When someone tries to tell you that you have to be pale to be goth, just remember this picture.đ
Bringing this back! Someone actually stole this post (as in with my quote, I didnât make the picture) but took the time to cut my username out and now its being shared all over facebook, ruuude~ So here is the original.:P
Tag Archives: queen of the damned
The thought “if I was ever to be turned into a vampire it better be after I pluck, shave and get a nice haircut” troubles me more than I am willing to admit. Am I the only one?
You donât have to get groomed before youâre turned, AR doesnât always specify if ppl do. I doubt Frida Kahlo would have! To pluck or not, to cut oneâs hair or not, depends partly on the culture youâre from and what you personally consider beautiful.
[^Frida Kahlo by Fabrian Ciraolo check out his stuff he is so cool!]
Me, Iâd LOVE to never have to bother with it again, but Iâd probably let it be somewhat natural under the brow, like Brooke Shields had in the 80â˛s, so that Iâd have that option if I wanted it, bc I am a child of the â80â˛s and this is still beautiful to me:
Itâs part of the package. The women who were turned before shaving oneâs legs was expected (presumably it was a sneaky way to sell more razors :P) probably have natural legs. Louis doesnât mention shaving his face before he was turned, we donât know if Lestat has scruff.
âI could hear Lestat in his room, the sound of water splashing from his pitcher. The faint smell of his cologne came and went like the sound of music from the cafe two doors down from us.â – IWTV
^Is he shaving? Is he brushing his fangs? Maybe he does have some scruff! He didnât mention being freshly shaven before Magnus turns him.
It definitely creeped Jesse out in QOTD, but partly bc she didnât really know what was going on did they shave her legs, too?:
ââŚWas this a funeral parlor?
It came again, the fear that she was dead, locked in the flesh yet disconnected. She
heard a curious sound; what was it? A scissors cutting. It was trimming the edges of
her hair; the feel of it traveled to her scalp. She felt it even in her intestines.Â
A tiny vagrant hair was plucked suddenly from her face; one of those annoying hairs,
quite out of place, which women so hate. She was being groomed for the coffin,
wasnât she? Who else would take such care, lifting her hand now, and inspecting her
fingernails so carefully.â
I find it disturbing that the only mention of New Mexico was in QOTD, and it wasn’t favorable. Is there a reason the vampires hate New Mexico? I mean It isn’t that bad, is it?
That doesnât mean the vampires hate New Mexico, lol, even tho I donât remember it being mentioned anywhere else in canon other than QOTD, either.Â
The only reference I see of New Mexico in QOTD is a very passing mention by a mortal (a bad guy) whoâs dying: âParalyzed, couldnât move, thinking he was a kid again on a farm or something in New Mexico. Just baby talk.â
That wasnât unfavorable (being mentioned by a dying bad guy doesnât mean all ppl who had a childhood there will turn out to be bad guys), and doesnât represent that the vampires hate New Mexico.
^Hereâs a gif of Claudia playing w/ her food bc itâs similar to the scene in QOTD, someone else is playing w/ their food a little.Â
Keep in mind that thereâs a lot of canon that takes place in other places and time periods. New Mexico was admitted into the US in 1912 [so sayeth Wiki] idk if there were vampires there before or after that, but there may have been restrictions about crossing the border before 1912. Also, travel for leisure is a relatively modern thing. In fact, Louis doesnât mention any travel for leisure during IWTV, the three of them just stayed in New Orleans for 65 years? Itâs possible.Â
BEAUTIFUL PERSON AWARD once you get this award, youâre supposed to paste it in the ask box of 8 people who deserve it. If you break the chain nothing will happen, but itâs nice to know that someone thinks youâre beautiful inside and out âżâżâż
Thank u dear!
Hello~! I’ve been reading The Vampire Chronicles slowly but surely and sort of lurking in the wonderful fandom all the while. I’m currently reading Queen of the Damned and finding it very hard to get through. Do you think I’m alone in that? I love the characters but my goodness lestat is given power after power and Maharet drones on and on for goodness knows how many pages, I want to get through it because I love the series! But do you think I’m alone in finding QOTD hard to finish?
Hello! Welcome to our little corner of tumblrlandâŚ
Iâve been holding this message for awhile bc there are parts I donât like that much either. There are parts that are boring, problematic, or other reasons not to like it.
Some ppl in the fandom actually HATE Lestat w/ a burning passion. They read the series for their love of other characters. There are ppl who adore Armand and pretty much just focus on his book and read the other books for snippets about him, which is totally fine!Â
Any story/movie/music/etc. (including VC) is like a bruised banana. Can you eat around the parts you donât like and still enjoy the banana? I can. No one is forcing you to eat the whole thing. Skip the parts you really donât like. You can always go back and read them another time.Â
What do you love about the series? Just stick with that!
