François Arnaud is good Nicolas stuff. I’m gonna have to watch the Borgias now, right? Yeah. Bonus points:
Canadian, but born in Quebec, where French is the official language, so I’d say he’s got authentic enough French heritage (and he speaks English, French and Spanish fluently!)
Can sing and play the piano so he must be able to read sheet music LET’S PUT A VIOLIN IN HIS HANDS
6’ 0¾" (1.85 m) tall :D, Lestat is about the same, which is important, bc they share clothes in Paris ❤
31 yrs old but can still pass for his early 20′s.
Looks damn fine in period costume
(Re: Michael Sutton, can you find me a good gif or two? I’m having trouble getting one bc there are alot of Michael Suttons out there or smtg.)
I don’t have a gif for Michael Sutton but here are a couple of photos from Dracula The Dark Prince were he played the character Radu, Vlad Tepes brother.
Now, Michael – look wise – has the dark and brooding look of Santino (back in the days when this TV movie premiered, I pinned him for Santino, his age might be a problem now, he’s 46 but can pass for a 35 years old man and since news of a VC script are harder to get than water the Gobi dessert, this will remain as a wishful cast on my side).
But…as I was cruising for photos, I stumbled on an old fancy of mine…Todd Lasance – Caesar in Spartacus War of the Damned and Julian in The Vampire Diaries.
Blond, blue eyes, 33 years old, could pass for late 20s.
at first, I pinned him for Lestat but something wasn’t quite there for a full Lestatish experience. Then I kinda saw Marius – Caesar, the whole Roman look. He can act vicious, he can be cute, he can do drama and he can make men and women swoon.
Well, you make a lot of excellent points, I can’t really argue! As far as the age thing is concerned, idk how hold Santino is meant to appear, but erring on the side of older rather than younger works for me; he’s meant to be somewhat imposing and scary, at least initially.
Thanks for the followup, and merci for the compliment ^u^
I think AR’s comment could be a little misleading there; she says Gabrielle is “cold and selfish and essentially a bad human being” and then, separately, that Gabrielle is “a bad vampire.“
^Reason enough for AR to dislike Gabrielle. Gabrielle defended him against his father and brothers, helped him run away to Paris, stayed with him for a good decade exploring the world, and then wanted to go off on her own. Idk if I agree that she treated him SO badly, though she could have shown kid!Lestat a little more affection, he was starved for it.
I don’t think AR means that coldness and selfishness = bad vampire. One would think that those are "good” vampire qualities.
(^Catherine Deneuve bc of reasons)
What’s MOST likely is that AR modeled Gabrielle after someone AR is not particularly fond of, thus our dear Gabs was doomed to never be able to bask in the glow of AR’s love ;A;
So who’s an example of a “good” vampire in AR’s eyes? Marius, Lestat, Louis. Vampires who still strive to be part of the fabric of civilization to some degree:
Marius still finds pleasure in painting, socializing w/ the coven members, he studies history, he’s a people-watcher.
Lestat is a sensualist; he wants to crash parties, sample all types of victims, acquire all kinds of toys, be Good at Being Bad, share affection with his covenanyone.
Louis does not in fact want to be left completely alone. Even though he’s a huge bookworm, he also has a deep appreciation for art, and does relish frequent *ahem* cuddles with Lestat, bc who doesn’t?
… Oh right, Gabrielle doesn’t. Gabrielle would rather not be around any vampires or people at all. For legitimate reasons, for sure, but she seems to have little interest in making any connections with civilization, no interest in art or fashion, only a tenuous commitment to her coven,… she wants freedom. Perhaps that’s too lonely and empty an existence for AR to contemplate.
But mostly it’s bc Gabrielle “treated Lestat badly,” and that she doesn’t need or want to be a regular part of Lestat’s family in the way he would love her to be, and since Lestat is AR’s precious bb, Gabrielle’s rejection of Lestat is a rejection of AR herself (which is slightly amusing considering that AR’s commitment to writing Gabrielle in character prevents her from modifying Gabrielle into someone she finds more likable!)(#PROFESSIONAL AUTHOR PROBLEMS)
So. Is fanfiction okay now? Like, I’m sure Queen Anne isn’t still chasing people down with legal papers, but did we get outright approval to post stories? When did that happen?
Short answer: Yes, fanfic is okay now. AR now “ignores fanfiction.” That’s her current stance. We don’t have her approval, we have her tolerance. Not sure exactly when that happened (but there are timestamps in my FB screencaps below).
