Although you would hate to meet either vampires or zombies on a casual walk, your encounter would be very different depending on who you came across. That is because zombies and vampires are two completely different species altogether.
In short – vampires are far more interesting. Much cooler, stronger and sexier than zombies.
In the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, you will be dealing with mostly vampires, although zombies are mentioned too. That is because vampires have the capacity for intelligence, wit and passion and zombies are just reanimated dead bodies. Vampires are full of personality, memories and sexuality – enough to fill up two series and create the loyal fans that still love the shows.
But just a little bit of study of zombies vs vampires makes it very obvious why the series is Buffy the Vampire Slayer , rather than zombie killer – and why the Angel is the vampire with a soul.
Zombies are just walking dead flesh – with a haunting history
These gross magically re-animated corpses are no beauties.
It is hard to feel anything in regards to zombies except for disgust . They are basically walking viruses whose only purpose is to feed. There seems to be some disagreement about whether they need to eat to consume, but the truth is that they need to feed on humans. You will never become entranced and in love with zombies – there is no thrall to be had there.
A zombie is usually controlled by a master who is proficient in sorcery and thus controls the creature. The sorcerer uses zombies to fulfill his desires and aspirations. They make the zombies as their slaves. That is how the zombies in Buffy and Angel are described.
Other folklore has them being created when they are infected with a virus. Most of the time zombies are super strong but slow moving, but other systems have them as quicker to move around.
However, there is more to the story of zombies – a tragic history. The myth of zombies have roots in Haiti, in the voodoo religion. Then the country was known as Saint-Domingue and was owned by France. African slaves were worked almost literally to death on the sugar plantations, often dying within two years of captivity. At times it seemed that the only solace was suicide but in the Voodoo religion, it was believed that this provided no way out. If the slaves committed suicide they would doomed to haunt the fields of Hispaniola rather than getting relief in a kind of Heaven that the slaves called lan guinee – literally Guinea (Africa.) source
It was ingrained in the Haitians self-image to be slaves, to the point, where their religion took on some aspects. The zombies developed more in Voodoo religion, and at one time it was believed that voodoo priests could animate the dead and use them to do whatever heinous tasks they wanted.
Zombies play a part in Buffy and Angel in several episodes
These gross members of the undead are well represented in the Buffy and Angel series. And they are fought and defeated when the master is defeated.
The first appearance of zombies in the series is in Dead Man’s Party Season Three – Episode Two. In this episode Buffy had returned following her brief, but eventful foray into Los Angeles. In the conclusion of Season Two she was pitted against her formerly beloved because he was trying to raise the Acathla demon and destroy the world. You see Angel had lost his soul and become the evil Angelus vampire who was a force for evil and destruction. ““Acathla, the demon, came forth to swallow the world. It was killed by a virtuous knight who pierced the demon’s heart before it could draw breath to perform the act. Acathla turned to stone, as demons sometimes do, and was buried where neither man nor demon would want to look. Unless of course they’re putting up low rent housing.” Angelus – in Buffy season two.
So of course Buffy had to kill him. Even though she loved him.
Fans will know that she had left Sunnydale following her despair and grief at having to kill Angel. She did not tell anyone what she was doing, she could not dea. However, she found that she could not escape her grief by changing geography. She returned to her family and friends in the next episode. Buffy found that although they said that everything was alright, there was an air of avoidance all around her. Her mother had hoped to settle some of this by an intimate dinner party with Giles, Willow and Xander – but it turned into a huge party with people who did not even know her. Joyce (Buffy’s Mom) had brought home a piece of art from the gallery that she worked in. Unfortunately, besides being scary looking it also brought zombies crashing through the windows. They were eventually able to defeat the demon that was bringing in the zombies, (yeah Buffy) and the door was open to communication and healing.
In Angel, zombies make their first appearance in Angel Season 2 Episode 14 – The Thin Dead line.
