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Your blog is so damn perfect. You’re so polite, thoughtful, and insightful. When I had first gotten into VC I had thought it a dead fandom because it was terribly rare that I find anyone who was a fan. I somehow found your blog and then the rest of our family on tumblr, and I want you to know how grateful I am that you have helped bring me and I am sure more into the company of others who are just as appreciative of this series and its wonderful, addictive characters.

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Omg *flails* what a wonderful message to receive! “Damn perfect”?! Well can’t confirm or deny that but I FRICKIN’ TRY.

I’m deeply moved. Couldn’t just toss in the usual reaction gif, too cheap, had to give you smtg a little more special. More of a story. You’ve heard it before but maybe this angle, this variation on it, will feel as fresh to you as it does to me. I’m rambling a bit and having trouble editing it back so you get a long post sorries LOOK WHAT U DO TO ME all these feels!

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[X]

“I lifted the long wax wick, dipped it into an old flame, and carried the fire to a fresh candle, watched the little tongue grow orange and bright.

What a miracle, I thought. One tiny flame could make so many other flames; one tiny flame could set afire a whole world. Why, I had, with this simple gesture, actually increased the sum total of light in the universe, had I not?… 

Because it was
something I could accomplish, like the little candle flame in the church making another flame and still
retaining its own light – my way of creating, my only way, don’t you see? One moment there were two of us,
and then we were three.” – Lestat, Tale of the Body Thief

Why am I quoting this? Like the vampires, we are a “found family” rather than a natural one, bc we draw ppl into this and turn them into one of us, if the addiction can hold! I see that it’s taken hold of you as it has me ;D

It’s not a fandom for everyone, but for those of us who are in it, well, it feels like we almost had no choice, we are hopelessly addicted ;u; When I get messages like yours I can’t help but feel a little like Lestat, like I’ve helped to add a little more light to the world, bringing in fresh blood (pun very much intended!) who might have a new and intriguing perspective on things to share, maintaining the older blood that’s aged like a fine wine, admiring the talent of our fanartists, fanfic writers, meta-analyzers, etc. and encouraging them to keep making more to feed our insatiable need of it! We make great friends within our ranks. Ppl have even met their life partners through fandom.

I also love that ppl shoot me VC news from FB, Twitter, etc., so that I can transmit it out to you so fast that by the time other publications pick it up, we’ve known about it for days already, and have helped each other deal with its impact if necessary, as proper family members should ;]

My closest friends that I’ve made here have been made bc they are as appreciative of this series and its wonderful, addictive characters as I am. Messages like yours keep this blog running and I can’t thank you enough for that *cries*

Hit the jump for moar…

The image above is not a screencap but a manip of a few frames, which I made in Oct. 2013, just a few months after the birth of this blog. I didn’t think anyone would care much for this blog, I expected it would only ever be a place I could indulge my VC addiction privately in public, like someone playing solitaire out in a park. A place to post a few of my graphics, a little of my sense of humor, and gather what little fanworks I could find for my own pleasure. Ppl saw it, ppl responded, ppl wanted to play Cards Against Humanity with me (to expand on the original metaphor, lol), and the whole thing has grown into a conduit through which I’ve gotten back SO MUCH MORE than was originally expected! It brought the fandom I had been looking for, and for the most part given up on finding, right to me! 

Because you’re right, our fandom was dead, but only on the surface, driven into hiding by a creator who didn’t understand what fandom was and that it was a normal way to engage with canon. That sharing fanworks builds a community. There were plenty of us out there but few of us could find each other. We protected what little we had and shared it like contraband. She was within her rights and I don’t blame her for her actions, but as a result, I think we’re a much more appreciative group for what we have now than other fandoms who’ve had it easy from the beginning. I hope we are, anyway. 

A lot of my sensitivity and care comes from a place of gratitude, and although I am a secular individual, I do try to preach the gospel of gratitude and civility back out to this family we’ve created.

I had ONE Real Life VC friend when I fell into this fandom, and she had to endure the fire-hydrant blast of my VC addiction, at close range, for about 20 years! She’s still my best friend, but let me tell you, she is grateful beyond words that you have all stepped in to take more of the brunt of my addiction now. She’s the one who nudged me to start a tumblr blog in the first place, which I resisted, mind you, so you should all be thanking her, too ;D

*Care to cheer up an upset mortal that just had a terrible day, Monsieur de Lioncourt?*

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♛*stretches out on the divan* I happen to be a professional cheerleader, and I might be of service in this regard… fully equipped w/ pom-poms and several official uniforms, which were given to me, not purchased *smirks*

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I assume you didn’t deserve a terrible day? I’ve deserved many a terrible night, but many were undeserved, too. You’ll have to tell me what befell you in order for ~Yours Truly~ to prescribe the proper method of cheering up, as there is a nearly limitless spectrum of options *grins widely* Some involve a uniform, and some, well… do not. 

