Order of the Brides
On the now gone Hollow board one of the members wondered about the Order of the Brides, and we all agreed, just from looking at the movie, that we assumed Marishka to be the youngest and Verona to be the oldest.
But being member of Van Helsing Roleplay, I was told that Aleera was the youngest and that it said so on some trading card. I located it and the other ones at The official Van Helsing Site. But somehow they don't seem to fit what we have seen in the movie.
Let me show you the text and then comment on it:
Aleera
Insanely jealous of anyone who would dare compete for her master's affections, Aleera is the youngest and deadliest of Dracula's three brides. Obsessed with her merciless pursuit of Princess Anna, Aleera will stop at nothing to bring the Valerious bloodline to an end.
Insanely jealous? Excuse me for having seen another movie, but the Van Helsing version I saw did not have one little scene were she showed on an ounce of jealousy concerning Dracula. In fact she seemed pretty comfortable with Verona at her site even though both were in Dracula's arms.
If she was insanely jealous, why didn't she jump for joy, when Marishka was killed? After all she was only competetion ... instead the death of her fellow bride upset Aleera so much, that she completely forgot about her obsession with her merciless pursuit of Princess Anna and also to stop at nothing to bring the Valerious bloodline to an end.
And as for deadliest, in the movie I have seen that was Verona, she grabbed the guy in mid-flight, bit him, dropped him. What did Aleera do, fill up a little glass with blood from some guy, Anna sent into her claws and stared at it. Insane and a little cute maybe, but far from my definition of deadly, but maybe she just had her bad day.
Marishka
A devilishly clever vixen who uses her beauty as a weapon against all those foolish enough to challenge her, Marishka is the one bride who should never be underestimated.
Notorious for playing with her food before eating it, Marishka has made countless Transylvanian villagers wish for death long before it arrives.
Devilishly clever obviously is a nice way of saying manhunt model style. Marishka did not show much talent at using her beauty during the movie, apart from the obvious: she was smoking hot. Walking in front of Van Helsing showing him her fangs and thus what she really was isn't exactly smart. I guess that is why most of us believed her to be the youngest, thinking that her disasterous confrontation with Van Helsing was due to her inexperience.
Not to mention that if shoving Van Helsing around like that is her way of playing with her food, we can be sure that most villagers would have died pretty fast, because humans can't take that much damage. It isn't exactly stylish, but rather primitive. I can't even see from them movie were that trading card text fits in at all. It would have been nice to see it, but due to her incredible incapability of handling the situation, she was gone far too soon.
Verona
The oldest and most wordly of the brides, Verona has fought for centuries to rid the world of all those who stand in the way of Dracula's sinister plan.
As beautiful as she is deadly, the bloodthirsty Verona is Dracula's second in command both on the ground and in the sky.
You can't argue with the second part, Verona certainly did assume lead position at all points when Dracula wasn't around. But I was wondering - what sinister plan are we talking about? It could not have been the one seen at the movie, because before Dr. Frankenstein and his creature caught the Count's attention, the plan could not have been forged.
Maybe Dracula had planned for a much longer time to rid the world of all his life-stock so he and his brides could all starve together. It just suprising that if she indeed fought to rid the world of all enemies, why didn' the church knew about her and informed Van Helsing?
What do the cards tell us?
That they are either based upon a previous script or that whoever wrote them saw a different movie, at least when it comes to Marishka and Aleera.
And the members of the former Hollow Board aren't exactly alone with our opinion that Marishka seemd to be the youngest, as Silvia Colloca herself said: "They’re very good friends, but there’s a very delicate balance. Marishka’s really the little sister. Verona knows she’s the queen and Aleera’s very jealous—she’s always looking for the Master’s undivided attention. ". (comment found here)