So I think sometimes they’re a pile of dysfunctional hipsters prodding eachother like that, but I think the last thing Lestat wants is to be reminded of his father by bringing up his former social status. He left that when he left the Auvergne :-
But Lestat still managed to earn the Brat Prince title, before anyone knew about his mortal past.
^I see coven gatherings as being like this. There are so few fanarts of them as a group, but I’ve collected a few under #group shot.
At coven gatherings, everyone breaks into little groups of 2-4 to catch up on eachother’s unlives, discuss the movies and art they’ve seen recently, current playlists, Lestat bragging about jamming with some current musician “yeah I got backstage, and she invited me to play the next show with the band, but all the rest of their tourdates are daytime shows so I had to refuuuuuse *pouts*”
Sometimes Armand thinks he’s made it up, but everyone’s usually very impressed or at least they ACT impressed to move onto the next topic.
The power hierarchy doesn’t seem based on physical beauty or financial wealth, since they can all buy whatever they want. The social status seems to be based on the physical power (age or blood) of each individual vampire and their alliances benefit by extension.
Lestat’s at the top of the food chain with that, for obvious reasons. His fledglings are close, since you know he would defend their honor at the slightest provocation.
Marius, however, still holds some sway over Lestat as the mentor-figure, and rule-maker, since he’s one of the oldest and one of the ones who have lived the most mortal years. David and Marius often find common ground on subjects, and are less flappable than those made at younger mortal ages.
Gabrielle also has a lot of power socially, and somewhat physically, being Lestat’s first fledgling.
Omg I know, wouldn’t it be lovely for them to just flop into eachothers’ arms and smile and laugh and everything is all sparkles and rainbows again? *u*
Relationships – platonic or romantic – are not guaranteed, they change and evolve over time. Even marriages fail! When Nicki asks for the Dark Gift, it’s not to be with Lestat, it’s what he thinks he deserves, one of the last gifts Lestat can give him to apologize. They were good for each other at one time, and grew apart. I think they both loved the idea of each other more than the ppl they really were, as often happens in relationships.
As a side note: I really didn’t realize there was so much love for Nicolas until I got on tumblr! I think he represents this generation’s disillusionment with society at large better than Lestat does, Nicolas’ rebellion is a modern-era grunge rebellion, bc he HAS TALENT, and is angry with the way it’s recognized, angry with so much about the way the world runs on autopilot, angry with societal ideals of success. He probably does have some mental issues, too, and I think this generation is more comfortable “coming out” with BPD, or manic-depression, etc. than in 18th century France or at the time TVL was written… with some counseling and/or medication, he might have had a better life.
So if Nicki came back:
If Nicki came back, they might get a little closure as long as they had a mediator present in the room to prevent carnage from breaking out. But they broke up on such bad terms that really, nothing can heal that breakage ;A; At this point, civil is probably the best they could manage, even though Lestat would probably bend over backwards if he thought he could get better than civil from Nicki.
Ask a Lestat or Nicolas RPer and they might have a more detailed answer on this, but anytime I see those muses interact with eachother, it’s pretty strained, and only slightly better if the thread takes place when they’re both still mortal.
BC let’s face it, by the time Lestat’s star was rising at the theatre, Nicolas was withdrawing deeper into himself and had had just about enough of Lestat’s bouncy optimism.
After Nicolas is turned he admits as much:
“It was to hurt others, don’t you see, the violin
playing, to anger them, to secure for me an island where they could not rule. They
would watch my ruin, unable to do anything about it.” I didn’t answer. I
wanted him to go on.
“And
when we decided to go to Paris, I thought we would starve in Paris, that we
would go down and down and down. It was what I wanted, rather than what they
wanted, that I, the favored son, should rise for them. I thought we would go
down! We were supposed to go down.” – Nicolas, The Vampire Lestat
Hit the jump for a little more, cut for length.
I think Nicki and Lestat needed eachother in the beginning and were very well-matched, they seem to be the first to really love eachother in the cruel environment they came from. They encouraged eachother to be better ppl, they were mutually supportive.
