Tag Archives: gabrielle de lioncourt

And yet she proudly insists that Lestat is a bad person himself (he’s worse than Gabrielle in my opinion), other characters have treated her precious Lestat way worse, Louis is repeatedly implied to be bad at being a vampire, Armand is by definition “cold and distant” and the list goes on. How does she make that distinction with Gabrielle is what confuses me. To be in AR’s head just for a day.

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For sure, in many ways Lestat is worse than Gabrielle. And other characters have definitely treated him way worse than she has his own Louis tried to kill him at least twice, that’s a QUALITY boyfriend FFS. He certainly rocks the boat more than she does. He intentionally wanted to start a war between society and vampires. He went on vacation killing thousands of innocent men bc his girlfriend (and Matriarch of the Damned) told him to.

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[fanart by @devmin-art​]

Is a mother’s lack of support and nurturing equal to such crimes? Is the suffering inflicted on one child equal to the deaths of thousands? One could argue that his crappy childhood made him more susceptible to the later, larger crimes. He wanted the war because he wanted recognition; many ppl learn early on that bad attention is better than no attention. Then, he let Akasha order him around because he thought she loved him. It’s taken him a long time to figure out how to relationship and he still has slipups including, but not limited to: issues w/ consent, possessiveness, respect for others’ physical space.

Lestat’s usually in pursuit of goodness when he is “bad.” He reflects on it, he can see were he went wrong, and usually tells us that the good extracted from the experience made it worth the wrongdoing, whereas with Gabrielle, since we don’t get her POV, and we don’t get much from her in spoken word in terms of her own pursuit of goodness, we have to wonder whether she cares for it at all. AR can’t write her ooc; Gabrielle has extended herself to rescue Lestat on several occasions, but she never seems to go further than that.

But the real issue with Gabrielle is probably that she lacks a dick, and is therefore unshippable.

But I like shipping her with Jesse or Eleni!

-Some spoilers under the cut-

Louis is actually only a bad vampire when he was being a foodie, when Claudia is “born,” he vampires more properly. In QOTD, Akasha says he’s the Most Predatory of All. It sounded like a backhanded compliment, but she was calling him a good vampire.

Armand is hot so he can get away w/ otherwise negative behavior… Plus Armand’s been on a rollercoaster in terms of “cold and distant.” He started out cold and distant (he was going to wall himself up in the caves in TVA for religion) became more so (kidnapped and thrown into the brothel) then more warm (Marius to the rescue!) then loving (Marius’ fledgling and the lead up to that), then cold and distant again (Children of Darkness and Theatre des Vampires eras), loving again (chasing after and getting Daniel Molloy), and now he seems cold and distant to protect himself.

how does being cold and selfish make her a bad vampire? If that’s not it, what does? Seems to me she’s the only one that can do it right (She may or may not be one of my top three characters though…)

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I think AR’s comment could be a little misleading there; she says Gabrielle is “cold and selfish and essentially a bad human being” and then, separately, that Gabrielle is “a bad vampire.“ 

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^Reason enough for AR to dislike Gabrielle. Gabrielle defended him against his father and brothers, helped him run away to Paris, stayed with him for a good decade exploring the world, and then wanted to go off on her own. Idk if I agree that she treated him SO badly, though she could have shown kid!Lestat a little more affection, he was starved for it. 

I don’t think AR means that coldness and selfishness = bad vampire. One would think that those are "good” vampire qualities.

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(^Catherine Deneuve bc of reasons)

What’s MOST likely is that AR modeled Gabrielle after someone AR is not particularly fond of, thus our dear Gabs was doomed to never be able to bask in the glow of AR’s love ;A;

So who’s an example of a “good” vampire in AR’s eyes? Marius, Lestat, Louis. Vampires who still strive to be part of the fabric of civilization to some degree:

  • Marius still finds pleasure in painting, socializing w/ the coven members, he studies history, he’s a people-watcher. 
  • Lestat is a sensualist; he wants to crash parties, sample all types of victims, acquire all kinds of toys, be Good at Being Bad, share affection with his coven anyone. 
  • Louis does not in fact want to be left completely alone. Even though he’s a huge bookworm, he also has a deep appreciation for art, and does relish frequent *ahem* cuddles with Lestat, bc who doesn’t? 

… Oh right, Gabrielle doesn’t. Gabrielle would rather not be around any vampires or people at all. For legitimate reasons, for sure, but she seems to have little interest in making any connections with civilization, no interest in art or fashion, only a tenuous commitment to her coven,… she wants freedom. Perhaps that’s too lonely and empty an existence for AR to contemplate.

But mostly it’s bc Gabrielle “treated Lestat badly,” and that she doesn’t need or want to be a regular part of Lestat’s family in the way he would love her to be, and since Lestat is AR’s precious bb, Gabrielle’s rejection of Lestat is a rejection of AR herself (which is slightly amusing considering that AR’s commitment to writing Gabrielle in character prevents her from modifying Gabrielle into someone she finds more likable!)(#PROFESSIONAL AUTHOR PROBLEMS) 

Lestat’s Parents

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gabrielledelioncovrt:

Gabrielle..

and the Marquis

^This looks like them on their wedding day.

Gabrielle: *I have to marry HIM????! wtf I’m gonna die*

Marquis Valere de Lioncourt: *she’s so pretty I’m gonna bang her like a screen door in a hurricane*

Folks have called you cold (especially as a mother), maybe sometimes unfairly, so I was wondering if you might share a happy memory of Lestat as a wee boy? Pretty please?

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viaticumforthemarquise:

-sighs wearily-

I have shared many already, have I not? But, then, you want a happy memory. There were so few in that house. 

Lestat mentioned briefly in his book that I used to show him picture books of the places where I’d travelled before I was wed to the Marquis: Rome, Paris, Madrid, Athens, etc. And I do remember doing this, when he was very, very young—his little body tucked into my lap as I sat, cross-legged, upon my bed, a large book spread open before us. 

He was always very taken with the colours of the paintings in the books—he has always had a great love for colour—and his small fingers would trace the images of ships, mountains, animals, running down and over the pages as I explained to him (sometimes in French, sometimes in Italian) what each place was and what it was like there. 

Can you imagine it? Are you a mother? That sweet weight of his little body against my own, the smell of babyhood still in his hair, his voice forming words that were a charming amalgamation of French and Italian as he attempted, as toddlers do, to ask questions of me. The small gasps he might elicit at certain images as the pages turned, the trills of laughter at the animals, the way his body would shift as he would lean back to look in my face, as if searching to make sure these places were truly real and not some fairy tale I was constructing. 

Very few of his companions are aware, I think, that that child still exists. That child is ever-present, hidden just behind the eyes of the man, waiting to be thrilled or wounded. I’d hazard to surmise that the few who see it are the ones who tend to stay by his side, despite his failings. 

How long did it take for Lestat to start walking as a child?

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viaticumforthemarquise:

Oh, Mon Dieu. That child was a terror. He was mobile by approximately four months, a terrifying three months before any of his brothers had been, rolling and crawling as quickly as he could propel himself to do so. 

By six months he was walking and was causing trouble as one could not believe, opening and falling into cupboards, climbing up into trunks (and vanishing until we could find his location via his tearful cries later), and finding his way into every mess and mud puddle and body of water he could locate. 

Keeping him alive was a heroic effort in itself.