You’re so welcome! What a lovely thing to tell me, awww. Thank you for the blog love ^______^
Here’s a rare old memeything for you, it’s from almost 4 yrs ago… I’m not sure if I ever posted it. Probably not, if I didn’t think it was funny enough at the time, but c’mon, this is gold:
^Pretty sure the Dark Gift doesn’t work like that…
I do check on ppl’s blogs when they catch my eye in my activity feed, and a major way to do that is by leaving supportive comments, on my posts or my reblogs of other’s posts.
This is the lifeblood of a fandom right here, what you wrote on @sangcreole‘s post:
bless this post for such an insightful discussion. Louis is a beautifully layered character and you said it so well!
It was really a wonderful thing to say, that OP’s words had touched you, that it was worth their effort ❤
And another lifeblood is fanart, and you draw, so like… give us some VC fanart! We are insatiable for it! *grabby hands*
Personally, I would always recommend reading them in order of publication, bc that’s the order AR explored the characters and their stories. And some things may be mentioned in B&G that would spoil TVA.
TVA has a lot more of the problematic stuff re: Amadeo/Marius as a ship, so if you’re not interested in that, you might want to avoid it entirely.
I admit that I like Armand more as a character than Marius, I enjoy his voice, the framing of that story in terms of what’s happening with the other characters at that point in canon, and TVA obvs has more focus on Armand, and, I think, TVA is a better story overall, so I prefer that book entirely, but that’s just me!
Anyone can add their thoughts on this, too 😀
I’m just gonna hop in here real quick as someone who really enjoyed Blood&Gold, and say that it depends on what you’re looking for.
TVA has a rather contained narrative, and focuses mainly on Venice, everything else gets wrapped up quickly. And that’s totally fine if that’s what you’re interested in. And TVA is definitely written in a more enticing manner than B&G.
B&G does not go into as much detail about the same events as TVA of course so it is a bit like zooming in on one specific detail in a very large picture. B&G offers the picture, and that can get a bit tedious to work through. But it also brings with it a whole array of characters you didn’t see much of until then, or didn’t know anything about before. You learn more about the history of the covens and the druidic cults, about the Talamasca and just “vampire history” in general. It was very satisfying, for me at least.
That being said, I would also suggest reading TVA first because what is hinted or implied in that book, gets explained in B&G, so you get a nice “Ohh!” moment out of it. It gives you the perspective that TVA didn’t get, since it was written from Amadeo’s limited point of view.
Personally, I would always recommend reading them in order of publication, bc that’s the order AR explored the characters and their stories. And some things may be mentioned in B&G that would spoil TVA.
TVA has a lot more of the problematic stuff re: Amadeo/Marius as a ship, so if you’re not interested in that, you might want to avoid it entirely.
I admit that I like Armand more as a character than Marius, I enjoy his voice, the framing of that story in terms of what’s happening with the other characters at that point in canon, and TVA obvs has more focus on Armand, and, I think, TVA is a better story overall, so I prefer that book entirely, but that’s just me!
♛I certainly do use emojis, I can have whole conversations through emojis, conveniently. >:} and >:C are favorites…
I often prefer the emojis made by letters to the more modern preset versions, as I started using them before the presets existed, and I find that they are more vague in simplified form, and can be more effective that way. These two are nowhere near the same emotion:
The older version conveys dissatisfaction layered with ennui, possibly disgust, or resignation. The drawn version is more pleased with itself, teasing. Of course they each have their use, some of the preset icons are excellent for quick requests…
To Louis: this message, for “Thirsty?” I had the droplet icons modified in our phones:
or:
To Louis, when he refuses:
To Louis when he puts his foot down about it:
Of course I very much like to send him barrages of flowers, hearts, and such, on a whim.
…And it irritates me beyond measure when he replies with this, repeatedly:
This could mean I am in for a serious tongue-lashing, or, a pleasurable tongue-lashing. He’ll keep me guessing until we’re face-to-face.
Bonjour Michaela/@lixncourt~* Wishes received and appreciated, I wish you good health and happiness, too!
