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Lovely Lestat, as you know Daniel’s transition into vampirism hasn’t been graceful. Do you have advice to any young naive mortals before they agree to take their last mortal breath and join you and others in death?

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♛Advice to “young naive mortals” before they agree to become one of us… 

*laughs* Well, Louis would simply say, “Don’t.” 

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[^X @phantom-evil]

I can’t speak for Daniel’s transition, but from what he told me, what made it into the record that I compiled as the novel Queen of the Damned… he originally wanted the Dark Gift because he fell in love with Louis’ story, and wanted a seat at our table, so to speak. When he met Armand, it became about wanting to be with Armand, made so much more frustrating because of Armand’s struggle to accept Daniel, whether to bring him over.

Then, when that had been overcome, there was Daniel as a fledgling; there are so many physical and emotional changes that happen to a vampire during that time that few of us really experience it as a very “graceful” time. I famously vomited up my own blood and then, in a state of delirium, licked it off the stone floor of a filthy cell full of rotten corpses! Among many other grotesque things that happened in those first nights.* Two exceptions to the awkward fledgling phase: Gabrielle and Claudia, who both bloomed in their own ways, very gracefully, as fledgling vampiresses.

Advice…

One thing is for sure, satisfaction is not guaranteed, ma petite. In every sense of the phrase. 

The process itself is dangerous. It’s called the Dark “Trick” for a reason. Your maker has to kill you first. It’s extremely erotic, but extremely painful. They have to actually forcibly pull your life away entirely – and you’ll fight them through it if you want to survive – and then feed a demon, a kind of cancer, into your body and soul. We still don’t know if it’s contamination or evolution. And it doesn’t always work. 

There are worse things than death.

//ooc: *@gairid​/@vampchronfic​ has such a beautiful and tragic story about another thing Lestat did in those first nights, that you really should read it, We Are Our Own Saviors (Chapters 15-16). #Damn you and your perfect headcanon perfection ;A;

Lestat continues after the jump, cut for length.

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♛The other aspect of being a vampire: Killing. Few people seem to realize how customer-service oriented this lifestyle really is. You’ll have to kill people, or practice the Little Drink (most fledglings have difficulty stopping mid-kill). If you are able to master it, you’ll spend even more nightly time pursuing more victims than just the few that would satisfy you if you killed them. Killing means you have to find fewer, but still, victims. Louis refused to choose, feeling unworthy of making that choice. Could you do it? Really? Or, you can not choose. As he later was able to embrace. Could you do that?

Louis’ practice of drinking animal blood as a substitute for human blood for his first few years, I’m convinced that’s one of the reasons he was so weak for so long. And so cranky! For whatever reason, animal blood is just not as satisfying for us as human blood is, and I would speculate that it has something to do with the difference in souls. Not to say animal souls are lesser; Mojo had more soul than so many humans I’ve met. But there is a difference. So the animal solution is the vampire equivalent of eating fast food, and it takes its toll. 

Those are the main concerns, that young naive mortals should consider seriously before they agree to become one of us. There are many more, but these seem to be required for everyone. Should you be offered the choice to take the Dark Gift, your maker would be having these conversations with you, specific to you, and to them, about other considerations. 

How do you deal with the crippling “emptyness” the lonliness? My life was moving at 90 miles an hour and it seemed as if it came to a complete halt because of personal reasons. Maybe if I became one of you I’d heal and and feel useful once again.

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(ooc; Not sure how serious you are, but, Reminder: if you have already taken something or done something to harm yourself please call 911. If you haven’t done anything and if you’re thinking about suicide, please talk to the suicide hotline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) in the U.S., to find a suicide helpline outside the U.S., visit IASP or Suicide.org. Please read Suicide Help.)

♛My dear, I’m so sorry to read this message. My heart aches for you.

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[X by @gifsfortc]

There are times when yes, the loneliness overtakes me. I do feel emptiness at times, moreso in those times I was betrayed by the ones closest to me. Not to revisit that… but the emptiness you are describing seems to be a deeper one than what I experienced. Again, my heart aches for you.

Sometimes solitude is needed, just to get to know myself once again, so that I can return to my loved ones.

Because that’s really the answer, at least for me, time spent with your loved ones has healing properties. Do you have any pets? Or know anyone who does? I’ve found that rolling around with a sizable dog (or several!) can also cure me of many of these gutwrenching feelings, those insidious negative voices that creep in. The healing power of dog cuddles may not be complete but it is still substantial.

If you don’t have anyone you can go to, there are professionals out there who can help. One group is called the

Samaritans. 

The Dark Gift is not, generally, a quick fix. You bring yourself with you, and all your own experiences, all your own baggage. It enhances who you already are, for better or worse. I found that out with my beloved Nicki. Knowing what I know now about him, would I still give him the Dark Gift? I desperately want to say yes, but I don’t think it “fixed” him. Not by a long shot. It made him into another version of himself. Purified him. It seemed to release him from his life-long act of being a civilized person, which he detested. 

