Drusilla passing out

[ashleigh]

I re-watched Becoming Part 2 last night, and for the first time wondered how Drusilla passed out when Spike choked her. Angel makes it clear in Prophecy Girl that vampires don't need to breath!

 

[Skytteflickan88]

I've discussed it before with fans, and it's a clear stupid continuity error.

It's one of the basics; vampires don't need air becasue they're dead. It's one of the main rules of vampyrism, inside and outside of the Buffyverse.

I can accept that writers sometime's chooses to break continuity for the story, but this is something anyone could notice right away and get distracted. It just takes away from the scene and ruins the mood.

 

[JCoatsworth]

Yes, they made this mistake in Season 7 as well when the first "tortures" Spike by holding his head underwater.

 

[Sweet J]

Since Vampires bleed, they most certainly do have blood circulating. This blood may be necessary to ensure their Brain stays on, much like how us humans work.

As for the drowning 'error' even if you had a perfectly good supply of air there are involuntary reflexes, like the gag reflex, and not to mention primitive fears, that despite Vampires not needing oxygen, may indeed remain in them. Which could explain why Spike resisted the drowning.

Case in point, the controversial water boarding torture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding

 

[Skytteflickan88]

Since Vampires bleed, they most certainly do have blood circulating. This blood may be necessary to ensure their Brain stays on, much like how us humans work.

As for the drowning 'error' even if you had a perfectly good supply of air there are involuntary reflexes, like the gag reflex, and not to mention primitive fears, that despite Vampires not needing oxygen, may indeed remain in them. Which could explain why Spike resisted the drowning.

Case in point, the controversial water boarding torture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding

Actually, vampires' hearts don't beat, as mentioned several times on the shows, and they have no circulation. And when they do bleed, I don't think(I can't recall) they bleed as much as a human do, there's no blood pumping/gushing(?) out of the wounds.

Spike could have disliked the "drowning" for the reason you describe, but it still seems unlikely, considering how he seemed to panic. He was under a lot of mental stress though, so I guess that's a acceptable explanation.

 

[Sweet J]

Actually, vampires' hearts don't beat, as mentioned several times on the shows, and they have no circulation. And when they do bleed, I don't think(I can't recall) they bleed as much as a human do, there's no blood pumping/gushing(?) out of the wounds.
.

If they have no circulation, then how would you explain Spike's quote from season 2
''I fed off a flowerperson, and spent the next six hours watchin my hand move''.

Hallucinogens need to cross the blood brain barrier to elicit a response as described. Therefore there has to be a circulation of some kind, from a vampire's stomach or sub-lingual to the brain. Even a very slow circulation based on diffusion.

lol we're getting way too indepth with this!

 

[Skytteflickan88]

Yeah, it's a endless discussion. I mean, they're walking corpses. They're not suppose to amke sense. We can talk about this all night, but how vampires' bodies work will never have a good medical explanation. They don't have a circulation, as stated many times by many mythologies, but drugs somehow get transfered through their bodies. Maybe they're magically soked up- naw, I won't bother.

But I still want to say that they shouldn't breath or be able to suffocate, because, crazy as it is, it's against the mythology. It doesn't have to make sense, it's not like fear of crosses or burning in sunlight does, but it's a rule of the mythology that got broken. Which is bothersome to me.

 

[ashleigh]

It seems that writers are more interested in having good stories and funny lines than following their own rules. 😛

 

[Jaeger]

I always thought he was breaking her neck, not choking her out. Since she's a vampire she will eventually heal from a broken neck, but it's still a traumatic enough injury to knock her out. Makes more sense than choking her.

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

I just like to pretend that some vampires (like Dru) forget that they don't need air, so they tend to use their human instinct and faint or whatever because that's what they think they should do... Which would explain why we continue to see vampires actually inhale and exhaling. So it's more out of habit.

 

[sisterofmercy]

It does seem to be a plothole but I usually just go with it. They also seem to be out of breath at certain points, so unless they like breathing for nostalgia I think it's just a case of forgetting on the writer's part.

