“What if I’m not the hero? What if I’m the bad guy?” asks Edward Cullen of himself in Twilight. The cliché questions reflect the constant battle between supernatural creatures and their craving to be good when their nature tells them otherwise.
Vampires, werewolves, and witches are arguably the most powerful creatures in supernatural media. Books, movies, and TV shows create these creatures to be attractive and relatable in most instances, glamorizing them to be quite literally, as sparkly as possible. The depiction of supernatural creatures stayed roughly the same throughout the modern years between the Harry Potter, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and Teen Wolf (new movie coming soon???) franchises. However, inhuman creatures didn’t start out with a positive reputation. The blood-thirsty, power-hungry nature of vampires, werewolves, and witches was to be seen as warnings of evil, or, in reality, were ways for the truly power-hungry humans to accuse people who didn’t abide by their rules of being utterly inhuman. These “creatures” have been perceived as horrific monsters based on previous narratives and while some genres like horror keep them in that category; Teen-romance and other genres make them appealing to the audience. It’s up to you to decide what you truly believe about the creatures who lurk in the dark, but if you had to choose between vampires, werewolves, and witches, which one would you choose? Ponder it over for a moment, but here’s what others have to say:
“I’d choose vampires because they live forever and they’re sexy,” says Sophia Sanchez ‘23. Her reasoning comes from the fact that they have fangs and sometimes dress in Victorian clothing or high-waisted pants. “Maybe I’ve been compelled, and now I just believe that all vampires are sexy,” she adds. Her mention of “compulsion” comes from The Vampire Diaries, which is a TV show and book franchise that allows vampires to use mind control to manipulate humans by means of “compulsion.”
Isaiah Albright ‘22 adds that “Vampires spend their days sleeping, their nights sucking, and they are dead on the inside. What’s not to love?”
Sophia and Isaiah’s answers are clearly influenced by the supernatural media that they consumed and the stereotypes that have been created around them. Obviously, it’s difficult to find (un)living proof of realistic vampires, so we can’t really blame them for how they answered.
Brenna McConnell ‘23 recognizes the vampiric stereotypes saying, “Not only do vampires make great television they are also always played by mega fine actors,” and adds in a counter argument saying, “What are werewolves going to watch? Bolt? Grow up.”
The idea of real werewolves existing is an entirely entertaining concept, and it’s even more entertaining to imagine them watching Bolt and relating to it.
Werewolf sympathizers Tyler Karasinski ‘24, Nick Tiedemann ‘25, and Curtis Amory ‘23 are willing to defend the more animalistic creatures. Tyler simply prefers werewolves because of Remus Lupin. He had no further comments to make.
Nick is certain of his choice and says that he’d choose werewolves any day, “Because they can get away with eating people and can roll around in the mud while still being sexy.” He adds that “they aren’t proper like vampires,” and while that might be true, it does come full circle (like the moon) in terms of how media influences how the supernatural are viewed. What’s stopping werewolves from being just as proper as vampires, or vampires being just as goofy as werewolves?
Curtis takes a different approach by calling out the flaws of the other groups; “What is a vampire but an immortal emo with dental problems? And what is a witch but a loser with lame magic and a dumb hat? Werewolves are just better.”
Finally, witches with or without their “dumb hats” are powerful and have a lot of supporters on this campus, because they are the most realistic choice. Cat McCooey ‘25, Aja Samuel ‘24, and Keara Conolly ‘23 all have the same assumptions of being able to do magic and crafting.
Cat says, “They make their little potions and stir up a big cauldron full of soup and I identify with that,” and Aja says, “They are always causing pure chaos, they oversee everything, and act all-knowing.”
Even Keara touches on the aspect of spells that is so common in media as she says, “Once you learn how to do all the spells, you can make anything happen. What kind of real magic do werewolves and vampires really have?” She makes the final insult towards the other groups without considering “hybrid” (meaning a combination like Remus Lupin as a werewolf/wizard) creatures that exist in some forms of supernatural media.
Overall, everyone has valid arguments on what supernatural creatures are superior but all their opinions stem from what media they’ve consumed. It’s important to consider that creatures (and people) aren’t always as they appear on the surface. Who knows, maybe that “proper” looking guy you met at Java dressed as a vampire is a werewolf…