♥u♥ You’re so so welcome! I’m happy to serve in my own little way *stops self from getting all super mushy bc you’ve all heard it all before so i will put it in the tags*
[^by @gifsfortc]
Ooooh! Ok, officially added to my list. I trust him!
…except for Byzantium we don’t talk about Byzantium
ohyouflirt Kisses back, Anon ❤
I read Memnoch the Devil as a kind of fanfic of the bible, in which Lestat takes a tour of heaven and hell, gets the behind-the-scenes story for God’s reasons for creating the world, and why he runs it the way he does (he’s a very hands-off kinda parent). The hell portion of the tour Lestat goes on, well, it’s pretty intense. I think we all preferred the heaven part! Lestat sneakily shoplifting parts of the experience bc of course he does; there was no ‘exit through the Gift Shop’ and he needed SOUVENIRS!
This was my face for alot of that book the first time through, IIRC:
You had the same expression, it seems, haha. I can understand your turmoil.
More spoilers ahead.
I think the first time through, I was right behind Lestat’s shoulder, hanging onto him piggy-back-style maybe, peeking over and hoping at every turn of the page NOT to see Nicki, or Claudia, worried that either of them -or both!- could be in hell and angrier -or in more pain- then they ever were in life ;A; That would have been so awful. Lestat might really have lost ALL of his marbles. It was bad enough when he was faced with an avalanche of his own victims!
“And who stands behind those doors,” said a sombre Helpful Ghost, her beautiful hair shimmering around her in ethereal whiteness, her soft hand on my face. “See there—” … “Your dead, my beloved, your dead, all those you’ve killed!”
“Not my dead,” I cried. I turned and ran… "HELP ME!“ I cried and cried. I never knew such release in screaming, such pure and abandoned cowardice, to shout to High Heaven in this Godforsaken place where cries were the very air itself, and no one heard, no one but the smiling Helpful Dead.
His dead were supposed to be Evildoers, tho, so they should be in hell, right? So he’s been doing a good job if they’re mostly there, rather than innocents in heaven ;]
He does call for Claudia and Nicolas, “Claudia, where are you? Where are you, the one I wronged! Claudia! Nicolas, help me!“ But apparently Memnoch has a way for the dead to achieve absolution, so hopefully, they did.
I’ve only reread that book a few times, and each time I do, obviously I know what’s going to happen, but hmmm… how different would things be if Lestat had gotten another chance at confronting those two? Whether it was real or all a big cosmic trick… would he apologize more? Probably yes. Would they have accepted anything he might say? Probably not.
AND THEN, back with the coven, and his fave murder brother:
[fanart by @garama]
It’s comforting that, as he tells the fam the whole story, Lestat himself isn’t 100% sure that he really went on that whole trip. When Armand asks permission to “check” via blood sample, Lestat flatly refuses: “No, all you’ll know is that I believe what I saw, that’s all.” Why is that so comforting? If it was all a lie, then God and the devil may not be real after all, and an eternity of suffering might not await every single one of the vampires that shuffle off their immortal coil! That’s good ;D
But really, if it was all real, who better for God and the devil to have a glorious tug-of-war over than our own Lestat “His Royal Highness Crybaby Awesomesauce Homicidal Hamburger-Brained Moron” de Lioncourt? Pffffft.
That’s a really long answer, we don’t know ALL that much about his backstory, just that he was a Marquis (never named) in a little rural village in France, so he has some local power/respect in title, but he’s really poor, is not a particularly good husband or father, he’s blind by the time Lestat is 21… and we know that he treated Lestat BADLY during his childhood. Louis described a little of his time living at Pointe du Lac in book!IWTV.
In short:
For more, read The Vampire Lestat (the Marquis is in the beginning)(gif below used for humor, not intended to be rude!) The Marquis is not mentioned again in any later book. He does not get to vampire.
There is some fanon that the Marquis’ physical abuse of Lestat extended further, but that’s not in canon. If that were true, it could be part of Lestat issues with relationships and consent.
This is a gr9 question! NOT an easy answer. And I think you got your question across just fine 😉
AR deserves more credit* than you might think, for the way she jumps around through the series, shedding light on the previously established timeline via different POVs, or just having a character revisit the same scene. Sometimes she also does “Retroactive continuity,” or “retcon” for short: “the alteration of previously established facts in the continuity of a fictional work.”
*Actually, some might argue that when she does this it offers frustratingly conflicting views on previous events, hence, the Unreliable Narrator issues we have throughout the VC.
