Here are some scientific facts about blood loss for all you
psychopathswriters out there.I would like to know what is in those bottles.
It’s Siracha!!!! Siracha is life!
That’s actually highly useful.
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Tag Archives: long post
Since you have all the knowledge, here’s my question: A lot of fanart has the vampires with pointy ears. I don’t really mind that at all, I’m just wondering if there’s something in the books that I missed or in what Anne Rice said in an interview or so that is the origin of that or is it just a fanon thing that developed for some reason?
*booming voice* YISSS I HAVE ALLLL THE KNOWLEDGE. Lol, no, I’ve just read the books a lot of times and can usually recall this kind of minutiae. ANYONE CAN HAVE THIS POWER if they simply spend an inordinate amount of time reading these books, the meta, the fanfic… ehehehe….
[^Louis would probs not actually make this kind of commentary out loud during movies in public, but he definitely does when watching things w/ the coven privately. Lestat finds it endearing at times and irritating at other times. Also, Louis’s ears almost look pointy here, trick of the light.]
I’d say pointy ears is a fandom thing, I don’t think the ear shape has ever been mentioned in canon. I love it, I find it really charming, whether the ears are really sharpened or just subtly pointy ^_____^
It’s probably influenced by other vampire media, like Nosferatu, and it helps to differentiate the characters as *~preternatural creatures~* in fanart rather than as their mortal selves, which usually don’t have the vampiry embellishments.
Sometimes AR does mention smtg that wasn’t in canon, but we don’t all necessarily accept her additional info. To my knowledge, she hasn’t addressed this, I don’t think she’s offered much re: vampire physiology outside of canon; she usually volunteers/responds more about their sexuality or their current happenings, or their feelings about topics (#Fan questions for Lestat was AR RPing as Lestat, basically!).
We’ve added other little things in fanworks that were never mentioned in canon… for example, Daniel Molloy wears glasses in fanart even after being turned when presumably he wouldn’t need them! That’s probably bc of movie!IWTV bc iirc he doesn’t wear glasses in canon so maybe he’s popped the lenses out and wears them for fashion, like Kevin in the recent Ghostbusters.
a meta on meta
Something’s been nagging me about most fandom meta for a
while, and I’ve only recently put my finger on it:The vast majority of what
crosses my dash is coming from a position of bad faith.By bad faith, I mean meta presuming that most people are 1)
doing fandom wrong and 2) need to be instructed on how to do it right. Meta
writers are addressing common fanons, stereotypes, trends, and other aspects of
fandom that they dislike, and which they think need to be stopped or
reexamined. And you know what? I’ll admit that there’s sometimes a kernel of
truth in what people are presenting; however, I think the means are very
flawed. Wagging fingers at people doesn’t work very well, because you’re
guilting them for how they choose to spend their free time, in a hobby that
they love.Here’s what happens when I see a piece of meta chiding
fandom:
- People who already agree with the stance agreeing with the
meta
- People who disagree, posting rebuttals
- People reblogging with guilty tags about how they feel bad
for enjoying [bad thing]Is this really productive? Is it encouraging less [bad
thing], more [good thing]? Not really.Now that I’ve put myself in the position of doing the exact fingerwagging
I’ve criticized, what do I think is the solution to this problem? Because yes,
there are some things in fandom which are pretty bad, and which I wish reduced.Produce the work you want to see in fandom. If you don’t
produce content, then comment, kudos, reblog, rec, or otherwise send good wishes
to things that meet your standards for [good thing], instead of yelling at
people for [bad thing]. Be supportive, rather than negative. Ignore shit that
you hate, because it doesn’t deserve your attention anyway. What’s a greater
condemnation of a work than silence? Being nastily critical will often put fans
on the defensive and create more support
of things that are legitimately problematic/bad/just plain silly. No one wants
to produce fanwork to an empty room. And all that attention that you’re now
giving to [good thing], rather than [bad thing]? Is going to produce more and
more [good thing].Plus, you can always make friends through privately griping
about [bad thing], so you can still get your hate on, you diamond.
Hello there :) I was scrolling through the Nicolas de Lenfent tag and I read again a post with theories :3 With PL we now know the identity of the mysterious musician but I wonder – ok hope, keep fingers crossed – might Anne in all her wisdom broach the subject of Nicolas and maybe, just maybe bring him back in cannon? At this point, I think he would make for some interesting plot for the next books. If Antoine showed, we might still hope Nicolas is somewhere out there.
