Questions about vampires.

[whitewolf]

I just watched the series of Angel episodes where Darla comes back and Dru makes her a vampire again and it's raised some questions. I'd appreciate any help on these questions.

1. Are the demons that inhabit a vampire's body created at the moment of siring or have they always existed and simply take over a body?

2. I know vampires retain a lot of the personality of their human counterparts so does that mean some part of the original person exists inside them or does the demon just take on, and twist the personality of the person whose body they take over?

3. Vampire Darla in Angel seems to be pretty much the same as she was when she traveled with Angelous, so that seems to raise some issues for question number one, because Dru's siring should have created a completely new demon if the act of siring creates the demon, right? Also, this also implies that the demon inside the body can't die, dusting the body will just sent the demon back to wherever it spawned from.

 

[dexeded]

They say it's demon in, human out. Demon meaning an already existing demon. The demon retains all the memories of its former human host, so its behaviours would be the same, but it's not actually the human.

But there are inconsistencies with this explanation. (Some vamps can love, do experience human emotion etc.) I've always taken that as more of the Council's lies to make sure the Slayer does her job without thinking about the human behind the vampire.

 

[Robb Stark]

I just watched the series of Angel episodes where Darla comes back and Dru makes her a vampire again and it's raised some questions. I'd appreciate any help on these questions.

1. Are the demons that inhabit a vampire's body created at the moment of siring or have they always existed and simply take over a body?

2. I know vampires retain a lot of the personality of their human counterparts so does that mean some part of the original person exists inside them or does the demon just take on, and twist the personality of the person whose body they take over?

3. Vampire Darla in Angel seems to be pretty much the same as she was when she traveled with Angelous, so that seems to raise some issues for question number one, because Dru's siring should have created a completely new demon if the act of siring creates the demon, right? Also, this also implies that the demon inside the body can't die, dusting the body will just sent the demon back to wherever it spawned from.

1) I think that they're created at the moment of the siring. I have no idea at all how that happens, but I don't think they're old demons. Everytime we see a new vampire created in the Buffyverse, they always seem to have to feel themselves out a bit. They frequently spend the first few minutes admiring their new abilities, so that would lead me to believe that they're new demons.

2) This one seems to be more open to interpretation. Buffy says to Bill Fordman in the S2 episode "Lie to me" that when vampires are created, the person dies and a demon sets up shop in their body, but it isn't them. But over the course of Buffy and Angel, I think that there's at least some of the original person inside. I mean, look at S4 of Angel, when Angelus comes back. He talks about how he could "hear Angel screaming" all the years he did horrible things.

Plus, like you said, vampires clearly exhibit traits from their prior lives. Jesse was still bent on impressing Cordelia when he was made into a vamp, and Spike has proven that he has a lot more to him than just a soulless monster (although, that could just be Spike. I've always thought that was one of the best parts about him, that he's NOT just a typical vampire. There's something special about him). I look at that as William, before being made into a vamp, was a truly good person.

3) Okay, this one takes some thinking, and to be honest I've never thought about it before now. I think that Darla's was a truly one-of-a-kind, unprecedented case. Technically, if we go by the demon-is-born-at-the-time-of-siring theory, that would make her a new demon when Dru sires her, but you're right, she's clearly the same vamp. Maybe because Dru was sired by Angelus, who was sired by Darla, that had something to do with it? I don't know.

I would just say that even though Darla is explicitly stated as being human when she's resurrected by Wolfram & Hart, she's still the same person/thing, with the same history and memories. I'm not sure how deep into the Angel series you are, but the Shanshu Prophecy and and a few other things make it clear that there are ways vampires can be made back into humans. Angel was made human again in "I will remember you", and back into a vampire by the end of the episode, and I'm assuming that was the same demon. There are other ways too (I don't want to spoil anything), so I'm going with it was always the same Darla, and the same demon.

 

[JCoatsworth]

I just watched the series of Angel episodes where Darla comes back and Dru makes her a vampire again and it's raised some questions. I'd appreciate any help on these questions.

1. Are the demons that inhabit a vampire's body created at the moment of siring or have they always existed and simply take over a body?

2. I know vampires retain a lot of the personality of their human counterparts so does that mean some part of the original person exists inside them or does the demon just take on, and twist the personality of the person whose body they take over?

3. Vampire Darla in Angel seems to be pretty much the same as she was when she traveled with Angelous, so that seems to raise some issues for question number one, because Dru's siring should have created a completely new demon if the act of siring creates the demon, right? Also, this also implies that the demon inside the body can't die, dusting the body will just sent the demon back to wherever it spawned from.

I don't really have an answer for questions 1 and 3, but I have one for the second one:
In Doppelgangland they stand around the cage where they keep Vampire Willow and Willow says, "And I think I'm kinda gay." Buffy tells her that the personality of a vampire has nothing to do with the person it once was. But Angel seems to disagree and says, "Actually..." and Buffy gives him a look, so he decides to say, "That's a good point."
So I'd say a vampire's personality has much to do with the person it was before they became a vampire.