AND THEN I HAD TO KEEP LAUGHING TO KEEP MYSELF FROM CRYING.
Think of how strong Louis must be though…he doesn’t even ask or question the others, but you know that he sees and senses: he never tests his strengths, his possible powers that he’s not only gained through his age but by the fact that he was changed and has since shared blood with Lestat who has drank of the most powerful undead. He probably has abilities to match Armand or even more by this point. And he doesn’t.
He at once says that he doesn’t think he has a touch of humanity in him anymore, but his actions lead towards the belief that he clings to whatever humanness is left in him.
And out of the vampires, despite the fact he is indiscriminate in his killings, he seems the most gentle, or at least the most obviously opposed to hurting things himself outside of the need to hunt: think about his choice of weapon—fire.
Fire burns on its own, Louis has to light the match, but the violence is done by the fire, not by himself.
Question for the mun: who do you ship David with? And how hard to you ship them?
(I’d send an Ask like a normal question but for some reason the button is inaccessible when I’m… not on my home ‘puter…)(WHO IS A BAD GIRL DOING THIS FROM THE AWFFICE)(spoiler alert: it’s me)
———-
OOC: (You BAD GIRL. <3)
The H.M.S. Noship: Okay. So, for my take on David, I haven’t really settled him into any romantic relationships on Tumblr. Part of this is because I play him still at a point where he is working through his transitions of mortality and immortality. David’s having to relearn himself with this second ‘restart’, while also watching the last threads of his mortal life dissolving (i.e. All those people from the Talamasca that knew him when he was alive, that he visits as they die one by one.) around him. It’s more of a struggle for him than his outward calm and demeanour indicates. The idea of settling into a relationship is far from his thoughts.
That said, here are the ships in order of my hardcore-ness:
H.M.S. I Wanna Do Bad Things With You: Armand/David
I put this one at the top of the list, and not for the obvious reasons that most people think. Yes, David showed an inclination for youthful people in his mortal relationships. However, that is hardly relevant now when he himself looks to be only in his mid-twenties. In fact — while Armand is physically attractive — the physical aspect of it isn’t what draws David to him.
Armand has proven himself a formidable psychic presence. His illusions, his ability to lock Ancients out of his mind. He’s not an outwardly emotional individual. Armand is balanced by all of the experiences of his life, and the intrigue of all those internalized mysteries appeals to David.
David loves Lestat. Despite everything that happened, he loves him. The obstacle is the loss of control and trust that exists for them now. In his friendship with Lestat while he was mortal, David felt that they were coming together as peers, as equals. That Lestat was considerably older than him didn’t matter: He was able to advise him, to lend his opinion as a mortal man with a lifetime of experience.
Lestat never belonged to David. In immortality, this is no different and he knows this. David would be required to adapt himself to sharing Lestat with other people if they were going to have a successful romantic relationship. They’d also need to go through a period of time where Lestat rebuilt that trust before David allowed Lestat to make him so vulnerable again. Love and intimacy are a vulnerability of self, after all.
H.M.S. Brother From Another Mother: Louis/David
These two went through a roller coaster of emotions together after Memnoch. David was still new in the Blood, and Lestat was suddenly gone beyond their reach. They had to lean on one another to get through it. David built up such tender feeling towards Louis while all of this was happening. He found in Louis an ideal person to spend the quiet time with. They both have that quiet in common; the peace of just spending a night reading, not seeking excitement.
The situation with Merrick was heartbreaking. Not because of David (under the influence of the spell) fearing so much that he was losing her to Louis but due to the heartache he clearly demonstrates in believing that Louis was violating his trust selfishly in pursuit of the woman. The end of the chapter where they ask David to leave always breaks my heart. His threat to Louis seems like David bracing himself to lose Louis too in all of the mess.
H.M.S. I Don’t Even Know, Bro: ??/David
I haven’t explored too many major ships beyond those. I could see David settling happily with people like Jesse, Daniel, even Marius. Those with a similar appreciation for knowledge or with their own unique intellect. And of course I ship Aaron Lightner/David Talbot BROSHIP FOREVER.
