I think it’s true that everyone in the fandom has, at some point, had a massive crush on Louis.
Psssst we know that, Louis.
I do think Louis was a gateway drug for alot of fandom ppl. It’s his story at first. I read the books in order and I’d recommend doing it that way, even tho it’s not necessary. TVL really is a response to IWTV, and part of the charm of that book is Lestat’s joy at breaking open the floodgate to release all the forbidden answers to all the burning questions Louis had in IWTV. I loved Lestat more knowing that alot of his bastardness in IWTV was frustration that he was sworn to secrecy, and couldn’t risk putting Louis, Claudia, and himself in danger by telling them any of it at that time.
I think this varies from person to person in the fandom, and some ppl despise Lestat, and have from whatever book they started in. Like the movie itself, he’s not for everyone and doesn’t have to be.
My gateway drug was Claudia, and then Louis, and then Lestat. How crazy that the antagonist of IWTV ends up being, very quickly in this series, the lead and clearly the protagonist? As the series shows, he’s not wholly an antagonist to Louis. It wasn’t so black and white, as it is in real life, there were misunderstandings and gray areas.
|| I will take Antonio over creepy cherub guy trying way too hard to be 17 but looks 40 any day. I just pretend Antonio is Santino fucking with you.
I like the idea that it’s Santino fucking with us, hahaha.
I have such nostalgia for Antonio!Armand. Antonio doesn’t deserve the hate he gets for Armand, he did a great job, and brought a dark European hawtness to it. Check out my #Defending Antonio tag for legitimate ideas defending his casting.
In essence: if they had cast a cherubic teenage redhead (or older creepy cherub dude trying to look 17 *cough cough* movie!QotD *cough*) it might have been confusing to people who hadn’t read the books, and might have taken the sympathy away from Louis (who was supposed to remain the focus, it’s HIS story, after all). That would have been compromised by omg cute little redhead bby we want to snuggles you! <– If the person at least had the right appearance.
Let’s say it was an appeal to those who hadn’t read the book(s) … casting an Armand that they could understand more easily as being a more mature/father/teacher figure for Louis.
(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ *~TVL~* is my favorite bc of reasons:
it’s undiluted Lestat,
from his POV,
his backstory,
his midstory,
his modus operandi…
it answers alot of the questions and corrects the record somewhat from IWTV (both have unreliable narrators but STILL)
…while bringing in a wholly new vampire origin mythology!!
and sets us up for more stories.
Listing the rest from most to least fave under the cut.
I’ll try not to spoil but consider yourself WARNED. ＼(^ω^＼)
You know this fluctuates ok? Sometimes I’m in the mood for crackiness, but the top 5 are generally constants.
SPOILER ALERT MAYBE
TVL – bc of reasons
IWTV – bc it was the gateway drug to all this, and bc of Louis’ voice being so strong, very classical gothic novel. There was alot of existential crisis here, and mixed right in were some of the best insults and humor I’d ever read up until that time. (Louis: “There’s nothing left for you to tell me about life. I haveno need of you and no use for you. It’s you who need me, and if you
touch but one of the Freniere slaves, I’ll get rid of you. It will be a
battle between us, and I needn’t point out to you I have more wit to
fare better in my little finger than you in your entire frame. Do as I
say.‘” OH SNAP.
ToBT – Truly a “Lestat Don’t Do the Thing” “I Did the Thing” “GDI Lestat” book, in which he gets the chance to be mortal again, and this sums up his opinion of that experience: “I’ve watched two-year-old humans with interest for centuries. They’re miserable. They rush about, fall down, and scream almost constantly. They hate being human! They know already that it’s some sort of dirty trick.” I feel ya.
MtD – Yes okay I love Memnoch the Devil bc of alot of reasons, but mostly for the ideas it presents about why God created man and the world and what the deal was with sending Jesus down to mingle among people, and of course Lestat is asked to be the Prince of Hell, bc why not? It’s got alot going for it, the settings are amazing, the amount of Lestat being overwhelmed by his sensory input is like a rollercoaster ride, it’s some intense stuff.
