A question only I can answer?! Pffffft, that would be true only if I was Anne Rice herself. Although really she ought to deputize me as one of her fandom spokespeople, my VC obsession has made me such a great resource for the fandom!
1. Does Louis just not care that she put a “fix” on him or does he still not believe her?
In his letter, Louis says that she admitted to bewitching him:
“No talk from Merrick of her potent spells can excuse my actions, though in fact, she does indeed claim to have brought me to her with magic I cannot understand. What I understand is that I love her…” – Louis de Pointe du Lac, Merrick
I think that as he writes this, he feels love for her, but he knows it can’t be real love. He must feel tricked at some level, why else commit suicide right after making a loved one into a vampire? If he really loved her, he would want to stay alive and be with her. I think he’s chosen death because he knows what he did was wrong and rather than just adding another vampire to the world, he’s taking himself out, so there’s no change in the number of vampires ;A;
2. Is that spell still there?
I think Louis is still bewitched as he writes his letter, but it’s probably worn off to some extent in the process of his resuscitation. It has definitely worn off by the time he is himself again, but I think at that point he has to consider Merrick with some natural love, because she is his fledgling and there will always be a bond there. The Dark Gift is probably the most intimate experience a vampire can give/receive.
3. And why does Lestat react so nonchalantly to it, as if it was funny rather than a bad thing? Shouldn’t he be a bit more…I dunno, jealous and pissed?
Lestat has just woken up again, cut him some slack! He’s disoriented! “With an awkward step, as though his body, so long unused, revolted against him, he made his way closer to Merrick,”
Lestat also often goes into a kind of emotional and physical paralysis when such devastating things happen. It happened when he was mortal, too. The humor that follows is also a defense mechanism against feeling the pain of the situation.
He knows that there will be an opportunity much later to get jealous and pissed, but in the immediate aftermath his thoughts are narrowed to the emergency and how to save Louis ;A;
I’m not sure why he insists on sharing his blood with Merrick, though. That seemed to condone her trickery too far for my tastes, but I suppose he did it because he saw that Louis still loved her. Making Merrick more of an equal was a gift to Louis.
Or, perhaps he wanted to drink from her to experience her side of the story, without any of her witchery, and sharing blood with her was an excuse to do that.
garama‘s fanart is a great illustration for this answer bc when you compare these two relationships, there are similarities, but you can see very clearly that there are almost 4 characters here: mortal!Nicki, mortal!Lestat, vampire!Louis, and vampire!Lestat. The 2 pairings physically resemble eachother, but there’s alot of deeper stuff going on that’s described by those poses.
“…but if I did have to choose, the companion would be Louis. My longest most enduring friendship and love affair in this world was with Louis. And though his limitations can be maddening, they can also be as inspiring to me as his virtues… the best choices we make are not always the wise choices. Sometimes they are intensely emotional choices. And I’ve always had a deep Romantic respect for emotion. My love for Louis transcends wisdom. And I may need the pain as much as the consolation that an eternal relationship with Louis would involve.“
I’m inclined to agree with Lestat on that. Lestat would choose Louis over everyone. They have an inexplicable chemistry that binds them hopelessly together.
Do you really want my full opinion? Hit the jump.
Nicolas was Lestat’s first real long-term relationship at a time when Lestat desperately needed love and nurturing and wanted to give it back, too. Nicolas is the first person who really listened to him and they both helped each other immensely.
Lestat was a different person when he was with Nicolas; quite literally! They were mortal lovers, and they were in their early 20s, they went through alot together in escaping from their homeland to Paris, and thrived there. Their relationship was horribly shattered when Lestat was kidnapped from their apartment, and things were never the same between them after that happened. Even aside from that, Nicolas revealed that he had a different mission in life than Lestat did:
“And when we decided to go to Paris, I thought we would starve in Paris, that we would go down and down and down. It was what I wanted, rather than what they wanted, that I, the favored son, should rise for them. I thought we would go down! We were supposed to go down.” – Nicolas de Lenfent, TVL
So even in your Alternate Universe suggestion that Lestat could be with Nicki again, I don’t think that relationship could ever really work, because deep down Nicolas and Lestat always wanted different things out of life.
Lestat was about 31 mortal yrs old when he met Louis, and he had grown and experienced a lot. He was more mature, more in control of his emotions. He saw vampiring as being a great adventure and he saw the potential in Louis to be the companion he always wanted. He was right. Louis has been one of the strongest vampires in the coven, without needing to display it in physical feats of strength, but in emotional ones, and in the choices he’s made.
omg mine is your favorite? *flails* Thank u! If u love this blog, u love the VC fandom by default.
My fave VC changes over time. When I first started, I was definitely more IWTV, I identified with Claudia, and then Louis. It wasn’t until later that I switched over to Team Lestat. Claudia is very nearly the biological daughter he probably would have had deserved, in a mortal Lestat AU!
When I reread the books now, I see different things than before, now that I’m older. I can see the parenting perspective better now, for example.
I feel like someone just asked me my fave recently and I think I said TVL, bc it’s the one that’s stood the test of time the most for me, probably.
Least favorite also changes over time. I’m a very generous person tho, I can find beauty and salvage elements/quotes/scenes from books, movies, etc, that I otherwise don’t like as a whole. Same is true for VC. Lots of gems tossed in amongst the later canon that you’ll only really appreciate if you excavate them yourself ;]
I wouldn’t call it disappointing per se, but I admit that I didn’t really enjoy Blackwood Farm, I’d say that was my least favorite, consistently. It’s almost a stand-alone novel. Probably the reason I don’t like it as much is bc it’s almost a stand-alone novel.
“The rest of the comic is an interesting look at the French Quarter of New Orleans, but mostly it is a chance for Ennis to parody the Anne Rice style of vampires by contrasting them with his vampire, Cassidy…
The result is some strong parody work (although I thought that the Neil Gaiman jabs were a bit much – I’ll feature them as a Meta-Message very soon) and really, a compelling story about what happens when you, for lack of a better phrase, “buy into your own hype,” as the other vampire gets into the idea of being a vampire far more than he should.
I-want-my-IWTV 