What an obscure question! I’m impressed. We see this silvery-black robe for like 20 seconds when he’s confronting Louis’ narration, “How did you wrong him? You said a name…”
That WAS a gorgeous silvery black robe, indeed. I’m guessing it was crushed velvet, you can see in the production stills below that it’s got “tracks” cut into it, so idk what fabric would do that, but it doesn’t look like a print to me.
@vinceaddams and @sanguinivora are costume ppl, they might know better what this is… I bet there were more scenes with Santiago in that robe, too, the full “trial” for Louis and Claudia under the theatre! but they were probably cut for time.
I also took a screenshot for you, and even though I tried to brighten it up, as it was a pretty dark scene, I don’t have the BluRay, it’s not the best quality 😛 Maybe someone has a better screencap.
Bonjour! Happy very belated NYE to you, too, and I’m sorry this took so long, to be honest, your first question deals with a potentially very controversial topic.
I’m answering this publicly so other ppl can chime in if they feel comfortable doing so.
1|2 [How would you say Daniel’s relationship with Marius and Armand differ from one another but still hold similarities?]
^[X] I don’t know if this is a legit quote from Angelina Jolie (it’s more poignant now that they’re broken up, if so ;A;), BUT. I think the quote makes a good point.
A real relationship may not always be rainbows and sparkles. Someone seeing you at your worst and still loving you. It’s complicated. I know of relationships that seem to be all fluff on the surface, but underneath, resentment grows, when someone in it feels like they’re giving more than they feel is fair, but can’t communicate for fear of making it worse. When you confront your loved one with your issues, sometimes it gets ugly. That’s healthy, to be able to have those difficult conversations to improve things.
So when we compare fictional ships, like real life, there’s much that happens off-screen, whether in individual reader’s headcanons, or reported by unreliable narrators. We get info from canon and work with it.
Both ships you mention have potentially major controversial stuff about them and this is a blog for entertainment, so I don’t want to get deeply into that. But I would say, in my own reading, that I see both ships as having pairings who deeply care for each other, and express that love in different ways, and they’re not always able to do that smoothly.
Without meaning any disrespect to other fans, my own interpretation of these two ships is pretty superficial, as they involve characters I haven’t spent as much mental space exploring.
Daniel/Armand helped each other in many ways during the time that they were together. Daniel taught Armand about the modern world, gave him a will to live, and Armand was endlessly fascinating to Daniel, not only for being a vampire, but because of Armand himself. I do believe Daniel really and truly fell in love with Armand. Their sass was so complementary! And it was NOT all rainbows and sparkles for them, they had a feisty and rocky ship for 10 years!
The beginning of Daniel/Marius isn’t as explicit in canon… I remember just suddenly finding out sometime after QOTD that Daniel had gone to live with Marius and I was like, “Really?” and it seemed like Marius was in more of a caretaker role with him, as Daniel was somewhat mad, reeling from everything he’d experienced in QOTD, as can happen with fledglings for the first few months/years, and this developed into a legit canon ship between those two. Marius seems to have learned from the past that he can’t have a teacher/student ship and expect it to last, at least to my mind, he treats Daniel with the respect of an emotional equal. Maybe we’ll get more info on them in the next book.
2|2 [What if Louis’ brother had been turned and not Louis. How do you think Paul’s (( That’s his name right? )) story would have played out?]
[X] Yep his name is Paul. That’s really tough bc we barely get to know Paul, except that he’s 15, and deeply religious, ppl think he’s gone mad, so much so that he believes he really had visions of St. Dominic and the Virgin Mary. I think the killing-to-live aspect would have been totally rejected by such a religious person. He probably wouldn’t want to see his own family in his damned state, ever again ;A; Paul would probably rather go into the sun than feed on animals and enjoy any of the vampiric gifts.
The other way Paul might have gone is in deciding that Lestat was an actual angel, and choosing to redirect all his religious fervor towards Lestat… and we don’t need anyone doing that! Lestat says he wants to be worshiped, but I think these are the words of someone who was starved for affection in his formative years. He doesn’t want the unconditional love of a religious zealot, not really. He wants love that has to be earned, over and over again, and the reward of that love is that it’s genuine and not because he’s just that pretty.
So I think Lestat would tire of such a sycophant and move on, Paul would go into the sun.
I-want-my-IWTV 