i’ve coined a new term. the opposite of a slowburn is a flash-fry. it’s when two characters immediately jump into bed together with only extremely limited buildup or none at all.
My human death was long finished, I was ravenous, and surely my face was no more than a living skull. No doubt my eyes were bulging from their sockets, and my teeth were bared. The white robe hung on me as on a skeleton. And no clearer evidence of my divinity could have been given to the Druids, who stood awestruck as I came out of the tree. […] The voices were singing in concert around me as the priests placed the flowers in my hair, on my shoulders, at my feet.
‘Juliet and the Spirits’ which maharet and eric totally loved is a movie from the mid-60s deliberately made to be psychedelic
we know ancient peoples loved their mind altering substances
proposition: maharet and eric and possibly mael totally spent the 60s getting stoned out of their gourd on acid tripping hippies, watching movies while high, and dancing under the moon 👌
breaking news: all ancient vampires secretly just hippies
It’s Armand and it’s actually canonand one of my favorite parts to visualize in QotD(although it’s honky-tonk not ragtime, but their styles are related) I mean, just imagine Daniel waking up to that, looking completely DONE.
Queen of the Damned, page 88
It’s update time! You were right
@i-want-my-iwtv in your assumption that Lestat would love it.
Now go ahead and imagine them dancing to these tunes.
#IT GOT BETTER
Thanks for the update, @luthi69! If anyone is in a bad mood, just TRY and keep that mood with this bouncy happy music on, JUST TRY.
And now I AM imagining Lestat, Daniel, and Armand paying a jazz band to play this all night at a club in NOLA, dancing to it w/ people and having such a good time ❤
OKAY SO I found this WAY back in my likes and I know this thing about Armand and music has come up recently, and I guess here’s the answer? I didn’t even know Anne had said this on fb until I saw people talking about it on tumblr… @i-want-my-iwtv, tagging you in this just in case 🙂
Turns out that Anne, as usual, is misremembering her own writing – she never said he couldn’t tell them apart, just that he doesn’t have a preference. (I still think her weird headcanon that they all love honky-tonk piano is hilarious and messed-up but that’s just MY opinion lmao)
ooc. Well, headcanons may vary of course, but the way I read the character and the relationship he had with Armand… Yes, Santino loved him. And I will even say that he loved him very deeply. The love was likely not a very considerate kind but it was real.
I hinge this a) on Santino actively assuring Marius that he did love Armand (in TVA) and b) Santino’s exhibiting very fatherly and sympathetic behavior towards Armand.
Santino is depicted as a very honest and very caring character. His honesty is attested by Marius (B&G) and Santino himself claims to hate evil and to suffer from the way he has to live in the cult. Further: He actually cries when he visits Armand in his cell because the torture was so cruel and he couldn’t stand it (TVA). He is evidently very taken with Armand and compliments him even when there is nothing to gain from it. (also TVA) Because of all of this I say he loved him like a son, or else a protégé.
What he feels for him nowadays is more difficult, I think.
OOC: I totally hear what you’re saying but Santino’s fucked up cruelty in the past done unto Marius, Palazzo Boys and Armand were so horrific, I just have a hard time picturing how you describe him. How can I improve my perspective of Santino?
ooc. I genuinely can’t help you there. If you don’t want to view him in a sympathetic light then nothing I say will change that. Mind you, I started out hating him, too. It took me a while to warm up to him. (cut for length)
This is really good !! I’m always a slut for nuanced understandings of complex characters 😍
^YES! I really enjoyed this response from @desanctii.
Perspective and context can allow us to view a character in a sympathetic light, but if you don’t want to do so, that’s fine, too. Both approaches are equal, we all have our own interpretations of canon.
Some thoughts re: this post, because I’m always so confused as to why these heated discussions always center on Daniel. Anon said:
“for so many years, a goodly bulk of this fandom has only [attributed?] Daniel as having any value to the story when he’s attached to Armand, or made him the butt of crazy jokes.”
Again, I’ve been in this fandom online for a decade now and spent a lot of time on websites from the 90′s (@i-want-my-iwtv’s been here since the late 90′s I believe), and honestly? Yeah, people make train jokes. It’s in the nature of fandom to take one trait in a character that people find funny and make jokes about it that are parodic or caricaturish in nature. Is it kinda dumb? Yes. Is it reductive? Yes. Is it not-really-that-funny-the-fifteenth-time? YES.
