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Speaking to the connotations of race, it’s interesting that people in the fandom want to make Daniel the black character when for so many years, a goodly bulk of this fandom has only attributive Daniel as having any value to the story when he’s attached to Armand, or made him the butt of crazy jokes. It seems awfully suspicious to me that the “best’ character” to be cast as a POC is the one so many have considered the throw-away one. If that doesn’t speak volumes, I don’t know what does.

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Race. *sigh* I keep revisiting this ask, and each time I do I feel more and more like I don’t want to engage as there are so many landmines. 

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I didn’t get into fandom for landmines, and so I maneuver around them, and the reason I’m answering this at all is for those who are thinking about topics like these but are too afraid to respond for fear of the landmines.

I’m responding bc I feel like if sharing my perspective could make just one person feel better about this, then it’s worth the risk and worth my time and effort.

THAT SAID, I’m not sure which post you’re referring to, Anon, but there was one a few weeks ago in which another Anon asked/said:

I’m up for Daniel being Black in the adaptation. His race isn’t mentioned specifically in the books, and we need diversity in an ocean of white Eurotrash fops! I don’t see any reason why not and Bryan cast the lead in American Gods as black so I’m hopeful to see some good changes in Anne’s work. What do you think?

^Here’s one person who wants to cast Daniel as POC/Black, and they seemed to be accentuating the positive. They want diversity. They compared him to the lead from American Gods being cast as black. I don’t watch that show so I don’t know if that character is the “butt of crazy jokes” or only has value being attached to another character, but it seems to me, at face value, that this Anon thinks that Daniel being cast as POC/Black is parallel with the lead of another series being cast as POC/Black, this Anon states that as being a good change.

I answered that Anon more in depth with some historical context, so you can look at that response, but basically, Anne is open to casting POC for VC characters. I’m open to it! I trust in whoever is running the adaptation to produce it in a tasteful and respectful way, and updating it to be inspiring and satisfying to a wider audience would be great, however that happens. 

TL:DR;  I think people do care about Daniel, and would love to see a character that they care about, like Daniel, be cast as a POC as a good thing. Daniel is not perfect (none of them are! Except Mojo) but he has many positive traits: he’s clever, resourceful, sassy, charismatic, capable of loving and being loved in return. I think people would love for the adaptation to show that those traits can absolutely be found in POC, too. We do need more positive representation like that.

Reminder that this is a fandom blog for entertainment and I am not here to make/agree/disagree with political statements that are potentially inflammatory. Not my focus. But I will address your points to some extent.

Speaking to the connotations of race, it’s interesting that people in the fandom want to make Daniel the black character 

I haven’t seen an enormous amount of people in the fandom wanting this change, I think one blog is dedicated to it? I’ve mostly seen interest and support for casting a POC as Akasha, since that casting in movie!QOTD was pretty widely praised. I see people talking about considering casting other characters as POC, but I don’t see anyone other than Akasha as being the main character of interest for that. 

One could criticize that choice as being bad, as it could imply that POC/Black women are villains, bc she was a villain in that movie. That’s not the message I took from that casting choice, but one could easily argue that that was a message being sent (and therefore, Bad representation, even though she was cast as a character in a position of power).

when for so many years, a goodly bulk of this fandom has only attributive Daniel as having any value to the story when he’s attached to Armand, or made him the butt of crazy jokes. 

“for so many years” covers decades of time, these books have been around since 1976. Reflecting back to when I started in this in 1993 (which was already almost 20 yrs late), I can’t say that any character has escaped being the butt of crazy jokes in all this time, and with the nature of shipping, many of the characters seem to only have value when attached to other characters. 

Re: shipping: it seems like ships are more prevalent in fanworks than fanworks portraying the characters on their own, and so it may give the impression that fandom “prefers the characters as part of a ship,” but personally, I think of shipping as the collision of 2 (or more) characters, to see how they’ll interact: in happiness, sadness, anger, all the different ways! Writing about a ship can allow a fanartist/writer/etc. to explore how each member of the ship will react in

actions/words/etc.

to the other’s actions/words/etc. So I can see how you might get the impression that “Daniel only has value as being attached to Armand,” but I think it’s more about how Daniel presents himself when he is with Armand, that’s what the fanworks are exploring.

Along those lines, however you interpret that ship, the bulk of Daniel’s post-IWTV “screentime” was in QOTD, with Armand, and after that, Daniel doesn’t get much action in canon until the more recent books (but even then, not as much as in QOTD). As the fandom does tend to ship Daniel with Armand, and plenty of it that I’ve seen (especially in fanart) is somewhat fluffy, again, I can see why you might get the impression that “he’s only valued when attached to Armand,” but really, I think Daniel/Armand shippers are fascinated with the dynamic of that ship. It’s rarely fluffy in canon. So some of them make fanworks for wish fulfillment, and that’s valid. 

Personally, I don’t think Daniel’s only value to the story is when he’s attached to Armand, but again, he spends most of his time in canon with Armand, maybe that’s why the fandom doesn’t tend to write him on his own time separately. 

Re: being the “butt of crazy jokes”: As a side note, when we joke about characters, that’s not to say that that’s always a negative act. Look, we’re currently dragging Lestat bc he said IN CANON that he loved being called a “slut,” which is really more of a layered commentary on shaming people for enjoying sex/intimacy, and he refuses to be shamed for it, he’ll turn around and take it as a compliment instead 😉

I’ve been in this fandom for over 20 years and I don’t think Daniel has gotten the worst treatment in those terms, it seems to me that there have been waves of love/interest/disdain/mockery of most of the main (and side) characters at different points in time, and from different groups of fans. So that may be your experience, and that’s absolutely valid, but I haven’t seen it that way. Of all the characters, I think Lestat probably gets the worst of being the butt of crazy jokes and he likes it bc bad attention is better than no attention.

It seems awfully suspicious to me that the “best’ character” to be cast as a POC is the one so many have considered the throw-away one. If that doesn’t speak volumes, I don’t know what does.

I’m sorry, but I have to disagree here, too. I wouldn’t say he’s a throw-away character for the whole fandom. There are Daniel RPers. As I’ve mentioned, it happens that he doesn’t have a lot of action in canon other than in books 1 (as just the interviewer, but it counts!) and 3, so the fandom does not have as much canon to work with as they do for other characters.

And again, re: the fandom choosing him as “the best character” to be cast as a POC, that seems to be Akasha, from what I’ve seen. 

Relevant to this discussion: there was a wave of love for Nicolas a few years back, for the same reasons, I think, that  @mendedpixie7 felt about Adam in Only Lovers Left Alive:

The reason I love Only Lovers Left Alive is it shows that a character (Adam) can be severely mentally ill, in this case depressed and suicidal, and still be seen as lovable and capable of being loved and loving in return without being “cured” of their mental illness, and that a mentally ill character can have other attributes aside from being mentally ill while still showing the impact being mentally ill has on his personality.

Adam from OLLA is an extremely important character to me you guys.

Similarly, I think people would love to see a character that they care about, like Daniel, be cast as a POC as being POC is often portrayed negatively in media. Fans of a POC being cast as Daniel would want (I’m paraphrasing from above): 

to see

Daniel

showing that a character can be POC, in this case black, and still be seen as lovable and capable of being loved and loving in return, and that a POC character can have other attributes aside from being POC while still showing the impact being POC has on his personality. 

