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Digest - 13 Dec 2010 to 14 Dec 2010 (#2010-34)

Tue, 14 Dec 2010

There is 1 message totalling 82 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Some musings on the "whammy"

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Date:    Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:28:31 -0700
From:    Angela Gottfred <agottfre@t.......>
Subject: Some musings on the "whammy"

As I've been watching FK again, I've been thinking about the practice of the
vampire "whammy". Here are a few thoughts.



Some suggestions (usually very short ones) seem to be quite powerful. In
"1969", Nick just has to say "sleep" and it works instantly. Of course,
people are usually feeling a bit sleepy at nighttime anyway, so this is
going to work with the subject's own desires. When Nick says "come to me" in
"Hunters", it almost works even though the Hunter is a resister.

More complicated commands, or commands that go directly against the
subject's own desires, have a lower chance of success. Nick and Janette both
ought to have known better than to tell Schanke, a detective trained to be a
careful observer, to "forget what you saw" (Close Call). No wonder it only
had limited success, even though Schanke is not a resister. But when LaCroix
gave him some good reasons for doubting what he saw, backed up with a little
more subtle whammying, he got better results.

On the other hand, when Nick tells vampire novelist Emily Weiss to forget
his love, to forget about vampires, and never to write about vampires again,
that's not a tough sell. (Stranger than Fiction) Weiss had repeatedly said
earlier that she did not believe in vampires, and finding out that they were
horrifyingly real was something she would willingly forget. Similarly, the
unlife and second death of Richard Lambert (I Will Repay) was probably
something that his widow didn't care to remember.



When someone is whammied, there are several possible outcomes:

1.       The suggestion is demonstrably successful, as shown by the actions
of the target, who unlocks a cell door or waives normal procedures.

2.       The suggestion is clearly unsuccessful, and the subject points that
out. "You're trying to hypnotize me, aren't you?"

3.       The suggestion is partially successful, as with Schanke in "Close
Call".

4.       The subject is a resister who quickly realizes what is being
attempted, and plays along, convincing the vamp that the whammy worked. I
don't think there are any clear examples of this in the show (except for
Vachon "whammying" Nick in "Black Buddha Pt 2"), but there are a few
situations which seem open to this interpretation. The folks most likely to
pull this off would be people who are used to thinking quickly on their
feet, like Tawny Teller, the TV reporter in Unreality TV, and young Lisa in
"Father Figure". (Ironic if Nick and the Enforcers went to all that trouble
to get Teller's videotapes so that she could be whammied, but she turned out
to be a resister after all.) I think the arrogance of most vamps doesn't let
them even consider that they could be fooled by a human.



As far as we know, vamps can't tell for sure whether their whammy worked or
not except through seeing the behaviour of the person who was whammied. This
may be why Nick meets up with Natalie on the street a few nights after they
first met (Only the Lonely). As Natalie quickly guessed, he was testing her.
If Natalie really forgot all about Nick, then she wouldn't react because he
would be a complete stranger to her.



Well, that's my two cents. What do you think?



Your humble & obedient servant,

Angela Gottfred



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