Thank you so much! This will definitely keep [me] busy during down time ❤
You’re so welcome! Thanks for coming back to tell me so ❤
Tell us about it if you go to any of those reccs, would be nice to give us all a taste of it *u*
Btw, I got a few additions to that post (I added them into the post, too):
@nixsrebellionoflies added: may i add that you can go into port of call if youre not 21 and over? they have great burgers and a very interesting aesthetic. you might have to wait a while tho to get in
@jeezycreezysuperstar added: Some of the cemeteries are now only open to the public via tour group, just fyi
Why couldn’t Claudia access the full extent of her vampire powers? Are they really that biologically discriminate?
^They don’t all automatically get all the vampiric powers, and some powers are only “earned” over time (like the cloud gift, which is flight). Some vampires automatically do get certain gifts upon being turned, like Lestat and the mind gift, but Louis didn’t get that one (debatable somewhat, as
Armand notes in TVA that Louis can spellbind others inadvertently but that might also be bc Louis is just too adorable and dreamy for anyone to handle).
We don’t know just how strong/gifted Claudia was, I don’t think there are any scenes that explicitly talk about her abilities. She was most likely stronger than her mortal self, even if she was weak compared to other vampires. Even if she had the mind gift, she would not have been able to read Lestat’s mind, and he wouldn’t be able to read hers, due to the barrier between fledglings and makers. But she might have been able to read Louis’ mind, since she’s his sibling. We don’t know.
Not sure where you’re at now, but in TVL there’s some discussion about fledglings and strength when Armand tells Lestat what he knows about the Dark Trick, and later, Marius that tells Lestat what he knows about it. Claudia is not specifically mentioned at the time, bc she doesn’t exist yet in the story.
The Dark Gift is not an exact science, and even makers with gifts cannot purposely give/withhold them to/from their fledglings :- Armand mentions in TVL:
But let Armand understand here also that the effect of the Dark Trick is unpredictable, even when passed on by the very young vampire and with all due care. For reasons no one knows, some mortals when Born to Darkness become as powerful as Titans, others may be no more than corpses that move. That is why mortals must be chosen with skill. Those with great passion and indomitable will should be avoided as well as those who have none.
The Dark Gift in unpredictable, despite all good/bad intentions; it’s the vampiric form of pregnancy. But there are things about the procedure that can affect the strength of the fledgling:
Whether the blood is transferred
between maker and fledgling
once (for Louis and Claudia) or multiple times (for Marius) – IIRC, Marius doesn’t tell Lestat this in TVL, but multiple times seems to make for a stronger fledgling. Why didn’t Lestat do it multiple times for Claudia? I think Claudia was already in such bad physical shape that Lestat didn’t want to risk it. Plus, he had already turned 3 fledglings using the single transfer procedure, he probably felt like that was good enough.
Age and/or power of the maker – Lestat was only ~15 yo vampire himself when he turns Claudia. That’s still almost a fledgling himself, even tho he had been turned with powerful blood from a 300+ yo vampire.
Timing of making previous fledglings of the maker – Marius tells Lestat that the gift is weaker from the Maker to fledglings if given close in time period. Lestat had already made 3 vampires in his 15 year time, each one was weaker in strength than the last. It seems like whatever the Maker’s power, it’s outweighed by this timing issue.
The fledgling’s diet after turning – Louis was feeding on animals for the first 4-ish years of vampiring, which is like bad junk food, and probably not drinking the volume of blood he needed, either. Claudia seemed to have a voracious appetite, but she did have the body of a child, so it’s possible that she was physically unable to consume the amount of blood needed for the vampiric parasite to really transform her body properly. Possibly another reason why vampires generally don’t approve of turning children.
I had to think about this one for awhile, bc my immediate reaction was to defend Louis and say: “Oh no, our sweet bb Louis wouldn’t kill a child! Nor a preteen or teens! He may not choose guilty from innocent but surely a teen and under would be safe from him??!”
But he’s NOT a sweet bb. He’s a vampire.
Louis killed Claudia, or attempted to do so. More on that in a bit. The only further explicit reference we have re: his killing methods in canon is in QOTD, when Akasha states that he kills “without regard for age or sex or will to live.“ and since she can read his mind and Louis does not correct her on that statement, I would assume that she’s pinned him accurately.**
(**Note 1: in the scene at the end of book!IWTV (which we still don’t know if it actually happened or not, bc unreliable narrators), Louis takes a baby that a young vampire brings to feed to Lestat, and returns it to its home: “I returned to the small house from which the vampire had taken the child, and left it there in its crib.” So maybe BABIES are safe from Louis!)
