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! ♥♥♥
@riccardo-de-romanus is a Riccardo RPer, you might check out their archives or try to get in touch with them for Riccardo action. They use Avan Jogia as a face claim.
Anyone is free to comment/reblog this w/ their thoughts. I reached out to some ppl privately to help me with this bc I was never really all that attached to Riccardo… but yes, I thought Riccardo’s death was believable, and shocking, and heartwrenching! The fact that Armand survived that experience is a testament to his character’s strength, that he could go on after that ;A;
You’re not wrong for wanting to attach to this more or less obscure character; some RPers specifically choose less popular characters as their muse, the road less traveled and all that ;D
Other people with positive thoughts to share w/ you on Riccardo:
The thing with Riccardo that gets so tragic is that he’s one of the very few characters in TVA who’s genuinely kind and caring and not controlling or abusive in any way, he’s quite innocent, just an ordinary young man.
He welcomes Amadeo immediately and is charged with taking care of him since Riccardo is among the eldest (and Amadeo second eldest I THINK? I’ll have to look up ages). And they just become best friends/brothers and have a lot of NORMAL innocent teenage fun. So it’s like the only bits of that book which are healthy tbh xD
They pair up together for fencing because they’re evenly matched, they go to Bianca’s together and go to taverns and play cards and get drunk illicitly (XD), Riccardo helps teach him Italian and ‘rescues’ him from making a fool of himself at lessons, and they seem kind of inseparable. i think Riccardo is a few years older but I’m not sure how much.
Aaand then of course Anne uses that elaborate setup (Riccardo is really the only one of the boys she takes the time to make a distinct and familiar character) to make it THAT much more awful when he dies.
^I agree with all this. The healthiness of Marius/Amadeo vs. Riccardo/Amadeo (if that was a legit ship) is endlessly debatable.
Hit the jump, cut for length.
Re: your attachment to him, I’m noticing this more now with other obscure characters, too. There seems to be a tendency for fans to attach to characters like Riccardo who aren’t in canon as much as the major ones. I would suggest it’s because we don’t know as much about these characters, less has been written for them, and so they are available for our own projections, to some extent. If we do know their history (like Quinn) but their POV hasn’t been done as much as say, Lestat’s, maybe ppl want to know how they’re handling things that occurred outside whatever their own story was.
Last chapter and epilogue posted today. Thanks again to the magnificient @wicked-felina for doing this with me, it was so much fun! I hope to collaborate with her again in the future!
[^X this is the actual Signature Blend, Dandelion and Chicory Chai by Emily Han, if you’d like to try it yourself!]
*there may be some extra scenes posted in a spin-off collection if we have sufficient motivation….
Go and read this wonderful fic immediately…it’s got everything you waant in a vc fic minus the fangs! Perfection in characterization lots of angst, romance, friendship and coffee. What more could you want? Go! Read!
Merci!
@vampchronfic is one of my absolute fave writers and a huge inspiration both in style and headcanons, so if you enjoyed our fic, please check out her works, too: Gairid on AO3.
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.
Today, Anne Rice had two livestreams on Facebook, the first as a general Q&A and the second specifically related to the Vampire Chronicles television show. Part way through the second livestream, the video glitched and I missed a minute or two, but overall this is what I had.
I’ve divided the information into 3 sections and highlighted the most important or interesting things she mentioned in my opinion):
Anne Herself
Anne wants to assure fans she is the ONLY one who answers and sees emails sent by fans. She tries hard to view all of them
She also reassures that shes been trying to read as many comments given on Facebook as possible and to consider them
In her writing process, she can’t do all-nighters anymore; her books about Christ were the last time she really did this
She
loves how people in New Orleans love life and celebrate it. She misses
New Orleans terribly. She notes, “Lifestyles [down there] are inherited and have a
beauty”
She reads more non-fiction than fiction and constantly
takes notes from them, especially about archeology (which she loves:
“It’s like eating ice cream for me! I love it so much”)
She
says she no longer identifies as a Christian, but still has a love for
Jesus and what he has done for her, such as helping her solve problems and beyond that
She has some new announcement coming soon not concerning the vampires
She feels this is the age of the nerd where
readers’ opinions are most important. Says she has always taken us the readers seriously and wants us to feel appreciated. She appreciates our
power and what we have done for the series.
The Books and The Characters
*spoiler* There is NO certainty Mona and Quinn are dead. This is just what Lestat believes.
