What is/isn't a vampire to you?

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CrimsonBlaze

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I basically point to any vampire in the Twilight saga and say, "Definitely not that."

More specifically, there is a general checklist that classifies a monster as a vampire:
* They have fangs that are capable of piecing flesh and drinking blood.
* If a vampire bites a mammal or causes the mammal to ingest vampire blood, the mammal will become a vampire.
* Vampires have no heart beat, and therefore, are technically corpses, never aging and can live forever.
* They are capable of having superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and dexterity. Some ignoring pain and even regenerate their injuries.
* Bright lights irritate their skin and impair their vision, so they are active in night and sleep/hide during the day.
* Sunlight irritates their skin and can cause them to completely burn up into ashes.
* Vampires may be allergic to garlic and religious symbols or blessed articles can irritate and kill them.
* Traditionally, vampires can be killed by driving a wooden stake into their heart.
* Vampires can also be vanquished by chopping their heads off.
* Vampires may be adept in magic, allowing them to hypnotize their victims, shape shift, and preform blood rituals.

These may or may not all apply, but I believe that these are the bare essentials.
 

Nieroshai

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With the core of a vampire being any humanoid being that needs blood to survive, almost all modern interpretations are valid. The term "vampire" is pretty much this. So yes, Edward is a vampire. The mythological vampire, however, was undead. It was an animated corpse that kept itself animate by consuming blood. Presumably the blood rejuvenated it. Some tales even were devoid of any kind of weakness to the typical fare, sunlight and holy things. A lot of the myths had vampires portrayed as bestial predators who were only passably human. Other than these core rules, anything goes in being a vampire. What we need is categories: what kind of vampire is it? The Cold Ones seemingly made of stone in Twilight? The aristocratic, manipulative murderers in Lestat's tales? The sorcerous nosferatu in Dracula? The fallen Carpathian supermen of the "Dark" series? The ravenous beasts in 30 Days of Night and other tales? Simply humans with porphyria? Are they biological or magical? Perhaps World of Darkness (the RPG system) does it best by featuring a plethora of different vampire breeds.
 

Nieroshai

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FalloutJack said:
Funny story, I had a course in college called "Vampires: Blood and Empire". Very educational. Real live vampires are...

{1} A bit pale.

{2} Merely annoyed or sickened by the sun.

{3} As mortal as we are, plus maybe anemic and often light-sensitive.

{4} Living, but with certain conditional drawbacks.

{5} Not immortal or any more long-lived than we are.

{6} Not healers by any greater extent, sometimes bleeders.

{7} About as varied in strength and speed as everyone else.

{8} Requiring blood regularly as their circulatory system is irregular to the point of needing new blood transfusions here and there.

I'm afraid the myth has really given them all a helluva reputation. Many people suffering from the true vampirism are irritated by everything in literature. Even seeing past it, some still connect it all to Vlad The Impaler, who supposedly hated the sun and drank blood while watching his enemies get impaled to death during his campaign against the Turks.
The big problem with this: drinking blood does not put it in the veins. It puts it in the colon. You can make up for an iron deficiency (porphyria) by consuming it, but not refresh your veins.
 

Nieroshai

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CrimsonBlaze said:
I basically point to any vampire in the Twilight saga and say, "Definitely not that."

More specifically, there is a general checklist that classifies a monster as a vampire:
* They have fangs that are capable of piecing flesh and drinking blood.
* If a vampire bites a mammal or causes the mammal to ingest vampire blood, the mammal will become a vampire.
* Sunlight irritates their skin and can cause them to completely burn up into ashes.
* Traditionally, vampires can be killed by driving a wooden stake into their heart.
Edited for the point.

If these are must-haves, and without them there is no vampirism, Dracula was not a vampire. He shape-shifted his fangs. He had elongated (wolf-like, you say?) canines, but when he fed, he mysteriously left a snake bite behind. This isn't a simple error, it's pointed out.
Dracula didn't feed on people's blood to turn them. He ritualistically fed them his own blood.
Dracula was stunned by light, it never damaged him.
Dracula put up a hell of a fight, after being staked, and had to be dismembered with bowie knives.

I hate to defend Twilight, but people's reasons for hating it have nothing to do with its flaws. How are the Cold Ones not vampires? They are undead, and they drink blood, which are literally the only qualifications to being a vampire. Sparkling is creative license. Stupid creative license, but nothing that rules out vampirism.
 

