Highly ironically, you are describing the Buffy & Angel version, except that in that one, they do not breathe.:-) The idea of it, as I understand it, is that vampires were once a type of demon species - demon itself btw basically means "non-human" as in non-human sentient creature - but then when "something happened" (a goddess, or God, or some creature later worshipped as such, or perhaps entirely obscured by time), the original vampires were no longer "allowed" to remain in the human world. However, the Prime Evil did not like that thought, so converted the vampires to put on human flesh in order to hide them from the whatever it is that would not allowed a "true vampire" to exist.
Thus, modern vampires are converted from pre-existing ones by a vampire allowing someone to drink their blood, often biting them in return, which kills the human. As or perhaps after the death occurs, the body becomes "prepared" as a vessel that can hold the soul of a something else from an external, non-physical dimension. Fairly soon then, a vampire soul comes in to take possession of it, keeping it until it dies. Vampires enjoy having a body to ride around in:-). So note that here it is not all "freshly dead" bodies, only those properly prepared.
However, being (originally) non-physical creatures, they are not like humans. As you say, they would take on the personality of their host, although also they seem to be able to pick and choose among the traits - somewhat like humans also do, e.g. a coward could decide to become brave, or a smoker to quit, even though it may take some effort to change. The point though is that vampires wear their human body - or rather, their body that was heavily modified to support vampirism - like a puppet, and the personality is even included as part of that. They also have access to the memories of the deceased host. So they can look and act convincingly like not only a generic human but the exact one that they "possessed", but they are not bound by any of those convictions, e.g. fully able to take glee in their former lover's brutal mutilations and torture, even at their own hands, without a glimmer of a thought otherwise from the (now-dead) human that their bodies used to belong to.
Also they have a "second face" whereby their visage converts from normal human-looking to a more neanderthal-ish brow and the fangs come out, and their eyes turn yellow - essentially they "look demonic" in that form. This may affect their personality as well - the role they play in "blending in" to look like humans, vs. when the fangs come out and they just go for it. I believe it does not really affect them in most ways though - e.g. they are just as strong without it as with - and other than having fangs that are a ready source to tear open blood vessels with (though a fingernail or tool would suffice just as well?), they don't really "need" to do it at all. Though they do seem to enjoy it, more for the pain & suffering that their altered, uncanny-valley-like appearance causes to their victims than anything else.
But, they don't "need" to breathe - perhaps the conversion of the body to support vampirism burns out the medulla oblongata, or maybe they could (and do!) even, like you say just for the fun of it, manage a convincing simulacrum. But they are also EXTREMELY strong, and quite fast, so really all they need to do is convince someone for a fraction of a second before they get close enough to feed... or perhaps to convince someone to invite them inside their homes. Also, ironically they don't even "need" blood - e.g. they could totally survive for years, even millennia, trapped somewhere where they are cut off from access to air, water, contact with others, and yes blood. They just enjoy it is all.;-)
So in this lore, I think the main horror for the vampire to be trapped in a coffin at the bottom of the ocean would be the excruciating boredom, not so much any physical sensation of wanting to breathe but not being able to. Also, many of them literally enjoy the pain sensation:-) - after all the body can't really die all that easily, and unlike humans who also have souls but were born inside their bodies so never really knew of any other existence, vampires, having once been elsewhere, are very aware that they definitely do not need to "fear" death, or at least in the same way that a human might. So the signals can be interpreted differently. Some vampires are better at this than others though - some are more animalistic and controlled more by their immediate urges, while others can rise above them, postponing their tortures in order to wreak even moar havoc and mayhem later.
Okay, that's a lot of text - I hope you find at least some of it interesting:-).
A lot of propaganda aimed at conservatives paints liberals as bad, so it is natural to assume that the reverse may be true. Also, liberals often talk in an extremely high-handed manner, see e.g. Bill Maher. Also, the vast majority of Obama's economic stimulus dollars went towards cities rather than farmers. The list goes on and on.
It REALLY didn't help when McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate - she made fun of the liberals ruthlessly, and was made fun of by them in turn, and also the media including comedy shows. So the "stupid conservatives" meme... regardless of having some actual basis in fact, is something that they do not enjoy being portrayed as. I know, I know, best not to dish it out if you cannot take it in return but... either way, there it is, a fact that now needs to be worked around. Conservatives are killing people including women and children... but you can't SAY that, without them getting mad.
Okay then - I mean it's a missed opportunity to also choose this guy's wife (maybe Lemnify that a bit and say to also choose this person's partner?), but it works for me! :-P
Her death (whatever its cause) was the technical reason that she was not awarded it, but also they called her all sorts of horrid names including bitch. And to some extent it wasn't even them but her boss that handed them her data... but again the name-calling behaviors and such reveal how they were totally fine with that arrangement. i.e., it wasn't "just" the Nobel prize that they screwed her out of, it was all credit for it everywhere.
So it is one of those middling-IQ, low-EQ situations, as compared to e.g.:
I mean... vampire bats breathe (I would imagine), but if we are talking about the undead, re-animated corpses who are not "alive" thus do not need to do the typical things that an alive person would, I guess it could depend on the genre? :-D I think you are correct though - it would help them blend in better if they would do some of the things that normal humans would, especially without having to consciously think about it.
