Posted by Cecilia on November 24, 1997 at 12:09:18:
In Reply to: Re: Santy's Faith posted by Michel Pontmercy on November 23, 1997 at 14:12:58:
: May I say that I have simply been in adoration of this thread? I've been reading it for some time and wishing we had some sort of way to honor it with a permenant place in the TVC site. The thought you put into it is astounding.
: Now then, I don't know if my own thoughts will measure up to what you have been putting forth, but if you don't mind another voice chiming in I'd like to at least add some food for thought.
Welcome to the debate!
: It's my personal belief that Lestat has an incredible tendency to bullshit. The books are written with what I feel is something of a self-knowing smirk - Lestat knows the real story is "between the lines" (as he teases us about Interview). I think his invitation about Louis' novel is meant for his own as well. We are challenged to find out if we can tell the true story, or if we will just fall for the hype as so many do.
I agree with this.
: : He would naturally want to find more about these two legends. Where to learn this? Well, Marius, obviously. However Marius would most likely kill him, and Marius was also a threat to his standing as coven leader. Especially after he made Armand. So Santino had to kill Marius to keep his position safe, but he didn't have to kill Armand.
: This strikes me as a chancy bit of planning on Santino's part. Santino only had an outsider's perspective to work from. Marius definately knew something, Armand (assuming he knew about Armand to start with) may or may not have. Why go through the effort to get that close to the best source of information, only to kill him? If Santino's coven had the ability to kill Marius then they also had the ability to simply hold him, since the threat of his death could, in theory, keep him prone. Therefore why trust a months-old fledgling when one could have the source?
I agree with this. Why kill Marius? Armand didn't know anything but the name.
: : So he tried to get information out of Armand, but he didn't.
: Precisely. If the attempt was to get information then Santino handled it like a Keystone Cop. If, as it was pointed out earlier, Santino had the intelligence and strategy to create his coven and enforce his rules throughout Europe then it makes more sense to assume the death of Marius and the pumping of Armand for information were *not* his plans. He intended something else. But what?
: Is there a lack of trust between them? Let me put another question into this argument: *why* was Santino there in the first place? In that compound there were two types of people - those who Akasha could not track down (Maharet, Khayman and Eric, Mael and Jesse by extension) and *those who Lestat loved*. I believe Lestat and Marius both make the point that if it was not for everyone's relationship with Lestat they all would have died.
: Alright then: Louis and Gabrielle are obvious. Marius too, and since Lestat had been told Marius loved Pandora she was allowed to live too. Armand and Lestat had an adversarial relationship but Lestat in his heart cared for Armand and I think Akasha would have known that, hence Armand lives. Daniel was Armand's fledgling and gains protection there.
: What, then, about Santino? He's not old enough to protect himself and he and Maharet don't seem to have a close enough relationship that she could protect him. Moreover he wasn't near Maharet when Akasha started her destruction so he wouldn't be able to hide himself by being in close proximity to her. He and Eric traveled together but Eric needs Maharet's protection and thus could not save him himself.
: The other end of the scale - if we look at the chapters of information we have about Santino we would assume that Lestat would hate him. Santino tried to kill Marius (Lestat at the time didn't know of Santino helping Pandora to save him) and was responsible for hurting Armand - someone who held the rank of being beloved of Lestat. We would assume, then, that if anything Akasha would go out of her way to kill him.
: But she didn't.
: He can't be counted as strong enough to hide and the only others who lived were beloved of Lestat in some fashion.
: I think Lestat decieved us with bullshit again. Chapters of subterfuge inwhich somehow, somewhere, Lestat found a reason to like Santino.
I like this line of reasoning. In ToBT Lestat says that Santino was young and maybe he didn't hear his call of help. And also that maybe he didn't care. Was there a hidden story between them here?
Cecilia