She went through the pronunciations of characters’ names
Marius is pronounced like Marius in Les Miserables
Mekare is May-care-ee, but thinks other pronunciations are beautiful too
(And I think as a fandom we’ve come to agreements on everyone else’s names. She went by the names fast!)
Anne says she sums up the story of the chronicles as “how badly Lestat wants to be the hero of his own life”
She appreciates fans pointing out mistakes in her writing since she wants to be as accurate as possible, especially when it comes to history/time periods
When
asked about the taste of blood/how it functions, Anne says blood is
like every kind of drug- it’s sex, alcohol, drugs, everything
She
writes a TON of notes since she occasionally forgets when/how certain
things are mentioned, such as how the Savage Garden was introduced in
the novel (which she no knows as something that occurred during Our Conversation with Nicolas and Lestat)
The name “Talamasca” came from a book on old witchcraft she found
Lestat’s
name was a “blunder” rather than a “eureka” moment. His name was NOT
based on her husband Stan intentionally. She was trying to look up old
french names.
The transformation process of human to vampire (after getting the Dark Gift) is a little slower than how the IWTV film portrayed, but close in Anne’s mind (she truly appreciated how the film went above to stay close to her own visions and her work)
During his time with Louis and Claudia, Lestat attempted to give answers
that would “keep them alive” rather than actual answers, knowing that he
couldn’t reveal what he knew due to what Marius had told him (essentially, not just answers that he thought would satisfy them but that he thought would carry them on by themselves…which worked in my opinion)
There were several questions
about Gabrielle and Becket commented about how Gabrielle is a fan favorite before he introduced the questions:
Anne says Gabrielle is cold, but admits that she loves Lestat yet at the same time doesn’t need him.
She does not see Gabrielle as
autistic (she laughed at this question which really irked me )
She will not write about a memoir from Gabrielle’s point of view since
she wants Lestat to stay the focus of “the tribe” and she’s done with
writing those sort of side books.
Lestat’s main concern right now is “keeping the tribe together”
She wants to continue with exploring some of the newer characters, Fareed and Seth were mentioned as a part of this.
Anne
has an “ambivalence” towards Louis and she loves him since he
represents an old part of her, but this is also the same reason she has
trouble going back and writing for him, because she feels she is now a different person
She
appreciates that there is no “real” consensus on what is the best/worst
of her books amongst the fans (though Memnoch was her first example for
worse soooo 😏)
In some ways, how Amel speaks to Lestat is a metaphor for how Lestat speaks to Anne.
The Television Show
(Casting)
Armand will NOT be played by someone around 14, because of the long filming process and how it will age the actor. She acknowledges fans want someone young for Armand but feels it
will be too difficult to use (um, hello Anne, CGI??)
She thinks Cate Blanchett would be a wonderful pick for Gabrielle.
Says
the looks are most important for Lestat, Louis just has to be beautiful
(lol)
She really cares about the appearances of the cast and their availability to do about 5-6 years of filming
(Chronology and Production)
She
thinks she will not go through network tv, so the home to the show would be Amazon,
Hulu or Netflix.
She feels the show won’t be as violent as Game of Thrones but wants that
integrity and style, and that “authenticity” to the books that Game of Thrones has (So for the rating,
I’m guessing she feels around M?)
Anne wants to be true to the books and what the fans want to see (in regards to characters and plot points)
She appreciated
the commitment of the team for the IWTV film and wants to keep up to that standard. She does not want unreasonable changes and compromises
Chronologically, she wants to begin with TVL with Lestat as a young man.
Feels around the 2nd/3rd season is where IWTV would start
The books are long, so it will not be a one season / one book situation.
It
will begin chronologically, so it won’t be Lestat reading IWTV and THEN
starting with his story as a response, it will start in France as the
events happen (I was hoping it would be the former…)
No Mayfair witches in the show
Characters who are introduced later, but existed chronologically earlier like Benedick and Magnus, will be put earlier in
the show
The Talamasca will be heavily involved “eventually” in
the series, possibly earlier on. Related to this, she wants to tell the
history of her vampires and those entities.
