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The story of the captain of a luxury cruise ship as well as the great-granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing and Dracula's fiancée, Ericka Van Helsing from the Hotel Transylvania franchise.
Early life[]
Ericka never knew her parents, and was instead raised by her great-grandfather, Abraham Van Helsing. Ericka spent most of her life, living aboard her great-grandfather's ship, the Legacy. During this time, she was taught by her great-grandfather to hate monsters.
Inspired by her family's legacy, Ericka was determined to succeed where her great-grandfather, had failed to finally destroy Dracula.
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation[]
The Cruise[]
Ericka makes her debut, doing acrobatics and greeting the monsters.
Ericka first appears when she hops on the rail bars, leaps off of a high ledge and does acrobatics on a rope in front of the crowd. She lands on the Crow's nest and happily welcomes the monsters in multiple different languages. She slides down onto the deck and finished her introduction, then continues greeting passengers. She waves hello to other monsters before she notices Dracula staring at her. She smiles and she starts to walks directly toward him and she becomes very flirtatious with him as she believes his babbling to be him speaking in Transylvanian. She attempts to copy what he says until Frank bumps in.
After the Pack hurries Dracula away, Ericka greets more monsters as she travels across the deck. She uses a secret passageway that leads deep into the bowels of the ship and enters a room at the end of a walkway. Once she is inside, she drops her cheerful smile and scowls at a portrait of Abraham Van Helsing as she expresses her disgust to him about the monsters on board. She said she hates monsters and wants to destroy them. Abraham then appears from the shadows in a much older looking and agrees with her.
Ericka confirms that Dracula is one of the passengers and then appears bored listening to her great-grandfather's plan about obtaining the Instrument of Destruction. She is impatient and tries to convince him to abandon the plan and let her handle Drac by herself, but he shuts her down. She is forced to promise him that she will not to try to kill Dracula and his family. But after Van Helsing suddenly falls asleep, Ericka smiles and says that she won't "try" to kill Dracula, she "will" kill Dracula.
The Cantina[]
After several failed attempts at killing Dracula, Ericka overhears him speaking with his friends about possibly asking her out on a date. She decides it's the perfect opportunity to get him alone and makes her presence known to the group. Despite Drac's immensely awkward attempt at asking her out, Ericka agrees with a smile. She makes a show of closing his mouth and coyly telling him, "Cantina. Midnight. Don't be late.", before walking away confidently.
Ericka and Drac having a dinner date at the cantina.
At the cantina, Ericka is pleasantly surprised when Drac compliments her outfit and pulls out her seat for her. When she's asked about her last name, she panics until the waiter brings chips and guacamole, which she uses to redirect the conversation. After distracting Drac that the moon is behind him, she pulls out a bottle of garlic oil and pours it over the guacamole, in which she believes to be deadly for vampires. She makes sure Drac gets as must as possible by hand-feeding him literal fistfuls of chips. Unfortunately for her, garlic is not fatal to vampires as Drac farts instead of dropping dead.
Ericka is unhappy with her newest failed attempt on his life and sulks on her side of the table until Dracula apologizes. He confesses that he is very nervous as he hasn't had a date since his wife died. Ericka is curious and concerned as she asks how old Mavis was at the time. Dracula tells her that Mavis was only an infant and that he raised her the best he could as a single father.
This strikes a chord with Ericka and she reveals that she never knew either of her parents and she was raised solely by her great-grandfather. She tells him that she was brought up on board the ship, and expresses some dissatisfaction that her career as a captain was decided for her. Drac reassures her that he understands, but while family is important and that they must honor the past, that they still make their own futures.
Drac's words are comforting to Ericka that she begins to see him in a different light. Both begin to lean over the table, but before anything more can happen, Mavis interrupts them angrily. Ericka watches Drac attempt to explain himself before excusing herself to avoid the awkward situation.
The following morning, Ericka is walking around the ship sulking about her conflicted feelings for Dracula. She is caught by Abraham and attempts to lie about her whereabouts all evening, but her outfit gives her away. He scolds her for risking the safety of the Legacy and insists that his plan will end Dracula and all monsters once and for all. Their conversation is overheard by Wayne and Wanda, but when Van Helsing darts them with tranquilizers, Ericka forces them down one of the exhaust pipes. She carries them both to a closet and locks them inside.
