Could Spike really be drowned?

Goby

Goby

Brb, shipping Snoyce
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Sineya
Remember in Season 7 when a supervampire (I forgot the proper name) is dunking Spike in water? I thought Spike doesn't breath, right? When the torture stops, Spike is breathing really heavy, like humans do. I thought it might be because he has a soul, but a few episodes later he actually says that he doesn't breath!

The major flaw caused me to drop Season 7 from a 10 to a 9.99999999. 🙂


PS (Sorry if this has been brought up before. I did a search and couldn't find it being discussed)
 
It does take some fanwanking. Maybe the crosses in the water had something to do with it? Or Spike's insanity, that made him feel like he was drowning?
 
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Ms.Trick
Oh, your banner is frigging awesome!
Spike does breathe...

just like any organ, the lungs work on an automatic muscle... that's why Spike smokes quite happily as well... it'd take more concentration for him to actually stop breathing than it would to just carry on as normal...

as for drowning him, it wouldn't kill him or anything, but even if you're not using your lungs like he doesn't, it's got to be uncomfortable to have them filled up with water, then once he's pulled out, the lungs expel the water as normal

that's how i see it anyway

M
 
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MRNewman
Agreed.
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StarSlayer
[No message]
G
Goldilocks
Good point.
I think I always saw it as a psychological thing. No matter how old a vampire is, they do maintain a few human traits, breathing being one of them. The First and the Turok-han were torturing Spike during that time, not just with drowning, but by projecting itself as Drusilla, so Spike's state of mind wasn't all that healthy. Could be he just FELT like he was drowning, and he didn't have enough will power left to remind himself that he couldn't actually die that way.
 
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Skytteflickan88
Very likely.
Okay dont kill me but im gonna go with something from twilight and say Spike doesnt need to breath but does so because it is comforting almost and to be denied of breathing is uncomforterable and so his body reacts like a human would lol okay honestly no idea stephenie meyer made it sound logical
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StarSlayer
How dare you bring Twilight logic into the Buffyverse, lol! ;)
PrincessBuffy16 said:
I always thought vampire breathing is a mistake made by an actor :/
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Yes, just a mistake by the actor... because a true method actor wouldn't breathe for any scenes being filmed while playing a vampire, no matter now long lol 😛

M
 
The vampire breathing thing was never consistant. Angel doesn't think he can give Buffy breathing help in Propechy Girl, yet there's panting and smoking, and Drusilla being strangeled in Becoming, yet in Ats season 5 Angel can't be strangeled by "Spanky", thne there's Spöike drowning.
 
Unless it was holy water in that scene? I don't think it was ever stated if the water was just plain water or holy water, but it could be a possibility.

I read somewhere, and can't remember the exact words, but Joss said something like vampires could breathe, but not at the capacity like humans. Their ability to breathe was weaker than humans, which would explain why Angel couldn't give CPR to Buffy, why Spike smokes, etc. I'll have to double-check that later 🙂
 
don't think it would have been holy water or Spike would have been smoking / boiling the water when he was pushed into it

M
 
StarSlayer said:
Their ability to breathe was weaker than humans, which would explain why Angel couldn't give CPR to Buffy,
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I read somewhere, though I'm not sure it was Joss, that the vamps in the Jossverse had stale breath? They couldn't hold the oxygen because their lungs weren't alive, so when then breathed in, the oxygen went stale, which is why Angel couldn't give Buffy CPR, but was able to blow out the match in 'Judgement' and why Spike can smoke.
 
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mayfever
that's how I see it too!
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StarSlayer
Maybe that was it then, which makes sense :)
It didn't seem like holy water all including in one water package, to me. I don't buy any of the other theories either, because even if he can do the act of breathing and CAN breathe, he doesn't do the breathing. I don't really know how to explain it. Well, he can do that breathing act but he doesn't really breathe. Even if you choke a vampire he wouldn't die. Even with Dru in Becoming pt. 2. So as I see it, it's a hole in the script. Not sure I explained it right though, sorry.
 
that doesn't make sense... seriously...

they're obviously pulling in air with their lungs and pushing it out again... hence the smoking / blowing out candles / whatever...

simply pulling air into your lungs isn't going to make it stale, nomatter what you did to it... it would still have exactly the same oxygen / nitrogen / carbon dioxide content when you exhaled it if you're lungs aren't working to pull the oxygen out of the air into your blood stream...

also of note, even 'stale air' is still perfectly breathable... if air has been trapped in a cave / tomb for over a thousand years, it's still breathable... it might not taste very nice or smell pretty, but it's got exactly the same oxygen / nitrogen / carbon dioxide content in it as when it was sealed off from the outside world.

M
 
Okay, maybe 'stale' is the wrong word, but like I said, I can't remember where I read it, or who said it, so it might just be fanwank.

I still like the theory that it's all in his mind. The First and the Turok-han took him to the edge and he didn't have the mental capacity left to tell him it was all in his head. He got over it when they left him alone, lol 😛
 
sounds a bit like fanwank to me...

if anything, CPR from a vampire would actually be better for a human than it would be receiving it from a human... as when a vampire pulls the air into his lungs, he's not extracting any oxygen from the air, where as the human does...

M
 
GrrArghx said:
I read it was holy water and they didn't get a chance to add in the "steam."
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surely if it was holy water though, Spike's skin would have blistered and gone red like vampires normally do when exposed to it...

looking back on the episode, there was absolutely no reaction to his skin at all

M
 
Angel says he has no breath. They're supposed to be dead bodies. How do you explain Spike's blood dripping if his heart doesn't beat? Blood drips out of veins because the heart is still pumping blood, but in Rest In Peace, he sings, "If my heart could beat..."

I'll take a queue from Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake author) and say that their hearts CAN beat, it just takes a lot of force, and they don't beat nearly as fast as human hearts. It makes sense to me that that would work for the lungs as well.
 
I don't think any of their organs work. My theory about the blood though is, because they eat blood, maybe it makes it flow.... maybe?
 
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