QotD – there are alot more characters in here and it’s fun to jump around among the different POVs as the story progresses. The Queen herself has a wildly innovative concept for bringing Peace on Earth and it has a major flaw in that it does not include Bette Midler singing “From a Distance.”
Merrick – Louis returns as a more central character in several books, and it’s not for the faint of heart. It rekindles the L/L intimacy in a whole new way.
TVA – I am not a huge lover of Armand but in this book I feel like I got to know him better, it’s sumptuous, I would like a graphic novel plzkthanx, and it has an edginess as he is telling his story to someone who hasn’t yet earned his full trust and respect.
BaG – Marius’ story, follows Armand’s in my list bc I like Armand just 12% more than Marius. Partially bc of what Marius does in the later canon ugh. He lost alot of points for me. I can explain his reasons but I don’t have to LIKE THE OUTCOME all the same.
PL – Not sure if canon but… there are a few scenes in here that could stand alone and are worth reading the book for, plus I definitely approve of the last few major plot points. I think those were handled very well and would reread them. Yes I can start at 25% from the end of a book and reread from there WHY NOT?
BW – Quinn has grown more tolerable to me over time, and his story is very rural NOLA IIRC, with alot of spiritual stuff happening.
Pandora – I never really “got” her when I tried to read this when I was 15, probably bc her ship with Marius was so impossible for both of them, and her sadness was too much but I should give this book another try alllllll these number of years later.
BC – one of the crackiest for sure. I can’t remember most of it but it was intended to be the last VC, so it has a bunch of things happening as if it were the last opportunity to have them happen. Also the crossover… um… yeah, no.
I just had to excerpt this from i-want-my-iwtv‘s post yesterday, because it is a great truth and worthy of our study. Also look at my fucking brilliant underlining.
Me and i-want-my-iwtv were just talking about how Rose’s story is like a limp retread of Jesse’s. I never hated her the way a lot of people did when the book came out, but it is incredibly striking on re-read, and I keep wondering if that was a conscious decision; was AR thinking, “Well, we need something structurally similar to Jesse’s origin story in there…”
As to Lestat taking on the Sacred Core, though, it wasn’t a supported decision – it was a fait accompli with which Lestat presented the others. The suggestions beforehand boiled down to “leave Amel with Mekare” or “make a new weak fledgling as a vessel to force Amel into”, but they’d intended to discuss it, and then of course Mekare came to Lestat and wanted to give him Amel anyway, and Lestat went with the moment, as he does… I don’t entirely blame the rest of them for rolling with it; the alternative would be to kill Lestat and transfer Amel to another host, and I don’t think any of them really wants to do either.
What I’m most curious about now are the implications of Lestat’s life not really being his own – he’s already tetchy when one of the others points out that he can’t just disappear and go into radio silence anymore… he says that this responsibility for everyone else’s existence is what he needs to keep him going, but it’ll be interesting to see how that works in practice!
^ALL OF THIS. Strenuously agree. Also a problematic and intense David/Lestat scene that is not to be missed. Can’t throw the whole thing out.
And I can’t put any of that under any cuts bc of formatting, sorry for spoilers.
Rose’s whole story felt very Mary Sue. That’s not to say that Rose is a Mary Sue, and I’d bet money we get to see her again in Blood Paradise, but her backstory felt very much like something you’d read on a fanfic on Fanfiction.net in 2002.
Yes, it majorly did, (her shitty ex is named GARDNER like a gardener, and her name is ROSE like a pwetty flower, omg does it get any Mary Sueier?) I’m hoping fanfic and nodominion can make Rose more likable. NO PRESSURE of course.
I wrote a review for Prince Lestat right after reading it, and I think my opinions may have actually changed a bit since then.
Do I think it’s the worst VC? No. Not at all. Far from it. That said, I generally describe things better in bullet point lists.
Things I liked:
We got to see Lestat as Lestat. He was so much more in character in this book than he’s been in a long while, in my personal opinion.
Louis’ epilogue was my absolute favorite part of the book. I actually adored it.