 

[Summerlilly]

It does seem to be a plothole but I usually just go with it. They also seem to be out of breath at certain points, so unless they like breathing for nostalgia I think it's just a case of forgetting on the writer's part.

Seems cazy to me that as great of writers they are they would forget such an important detail! I always just figured they didn't care about those details if the inconsistancy made a greater impact on the scene or storyline.

And going along with the circulation and being dead corpses talk, I always wondered how they managed to get drunk???!

 

[InsaneMystic]

I always thought he was breaking her neck, not choking her out. Since she's a vampire she will eventually heal from a broken neck, but it's still a traumatic enough injury to knock her out. Makes more sense than choking her.

That may be the best explanation for it to date! Nitpicker that I am, however, I can't help nagging that we didn't hear the neck break stock sound effect, and the way Spike held her would make a neck-snap difficult to pull off even with vampiric super-strength... very awkward angle of leverage and all.

I just like to pretend that some vampires (like Dru) forget that they don't need air, so they tend to use their human instinct and faint or whatever because that's what they think they should do...

That's a pretty strong "Clap Your Hands If You Believe". Then again, Dru is just about crazy enough to pull that one off involuntarily. : totallyo

Which would explain why we continue to see vampires actually inhale and exhaling. So it's more out of habit.

The actual breathing never bothered me - seeing as they absolutely need to inhale and exhale in order to talk, it seems natural to me that they'd just keep the habit up all the time unless they actively concentrate on not breathing (which won't do them harm).

Why the air a room-temperature creature exhales would form a little steam-cloud in cold weather - now that's the bigger weirdness. 😉

 

[Skytteflickan88]

I just like to pretend that some vampires (like Dru) forget that they don't need air, so they tend to use their human instinct and faint or whatever because that's what they think they should do... Which would explain why we continue to see vampires actually inhale and exhaling. So it's more out of habit.

I believe that to a certain extent, that both mentally and physically, they forget. Like when Spike out of habit said "I can't sleep at night" or something in Crush, even though Buffy soon pointed out he sleeps during the day.

But passing out because a part of you think you should? A bit too far, in my eyes.

 

[sisterofmercy]

Seems cazy to me that as great of writers they are they would forget such an important detail! I always just figured they didn't care about those details if the inconsistancy made a greater impact on the scene or storyline.

And going along with the circulation and being dead corpses talk, I always wondered how they managed to get drunk???!

Well I think vampires would be a bit wooden (if you pardon the pun) characterwise if they didn't have scenes where they're shaken up and out of breath/drowning/whatever. It may not be valid but I can see their point, would be hard to act in a strictly vampiric fashion all of the time and might get a bit boring. It also depends on how far they want to take it- surely they couldn't have sex and the chip in Spike's head couldn't work if they were proper vampires?

 

[ashleigh]

I also think that vampires breath to trick humans, so they won't get alarmed and notice "hey, that pale guy that's been staring at my neck isn't breathing..."

Humans in Sunnydale are to ignorant to notice that since they don't even notice that a vampire doesn't have a reflection when they're standing next to a massive mirror 😉

Saying that, people today are so busy with their lives, we probably really wouldn't notice something like that.

I just like to pretend that some vampires (like Dru) forget that they don't need air, so they tend to use their human instinct and faint or whatever because that's what they think they should do... Which would explain why we continue to see vampires actually inhale and exhaling. So it's more out of habit.

I like this theory the most. It's that fans usually able to find excuses for the writers shoddy writing. 😀

 

[Evil Angelus 95]

I just like to pretend that some vampires (like Dru) forget that they don't need air, so they tend to use their human instinct and faint or whatever because that's what they think they should do... Which would explain why we continue to see vampires actually inhale and exhaling. So it's more out of habit.

Makes sense to me. Still, it does seem like one of those odd-one-out continuity errors that happen every so often with any major work of fiction.