We need a bit of backstory before we get to the zombie part. You see in episode 2 of season 10 – Angel had fallen to a darkness where he actually fires the people he loved: former street vampire killer Gunn, former Vampire Slayer Watcher Wesley Wyndam Pryce and Cordelia, who is a snotty bitch at the beginning of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but transforms to a major force for good when she is in Angel. The show opens when we see a heart-broken Angel coming back into the hotel where he had his former detective firm. He had to split with his human compadres because he believed he had to go to a very dark place to kill Drusilla and Darla, and eliminate the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart if possible. He had been unsuccessful in totally eliminating evil, by sinking to it’s level – but he still cared about his friends.
This episode has Angel skulking in the background as Gunn goes to deal with raging cops who are viciously targeting street kids. The cops attack the totally innocent and non-threatening Wesley as well – shooting him in the gut and blocking the ambulance.
The cops are fearless – and almost indestructible. With Angel’s massive strength he is able to knock the head literally off of one of the cops – who continues talking. As zombies are like to do. Angel gets the badge of the cop he kills and tracks him down with the help of his friend Kate at the police station.
Angel knows that he has to find the person who is controlling the zombies. It turns out that they are re-animated corpses of cops that died on the job. The police chief of that station has got into some dark voodoo and Angel is only able to stop it by finding the dark god he worships, and crushing it. Magically all the zombies fade away.
The scene ends when Angel is visiting Wesley in the hospital. However, a hurt Cordelia (who did not realize what he had done to help) told to go away.
The last we see time we see zombies in the series is Angel is Season 4 Episode 8 – Habeas Corpus. In this episode Angel and the crew have to return to the Evil Law Firm to fight the Beast which up to this point has proved to be absolutely unbeatable. They are only there to retreat Angel’s son Connor. Angel finds Connor but he soon finds that he is having to backhand and shove zombies to get out of the law firm. After having to get into a fist fight with someone who he thinks is dead – Connor says “He looks dead.” Angel says “He is dead. Technically undead.” He is a zombie.” “What’s a Zombie? Connor asks. “Oh, it is dead – technically undead.” “Like you?” Connor retorts. “No! Zombies are slow moving , dim-witted things that craze human flesh.” “Like you – ” Connor answers. “No – there is a different! Trust me” Angel says.
In other words Angel does not want to be associated with zombies one bit.
Because like I said – vampires are just way cooler.
What are Vampires?
Like a zombie, a vampire is a corpse that craves humans – specifically their blood. Vampires roam around at night looking for the warm blood needed for their survival. So the interaction between vampires and people is one of fear.
Many believe that the Slavs came up with the vampire myths.
But it is much more than that – and that is why Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel , and in fact all the vampire books and shows from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to True Blood by Charlaine Harris have had eager audiences to hear the tale year after year.
Vampire fictional stories are very popular, both in books and films. Some of them include the Twilight Saga, the Vampire Diaries . and Anne Rice’s huge vampire series based largely on the vampire Lestat.
But for many reasons, Buffy and Angel fans think that the Buffyverse is the best.
Why are we drawn to vampires? And what can they do?
Vampires feed on blood – and then kill their victims. However, sometimes they decide to turn the person into another vampire rather than just killing them. In Buffy and Angel this happens by having the victim drink the blood of the vampires. Then when they rise from the grave they will be vampires themselves. They will look like the person they once were – but they will not be them. They will be soulless beings with evil on their mind. That is what the members of the series had find out and find out quick when their friends turned into vampires. Xander saw his best male friend Jesse turn into a vampire, and had to fact the fact that he had to kill him or be killed.
Why is there still the thrall?
First of all, in spite of the fact that they do not souls – they can love. Drusilla will tell you that. And love in an obsessive, over-powering , all possessing way.