Spoilerishness under the cut.
Iâd say that skipping means you might miss out on something, tho.
Maharetâs information is good because it offers insight as to why Akasha is the way she is, and why she treats ppl the way she does. Itâs good bc it sheds more light on the vampire origin story that will be developed much later in Prince Lestat. Itâs good bc Maharet is one of the matriarchs of the species and she is a well-written female character in a series dominated by men.Â
Lestatâs getting new powers but each upgrade pulls him further away from the humanity he so desperately wants back, so the trade off, and how he deals with that later, is all good stuff. Heâs uncomfortable exercising his new abilities. These upgrades also make him incompatible for Louis, who doesnât want the powers or enhanced durability, so from QOTD onwards (until a later book in the series), Louis wonât drink Lestatâs blood. This makes bloodsharing (which is the Ricean form of intimacy) for them completely one-sided; Lestat can take blood from Louis but not give it back ;A;
Does Anne make it clear how much power the vampires have in the world? Like in terms of economic or political influence, or control of banks or other institutions? It just seems natural that, being so rich and being around for so long, they would gain as much influence as the Freemasons, Rothschilds etc. Thoughts?
As always, #your headcanon may vary, but from my own reading of the books and the characters focused on (the main coven), AR does not make it clear how much power the vampires have in the world* beyond the fact that theyâre rich if they want to be (like Armand and Daniel owning and running the luxurious Night Island, a lucrative hotel/entertainment/casino/art-space/etc.), or not (Louis living in a dilapidated shack w/ few physical possessions). Â
Santino and the Children of Darkness might have had some impact with their religious zealotry, but targeted at the world in more of a negative way, a League of Shadows sort of group. Other vampires, especially the new ones introduced in PL, we donât know much about their interest in economic or political influence.
Speaking of LouisâŚÂ
he put the Coven of the Articulateâs stance very eloquently in QOTD (my emphasis added): Â
[^Louis by @remarried]
âItâs their world, not ours,â he said humbly. âSurely we forfeited it when we lost our mortality. We have no
right now to interrupt their struggle. If we do we rob them of victories that have cost them too much! Even in
the last hundred years their progress has been miraculous; they have righted wrongs that mankind thought
were inevitable; they have for the first time developed a concept of the true family of man.
⌠Donât interfere with them.
Even if they kill each other! Give them time to see this new vision realized; give the cities of the West,
corrupt as they may be, time to take their ideals to a suffering and blighted world.âÂ
Cut for length, not spoilers.
*That was the issue that was brought up in QOTD, whether they had a responsibility to have political power and/or have influence the world or not. There was a council of sorts, and some heavy debate was had, mainly on the part of Lestatâs ultra feminist SJW girlfriend vs. literally everyone else except Lestat who mostly sat there terrified into silence and not taking sides, and it ended with the general agreement that they shouldnât meddle in mortal affairs.
This is partly bc writing their involvement into actual historical events could be difficult if not impossible (What, did they fight in WWII? Which side? How would that even work, concealing their vampirism from their fellow soldiers??!), and partly bc AR herself wasnât very political back in earlier canon.
Even now, in the later books, AR keeps her world mostly separate from the Real World; IIRC, Hurricane Katrina was never mentioned in canon, and one would think that NOLA-branch coven founders Louis and Lestat would at least comment on that obviously devastating tragedy. At least one fanfic writer did take up the challenge of weaving in Katrina, and did it very tastefully. So itâs possible, but AR hasnât gone there.
Of course, he gave me a doll as usual, the replica of me, which as always wears a duplicate of my newest
dress. To France he sends for these dolls, he wants me to know. And what should I do with it? Play with it
as if I were really a child?Â
“Is there a message here, my beloved father?” I asked him this evening. “That I shall be a doll forever
myself?” He has given me thirty such dolls over the years if recollection serves me. And recollection never
does anything else. Each doll has been exactly like the rest. They would crowd me out of my bedroom if I
kept them. But I do not keep them. I burn them, sooner or later. I smash their china faces with the poker. I
watch the fire eat their hair. I can’t say that I like doing this. After all, the dolls are beautiful. And they do
resemble me. Yet, it becomes the appropriate gesture. The doll expects it. So do I.
– The Vampire Claudia, Queen of the Damned
âLestat!â
âLouis!â I said, mocking his tone.
Lestat – Queen of the Damned (Anne Rice)
I-want-my-IWTV 