In the absence of everything else I’ve suggested, one other cure: Stories. Read. Watch movies. Listen to music. Eat your favorite foods. Read my first book again, and see how I dealt with obstacle after obstacle, take inspiration from my example. Or, and I can’t believe I’m suggesting this: read Louis’ book. Know that he experienced similar feelings to yours. He survived it. 

You are not alone. Get the help you need, or cure yourself, or both! Validate yourself if no one else will. Care for yourself as if you were your own best friend. There were so many times when that’s all I could do for myself, for years. Decades, even. If I had given up, at any of those times, I would not be here to offer you this: I survived. So can you. 

If you had the choice, would you become a vampire?

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Yes I would like to vampire plz!

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[^Portrait of moi by the amazingly talented @vaciel, it’s a WIP, I hope they finish it someday]

(Let’s assume I don’t get to choose or stay w/ my maker, and I don’t get to choose to be w/ the VC characters bc then this answer would be impossibly long. I’ll respond to those aspects in separate posts if anyone is interested.)

What would I do with my immortality? SO MANY. Vampiring: I would probably be the slayer of the evildoer, following in Lestat’s footsteps, but I’d also want to try wild animals like his mom does… I would write all about it, for sure. Every power and every limitation. The killing part of it would probably be tedious some nights and I would complain about having to go to those seedy places for my victims, and I would probably get into situations that would be somewhat out of my control and get shot in the back and I’d come home and complain about it even louder while my mom, a doctor, extracts the bullet fragments and stitches me back up and says “I told you so,” in so many words. “What, what did you tell me, Mom?” “Be careful what you wish for, obviously.” idk if I would turn my parents but it would be hard not to bc I love them.

We’re assuming I figure out the financial aspect bc currently I do not spend enough time and energy on that… I would need a good cash flow to support my adventures and artistic pursuits. I’d commission artists of all kinds, I’d maybe put together a studio collective, let ppl work at night with me or they could work during the day, I don’t really mind, as long as their work gets done. Probably have multiple projects of different kinds going on at any given time.

I wish I could say I would work on social justice causes, and maybe I would. I wouldn’t want the kind of exposure that might make me a target though, so if I did try to make the world a better place, it would be through my studio’s works, or financial support, or some other private way.

Emotionally, I would need a companion or two, so I would immediately turn my best friend into a vampire, she can have it now or wait until later but she does not has my permission to die. I have other friends I would want to bring with me, but I would be very selective, bc you’re stuck w/ these ppl for eternity, or they go mad and suicide, or the Dark Gift doesn’t work… soooo, I’d be picky about them.

Anne Rice Facebook livestream breakdown

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firelight-fading:

firelight-fading:

Today, Anne Rice had two livestreams on Facebook, the first as a general Q&A and the second specifically related to the Vampire Chronicles television show. Part way through the second livestream, the video glitched and I missed a minute or two, but overall this is what I had.

I’ve divided the information into 3 sections and highlighted the most important or interesting things she mentioned in my opinion):

Anne Herself

  • Anne wants to assure fans she is the ONLY one who answers and sees emails sent by fans. She tries hard to view all of them
  • She also reassures that shes been trying to read as many comments given on Facebook as possible and to consider them
  • In her writing process, she can’t do all-nighters anymore; her books about Christ were the last time she really did this
  • She
    loves how people in New Orleans love life and celebrate it. She misses
    New Orleans terribly. She notes, “Lifestyles [down there] are inherited and have a
    beauty”
  • She reads more non-fiction than fiction and constantly
    takes notes from them, especially about archeology (which she loves:
    “It’s like eating ice cream for me! I love it so much”)
  • She
    says she no longer identifies as a Christian, but still has a love for
    Jesus and what he has done for her, such as helping her solve problems and beyond that
  • She has some new announcement coming soon not concerning the vampires
  • She feels this is the age of the nerd where
    readers’ opinions are most important. Says she has always taken us the readers seriously and wants us to feel appreciated. She appreciates our
    power and what we have done for the series.

