One of my fondest memories of my time as an undergrad was when my roommates and I went through what we call “the vampire phase”. Two of us were students, and one of us was working full time. As such, we’d often congregate at the end of the day in our living room, which also served as our kitchen; it was classic student dwelling. For whatever reason, us students began watching Twilight (as one does), and the employed friend was often cooking dinner at the same time, and became engrossed by proxy like second hand smoke. Thus began the aforementioned phase, and it extended beyond Twilight into the realm of vampire television with the likes of The Vampire Diaries.
One of the most entertaining parts of embarking on a new vampire franchise is comparing and contrasting the universe’s “vampire rules”. These parameters include how vampires are made, their powers, how they’re killed, etc. While most people are aware of the staples (garlic, stake to the heart, etc.), there is a surprising amount of divergence between the vampires in these shows/movies and “traditional” vampires.
I am currently in the process of another vampire phase—a vampire Renaissance, if you will—with True Blood, HBO’s answer to Twilight and TVD. So, to celebrate the beginning of spooky season, I figured I would disseminate (from the vampire media I’ve seen) their “vampire rules”, and decide which one takes the cake. Let’s keep it to four basic criteria: How are vampires made? What are their abilities? How can they be killed? Do they adhere to classic tropes?
I’ll also be sticking to “dramas”, so things like Blade, or What We Do in the Shadows will not be included.
LFG.
Twilight
Let’s start with the pariah, shall we? Everyone and their mothers’ knows Twilight, the franchise that began the mid-oughts vampire/werewolf phenomenon that lasted well over a decade and spawned numerous series. There was plenty of vampiric media prior to Twilight—Nosferatu, Dracula, Interview With a Vampire, Blade, to name a few—but none had sparked such a cultural phenomenon quite like Twilight. That’s because Twilight targeted the demographic with the most cultural capital: tweens.
But enough preamble; let’s get to the marrow. Also, I’ll be drawing my Twilight knowledge from the films, as I haven’t read the books.
Vampires in Twilight are unique for a few reasons—for one thing, they don’t combust in the sunlight, they fucking shimmer like diamonds.
Apart from being kind of silly, this loses points for me, as there isn’t really any mortal danger for being in the sun—their existence would just kind of be exposed to humanity.
Becoming a vampire in Twilight is pretty boilerplate: a human must be bitten, but not killed by a vampire. I guess in this universe, vampirism is kind of like a disease, and they have venom in their fangs like snakes.
In order to be killed, a vampire in Twilight must be killed by something of either equal strength, or stronger. Thus, only other vampires (and werewolves) can kill vampires. Not only that, but they must also be dismembered and then burned. This means humans have no means of defending themselves from vampires, which makes it hard to believe that vampires haven’t just taken over the world and subjugated humanity, especially since they can feasibly operate in daylight.
As far as their abilities go, they are naturally very fast and very strong, but they also each have unique, inherent abilities, such as foresight, telepathy, etc., that varies between each vampire.
Another vampirism classic that Twilight eschews is having to be invited inside a human’s dwelling, which, IMO, also makes it wild that vampires are still, like, a secret race.
All in all, Twilight’s rules for how vampires are made are fairly traditional, but when it comes to their abilities and how they move about in the world, it takes some liberties.
The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries being a television show and not a film series meant that it needed its vampires to have a bit more freedom than their counterparts. After all, it’s a show about high schoolers—it wouldn’t be very entertaining to have its vampires restricted until after the humans’ bedtimes. As such, the extended mythology of the universe allows for a few caveats.
On top of vampires, werewolves, and witches, TVD entertains a whole slew of magical creatures and items. The show’s signature enchanted rings allow the vampires to endure the sunlight, which is kind of cheating, but I understand their necessity.
Besides the workaround for the daylight, the rules surrounding how humans are “turned” makes for some delightful melodrama. In order to be made a vampire in TVD, one must die with vampire blood in their system. This affords some breathing room regarding giving humans vampire blood for its quick healing properties, but provides a window of suspense while it’s in their system.
Like Twilight, these vampires are strong and fast, but are also able to compel people, kind of like Jedi mind control, which is useful to wipe memories and such. They are also able to turn off their humanity at will, lmao.
As for harming vampires, the show adheres to most of the basic tropes: the herb “vervaine” kind of takes the place of garlic; fire, decapitation, and a stake to the heart can kill them (unless they are an “original” vampire, in which case a specific, special type of wood is required).
Unlike Twilight, vampires in TVD need to be invited inside, which is always a plus for me.
Taking more liberties than even Twilight, TVD is able to conjure up enough dramatic situations to keep it entertaining, at least for the first handful of seasons.
True Blood
Ah, True Blood. What a campy, beautiful disaster of a show. In this universe, vampires have recently revealed their existence to humanity in an attempt to assimilate into society. Let’s jump right into the rules of the road.
Becoming a vampire in True Blood functions similarly to how it does in TVD. A vampire must kill a human, draining all their blood, and replace some of it with their own. They then have to spend the night with them in the ground. By morning, a new vampire will be sired, their allegiance devoted to their maker.
Abilities are also similar to TVD, with each vampire having certain inherent abilities, such as flight. Harming and killing them is fairly average: silver, decapitation, stake to the heart. However, True Blood really takes advantage of its HBO status when a vampire is staked. Instead of crumbling into dust like Twilight or TVD, they explode in a glorious burst of blood and hemic webbing. Its fucking hilarious.
They burn in the sunlight, bursting into flames if they remain in it too long—and, they need to be invited indoors : ).
Verdict
So, which dramatic vampire universe holds the crown? Would it shock anyone if I said it’s a combination of all three? Absolutely not, that’s how these things usually go!
I think that the series that find workarounds for vampires being “allergic” to sunlight are actually the better ones. Controversial take, I know, but hear me out. With something like True Blood, where vampires are chained to the night, the show has to resort to having multiple plot lines in order to occupy the day time. As such, it’s not uncommon for a season to have not only an A, and a B plot, but sometimes even a C and a D. Consequentially, many of the characters hardly even encounter one another throughout a season. Your mileage may vary with this approach to narrative, but for me, it’s a little too disjointed. TVD takes the win here.
All three series have similar methods of creating vampires, so I’m pretty indifferent when it comes to that category. As far as killing vampires, I’m pretty partial to True Blood, mostly because it’s just so ridiculous and campy. In terms of abilities, I actually like the idea of vampires having unique, latent abilities like in Twilight and True Blood. Variety: it’s the spice of life! When it comes to adhering to traditional vampire tropes, I’m a big sucker for the classics, like having to be invited indoors, being able to compel people, etc. That’s where I leave Twilight in the rearview.
In the end, if you could mash together the mature rating of True Blood with the extended mythos and melodrama of TVD, I think you’d have a winner.