#And look at iwtv coming in at the last second

[jennaflare]

I posted 7,037 times in 2022

That's 594 more posts than 2021!

120 posts created (2%)

6,917 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

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I tagged 6,088 of my posts in 2022

Only 13% of my posts had no tags

#our flag means death - 471 posts

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#art - 345 posts

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Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i remember talking to some canadians and they were like 'did you go to public school? maybe the us education system isnt as bad as we thot'

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

i'm captain blackbeard's right hand arm. man. im captain blackbeard everything.

185 notes - Posted April 3, 2022

#4

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208 notes - Posted October 10, 2022

#3

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#2

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630 notes - Posted May 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

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888 notes - Posted October 31, 2022

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[cbrownjc]

Hi there! I'm sorry if this feels super obtuse and it has been ages since I read the novels, BUT...

After this recent episode I was a little confused about what Armand had done to infuriate Louis and Daniel so much. If he simply wiped their memories so neither Louis or Daniel didn't remember everything that went down, that doesn't seem so awful, especially since what went down WAS awful. So I think I must have missed something substantial because I was distracted by my cat, or something. 😅

BTW I love your blog and all the fantastic insight you provide! I used to be ride or die with IWTV but haven't paid much attention to it in the last 15-20 years, so I'm finding it immensely helpful for getting back into the swing of things!

Hello!

So why Louis and Daniel are so angry at Armand isn't because Armand simply erased their memories. (And, to be clear, their memories weren't actually erased, but just clouded over and blocked). Armand rewrote them. Armand basically reprogrammed Daniel and Louis' minds after the OG interview, Louis' mind especially.

That was what that final scene was about, what it was demonstrating. The answer that Louis gave at the beginning of the episode, as to why Armand saved Daniel's life in 1973 was a word-for-word repeat of what Armand's own answer was at the end of the episode to that same question.

The answer wasn't something Louis truly felt wrt his own real feelings. It was something Armand put into Louis' mind to think and say about the incident after the events of it from Louis attacking Daniel on were blocked and clouded over.

As @virginiaisforvampires notes here, the way Louis speaks of Lestat in the OG interview vs the new interview is very telling wrt that reprogramming done. Yes, in the OG interview, Louis was talking down Lestat in spiteful ways, but it was all surface-level stuff. Just saying that the way Lestat spoke revealed how stupid he was and that he wasn't at all skilled when trying to play music.

That is all a far cry from the things Louis has said and spoken about in the Dubai interview about Lestat. Lestat's crimes, as they are being talked about in this second interview, are not just surface-level transgressions said to simply make Lestat angry and draw him out, as Louis was originally trying to do back in 1973. The crimes of Lestat laid out in the Dubai interview, in contrast, are very much there to justify the murder of Lestat.

Because without that justification?

Well, we see that starting when it comes to the false memory -- yes, false -- of Louis thinking Claudia couldn't burn Lestat. Louis thinking that -- that Claudia couldn't burn Lestat -- would take away Louis' guilt at having stopped Claudia from trying to burn Lestat if it was something they both couldn't do. Especially if the killing of Lestat had been justified.

But if there was no justification for killing Lestat? Then the reason Louis stopped Claudia from burning Lestat was because Louis knew that killing Lestat had been wrong. Louis knew it the night Claudia did it, which would be the real reason why he stopped her from burning him.

And because Lestat didn't burn, because he was still alive, that led to the events of the trial in Paris and what happened to Claudia there. And what is looking to be the show's version of the Merrick reveal about Claudia's true feelings wrt Louis. Which, in the book Merrick, the revelation of that is what sent Louis to try to destroy himself via sunlight exposure, as we saw him try to do back in 1973 -- which the cocaine and other drugs that were in Daniel's blood had Louis unable to either ignore anymore -- or lifted a veil that had been placed over his mind about it until then.

Do you see the cascade effect in all of this?

And look, maybe some will see what Armand has done here as not that awful, but Armand didn't do it just to try and protect Louis. That was very damn clear when he didn't relay Lestat's full "I love you" message to Louis after Louis' 1973 attempt to end his life. It's because part of Armand very much still wants to live with the illusion that he and Louis can be happy together, even after what happened in Paris and Armand's role in those events.

I've said before that Armand's flaw when it comes to love is that he will go way, way, WAY overboard to obtain or keep love. And this is all just, once again, him repeating that pattern. Armand rewrote Louis' memories of both Lestat and Claudia's actions all to try and assuage the true guilt and pain Louis has over everything that happened and Louis' own role (mostly due to his own inactions) in it all that has led to such suicidal guilt about it, but also because IMO Armand wishes to hide -- as much as he can -- his own role in everything that happened as well . . . and all of this so as to keep Louis by his side so that Louis doesn't leave him -- be it for Lestat, or even in death.

Armand isn't being altruistic in his reprogramming of Louis' mind and memories. Because really being so would have been not only telling Louis what Lestat was trying to relay to Louis back in 1973 but then probably having to let Louis go as well . . . let Louis go back to and be with Lestat, the person who Louis was trying to draw the attention of with that whole OG interview in the first place.

Honestly, I see the whole situation as kind of expanding on this line of Louis' in the book, as he and Armand are breaking up:

And when I came to Paris I thought you were powerful and beautiful and without regret, and I wanted that desperately. But you were a destroyer just as I was a destroyer, more ruthless and cunning even than I. You showed me the only thing that I could really hope to become, what depth of evil, what degree of coldness I would have to attain to end my pain. And I accepted that. And so that passion, that love you saw in me, was extinguished. And you see now simply a mirror of yourself.

With the rewriting/reprogramming of Louis' memories, this is very much what Armand has created with Louis in many ways -- a mirror of himself. The pieces of himself that Armand blocked and changed had Louis "knowing who he was" . . . but who that person is, isn't the real Louis. Just a reflection of the person who made those changes.

So yeah, that is where the anger is coming from. Moreso Louis than Daniel when it comes to the rewriting aspect of it all I'd say; Daniel is likely just angry that his mind was messed with in the first place. One thing you can say about Daniel is that he's brutally honest, even when it comes to his own foibles. He's the type who'd rather know all the horrible shit that happened to him, than not.

Anyway, I'm glad you like my blog and comments about the show, and I hope this answer explains some of it for you. 🙂

[disregardandfelicity]

i was lucky enough to attend the premiere on tuesday (as the +1 of a contest winner); in case this is of interest (and, indulgently, to preserve it for my own memory), here are some tidbits from my night:

for the screening, the cast had assigned seats (jacob and delainey in the same row, sam behind jacob, eric behind sam, assad on the other side of the aisle, the same side as rolin, hannah, and mark johnson). sam and jacob were off to the side chatting during intros and never sat in theirs

delainey got applause from the audience upon her first on screen appearance, the only cast member to get one

daniel had a fair few interview beats which got laughs from the audience

afterwards, an actor from the venue came up and gave a little speech as though he was from a sister coven to the TdV in paris. then we were dismissed to the party, which was upstairs

initially post party, assad and luke were in the front larger room of the reception - sam and jacob were, i believe, already gathered in a far back corner in the second room, along with some other people. eric didn't stay for the party

the venue had a couple little 'shows' - at one point the whole cast and some other guests went up several flights of stairs to a room (delainey commented on how many flights there were as we climbed) where a version of the no pain scene from the books was reenacted by venue actors

kalyne coleman was there, i saw her chatting with jacob. i let her cut in front of me for drinks as an excuse to talk to her. there's a nod to grace in the episode and it sounded like that was a surprise to her (a pleasant one!)

my conversations with the cast were deeply unsubstantive, i was too pleased to be there to come up with anything too clever or probing to say tbh

when i spoke to jacob, i started by saying "sorry" (just reflexively) and he immediately, very warmly, was like what are you apologizing for! when i said how excited i was for the season and he said something like 'i hope it doesn't disappoint' (which i did think was surprisingly pessimistic for a premiere party lol but having seen the quote about hoping ppl still like louis by the end, maybe he is actually a tad concerned! i did obviously say i didn't think it would)

sam was the best at these meetings because he very naturally asks questions back. i told him i loved him in the newsreader as well, and he asked whether i was pirating it (i'm not exactly, i had a vpn). then we all walked off to do that no pain scene experience

after the no pain scene, we exited down some stairs which opened to the second smaller room. assad was behind me so i asked him who did it better (these actors or the show), and we joked about that. he then introduced himself to me, and when i couldn't help noting that i did in fact know who he was, he said he would never want to assume. sam came up to us and assad introduced him to me, and i got the joy of saying we'd met!

