Similar, But Different

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Authors create different characteristics for shifters and vamps. Some would definitely be preferable if I was ever one or the other! :)

Shifters:
Some weres/shifters shift in an instant, no pain, all glitter and gold. Others the process is painful, feeling every bone contort and realign.

I think the “some pain but natural process” in my books, seems more “realistic”.

?? Would you say all supes who shift called wereSOMETHING? Or just shifters? And only those who can shift into wolves are weres?

Vamps:
Now, with vamps there are TONS of differences out there - sunlight ok/not, do/don’t need blood to survive, religious icons are/aren’t harmful, can/can’t make others via blood transfer/bite/etc, can/can’t eat solid foods, etc.

I like just about any, they are all interesting in their own way. But, seems like the can’t eat solid food thing should be a must considering they are dead, right? No more bodily functions. Which, now that I type that ... how can they ALL *ah-hem* function properly still? ;)

Have any preference either way? What’s important to you when reading about either of these supes? Anything or is it all interesting?

[Sandra J]

As far as vampires go, if the vampire in question is the traditional undead, reanimated corpse, then it makes sense that he/she needs to drink blood to survive, can make others via a blood transfer and/or bite, must avoid the sun, etc.. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro set up her vampire hero, Saint-Germaine, in a logical and interesting way. He can go about in daylight and cross running water as long as he has his shoes lined with his native earth. If the vampires are actually another species (like the BDB or Lara Adrian's vampires), then anything the author chooses to use makes sense.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

cross running water as long as he has his shoes lined with his native earth Interesting

[Sandra J]

It's an old superstition that evil beings can't cross running water. Andre Norton used it occasionally in some of her fantasy novels, but I'm not sure if it's been used in any recent novels.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I remember seeing that in some movies about vamps and maybe reading in a book or two. But no titles are coming to mind. Just never heard of the "ok if native earth on your shoes". LOL

[Literary Ames]

No more bodily functions. Which, now that I type that ... how can they ALL *ah-hem* function properly still? ;)

Um, Angel Lust? Good old Urban Dictionary, check out the italics under #2, how embarrassing!

I'd say weres for those that can only shift into one animal but for those that can shift into anything should be called shifters or shapeshifters e.g. Saiman in the Kate Daniels series or Sam in True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse.

Which reminds me, I started to watch a programme called Shapeshifters thinking it was about folklore or something but nope, it was about the evolution of a couple of dinosaurs. So disappointing.

[Sandra J]

I'm sure that's the author's invention. Since Saint-Germaine is a couple of thousand years old and has stories set in Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, during the Italian Renaissance, etc., I guess it would be pretty hard to have a main character who can operate only at night. The native earth thing stems from traditional vampires having to "sleep" in their native earth during the day.

[Sandra J]

I like any of these conventions in a story. As long as the author is consistent in his/her world building, I like them all.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

LMAO Ames!! You first grossed me out with your colorful links to describe those *ah-hem* functions and then cracked me up with your shapeshifting dinosaur disappointment. :D Too funny! And, isn't Urban Dictionary a riot?!

@ Sandra J - Gotcha. That makes me think of Christine Feehan's vamps who sleep in their soil.

[Literary Ames]

Lol! It certainly makes me glad I'm not male. The Urban Dictionary is great! Those poor soldiers. Oh man, I just had a really sick thought: I wonder if they were "used" whilst on display, ew! Scrub my brain with bleach! Yuck, yuck, yuck!

[Susan (Suz)]

LMAO at Ames!!!!

[Laura Lulu]

I've read the "no crossing running water" before, but I think it's more in straight fantasy that I've seen it, and it applies to all "evil" creatures. I recently read Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy and he used that a bunch--characters hurrying to cross a river to escape bad stuff pursuing them.

[Literary Ames]

I remember reading that in Sabriel. I agree with Steph about the no eating solid foods for vamps. There has to be some down sides to being dead.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

LMAO Ames!! yuck*yuck*yuck Eewwww, pls don't ever go there again!

And this "no crossing running water" thing is really gonna bug me until I can figure out which book I read it in. Was it in one of the Twilight books? Yeah, wasn't it?? Help me out people. LOL!

[new_user]

For me, vampires are a myth to begin with, so I feel the author can make up or subtract whatever she pleases. I only expect the bare minimum from vampires: fangs and blood-drinking. If they absorb blood from a distance or something, I find it lame.

I prefer when the vampire isn't super pale too. It's kind of unattractive, LOL. I feel like if the vampire can eat food it also makes it more atmospheric/powerful when he needs to drink blood that once in a while. Here he is, normal, normal, normal... and then he drinks blood, LOL. Affecting.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I agree. Up to the author's imagination, but we gotta have the fangs and blood. A must for sure. :)

[new_user]

As to the shifters, I prefer "shifters" over "weres" because "were-whatever" can get extremely awkward. LOL. But I know different authors have different explanations for using one or the other. Some of them even assign them different species. (Like I know some authors write "shifters" as people who can change into whatever they want. I don't like those as much. I think I said that somewhere before, that that takes away half the fun of developing one beast's influence on a hero.)

I think the painful change does seem more realistic, but when they say it's pain and ecstasy, I'm always like, "Haw?" I like them to change into the actual animal too, rather than some awkward, hideous hybrid, and preferably they don't turn into unreasoning monsters (because then they really do seem stupider than vamps, LOL.)

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Yep, we did discuss that somewhere else and I'm with you. The bond between wo/man/beast is very cool when it's them +1, not +anything you can imagine/picture. LOL

Yeah, I don't get the whole pain/pleasure change experience either, but kinda makes sense. Pain b/c duh, you're body's reshaping and Pleasure b/c you're changing into your true other 1/2? Sounds good though, huh? :)

Man, I'm really not a fan of the 1/2 1/2 morph thing. Like with "The Wolfman" movie. Wolf YES, WolfMAN, NO. Wrong-wrong-wrong! LOL!

[new_user]

LOL! I completely agree! I was like, What is that? I just thought he had a skin condition, LOL.

[Literary Ames]

Steph wrote: "And this "no crossing running water" thing is really gonna bug me until I can figure out which book I read it in. Was it in one ..."

"No crossing running water" = Evernight series. I remember it hindering the vamps from chasing down their girl's no-good vampire hunting ass of a boyfriend.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

maybe that's the one I'm remembering, Ames. LOL <no-good vampire hunting ass of a boyfriend>