this picture of anne rice at a book signing in the 90s feels reeeeally important
OKAY EXCUSE ME GUYS, ANNE RICE RIGHT NOW ON HER LIVESTREAM WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW SHE REGRETTED KILLING ARMAND AND SHE WAS AT A MEMNOCH SIGNING AND THE FANS HAD “ARMAND LIVES” SHIRTS AND MADE HER REALIZE SHE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.
I MEAN. IS THAT WHAT THIS PICTURE IS. I THINK IT IS.
HAHAHAHA i love this fucking fandom oh my God. I WISH I could have been there for that
me as a villain fan: This character is a fascinating and complex individual, whose complexity makes them sympathetic even while the evil things they have done can never be excused, and whose story provides an intriguing opportunity to explore the dark side of the human psyche.
also me as a villain fan: This is my smol fluffy murder child. They’re such a piece of shit, isn’t it magnificent? Aww, look, they’re still covered in somebody’s arterial spray.
We got a question about our headcanon of Louis’ accent in our coffee shop AU collab, and, I thought others might be interested in our answer so here it is!
[^X] My answer: in canon, Louis would have spoken French as his native language, and Creole in NOLA. Being a vampire, he probably began learning English from various people during his travels with Armand after Paris, and then really got the full dose of it when they were living in NY together in the 20th century.
For our AU, I think of him as having moved to NOLA as a child, and his family moved back to France when he was in college or otherwise old enough to be living on his own; or that he still has family in NOLA, and in modern day, people do speak English there. There’s definitely some Creole and a mixture among the natives now so he might have picked up some of that, but I would think he always went to schools where he had to speak English.
When I visited NOLA (I’ve been a few times now) I didn’t notice everyone there having a heavy southern accent. I would think that a bookworm like Louis might have even less, being kind of antisocial and learning his words from books and speaking mainly to his few close friends and family.
As in canon, his French accent should be noticeable but doesn’t mark him as completely a foreigner, just different emphasis on certain letters, a tendency to hit “th” a little like a “d,” for example.
Gaspard Ulliel’s voice is my headcanon for Louis’ accent, although it is a lower register than I think of Louis.
Yep, I pretty much echo what @i-want-my-iwtv says and my headcanon is more or less in tune with hers –
In the fic, Louis comes from a solidly French family from Brittany (I believe we may have stolen this location from @gairid).He moves with them to New Orleans (or its environs) when he is a child, and he learns English whilst there.
However, his accent is tempered by the following things:
a) His family are Francophone and speak French almost exclusively at home; b) Their relatives in Louisiana are Acadian, so there is that dialect of French and/or Franglais colouring his accent; c) The family is upper class
Of course, his English would have the Louisiana lilt to it, but all that above, too.
From my own experience, French people seem to be amongst the ones who most strongly cling to their accent when speaking English. I have worked with and have many friends from France (including from Brittany) who are fluent in English but have that ‘sharpness’ to the consonants that Daniel references in IWTV.
I also have found that every French person I know pronounces ‘idea’ as ‘idee’ (i.e. the French way) no matter how fluent they are. I pointed this out to my French boss once and was told that we pronounce it The Wrong Way because it is a French word. XD
I haven’t actually watched him in anything, I don’t watch him on Eyewitness, but I have seen some borderline NSFW gifs of it on tumblr, and…
I see potential… Can’t quite articulate why, not even being sarcastic. He seems to have the right blend of cockiness and tenderness, and he’s already experienced with making out with another guy on screen, and it would be gr9 to have that in the new VC adaptation.
^He’s also pretty w/o being like, a model. He has a boy-next-door quality. I imagine that some of what drew ppl to him as a mortal was his blend of confidence, shyness, and caring, those are the things that make what would have been a slightly-above-average-looking guy into someone really gorgeous <3. Then vampiring enhanced what he already had going for him.
Following through the comments on my post, there is the idea that “le Russe” is an epithet, that it’s not what Armand goes by, but something Rhoshamandes calls him. It’s only mentioned once in the book, IIRC, by Rhosh. I’d believe that.
Anne APPARENTLY made up “le Russe” in PL. Which I had totally forgotten until I was reminded a little while ago. As far as obviously made up surnames go it’s even worse than de Romanus lol. ETA: I need to do a closeread before I speak lol, it sounds like that’s an epithet rather than a name.
SO LIKE I MEAN, the only part (to my recollection? plz correct me???) where it mentions “Armand Le Russe” is in a Rhosh chapter and that guy is such a salty fuckin tool and I got the impression that he was calling Armand that to be petty and sarcastic? Cause then she started listing the vampires at the end of the books and she still just refers to him as “Armand” without a last name.
“Only the clever ones like Gregory Duff Collingsworth and Armand Le Russe–who could thrive right in the midst of mortals–were undisturbed by the shrinking of the planet.”
YEP that’s what @laurasking pointed out to me too. That’s totally plausible. Also since Rhosh’s experience with Armand relates to coven era BS in Paris (idk if I’m even remembering this correctly but isn’t he pissed that allessandra ++ were forced into the covens) it might possibly be a thing left over from that era as well??
laurasking said: Well, Rhoshamandes calls him that, but no one else.
moral-cipher said: Laurasking – ohhh i forgot that. So it’s probably an epithet, possibly left over from the Bad Old Days. That makes a lot more sense. Thanks!
laurasking said: I thought fanon was that he assumed de Romanus.
@i-want-my-iwtv: ^Re: de Romanus, I assumed that was the name Armand used when he was with Marius, but after he was taken by the Children of Darkness, they changed his first name and I would assume he never used “de Romanus” again, either ;A;
I don’t recall that he ever mentioned having a last name, or that he took on Marius’ last name at any point…
[^X Björn by gampy (Björn is a fandom fave for Armand)]
Opening this up to anyone, was Armand ever given or has he ever mentioned taking on any specific last names? I can’t even think if he’d ever shared aliases, as Lestat often does…
I got some good responses to this post, you can peruse them, and whether you agree that “le Russe” is Armand’s last name depends on whether you accept PL as canon.
Others noted that it’s Ivanovich, because his father’s name was Ivan. As far as I know, that’s the naming convention in that part of the world, that your last name includes your father’s name like that, but I didn’t see “
Ivanovich” explicitly written in canon. At any rate, Armand is no longer “Andrei,” so I wouldn’t think that he would have kept that last name, either.
We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.
I-want-my-IWTV 