Reviews

Hi everyone! ~waves excitedly~
Once again, I apologize for the time between posts... hopefully buffyrules01, randomfandom89, and I will be able to get together and decide what the schedule for the blog will be, but until then... I do have some reviews to give.

The first review is of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 - or as I call it Harry Potter #7.1. I know that Harry Potter isn't vampire-ish, but it does have vampires in it (at least mentioned in the books). Anyways, my review of Harry Potter #7.1 is better than what I thought of Harry Potter #6 - I did not like that movie because I felt it didn't stay close to the books. Harry Potter #7.1 was good and I'm very glad that they are making it into two movies because there is NO WAY you can accurately put that much information in Harry Potter #7 (the book) into one movie. NO WAY! The acting was great and the movie stayed close enough to the story that I wasn't too upset with it (like I was in Harry Potter #6). I must also say that the three main characters/actors (and actress) are hilariously funny when they are together. The movie had several laughs, a few scary parts, and at least one sad part - if not a couple more.

*Funny story... (possibility of a SPOILER) the first time I saw Harry Potter #7.1 (I've seen it twice) was with one of my nieces and two of eight nephews. Just before the part where Harry and Hermione get attacked by the snake in Godrick's Hallow I had my 8-yr old nephew come sit on my lap so that I could cover his eyes during the snake part. After that part he stayed on my lap for the rest of the movie. The funny part about this is, when Harry Potter started to strip to his underwear to go save the sword of Gryffindor from a pond, my nephew covered my eyes. It was funny (to me at least).

My next review is of the Twilight Saga: Eclipse DVD. I ended up dragging my oldest brother to Wal*Mart at midnight to get it and, as an 'I'm sorry that I won't be home for Christmas' gift, he bought it for me. I still have to watch the movie with another commentary, but I found the commentary with Kristen Stewart (Bella) and Robert Pattinson (Edward) hilariously funny and I enjoy the fact that neither of them like to fill the movie with "initial" mindless chatter (they did start talking about something from the movie which led to other discussions, but it was okay because those discussions were so off the wall that they made me laugh). Also, the documentary of how the movie was made was pretty cool and filled with funny parts... like seeing Taylor Lautner in a spandex suit/sweatpants for a wolf part.

That's basically it. Oh! For the Harry Potter series, I'm Team Ron and Team Dobby (both of them are funny and cool). Twilight saga, I'm Team Switzerland in arguments (it annoys people) and Team Edward (generally).

-scarc91989

Attention All Fangdomers

I know we said not long ago that we would be going over everything Buffy for the month of August, but alas! It turns out this month is going to be the busiest month for us all! We apologize for the inconvenience and ask that you, our amazing readers, will bare with us. We truly love you all and hate the fact that we don't have the time right now to fully put our all into our posts.

So, for the rest of this month, we the creators of Random Fangdom will be taking the time away from the blog and will focus our attention on making the Fangdom better than ever before. We want this blog to be the best that it can be, and that can only be done if we can all come together.

When we return in a month, we will start right back up with Buffy and go on from there. If you have any questions or maybe have some ideas for our Fangdom yourselves and would like to make some suggestions please contact us at: randomfandom89@hotmail.com (and no that's not a typo, there isn't a g in fangdom for our e-mail)

-Random Fangdom

Sound Bite

Hello my lovelies!! Weren't expecting me now, were you? Surprise!! It's Random! I'm here to introduce a new thing to our Fangdom: Sound Bites. Every once in awhile we will be posting music that we find to be very vampirey or very dark in a sense. We might also post some bands that we just like in general, but for the most part it'll be musicians that we feel perfectly suit the vampire genre.

I will be starting off this new column with a band that I quite enjoy (although Buffyrules would like to argue that the band hardly exists anymore). That band is Evanescence.

How many of us can forget "Bring Me to Life," "My Immortal," "Haunted"? Those songs practically scream vampire. Fallen was Evanescence's gold mine-or should I say-platinum mine. There isn't a single bad song on that CD, you can listen to it from start to finish and never get tired of it. I should know, I've done it many times.

2003 was a good year for them; if only Ben Moody hadn't left!! After Fallen came the Open Door, a bit more melodic than Fallen. It's interesting when you first hear it. I personally like "Weight of the World," "Lithium," and "Lose Control." The only issue I have with this CD is once you listen through the entire thing...you get bored with the songs very easily. It's like the symphonies are just too much and over power the rock edge that Evanescence was famous for. It's a lovely CD if you want to fall asleep and have crazy nightmares, but for me it was just okay.

After that the band fell apart. Amy Lee is the only member of Evanescence left, all of the originals have gone on to do better things, making me wonder what Evanescence will sound like now. The band was originally supposed to release their next album this year, but by the sounds of it, it's being pushed back quite a bit.

I still have faith in Evanescence. I still think they are a great band and Amy Lee's voice is unmatched by any other singer I have come across. Truly a superb singer.

Another CD of Evanescence's that you should try to get your hands on is Origin. It's the Pre-Fallen CD and has some pretty crazy sounding tracks."Whisper" and "Imaginary" have a different sound from what you hear on the Fallen CD, and all the others are just very dark and very reminiscent of the old Evanescence. It makes me miss Ben Moody when I hear some of the tracks. "Eternal" is Buffyrules' personal favorite. Seven minutes and twenty two seconds of pure instrumental bliss. How can anyone not love the track? I'm especially fond of the section where the song just sounds like a thunderstorm raging. If you'd like to get ahold of these tracks or the entire CD you can download it off the internet at evanescencereference. Amy Lee and Ben Moody actually stated in an interview that they wanted fans to just download the CD, so don't feel like you're doing something wrong by doing it.

I'm really excited about what's coming up for our Fangdom. Sorry for the various delays, but we do have lives and it gets in the way sometimes. Please forgive us and keep on reading our blog. We truly appreciate those of you who do.

Affiliates: MyVampFiction.com

We at Random Fangdom our pleased to announce our first ever affiliate: My Vamp Fiction.

MyVampFiction is an open community that encourages fun, intelligent discussion about all things Vampire and Vampire-related. Their goal is to not only provide a one-stop shop for fans to discuss books, music, movies & television series within the Vampire fiction genre (and to some extent, the Paranormal fiction genre as well), but also to inspire creativity through fan fiction, music & art.

So if you're looking for fanfiction just on the Vampire genre and anything Vampire related, we suggest you take a pop over to MyVampFiction. They have some great things going on and even some writing contests you can join.