The Books and The Characters

  • *spoiler* There is NO certainty Mona and Quinn are dead. This is just what Lestat believes.
  • She went through the pronunciations of characters’ names
    • Marius is pronounced like Marius in Les Miserables
    • Mekare is May-care-ee, but thinks other pronunciations are beautiful too
      • (And I think as a fandom we’ve come to agreements on everyone else’s names. She went by the names fast!)
  • Anne says she sums up the story of the chronicles as “how badly Lestat wants to be the hero of his own life”
  • She appreciates fans pointing out mistakes in her writing since she wants to be as accurate as possible, especially when it comes to history/time periods
  • When
    asked about the taste of blood/how it functions, Anne says blood is
    like every kind of drug- it’s sex, alcohol, drugs, everything
  • She
    writes a TON of notes since she occasionally forgets when/how certain
    things are mentioned, such as how the Savage Garden was introduced in
    the novel (which she no knows as something that occurred during Our Conversation with Nicolas and Lestat)
  • The name “Talamasca” came from a book on old witchcraft she found
  • Lestat’s
    name was a “blunder” rather than a “eureka” moment. His name was NOT
    based on her husband Stan intentionally. She was trying to look up old
    french names.
  • The transformation process of human to vampire (after getting the Dark Gift) is a little slower than how the IWTV film portrayed, but close in Anne’s mind (she truly appreciated how the film went above to stay close to her own visions and her work)
  • During his time with Louis and Claudia, Lestat attempted to give answers
    that would “keep them alive” rather than actual answers, knowing that he
    couldn’t reveal what he knew due to what Marius had told him     (essentially, not just answers that he thought would satisfy them but that he thought would carry them on by themselves…which worked in my opinion)
  • There were several questions
    about Gabrielle and Becket commented about how Gabrielle is a fan favorite before he introduced the questions:
    • Anne says Gabrielle is cold, but admits that she loves Lestat yet at the same time doesn’t need him.
    • She does not see Gabrielle as
      autistic (she laughed at this question which really irked me :/ )
    • She will not write about a memoir from Gabrielle’s point of view since
      she wants Lestat to stay the focus of “the tribe” and she’s done with
      writing those sort of side books.
  • Lestat’s main concern right now is “keeping the tribe together”
  • She wants to continue with exploring some of the newer characters, Fareed and Seth were mentioned as a part of this.
  • Anne
    has an “ambivalence” towards Louis and she loves him since he
    represents an old part of her, but this is also the same reason she has
    trouble going back and writing for him, because she feels she is now a different person
  • She
    appreciates that there is no “real” consensus on what is the best/worst
    of her books amongst the fans (though Memnoch was her first example for
    worse soooo 😏)
  • In some ways, how Amel speaks to Lestat is a metaphor for how Lestat speaks to Anne.

The Television Show

(Casting)

  • Armand will NOT be played by someone around 14, because of the long filming process and how it will age the actor. She acknowledges fans want someone young for Armand but feels it
    will be too difficult to use     (um, hello Anne, CGI??)

  • She thinks Cate Blanchett would be a wonderful pick for Gabrielle.
  • Says
    the looks are most important for Lestat, Louis just has to be beautiful
    (lol)
  • She really cares about the appearances of the cast and their availability to do about 5-6 years of filming

(Chronology and Production)

  • She
    thinks she will not go through network tv, so the home to the show would be Amazon,
    Hulu or Netflix.
  • She feels the show won’t be as violent as Game of Thrones but wants that
    integrity and style, and that “authenticity” to the books that Game of Thrones has (So for the rating,
    I’m guessing she feels around M?)
  • Anne wants to be true to the books and what the fans want to see (in regards to characters and plot points)
  • She appreciated
    the commitment of the team for the IWTV film and wants to keep up to that standard. She does not want unreasonable changes and compromises
  • Chronologically, she wants to begin with TVL with Lestat as a young man.
    • Feels around the 2nd/3rd season is where IWTV would start
    • The books are long, so it will not be a one season / one book situation.
    • It
      will begin chronologically, so it won’t be Lestat reading IWTV and THEN
      starting with his story as a response, it will start in France as the
      events happen       (I was hoping it would be the former…)
  • No Mayfair witches in the show
  • Characters who are introduced later, but existed chronologically earlier like Benedick and Magnus, will be put earlier in
    the show
  • The Talamasca will be heavily involved “eventually” in
    the series, possibly earlier on. Related to this, she wants to tell the
    history of her vampires and those entities.
  • She
    wants to definitely (so badly) cover the scene where Lestat is being
    turned “stage by stage…” meaning him being in the tower and having
    realizations about his strength after drinking the blood. Also, how he
    turns Gabrielle (possibly wants to have a young actress to play
    Gabrielle and have her human age appear through makeup so the transformation will be more dramatic)
  • Louis’ story WILL be told, but the show will be mostly from Lestat’s POV
  • Anne hopes the show will go into production before the end of this year. Around 2018
    is when it would come out
  • Anne and Chris have had a lot of interested companies already looking into
    developing the project (but she doesn’t want to reveal who is talking to them since it “wouldn’t be fair”)
  • She isn’t sure if the show will break the 4th
    wall. She acknowledges that Lestat does it in the books, but she feels
    she would have to stick with it for the entirety of the show and that
    would be difficult (so it sounds like mostly a “no” but she’s considering it)
  • Christopher
    and her are currently outlining around 5 seasons (estimated) for the TV
    series. They are also writing drafts for the first 4 episodes

Clarifying a few notes for everyone since they were brought to my attention:

Casting Armand: Anne said she wanted to do this chronologically as the events happened in the books, not as the order the books come in. When we are first introduced to Armand, yes, he is 17, but his story in The Vampire Armand begins when he is 14/15 (when he is kidnapped and before he meets Marius). She mentioned something about the later half of the first season or the second season being dedicated to Marius telling his tale to Lestat and the history of the vampires, so, based off her suggestions, it was implied TVA would also be a part of this (maybe expanding a viewer perspective to outside of what he tells Lestat)…
Or maybe she totally forgot his age, but she said “14” in the stream, so that is what I wrote down.

