Why The Fascination With Vampires?

I think you are right about the immortality thing. That is exactly my point. If being a vampire meant "live forever. Have superpowers. Don't have to be evil" then one humanitarian vampire would have turned all volunteers, and we'd all be vampires. The point is, you have to sacrifice DRAMATICALLY for immortality, in this case your humanity. You aren't supposed to be able to "still be human", that is the trade off. Vampirism has to be a curse, because if it were a blessing, everyone would want it and (due to good vamps turning anyone who wants it, has a disease, is old, etc.) everyone would have it.
 
TheCheese said:
I think you are right about the immortality thing. That is exactly my point. If being a vampire meant "live forever. Have superpowers. Don't have to be evil" then one humanitarian vampire would have turned all volunteers, and we'd all be vampires. The point is, you have to sacrifice DRAMATICALLY for immortality, in this case your humanity. You aren't supposed to be able to "still be human", that is the trade off. Vampirism has to be a curse, because if it were a blessing, everyone would want it and (due to good vamps turning anyone who wants it, has a disease, is old, etc.) everyone would have it.
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Exactly, it's different in certain stories, but there's always a sacrifice to getting immortality. Be it, you lose your soul, or you have to start taking lives, or you can no longer have your same friends, etc.

It's a curse for sure, but in most stories this curse is usually beaten by love; which is a cliche but a long running one in most Vampire stories (and one that usually works if tackled effectively).

It's that interesting mix which attracts people in my eyes. I don't really have a big interest in Vampires in and of itself. If it isn't a good story, I'm usually pushed away. In that regard, it's quite hard for a Vampire story to be good. If it's not handled maturely and originally, it ends up coming off quite trite and dull (because it has to rely on a lot of cliches it needs to bring something new or interesting to the table; so it can continue to build on the lore).

When Vampire stories are done well, it stands out amongst other fiction. That's been my experience at least.
 
T
TheCheese
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Agreed. The storyline of sacrifice makes it believable, grounds it and humanizes it. Twilight lacks these, hence the boredom... for me anyway. 😛
 
LoupGarouAngel said:
Agreed. The storyline of sacrifice makes it believable, grounds it and humanizes it. Twilight lacks these, hence the boredom... for me anyway. 😛
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Plus Twilight bastardized the whole Vampire genre and brought it to a whole new level of immaturity. I get that it fits a specific age group, but its mass popularity is a tad frustrating to those who've read or watched other works of fiction that do the Vampire thing a thousand times better.

Eh, I'll let it go now haha.
 
owa said:
Plus Twilight bastardized the whole Vampire genre and brought it to a whole new level of immaturity. I get that it fits a specific age group, but its mass popularity is a tad frustrating to those who've read or watched other works of fiction that do the Vampire thing a thousand times better.

Eh, I'll let it go now haha.
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I mean, in Twilight, I think the vampires can be in the sun, right?

What the heck!
 
Hahaha! Very true! When watching all I could think was,
"Not only do they sparkle, but they sparkle very cheaply."
Sad, sad day for vampires.
 
I have an appropriate gif for this:
29zwq3r.gif
 
LoupGarouAngel said:
Vampires have really been romanticized in the current generations, not so much in the Buffy verse, but I think a lot of people took the idea of Angel and ran with it in a happier direction.
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The first romantic vampire movie I've ever seen was "Tale of a Vampire" with Julian Sands.
Alex [Julian Sands] is a vampire but he drinks only the blood of animals. Anne Baker [Suzanna Hamilton] has just suffered the death of her boyfriend. Anne and Alex have never crossed each other paths until a mysterious man in a hat gets Anne a job at the Library where Alex comes each evening to read aged documents in search of information about a 19th century woman named Virginia Clemm. There is a resemblence between Anne and Virginia which Alex cannot help noticing, and the two become friends. The day after Alex "kisses" Anne for the first time, the mysterious stranger appears to warn her that Alex's "love bite" is actually the bite of a vampire. Anne goes to Alex's house, intending to kill him while he sleeps, but instead she asks him to make her a vampire. Alex refuses. Anne disappears. Alex finds her lying on his bed, dead, wrapped in red ribbon, a thank-you present for Alex's "undying love". From the shadows springs the mysterious man. He impales Alex with a sword and finally identifies himself as Edgar Clemm [Kenneth Cranham], the husband of Virginia. Edgar is also a vampire, and he is the one responsible for Anne's death (among others). In addition, he reveals to Alex that he has imprisoned Virginia in a lead box under the North Sea, there to suffer alone the vampire "undeath" until the end of time. This is to be her punishment for betraying him. As Edgar bends to kiss Anne, Alex impales him with a pole and tosses his body into the river below. Alex attempts to "awaken" Anne but to no avail.
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Nothing's new, only better marketing, sparkling fliers, MTV, teenage hormones and a lot of money (get the world go around).