Just click on the link down below, or in the column on the right side of your screen that says Affiliates.

http://myvampfiction.com/

Into every generation, there is a Chosen One...

By Buffyrules01

Hello all! We're going to start doing something a little different here at the Fangdom. Every month, us at the Random Fangdom will go over a form of entertainment that has our beloved vampires starring in it. This month, Buffy was picked at random for the start of our new column, and I don't think we could've picked a better show to start with (yes, I'm being biased)! So of course, I was asked to introduce you all to this wonderful TV show. Who better to talk about Buffy the Vampire Slayer than me? I don't go by Buffyrules01 for the heck of it.

Moving on...so as you probably have noticed, the month of July is already half over. What are you going to do about that, you ask? Easy, we're going to go into August. For a little over a month and half we will be going over everything we can about Buffy to let those of you who have never seen the show fall in love with it, and to let those who have, reminisce with us.

Buffy first came out in March of 1997, five years after the awful movie of the same name came out. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Movie is a far cry from the successful show, and rightfully so considering Joss Whedon actually walked out in the middle of production when the movie people refused to go with his vision. It just goes to show you that when Joss Whedon is involved, you should listen to what he says; the man is a genius.

The concept of Buffy came to Whedon after he saw that in every horror movie there's always a little blonde girl who goes down a dark alley and gets killed. He wanted to flip the idea and make it so that yes the little blonde girl goes down the dark alley, but she beats the crap out of the thing that's chasing her. That's how Buffy Summers was born.

Years after the bomb that was the movie, Whedon was approached and asked to make his version of Buffy into a TV show. Whedon explained that "They said, 'Do you want to do a show?' And I thought, 'High school as a horror movie.' And so the metaphor became the central concept behind Buffy, and that's how I sold it."

The supernatural elements in the series stood as metaphors for personal anxieties associated with adolescences and young adulthood. Such as the girl who is ignored and feels like she's invisible to others in school. In the Buffyverse, that girl really would become invisible, go insane, and try to kill everyone who ignored her. Or that teacher that every body fantasizes about, in Buffy she'd probably turn out to be a creature and try to kill off all the boys who liked her.

For those of you who have been living under a rock and have no idea what Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about, I'll give you a quick synopsis of the show.

Buffy Summers is a sixteen year old girl who is sent to the fictional town of Sunnydale, California after getting kicked out of her old school in LA for burning down the Gym. The reason for the burn down was because there were vampires in the gym and Buffy is a Vampire Slayer (hence the name of the show). A Vampire Slayer is one girl in all the world, a Chosen One, she alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. So technically Buffy isn't just a vampire slayer, she kills all evil things, but vampires are her specialty.

Each Slayer has what is called a Watcher, a Watcher looks after and trains the Slayer so that she can fight all of the evils in the world until she passes and another one is called.

How did a Slayer come to be, you ask? A bunch of monks took the essence of a pure-demon and put the essence into the body of a girl; the first Slayer. This mystical force gave the Slayer her supernatural abilites such as strength, speed, and superhuman senses.

There are seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and each season is basically a year in the life of Buffy. The first season is shorter than the others, and is Buffy's second semester of her sophomore high school year. The second season is her junior year, the third season is her senior, and so on and so forth through college and whatnot.

What I love so much about this show is that it has every genre you can think of for a series. It's a comedy, a drama, a romance, mystery, thriller-whatever you can think of all rolled into one! The dialogue written for the characters is absolute genius, and we at the Fangdom will go over some of our favorite quotes from the show as we go along. We'll also do some character explorations/spotlights so that you will all get to know and love the characters as much as we do.

If you haven't seen the show yet, I highly suggest you go watch it. The first season is on Hulu, and you can buy two seasons in a pack for about twenty bucks!!! A great deal considering I bought all mine individually back when they were all about forty dollars, dang it.

Vampire Mythology: Crucifixes

I'm back with some more tasty Vampire Mythology for you all to drain and devour. Today we will be talking about crosses/crucifixes and how they came about in Vampire Lore.

Crazily enough, the emergence of the crucifix came directly from Bram Stoker's Dracula, combining some popular ideas about the magical use of sacred objects by Roman Catholics and the medieval tradition that identified vampirism with Satanism. In addition, a significant amount of Roman Catholic piety focused around the crucifix, and among church members it could easily take on not just sacred, but magical, qualities. It was not just a symbol of the sacred, but the bearer of the sacred.

If the the vampire was of the realm of Satan, it would withdraw from a crucifix. For Stoker, the presence of the crucifix caused the vampire to lose its supernatural strength . Thus, with Dracula, in the case of Harker, Dracula lost his fury; Lucy could not escape her tomb; and when the men burst into Mina's bedroom, the weakened Dracula, faced with overwhelming odds, departed quickly.

While the crucifix was a standard item in the vampire hunter's kit, it was not omnipresent in vampire books and movies. The relation to the holy was among the first elements of the tradition to be challenged as the vampire myth developed. Writers who were not Roman Catholic or even Christian found no meaning in the crucifix and the eucharistic elements, and simply dropped them from consideration. For instance, Anne Rice chose to acknowledge the sacred world but essentially deny its power, specifically mentioning the immunity of her vampires to holy objects.

The challenge to the effectiveness of the crucifix in vampire novels symbolizes a larger challenge to the role of the supernatural in modern life. While the lessening of the role of the supernatural in the novels of Rice has its supporters, the crucifix remains a popular protective object for fictional characters. Consideration of their reaction to sacred objects likely will continue to be a conscious element in the development of new vampire characters in the future.

We know today with shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the a cross can protect people from vampires. If a cross so much as touches a vampires skin, it burns them. A perfect example of this would be when Buffy kisses Angel in the first season at the end of the episode "Angel." The cross she wears around her neck burns into his neck, forming a perfect crucifix in his skin. I know with the more recent vampire craze, a lot of those fictional vampires don't shy away from the cross; it has no effect on them. So does this mean that they are less evil than those vampires who are effected by the cross?

Who knows. All we know is, it's up to the writer to decide the effects of the cross.

Review with a Vampire Slayer

Eclipse. Yes, that is what ScarC and I were sent out to do last week. Random ordered us to go see it, and write a review (ScarC saw it three times-my goodness)

Now, before you Twi-Haters start clicking the "X" at the top of your screen, just stop and listen to me for a second. As many of you know (or have guessed by my name) I am a Buffy fan, a Buffy loyalist, whatever you want to call it. I'm sure some of you reading this are too, so don't feel like I've betrayed you in some way because I have not. I loved vampires before Buffy, after Buffy, I used to draw vampires in elementary school for crying out loud. The reason why I say I'm a Buffy loyalist is because Buffy was the first form of media I ever saw that had my beloved vampires in it. Sure they were being slayed by a petite blonde, but I loved the characters, I loved the vamps, and I loved the show.

