Question Does a wooden stake have a be a certain wood?

[smgismyqueenjpg]

Does a wooden stake have to be a certain wood?

 

[Puppet]

You know, I've often wondered this myself. I've had this thought about wooden bullets, but they wouldn't be heavy enough to be shot, so then what a regular bullet coated in a thin layer of wood? But that's not pure wood, so would it work in the Buffyverse? Good question...

 

[Last Watcher]

Don't think so.....In the show we've seen Vampires dusted on all types of wooden objects, tree branches, broken Pallets, broken furniture, wooden crossbow bolts, etc. Kakistos was even staked with a wooden ceiling joist iirc. So I think it just has to be wood....of any kind.

Though a stake made of Balsa wood might be a bad idea........ 😉

 

[Blaze]

You know, I've often wondered this myself. I've had this thought about wooden bullets, but they wouldn't be heavy enough to be shot, so then what a regular bullet coated in a thin layer of wood? But that's not pure wood, so would it work in the Buffyverse? Good question...

Well we know a pencil works (I think it was Willow that used a pencil) and that's also not technically pure wood. So I assume a wood coated bullet would work.

 

[white avenger]

I think that originally, in ancient vampire lore, the stake had to be a specific type of wood, and it was only a part of the process, but Hollywood simplified it. If I recall properly, in Stoker's "Dracula," the Count was beheaded, his mouth filled with garlic, and a wooden stake was driven through his body into the soil below in order to keep it from ever rising again, though what harm a headless vampire could cause is beyond me. In "The House Of Frankenstein," simply removing the stake from Dracula's corpse would allow him to rise again. These days, anything from a pencil to a fence post will do the job permanently, assuming that it's real wood of any kind, and it penetrates the heart.

I guess they just don't make vampires like they used to.

 

[Fool for Buffy]

Riley used fake wood on Spike once. So clearly it has to be actual wood, but it can be anything that is actually wood. When Dawn killed that awkward varsity vampire who couldn't kiss with a pencil I gave up questioning the logic behind wooden stakes.

 

[white avenger]

I gave up questioning the logic behind wooden stakes.

It goes back to the version of the vampire mythology that says that Judas was the original vampire,

The Legend of Judas Iscariot – Vampire

Some time later, it was decided that the instrument of Judas' death, the tree in which he hanged himself, could kill other vampires. I don't know if it was originally only a piece of that specific tree, that specific type of tree, but now it's generally agreed that any ol' wood will do the trick.

Incidentally, on the series "Moonlight," which premiered the year after "Angel" was cancelled, and only lasted a single season, the wooden stake myth was debunked in favor of silver, which wouldn't kill the vampire, but would only immobilize and greatly weaken him. Beheading was the only way to kill a vampire on that show.