(**Note 2: Louis accepts the offer of taking a bite of Denis, Armand’s mortal preteen/teen pet at the Theatre des Vampires, not knowing if Armand intended him to kill this offering or not, but in the book, Louis takes it without any resistance and Armand takes Denis back before Louis can finish him BC HE MIGHT HAVE.)
TL;DR #1: Yes, I do think Louis would kill a lost child/preteen/teen, and I think that the circumstances of such a choice could be worth exploring in fiction.
TL;DR #2: I think it would be unlikely for Louis, on his own, to kill one member of a group of ppl of any age, for the practical difficulty of killing one of them w/o the others noticing and causing a scene. I think this would make his kill more difficult than necessary, as Louis kills perfunctorily, only exerting the amount of time and effort required to satisfy the need:
“I would let the first hours of the evening accumulate in quiet, as hunger accumulated in me, till the drive grew almost too strong, so that I might give myself to it all the more completely, blindly.
“…I lingered only a short while, long enough to take what I must have, soothed in my great melancholy that the town gave me an endless train of magnificent strangers.
“For that was it. I fed on strangers. I drew only close enough to see the pulsing beauty, the unique expression, the new and passionate voice, then killed before those feelings of revulsion could be aroused in me, that fear, that sorrow.” (IWTV)
^If his killing style had changed since then, I think he would have mentioned it to Daniel during the interview.
It also begs the question whether he would kill the elderly, people with disabilities (mental, physical, etc.), and other types of people whose defenses are lowered to some degree, and I think “indiscriminate” applies to all of those categories. Yes to all, Louis kills indiscriminately.
TL;DR #3: Claudia is a child Louis kills (well, attempts to kill) in canon, and her similarity to Anne Rice’s daughter (who died at the age Claudia was turned) was very likely the reason for Anne writing IWTV in the first place. Through the characters in IWTV, I think Anne asked the questions to get the answers to exorcise her demons regarding that loss. Fiction is a safe ground from which we can examine and lance the pain we have experienced in real life and release it, and in sharing the story, we might give others a catharsis, too. I think this novel’s rich exploration of these difficult issues is part of what has made it so beloved by her readers, we can relate deeply with her story in our own ways and feel a catharsis from her explorations.
There are parents who outlive their children bc of these early-childhood diseases (and other reasons) and they have to find a way to go on living, and even trying to be happy again. I’m sure Anne will always experience pain from this loss, but through fiction, she may have been able to achieve enough closure to go on living her life.
I think Anne’s answer for herself at the end of writing IWTV was, “Neither you nor your daughter, nor anyone else, were being punished. Michele was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Hit the jump for more, cut for length.
1. “So if a lost child happens to cross his path would he kill them?”
A) I think that Louis feels like he, personally, shouldn’t judge who should die, and that therefore ppl who cross his path of any age are fair game. Louis was very Savage Garden about it before he was aware of the concept. In the Savage Garden, tigers can’t really be held responsible for killing the young, infirm, or elderly of their prey. Vampires are not human, even though they were once human, and some seem very human still… some of them hold themselves to human laws and morality about killing, but some of them do not.
B) If a child is lost at night without a parent or guardian, if the child was as abandoned as Claudia was, I think Louis would probably still kill them. It could be considered a case of the child being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
After all, it would fall under the Savage Garden concept, they’re at risk of more than just being Louis’ dinner. Louis is just another risk out there, maybe scarier because you might be able to reason with him where you can’t with, for example, a virus or a tiger.
C) is for CLAUDIA: While it’s true that Claudia didn’t exactly “cross his path,”
Louis was drawn to her cries and she was a lost child, abandoned by her parents. Her father had left, her mother was dead, and she was defenseless. Claudia might have already been sick with the plague, or might have died from starvation.
One could argue that Louis killing her was more merciful than the slow death she might have suffered if no one had found her ;A; There are situations where death is more preferable to suffering. We don’t know whether she could have been saved from death if brought to the hospital in time; even a hospital and the best medical care is not a guarantee that a life will be saved.
Louis was filled with guilt and shame when Lestat found him with Claudia, and I do think that Lestat turned Claudia to take that guilt from Louis. At that time, this was Louis’ first human kill in years, and Louis might have committed suicide for the guilt of having killed an innocent child if Lestat hadn’t “given her another life.”
2) So if a bunch of punk preteens or teens
happen to cross his path
would he kill them?