Atlantis[]
Upon arriving in Atlantis, Ericka is sent on her most important mission by Van Helsing; to obtain the Instrument of Destruction. She is easily able to sneak through the distracted crowd of gambling monsters by wearing a wide-brimmed hat and khaki jacket. She enters an area labeled off-limits for construction, unaware that Dracula saw her and is following her into the ruins. Ericka follows her great-grandfather's instructions about all of the secret passages and arrives at an underground pool.
Drac casually saving Ericka from a booby trap.
She removes her clothes to reveal a white wet suit hidden underneath and dives into an underwater passage inside a giant, semi-submerged stone nose. When she surfaces, she can see the artifact at the end of a massive staircase, being held between the thumb and index finger of a gigantic stone hand. In her excitement, Ericka fails to be aware of her surroundings and trips a booby trapped step, sending a battle ax flying right toward her unsuspecting head. Before it hits her, Dracula catches it and flings it away with ease.
Ericka is shocked that he would save her life, but Drac is very nonchalant about it, saying they are all the same. Ericka frowns in guilt, but is quickly distracted from her feelings when she realizes she doesn't know why Drac is here at all. He lies, saying that vampires can tell the future, but Ericka smiles and doesn't appear to believe him. When Dracula asks her the same, she scrambles to make up an explanation that she's retrieving a family heirloom, and that she can handle herself from here. She immediately sets off another trap, and Drac again saves her from being split by a battle ax.
Embarrassed, Ericka tries to laugh off her carelessness and asks him jokingly how many times he can save her life. When Drac replies with "I don't know, every time?", she decides to test how serious he is by jumping blindly into the next trap. Flames begin to erupt from the stone steps, but before she can be burned, Drac rushes to lift her, letting the fire burn him instead.
This elates Ericka and she continues triggering booby traps all the way up the stairs. Dracula guilds her lovingly through them all in a tango, taking the brunt of all of the traps for her. By the time they reach the top, Drac is full of darts and arrows, and has several snakes latched onto his arms, but Ericka is unharmed. She finds his skill and loyalty to his promise incredible and stares at him adoringly until he reminds her to get her family heirloom. Ericka scrambles up the stone statue and snags it, once more unintentionally setting off a trap, though this time it's every trap all at once.
Ericka can only hold onto the Instrument of Destruction while Drac carries her as fast as he can away from the collapsing room and through the underwater passage again. They shoot out of the water and land safely on the sand surrounding the pool. Ericka smiles at him and they both laugh that he has a battle ax stuck in his head. She offers to remove it for him, but as she grabs hold of the handle, Mavis appears from behind a fallen column and gasps in horror, thinking that Ericka has attacked her father.
Mavis grabs Ericka with magic and holds her up in the air, tightly enough that it actually causes Ericka pain. When Mavis refuses to release her, Drac confesses that he zinged with Ericka, which surprises Mavis enough to remove her hold on her. Ericka questions him about what a zing is and Drac tries to explain it is similar to "love at first sight". Ericka is horrified and immediately rejects the idea, knowing that she would never be allowed to love a monster. She tells him as much and hurriedly leaves with the artifact.
A Change of Heart[]
Ericka returns to the ship to deliver the Instrument of Destruction to her great-grandfather and hesitates with a sad sigh before opening the door. Her depressed mood goes unnoticed by Abraham as she stares out into the open ocean sadly while he celebrates. She accompanies him to the dance party he organized as a trap for the monsters.
At first, Ericka remains hidden while Abraham announces himself to Dracula from the DJ booth, only appearing by his side meekly when he makes mention of her. She's too ashamed to look directly at Drac, but Abraham instructs her to tell the devastated count who she really is. After some hesitation, she confesses that her full name is "Ericka Van Helsing" and that she is the great-granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing. Ericka stutters and tries to explain further, but Abraham cuts her off and opens the Instrument of Destruction. She stands by as he plays the evil song inside of it and brainwashes the Kraken to attack the crowd below.
Having a change of heart, Ericka rescues Drac from the mind-controlled Kraken.
When the Kraken begins to crush Dracula, Ericka looks at Dracula being crushed in nervousness. She finally chooses to act as she cries out "No!", leaps down from the DJ booth and begins to run to Drac's aid. She flips onto one of the Kraken's leviathan tentacles and starts sprinting toward where Drac is being held, when Dennis instructs Tinkles to assist her. The giant dog chases after her and throws her onto his back, traveling up the tentacle much faster than she could. Ericka is happy for the help and Tinkles gives her a boosted launch off of his back toward the Kraken's face. She spins several times before double-kicking him in the eye.
