Dracula. But than how should we understand this paradox? A monster serving a human? I belive we already have an even more monstrous answer for this character to understand what happened to him after his deafeat. Someone who becomes a servant when he has even a slight chance of fighting or escape, has probably nothing else left. No dreams, no friends, no goals, but the hope. Hope that someone will lead him into a fight where he can finally find the human that gives him the death he longed for. Alucard has nothing else left, he is not allowed to posses anything, not even his own life. That is Kouta Hirano's Nolifeking.

I hope you enjoyed this little analysis /theory/explanation of mine!
I'm sorry for my bad english, but I hope you found it interesting!

Tell me if you are interested in more!

2, Sources and symbols of power in Hellsing
the secret behind Alucard's coffin