It all fell apart in Paris, and even if Lestat hadn’t been kidnapped by Magnus, it’s doubtful their relationship could have lasted.
The betrayal Nicolas felt when Lestat just disappeared that night was too great. Lestat leaves in the middle of the night, screaming, and reports that he’s fallen in love with some wealthy lady? No amount of gifts and money he sent to Nicolas could really substitute Lestat physically being with Nicolas the way that they were.
Hello! Thank u for the kind words, welcome to our little corner of tumblrland ^,….,^
James Marsden omg yasss. His attitude is perfect. You’re very right about the eyes, the smile. Just gotta bleach and style his hair. He already looks great in period costume (ok Enchanted was exaggerated but still, velvet, lace, etc.)
He needs really good lighting for his eyes to be that crystal blue.
Bc in other shots, they look much darker. But that can work, too.
^Very Lestatuesque. Riiiight, you’re in the band.
^“My bf wants to eat rats for dinner every night I very much wish I had not shown him that option ewwww”
^“HE JUST WON’T STOP AND NOW HE RAN AWAY HE’S PROBS UNDER A BRIDGE OR SMTG FML”
^“Louis, darling, come home, I know you still love me and I love you too.”
First of all, omg you are one of my fave VC fanartists *appreciative flailing* thank u so much for asking my opinion on this!
You guys, this is one of @muirin007’s fanarts [X] and still one of my absolute faves, from when I began this blog:
Yes, I have been asked this before but my opinions do change over time, and it’s always worth taking a fresh stab at it *,….,*
Some of this is a dreamcast for obvious reasons, and I’m limiting it to The Vampire Lestat, since it looks like that’s the focus of the new adaptation (And I’m also giving myself the difficulty of not recasting anyone from movie!IWTV bc u all know how attached I am to all of those actors by now). And I tried to pick ppl that would mesh well together as a set. Some characters get alot of commentary and some get none. These are the ppl that give me that “THAT’s exactly how I picture Lestat/Louis/Armand etc.?” feeling.
There are alot more options in the #VC casting tag, if you have some time to kill!
Lestat de Lioncourt: Brett Scallions from Fuel, circa the 90′s.
His singing voice is close to my headcanon of Lestat’s. Yes, somewhat nasal, vocal growl, some range. IMO, he has the perfect build, and yeah, he’s attractive, but what makes him so magnetic and not just another slab of manflesh are his huge soulful eyes and that generous mouth, which really can look cruel at times. He just needs a little dental work and a quality hairstylist. [Some more of my fave pics of him here]
Runner ups: Taylor Hanson circa the 90′s (VERY CLOSE SECOND CHOICE), Gaspard Ulliel,
I’ve only seen him recently in The Walking Dead, and you have to see him in that, bc he’s as sweet and tender and intense and depressive as Nicolas needs to be. Physically, these full lips and dark brooding eyes, the wide smile that’s
almost manic and the frown that speaks to a deeper well of misery
that no one can hope to touch. Am I praising him too much? PROBABLY BUT I DO WHAT I WANT. [I wax on poetic about him a little more here]
Actually I haven’t found my perfect headcanon of Louis yet, but for now, he’s a placeholder. While Louis isn’t a ~starring~ character in TVL, he is mentioned, and what with being compared to Nicolas, I have to include him.
I feel like Miles has the slender build, the soulfulness to his expression, and he looks great dressed up w/ disheveled hair. [X]
Marquis Valère de Lioncourt: Timothy Omundson, 2016
I can’t explain. JUST WANT. He is a very likable bully in Galavant and tbh I imagine Lestat’s Dad would have a sense of humor, and that’s partially where Lestat got it from. Unfortunately, that wasn’t all he got from his father. [Moar gifs and pics I’ve gathered of him here]
Marius de Romanus: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, 2016
I can’t explain. JUST WANT. A better father-figure for Lestat, one he would have given just about anything to stay with for awhile.
And that’s just my opinion, you guys are free to disagree, but please do so w/ respect bc this took alot of guts and alot of time and ALOT of effort to put together!