Thank you and hedonistbyheart so much for doing this! ❤ Sorry I’m gonna stab it with mostly Lestat reaction gifs, I just haven’t made enough for anyone else… And really I think he would be offended on Armand’s behalf so… WHATEVER.
so the time has come to rant about an unbelivable censorship of Polish translation of The Vampire Armand. I’m sitting with three versions of TVA: Polish translation from 2007, English original and Italian copy from 2006 for comparison (tho my Italian is not good enough to draw any significant conclusions). warning: nsfw stuff. And lots of sarcasm.
So, what happens when you compare Polish book with the English one? Fascinating things! There are whole paragraphs missing! The body parts change into different parts! The description gets so vague you have no idea what actually happend! And all of that pulled off just to hide the GAY. Can you believe that Polish translator tried (and tried really hard, I give him that) to make TVA less gay??
It’s hard to decide where to start. Let’s take the (in)famous whipping scene. No way, you would think? There is no possible way to censor THAT one? Oh there is. Three subsequent paragraphs of Marius licking Amadeo’s wounds? Gone. Never happend. This is more than a half of a page missing. Two paragraphs of a handjob? Somehow shortened to one vague sentence. Amadeo’s ass slapped? No, surely no. It was his back. Probably around his shoulderblades, for all I can tell from that masterpiece of a translation.
There is so much sense in slapping someone’s back, isn’t it? Lengthy descriptions of both of them wirtling, moaning etc? Shortened. Why write 4 complex sentences when you can say it in two words?
“Brevity is the soul of wit,” as they say. Pffffft.
There are also missing paragraphs and sentences from random scenes. That two lines where Amadeo literally spreads his legs? (”I sank into the satin quilted down beneath him; I opened my legs and let my knees caress him, numbed and vibrating from the graze of his knuckles against my lips.”) Gone. Simply gone. There is no trace of it.
Which is especially bad because it implies some measure of consent from Armand, right? We don’t need that.
But what about the brothel scenes? Could they censor them too? Oh yes, they could and they did. You get the information that he went there and that he apparently enjoyed himself. But what happend??? the description gets so vague it’s like everything drowned in the smoke of the mentioned pipe. Part about having sex between two skilled lovers? (”Captive between two skilled and willful lovers, I was pierced and suckled, pummeled and emptied until I slept as soundly as ever I had without the Master’s magic at home”) Marked part is gone, the first part of the sentence change into “slept”. Sex in the brothels, no that’s too much for a poor translator, we better get rid of that. He went there to sleep and eat good food, that’s why you go to the brothel, no? Ok, someone actually kissed him. Uh oh.
But brothel means they had BROTH, right? Like soup?
Weird? I tell you one more curious thing. In the very ancient Polish edition of TotBT there is Nicolas mentioned in one sentence as Lestat’s lover and guess what? He is somehow turned into a woman. Nicki is a “she”. The amount of denial is too damn high!
I wonder how different anything would have been if Nicki really had been a “she.”
I look into the Italian translation of TVA and it seems to be spot on. It sounds even sexier, but maybe it’s just the way Italian sounds in general 😉 All sentences are in place, even when Anne repeats herself in the description, the translation follows.
ouo good.
If am not mistaken the 2007 Polish edition is just a reprint from much older one, from the 90′. And I sit here, with these three books and I wonder, what is the reason for that disaster? Was this censorship intentional? Or the trouble is much simpler? Is this the fact that the translator was a guy, and that he apparently couldn’t bring himself to write down such gay paragraphs? Or he did write them and then the editor cut the most inapropriate parts? Were they this homophobic for real? Whatever the reason, I cringe at every sentence. And then I look at the real masterpiece of translation that is Polish version of Cry to Heaven, this one translated by a woman, and I want to weep over TVA.
Wow, interesting that one was less mutilated. When was Cry To Heaven translated? I bet the censorship rules changed. But then again, I recall TVA as being more ghey than CtH…
I wonder whether AR is aware of this, bc she strenuously objects to any editing of the English editions. STRENUOUSLY. Kudos to her commitment to her vision.