As far as “a bunch of punk preteens or teens,” Louis still would not judge them, even though society tends to think less of “punks” for disrupting the peace, vandalizing property, or otherwise purposely causing trouble. So I don’t think they would be targets for Louis specifically because of their “punk” label.
Louis would
probably not be interested in a group of any type or age (even a group of violent middle-aged bikers would be safe!); as it would be difficult to kill one of them in the presence of the others without creating trouble. He goes for people who are out on their own. I don’t think he’d want to go to the effort of coercing one away from the pack.
It’s not canon but I would think Louis can share kills with other vampires now, and he would be able to do so more stealthily with another vampire or two with him, if they wanted to take down more than one victim together, any age.
3) Re: Claudia being Michele Rice: I think that Louis’ attempted killing of Claudia is the major impetus behind IWTV being written in the first place.Anne Rice lost her own daughter at the age Claudia is turned, and Anne was going through the pain of that loss, asking why it happened to her daughter. Had Anne been an irresponsible mother? Was it God’s punishment for Anne (and/or her family) failing to be a devout enough Christian? Was her daughter being punished for some crime?
Was it Satan?? Was it a case of a bad thing happening to a good person?
To my mind, IWTV’s real cornerstone, on which the rest of the story was built around, Anne Rice created muses through which she could ask these questions and try to get the answers.
Anne said she modeled Louis after herself, but he also represented Death. Anne wanted these answers:
Why did Claudia die?! Bc Louis killed her.
Who’s this Louis monster and why did he have to kill her?! Well, he’s a vampire, that’s what they do.
Ok… But why did Louis have to kill an innocent childspecifically?Bc he was a vampire who had been sustaining himself on animal blood for years. and he was in a state of malnutrition and extreme desperation, and this child was nearby and defenseless. She had done nothing wrong.
Also, Louis felt terrible for this, even though he admits to Daniel that the act itself (as all blood drinking is to vampires) was pleasurable. Louis does not bring it up to Claudia herself until she began to rebel and demand answers.
So I think Louis battling with his religious upbringing, whether he was from the Devil, and having so much guilt about killing all victims (especially Claudia!) was a release for Anne, bc she could empathize with the entity she created who killed her child.
If the murderer himself felt guilt over it, that may have helped Anne achieve some measure of peace.
[It’s a great reminder of canon characterization as too often fanon has casted him as a beautiful, frail flower destined and carried by Lestat’s will.] *nods* Yep.
I think we can blame movie!IWTV for some of that fanon, bc he’s shown at his weakest in that movie, when he was struggling emotionally about vampiring, and the film also emphasized his appeal to other characters (like the scenes where Santiago is stroking his hair while deciding his punishment, and when Lestat literally sweeps him off his feet with the first bite), and the film took a number of important BAMF-moments/lines from him (like the one I mentioned in that post). Consequently, there are fans who base their headcanon of him mainly on the movie interpretation, even after they’ve read the book(s), since it left such a strong impression for them.
[I love that he knows he’s beautiful and he lowkey manipulates the fuck out of people and that he isn’t a delicate pretty face, like you said, he can still cut a bitch! He’s equally if not alot more dangerous than the rest.]
^YEP. In his speech to Madeleine about her wanting to be a vampire, he acknowledges “Do you find us beautiful? Magical?” He knows how he appears to mortals and other vampires. He’s calling her out on her request as being flimsy and uneducated, that she is completely out of her depth and has no idea what she’s really asking for, it’s not just a makeover!
We use the word “manipulative” on tumblr as having a negative connotation, and I wouldn’t say that Louis manipulates for nefarious purposes. I think he’s tactical. He wants to keep the peace in this scene:
“I wish you would play the music,’ I said softly, unobtrusively, but as persuasively as possible. Sometimes this worked with Lestat. If I said something just right he found himself doing what I’d said. And now he did just that: with a little snarl, as if to say, `You fool,’ he began playing the music.” (IWTV)
I don’t think Louis finds himself particularly attractive, I think when he calls himself handsome in IWTV, it’s his acknowledgement that others find him attractive; it still baffles him that they do. He absolutely recognizes it as a tactical advantage, he just doesn’t explicitly preen about it like Lestat does. No need 😉
Hit the jump for a little more re: the “frail flower” trope, under a cut for respect to the anon bc I this anon isn’t fond of it.
As you mentioned, you may not be fond of it, and that is absolutely fine! It’s not for everyone. I know I can’t read those trashy romance novels at the supermarket. They’re unappealing to me. But I get that they have an audience, bc they’re still there, still selling!