Well for a little appetizer, Sting’s “Moon Over Bourbon St.” was inspired by IWTV! It’s from Louis’ POV.
And of course there’s “Arsonist’s Lullaby” by Hozier, which reminds me of Louis who kinda has a thing for fire…
“Someone edited R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” to be in major instead of minor and it is absurd.” [X] Very much reminds me of Lestat! Give it a listen, be patient w/ it, it’s worth the effort!
I have so many VC feels w/ music, can you be more specific? You might find what you’re looking for here:
Music Lestat motorcycles to – Music and music-related things he loves, pics that he might have taken on long rides (like this one), some of which don’t have lyrics that are specifically Lestatuesque, but he gets smtg out of them, whether it be the beats, melodies, singer’s voices, etc.
VC Fanmix – fanmixes others have done for certain ships or characters (or mixes that seemed VC-adjacent to me).
I read Memnoch the Devil as a kind of fanfic of the bible, in which Lestat takes a tour of heaven and hell, gets the behind-the-scenes story for God’s reasons for creating the world, and why he runs it the way he does (he’s a very hands-off kinda parent). The hell portion of the tour Lestat goes on, well, it’s pretty intense. I think we all preferred the heaven part! Lestat sneakily shoplifting parts of the experience bc of course he does; there was no ‘exit through the Gift Shop’ and he needed SOUVENIRS!
This was my face for alot of that book the first time through, IIRC:
You had the same expression, it seems, haha. I can understand your turmoil.
More spoilers ahead.
I think the first time through, I was right behind Lestat’s shoulder, hanging onto him piggy-back-style maybe, peeking over and hoping at every turn of the page NOT to see Nicki, or Claudia, worried that either of them -or both!- could be in hell and angrier -or in more pain- then they ever were in life ;A; That would have been so awful. Lestat might really have lost ALL of his marbles. It was bad enough when he was faced with an avalanche of his own victims!
“And who stands behind those doors,” said a sombre Helpful Ghost, her beautiful hair shimmering around her in ethereal whiteness, her soft hand on my face. “See there—” … “Your dead, my beloved, your dead, all those you’ve killed!”
“Not my dead,” I cried. I turned and ran… "HELP ME!“ I cried and cried. I never knew such release in screaming, such pure and abandoned cowardice, to shout to High Heaven in this Godforsaken place where cries were the very air itself, and no one heard, no one but the smiling Helpful Dead.
His dead were supposed to be Evildoers, tho, so they should be in hell, right? So he’s been doing a good job if they’re mostly there, rather than innocents in heaven ;]
He does call for Claudia and Nicolas, “Claudia, where are you? Where are you, the one I wronged! Claudia! Nicolas, help me!“ But apparently Memnoch has a way for the dead to achieve absolution, so hopefully, they did.
I’ve only reread that book a few times, and each time I do, obviously I know what’s going to happen, but hmmm… how different would things be if Lestat had gotten another chance at confronting those two? Whether it was real or all a big cosmic trick… would he apologize more? Probably yes. Would they have accepted anything he might say? Probably not.
AND THEN, back with the coven, and his fave murder brother:
It’s comforting that, as he tells the fam the whole story, Lestat himself isn’t 100% sure that he really went on that whole trip. When Armand asks permission to “check” via blood sample, Lestat flatly refuses: “No, all you’ll know is that I believe what I saw, that’s all.” Why is that so comforting? If it was all a lie, then God and the devil may not be real after all, and an eternity of suffering might not await every single one of the vampires that shuffle off their immortal coil! That’s good ;D
But really, if it was all real, who better for God and the devil to have a glorious tug-of-war over than our own Lestat “His Royal Highness Crybaby Awesomesauce Homicidal Hamburger-Brained Moron” de Lioncourt? Pffffft.
I, PERSONALLY, don’t need AR’s validation of my opinion on canon. We all have our own headcanon. We can all love the characters in our own way. A good story (or piece of music or art, or whatever) DOES make you “read between the lines,” it DOES make you curious. It leaves things open enough for you to fill in the blanks. It doesn’t need to explicitly state everything for you, and the author has no obligation to do so, either. This has been true ever since the very first story was ever told, the first artwork ever made.
