Just feel like repeating a few things in light of recent posts…
Fandom isn’t just escape into a fantasy world. Fandom is letting the fantasy world supplement us, bolster us, give us hope. Fandom is drawing our friends and loved ones as close as we can, even separated by massive distance, we can at least communicate with and support eachother.
Fandom can stimulate wonderful discussions even if you disagree with someone, and perhaps even enlighten you to smtg you might not have considered before! “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (I think? Might be
Ralph Waldo Emerson… idk)
Homework assignment to everyone out there: Reach out and send a lovely message like this to someone today ❤
♛Minnesota, hm? We do travel to places to ski and romp in the piles of white stuff that we wouldn’t get in New Orleans. Might have to go there next…
We love lounging in a cozy cabin to watch the snow fall outside the windows… nothing quite like the inner peace and contemplation snowfall can bring.
Yes, we love snow. Most of us aren’t bothered by the cold. Louis is, and he will allow me to bundle him in enough layers so he can ski with us, or build snowmen and igloos. However, when he’s warm enough from a fresh kill, he just might strip off enough layers to regain flexibility of movement, he is a masterful snowball assassin, slinking around the forest like a ninja!
I call Armand “Panchino” sometimes and he doesn’t know why…
//ooc; It’s okay! No fuss, I’m not offended. It’s just that Lestat’s been asked for the Dark Gift so many times, and it’s kind of frustrating for him because people seem to think he gives it up to anyone who asks, like some kind of Dark Gift Slut… which has only been the case a few times in canon, but there was still reasoning behind it, he still had met the person and interacted with them.
RP is tough bc in the writing you can “really meet/interact with” the muse, like hug them or touch them, but my Lestat is more like a co-mod of this blog and takes most messages as messages only. He’s primarily an Ask Lestat, not available for real threads bc I just don’t have the time and don’t want to play favorites, even with anons.
And really, I think the response was slightly ooc anyway, Lestat probably wouldn’t go to the trouble to think about what would happen if he really said Yes to everyone. The Dark Gift is serious business, despite what it looks like in canon, it’s nothing to be distributed out like free t-shirts at a baseball game or whatever! He also really dislikes leading people on.
People don’t always look for or respect guidelines when interacting with an RPer, but yes, I/he should have guidelines, thanks for bringing that to my attention 😉
//ooc; Lestat won’t be considering any more Dark Gift requests, respectfully, find another Lestat RPer.
Let’s be real here, this is a fandom blog and it’s run by a human, there is no way this Lestat could jump up and ask for your address and come visit you to get to know you or turn you! Keep that in mind when you send him asks, he’s limited by being FICTIONAL and doesn’t want to make promises he can’t keep.//
♛You’re missing my point… *sigh*
If you are frightened for your life of revealing yourself to me in fear of offending me, then we’ve already started off on the wrong foot *frowns*. How can you start a relationship that could last far longer than any mortal relationship in fear? No. You can’t.
It’s not about your appearance or height, while yes, it does perturb me that David is taller than I am, but that’s what heeled boots were made for! And it is fun to be the shorter one in a kiss and have to tilt my face up to him, just for a change of pace.
It’s not about your taste in music, although it’s no secret that I adore Bon Jovi. You may have mentioned that just to kiss up to me… I hope that you don’t try to conform yourself to try to please others, enjoy that Celtic rock!
What I’m looking for is that chemistry you feel when you’re with someone you love or could love and they feel the same way for you. For me, that needs to happen in the physical. I don’t know of any vampire who’s promised the Dark Gift to a stranger they met on the internet, or before that existed, a penpal relationship. Perhaps it’s worked for others, but not for me.
Don’t you realize that even if I wanted to say Yes, and turn every single one of you who beg for vampirism, the sheer volume of such a task would probably kill me emotionally before it did physically?! Would we pick a church somewhere and have people fall in line for this kind of communion? I do have other interests than making vampires all night, every night, for months or even the years it would take to fill all the requests.