(SKIP this bullet if you don't want newsreader vibes-based spoilers) sam asked me what i liked better, iwtv or the newsreader. i said iwtv but that newsreader was great and season 2 was so sad! he said season 3 is the last of the series, and told me it's dark and bleak, worse than season 2, maybe only a second of peace/happiness at the end. so. there's that to look forward to....

he also told me about the crossover staffing between shows (emma and the DOP). i tried to ask if he was responsible for any of that but dont think i articulated it well but he said 'you want to work with the people you like'

my delainey convo was brief, i turned while we were walking up to the no pain thing and realized she was next to me, so just took the opportunity to let her know i was excited about her in next season

around 10-ish, sam and jacob left to (i believe?) go to levan's friends bar, along with hannah and others i didn't recognize. assad and luke were around for another 30-40 minutes after that, then the whole thing ended at 11. i didn't notice when or with who delainey left

delainey, as far as i noticed, did the least mingling; assad and luke did the most. generally speaking (and as expected) sam and jacob hung around together or in the same spaces. also perhaps as expected, assad and luke were hanging around together for lots of the night. at the end of the night, when it felt less burdensome to ask, i got a pic with those two. they were very cool about it, luke was sweet, we'd spoken earlier, he stuck out his tongue for one of the shots and he found me again later to chat

that photocall video i took (above) was after the 'no pain' experience.

[avelera]

It makes me sad when I see posts by people who are enjoying the Interview with the Vampire show but say they've decided not to even try to read the books.

To be clear, it's fine to just not want to read the books, there's plenty of reasons the books might not be everyone's bag, and one reason is that people might just want to enjoy the show without spoilers or the source material muddling the experience.

But I just want to clarify a few points that people might be hung up on with regards to reading the books in case they've decided not to on false premises:

Anne Rice was not homophobic or otherwise anti-sex or against queer relationships for her characters - those are lies, lies, and damned lies. Anne Rice was a queer writer before being queer-- much less writing about it--was cool (to say the least). She more or less defined herself as nonbinary before there was terminology for it, her son is gay, and she left the Catholic Church the second time because they wouldn't accept him (even though the Catholic Church had basically become her life at that point after her husband died, which is a long complicated story). She also wrote tons of erotica, specifically bdsm erotica, which was also very queer. She would not be horrified by the queerness of the show.

Anne Rice was anti-fanfic - Yes, she was. Yes, she was one of the most aggressive authors against fanfic (though she softened later). But just to be clear, she had a legal reason for it. I was one of the people most heartbroken in the early '00s by her aggressive take down of fanfic over the years but even then, I always understood why she did it, she reasonably believed she had to be aggressive in order to defend her copyright. You can dislike her for it but she wasn't just hating on fanfic for the sake of it, the early internet was extremely muddy when it came to the legality around fanfic and copyright and as an early adopter of the internet, she was very concerned on that front specifically.

The books are not poorly written/not fun to read - Look, your mileage may obviously vary, and many have found flaws in her writing (IWTV in particular is probably the slowest read of the bunch) but Anne Rice wasn't a NYT Bestseller on basically every single one of her books for no reason. Her style is easy to read, fun, engaging, and often darkly beautiful and deeply empathetic. She basically defined the modern vampire genre and modern supernatural gothic romance for the last 50 years, I mean she dominated the genre. Don't take an out of context excerpt of the opening of The Vampire Lestat sounding like "My Immortal" as an indication of anything. (The whole point of that intro is that Lestat is supposed to sound like a self-obsessed drama queen in the opening pages, that's the conceit of the book and introduces him as a self-centered unreliable narrator, which she then plays with to great effect. It's actually rather deftly handled how she introduced Lestat as a POV character with that introduction. As a writer, I will defend that introduction as actually genius.)

Anne Rice wasn't perfect, to say the least. And the books might not be everyone's cup of tea, she was often dealing with transgressive topics and probably held many ideas or presented many concepts decades ago that would be side-eyed today.

But they're bestsellers for a reason and she's an era-defining author for a reason. The show is doing some interesting stuff with modernizing and deconstructing the books but the rich material they have to do it with comes from the books.

At the very least, I suggest trying out "The Vampire Lestat" and then "Queen of the Damned" which I think are two of her best and will go a long way to informing how audiences view the show and what's coming next.

[avalonia320]

IWTV Thoughts

I finally got to watch the finale last night and when I tell you I am SHOOK to my damn core. I don't know how to put it into words. I'm older than a lot of people here. I first read the Vampire Chronicles when I was 11; I found them in a box that belonged to my mother. When I tell you I devoured those books, re-read them over and over and over, fell in love with Lestat and New Orleans & Paris, cried over Claudia and Louis...I was totally besotted by the world Anne Rice created.

When the movie was announced when I was a teen (yes I'm that old), first I was so excited and then I was furious, as many of us Anne Rice devotees were, when Tom Cruise was cast as Lestat. I could not imagine an actor further away from how I had imagined Lestat. But still, I had to see it, and while it was still miles away from what I had wanted, I came away impressed with Tom Cruise. He still wasn't my Lestat, but he threw himself into the role in a way that made me believe he'd been waiting his whole life to let his inner Queen off the chain.

The movie itself...I had loved parts of it, but there was still so much more that I wanted. When the sequel came out (Queen of the Damned) I liked parts of that too and I actually enjoyed Stuart Townsend as Lestat. I hated most of it though, especially what they did with Marius (to this day I don't know what the hell that was about) but it was obvious at that point that I was never going to see the vampire world I was so enthralled with on the screen.

Then this series comes out. And while my expectations were low, I was still pretty excited. And then I watched it.

Holy fucking shitballs, you guys. I am normally so protective of my favorite books, resenting any little change unless it makes sense but everything they've done with this series, everything they've changed makes so much fucking sense. I don't want to try and break it down, I don't have the words. Lestat was always my big love in the books, but in this series, I've fallen in love with Louis and Claudia in a way I never imagined. I always loved their characters, don't get me wrong, but I never connected with them this way until now. And don't even get me started on Daniel, who I will admit I actively disliked in the books for the unforgivable crime of being boring. Um....that's a word I will never ever use in connect to Daniel Molloy ever ever ever again. And Armand and Madeleine and...I can't.

And Lestat. I loved him in the first season but in the second season, when he showed up with that long hair, I saw him for the first time like someone took the Lestat that has lived in my head since I was 11 years old and put him on the screen. He is EXACTLY how I imagined him. The way he looks, the way he talks, his emotion, his breakdowns, his unbelievable flair for the dramatic...this is HIM. I feel like I've been been unconsciously waiting decades for him to show up and for people to see him the way I saw him back then. I can't be the only old school fan that feels this way. It's just so surreal to see it so exact, it takes me right back to my childhood and the way I fell into stories then. The way you feel things when you're so young is something so hard to recapture but I feel like I'm right back there again on my bed, reading the books over and over again.

I'm just so grateful. To everyone involved with this series, the writers, the cast...I know i'm getting overly emotional but everything's been so shit lately and we've all needed an escape, a good one for once. I needed this so badly.

And I have to believe, wherever she is now, Anne Rice is so fucking proud.

[licncourt]

Is there a specific way to read the vampire chronicles or some books you should skip (I’ve just heard that some aren’t that good but like I’m up for anything)? And what books are focused on Louis and Lestat?

Okay I hope you weren't looking for a short answer to this because there isn't one 😭 Rather than just give my uncontextualized opinion, I'm going to try to explain what makes some (most) of VC so unbelievably terrible in so many people's eyes. There are going to be spoilers for pretty much all the books, but most of it is either incredibly stupid or information that you might want relating to content warnings. I'll list what applies to each book as I go.

I'm assuming you're here from my VC primer post, but if not, I'll link it right here! It gives a bit more detail on my short answer to your main question which is: if you value your sanity, only read the first three. Also a note to read the post I linked at the bottom of it about Anne Rice for context. It will help with understanding the tone this post takes re: the author.

To quickly answer your second question, I am sad to report that Interview with the Vampire is the only book focused on Loustat because after that Anne Rice decided that she hated Louis. Their relationship is on and off in the (very, VERY distant) background until they finally get together permanently towards the end of the series, but it's never the focal point again. She just kept us all on the hook by having one absolutely brain chemistry altering ship moment in a majority of the books (my compilation of those moments here).