Anon: “…as much as I love these vamps I feel like
gradual character development isn’t really present, it seems to come suddenly and all at once instead.”
So here’s the thing, in the VC, the publication dates of the books ARE NOT NECESSARILY aligned with the chronological timeline of the set of stories described in the books. (This Timeline I found seems pretty accurate.)
approx.
1766 – 1985) plus the origin story of the vampires (Ancient Egyptian times,
approx.
4000 BC).
(published 1992) is Lestat’s Body Dysmorphic Disorder episode, takes place in 1991.
TL;DR, I see clear character development when I take in the larger view of all the stories. Some of the later canon books I might have preferred not to have happened, but OH WELL.
But character development in fictional characters (as with actual real people) =/= a clean line of improvement or deterioration. Lestat and Armand have both improved over time in many ways, but they’ve also lost good qualities. Lestat’s definitely lost a few marbles along the way.
Hit the jump for a little more, & spoilers.
For brevity, just gonna answer your question re:
“how the vamps change overtime, character wise? For example, say Lestat in TVL vs Lestat in body thief? Or even Armand in IWTV vs Armand in the later books.”
TVL!Lestat is feisty, freshly resurrected, appetite for destruction, wants to “correct the record” of IWTV by sharing the secrets that he couldn’t in IWTV, and establish himself as the actual protagonist of the series.
Approx. 10 years later in the timeline of the books, TOBT!Lestat is suffering emotionally from the blowback of what happened after sharing that information and trying to be a big shot, and he’s got ghost!Claudia on his back prodding him to consider whether he even deserves to continue vampiring ;A; when he’s so weak against his own impulses. He tries to suicide, and when that doesn’t work, has a renewed sense of belonging in the world. Then in TOBT, he fucks up pretty royally, relies on one best friend to help him get things back to normal, and then almost destroys that friendship by selfishly Forced-Dark-Gift-paying-it-forward. So I’d say that’s a lot of character development.
IWTV!Armand was supposed to be intimidating and shrouded in mystery, the teacher/mentor for Louis that Lestat refused to be. Later, when we get Armand’s backstory in TVL, TVA, and B&G, we see his origins and how he got to be the manager of the Theatre Des Vampires, and however intimidating he might have been to Louis, that wasn’t remotely close to what he was like as the leader of the Children of Darkness, Parisian Chapter. So he’s had to adapt to alot of harsh situations, and find some sense of inner peace along the way.
Lestat and Armand are almost 2 sides of the same coin; Lestat was forced into the Dark Gift, Armand begged for it. Lestat had to learn how to vampire alone as an orphan, Armand had an overbearing teacher and was then kidnapped by a cult.
[this was re: my recent Nicolas casting post] Thanks! Glad to know someone appreciated the effort in rounding those up ;]
I searched AR’s FB page re: “someone suggested Kit Harrington as Nicolas to Anne and she loved the idea,” and didn’t find it 😛 Has anyone else seen that? I know she’s a big GoT fan, but idk about Kit playing Nicolas. Kinda big, isn’t he? Not sure if I believe that AR was into that suggestion, but hey, it’s possible! Maybe she was just being supportive?
But he is a good actor, and I do also approve of him shirtless so let’s get him a job somehow…
[source]
♛Yes, that we wear small socks. Nothing beyond that. NOTHING. I’ve had no complaints in the department you’re implying. *huffs*
THANK GOODNESS you’re back and you’re responding so rationally! See? More info is the cure for jumping to conclusions. I’m glad that I was able to clear up a lot of the issues in my usual eloquent and honest way ;]
You’re forgiven for lashing out. Hyperbole is out there in the world, take this as a learning experience to not let it rile you so easily.
And it took me at least 3 hours to write that reply so it’s even better to know it was worth it.
Next time, message me privately, rather than lash out creepily on Anon.
Yes, you did change my policy, for the better. This instance was the last straw after a few prior attempts to “call me out” on things. It reminded me that this should be fun for me, I’m not paid to do it, I have no obligation to anyone (aside from the Tumblr guidelines of appropriate use). I try to make sure my facts are correct before stating anything definitive, and I admit when I don’t know smtg.
However, few ppl would come back and admit that they were a little hasty before, so that is much appreciated. Thanks for doing that. It was a huge relief.
When smtg upsets you, first do some introspection, why are you letting this rile you? Then, calmly, do some investigation and/or ask for info in a respectful way.
I-want-my-IWTV 