I started following you here on tumblr a few years ago because I enjoyed what you reblogged, but what’s kept me following are your replies to asks, so kind and thoughtful, it’s clear that your advice comes from a lifetime of experience, a sense of dignity, and a generous disposition.
I didn’t have an Auntie Jillian when I was a baby bat, and I’m so glad that I can recommend today’s baby bats and elder bats and everyone in between to you, the Lady of the Manners, as a resource for all things goth: music, fashion, manners, culture, etc. *u*
Thank u! What a lovely message to get! I’m deeply touched.
Look, full disclosure: this was a message from last year, but I felt guilty last year bc I didn’t want to spam ppl’s dash but I did anyway, and then this one…
In light of this past year, and various public and private discussions about what my role is in the VC fandom, I’m glad I saved the message for now, even though I’m very sorry to @tragic-black for holding onto it for so long, but… I couldn’t answer it in good faith a year ago., and now I’m ready.
I’m not the soul of the fandom. I’m a cheerleader. I just want us to get along, and I want more fanworks, and even the ones I don’t personally relate to, bc if there’s one thing I know to be true of our fandom after all these years: there’s something for everyone! Lots of different and equally valid ways to engage with canon and other fans.
As a birthday gift from me, I would just ask that you all take a moment to realize that YOU are the soul of our amazing vampire fandom. Everyone.
the ppl who lurk and just watch quietly,
the people who edit the music videos,
the people who make music playlists,
the people who make aesthetic posts,
the people who make photo manipulations,
the people who make casting suggestions,
the people who make and/or wear cosplays,
the people who read the fanfic and/or leave kudos/comments,
the people who write the fanfic,
the people who draw the fanart,
the people who commission it or just Like/Reblog any of the fanworks,
the people who share their headcanons with us publicly or privately and make canon richer w/ their ideas,
the role-players who take on the challenge of BEING the characters,
the muns who write OCs to interact with canon characters,
I’m sure I’m forgetting someone… 😛
You get the idea.
You are all the soul of the fandom, bc what is a fandom, except a group of… fans… who love a thing… together… in their own ways!
Make sure he gets home before dawn!, featuring Brian Callahan & Lestat de Lioncourt by @lousysharkbutt
I recently commissioned this fanart of @gairid‘s OC Brian & Lestat for @gairid‘s birthday (which was October 22!) *slaps myself with rolled up magazine for the delay* To my knowledge, this is the first fanart of Brain ❤ It’s based on this pic, More fanart of OC’s, people!
ANYWAY thank you @gairid (aka @vampchronfic) for writing some of my favorite VC fanfic, your writing really captures our beloved vampires, and your worldbuilding is so rich and vibrant, it’s such a treasure, and thank you for sharing your headcanons with us, and being a wonderful friend to me for so many years now. You taught me fandom etiquette by example when I was a baby fanged trash kitten. You’re an inspiration to me and many others in so many ways <333
Thank you @lousysharkbutt, I love your style, and the transparent
side panels definitely add a little extra pizzaz! You are in fact a magnificent shark butt, and a pleasure to work with in the commissioner-artist relationship. I encourage anyone to commission this artist!
LOOK AT THIS! LOOK WHAT @i-want-my-iwtv DID FOR ME! I SWOON! I DIE! Thank you SO SO much: this is so sweet and I love it to bits! Many thanks also to @lousysharkbutt for the wonderful art!
This means so much to me! (OMG, that’s my Brian there with Lestat!). Thank you also for your many kindnesses, your encouragement, your effusive and head-enlarging praise- and let’s not forget your amazing contribution to this fandom! I love you to bits, sweetie!
<3333 So glad u love it! The feels, they are mutual ;D
Back in September I bought cheap used copies of all the Vampire Chronicles (and New Tales) for myself so that I could reread them in time for PLatRoA. And I wrote in them and stuff. It was pretty fun. I crammed all 14 books in 10 weeks and it was PRETTY EXHILARATING.
So anyway, for as long as it interests me, watch this space as I flip through them again and make posts of quotes and passages that I enjoyed. 🙂
I’ve been wanting to do this myself for the longest time!! Do the different colors of highlighted passages mean anything? 🙂
yisssss
I was mostly just using the pink primarily (sometimes I switched to green because I went through like 4 packs of highlighters and tbh Marius is a Highliter Ruiner and I kept running the pink ones out), but I’d switch to blue if I wanted to extra emphasize something in the paragraph, or I’d switch back and forth with pink & blue if there were two paragraphs/sentences back to back that I wanted to highlight for different reasons, like I found each section to be a complete idea etc. Then I saved purple for EXTRA IMPORTANT STUFF.
It was really fun and enlightening and definitely heightened my enjoyment of these stories. Plus like, I’ll be honest, not every step of the way was the most academic endeavor, because I was highlighting and noting a mix of “This is really important to the plot and this character” and “THIS GIVES ME THE LOLS”
You should do it! IT WAS FUN. 😀
^There is SO MUCH humor in VC!!! I feel like ppl forget that sometimes…
^This would be all over everything if I did this… w/ tons of 😀 and D:
I understand, and I sympathize, we’d all love to have someone who’s closer to our headcanon for Armand *hugs* (I also appreciated Banderas’ Armand*, and @vraik had a post worth checking out re: the casting of Banderas instead of someone who fit the canon description better).