And then what of the fact that it does not always work, would we group all the “duds” into a dog kennel out back? Would we take care of them in a home somewhere or kill them to put them out of their misery and send their bodies back to their families? What if YOU became one of these duds? It’s all too gruesome and I’m terrified just thinking about it. Major buzzkill, as they say.
I hate to say No, so please stop asking me for this.
//ooc; I’m going to have to stop this right here bc Lestat doesn’t want to address it all. You’re picking on him for gently picking on you for signing off w/ one initial bc that would have been Louis’ indicator that Lestat wasn’t sending himself anons bc Lestat comes up w/ these ridiculous aliases in canon, so we both just… cannot continue. There’s other Lestats to RP more realistically with 😛
(Also, I haven’t read that book, and I don’t know much about it, so my Lestat is sort of lost on that, too, when canon Lestat probably at least has thoughts on it.)
I ranted about this at length once, and realized it might be worth excising that particular section from my recaps and letting it stand on its own.
SO LET ME TELL YOU A THING.
“Not only does Banderas give one hell of a performance, clearly entranced by Louis and convinced his ruthlessness is an acceptable means to an end (and then Louis dumps him immediately and Banderas’ crushed look that WHOOPS OVERESTIMATED just destroyed me). It’s really genuine, maybe the movie’s best after Cruise and Dunst, and at least half his dialogue is lifted without change from the books. But all that gets overlooked, because he doesn’t look like a teenager. And there’s a certain fairness to that – Armand’s body adds a dimension to his interactions with others as much as Claudia’s does. But now let me give you a hot dose of context.
In 1994, it was still a pretty common argument to conflate homosexuality with pedophilia, particularly with gay men. THINK OF THE CHILDREN, Y’ALL. The movie already had to deal with the Claudia/Louis relationship, which only tenuously steps the worst landmines of creepiness, as we discussed, by avoiding physicality and giving mentally grown Claudia all the power. So, the filmmakers maybe didn’t want to stack, on top of that stack of gunpowder, a relationship with yet another underage character, particularly one that so played into existing stereotypes.
Then there’s the fact that, by virtue of the script, Louis’ feelings for Armand are a lot more explicitly tender and obvious than his relationship with Lestat. Back then, it was a big deal if you asked an actor to, gasp, play gay. Heavens forfend. But Banderas, in addition to being a handsome fellow and a marketable star, had also appeared in Philadelphia in 1993 (aka the movie where the Noble Gay dying nobly from AIDS is nice enough to teach A Straight to be a better person before he croaks). While their scenes were scrubbed of basically any intimacy, he was playing Tom Hanks’ lover, and apparently that was proximal enough to The Gay that he was an okay dude to ask. And then he fucking killed it with the material he was given it, in spite of the fact that the majority of his scenes were opposite the totally catatonic Pitt (who has made no bones about how much he haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated being in this movie). He’s a champ, and a treasure, come at me.
The part of me that loves this movie as its own movie is so into Antonio, too. The reasons you stated are part of it, but as an aesthetic decision as well I really love him as this like Dark Exotic European Vampire. It works as a jarring contrast to the world Louis had lived in with Lestat, and even as a movie ploy it’s such a dynamic visual. And goddamnit his gold eyes flashing in the firelight. He’s just a real VAMPIREY VAMPIRE. It’s obviously a departure from the novel but it works so well on its own.
I also think it works because the movie was never a series. If we’d gotten into the other stories it would’ve started mangling Armand’s character too much, but we don’t get to know him very personally here so it’s fine.
The scenes with Armand are my favorite in the whole movie. They feel so magnetic to me, and I appreciate more than I can ever explain that they gave that much screen time to these conversations. It nails the tone of the novels so well and is so so so important to keep.