[Pretty sure @ioananix is referring to the post @devilsviolinist wrote on Nicki survival theories here. It’s good! Check it out.]
Yep, AR has brought back a bunch of formerly-assumed-to-be-dead characters in PL, so it’s a real possibility!
…However, is this always a good thing? I still don’t like the way the mysterious musician from IWTV was brought back. @antoineandthepiano makes a valiant effort to make that character more likable in their RP of him, but in canon, I don’t feel like this character being brought back adds much to the story or changes the dynamic of the coven much. More thoughts on him under the cut bc I want to get to Nicolas.
[^X by @vampiredevelopment]
Bring Nicolas back and we might have interesting plot there! So many questions… Did he really intend to kill himself?
Did he intend to fake his suicide? Or did someone try to kill him? Did Eleni know? Was she in on any of this? Is there any possibility of civility between Nicolas and Lestat? The answers to those questions could lead to some great arguments, some great opening of old wounds, some healing, idk, ACTION. FEELS. CATFIGHTS.
There are a bunch of characters brought back in PL so it wouldn’t totally surprise me if AR brought Nicolas back in PLROA… The ones she’s brought back have hardly caused any ripple of conflict in the coven, and some ppl like fluff and peace, maybe some ppl are glad to have their characters back in any form, but it feels like unearned fluff and peace. I’d almost prefer that she leaves characters out rather than bring back such watered-down versions of them.
I feel like that musician character was a draft of Nicolas, and AR forgot about him until PL, or maybe Lestat was so embarrassed by that whole situation that’s why he never mentions him in canon until PL (which, btw, the series was allegedly over with Blood Canticle). “Antoine” comes in all meek and mild, is accepted with hardly any comment, and everything’s peaceful! There’s no real adjustment needed, they’re all fine with the fact that, idk, he tried to kill Louis (and Claudia!) some 150 yrs ago? Too much water under that bridge.
There was a fanfic that suggested the musician vampire rescued Lestat from the swamp and helped him heal well enough so that he could to steal the Dark Gift from him, that would have been a lot more heartbreaking! Taking advantage of Lestat in his weakened condition like that ;A;
Explain to me why vampires cannot drink dead blood, but vampires (which are dead) can still drink the blood of other vampires?
IDK about other vampires, but I would say that Ricean vampires are not in fact poisoned by dead blood, they can drink it, it’s just very distasteful to them. I’m not going to use all the equivocating language like “may,” and “might,” this is all my very strong opinion on this topic so as always #your headcanon may vary, don’t take it personally if we disagree.
{{Oh Louis, bb, we know, it gets cold so quickly…}}
The huge difference between dead mortal (human or animal) blood and vampire blood is that the *~vampiric parasite~* in vampire blood keeps them alive/undead. Ricean vampires aren’t 100% dead (though they may poetically feel that way), they are metamorphosed into a supernatural accident.
Lestat does say in the movie (and this is probably where the confusion about the supposed lethalness of dead blood comes from, too), “You let me drink *dead* blood?!” and it might seem like he means that the deadness of it was the lethally poisonous aspect of it, when in actuality he knows he’s been drugged, it was the absinthe & laudanum combo that’s incapacitated him. Still, those drugs are not poisonous to a vampire; he asks to be put in his coffin like a mortal might want to be put to bed, to sleep it off. Claudia did it to bring his defenses down so she had a chance at killing him. He couldn’t fend her off as well in that drugged state.
In TVL, Lestat goes to Armand in Paris for help after Claudia and Louis try to assassinate him a second time, and Armand throws him in a locked cell with a dead mortal for dinner:
“Sometime in the dark, I discovered a mortal victim there. But the victim was dead. Cold blood, nauseating blood. The worst kind of feeding, lying on that clammy corpse, sucking up what was left.”
^So clearly dead blood is not bad in the sense of being poisonous, just icky 😛 It must still have some minimal nutritional value since he feeds on it anyway.
Hit the jump for a little more, cut for length.
Lethal/poisonous blood is not about the blood itself, but is about the moment of death of the victim: What movie!Lestat warns Claudia about in Vampiring 101: (and he warns Louis in the book!IWTV) is that she must stop drinking before the victim’s heart stops, at least in the beginning, or else the victim could take her down with them in death. That’s more about the soul separating from its body at the moment of death. Older/stronger vampires can keep drinking and slurp the impact of the death down, too. Lestat describes doing it in TVL against his maker’s advice bc of course he goes against his maker’s advice:
“…and when the blood came it was
pure voluptuousness. In fact, it was so exquisite that I forgot
completely about drawing away before the heart stopped. We were on
our knees in the snow together, and it was a wallop, the life going into
me with the blood. I couldn’t move for a long moment. Hmmm,
broke the rules already, I thought. Am I supposed to die now?
