I think that we are designed to be supreme predators, our instincts finely tuned, our bodies and minds honed to withstand time…with some caveats below. I think that we are often silent witnesses to the passage of time….how history repeats itself. If we’re looking at it from a physical standpoint, then yes…I think we’re superior.
Now on a mental, spiritual level, I need to elaborate.
Sometimes, I do think we’re better than humans. Aside from our occasional squabbles and naturally solitary nature, we live in relative harmony with each other…whereas human beings are slaughtering each other in the streets if they don’t like their ideas, lifestyles or perhaps even how they look. The more civilized and advanced humans become, there is an equally savage and primitive reaction. There is an acute misery in the human condition. How that precious time, that finite lifespan, is often squandered, utterly wasted. They spend so much of their time worrying about petty issues, things that affect themselves right now and then burying their heads in the sand over global issues..things that can affect the long term, future generations.
Yet vampires have their drawbacks. We are often trapped within the confines of our time and have difficulty transitioning out of being echoes of our own pasts. We become the moral dictators, making our own judgments on who lives and who dies. We can be contradictory creatures….say one thing, do another. That solitary nature that I referred to earlier, makes us incredibly lonely…but enduring the company of another for centuries is often difficult because of our core, contrary state of being. We have a constant need for new blood and use our fledglings as crutches, to guide us through life because we are so easily lost and stray from the traditional paths. Because time moves differently for us, we can become completely absorbed in a single moment, a solitary object….glance up and months have passed. We can retain vast amounts of information but we are without practical application….sometimes what we carry with us, makes us lose our minds. We become walking revenants or spectres. There is also a cognitive dissonance for us and often, our beliefs and attitudes are quickly outdated, antiquated. For humans, it’s adapt or die. For vampires, we needn’t really adapt for us to survive…but it makes it hellishly difficult for us to live among our prey if we don’t keep up appearances at least.
In humans, I admire their ingenuity, their creative spark, the ability to adapt to each new situation and their tenacity for life….to persevere despite enormous challenges that threaten their very existences.
So in short, the answer is that each has it’s benefits and drawbacks. I can’t rightly say that one is superior to the other….I often believe that we are the dark mirror, reflecting the shadows of humans. We’re symbolic….hunger and primal lust disguised as gentiles in our fashion and finery. Our immortality and physical attributes are what all humans strive for….to live longer, to become stronger, to obtain and retain more information, to become more while we long for just a little more humanity….to feel as they do, to love, to create and move through this world with a bit of wonder at it’s fragile beauty.