*~And AO3 has pledged itself as a safe haven* for fanfic writers to post their works!~*
*meaning: AO3 will attempt to defend the writers against copyright infringement claims. The legality of fanfic is nebulous right now, as the courts are slowly defining fanworks under the Fair Use doctrine on a case-by-case basis.
“I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me,” she says. “However, it’s been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live.” – Anne Rice, Nov. 2012.
Aaaaand here are the best FB screencaps re: AR’s stance on fanfic I could find, in reverse chronological order (there’s more, just trying to keep this post from getting too long, emphasized w/ my highlights, of course):
(^Year unknown on that one, old screencap; couldn’t find it again.)
…You want MORE? Hit the jump.
Also this is relevant, from 2014: “A big congratulations to Anna Todd, 25 year old author of One Direction fan fiction, "After” on her new deal with publishing house Simon & Schuster and her movie deal.”
In her comments below, AR seems to compare her inspiration of Hollywood’s vampire movies made in the ‘40s as being similar to Anna Todd’s inspiration re: the boy band 1D. In a way, AR is saying what we all know that writers ARE influenced by outside sources, in various media; Anna Todd’s work cannot be simply written off (no pun intended) as purely derivative fanfiction of 1D just like AR’s work cannot be simply written off as purely derivative fanfiction of Hollywood’s vampire movies made in the ‘40s.
Not that anyone has accused AR of that that I’m aware of, but it might have been an issue raised in 1975 when IWTV first came out.
“Anne Rice objected to fan fiction based on any of her characters (mostly those from her famous Interview with the Vampire and its sequels in The Vampire Chronicles) or other elements in her books, and she formally requested that FanFiction.Net remove stories featuring her characters.[52]However, in 2012, Metro reported that Rice has taken a milder stance on the issue: “I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me,” she said. “However, it’s been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live. If I were a young writer, I’d want to own my own ideas. But maybe fan fiction is a transitional phase: whatever gets you there, gets you there.”[53]
“
This is a gr9 question! NOT an easy answer. And I think you got your question across just fine 😉
AR deserves more credit* than you might think, for the way she jumps around through the series, shedding light on the previously established timeline via different POVs, or just having a character revisit the same scene. Sometimes she also does “Retroactive continuity,” or “retcon” for short: “the alteration of previously established facts in the continuity of a fictional work.”
*Actually, some might argue that when she does this it offers frustratingly conflicting views on previous events, hence, the Unreliable Narrator issues we have throughout the VC.
Anon: “…as much as I love these vamps I feel like
gradual character development isn’t really present, it seems to come suddenly and all at once instead.”
So here’s the thing, in the VC, the publication dates of the books ARE NOT NECESSARILY aligned with the chronological timeline of the set of stories described in the books. (This Timeline I found seems pretty accurate.)
IWTV (published 1976) lays out Louis’ story (between approx. 1791 – 1975).
TVL (published 1985) is Lestat’s story (between
approx.
1766 – 1985) plus the origin story of the vampires (Ancient Egyptian times,
approx.
4000 BC).
QOTD (published 1998) is Lestat’s story in 1985, it was a whirlwind Bad Romance.
TOBT
(published 1992) is Lestat’s Body Dysmorphic Disorder episode, takes place in 1991.
And so on…
TL;DR, I see clear character development when I take in the larger view of all the stories. Some of the later canon books I might have preferred not to have happened, but OH WELL.
But character development in fictional characters (as with actual real people) =/= a clean line of improvement or deterioration. Lestat and Armand have both improved over time in many ways, but they’ve also lost good qualities. Lestat’s definitely lost a few marbles along the way.
Hit the jump for a little more, & spoilers.
For brevity, just gonna answer your question re:
“how the vamps change overtime, character wise? For example, say Lestat in TVL vs Lestat in body thief? Or even Armand in IWTV vs Armand in the later books.”
Lestat:
TVL!Lestat is feisty, freshly resurrected, appetite for destruction, wants to “correct the record” of IWTV by sharing the secrets that he couldn’t in IWTV, and establish himself as the actual protagonist of the series.
