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In Showtime, we see the First Evil (in the guise of Drusilla) instructing a Turok-Han to hold Spike’s head underwater. Slightlyembarrased wrote the following on this site: “As I understand it, vampires do not breathe (a point made time and again through this series as well as Angel), so why would Spike be in the least bit distressed by having his head held underwater? Unless, of course, it is a personal hygiene issue…” |
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| Suggested by: | › slightlyembarrased |
| Added: | › 2nd August 2005 |
| Updated: | › 3rd August, 2005 |
| Hits: | › 1408 |
August 2nd, 2005 at 12:47 pm
We’ve had the debate on vampires breathing before and I think came to the consensus that they can breathe and it is still their instinct to breathe, but they don’t need the oxygen. Hence why running vampires pant (cause it’s instinctive) and why drowning Spike was a torture technique (his body would try to breathe sooner or later and inhale water, which would be exceptionally painful). The only thing that leaves open is why Angel can’t give CPR. Maybe vampire exhaled air is devoid of oxygen or something?
But, it’s still open to debate.
Edit 2nd August 2005: Moved by Jess from ‘Suggest Some Trivia’ page
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:10 pm
It is holy water the First is using to dunk Spike.
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:37 pm
I dont think it is Holy Water - I dont remember seeing any smoke rising from his body or seeing any burn marks on his skin from the Holy Water.
Surely that much dunking of a vampire in Holy Water would be enough to dust him.
Buffy killed Kralik in Helpless by making him drink a small glass of Holy Water.
I could be wrong though, will need to watch the episode again.
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:27 am
Yea but the turok-han had his hand in the water it would have burned him atleast a little even thou anya says “it runs off them like rain” it still burned the turok-han when buffy smashed the bottle over his head in the epi “showtime”. so I think it was just water, also like Mel said spike wasn’t burned at all or had any smoke comming off of him.
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:43 am
Here’s a question.. if it is holy water, who the hell came down there and blessed it?
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:03 am
An evil Caleb-like priest? Personally I don’t think it’s holy water as, like Mel said, Spike wasn’t burned.
August 20th, 2005 at 6:01 am
in the yoko factor spike walks up to giles apartment, takes a drag on the cig, then starts panting like crazy to simulate the fact that he’d had to run away from the inititive boys. what was that about
August 20th, 2005 at 8:14 pm
Contrast Spike’s momentary dunking with Angel spending some three months on the ocean floor (and surviving!), and, well, frankly, it’s a goof. But the point of good television is not that it be dissected to the sub-atomic level, only that it be entertaining. I cannot help but re-state that which I said with my original post that spurred this enjoyable debate: we are, after all, talking about vampires. Still, it is fun to have a place to meet and discuss a show that we obviously all tremendously feel passionate about. Cheers!~
August 21st, 2005 at 2:46 pm
Well, when Angel spend 3 months in the ocean, he wouldt die, (maybe of bored) because Vamps don’t need the oxiyn.
Only be-haeding, holywatre, fire, staking and sunlight can kill a vamp.
Right?
August 21st, 2005 at 3:58 pm
Yeah, and crosses and garlic repel them.
August 21st, 2005 at 11:50 pm
S-E: I was under the impression that Angel’s casket at the bottom of the sea was water tight.
Puja
August 22nd, 2005 at 6:35 am
he did have a hole he could look out but maybe it had glass over it?
August 24th, 2005 at 9:14 am
Angel was sealed tight in that box with a glass plate really thick so that the water wouldn’t cave in.
Angel 242 is right about the only ways to kill a vamp. Any vampire can survive by not drinking blood. As Spike says - if they don’t get to eat for so long they become living skeletons.
August 24th, 2005 at 6:28 pm
And in Angel 4x1 - Wesley says that a vampire deprived of blood for a long time can suffer damage to higher brain functions.
Puja
September 3rd, 2005 at 7:23 am
Puja — Indeed, Angel’s underwater misadventure took place in a, say, 7′x3′x2′ sealed box. However, even if water didn’t get in, if he was breathing, he would have used up the air in the box in about 15 or 20 minutes, leaving him only with carbon dioxide, which humans cannot convert to oxygen for the blood stream. So…maybe that’s the answer: Vampires can breath with oxygen AND/OR carbon dioxide! (…alas, it still doesn’t answer the question as to why Spike was so apparently harmed by having his head held underwater….)
September 5th, 2005 at 10:32 pm
Perhaps, as to put this issue to rest and come to a consensus that the whole Vampire breathing thing is a complete goof on the part of the writers, I offer the following: On two occasions, we see Angel do something that only a person capable of inhaling and exhaling can do - First, in “Innocence”, immediately after his soul leaves town apres sex with Buffy, he bites the neck of the woman in the alley who was checking to see if he was ok, and who was holding a cigarette at the time. After Angel bites her, he pulls away, and exhales a long stream of smoke. Second, in, I believe, the same episode, when he shows up at the warehouse to tell Drusilla and Spike about his new round of soullessness, he is, himself, smoking a cigarette, taking a long drag, and blowing the smoke from his supposedly non-functional lungs. A far cry from his claim to Xander’s suggestion that he perform CPR on the drowned Buffy in “Prophesy Girl” that “I can’t breathe.” Can’t fault the writers or production team for this; the show ran 7 seasons and almost 150 episodes, and the occasional continuity error is both inevitable and, in some cases, a dramatic necessity.
September 6th, 2005 at 8:46 am
It says somewhere on the site that vampires can still perform the basic functions like huffing and puffing when they are out of breath. So smoking is fine in my book.
December 21st, 2005 at 10:33 pm
As we all know Vampires are fictional creatures. So I think that how to kill them and the workings of thier physiology is entirely up to the writers imagination.
December 21st, 2005 at 10:47 pm
That being said,
it is aparent that the writers for this show intended for the vampires to either not be able to breath or not need to. I which case Spikes constant smoking and Angels lack of being able to help Buffy with CPR is a huge contradition, and in my opinion a goof on the writers part. They seem to me (I don’t know if it is out of laziness or lack of caring)to be deciding what they think the lore should be for each individual episode. Instead of what it should be according to previous eps.
Bad Writers, Bad
(said as I mimick spanking their hands in punishment)
P.S.
I still love the writers for giving me this wonderful show.
December 28th, 2005 at 12:35 am
In Touched, when Spike gets back with Andrew, he says:
:Well, he’s a breath of fresh air, isn’t he? Thank god I don’t breathe”
December 28th, 2005 at 9:21 am
Of course Spike can drown! Do you not remember the cheesiest bit of diolauge ever written?
“I’m drowning in you Summers, I’m drowning!”
And don’t forget
“I’m drowning in footwear! Weird dream…”
December 28th, 2005 at 12:11 pm
lmao at the drowning in footwear dream…so random!!
April 16th, 2006 at 4:00 am
If anyone has read the Buffy episode guide book for the first 3 seasons, it said that vampires do not breathe, but they can create the illusion that they are breathing, probably because that makes people think they are just ordinary people, thus a hearty meal for the vamps. It also says that they can smoke, for some reason…
April 16th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Let us not forget, Darla does a stonking impression of Lamaze technique.
June 24th, 2006 at 5:35 am
So Spike can’t breathe but swallowing mass amounts of water into his lungs can’t be much fun. It was just a way for Dru/The First to torture him, I think.