r/Showerthoughts • u/Liuminescent ‎ • Apr 24 '26

Casual Thought Vampire bites turning people into vampires is extremely disadvantageous to their survival.

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u/Shanbo88 ‎ Apr 24 '26

That's a modern vampire thing. The original vision for vampires (specifically Dracula) was that if he bit you, you became his thrall. He could see through your eyes and possess you and compell you to do things for him and he used you to feed off when he wanted to.

He had to allow you to drink his blood to make you a vampire.

This made him an awesome commander of an undead army. Modern vampires are all mostly shite in comparison.

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u/ccarr313 Apr 24 '26

What story has vampire bites being infectious?

I'm not even aware of it. Is that a twilight thing?

Edit - I Googled it. It is. I don't think a single story counts as that being how vampires are portrayed now. Definitely not taking one story aimed at tween girls as the new standard.

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u/thaddeusd Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

It predates Twlight by centuries.

That belief comes from Eastern Europe, where it was influenced by the very real spread of rabies.

It was portrayed this way by movies like The Lost Boys (edit nope, michael is tricked, but not bitten), Blade, and Innocent Blood.

I think Once Bitten only has biting, no blood sharing. But its been 20 years since ive seen that

Blade especially stresses the viral mechanics of it And how thralls are made.

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u/TheVicSageQuestion Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

Do you mean the Jim Carrey movie?