Approx. 10 years later in the timeline of the books, TOBT!Lestat is suffering emotionally from the blowback of what happened after sharing that information and trying to be a big shot, and he’s got ghost!Claudia on his back prodding him to consider whether he even deserves to continue vampiring ;A; when he’s so weak against his own impulses. He tries to suicide, and when that doesn’t work, has a renewed sense of belonging in the world. Then in TOBT, he fucks up pretty royally, relies on one best friend to help him get things back to normal, and then almost destroys that friendship by selfishly Forced-Dark-Gift-paying-it-forward. So I’d say that’s a lot of character development.
Armand:
IWTV!Armand was supposed to be intimidating and shrouded in mystery, the teacher/mentor for Louis that Lestat refused to be. Later, when we get Armand’s backstory in TVL, TVA, and B&G, we see his origins and how he got to be the manager of the Theatre Des Vampires, and however intimidating he might have been to Louis, that wasn’t remotely close to what he was like as the leader of the Children of Darkness, Parisian Chapter. So he’s had to adapt to alot of harsh situations, and find some sense of inner peace along the way.
Lestat and Armand are almost 2 sides of the same coin; Lestat was forced into the Dark Gift, Armand begged for it. Lestat had to learn how to vampire alone as an orphan, Armand had an overbearing teacher and was then kidnapped by a cult.
They’ve both had to deal with finding peace and a place for themselves in a world that doesn’t really need or want them, a struggle many of us readers can identify with as being part of our own character development over time.
Oh definitely! This isn’t exactly what you meant but I remembered this dialogue from Hook, and my hand slipped, you can tell Lestat would be using a very annoying voice here to imitate Claudia:
[2nd ask sent]– almost entirely just a complete theft of the intellectual property that they started as fan-derivative works of. so i don’t know if half of what op claims is fair? because it’s true that anne rice chased away her online fandom with a broom, but it’s not totally baseless given the circumstances. she’s not just some crazy old lady imo. sorry again, i don’t want to start a fight but i don’t agree.
Okay, so this is a HUGE topic and I could write an essay and a half on all the issues raised, but it DOES sound like you’re trying to start a fight, partly bc you submitted this on Anon (and you started w/ “this is ooc” so it’s clear you’re an RPer, infringing on the VC copyright through RP, which is writing fanfic, for free!) and partly bc of your general tone, which in all fairness I could be misreading.
I’m not sure you totally understand AR’s War on Fanfic in the early-mid 90′s, or the actual points raised in the post you disagree with so strongly, so that’s why I’m taking the time to answer.
However, for everyone’s future reference: my policy has been to answer every Ask I get but that policy is changing NOW. If I get the feeling that a message is provocative in a negative way, I won’t answer it publicly. Privately, I might, if you come off Anon.
^Louis doesn’t really want to get involved in this discussion. It’s ok, just sit there and look pretty, hun, we’ll keep this brief.
asked a question, “Why is there so little Vampire Chronicles fan activity or content?” [X], and then;
2)@the-savage-nymph-art replied to that question [X]. Brilliantly and succinctly, I would add. They even provided one of the purposes of fanfic: to share headcanons. Whether in an AU, or PWP, etc., we’re exploring the characters through storytelling.
What @the-savage-nymph-art didn’t mention is that exploring canon through writing/sharing fanfic (both for-profit and not-for-profit, I assume) predates AR’s War on Fanfic. You can do your own research on that, but here’s a good article to start with, by Ewan Morrison.
Monika Bartyzel: talks about derivative works based on fanfic (it mentions 50 Shades & Twilight, too), but focusing on the Mortal Instruments. The thrust of the argument is that TMI was TOO derivative:
“…But until a story is willing to break through the boundaries of its inspiration and drop the mimicry in favor of its own voice, it will always be as derivative as its origins — no matter how many names you change.”
(^So there is a difference between fanfic that shares headcanons to explore, and fanfic that seems to merely mimic the canon it’s derived from.)
Anon, Anne Rice no longer has an issue with Fanfic. I don’t remember what year this was posted on FB but it was, and she hasn’t mentioned it since, that I’m aware of.
^So really, with that, the argument is kind of over.
But I am definitively saying, I run this blog as respectfully of Anne Rice as I can, w/ just a little light teasing bc we do that even to our own parents! she’s given us a great gift in the VC.
This blog is about positivity and inclusivity, and arguing over whether a derivative work is worthy of being considered worth standing alone as a separate work, that’s for the courts to decide on a case-by-case basis as we define what is a “derivative” work. There are some fanworks that I love so much that I WISH they were canon, that I WISH I could buy as a beautiful physical book to repay the creators for bringing me Such Feels!
