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I want to suck your blood - Vampires and the vampire concept

What if Vampire's weakness to garlic was an allergic reaction rather than anything fatal? That way, it's less a way of fighting vampires and more a way of detecting them.
 
Muhkat Lomorki said:
What if vampires were based on leeches and/or mosquitos?
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I wish more Vampires were based on them. I don't find bats to be scary if anything they're just super cute. And that goes for bat based monsters, Varghulfs are adorable and I won't let anyone tell me otherwise.

On the other hand leeches or mosquitos aren't cute in the slightest and thus Vampires based on them would IMO be much scarier than the more traditional bat-themed Vampires. A perfect example would be the Darkest Dungeon Vampires, they were based on mosquitos and as such in my view are much more unnerving than most bat-themed vampires.
 
The vampires in Darkest Dungeon were based on mosquitos, and ticks. Weirdly enough there were no leech based vampires.

If there was a TV Show about an organization of vampire hunters, it would be neat if part of that entailed researching what kind of vampire they were dealing with. Is it a European vampire, or a Jian Shi?
 
Also idea: the symbology that hurts a vampire depends on what the vampire was faithful about before getting turned into a bloodsucking undead abomination.

For example, a Christian vampire will get hurt by a cross, while a super patriotic vampire will get hurt by, like, the national anthem or whatever.

That, or vampires are hurt by the faith of people projected upon an object when that particular object makes contact with them.

What do you think sounds more interesting?
 
The zombie vampire things in the Doctor Who episode The Curse of Fenric had the vampires be warded off by any kind of faith/belief. A Soviet soldier was able to ward them off through his belief in Communism.
 
As far as urban fantasy goes, I think countering them with what they most had faith in while living works the best.

Not only does it make a fair bit of sense (as things perverted from their original selves, or spirits puppeteering their original body in mockery of that original soul, that reminder of the things they held sacred is painful) it also allows for the need for investigative legwork (this guy was an atheist before he turned, quick, try to dig through his old Facebook posts and see what might be something he held dear enough to be repulsed by now. It better not be anime girls again, though.)
 
Sir Bill said:
As far as urban fantasy goes, I think countering them with what they most had faith in while living works the best.

Not only does it make a fair bit of sense (as things perverted from their original selves, or spirits puppeteering their original body in mockery of that original soul, that reminder of the things they held sacred is painful) it also allows for the need for investigative legwork (this guy was an atheist before he turned, quick, try to dig through his old Facebook posts and see what might be something he held dear enough to be repulsed by now. It better not be anime girls again, though.)
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Scott Westerfeld's novel Peeps used this.
 
Just bringing garlic back up for a second, I was told once that the reason it's a well-known vampire weakness is because of the plant's association with the Archangel Michael. Couldn't find any sources backing this up that weren't kinda on the New Age-y side though.
 
Consider: Vampires are traditionally repelled by religious inconography, and most prominently, Christian iconography. Waving crosses around and all that.

Consider: Christianity - specifically Catholicism - has a prominent, important ritual where a figure of power consumes the blood of a sacrificed martyr god.

Consider: The traditional vampire is the loser of two millennia old political struggle, where the winner effectively rules much of the known world, subsisting on blood created by magical ritual. They're repelled by crosses as a political symbol, like you or I would be disgusted by someone waving a swastika.
 
Muhkat Lomorki said:
Also idea: the symbology that hurts a vampire depends on what the vampire was faithful about before getting turned into a bloodsucking undead abomination.

For example, a Christian vampire will get hurt by a cross, while a super patriotic vampire will get hurt by, like, the national anthem or whatever.

That, or vampires are hurt by the faith of people projected upon an object when that particular object makes contact with them.

What do you think sounds more interesting?
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Could be other means , the crucifix is also a super painful torture device like the breaking wheel.
 
So, for Halloween, I read Carmilla and Dracula. And I have to say, there is a ton of sexual undertones. Largely portaning to the forbidden side of sexuality and relationships.

Carmilla is clearly a story about a lesbian vampire, and a girl who is quite unsure about her sexuality. It deals with homosexual feelings through the lens of a horror story. It could be a metaphor about how such feelings are monstrous, or are treated as monstrous. But at the same time, Camilla's relationship with the protagonist is portrayed as a genuine love and affection, but one that would doom the young lady.

Even then, the vampire is in many ways treated a victim herself; she never wanted to be what she became, felt guilt and shame for her actions, but at the same time could not stop herself. So, hmm, I don't think I'm eliquent enough to get across what I'm saying, but there is a tragedy to Carmilla. A sense, that if things had been a bit different, there could have been happiness there.

Unlike Dracula (so far, I haven't finished it yet.)

Dracula deals with to rape and sexual assault to a large degree. A young child is kidnapped from their home by a rich noble to feed his and his brides sick perversions, two young women are attacked in their bed over a period of weeks til one of them sickens and perishes. He even forces Mina Harker to suck his blood, forcing her head to his chest in a moment that in hind-sight was clearly an allusion to sexual assault.

Also xenophobia; the count is a foreigner, from an Eastern European country that is largely Catholic. A group the protestant English of the time looked down on and even feared. Look at how John Harker talks so condescendingly at the woman who handed him a crucifix, he indulges her but makes no bones that he thinks these people are simple and fearful.


It is, in many regard quite on the nose.

Even Blade deals with this; the MC is a Bi-Racial man, born from two people of differing races. Something that in even the more liberal parts of America would have been quite Taboo up until quite recently. Another odd example would be The Crimson Court from the Darkest Dungeon - There vampires are about the excesses of nobility, their cruelties and abuses and how far they could fall, and to serve as a contrast to the Ancestor, for all their foulness, they never got as evil as he did.

So, in my estimation, Vampires are about confronting taboos, things we are uncomfortable talking about, so uses these creatures of the night as means of conveying such things.
 
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comradepitrovsky said:
Consider: Vampires are traditionally repelled by religious inconography, and most prominently, Christian iconography. Waving crosses around and all that.

Consider: Christianity - specifically Catholicism - has a prominent, important ritual where a figure of power consumes the blood of a sacrificed martyr god.

Consider: The traditional vampire is the loser of two millennia old political struggle, where the winner effectively rules much of the known world, subsisting on blood created by magical ritual. They're repelled by crosses as a political symbol, like you or I would be disgusted by someone waving a swastika.
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Sounds like the perfect kind of EDGE for a 90s vampire movie.
 
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