↓
 
Home→television→The Human Factor

The Human Factor

Stefon Mears — Official Website Posted on by

Human? Nope. Fairy princess.

When the heroes (antiheroes, protagonists and so forth) of a show are almost all supernatural, where do the humans fit in?

I’ve been thinking about that lately in urban fantasy in general, but the latest season of True Blood has brought the question to the fore. To say that the supernatural characters outnumber the pure humans in that show is to drastically understate the situation. Excluding antagonists and villains, the number of unadulterated human characters remaining can be counted on one hand (with a finger or two left over if you only count characters who have been around more than one season) and are outnumbered some three or four to one by the supernaturals.

This issue gets tied into the story through a plot line set up last season (and partially during the season before) – the humans are fighting back. Humans, through the government, have all but declared open warfare on vampires (the only form of supernatural they officially know about). The Louisiana governor has instituted vampire curfews, assigned a SWAT-level task force, broadly expanded police powers, and set up illegal vampire research facilities that include scientific tests to determine the best ways to protect humans and kill vast numbers of vampires.

The show clearly wants viewers to root for the vampire characters they have presumably grown to love over the previous seasons against the evil (and more than a touch illegal) oppression of the nasty governor.

But should we be rooting against the human race?

I’ll grant that some of the vampire characters are fun and likeable, at least most of the time. We know them. We can sympathize with their struggles. But at the end of the day, they are still predators who prey on humans. Even the best of them have killed humans and will do so again. They kill each other’s human servants, they kill to protect secrets, they kill to send messages, they kill when overcome with hunger, et cetera. And of course they kill humans. Let us not forget that these things are undead monsters that continue their existence by feeding on the life essence of human beings.*

The plot and its details reflect the way humans have treated humans, and I think the viewer is supposed to see the vampires as an oppressed minority, perhaps as a political statement about real-world human interactions. But there’s a problem with this: vampires are freaking undead monsters that drink our blood. This isn’t a difference of skin color, religion, politics, national origin, or sexual orientation. This is a question of species survival. But can’t we live in peace with vampires? No, because even the weakest vampire can control the mind of any human in the space of a heartbeat. How can you trust a creature that could make you trust it? Heck, baby vampire Jessica all but destroyed the mind of the love of her unlife through repeated mesmerism, and she didn’t want to hurt him.

The humans involved in battling vampires all come across as evil, so it’s easy to root against those individuals. But if the climax of the season puts me in a position where I have to choose between humans and vampires, I choose humans. Every time.

What about you? Do you feel any species loyalty to the human race, or are characters more important?

*In theory they can survive on Tru Blood, but not one vampire has ever said anything positive about Tru Blood. At best they tolerate it, which means it couldn’t possibly be a long-term solution to their preferred diet.

Did you like this? Share it:
Liked it? Take a second to support Stefon on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!
Posted in television, Urban Fantasy Tagged , , permalink

About Stefon

Stefon Mears earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from N.I.L.A., and his B.A. in Religious Studies (double emphasis in Ritual and Mythology) from U.C. Berkeley. Stefon's short pieces have sold to magazines such as Fireside and Strange Horizons and anthologies edited by Otto Penzler, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Kevin J. Anderson, Denise Little, Kerrie L. Hughes, and John Helfers. He has published more than thirty novels to date, including the Jumpstart Duchy series, the Rise of Magic series, the Cavan Oltblood series, and still others. Look for him online at https://www.stefonmears.com, on Facebook, or @stefonmears on Twitter. Sign up for his newsletter at stefonmears.com/join

Comments

The Human Factor — 7 Comments

  1. WARNING: SPOILERS WITHIN

    I think the writers are really ham-handed this season with trying to manipulate the viewers into identifying with the vampires. I would have preferred they didn’t go the thinly-veiled concentration camp route. It somehow equates vampires with Jews and others who were rounded up during the Holocaust and that’s just too much.

    Even their attempts at “humanizing” individual vampires such as in the most recent episode where we have romance novel cover model vampire protesting to virgin-forever Jessica, “I’m a vampire, not a rapist!”

    Add to that, any time I see writers hybridize two different supernatural species into one? That’s shark jumping territory. And Warlo, dear Warlo, he bears shark’s teeth in his rump.

    That said, I enjoy the lark of the series and rather hope this is the final season.

    Reply ↓

  2. Interesting post. thank you.I wonder if alot of times, literature of the fantastic attempts to think beyond the binaries you mention, as well as think towards the post-human, whatever that might mean. Donna Harraway suggested that in a way, we are all already cyborgs,because our iphones and computers are such a crucial part of us. The current fascination with zombies may be a way to think beyond gender, in a way that the vampires of True Blood don’t. I’m interested to learn that the vampire character in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, is not gendered in the book…this follows on Anne Rice’s attempts to “queer”the vampire particularly in INTERVIEW.

    thanks again.

    Reply ↓

    • That’s an interesting point, Stephanie. I wonder, though, if the idea of post-humanism works better in some genres than others. For example, human-alien hybrids that push humanity’s evolution beyond what it would see on our own world works in a science fiction setting, much as human-elf/dwarf/whatever hybrids might in a fantasy setting. But can that issue really be addressed through a basis in horror, which is essentially what we see in True Blood? After all the Other in these stories is represented largely through creatures that have traditionally been monsters: vampires, werewolves, et cetera.

      Now they do set up an interesting split here. Werewolves, fairies, and shifters are separate species from humans (though they can interbreed). Taking post-human questions along those axes might work. But vampires a) once were humans, b) feed on humans, and c) are dead/incapable of sustained change. The path of the vampire does not advance the human species, it stagnates and feeds on it.

      On the other hand, from a gender role standpoint, True Blood may make statements because the need for blood appears sexual, but vampires dine comfortably on both genders. Further, those humans who have tasted a vampire’s blood have sexual dreams about the vampire, even if those dreams go against the human’s established sexuality. That’s an interesting idea in a different direction than I was thinking when I wrote the post.

      Reply ↓

      • The notion of human-alien hybrid reminded me of a truly gorgeous series of books written by Octavia Butler, the Xenogenesis series (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago). She tends to explore themes of ‘what is human’ in all her books.

        Reply ↓

  4. I look forward to the series finale when I believe we (meaning humans) will kill off this threat. Sure, it was fun to watch for a while, but when all is said and done, they’re murderers, every single one of them. The werewolves as well. Even sexy el cid has killled multiple times.

    Vampires must be destroyed because they kill humans to exist.
    Werewolves should be destroyed because they kill humans when they’re out of control, and this is determined by the phase of the moon.

    The other supernaturals don’t kill humans except on an individual basis. Using their supernatural powers in everyday life can just be handled by knowledge and our laws (i.e. no using magic to compel people into doing something they don’t want, etc.)

    Reply ↓

    • Melissa and I were wondering the same thing about Dexter: how can they end the show? We figure that Dexter is likely to end up either dead or in jail.

      True Blood’s case is even hairier. If they take out all the vampires and werewolves, they’d have to have a believable solution. I suspect they won’t even address the idea though. I suspect that True Blood will end with a culmination of sorts for Sookie (with at least hints of resolution for the other major characters) that leaves the larger issues unresolved. I think the reasoning would be that, ultimately, the show isn’t about humans versus vampires, but the story of Sookie Stackhouse. I’ll be curious to see how they do end the show though, because it has to be winding down.

      Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

↑