Doesn’t look like that is going to happen. Just this rolling delirium.”
Also worth noting is that when mortals are turned in canon, they describe vampire blood as being extremely delicious, satisfying in more than a physical way: “And it was not merely the dry hissing coil of the thirst that was quenched and dissolved, it was all my craving, all the want and misery and hunger that I had ever known.” – Lestat (TVL). Strong words! AR has equated the Dark Gift to childbirth and I think the act of the fledgling feeding on their maker is very much like an infant at its mother’s breast. That kind of nourishment is physical AND emotional.
Personally, I’ve tasted dead blood very recently, I just had chocolate blood pudding a few days ago at the Feeding Hannibal dinner (with @mferret9, @sarah-thetrappedcat, and @thatironstring!) and it was yummy but it does not produce that kind of satisfaction. At least not for me!
I thought that Louis was really weak for a vampire but I was told that he wasn’t. I’m confused because I always remember him being portrayed a physically weak as far as vampires go.
Well, it depends what part of canon you’re at, and what amount of canon you accept.* I’m still not entirely sure what my headcanon is w/ his current abilities, but even if you ignore all of canon after IWTV, he’s been a vampire 225 years so he’s stronger just through age if nothing else.
He’s also one of the only vampires in canon who has never “gone to ground” (hiding/burying oneself in the ground for an extended period of time in a state of complete or semi-unconsciousness), even though he’s had very good reasons to ;A;
Armand describes Louis’ lack of powers here in TVA: “…unable to read minds, or to levitate, or to spellbind others except inadvertently, which can be hilarious, an immortal with whom mortals fall in love.”
Just from IWTV and into the later books, yes, Louis is referred to as physically weaker than the other vampires, and he doesn’t exhibit any of the gifts that some other fledglings have in canon (like telepathy, telekinesis). This doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any of these now, but that he hasn’t really exercised them in canon.
Lestat tells us in TVL: “I never revealed to him half my powers, and with reason, because he shrank in guilt and self-loathing from using even half of his own.”
But he’s still stronger and faster than a mortal. He’s also able to defend himself and kick a lot of ass, so to call him “really weak” is probably an overstatement. What he lacks physically he makes up for mentally, he’s strategic in the way he attacks when he does attack, and he can hold his own against much stronger and older vampires (he took out most of the Theatre des Vampires on his own in IWTV!)
Part of his weakness in comparison to the rest of the coven is the fact that he was Lestat’s 3rd fledgling in such a short period of time after Lestat’s 2nd fledgling (Nicolas). In Ricean vampire physiology, a maker needs to wait a good long while between making fledglings; too much frequency will make subsequent fledglings weaker than they could have been. Plus, even though Lestat had the blood of a much older and stronger vampire when he was turned, Lestat himself was only a decade into vampiring himself. It seems the vampiric spirit discourages the transfer of powers from young vampires to their fledglings. If anyone got the bulk of that power, it was Gabrielle, Lestat’s first.
There is also some speculation that the blood transfer needs to be exchanged more than once (how it was done w/ Louis) to ensure a stronger fledgling. Marius, for example, exchanged blood with his maker multiple times when he was turned.
*Spoilers under the cut.
Louis was upgraded in Merrick, and in PL, he can fly (the Cloud Gift). We don’t know if he has any others now. Maybe we’ll find out in PLROA! He has a significant role in it, according to AR.
hey i was wondering, have you seen the person recently (not sure i should link or not) where a critic is analyzing the series in order? if so what did you think? they seem to have been in the fandom a long time like you, are you friends?
You probably mean @vraik!
I’ve been following Vrai Kaiser for awhile now, but never reached out… Because of your ask, I finally did so tonight and we chatted a bit tonight! ^_____^
I’ve read some of their IWTV analysis here, and over on their blog, Fashionable Tinfoil accessories. Here’s the tumblr masterpost of their IWTV review.
One of the things we talked about tonight is that different ppl engage with fandom in different ways. Some ppl engage with canon by making fanart, fanfic, cosplays, etc., some ppl do it by examining the text, considering it on its own and also re: the cultural impact it has on its readers.
