One thing I’ve always loved about vampire stories is that there are no hard rules. Vampires can be whatever the author wants them to be as long as they’re internally consistent within the story. This makes them extremely versatile monsters that can be constantly re-invented and none of them are “wrong”.

For example, sometimes all it takes to turn into a vampire is to be bitten by one. And sometimes you have to drink the vampire’s blood to turn. Or, sometimes a vampire can just drain your energy without transferring any blood at all.

Of course, the rules can also get a bit ridiculous. Maybe the vampire is required to obsessively count grains of rice first. Or maybe they’re required to hop around with their arms out (the chinese Jiangshi). Maybe they can turn into a wolf, a bat, or… fog.

So what’s the most ridiculous rule or type of vampire you’ve come across?

(For the image on this post I wanted the most ridiculous picture of a Jiangshi I could find. I went with a shot from Robo Vampire which has a really fun RiffTrax. The only other Jiangshi I’m aware of is in the NES game Phantom Fighter… because I’ve never watched any of the Mr. Vampire movies)

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialEnglish
    6·
    4 months ago

    The counting objects thing was funny when they used it in that X-Files episode. Basically trying to make a lot of the goofy lore seem plausible through science, so the vampires all had OCD and they slow one down by just dropping a box of pens or something that the vampire had to stop and pickup while counting. lol

    The other one I’ve only seen used twice (Buffy the Vampire Slayer the movie and in Soul Reaver) is that vampires can’t cross running water. In Buffy, she stops a bunch of vampires chasing her by turning on a hose which prevented them from crossing the stream of running water along the ground.

    • pseudo@jlai.luEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      Aren’t the two or them part of the old myth of the generic bad spirit? Like, the shoe stuff that I don’t remember clearly. I’m pretty sure there is something about the running water in Dracula. That’s why somebody had to make it cross. He can’t simply take the ferry.

      • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        Dang, idk… I haven’t read Dracula since, like, the 4th grade and I kinda hated the format of the book just being basically letters the characters wrote. I barely remember anything specifically from it.

        I remember the buffy thing cuz it was funny and soul reaver because it’s kind of a big mechanic (you can only enter water when in soul form otherwise it’s basically a bottomless pit that kills you).

        • pseudo@jlai.luEnglish
          2·
          4 months ago

          I don’t think I’d watched Buffy up to this specific episode.
          If you want to give another try to Dracula we are currently reading in one letter at the time :-) that change the chronologie of the story and it help build the tension. We haven’t read a hundred pages yet and we have a break until June the 18th.

          Anyway vampires are very fun because there is so much to read or watch, you don’t have to commit to anything you dislike.

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      I don’t remember that episode, but I would think the vampires could have just stepped over the hose. Unless water flowing inside a hose also qualifies. So follow the hose to the tap and shut it off. But presumably the principle only applies to running water that’s out in the open, otherwise vampires would be unable to move around in cities or towns because they’re honeycombed with water pipes, or through a lot of natural areas because of underground streams. Maybe there’s a range limit.