Can vampires in the VC series be awake/get up during the day? I was watching IWTV and there’s the scene where Claudia gets up (in the day) to get into Louis’s coffin. I can’t remember anything about it being mentioned in the books (other than some ancients) but I know that in fanfiction, once dawn comes they pretty much are compelled to go to sleep.

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Ricean vampires, unfortunately, are condemned to enjoy the Deathsleep which renders them unconscious for the daylight hours. The plus side being: no snoring can wake them! Not that they can snore, since they don’t breathe. But still. 

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Louis, IWTV: “Numbness came over my limbs, and then the paralysis of oblivion.“

Louis, IWTV: “You see, I wasn’t sure then why I awoke each evening when I did, whether it was automatic when the deathlike sleep left me, and why it happened sometimes earlier than at other times.”

In movie!IWTV, yes, Claudia is awake right at dawn and seems fully conscious, as she tiptoes carefully around the sunlight.

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^It was too perfect a moment not to include in a movie about lonely ppl, that singular act of a daughter climbing into bed w/ her mommy!Louis (bc we all know he’s the mom) rather than sleep alone! ❤ And purely platonic at that point in the movie.

There is a fic out there that suggests that Ricean vampires do awaken during the day when they are under extreme emotional duress, and it’s a very disorienting state to be in, they can’t function very rationally, as nocturnal animals also act erratically in daylight.

Hit the jump for a bit moar, and spoilers.

(Similarly, Louis seems to be painfully awake as Claudia and Madeleine burn in the sunlight ;A;) 

When movie!Louis takes revenge on the Theatre des Vampires, it’s right before dawn, and he is perfectly able to function right up until he leaves the safety of the theatre, and it’s the sunlight more than the fact that it’s daytime that saps him of any functionality. But that was part of the plan, revenge, then suicide.

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Ricean vampires can, however, fight in that unconscious state: Lestat says Gabrielle defended herself in her sleep: “And those mortals who did find us during the daylight hours, unless they exposed us to the sun at once, were doomed. For example, outside Palermo she had slept in a cellar far below an abandoned house, and when she had awakened, her eyes and face were burning as if they had been scalded, and she had in her right hand a mortal, quite dead, who had apparently attempted to disturb her rest.” 

Amount of sleep needed seems to be related to the age and/or power of the vampire, and Louis, being weaker, needs more beauty sleep than the older and stronger ones.

Even in a place like Alaska in which nighttime extends during the winter months, Ricean vampires are still susceptible and want to fall into a reasonable Deathsleep rhythm.

In QOTD, Akasha purposely chases the night around the world, preventing Lestat from falling into the Deathsleep. Whether it was bc she had too much to do in too little time, or she was purposely using sleep deprivation as another means of controlling him (or both), we don’t know, but Lestat reflects on it:

“We’d been following the night around the world, perhaps, or rather moving at random in it, as Akasha maybe didn’t need at all to sleep.

I needed it, that was obvious. But I was too curious not to want to be awake. And frankly too miserable.”

Akasha tells him, a little bit later, that he requires sleep for his upgrades: “But you must sleep now. You are young still and fragile. My blood’s working on you, changing you, perfecting you.”

Vampires in other media, like Only Lovers Left Alive for example, CAN stay awake during the daylight hours if they feel like it, and they do sleep in beds. Are they trying to imitate mortals? Maybe!

Hi there! stumbled upon your glorious blog after started re-reading VC. And let me tell ya, when I first read the entire thing some 13 years ago, it seemed to me so completely different, that I flip through pages now and go ‘wow, that really happened’. AR didn’t loose her touch with PL (which I detest and do not consider part of canon), but it reads more as an ‘audience book’ vs ‘author’s book’ as the previous ones do. And this is exactly what happened with some other novels, which is sad.

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Thanks for the compliments! YES THIS THING IS GLORIOUS ♥u♥

So I’m not sure exactly what you’re getting at, re: an ‘audience book’ vs ‘author’s book’ but it I do know that AR has always advised to “write the book you would want to read.” She just put up two quotes recently that I think are relevant here: 

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[May 11, 2016 – X] [May 10, 2016- X]

I had posted recently about the fandom’s general judgment of the quality of VC as a series, and most ppl seem to agree that canon is stronger in the beginning, and it makes sense because those works drew their strength from the emotions she fueled them with at those times in her life. 

