At 12:48 AM 7/9/00 -0600, David Johnston wrote:

Now, hold it right there.  Why are Cologne and Shampoo suddenly using
weapons out of a Hammer film?

Because amazon lore misled them. This was pretty explicitly stated.

 They watch a lot of vampire movies in
the Amazon village?

And read a lot of vampire stories and have heard a lot western vampire stories around the fire. (The absence of more eastern vampire stories is due to the fact that the author likes western vampire stories better.) This will be covered in depth in a later chapter.

 Chinese vampires and near vampire equivalents
have no traditional vulnerability to Christian symbols,

Ah, but this is not a story about chinese or other eastern vampires, is it? ^_^

and they
certainly wouldn't have any religious faith in holy water and crucifixes.
Further, you already said that the Amazons had been approached by vampires
looking for recruits, so didn't the Amazons learn anything about what works and
what doesn't as they tried to kill the vampires?

3000 years of history (and oral legend and foklore) divided between 12 skulls that may or may not really be vampiric in origin. You do the math. (Kasumi didn't even know about the skulls, and she came to the right answer pretty quickly.) Remember that a lot of Cologne's 'mysticism' is like Happi's. Smoke, mirrors and quick-handedness. Let's not forget that 'Amazon Lore' is almost running joke in both the Manga and Anime. ('Three Year Smiling Death', anyone?)

  I mean sure, it does a great
job of making Cologne and Shampoo look like total idiots, but it doesn't make
any sense.

The idea was not to make the Amazons look like idiots, but to show that anyone can be misled and prejudiced. Cologne rants a little at the end about what happens to Amazon children who talk to the blood-drinking women who happen across the village from time to time. I may need to make this more explicit in the story, but like I said, Cologne's fears and prejudices will be covered more in depth in a later chapter.
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C. Jones - guilty@furinkan.net
http://www.furinkan.net

Watashi ha ultra-relakusu!