Gabrielle was very on-point and her bits with Lestat were amazing.
I think learning about what Bianca was up to was really cool, whether people accept it into their headcanons or not.
Marius was actually enjoyable for me to read in Prince Lestat. Being completely honest, I have not enjoyed his character much since his appearance in The Vampire Lestat, so that was pleasant.
We got an explanation for that “unnamed musician” that Lestat made a vampire in Interview with the Vampire. Pretty neat, although again, some people have very big headcanons on this that they’ve developed in the years that VC was “ended,” so I completely get why a lot of people won’t entirely accept Antoine.
Speaking of Antoine, I loved the subtle shade from Louis towards Antoine. I don’t even know if it was intentional that Armand listed everyone at Trinity Gate as loving Antoine with the exception of Louis or if it was just a slip up from Anne, but it cracked me up. Damn straight, Louis doesn’t like Antoine.
Louis and Lestat had a canon kiss scene and were all lovey-dovey and professed their love for each other, so idk, there is absolutely nothing to hate about that.
Jesse and David were generally entertaining.
Things I did not like:
All.of.the.new.characters. It’s hard to sift through them all. I have no problem with new characters being introduced, but it felt like we had SO MUCH thrown at us at once in PL.
A million retellings of a story we already know. The book felt very slow to get going. I didn’t feel like the plot was really moving until I was over halfway through it.
There was some retcon that bothered me. Well, a lot of retcon that bothered me.
Rose’s whole story felt very Mary Sue. That’s not to say that Rose is a Mary Sue, and I’d bet money we get to see her again in Blood Paradise, but her backstory felt very much like something you’d read on a fanfic on Fanfiction.net in 2002.
Viktor’s whole existence makes no sense based on prior canon, but that goes back to my whole “all the retcon” point.
It made no sense to me why anyone would think that putting the entire lifeline of the vampire race into a guy who has made so many stupid decisions. Like, why was this a supported decision by the vast majority of vampires. Why.
Armand seemed non-existent in this book. I have to read all of his parts as extreme sarcasm to be able to handle it.
Speaking of which, there were a lot of reactions I felt characters should have had where they instead just sat there and said nothing. Like, Armand reuniting with Daniel. Or even more so, Armand reuniting with Bianca, who he had not seen in centuries.
Some characters still felt OOC.
DANIEL MALLOY.
In general, the book had some strong points and low points. Yes, I did like some of Prince Lestat, but in general, if I were to read it again, I’d probably start half way through the book because the first half was really, really boring to me.
These are all just my personal opinions. I encourage everyone to read Prince Lestat and make your own decisions about the book. Some people will love it! Some people will absolutely hate it. I feel very neutral at this point.
As to Lestat taking on the Sacred Core, though, it wasn’t a supported decision – it was a fait accompli with which Lestat presented the others.
I feel like they were all sort of gearing up to volunteer him for the position, partly out of selfishness (who would want that irritating backseat driver in their body for eternity?) and partly out of this general feeling among them that as hamburger-brained as Lestat can be, his intentions are usually good, clearly more so than others Marius! looking at you, so he seemed to be a good choice for Next Top Queen King of the Damned. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, hence, “Prince.”
Long answer: SAAAAAAAAME HEEEEEEERE. It wasn’t always this way. I had a mother once wtf self? I still do. And movie!Louis, he had a wife. He was mortal, the same as she, and SO WAS I.
AR made us what we are, didn’t she? *sobs*
I digress… lol…
I answered this a little differently awhile back, when sonicdreamworld asked me who my fave was in IWTV alone. I think Claudia drew me into the whole series, I identified with her first bc I was 11, and felt mature for my age, and wanted to be taken seriously, and all that frustration that goes along with that. I was obsessed with antagonists at that point in my reading life, so I of course loved the friction between Lestat and everyone Claudia.
In TVL Lestat had me at Hello, the little bastard. So many of his character traits were in line with mine (tactlessness, infallible optimism, hawtness, etc.), I felt I’d found my spirit animal. So much the better that other people feel this way about him, too! I feel a definite connection with others who have, for better or worse, laid their affections with him ❤
Like Louis, for example, you know Lestat is his fave, too!
