before proceeding any further.
Furthermore, I'd like to underline the fact that this is *all* speculation. Joss hasn't commented (and nor is he likely to do so in the future). However, speculation is also good for keeping those creative processes working. Okay? If you disagree with something here, then, by all means, email me and say so. We'll discuss it, and if you convince me, I'll change it. There, doesn't that make you feel involved? *g*
Knowing what we know about human physiology, we can say with a fair degree of certainty that vampires shouldn't be able to get erections. However, in the Buffyverse, they do. Why shouldn't they be able to 'get it up'? Because they're dead. But then, if they were dead, they wouldn't be able to move around at all, would they? They are not human any longer, and thus the normal human rules do not apply to them.
The single most important thing that we know about vampires is their desire to drink blood. In the Buffyverse, to make another another, a "whole big sucking thing" has to happen. It's an exchange of blood. That in itself is important. It indicates that the *blood* is a very important factor in keeping the vampire, well, *vampiric*, for lack of a better term. In "The Harvest", when that conversation about the origins of vampires were taking place, Giles informed the Scooby Gang that:
"This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their... their Hell. But in time they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for, for man. All that remains of the old ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures...[...]So, by Giles' own words, it is by *mixing the blood* that vampires propagate. It is the blood that animates them. Instead of several vital organs, all working in concert through the body, it is the blood that is responsible for locomotion, for keeping the brain working, for doing *something* to the digestive system that lets them eat but doesn't require other, um, activities - it is the *blood* that does the job of all the dead organs.The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth, feeding... Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return."
So why, when you cut a vampire, do they bleed so vigorously? Cut them, and it's a veritable fountain of blood. Surely, if the blood is *not* being pumped around the body by the heart, that blood would stay in the same place? We'd get a *little* bleeding, maybe, but there would be a great risk of the blood congealing (perhaps the reason they need fresh blood so desperately?). This doesn't happen. They bleed as a human would (which makes sense, as they're humans in make-up, but you know what I mean. It's all fake blood, anyway - why so much of it?).
Obviously, the blood is being moved around the body, being kept busy doing the jobs of all the organs that no longer work. When the vampire drinks fresh blood, it is obvious that his own blood would have to be moving for him to feel the benefits of it. But if the heart is no longer pumping, how does the blood move? By the same mechanism that means if nothing else works, the body still moves - magic.
Cue the laughter from the peanut gallery. But vampires are magical creatures - demons. Their blood is not ordinary blood. Surely, if it doesn the job of all the other organs, it can do the job of the heart as well? After all, it's just one big muscle. This would explain how they feed, and how they bleed - and how they get erections. The blood *does* flood to the penis, and the blood vessels there *do* become turgid - just not due to the action of the heart.
Indeed. If these are dead creatures, what would their ejaculate be? Their testes are no longer producing sperm. In fact, it would be a fair bet to say that their body is no longer producing any other liquid - sweat, saliva, or semen. Yet those liquids - or reasonable facsimilies of them - clearly exist. In the end, it's all back down to the blood. If it functions as all the organs, it is bound to function as all the products of the body, as well. So, sweat will be tinged with blood, as will saliva (which, not seem on the show, I can't comment on, but am willing to put it down to aritistic difficulty in showing it) - as will any ejaculate produced.
Children? It could only happen on the Hellmouth. There is no sperm there to fertilise any egg. If, by some off chance some sperm remained, it would be very very dead indeed - sperm can only live a few days. *Not* a few hundred years. So, if you want a half-breed child for the story, magic is going to play a pretty big factor. Maybe the blood does it's job and stimulates the egg. That will make the child most definitely female (because no Y chromosome is being offered), and most definitely very much like its mother - *not* its father. All the father can offer is some vampiric tendencies.
I hate to say it, but in my honest opinion, sex isn't that big a deal for vampires. As it's pointed out in practicallt every fanfic I read, vamps will shag anything that moves. In the end, it's *all* about the blood. It doesn't matter if that blood comes from a male or female - vampires do not differentiate between their victims. There may be some small preference for their own kind, out of the innate belief that they are superior to humans, but that's about it.
The act of sex, while it's important to (most) humans, would be just the setting for the blood exchange for a vampire. It is a reasonable to say that the reason Angel lost his soul was not because of his climax (I refuse to believe that in ninety years he never *once* jerked off), but because, lying there with Buffy, he felt complete and utter contentment. In "Surprise", he ran away *after* Buffy had fallen asleep. That takes a little time (especially if they only did it once. The Slayer strikes me as someone who'd have a lot of stamina). We didn't see him hurriedly withdraw and run out - he was almost asleep when the curse struck him. So, it wasn't the *sex* that had that effect on him - and, while he has a soul, Angel is otherwise too much like his kind to behave otherwise.
Later on, at "Graduation Part 2", Buffy hit Angel repeatedly, trying to bring his demon out. Once he's vamped out, he attacks her angrily, pinning her on the floor and drinking from her. It would be fair to say that from Buffy's reaction - and the scar the bite leaves - that this would be the first time that Angel has drunk from her. Her violent reaction, and Angel's behaviour are little more than the vampiric behaviour exhibited during what is obviously a rape. Buffy is injured by Angel's violent feeding - if he had been in full charge of his faculties, it is doubtful that he would let it get that out of hand. Ill and very much provoked, he attacks Buffy and takes what he wants - what, for him is the equivalent of sex. It wouldn't have mattered if it was Giles, or Spike or Drusilla, or even Snyder. The act of feeding is as close as vampires can come to orgasm. The 'sex' bit merely enhances the sensation.
Why do you think Angel is always so sour-looking? The man isn't getting any! *g*
If there are any more questions you want addressed regarding vampires and sex, please contact me and I'll do my best to try and help you out!
