Hello @veridian-stealth, thanks for being a long time follower! I admit I haven’t absorbed enough of canon sufficient to say I’m the most knowledgeable source, but I do what I can ^______^
I love the idea of your starting & ending high school drama club
with a VC quote, good closure there. Which did you start with?
I skimmed the first 2 books, and this is already a long post with only putting 5 in, bc these are the ones that jumped out at me. They’re small windows into evocative scenes. Things that I can see an actor giving to an audience, pieces that might be able to stand on their own apart from the rest of the fabric of VC.
TBH I can’t remember many monologues that really stood out for me in the rest of canon, but anyone is welcome to reblog/comment and add ones that they would suggest to you 😉 Let us know which you pick, share a video even!
No cuts bc I don’t think this is spoilery.
In order of canon appearance:
-> IWTV:
1) Louis talks about Paul and his death. I edited it down somewhat and took out Daniel’s dialogue but you should probably do it better than I did.
2) Lestat’s “Evil is a point of view” monologue, that would take a lot of editing, but if you want to take a stab at it, go for it! But keep in mind, the last bit is recognizable from movie!IWTV, and ppl will probably compare your performance to Cruise!Lestat. I also don’t think it ends on the best line, so yeah… with edits it could work and be vampiry. I’ve always loved this first para to it.
3) Armand re: inflexible minded vampires. This is really short but I’ve always loved this passage (BTW there’s a bunch of typos in my PDF of this, so you’ll have to check with a better copy).
-> TVL:
4) Lestat’s mercy kill, this might be my fave of these. You might want to give a little context, maybe add more about when he got back home and his brother accused him of making it up.
Bonjour! Happy very belated NYE to you, too, and I’m sorry this took so long, to be honest, your first question deals with a potentially very controversial topic.
I’m answering this publicly so other ppl can chime in if they feel comfortable doing so.
1|2 [How would you say Daniel’s relationship with Marius and Armand differ from one another but still hold similarities?]
^[X] I don’t know if this is a legit quote from Angelina Jolie (it’s more poignant now that they’re broken up, if so ;A;), BUT. I think the quote makes a good point.
A real relationship may not always be rainbows and sparkles. Someone seeing you at your worst and still loving you. It’s complicated. I know of relationships that seem to be all fluff on the surface, but underneath, resentment grows, when someone in it feels like they’re giving more than they feel is fair, but can’t communicate for fear of making it worse. When you confront your loved one with your issues, sometimes it gets ugly. That’s healthy, to be able to have those difficult conversations to improve things.
So when we compare fictional ships, like real life, there’s much that happens off-screen, whether in individual reader’s headcanons, or reported by unreliable narrators. We get info from canon and work with it.
Both ships you mention have potentially major controversial stuff about them and this is a blog for entertainment, so I don’t want to get deeply into that. But I would say, in my own reading, that I see both ships as having pairings who deeply care for each other, and express that love in different ways, and they’re not always able to do that smoothly.
Without meaning any disrespect to other fans, my own interpretation of these two ships is pretty superficial, as they involve characters I haven’t spent as much mental space exploring.
Daniel/Armand helped each other in many ways during the time that they were together. Daniel taught Armand about the modern world, gave him a will to live, and Armand was endlessly fascinating to Daniel, not only for being a vampire, but because of Armand himself. I do believe Daniel really and truly fell in love with Armand. Their sass was so complementary! And it was NOT all rainbows and sparkles for them, they had a feisty and rocky ship for 10 years!
The beginning of Daniel/Marius isn’t as explicit in canon… I remember just suddenly finding out sometime after QOTD that Daniel had gone to live with Marius and I was like, “Really?” and it seemed like Marius was in more of a caretaker role with him, as Daniel was somewhat mad, reeling from everything he’d experienced in QOTD, as can happen with fledglings for the first few months/years, and this developed into a legit canon ship between those two. Marius seems to have learned from the past that he can’t have a teacher/student ship and expect it to last, at least to my mind, he treats Daniel with the respect of an emotional equal. Maybe we’ll get more info on them in the next book.
2|2 [What if Louis’ brother had been turned and not Louis. How do you think Paul’s (( That’s his name right? )) story would have played out?]
[X] Yep his name is Paul. That’s really tough bc we barely get to know Paul, except that he’s 15, and deeply religious, ppl think he’s gone mad, so much so that he believes he really had visions of St. Dominic and the Virgin Mary. I think the killing-to-live aspect would have been totally rejected by such a religious person. He probably wouldn’t want to see his own family in his damned state, ever again ;A; Paul would probably rather go into the sun than feed on animals and enjoy any of the vampiric gifts.
The other way Paul might have gone is in deciding that Lestat was an actual angel, and choosing to redirect all his religious fervor towards Lestat… and we don’t need anyone doing that! Lestat says he wants to be worshiped, but I think these are the words of someone who was starved for affection in his formative years. He doesn’t want the unconditional love of a religious zealot, not really. He wants love that has to be earned, over and over again, and the reward of that love is that it’s genuine and not because he’s just that pretty.
So I think Lestat would tire of such a sycophant and move on, Paul would go into the sun.
