Dear anon, this is an impossible question to answer a simple “Books 1-4″ or “Books 1-3, and then 5″ or such and so forth…
… as some ppl refuse to read Prince Lestat, or a bunch of the other books, won’t even give them a chance not that they all deserve a wholehearted chance necessarily…
Most of the fandom, in my experience, have had different gateway drugs to the series. I love collecting stories of how people first got into it (#I love these kind of stories tag). They first saw movie!IWTV or movie!QOTD and then read the corresponding book, or a friend gave them a random one from the series, or someone donated the whole series to them, etc. From there, some people read in order, some people skipped around.
PERSONALLY, I first started with IWTV and at that time (1994) the movie was out but being rated R, I was too young to see it, so I read the books that were available at the time (1-4), in order. I also snuck over to a friend’s house to see movie!IWTV when it came out on VHS (I’M OLD), which we watched repeatedly, and it attained this *~forbidden-fruit~* sort of connotation for me which has never dissipated.
Then I continued and just read the books as they came out. Hard to imagine, but there was a time when we waited, not knowing when the next book would come out, or if there would be another at all. AR originally intended to end the series at Memnoch the Devil, which is probably why it ends like this:
“Let me pass now from fiction into legend.
THE END
9:43 February 28, 1994
Adieu, mon amour.”
THAT SAID, if you want to make VC fanworks (including fic, meta discussion, fanart, etc.) or do VC RP, it seems to help if you’ve read at least IWTV, TVL, and TVA (TVA might spoil previous events in canon but it’s really THE authority on Armand)(and read some fanfic!).
I think those VC contain the crux of the fan fave characters (Lestat, Louis, ((Nicki)), Gabrielle, Armand, Daniel, Marius) and scenes that have had alot of impact in developing the main characters. Your fanworks/RP will be richer if you know the background of the characters, because you’ll be able to refer to the events, or quotes, or take them as a jumping-off point in your work.
However, in the later books, you get new info, new characters, and new perspectives on previous events (example: Claudia’s diary entry in QOTD is heartwrenching).
lestat is a delightful and infuriating protagonist. the part in TVL where he loses his shit when marius shows him the king and queen is so very endearing (well it’s endearing if you’re not armand i guess)
Totally endearing! Armand is kinda charmed too but he would never admit such bc he jelly that Marius told/showed ‘Stat stuff Armand didn’t seeee
I actually don’t watch it enough to say I’m a real Fannibal but I’ve seen some. I loved the Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Rising, and Red Dragon. Lestat and Hannibal could make a great Murder Brothers team.
Lestat would take the blood and Hannibal could take the bodies. Nothing wasted!
Bonus 1: (Lestat gifs are mine, Hannibal gifs by lecterings)
I could write a thesis on this. DON’T WORRY I WON’T DO THAT.
(BTW, if you’re just looking for music reccs, I have a VC fanmix, fanmix, and music tag for that)
First of all, you have to consider when are they listening to music? It can be solitary or social…
Armand ~
♫
Enjoys gathering a small audience and hiring live musicians to play complicated classical pieces. Or asking that vampires who can play things come and entertain them. He still loves Sybelle at the piano, even better that her repertoire has expanded beyond the Appassionata. Antoine has played lively duets with her.
Otherwise, Armand throws on huge wireless headsets while perusing art galleries. He’ll listen to anything others recommend to him, he shares a Spotify account so that anyone can try out his playlist, which has a broad spectrum of musical styles.
Armand is drawn to works that are used in ice skating competitions, oddly. It is a recent obsession.
David ~
♫
Musicals, anything upbeat. Has a love for Spanish culture, Flamenco, like the Gypsy Kings. Without much urging, Lestat will put on makeup and dress up in a Flamenco gown and dance with David in public!
David’s rainy-day guilty pleasure are artists like Michael Bolton, for when he’s home alone, feeling left out of the coven activities.
He also loves Sting; the song that hooked him was Desert Rose, which Marius sent him on a mix-CD because of the Arabic singer, Cheb Mami.
Louis ~
♫
It takes a long time for Louis to warm up to new bands, and he likes a few pieces by Hozier which Lestat added to Louis’ outdated iPod. It’s an older gen model but it still works fine, so Louis doesn’t see a need to replace it.
He prefers pieces without lyrics, ambient works that he can melt into while reading.
The Blade Runner movie that Armand got him to watch the first time made Louis a Vangelis fan and a fan of film soundtracks. He often plays the Gone Girl soundtrack.
Marius ~
♫
Daniel and Lestat have introduced him to alot of modern music. Marius will listen while he paints. Marius is the biggest Hozier fan of the four discussed.
I have to agree with you on that. It’s a very ballsy anthem, a very, “I may not know everything about this world, but when I get knocked down, hell if I’m gonna let it keep me down!”
There’s a mention of a guy in it, and it’s easy to see this as a young and fragile Lestat:
He was no more (He was no more) Than a baby then Well, he seemed broken hearted Somethin’ within him But the moment That I first laid Eyes on him All alone on the edge of seventeen
He’s only ever wanted to be loved, if you look at all the instances of him Doing the Thing, it was in pursuit of that goal. Religion taught him that to be loved, you must be Good. The idea is that Goodness makes one worthy of love, even when his religious beliefs have waned. The trouble is that his formative years were a confusing series of neglect and abuse (with little love from Gabrielle), the first real love he ever really shared was probably with Nicolas. And that ended pretty badly ;A;
So he still struggles with how to love (and not merely possess), and be loved (allow people to love him).
I-want-my-IWTV 