Still, I don't think they could even equal Buffy's quality.
 
I think the consistency of most vampire media is that there's a good male vampire, he drinks animal blood, and falls in love with a girl. And, you know, usually something dramatic happens.
 
ubi4soft said:
The first romantic vampire movie I've ever seen was "Tale of a Vampire" with Julian Sands.

Nothing's new, only better marketing, sparkling fliers, MTV, teenage hormones and a lot of money (get the world go around).

Still, I don't think they could even equal Buffy's quality.
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Nope. Tale of a Vampire came out in 1992. Love at First Bite, 1979 lol.
 
owa said:
I think something that interests people is the romantic side to being a vampire (I'm not strictly speaking of love romance when I say this).

You live forever.

Plain and simple. I think most people feel alone at times in the world, and they always wish they had more time to do things, and there's a monotunous drone that creeps into our daily lives. In literature and in myth, the vampire escapes these things. It has all the time in the world and it joins a unique group of people who all share that same fate.

Being a vampire seems like a unique way to still be human, while also seemingly being better than human. It's kind of a romantic ideal.
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I agree...but isn't it weird how we so easily dismiss the evilness of being a vampire? It is something about living forever, having power over humans.... maybe like you have a dark secret that no one may know about. You are beautiful and intelligent because you've lived forever. You can have anything you want because you know how to get it. You do not obey societies rules. You are rogue and powerfully strong mentally and physically.

But of course there's the other side to all that. You must kill to live. You see every human you care about eventually die. You may never really feel connected with anything because nothing but you lasts forever. You could be truly alone forever...you have witnessed the destruction and death that is humanity and always will.

Would I want to live forever? It does sound enticing but I think my answer may be no.

I might reconsider if Brad Pitt was my immortal lover or Angel...or Spike for that matter. hmmm....lol
 
Well it's only been in, relitively recent times, that we (humans) have made the idea of the vampire to be romantic, sexy, refined, genteel etc.

the OLD vamp legends (from say eastern europe, greece etc.)

basically make the vamp to be a zombie that drains blood. (sure there's some intelligence but were not talking 'dracula' or 'lestat' here just 'me wantee blood NOM') no charm or sophistication.

and sadly vampires are the new zombies. (few years back it was zombie this zombie that 50000 zombies movies being released). Now I love zombies as much as i love vamps so i was all for it.

Sadly I can't be happy for this surge in pop culture for all things vampire seeing as to ME vampires will always be something along the lines of drac. or lestat. (or BTVS vamps of course 😛)

Not this twlight garbage or vampire diaries which is basically a weekly twlight show. Hopefully this lil fad ends and vamps can become the sexy sauve night stalkers we know and love again.

Oh yea sorry I got off on my own lil rant. (I tend to ramble).
hmm as for the whole 'would i want to be a vamp' question. sure why not? lol. feed off low lifes and scum in society and then you can assauge your guilt (somewhat) at prolonging your own exsistance by taking other's lives 😛'
 
TheCheese said:
"I honestly don't know. Vampires are supposed to be demons, the "Bad Guys", and yet every movie tries to make them out like they can be good. Thats why I loved Buffy. every vampire was evil, whether it was deep down (Angel) or the defining characteristic (Spike). They were animals, not romantic icons. And when Buffy and angel came together, it was wrong. The whole show made it out to be wrong, not some romantic thing. They both knew it was wrong."

True. Vampires were created as a force of evil, and shows like Twilight variate from the vampire mythos dramatically. They are not really about vampires at all in any sense that those who developed and believed in vampires originally would recognize. The Buffy vampires, on the other hand, would be recognized by a Victorian or even Medieval European.
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I agree with this.

I'm not big into the Twilight saga & all of that but I do have my own obsession with vampires. Buffy did it first though, it was the original AND the best. The only other show about vampires I actually love right now is True Blood because it is more original & the cast is amazing. I haven't seen The Vampire Diaries but I don't know if I would like it if it's anything like Twilight.

I also enjoy some of the vampire movies like The Lost Boys & Queen Of The Damned.
 
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