#the vampire Lestat

[savagewildnerness]

I genuinely cannot conceive that we’re going to actually get adaptations of TVL & QOTD worthy of Anne Rice’s character creations… then throwaway moments like this make me realise- yes. Yes! YES! WE ARE!

[mmurkoff]

i stand before my maker, like moses on the hill

[nespolkei]

loustat based on a scene from the tvl musical

[puppymolars]

Lestat was one of the best representations of a domestic abuser I’ve seen since my father. I think it’s really silly when the fandom likes him ironically but I get concerned when I see people genuinely showing care for him.

[earthling-on-fire]

TVC fandom I raise you….Sean Brennan as rockstar Lestat

[zatsydrawings]

It's funny when I see some fans talking about the need for iwtv characters to go to therapy as if that could be a thing in Anne Rice's universe. I imagine something like:

Therapist: Very good Lestat, we are learning about how important it is to communicate to our partner when we are upset about something! But what happens when our partner doesn't understand what we feel, and doesn't respond in a way that we agree? What should we do? Louis, what do you think? Can you answer this?

Louis: We... burn them?

Therapist: What?! No, Louis. We don't do that.

Lestat, raising his arms and swinging anxiously: Oooh, I know! I know! We burn their house!

Therapist, sighing: No, Lestat. We certainly don't do that. We don't do anything that involves fire.

Lestat, turning to Louis and muttering: It worked last time.

Louis shrugs.

[duckyhuge]

a little self-indulgent lestat sketch >:]

[queenkushiya]

Le désir est un monstre

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Hey, thank you so much for answering all my questions! It helps! Curious about you saying "he had been very secretive, which created frustration for Louis and Claudia about their nature as vampires". In the movie he says he doesn't know anything because his maker never told him. Do we think this is a lie then? Is it a lie in the books? Do you recommend all the books or only select few? Are they all canon? I'm def interested in L&L centric stuff (don't think all books are?). Anyway, thanks again!

Hey, thank you so much for answering all my questions! It helps!

You're welcome 🌷

In the movie he says he doesn't know anything because his maker never told him. Do we think this is a lie then? Is it a lie in the books?

Yes and No!

TL:DR; I think some of us Lestat fans forgive him for keeping secrets from Louis and Claudia, it was partially for their safety.

Well, when Anne Rice wrote IWTV, she didn't yet have much of a backstory for Lestat; since she didn't know the secrets he kept from Louis, neither did Lestat 😅 So I would say, no, he wasn't lying then (technically). If that was the only book in the series, then he was not lying.

Anne Rice also wrote the '94 IWTV movie script, and at that time, she HAD written Lestat's backstory in The Vampire Lestat, so at that point Lestat knew secrets that he withheld from Louis and Claudia. In fact, Tom Cruise had read the first 3 books in the series, so his performance is informed from this immersion in the lore; you can see the simmering beneath the surface as Louis asks him questions, trying to get anything out of him, and Lestat evading as much as he can, until he can't evade anymore and bursts out in frustration and pain. He KNOWS and wants to tell him so badly!

(Hit the jump, cut for length)

So in the movie, Lestat is lying to Louis and Claudia by saying he doesn't know the secrets, but it's kind of a partial lie, because his maker, Magnus, gave Lestat very little information. Magnus didn't tell Lestat about the origin of the vampires or what their place was in a religious context. Magnus just wanted to leave behind an heir to his wealth and power before he died.

However, Lestat did learn the origin story of the vampires from Marius. In order for Anne to solve the problem of why Lestat withheld this information from Louis and Claudia, she made a retcon: Marius threatens Lestat that if he tells the secrets to anyone, Marius would punish him, because he can't have anyone know where he is, which could threaten the safety of the entire vampire species.

Marius threatens to crush Lestat to death or set him on fire with pyrokinesis, and that this punishment would include anyone Lestat told the secrets to 😭. So it's partly out of safety that Lestat won't tell Louis and Claudia those secrets.

Marius underscores that Lestat's fledglings might not be ready for this knowledge anyway, it could be "a horror to them," so in not telling them, Lestat is also protecting them from the potential psychological damage.

I think there's also some fanon that Lestat was afraid that in telling Louis and Claudia these secrets, that they might leave him, and that's a giant separate discussion, whether that counts as a form of abuse to keep them against their will. By telling them the secrets, they would have the knowledge of where to start looking for other vampires 😭 Which, again, is a safety thing for Lestat partly, because they were pretty weak as far as vampires go, and therefore vulnerable to more powerful vampires' attacks. And there are worse things than death for vampires.

Do you recommend all the books or only select few? Are they all canon?

I usually recommend reading all the books, even though there are some I prefer over others. How do you know what you will/won't like without trying them? Technically anyone can make the argument that all of the books are canon, but I treat the series like a buffet, as many book fans do, and so not everyone agrees which books are Truly Canon 😅

But in general, if I had to choose, the first 3 used to be referred to as the Trilogy™ (derogatory), those are the most universally-loved, and some fans find that Anne Rice strayed from the parts that made canon so delicious after the third book. I would recommend reading them in order of publication because that's the order Anne Rice explored the stories and characters (even though the timelines do jump around and there are interesting discrepancies between different character's accounts of the same events!)

I'm def interested in L&L centric stuff (don't think all books are?).

Not all the books are L&L centric, but they often have a moment here and there even in books that are not specific to them, like Tale of the Body Thief. So, some shippers will skim through a book just to find any mention of their ship. Knowing the context of L&L's meetups in TOBT definitely enhances the flavor of their scenes together, so I would recommend reading that one, even though it's not considered canon for some fans 🤷 Delicious angst! The Feels! But that is one of the more Problematic books in the series, so it's up to you whether you want to give that one a try.

#Order of Operations for VC

[lestatdelioncoeur]

David Bowie and the End of Gender, Anne Rice, Vogue, November 1983

[savagewildnerness]

I love the “Lestat walk” in this scene! 😂🤣😅😼🐈‍⬛

[ofinkandust]

this is what s2 is about right

[fuzziiwuzzii]

I am the vampire Lestat. I’m immortal. More or less.

[puppymolars]

I wanna read the IWTV books so bad but I dont think I can get used to white Louis. I think the addition of it in the show makes his and Lestat’s toxic dynamic more interesting.

[monsieur-du-le-slut]

[haflacky]

You’re a perfect devil

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