Daniel Molloy from VC is an extremely important character to me you guys.

I need some atmospheric vampire romances really badly! Canon or AU as long as neither character turns into passive, thoughtless pawn devoid of personality. Can you recommend some fic please? Thank you!

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Hello! I’m sorry I’ve held your ask for 2 days, I was thinking about this and trying to come up with a good answer, but you’re probably better off with an answer from @gothiccharmschool, @annabellioncourt, @fyeahgothicromance, @forthegothicheroine, @sanguinivora… if anyone wants to answer @radiatorfromspace about this, please do!

Re: canon or AU, I’m not sure if you’re looking for fanfic or published fic. As far as published fic, tbh I don’t really read other vampire series than VC 😛 I used to read Christopher Pike and Poppy Z. Brite but I barely remember them now. I never actually read Dracula (the h0Rr0r! I am a terrible vampire fan) but from what I understand, it would have the atmosphere you want but may have characters that turn into passive, thoughtless pawns devoid of personality. I think that may be why I’ve struggled to get myself to read it, that’s not my thing, either.

As far as fanfic I mostly read VC fanfic, and I can’t say that any of the fics I’ve read do that to our characters… in canon we do have some vampires who go into a kind of sleep/vegetative states for periods of time (called “going to ground,” and sometimes involves them actually burying themselves and staying underground for years), and one might say that fledgling!Nicolas was a passive, thoughtless pawn devoid of personality when he was first turned, but he snapped out of it when given the right stimulation. So I think sometimes that state is temporary if it’s incorporated into fic.

I also struggle to pick out authors of fanfic bc I can’t think of one that has both the atmosphere and the vampire romance… I feel like most of my fave authors spend SOME time on atmosphere but more time on the characters’ interaction, dialogue, the plot, etc. Our series is pretty heavy with purple prose so we tend to use it sparingly in fanfic.

IF YOU REALLY WANT THAT ATMOSPHERE YOU’LL HAVE TO GO OUR SOURCE. I’d suggest that you read Interview with the Vampire or The Vampire Lestat and JOoooooOOoooooOIN US! ❤ [Me: attempts to steal a very talented fic writer from their fandom into ours]

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^It’s a movie but worth mentioning bc I think you’d like it: Only Lovers Left Alive is, in my opinion, an example of an atmospheric vampire romance without shoving the romance down your throat; it’s subtle, but it’s there. Also:

  • Although the characters are pretty sedate most of the time, neither character in the central ship turns into a passive, thoughtless pawn devoid of personality. 
  • I think this would appeal to you bc there’s a lot of tenderness, with a good dose of silliness, too. 
  • It’s got a good mix of spooky + pretty aesthetic, being set in crumbling Detroit, it shows the beauty of things that might look run-down and of little value at first glance. 
  • BONUS: It stars Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as the main ship and they are A++++ 
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^Similarly, there are two adaptations of novel Let the Right One In. I didn’t read the novel, but have heard great things about it, although it is darker and scarier in nature than the adaptations. The first of the 2 adaptaions has the same title as the novel and I think it’s the better of the two. The second one, the American version, is called Let Me In. 

While it’s not a romance between ADULTS, it’s got atmospheric vampire action and I would say that it might fall under a YA kind of romance feeling. I’ve read some of your fic and I really think you’d like this bc it has a lot to say about giving/receiving care, being vulnerable, and those first feelings we get about “I love my friend so much and I am afraid of scaring them off by letting them know, I want to be closer to them but not at the cost of hurting them.”

I hope that helps, again, anyone is welcome to comment/reblog with reccs for @radiatorfromspace!

Since it’s stated that Armand and Louis drift around the world until the 1920’s, I like to think that Louis probably had his own little moments in the 1940-50’s, probably collecting records in the privacy of his own chateau… But like?? If Lestat was there wouldn’t it be obvious he’d be the fashion snob to that era?

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Oh definitely! And I think you’re right that Armand and Louis would have had their own little moments throughout the time they were together, the art, inventions, social progress, etc. of the early-mid 20th century… there would have been highlights for them, they would have taken little mementos or made records of these times* :,)

I think there’s a reason AR chose to have Lestat effectively sleep through that time period

(”sleep” isn’t quite right, as he was more or less conscious but he was basically in his own little bubble, hiding from the world, buried in comic books). There’s no way Lestat wouldn’t have gained notoriety of some kind if he’d been his usual, confident, glittery-murder-machine self! I think she wanted to skip to the era that fashion and art and all that had really reached a peak that it had been steadily growing towards, and then she would be able to slam it at Lestat in the avalanche that he expresses it is in TVL.

I mean, (skipping over the 1940′s bc WWII, and the world beginning to rebuild itself from war**) the fashion of the 50′s would have been very appealing, the music, the inventions, the art…

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^Lestat would have LOVED Elvis’ music, and his iconic pink Cadillac, for sure. Aesthetically, that car was so organic (while also having a touch of space-age smoothness!) and sensuous curves, and the color being so unashamedly bright and joyful following such dark times re: WWII, it was a triumph of the human spirit. I pick this car as iconic of the ‘50′s bc I think it was part of the zeitgeist of that time and had international influence.

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^And Elvis’ outfits (which got progressively more glamorous ok Lestat would have copied inspired ALL THOSE LOOKS)

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^And then of course James Dean and the Bad Boy/Greaser appeal ;D 

Lestat being underground through all this kind of reminds me of the whole god-of-the-grove thing that Marius described the druids imposed on their captive vampires, that the periods during which a vampire rests underground, malnourished, absorbing the world above in a dream-like state, are as natural and cyclical as having autumn & winter precede the vitality of spring & summer. When Lestat rose up in the mid-80s the world was a more vibrant place in many ways than when he’d gone to ground to hibernate, and he was ready to take it all in and join it.

A few more thoughts on all this under the cut, cut for length.

**I had to skip over the 40′s bc I think AR had Lestat out of the picture then for the general policy that she doesn’t address current political conflict in VC.

War is an abstract in the books and I don’t blame her for choosing not to have any of her vampires visibly suiting up for human wars. It would be a complicated thing to tackle, to say the least. How do you explain to your superiors that you have to sleep all day and can fight all night?! How do you choose which side to fight on when you’re providing such an unfair advantage in your preternatural abilities?

That’s partly what the whole confrontation with Akasha in QOTD was about, the VC vampires stating that they have no right to participate in mortal conflicts since they aren’t mortal anymore, and I have to agree on that. Daybreakers had vampire soldiers and idk if that really worked out all that well, I’d have to watch it again to have a proper opinion but I remember it feeling very cringey the whole time I was watching it 😛

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^AR acknowledges that Lestat was reading comics from the 1940′s, and I’m sure he had his fave actors like Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart, and fave actresses (you KNOW HE LOVED JOAN CRAWFORD AND BETTE DAVIS LIKE C’MON). And it seemed like those comics helped to get his spark of lust for life back, he wanted to be the Good Guy he saw in those comics. I’m not well-read on those, but from what I understand about them, the Good Guy made mistakes, and was not necessarily all that civilized all the time, but he tried to be good, and usually succeeded. And he looked good doing it 😉

*Louis/Armand for 100 years: This was probably somewhat like what Armand later did with learning about the world with/through Daniel, but I think Armand held back with Louis for many reasons, partly bc it seemed like Louis/Armand was so fragile. Armand learned that holding back like that can weaken an already tenuous connection (what good did all that holding back really do for either of them?) so I think that’s why we see Armand being more outwardly curious/open-minded with Daniel; the reward for revealing yourself is that you give a person more reason to stay with you, as much as it is the risk of giving them more reason to leave you, but that’s partly how you strengthen the relationship ❤

How do I make a character’s death really sad? (For a VC fic.) (-Memnoch, The Devil.)