It wasn't long after Buffy season 7 had ended, that I came across Twilight while perusing a bookstore (which I later worked at for a year). Back then, there were less than a dozen copies of Twilight on the shelves. New Moon didn't exist yet, Twilight hadn't exploded into the crazy thing it is now, and TwiHards were few and far between. I read the book, I liked the book, and I admit I was excited when I found out there was going to be a sequel to it. So, I guess you could say I'm an original fan, but that's all I am. I'm not obsessed with it, I don't have Rob posters plastered on my wall. I just enjoy the story and the characters. I've only read through each book twice and that's it.

Why am I going through all of this in a movie review? Because I want you to understand where I am coming from, and because I want you all to know that my review for Eclipse is genuine. It's not biased in anyway. It's pure and honest truth.

So as you all now know, I was asked to go see Eclipse and write a review. Now I have to be honest, I can't stand the first movie of the series: Twilight. I had such high hopes for it, I even saw it twice in theaters just to see if the second time around would be any better...it was worse. No offense to people who love Kristen Stewart, but she just could not act in that movie! All the twitching and eye blinking (seriously if you don't believe me, look it up on youtube.). I thought the special effects were bad, the directing, the music, it just wasn't good! And I was taking a film class in college during this time, so I knew what I was talking about. The only thing I liked about that movie was the baseball scene (you can't go wrong with a MUSE song in the background), and the Cullen Family. The Twilight movie actually awakened my love for Jasper. I was intrigued by him in the books and LOVED his relationship with Alice, but it wasn't until I saw him in Twilight that I started to get all twitterpated.

With New Moon things got a little better. I had lower expectations for that movie because New Moon is my least favorite book in the series and I already experienced Twilight, so I was ready for anything. New Moon was definitely a step up from Twilight. With a new director, and more money to spend on special effects, the movie just felt better. The only issues I had were the cheesy scenes here and there (Alice's vision? I mean, come on), Kristen's acting (no surprise there), and the make up for Edward (in the words of a friend who saw it with me, "I'm trying to check out Edward, but all I can see is his lips") a little too much red on the lips there.

This brings us all to June 6th, the day I saw Eclipse (not at midnight, I saw it during the day). The movie opened with Bella and Edward sitting in their meadow, Bella is reading something for English while Edward is distracting her; asking her if she will marry him, to which she still replies with a "no". One thing I do in every Twilight movie is stare at Kristen Stewart's eyes, waiting for the extreme blinking and twitching to occur. It didn't happen at all in this movie. That was when I realized Eclipse was going to be different from all the others.

Eclipse is actually my favorite book in the series, but regardless, I went to the theater on my guard. I didn't want to have high expectations for it like I did with Twilight, only to be greatly disappointed, so I went in with a neutral air about me. Seeing Kristen Stewart's lack of blinking and twitching gave me hope; could this movie possibly be what Twilight should've been? It was. One should call Eclipse the Redeemer of the Twilight Movies. I was almost on the edge of my seat when the Cullen's starting chasing after Victoria through the woods. I knew they wouldn't catch her, but it was amazing to watch all the same.

The only issue I had with Eclipse was the lack of emotion from Kristen Stewart. Sure her blinking had stopped, but she was still bleah in the rest of the acting department. Her deep voice drives me nuts. Honestly, with Rob and Taylor constantly glaring at each other and wanting to fight each other, you could hardly tell she was there. Other than that though, I couldn't find anything wrong with this movie. Compared to the two before it, it was phenomenal. It was funny, it was intense, it was romantic. If I could see it again I would. Mostly because of one individual in particular:

Jasper

HO-LY-DANG! If I hadn't given my heart to Angel(us) long ago, I think Jasper might've taken it during the movie. When he took Emmett down (the strongest of the Cullen's) my heart was all a flutter. There's nothing I love more than watching a vampire beat the crap out of another vampire just on shear skill. Angel does the exact same thing and it's one of the many reasons for why I love him so much.

BEST SCENE EVER: Other than the tent scene and Jacob getting punched in the face (which were both hilarious), I have to say watching Alice and Jasper fight each other. It was the scene I was waiting for and it didn't disappoint at all. I so love their relationship, the fact that the only person who can take down Jasper is his wife, to me, is the sweetest thing ever. Behind every great man is a great woman, and Alice is definitely that.

A close second would have to be the fight scene. I never pictured the newborn vamps' faces breaking like porcelain when they were punched. Amazing visual, Jasper was a beast, need I say more?

I'm glad Eclipse didn't turn out as awful as I had thought, but the Twilight movies still need a lot of work. I mean, when you look at the Twilight movies and then you look at Harry Potter and how the kids who played Harry, Hermione, and Ron started out acting...they were still better than these twenty-somethings running around.

I'm trying to be optimistic about the movies, really. It's just sad that it had to take three movies in order for the saga to at least be decent on screen. I don't think it's the director's fault either, it's got to be the screenwriter.

Anyway, if you want my score on the Twilight Saga movies this is how they go in my opinion:

Twilight: D
New Moon: C
Eclipse: B+

Oh and JASPER JASPER JASPER

Eclipse Review

Hey everyone! This is Scarc91989 reporting from the confines of her bedroom... must love laptops.

Anyways, I'm here to give you (my lovely readers) my quick review of the movie Eclipse. Simply put... I've seen it three time and plan to go see it again, that should say something. All-in-all though my overall rating for Twilight Saga: Eclipse is an A- or a B+. The reasoning is below. Warning... this might contain spoilers, you have been warned.

There are several reasons why I'm not giving it a solid A and those reasons are: I think they could have done a better job making Edward and the other vamps sparkle, Jasper's uniform could have been more realistic, and they could have made one of the scenes with Kristen Stewart (Bella) not look like a little kid.

There were moments in the movie when Edward and other vamps did not sparkle in the sunlight. One moment being in the last scene in the meadow when Bella and Edward are discussing the wedding plans. Jasper's uniform is supposed to have a yellow sash instead of a red sash and there are minor errors made to the pants and collar. (My brother, Daniel, who I dragged to the movie with me, pointed out these errors. He is a Civil War buff.) And, as for Kristen Stewart looking like a little kid - I think she looks twelve and I blame it on the costume and wig she is wearing. (The picture on the right is the only picture that I can get that shows what I'm talking about... it's not the best example, the best example is when she's using her blood to "mark" the tree while leaving a path for the newborns - at least when the camera backs away and shows her leaving the tree. No copyright infringement intended, all rights belong to their rightful owners in regard to this picture.)

