How Does That Affect It?

[anyatara]

Not sure if it's effect or affect, I'm not having a good thing with spelling today, but here goes...

I can't quite remember which episode it's in, sometime near the beggining of the season, but when Riley stakes Spike, he doesn't turn to dust because it's not actual wood...I don't get how that effects it, because we've seen Buffy take down vamps with things that aren't made of wood, before. It may be a stupid question, it just makes no sense in my head.

 

[Lyri]

i'm not sure what you mean.

A vamp can be killed by a stake through the heart, but the stake must be made of wood. the stake Riley uses is plastic, if memory serves, so it would hurt like hell, but not kill him.

a vampire can also be killed by cutting it's head off, but that weapon doesn't have to be made of wood. doesn't Buffy use a cymbol at one point?

 

[palabravampiress]

The stake was plastic. Also, it had a retractable end. It was a toy that Spike had used when acting out his Buffy fantasies with Harmony (and, later, with the Buffybot as well).

 

[white avenger]

i'm not sure what you mean.

A vamp can be killed by a stake through the heart, but the stake must be made of wood. the stake Riley uses is plastic, if memory serves, so it would hurt like hell, but not kill him.

a vampire can also be killed by cutting it's head off, but that weapon doesn't have to be made of wood. doesn't Buffy use a cymbol at one point?

Also, if you look carefully, Riley stabbed Spike in the shoulder, not the center left of the chest where the heart is.

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

Okay, this might be a really stupid question, bu why does only wood work?
I thought it was about destroying the heart

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

Also, if you look carefully, Riley stabbed Spike in the shoulder, not the center left of the chest where the heart is.

That doesn't necessarily matter in the Whedonverse. Many a times have we seen the stake in the wrong place dust a vamp.

Okay, this might be a really stupid question, bu why does only wood work?
I thought it was about destroying the heart

Because thats the myth.

 

[Kana]

That doesn't necessarily matter in the Whedonverse. Many a times have we seen the stake in the wrong place dust a vamp.

Exactly, I'd say it was more a technical error because it wouldn't make sense to focus on the fact that it wasn't wood if it didn't go into the heart.

Okay, this might be a really stupid question, bu why does only wood work?
I thought it was about destroying the heart

There are other ways. I think if the heart is removed (like in Heartthrob) then the vamp wont last long.

 

[Elithustra]

Maybe it had something to do with the chip? I don't recall anyone else trying to dust Spike after he'd gotten the chip in? It made him immune to being able to fight anything but demons, so perhaps it made him immune to the usual causes of Vamp Death? Sure, he still sizzled in the sun, but as he was never in the full sun, we don't know that that would have killed him.