http://gateworld.net/articles/column...wraith01.shtml
Since I can't find the appropriate thread to react to the essay, I'll post my remarks here.
I think the writing could have been more detailed about the vampire folklore, notably as how variations of the theme exist on other continents, like for example in Africa.
The concept of drinking blood to regain strenght and/or absorb the strenght of your enemy fits admirably well with the Wraith, safe for the blood part, and this theme is quite wide spread over multiple old cultures on Earth.
Now, I'm surprised you completely forgot to mention the iratus bug.
In "38 minutes", what we do see is that bug actually jumped at Sheppard's neck and planted its two mandibles into his flesh, soon starting to suck blood.
The iratus bug seems more primitive in the sense that despite killing Sheppard, it didn't make him age. It only sucked blood in the classical vampire way. Although we can also notice that the wounds, resulting from the Wraith act of pressing their hand to life drain their prey, may also bleed.
Now, to fall back to the iratus bug, when the insect was removed, it was nice to see that it left two holes in Sheppard's neck, typically matching the vampire trademark as they're often described biting their prey in the neck.
The contemporary vampire mythology seems to be a combination of the crude blood sucking iratus bug and the rather supernatural Wraith, with all the aura and charisma they carry along.
Since I can't find the appropriate thread to react to the essay, I'll post my remarks here.
I think the writing could have been more detailed about the vampire folklore, notably as how variations of the theme exist on other continents, like for example in Africa.
The concept of drinking blood to regain strenght and/or absorb the strenght of your enemy fits admirably well with the Wraith, safe for the blood part, and this theme is quite wide spread over multiple old cultures on Earth.
Now, I'm surprised you completely forgot to mention the iratus bug.
In "38 minutes", what we do see is that bug actually jumped at Sheppard's neck and planted its two mandibles into his flesh, soon starting to suck blood.
The iratus bug seems more primitive in the sense that despite killing Sheppard, it didn't make him age. It only sucked blood in the classical vampire way. Although we can also notice that the wounds, resulting from the Wraith act of pressing their hand to life drain their prey, may also bleed.
Now, to fall back to the iratus bug, when the insect was removed, it was nice to see that it left two holes in Sheppard's neck, typically matching the vampire trademark as they're often described biting their prey in the neck.
The contemporary vampire mythology seems to be a combination of the crude blood sucking iratus bug and the rather supernatural Wraith, with all the aura and charisma they carry along.
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