My favorite parts, or scenes you should say, of the movie are: the fight scenes, the tent scene, when Bella punches Jacob and the subsequent exchange with Edward/Jacob & Charlie, "the talk" scene, and the wolves - in general. All those scenes I believe were done exceptionally well by both the actors/actresses involved and the CGI crew.

Now... I must leave you my lovely readers. My personal thought... go watch the movie. If you love it, sweet! If you hate it, at least you can say you watched it. And if you are in the middle, once again... at least you can say you watched it. For the guys, as my brother, Daniel, said 'It's good except for the romantic crap.'

- Scarc91989

CreatureFeature: (sand)Witches! (sand)Witches! They're not even human!

Okay, so witches are actually human, but you have to admit; the song is catchy!

Welcome my loverlies!!! Did you miss me? I missed you! This week things are going to take an interesting turn. Our lovely vixen Buffyrules01 will NOT be posting this Wednesday. Why you ask? Because I've sent her on an assignment with our other vixen, ScarC. The pair will be posting back to back posts on the same topic when they have finished, so you are all in for double the excitement! Until then, you are stuck with me, and today we are talking about witches.

Now, I believe that vampires, werewolves, and witches are probably the most popular supernatural beings. They are everywhere in literature and media, and Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer even have all three! Because of this, there are massive amounts of information and history involved with the trio and we cannot discuss everything in one simple post! We know this with Buffyrules' column. So, what do you do when you have all this information brimming before you? You right what you can!

So here we go!

In many myths and legends, witches are evil, dishonest, or dangerous. Some cultures do not consider them fully human. If not evil by nature, witches may be possessed by demons or wicked spirits determined to harm humans. Yet ordinary men and women may learn magic for the purpose of hurting others. Such people are sometimes called sorcerers and sorceresses rather than wizards and witches. African tradition distinguishes between good magicians, or medicine men, and bad magicians, or sorcerers. Both types are distinct from the nonhuman witch.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, the belief in witches was widespread. Witches were said to be worshipers of the Devil. Thousands of women and some men were tortured and executed after being accused of witchcraft. The English who settled in North America brought along a fear of witches. A witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 resulted in the execution of 19 people. Even today, accusations of witchcraft can lead to violence in some parts of the world.

Not all witches and wizards are evil. Some myths and folktales feature good spirits or magicians who help people. These are said to practice "white magic" rather than the "black magic" of the evil witches and wizards. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the modern Arthurian legends identify Morgan Le Fay as the enchantress known as Nimuë, or the Lady of the Lake. In this role, she tricks Arthur's magician Merlin into falling in love with her. After learning Merlin's secrets, she imprisons him behind invisible walls.

Witches take many forms. The traditional image in European and American folklore is that of a wrinkled old woman, perhaps wearing a black robe and a cone-shaped hat. These witches communicate with evil spirits called familiars, which often take the form of a black cat. According to legend, Japanese witches have owls as familiars, and African witches have monkeys.

Flight is often associated with witchcraft. In American folktales, witches usually travel through the night skies on enchanted broomsticks. In some parts of Africa, witches are said to fly on bats. African witches often take the form of animals and eat human flesh. In the mythology of some cultures, witches can change into animals to prey upon their victims.

Witches and wizards continue to fascinate the public and inspire people to use them in novel and media. The Harry Potter Series is probably the most well known when it comes to witchcraft and wizardry (ha! pun!). Buffy fans will always remember Willow and her witchiness, and now we have Bonnie on the Vampire Diaries.

It's interesting to see how so many mythical and supernatural beings can all come together. Whether they're fighting against each other, or they're best friends with each other.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. If I did then I'd be even more fantastic than I already am.

Vampire Mythology: To Stake or Not to Stake?

That is the question.

Ever the preferred method of killing or immobilizing a vampire; stakes are possibly the most widely recognized way by which a vampire can be dealt with (unless you count sunlight-but you can't carry it around with you).

The stake driven through the heart is said to strike a killing blow to the undead; it is a technique by which a vampire may be put down while other, more permanent, means are used, such as: decapitation and burning. We recognize stakes today as the weapon of choice for any Vampire Slayer, and my personal favorite way to watch vampires meet their ends-in a pile of dust.

So, how did the method of staking come about? Like many other vampire myths, killing with a stake has its own historical significance.

Throughout central and eastern Europe, this method was taken very seriously. Not just any table leg or tree branch would do; the stake had to made of specific materials. In Russia, and through the Baltic, stakes had to be crafted from ash because of it's "magical qualities" (what's so magical about ash isn't said). In Silesia, the stakes were carved from oakwood, while Serbia had theirs crafted from hawthorn because of it's thorny shrub quality.

Vampirism was taken so seriously, in fact, that in Hungary and Romania bodies were staked after death to prevent the dead from coming back.

Most often vampires, or suspected vampires, were staked through the heart, though in Russia and northern Germany, the mouth was targeted for staking. In northeastern Serbia, the stomach was the appropriate place to stake a vampire. It was believed that staking a vampire was a way to relieve the bloated body of the devil spirit.

Staking is still, today, a widely used technique for doing away with vampires. Fictionalists utilize this technique over any and all others for the destruction of vampires. Vampire Diaries and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are just a few examples of that fact.

Forgive me for not posting last night. You may all stake me if you'd like.

Vampire Mythology: Bats baby!

No discussion of vampires is even thinkable without talking about bats. They are integral to the modern day concept of the vampire, but this was not always the case.

Many cultures have various myths about bats. In South America, Camazotz was a bat god of the caves living in the Bathouse of the Underworld. In Europe, bats and owls were long associated with the supernatural, mainly because they were night creatures. On the other hand, the Gypsies thought them lucky-they wore charms made of bad bones. And in England, the Wakefield crest and those of some others have bats on them.

So how did bats end up becoming associated with vampires? There are only three species of vampire bats in the entire world, all of which occur in Central and South America. During the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors first came into contact with them and recognized the similarity between the feeding habits of the bats and those of their mythical vampires. It wasn't long before they began to associate bats with their vampire legends. Over the following centuries the association became stronger and was used by various people, including James Malcom Rhymer who wrote "Varney the Vampyre" in the 1840's. Stoker cemented the linkage of the bats and vampires in the minds of the general public with what we now know as "Bram Stoker's: Dracula."