She
wants to definitely (so badly) cover the scene where Lestat is being
turned “stage by stage…” meaning him being in the tower and having
realizations about his strength after drinking the blood. Also, how he
turns Gabrielle (possibly wants to have a young actress to play
Gabrielle and have her human age appear through makeup so the transformation will be more dramatic)
Louis’ story WILL be told, but the show will be mostly from Lestat’s POV
Anne hopes the show will go into production before the end of this year. Around 2018
is when it would come out
Anne and Chris have had a lot of interested companies already looking into
developing the project (but she doesn’t want to reveal who is talking to them since it “wouldn’t be fair”)
She isn’t sure if the show will break the 4th
wall. She acknowledges that Lestat does it in the books, but she feels
she would have to stick with it for the entirety of the show and that
would be difficult (so it sounds like mostly a “no” but she’s considering it)
Christopher
and her are currently outlining around 5 seasons (estimated) for the TV
series. They are also writing drafts for the first 4 episodes
Clarifying a few notes for everyone since they were brought to my attention:
Casting Armand: Anne said she wanted to do this chronologically as the events happened in the books, not as the order the books come in. When we are first introduced to Armand, yes, he is 17, but his story in The Vampire Armand begins when he is 14/15 (when he is kidnapped and before he meets Marius). She mentioned something about the later half of the first season or the second season being dedicated to Marius telling his tale to Lestat and the history of the vampires, so, based off her suggestions, it was implied TVA would also be a part of this (maybe expanding a viewer perspective to outside of what he tells Lestat)…
Or maybe she totally forgot his age, but she said “14” in the stream, so that is what I wrote down.
The lengths of the seasons going along with the books: Anne said it would depend on how many episodes there would be per season. I guess she’s thinking of shorter lengths of episodes and seasons to focus solely on certain plot points? It’s a bit odd. I think one book = one season could definitely be do-able, however…
I think with the production quality she wants in the amount of time she wants it, I think her goals are unrealistic. I have other thoughts about what she said, but I will keep them to myself unless asked. That being said, if anyone has questions or concerns, feel free to send me an ask and let me know
If there is anything I missed in my highlights post in regards to these two videos that you would like to bring up / discuss, feel free to mention it in a reblog or in the comments section.
@wicked-felina and I are trying to include as many canon-compliant details as we can (hello Armand flirting w/ the blender, lol), and I personally have to satisfy my RL best friend who is a coffee aficionado (gotta prove to her that we know wtf we’re writing about, lol)… We’re using most of the ideas we come up with but we do have some spin-off chapters that may come later when the fic is finished.
…Psssst we would also love fanart of any of it, if anyone is so inspired…
I didn’t think a coffee shop AU was possible for VC either, but yes, from all the lovely comments we’ve been getting on it, it is working ^______^
(Loving the angst too. Even in a coffee shop AU, these idiot boys manage to fuck everything up, lmao.)
^This is why it’s working, bc we’re absolutely devoted to keeping them as IC as possible. Some canon-diversion has been necessary, and being AU, it’s naturally got a more comical bent, but yeah… we’re trying to keep them IC ;D
We love this pile of dysfunctional vampires hipsters.
Welcome to our little corner of tumblrand, and mon dieu, a compliment like this is pure gold. PURE GOLD. As is our AU! Pure gold ;D
[X@yallpacino: when you find a really good alternative universe fanfiction]
If you love our Signature Blend,@wicked-felina also has another great VC AU (WIP) you should check out, The Grim Brothers.It’s a “VC take on Red Riding Hood,” as heartfelt and fun as our AU, it was one of the first AUs I really loved ❤
Hit the jump for more, cut for length.
“and it’s sad to see so little fan activity,”
Yeah, the war on fanfic crushed us in the 90′s + AR’s war on her fandom (and critics in general) in the early 2000′s drove us all underground, and only recently are things picking back up. We are making fanworks tho, you can check out our recent blast of them from our @vcsecretgifts exchange, the #2016 VC Secret Santa… and also:
#Fanfic and #Fanfictiontags (unfortunately they include commentary ABOUT fanfic as well as links to fanfic but oh well… someday I’ll organize it further).
the #Fanart tag. We’ve got old and new on there! I have some other fandoms mixed in, but it’s mostly VC ;]
“but this little gem is just so precious and makes up for it; it’s uplifting to see it regularly updated and cared about and I just wanted to (immensely) thank you for writing about these drama queens~ <3″
Merciiiii! We are loving writing it, too, some of the scenes, it’s as if we’re right there with them, witnessing the drama firsthand. I’m not sure I can let @wicked-felina go back to writing her solo stuff too soon after this is finished…
)
I-want-my-IWTV 