September 14, 2010

Sparkly or Burning - Which Kind of Vampire Is it?

Even before the Twilight induced vampire craze, it was difficult to keep all the vampires straight. The basic bloodsucking idea usually stays the same, but the powers and limitations have endless variations. And I'm okay with that. It would be a boring world if every vampire had the same rules. At one point though, I had just read Twilight and by coincidence happened to successively watch True Blood, Moonlight, and Buffy.

I admit it; I got my vampires mixed up.

To keep you from suffering my embarrassing fate, I give you a far-from-all-inclusive list of the recent vampires in books and television and their weaknesses and powers.  In case you come across a fictional vampire, you should be prepared.  I mean, what if you tried to trick a Twilight vampire into the sunlight?  You would just be blinded by the shimmer. 



True Blood
Traits: Fangs extend when they feed or if they are excited, but they are retractable.
Weaknesses: Silver, Sino-AIDS (both can lead to death if poisoning is severe), garlic
How to Kill: Full exposure to sunlight, burning, decapitation, wooden objects through the heart
Misc: Crosses are okay, must sleep in caskets or something similar during the day, have to be invited in

Blade
Traits: Ordinary appearance, no retractable fangs
Weaknesses: Garlic and EDTA
How to Kill: Wooden stakes, silver, and sunlight
Misc: Can eat human food but has no nutritional value, sunblock can provide temporary protection from UV Rays

 

Moonlight
Traits: Appearance changes before biting - eyes become white and fangs extend
Weaknesses: Sunlight, wooden stake (causes paralysis), silver
How to Kill: Decapitation, fire
Misc: Holy symbols don't matter, do not have to be invited in

Anne Rice
Traits: Very pale with visible fangs, usually quite attractive
Weaknesses: Sunlight (sunlight will kill younger vampires, but it is only a small threat to older vampires)
How to Kill: Fire, dismemberment, full exposure to sunlight
I wouldn't want to mess with these vampires.  Just saying.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel
Traits: Face changes drastically before biting, but fangs are retractable
Weaknesses: Holy symbols
How to Kill: Wooden stake to the heart, sunlight, burning, beheading
Misc: Have to be invited in by resident of property



Underworld
Traits: Eyes become a bright shade of blue or gold when they transform.
Weaknesses: UV
How to Kill: Sunlight (Lycans uses photogenic bullets against them), wooden stake, decapitation, drowning,
Misc: They can create offspring.

The Vampire Diaries
Traits: Drink human and animal blood. They have heartbeats, just slower than humans.
Weaknesses: Cannot cross running water unless they are young vampires
How to Kill: Sunlight, stake to the heart, decapitation
Misc: Wearing a lapis lazuli gemstone protects them in sunlight, they can communicate telepathically, they can shift into animal form, have to be invited in


Twilight
Traits: Extremely attractive, sparkles in sunshine, eyes are red if they drink human blood and gold if they drink animal blood or black if they are hungry
Weaknesses: Werewolves
How to Kill: Tear apart and burn pieces
Misc: Do not require sleep


I don't know what's more sad - that I've barely scraped the surface of the types of vampires out there or I've watched / read all but one of these.  Feel free to add more in the comments.  Oh and check out these extensive comparison tables on Wikipedia.

Oh and if you run into a kind I didn't list, stick to the basics or the least common denominator.  Beheading is the safest route.
at
Labels: , , , , , ,

13 comments:

  1. Very nice! I'm not sure how the vampires of Laurel K. Hamilton or even Bram Stoker's worlds fit into this.

    ReplyDelete

  2. *gasp* Original Dracula! Where is he?

    This is an awesome list...

    It does, for me, highlight even further the utter ridiculousness of the Twilight vampires.

    ReplyDelete

  3. Way of the Wolf- Vampire's are alien creatures that feed off of a living things life force.

    sunlight will slow them down, but not kill them. Beheading seems to work but their blood is corrosive and thick like a gel.

    ReplyDelete

  4. Very handy list. There should be a flow chart/identification tree so you know which kind of fictional vampire you're dealing with if you run into one (someone's probably made one of these at some point).

    That Wikipedia table is impressive! One trait I'd be interested to see, though, is which teeth are the fangs for each type of vampire. I've noticed that often it's the canines, but sometimes it's the side incisors. That would be a useful identifying trait.

    ReplyDelete

  5. Awesome work!

    I would add Being Human.

    Traits: Fangs appear and eyes go black when feeding/wanting blood.
    Weakness: Religious symbols depending on the faith of the bearer and if the vampire is caught off guard. Need sunglasses in sunlight and seem to avoid full sunlight.
    How to Kill: Stake. Vulnerable to death by werewolves.

    ReplyDelete

  6. Not half bad. Of course, Dracula is a bit different, has his own thing going on. Also, Supernatural is about to take on Vampires for real, so that might create a new category. I've always been an Anne Rice fan, I've read the whole set plus the crossover Mayfair Witches. However, my favorite Vampires were a little known Canadian sect (or at least Canadian show!) known as Forever Knight.

    Rosalind
    Girls Are Geeks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Forever Knight Forever!!! I loved that show.

      Delete

  7. Oh - Being Human! I've seen a few episodes of that show, and I was really impressed. I need to track all of them down.

    And how could I leave out Dracula?

    For me, it was really interesting to see that truly, there have been a million vampire TV series/shows in the past 20 years. I don't think Twilight really increased it or at least, not by much.

    Thanks for point out some new ones guys! And Eleni - I really like your teeth identification suggestion. Someone with more dedication than I should research that.

    ReplyDelete

  8. oh Blade...in the first film their fangs do retract somewhat. When frost is kissing his girlfriend in the car before they roast their pureblood boss..their fangs come out more.

    Id include Blood Ties ( superb show)
    traits - Solid black eyes when they feed, can mesmerise their victims, fangs come out when they feed,
    weakness - become as dead during the day when they rest
    how to kill- stake or decapitation
    misc - This vampire (Henry) enjoyed being a vampire, no emo woah is me thing there.

    ReplyDelete

  9. Sakara - Ah, you're right.

    I need to look Blood Ties! :)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...