Now as we very well know, vampires in media over the past decade don't even turn into bats like the vampires of the olden days. In a ways, it's sort of become taboo. Why would any vampire want to turn into a bat and fly away when they can just run at incredible speeds? The last time I ever saw a vampire turn into a little bat in the media was the movie, "The Littlest Vampire," and that was a kids movie.

Bats and vampires have changed. In movies like Underworld; where Marcus was all bat and his brother was all wolf, and Van Helsing, where Dracula turned into a bat; these bats were ginormous. Not the little tiny bats we see flying around nowadays. These guys were huge and human sized. You would wet your pants if they flew at you.

So there you have it. Bat's influence in the vampire world, even though it's short and sweet-they are still important.

Buffy Moment and Nerdy Passion

For those of you that are unfortunate enough to not know what I mean by a 'Buffy Moment' let me explain... I had a brief moment where I was reminded of a quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which should be discussed in this blog at some point). The moment you might ask was while I was with one of my brothers. He was telling me about how he didn't pass the written portion of a test and BANG! I had a Buffy Moment.

Master: You were destined to die! It was written!

Buffy: What can I say? I flunked the written.

(Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Season 1; Prophecy Girl)

*I told my brother this quote and we had a good laugh.

As for my other topic that is included in the title of this post... "Nerdy Passion"... it comes from hanging out with a couple of friends (a girl and her 15/16 yr. old brother) today in which we discussed our "Nerdy Passion". A nerdy passion, according to our definition, is something that you are completely obsessed with... to the degree that you'd be considered a "nerd" in that subject. My nerdy passion... if you must know... is volcanoes and fire. I probably have others, but that is my biggest one. My girl-friend's brother and I decided that her nerdy passion was benefiting from other people's nerdy passions while his nerdy passion was the fact that he is completely obsessed with Lord of the Rings and has read/watched all the extended versions/clips for it.

So, in an effort to gain a better understanding of the readers of this blog I ask... what is your nerdy passion?

- Scarc91989

Vampire Mythology: Vampire Controversy?!

Believe it or not, there was an actual controversy involving vampires during the 18th century. Shocking? I thought so too!

As we very well know today, everyone is familiar with vampires. How can you not? There's vampire media and merchandise everywhere! But in Britain very little was known about vampires prior to the 18th century.

What brought the attention of vampires to the general public?

During the 18th century there was a major vampire scare in Eastern Europe. Even government officials frequently got dragged into the hunting and staking of vampires (seriously, people back then were nuts!).

This controversy was directly responsible for England's current vampire myths. In fact,the word Vampire only came into English language in 1732 via an English translation of a German report of the much publicized Arnold Paole vampire staking in Serbia (who? I'll explain it later).

Western scholars seriously considered the existence of vampires for the first time rather than just brushing them off as superstition. It all started with an outbreak of vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Austro-Hungarian empire from 1725-1734.

Two famous cases involved Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole. Plogojowitz died at the age of 62, but came back a couple of times after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the next day. Soon Plogojowitz returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.

In the other famous case Arnold Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who had been
attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After death people began to die and it was believed by everyone that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbors.

These two incidents were extremely well documented. Government officials examined the cases and the bodies, wrote them up in reports, and books were published afterwards of the Paole case and distributed around Europe. The controversy raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural people having an epidemic of vampire attacks and digging up bodies all over the place. Many scholars said vampires didn't exist - they attributed reports to premature burial, or rabies which causes thirst. However, Dom Augustine Calmet, a well respected French theologian and scholar, put together a carefully thought out treaty in 1746 which said vampires did exist. This had considerable influence on other scholars at the time.

Eventually, Austrian Empress Marie Theresa sent her personal physician to investigate. He said vampires didn't exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies. This was the end of the vampire epidemics. But by then everyone knew about vampires and it was only a matter of time before authors would preserve and mold the vampire into something new and much more accessible to the general public.

Can you believe they don't write this stuff in History books? Real people actually believed in vampires and had "vampire epidemics". I'm pretty sure all of us wish vampires could really exist, but these people seriously believed it! What a scary time period to live in!

CreatureFeature: Phoenix

I told you I would post Creature Feature at any random time, so how many of you guessed that I would do it mere hours after I announced it? Pretty random, eh?

Today we will be talking about the mythical creature known as the Phoenix. Now the Phoenix is probably my favorite creature and rightly so, it's just so dang cool! I wish real birds could burst into flame and come back from their own ashes. The Phoenix is a gorgeous bird of red and gold plummage (or purple and blue-either way it's pretty) and are about the size of an eagle according to some sources (I picture it being much larger). A Phoenix can live from 500 to around 1,000 years before it comes to the end of it's life; it'll then build itself a nest made out of twigs before igniting on fire and burning until nothing is left but ash. Then, of course, it comes out of the ashes and starts it's life all over again.

There is only one Phoenix that comes to my mind when I think of the bird and that is Fawkes, Dumbledore's Phoenix from Harry Potter. We see in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that it burst into flames just like any other Phoenix, but we also know by the conclusion of the novel that Fawkes' tears can heal fatal wounds. This is also trait with any Phoenix. The birds really are immortal in every shape and form.

Another good example of a phoenix is not of a bird, but of a woman. Marvel Comic nerds will rejoice when I mention Jean Grey's Phoenix. I won't delve to deeply in the comics because there are so many and most of you who are reading this probably haven't read them. So I will discuss Jean Grey in the X-men Trilogies. As we know by the end of the series, Jean has had the Phoenix locked inside her mind by Professor Xavier and after her death at the end of the second movie (did anybody notice when the camera pans out across the lake you can see flames in the water in the shape of a bird?) the Phoenix is released and completely takes over Jean. The only way to stop her is to kill her and we get to see the amazingly buff Hugh Jackman get his shirt and skin ripped off several times before he finally gets to her and does it. Since she's a Phoenix though, does that mean she'll rise again? An intriguing thought.

The phoenix is a central figure in Lebanese ancient and modern cultures, as Lebanese are descendants of the Phoenicians and often claim themselves sons of the Phoenix. Lebanon, and Beirut particularly, is often depicted symbolically as a phoenix bird having been destroyed and rebuilt 7 times during its long history.