Most of all, I’m forever grateful for the gift she has given us. I don’t have to agree with her to still feel that gratitude.
If you don’t like a character’s trajectory in canon, that’s what fanworks are for 😉 Just try to be respectful of each other, abide by the Fandom Laws and we can all enjoy it all together, which is what we all want, right?
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.
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.
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.“
^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.
(^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 covenanyone.
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)
This is a gr9 question! NOT an easy answer. And I think you got your question across just fine 😉
AR deserves more credit* than you might think, for the way she jumps around through the series, shedding light on the previously established timeline via different POVs, or just having a character revisit the same scene. Sometimes she also does “Retroactive continuity,” or “retcon” for short: “the alteration of previously established facts in the continuity of a fictional work.”
*Actually, some might argue that when she does this it offers frustratingly conflicting views on previous events, hence, the Unreliable Narrator issues we have throughout the VC.
Anon: “…as much as I love these vamps I feel like
gradual character development isn’t really present, it seems to come suddenly and all at once instead.”
So here’s the thing, in the VC, the publication dates of the books ARE NOT NECESSARILY aligned with the chronological timeline of the set of stories described in the books. (This Timeline I found seems pretty accurate.)
IWTV (published 1976) lays out Louis’ story (between approx. 1791 – 1975).
TVL (published 1985) is Lestat’s story (between
approx.
1766 – 1985) plus the origin story of the vampires (Ancient Egyptian times,
approx.
4000 BC).
QOTD (published 1998) is Lestat’s story in 1985, it was a whirlwind Bad Romance.
TOBT
(published 1992) is Lestat’s Body Dysmorphic Disorder episode, takes place in 1991.
And so on…
TL;DR, I see clear character development when I take in the larger view of all the stories. Some of the later canon books I might have preferred not to have happened, but OH WELL.
But character development in fictional characters (as with actual real people) =/= a clean line of improvement or deterioration. Lestat and Armand have both improved over time in many ways, but they’ve also lost good qualities. Lestat’s definitely lost a few marbles along the way.
Hit the jump for a little more, & spoilers.
For brevity, just gonna answer your question re:
“how the vamps change overtime, character wise? For example, say Lestat in TVL vs Lestat in body thief? Or even Armand in IWTV vs Armand in the later books.”
Lestat:
TVL!Lestat is feisty, freshly resurrected, appetite for destruction, wants to “correct the record” of IWTV by sharing the secrets that he couldn’t in IWTV, and establish himself as the actual protagonist of the series.
Approx. 10 years later in the timeline of the books, TOBT!Lestat is suffering emotionally from the blowback of what happened after sharing that information and trying to be a big shot, and he’s got ghost!Claudia on his back prodding him to consider whether he even deserves to continue vampiring ;A; when he’s so weak against his own impulses. He tries to suicide, and when that doesn’t work, has a renewed sense of belonging in the world. Then in TOBT, he fucks up pretty royally, relies on one best friend to help him get things back to normal, and then almost destroys that friendship by selfishly Forced-Dark-Gift-paying-it-forward. So I’d say that’s a lot of character development.
Armand:
IWTV!Armand was supposed to be intimidating and shrouded in mystery, the teacher/mentor for Louis that Lestat refused to be. Later, when we get Armand’s backstory in TVL, TVA, and B&G, we see his origins and how he got to be the manager of the Theatre Des Vampires, and however intimidating he might have been to Louis, that wasn’t remotely close to what he was like as the leader of the Children of Darkness, Parisian Chapter. So he’s had to adapt to alot of harsh situations, and find some sense of inner peace along the way.
Lestat and Armand are almost 2 sides of the same coin; Lestat was forced into the Dark Gift, Armand begged for it. Lestat had to learn how to vampire alone as an orphan, Armand had an overbearing teacher and was then kidnapped by a cult.
They’ve both had to deal with finding peace and a place for themselves in a world that doesn’t really need or want them, a struggle many of us readers can identify with as being part of our own character development over time.
I-want-my-IWTV 