Ok, but vampires in the Buffyverse don't have to breath. So going off other information I've heard about vampires, most recently Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse (I'm only mentioning this because I can't think of a scene in the Buffyverse were this point has been made) Vampires can stop breathing if they need too, but they can still talk. They talk without oxygen in their lungs.
I don't think its obvious that they draw in air. As being's that are actually walking corpses we don't know what their body needs.
Well, they may not breathe in the sense of needing to enrich their blood with oxygen... but we wouldn't be able to hear them speak unless they're pressing
some kind of gas out of their lungs, through throat, mouth and/or nose. (I can't
fully rule out, of course, that they might have some kind of "mystical synthesizer" to provide the sound... however, then it would be pointless moving their jaws, lips and tongues to speak, unless they're doing it out of habit and/or as a disguise. Anyway, this is where it hits the limit of my
personal suspension of disbelief. I guess studying Phonetics can sometimes really spoil your enjoyment of TV.
😉 )
So where does that gas come from? Most probably from inhaling (as they
must be able to
exhale to speak, it's pretty safe to assume they
inhale beforehand
🙂 )... and then we're stuck with the question, if they inhale air, where does the oxygen go?
I guess the best explanation (aside from "Angel is a dumbass and just didn't know that he would have been able to give CPR, too") would be either
1) oxygen alone doesn't suffice for CPR, you require a sharing of mystical "élan vital" only provided by living organisms. Unfortunately, that raises another nitpicky question: would it, in the Buffyverse, be possible to do CPR with a mechanical breathing apparatus?
...or
2) it might be some "élan
mortal" given out by vampires... their breath working, in whatever inexplicable way, as a "death giver" and not a "life giver", even if a mundane chemical analysis probably wouldn't be able to differentiate the gas exchanged from the normal air around us. And if that's the case, kissing a vampire is flirting with death on an even higher level than we thought.
😉
Ah well. I guess I stick with "Angel = dumbass" as the answer. That guy clearly doesn't have his thinking straight, anyway, when he's around Buffy, so choosing that answer isn't too far a stretch of imagination. :biggrin:
