Just kidding, just kidding. Just wanted an excuse to use that gif hehehe…
You’re asking face claims, but I’m going to treat this like a VC casting post. Face claims are truly “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and I consider ppl for these characters more for their acting than their faces. An RPer might prefer to choose a face w/o the character that comes with someone who is well-known. So if you’re looking for a face claim for RP purposes, you might want to look at model sites, or instagram accounts, etc., and try to find a face that we’re not already so familiar with.
Casting-wise, it would be great if we could get an ethnically accurate actress, but I would be satisfied with person of color, since I don’t know what ppl from that area looked like back then.
Canonically, she needs to have that little girl beauty AR loves so much, but she also needs to be intensely frightening without trying very hard. I headcanon her dark eyes being hypnotic, seductive, but also terrifying, like a shark’s. Someone who is accustomed to being worshiped and expects it ;]
In no particular order:
Sophia Jawad– I approve of @wicked-felina‘s suggestion of Sophia Jawad [X] who might be the most ethnically accurate, to quote her, “Akasha was from Uruk, which is roughly modern-day Iraq.”
[Xtbh there are not enough pics of Sophia out there, but this was the most Akasha-like pose I could find quickly, I’m sure she can look a lot more fierce]
Rihanna – she’s a fandom fave of sorts. She is extremely regal and childlike at the same time. It would be really hard to demand she wear dark contact lenses tho! Her eyes are so gorgeous! Maybe we can sacrifice that bit of canon.
Tyra Banks – bc she’s a supermodel, she knows how to manipulate her features very subtly, she can smile like a CoverGirl while murdering thousands of men.
Aaliyah – was great, imo the best part of that movie. Idk whose idea it was for her to move the way she did, but it was compelling, like she existed at a different frame-rate than everyone around her, flexing and curling her body, she was more snake than human.
I bet they’d used too much of the budget to re-film her scenes, but really, she was one of the only things they got right (well, maybe not “right” but close enough). I really like that she was a vampire of color who kept her color, despite being described as white (not Caucasian but light-skinned) in canon. I don’t know if ancient Egyptians were in fact light or dark skinned but in a series of alot of white ppl, it was good to see some diversity.
Crew morale was probably very low after she died, they might not have wanted to even try to replace her 😦
Okay, so firstly: I loved Aaliyah as Akasha. Sure, she wasn’t canon!Akasha, but practically none of the characters were themselves in this weird and loose adaptation. I wish she had completed filming fully and would have loved her backstory to be shown.
That said, I really, really want the next adaptation to do Akasha properly. She shouldn’t be black, but she sure as hell shouldn’t be white.
Akasha was from Uruk, which is roughly modern-day Iraq. Just imagine her role going to an Iraqi actress, and the implications of the most powerful vampire, the first vampire, the queen, being from a region whose people are treated like crap to this day and who face terrible persecution.
I imagine her to be like Sophia Jawad; the striking dark eyes Lestat mentions, the prettiness which underplays her regalness, etc. I would love to see Akasha brought to life as the infuriatingly brilliant debater cursed by her prettiness and her short temper.
I bet they’d used too much of the budget to re-film her scenes, but really, she was one of the only things they got right (well, maybe not “right” but close enough). I really like that she was a vampire of color who kept her color, despite being described as white (not Caucasian but light-skinned) in canon. I don’t know if ancient Egyptians were in fact light or dark skinned but in a series of alot of white ppl, it was good to see some diversity.
Crew morale was probably very low after she died, they might not have wanted to even try to replace her 😦
When someone tries to tell you that you have to be pale to be goth, just remember this picture.😘
Bringing this back! Someone actually stole this post (as in with my quote, I didn’t make the picture) but took the time to cut my username out and now its being shared all over facebook, ruuude~ So here is the original.:P
“She turned her head ever so slightly; it seemed a miracle when she closed her eyes; because then the visible life went out of her altogether. A dead and perfect thing, fine black eyelashes curling exquisitely. I looked down at her throat; at the pale blue of the artery beneath the flesh, suddenly visible as if she meant for me to see it. The lust I felt was unsupportable. The goddess, mine! I took her roughly with a strength that would have hurt a mortal woman. The icy skin seemed absolutely impenetrable and then my teeth broke through it and the hot fount was roaring into me again.”