Like in the Castlevania Netflix anime thing, vampires were basically immortal super-humans (whereas Dracula himself was somehow... alien), so vampires weren't so much "undead" as just a different variant of humanity, perhaps a blended variant like base human DNA + virus alterations - and anyway, they more or less seemed "alive" there, hence you would think would benefit from oxygenation of their bloodstream, even if the level of their dependency upon such were reduced. I think Blade's vampires might also have been of this sort, but there is a whole comic book series iirc and I never read any of it so definitely don't quote me on that.
But in series such as Buffy & Angel and John Carpenter's, vampires were more "spiritual" like a curse passed down from ancient times (in the latter, from Judas who betrayed Christ), and their immortal bodies were animated by magic so that sort could go without any oxygen whatsoever for like millennia and be just fine.
True, but if I decide to say that shit tastes like candy, then that means that, according to that definition, shit tastes like candy (and if the equality property is true, then also the reverse?:-P).
That still does not make it "better", by any normal definition of that word.
Asking the REAL questions here! This is probably how they hide the fact that they don't show up in mirrors or on cameras when out walking in the human world. Otherwise there'd just be floating clothing... and that would be odd. :-P
OpenStars @ OpenStars @startrek.website Posts 1Comments 1,527Joined 2 yr. ago
Highly ironically, you are describing the Buffy & Angel version, except that in that one, they do not breathe.:-) The idea of it, as I understand it, is that vampires were once a type of demon species - demon itself btw basically means "non-human" as in non-human sentient creature - but then when "something happened" (a goddess, or God, or some creature later worshipped as such, or perhaps entirely obscured by time), the original vampires were no longer "allowed" to remain in the human world. However, the Prime Evil did not like that thought, so converted the vampires to put on human flesh in order to hide them from the whatever it is that would not allowed a "true vampire" to exist.
Thus, modern vampires are converted from pre-existing ones by a vampire allowing someone to drink their blood, often biting them in return, which kills the human. As or perhaps after the death occurs, the body becomes "prepared" as a vessel that can hold the soul of a something else from an external, non-physical dimension. Fairly soon then, a vampire soul comes in to take possession of it, keeping it until it dies. Vampires enjoy having a body to ride around in:-). So note that here it is not all "freshly dead" bodies, only those properly prepared.
However, being (originally) non-physical creatures, they are not like humans. As you say, they would take on the personality of their host, although also they seem to be able to pick and choose among the traits - somewhat like humans also do, e.g. a coward could decide to become brave, or a smoker to quit, even though it may take some effort to change. The point though is that vampires wear their human body - or rather, their body that was heavily modified to support vampirism - like a puppet, and the personality is even included as part of that. They also have access to the memories of the deceased host. So they can look and act convincingly like not only a generic human but the exact one that they "possessed", but they are not bound by any of those convictions, e.g. fully able to take glee in their former lover's brutal mutilations and torture, even at their own hands, without a glimmer of a thought otherwise from the (now-dead) human that their bodies used to belong to.
Also they have a "second face" whereby their visage converts from normal human-looking to a more neanderthal-ish brow and the fangs come out, and their eyes turn yellow - essentially they "look demonic" in that form. This may affect their personality as well - the role they play in "blending in" to look like humans, vs. when the fangs come out and they just go for it. I believe it does not really affect them in most ways though - e.g. they are just as strong without it as with - and other than having fangs that are a ready source to tear open blood vessels with (though a fingernail or tool would suffice just as well?), they don't really "need" to do it at all. Though they do seem to enjoy it, more for the pain & suffering that their altered, uncanny-valley-like appearance causes to their victims than anything else.
But, they don't "need" to breathe - perhaps the conversion of the body to support vampirism burns out the medulla oblongata, or maybe they could (and do!) even, like you say just for the fun of it, manage a convincing simulacrum. But they are also EXTREMELY strong, and quite fast, so really all they need to do is convince someone for a fraction of a second before they get close enough to feed... or perhaps to convince someone to invite them inside their homes. Also, ironically they don't even "need" blood - e.g. they could totally survive for years, even millennia, trapped somewhere where they are cut off from access to air, water, contact with others, and yes blood. They just enjoy it is all.;-)
So in this lore, I think the main horror for the vampire to be trapped in a coffin at the bottom of the ocean would be the excruciating boredom, not so much any physical sensation of wanting to breathe but not being able to. Also, many of them literally enjoy the pain sensation:-) - after all the body can't really die all that easily, and unlike humans who also have souls but were born inside their bodies so never really knew of any other existence, vampires, having once been elsewhere, are very aware that they definitely do not need to "fear" death, or at least in the same way that a human might. So the signals can be interpreted differently. Some vampires are better at this than others though - some are more animalistic and controlled more by their immediate urges, while others can rise above them, postponing their tortures in order to wreak even moar havoc and mayhem later.
Okay, that's a lot of text - I hope you find at least some of it interesting:-).