Yes we were just talking about that, I have a new tag for that kinda topic: To ship or not to ship. This is a huge topic but I will try to be concise.
Apparently in a alternate draft version of IWTV, Claudia finds a few young boy vampires in Paris and ends up leaving Louis for them. Would that have been better? Would she have had a sexual relationship with them, bc they alone shared her problem and could overcome it? I like to think so ❤
So in the actual book, with that scene… She gets Louis to share that sex “‘…was something hurried…And… it was seldom savored… something acute that was quickly lost. I think that it was the pale shadow of killing.’” It’s not clear whether he tells her that bc:
it’s physically accurate (bc Ricean vampires cannot has penetrative sex with their equipment, therefore they’re all asexual)(that’s canon),
he’s saying it so as not to hurt her feelings and make her feel like she’s really missing out, or
he actually feels that way? Is killing so much better? Or did he really not enjoy mortal sex that much? THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS.
…of course in fanon, they do all have sexytimes, constant degenerate frackin, and Claudia knows damn well What They Do in the Shadows, and why they sign her up for all this tutoring, and she’s jealous as HELL but I digress…
Then, she says: (I’m paraphrasing) “Hurting you like I’m doing now, that is also a pale shadow of killing?”Louis admits that YES it is, and he pretty much bolts out the door at that point…which I think is especially powerful bc it implies he has admitted to her that she is fucking him with her words alone. And he does not like it. As much as he wants to please her, it is a clear rejection of her in that regard, yet again unu
Hit the jump for unpopular opinions about Claudia, but basically, I think she could have experienced all the intimacy that the adult Ricean vampires experience, because they are asexual in canon, and instead share blood as their *~HIGHER~* form of intimacy. Unfortunately for her, Claudia never really had a relationship with anyone that wanted to do that with her ;A;
It’s worth mentioning that they auditioned about 100 little girls for the role in IWTV, and no 5-7 yr old could handle the part. With Kirsten Dunst (auditioned first), who I think was 11 at the time, it made Claudia’s frustration that of a tween, someone who is just about to hit puberty, very different physical and emotional stage than that of a 5 yr old. At 11, she is clearly too old to be treated like a doll, and it makes it that much harder for her to accept that she was just a few years away from having a passable adult body ;A;
Claudia really is an adult in a small body, just like any Little Person is. In Queen of the Damned, she has a diary entry, 9/21/1836, she’s at least 30 yrs old:
“This is my birthday present from Louis… I do not understand entirely what is meant by birthday. Was I born into this world on the list of September or was it on that day that I departed all things human to become this?”
Anyway, Little People do have active sex lives, otherwise why would we still have them around? Some even have relationships with non-Little People.
Specifically with Claudia, the issue remains that she looks like a child, so only another mortal child or an adult pedophile would even attempt to be sexual with her, both of which EW GROSS. I headcanon that Claudia enjoyed luring and killing pedophiles. She’s also capable of experiencing all the sensuality that comes with *~blood sharing~*, and her voracious appetite was partly because it was her only means of sexual gratification.
I think Claudia IS curious about sexuality, I think she’s passionate in many ways and wants a deeper connection (actual LOVE) w/ another soul, and alot of her frustration about her body is that she is denied that sexual intimacy. Sexual intimacy alone does not guarantee love and/or a deeper connection with another person, but don’t we all search for someone to understand us, someone we can share our innermost feels with? Or more than just one? In that sense the coven structure was really good for the Children of Darkness.
Claudia really had noone that she trusted that much. She only showed Louis her pain in glimpses and that was nearly too much for him. I think that Claudia felt that her body was the only obstacle in the pursuit of finding a kindred spirit, someone to truly love her more than as a daughter, but it was also her mind.