Don't you just love mythical creatures? There's so much to learn and to appreciate about them. I'm sure there's way more to Phoenixes than what I have found so far, so be watchful of updates to this column. You never know when I'll be adding new stuff!

Announcement: CreatureFeature

What's this? I'm posting on a Thursday and it isn't even sundown? Don't panic, I'm just doing this because I have an announcement to make; this will be the only time anything is ever posted when it is not dark out.

There will be a slight change to Creature Feature. It will no longer be posted every Saturday; instead, it will be posted at random and it will not be written by ScarC1989. I will be taking up the challenge while ScarC persues other parts of the Fangdom-so keep a weathered eye out for her! The Creature Feature on werewolves will be finished with ScarC and she will be joined by our very own Buffyrules01. No worries, folks, Buffyrules will still be doing her mythology every Wednesday until her research dries up; then it too will show up at random times.

Buffyrules would also like to inform all the vampire fans that she has not turned to the other side by writing about werewolves, she is still a vampire loyalist in her undead heart and as dark as ever.

Expect great things this month. New columns will be showing up to quench your eternal thirst.

Vampire Mythology: Gypsies-say what?

Yeah, I bet you didn't know gypsies had anything to do with vampires (unless you're a Buffy fan, then you know exactly what I'm talking about *coughSOULcough*). Gypsies have actually been in fiction and on screen for quite some time. In Bram Stoker's book Dracula the Szgany gypsies served Dracula, carrying his boxes of earth to guard him (talk about loyal).

In reality, Gypsies originated as nomadic tribes in northern India, but got their name from the early belief that they came from Egypt. By 1000 AD they started spreading westward and settled in Turkey for a time, incorporating many Turkish words into their Romany language.
By the 14th century they were all through the Balkans and within two more centuries had spread all across Europe. Gypsies arrived in Romania a short time before Vlad Dracula was born in 1431.

Their religion is complex and varies between tribes, but they have a god called O Del, as well as the concept of Good and Evil forces and a strong relationship and loyalty to dead relatives. They believed the dead soul entered a world similar to ours except that there is no death. The soul stayed around the body and sometimes wanted to come back (this so reminds me of the ensouled vamp. most of us know and love). The Gypsy myths of the living dead added to and enriched the vampire myths of Hungary, Romania, and Slavic lands.

The ancient home of the Gypsies; India has many mythical vampire figures. The Bhuta is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wandered around animating dead bodies at night and attacked the living like a ghoul. In northern India could be found the brahmaparusha (say that five times fast), a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood (gross!).

The most famous Indian vampire is Kali who had fangs, wore a garland of corpses, and had four arms. Her temples were near the cremation grounds. She and the goddess Durga battled the demon Raktabija who could reproduce himself from each drop of blood spilled. Kali drank all his blood so none was spilled, thereby winning the battle and killing Raktabija.

Sara or the Black Goddess is the form in which Kali survived among Gypsies. Gypsies have a belief that the three Marys from the New Testament went to France and baptised a Gypsy called Sara. They still hold a ceremony each May 24th in the French village where this is supposed to have occurred.
One Gypsy vampire was called a mullo (one who is dead). This vampire was believed to return and do malicious things and/or suck the blood of a person (usually a relative who had caused their death, or not properly observed the burial ceremonies, or who kept the deceased's possessions instead of destroying them as was proper.)

Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry, but would exhaust the husband. Anyone who had a hideous appearance, was missing a finger, or had animal appendages, etc. was believed to be a vampire.

Even plants or dogs, cats, or farm animals could become vampires. Pumpkins or melons
kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises, or show blood.

To get rid of a vampire people would hire a dhampire (the son of a vampire and his widow) to detect the vampire. To ward off vampires, gypsies drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. Further measures included driving stakes into the grave, pouring boiling water over it, decapitating the corpse, or burning it.

In spite of the disruption of Gypsy lives by the various eastern European communist regimes, they still retain much of their culture. In 1992 a new king of the Gypsies was chosen in Bistritz, Romania.

There ya go! Gypsies have a part of vampire mythology too, and in modern day fiction, we know that they would often punish vampires for feeding off of one of their kin. I won't go into further details though, those vampires will be discussed later.

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is my wit. If any of you are gypsies and find this inaccurate, by all means, contact me and let me know.

Random Fangdom Followers,

Until I can find more information pertaining to werewolves the "Creature Feature" on werewolves has been temporarily suspended. Please enjoy the "Creature Feature" on vampires and enjoy whatever else is on Random Fangdom.

Sincerely,

-Scarc91989

Vampire Mythology: Different Species Part 2

Ah, yes, the continuation on the bombshell I dropped last week: different species of vampires?! Get ready to throw your original thoughts on vampires out the window! I'm going to take you back many years ago and talk about the real history of vampires from different lands rather than my own opinions (which I hope you all enjoyed last week). Here we go!

Different Species Part 2

Vampire myths go back thousands of years and occur in almost every culture around the world (I know what you're probably thinking; Buffyrules, you already told us this stuff-well I'm telling you again! Plus this is for those who are just now joining us). The vampires we know of today, although altered my fiction and film, are largely based on Eastern European myths. The vampire myths of Europe originated in the far East and were transported from places like China, Tibet, and India with the trade caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Here they spread out along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans, and of course, the Carpathian mountains including places like Transylvania (now Romania) and Hungary (where my ancestors are from, go us!)

Our modern concept of vampires still retain threads, such as drinking blood, return from death, preying on humans, etc. in common with the Eastern European myths, but most of the stuff we're familiar with are just recent inventions. Vampires wearing capes for example or the fact that vampires are always highly attractive people. Sadly that is not the case, that is what fiction and film has given us. For instance, I bet some of you didn't know that in the old myths if you placed millet or poppy seeds in the graves of vampires they will spend all night counting them. Believe it or not, this is true and this very myth is what the Count on Sesame Street is based off of. In the words of Xander Harris: "Von, two, three-three victims, mwa ha ha!"

I'm going to give you two examples now of how vampire myths differ in different countries. The first vampires are Slavic-whoo!

Slavic Vampires

The Slavic people (including most east Europeans from Russia to Bulgaria, Serbia to Poland) have the richest vampire folklore and legends in the world. The origin of Slavic vampire myths developed during the 9th century as a result of conflict between pre-Christian paganism and Christianity. Christianity won out with the vampires and other pagan beliefs surviving folklore.

