OT: Vampires evil?

[C A Moore <cab_moore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I can?t believe I?m gonna do this, but I must have a
physical need to argue

I rather condensed my argument about vampires - to
clarify I think that there is ample evidence that
there is a separate demon in a vampire - but there is
very little evidence that the 'symbiont' is sentient
(evidence to the contrary in "the dark age", or
"through the looking glass"), therefore the thinking
part of a vampire is presumably still the same person,
now driven by the biological imperative of the demon.

There is astral projection in the buffyverse even for
living people; no need to assume that Angel's soul
can't have an active life of its own, even trapped in
the vampire body. Something was channelled into Angel
by the orb of Thessula, but what is anyone's guess.
Soul or not is such a theological question that it
defies consensus, like what is the soul any way - if
vampires don't have it then it excludes
memory/experience and large segments of personality.
Regret but not guilt? Certainly canon is far from
clear. Definitely agree to disagree.

Inescapable though is that:
1) vampires kill people because enjoy it
2) we know they can restrain themselves; they don't
want to
3) there is no practical solution to this (look what
re-ensouling one vampire takes, never mind the
difficulty in getting them to cooperate; and even then
no guarantee that it will actually make them go good)
4) there will always be more vampires as they also
seem to enjoy turning others.

Whether on not they can be good the overwhelming
evidence is that they wont (without intervention
certainly wont). Buffy is employing the only means she
has to save lives - one vampire vs the hundreds that
it will almost certainly kill. Although she usually
kills in self defence, she also kills vamps as they
rise - could she live with herself if she let them go
and waited for them to kill.
Everyone is aware of the phenomenon of 'collateral
damage', things only get heated when people discuss
acceptable levels.
Buffy and Angel at times both worry about unnecessary
killing, but realise that they have no alternative but
the try harder next time. Being open about collateral
damage and trying to minimise it is a very big step up
on the position of certain super power governments.

But I have to agree that is easier just to assume that
the enemy [vampires] are soulless and irredeemably
evil *. That way we can just watch the show and cheer
the protagonist [Buffy] on (except for Spike boinkage,
obviously). I even admit to being in this mode fairly
often, and there are a lot of series and movies that
can?t easily be watched in any other way; fortunately
Buffy can [mostly] be watched from either perspective
it?s one of the things that make the show unique.
(Alright, the first time I read Dracula, even as a
kid, I was rooting for the Count, but I?d be howling
for blood [dust?] if he was after me or mine)


CA 
(that is more than the fiction I've written this week.
Look, even a footnote)

* But then demon/ human hybrids can be good, demons
can be good (well, some demons; how would you tell an
human born in another world [with horns] from a
soulless demon from hell [with horns!]). Are vampires
the only ones without free will, despite being more
intelligent than most demons? Short of a well
documented voice from the sky nobody knows anything
for sure, and Joss appears to really like muddying the
water.


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