I’m gonna cry! Thank you @vraik, for articulating this so thoroughly and adding so much more to my dusty old #Defending Antonio tag. It was most likely a deliberate choice to diverge from canon on Armand’s appearance, but much of the character is still preserved and shines through Antonio’s performance.
And @monstersinthecosmos makes an excellent point about how great his scenes are and what Antonio does bring to the table physically. His Tall Dark Exotic European look is in direct contrast with Lestat, who looks like Blonde Ambition Barbie in comparison.
Can we all keep this in mind for the upcoming adaptations? Whoever is cast, please give them a chance to do their jobs, which is ACTING. Even if the character does not fit your headcanon remotely. Let’s be considerate and keep in mind that some things are possible to explore in fiction that cannot yet, if ever, be shown in film/TV.
♛I’m printing your message to show Louis AND Armand that at least ONE PERSON finds my insight very helpful! And thanked me for it! On second thought, Armand will probably suggest that I sent this message to myself but Louis knows I don’t do that. He knows I would invent a longer pseudonym, he knows I couldn’t bear to have an alias go by only one letter *smiles*
As much as I enjoy the act itself, no, I wouldn’t turn just anyone into a vampire if they asked for it. Other vampires in our coven might have a different answer, but I choose people who I can’t release to death… and the reasons for choosing them vary.
As far as rules about it, well, a few of us, myself included, have broken the no-underage people rule, but that is still one of our main guidelines about it. There’s no board approval to do it, but we all try to keep our emotions in check and not turn every sexy tattooed barista we meet, not everymusician whose talent we long to preserve for eternity. I admit I have something of a taste for musicians…
You have to understand that the Dark Gift is not an exact science, as with mortal pregnancy, there’s no guarantee of a good outcome. Every time we do it there is the chance that the person will die in the process, if they lose focus, if I lose focus, if the vampiric spirit fails to adhere to theirs… if there’s not enough blood to exchange,… so many ways for it to fail, and if Louis had died that night… I don’t like to think about it. There was a good chance he was ready to choose Death over me.
And then, there are worse things than death. Nicolas seemed to be an animated corpse at first, and I could barely stand to look at his face, devoid of his own expressions, barely functioning… and then when he woke, I couldn’t celebrate that either. He was another someone I barely recognized. Was it the Blood or was it something he always had within him and kept from me? I might never know.
♛A polyamorous relationship? *sits up, grins, rubs his hands together* Anon, if and when you successfully manage it, you tell me how to do it! I’ve been trying for years to get Louis to accept David and David to accept Louis for this very arrangement; does it not make perfect sense that if they love me separately, they should be able to love me together, at the same time, in the same bed, or wherever we are?! Why the hell not! Alas.
I do have some experience with threesomes – andmoresomes – but only really outside the context of a relationship, and that is typically with people who don’t expect the ongoing relationship aspect. These purely physical interludes can be extremely satisfying, the extra set of hands, the extra lips… etc. Such indulgence. Like an upgrade from your bathtub to a jacuzzi with jets (Not that I don’t also love my bathtub as it is *flicks a fang*).
I won’t tell you it’s not worth trying, but I would advise you to tread carefully, especially if you’ve all called it platonic already. As in a two-person friendship that you might want to escalate into a romantic relationship, there’s the risk of losing them if the feeling isn’t mutual. How do you know when to do it in that situation? Well… every relationship, between friends or lovers, is defined by the people in it, you mutually set the expectations and limits together.
When do you decide that you want to be closer to someone? What are the signals they give that they want that, too? Not every relationship requires physical intimacy, that’s something you mutually decide, too.
My love life is flashing before my eyes and I can’t pick out answers to those questions *frowns* Unfairly, the best I can tell you is what’s been true for me, that you’ll know when you know, when you can’t keep your hands to yourself because you need their skin on yours, you want to feel their heartbeat with your own and you have a burning need to ask them, “Can I hold your hand?” … And you are 99% sure that they’ll say, “Yes.”
I-want-my-IWTV 