But I genuinely, hand on my heart, cannot say that I’ve ever felt like people made train jokes any more often than they made pyro jokes, or, jesus christ, blender jokes. Or Nicki’s hands jokes.
Is there a difference between the seriousness of the things being joked about here? Yes. See above – this is in the nature of fandom, and it’s one of the downsides. Characters frequently get reduced to one trait, sometimes in ways that are insensitive, and always in ways that disregard their inner depth. But this isn’t something that is particular to Daniel or reflects how fandom feels about Daniel in particular. The entirety of my experience in the VC fandom indicates that Daniel has consistently been one of the best loved characters, despite the lack of screentime that Anne has given him (a lack which I’ve seen lamented a lot), and has generally been considered one of the “main four” or “main five”, alongside Louis, Lestat, Armand, and sometimes Marius.
As for fandom only being interested in Daniel when he’s with Armand – the only screentime Daniel has is with Armand. Unless you count the framing narrative in IwtV, and he doesn’t even have a name there. Daniel becomes a fully-fledged character in QotD, in which he’s with Armand. That’s the reason he becomes a vampire. And again – I don’t think this is a Daniel thing. It’s a fanfic thing.
I could probably count on one hand the number of Louis fics I’ve read that don’t ship him with Lestat or with anyone, or the number of Pandora fics that aren’t about her relationship with Marius, or the number of Gabrielle fics that focus on her solitary travels. Or even Armand fics that aren’t about him and Daniel or him and Marius (which is a whole other topic). A lot of fanfic is focused on romance, it’s one of the main reasons why people write fic. I really don’t think it has anything to do with a lack of fandom interest in Daniel or any of these characters as people.
wait holdup where are all these people who think daniel is a throwaway? WE NEED A WORD.
IKR? Can we get some Daniel love and support on this post, plz? He puts up with SO MUCH.
Honestly I’ve never seen that be a commonly expressed sentiment in this fandom, and I’ve been here on LJ and tumblr since 2008. But tbh fandom drama/wank usually does involve someone going “everybody / you all are always doing or saying X reprehensible thing”, whether or not that’s actually accurate. If OP could provide examples that would have been more helpful.
//Did someone say give Daniel Molloy love and support!! Mission accepted!! 💜💗💜
Abandoned by their writer this is canon, surname misspelt, continuity of narrative ignored or glossed over – sadly yes. But seen as a throwaway character, I haven’t gotten that impression no. As with most problematic favs (read all of vc characters tbh) he’s not always the most popular but that doesn’t mean he has no fans or merits therein, I think as a character he’d rather be limited edition than popular anyway! As a product of the ‘modern era’ he’s a rarity for the readers to identify with, a modernist human – just as easily he could be us – thrust into the vampiric world. Chased no less. A life or death love story. Even as a vampire he’s not old and crusty like some of the ancients and latterly under Marius’ tender loving care *ahem* has blossomed into a dynamic free thinking member of the coven. Anyone who says ‘Hey Marius, all due respect but No! You’re wrong’ has my vote! But I’m biased I guess being a Daniel mun and all.
He was a key figure in Louis, Lestats and Armands lives. Without him blowing the whistle and publishing Iwtv would L&L have reunited, maybe not. Armand would have survived as a ghost of himself in New Orleans without a striking reporter to stalk no doubt – But he wouldn’t have grown, unfurled in himself in the new age. Or rather gone back to a self he may have been if allowed to grow, mature and live as a mortal in Venice – mischevious, generous with a hint of brass impulse with a leaning for cruelty. The dynamic was off, unbalanced as Armand had the supernatural advantage over his eventual mortal beau, but Daniel wasn’t as much of an innocent as some like to paint him. Not that he deserved what happened to him, of course not but he possibly pre Armand had a unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and let’s face it he went back to the guys place who told him he was a vampire? For a story!! This is not a man that had survival instincts primed.
Marius would have gone to ground, buried under a ton of earth and centuries of guilt and self denial without a broken person to heal. His mondus operandi this caretaker urge. He had tenacity in life and I’m glad to see it survives on on death, well from what little has been mentioned of him in PL and Plroa. More of him in the new book as long as that doesn’t make him Canon fodder, literally of course. Right more than enough cheerleading for Mr Molloy.
I-want-my-IWTV 