New light on Vampires

"Dance in the Vampire Bund", an anime, features vampire sunblock gel.

Twilight apparently converts that ultra-violet to white. You could make a fortune selling an artificial version of that pigment to the nightwalkers!

Technically Bram Stoker's novel Dracula could go out in sunlight, couldn't he? That's not very new at all!

I'm not a fan of this. It's part of why I don't enjoy Twilight. I think a fundamental characteristic of vampirism is AT LEAST an aversion to the sun. There have to be consequences to immortality or it's just not as interesting.

Even if they manged to invent vampire sun block, what about their eyes? On a bright day, even I struggle to see at times because I have sensitive eyes. For a vampire it should be almost impossible. If they're capable of sweating then they should be dripping with it. Or, preferably, burning to a crisp.

Exactly. The vampires in Twilight have no consequences. They're super strong, fast, have special powers, can go into the sun...there's no bad side to anything for them.

I love this quote from Vampire Diaries:
Caroline: Why don't you sparkle?"
Damon: "Because I live in the real world where vampires burn in the sun."

Liosse de Velishaf said:

You could make a fortune selling an artificial version of that pigment to the nightwalkers!

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Heh, you just reminded me of Vampires in Havana.

Kitty Pryde said:

Technically Bram Stoker's novel Dracula could go out in sunlight, couldn't he? That's not very new at all!

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"Drake" in Blade Trinity brought that up when he was running from Blade in broad daylight.

Personally, vampires top the list of things I don't care if I never see or hear of again.

In the first Blade movie, the bad guy came out in the sun wearing sunblock and sunglasses.

Which is what I find interesting about "The Gate." Sure, she puts the sunblock on, but what about her EYES? Wouldn't they just burn and shrivel up like raisins in the light?

Kitty Pryde said:

Technically Bram Stoker's novel Dracula could go out in sunlight, couldn't he? That's not very new at all!

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I'll have to go back and read that part. Because I do think there was a scene where they saw the Count out in the day, but I think it might have been overcast. Because the rest of the novel, they always hunted him at night.

Shadow_Ferret said:

In the first Blade movie, the bad guy came out in the sun wearing sunblock and sunglasses.

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And at the end of the Tales From the Crypt Vampire movie - Bordello of Blood?

What about when they change into animals such as rats? I think in Nosferatu (the remake, a great one by Werner Herzog) he gets off the boat from Romania as one of many rats spreading plague - in broad daylight. Sometimes the vampire can change into a black cat or things of that nature.
Near Dark was another vampire story where the redneck vampires found creative ways to get around sunlight .

Rhys Cordelle said:

I'm not a fan of this. It's part of why I don't enjoy Twilight. I think a fundamental characteristic of vampirism is AT LEAST an aversion to the sun. There have to be consequences to immortality or it's just not as interesting.

Even if they manged to invent vampire sun block, what about their eyes? On a bright day, even I struggle to see at times because I have sensitive eyes. For a vampire it should be almost impossible. If they're capable of sweating then they should be dripping with it. Or, preferably, burning to a crisp.

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And you're basically wrong, the word Vampire has nothing to do with sun and the fundamental part is feeding on blood. There have been vampires in the past who didn't have issues with the sun, its a mixed bag and you can pretty much pick from many things in it to make a vampire.

The whole sun aversion thing comes from the undead coming back to life still covered in dead flesh, so basically a vampire is a zombie who prefers blood over brains.

There are ways to have your vamps out in the sun just as long as they don't sparkle.

Wolvel said:

The whole sun aversion thing comes from the undead coming back to life still covered in dead flesh, so basically a vampire is a zombie who prefers blood over brains.

There are ways to have your vamps out in the sun just as long as they don't sparkle.

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Actually it more than likely comes from Porphyria. But Bram Stokers Dracula was in the sun in the novel sometimes with no issues.

In early folklore, vampires were nocturnal or just merely disliked sunlight, but daylight was hardly a defense mechanism. Stoker’s novel even features a scene in which the titular bloodsucker is out in daylight in London, without any problems. The 1922 film Nosferatu marks the first time exposure to sunlight was written as lethal for vampires, and it’s been part of the canon ever since. With the sudden insurgence of hunky high school vampires, writers have gotten a bit more, erm, creative with how to deal with the sunlight-aversion issue.

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People who bash Twilight for changing this or complain about Vampires that can go into the sun prove once again people will complain about stuff no knowing what they're talking about and with no true idea of the sources they, themselves quote.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2010/06/a-field-guide-to-vampire-myths.html

Jeanne C. Stein's bestselling Anna Strong Chronicles feature vampires who can go out in sunlight. So far, no one's raised a stink about that. Maybe because they don't also sparkle?

I think a lot of the hate over it just comes from Twilight being popular. I never got why it bothered people so much.

Fame<Infamy said:

I think a lot of the hate over it just comes from Twilight being popular. I never got why it bothered people so much.

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It does not bother me one bit i was just joking in an ealier post about sparkles.

To me the sun cooking them has always seemed an easy way out for a writer to kill the vampire off. Personally I think you need to put your own twist on the myth to make the story yours.

Its the same with werewolves and other supernatural creatures, people see movies where the myths are used and they think that is how it is supposed to be.

Personally in both my vampire and werewolf stories I have taken the myths and legends and tweaked them to my taste.

And as to Twilight, no hate I have read the series think its ok. But as you said people want to hate it because it is so popular.

Though there are few Vampires in my works, they are not effected by the sun and they use that lie to pretty much make sure people don't know their real nature.

In the Covenants trilogy Rob Graham and I developed, vampires are the origin of vampire mythology. It keeps the peasants of the eighteenth century rooting around in cemeteries looking for the vampires and not in the courts, salons, and assemblies where our vampires hunt. *shrug* Augustin Calmet (who almost single-handedly caused the eighteenth century vampire panic with his treatise on the subject) IS our head vampire, and while the good monk is probably spinning in his grave at the thought of it, there you have it.

Vampire mythology and lore goes all the way back past the ancient Greeks to the Sumeriams and beyond. As long as you establish the boundaries of YOUR vampires' world, pretty much anything goes.

In a world where vampire watermelons exist, whether they can stand the sun or not kind of becomes irrelevant...

I think its interesting how people will fight over what the nature of a vampire is...it's kind of like watching small children fight over something they have never seen or done but have only heard of (That's a lie! My daddy says...(says 4 year old Agatha))

I dont think anyone has a right to say what vampires can or cant do unless they have met one. And I'm pretty sure none of us have (at least I dont think so anyway!)