2018 is approaching (three hours more to go where I am, so pls tag your 2018 spoilers) and I decided I want to make a toast.
Not as in toasted bread, of course, the kind of toast with glasses and alcohol. Unless you don’t do the alcohol thing like me, you can have something else. I’m gonna go with sparkling water.
An internet tumblr fandom toast.
I want to raise my virtual imaginary glass of sparkling water (which is quite fancy btw) to all the lovely people in this fandom.
To the new ones and the old ones, to the ones who multifandom and the ones who keep things neat and tagged (teach me ur secrets), to the ones who cosplay I adore you like that lady in the theater, u know, this one
To the fanfic writers, all of you, no matter how angsty the fics get, thank you for taking so much time of your lives to create the things you create and share them with us, I would fight Lestat outside the Palais Royal for any of you and your fics. Like easy peesy, I’ll read out loud one of the heartbreaking ones and bitch will drown in his own tears. Yall savage.
To the fanartists, like, how could I possibly express my feelings for yall, have you seen what yall do???? Like????? Thank you for giving me backgrounds for every single one of my devices, you are all so brilliant and creative and talented it’s insane, and if it were up to me, you are the artists I would put in the Chronicles. Like, Botticelli? Idk her. But have you seen the VC fandom artists tho? Damn. Idk who the renaissance artists are, but they must have used the VC fanarts for refference. Fight me.
RPers. I need to talk about you. Have you all got any idea how hard it is to explain to my friends why am I squeeling like a piglet when I read your scenes? Idk how the things are called but listen, they are wonderful. Like, don’t fuck with me like that man, yall be the vampires for real, there is no other possible explanation to how sublime yall are. That ain’t no roleplay, those are actual Lesty and Lou there. Keep fighting me I can do this all night.
I am grateful for this lovely bunch of kiddos I had the pleasure of running into here at tumblr. I am grateful for the VC Inktober for giving me a reason not to be salty over my lack of Halloween, for the Secret Santas who gave us all so many beautiful gifts in so many different forms, and to all those wonderful people who make it happen! The mods and admins who take the time to organize so many different people and make sure no one is left w/o their present and who also make presents themselves like yall are actually irl Santas and I love you all so much.
YALL KNOW WHAT ELSE I’M GRATEFUL FOR? THE BADASS COVEN OF THE INARTICULATE like I know my tags speak for themselves and there’s literally no way in Hell I can put words to how happy the podcasts make me and like it’s so cool? Four people from ALL OVER THIS BITCHASS WORLD getting together T W I C E a month and making time from their actual irl lives to not only discuss for over an hour about the vampires but also edit the podcast, make sure it sounds right and organizing the entire thing with the topics yall gonna go over and sharing with us your points of view and opinions in this beautiful way bc like, it could have just been a blog with four admins but yall went LOL NOPE and made the PODCASTS LIKE DISCUSSING THINGS WITH EACHOTHER WITH YOUR IRL VOICES listen I am very passionate about COI, I will FIGHT GABRIELLE BARE HANDED AND BLINDFOL… ‘k maybe not Gabs, who fucks with her, but you get where I’m going.
Anyways, this got long. What I’m trying to say is that I’m very grateful and happy that I get to share time with you guys. You are all great. I hope you have as good of a year as I did by sharing it with you.
To another great year with you and many more, to a VC series before 2019 and to you all ❤️
[^Don’t share with him bc Lestat’s pig ok, we all know it]
No but really, I think that’s what shipping is about. You can live vicariously through one or the other of them, and get the best of the whole ship ❤
I do think there’s some truth to the idea of shipping as a way of learning about relationships and in engaging with the characters, who are otherwise just ink on paper and only really exist in your imagination. Lestat speaks directly to the reader, breaking the fourth wall, but he can’t really speak to each individual reader, he doesn’t know your name or anything about you specifically, but it’s a form of intimacy bc you know so much about him. It’s the one-sided relationship of an actor to their audience. He knows he has an audience and he can see faces in the crowd, but he can’t actually have a relationship with a real reader since he’s fictional.
But you can get close to the characters by identifying with them. I can love Lestat for some of the reasons Louis does, and I can love Louis for some of the reasons Lestat does, and in agreeing with them, it’s a form of connecting with them individually. Like we’re sitting at a cafe together gushing about how cute it is when Lestat throws a tantrum over someone (usually just himself) spilling blood on his new Gucci blazer (bc deep down he doesn’t mind that much, he just likes having smtg to throw a tantrum about), or Louis defending his right to making stacks of books in the parlor (bc deep down he likes having an excuse to talk about books in any capacity). That kinda thing.
I think that’s where ppl are really going when they say, “My son” or “My husband” or whatever, about fictional characters, you want to express a form of devotion to them bc they belong to you, too; your vision of them (your headcanon) is truly your own.
So you can have them both, you’re invited into that ship whenever you open a book or read/write fanfic about them, enjoy/draw fanart of them, individually and as a ship!
For those of you who tuned in for our chat on casting in regards to VC TV, here are some of the people we mentioned, and also some people that have been mentioned by various magazines and of course by Anne and POTP.
I-want-my-IWTV 