Vampires

It used to be that nothing mythical could disgust me more than vampires.

Dragons? Well, in the Bible, they're all evil. But fictional stuff I would read often portrayed them as neither all good nor all bad, so I never really hated the idea of the species in general.

Gryphons? Rotten scavengers with an endless appetite was how I was first introduced to them, but they were more or less just mindless beasts looking for a meal.

Unicorns? Okay, really, what's not to love about these beauties?

Fairies? Disney showed me fairy godmothers pretty early on, not to mention Tinkerbell. As varied as humans, as far as I could tell.

Witches? Often green skin, cackling and flying away on broomsticks. Rude, yes. Gross, yes. Evil, often very much so. But they were a villain I loved to hate.

Werewolves? Ew, I didn't like the transformation thing. But they were dogs, more or less.

But vampires. They disgusted me in every way. Human in form, but with fangs. May I just say - scary! Also, they slept in coffins, for goodness' sake. And they went around randomly biting people, sucking their blood - thriving off of it. And they would often convert the bitten people to vampirism as well. If I needed any more proof that vampires were all-around awful, they couldn't seem to stand the sunlight. What kind of good creature makes sure to stay away from the sun at all costs?

When Twilight started getting popular, I never went and saw it. My parents warned me to stay away from it, and the kind of blind faith I had - still have - in them made me agree.

But then, (I think it was either last summer or the one before; I can't remember when it came out) I saw a trailer for Hotel Transylvania. The fact that vampires were the main characters immediately turned me off, but the level of humor embedded in the trailer eventually made me curious. So eventually, I found the movie. And I watched it.

And now I can no longer say I despise all vampires. They are by no means ever going to make a list of my favorites, but my hate has certainly lessened. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Depends on your own personal viewpoint of mythological beasts.