Vampires vs. Werewolves

[Gothick]

I think the moral world of DS, such as it is, is a very different place from these more recent productions.  It's also a very grey terrain where relationships shift.  The most blatant IMO is Barnabas' attitude to David.  They never explain or reconcile how he goes from wanting either to drive the child insane or murder him outright, to pretty much going to Hell and back to protect him.

Barn feels compassion for Chris long before he ever knows Chris is part of the family.  He feels compassion as a fellow sufferer under a curse.  Quentin starts out as an adversary but eventually Barnabas also tries to help him, not only because he feels compassion for him but because Quentin's survival is key to the future of the family.

In the case of Laura, there is pretty much unmitigated animosity because of her plans for her child/ren. 

I personally don't care for the metaphysics that declares an entire race of beings "good" or "evil."  It smacks too much of racism to me, at least in outline.  Perhaps the way it is portrayed in these novels or games introduces more gradations of ambiguity.  We are talking about fantasy cultural production here, after alll...

G.

[tragic bat]

Of course DS did show that sort of tribal animosity, only it existed between the leviathins and werewolves, and largely left vampires out of it.  It seemed that the leviathins thought vampires much more easy to control, and their powers inferior, while the werewolf was a mortal threat. 

[quentincollins]

The White Wolf game and novels definitely have good and bad characters of all races, and were very inclusive with race, gender, sexaul orientation, all walks of life were treated equally. The bloodthrist of the vampire, and the rage of the werewolf made them dangerous, but it was possible for a good person to control them, just not easy. There also was a lot of exploration of the idea that power corrupts, but that series was as far from prejudiced over all as you can get.
Charlaine Harris, and most other urban fantasy novelists, write shades of grey into their charactres. It's mostly older novels, like Dracula, which show the vampire as a thing of intrisic evil.