The lengths of the seasons going along with the books: Anne said it would depend on how many episodes there would be per season. I guess she’s thinking of shorter lengths of episodes and seasons to focus solely on certain plot points? It’s a bit odd. I think one book = one season could definitely be do-able, however…

I think with the production quality she wants in the amount of time she wants it, I think her goals are unrealistic. I have other thoughts about what she said, but I will keep them to myself unless asked. That being said, if anyone has questions or concerns, feel free to send me an ask and let me know

Also adding, from @firelight-fading, just so it’s all on one post:

Here is the Youtube video of the first Q&A

Here is the Youtube video of the second Q&A, specifically related to the television series

If there is anything I missed in my highlights post in regards to these two videos that you would like to bring up / discuss, feel free to mention it in a reblog or in the comments section.

Thanks ~

If the scene didn’t take place at all how did Louis get such an accurate description of Lestat’s condition? If I recall correctly Armand mostly spent time with Lestat after he and Louis had parted and even if he had visited once before why would he give Louis the full disclosure? It’s not like Louis can take images from Armand’s mind either. Louis might have exaggerated the patheticness of the conversation to get a reaction from Lestat but it’s hard for me to believe that they didn’t meet at all

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Re: @firelight-fading​‘s post: “How many of you actually feel that Louis’ visiting Lestat at the end of IWTV and the conversation that followed actually happened? Lestat insists that it didn’t, but both him and Louis are unreliable narrators…”

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Hey, look, you are free to believe in whichever unreliable narrator you want! Clearly we don’t all agree on this. I still don’t know what I believe, but I lean towards it happening, that they met, just maybe not as Louis described it.

Anon says: If the scene didn’t take place at all how did Louis get such an accurate description of Lestat’s condition?… 

It’s not like Louis can take images from Armand’s mind either.

^Louis had seen a pretty battered Lestat around 1865, and then he thought Lestat was destroyed in the TdV fire, so he’s probably guessing that his maker looks like toast now, if he’s in fact still alive. 

Lestat acknowledges in TVL that Armand came around to pester him in NOLA, which, yes, is presumably after Armand and Louis went their separate ways. But Armand could have visited Lestat before that separation, or gotten the information from another vampire who had seen Lestat in NOLA. They’re probably not the only vampires in New York during the time that they’re there. 

Anon says: even if he had visited once before why would he give Louis the full disclosure? In IWTV, Armand tells Louis that Lestat is in NOLA:

“Then, finally, Armand urged me in another way. He told me something he’d concealed from me since the time we were in Paris. 

“Lestat had not died in the Theatre des Vampires. I had believed him to be dead, and when I asked Armand about those vampires, he told me they all had perished. But he told me now that this wasn’t so. Lestat had left the theater the night I had run away from Armand and sought out the cemetery in Montmartre. Two vampires who had been made with Lestat by the same master had assisted him in booking passage to New Orleans.

^So how Armand knew this, we don’t know, but I assume he read it from Lestat’s thoughts when he visited Lestat in NOLA prior to Armand’s separation with Louis, or from another vampire who had seen Lestat passing through NY.

Armand wants Louis to see Lestat for himself bc he wants Louis to “come back to life.”

” `You care about nothing …’ [Armand] was saying. And then he sat up slowly and turned to me so again I could see that dark fire in his eyes. `I thought you would at least care about that. I thought you would feel the old passion, the old anger if you were to see him again. I thought something would quicken and come alive in you if you saw him . . . if you returned to this place.’

^Sorry Armand, fail on that 😛

Whether Louis actually met with Lestat the way he described it in IWTV is up for debate, but Louis might have gotten such an accurate description of Lestat’s condition verbally from Armand. Perhaps, as you say, Louis might have exaggerated the patheticness of the conversation to get a reaction from Lestat, as he was trying to provoke Lestat into coming out of wherever he was hiding.

Or maybe Louis just wanted to tell his story to another soul, like confession, and get some feeling of absolution from the act of telling, maybe it felt good to invent this portion for no good reason. I don’t personally think that’s very IC for Louis but… who knows?

Can we just look at this for a minute….

Two vampires who had been made with Lestat by the same master had assisted him in booking passage to New Orleans.

^This used to really irritate me, these two vampire siblings of Lestat who never appeared again in canon, I have to assume Armand invented them for whatever reason (make Louis jealous that he didn’t help Lestat himself?) or that Daniel’s publisher added them in for whatever reason *shrugs*

God, am I the only one that liked Tom Cruise as Lestat (besides AR)? Honestly, my headcanon for Lestat is a mix of tom cruise’s lestat and my own imagination. I thought he was good and looked the part, but everyone seems to hate him… Also, where is the love for baby jenks? Yes, she was only in the book for maybe 20 pages, but she was cool and made me laugh. There’s no fanart or anything for her and that makes me kinda sad

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You are preaching to the choir re: Tom Cruise ;D I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

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^This is one of my favorite production stills of him. He’s just perfect. Menacing, charming, at the edge of reason and also in total control of the scene… but this is largely in his acting and ppl who disliked him may not have given him a chance like AR did (you know, she initially railed against his casting, and after seeing a screening of the film, completely changed her mind and sang his praises). 