Hit the jump for just a little more.
Anon’s argument has 2 points:
A) That fanfic written for fandom and then altered by changing the character names, etc. (aka ”filing the serial numbers off”, “Hermione” becomes “Eloise” or whatever) so that it can be sold for profit, is infringing on the copyright of the original creator. Anon mentions 2 examples that are making tons of money. I’ve heard of those series and the accusations of their beginnings as fanfic. I haven’t read them or followed the reviews about them though, so I can’t comment on whether or not they really are derivative works.
B) That Anne Rice is wrongfully accused of being “just some crazy old lady” in defense of the her VC copyright.
As per Anon’s point A), this is a nebulous thing, copyright law is still being worked out for it. It’s slowly developing on a case-by-case basis, and sometimes it’s settled out of court. Look at the Unofficial Harry Potter Encyclopedia case, for example. Not a fanfic, but still, a fanwork. The judge ruled that the
Unofficial Harry Potter Encyclopedia could be published for profit, in an abridged version of how it was originally intended to be, bc it served as a reference work, so it had value, but in its entirety it would have been
unfair competition w/ a similar work that J.K. Rowling intended to release (and she is still working on, years later).
As for your point B):
Nowhere in @the-savage-nymph-art‘s reply is Anne Rice referred to as “just some crazy old lady.” In fact, it was only you, Anon, who called her “dickish.”
Actually, there are several mocking references in @the-savage-nymph-art‘s commentary to those who write fanfic, in the usual Tumblrland Hyperbole™ kind of way, which is intended to grab your attention and add a little levity to a serious and saddening topic. Don’t you get the joke, Anon? Silliness! Or can you not take it as humorous when smne mentions “your gloriously blushing butt-cheeks” ?
I disagree with you, Anon. Anne Rice has given us an incredible gift. Yes, I have mentioned that she waged War on Fanfic. That’s a fact. It’s actual history.
Fanfic sold for money w/ the serial numbers filed off, (like 50 Shades does to Twilight and the Mortal Instruments *allegedly* does to Harry Potter) well, the creators of the original works have every right to pursue copyright protection! Have they, in these cases? Because the authors of 50 Shades and the Mortal Instruments seem to be doing fine, getting movie deals an all.
Maybe the authors of 50 Shades and the Mortal Instruments were sued and settled out of court.
But maybe, in these cases, the derivative work (as Anon calls them) was sufficiently AU of the fandoms they were adapted from to constitute enough originality to be considered works that stand on their own.
Let’s see what happens when someone writes fanfic w/ the serial numbers filed off based on 50 Shades and the Mortal Instruments!
Oh wait, 50 Shades already has a parody of it, 50 Shades of Black. Let’s get popcorn and see if a legal dispute fires up…
This is a good question and it took me awhile to figure out the difference (and I might be wrong, so other ppl can reblog w/ their own explanation).
The confusion is bc “Verse” is an abbreviation for “universe,” and “AU” is an abbreviation for “Alternate Universe.” The difference is mainly in that the former is usually applied to RP and the latter is usually applied to fanfic and fanart, but both words can be used for both.
A “Verse” (lots of different words for this, different RPers make them up) is more for RPers, bc it’s a time period set in canon, or a non-canon time period chosen between the RPers who are roleplaying together.
– So you can have a Louis RPer and a Lestat RPer referring to “Verse:One Happy Family” (or whatever name they choose for it), which refers to the time period in canon in which those muses were living with Claudia and all three of them were happy, before Claudia started to actually grow up.
– Or, you can have a Verse that is NOT in canon, like “Verse:Italian Tales” (or whatever name they choose for it) in which a Gabrielle RPer and an OC RPer are roleplaying stories from Gabrielle’s childhood in Italy, which was not explicitly written about in canon.
An "Alternate Universe” is more typically used in fanfic or fanart in which the characters and canon have been rearranged somehow, like a female!Lestat, or the idea like: Enkil awoke in 1984 and he is mindlessly on the warpath, terrorizing the world, and Akasha is trying to enlist the other vampires to help stop him. My fave AUs are ones in which lots of canon, fanon, or headcanon is part of the story.
– There is an incomplete fanfic on AO3 called The Grim Brothers that basically casts the VC characters into a Grim’s fairy tale, and they are not vampires in it, but some things from canon are retained or reworked: Louis and David are stepbrothers, which is technically sort of true!
I-want-my-IWTV 