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I think there are many ways to make a character’s death really sad, and bc we can all have different feelings about a given character, any individual reader will be very sad about the death, when another reader might be totally indifferent (or even glad!). I’ve only written fanfic myself, and I know what makes me sad when I read/write character death, that’s about as informed as I am on the topic, DISCLAIMER: I’m not a professional writer and this is not professional advice.

💀 Some things that come to mind re: making a character’s death really sad: 💀

  1. How they die, 
  2. How preventable their death was, 
  3. How other characters feel their loss and/or the loss of their potential, 
  4. And how much that character meant to the reader/audience, did they like the character?

I don’t know what specifically you’re doing in the Memnoch timeline… I won’t use any examples of deaths from that book in case of spoilers (Idk sometimes I’m more respectful about spoiling ppl than other times *shrugs*)

In IWTV, it was a very sad death when Claudia died. It’s portrayed differently in the book(s) and the movie, but I’m just going to address it re: the points above generally and drawing from both.

1. She died by sunlight exposure and it seemed extremely painful. 

Louis would not have seen it, so he can’t describe the moment of her death in the book, but it’s shown in the movie. Leading up to the death, the tension builds and builds, all these moments where Louis, Claudia and Madeleine are hoping for Armand (or some other deux ex machina) to swoop in and save them all. It doesn’t happen. Probably one of the last shreds of hope they had was when the troupe pull Louis and Claudia apart, from that point on, he can no longer protect her ;A; 

As it was so painfully underscored in Claudia’s Story, the last name Claudia hears Louis call for is “Armand,” bc calling her name won’t do them any good. But to her, it feels like a final betrayal, that he’s calling for Armand bc he cares more about him ;A;

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Claudia and Madeleine get locked in the well, and when Claudia sees the sunlight approaching, she’s already starting to cry, trying to wake Madeleine to try to figure out a way out… there is none and then they can only brace themselves bc there IS NO ESCAPE ;A;!! The acceptance of their own deaths is part of the tragedy.

It’s a pretty universally nightmarish situation, even though sunlight is not fatal for ppl (most, anyway), but we can all relate to the experience. It’s like being pushed onto subway tracks and not being able to escape in time ;A;

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2. Her death was a failure in diplomacy, basically. The Theatre des Vampires, led by Santiago, held a kangaroo court (although they may have felt that they were within their rights) in which they found Claudia guilty of attempted murder of her maker, and decided to punish her with the death penalty. 

Louis tried to protect her from it as best he could, he tried to make a deal to save her life, but failed. In the book:

“ `Listen to me, Lestat,’ I began now. `You let her go, you free her… and I will… I’ll return to you,’ I said, the words sounding hollow, metallic.

3. It kills a part of Louis when Claudia dies. His immediate reaction is extremely sad (not even factoring in the revenge he takes after).

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I have a more thorough commentary on this scene here. It’s in this moment that Louis has lost the most precious person, the one who’s told him what to do, someone he could worship and follow, someone who metered out his doses of happiness with her approval. In the movie, he calls her “my child,” Armand tries to correct him: “Your lover,” and Louis compromises with “My beloved.” 

In the book, the next night, Louis finds Lestat clutching Claudia’s bloody dress and sobbing over her death, too. Even though he was the very person who testified against her! Even he could not prevent their “justice.”

“And then I saw the thing in [Lestat’s] hands. I knew what it was. And in an instant I’d ripped it from him and was staring at it, at the fragile silken thing that it was – Claudia’s. His hand rose to his lips, his face turned away. And the soft, subdued sobs broke from him as he sat back while I stared at him, while I stared at the dress. My fingers moved slowly over the tears in it, the stains of blood; my hands closing, trembling as I crushed it against my chest.

Louis was expecting Claudia to go on and live with Madeleine, that he would still be in touch with her and see her occasionally. So that potential continued relationship was destroyed, too ;A; 

4. What did Claudia mean to the audience/reader… 

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I know I sympathized with her and very much enjoyed her overall, and I like to think that other readers/viewers agreed, and don’t totally blame her for her actions against Lestat… after all, she was a victim herself. Lestat doesn’t blame her when he speaks of her in canon. We saw the love they both had for her ❤

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Is that enough to convince the readers/audience to care enough for her that her death is sad for them? All those factors help!

~💀I hope that helps, Anon! Now make us cry!💀~

I’m up for Daniel being Black in the adaptation. His race isn’t mentioned specifically in the books, and we need diversity in an ocean of white Eurotrash fops! I don’t see any reason why not and Bryan cast the lead in American Gods as black so I’m hopeful to see some good changes in Anne’s work. What do you think?

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I have to say I’ve never gotten a race casting suggestion quite like this before! So this is a first ^_________^ It’s especially appropriate to answer it on MLK Jr. day here in the U.S., when we reflect on the progress we’ve made and how far we still need to go in pursuit of an equal society for all. 

EDIT: @firelight-fading had given us The Vampire Chronicles Facebook Interview **Recap**(5/4/17) in which we got this info:

  • Some characters may change where “ethnicity is flexible” 
  • Anne and Chris agree that POC being casted are important and will be considered in casting. The Millennial vamps (older gang) will most likely be largely POC.

  • Marius was played by a black man in the musical and Anne thought he did a great job. Marius can be any ethnicity so long as he’s half Roman. She’d prefer to have Marius as blue eyes and blonde haired like Lestat but it’s “not imperative for him”.

  • Anne and Chris to be inclusive, but will always focus more on how fine the actor is. Talent is needed to get the role, not just looks.

TL;DR #1:

You might be right about Daniel’s race not being explicitly stated in canon, and if it were up to me, I would be open to considering a POC to be cast as Daniel, or other characters. Any adaptation provides a chance to improve on canon the way fanfic/fanart do 😉

TL;DR #2:

However, casting Daniel as a POC may introduce racial considerations that AR & Co. are not capable of addressing well, especially during the mortal!Daniel/Armand time period (1975-85), a decade in the U.S. when interracial relationships were still somewhat taboo. Since we have our fair share of racial issues now, too, whether

AR & Co.

shift the Modern Era to now, or leave it 1975-85, racial issues would still need to be addressed.

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[^Everyone loves John Boyega and he would cost a bazillion dollars to cast in anything now, but I saw him in the movie “Attack the Block” years ago in which he’s more like Daniel to me, and I think he was great in that, dealing with packs of

weird

roving aliens, and I think he’d do well with

weird roving

vampires! So yes, as a casting suggestion, Boyega would be my first POC choice for Daniel.]

