Soulless Characters

[trystan830]

my friends Ben and Aphrodite watched Buffy and Angel, and they've both mentioned that Angelus is a vamp without a soul. in fact, most vamps don't cast a reflection because they have no soul. i think Forever Knight vamps are an exception, due to the FX budget - or lack thereof. but there is an episode where Nick sees his soul, all decayed and icky

Comments

[shipwrecking]

I'm a big Buffy fan and I always go back to that show when mentions of characters without souls are involved. Spike and Angel are the two characters who we mainly saw with/without souls, which sorta makes me think that the theory on Sam not having his is pretty darn valid since their soul basically = their emotions/morality/etc.

I can't think of anything else that involves soulless characters off the top of my head though. I'll have to brainstorm on that.

[trystan830]

I'll have to brainstorm on that.
yep, i'm very curious to know. =)

soul basically = their emotions/morality/etc
true for Angelus. heh. however, i've read some Dark Hunter novels where it's kind of like they still have those traits, but their soul is no longer in their body. it's interesting to see how different authors have different interpretations on "the soul"

[jazmin22]

I've been sitting here, racking my brain, and so far the only soulless characters I can think of are The Hands of Blue and the bounty hunter Early from Firefly. I was also debating Adding The Operative, but his change of heart at the end of the movie would be impossible sans soul.

I suppose that characterS that are robots are automatically assumed to be soulless, but there are several cases where I would argue against that. Cameron, from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I would say has a soul. I always thought she was capable of caring/loving and I thought her emotions were pretty obvious...also the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica have souls. Or absolutely no one on that show had shows since it turned out they/we are all cylons.

Also, there's Voldemort that's ripped out the great majority of his soul that he may as well not have any of it left at all.

[trystan830]

oooh, Voldemort is a good one.

LOL about BSG, but interesting points on robots/Cyborgs, too.

[wishflthinkr]

Warning: I go off on a bit of a lengthy thing.

So here's where I get fuzzy on the whole soul issue... Say Sam doesn't have his soul. Okay. That makes sense for him to be acting the way he is. BUT, then I get confused. Because, what happens when people sell their souls? Do they keep them until the time is up? Otherwise it seems like they'd be acting differently too. I guess that is probably the case, but then they should just call it putting the soul on layaway or something. That just doesn't sound snazzy enough, I suppose! And, I mean, Dean did sell his soul, and he was brought back. Is it because he was brought back by an angel that he got to get his soul back too?

Perhaps all of these questions will be addressed tangentially when everything with Sam is finally revealed?

[trystan830]

but have you read/watched anything where a character/group of characters don't have a soul? (see: the other comments in the post)

[wishflthinkr]

None that haven't already been mentioned. Though I feel like there are some movies where a character has sold their soul to the devil, but I can't think of them right now.

[trystan830]

ahh, okies....

[writertracy]

In Gail carriger's book Soulless (a fun steampunk victorian romantic comedy), people who have an excess of soul can become vampires or werewolves. If they become neither, then when they die, they become ghosts.

The primary character is significant because she has no soul. When she touches one of the other three types of preternatural creatures, she renders them mortal for as long as she touches them (except for ghosts. When she touches the corpse of a ghost, she exorcizes it).

[trystan830]

huh, an "excess of soul" - that's interesting. sounds like my type of book, but gah, i have enough to read!

[writertracy]

They are quick reads, and very funny. Since you were asking about how the soulless characters were handled, I'll give you the cliff notes on how the author handles them in the book

[trystan830]

i giggled at your review. =)

i'll have to check this one out then, since you say they're quick reads. but just this one book. if my book pile gets any bigger, i'll blame you. ;)

edit: i've seen those books at my Borders i work at. *puts Soulless on hold at the library*

[1_rhiannon_1]

I think Spike, Angelus, and Voldemort are about the only soulless characters I can think of that I have any experience with. Particularly Angelus - when he lost his soul, he went MEAN!

[trystan830]

exactly!

there are few other examples in other comments: The Hands of Blue and the bounty hunter Early from Firefly; and vamps and weres in Gail Carriger's books; and the few i put in my initial post. =)