Ppl argue that he doesn’t look like Lestat, and that’s true, he’s a little vertically challenged and he doesn’t have *~iridescent grey-blue eyes~*, he doesn’t have *~a gorgeous mop of pampered yellow hair.~* The hair and makeup they did for him work with his natural coloring, and they tried going brighter blond, didn’t really mesh well. Ppl also argue about his personal life, and Scientology, all that mess… but I don’t factor that into his performance as Lestat, personally.

But he more than makes up for all that in his acting, imo. He did his homework for the role and put a massive amount of effort into it, you can tell that he loves the character. Tom Cruise re: Lestat:

“I used the books as a reference for me and, y’know, you have to read them, especially Interview with the Vampire, because it’s from Louis’s point of view, you have to read it very carefully to find the clues to who Lestat is, and y’know… his loneliness, and his, his personal… struggle. He recognizes that Louis’ a unique… being, and if he wanted… y’know it’s that whole thing, and Lestat gives him the choice – very clearly – even in the book Lestat gives Louis the choice, uh, and that’s something I felt very strongly about… and when Lestat asks Louis, “Do you still want death? Or have you tasted it enough?” He’s really asking Louis:

“Do you still wanna die? I mean, now you know, you’ve come close to death, is this what you want?”

Re: Baby Jenks – Yeah I liked her alot, too! The way her narrative was written was refreshing, unlike any canon before it. Concisely stated but rich and believable backstory. She deserved to have more screentime. More fanart of her would be gr9!

Baby Jenks, like Nicolas, and a few other characters w/ less “screentime” in VC… it was surprising to me when ppl started digging them up and loving them, but I’ve come to realize that these are characters that:

A) still have some blank slate left, so fans can draw their own headcanons on them; and,

B) (part 1) seem to be characters that this generation relate to more. Nicolas practically has a canon mental illness, and he suffers for it. Ppl saw themselves in him and the representation felt good, that and author recognized their existence, even though he didn’t get a happy ending, and we love characters like that.

B) (part 2) Baby Jenks didn’t get a treasure chest of money and jewels or a frickin’ castle when she was turned; she had a biker gang and was so much richer bc she wasn’t alone! Her backstory was briefly sketched, but it was in powerful strokes; she was a BAMF in her own way, refusing to go quietly into that good night. And that’s inspiring, and we love characters like that.

What would you say the climax of (book) IWTV is?

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I hope you’re not the anon with the project for class, asking me to do your homework for you! But I do want to answer this, so you get my opinion, which may not be the actual answer.

I think there’s more than one climax, depending on what your reading of IWTV focuses on. I’m not as religious as some ppl, so I don’t give that theme as much weight as other readers might. And that is a huge aspect of Louis’ struggle with vampiring and giving into his vampire nature, being in direct conflict with the most important of commandments, Thou Shalt Not Kill (in conjunction with Thou Shalt Not Steal, bc this kind of killing is doing both). 

Here’s one definition I found for climax, the noun: “the most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex.” For me, that moment could be a catalyst, too, changing a character to some extent, could be a drastic re-calibration of their inner dialogue with themselves, reconfiguration of their moral values, etc. 

I’m not quite sure which scene in IWTV (book or movie) that would be for you, but for me, one of the most intense moments was when Louis found Madeleine and Claudia’s ashes:

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First is denial. 

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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. 

He’s also lost his own

(and very first!)

fledgling, and even though in both the book and the movie there doesn’t appear to be much attachment to between them, @vampchronfic/@gairid‘s headcanons about that have convinced me that there IS a bond, deep and invisible, created in the act of turning. Maker and fledgling are drawn together. Something like the attachment between a mother and her child, perhaps more powerful bc (hopefully) the giving of the Dark Gift was a consensual act between adults. It’s even more cruel in the movie bc she dies the same night she was turned, talk about bad life choices.

ANYWAY.

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He holds off on the anger for now, goes straight to bargaining. He reaches out to touch them, maybe he thinks there’s some way to save them still? Or maybe the ashes are just on the surface, maybe Claudia and Madeleine are still intact under there? It feels like a nightmare and he wants to prove it’s not real.

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But it is real, and they crumble, and everything that they were is gone.

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This, his lightest touch, it’s heartbreaking, their final destruction at his own hand ;A;

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Depression and acceptance. It’s real, they’re beyond saving, he’s failed them both in so many ways. The only thing left is (anger stage) revenge against this injustice, against the Theatre troupe, and once that’s accomplished, against himself. 

So I’d say this was a climax bc it acted as a catalyst for Louis, he finally burst into action because of this, and any remaining illusions he had about vampiring and immortality were shattered. He’s 1,000% done and he’s gonna go out in a blaze of fiery glory punishment.

