The problem with vampires drinking human blood isn’t the “drinking human blood” part, it’s the “killing people to get the blood” part. The obvious solution seems to be to drink donated blood from blood banks and such. Are there any reasons why this wouldn’t work? Is preserved blood no longer edible? Would it drain the local blood bank faster than people normally donate? Is the scent of humans still tempting even after consuming a large amount of blood?
Donated blood is edible, and even at room temperature and full of whatever it is the Red Cross puts in it, it’s tastier to vampires than animal blood. Doctors, such as Carlisle, are legally able to purchase blood, and in fact he is shown to do so in canon; no concern about depleting the blood supply is mentioned, although it would be surprising if there were none.
However, consuming human blood instead of animal blood makes vampires less able to resist the impulse to eat live humans, who are yet still more appealing than donated blood, even when the vampire attempting to resist is not particularly thirsty. The thirst is constant, and while it is reduced in force and intrusiveness by having recently eaten, the factor preventing the Cullens from slaughtering everyone in town is willpower, not disinterest. Edward is shown in “Midnight Sun” to be able to eat half a herd of elk and come to school the next day and find that Bella’s scent is “like a wrecking ball”, no less demanding than it was the first time.
As a much more minor side point, drinking human blood makes vampire eyes red, which would be more conspicuous than gold, black, or any of the range of colors in between. Contact lenses are possible, but are dissolved over the course of a few hours by the venom in their eyes.
Why don’t the Cullens keep a stockpile of stored blood (human or animal) on hand to use in crisis situations? If they had, then Edward would not have had to leave Bella alone to go hunt in chapter 23.
They don’t keep human blood on hand for the aforementioned reasons: if they ever drank it they’d be at greater risk of killing someone. Since it obviously makes immense amounts of sense to store animal blood and they never do it in canon, I’m explaining this by saying that preserved animal blood would be so unpalatable that they couldn’t possibly choke it down.
I can’t find the reference at the moment, but I think they said that drinking human blood impairs the mind somehow, increasing the desire to feed on humans and making the vampire more animalistic.
The problem with vampires drinking human blood isn’t the “drinking human blood” part, it’s the “killing people to get the blood” part. The obvious solution seems to be to drink donated blood from blood banks and such. Are there any reasons why this wouldn’t work? Is preserved blood no longer edible? Would it drain the local blood bank faster than people normally donate? Is the scent of humans still tempting even after consuming a large amount of blood?
Donated blood is edible, and even at room temperature and full of whatever it is the Red Cross puts in it, it’s tastier to vampires than animal blood. Doctors, such as Carlisle, are legally able to purchase blood, and in fact he is shown to do so in canon; no concern about depleting the blood supply is mentioned, although it would be surprising if there were none.
However, consuming human blood instead of animal blood makes vampires less able to resist the impulse to eat live humans, who are yet still more appealing than donated blood, even when the vampire attempting to resist is not particularly thirsty. The thirst is constant, and while it is reduced in force and intrusiveness by having recently eaten, the factor preventing the Cullens from slaughtering everyone in town is willpower, not disinterest. Edward is shown in “Midnight Sun” to be able to eat half a herd of elk and come to school the next day and find that Bella’s scent is “like a wrecking ball”, no less demanding than it was the first time.
As a much more minor side point, drinking human blood makes vampire eyes red, which would be more conspicuous than gold, black, or any of the range of colors in between. Contact lenses are possible, but are dissolved over the course of a few hours by the venom in their eyes.
Why don’t the Cullens keep a stockpile of stored blood (human or animal) on hand to use in crisis situations? If they had, then Edward would not have had to leave Bella alone to go hunt in chapter 23.
They don’t keep human blood on hand for the aforementioned reasons: if they ever drank it they’d be at greater risk of killing someone. Since it obviously makes immense amounts of sense to store animal blood and they never do it in canon, I’m explaining this by saying that preserved animal blood would be so unpalatable that they couldn’t possibly choke it down.
Twilight vampires have eye venom? In case werewolves try to eat their eyes out of their sockets?
Yes. Yes they do. They have venom in the place of just about every plausible fluid.
A whole new meaning for “use protection” it would seem.
This must be because they’re related to toads.
This must be because they’re related to toads.
Immortal toads. (From, unfortunately, one of the most blatantly deathist works ever written.)
I can’t find the reference at the moment, but I think they said that drinking human blood impairs the mind somehow, increasing the desire to feed on humans and making the vampire more animalistic.