BTW @shomacsalami had posted a suggestion for an R&B musical of Vampire Chronicles you might be interested in:

  • Usher as Lestat
  • Drake as Louis
  • Willow Smith as Claudia
  • Elle Varner as Armand  
  • Trey Songz as Marius
  • The Weeknd as Nicolas de Lenfent
  • Kelly Rowland as Bianca Solderini
  • Miguel as Daniel Molloy
  • Nicki Minaj as Akasha
  • Ciara as Pandora
  • Janelle Monae as Maharet
  • Rihanna as Madeleine (my addition ^u^)

An adaptation is a director/showrunner’s vision for the canon material. It’s like an official fanwork. Some changes to canon in an adaptation are for the better, but “better” is subjective, of course. We tend to consider the opinion as objective when the majority agrees on the change being “better.”

  • Claudia was aged up by about 6 years for movie!IWTV, bc they couldn’t find a child close to the canon age who could act better than Kirsten. For that role, I think the performance was more important than the canon-compliance, and her being closer to achieving physical maturity made her more tragic ;A;
  • Armand was aged up and physically very different, the director may have wanted him to be more convincing as Armand-the-oldest-living-vampire-in-the-world to audiences who had not read the books. Many fans of the books STILL DO NOT LIKE this change.
  • Claudia’s Story was an official VC graphic novel, since by nature it was from Claudia’s POV, some of the narrative from IWTV was altered or removed entirely. Was it for the better? I felt like we got a better understanding of Claudia’s character, so maybe it was, but for me, it relies on and coexists with IWTV, it’s a slightly different story.
  • Movie!QOTD changed many things from canon, including making Akasha visibly a POC, even though she is described in canon as being white from age and *handwaves* AR’s vampire physiological reasons. I think many ppl would agree with me that that change was definitely for the better, but many of the other changes in that movie? Not as good, but some ppl love that movie and/or consider it nostalgic. 

So could a POC Daniel be good for the adaptation? I can’t pick a side so I’ll say: Possibly!

Hit the jump for more, cut for length.

1) You’re right that we don’t have much diversity in canon 😛 This casting could add a new dimension to the Armand/Daniel ship that wasn’t there before. According to Wiki:

Interracial marriage in the United States has been fully legal in all U.S. states since the 1967 Supreme Court decision that deemed anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, with many states choosing to legalize interracial marriage at much earlier dates.

Daniel meeting Armand in 1975 would mean that interracial marriage had been fully legal for less than a decade. From 1975-85, their “courtship,” I think it was a time when interracial relationships were still somewhat taboo in society, at least in the U.S., and it still is taboo in some places in the U.S. and around the world. So that would need to be carefully addressed. Or they could change the time period to be more current, but I would say that we have different race issues now that would need to be addressed, no less pressing than in 1985. 

2) Anne, Bryan*, Chris**, & Co. may not be equipped to handle racial issues very well. Anne has gotten criticism from fans, at least from what I’ve seen here on tumblr, that when she writes POC she “fetishizes” them. I haven’t fully accepted that term itself, but I can agree that AR often writes POC in a way that treats their superficial qualities as being overly sexy and appealing. I think she tries to address – but may not quite grasp – the deeper racial issues that could be addressed, but writing about POC issues is also something I am not well-educated about, so I wouldn’t know how to improve her writing of this subject matter.

Here’s an example of how she describes her POC characters, this is Davis, a black vampire in QOTD:

Davis was a black Dead guy and one damned good-looking black Dead guy, as Baby Jenks saw it. His skin had a gold glow to it, the Dead glow which in the case of white Dead guys made them look like they were standing in a fluorescent light all the time. Davis had beautiful eyelashes too, just damn near unbelievably long and thick, and he decked himself out in all the gold he could find. He stole the gold rings and watches and chains and things off the victims.

Choosing a race for a character whose race might appear open-ended in canon to make them Good Representation, could pose the risk of Bad Representation.

*I don’t know the American Gods series and I haven’t watched the adaptation, or heard reviews about the casting of a POC person specifically, so I don’t know if that’s a sign that it was a widely-agreed upon successful change to the canon material.

**Similarly, I haven’t read any of Chris’s books so idk if he even has POC in them.

I know Louis kills indiscriminately and kills anyone who crosses his path. So if a lost child happens to cross his path or a bunch of punk preteens or teens would he kill them?

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I had to think about this one for awhile, bc my immediate reaction was to defend Louis and say: “Oh no, our sweet bb Louis wouldn’t kill a child! Nor a preteen or teens! He may not choose guilty from innocent but surely a teen and under would be safe from him??!” 

But he’s NOT a sweet bb. He’s a vampire.

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Louis killed Claudia, or attempted to do so. More on that in a bit. The only further explicit reference we have re: his killing methods in canon is in QOTD, when Akasha states that he kills “without regard for age or sex or will to live.“ and since she can read his mind and Louis does not correct her on that statement, I would assume that she’s pinned him accurately.**

(**Note 1: in the scene at the end of book!IWTV (which we still don’t know if it actually happened or not, bc unreliable narrators), Louis takes a baby that a young vampire brings to feed to Lestat, and returns it to its home: “I returned to the small house from which the vampire had taken the child, and left it there in its crib.” So maybe BABIES are safe from Louis!)

(**Note 2: Louis accepts the offer of taking a bite of Denis, Armand’s mortal preteen/teen pet at the Theatre des Vampires, not knowing if Armand intended him to kill this offering or not, but in the book, Louis takes it without any resistance and Armand takes Denis back before Louis can finish him BC HE MIGHT HAVE.)

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TL;DR #1: Yes, I do think Louis would kill a lost child/preteen/teen, and I think that the circumstances of such a choice could be worth exploring in fiction. 

TL;DR #2: I think it would be unlikely for Louis, on his own, to kill one member of a group of ppl of any age, for the practical difficulty of killing one of them w/o the others noticing and causing a scene. I think this would make his kill more difficult than necessary, as Louis kills perfunctorily, only exerting the amount of time and effort required to satisfy the need:

“I would let the first hours of the evening accumulate in quiet, as hunger accumulated in me, till the drive grew almost too strong, so that I might give myself to it all the more completely, blindly.

“…I lingered only a short while, long enough to take what I must have, soothed in my great melancholy that the town gave me an endless train of magnificent strangers. 

“For that was it. I fed on strangers. I drew only close enough to see the pulsing beauty, the unique expression, the new and passionate voice, then killed before those feelings of revulsion could be aroused in me, that fear, that sorrow.” (IWTV)

^If his killing style had changed since then, I think he would have mentioned it to Daniel during the interview.

It also begs the question whether he would kill the elderly, people with disabilities (mental, physical, etc.), and other types of people whose defenses are lowered to some degree, and I think “indiscriminate” applies to all of those categories. Yes to all, Louis kills indiscriminately.

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TL;DR #3: Claudia is a child Louis kills (well, attempts to kill) in canon, and her similarity to Anne Rice’s daughter (who died at the age Claudia was turned) was very likely the reason for Anne writing IWTV in the first place. Through the characters in IWTV, I think Anne asked the questions to get the answers to exorcise her demons regarding that loss. Fiction is a safe ground from which we can examine and lance the pain we have experienced in real life and release it, and in sharing the story, we might give others a catharsis, too. I think this novel’s rich exploration of these difficult issues is part of what has made it so beloved by her readers, we can relate deeply with her story in our own ways and feel a catharsis from her explorations. 

There are parents who outlive their children bc of these early-childhood diseases (and other reasons) and they have to find a way to go on living, and even trying to be happy again. I’m sure Anne will always experience pain from this loss, but through fiction, she may have been able to achieve enough closure to go on living her life.