Unfortunately, I think we generally prefer those books coming from negative places for her, and I think it’s because she spun gold from the misery, she fought her demons through those stories and the product was captivating, clawing into the reader and giving us some secondhand catharsis. 

Stories that came from a more positive place for her seemed not to produce that kind of engagement for the reader, but it’s important to remember that some ppl may prefer those. 

Either way, she’s given us an incredible gift. The stronger works resonate with us to the soul like only our favorite music and art can, the weaker works are humorous and we can lovingly refer to them as “the vampire crackicles,” but even they still have good moments in which AR has tapped into the old veins (pun intended!) to give us that gold we’ve come to expect from her.

I stand by my previous short answer on this subject: I think AR can still capture that old quality we all fell in love with, albeit in slivers. Which is why I can’t disregard any of the books entirely. It’s still hard for me to accept Prince Lestat as canon, I might never, but there are moments and lines of dialogue in it that are SO VERY GOOD. Moments where I’ve had to pause and smile, because it was as if the old Lestat, from IWTV or TVL, actually graced us with his presence, if only for a moment.

I know this is strange but I think all this discussion of Lestat casting is missing half the duo, I care much more about Nicolas to establish the tone of relationship between them and realism of Our Conversation. I’ve been mulling over who might be expressive with dark features and I’d like to submit Ben Barnes as a Nicolas candidate. He can be expressive through black eyes and play insane. Thoughts?

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Hard not to notice that I’ve been putting out more Lestat casting ideas than any other, hm? They’re alternatives for a particularly divisive option that I’d honestly rather the Powers That Be not choose. If it were MY choice, I wouldn’t want to contaminate the entire project w/ such negative baggage on our Lestat (if you don’t know what I’m referring to, sorry, but I refuse to answer publicly any further on it, you can try to find it in my #vc casting tag, tho).

But yes, always important to consider Nicolas! Half the duo? Well, yes, in a way, bc I do agree Nicolas gave Lestat his first long-term loving relationship, despite its flaws. It shaped him in a very powerful way, for better and worse. Mostly better ❤ I do think it’s some of Nicolas’ brand of sass that Lestat displays towards his loved ones in IWTV ;] But since Nicolas does not occur in later canon as a living character, I don’t consider him “half the duo” currently.

AND YES we don’t have nearly enough characters with brown eyes, dark brown eyes, that you can lose yourself in. Tender and sometimes scary depths. MORE LOVE FOR BROWN EYES. 

Ben Barnes, okay, so I looked at some pics and gifs bc I haven’t seen his movies, and he’s won me over! I think there was an RPer using him as a face claim here, and I don’t remember their url, but those are usually still images so I didn’t really see it until now. He would probably make a fine Nicolas and he has my vote!

Fun facts on his IMDB page under the cut but for now ONTO SOME GIFS.

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^“I don’t believe it, ” Nicolas said bitterly. “He wouldn’t be ashamed
of us.” There was a suppressed rage in his voice, an ugly grief. “And
why did he leave the way he did? I heard him calling me! The window
was smashed to pieces! I tell you I was half awake, and I heard his
voice… Lestat would spit in the face of anyone who would
be ashamed of us!” ;A;

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^Nicolas being forced to dress up to deliver the red velvet cloak but HE’S NOT GONNA SHAVE U CAN’T MAKE HIM. I actually prefer him with this scruff.

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^Willing to kiss dudes is a major plus. Not that I personally need it for any kind of nefarious reasons! maybe a little bit, but I do think it’s relevant that Nicolas and Lestat are very gay for each other, and it would be nice to have that loving relationship on screen to contrast how bitter the loss of it is for both of them ;A; Also his hair is perfect here.

Hit the jump for moar. Cut for length and moar opinions.

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^Did I mention he looks great in period costume? He DOES. Also his hair is perfect here. Maybe a bit short.

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^He has tons of excellent smiles and I just had to settle on one, this is good stuff ❤

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^

“Oh, not goodness again,” he said. “You and your malady of
mortality, and your malady of goodness. “He had been looking at the
fire and he turned to me with a deliberately scornful expression.
“We’re a pack of actors and entertainers who can’t even be buried in
consecrated ground. We’re outcasts." Nicki you mean bastard >:[

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^He even looks good flushed like this. 

