Does Spike breathe?

[IloveBuffy]

In season one Angel says to Xander that he has no breath and can not perform mouth to mouth on Buffy. Xander does the mouth to mouth. Later Angel says he doesn't need oxygen. So it implied that vampires do not breath and have no breath. BUT how the heck does Spike smoke in season 2? He clearly breaths smoke out in the last ep of season 2. He may have been smoking before and i never thought anything of it. But how does he do this if they have no breath. Is spike different somehow?

 

[dexeded]

It's just a continuity error. For example, Spike manages to knock out Dru by strangling her in Becoming, which is totally wrong because vampires don't need to breathe. The Angel breath thing just sounded cool, but was totally off. Vampires don't need to breathe, but they still can, so Spike can smoke.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

Let's not forget Spike being "drowned" in season 7.

But, overall, it seems like they can breathe. They just don't need to.

I try to justify the scene in Propechy Girl with Angel either being nice, or knowing that Xander probably had the breathing rythm down, thus would be able to know exactly when to breath in Buffy (I think if it's down to rapidly, she could chose or something. I can't remember my mouth-to-mouth lessons).

 

[Dagenspear]

It's just a continuity error. For example, Spike manages to knock out Dru by strangling her in Becoming, which is totally wrong because vampires don't need to breathe.

I always thought that Spike just, like, silently broke her neck or something.

 

[hazzard]

i've always understood it to be that vampires are ABLE to breathe, they just don't NEED to

 

[AmazingMrCross]

I always credited it to a continuity error. We clearly see vampires gasping for breath in a few places, like in "Fool for Love" where Angelus lets go of Spike's neck and he struggles for air.

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

I always saw it as a continuity error, but now that you mention it, I like to think that vampires can breathe, but don't have to if they don't want to, and some may be more used to breathing than not breathing. Maybe Spike is used to breathing he just doesn't know how not to, and maybe Angel has gotten so used to not breathing he forgot how to. 😛

 

[BuffyElevated]

It's just a continuity error. For example, Spike manages to knock out Dru by strangling her in Becoming, which is totally wrong because vampires don't need to breathe. The Angel breath thing just sounded cool, but was totally off. Vampires don't need to breathe, but they still can, so Spike can smoke.

I was just about to say this. 🙂 It always bugged me that Spike was able to smoke, and that he was able to choke Dru out. Although watching him choke Dru out was hilarious. LOL

 

[Gum Gnome33]

Spike didn't break Dru's neck. He pressed on her carotid arteries, (located at each side of the neck, under the jaw bone), until she lost consciousness.

In any case, this is a continuity error; in the first place vampires should never be able to lose consciousness, either from cerebral hypoxemia, (not enough oxygen reaches the brain), or a dramatic drop in blood pressure, (the heart is not supposed to beat at all!)
On the other hand, they of course draw air through their lungs because they can smoke. They can talk, (something has to make those vocal chords vibrate, after all!) They just don't need the oxygen.
Angel should have been able to help Buffy, because he should have had the capacity to fill his lungs with air, even though he didn't need it himself. The only argument that explains why he couldn't perform CPR is that perhaps he could only store a really shallow amount of air--maybe just enough to talk; that his lungs weren't particularly robust. That's definitely a bit of fanwanking but it makes it possible for me to watch that scene.
When Spike is "drowned" in season 7, I believe it's simply done as a form of torture; the First and the ubervamp know it won't kill him, but jeez nobody wants to have their lungs filled with water. It's also been assumed in the fandom that here is holy water in the mixture, thus adding to the torture.

So anyway, even if you explain the Spike stuff in season 7 and the Angel stuff in season 1, you can't argue that having vampires gasp for air and/or faint is going directly against continuity, if it's been established that they don't need oxygen. I just try to ignore it!