“gorgeous-fiend is such a phenomenal Lestat and I’ll always hold out hope that they return someday. Everyone should look through their archive and read their posts if they didn’t get to experience them when they were active.”
To the anon who doesn’t feel welcome in the fandom:
I’m sorry, but I won’t be posting your confession publicly. I’m extremely sorry you’ve had a bad experience in the VC fandom; however, I would be very happy if you’d message me off of anon, and we could discuss your experiences in private. I’m sure that I could hook you up with tons of lovely people who would be open to interacting with you, and who would love to make you feel welcome.
If any of you want to message me off of anon to talk, I promise not to post any of your messages publicly. The fanmail option is always there, and if you start a message with //, then I’ll know it’s meant to be private.
And as always, I want you all to know that every single one of you are welcome here!
Seconded. Nobody should have to feel unwelcome in this fandom. ❤
^THIRDED. I’m always willing to reply privately as well. Fanmail is best for that.
There’s been too much drama in the past, we should aim to enjoy each other positively *u*
Sure, I may not like all of it, but honestly I love all of Anne rices work and could not , with conviction, tell someone not to read it.
So all of you peeps who are afraid to read it or put off because of the fandoms feelings in the book, just ignore all that and work to craft an opinion of your own on the book by bravely reading it yourself.
~T~h~i~s~/
TL;DR WARNING.
Before I launch into this, the title itself felt like a joke: "Oh gdi Lestat you are so obsessed with your stupid nickname, you hamburger-brained moron" but really he did not coin that phrase, and in fact he resisted it for most of the book. So let’s not blame Lestat for that bit. In fact, it is meant to follow Queen of the Damned in a very big plot point kinda way, and so the title makes perfect sense once you know that plot point.
I finally finished it after picking it up, setting it down, and repeating that procedure a number of times. There were sections that made me lose total interest for weeks. Then I’d grumble and trudge through. I knew some spoilers (bc I had asked for them!), just plot points, but I wanted to experience it as it deserved to be experienced. Even the parts that made me invent a wholly new WTF facial expression. But I laughed more than cried of second-hand embarrassment at those scenes.
I finally closed that book with the feeling that I opened it with: cautious optimism, and glad for having given it the chance. It’s revived our fandom for sure. I might even reread it soon. Is any of it really canon? Maybe. Not sure. I think some good RP and fanfic will revise some of it, fill in the missing parts, and glue it all together.
Oh, you want more? Well I’ll give you more…
Let me just say that there are several canon/fanon-worthy scenes in this book, that are not to be missed. There’s a lot of good character work with several of the characters (not ALL of them, but hey, it’s something).
There’s an intensity to the last 25% that’s worth the anguish of the parts that lost my interest. You have to slog through to get to that, though. It makes it more worthwhile, a creeping sort of anxiety in the story until that last 25% sweet spot.
There’s also a lot of good exploration of the PTSD in Lestat himself. There are times when it really feels like the Lestat from TVL or even IWTV! His brutality is still there. His gentleness is different now, worn sort of thin by too many people abusing it (*cough cough* Mona! Though she was in the right in several instances back in Blackwood Farm), but still there.
There’s a great, short, powerplay with David. There’s some great mother & son bonding (lol) with Gabrielle. Louis has a sort of change of heart. Armand is so chill you might think he’s being sarcastic. New characters are brought in (this includes old ones that we thought were long gone and are now brought back and dusted off), and lined up, they’ll surely be more developed and have roles in the next installment.
The entire vampire tribe has turned a new corner at the end.
Omg wow, nice work, luthi69! I had no idea it was that many pages… (tho I do have 3,790 posts)
You deserve an award for digging through it all. I admit I do that, too, when I find someone I like I eat through their entire archive *u*
What should you do with your life? Everything! Anything! I enjoy the VC stuff YOU post, too, so keep posting VC-related posts [LIKE THIS ONE] for us ❤
You can also keep following this blog, too, I do have a healthy queue scheduled, and I end up succumbing to daily fresh posting (tho I TRY to keep it down to 10/day, for sanity).
I-want-my-IWTV 