I think Anne’s answer for herself at the end of writing IWTV was, “Neither you nor your daughter, nor anyone else, were being punished. Michele was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”



Hit the jump for more, cut for length.

1. “So if a lost child happens to cross his path would he kill them?”

A) I think that Louis feels like he, personally, shouldn’t judge who should die, and that therefore ppl who cross his path of any age are fair game. Louis was very Savage Garden about it before he was aware of the concept. In the Savage Garden, tigers can’t really be held responsible for killing the young, infirm, or elderly of their prey. Vampires are not human, even though they were once human, and some seem very human still… some of them hold themselves to human laws and morality about killing, but some of them do not. 

B) If a child is lost at night without a parent or guardian, if the child was as abandoned as Claudia was, I think Louis would probably still kill them. It could be considered a case of the child being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After all, it would fall under the Savage Garden concept, they’re at risk of more than just being Louis’ dinner. Louis is just another risk out there, maybe scarier because you might be able to reason with him where you can’t with, for example, a virus or a tiger.

C) is for CLAUDIA: While it’s true that Claudia didn’t exactly “cross his path,”

Louis was drawn to her cries and she was a lost child, abandoned by her parents. Her father had left, her mother was dead, and she was defenseless. Claudia might have already been sick with the plague, or might have died from starvation. 

One could argue that Louis killing her was more merciful than the slow death she might have suffered if no one had found her ;A; There are situations where death is more preferable to suffering. We don’t know whether she could have been saved from death if brought to the hospital in time; even a hospital and the best medical care is not a guarantee that a life will be saved.

Louis was filled with guilt and shame when Lestat found him with Claudia, and I do think that Lestat turned Claudia to take that guilt from Louis. At that time, this was Louis’ first human kill in years, and Louis might have committed suicide for the guilt of having killed an innocent child if Lestat hadn’t “given her another life.”

2) So if a bunch of punk preteens or teens

happen to cross his path

would he kill them?

As far as “a bunch of punk preteens or teens,” Louis still would not judge them, even though society tends to think less of “punks” for disrupting the peace, vandalizing property, or otherwise purposely causing trouble. So I don’t think they would be targets for Louis specifically because of their “punk” label.

Louis would

probably not be interested in a group of any type or age (even a group of violent middle-aged bikers would be safe!); as it would be difficult to kill one of them in the presence of the others without creating trouble. He goes for people who are out on their own. I don’t think he’d want to go to the effort of coercing one away from the pack.

It’s not canon but I would think Louis can share kills with other vampires now, and he would be able to do so more stealthily with another vampire or two with him, if they wanted to take down more than one victim together, any age.

3) Re: Claudia being Michele Rice: I think that Louis’ attempted killing of Claudia is the major impetus behind IWTV being written in the first place. Anne Rice lost her own daughter at the age Claudia is turned, and Anne was going through the pain of that loss, asking why it happened to her daughter. Had Anne been an irresponsible mother? Was it God’s punishment for Anne (and/or her family) failing to be a devout enough Christian? Was her daughter being punished for some crime?

Was it Satan?? Was it a case of a bad thing happening to a good person? 

To my mind, IWTV’s real cornerstone, on which the rest of the story was built around, Anne Rice created muses through which she could ask these questions and try to get the answers.

Anne said she modeled Louis after herself, but he also represented Death. Anne wanted these answers:

  • Why did Claudia die?! Bc Louis killed her.
  • Who’s this Louis monster and why did he have to kill her?! Well, he’s a vampire, that’s what they do.
  • Ok… But why did Louis have to kill an innocent child specifically? Bc he was a vampire who had been sustaining himself on animal blood for years. and he was in a state of malnutrition and extreme desperation, and this child was nearby and defenseless. She had done nothing wrong.
  • Also, Louis felt terrible for this, even though he admits to Daniel that the act itself (as all blood drinking is to vampires) was pleasurable. Louis does not bring it up to Claudia herself until she began to rebel and demand answers. 

So I think Louis battling with his religious upbringing, whether he was from the Devil, and having so much guilt about killing all victims (especially Claudia!) was a release for Anne, bc she could empathize with the entity she created who killed her child.

If the murderer himself felt guilt over it, that may have helped Anne achieve some measure of peace.

I LOVED your last post about Lois! It’s a great reminder of canon characterization as too often fanon has casted him as a beautiful, frail flower destined and carried by Lestat’s will. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s a trope Im not fond of. I love that he knows he’s beautiful and he lowkey manipulates the fuck out of people and that he isn’t a delicate pretty face, like you said, he can still cut a bitch! He’s equally if not alot more dangerous than the rest.

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[Anon refers to this post] Merci beaucoup! <333

[It’s a great reminder of canon characterization as too often fanon has casted him as a beautiful, frail flower destined and carried by Lestat’s will.] *nods* Yep. 

I think we can blame movie!IWTV for some of that fanon, bc he’s shown at his weakest in that movie, when he was struggling emotionally about vampiring, and the film also emphasized his appeal to other characters (like the scenes where Santiago is stroking his hair while deciding his punishment, and when Lestat literally sweeps him off his feet with the first bite), and the film took a number of important BAMF-moments/lines from him (like the one I mentioned in that post). Consequently, there are fans who base their headcanon of him mainly on the movie interpretation, even after they’ve read the book(s), since it left such a strong impression for them.

[I love that he knows he’s beautiful and he lowkey manipulates the fuck out of people and that he isn’t a delicate pretty face, like you said, he can still cut a bitch! He’s equally if not alot more dangerous than the rest.]

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^YEP. In his speech to Madeleine about her wanting to be a vampire, he acknowledges “Do you find us beautiful? Magical?” He knows how he appears to mortals and other vampires. He’s calling her out on her request as being flimsy and uneducated, that she is completely out of her depth and has no idea what she’s really asking for, it’s not just a makeover! 

We use the word “manipulative” on tumblr as having a negative connotation, and I wouldn’t say that Louis manipulates for nefarious purposes. I think he’s tactical. He wants to keep the peace in this scene:

“I wish you would play the music,’ I said softly, unobtrusively, but as persuasively as possible. Sometimes this worked with Lestat. If I said something just right he found himself doing what I’d said. And now he did just that: with a little snarl, as if to say, `You fool,’ he began playing the music.” (IWTV)

I don’t think Louis finds himself particularly attractive, I think when he calls himself handsome in IWTV, it’s his acknowledgement that others find him attractive; it still baffles him that they do. He absolutely recognizes it as a tactical advantage, he just doesn’t explicitly preen about it like Lestat does. No need 😉

Hit the jump for a little more re: the “frail flower” trope, under a cut for respect to the anon bc I this anon isn’t fond of it.

As you mentioned, you may not be fond of it, and that is absolutely fine! It’s not for everyone. I know I can’t read those trashy romance novels at the supermarket. They’re unappealing to me. But I get that they have an audience, bc they’re still there, still selling!

