I never thought that there was a possibility of vampires being able to hide their fangs until I first read Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series. Her character Simon Lewis, the best of the protagonist, becomes a vampire in only the second boom. Clare constantly described his fangs as coming out only when he was thirsty (or hungry?). Dumb me, though, says imagined his fangs as being every one of his teeth. It took me until she described his fangs as canines to realize he had regular fangs, and to realize that's how all vampire fangs work. And ever since reading The Mortal Instruments, I've noticed only two things where vampires have their fangs out all the time. The first thing is Vampire Academy, but those are different species of vampires, so of course they'll be different. The second is Wizards of Waverly Place (one of the vampires didn't even get her teeth until episodes after her appearance), but do you really expect Disney to use the special effects for that?
9. About Their Reflection.
It is a known myth all around that vampires cannot see themselves in mirrors. Some go as far to say they can't see their reflections at all, but other say it's just something special within the mirrors. Stefan Salvatore, in Vampire Diaries, explains that legends say that mirrors reflect the souls of the people looking on them. "That's why primitive people are afraid of mirrors; they're afraid that their souls will be trapped and stolen." (Vampire Diaries 2, The Struggle, L.J. Smith) So, people believe that since vampires song have souls, their reflections can't be seen. But I don't quite believe that. If a ghost, which is the metaphysical of the dead can be seen in a mirror, then why can't vamps, the physical of the dead? Plus, mummies can too.
8. About The Daylight.
Okay, so vampires are definitely not supposed to go out in the sunlight, everybody knows that. The sun turns their skin into pure ashes (though in Vampire Diaries they simply just die unless their an older vampire). And this is one rule that all writers do not try to break. But that doesn't stop them from bending it. In Wizards of Waverly Place they simply mention the vampires walking around with umbrellas, or the sun is just blocked with clouds. Which I feel like could still kill them.. But whatever. Vampire Academy takes a much more complicated route. Richelle Mead writes about three different types of vampires. Dhampir, who only have enough vampire blood to give them superhuman strength, are perfectly fine in the sun. Moroi are like vampires with souls, and can go out in the sun too. But they'll start to feel a little sick of they're out for too long. Strigoi are the soulless vamps and WILL turn to ashes in the sunlights. Other stories and shows use objects to protect their vampires from the sun, but my favorite rule bender is Cassandra Clare. When her character Simon Lewis was first Turned, he couldn't go out in the sunlight. None of the vampires could, there were even times when the Nephilim led them out in the sunlight to kill them (fun fact: Demons die in the sunlight as well. In one scene, before Simon Turned, he used an arrow to smash a grimy skylight to kill Abaddon with the sun). But then, in the second book, Jace gives him some of his blood to make sure Simon survives. Because of the amount of angel blood in Jace's body (another story for another list), Simon becomes known as a Daylighter, a vampire who can roam around the sun. Man, I really wanna be a Daylighter.
7. About The Blood They Consume.
You hear the word "vampire", and your first thought is that they drink blood, and you're scared, right? But in most vampire societies, it's actually illegal to drink human blood. Doing so is punishable by a very painful vampire death. No, most vampire societies stick to drinking animal blood. But, as always, there are a few expectations to this rule. In Vampire Academy, out of the three species of vampires, only one does not need to consume blood to stay alive - or dead? And that's Dhampir. They're mostly human with just a touch of vampire blood to allow them to the protect the second species, Moroi, from the third species, Strigoi. Strigoi are the bad vampires, so they consume whatever blood they want, but Moroi have blood banks. They find impressionable humans who agree to live at the banks as a source of food for the vampires. They aren't allowed to kill the Feeders, but the humans do tend to go a little crazy after too much interaction with the Moroi. In Wizards of Waverly Place, they make a joke about Juliet, Bridgit Mendler's character, feeding at a blood drive.
6. About The Subtle Differences In Their Appearances.
Twilight is the only vampire depiction on know of where the mortal can tell who the vampires are (I've never read or watched Twilight, and frankly I don't want to, but I do know more or less how it starts). When the protagonist first meets Edward Cullins, she tells him that she knows what he is based on how he looks (and there's a hilarious meme on Tumblr.com about it being a Pokemon Trainer instead of a vampire). But in most everything else, vampires can just blend in among mortals. But in vampire reality, they look nothing like mortals. Their skin is effervescent (but they don't sparkle like in the Twilight films), their faces are cruel, and their eyes are empty like their hearts. In Mortal Instruments, Simon's eyes are brown, buy once he Turns, they became a deeper and emptier brown (though, maybe, they went back to being a golden brown after he became a Daylighter), and in Vampire Academy the Strigoi's eyes are red. Remember, the eyes are the windows of the soul, and as we've discussed before, vampires have no souls.