Anne Rice Facebook livestream breakdown

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firelight-fading:

Today, Anne Rice had two livestreams on Facebook, the first as a general Q&A and the second specifically related to the Vampire Chronicles television show. Part way through the second livestream, the video glitched and I missed a minute or two, but overall this is what I had.

I’ve divided the information into 3 sections and highlighted the most important or interesting things she mentioned in my opinion):

Anne Herself

  • Anne wants to assure fans she is the ONLY one who answers and sees emails sent by fans. She tries hard to view all of them
  • She also reassures that shes been trying to read as many comments given on Facebook as possible and to consider them
  • In her writing process, she can’t do all-nighters anymore; her books about Christ were the last time she really did this
  • She
    loves how people in New Orleans love life and celebrate it. She misses
    New Orleans terribly. She notes, “Lifestyles [down there] are inherited and have a
    beauty”
  • She reads more non-fiction than fiction and constantly
    takes notes from them, especially about archeology (which she loves:
    “It’s like eating ice cream for me! I love it so much”)
  • She
    says she no longer identifies as a Christian, but still has a love for
    Jesus and what he has done for her, such as helping her solve problems and beyond that
  • She has some new announcement coming soon not concerning the vampires
  • She feels this is the age of the nerd where
    readers’ opinions are most important. Says she has always taken us the readers seriously and wants us to feel appreciated. She appreciates our
    power and what we have done for the series.

The Books and The Characters

  • *spoiler* There is NO certainty Mona and Quinn are dead. This is just what Lestat believes.
  • She went through the pronunciations of characters’ names
    • Marius is pronounced like Marius in Les Miserables
    • Mekare is May-care-ee, but thinks other pronunciations are beautiful too
      • (And I think as a fandom we’ve come to agreements on everyone else’s names. She went by the names fast!)
  • Anne says she sums up the story of the chronicles as “how badly Lestat wants to be the hero of his own life”
  • She appreciates fans pointing out mistakes in her writing since she wants to be as accurate as possible, especially when it comes to history/time periods
  • When
    asked about the taste of blood/how it functions, Anne says blood is
    like every kind of drug- it’s sex, alcohol, drugs, everything
  • She
    writes a TON of notes since she occasionally forgets when/how certain
    things are mentioned, such as how the Savage Garden was introduced in
    the novel (which she no knows as something that occurred during Our Conversation with Nicolas and Lestat)
  • The name “Talamasca” came from a book on old witchcraft she found
  • Lestat’s
    name was a “blunder” rather than a “eureka” moment. His name was NOT
    based on her husband Stan intentionally. She was trying to look up old
    french names.
  • The transformation process of human to vampire (after getting the Dark Gift) is a little slower than how the IWTV film portrayed, but close in Anne’s mind (she truly appreciated how the film went above to stay close to her own visions and her work)
  • During his time with Louis and Claudia, Lestat attempted to give answers
    that would “keep them alive” rather than actual answers, knowing that he
    couldn’t reveal what he knew due to what Marius had told him     (essentially, not just answers that he thought would satisfy them but that he thought would carry them on by themselves…which worked in my opinion)
  • There were several questions
    about Gabrielle and Becket commented about how Gabrielle is a fan favorite before he introduced the questions:
    • Anne says Gabrielle is cold, but admits that she loves Lestat yet at the same time doesn’t need him.
    • She does not see Gabrielle as
      autistic (she laughed at this question which really irked me :/ )
    • She will not write about a memoir from Gabrielle’s point of view since
      she wants Lestat to stay the focus of “the tribe” and she’s done with
      writing those sort of side books.
  • Lestat’s main concern right now is “keeping the tribe together”
  • She wants to continue with exploring some of the newer characters, Fareed and Seth were mentioned as a part of this.
  • Anne
    has an “ambivalence” towards Louis and she loves him since he
    represents an old part of her, but this is also the same reason she has
    trouble going back and writing for him, because she feels she is now a different person
  • She
    appreciates that there is no “real” consensus on what is the best/worst
    of her books amongst the fans (though Memnoch was her first example for
    worse soooo 😏)
  • In some ways, how Amel speaks to Lestat is a metaphor for how Lestat speaks to Anne.

The Television Show

(Casting)

  • Armand will NOT be played by someone around 14, because of the long filming process and how it will age the actor. She acknowledges fans want someone young for Armand but feels it
    will be too difficult to use     (um, hello Anne, CGI??)