I think that’s definitely possible, in the context of the movie version of the story.* “[Lestat] knew me, he knew I would love her more than the waking world.” Very poetic *u*
Expecting a child doesn’t necessarily mean you love kids, BUT, Lestat could read minds, and perhaps he knew just how much being a father meant to Louis. Louis doesn’t speak much of his own father, when he died, Louis had to take over the family business at a relatively young age, so maybe Louis was really looking forward to being a better and more loving a father than the one he had grown up with ;A;
PLUS, it seems like it would have been Louis’s first child, making him a father for the first time. I can’t imagine what that must feel like, expecting to have your wife back in your arms, and a new baby to love and raise, and then get neither back, knowing your wife died in pain?? ;A;
Even if Louis wasn’t a kid person, I mean, how can you not love a super cute 5 yr old angel like Claudia was originally? Scooped out of abject poverty and sickness, someone you could lavish with gifts and who would be grateful for it, having known only the barest no-frills of a life before? Lestat knew Louis would feel protective of her, she could be something to inspire him to learn to live again. You can experience the world anew with them as they learn about it ❤
*In the book version, it’s a younger brother that Louis had lost recently, Paul, a brother Louis was very close to. The death sends Louis spiraling into guilt and depression bc he feels responsible for it (and others, including his own family, blame him for it directly).
When Paul died, Louis says: “my mother told everyone in the parish that something horrible had happened in my room which I would not reveal; and even the police questioned me, on the word of my own mother.”
That feeling of blame in the situation is part of what made that loss so devastating to him, the death was preventable, if only he had had more patience with his brother ;A;
But with the loss of a child and wife in childbirth, I can imagine the husband feeling responsible for that, too. After all, if not for him, well, she wouldn’t have been pregnant (we’re assuming it was definitely his baby!) 😛
^I love this fanart, he’s got his brother’s raven hair and green eyes <3, but Paul is described in canon as “He had the smoothest skin and the largest blue eyes. He was robust, not thin as I am now and was then… but his eyes… it was as if when I looked into his eyes I was standing alone on the edge of the world… on a windswept ocean beach. ” (IWTV) Not sure whether it’s canon or fanon but Paul was supposedly blond. He was 15 when he died.
I have a few other things collected in my #Paul de Pointe du Lac tag, like this portrait I think is pretty canon compliant:
Also, I know there is a fanart somewhere of Armand ranting that Marius is not Lestat’s sire.
Hmmm that is a very tough one, I know I’ve seen a fanart or two like that over the years, I’ll try and dig around in my personal archives for that. I do think Armand would take more issue at that than the idea that Lestat might have been Daniel’s maker.
I mean, and I shouldn’t go here but I will, bc I think this is one of the reasons I can’t watch movie!QOTD w/o someone with me, cracking jokes at it…
Marius gets unfairly mashed together with Magnus in movie!QOTD, essentially, bc he turns Lestat w/o consent. Therefore, Marius takes on the burden of having raped Lestat into being a vampire and there is no explicit reconciliation or apology for that crime whatsoever, but he and Lestat are kicking it together in Modern Times, with Lestat seemingly bitter at him and Marius seemingly smug back? It’s ooc and uncomfortable. I think Armand would be more annoyed at Marius taking on Magnus’ actions than he would be pissed at Lestat getting to claim Marius as his own sire, since QOTD!Lestat doesn’t seem all that thrilled with that pedigree.
BUT ANYWAY if anyone out there has fanart in which Armand is ranting about Marius not being Lestat’s sire, plz send it to me, or reblog and tag me!
I have one of Lestat and Armand fighting over Marius, and @garama‘s Antonio!Armand w/ QotD!Marius which is not quiiiite what you’re asking for but might like anyway… that I’ll rebagel after this…
So would [Armand] also rant that Lestat is not Daniel’s sire? Since I know people tend to confuse the movies Queen of the Damned and Interview with a Vampire since they state completely different sires from the books.
Ppl may blend together certain things, but I think anyone who’s seen the movies AND read the books takes the books as more true to canon, and the movies as adaptations, which is what they are. But if ppl only see movie!QOTD, I can’t really fault them for taking that info as their own canon, if they like it.
In MY opinion, since you’re asking: Armand will rant about it @ Daniel in private, but Armsy doesn’t tend to rant about anything he’s personally invested in when he’s in Lestat’s presence, preferring to keep a calm, collected, and unflappable profile as much as possible. Lestat knows this and loves to pester Armsy at any opportunity. There’s A LOT of joking around in the coven about those movies and how Daniel narrowly escaped having Lestat as his fictional maker…
Lestat: “You’d have liked that, wouldn’t you?” *makes a kissy face @ Dan*
Daniel: “Not saying I’d have liked it exactly, but it might’ve sped things up a little…”
Armand: “Are you saying I took too long, Daniel? I had my reasons…”
Lestat: “Dude I see someone I love, I turn them THAT NIGHT,” *snaps his fingers* “If I can possibly manage it, or the very next night, or at least that weekend, gotta strike when the iron is HOT!”
Armand: “Or else they might come to their senses and run as far away as they can get from you?”
Lestat: “HEY!”
Daniel: “I did run from you, Armand…”
Armand: “HEY!!”
Marius and Louis just sit back and watch all this, wishing that they had popcorn they could eat.
Paul is in fact mentioned by name in IWTV, but it’s only 3 times, and the first time is on page 26 (US Ballantine edition):
“I could almost make out the images of the saints on the walls. `Paul,’ I said softly, addressing my brother, `for the first time in my life I feel nothing for you,…” – Louis de Pointe du Lac, IWTV
…so if you were skimming a physical copy, it would in fact be hard to find the mentions at all! I have digital copies of all the books, makes for easier searching ;]
The first time Paul is mentioned, it isn’t by name at all, on the 2nd page. Paul was a big deal for Louis and he has to bring it up immediately.
“There was a tragedy … “ the vampire started. “It was my younger brother … He died.” – Louis de Pointe du Lac, IWTV
Would Louis have been in such a crappy state and basically trying to drink himself to death, shouting “COME FIGHT ME BRO” at everyone in the shittiest taverns of NOLA if not for his guilt over Paul? Would he still have met Lestat at some fancy ball? WHO KNOWS.
I-want-my-IWTV 