… and actually I enjoy her choices so I’ll just edit them *u*
1. New Orleans Saints football, well tbh I only really know of Drew Brees and I approve of their uniforms very much, so I’ll say instead, NOLA in general (flora, fauna, cemeteries, ghost tours, adult beverages, French cuisine, the Garden District, the French Quarter, the architecture, the music, the people, okay I’ll stop), and I plan to make a big post about my last visit, it will happen, I PROMISE. And definitely going again w/ some fandom ppl WHICH WILL ALSO HAPPEN.
2. Vampire Chronicles fandom – OF COURSE DUH
3. creepy/horror films & stories – OF COURSE DUH
4. Gardening and cooking: I do not have a green thumb and can barely manage making egg-based meals, so I’ll just say I appreciate other people’s gardening immensely and there’s nothing like a home-cooked meal from your family/friends ❤
5. Books/Libraries – OF COURSE DUH but for travel, I do love the convenience of my e-reader.
(I assume you mean more than just unconscious sleep, which yes, he did sleep with her, that’s canon)
Y’know that’s smtg I’ve thought about, too. Was it only her body/age that was the obstacle there? She seemed to think so… or so it seems from what Louis shares with us re: just a few times when she even opened the subject with him.
Particularly that time in Europe when they had just killed the Icky Gross Mindless Vampire, and they’re totally exhausted and hungry, and she offers him her wrist:
“ `Drink,’ she whispered, drawing nearer. `Drink.’ And she held the
soft, tender flesh of the wrist towards me. ‘No, I know what to do;
haven’t I done it in the past?’ I said to her.” <—- REJECTED. I don’t think Claudia shared blood w/ either Lestat or Louis, at least not in any intimate way, ever, which had to have been part of her not-growing-up frustration.
SO BACK TO THE QUESTION AT HAND:
No, I don’t think Louis would have slept with Claudia if she had been turned at 18+ bc there were more obstacles than just her physical form.
For one thing, Louis was in a relationship already with Lestat, even though it was a problematic one.
The chemistry between people (even IRL) has to work in that way for there to be any sexual attraction.
He always cared for her like a daughter. She was very much his own security blanket, a buffer and a glue between him and Lestat.
She was less human than either of them, which did not seem to be something that made her more attractive, but less comprehensible to him: ” `I love you now with my human nature, if ever had it,’ I said to her.
“ `Ah yes …’ she answered, still musing. `Yes, and that’s your flaw,
and why your face was miserable when I said as humans say, ” I hate
you, “ and why you look at me as you do now. Human nature. I have
no human nature.’ ”
Also, in terms of canon vampire physiology, the Ricean vampires seem to be asexual, blood gives them all the satisfaction they need/want in that regard. It’s in fanon and RP that they’re sexual.
As a side note, claudiaindarkness might have some good opinions on this, bc she often RPs Claudia aged up. thevampire-claudia also had a thread in which Claudia was aged up and *ahem* had some private time with a Louis (merciful-death) if u need some tasteful au smut ;]
ikr?? Thank u! Just look at his face! that little twinkle of expectant hope in his eye! ;A;
So many thoughts on this one TEENSY ACTING MOMENT… feels like so much is conveyed in like 4 seconds. Mostly it’s someone who loves too much but can’t be open with the object of his affection, he’s holding back these secrets that even if he were allowed to tell him (which he is not bc Marius threatened such intense retribution) would probably end up driving Louis away, if not crazy.
The “Don’t Fucking Cry” sentiment is smtg I got from Tony Stark, though. liquorandptsdvarietyshow is the one who enlightened me on the striking comparison that can be made of Lestat and Tony, and even Tony/Steve and Lestat/Louis. Not going to go into a lot of detail here on that. Maybe another time.
I definitely think Lestat would understand the whole “Stark men are made of Iron, and don’t show weakness, GRRRR” thing. He doesn’t particularly identify it as a de Lioncourt men trait, but he is a consummate actor, and he has built a beautiful shell to protect himself from the onslaught of shit happening some of which he brings on himself, of course, in the pursuit of doing good.
Deep down they both want to be loved and give love in return, and they struggle to make and maintain those connections while still wearing a suit, whether it’s made of iron or emotional barriers ;A;
I-want-my-IWTV 