Causes of vampirism included: being born with a caul, teeth, or tail, being conceived on certain days, irregular death, excommunication, improper burial rituals etc. Preventative measures included: placing a crucifix in the coffin, or blocks under the chin to prevent the body from eating the shroud, nailing clothes to coffin walls for the same reason, placing millet or poppy seeds in the grave because vampires had a fascination with counting, or piercing the body with thorns or stakes (that's right, wield your roses!)

Evidence that a vampire was at work in the neighborhood included: death of cattle, sheep, relatives, neighbors, exhumed bodies being in a lifelike state with new growth of the fingernails or hair, or if the body was swelled up like a drum, or there was blood on the mouth and if the corpse had a ruddy complexion.

Vampires could be destroyed by staking, decapitation, burning, repeating the funeral service, holy water on the grave, exorcism.


Romanian Vampires

Romania is surrounded by Slavic countries, so it isn't surprising that their vampires are variants of the Slavic vampire. They are called Strigoi based on the Roman term strix for screech owl which also came to mean demon or witch. There are different types of strigoi: strigoi vii are live witches who will become vampires after death. They can send out their soul at night to meet with other witches or with Strigoi mort, who are dead vampires. The strigoi mort are the reanimated bodies which return to suck the blood of family, livestock, and neighbors.

A person born with a caul, tail, born out of wedlock, or one who died an unnatural death, or died before baptism, was doomed to become a vampire. As was the seventh child of the same sex in a family, the child of a pregnant woman who didn't eat salt or was looked at by a vampire, or a witch. Naturally, being bitten by vampire meant certain condemnation to a vampiric existence after death.

The Vircolac, which is sometimes mentioned in folklore, was more closely related to a mythological wolf that could devour the sun and moon and later became connected with werewolves rather than vampires. The person afflicted with lycanthropy could turn into a dog, pig, or wolf.

The vampire was usually first noticed when it attacked family and livestock, or threw things around in the house. Vampires, along with witches, were believed to be most active on the Eve of St George's Day (April 22 Julian, May 4 Gregorian calendar), the night when all forms of evil were supposed to be abroad. St Georges Day is still celebrated in Europe.

A vampire in the grave could be told by holes in the earth, an undecomposed corpse with a red face, or having one foot in the corner of the coffin. Living vampires were found by distributing garlic in church and seeing who didn't eat it.

Graves were often opened three years after death of a child, five years after the death of a young person, or seven years after the death of an adult to check for vampirism.

Measures to prevent a person becoming a vampire included: removing the caul from a newborn and destroying it before the baby could eat any of it, careful preparation of dead bodies, including preventing animals from passing over the corpse, placing a thorny branch of wild rose in the grave, and placing garlic on windows and rubbing it on cattle, especially on St George's and St Andrew's days.

To destroy a vampire, a stake was driven through the body followed by decapitation and placing garlic in the mouth. By the 19th century people were shooting a bullet through the coffin. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and given to family members as a cure.
Fascinating isn't it? People went through all that trouble over myths! Can you imagine what life would be like if we still believed in all that stuff? I'm really glad we don't and we have all that stuff from fiction and films to help us sleep at night.
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Disclaimer: I'd like to thank the historians who have spent their lives researching all of this vampire mythology. Without them I would not be able to do the research for this column; everything belongs to them except for my wit.

CreatureFeature: Apologies

Yes I know, something was to supposed to be posted yesterday night, but alas! Sometimes life gets in the way and things do not go the way they should. I ask everyone to please forgive us; in time there will be another Creature Feature added to the column and the Creature Feature on Werewolves will have more to it, I promise!

In the meantime, please enjoy this amazingly epic video I found that has Vampires vs. Werewolves. We all know that there are people out there who actually prefer werewolves to vampires (boo! hiss!) for reasons which I can't seem to figure out...Oh well, people will like what they want to like and maybe we can convert a few werewolf fans into fans of our fangdom (yay!)

Here is the awesome vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL-58z3HxUI&playnext_from=TL&videos=RLYbZ_y_qYQ

Vampire Mythology: Different Species Part 1

That's right, I'm back! With some succulent info. on our fangy friends.

Different Species

Part 1

Now some of you are probably aware of this (and if you aren't, you better pay attention!), but in literature and the media everyone seems to have their own opinions and views on what vampires should be like. We know that vampires in the Buffyverse look like every day humans until it's time to feed, and then BAM! They morph into their true hideous natures before sinking their fangs into someone's neck. Then, if a Slayer happens to come along, all it takes is one swift jab in the heart for these monsters to collapse into a pile of dust and ash (the sun could also work too).

With Vampire Diaries (I'm using the TV show since it's there and it's visual) they get these weird vainy things beneath their eyes before their eyes turn red and they go in for the kill with their fangs. They too can be killed with stakes, but they don't turn into dust. Their entire bodies get all vainy and they lose their paleness to become grey statue-like corpses.

And then there is of course, Stephenie Meyer. She came out of nowhere in 2003 and brought us-vampires without fangs??? Sparkles in the sunlight? Can only be ripped to shred and burned in order for them to die? What is the world coming to?


Some vampire purists cried "FOUL!" when they heard about these Twilight wannabe-vampires (Twilight fans please don't hurt me, I'm just the messenger!) and some even said that Meyer ruined everything about vampires. Is that true though? Can we really sit here and say that Stephenie Meyer's vampires aren't really vampires? They feed on human blood, unless they choose not to, they can't go out in the sunlight, they're fast, have razor sharp teeth, and are practically indestructable (not to mention attractive like many other vampires we know *coughAngelSpikeLouisLestatStefanDamoncough*)

My take on all of this: If vampires really existed, there would be different species, different types of vampires.

It makes sense doesn't it? If there can be different races when it comes to humanity, why can't vampires have it too?

Now everybody shake hands and make peace with each other. There's no sense in arguing over which type of vampire is the REAL vampire because everyone has their own preference. I love all vampires whether they sparkle in the sun or burn away in a huge ball of fire. I have favorite vampires of course (if you can't tell by my name, I'm a Buffy loyalist at heart) but that doesn't mean I don't like the Underworld vampires or Anne Rice's vampires any less (no worries Underworld and Rice fans, I got you covered). I've never seen Tru Blood, but I'm sure I would like their take on vampires as well.

I know I should be informing you about all the cool vampire history and mythology stuff and telling you what the Romanians thought vampires were as opposed to the Hungarians and the people of the UK, but I just wanted to get this all out there beforehand. It's okay for other people to disagree and have their own ideas on vampires. History shows that people who lived thousands of years before us already had their theories (reason for the Black Plague, anyone? Lilith ring a bell?)