Vrai presents some intriguing opinions with a really good sense of humor in their writing style, and they have great pics from various sources (w/ fun captions!) to break up the text, definitely worth checking them out ;D
[^X one of my memes, it’s Neil Jordan, certified vampire therapist]
Reading through Vrai’s reviews, this was something I grabbed onto and I really like it, re: Louis as an unreliable narrator [from The Consulting Analyst – Interview with the Vampire (Part 2)]:
I know I keep coming back to the fact that Louis lies and leaves things out of his story above and beyond his own ignorance of others, but it’s a crucial thing to return to in parsing out some manner of “truth” from the events we’re being told about. Between this account and Lestat’s own bitterness-tinged declaration that follows is an actuality, and the ambiguity of what defines that “truth” is very much at the heart of what allows these books to survive from one generation to the next. Even as parts become antiquated, you can always read a truth behind the bluster that speaks to you in a way Anne’s writing wasn’t able to cover. The ideas of these outsiders outlive the frame.
For a final touch on the subject, here’s an important moment from a little bit earlier.
“But you mustn’t be afraid to ask me anything. If I held something too close…” And when the vampire said this his face darkened for an instant. He frowned, and as his brows drew together a small well appeared in the flesh of his forehead over his left brow, as though someone had pressed it with a finger. It gave him a peculiar look of deep distress. “If I held something too close for you to ask about it, I would not bring it up in the first place,” he said.
So Louis as good as admits that he’s hiding things. It’s our job as readers, from here, to suss out where those lines get drawn.
I just started reading this book series and I want your opinion on something (I hope the topic of sex doesn’t make you uncomfortable). According to Lestat vampires don’t feel sex drive, in The Tale of the Body Thief one of the things he wants to expierence when he has a human body is sex because he says this is something he can’t do with his vampire body. But in his book Armand mentions that he had sex with Marius several times. P.S. I love your blog, you seem really nice and cool!!!
Thanks for the compliments on my blargh! *u* I try to answer asks thoughtfully and respectfully and expect the same consideration back from whoever reads my answers ^_____^
As always, #your headcanon may vary, bc we’re talking about fictional vampires, they are not people. Whether you consider them to be people in their own world is up to you. For me, I see them as ex-people. They share a supernatural parasite that gradually eats away at their mortal parts, replacing it with its own immortal substance, perfecting their host bodies to its own design. So they exist beyond the definitions of sex and gender for me.
I do not believe the vampires are canonically capable of penetrative sex but do I love fanart/fanfic/RP where they have penetrative sex? YES, YES I DO, MORE PLZ. Have I commissioned such fanart of it for myself? Y E S. Will I commission more of it or write my own in the future? YOU’RE GOTDAMN RIGHT I WILL. I love the creativity of the fanon interpretations and I will support these ideas forever.
[^Louis + Lestat by @danyanddany
♥♥♥]
According to Lestat vampires don’t feel sex drive,
I don’t recall anywhere in canon where Lestat says that vampires do not feel a sex drive. He has described himself as a sensualist, and we know he falls in love easily. I think that they do feel a sex drive, just not in the genitally-penetrative sex way (not the most eloquent phrasing there but I can’t think of another way to put it; “PIV/penis-in-vagina” just doesn’t apply to most of our gay ships).
Turning vampires seems to be their ultimate “sexual” act that they can perform, bc it is equivalent to pregnancy (a fledgling is being “born to darkness”), and it is always described primarily as the sharing of the Blood between maker and fledgling. I headcanon that Lestat loves the act of performing this, and that’s partly why he has had SO MANY FLEDGLINGS. So I believe that they still do feel sexual lust, it’s channeled through the experience of taking/sharing blood, and other sensually physical things.
In fanon there is a wide spectrum of whether they can have genitally-penetrative sex, some even speculate that their um… output… would be very bloody. There is fanart/fanfics/RP/etc. in which they can have that kind of sex, and ones in which they cannot.
in The Tale of the Body Thief one of the things he wants to expierence when he has a human body is sex because he says this is something he can’t do with his vampire body.
^This is up to every reader’s interpretation, and yes, in my opinion, Ricean vampires in canon cannot have penetrative sex. My main evidence for them as being unable to have genitally-penetrative sex comes from [hit the jump for spoilers].
AR has written alot of other novels with genitally-penetrative sex being an important factor, so I doubt it was an oversight in denying it to her vampires. If you want to go by her as the authority on her novels, and many ppl do, she posted definitively about it when asked about Daniel and Marius in PL:
AR does not go into much further detail than that, even in canon, other than the fact that the sharing of blood is more intimate for them than than simple mortal penetrative sex. Part of why she chose this may be to avoid the issue of pregnancy the way mortals do it; a baby cannot grow in undead flesh, y’know?