  • She thinks Cate Blanchett would be a wonderful pick for Gabrielle.
  • Says
    the looks are most important for Lestat, Louis just has to be beautiful
    (lol)
  • She really cares about the appearances of the cast and their availability to do about 5-6 years of filming

(Chronology and Production)

  • She
    thinks she will not go through network tv, so the home to the show would be Amazon,
    Hulu or Netflix.
  • She feels the show won’t be as violent as Game of Thrones but wants that
    integrity and style, and that “authenticity” to the books that Game of Thrones has (So for the rating,
    I’m guessing she feels around M?)
  • Anne wants to be true to the books and what the fans want to see (in regards to characters and plot points)
  • She appreciated
    the commitment of the team for the IWTV film and wants to keep up to that standard. She does not want unreasonable changes and compromises
  • Chronologically, she wants to begin with TVL with Lestat as a young man.
    • Feels around the 2nd/3rd season is where IWTV would start
    • The books are long, so it will not be a one season / one book situation.
    • It
      will begin chronologically, so it won’t be Lestat reading IWTV and THEN
      starting with his story as a response, it will start in France as the
      events happen       (I was hoping it would be the former…)
  • No Mayfair witches in the show
  • Characters who are introduced later, but existed chronologically earlier like Benedick and Magnus, will be put earlier in
    the show
  • The Talamasca will be heavily involved “eventually” in
    the series, possibly earlier on. Related to this, she wants to tell the
    history of her vampires and those entities.
  • She
    wants to definitely (so badly) cover the scene where Lestat is being
    turned “stage by stage…” meaning him being in the tower and having
    realizations about his strength after drinking the blood. Also, how he
    turns Gabrielle (possibly wants to have a young actress to play
    Gabrielle and have her human age appear through makeup so the transformation will be more dramatic)
  • Louis’ story WILL be told, but the show will be mostly from Lestat’s POV
  • Anne hopes the show will go into production before the end of this year. Around 2018
    is when it would come out
  • Anne and Chris have had a lot of interested companies already looking into
    developing the project (but she doesn’t want to reveal who is talking to them since it “wouldn’t be fair”)
  • She isn’t sure if the show will break the 4th
    wall. She acknowledges that Lestat does it in the books, but she feels
    she would have to stick with it for the entirety of the show and that
    would be difficult (so it sounds like mostly a “no” but she’s considering it)
  • Christopher
    and her are currently outlining around 5 seasons (estimated) for the TV
    series. They are also writing drafts for the first 4 episodes

(ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧  

Re: the above, it’s a #Long post, so extra huge thanks to @firelight-fading for taking one for the team and not only watching the OVCFB livestream but gathering up all this info into such clean formatting for us! We salute you.

Hi, I’m doing this project thing for class on IWTV and basically I have to analyze and write essays about themes, characterization, symbols, etc. on a bunch of different passages from our chosen book. I’ve done a lot but I still have some left to do and kinda have run out of ideas for the last of them. Do you have any favorite scenes/lines/moments/passages/excerpts from the book or any that stand out/you find particularly deep and meaningful? Thanks for the help (:

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Hmmm, this is a tough one! There are so many. I’m curious to know which you chose already!

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It changes over time, but just skimming IWTV, these are some consistently favorite moments of mine. I think some of them are deep and meaningful, but what’s deep and meaningful to me may not be to you. We all sort of have a conversation with books, you bring your own experiences and tastes and see what matches up with the story you’re reading. Sometimes the story can expand your intellectual palette! It’s done that for me.

What makes a moment (scenes/lines/moments/passages/excerpts/etc.) a fave for me is the mixture of comedy and tragedy, so I’m drawn to parts where Lestat is insulting Louis, or they’re fighting with exquisite tension and clever dialogue, or bits of vampire physiology, or heartwrenching stuff. 

While I’m less interested in things like artful descriptions or didactic lessons from the author, each VC book is a mixture of many things, and I obviously love the series as a whole and in parts. Fave moments, for me, are like amazing desserts in which you can’t always figure out what the ingredients were, it’s just DELICIOUS and you gotta have MORE.

I was going through IWTV and selecting passages but I’m doing too many! Here’s the first few that come to mind, in no particular order, which is a very small fraction of all my fave moments:

  • Lestat telling Louis that he needs to grow up and quit pining for his mortal life: “’You do not know your vampire nature. You are like an adult who, looking back on his childhood, realizes that he never appreciated it. You cannot, as a man, go back to the nursery and play with your toys, asking for the love and care to be showered on you again simply because now you know their worth.’”
  • Louis grappling with Lestat over Lestat wanting to kill Freneire. Wrestling in the mud and the cold!
  • Louis appreciating Daniel’s tape recorder (“Marvelous contraption, really”) and doing/saying other little things that make him seem

    anachronistic

    (” “That is, how would you say today … bullshit?” “)

  • When Louis discovers mortal Claudia, he mentions that he hears a dog that he could take instead (”But there were alternatives: rats abounded in the streets, and somewhere very near a dog was howling hopelessly. I might have fled the room had I chosen and fed and gotten back easily.”), but he’s drawn to her. He’s been malnourished for some 4 yrs, the inner demon pulling him to a human victim is sick and tired of junk food, it wants AN ENTRÉE ffs!
  • Louis finding Lestat post-trial under TDV clutching Claudia’s yellow dress! ;A; Heartwrenching!
  • Armand showing Louis he really can climb a tower, just try it! So motivational.
  • Lestat’s blind dad in general, how they had to pretend to eat dinner to humor him, how Louis was so nice and gentle with him and put him out of his misery when the time came ;A;
  • Louis telling Lestat he had to leave the plantation bc there was going to be an uprising, and Lestat responds with such a perfect slew of insults that are actually surprisingly accurate: “ `You want me gone! You,’ he sneered. He was building a card palace on the dining room table with a pack of very fine French cards. `You whining coward of a vampire who prowls the night killing alley cats and rats and staring for hours at candles as if they were people and standing in the rain like a zombie until your clothes are drenched and you smell like old wardrobe trunks in attics and have the look of a baffled idiot at the zoo.‘” 

A few more under the cut* 

Anyone is welcome to reblog/comment with their own fave moments ;]

*From when I was starting at the beginning of the book and pulling faves but only got to p. 13 and had 4 already, so I had to stop doing that or I’d have more many than too many.