Okay, on to specifics:

Interview with the Vampire: a literary classic with incredible character building. I'm assuming we can all agree that IWTV is fantastic and anyone who is reading this because of the show is probably already sold on it. If that's where you're coming from, you might be a bit disappointed by how unsympathetic Lestat can be, but that'll be remedied(ish) later. Lestat is the main character in the series going forward. Enjoy this Louis content because this is pretty much the end of it.

CW: keep in mind that the beginning of the book takes place on a plantation with all that entails; there are some occasional pedophilic and incestuous undertones, but nothing out of place with Gothic horror (it gets so much worse); domestic violence

The Vampire Lestat: this is widely considered to be excellent popular fiction rather than something as elevated as IWTV, but it's a 5-star read according to most fans. Lestat is such a vibrant, exciting character and so much more than the charismatic villain he was in IWTV (the AMC show incorporates a lot of his characterization from this book, as IWTV was originally a stand-alone novel without any real idea of what Lestat would become).

Aside from a (delightful) cameo at the end of the book, Louis is now in Anne Rice Jail and will not be allowed to do anything for the next nine books except be tortured once like a bug for no reason.

CW: a non-consensual turning that is directly analogous to sexual assault; descriptions of child abuse; Lestat, unfortunately, tongue kisses his mom

Queen of the Damned: this is the last book that most fans like. I personally consider it a step down from the first two, but I strongly prefer intimate, character driven stories and QotD is very plotty. It's a fun book, but some cracks start to show in AR's writing that will become a big problem later. Still, it's enjoyable and the ending is very satisfying for the story arc and for the characters. It also contains a fan favorite chapter that follows Daniel, the interviewer, and his insane romance with the vampire Armand.

If you want to be a happy person, turn back now.

CW: non-con blood drinking/vampiric SA; casual racism and pro-imperialism

***CATEGORY 5 EVENT: ANNE RICE FIRES HER EDITOR PERMANENTLY***

The Tale of the Body Thief: this is considered by most fans (obligatory not ALL) to be the worst book in the series simply for how the subject matter is handled. This is the beginning of AR transforming Lestat into something very existentially disturbing without even meaning to. The sympathetic, charming, evil-but-not-really theater kid Lestat is gone without a trace in a way that could be a very insightful look at the aftermath of trauma but is instead deeply insensitive and really upsetting.

Lestat from here on out becomes a hypermasculine caricature that can do no wrong according to the narrative and this has some pretty awful results. There are a few funny moments (like Lestat describing the sensation of peeing for two full pages) and a very cute arc where he adopts a dog, but he also commits two explicit rapes and emotionally abuses/threatens Louis on several occasions with the authorial justification that "men can't help themselves", abuse victims have it coming for setting boundaries, and people who have suffered abuse become abusers. This will be a recurring theme going forward.

Not related to Lestat, but also an Indian man is killed and has his body stolen and inhabited by a white British man in what would be a great metaphor for colonialism if the author thought that was a bad thing.

I am on the last chapter of a 140,000 word fic that I wrote just because I hate TotBT so much and wanted to create a world where it doesn't have to exist. It's one of the most popular VC fics on ao3, and that's not a testament to my writing ability, but rather to how much people hate this book.

CW: graphic SA; domestic violence; insensitivity to the point of racism; the author thinking these things are okay

Memnoch the Devil: not much to say about this. It's AR's ripoff of Dante's Inferno. Lestat meets the devil, goes to hell, drinks the blood of Jesus Christ, loses an eye, vacuum sucks period blood out of a woman's uterus and pad, and then falls into a five year semi-coma on a church floor. Somehow it's still boring. Best I can say is that the Lestat characterization is a bit less heinous than it is in the previous book.

CW: not much here unless you have an issue with period blood guzzling

The Vampire Armand: truly a notorious book in the series, beloved by some, hated by many. There's some good backstory for the character Armand (he first appears in IWTV, likely in season two of the show) and some fun historical fiction, however. Armand begins his story as a twelve year old human child who is rescued from sex slavery by an ancient vampire, Marius (he was namedropped in AMC ep 2).

Over the course of the book, he's physically, mentally, sexually abused by Marius, his teacher and father figure who is, like David, presented as a wise and moral authorit figure. In addition, Armand carries on a sexual relationship with an adult man as a minor. The sex is graphic (it's erotica) and it's really the peak of the pedophilia in VC. Keep in mind that this is coming from an author who publicly defended a child predator and thought that 14 year old kids could consent and should be allowed to have sex with adults.

Of all the later books, this one is the most widely enjoyed because Marius/Armand is a fairly popular ship.

CW: CSA/grooming; statutory rape; explicit adult/minor content; child abuse; cult abuse

Merrick: evil, evil book. AR's giant fuck you to Louis and anyone who likes his character. Lestat is in his devil coma for most of this book, so it's narrated by his newest fledgling and rape victim, David (who I and most others despise. This is the white guy who has an Indian body now). By this point, AR had openly admitted that she didn't like Louis, and she kind of spends this book tormenting and mocking him for no reason.

The titular Merrick (a mixed-race witch drowned in awful racial connotations) mind controls Louis with magic, then forces him to turn her (again, AR has confirmed that this is vampire rape) and be in a relationship. After this, she conjures a "ghost" that may or may not be Louis and Lestat’s dead daughter who tells Louis she always hated him and blamed him for her death. Completely overcome by grief, without Lestat (coma), and having been raped, Louis attempts suicide.

This event and all his mental health issues up to this point are framed by David as being stupid and weak, the sign of a lesser person who should just go and die because they deserve it. It is worth mentioning yet again that David is framed as being in the right and AR had expressed these opinions herself in the past (ie that mental illness is just weakness and you should be able to get over it).

Another fun thing is that Merrick was groomed by David as a child and he spends most of the book wanting her back and also admitting to other acts of pedophilia. So that's fun and great for a character who's supposed to be a voice of reason and moral center.

0/10, despise this book.

CW: sexual assault; grooming; attempted suicide

Blood & Gold: this is Marius' backstory. It is a completely pointless book because we've already heard it twice by this point in the series (and if you read the companion book Pandora, you'll hear it again). The whole thing reads like a Wikipedia page about ancient Rome. Read it if you want I guess.

CW: Marius

Blackwood Farm: this book had...potential? None of that was ever achieved, but I'll at least say that the concept could be worse. Lestat acquires his FIFTH brunette sadboi love interest of the series in this book, so that's kind of funny. Overall though, any positive qualities are overshadowed by weird prose, a really transphobic caricature, and the fact that the main character has shower sex with the ghost of his dead twin brother

CW: transphobia; sibling incest

Blood Canticle: Miss Rice decided to. Get creative with this book. It is a fandom joke. It is the worst prose in existence. It is a literary manic episode. It is truly indescribable. I'm just going to leave this excerpt from ch 1 here and let you imagine an entire book of this

Yes, chapter one is Anne Rice using Lestat as a proxy to berate her readers for not liking Memnoch the Devil. It's also important to me that you know Lestat calls himself "omnisensual" in this book, tries to become a saint, and tells a woman to put some clothes on because men can't control themselves. The word "chuckle" is also written out in the prose in italics like this is ff.net in 2010. The best thing that came of this book is the famous AR Amazon reviews rant (now a beloved VC fandom copypasta). Please read it. It's transcendent.

CW: psychologically devastating prose

Prince Lestat: this is AR's comeback book, published 12 years after Blood Canticle. It's an improvement, but it's still terrible and very, VERY dumb. Lestat has completed his transformation into a macho man male power fantasy for AR and we end with the establishment of a vampire monarchy with Lestat in charge because he slurped and then puked up the brains of the vampire who had the Special Vampire Essence.

Mostly this was an excuse for AR to kill off a bunch of her weird NPCs that she didn't know what to do with. The good news is we get a very cute, official Loustat love confession and for the first time since the first book in the entire series, we get a chapter that's Louis' POV!! It's like 7 pages long but it's the best we're ever going to get.

Other fun thing that happens: Lestat is hooked up to a hormone IV that allows him to fuck (book vampires can't) and the resident scientist vampire steals his cum and creates a petri dish clone of Lestat that is raised in secret for 18 years before being given to Lestat as his son. No, I'm not joking.

CW: uh, brain eating? Insanely unethical human experimentation?

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis: batshit crazy book. Truly bonkers. There are aliens, Atlantis is real, Lestat has a sentient brain parasite that controls all vampires and talks to him in his mind like the PS5, vampire brain surgery occurs, a choir of child vampires is there, an alien named Derek breastfeeds a disembodied hand until it grows into his clone named Derek Two, and so much more.