TL;DR: Personally, I headcanon them as unable to have genitally-penetrative sex. There are human couples who are unable (or do not want) to experience genitally-penetrative sex, and they can still be sexually intimate with each other in other ways. So it’s partly in how you define sex and intimacy.
For more on this, I have these tags: #asexuality, #asexual, #sex, #sexuality, #lets talk about sex.
Hit the jump for spoilers.
But in his book Armand mentions that he had sex with Marius several times.
Armand was mortal for some of that book, and Marius did sexual things with him, but not genitally-penetrative sex. After Armand is turned, Marius and Armand have an intimate moment with a mortal woman together, but again, it is not genitally-penetrative sex for them.
My main evidence for them as being unable to have genitally-penetrative sex comes from:
- Louis’s description of sex in IWTV:
Claudia asks Louis about sex in IWTV, and he replies that it “‘…was something hurried…And… it was seldom savored… something acute that was quickly lost. I think that it was the pale shadow of killing.’”
^He’s talking about it as occurring in the past, I think he means when he was mortal. Here he says it’s not equivalent to the act of taking blood from a victim, sex is a lesser experience for him.
- Lestat’s description of his non-functioning Priapus in QOTD:
“I studied my reflection … and the organ, the organ we don’t need, poised as if ready for what it would never again know how to do or want to do, marble, a Priapus at a gate” – Lestat, Queen of the Damned
^This quote has been interpreted over and over again as meaning many things, one of which being that the vampires have a permanent boner, which I disagree with. I highly doubt Louis, someone with a lot of dignity, would be fine with walking around for eternity with a permanent boner. I blame this misunderstanding on the translators who translated “poised” to “erect” in various other languages.
I interpret that quote as meaning that his Priapus is just “waiting.”
- and Pandora’s description of Marius’ non-functioning (but very hard) dick in her book. Pandora wants Marius to sex her up on their ‘wedding night’ and he can’t do it, but they try, awkwardly:
He covered me and kissed my cheek. “Drink from me,” he said, “drink until the pain goes away. It’s only the body dying, drink Pandora, you are immortal.“
“Fill me, take me,” I said. I reached down between his legs.
“It doesn’t matter now.”
But it was hard, this organ I sought, the organ forever lost to the god Osiris. I guided it, hard and cold as it was, into my body. Then I drank and drank, and when I felt his teeth again on my neck, when he began to draw from me the new mixture that filled my veins, it was sweet suckling, and I knew him and loved him and knew all his secrets in one flash which meant nothing. He was right. The lower organs meant nothing. He fed on me. I fed on him. This was our marriage. –Pandora
I think AR is telling us that in order to be immortal, a great sacrifice must be made. Not just outliving your loved ones, food and drink, sunlight, and your appearance being altered. For many people, sex is as necessary to life as eating and breathing. To give that up for eternity is a huge sacrifice, but, you do get super powers an immortality. Fair trade?
I saw that someone asked you about AR not mentioning Armand, and I hope that person isn’t too upset because Anne mentioned in a comment some weeks ago that Armand is definitely in the book (although he doesn’t play a major role) so that’s something! I completely understand, I can’t live without him either
Yep it was on FB. @kittyslover (one of my ARFB Deputies!) sent me the link to AR’s post from 9/24/16 [X], here’s confirmation that Armand is there:
And bc of the lengths I go to for you ppl, I read all the relevant comments and screencapped these for you (I cropped out icons so the text could be a little larger).
She also had to describe vampire shipping again. *sigh* I JUST TALKED ABOUT THIS FFS #your headcanon may vary.
Characters in PLROA:
– Old characters:
– Louis for sure:
–
New characters:
Hit the jump for more. Cut for length.
– in Great Peril:
– Amel is back:
– Viktor:
– Cyril:
NOT in PLROA:
She also answered these which didn’t fit above:
AND that this incorporated the older Atlantis novel she had been working on:
Hey Burnadette, if you had the choice would you be a vampire? If you decide “Yes” what would you like to do with your immortality? If you decide “No” what kind of supernatural life would you like to pursue?
(This has been sitting in my inbox for far too long -6 months!!!- bc I was trying to come up w/ an extremely witty and elaborate answer, but you know what? This doesn’t need to be an extremely witty and elaborate answer. It just needs AN ANSWER and I can do it ok so here it is)
Yes I would like to vampire plz!
[^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.
I-want-my-IWTV 