Fun facts on his IMDB page:

  • “He can also sing, play drums and piano,” which means we could train him to play violin! Obviously has some musical inclination, can probably read sheet music.
  • “Was in the short lived boy band Hyrise; his band performed their song, "Leading Me On” in 2004 for Eurovision Song Contest.” – Okay ex-boy band, to me, reads, Has sense of fun and theatrical performance over and above regular character acting. Which would be gr9 bc I would love to see a little more Theatre des Vampires action than we got in movie!IWTV, especially the moment it was born!

  • “His father is a psychiatrist and his mother is a therapist.” – They are probably great resources for him as an actor. And as the son of such, he probably knows all too well what it’s like to be over-analyzed and rebel against it!

  • Supports Make-a-Wish Foundation.- ok well my heart. THIS is the kind of baggage I like on an actor, HAPPY baggage! 

  • Was one of the four finalists for the role of “Edward Cullen” in Twilight (2008). – SO WE KNOW HE WAS WILLING TO PLAY A VAMPIRE BEFORE

This seems like a Nicolas quote, it’s Ben Barnes from his IMDB page: “I don’t wear underpants in bed. They are really uncomfortable. I don’t wear anything in bed. I like girls to wear the same as me. His ‘n’ hers matching invisible outfits. But I think I am a gentleman in bed.”

As a side note, It shouldn’t be surprising to me that so many newer ppl to the fandom seem to gravitate towards Nicolas, but it does surprise me. Why is he of interest now? Lestat does reach back and mention him at times, but I just don’t remember there being so much interest in him 10 yrs ago.

It seems like in general, it’s more of a current fandom thing to pick up and care for these characters the author has handled less than the main characters, almost as if the readers have more blank space to fill in for them. So that makes sense.

I also think Nicolas reflects this generation of young adults better than any other VC character, with his disillusionment, his struggles with religion, and his anguish at how much talent he has and how little chance of success there is available to him in life in general, and defining what is success? What is contentment? He also may have some undiagnosed mental illness, which is another thing that’s much more out in the open these days than it was even 10 years ago. 

The only character I can think of that could come close to all of ^that would be Armand, but he is a much more able to center himself and much more in control of his outward display of emotions than Nicolas. Armand was a coven master, a director, accustomed to being in a position of power, and Nicolas is more truly a performer, and artist, an open heart with little self-defense other than his rapier wit and scathing sass. 

There is some fanon headcanon that his Mind Gift is too strong for him to really control, and that was another thing that drove him more deeply mad after he was turned.

I just have one question about The Vampire Chronicles, I’m in my local library and notice they don’t have all the books, and in the little info bars I noticed different main characters (I initially believed it followed Lestat all the way through), do you have to read them in chronological order? Or would that just confused you?)

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They don’t have all the books??! How rude. You might be able to find the others online for free very cheaply, or at second-hand stores like the Salvation Army.

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There ARE different main characters in some of the books, and in some, Lestat is almost entirely left out. He is mentioned only once just to point out that he WILL be completely left out in Vittorio, but that book was not really intended as a Vampire Chronicle. 

But the order of the VC still tracks along Lestat’s journey, even if it veers off for a book or two (as with the Vampire Armand or Blood and Gold) and then picks back up with him. 

When I was asked “Which books do you personally and/or (if you might feel differently) the majority of the fandom regard as canon?” I answered that I had read them in chronological order as they came out, and it makes sense to do it that way since that’s the order in which Anne Rice pursued her interest in developing different characters/storylines/worldbuilding/etc. and establishing her own rules re: vampire origins, powers, and limitations.

Short answer is: without access to the full canon, you can’t just breeze through it like I did, and I don’t know which ones you are missing, but…. I recommend you read them in order as best you can. In later canon, other characters will refer to scenes already played out in earlier canon, contributing their own perspective, which may be confusing and will spoil those scenes for you. It will be up to you to decide which character’s account of things to believe. They’re all wildly unreliable narrators with their own selfish reasons for explaining things the way they do ;D

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^Regardless of the “truth,” do I grin like I’m seeing old friends every time I see a lineup of VC on a bookshelf, no matter what their condition? You bet your a$$ I do.

Hit the jump for moar on this.

Some ppl who HAVE access refuse to read Prince Lestat, or a bunch of the other books, and won’t even give them a chance, so your lack of access might also reflect the fact that the books are not all equally popular. Your library might have purposely not included what it considers the less-popular installments.

