malestrithe said:
Fact of the matter is, Whedon started this new vampire trend by having the first modern vampire television series that does not suck. Other might have set the ground work, Whedon made the formula that everyone else is copying. Because of Whedon, all humans females are bad copies of Buffy, all vampires are bad copies of Angel, and all werewolves are bad copies of Oz.
Whedon rode the wave, he didn't start it. No single person did. The 90s was just the time for vampires to rise, and Whedon made his own contribution. He didn't single-handedly set the 90s vampire revolution in motion, though. Particularly considering the show didn't even start its run until '97, and the movie was not in any way notable compared to other films of the 90s free from Buffy influence: Interview With a Vampire, From Dusk to Dawn, Blade. Not to mention the dozens of cheesy knock-offs, some of which I remember fondly, like Bordello of Blood.
Yes, there are a lot of supernatural drama series on TV that are cheap Buffy knock-offs, but the same can be said about any successful show, ever. That doesn't mean all modern vampire culture, be it film, TV, or the written word, is based on Buffy. Quite the opposite, in fact... Buffy was simply a well-made knock-off of all the pre-exising vampire culture built up during the 90s.
It would be like claiming Firefly is the basis for all popular/successful sci-fi from its first air date to the present, despite the fact that Firefly was itself just a well-made and entertaining sci-fi show built on and adding to all sci-fi culture prior to its inception. And sci-fi culture has continued to evolve in many distinct ways that have nothing to do with Firefly since that show ended. Yes, Buffy left it's mark, just like Firefly will leave it's mark on sci-fi, but, to paraphrase, "that's what cultural gestalt IS, dude".
So come on... either you love and/or hate Whedon so much that you want him to be singly responsible for the downfall of vampire culture, or else you are just too dense to see that vampire culture evolved quite naturally during the 80s and 90s into its current angsty emo teen incarnation. That evolution is completely and entirely consistent with everything that was happening pre-Buffy in the vampire world, and many unrelated things that have happened post-Buffy. What Whedon did with Buffy, vis a vis vampire culture, was already IN PLACE to some degree or another. Sure, he left his mark, but I guarantee you that Twilight was an inevitability in vampie culture, regardless of Buffy. Twilight pretty much fills the vapid vampire literary vacuum that Anne Rice left behind, frankly... so if you're going to blame anyone at all, you should blame her.
