Finally, the legacy of Vlad and the memory of his reign illustrate how history, politics, and myth intertwine. In Romanian historical memory, Vlad has been alternately cast as a national hero, a local tyrant, and a complex historical actor; internationally, he became emblematic of the Gothic and the monstrous. Examining his reign offers insight not only into medieval Wallachian politics and the geopolitics of Ottoman expansion, but also into the processes by which real rulers are transformed into symbols—often stripped of nuance—by later cultural currents.