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Comments
Your standard longsword is a Christian religious symbol by default, not to mention that many bear silver inlays and plenty of historical examples have undergone consecration.
Furthermore, a sword will still deal physical damage; even if they're not an efficient choice in slaying vampires, there's no ignoring the physical forces vampires. A vampire is still flesh and blood, after all -- cutting an extremity will still disable it for a time.
Plus, removing a vampire's head is a traditional way of defeating one. That doesn't require special equipment, just fighting it to submission and relieving of its head. Plus, super speed, toughness and strength count for little against a sharp blade and good judgement; the vampire could very well cut itself using its own kinetic energy against a swordsman employing defensive techniques with the edge.
Undead schmundead, steel is strongest.
SO SAY WE ALL.
>Not cuddling to Thalia, Knight-Cathar, Asuka or Misato body pillow
this guy's the worst, man
Real men cuddle with weapons.
That's presuming the wielder itself is Christian or even acknowledges its Christian aspects and silver works on werewolves, not vampires. You're also assuming the laws of physics apply to vampires.
Also mind powers. Put your sword down. There. Now you're dead.
Silver works on vampires depending, as does beheading and cross-like swords. You know, when vampires are evil and stuff.
Silver is a largely werewolf-based weapon and even then it's generally only a silver bullet. The myth is obviously rather recent at that.
^Nope.
Unless you're Ron Paul silver has no effect on vamps and even then you'd better with gold.
Madass: recall the sword catching and spear destroying? that's lancelot, fighting gilgamesh.
Because a modern computer will definitely run both of those easily without any problems.
Aw shit.
Silver's importance is its purity, and is traditionally considered to be a catch-all metal against the forces of darkness. The separation in effectiveness between its use against vampires and werewolves is a modern invention. In fact, Eastern European folklore scarcely ever recognises a difference between vampires and werewolves to begin with, and neither had standard powersets or temperaments.
Furthermore, the European longsword is a decidedly Catholic weapon, given its context. It was born in a Catholic era, wielded by Catholics, shaped as a Christian symbol and even went out of fashion a few decades after the Protestant Reformation. It was the premiere weapon of the Catholic age at its apex, falling out of use with the broken dominance of the Papacy. It's a weapon almost inherently infused with Catholic (and therefore Christian) implication, and one of the few of its kind.
As for mind control, that's hardly a standard power. In Bram Stoker's novel, that even required that the victim be bitten already, or be under some state of altered consciousness already (such as sleep). Few, if any, vampires can make an adversary do exactly as they want. And mind control is once again absent from the original folklore.
Edit: Minus the bite turning you into one thing
guhhhh fuck these caverns
Original folklore isn't really important when talking about the context of the modern vampire. Same reason when I talk about vampires I don't mean brainless monsters that walk hunched over and can go out in the sun.
Also, as of the twentieth century mind control has been a staple of vampirism. Hell, it's a big part of the reason vampires became so fetishized.
But mind control often comes after being bitten.
^Which is why vampires are cooler than swords
What do swords have to do with that?
Mind control is hardly a standard power, and even when it appears, there's almost always a condition that has to be met -- even if it's just physical contact, or the requirement of spending time on working the power.
In any case, modern media has umm'd and ahh'd over the silver thing a lot, diverging and converging multiple times.
In any case my personal aversion to silver working on vampires is I dislike shiny rocks being a catch-all
As for mind control I've rarely seen media that requires more than eye contact for it to work.
At least silver is harder to get than a crucifix shaped object
Besides, it may be a weakness, but that doesn't mean instant death. It could just mean that it's the only metal that can wound the vampire. If they are strong enough or well armoured they'll probably just shrug it off
And nighty night
^^ Well yeah, so it's hardly reasonable to claim one particular standard. Warhammer Fantasy and World of Darkness probably reconcile it the best by having a sort of list of standard vampire weaknesses, but claiming that any given vampire only has a fraction of those.
As for silver being a catch-all, silver's traditional weakness is that it's impossible to effectively weaponise. Silver bullets have been tested and are shit, and you can't have a silver close combat weapon -- the best you can have is one with a silver-plated surface.
^^Never said that. In my headcanon any item of faith is fine if and only if the holder is true believer and follower of the creed.
On a related note.
>Playing Resident Evil 5
>Shot a zombie in the head
>It's still up.
D=<
^Yeah, but the realities don't respond to how they work in fiction. In any case, it's not about reality, it's about being separate beasts and what fells them should be separate.
They ain't that seperate -- even Dracula transformed into a wolf. And in a much more modern example, Hellsing's Alucard has a dog form and a... many dog form. As with most folklore and most media that is the result of folklore, there are few clear lines to draw.
^^ They aren't really zombies.
^^They thematically function differently in their stories.
^Then they should still fucking drop from a bullet to the brain.
^^So...you're saying that it makes more sense for a human to stay standing after shooting it in the head than for a zombie to?
Ninja'd.
They're not really human, either. They're some weird virus thing. And it's a game.
Could I get some thoughts on that? I agree entirely, but I'd like to hear your interpretation of their split and relationship.
Maybe tomorrow. It's fucking late.