The pain from Ericka's attack surprises the Kraken and he releases Drac. Ericka rolls into a run on one of the other tentacles, then jumps to catch Dracula mid-air. She lands on her feet on another tentacle and skates down it, avoiding the other tentacles trying to grab them, until she leaps off and the pair roll toward a cliff edge. Ericka grabs onto the ledge and snatches Drac's wrist before he can fall into the water below.
She calls out to Abraham, demanding that he stop the attack. She tells him that he's wrong about monsters and that Dracula had actually saved her life. Ericka turns her attention back to Drac, who is still lifeless, and confesses to him completely; she explains that while she was trying to kill him before, she began to see how wrong her mentality was, and that she zinged with him too.
Ericka's love confession wakes Drac from his unconscious state. When Abraham questions what a zing is, Ericka informs him confidently that it's a monster thing, and that he wouldn't understand. Abraham attacks them both when Dracula compares it to "true love", but they appear again, with Ericka proclaiming that it's time they "start a new legacy" - a "monster-human" legacy.
Abraham strikes them with one of the Kraken's massive tentacles, and Ericka is pushed through the stone floor with Drac on top of her. Despite being dazed, this does not severely injure her, as she is able to leap across the broken dance floor to save Sunny from falling. Ericka is seen dancing the "Macarena" with the rest of the crowd as Johnny and Dracula defeat Abraham.
When Abraham falls from the cliff after his defeat, Ericka yells in distress, prompting Drac to catch him before he falls into the ocean. Ericka holds Drac's hand upon his return and contently leans in closer to him while Tinkles aggressively licks her great-grandfather. She turns to face him and tells him that he's amazing. They look into each other's eyes and this time, Ericka's eyes visibly shine as she gazes lovingly at Dracula.
Epilogue[]
Immediately after returning to the hotel, Ericka is seen sneaking around with a giddy Dracula. He leads her by hand through the lobby, up to the thirteenth floor, and onto the hotel roof. She teases him, calling him "sneaky pants" and asks if he's brought her up to the roof to suck her blood, "bleh-bleh-bleh!". Ericka is speechless when instead he asks her to marry him.
She begins stammering nervously, similar to how Drac did when they first met. After all of their friends and family appear on the other side of the roof to ask what her answer is, she blurts out excitedly, "Yes!" and the spider engagement ring jumps onto her ring finger. The monsters cheer while she and Drac share a romantic hug before Tinkles chases them off of the roof.
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania[]
During Hotel Transylvania's 125th anniversary celebration, Dracula informs Ericka that he planning to retire and leave the hotel to Mavis and Johnny. However, much to her shock and disappointment, the vampiric hotel manager decides not to tell everyone this news in fear of Johnny allegedly ruining the hotel.
Mavis and Ericka trapping the mutated Gigi with pipes.
Eventually, after the incident with a human-monster altercation ray gun, Dracula's friends Frank, Wayne, Griffin and Murray end up becoming humans as well, as a result of drinking from a fountain that was contaminated by the ray. After learning about Dracula and Johnny's whereabouts on the news, Mavis and Ericka confront Van Helsing, but they are attacked by Gigi, where Van Helsing discovers that the effects of the ray are unstable, as the monster transformation will keep mutating until the subject becomes a mindless beast. The rest of the gang head to South America to find Dracula and Johnny.
While traveling through South America, Dracula and Johnny begin to bond. Just then, the former begins to confess that he lied about the monster real-estate law, but the rest of the group finds them. Things turn sour when Dracula admits his deception regarding passing over the hotel to Mavis and Johnny. This prompts an upset and furious Johnny to believe Dracula doesn’t consider him family and to mutate further before running away.
Mavis goes to find Johnny while Dracula and the rest of the gang go to the Cave of the Reflexión. Mavis finds Johnny, but the transformation has turned him very volatile. She leads him to the cave where they finally find the crystal. Ericka and the team of monsters work together to protect Mavis from the sunlight, so she can turn Johnny back to normal, but however, nothing happens. Dracula lets himself get captured by Johnny and makes a speech about how he now sees him as family. This brings Johnny back to his senses, and he is returned to normal.
With Dracula and his friends back to normal, they return home but to find that the hotel has been destroyed by Gigi. After turning Gigi back to normal, Dracula decides to let Mavis and Johnny rebuild the hotel to their liking. One year later, Mavis and Johnny have rebuilt and modernized the hotel.