Moka Akashira from Rosario Vampire
Romance- Was this supposed to be a conversation post?
Action- No, but this guy doesn’t have a strong opinion on why one of us, me, is better than the other.
R- But he hasn’t read any vampire romances, so he’ll go to you by default.
A- That’s exactly the problem. He doesn’t want to come off as biased.
R- Well, it’s obvious that he is if you look at War of Nytefall. It’s about as romantic as that movie with the all the killing.
A- ‘Shakespeare in Love’?
R- Picking a random ‘love’ movie off the channel guide doesn’t help this joke. So, what are the advantages we have over each other?
A- Nothing. One could say I’m more for guys and you’re for girls, but society doesn’t work that way any more. Besides, the guy’s wife is definitely more into me than you.
R- I think I’ve had a lot of success over the last decade, which means I’ve been overshadowing you for a while. When was the last time an action movie with vampires came out and was worth watching?
A- One without romance? I can’t think of the last one, but I’m betting it was a low budget affair that nobody saw. Romance always sell better than action though. You really need to be in the mood for me while you can put people in the mood even if they aren’t in that zone when they start.
R- That is my strength. Still, you are the one who has the vampires that are taken much more seriously by society. Mine get mocked all the time while you get to see yours considered threats. Nobody is scared of a vampire that is more interested in the high school definition of necking.
A- Good one. Maybe there is space for the two of us, but it feels like we’re in a big tug-o-war over the genre. Vampires are already considered a sub-category of horror, so the audience is slim to begin with.
R- I will point out that nearly every vampire story falls into some type of action. People can only handle romance for so long before they want the monsters to act like monsters. It doesn’t seem right when a story can easily be rewritten with two humans, so the vampire part is considered superfluous.
A- Some level of balance is definitely necessary. That’s probably why War of Nytefall has Xavier and Nadia being all smoochy smoochy. You have Chastity too, but the jury is still out on if lust counts for romance.
R- It’s a raw and primal emotion, but it’s mine.
A- Glad to see you’re accepting that. So, what do we do now?
R- Open the floor?
A- Sure. What do people think of action and romance vampires?
R- Please be gentle.
A- That can be taken in so the wrong way.
Legends of Windemere 
While there is room for a side trip in every genre, eventually, I want my monsters to be monstrous. Most books fit more than one category anyway. How the author promotes a book sets expectations. If it’s science fiction, I expect certain things, even if there are vampire aliens in love somewhere in the story. It’s like the sales pitch has to deliver above everything else. Call it a vampire book, and you’ve established the stakes (sorry). This has to be the key element, even if it is also a Western.
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The difficulty with the ‘vampire book’ expectations is that it’s no longer the same across the board. For some, it’s just enough to have vampires even if they aren’t truly monstrous. Others demand that they be the evil villains. It’s almost like the genre has fractured in recent years.
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I can see that.
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This was a very entertaining discussion. And now I can’t help thinking of The Shape of Water even though that movie is not about vampires, but is about a monster and romance.
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I haven’t seen it, but it does seem to work.
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Great back and forth, I really enjoyed it. As for the type of vampire I prefer, I liked the classic ones, like Christopher Lee played.
On a side note, why do Vampires get all the romance? What ever happened to mummies? Or even the Creature from the Black Lagoon? Why doesn’t someone write a romance around those two?
(WordPress finally let me like your post!)
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Mummies are a tough one because of all the bandages. Lots of papyrus cuts on the tongue and nethers. As far as the Creature goes . . . Isn’t that ‘Shape of Water’?
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I’m not sure, I haven’t kept up with movies recently., I’ll have to look that one up.
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It seems to me like in many urban fantasies the vampires are present as part of a supernatural society as a whole, rather than being alone as the stars/featured creatures of a horror story. So those vampires will certainly be dangerous or threatening, especially when they are a rival faction, but they may almost be more a part of the setting. I suppose that would make them more Action than Romance.
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Urban vampires seem to bridge the two categories from what I’ve read. I wonder if the setting makes authors write them as more human.
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