With Louis, other than all those loving descriptions of him from other characters, I think it’s worth noting that there are truly very few canon moments wherein he’s a *~a beautiful, frail flower destined and carried by Lestat’s (or whoever else’s) will,~* yes, it’s that damsel-in-distress, bodice-ripper kind of trope. Is it as effective if he’s always pursued and never caught? I think some readers, like myself, need a bite of carrot now and then. It’s a subjective thing. We should be glad AR hasn’t turned him into the smut vehicle so many other characters became *sigh*

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[^X by @spockemon] 

It’s a fantasy to be carried off by some angelic stranger, it’s been around since ppl have told stories. We can identify with Louis, or we can identify with Lestat, both sides of the fantasy is appealing in its own way. In shipping them, you get to have both. So I understand the appeal, but again, it’s not necessarily for everyone. Not everyone likes shipping, period, and that’s absolutely fine, too!

heyyy yy i’ve been out of the fandom for a while but i heard a new book about lestat and atlantis has been published. now, i don’t think i’m going to read it since i was pretty disappointed by the previous one so, could you please give an honest opinion on the book, if you’ve read it?

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Hey, welcome back! 

Indeed, we have Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (PLROA). It’s the most recent book. We’re expecting at least one more installment after this one, no date has been given yet. 

  • @bluestockingcouture — Ok I can’t phrase this very well, but tumblr won’t let me tag them, so I made a link to my reblog of their post in which they share that they wrote a 1,800 word review of PLROA that quotes Rousseau, so you might want to check that out on goodreads. (spoiler cut is there)
  • Here’s another by Kirkus Reviews 2016-10-19. (spoilers in full view)

To be honest, near the end of PLROA I had to put it down bc it was about to launch into a monologue from a new character who I don’t really feel much affection for, and so I still haven’t finished it, but I am thoroughly spoiled as to what happens bc I love being spoiled. 

There were many moments where I smiled bc it reminded me of the way the characters behaved in earlier books, there’s some development as to their current status, there’s some great little moments between them, and I think it’s worth reading for those gems.

I’ve always been able to read VC and cherry pick the things that I like (a good chunk of dialogue here or there, or something that seems to give more clarification to the established world/characters, etc.) and I have a flexible headcanon, so I can accept or not accept things based on the fanfic I’m reading, too, depending on what canon it relies on. 

Having said that, PLROA feels very much like what would happen if one novel you were working on needed life support and you added your much more popular character(s) into it as a means of rescuing it. 

“I was working on a novel called Born for Atlantis, and I just couldn’t get it to work. I thought, “What if I could somehow combine this with Lestat and the vampires?” And it was like, everything worked. Something happens to me when I write from Lestat’s point of view. There’s no question about it. By the time I was done, it felt inevitable, like it always had been…. It was a rare experience.”

^Anne Rice, Entertainment Weekly (August 5, 2016) [X] I’m glad that she shared that with us, because it explains why she brought these things together. Even if she hadn’t admitted as such, I think we would have been able to piece that together. 

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Some things are good on their own, some ideas can be brought together and the result is wonderful alchemy! But I think in this case, it felt like someone had dumped a river of ketchup on an icecream sundae. PLROA might count as what the fandom used to lovingly call the Vampire Crackicles.

Back then, we could have a good time, even when canon was wild. We could make fun of Lestat being a huge baby about his foot size in Blood Canticle:

Seldom did I see my feet in black socks. I knew almost nothing personally about my feet. They looked rather small for the twenty-first century. Bad luck. But six feet was still a good height.

Or, also in Blood Canticle, Lestat fixated by ice cubes:

…the sparkle in the ice cubes, the Miracle of the Ice Cubes.

^Our old familiar canon Rice Caps! Why can’t these things be funny anymore?

Or are the wacky things in PLROA too wacky to even find endearing? We do tentatively joke about PLROA, but not as robustly as we did over those older Vampire Crackicles. Maybe in a few years we’ll be more vocal about it, bc there will be even crazier canon. Lestat goes to Mars! Lestat ages backwards like Benjamin Button! Lestat accidentally destroys Alaska! 

So IDK, I always recommend that ppl read the books before they judge them, but I think it’s easier to enjoy the wackiness if you can take it less seriously. 

Why does most of the fandom like Armand? (I’m on Memnoch The Devil, and I know what the next book is) He cut off Nicolas’s hands, killed Claudia, and kills suicidal people. (I’m not trying to shame anyone, I just want to understand why.)

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It seems like you have sort of made up your mind about him, Anon, listing those crimes 😦 If you don’t like him for those reasons, or any reasons, you are under no obligation to change your mind, but I appreciate that you want to understand why ppl do like him.

If you’re on Memnoch then you know most of Armand’s story, and you know that Armand’s book follows MtD. His book goes into his story more deeply, and from his own perspective, and I think that’s part of what ppl like about him. His narration is different than Lestat’s (most of the books are Lestat’s POV or his recording of what others tell him), and I think some Armand fans are just glad to get out of Lestat’s head!! lol. 

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[^X Bjorn Andresen, a fan fave as Armand]

In TVA, you get more detail and scenes from Armand’s mortal life and fledgling life, and some of what follows. You get how he feels about seeing Lestat in MtD and a moment of intimacy between these two alpha personalities who have had a simmering competition between them since they met.

Some ppl find that Anne Rice has done Armand a disservice in his own book by having him claim any amount of agency in what happened between him and Marius. That’s up to the individual reader to decide, what they think of that relationship, regardless of what the author’s agenda was when she wrote it. 

I do think some of the things Armand says in TVA are

somewhat

exaggerated because he is telling the story to David, who was flirting at him really hard in the beginning of that book, and I think Armand wanted to remind David that he’s not the cute bb 17 year old he appears to be, and not to mistake him as such. So the scene describing Claudia, I’m not sure I trust Armand that he really did anything to her other than do nothing when the other vampires of the theatre put her in that sun-well-thingie.

I wouldn’t say that most of the fandom likes Armand. I think that certain characters have waves of popularity, and some are talked about more than others at any given time… there was a period about two years ago, I think, that ppl were all over Nicolas, discussing him, theorizing that he might have survived, etc. 

Tom Hiddleston is talking about Loki here, I think, but the concept is captivating, and it applies to Nicki and Armand:

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[ Tom Hiddleston quotes Josephine Hart, gifs from here X]

Nicki seemed to be one of the only canon characters that explicitly had a mental illness, and that was during a time on tumblr that ppl were being more open about having mental illness and identifying with fictional characters who also had mental illness.

We are drawn to characters who have traits like ourselves, and/or those that survive, and overcome obstacles when they are faced with challenges like our own.

I think Nicki also represented some of the disillusionment ppl were feeling about the world at large at the time.

It might be that Armand has taken on more of that role, some fans also headcanon that Armand has mental illness(es) and he can also represent fans who feel disillusioned about the world at large, since the world has been so cruel to him. 

More on all that later*, so I can address the other part of your statement now.

He (1) cut off Nicolas’s hands, (2) killed Claudia, and (3) kills suicidal people. (I’m not trying to shame anyone, I just want to understand why.)

^Ok, I’m going to address each of these things, since you want to understand. I’ll take it at face value that you’re not trying to shame anyone for liking a fictional character who does those things. 

Whether you want to agree with my explanations is entirely up to you. If you judge him by human, real-world standards, yes, each of these things is maniacal and horrible. So my explanations are for FICTION.

NO CUTS WE LONGPOST LIKE MEN.

^I have to stop doing that I’m going to get in trouble.

First off, I would like to point out that I don’t think canon indicates that he takes pleasure in any of those things individually, except for the normal pleasure of that last one, vampires love feeding, there’s no getting around that 😉

(1) He cut off Nicolas’s hands, 

This seems like fairly standard vampire punishment from a coven master. @damnitarmand, an Armand RPer, responded very well to this question, I’ll reblog it momentarily.