Vampires can tempt their victims because they are intelligent, or at least as intelligent as people get. Some develop all kinds of elaborate ways of cruelty , some just randomly maim and kill. They can be solitary, although they can live in nests and groups. They are incredibly strong and fast, or at least much more so than the average human. Most of the vampires in Angel and Buffy got around by walking, running – or driving cars
In the Buffyverse – the Prince of Darkness – Count Dracula was the only vampire who could fly, but in other series more vampires are given that ability.
Vampires can scheme, plan evil deeds and otherwise raise havoc.
And of course, don’t forget their superhuman ability to fight, scale walls and pull out a fang or two when needed. And some like the Master and Drusilla were able to hypnotize their victims.
Second-guessing them can make escaping them terrifying. But if you can get hold of their knowledge by any means possible you will learn a lot.
In Buffy and Angel there are many instances of where vampires were able to identify other demons and creatures of evil and help our team for good.
First of all, vampires could be bribed and threatened. For instance in Buffy season two episode seven – “Lie to Me” – Buffy is able to beat Spike and keep him from killing a lot of people but holding onto his beloved Drusilla and threatening to kill her. And while Spike was kept neutered by the chip in his head – he was able to unable to hurt living beings, he found that he could hurt demons, and became a valuable ally. Vampires could also be fonts of information – like when Spike could speak Fyarl, and could help Giles when got turned into a Fyarl demon.
But the most good that came from the vampires Angel and Spike is when they each respectively got their souls back. To understand how that happened is to understand the series, but just trust that the souls made a huge difference in the series.
Many Vampires are sexy
The appeal of the night, the losing of your soul but gaining eternal life, the strength and confidence that comes with the kind of just not caring that vampires do. Much of both of the series involves love and sexuality – with Buffy’s first big love being Angel and much later in the series Spike.
Many of us lose ourselves in our first loves, and Buffy and Angel delve deep into that theme.
But they are not the only one. The original Dracula was known for tempting women and wooing them to give up their lives and souls rather than taking it from them.
However, the idea of being on the dark side, of going away from all that your family and culture wanted is very tempting to adolescents – and the adolescents in all of us.
Don’t be fooled – vampires and sexuality go hand in hand and zombies are not tempting even a bit.
Weaknesses of Vampires
Nobody lives forever. Even the undead immortal. There are definitely ways to kill vampires.
- The trusty wooden stake. Bullets won’t do it, but an oak stick will ever time.
- Holy water – water that has been blessed by priests will burn vampires.
- The Bible and Cross – both are effective against the evil undead.
- Beheading works every time.
- Pushing out into the sunlight will immediately do the fanged folks in.
- Garlic is a real turn off.
- Is the Silver bullet effective against vampires? Nah, those are effective against werewolves. But they do hurt like hell
However, vampires are sneaky , cunning and evil. The hardest thing is getting close enough to them to use any of the weapons you might have.
So in an epic battle between zombies and vampires who would win?
Well by this time I think you know I would come down on the side of vampires winning. But let’s tally up the strengths and weaknesses.
- Vampires have the cunning, ability to plan and quickness in moveness that would knock the stuffing out of most zombies.
- However, zombies don’t die when are exposed to sunlight, so in a daylight attack they could easily win.
- Vampires are free agents – these soulless devils are not controlled by a zombies master so they could do whatever they wanted. Including run away , or go to ground if they needed to. If there really became a vampire vs zombie war – vamps would sleep and hide all day and come out stronger and swifter at night to fight the zombies off.
- However, vampires can feel pain – which zombies cannot.
- Zombies have great hearing, but then again so do vampires.
- Zombies would be unlikely to be attacking vampires in the first place, and vice versa. Both are seeking living beings to feed on, unless the zombie master told the zombies to go against vampires for some reason.
There is little in the world of the zombies to fascinate us – and much with vampires.
If I have enticed you to check either series – you can easily find them online. And I hope I am piquing your interest!
The Buffyverse is wonderful.
Buffy Seasons 1-7: The Complete Series
ANGEL – THE COMPLETE SERIES (Bilingual)
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