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thalia_seawoodI don't want these thoughts to take up too much space in my brain, so I'm writing them down. :-) Anyway, I just felt like comparing the two most popular vampire versions.
(Regarding the Anne Rice variety, I will take information from the Vampire Chronicles I-IV into account. After book IV, I had problems recognising the characters and lost interest completely.)
Anne Rice (AR) and Joss Whedon (JW) vampires have definitely one thing in common: They come in a wide variety. Some vampires have adapted to the modern ways of life (e.g. Lestat, Spike or Angel), others still are closely connected to the time they were created in (e.g. Louis, the Gorches brothers). Some live in flats, others have their home on the graveyard. There is no real difference between the AR and the JW vampires in this regard.
Apart from that though, we get a lot of differences.
Overall Look
AR vampires are basically always gorgeous. Their hair is glossy, their skin is white and shiny and their fingernails are just absolutely perfect.
Even when they move in for the kill, they still look essentially like humans - only more beautiful.
One interesting feature of AR vampires is that their hair regrows during the night.
JW vampires are not all beautiful. In fact, most of the time they look like normal humans beings.
When their demonic part takes over their face transforms.
Their hair doesn't seem to regrow.
Feeding Habits
AR vampires usually feed once a night. Very old/very powerful vampires don't need to feed that often.
When feeding, they not only drink the blood of humans, but also take in the memories of the human's life. Since this has a big allure, it makes it hard for them to not feed from a human being.
I don't know how often JW vampires have to feed. Probably once a night.
They also seem to be fine when drinking blood out of bottles or glasses and don't necessarily need the direct kill.
[On this I need to collect more data. :-)]
AR vampires cannot eat/drink anything that is not blood.
As for JW vampires I don't know this (yet).
Sleeping Habits
AR vampires fall into a death-like sleep as soon as the sun rises.
JW vampires have more freedom; they can be up all day as long as they are indoors.
TV-show-wise, this makes a lot of sense as it enables them to interact more with the human characters on the show. Also they have more time to create vicious plans for destroying the world.
Sex
AR vampires: Nope, not possible. Too bad for them. But hey, they have fun when drinking blood, so it all works out.
JW vampires: Yup, absolutely. Good thing, too, because it's much more fun for the TV audience.
The only downside: Little vampires cannot be created in the traditional and time-honoured way of having sex. This can also be an upside, if you don't want to have a baby.
How are new vampires created?
AR vampires: Vampire drinks the blood of the vampire-to-be and then gives his own blood to the vampire-to-be. Vampire-to-be then briefly dies, but is fine afterwards for all eternity.
JW vampires: I suppose it's the same, but I'm still collecting data.
How to kill them?
AR vampires are hard to kill. They only turn to dust when burning them or exposing them to sunlight. It's not enough to poke them with a needle or a pointy stick.
Another safe way is the "Louis Method", an elegant combination of two powerful destructive elements: Chop them in half and then burn them.
The "Claudia-Louis Method", on the other hand, may not lead to success: Cutting the throat of the vampire you want to kill and then feeding the "corpse" to an alligator, has been shown to backfire eventually.
The traditional method of staking vampires is not used in the AR universe.
JW vampires can be killed by anything pointy. Pointy sticks need to be stuck in the area of the heart - preferably by the Slayer herself, because it's her job really.
Killed vampires always turn to dust. Which begs the question: Should Buffy hoover after she kills vampires indoors?
Other
AR vampires can see themselves in a mirror. Which is good, because they have to put some maintenance into staying superbly and ravishingly beautiful. Lestat also likes to look at himself.
JW vampires cannot see themselves in a mirror. Which is very incovenient, because like Willow I'm wondering: How do they shave? Or don't they need to shave?
AR vampires don't mind crosses or holy water.
JW vampires do. I approve, because otherwise we would not have gotten half-naked Angel in combination with Drusilla's holy water torture.
(Regarding the Anne Rice variety, I will take information from the Vampire Chronicles I-IV into account. After book IV, I had problems recognising the characters and lost interest completely.)
Anne Rice (AR) and Joss Whedon (JW) vampires have definitely one thing in common: They come in a wide variety. Some vampires have adapted to the modern ways of life (e.g. Lestat, Spike or Angel), others still are closely connected to the time they were created in (e.g. Louis, the Gorches brothers). Some live in flats, others have their home on the graveyard. There is no real difference between the AR and the JW vampires in this regard.
Apart from that though, we get a lot of differences.
Overall Look
AR vampires are basically always gorgeous. Their hair is glossy, their skin is white and shiny and their fingernails are just absolutely perfect.
Even when they move in for the kill, they still look essentially like humans - only more beautiful.
One interesting feature of AR vampires is that their hair regrows during the night.
JW vampires are not all beautiful. In fact, most of the time they look like normal humans beings.
When their demonic part takes over their face transforms.
Their hair doesn't seem to regrow.
Feeding Habits
AR vampires usually feed once a night. Very old/very powerful vampires don't need to feed that often.
When feeding, they not only drink the blood of humans, but also take in the memories of the human's life. Since this has a big allure, it makes it hard for them to not feed from a human being.