After Paul dies, Louis talking about his sister, how she felt like she had to act a certain way bc society expected it. This was one of the first things cluing me into the whole idea of disregarding societal expectations, bc what good did it do her to pretend?

“People in society asked my sister offensive questions about the whole incident, and she became an hysteric. She wasn’t really an hysteric. She simply thought she ought to react that way, so she did.”  

The first time Louis really describes Lestat:

He came in from the courtyard, opening the French doors without a sound,
a tall fair-skinned man with a mass of blond hair and a graceful, almost feline quality to his movements. And gently, he draped a shawl over my sister’s eyes and lowered the wick of the lamp… His gray eyes burned with an incandescence, and the long white hands which hung by his sides were not those of a human being… the moment I saw him, saw his extraordinary aura and knew him to be no creature I’d ever known, I was reduced to nothing. 

When Lestat is about to turn Louis, it’s so endearing, and there’s comedy in here, as well as some dubious consent, it’s just excellent.

But there was no time for courage. Or shall I say, there was no time in Lestat’s plan for anything but his plan. `Now listen to me, Louis,’ he said, and he lay down beside me now on the steps, his movement so graceful and so personal that at once it made me think of a lover. I recoiled… 

…I wanted to struggle, but he pressed so hard with his fingers that he held
my entire prone body in check; and as soon as I stopped my abortive attempt at rebellion, he sank his teeth into my neck.”

Omg, Lestat telling his dad to get off his back about his lifestyle is priceless:

“[Lestat] was in his father’s bedroom meantime, telling the old man good-bye, that he would return in the morning. ‘But where do you go, why must you live by such a schedule!’ the old man demanded, and Lestat became impatient.

… `I take care of you, don’t I? I’ve put a better roof over your head
than you ever put over mine! If I want to sleep all day and drink all night, I’ll do it, damn you!’ The old man started to whine.”

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Master lestat may i ask a question of you. What exactly do you look for in a person in order to determine if you want to make them one of the damned? Personality wise more than physical traits and even then do you even look for any specific physical traits?
-forever yours crissabelle laffiate

♛Miss Crissabelle, this is a very difficult question… and I might answer differently now than I would have in the past, and may answer differently in the future.

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[X Lestat by HRFleur]

I don’t consider myself “damned,” not in the literal sense of the word. Not all the time, anyway. If I really did, I don’t think I could bring anyone into this life with me. I’ve always seen this existence more as an incredible adventure, why keep it to myself? In the same breath, not everyone can handle it, I can’t just give it out to every striking face and beautiful spirit that crosses my path. There has to be more to it than that.

Superficially, I admit I tend to be drawn to musicians and

dark haired people. Musicians because they have a passion for something, they needn’t be the best at their instrument but that they practice it and it gives them intrinsic pleasure outside of the applause of an audience… music is a language that speaks to the soul in ways nothing else can. Brunets, well, I admit I find them visually appealing, the darkness is a mystery, it begs to be touched, explored. There happens to be plenty of dark haired musicians out there so I can feel free to feed my heart’s desire in lusting after all of them and enjoy them without getting close enough to needing to invite them onto the Devil’s Road with me.

Appearance is always secondary to the inner qualities, and I can’t tell you what specifically those are. At minimum, the person has to know what they’re getting into, yes, you can live this life without killing, but killing is part of the fun as far as I’m concerned! At minimum, I choose people who are whole onto themselves and aren’t looking for me to complete them. People with their own pursuits. I’m not a babysitter. I’m not looking for a babysitter. 

It’s different for different people, but I would say that it all comes down to chemistry and I can’t define that for you. Patience is probably the main required personality trait.

The shape of their body does not matter to me, their gender, their age… it’s the indefinable spark you feel in their presence because the two of you are together. More than lust. Simmering joy in being with them, not because they entertain you, but because of what you can be together.

What you’re really asking is what I look for in a lover, because, with certain exceptions to this rule, the Dark Gift is for those who I need to keep with me forever, those who I can’t allow to slip away into the maw of time, if they’ll have me back. I’m not adopting a pet or taking on a student; that seems to end in disappointment sooner or later. 

So just being pleasant and charming is not enough. Real relationships have friction. I look for someone whose inner soul speaks to mine in ways no other does, someone for whom the fights make us stronger, because we have an underlying foundation of devotion to each other. 

Though I may fall in love easily, I do not fall in devotion easily.

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