The one positive is that after decades of harassment, AR finally lets Louis be a main character again. By this point he has been completely stripped of his personality (I call it the Louis Lobotomy) and exists solely as Lestat's sexy lamp, but whatever. He's there and they're cute together. How they managed to become a healthy, functional couple overnight after two hundred years of drama is never explained.

Lestat makes out with his rapist and talks about how he was asking for it in a particularly nauseating scene, but otherwise it's pretty tame trigger-wise

CW: rape apologia/victim blaming

Blood Communion: we are finally being put out of our misery. The end of the series. This is such a boring book and Lestat’s characterization is completely nonsensical by now. Several main characters are presumed dead for a while and by this point you don't even care. Not even the other characters in the book seem to care. Its only use is to get that sweet sweet Loustat happy ending.

CW: temporary character death

-

Alright, that was a lot of shit-talking a book series I literally run a fandom blog and write hundreds of thousands of words of fic for, but the truth is, fans are here for the characters as they were originally created. The first three books are wonderful, the first two completely masterful and case studies in how character building should be done. There's a reason they've been read and analyzed and fawned over for forty years. What happened to the series is heartbreaking, but it doesn't negate the impact of how it started.

AR may have started spelling her own characters' names wrong and writing a baffling combination of disgusting hot takes and total absurdity, but she created something special in the beginning and I'll always love it and be grateful for what it once was.

I hope that was helpful!

[manynarrators]

Y’alllllll, I miiiiight be coming out of QotD with a new ship. And godamnit, I go from my Lestat/Armand ship (comparative rare pair with little content) to drumroll please, sprinkle in a bit of rising tension!

Something even rarer and virtually non-existent! Khayman/Armand. I want to read fic for them. There is no fic. I have thoughts about it, I think it could be So Good.

If I want fic for them I’m going to have to write it myself, aren’t I?

It sounds like such a crack pairing but I have logic!

The first is that Khayman is immediate taken in by Armand. But not just because he’s pretty, which is a part of it. But also the amount of power Armand has, notable for someone young(er). There’s respect! I’m here for someone ending up with Armand who isn’t scared of him, but is still aware he’s not weak.

And then throughout the whole middle portion of the book from Khayman’s perspective, he’s constantly looking for Armand! He keeps thinking things along the line of “I have to go to Armand, I want to try and protect him” which considering Akasha is quite literally going around murdering a ton of vampires at that moment, isn’t exactly patronizing! Still sweet though.

Armand is a bit cold towards him, but also he’s having A Day, and I think he’s not at his best for some logical reasons!

Now I to what is infinitely more like… personal reasons. The one that made me write the post: I think it would make Marius so upset, for a couple of reasons. The first is just that Khayman is incredibly old, and incredibly powerful. Six thousand years, compared to two. Not only is his beloved fledgling moving on with someone else, but someone even more of an ancient than him!

The second is that Armand is consistently made a spectacle because of his beauty. And Khayman is… unsettling. He’s got some aspects of beauty to him, according to Marius, but, on the whole, so old and inhuman it’s cycled around to terrifying. And I love the idea of Armand saying “no, I like him”.

The last one that I can think of for the moment is the fact that Armand and Khayman are both odd. Odd in a distinctly vampire way. Like half of what Armand says in TVL and IWTV is telepathically, he doesn’t move in the way of a human, he is, of the core cast of vampires, probably the least human acting one. Khayman hits a lot of the same vibes. They also both have a fascination with the modern world and learning about that. Give me these two old vampires learning about the world, but also without judgement that comes from being unsettling, or expecting to blend in more.

Like I’m all for Armand learning to be human, but also I am SO HERE for my vampires being well, vampires, with the goose-bump raising, cat-scaring unsettling nature that comes with. I think it’s got some of the appeal of show Devils Minions, just in a way I think has intriguing potential I want to poke around in.

This has been my TED Talk!

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep1 Musings - Looking for Home: Louis, Claudia & Daciana

They flip between siblings and parent so much even I was getting whiplash--no wonder Lou's confused. U_U

This was EEEEEEEEVIIIIIIL, AMC! 😭 Louis carrying Grace's wedding portrait, and using it to FAKE his identity in Europe, after Grace couldn't even go to Europe for her own honeymoon cuz Paul died--STOP IT! 😭😭

And you can hear just a few quick seconds of the DPDL lietmotif that always plays for Grace, Paul, and sibling!Claudia, before it takes this SUPER dark and ominous tone--the song has been tainted, just like Lou's relationship with Grace and Claudia was tainted.

Go AWF, Claudia!

And then she finds ONE, and it was so heartbreakingly touching.

I was hoping she was Alessandra, but nope, she's an AMC!OC, Daciana. I'm assuming they were nodding to one rando revenant:

And she is obviously the same "Anna" the kids were singing about--(very Gaunter O'Dimm of them, I love it 💀)--living like frikkin Baba Yaga in a grimy castle in the woods.

Daciana killed her own fledgling after Claudia blinded him--after the revanant AND Daciana attacked them first, but whatever. Cuz she said he wouldn't be able to hunt/feed with no eyes--so it can't heal; her fledglings are too effed up. She's officially the last one in the area.

And I get it now--the bear(?) head Claudia breaks off of the dead vampire's sarcophagus was a heraldric figurehead. Claudia showed it to Daciana, as a way of asking her who that dead vamp was.

She didn't want to tell them her story or hear theirs--but she wanted them to know about Cezare Romulo (RIP). (It's crazy how in 5 minutes The Vampire Daciana was way more effective than a whole hour of Dierdre Mayfair. 🙄😒) She complimented Claudia's blood, saying it tasted like the cream of the crop. Daciana only told them her name, and that she was waiting for her children--fledglings or real ones, who knows (I bet both).

Only for Daciana to kill herself right in front of them (RIP). 😔🔥

This is so sad, but it was obvious she was gonna do that.

Stop teasing the Children of Darkness after this Alessandra fake-out. She's got the same darkness in her that Nicki (AND Louis) had. And we know where that means. 🔥💀🔥

These vampires are STARVING--hungry for family, love, home: LIFE.

So is Claudia! 😭😭😭 She wants a blood spouse! She wants a companion!

So I LOVE that Morgan clocked Louis on Grace's photo--that ain't yo wife! The gaydar was beeping the second your pretty arse walked in!

Like, it's been established that Louis is a terrible liar-you don't need an investigative journalist to figure that much out. Louis is TOO honest--he was dumb AF for telling Morgan his real name! I get why he did it in the book--again: desperate to make a connection.

But on the show it comes across way different--Louis almost immediately tells Morgan his name (he doesn't do that for Emilia, even though SHE called him pretty! Istg I was picking up some flirtatiousness with Lou & Morgan; put those pheromones AWAY 😂). But you come across MIGHTY SUS if your Black arse is going around switching identities on all these twitchy Europeans, Louis!

Like baaaaaasicallllllyyyyyyy!!! 🤦 You see them shooting up corpses just to make sure--you think they won't shoot YOU!?!

Anyways, it's so cool that they made Morgan a photographer--so is THIS why Louis starts taking photos!? 🤩📸

Cuz I've been wondering how Louis makes money in Paris so they don't have to pickpocket anymore?

I love that they included this.

No matter where they go, they have to pose as Black servants and maids and VALETS and SLAVES, white folk are the same regardless of the country.

Which was an interesting parallel with Daciana, and how much they were hyping up America.

She was clearly nuts, but smart & sane enough to realize that 2 (two!) Black vampires had fled their oh-so-great "land of the free" to come to HER busted AF blown up war-torn country, so why should she expect to have any happiness over there?

I don't know a lick of Romanian, but I wonder if the "another one" she was referring to was the soldier, or the country. As Daciana realized that no matter who she made her new fledgling, and no matter which country she ran to, she'd be alone & unhappy without the people she loved--her HOME.

Home is where the HEART is! Claudia's been homeless this whole time! Daciana's got that huge castle, but lives all alone--she can't make proper fledglings. Meanwhile Louis still thinks NOLA is home, even after they killed everyone who knew them--"including" Lestat!

*sigh* I hate this effing show, it's so dang good. 😭

[blacclotusss]

IWTV RANT

I have really tried to keep my opinions and concerns within safe spaces like discord servers and group chats, but I have honestly had enough of everyone's shit. EVERY SINGLE PERSON. There was an article posted by Polygon yesterday with a list of the most anticipated shows of 2024 and Interview with the Vampire made the list. And I agree, I think season two is highly anticipated, by both huge fans of the lore and books, as well as those who are fans of the show. Now, the problem comes in with what was said about the show and the photo used. I want you to pick out which part people are choosing to focus on (See Below).

