Stake 'em and move on: Too much sympathy for Vampires on TV

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, all of these vampire stories, with the arguable exception of Twilight and the (far superior) Vampire Diaries, the vampires are also metaphors, although sometimes, a bloodsucker is just a bloodsucker. True Blood eventually spirals down into a supernatural Super Friends, for instance, just as Buffy and Angel did before it.

For the record, if you're interested in checking any of these out, fellow gnome, you could do worse than the first season of True Blood or the UK Being Human.

 

[Banshee16]

I've honestly never watched a second of any of these shows, but I think I have an explanation for the True Blood issue - isn't the "vampire rights" motif of that show supposed to be a direct analogue of the gay rights movement? I seem to remember reading that somewhere when the show first came out. If so, that would explain the "vampire hunters are crazed loonies" deal - they're likely supposed to be stand-ins for far-right anti-gay rights activists.

And actually, that's probably the core issue at play in all of these "vamps are too well liked" shows - they're not really vampires. At least not in a metaphorical sense. Vamps, werewolves, ghost, whatever, they're all just representing some other "misunderstood" social group in our modern culture. And in an era that espouses acceptance and tolerance unlike any other in human history, you present the strange as accepted - those who can't deal with the strange become dangerous outliers.

Either that, or I took AP English class WAAAAAY too seriously in high school.

I suspect you're correct......I'm sure it's a metaphor....whether for gays or people of different ancestry or whatever.

If I think about it critically though, I can see what they might be trying to do......but trying to use undead kill monsters who treat human as cattle and see no value behind humans, other than as a food source to rip open and drain of blood as an analogy for gay people is really quite insulting to gay people, isn't it?

That's all taking this rather seriously, I know. It's just a show. But still.

I just don't see how they could even contemplate equal rights with predators whose only prey is humans....and, in the even that a blood substitute was found, who *still* don't see the value behind human life, and are no more disturbed by crushing an ant than by snuffing out a human life.

Stake 'em, I say

Banshee

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I just don't see how they could even contemplate equal rights with predators whose only prey is humans....and, in the even that a blood substitute was found, who *still* don't see the value behind human life, and are no more disturbed by crushing an ant than by snuffing out a human life.

Some of the ones in Being Human- especially the main character- actually are disturbed by what they do. He even goes so far as trying to organize other vampires into a AA-style support group to get them off human blood, with some success.

Until...

 

[Stumblewyk]

If I think about it critically though, I can see what they might be trying to do......but trying to use undead kill monsters who treat human as cattle and see no value behind humans, other than as a food source to rip open and drain of blood as an analogy for gay people is really quite insulting to gay people, isn't it?

Taken on a literal level, absolutely. But even if it's all an analogy for something else, if you're presented with a vampire who doesn't at least pay lip service to being an undead predator, then you shouldn't be using vampires at all.

The analogy is a double-edged sword - sometimes it's appropriate, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

 

[Thunderfoot]

If all vampire stories followed that, wouldn't they get kinda monotonous?

Only if you are the vampires XD

Me, I'm all for sympathy for vampires, the Devil, and/or sexy God-obsessed killer robots on TV. There all just people. Well, in this context, they're all just fiction, quite often of the metaphoric or allegoric variety, and as such it's probably not a good idea to take their crimes quite so literally.

That gets in the way of the fun.

Oh, don't get me wrong, if you wanna snuggle up to a vamp and get bitten, I'm totally cool with that, just leave me your address so I can...ummm.....send you some flowers, yeah that's it....

I just have never identified with "tortured, sexy" vampires, I see blood sucking parasite, no different than a mosquito, gnat, tick, flea or leech, all things I despise and kill on contact. Yes, I'd gladly volunteer for vampire slayer training and would have no problem staking a family member if they had gone over to the side of darkness. That being said, my son is named after the werewolf from Dark Shadows... Okay, so the names are cool, but still stakes, silver bullets - I'm there man.