The short answer is: Yes, there are PoC vampires in VC (”VoC,” right? Vampires of Color?). There aren’t many in the recurring character cast but they’re in the series! Here’s one in
Queen of the Damned:
“Davis was a black Dead guy and one damned good-looking black Dead guy,… His skin had a gold glow to it, the Dead glow which in the case of white Dead guys made them look like they were standing in a fluorescent light all the time.”
Have I ever imagined what they looked like? I think that was a pretty good description, because other than the “gold glow,” I would describe a PoC vampire like I would a PoC person, with the features that they have!
[^X] Akasha is an Egyptian VoC, described in the novels as having porcelain white skin, and this is a point of contention in the VC fandom, that AR has whitewashed her. I don’t have a stand on this but I very much like the way that it was handled in movie!QOTD.
It’s worth noting that there is a debate as to what color the Ancient Egyptians’ skin really was, and I added a bit from 2 articles under the cut which might be of interest to you.
Akasha is also very old, and Ricean vampire physiology involves the lightening of the skin over time. This is another point of contention in the VC fandom, again, it appears on the surface to be AR whitewashing a PoC.
I would suggest that the draining of pigmentation is due to the lack of exposure to sunlight, as we can see in examples in nature of subterranean animals who have evolved over time to be light-colored.
Subterranean fauna are animals that have adapted to live underground… troglofauna are associated with caves and spaces above the water table … Adaptations to the subterranean environment include a heightened sense of hearing, touch and smell[1]… and loss of under-used or unnecessary senses, apparent in the lack of pigmentation and eyesight of most subterranean fauna.
^So maybe AR drew a little from there. Why a lack of pigmentation? I found an interesting study/article (In the Light of Evolution: Volume IV: The Human Condition) on that, too, which points to the lack of sunlight as the cause:
Observers beginning with Hippocrates in the fifth century associated human traits and temperament with the environment and recognized that skin color was part of this package (Isaac, 2004). The association of dark skin pigmentation with intense sunshine and heat was further developed by Aristotle and his followers as part of a comprehensive “climatic theory,” which related human features, dispositions, and cultures to the environment.
…The evolution of light pigmentation at high latitudes has long been related to the significance of production of vitamin D in the skin under conditions of reduced sunlight (Murray, 1934; Loomis, 1967).
^I would suggest that the vampiric parasite is always working on converting its host into a better vampire (and less of a mortal) cell by cell, and the process is accelerated too much by the UV rays in sunlight, which causes their skin to burn. Being unable to tolerate the discomfort, the vampire skin gradually drains of color due to lack of exposure to sunlight.
The rate at which they lose pigmentation and how much pigment is lost varies by individual. It’s also possible that some vampires retain a skin color that is similar to their mortal skin color. It’s not an exact science.
There are also examples of vampire skin becoming darker after surviving exposure to sunlight.
Hope that helped! Hit the jump for stuff about Egyptian skin color.
…ancient Egyptians didn’t really perceive themselves as either “black” or “white.” Just look at the above painting from Pharaoh Seti I’s tomb. The top right group, with the palest skin are Libyans (Berbers), the next one over to the left are Nubians, followed by “Asiatics” (Mesopotamians). The bottom central group are Egyptians. By their own perception Egyptians were neither particularly dark nor particularly pale, and given their xenophobic attitude towards outside cultures (which was fairly common for most ancient peoples) they would probably resent being sorted into either “race.”
So why does this matter? Why is it important that we acknowledge the Egyptians don’t fit into our constructed dichotomy of black vs. white, of European or African?Well, for one thing many modern Egyptians find it kind of offensive. Despite their modern self-identification as Arabs, most Egyptians still feel a strong claim to the historical legacy of their ancient forebears and find it pretty annoying when American scholars (and, black or white, it is mostly Americans) try to pigeonhole the pharaohs into one racial category or another for political purposes.
The race and skin color of Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of the Greek Ptolomaic dynasty of Egypt, established in 323 BCE, has also caused frequent debate.[46] For example, the article Was Cleopatra Black? was published in Ebony magazine in 2012,[47] and an article about Afrocentrism from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch mentions the question, too.[48] Scholars generally identify Cleopatra as of Greek and Persian ancestry, based on fact that her Greek Macedonian family had intermingled with the Persian aristocracy of the time. However, her mother’s identity is uncertain,[49] and that of her paternal grandmother is also not known for certain.[50]
I-want-my-IWTV 