Did you figure it out?

It's this small highlighted portion above. That's it. And I understand people are huge fans of Lestat, but that man is a horrible person and is the worst person to ever live, especially in Interview with the Vampire. Period. He's the villain of that book. MY problem is a combination of things in this image: the photo used, the main attraction line, the misspelling of Delainey's last name, and the fact that the lead actor's name is not mentioned ONCE. The storyline of Interview with the Vampire follows Louis de Pointe du Lac and his life before and after being turned by Lestat. In the show, Louis is played by JACOB ANDERSON (See Below).

That's my second problem: His face, nor name, is nowhere to be found. Why is that? Can someone tell me? (I already know the answer). He has been seen plenty of times in the teaser trailer and the short clip that was posted by AMC. We even here his voice in AMC's new video they've posted with all their content for 2024. So why am I looking at a photo of Sam Reid dressed as Lestat? The three main actors (Jacob Anderson, Delainey Hayles, and Assad Zaman) for this season are people of color. We don't see them at all. Why?

Why not use one of these photos?

The next problem is the main attraction line. As stated before, the main character in Interview with the Vampire is Louis. You can argue that Lestat is the protagonist in all of the other books, but that's not the topic at hand. The topic is Interview with the Vampire and it's protagonist is Louis de Pointe du Lac, portrayed by JACOB ANDERSON in the show.

And lastly, how are you publishing something and cannot even correctly spell one of the actor's names? Delainey HAYLES is portraying Claudia in season 2, a character that has a lot of significance throughout the story. And by the looks of it, she may have an even bigger storyline than before. This is her time shine.

So, once again, how do you just go about misspelling her actor's name? And if you forget how to spell it, her Instagram name is Delainey Hayles. And I won't put all the blame on these publications because this is a one-off, but people focused on the wrong thing. But let these delusional "fans" tell it, everybody is making up things to be upset about.

[disregardcanon]

amc iwtv the birdcage 1996 au. It’s still set in the mid nineties. Our young couple looking to get married is comprised of claudia and madeline. But how could our pair of lovely ladies get married in such a way that would get the conservative senator parents to agree in the nineties? How would they even be able to do it legally?

Madeline is a trans woman who plans to come out after she and claudia graduate college, and then establish themselves and their careers far away from HER parents, who are influential not in the united states but in quebec… because madeline must be french, you see. There can’t be a madeline who isn’t french. 

She and claudia go to college together in new orleans (where grace still lives so claudia has some family support in the area). madeline studies fashion and claudia studies black history and american ethnic studies. She’s probably going to law school later. 

Madeline, for her part, has known that she’s trans for quite a few years and does plan to transition when it’s safer for her to do so. However… She also really really wants to live with claudia and knows that at the moment, the only way to make that happen is getting “straight” married. While it will hurt madeline and claudia both to have a “traditional” wedding where madeline has to be “the man”, it IS their only legal option and it’s going to be incredibly good for them to just.. Be able to do it now and live together for their last year and a half of college. 

In this version of the story, Madeline’s parents, actually, don’t need an inciting incident to approve of their “son” getting married, despite any qualms about the fiance being Black and American. Their fashion major “son” wants to get married to a WOMAN! They can finally point at this process and prove that “he” is “straight”! That’s all they’ve wanted for years! And sure her french isn’t very good (certainly not quebecois) but she knows some! That’s more than most americans. They can work with that. 

The Eparvier parents agree the moment that it’s pitched to them. What makes them decide it must happen right now immediately, however, is another disaster for a conservative politician. I won’t specify what happens because it doesn’t REALLY matter and the reason it happens in the movie is… jarring in an otherwise fun little movie. Know that it’s suitably White Upper Crust Awful enough of a reason that they’ll decide that they have to drive all the way from Quebec City to San Francisco and makes the “meeting Claudia’s parents” so much of a time sensitive thing. 

Meeting claudia’s parents is going to be… complicated. Louis, of course, owns and operates a swanky drag club called the birdcage. Lestat is the star drag queen there. 

Biologically, claudia is the result of the single time that louis tried to force himself to be straight with his dear friend lily. It… did not work. However! They both decided that they wanted a baby in some capacity so she decided to keep it. Louis would her sole guardian and Lily would pop in sometimes in a cool aunt capacity. When claudia was about five louis started seeing lestat and lestat and louis was a little hesitant to go all in with the relationship immediately and he became “uncle les” even as lestat moved in and very clearly took on the role of the second parent. 

Claudia still calls him uncle les at this point, but she knows also knows he’s her other dad. She comes home to visit and update the news from “I have this lovely girlfriend!” to i’m going to get “straight” married to my lovely girlfriend, also her parents are conservative politicians so we need to work out a strategy for this… but by the time she’s said her hellos to her dads and friends and settled into her bedroom the phone is ringing and the caller ID says “EPARVIER” she picks up the phone… to the very unfortunate news that madeline’s family is about to drive the entire fucking way from Quebec City to san fran for an impromptu engagement dinner. 

She estimates that it’ll take three and a half days, tops. Her dad’s worked up a quick itinerary with a stop close to Chicago for a hotel stay, then one near cheyenne wyoming and then a straight shot to san fran. These are VERY long days but like. The eparviparents are desperate. They’re getting their kid engaged in an acceptable way and it’s going to delete public perception of The Scandal

The journalist tailing them for a story is NOT daniel, because daniel has many flaws but “tabloid reporter who would out a family for profit” is not one of them. He’s a different journalist who finds out what the situation is and then goes oh god oh shit how do i keep these vultures away from my niece and her girlfriend?

Claudia is desperately trying to figure out how to get her family to pretend to be Straight as Boards and Cultured in a Respectable to Racist Rich White People Way because dear god she just wants to get married to her girlfriend and be done with this situation. 

Louis tries his best to accommodate all of this, but it’s… hard. His baby girl wants him to pretend to be straight for not only this engagement dinner they have to throw together over the course of a few days, but for the duration of a wedding and then however long it takes for the two of them to escape the eparviparents’ hold. And then of course louis and the folks at the birdcage are going to be the ones that the eparviparents are interrogating and coming after when claudia and madeline disappear off the face of the earth. 

This is going to have far reaching consequences! But claudia really wants this, and she isn’t actually ashamed of them! She’s gay and once she’s safe she and madeline will live their best gay lives. Pretending again for a bit won’t kill him… right? 

But, uh… how do you get lestat to look straight, even if she already calls him “uncle”?  Looking at how good they were at pretending back in the NINETEEN TEENS? Not at all. Like louis maybe… can pretend… by virtue of just being so Inside Himself, even after coming out and coming to terms with himself… but lestat? Especially a lestat who’s a proud and happy drag performer? It’s gonna be hard. 

So the idea is just… cutting lestat out entirely? Just like in the movie? It causes some very sad fighting and then some sad-funny Louis Tries To Teach Lestat How To Pretend to Be Straight and then when lestat finally gets so upset about his family wanting to cut him out entirely… louis drops the palimony announcement. (if i die, all of this is going to you. I know we can’t get married because it’s the nineties but this is as close as we can get. You’re my husband in all the ways that matter. You’re my daughter’s other father. I love you you absolute drama queen. You french disaster. my hurricane of a husband-) 

Lily still lives in the area and claudia convinces her to come to the dinner and pretend that she and louis are married. (it’s just a temporary thing, just a means to an end, it shouldn’t MATTER!) 

The full plan for the dinner 

Degaying the house

Delefting the house

Lily pretending to be Louis’s lawfully wedded wife who has been Claudia’s second legal parent this whole! Time!

Claudia lying about her major and her interests and her background

A dinner with friends and people from the bar pretending to be in-house employees.  Like oh yeah we’re rich! We keep a staff i guess? 

The friends are mainly just armand.  Armand isn’t their house boy but when the opportunity to play a butler in this weird play claudia’s making up presents itself he is ALL fucking in. he is Rashiding it up in this bitch. He’s very clearly NOT a butler but for different reasons than the guy in the movie. This is because he says stuff like “electronic mail” and “the situational comedies that they play on network television” and the only modern things he can bring up are melissa ethridge and the musical rent. You know! Totally heterosexual conversational topics! 

Daniel is mainly playing crowd control to keep their assortment of Dear Queer Friends away and keeping an eye out for the paps. 

