Vampire Romances and Telepathy

[bobthemole]

There's been a question that's bugging me about a trope I've noticed in Buffy, True Blood and Twilight. (Full disclosure: I've only seen the first 3 episodes of TB and read summaries of Twilight.)

All three have "primary" relationships with certain themes in common. Buffy/Angel, Sookie/Bill and Bella/Edward all consist of women with special powers and somewhat obsessive vampires who try to practice asceticism. Sookie and Bella are both considered "temptingly edible" by their paramours, and Buffy's slayer blood is supposed to turbo-charge vamps (tho Angel never showed a particular interest in drinking from her). All three stories also had incidents ("Earshot" on Buffy (S3) and recurring in the others) in which one partner with mind reading powers couldn't read the other's mind.

I can see how the yummy blood, asceticism and super-girl tropes arise naturally from the vampire theme. The first two together provide instant dramatic tension, and the third supposedly appeals to the young female audience members who identify with the heroine.

But what is up with the mind-reading and blocking? Telepathy isn't a skill traditionally associated with vampires (heck, in two of the pairings it's the non-vampire with mind-reading skills). And I haven't seen this trope in many other genres (but maybe I'm just not aware of them).

I guess my question is two-fold.

1. What dramatic or symbolic purpose is served by having one character's telepathic abilities blocked by their love-interest?
2. Why is this a recurring trope in vampire romances?

Comments

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I. With Sookie, I think that it's just that she can relax around vamps. Remember how easily Buffy got overwhelmed in "Earshot"? It must be restful to be around someone you can interact with normally.

With Twilight, I think Smeyer's just a bad writer and thought it would be ~intriguing~.

II. I have absolutely no idea. I think maybe it's a coincidence?

[bobthemole.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking coincidence too - one more item on the ridiculously long list of things the three pairings have in common.

[pielology.livejournal.com]

Denying information to your characters is a cheap way to produce dramatic tension. Lack of telepathy allows you to do the OMG DOES HE LURVE ME REALZLY? thing.

I mean, if Sookie had been reading Bill's thoughts all along, S3 would have been minus one big story arc.

[bobthemole.livejournal.com]

That dramatic tension could be avoided by not having a telepathy element in the first place. I don't know about TB, but Edward's telepathy in Twilight seems to exist solely so Bella could block him and thus be intriguing.

Huh. I guess I just answered my own question :P

[parcae-lj.livejournal.com]

It's a metaphor. Being in love means spending a lot of time trying unsuccessfully to guess what the other person is thinking.

[bobthemole.livejournal.com]

That could be it.