Most of the fandom, in my experience, have had different gateway drugs to the series. I love collecting stories of how people first got into it (#I love these kind of stories tag). They first saw movie!IWTV or movie!QOTD and then read the corresponding book, or a friend gave them a random one from the series, or someone donated the whole series to them, etc. From there, some people read in order, some people skipped around. 

THAT SAID, if you want to make VC fanworks (including fic, meta discussion, fanart, etc.) or do VC RP, it seems to help if you’ve read at least IWTV, TVL, and TVA (TVA might spoil previous events in canon but it’s really THE authority on Armand)(and read some fanfic!).

I think those VC contain the crux of the fan fave characters (Lestat, Louis, ((Nicki)), Gabrielle, Armand, Daniel, Marius) and scenes that have had alot of impact in developing the main characters. Your fanworks/RP will be richer if you know the background of the characters, because you’ll be able to refer to the events, or quotes, or take them as a jumping-off point in your work.

However, in the later books, you get new info, new characters, and new perspectives on previous events (example: Claudia’s diary entry in QOTD is heartwrenching).

@annabellioncourt​ had added this good commentary on that post and I agree with her 110% (except that I don’t love Vittorio but still): 

I personally recommend that people read the first three books (IWTV, TVL, QOTD) and if they really enjoy it to try reading the rest of them.

But my caveat for that is that if they don’t care for Body Thief or Memnoch then still give Pandora and Vittorio a chance, then Armand, and if they enjoyed Armand and Pandora, to try Blood and Gold.

Its complicated, but so is the series, for such a seemingly straightforward concept of “vampires decide to write tell-all memoirs of their behind the scenes lives.”

how do u make all your gifs and things???

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Um I’m a little insane… 

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Obsession fuels it, I can usually remember the scene I want when I have a good joke or text post to go with it. Then it’s a matter of slapping the images and text together.

I have *~a particular skill set~* w/ enough photo and video editing training that I can pull frames from my DVD copy of IWTV but it’s gotten a lot easier over time for just about anyone with even the most basic knowledge of apps to do some of what I can do here and sometimes I have to resort to more basic programs when I don’t have access to my higher-powered stuff at home.

There are tutorials on Youtube for grabbing images and making gifs in various ways. That’s how I learned to make gifs. I would include links here but there are too many to choose from! And it depends on what software you have and how much photo and video editing you already know.

I use Adobe Premiere to capture frames, and Photoshop to manipulate them and add text. I pay for both legally. I recommend that so that you can have a clear conscience and also you can call Adobe for support!

You can also do it with MSWord, MSPaint, and there is free screencap software out there (I think the Snipping Tool is already installed and free w/ the Windows operating system), just get a copy of the movie so you can pause it and pull your screencaps!

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^Yes I spend my free time and design skills making graphics re: a movie (that was made 20+ years ago) for a series started 40+ years ago I HAVE NO SHAME AND NO REGERTS ;u;

Has Anne Rice ever confirmed officially that Claudia=Michele?

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^Stan and Michele Rice on the left, Lestat and Claudia de Lioncourt on the right. As a side note, before this gets into the more serious topic, AR has said she based Lestat on Stan, and there is a story out there that his name was meant to be “Lestan,” but ended up as “Lestat” bc of a typographical error. I don’t have a source on that.

Re: Claudia=Michele?

From the Vampire Companion:

(In the first draft of [IWTV], Rice described Claudia as three or four years old.)… Rice based Claudia’s appearance on her own daughter, Michele, who died at the age of five from leukemia. Claudia even shares Michele’s birthday, September 21.* However, despite the intense tone of suffering and guilt evident in Louis’s telling of the story, Rice insists that she had not been aware that she had included her feelings about Michele’s tragic death. “I never consciously thought about it when I was writing the book,” she says. “I wasn’t conscious of the connection. I knew that I was using the physical beauty of Michele as the model, but Claudia was a fictional character in her own right. The character, the voice, and the things Claudia say have nothing to do with my daughter – but there’s no question that this is the symbolic working out of a terrible grief. What else can it possibly be?”

In the first version of [IWTV], Claudia eventually goes off with three vampire brothers whom she meets in Paris. She does not die. As such, it was as if Rice had attempted to give her daughter a form of immortality. Rice, however, experienced psychological problems that cleared up only after she had rewritten the ending – by killing off Claudia and taking Louis through an experience of intense grieving. This version was much more cathartic for Rice.

*This is mentioned in canon in Claudia’s diary entry in QOTD, which recounts one of her birthdays.

Hit the jump for more, cut for length, not content.

