I'm a little confused

[moss6886]

I've run across several fics lately (all by different writers) that assume that vampires in the Buffyverse have a dulled sense of taste.  Shouldn't they technically have a heightened sense of taste, since their sense of smell is enhanced?  Or is this a canon reference that I've missed?  Puzzle, puzzle...

(My favorite explanation for vampires not

Comments

[a2zmom]

First off, Angel states that food tastes like ashes to him. Vampie physiology is nothing like ours. Just because they have heightened senses of smell doesn't mean their taste buds are enhanced.

Secondly, my assumption is that a vampire's digestive system does not work. Why would it? So assumption number two - all food that goes in, comes out exactly the same.

Finally, Spike eats because he likes the social interaction. And I assume that strong tasting food he can taste to some degree.

[ravenwings_7]

I think Moss' main point there is that smell and taste are the two most strongly connected senses; a human cannot tell the difference between an apple and a raw potato by taste if they are deprived of their sense on smell. You'd think that would follow through, even if the increase in smell was caused by a demonic force that didn't have any use for food. Or at least that it wouldn't get worse.

My theory is that a vampire's sense of taste doesn't actually get worse, it's just that everything pales in comparison to blood.

[moss6886]

Ravenwings expained my initial reasoning admirably. Sorry! I'll be clearer in the future...

Also, a vampire's digestive system has to work in some fashion or another, because they do process the blood they drink.

Of course, there's always the "it's magic" option, which would also explain how a male vampire can even GET an erection without a functional circulatory system, let alone use it to such advantage that he loses his soul!

[ravenwings_7]

My purpose in life: translating for my mother. :P

Actually, being able to process blood probably does qualify in the "it's magic" category, as it generally seems to go straight to their blood vessels in a fairly short amount of time. I think the more major clue to a vampire's ability to digest is that they still produce saliva, tears, snot (you do not go "sniff" when you're crying if your nose isn't running, I don't care how maudlin you are), and semen (okay, no real canon evidence for that, unless you count Connor), most of which are at least partially redundant for a demon.

Still got nothing on the nature of a vampire boner, though.

Psst. I capitalize the "W" in RavenWings when I spell it out like that. And I can't remember the markup for tiny text.

[ravenwings_7]

Yes, it's a canon, reference, kind of. You've even seen at least one of the eps it came from. Recently. As in, two Angel discs ago, in "I Will Remember You," as a small justification for why food was such a novelty. And no, I've never gotten why a vampire's sense of taste gets worse after they're turned. Not getting any better, I can get, because a demon on a strict blood-only diet isn't exactly going to need to taste other things.

And rahirah uses that explanation, which works fairly well. I can easily buy a story where vampires digest food by disintegrating it, however every now and then you'll encounter a story where you can just tell that it hasn't even occurred to the author to think about what happens to food after a vampire eats it.

[speakr2customrs]

It's just another example of Joss lacking knowledge of basic science.