Stop condemning and judging people for their fucking ships. What you like to read about does not reflect what you care about, approve of, or want for yourself in real life.
Can people be skeevy about ships? Certainly. Are there fandom trends that reflect the racism and sexism of society at large? Definitely! Does harassing individual fans for what they like help any of that? No.
Promote the ships you like, instead of using them as a stick to beat other people with.
Meanwhile, people have been into fucked up ships forever, and somehow the internet hasn’t burned down in an inferno of abuse apologism.
And do you realise what you’re saying, when you talk about young girls and women being drawn into abusive relationships because of the fic they read, or the art they draw, or the meta they write?
You’re telling them it’s their fault.
THAT. LAST. PART. I’ve been saying this for ages. Women and girls do not have to be protected from their own fantasies, and telling women that they are putting themselves at risk for liking “impure” ships or fictional relationship dynamics is 100% victim-blaming bullshit that is also pretty fucking condescending.
Me, a humble fic farmer, tending her plot of land: neighbor john said there was a shipwar starting just over the hills. what do you think Ma, do you think we’ll ever see a shipwar?
Ma, clutching her apron to her chest: oh dear, I hope not!
Pa, sitting in his rocking chair and smoking his pipe: hmph! there’s always been shipwars and there will always be shipwars. you just keep your nose out of it and mind your own business. we ain’t got no business messing around in shipwars. now step to it! i want that field of headcanons and plot twists plowed by morning! and keep those plot bunnies from getting at the smut, we can’t afford anymore WIPs!
I loved this movie. Classic movie monsters have been used to death, so this is the best way to use them these days I think, and this is exactly everything I wanted.
I deliberately placed the two guys we know for a fact Petyr transformed around him, but going by their accents I suspect he transformed all of them. It seems to sorta be his thing.
Past all the casting rumors and the questions of adaptation around the upcoming Vampire Chronicles reboot (seriously the second book doesn’t have an ending and the framing device relies on the first book, WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO), the thing that makes me most exhausted is thinking about all the straightsplaining that’s going to come out of the woodwork. Again.
Just thinking about all the exciting FLAVORS I could sample.
Like, you’ve got your Vanilla Queer Erasure. “Lestat and Louis were just friends raising their adopted daughter platonically!”
Your Rum Raisin Biphobia. “Lestat is clearly gay/straight, and the other people he’s expressed an interest in don’t count!”
The daring That’s Not What That Term You’re Borrowing Means But Nice Backbending Pistachio. “Well technically they’re not gay because their dicks don’t work, so really they’re all asexual!”
The heady and new Sour Grapes Whinging. “They just put in all this gay stuff to pander to the ESS JAY DUBBYAS, this is such bullshit.”
And then I realized, MY GOD, I’m only thinking of the audience! There might be so many new flavors on the crew side!
There’s your Bitter Limoncello Queerbaiting. “Oh, well we never SAID they were in love. Wow, those fans sure are taking all the deliberately candlelight looks of longing and pledges of devotion the wrong way, huh?”
The soggy cone of specifically invented hetero love interests or cisswapping for the sole purpose of making a queer love interest straight (really a bear to order, that one, but some folks just put in the extra effort). “I thought Nicola was really layered, didn’t you?”
Selective Dead Gays Mint Chip. “It was so sad when Nicki died – Lestat loved him so much! Good thing he found those conspicuously only lady love interests in the present!”
The ever popular Investor Dodge Sherbet. “We just weren’t sure audiences would invest in a story with a male/male love story, and it’s such a big blockbuster movie. MAYBE NEXT TIME.”
The above also comes in the subtler, more crafted flavor known as Conveniently Cut for Time Soft Serve.
Also if you’d like some, this salt lick is really quite delicious.
Interview with the Vampire (1994) dir. Neil Jordan
one of the greatest performances ever
I’m in love with this film for Tom Cruise ‘s performance and the fabulous long hairstyle of Brad Pitt.
Definitely one of my fave scenes. There’s so much going on here. Lestat bursts in and immediately looks around to see if he can salvage anything out of this, but knows he can only save Louis, and still has time to have this thorny little exchange bc he’ll be damned if he isn’t going to take this as an opportunity to lay in a little verbal smackdown. “Have us sleeping in the field like cattle!” He has this subtle pain in his eyes, as if Louis was actually trying to usurp his role as the captain of this ship, not that he was in fact trying to commit suicide. It doesn’t even cross Lestat’s mind to remark on the fact that that’s what this was, a suicide attempt. Or maybe it does, and in not giving Louis the choice to go down with his fiery mansion, Lestat has made a renewed internal vow to guide Louis into becoming the vampire he knows he can be.
Lestat could have easily just let Louis burn up with the house.Except that he loves him. Even though this was an act of ENORMOUS REBELLION it only makes Lestat love Louis more, bc only a BAMF like Louis could do something like this, try to destroy everything an apparently materialistic creature like Lestat has ever wanted, and not care about the consequences. But that’s not who Lestat really is, that’s all just retail therapy, hoarding shiny things to fill a void, and they both know it. Having stripped away Lestat’s treasured hoard, Louis’ face is 99% sexual ecstasy, he’s so satisfied with himself here.
