Armand was never a saint. I did not love him for his moral values, for his generosity or his kindness. Of course, he wasn't the Akasha kind of evil either. Rather, he was understandably selfish, as all of us are. That's what I like about him. Unlike Edward in Twilight, who is forever saying, "ooh, I'm so evil I have no soul. I can't let Bella love me because I'm a monster. I'm going to protect Bella. I'm selfless. I'll sacrifice myself. I'm going to drink animal blood to show how saintly I am..." Bla bla bla, bullshitting all the way.
He did not hunt human for the fun of it. He drank blood because he needed it and it is the only way to survive. Unlike Lestat who only drink the blood of evil-doers, he sends some sort of telepathy to humans who are suicidal and are seeking ways to die and feed on them. Quote: You see, they all want the embrace. There is a kernel in all of them that is "half in love with easeful death" and as I wander through the late-night streets in the chill hours, I can hear their plaintive sighs, a muted chorus rising from those beds. Its rhythms penetrating the very walls. They summon me. They long for me. Gentleman Death, that has been my epithet, and I so treasure it.
And he did harbour a hatred for Lestat after he destroyed his Satanic coven but he eventually forgave him and they later became intimate friends. In the book, The Vampire Armand, he revealed the secret behind Claudia's death: Claudia offered to leave Louis if Armand could give her the body of a woman, no matter how painful or violent this effort would be. Armand agreed to Claudia's demands, and decapitated her, attempting to place her head – and thus her mind – on the body of another vampire woman, believing that the healing powers of vampire blood would allow Claudia to heal herself. The attempt failed, and, with Claudia near death and Armand seeing that he could rid himself of her and have Louis to himself, he simply locked her in the air shaft with Madeleine and left them both to die.
Don't judge him too badly, Claudia was a bitch and I'm glad she died. Anyway, moving on.
My point is, the Ricean vampires are never saintly good like the Meyers vampires. It actually deals with humanity and philosophy and a bit of cosmology. But then maybe Stephanie Meyers' vampires are more suited for young girls whereas Rice's vampires are more gothic and dangerous and sexual based. In simpler terms, parents would prefer Meyers' books to Rice's. But after all, didn't Oscar Wilde say that the books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame?
My passion for the others had been strong while it lasted but it all eventually burned into cinders and died away until it resurfaced months or even years after. But Armand... Armand had always always been in my heart, regardless of whether my mind is full of Natie or Brad Pitt or whoever it is. It is like what Catherine Earnshaw had told Nelly, "my love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees - my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath. He's always always in my mind, not as a pleasure, but as my own being."
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