Armand may have been trying to help Nicki in the ways he knew how. Armand had been a coven master for hundreds of years, dealt with madness from many ages of vampires, maybe this was something that helped in other cases. It could be seen as cruel from our mortal standards, but maybe that was considered a reasonable form of treatment for vampires.

Eleni writes to Lestat in TVL: 

“[Nicolas] must be watched constantly so that he does not enlarge our ranks. His dining habits are extremely sloppy. And on occasion he says most shocking things to strangers, which fortunately they are too sensible to believe.“ In other words, he tried to make other vampires. And he didn’t hunt in stealth. “In the main it is Our Oldest Friend [Armand, obviously] who is relied upon to restrain him. And that he does with the most caustic threats. But I must say that these do not have an enduring effect upon our Violinist.”

“…I tell you these things not to haunt you but to let you know that we do our utmost to protect this child who should never have been Born to Darkness. He is overwhelmed by his powers, dazzled and maddened by his vision. We have seen it all and its sorry finish before.”

^So clearly, Armand does everything he can before punishing him so viscerally, and Nicolas really was getting out of control. Eleni even notes that Nicolas is not taking to vampirism very well and would never have been turned by the coven, they’ve had hundreds of years to learn about who can handle it and who can’t, and they have their own system of psychological care, such as it is.  

When Armand does take his hands, yes, it’s bc

Armand

has been pushed to being “maddened by the excesses” of Nicki! Not maddened for nothing. There is no indication that Armand takes pleasure in it. Further proof that it’s a standard punishment is when Eleni explains to Lestat that it’s temporary:

“It has come to the worst, as I feared. Our Oldest Friend, maddened by the excesses of Our Violinist, finally imprisoned him in your old residence. And though his violin was given him in his cell, his hands were taken away. But understand that with us, such appendages can always be restored.”

^So for all of the above, I don’t consider Armand’s cutting off of Nicki’s hands as a crime but as a merciful thing that’s standard procedure, albeit probably a last resort, for restoring vampire sanity.

(2) killed Claudia, 

^Armand tried to get Claudia a new adult vampire companion when he pressured Louis into turning Madeleine. Armand even admits to Louis that he himself takes the responsibility for Madeleine:

“ `But if it’s any consolation to you … surely you realize I had a
hand in it.’
” [Armand said]

`That I did it to be free of Claudia, to be free to come to you …
yes, I realize that. But the ultimate responsibility lies with me!’ [Louis] said. 

“`No. I mean, directly. I made you do it! I was near you the night you did it. I exerted my strongest power to persuade you to do it. Didn’t you know this?’ Woe.

I bowed my head. 

‘I would have made this woman a vampire,’ [Armand] said softly. `But I thought it best you have a hand in it. Otherwise you would not give Claudia up. You must know you wanted it…

“ `I loathe what I did!’ I said.
” `Then loathe me, not yourself.’

^To me, Armand’s plan was to have Madeleine take Claudia off of Louis’ hands, so that Louis could still communicate with Claudia but not be responsible for her anymore. 

I do think that the theatre vampires, led by Santiago, had other plans in mind, and that Armand had to cut his losses and let them kill Claudia since they were bloodthirsty for it. It’s exciting to kill vampires, as Santiago has said. Armand probably knew also, as a coven master, that it was a crime to turn a child anyway, and that she would have died at some point anyway (she might have even taken her own life). 

(3) and kills suicidal people.

^In canon, yes, it’s described as Armand calling to those who wanted to die. Whether they could have been saved by actual medical care, or psychological therapy, I don’t think that’s addressed in canon. So here you might have an actual crime, of him killing innocent ppl who are consenting to death but not really capable of consenting to death.

This is his approach to the dilemma of being a vampire and needing to kill ppl on a regular basis, there’s a few options for doing it in canon:

  • Take lots of Little Drinks, if you’re capable of that, and not kill anyone, but spend like 3x the amount of time every night having to find that many more ppl to feed from. For awhile, it seemed like Louis wasn’t capable of this, since he gets so caught up in the swoon that he can’t stop. He might be able to now, tho.
  • Kill evildoers – bc “they deserve it anyway!” and you’re “protecting the innocents!”, but you still have to struggle to find the ones that deserve the death penalty, do drug dealers deserve to die for selling pot? In TOBT, Lestat kills someone who’s a serial elderly rapist/murderer, one would think that evildoer is evil enough to deserve the death penalty, but everyone is entitled to a defense attorney under U.S. law. 
  • Kill indiscriminately, anyone who crosses your path, and don’t judge, bc they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time – Louis’ method bc he won’t judge evilness, lacking the Mind Gift but also, he doesn’t think he should be making that choice.
  • Kill innocent ppl – not very nice but some vampires do that. Claudia did.
  • Kill ppl who want to die as a form of assisted suicide; they are consenting to death – Armand is doing this, at least mentioning it in TVL and again in TVA. Medically assisted suicide is a very controversial thing but it is legal in some countries, and it reduces the prolonged suffering of terminally ill ppl. From wiki: “The three most frequently mentioned end‐of‐life concerns reported by Oregon residents who took advantage of the Death With Dignity Act in 2015 were: decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (96.2%), loss of autonomy (92.4%), and loss of dignity (75.4%).”

Armand’s killing method described in TVL:

[Armand] had perfected the act of
killing beyond the abilities of all the Children of Darkness that he knew. He
had learned to summon those who truly wished to die. He had but to stand near
the dwellings of mortals and call silently to see his victim appear. Old,
young, wretched, diseased, the ugly or the beautiful, it did not matter because
he did not choose. Dazzling visions he gave, if they should want to receive,
but he did not move towards them nor even close his arms around them.
Drawn inexorably towards him, it was they who embraced him. And when their warm
living flesh touched him, when he opened his lips and felt the blood spill, he
knew the only surcease from misery that he could know. It seemed to him in the
best of these moments that his way was profoundly spiritual, uncontaminated by
the appetites and confusions that made up the world, despite the carnal rapture
of the kill. In that act the spiritual and the carnal came together, and it was
the spiritual, he was convinced, that survived. Holy Communion it seemed to
him, the Blood of the Children of Christ serving only to bring the essence of life
itself into his understanding for the split second in which death occurred.

I think Armand’s assisted-suicides were mostly emotionally-driven, I don’t think canon goes into much further detail about it. I would think that Armand is killing ppl who are truly beyond saving, and the time period in which he’s doing it is not one that handled mental healthcare the way we do now. So at that time, that was probably not considered a crime, but a mercy killing.

Currently, his decision to kill “those who wish to die” (and possibly, he influences that on them), yes, he might be killing innocent ppl who might have had a chance at living otherwise. 

Armand in TVA, more modern-era, is now killing an evildoer/drug addict: 

Now I had to have blood. There was no time for the old game, the game of drawing out those who wanted to die, those who truly craved my embrace, those in love already with the far country of death of which they knew nothing.

…The next [victim] was a common desperate youth, full of festering sores, who had killed twice before for the heroin he needed so badly as I needed the doomed blood inside him.”

We don’t have as much information on whether he’s more of a “kill the suicidal” or “kill the evildoer” in current canon. In the TVA example above, the victim has killed “for the heroin,” so he’s an evildoer anyway.