I don't know how often JW vampires have to feed. Probably once a night.
They also seem to be fine when drinking blood out of bottles or glasses and don't necessarily need the direct kill.
[On this I need to collect more data. :-)]
AR vampires cannot eat/drink anything that is not blood.
As for JW vampires I don't know this (yet).
Sleeping Habits
AR vampires fall into a death-like sleep as soon as the sun rises.
JW vampires have more freedom; they can be up all day as long as they are indoors.
TV-show-wise, this makes a lot of sense as it enables them to interact more with the human characters on the show. Also they have more time to create vicious plans for destroying the world.
Sex
AR vampires: Nope, not possible. Too bad for them. But hey, they have fun when drinking blood, so it all works out.
JW vampires: Yup, absolutely. Good thing, too, because it's much more fun for the TV audience.
The only downside: Little vampires cannot be created in the traditional and time-honoured way of having sex. This can also be an upside, if you don't want to have a baby.
How are new vampires created?
AR vampires: Vampire drinks the blood of the vampire-to-be and then gives his own blood to the vampire-to-be. Vampire-to-be then briefly dies, but is fine afterwards for all eternity.
JW vampires: I suppose it's the same, but I'm still collecting data.
How to kill them?
AR vampires are hard to kill. They only turn to dust when burning them or exposing them to sunlight. It's not enough to poke them with a needle or a pointy stick.
Another safe way is the "Louis Method", an elegant combination of two powerful destructive elements: Chop them in half and then burn them.
The "Claudia-Louis Method", on the other hand, may not lead to success: Cutting the throat of the vampire you want to kill and then feeding the "corpse" to an alligator, has been shown to backfire eventually.
The traditional method of staking vampires is not used in the AR universe.
JW vampires can be killed by anything pointy. Pointy sticks need to be stuck in the area of the heart - preferably by the Slayer herself, because it's her job really.
Killed vampires always turn to dust. Which begs the question: Should Buffy hoover after she kills vampires indoors?
Other
AR vampires can see themselves in a mirror. Which is good, because they have to put some maintenance into staying superbly and ravishingly beautiful. Lestat also likes to look at himself.
JW vampires cannot see themselves in a mirror. Which is very incovenient, because like Willow I'm wondering: How do they shave? Or don't they need to shave?
AR vampires don't mind crosses or holy water.
JW vampires do. I approve, because otherwise we would not have gotten half-naked Angel in combination with Drusilla's holy water torture.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-19 10:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-20 08:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-20 12:23 pm (UTC)And pregnancy. ;)
*zips lips*
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Date: 2005-10-21 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-20 07:23 am (UTC)Its been a while since I read anything by Anne Rice, so I could be way off in some of these comments.
As far as the cups/jugs etc goes, that's OK for JW Vamps, as is the food thing, though I believe that they have no real taste/appreciation of foods.
To me, the main difference between JW and AR vampires is in their bestiality - JW vamps are generically portrayed as animals, where, IIRC, AR vampires are more refined (though still evil). In a way, they are the epitome of the vampires worshiped in 'Lie To Me', though those were supposed to be 'friendly' vampires. I forget - in that episode, was there a direct reference to Anne Rice or Lestat in particular? I seem to think there was, but I can't remember the specifics.
Maybe I need to watch it again. What a pity :)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-20 08:06 am (UTC)I don't think her vampires are any less dangerous than the Joss Weddon kind, though. The big diference is: She tells the story from the vampires point of view so when they hunt and kill we are to some point on their side.
Joss tells the story from the Slayer's point of view, so that we see vampires first as evil. We may then realise that some have affectionate bonds between them, but we are still aware that all we would be for them is a nice meal.
Also not all of Anne Rice's vampires are thougtful or soulful: Louis is the one who hangs on to his humanity for a long time and agonizes over every kill in the beginning. The other vampires are quite ruthless.
(Louis reminds me a bit of Angel when he has his soul whereas Lestat has some of Spike's trait. Have to admit that I like Spike a lot better.)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-20 10:32 am (UTC)Re-reading, I wasn't all that clear in my last comment. I didn't mean that her vampires were any less dangerous, just that they had the whole 'evil, sophisticated, seductive' thing emphasised more than the JW vamps. I just meant that it is much easier to romanticise AR vampires into 'the lonely ones' that the cult believed in than JW vampires, where they are portrayed in a more animalistic fashion, primarily in terms of their appearance.
The 'friendly' comment (from Angel's description) was about how the vampire cult referred to them, not their actual nature, if that makes any sense.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-21 07:51 am (UTC)In "Queen of the Damned" it's mentioned though that there's also a crowd of avarage vampires out there, but most of these are killed by Akasha so what remains is a vampire elite.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-20 10:19 am (UTC)There are plenty of Rice references on the show, aside from the name check in Lie To Me. My favourite would be in season 5:
Dracula: I'm Dracula.
Buffy: Are you sure? 'Cause I've met plenty of pimply vamps who called themselves Lestat.
The other two most pointed references are in the season 2 finale, Becoming, and in the season 7 episode Lies My Parents Told Me. Not telling what whose are, though, but you'll recognize the visual clue in Becoming at once, I guess.