Hello! I was wondering, since you’re a VC fandom veteran, do you have any idea why old fanfic writers had a tendency to write Marius as a villain in their stories? I came across many old fics that portrayed him as insanely controlling and abusive to other characters, and I know he’s no saint but he’s a lot more ethical than a lot of others, so I was wondering, was there a time when the fans expressed so much vitriol towards him?
Ah, hmmmmmm…. I don’t remember that specifically, and I’m feeling like I should know that…
^Lee Pace as Marius bc of reasons.
… but I can surmise that since he was the only authority figure anyone paid respect to for awhile, that would naturally lead to them speculating on him abusing such status.
Which he did, somewhat, with Armand, when he took him in. I haven’t personally dissected that ship too thoroughly, so I wouldn’t know.
I’ll open this up to the group: Anyone out there have an answer for this anon?
//Haven’t been around long enough to know (only got into the fandom in 2005), but I would guess it’s just what you said.. that maybe his and Armand’s relationship as it came through in TVA and B&G was a negative surprise to people? Especially compared to how favourably he’s portrayed in say TVL/QotD.
ooc: I think it’s partially the later stuff with TVA and B&G, where he comes off as a not-so-nice guy. But back when there were only three books, Marius was the authority figure trying to implement rules for the vampires, so he was an obvious antagonist for The Brat Prince, resident rule-breaker.
I read the books when I was 13 and was like, “wee everyone is hot” but then I reread them at 27 with more scrutiny and formed some vastly different opinions on characters. I realized I didn’t like Marius at all LMAO it’s just because he’s got a personality I’m not fond of in a man.
So I imagine people might have been “eh *grunts & hand waves*” on Marius and that somehow designated him the one to make the villain when it suited. Fandom is not known for having impartial views on anything – now or back then.
^All good reasons, TVA and B&G would have had a big impact on fandom’s perception of Marius.
Later-canon Marius is very… um… he seems to have misplaced some of his marbles.
#marius I leave u alone with my mortal luvvies for 5 DAMN SECONDS WTF
I don’t recall any specific fic where Marius was controlling or abusive though once TVA came out people began to think of him in less of a positive light partly because of Armand’s specific reveals about him and also because he went against his own advice regarding making a vampire of a child (Armand was 17 which was perhaps why he admonished Lestat against such an action, but then how to explain Benji? Benji was made strong, to be sure, because, well, Marius—but he was still very young and Sybele was more than a little addled, so turning her was risky. It was around that time where people began writing more fic examining his darker side.
I-want-my-IWTV 