*SO WHY DO PPL LIKE ARMAND??? O____O

Why do ppl like peanut butter? Or not like it? Some ppl are allergic to peanut butter. There are so many reasons to like a character! 

We’re drawn to characters for any number of reasons!

I think this current crop of tumblr VC fans is talking about Armand more bc he is also a victim of CSA, has undergone an enormous amount of trauma in canon, and survived it, even becoming a coven master in the cult that brainwashed him for centuries. It’s inspiring to see a character carry the weight of all that damage and seem to overcome it and, even, become strong and confident, and even happy, at least sometimes. There’s no denying there’s a lot of sass in Armand. 

Maybe fandom wants to embrace him and comfort him and give him all the happiness they would want themselves to have. It’s easier to project it onto a fictional character, and see it reflected back when you imagine him, in fanart or fanfic. 

Imagining Armand enjoying himself, exploring technology with Daniel or playing videogames and elbowing Lestat to try to mess him up on coven game night, all of his past is still inside him but he’s trying to make the best of things, trying to have a family, such as it is, trying to find his purpose in life. Isn’t that what we’re all looking for? A home. And I think we like to see characters like ourselves find home and feel wanted, at least some of the time.

Do you have any writing tips? I’ve just started writing Loudtat fanfiction, and I’m not that good at writing. Is there any do’s and don’t’s?

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Hmmmm well that’s really tough! FIRST OF ALL to quote @monstersinthecosmos on a similar post: 

Dude! Just write some stuff. 😀 😀 This is a teeny little sleepy fandom and it is so thirsty for more content, just do it! You can do it! We all want you to write fic!!!!!!

…Fanfiction is awesome to flex your writing muscles a bit and get some practice in, and it’s helpful because it invites attention and feedback. It’s also easy to apply flash fiction or drabbles to fanfic because we don’t need exposition and backstory. Like, yeah! WE GET IT, WE KNOW! Quit dicking around and just jump into the story, we already want it! This is so valuable when it comes to just getting WRITING done and you really don’t even need a plot. You can elaborate on the teeniest mental images, headcanons, goofy or angsty situations, and that’s all it has to be! No one expects it to win a Pulitzer, it’s okay if it isn’t perfect!

In fact!!!!!!!!!! It shouldn’t be perfect! And you are not going to get better if you do not start somewhere!

I still get really nervous when I post fics and I doubt my abilities BASICALLY CONSTANTLY ALL THE TIME LOL but good and bad feedback are imperative to honing your craft and learning your strengths and finding things to fix. PLUS LIKE, it can really help to motivate you if you get some people on your side who like what you’re doing! Like I am consistently sappy and overwhelmed by the response to my fics and it’s what keeps me writing. 🙂  🙂  🙂  🙂

Anyway idk man, here’s an ungraceful dismount to my post lmfao but, listen!

Write! Do it! Share it with us we are thirsty.

^*APPLAUDS* Rules are made to be broken. Write the way you want! I had a teacher who told me that to begin a sentence with “And” was blasphemy, illegal. punishable by DEATH practically, but I know Anne Rice does it OFTEN, in published fiction, so that teacher was wrong. Maybe she was just trying to start us off with the rules so we could then break them. Probably that.

BTW I’ll reblog a really good graphic I saw once that described different types of fanfic.

So my advice?

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Even though I write fanfic myself, I have my own tastes about it. Writing fic is an art in itself, you’re creating smtg, like sculpture or cooking, and as such it’s very subjective. There are courses taught on writing in schools at all levels, books written about writing, so while I can’t give you a thorough and objective answer in a short blog post… I can give you this much and NO CUTS WE LONGPOST LIKE MEN.

For me, writing is about 1 or more of these basic setups, sometimes combined and interwoven:

  • (a) presenting a problem and exploring it,
  • (a) presenting a problem, exploring it, and (b) offering a solution,
  • (a) presenting a problem, exploring it, (b) offering what the author feels is a BAD solution and (c.) showing the consequences of that bad solution.

^That’s all you really need. Everything else is in service to that. Even the fluffiest fanfic has some issue, even if that issue is just, “What shirt am I going to wear tonight?” Mundane, probably, but hey, it’s still a decision that needs to be made! 😉

~My-own-taste-based advice on writing fanfic~

  • Fluff tastes better with at least a dash of angst, Angst tastes better with at least a dash of fluff, etc. A friend of mine took a cooking class and was told that salt brings out the flavor in other ingredients. I definitely think that corresponds with fic. I’m not saying to use every ingredient at your disposal, but in an angsty scene, can you toss in one character trying to placate the other by doing smtg fluffy, idk, bringing them flowers? 
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^X A flower offering might get rejected by the recipient in the scene (or it could provide ammunition!), but just the act of doing that can enhance the scene by so much. I MEAN LOOK AT THIS PICTURE. Is there not a rich story here??

  • Use epithets sparingly. PLEASE just use their names if you don’t want to use their gender pronouns. I can’t tell you how far it kicks me out of a fic when I see “the elder vampire” or “the brunette” so many times in close proximity bc it fixates the reader on those characteristics, which generally have nothing to do with the scene itself. YES I KNOW SHE’S OLDER/YES I KNOW HER HAIR IS BROWN. SO WHAT?? Even when it’s two characters of the same gender in a scene alone together, your reader can usually figure out by context which “he” you mean when you write: “he reached up and touched his shoulder” One way to do it is by leading with one of the characters in the para, so it’s clear who’s doing the actions in it, ’[Name 1] tentatively went in for a hug. He reached up and touched his shoulder.’ In the next para, the other character can take over the action. ’[Name 2] batted the offending hand away. “Don’t touch me!”’
  • “Said” is not a curse word. Go ahead and use other words for “said,” but too many ‘“Oh!” she cried’ ‘“Oh!” she moaned’ also kicks me out of a fic bc I become more aware of the writer sitting there trying to impress me. “Said” is just a notification that it’s a spoken word, let me breeze past it, it’s okay, really. Don’t let your “said” substitutes do so much of the work that the words of dialogue should be shouldering.
  • Purple prose when it matters. A fic with all dialogue and little descriptive details can read like a report. If you’re going for that, good! But purple prose adds texture and helps immerse the reader. Readers don’t need it in every para and every line of dialogue, it tends to slow down the action. It can be used to great effect, maybe describing the interior of a room gives a nice pregnant pause in the dialogue to increase the tension. Just don’t drown the reader with it unless you’re doing it for a reason.


To return to my earlier point, What is the purpose of your fic? Even if you’re just aiming for the fluffiest fic, I feel like it gives it a little extra substance if there’s some underlying thing/moment you’re exploring. 

I did a fic about Louis, Lestat, and Claudia getting ready for Halloween, but I also included some exploration of Claudia getting upset and missing her mother, and that led to her being informed that Louis and Lestat also missed their own mothers. It’s one of those defining but subtle moments in everyone’s life, when you realize your parents were also children with parents of their own. So the fic was not just about the premise “dressing up for Halloween,” but what other things that could stir up, and what we can reveal about the characters whether or not it was explicitly given to us in canon. In this instance, we didn’t get this in canon, this was in the interstices of canon.

Anon, start slow, dip your toe in, look at fic you love and try to figure out what makes it so good for you! Don’t be afraid to fail.

I’ve collected some somewhat more objective things in my #on writing tag, so you might try there, but again, those are things that I probably agree with, too 😉