So before I start on anymore history and mythology I ask you all to please think about vampires as several different species rather than the one you're so determined is correct or the one you heart loves most. I'm pretty sure they all want to suck your blood anyway.

CreatureFeature:Werewolves

Hey everyone! I'm posting this earlier than usual due to the fact that I won't have internet access on Saturday - the usual post date.
Werewolves, also known as lycanthropes, are humans that are able to change into a wolf, or another wolf-like creature, either voluntarily or via a curse or being bitten/scratched by another werewolf. They are typically associated to undergoing this change at a full moon.
Werewolves are mainly a European character but have also spread throughout the world as time has passed. They have supernatural abilities, like: strength and increased senses. And, are thought to be vulnerable to silver.
The one thing I found extremely interesting while I was looking up information to write this was that Native Americans have something similar to werewolves... a human that can change into an animal... but they are called "shapeshifters".
That's all I have for right now. I'll be adding more detail in a later posting. As for now, enjoy the blog.
- Scarc91989

Vampire Mythology: A Brief History

Before I even begin to boggle your minds with my brief history on vampire mythology, I'd like to say how excited I am right now to be the first to post for Rangdom Fangdom. The first post of many and I sincerely hope you will enjoy what we have to offer here as much as we like talking about it.

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A Brief History

Where did the ideas of Vampires originate?

When was the first myth cultivated?

These are the very questions that historians themselves have asked while studying the myths and legends of vampires. What these vampire historians have discovered though, is a bit of a bombshell....they have no idea! Historians have no clue as to what the exact date of origin is, they just have their theories (poor historians!). The evidence from their research; however, suggests that the vampire tale was born sometime in Mesopotamia during the age of Abraham. Now I know what you're thinking, I was a bit shocked as well when I discovered this; the idea of vampirism has been around for, well, forever basically! How ironic!

From Mesopotamia merchants, soldiers, and traders travelling on caravans spread the vampire tale and mythology from Asia and the Middle East to the western shores of England and Ireland. There weren't any evidence of vampires back then, just a story and a myth somebody had come up with and spread like wildfire through word of mouth. Here's something that's also interesting: according to evidence found by historians, vampire mythology originated back in the ancient days near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. There are Assyrian writings on stone that suggest the possibility of the existence of a vampire woman called Lilith!

Story time!

Modern historians say that Lilith is mentioned in the book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible. According to tradition, Lilith was the wife of Adam before Eve was created, but she was demonized because she refused to obey Adam and demanded that she get equal rights like her husband. Her demands were considered evil and so, her thirst for revenge turned her into a vampire. It really makes one wonder what they thought of us American women over 100 years ago when we demanded equal rights. We are all vampires ladies! Hooray!

Now as I said before, the mythology and story of vampires was spreading through the other countries like a plague. Much later, during the Middle Ages, the vampire mythology was introduced to the Slavic Empires and the Western world. The story of vampires was developed differently in each land and they've remained that way ever since. Every empire created a series of physical attributes of vampires that were relevant to their religion, culture and history. They even used the legend of vampires to explain catastrophic events!

By the high Middle Ages, the vampire mythology had gained a strong hold in all of Western Europe. When the Bubonic Plague broke out in the fourteenth century, many people actually believed that vampires were the cause of it! Now of course, we know that fleas and rats from merchant ships carrying goods from the East spread the Bubonic Plague throughout Europe, but back then people didn't know that. People believed anything back then, those who thought that vampires were the cause also thought that their deceased loved ones would return as a vampire and prey on their next victim. To prevent this from happening, family members would actually dig up the graves of the suspected vampires and mutilate their bodies (sick!).

So there you have it, folks! A brief history on what historians assume is how the story and mythology of vampires came about and how it effected the entire world. Vampires definitely kept themselves busy back then *wink wink*

Next blog or so, I'll delve deeper into the vampire myths and talk more about what each country believed their vampires did and what they looked like (oooh exciting). Until then though, I hope all of you ladies out there who would've fought 100 years ago for equal rights if you could remember; you are a vampire!

Housekeeping

Just a few things that need mentioning. We will not start officially posting anything until next week and we will only be posting on Wednesdays and Saturdays from now on (so after sundown keep an eye out!)

Also, along with myself and my lovely counterparts (you know who you are!) we will be having Guest Bloggers show up from time to time. If you would like to Guest Blog for Random Fangdom, please don't hesistate to ask. We would love to know what random vampireness you'd like to bring to the table!

This is Madness!

No! THIS-IS-FANGDOM!

Welcome all ye of vampire faith!

What you see before you is the end of heartbeats and sunshine, and the beginning of all things dark, sinister, and very fangy. We the authors of this fandom have ripped the stakes out of our hearts to give you that which we love and adore most; vampires-and randomness of course!

Like many, we too wish that our fictional blood-suckers actually existed in the real world and dedicate this Random Fangdom to the brooding immortals who stole our beating hearts and kept us coming back for more carnage, mayhem, and eye candy. With some randomness of our own thrown in the mix, be prepared for some unexpected twists and mind boggling questions you've probably never even thought of in the Vampire Universe. We'll go over the myths and legends of these undead creatures, introduce you to the vegetarian vamps. and the even rarer vampires with souls. Show you what the Slayer can do to your fanged friends and of course give our thoughts and opinions on the hottest of the cold and sparkly skinned!

Now we know some of you have read certain vampire novels such as Anne Rice's series, the Vampire Diaries series, and that tiny series nobody can ever seem to escape from-Twilight. We also know about the TV shows that have been out and about; Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Tru Blood, Vampire Diaries; and of course all those vampire films we cannot list because there are so many! We ask you the fans of these works to please be respectful of the thoughts and opinions of others, especially for us writers. Some of the things posted here will just be for fun and to give people a new perspective on what they already know. We want to make this as interesting and entertaining as possible so please take things with an open mind and do not get offended if we say your favorite vampire is a "pansy" or say something about your favorite vampire novel or show you don't particularly agree with. Just take it all in and laugh about it!

BE WARNED!

With this fandom also comes the random. Not only will we talk about the undead, but we'll also talk about other things that are of interest to us like certain works of literature and films. This will happen at any random point in time and could be anything, so make sure you look out for it and remember that I warned you!

Also as a part of this Random Fangdom, we would love to hear about any new vampire stuff coming out or anything you find of interest. Even if it's something like fanfiction or a poem somebody wrote on vampires, don't be afraid to tell us!

-From the Creators of Random Fangdom