5. About The Way They Love.
This is the thing about vampire rumors and myths that get me most. In nearly everything I've read, vampires fall in love. Love! Simon is in love with two girl's in The Mortal Instruments, two vampires are in love with Elena Gilbert, in Vampire Academy Vasilissa Dragomir dates Christian Ozera while Rose Hathaway is in love with Dimitri Belikov and dates several other guys. And in Twilight, Robert goes as far as getting married. But the thing is, vampires aren't supposed to have souls. And it's our souls that allow us to love. So I don't know how you can expect vampires to love when they don't have souls. Cassandra Clare wrote it best with her character Camille Belcourt. Camille was probably the oldest vampire in The Mortal Instruments before (spoiler alert) she was killed by a little girl, and it's sort of described that the older she got the more metaphorically heartless she became, and there the less able to actually love. She dated around, but she never stayed around. She was only with someone when needed them for her own selfish motives. And THAT is exactly how I feel vampires truly are with love - or possession, rather.
4. About The Blood That Is Inside Of Them.
Here's something I bet you don't know about vampires. Their blood is PURE. Since they're dead, they have no need for white cells or anything of that such, their blood is just, well, just that. Blood. It's partially demon blood. So, the blood of a vampire actually runs redder than the blood of any other creature. It's like the red of kool-aid or the One Direction logo. And a vampire had to run completely dry of its blood before it will die.
3. About How To Kill Them.
A lot of people think that - other than the sunlight - there's really only one way to kill a vamp. And that's by piercing their heart with a wooden stake (because apparently wood is worse for them than any kind of metal (other than blessed metal) is). It's true that you can kill a vampire that way (which is odd considering their hearts don't actually beat), but there are many other ways. Vampires are immortal, but they are not immune. So, we'll discuss the other ways. Sunlight actually is kind way, I believe we've discussed this. You can trick a vampire into going out in the light, or you can find a way to being the sunlight inside. And then there's fire. Yeah, yeah, nearly anything can be killed with fire, buy to vampires, it acts much the same as sunlight; they can't get close to the stuff. Holy water is another element that kills vampires. If it touches their skin, it kind of melts it. Like the wicked witch in The Wizards of Oz. They can also drink the blood of an animal or human with holy water in its system, and die that way. And then there's chopping off their heads, because even though they don't have beating hearts, they apparently have brains.
2. About Their Souls.
As I've already mentioned several times in this list, vampires don't actually have souls. Because for a human to be Turned, they actually die first. The process in which a human becomes a vampire is actually kind of complicated. They have to have enough of their blood consumed to die, but they so have to consume enough blood of a Vampire. And then they have to be buried so that when they awake, they can crawl out of their own grave. The first thing they're going to want to do is eat, and that's when they realize how soulless they really are. But, again, a few exceptions have been made. In Vampire Academy, out of the two types of vampires that consume blood, one doesn't have a soul, but one does. Simon recovered his soul, I believe, when he became the Daylighter in The Mortal Instruments. And in Wizards of Waverly Place, Juliet's parents gave her a soul so she could love.
1. About Their Heart Beats.
Now, this is the one that really kills me. Kills, get it? In a lot of things I have read, the vampires have a heart beat. However, one of the most distinguishing factors of a vampire is that they don't have a heartbeat, and it's the distinguishing factor that gets overlooked the most. The vampires in Wizards of Waverly Place and Vampire Diaries all have heartbeats. Even in Vampire Academy, two of the three types of vampires have heartbeats (though, I guess those are the "living" vampires). But Cassandra Clare got it figured out when she described that all of the hearts of her vampires don't beat, nor do her vampires breathe. And because vampires are dead, they also don't need to eat or drink anything that isn't blood. But can train themselves to do so to look normal (and in Vampire Diaries, there is a drink, Black Magic Wine, that can keep them satisfied if they can't get to blood). In The Mortal Instruments, Simon trained himself to be able to drink coder again, similar for the taste, just before his vampireness was taken away. And Camille learned to drink red wine because it looks like blood.
A Bonus Thing You Need To Know About Vampires: About Garlic.
It is a known myth that vampires are repulsed by garlic. Supposedly, people used to hang garlic from their doorways to keep spirits away (which rhymes). But a lot of new stories say that those spirits weren't actually vampires. Instead, new things are used to keep the vampires away. In Wizards of Waverly Place it's pumpkin, explaining the tradition of Jack-o'-Lanterns on Halloween. In Vampire Diaries it's a plant called vervain, it keeps their spirits away. And in The Mortal Instruments it's holy water, which also kills them.
*I do not actually believe in vampires. I compiled this list from various novels and shows. Or maybe I just know because I am a vampire. Mwa ha ha!
• The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare.
• Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead.
• Wizards of Waverly Place, Disney Channel Original.
• Vampire Diaries, L.J. Smith.
Twilight, Stephanie Meyers.
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