I've just been thinking this over for a while and wondered what others thought. Vampires kill humans to feed, so they can "live" or survive, being a better choice of word. They need the blood to survive, just like animals & humans need food to survive. Most animals kill other animals for food, and that's fine. Humans kill various farm animals, lions kill.. uhh.. buffalo or something (what do lions eat?), birds kill worms etc. Apart from vegetarian animals all animals kill others to survive and it's perfectly natural and there's nothing wrong with it. So should vampires really be staked when all they're doing is surviving? You don't kill a lion for eating whatever it eats, you don't kill a big fish for eating a little one, you don't kill a butcher for killing a pig... I'm sure you catch my drift by now ;) So isn't it wrong for the fang gang/scoobies to go round killing vampires?

I realise this is probably the most ridiculous discussion ever, but I'm bored and trying to distract myself from revising :D

They are also demons though without conscience so they kill for pleasure hence the slayage.

Angel gets by drinking pigs blood and rats blood at low points proving its not essential for vampires to drink human blood.

Good point with the pleasure killing thing, I guess that does make them deserving of slaying. Vampire's can get by on pigs blood, but then again human's *could* get by on vegetables, it's not essential for humans to eat meat, but we still do, I know I'd take a beef burger over veggie burger :x anyday!

Some vampires have evil plans that don't just invlove eating people, but using the whole human race as livestock and future vampires (see Disharmony, The Wish). Therefore it goes beyond survival.

I suppose vampires are just a reflection of the bad side of humanity. They are created from humanity after all, and as Angel said in Amends, he was afraid of the man inside of him, not the demon.

As Spike sees people as 'happy meals on legs', don't we see cows in the same light? :blink:

Wouldn't that mean McDonald's would actually have to use beef in their burgers? ;) :lol:

A inquiry in the same vein: are vampires really dead? Just because their heart isn't beating. They seem to do many other things that meet the scientific definition of life. In ANGEL, they can go so far as reproduce, in the right circumstances.

In response to your question, kios, would you feel wrong to kill a wild beast, such as a lion, if it decided to "survive" on you?

PS, keep in mind that Joss Whedon took liberties with the vampire mythology to serve his BUFFY plot. Pre-BUFFY, vampires sought human blood.

Depends on whether you see them as a dead human or a demon wearing human skin. They aren't dead if you see them as demons, they'd be very much alive.

BTW, if I came face to face with a lion, I wouldn't last long. I'd be so busy crying over the poor fuzzy kitten's hungriness that I would never see it coming. ;)

I think Anne Rice and Brian Lumley set the precedents for vampires being able to live on blood, that wasn't human ;)

Back to the original question, humans kill for pleasure, so are we any different from vampires in that respect, so you have to ask, is it the demon inside wanting the kill or the last trace of human ?

Just something else to ponder about :lol: :lol:

deep :blink:

As human's kill for pleasure also, does that mean it's wrong for humans as well as vampires to do it, or as we do it, does it make it ok for everyone?

:huh:

What you haven't mentioned is that us humans and other animals, birds, reptiles, mammals that kill primarily to feed don't sire their prey turning them into demons, which in many cases they want to bring on Armageddon or suck the Earth into a hell dimension or whatever.

Que? :unsure:

you'll have to explain that to me if you please

They're both authors Nick that write vampire fiction, and basically wrote that vampires can survive on all kinds of blood, not just human. I'm pretty sure Brian Lumley managed to have a couple of vampires living off bloody meat, rather than just blood at all in one of his books.

Basically vampires can survive on animal blood, they just prefer the taste of human blood

Thanks Lisa. I bet they're not books for the squeamish :x

I wouldn't consider anything by Anne Rice gory (Interview with The Vampire etc) but Brian Lumley definitly. The first time I picked up Necroscope, I was almost sick from reading the first couple of chapters. Fantastic read though :thumbsup:

I have to say that it's not just Vampires that kill for fun.

Look at cats. They corner a mouse, play with it whilst ripping it apart and then eat it. We don't go around killing cats!

I think it is an excellent point! :thumbsup:

And if we were mice then we'd be all for 'slaying' cats. ;)

Vampires are evil, I say kill them all! :guns: (and I know guns don't w**k but we're short a Slayer smilie ;) )

I know what i would rather eat if i was a vampire :whistling: :drool:

yeah but do animals torture their victims before feeding on them (ie angelus)?

I'm sure the creatures my last cat used to eat would claim to have been tortured by him. He'd play with them for a very long time before killing them. Slow & painful death, so I guess animals sometimes do kind of torture their prey.

ok good point

demons also want to destroy humanity (angelus) or turn human into cow (the wish)

Vampires are undead. Same as zombies - the host body is dead but is being animated by some supernatural force.

Urrmm, Hello!!! Hasn't anyone seen Cats and Dogs? Didn't they try to take over the world.

I say Cats are worse that Vampires because they can't tak so who knows what they are consipring! I should know I have six cats!

Please don't tell me that film wasn't real? :(

well actually ...................... <_<

But if it was wrong to kill Vampires then there would be no show.

Buffy (the good guy) slays the vamps (the bad guys), that is sort of the whole point of the program. If it were wrong to kill vamps then would that would mean Buffy was evil? :unsure:

I think it would mean Giles and the Watcher's Council were evil, or maybe just ill-informed, and Buffy (plus Kendra, Faith, the scoobies and the potentials) were all just a bit gullible.

But isn't it wrong to kill vampires indiscriminately? Angel survives by not drinking human blood and so did Spike and Harmony. Who's to say how many other vampires that have been slayed were living on pig's blood bought legitimately from their local butcher? Did Buffy stop to find out? Did she give any of the newly risen vamps a chance? Did she direct them to the local 'I don't have to feed on human's' support group? ;)

Some people kill but we don't exterminate the whole of humanity because of it.