The plan goes tits up immediately. The paps get… very very close. They don’t get a photo proving that Senator Eparvier just went into Famous Gay Nightclub The Birdcage, but.. Lily gets stuck in some atrocious traffic. Claudia, Louis, and Armand as Rashid are absolutely drowning in the Rich White People Bullshit of it all… and then drag queen lestat pops in. 

AND FUCKING KILLS IT! Lovable! Hilarious! Exactly what the doctor ordered! Yes, they end up discovered by the eparviparents by the end of it… but they all have such a lovely little time. Claudia ends up declaring lestat her dad and madeline is able to say that she IS going to marry this girl and thinks her family is lovely. Her parents try their hardest to usher her out until daniel blocks the door like “ARE YOU CRAZY!?!?! Your fucking canadian paps are out there. Do you want them to get your picture like this?” and then they get the quebec politician and his wife out of the bar undetected through the use of Drag Makeup and Deception! 

The parents come to terms with claudia’s family… existing, at least. It’s far from the point where madeline can come out (it’s the nineties) but the eparviparents are okay with the wedding. They offer to pay despite tradition about the “groom’s” family not to try to dictate it being in a more traditional setting, and louis lets them because he and lestat don’t want to accidentally out their future daughter in law or cause a bigger fuss than necessary. 

The straight laced quebec politicians and their family attend the wedding with a bunch of queers of color and then we end on “girls just wanna have fun” as the girls kiss and dance. We’re not quite there yet, but like… it’s close. The people who matter will still be around in the aftermath

[bandedbulbussnarfblat]

Alright, here are some screenshots from the new iwtv s2 trailer and me theorizing over them like a rabid fangirl. Hafl meta, half madness.

ok, so this bit of dialogue here where they are talking about Daniel and the interview

Armand: He wants you in pieces for the privilege of putting them back together as he sees fit. Louis: It's his job. Armand: It's his drug. He's reveling in it. You should end it.

Is Armand bitter? Is this how he saw his and Daniel's relationship? If so he is big mad. Like, this man has had decades to stew in that post-breakup anger. Memory is a monster and all that. So he's had plenty of time to do that thing where people breakup, get pissed off, and only remember the bad times. We twist our own memory all the time, that's one of the ways people get past shit. So Armand has probably twisted what he and Daniel has. Because my boy does not handle rejection well.

Or maybe he is projecting? Messing with Louis' memories (which it seems like he did. though i do believe he thought he was helping Louis at the time. a monster in love is still a monster) could very well be putting him back as Armand sees fit. That's what he may believe he did to Louis. Though the definition of 'as he sees fit' could have multiple meanings. I think personally that Armand sees (or at least justifies) messing with Louis memories as for Louis own good.

Either way, he does not want Daniel poking into Louis' head.

this is just some loumand cuteness. look, Armand kisses Louis on the cheek. i think Armand is or was probably pretty affectionate when him and Louis were alone together. I remember that interview with Assad saying there was a tenderness to Louis and Armand's relationship. there's a whole bunch of cute little shots of them together. but they are hard to get a cleat shot of because they sort of fade into each other in the video.

like, i know in my heart the loumand breakup is coming this season. but i'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. bc this version of loumand has got me hooked. i have to confess, i was never really a big fan of loumand in the iwtv book. the whole claudia of it all ruined it for me. but i am so fascinated to see how these two made it work for 77 years.

and this. the way Claudia and Armand look at each other when they first spot each other. that quick second before the mask can slip into place. they do not like each other. they are enduring for Louis' sake. at least until he picks one of them.

then like a split second later, she has this tight smile on her face. my baby girl is not happy

look at their faces y'all. this is during Louis' 'life is shit' bit of dialogue. where he tells Claudia to stop feeling sorry for herself. he also says they 'can't be running away again' do they find other vampires before Paris? According to her diaries, they were in Romania in 1941. And Louis says something about they can't be the only 'good ones'

We also know they were in Paris, Nov 14 from Claudia's diaries. The interview is set in 2022. Louis mentions earlier in the clip him and Armand have been together 77 years. So they'd have to have gotten together in 1945. Given how quickly things happened in the book, I'd say they were probably only there a few months.

this has to be Allesandra. it has to be. I can't wait for this Armand backstory stuff.

y'all look at this fuckery. Santiago is kissing some woman while riding a motorcycle. idk if she is a victim or another vampire. and i think possibly the bike might be flying? I can't tell. It looks pretty cool though.

oh look, a scythe. i wonder what that could possibly be foreshadowing. they have to have the scene, the way they've shown a scythe in a few different teasers/trailers now.

this might be Madeliene, but I don't know. The hair doesn't fit what we've seen so far. my theory is that this is Madeleine's sister who dies via vampires. in the books she lost a daughter, and it was why she was so eager to play mother to Claudia. Having a child that could almost literally never die would have had to seem like, the greatest thing ever. switching it to a sister would be fitting, seeing as Claudia is playing the role of sister to Louis

So my thought here, (and I know I am theorizing based on nothing but vibes) is that Madeleine is looking into the vampires bc her sister went missing after going to a show at the Theatre des Vampires. And at some point, Claudia will reveal what they are to her.

That may be why she looked so scared in that other teaser we had. These pics are from it and they are blurry af, so sorry bout that

This could be the vampires warning her to mind her business. Why not kill her outright? Bc they like to play with their food. Or bc Claudia wants to keep her, and Armand knows he has to get Claudia out of the way to be with Louis. So he could just like, order the coven to not kill this one human. And then later 'convinces' Louis to turn her into a vampire, so Claudia will have her own companion and gtfo

like, i know it's hard to tell from this one shot, but Armand seems to be on the verge of having a full on tantrum. while saying Lestat's name over and over. Probably bc he heard how much Louis was talking about Lestat to Daniel. he's probably mad jelly, but like, in both directions.

look at this shit. Armand straight up hisses and pushes Lestat away with his vampire powers. (this I think is may not 1945 Paris, but around when they first meet. idk though)

this is how Lestat seemed to be dressed in the image above. and given the whole look of him (you know, in full health) i think this is around the time Lestat meets the Children of Satan

y'all I am screaming. this is Lestat drinking Armand's blood. did they fuck? did Lestat hit it and quit it?

At least Claudia gets to tell Louis off for picking Armand over her. But she definitely was not loving Paris.

as witnessed here, by Daniel reading from her journal "fuck these vampires"

so here we have Daniel saying he wants to get out alive (then we have him making this strange face where it looks like he wants to cry, another shot of Armand) while this other dude says that Daniel fears Armand and that he should fear the other one. Who tf is this guy? Are they still in the penthouse? Did Daniel leave and go out somewhere to meet this guy? Who is this man? Maybe another vampire that paid a visit? Is he this Leonard guy we've heard about? bc that does not look like David Costabile, but tv hair and makeup can perform magic, so maybe it is?

here we have Louis throwing his cup of blood at a painting. it's ok baby boy, you are entitled to a hissy fit every now and again

Here we have Louis hallucinating Lestat, so that's fun.

And now bitch ass tumblr says I can't post anymore images, but i am only halfway through the trailer. so I guess i will post and reblog

[hekateinhell]

we don't talk about Riccardo at Trinity Gate often enough, what's his role there? How does it go? What happens when Marius visits?

Three questions in one, I love it. 🥹 Let's break this into two parts:

What's Riccardo's role at Trinity Gate and how does it go?

These are the three mentions of Riccardo at Trinity Gate that we get in the last trilogy:

The other ghosts hung back. And one of them, a very personable young male, rather husky, with dark olive skin and curling black hair, appeared to have been weeping. I couldn’t help notice that Armand was almost directly behind him and rather close to him.

Armand went with them, his arm around the dark-haired ghost, the ghost who had been weeping, and the door was closed.

And that male ghost who’d come to Trinity Gate, bringing tears from Armand, the one called Riccardo?

By my read, it feels intentional on Anne's part to have what appears to this big healing moment for both Armand and Riccardo's spirit occur at Trinity Gate. Trinity Gate is where Armand and Louis started healing, separately and together. It's where Daniel goes to give his relationship with Armand another go.

To wax poetic: Trinity Gate is a place of solace and second chances. They're vampires, they have forever (or they think they do) to fix what went wrong. But immortality is going to be pretty lonely if you keep putting off those difficult conversations and keeping others at bay! (*ahem* Armand and Marius; Armand and Lestat; Marius and Pandora).

