Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25491743-20161231205745/@comment-25375217-20170103042038

He's not a non-fictional character (he is "believed" to have "some aspects" "based on" a real person), and even if it does, why would it make a difference? His story would still likely take place sometime around the same time as the rest of the characters - meaning well after 1897 when Bram Stoker first wrote about him. (Well, not necessarily, since he's like immortal or something... but the fact that Ariel's story took place in 20th-21st century when Hans Christian Andersen first published it in 1837, among other similar plotholes, still undermines your argument of avoiding plotholes :P)