Daily Skiff

Who would win: vampires or werewolves?

An age-old adage that is only becoming more and more popular as the years go by.

With the addition of applications on both MySpace and Facebook, this question has run rampant across the Internet.

The Facebook application, Vampires vs. Werewolves, has 18,330 active monthly users. The MySpace vampire application has almost 2 million members and werewolves have more than 130,000 users.

Keep in mind that Facebook and MySpace are just picking up and fueling the fire of an already popular argument, albeit a completely fictional one. But who doesn't enjoy a completely theoretical argument now and then?

Hollywood and the literary world have been debating this for as long as I can remember. There are countless books and movies that bring these predators to life in our imaginations.

They were brought to life most recently in the literary world by Stephenie Meyer and her four-book Twilight series. Publishers Weekly hailed Meyer as one of the most promising writers of 2005.

Meyer's story of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen is the most recent in a long line of vampire love stories. Bella is a mortal in love with Edward, the brooding and mysterious vampire in her high school biology class. Throw in Jacob Black, Bella's best friend and werewolf, and the cycle starts again.

In each book, Bella finds herself in mortal peril because she has managed to befriend every mythical creature in Forks, Wash., which for such a small town is quite a few. If you haven't read the book, this is where I'll stop and tell you the movie is coming out in December.

Bella and Edward are just the latest in a long line of interspecies romances. The Underworld series is also another good example, and probably better for demonstrating the argument of who would win.

In 2003, we watched Kate Beckinsale portray the leather-clad vampiress, Selene, and her desperate attempt to save Michael Corvin, a werewolf, and her own kind. According to the story, vampires and werewolves had been fighting for centuries with no end in sight. But Michael may be the key to the end of the war.

At the end, Michael defeats the uber werewolf and Selene beats the ruling vampire. And they all live happily ever after as mortals.

One thing the vampires seem to have that werewolves don't is sex appeal. Now both Underworld and Twilight have managed to make at least their good werewolves sexy but that's not always the case.

In 2004, Hugh Jackman is Van Helsing, a monster hunter for the Catholic Church. Van Helsing is sent to Transylvania to stop Count Dracula from doing some genetic experiments on werewolves in the attempt to make him invulnerable to a werewolf's attack. Dracula and his wives are portrayed as the epitome of every sexual desire, whereas the werewolf is not. The werewolf is out of control, wild and dangerous.

But Dracula has always been a seducer of women. Going back to Bram Stoker, the vampire has used his powers to lure, seduce and bite women, preying on their weaknesses and desires.

Maybe that's what first attracted people to the vampire movement, everything from Vampire Vineyards to the immortal vampire religion. There are many different types of vampires according to Monstrous.com. But not all of them suck blood. Most people who are vampires just want to have control of people, not their blood.

The vampires that can be found in today's society are usually classified as Human Living Vampires. From here they are split into two groups, Sanguinarians, those who crave blood, and Psychic Vampires, those with extra-sensory amplifications.

I guess it's a lifestyle thing.

HBO's new series, True Blood, is the story of vampires "coming out of the coffin" as it were. Synthetic blood has been bottled and humans have been removed from their list of good eats so they feel comfortable trying to submerse themselves in everyday life.

In this reality, vampire blood is the new drug and groupies are following the vampires around, willing to do whatever. It's an interesting twist on an old story, and the unveiling should keep viewers on their toes. No werewolves, though.

So here we have it, no real evidence as to who would win but some food for thought. If I had to choose, vampires have always been more to my taste, but blood makes me squeamish.

Liz Davis is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Findlay, Ohio.

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