Interesting podcast. Regarding Bram Stoker's Dracula, I don't know what the original intention of the developers was when Bloodlines came out, but the novel is not exactly part of the storyline. People often point to the offical timeline that contains a short blurb that mentioned Quincy Morris defeated Dracula or something, but it never actually mentions the novel anywhere. There are also some conflicts that make the novel and the games impossible to fit together. I think it's best to think they merely borrowed the Quincy Morris character and waved a Castlevania story around him. Also a little fun fact: the actual novel takes place in 1892 or 1893 while the event on the offical timeline takes place in 1897, which is the year in which the novel was first released.
This is why I have often wished for a Castlevania Edition of Dracula, perhaps as a collectible extra released with a future CV title or even as a standalone game or visual novel. I even requested it as an unlockable in the Castlevania Anthologies petition (
www.change.org/petitions/castlevania-anthologies). I have always assumed that the characters and basic story flow of Bram Stoker's novel were similar in CV lore with minor adjustments to time frame and other details. And if you're referring to John Morris' age and how it would've been impossible for a two-year-old child to follow Quincey around during the hunt for Dracula, I have a loose theory on that...
Quincey was not trained to use the Vampire Killer. We're not even sure if he knew about his Belmont connection or whether he possessed the whip or not. But we DO know that John got it from somewhere. In all likelihood, the Vampire Killer either came into contact with Quincey (perhaps even post-mortem or at his grave), or it could have come into contact with the Bowie knife he used against Dracula. Whichever the case, the Vampire Killer's supernatural qualities may have given John flashbacks of his father's mortal battle against the dark lord, resulting in false memories. And as far as Quincey being Lucy's suitor goes, well, he seemed like a bit of a playboy and may have illegitimately conceived John with another woman a few years before. Or we could assume that John's mother was just one of many female tragedies in the Castlevania timeline.
Fudging the 1897 time discrepancy isn't a big deal, as it simply matches the 1797 SotN resurrection reset caused by Shaft.
I would also like to see a CV edition of Dracula establish that Prof. Abraham Van Hellsing was somehow connected to Ecclesia alongside Shanoa and Albus. If that's true, Van Hellsing himself may have been aware of Quincey's blood connection to the Belmonts. Perhaps he would have been the one entrusted with the Vampire Killer before passing it to John in his father's abscence. That could even explain the false memory thing that I mentioned before...
Just some thoughts.