Wow, so deep... 🤧

What happens when Marius visits?

SPEAKING OF MARIUS.

I know we (me) talk a lot about Armand's trauma and why XYZ explains his behavior, and how he's grown so much through XYZ so he's not the original toxic, manipulative villain that Anne wrote in IWTV and TVL, (drop an AR/VC quote for citation), it's my fave character development arc, blah blah....

BUT I don't think we (me) talk enough about Marius's trauma and how that informs his behavior and why it can also explain XYZ. Mostly because I don't have a reason to do so -- it doesn't usually factor into the things I obsess about when the vampire ADD kicks in.

I think it's necessary here though, if we're talking about Armand, Riccardo, and Marius. We know in B&G that Marius referred to Venice as his "Perfect Time"; we know how deeply he loved the boys in his care, how much he wanted to provide for them and offer them a good life; we know the guilt and devastation he felt following what happened with the Children of Darkness, and how he blamed himself for not destroying Santino when he had the chance.

I posted it here before, but like imagine how Marius felt when/if he read TVA and found out exactly how Riccardo died? Marius loved all the boys. Yes, Amadeo was special and the love was very different, but they were all Marius's children in a way. By his own account -- his responsibility; he loved them, he tried to save them.

I went off on a tangent but back to your question... I think that Riccardo's presence could also serve as a balm to Marius's soul the way it does Armand's. Of course it's not the same -- Riccardo being there for Armand is more in line with forgiveness, forgiveness for the horrible way in which he died. Riccardo being there for Marius looks more as just a simple comfort, a reminder of that Perfect Time. And I think that, in turn, can serve as a common ground for Armand and Marius to mend their relationship further and heal the old wounds that span five hundred years.

One thing I noticed in B&G is that Marius never once referred to Armand as "Armand," it's "Amadeo" all the way through to the present day. Someone once made a comment somewhere that Lestat and Louis need a common muse, a common ground, to have any kind of functional relationship. I think Riccardo, at least temporarily, could be part of that common ground/common muse for Armand and Marius. He could help bridge the gap between Amadeo and Armand for Marius, as well as the gap between the Marius of now and the Marius of Venice for Armand.

*I don't even know if I answered your question and I'm sorry, I've just been emotional over Marius lately and I blame you 100%. 🫠

[argesta]

Academia, in my fanfiction (or at the very least, the ones I gravitate towards reading)? It’s more likely than you think!

In your last reply you mentioned chapter titles, so here I am to ask about the chapter titles!

And also how you decided who plays which roles. Ex. Santiago as Lestat’s oldest friend (from before he married Louis even) and member of his team.

I love this.... academia in my fanfiction more likely than you think... say that 😩

I’ll answer your second question first because it’s so, so good.

When adapting canon to an AU, what I’m interested in is the dynamic capture of a character over the static one. So by static, I mean a 1:1 parity with the character, a modern version of their job, direct translation of their personality, social status, identity etc. Dynamic essence is how they impact other characters + overall context.

To take Santiago - because he's this circus ringmaster in canon S2, this satyr, lurid spotlight figure, I could’ve easily just made him a tabloid guy, go the TMZ route. But that wouldn’t really convey what I needed him for - he’d just be a cameo.

Given that in canon he has such a fraught relationship with both Armand and Lestat - need but rivalry but resentment - I wanted to translate that above all else. And there is no better framing device for this dependency than to have him be this older, grizzled spin-doctor that has been working for “the cause” since forever, knows enough dirt to bury both Lestat and Armand, but does not have the resources to take on any of them individually. Armand himself is a new upstart that technically should be Santiago's subordinate, but in PV he comes with his own capital (the name and power and connections via Marius “eugh” de Romanus at his back).

To me, Santiago’s main draw in all his canon appearances is the fact that his power is so uncertain for all its apparent flashiness. His control is predicated on so many elements which lay behind the curtain (LITERALLY) and which we do not see until the finale.

We think he is calling the shots, but then: oh. You take a closer look and he’s no ringmaster or eminence gris, he’s just the town crier. There is no vertiable eminence gris in either IWTV canon or PV, because they’re all defanged. They are consequences of history and fatherhood, especially if you compare them to figures such as Magnus and Marius - these old men still moving pieces on the board from beyond the grave and/or before the start of the story.

Anyway, am I unnecessary and unserious for thinking this in-depth about it? Absolutely. Is this some artistic credo that I think all AU/fic writers should do? Definitely not.

It’s just the by-product of me outlining this AU-verse in 6 PoVs so far (Lestat, Louis, Claudia, Armand, Daniel, Nicki) so it’s inevitable that the world becomes part of the story. I’d love to get a chance to tell the events in PV from other characters’ point of view, or at least write more fic set in the same PV universe, so I just think of it as doing the planning in advance because I know it’ll come in handy later.

Chapter titles meta under the cut <3 sorry mutuals :’)

The chapter titles are all film techniques! Names come from either cinematography study (frame camera angle perspective etc.) or editing and transitional devices (montage, scene cutting and so on). They are mostly made for motion picture, but some are of course also used in other contexts like news live reporting social media etc. (though I do believe sm apps like CapCut come with their own name for stuff or whatever - I avoid platforming TikTok until it pays me).

I like taking this angle with all present & future chapters because it’s a clin to how the characters are mediating (and meditatizing) their experience through these like - artifacts and artifices.

I.e. TWO-SHOT being a wide-frame, single-take conversation between two people, with almost no one else (certainly #norealpeopleinvolved) entering or leaving the shot until the scene ends. CROSS-CUT being... well, to take it from the definition:

Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time, and often in the same place (...) can also be used for characters in a film with the same goals but different ways of achieving them. Cross-cutting is often used during phone-conversation sequences so that viewers see both characters' facial expressions in response to what is said.

Sometimes it's genuine - TWO SHOT really is just a two-shot, sometimes it's an irony/play on purpose/subversion, like SPLIT SCREEN showing on one level Louis-Claudia conversing on a literal screen, the proverbial split between Louis/Lestat, and the disturbing, growing similarity between Lestat/Armand as a common front (as perceived by Louis; being the split image of someone else, etc.)

Certainly I don’t need to oversell the point of why the performativity of editing and montage fits the universe these miserable girls are living in, or why the chapters are defined and sectioned through the techniques it would take to adapt them to screen. (Very clear that none of these characters can define their life without an audience, they’re so consumed with the self-narrative that they forget they are not only participating in it, but fully have the power to change it).

[cbrownjc]

i think you're right people came blind for the romance and i was maybe too harsh. i've been sideyeing people's reaction to this show and themes since half the fandom called daniel a voyeur pedophile for... demanding proof that claudia's diary actually said what louis was claiming. like this fandom is sensitive AS HELL and if/when louis chooses dick over claudia/it turns out episode five went way different i'm kind of scared how people will react

Hey Anon,

It's okay, I don't think you were harsh or intended to be.

The Daniel situation is interesting. I get people who sided with Louis and the idea that he was protecting Claudia when that episode first aired. Even I did, in theory. (Having to care for my mother, who had Parkinson's, for 10 years made me completely unobjective about Daniel slapping Louis when Louis manipulated Daniel's Parkinson's, however. I personally would have punched Louis for that one, even if it would have gotten me killed.)

But in my head, I also knew what Claudia's diaries, even being around, and a thing in the show, actually meant. Because I knew their significance in the book Merrick and what Claudia had written in her (one) diary that was found - and that was her hatred for both Lestat and Louis.

And so, I couldn't shake the feeling that Claudia's diary was being edited not just because Louis was trying to protect what had happened to her.

And as we see by EP7, Daniel was right to question the pages that were taken out. Because even though Louis took the pages of the SA out to protect Claudia, we see that even more pages than just those have been taken out of her diaries.

One section, in particular, where Daniel can clearly tell Claudia hated Louis' guts. Which matches up with her diary in Merrick.

Investigative Journalists aren't there to be friendly and sometimes can lack tact. And they aren't there to reinforce a story you want to tell yourself. I really don't know what to think of people who thought Daniel was being a voyeur pedophile for asking for the missing pages, because wow for missing the point. Daniel was asking because he could sense something was off when it came to the story Louis was telling and Claudia's diaries - which were being used to reinforce Louis' story - were not being presented unedited to do that, and he was right.

If you look closely at this image, you can even see pages have been taken out of where Claudia recorded Lestat's last words:

Armand is likely the one who's been editing the diaries when the edges are clean-cut like that. But the main point is that Claudia's diaries are being edited. Claudia's story, which she told for herself, is being changed to suit whatever story Louis has been needing to tell himself about everything that happened.