Louis didn’t do this to rile Lestat, he did it to win, and finally do away with himself. But seeing his maker there, clearly to rescue Louis, the most precious thing to Lestat in the whole place, had to touch something in Louis. Because he lets Lestat save him without putting up a fight, and he doesn’t run away as soon as he’s capable. He stays with Lestat. As much as he doesn’t like his methods or philosophy, he’s captivated by Lestat. He trusts Lestat.
They’re both helplessly bound together in how much they want and need each other ;A;
Part of what makes them so shippable is how much Lestat wants to own Louis, and how not-for-sale Louis is, but how much he is drawn to Lestat against his own better judgment, like a moth to flame.
First time I watched the movie I was certain Deacon and Nick would end up together because their whole story was a perfect example of a slap-slap-kiss romantic plot, not to mention Deacon is bisexual (with a preference for women) and it was his fault Nick got involved when he asked for a male victim.
I’m low-key hoping we’ll one day get a sequel focusing on the werewolves. Until then I like to imagine Anton made Stu his beta and together they act like pack-parents trying to keep the younger werewolves under control.
Ok but Claudia called Armand Louis’ “companion” and it’s p obvious that Armand wants to fuck Louis and then she asks for Madeline as a “companion” and this is probably a gross thought cause Madeline is like “I want a daughter who can’t die” and Claudia is (in appearance) a child but could she be a lesbian?
I know she pines after an adult body but could it be more than that? Could she want a woman to sleep with?
This is a fascinating idea and I have thought about it myself quite a bit.
Possibly a very unpopular opinionbut: I don’t think they were sexual w/ each other in the mortal sense, but there was more to them than a mother-daughter relationship.
I don’t think Claudia’s pursuit of Madeleine was purely for a platonic mother-daughter relationship. That may have been part of it, and it was how she sold it to Louis because he couldn’t perceive Claudia as more than his daughter or as an adult trapped in a little body who would be capable of being involved in a romantic way with anyone, and she needed him to actually do the work for her since she was unable to perform the Dark Gift herself (and I do think she tried before asking him).
While it may not have been a relationship in a more conventionally romantic sense (I don’t believe they had anything sexual, in the mortal sense, going on), I do think Claudia/Madeleine was a ship of sorts, more of an emotional relationship. Claudia was the one in control, she was comparatively older and stronger in personality.
can I hijack/add to this? I think we can simplify the answer to this question a little if we go by canon, that is: the vampires aren’t actually sexual in the conventional sense, ever. This doesn’t mean that the emotions behind romantic love/sensual love isn’t a factor and I don’t think there’s anything in canon contradicting the idea of the two of them having the kind of sensual relationship the vamps enjoy; sharing blood, kissing etc. However I do think Madeleine was too mad to have any real awareness beyond wanting her daughter back in some form and while Claudia needed an assistant, a ‘companion’, I personally think she was too angry/bitter at this point to have room for Madeleine in her heart at all. If she wasn’t so hurt, I think she could have loved her in the typical taboo-defying way all Anne’s vamps seem to do. There isn’t really any definitive labels you could put on them as it is, beyond ‘vampire’ – as I read it anyway^^.
Just my two cents.
Good addition, good points!
I think Madeleine was fairly mad as a new vampire, and if she had been given more time, she might have regained some sanity under Claudia’s tutelage. Yes, Claudia was a bit angry/bitter herself as Armand had his claws in Louis at the time. Claudia had to rush the acquisition of Madeleine because she sensed that the rug was about to be pulled out from under her.
Over time, Claudia might have gained a sense of peace with Madeleine, in guiding her through things, and then the two of them could have explored the world together. And possibly shared that canon sensuality that Ricean vampires can have, which is free of taboos, as you pointed out.
Ok but Claudia called Armand Louis’ “companion” and it’s p obvious that Armand wants to fuck Louis and then she asks for Madeline as a “companion” and this is probably a gross thought cause Madeline is like “I want a daughter who can’t die” and Claudia is (in appearance) a child but could she be a lesbian?
I know she pines after an adult body but could it be more than that? Could she want a woman to sleep with?
This is a fascinating idea and I have thought about it myself quite a bit.
Possibly a very unpopular opinionbut: I don’t think they were sexual w/ each other in the mortal sense, but there was more to them than a mother-daughter relationship.
I don’t think Claudia’s pursuit of Madeleine was purely for a platonic mother-daughter relationship. That may have been part of it, and it was how she sold it to Louis because he couldn’t perceive Claudia as more than his daughter or as an adult trapped in a little body who would be capable of being involved in a romantic way with anyone, and she needed him to actually do the work for her since she was unable to perform the Dark Gift herself (and I do think she tried before asking him).
While it may not have been a relationship in a more conventionally romantic sense (I don’t believe they had anything sexual, in the mortal sense, going on), I do think Claudia/Madeleine was a ship of sorts, more of an emotional relationship. Claudia was the one in control, she was comparatively older and stronger in personality.
I-want-my-IWTV 