FalloutJack

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Nov 20, 2008
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Nieroshai said:
Hold on there, fella. I was addressing this very thing with Dopo if you were watching.

The first thing is that I said transfusion, the medical procedure to put blood into veins. The second thing is that we're not sure really if it's porphyria (which I said I hope not on grounds of madness and purple feces). Lastly, the only reference I made to actually drinking blood was what was started by Vlad Tepes supposedly doing it (mostly for effect and cruelty if not just liking it) as he watched people die of impalement. That's not even vampirism. That was to instill a horrified reaction from the Turks.
 

Dandark

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Im usually happy for writers to modify their idea of a vampire somewhat but I usually think of a vampire as....

Needing to drink blood.

Having a weakness to daylight, I am happy to see them adjust this so that they may not instantly burst into flame but daylight needs to have some significant negative effect on them so they can't stay out in it for too long.

At least one of them must be European, this is mandatory.

Other than this I am usaully happy with whatever they want to do with it but I tend to prefer the really powerful kinds, I really enjoyed the Carpathian series by Christian Feehan, I liked the vampires in that.
 

DoPo

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Jan 30, 2012
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Nieroshai said:
Dracula was stunned by light, it never damaged him.
No, he lost (most of?) his powers. During the day, he was just a random dude, but capable of very much being active and all that. Remember, there was that scene where they saw him outside during the day and he just looked as a creepy stalker guy - old wrinkly and ogling somebody (in a park, if I recall correctly).
 

IvoryOasis

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Oct 21, 2012
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Ooo this :3 But also, I love all the different takes on vampires. I think if every vampire was exactly the same in every movie that it would get old REALLY fast.

 

Olrod

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I think Vampires should take the best of both worlds, Twilight-wise vs. everything-else wise.

When in direct sunlight they should EXPLODE INTO A SHOWER OF GLITTER!
 

CrimsonBlaze

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Nieroshai said:
CrimsonBlaze said:
I basically point to any vampire in the Twilight saga and say, "Definitely not that."

More specifically, there is a general checklist that classifies a monster as a vampire:
* They have fangs that are capable of piecing flesh and drinking blood.
* If a vampire bites a mammal or causes the mammal to ingest vampire blood, the mammal will become a vampire.
* Sunlight irritates their skin and can cause them to completely burn up into ashes.
* Traditionally, vampires can be killed by driving a wooden stake into their heart.
Edited for the point.

If these are must-haves, and without them there is no vampirism, Dracula was not a vampire. He shape-shifted his fangs. He had elongated (wolf-like, you say?) canines, but when he fed, he mysteriously left a snake bite behind. This isn't a simple error, it's pointed out.
Dracula didn't feed on people's blood to turn them. He ritualistically fed them his own blood.
Dracula was stunned by light, it never damaged him.
Dracula put up a hell of a fight, after being staked, and had to be dismembered with bowie knives.

I hate to defend Twilight, but people's reasons for hating it have nothing to do with its flaws. How are the Cold Ones not vampires? They are undead, and they drink blood, which are literally the only qualifications to being a vampire. Sparkling is creative license. Stupid creative license, but nothing that rules out vampirism.
...Not sure if you're criticizing my post or defending Twilight.

First off, I mentioned at the end of my list that these may or may not all be attributed to a single interpretation of what constitutes a vampire. Not all vampires turn to ash in sunlight, not all are affected by religious idols, and there may be various manners of disposing them. I was merely making a list of what has been commonly attributed to vampires as a species.

Secondly, most of what you described about Dracula are what I listed in my post about some common characteristics of a vampire.

Lastly, I don't pick on Twilight vampires because its inception was largely to attract the attention of a female predominant audience, but because I feel like the author cannot stick to a consistent archetype of what constitutes a vampire. One minute they have vague magical powers, the next they are sparkling in sunlight, and the next they're having sex and impregnating humans.

Think Alucard from Hellsing and all will be right in the world.
 

DANEgerous

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Jan 4, 2012
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To me any cursed being of power should be a split of having massive benefits and massive drawbacks. Vampires should be blatantly more powerful than a human in every regard but must have serious drawbacks such as not being able to consume normal food, death by sunlight or silver or by being sapped by such things.

Rather simple to be honest.