Hellsing

I just found this DVD series called Hellsing.  Then found it was based on a Graphic Novel, so I am in the process of reading them.  Very interesting tales of vampires!  Or more precisely, there is one main vampire, Alucard, and his half vampire slave, Police Girl.  There is a lot more to the story, but the master vampire is obviously what drives the fan base.

So, why are Vampires cool?  They are always portrayed as monsters who kill more people than the most prolific series killer, and yet have an air of aristocracy about them.  Alucard kills other vampires because he thinks that they are not true vampires, that they lack that sense of propriety.

I believe in the original mythos, vampires weren't cool.  They were the undead, so they reeked of death - ie had a funky smell.  More like brutal killers rather than the anti-heroes of today.  When did all of this change?  And why?

The other thing I found interesting was Police Girl, other than the fact that they draw her as always wearing very short skirts.  They seem to often have someone like this, someone who became a vampire willingly, but doesn't want to embrace the vampiric ways.  In this story, she avoids drinking blood, even though it causes her many problems.  Same thing happened in that Anne Rice novel as well.  Is this supposed to represent the last vestiges of the main vampire's humanity?  Is this to show that they aren't all bad, that at first they resist drinking blood and taking human life, and even though they eventually give in, they still probably have that resistance?  Are we trying to humanize our monsters?

What makes mass murder into entertainment?  The Showtime show Dexter is about a serial killer, and it is devastatingly popular.  Would it be popular with someone who survived this kind of tragedy?  Do we as a people take pleasure in other's suffering?  Are these shows and books a way to secretly rejoice in it, knowing that we are not alone, that others out there must feel as we do?

Are all of these signs that we just live in constant fear of ourselves - our true feelings, and of others and what we think they are capable of?

The Edward