My guess is that non-vampire objects simply do not move through the air fast enough or undetectably enough to hit one that’s still moving around.
Bullets? Normally they wouldn’t be much use but incendiary rounds with a sufficient firing rate should be effective in the space of time when the opponent is closing. Their closer proximity and forward progress makes it unlikely that they would be able to dodge. Especially against a team of 4 standing side by side. Recent developments in technology like that is something that is unlikely to have been fully investigated and probably has potential uses that have not been considered due to how useless guns used to be.
So when they fight, they get up close and personal, and they bite and crush and tear.
Not even melee weapons? For example, swords or even heavy gauntlets made of tungsten carbide? Anything to add weight to a strike. Relative to their strength vampires are incredibly light and the extra kinetic energy would make a huge difference.
Vampires literally limiting themselves to biting, crushing and tearing with only their bodies as weapons is better explained by a combination of narrative appeal, animal instincts and tradition than by considered evaluation of optimal tactics.
Incidentally, just how durable is a vampire? Obviously they are able to damage each other and wolves and werewolves seem to be able to kill them from time to time. Even Carlisle’s father apparently hunted them. Where do they fit in relative to, well, any material known to man?
It doesn’t seem that vampires are a great deal more flammable than, say, humans. I’m not sure if an incendiary round would catch.
i will, at any rate, not be including guns in the story even if it makes sense, because I really, really, really hate them and gosh darn it I am doing this because it’s fun.
Swords would probably break—really durable gauntlets have potential, although I’ve got enough other things to throw at Bella that she’s not going to have a chance to get down to weapons research for at least a while.
It’s not clear exactly how durable a vampire is. They are not endangered by car crashes even at very high speed. Edward claims in canon that he could kick out the wall of an out-of-control airplane and jump out without hurting himself, while carrying Bella, without getting her killed. Given the opportunity, one vampire can dismantle another without serious taxation of strength—there’s no vampire shown who definitely couldn’t take apart an incapacitated foe.
They are composed in such a way that sharpness matters—vampire teeth can pierce vampire skin in a bitey way rather than merely in a crushy way, and venom is the only thing that leaves a scar. (Thence Jasper’s.) Werewolves are supernaturally fast and strong and sharp and whatnot too, so it’s unclear how much we can extrapolate from their ability to contend with vampires. (It does seem like one vampire versus one Quileute-type werewolf will usually mean a win for a vampire except under special circumstances, like the vampire being distracted for a moment by nearby blood. Wolves come in packs, though, and fight together with far greater efficiency than a coven of vamps does.) We have almost no information on Children of the Moon.
i will, at any rate, not be including guns in the story even if it makes sense, because I really, really, really hate them and gosh darn it I am doing this because it’s fun.
That sounds like a good reason to me.
and venom is the only thing that leaves a scar. (Thence Jasper’s.)
Ahh, that was another question I had.
Edward claims in canon that he could kick out the wall of an out-of-control airplane and jump out without hurting himself, while carrying Bella, without getting her killed.
This sort of thing is why I like to assume that the ‘magic’ of vampire strength is not quite limited to what, say, super strong muscles would result in. A lightweight terminator couldn’t pull off a human saving plane jump from hundreds of meters up. It would be physics applied to the human body that is the limiting factor rather than rescuer. But ‘vampires can do that kind of thing’ seems a perfectly reasonable explanation. I’ll apply similar reasoning to vampire (and wolf) combat. All sorts of inconsistencies in the physics can be blurred over if they are just included as part of the “vampires + shapeshifters” counterfactual.
Bullets? Normally they wouldn’t be much use but incendiary rounds with a sufficient firing rate should be effective in the space of time when the opponent is closing. Their closer proximity and forward progress makes it unlikely that they would be able to dodge. Especially against a team of 4 standing side by side. Recent developments in technology like that is something that is unlikely to have been fully investigated and probably has potential uses that have not been considered due to how useless guns used to be.
Not even melee weapons? For example, swords or even heavy gauntlets made of tungsten carbide? Anything to add weight to a strike. Relative to their strength vampires are incredibly light and the extra kinetic energy would make a huge difference.
Vampires literally limiting themselves to biting, crushing and tearing with only their bodies as weapons is better explained by a combination of narrative appeal, animal instincts and tradition than by considered evaluation of optimal tactics.
Incidentally, just how durable is a vampire? Obviously they are able to damage each other and wolves and werewolves seem to be able to kill them from time to time. Even Carlisle’s father apparently hunted them. Where do they fit in relative to, well, any material known to man?
It doesn’t seem that vampires are a great deal more flammable than, say, humans. I’m not sure if an incendiary round would catch.
i will, at any rate, not be including guns in the story even if it makes sense, because I really, really, really hate them and gosh darn it I am doing this because it’s fun.
Swords would probably break—really durable gauntlets have potential, although I’ve got enough other things to throw at Bella that she’s not going to have a chance to get down to weapons research for at least a while.
It’s not clear exactly how durable a vampire is. They are not endangered by car crashes even at very high speed. Edward claims in canon that he could kick out the wall of an out-of-control airplane and jump out without hurting himself, while carrying Bella, without getting her killed. Given the opportunity, one vampire can dismantle another without serious taxation of strength—there’s no vampire shown who definitely couldn’t take apart an incapacitated foe.
They are composed in such a way that sharpness matters—vampire teeth can pierce vampire skin in a bitey way rather than merely in a crushy way, and venom is the only thing that leaves a scar. (Thence Jasper’s.) Werewolves are supernaturally fast and strong and sharp and whatnot too, so it’s unclear how much we can extrapolate from their ability to contend with vampires. (It does seem like one vampire versus one Quileute-type werewolf will usually mean a win for a vampire except under special circumstances, like the vampire being distracted for a moment by nearby blood. Wolves come in packs, though, and fight together with far greater efficiency than a coven of vamps does.) We have almost no information on Children of the Moon.
That sounds like a good reason to me.
Ahh, that was another question I had.
This sort of thing is why I like to assume that the ‘magic’ of vampire strength is not quite limited to what, say, super strong muscles would result in. A lightweight terminator couldn’t pull off a human saving plane jump from hundreds of meters up. It would be physics applied to the human body that is the limiting factor rather than rescuer. But ‘vampires can do that kind of thing’ seems a perfectly reasonable explanation. I’ll apply similar reasoning to vampire (and wolf) combat. All sorts of inconsistencies in the physics can be blurred over if they are just included as part of the “vampires + shapeshifters” counterfactual.