Growing up w/ vampire dads, and being the only human child, in a lab full of vampire scientists had to be interesting, to say the least. I would have liked alot more time spent on that, and how that went! There could be a whole spinoff series just about Vikkie’s childhood!
Throughout the story of Prince Lestat, Armand does little other than be supportive of Lestat, in a way that almost seems obsequious. Not much really happens for Armand, he rides out the whole drama pretty unscathed, for which we should all be GRATEFUL.
I think you should read #4 before PL. It’s got a lot of David Talbot, who you only know a teeny bit at the end of #3. He’s… different in PL.
I feel like skipping to PL, you miss other adventures and character development, amusing lines… pages about how beautiful Louis is, lol… I just feel like reading them in order is a richer experience.
At least you have more of an appreciation for the other main characters since you know their background.
Prince Lestat CAN be considered a stand alone, AR said herself it can be treated like that. It’s just so stand alone that I consider it very Alternate Universe. You’ll see what I mean.
*sigh* It’s so strange that ppl want to rush to PL, but I guess it’s bc it’s the currently newest VC and the upcoming book is a sequel to it.
Also, almost 2 yrs since its release, I still refuse to accept PL as canon. It’s AU to me.
Sure, go on to PL! I hope you have more of an appreciation for the main characters since you know their background. I sympathize with your time constraints.
Prince Lestat CAN be considered a stand alone, AR said herself it can be treated like that. It’s just so stand alone that I consider it very Alternate Universe. You’ll see what I mean.
*sigh* It’s so strange that ppl want to rush to PL, but I guess it’s bc it’s the currently newest VC and the upcoming book is a sequel to it.
As far as triggering elements, there are some in PL. I won’t spoil you directly but I’ll just toss in some questionnable categories of things I remember being in PL (this is not all-inclusive, I may have forgotten a few bc I read it almost 2 years ago and I can’t read it again yet):
An emotionally abusive relationship between a female college student and a male adult authority figure
Other abuse of that female college student that she suffered as a child (not sexual but physical and emotional)
Body horror (sort of?)
Gorey moments (one involving a few amputations, one involving brains, some murder bc VAMPIRES)
Lestat in a non-consensual blood-related attack moment (but he doesn’t get away with it unpunished)
[Note: Mun & muse do not accept the entirety of PL as canon, definitely not Viktor, but Lestat said he’d play along for the sake of this Ask.]
♛Honestly, I try not to feel anything about Viktor.
I barely know him and he has shown little interest in me. I assume he’s read my books but I have no idea. He seems to prefer thinking he burst forth riding a giant gilded petri dish like Venus on her scallop shell. Fine. That’s probably how I’d act in his position.
[Spoiler Alert]
Here’s the thing, anonymous person, how would you feel if someone told you you had a son, and before you could hardly even entertain the idea, they tell you he’s practically an adult, he was raised in a lab full of scientist-vampires, and that what he wants more than anything in the world, more than anything money can buy or any experience, even a relationship with you, is to become a vampire, too? Just another mortal who finds us beautiful, magical, has little idea of the grotesque nightly payment required? Killing is not always fun. Often it’s repulsive. This is a true customer service job, closer to butchery than the refined elegance people love to romanticize it as being.
Before you start with me on that, yes, I’m sure his “parents” told him about that part of it, too, but please *waves his hand* I met him when he was mortal and had all the starry-eyed wonder of someone who idealizes what we are, ignoring whatever they find remotely distasteful.
It’s been years now and I’m still livid about it. Surely there would have been a way to reach me about him sooner? What’s been stolen from me is priceless. His first words, his first steps, all the joy of sharing my son’s childhood. Earning his trust. He acts like I abandoned him all those years! I am a “deadbeat dad” by his creator’s design.
Did they think I would confuse him?
Did they think I would hurt him? Kill him? They’ve done so much damage keeping us apart that there may be no healing of that wound, even with vampiric blood.
I’m livid about all of that, and that’s only the second chapter beyond the fact that his very creation was not my choice, either. I didn’t sign any waivers giving them permission to make a child from my little experiment. What of possible failures they made before him? Potentially: other children who were biologically unstable, never made it to adulthood, suffering in their short lives. It horrifies and disgusts me.
Are you starting to get the picture? Do you have the faintest idea? I’m livid. I’m a father to him in the biological sense of the word only. It even seems that he actively tries to suppress anything of me in him, and isn’t that part of the thrill of having a child? Seeing yourself reflected in them? He reflects nothing back to me, only that we share an uncanny physical resemblance. He should dye his hair if he hates me so very much.
I try not to feel anything about Viktor. It takes me down a road that leads nowhere.
So I don’t know how new you are, and what you’ve seen and/or read, but unlike many other fandoms: We do not all accept all of the books (and the 2 movies) in our series as CANON.
[^Louis doesn’t really approve of the series as a whole.]
All of us are into VC for our own reasons, and there are some ppl who are into it specifically for certain characters, time periods, cosplay ideas, etc. Ppl whose interests are similar tend to find eachother and make closer friendships within the larger fandom. Anything that you do not accept as canon can be considered AU or written off as being told by an unreliable narrator, bc all of our characters are unreliable narrators! They all know someone in the coven will read their account of things and they may *~embellish~* the truth if they want to do so ;] Scenes are often retread from different characters’ POVs. You can choose which version you want to trust. Maybe there are elements of both that you find acceptable.
Even AR doesn’t accept all of the books as canon: she said that
Prince Lestat does not follow the VC/Mayfair hybrid books (Blood Canticle was intended to be the last VC). She wrote PL almost as a stand alone book and lots of ppl seem to be coming into the fandom from that book without reading IWTV which is fine, and more power to them! You don’t need to read the books that lead up to it but you’ll get a deeper appreciation of some of the main characters if you at least read the first 3 books in the series before you read PL.
Hit the jump for more, cut for length.
Re: differing headcanons: We still have disagreements about what Louis’ hair really looks like, bc some ppl were influenced by movie!IWTV, the official graphic novels, and the fanart which interprets it in different ways. We still disagree over whether Lestat was 20 or 21 when he was turned, and AR herself doesn’t always answer these canon questions explicitly herself (maybe bc she left it ambiguous on purpose, or she forgot, or whatever other reasons).
Re: PL: There are parts of PLI can accept, just not the whole thing. There are alot of new characters introduced who I personally did not find as engaging as the old set, and the old set did not always behave in ways that seemed true to their own previously established characterizations throughout the book. Other ppl have different opinions. We have RPers who chose the new characters to RP, so they probably accept these new characters as canon.
I probably won’t accept Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis as anything more than AU either, bc it follows PL.
Reasons why fandom won’t accept PLROA as canon:
The main reason would be that AR herself has told us to disregard the Mayfair crossover books. In terms of her own headcanon, she didn’t want to tie these in with the events that follow in PL. So her own books diverge from her own timeline.
A secondary reason would be the earlier books in the series are generally accepted as the stronger stories with the characters best written.
I-want-my-IWTV 