MovieChat Forums > The Vampire Diaries (2009) Discussion > turning off a 'humanity' switch does not...

turning off a 'humanity' switch does not justify immorality

posted 8 years ago by !!!deleted!!! (14789810)
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If one may choose to turn off their moral compass and is capable of mass murder with impunity, then it would an incredibly immoral act to turn off that switch.

If the 'switch' is not turned off by choice, then their very existance is predatorial, and they are completely deluded in thinking they can be 'human' in the first place. At the end of the day, this show will say anything to try and justify murderers shacking up with 17 year old girls.

Its not a flaw with the whole show, but the writers try the humanity switch line way too often as a cheap justification for crimes

[–] jenk1376 8 years ago

The humanity switch is BS. They choose when to turn it off and on. Its obvious they are their true selves without their humanity. Just like Angel was his true slef without a soul. This show promotes women falling in love with serial killers because they're sexy. Just look at real life how women are marrying convicts, most being serial killers and mass murderers.

[–] TaylorBruh25 8 years ago

Angels' "real self" was his Soul. Not his Demon in his body.

[–] thulk01 8 years ago

I don't think a vampire who kills humans could be classed as a serial killer from a vampire perspective. You wouldn't call a human who kills and eats deer a serial killer, because deer are the human's food just like humans are the vampire's food.

You could use the argument "but vampires don't have to kill their food," but then it's also true that humans don't need to kill the deer (they can survive perfectly fine without eating deer/meat) so the same line of reasoning follows that if you call a vampire who kills humans a serial killer then you must also call a human who eats meat a serial killer, which most people would consider to be a pretty extreme point of view.

[–] jstitely1 8 years ago

Thank you for posting this. I find the debates about morality can get too simplified against this show without realizing that vampires are in essence a different species and are the "human" powerful predator while the humans are the evolutionary lesser animals. The serial killer comparison works best if its actions done to other vampires. Hevk, I'd argue some of the stuff humans do with our animal sources of food are comparable to what the vampires do to humans.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (14789810) 8 years ago

If the show just acknowledged the predatorial nature of the vampires more often, it would work. But instead, they do overtly humanize them and apply human morality.

Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls008200422/

[–] illbeoneasystreet 8 years ago

They do acknowledge it sometimes but the characters who do point that out tend to be considered "unreliable." Damon has on numerous occasions pointed out that vampires are predators and hunting people is what they do. One of the things I liked about the show was that it didn't completely destroy the "predatory" nature of the vampire. Season One Damon was more reminiscent of the classical literary vampire than anything on screen in recent years. They've always had a sexy edge (anyone who denies this doesn't know a lot about the literary evolution of the vampire), but they need to still be dangerous or why else are we watching? Vampires are my favourite movie monster because of both those sides of them. They can be both scary and sexy and I hate when we lose one for the other.

It's something you'll get used to a mental mind *beep* can be nice!

[–] Tajiko 8 years ago

Good post, definitely agree about annoyance of losing one aspect in favour of the other.

I remember in an episode where Rose said to Damon that the switch is a lie younger vampires tell themselves to make the early decades and centuries easier, after all unless you were a serial killer or a psychopath completely devoid of empathy, becoming a vampire is going to be hard and even confusing and conflicting. Rose was some 550+ years old when she died. Given that this episode is from season 2, writers don't really care about it but I thought it was a very important distinction.

That said, my favourite part about the humanity switch is when Stefan and Caroline begna to bother each other especially Caroline when she unbolted Stefan's motorcycle, that was hilarious and felt very understandable given the context of Caroline's neurotic personality.

[–] orgine 8 years ago

Yes, I always thought that was an interesting piece of mythology. It was also shown that Katherine didn't turn off her humanity. Nor did any of the Originals.

As a general rule, the writing of this show became considerably weaker with progressing seasons.

[–] DeltaParadox 8 years ago

I agree, i think they ruined Caroline's character when she turned hers off

[–] illbeoneasystreet 8 years ago

Caroline with her humanity switch off was one of my least favourite story-lines. It cemented her as the Mary-Sue vampire for all time. Even with her humanity switch off she was still annoyingly perfect.

Its something you'll get used to a mental mind *beep* can be nice!