From Premiere Magazine, November 1994:

(sorry, I don’t have a link, I transcribed this from the page)

In real life, Claudia was a nickname for Michele Rice, Anne Rice’s vibrant blond daughter, who had once piled her hair on top of her head, and spoken in a smoky voice like Claudia Cardinale. She was three years old when she developed leukemia, and five when she died, in 1972.

At first, Rice soaked her maternal despair in a steady stream of sixpacks. Then she unleashed her rage unto paper, into what eventually became Interview with the Vampire. Michele was reincarnated as Claudia, the raging woman locked in a child’s body. “Louis was me,” says Rice. “That dark, brooding, melancholy person ripped from Catholic faith and tormented with guilt – that was me. I’d love to be Lestat: the wishful me, the active, the dream, the other one. Louis was the more true, autobiographical portrait of the conflicted and lost and orphaned person. That’s what the book is about. It’s about being orphaned.”

From People Magazine, 12/5/1988:

“Writers write about what obsesses them,” says Rice. “You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I’m writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is.“ 

In which Hogwarts House would our beloved characters be sorted? It’s quite difficult with some..

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Omg, I cannot! ;A; I didn’t read the HP books, only saw some of the movies, so I’ll turn this over to more qualified ppl. 

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^I do think Claudia would end up in the same house as Lestat, continuing the tradition like the Malfoy line does, but I could be wrong on that. The sorting hat would be taking a LONG time w/ Claudia, tho.

Anyone is invited to sort our beloved characters! Do the thing (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Hello, I’m still reading TVL and I was enjoying the scenes where Lestat goes all Spiderman-y and jumps around. However, it made me realise what a different reaction Louis (in IWTV) had to his transformation. I can’t remember any time Louis jumped around and displayed his strength. Am I just mis-remembering it? x

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You’re remembering it correctly, Louis didn’t really test his own powers in IWTV in the way that you’re describing bc he was too busy existential angsting :[

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He doesn’t seem to have gotten any substantial powers anyway, being Lestat’s 3rd fledgling and made such a short period of time after Lestat’s 2nd fledgling. There is also some speculation that the blood transfer needs to be exchanged more than once (how it was done w/ Louis) to ensure a stronger fledgling. Marius, for example, exchanged blood with his maker multiple times when he was turned.

A maker needs to wait a good long while between making fledglings; too much frequency will make subsequent fledglings weaker than they could have been. Plus, even though Lestat had the blood of a much older and stronger vampire when he was turned, Lestat himself was only a decade into vampiring himself. It seems the vampiric spirit discourages the transfer of powers from young vampires to their fledglings. 

Armand did coerce Louis into climbing up a building once, tho!

“`Listen to me; we are going to climb to the tower,’
Armand was saying.“ 

`I cannot . . it’s impossible … I-‘ 

‘You don’t begin to know your own powers. You can climb easily. Remember, if you fall you will not be injured. Do as I do.’ ”

And he did climb it, but he didn’t seem all that thrilled about doing so. 

Lestat tells us in TVL:

“I never revealed to
him half my powers, and with reason, because he shrank in guilt and
self-loathing from using even half of his own.”

Louis says to Armand in IWTV:

“I don’t see our
life as powers and gifts. I see it as a curse. I haven’t the courage to die.”

In later canon, we still don’t see Louis testing his powers, but it’s fanon that he has some and seems to have no interest in exploring them.

There’s fanon that his sense of smell is stronger than the other vampires, so that’s something!

More under the cut. Cut for length, also mild spoilers.

In TVL, Louis does admit he felt something when Akasha was in the neighborhood, so either he was sensing Akasha or sensing what other vampires were able to sense of her:

“I don’t have your powers,” he said unobtrusively, “nevertheless I felt
this thing. And I tell you it was alien, utterly uncivilized, for want of a
better word.”

Armand describes Louis’ lack of powers here in TVA:

“…unable to read minds, or to levitate, or
to spellbind others except inadvertently, which can be hilarious, an
immortal with whom mortals fall in love.”

Marius considers upgrading Louis in QOTD: but he is not authorized and you know Lestat would throw the hugest tantrum if it happened

This one was so gifted yet not gifted at the same time; [Marius] wondered if the human light would go out of
Louis’s eyes if he ever gained more power, if he ever had, for instance, a little of the blood of Marius in his
veins… 

Just a little blood, and Louis might be stronger, true, but then he might lose
the human tenderness, the human wisdom that no one could give another; the gift of knowing others’
suffering with which Louis had probably been born.”