Saturday, April 4, 2009

Vampire Slaying

My husband and I have been catching up on our vast DVD collection. Specifically on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". While we own all the seasons of it, and all of "Angel", he hasn't seen most of them, and I haven't seen all of them.

While watching the 'Buffy's 18th Birthday Trial' episode (I only turned it off 5 minutes ago, but cannot for the life of me remember the actual title) I was struck by something.

I found the bad guy vampire -- who happens to be a beyond homicidal maniac -- kinda sexy.

It could be the actor, Jeff Kober. He's a rugged manly-man kind, handsome without being one whit 'pretty', and he usually plays bad guys. But he did have that sexy psycho thing going. Which really makes me question my taste in men. (I feel compelled to mention that my husband is not a psycho with severe mommy issues and a trail of dead behind him. Sure, his canines are sharp, but not vampire sharp. And he's never done the 'crazy eyes' thing, ever. He's handsome and sweet and not scary.)

Like so many others, I love both Angel and Spike. I like Oz, too. And there are a lot more yummy men coming up (including, be still my heart, Nathan Fillion in season 7). But this character isn't supposed to be sexy. He's supposed to be scary.

And he is. I clutched my husband's hand through the entire episode. And yet, while clutching, I was also fully aware that, had I been in Buffy's place, I might not have been staking and might instead have been flirting.

Back to questioning myself. Maybe it's that I love vampires and find even the homicidally insane among them to be attractive. Probably not a compelling argument for my mental and emotional stability.

I'm going to stick with the idea that I find Jeff Kober to be unexpectedly hot and let it go at that. And just because I suddenly want to add a big, crazy, vampire serial killer who gets redeemed by true love into my latest novel should in no way be considered either wish fulfillment or acting out.

In the end, I'm sure my heroine will stake him through his evil heart.

Jemma Chase

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