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Angel/Buffyverse question
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Posted by: treyj

Okay, so vamps can be killed three ways:
1. Wood though the heart (even toothpicks?)
2. Chop head off (does it have to be 100%? At the neck only or anywhere above the shoulders?)
3. Sunlight (UV-A, UV-B? Direct only/mirror? Artificial?)

Fixes:
1. Metal armor (wood < metal, almost impossible to penetrate)
2. Thick metal neck brace
3. Mask/costume, maybe a full-body tattoo or even sunscreen

= 100% unkillable vamp.

AT LEAST they should be doing #1, since it seems that slayers kill them this way 80% of the time. Could you imagine the look on Buffy's face if she tried to stab a vamp and it just deflected?

Aside from the obvious "it would ruin the story", why hasn't this been done?

Posted by: Rob Helmerichs

Probably because A) vampires are mostly stupid, and B) vampires don't have much problem getting by in unlife (many of them, even in Sunnydale, think the Slayer is just a legend).

They've always had it easy killing whoever they want, and even if they believe in the Slayer, they probably don't realize just how damned tough that tiny little anorexic thing really is!

Posted by: voripteth

I think we've also seen vamps dispatched by being sprayed by or ingesting Holy water. Burning and falling from great heights seem to work pretty well also.

I do remember episodes where there were vampire knights who did wear metal armor but Buffy ended up dispatching them anyway. The method doesn't come to mind, though. :/

Sunlight appears to affect some vamps more than others. Angel just smokes a bit when he goes into the light while others completely combust. There have been times when Spike ran around covered with a blanket while in daylight.

Posted by: AJRitz

There have been "unstakable" (or at least VERY hard to stake) vamps in the Buffyverse - both because they wore armor and because they had unusually difficult to penetrate skin (the uber-vamps). The answer was to kill them via another method - usually beheading. The big problem with metal armor is that it is virtually impossible to move quietly in metal armor. Vamps often/usually rely on stealth, and there's just no way to sneak up on someone if you're clanking as you go.

I suspect that beheading need not be precisely at the neck and that protecting the entire area sufficiently to prevent beheading would severely limit vamp mobility.

Holy water burns vamps. If you pour enough on them they'll vaporize, but it would take a lot. The only vamp I can remember being killed by Holy Water was the one that Buffy tricked into drinking it during the "Slayer Test". Darla was hurt pretty bad and ran off smoking, but she survived.

It is direct sunlight that burns vamps. The more direct and the less strong the vamp, the faster and more thoroughly it burns. Both Angel and Spike have "smouldered" but put out the fire before burning up. Uber-vamps did seem to be particularly susceptible to sunlight (contrary to the stronger vamp-less vulnerable hypothesis), but that may have been a function of their long, long time away from the surface world. I think that it's pretty well established that it's the sunLIGHT itself that's the problem, and not the particular UV rays. Sunscreen doesn't help, but clouds and/or blacked out windows do (even though UV rays probably penetrate both clouds and blacked out windows).

Posted by: Jonathan_S

quote:
I think we've also seen vamps dispatched by being sprayed by or ingesting Holy water. Burning and falling from great heights seem to work pretty well also.

I don't think a vamp has been killed by external holy water. Injured yes, but I don't recall killed. Of course there was the one who died after Buffy got him to drink the holy water.

Fire definitely kills them, but the length of time they need to be on fire before they die seems to vary greatly just like the length of time in sunlight.

I also don't recall a vampire dying just from a great fall. Falling onto wood and thus piercing their heart, yes, but no just from a fall.

Posted by: LoadStar

quote:
Originally posted by Jonathan_S
I don't think a vamp has been killed by external holy water. Injured yes, but I don't recall killed. Of course there was the one who died after Buffy got him to drink the holy water.

Fire definitely kills them, but the length of time they need to be on fire before they die seems to vary greatly just like the length of time in sunlight.

I also don't recall a vampire dying just from a great fall. Falling onto wood and thus piercing their heart, yes, but no just from a fall.

Correct - in fact, there have been several instances where a vampire has fallen from a high tower and has survived (hurt like hell, but they survived).

Posted by: brahman71

Sure, its easier to say a "stake through the heart kills a vampire", but in the Buffyverse its actually a little more complicated. Its actually "A stake through the heart kills you unless you are ANGEL, then it always 'just misses' even though it obvious its going right through the heart-- and while a stake through the heart will work, if you are a not-important vampire fighting in the obligatory fight scene a stake through any part of the torso works." :eek:

Posted by: mitkraft

I was going to comment on the "falling from great hights" but you beat me to it.

I wonder if your thinking about the guy Angel threw out the window of Wolfram and Heart in the first season (maybe first episode?). That guy died on the way down because of the sun, not the fall. He burst into flames and only the chair landed on the ground.

Posted by: lordargent

quote:
Originally posted by Jonathan_S
I don't think a vamp has been killed by external holy water. Injured yes, but I don't recall killed. Of course there was the one who died after Buffy got him to drink the holy water.

Well, how much acid would it take to kill a human. :) I imagine that's the effect the holy water has. Not fatal in most cases, but hurts like hell.

It's interesting though, all of the vampire subtypes we have today.

Buffyverse Vampires
Forever Knight Vampires
Queen of the Damned (Ann Rice) vampires
Blade Vampires
etc

quote:
Originally posted by AJRitzIt is direct sunlight that burns vamps. The more direct and the less strong the vamp, the faster and more thoroughly it burns. Both Angel and Spike have "smouldered" but put out the fire before burning up. Uber-vamps did seem to be particularly susceptible to sunlight (contrary to the stronger vamp-less vulnerable hypothesis)

The older and "darker" the vampire the weaker they are against their nemesis of light. Holy light, the eye of god burning down on them.

Spike and Angel aren't really that evil anymore, so rather than a quick and total burning, they just toast a little.

Posted by: SparkleMotion

quote:
Spike and Angel aren't really that evil anymore, so rather than a quick and total burning, they just toast a little.

But they never seem to tan. :D

Posted by: jwjody

quote:
Originally posted by SparkleMotion
But they never seem to tan. :D

Lestat did in Tale of the Body Thief. He sat out in the sun for a couple of days I think and didn't die, just tanned.

In Rice vampires mythos if one vampire drinks from an older or stronger vampire then the vampire grows in strength. Lestat drank from Akasha who was the first therefore the oldest so he was and is one of the strongest vampires in that mythos.

J