With Louis, other than all those loving descriptions of him from other characters, I think it’s worth noting that there are truly very few canon moments wherein he’s a *~a beautiful, frail flower destined and carried by Lestat’s (or whoever else’s) will,~* yes, it’s that damsel-in-distress, bodice-ripper kind of trope. Is it as effective if he’s always pursued and never caught? I think some readers, like myself, need a bite of carrot now and then. It’s a subjective thing. We should be glad AR hasn’t turned him into the smut vehicle so many other characters became *sigh*
It’s a fantasy to be carried off by some angelic stranger, it’s been around since ppl have told stories. We can identify with Louis, or we can identify with Lestat, both sides of the fantasy is appealing in its own way. In shipping them, you get to have both. So I understand the appeal, but again, it’s not necessarily for everyone. Not everyone likes shipping, period, and that’s absolutely fine, too!
So I was re-watching Interview with the Vampire for the umpeenth time today and I found this little gem I thought I’d share with the fandom.
[Image description: part of the audience at the Théâtre des Vampires.]
Our dear vampirefan stands up, and please look at the reaction of the dark-haired lady in white and red in the right half of the screenshots.
[Images description: the same people, looking embarrased and slightly shocked. A woman in red and white looks bewildered. She gawks around and moves a hand to her cheek.]
Like, all the rest are making their way through second-hand embarrasment for the vampirefan while the lady in white and red is completely freaking out.
And even after Santiago answers, when people are laughing like ‘Yeah, the vampfan’s sooo embarrasing,’
[Images description: the same people. Most laugh or grin. The lady in white and red hasn’t changed her expression.]
the lady in white and red is still freaking out.
And I started laughing and had to replay the same sequence who knows how many times because I found it hilarious.
Seriously, look at her.
[Image descripton: cropped image of the lady’s face, eyes and mouth wide open in shock.]
I love her.
^WELL DONE. YES.
[Image description: gif of the moment the lady in red cries out “I adore you!” with the other lady’s eyes and mouth opening in shock as she turns to the look at the stage for Santiago’s reaction.]
This lady in red (VELVET???) came with binoculars so she could inspect it all closer than she’s allowed, she wants to see if the bites are real, if the blood is real… I think a case could be made that sheknows it’s all real, or hopes it is. The 4th wall may be broken for her.
ok am i the only one who finds the beginning of IWTV so shady??
lol i know im not, so imma just go ahead and speculate–if you’d like to read, you may go ahead and do so c: same goes for sharing thoughts! id love to hear what you all have to say ❤ but, beware, it gets pretty long, sorry folks >//<
♛He doesn’t scare as easily now as he once did, that’s for sure. It takes serious planning, so I would say 3. If I have someone in league with me I have more of a chance at it, as he’s less suspicious of others, so maybe a 4.
//ooc: the mun struggled with this, bc it is something Lestat has done, and frightening Louis can be comical in canon! So one would think it would be easy to come up with a humorous answer, but it sat for a month in my inbox bc I’m torn on it… Yes, it can be comical, but currently, I don’t think Lestat likes to frighten Louis purposely, I feel like they have reached a kind of mutual respect that wasn’t there in early canon. In earlier canon, I think that some of Lestat’s frightening Louis was about asserting dominance, or he was exasperated from every other attempt to get Louis on board with whatever he wanted.
So while I don’t think Lestat intentionally tries to frighten Louis these days, it’s more like when he suggests some wild or
dangerous
trip or activity that’s ignited his imagination, Lestat really just wants Louis to validate him, go along with him, and be part of it. Louis knows not to underestimate what can happen but he also doesn’t leap to conclusions, he sits at his desk and thinks about it before reacting, if he feels fear, he doesn’t immediately show it.
When Lestat has moments of crippling stillness, which I think he still gets now and then, that’s frightening because Louis can’t always draw him out of it, and he worries that Lestat may slip into that state for nights/months/years ;A; Louis can also be frightened by Lestat’s rage at Louis or others, bc Louis knows that Lestat is capable of enormous destruction, and he has a short fuse. I don’t think that Lestat would be all that comfortable talking about any of that.
I think Louis is too calm and collected these days to be easily frightened by Lestat or anyone else when it comes to pranks. I think the news, the current state of the world, is upsetting and frightening to him. I think Louis was very afraid of Akasha and her plan, but he was still able to speak up in front of her and risk her wrath.
I-want-my-IWTV 