That said, an “accurate representation” is pretty tough to ask for bc actors are all human, and there will always be room for improvement. This is especially true re: a character like Armand who may be one of the furthest from being human than any of the other VC characters. Angel, demon, coven leader, youth, imp, etc… he is many things. And AR is not totally wrong, people do age, and it would be unfortunate to have to recast a character bc their actor “aged out” of the role, extra sad if they had built up good chemistry with the other actors!
What we need is someone who’s a little older than necessary who has that elusive *~forever-young gene~* (you know, like Keanu Reeves, someone who doesn’t age), and there are such ppl! I have it. I’m 33 and people still think I’m 17:
^This was before I got my haircut, but it’s pretty recent, no airbrushing, the mirror’s a little dirty tho OH WELL. I’m also posting it w/ this response bc really, the only VC character I could cosplay would be Armand, it’s just the face shape I have, being half Russian and all.
You can dig around in my #VC Casting tag for more ideas but here’s a few, under the cut.
Casting Armand is gonna be tough, bc not only does he need to look that young and stay that young, he also needs to look like a painted portrait, I mean who really looks like a Botticelli angel?! And even then, we don’t all agree 100% on what these characters look like, we’re all influenced by our own culture’s ideals of beauty, our own aesthetic tastes, etc. So my choice of Botticelli angel might not even be yours.
But let’s assume we all agree on THIS angel for the sake of argument, and we hand this over to a casting agent:
Fortunately, there are ppl out there who refuse to age, who look younger than they are already, and that’s the kind of actor I’d want ;3 so…
Hit the jump for some options, cut for length.
Levi Miller – AR’s choice at one point.
Jaco Van Den Hoven
Matthew Clavane
Thomas Brodie-Sangster
Kirill Nikolini
(leaving out the fan fave, Bjorn Andresen, bc he is not an option, too old now!)
^Levi Miller,AR’s choice at one point, not sure if she still wants him. I think he’s 15 now, but that face, very childlike. Too childlike? idk.
^XJaco Van Den Hoven, model, is 26 now, but looks like he could pass for ten years younger.
^X Armand by @teambratprince (hit the X for larger version!) which is really one of my fave fanarts of him ever, and it was based on Jaco Van Den Hoven.
^XMatthew Clavane, a current fandom fave, idk how old he is. Could pass for 15 but he’s a working model so I assume he’s 21+?
^Thomas Brodie-Sangster is 26 and could pass for 15. Idk how old he is in this gif.
^Kirill Nikolini, also a model. @faceofabotticelliangel‘s FC for Armand for awhile. Idk how old he is in the pic or now but… an option? Maybe.
*The book version of Armand, IIRC, was not really developed as much in IWTV, yet another reason they could cast Banderas (preeeetty sure you know by now that I have a place in my heart for his Armand, too <3). I’m pretty sure that his physical appearance is sketched out (auburn hair and brown eyes) in IWTV, the focus is more on his attitude and what he says. His description is clarified in TVL and the later books.
My goal with this blog has always been to share fanworks and positivity (and the #not VC stuff that slips in if I feel like it serves some relevant purpose) and to make people feel included, if possible.
Fandom is a nebulous thing, but being supportive of fanworks and ideas is a good way to be inclusive. It’s made the whole experience so rich for me, and brought some wonderful ppl into my life, whether I talk to them regularly or just see their comments/tags, see their RP or ideas in my dash, etc ^_____^
Yes, I remember your encouraging comments on the
collab I did w/ @wicked-felina (Rebness). Thank u for sticking with us throughout, your comments really kept us motivated and fast with the updates *hugs* Comments like yours made it so much more fun than if Rebness and I were writing just for each other, and we definitely want to collab again! ♥♥♥
Awww thank you! I’m happy to bring u joy ❤ You’re so welcome.
Not a stupid question at all! Fandoms thrive on fanworks. Go ahead and post them *u* You might end up making new friends who appreciate your talent 😉
To be fair, I can’t promise ppl will Like/Reblog all VC fanart automatically. I’m really picky about fanart I reblog, it’s a mix, but for me, a sense of humor is usually more important than skill, but every blogger has their own taste. Some only reblog silly fanart, some only technically skillful pieces, some only reblog photography/photomanipulations like aesthetic sets… etc.
These blogs tend to reblog a wider range of fanart than others:
Try my #VC Fandom Hunters tag for more. But yes, DO THE THING, post your art bc it makes you happy and you want to share it, and make sure to tag it #vampire chronicles, and the character(s) name(s), etc., so ppl tracking those tags will see it ;D
Oh! And also, @vcsecretgifts which is a gift exchange you can participate in.
We may need to do another round of that before this year’s holidays. Would anyone be interested in doing one soonish? Maybe “Maker’s day” instead of “Mother’s Day” ? Since we’re probably too close to Valentine’s Day to do it then.
Thank you so much! Mun and muse are very flattered ❤ You’ve made our day/night!
You don’t need it from him or me but Lestat absolutely blesses you in this pursuit! And so do I. He’s nudging me happily bc he adores Kamijo, and he wants you to GO FOR IT, and you don’t need to ignore race. Lestat is intrigued as to how he might be portrayed/perceived as a different race, but no pressure if you feel like that’s too much of a challenge. Lestat says to Do the Thing, however you choose to do it. Let me know when it’s ready to promote.
There’s a genderbent Lestat, in @queenofthesavagegarden, Lestel goes by they/them pronouns and will interact with other Lestat RPers. My Lestat loves watching Lestel.
[X] Kamijo is definitely a VC fan, an A+ cosplayer ^_____^
BTW you know who else adores Kamijo? @redversaillesrose and you should probably be friends with them *shoves you two together*
I-want-my-IWTV 