Daniel is being told an account of the events to suit what Louis needs to believe and removed of the things he can't face up to. Particularly when it comes to his own choices and actions.

Spoilers Below For The Second Half of the Book IWTV and Possibly Season 2:

I know much of the non-book fandom will flip out when Louis goes off with the man/vampire who orchestrated Claudia's death. Not gonna lie, when I read that in the book years ago - after having seen the 1994 movie when it first came out, which changed that bit - I was side-eyeing Louis hard for that one.

But Louis isn't supposed to be some heroic figure. He's tragic, with some maddening faults.

This whole story is a tragedy. IWTV ends tragically, not happily. And I just don't know if the part of the fandom that doesn't know the story will be able to deal with that fact.

These vampires are monsters. They love deeply and passionately and crave love like they crave blood, but they are monsters, each in their own way. And they are all going to do some awful shit, in season 2 and any others seasons we might get. Because that is the nature of their story over the course of the chronicles.

We'll see how those new to the fandom deal with that. But not all of it will be well, I can already tell.

[old-long-john]

I having a real Sam brain takeover in the last 30 or so hours, just with everything, and the song about Louis is making me so excited for what he and Jacob could do in the next season, so:

What are your favorite acting moments from Sam and Jacob in the show? Could be from just the second season or from both seasons, up to you (I'm curious about your favorite acting moments from other people too, the whole cast is great, but that feels like too big a question lol)

GOD OK SO

I've had 3 insane days of iwtv and Raleigh Ritchie madness and I'm so tired right now, but I want to answer this finally! I know whichever moments I choose I'll hit post and then suddenly remember 10 others that I should've included, but what a gift to have actors who are that talented.

I'll try to keep it to top 3 moments for each of them, over both seasons, under the cut because I witter:

For Sam:

The story of his turning by Magnus. I think Sam's just extraordinary in that scene. The layers of performance, the fact that Lestat is giving them both something raw and real, the fact that you can see that it’s not a relief, it carves a piece out of him to say it out loud, the fact that you can see the moment he puts the wall back up again when he says 'but I have a capacity for enduring', the fact that he does use it as an opportunity to disarm Louis and to try to excuse the inexcusible ('it's why I don't particularly like being abandoned'). It's just such a stand out moment from the version of Lestat we see in most of S1. And also Sam said that he put in the line 'I didn't want this', because he thought it was important that the audience heard him say that, and I think it's vital to the scene working as completely as it does.

From S2 it has to be the moment in the trial when he finally takes accountability for what he did by dropping Louis from the sky. Every second of that speech is just perfection. And the expression on his face when he's poured his heart out and finally said that he's sorry and Louis just looks away, because there can't be forgiveness for that, not ever but especially not in that moment, just wrecks me. He fucked everything up so badly and I think Sam shows us that he's really truly beginning to reckon with that and with the awful consequences of his being a shitty maker and husband. Reckoning with being a shitty father unfortunately doesn’t come until far too late.

I'm trying to go for something less obvious than the reunion scene, which I love so much. I think maybe my 3rd favourite Sam acting moment is the two performances cut together between the trial and the retold version of Claudia's turning. The subtle horror of it, the way he seemed genuinely unnerved by Louis' mania, the regret on his face as he's recalling it, the regret on his face before he's even done it, the way he's still oscillating between performance and true feeling in the telling, the moment of insane dark comedy when he says 'and you have to drain her first Louis'. That scene was honestly the most shocking part of ep 7 for me.

(also, the 'tickets please' scene because jesus christ)

For Jacob:

I mean it's the whole show, really. He's just transcendent. But one moment that I really love, just for the extreme contrast it shows between past and present Louis, is when early in S1 he pushes back against Daniel's (fair!) point about his total rewrite of the way he talks about Lestat by reading from Daniel's autobiography. He's so otherworldly and alien in that moment, so detached from humanity somehow in his mannerisms when he picks up the book and leafs through it for the right page. And then flexing his powers by setting the tapes on fire in the bin. He's at his most cooly vampiric because Daniel's picking at a real emotional vulnerability, and the way Jacob plays it is so fascinating to watch.

In S2 I LOVE when Louis gets nasty. Especially when he makes Daniel tell him what Alice said when he finally asked her to marry him. What Lestat said during the trial was kinda true: 'Louis was deceptively agile with words. A trenchant form of verbal amusement.' That man knows how to slit someone open with just the right turn of phrase and I love to see him do it. The glee in his eyes when Louis laughs at Daniel saying 'she said no' is just everything. Like, my god dude, I know he was asking for it but jesus. I also just love that Jacob was scared we wouldn't like Louis any more after S2, as if we weren't all gonna love him even more for all his fucked up complexity.

And my 3rd favourite Jacob acting moment is the Loumand fight in 2x05, because holy fucking shit. Everything I said above times a thousand. The 'does he wanna lick my boots' tongue out, the getting right up in Armand's face, the gleeful savagery, the speed with which he crumbles when Armand brings Claudia into it. I think it's one of my favourite performances by any actor in anything ever (and Assad absolutely meets him at the exact same level).

Since you mentioned the others, I'll also say shout out to Delainey for every second she was on screen but especially 'now I know what two blood-fat cocks slapping hands feels like', because I lost my entire fucking mind at the way she delivered that line.

[sounds-of-some-day]

Yup. Fans need to pay for a subscription if they want to support these shows. I got an AMC+ subscription because I watch IWTV and Gangs of London.

I wanted to make a post in general about the overall advocacy of piracy, but I am a tiny blog and no one cares about what I think.

But, with respect to this specific show, I will share some thoughts.

I see a lot of people angsting about "What if AMC makes the series run too long, like they did with Walking Dead, and the quality declines?"

and like, y'all, seriously, this should not be your concern right now. TVC are not The Walking Dead, and they were never going to be. I know there's this rumor going around that AMC bought this property as a replacement for The Walking Dead, and I don't know where that comes from, if it's just wishful thinking, or if someone connected to the show or AMC somehow hinted at that, but I seriously hope that it's not the second option, and that AMC is not expecting Walking Dead numbers from IWTV, because that would be really naïve to say the least and I would hope the people in charge of these things have better sense.

During it's peak, The Walking Dead was pulling in 17 million viewers per episode. It was the number one show on cable television. Not just the number one show on AMC - the number one show out of all of the cable networks. Even at it's worst, it was getting 3 million viewers per episode.

The best I can tell for IWTV is that it is averaging less than 0.5 million viewers per episode.

To put this into perspective, Fear the Walking Dead averaged 0.8 million viewers in its last season and it's on cancellation watch.

Here's from cancellation watch after the premiere of IWTV:

"On Sunday, AMC’s heavily promoted Interview With The Vampire–based on the Anne Rice novels–had its premiere but only managed a 0.15 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 622K total viewers.  Those are not terrible numbers, but that is also not a great start for a shiny new franchise that received a notable marketing push prior to its debut.  It was also available on AMC+ the same day (along with the second episode), though, so the digital viewing should give it an additional push."

And the thing is, there was a 40% decline in viewership after the first episode. Why? Well....honestly, most likely because of the gay sex. IWTV was never going to be TWD because it is openly, unabashedly, LGBT. And that is going to turn off a lot of the general viewing public. I'm sorry, but it's true. I wish we lived in a world where that was not the case, but we don't.

So if you want more LGBT media like IWTV, you have to support it. And that means supporting it financially if you can. Look, AMC+ is what? $8.99/month? Ideally you'd continue your subscription, but even if you cancel it after the show airs, you still showed AMC that there is interest in this specific show that generates revenue, and it only cost you less than $20. Are you not willing to put $20 into getting more IWTV??

I know not everyone can, because they live where AMC+ isn't available, or maybe you are truly flat broke, but if you can support the show, man, you gotta do it. Because anything past season two is NOT guaranteed, and we all want to see Sam Reid as Lestat in his rock star era.

So, please, I'm begging you.

And also, the other show in this franchise? The Mayfair Witches? Man, that show is facing an uphill battle because there is zero hype about that show right now and it airs in a little over a month.

Anyway, this got long, so I'll leave it here. But please support this show. And as for how you can do that between now and season two? Keep the hype up. Create fan content. Talk to people about the show. Hype the ever loving shit out if. Cause the one thing IWTV has going for it right now is that the critical reviews have been incredible. That doesn't mean anything without ratings, but it definitely helps.