Our Vampires Are Different/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

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* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' 's vampires are described as a type of demon (just one of many) possessing a corpse and are said to lack souls, explaining their amoral behavior. They have [[Game Face|"demonic" faces]] that only appear just before they feed or during a fight, or any other time [[Rule of Cool|the writers want them to look more intimidating]] -- [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|Whedon explained in interviews that he was unnerved by the thought of a teenage girl murdering normal looking people on network television, so the "vamp face" was created to allow for guilt-free slaying.]] Vampires have many of the usual traits otherwise, including sensitivity to sunlight (although very much the direct-sunlight-only variety; put them in any kind of shadow and they're quite cozy) and the stake-through-the-heart kill. [[No Body Left Behind|When killed, however, they turn to dust instantly]] -- a conscious decision by the producers, since they didn't want to devote time in every episode of a teenage-oriented show to "Well, let's clean up all the '''dead bodies'''."

** Buffyverse vampires are ''insanely'' allergic to wood. Bram Stoker's Dracula needed a stake of ash wood severed from the tree by a bolt of lightning driven through his heart, and that was just to keep him in place. Buffyverse vampires however "dust" when stabbed in the heart with a pencil or chopstick, and crossbows are a common weapon despite their modern-day impracticality. You still have to hit the heart, though -- Angel's taken wooden stakes in the neck, the arm, the shoulder, and in one case in the chest but ''just'' missing the heart, and was only mildly discomfited. The rib cage also seems to [[Made of Plasticine|cave in immediately against wood]], as vampires have been staked with blunt wood objects, such as a spatula handle or a tree branch, and without much force behind the blow (Xander accidentally staking Jesse, in fact just any non-augmented human staking a vampire basically implies their ribs can't handle any damage from wood - at one point it's stated outright that wood goes through vampire flesh like a hot knife through butter).

'''Xander:''' They can fly?

'''Buffy:''' They can drive. }}

*** It seems as though the demon inside manifests more and more clearly as time goes by. This is explored by implication (rather than explicitly said) during the series 2 finale arc when Angel and his team end up in Pylea. Pylea shows an in-universe case of vampires being different in different dimensions. In Pylea, vampires can walk around in the sun and reflect. However, when they transform, they don't simply have a shadow of their beast on their face as is the case in the show's normal dimension: the demon fully manifests and what's revealed is pure monster. However, the traits normal vampires reveal and which become increasingly visible in older vampires such as the Master are clearly visible, such as the dramatic eye ridges and sharply pointed ears. If the Pylea experience is anything to go by then if a vampire in the normal world manages to become old enough even horns/spines will start manifesting eventually.

** After seeing old newspaper shots of Angel, Cordelia remarks "It isn't that vampires don't photograph, they just don't photograph WELL."

** It is said that Wraiths have a [[Healing Factor]] dependent on when they fed last. A well-fed Wraith can knock humans across walls and swallow up to forty bullets before dying - as Sheppard puts it, "I can see you just fed which means your regenerative powers are at their highest... but I seriously doubt you can grow a new head". However, their physiology is similar enough to humans that Wraith weapons designed to stun humans work on their owners as well. Additionally, a retrovirus can suppress the insect DNA, transforming the Wraith in question into a regular human with amnesia (temporarily unless a viral inhibitor dose is also used regularly).

** They're known to have a great weakness: a virus that makes a human not only immune to Wraith feeding, it also kills the offending Wraith. Plus, although they have a hive-like hierarchical society, they are quite willing to kill each other or resort to cannibalism if there's not enough food for all of them (as in the case of the show). In a sharp difference to vampires from other fiction, Wraiths can actually reverse the feeding process and transfer their own life force into someone else to heal them and restore their youth. They never do this lightly and reserve it to their closest worshippers and comrades only. Another weakness is revealed later: Wraith children are omnivores and can sustain themselves on any kinds of normal food but once they reach puberty, their digestive tract reverts to a dormant state. Hence the need for vampirism. In the final season, a modified version of the Wraith-to-human retrovirus is available to leave the subject as a Wraith but removes their feeding orifice, reactivating their digestive tract instead.

* Tragically few details are given about the specifics vampiric nature of [[Sesame Street|Count von Count]], but he is known to have the obsessive-compulsive bit and is suggested to have control of the weather. Uniquely, he also has purple skin, although if this is a result of vampirism, puppet-ism, or the combination of the two is unknown. He has been seen in the sun, although, again, his lack of actual skin brings into question whether other vampires of his world are similarly immune or if it is a puppet advantage.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' had a "salt vampire" that could look like it's victim's ideal love/sex object. This allowed it to find victims when straight salt wasn't available.

** The vampires also need a formally worded invitation before they can enter a human residence, and said invitation can be rescinded at any time, whereupon the vampire gets picked up and physically hurled from the house by an invisible forcefield.

** Drinking fairy blood gives a vampire ''temporary'' immunity to sunlight and it can have similar effects on vampires as V does to humans.

** These vampires cannot be staked. In his first appearance, Tesla was impaled against a cave wall and was mildly annoyed (ruined a good suit). He was then impaled by [[Jack the Ripper|Druitt]]'s hand and was thought to have been killed until revealed to have survived. Explosions, especially of the nuclear kind, work well, though.

** There's also more to turning a human into a vampire than a simple bite. Tesla worked for decades trying to figure out how to make more like him without the source blood.

* In one episode of the horror anthology series ''[[Monsters]]'', a couple of teenage boys investigate the local barbershop, noticing that the barbers have been around for a very long time without aging and that customers sneak in carrying large bottles of blood. One of them is convinced that the barbers are vampires, while his friend (the narrator who is recounting this tale from his youth to a barber) thinks he's nuts. It turns out that the barbers aren't vampires, but they are in league with one. The barbers explain to the narrator that vampires used to be the stereotypical monsters seen in classic horror films, but over the centuries they have become giant near-immobile ''leeches''. The barbers of the world are the vampires' caretakers -- they and their customers give large quantities of their own blood to the vampires in exchange for small quantities of the vampires' blood which allows humans to live for a very long time (hence why the barbers don't seem to age). The barbers try to convince the narrator and his friend to join them by letting them taste their master's blood. In the present day, it's shown that the two accepted the offer.