*Phone Rings*
Gabrielle: Hello?
Lestat: It’s Lestat.
Gabrielle: What has he done this time?
Lestat: No, literally. It’s me calling.
Gabrielle: What have you done this time?
– Louis: Hates the big crowds that come with the festivity but love Christmas carols. Gives hand-maid gifts, usually knitted stuff. Watches the same Christmas movies every year and knows them by heart.
– Armand: “The true meaning is about Jesus and we are all sinners for making it about presents”. He puts a Nativity in his house instead of a tree because the tree is a pagan tradition.
– Lestat: Always exceeds the money limit in secret santa and makes sure everybody knows the expensive gift is from him. Thinks that the more money you spend the more you show you care.
– Pandora: Thinks that what is celebrated is Santa’s birthday, she has belived that for so long that now it would be too awkward to correct her so everyone rolls with it when they talk to her.
– Gabrielle: Doesn’t care about Christmas at all. Presents from her are always gift-cards. Spends the Christmas party petting the dog and avoids to socialize as much as she can.
– Marius: Starts puting the decorations the day after Halloween and goes way over the top, with huge plastic Santa in his sleigh in the roof of the house included. Waits under the mistletoe on purpose to make people kiss him.
– Daniel: Always gets super drunk in the Christmas gathering. Every year he forgets to get the present until last minute and buys it in the gas station nearby, gives it to the other person unwrapped.
*Phone Rings*
Gabrielle: Hello?
Lestat: It’s Lestat.
Gabrielle: What has he done this time?
Lestat: No, literally. It’s me calling.
Gabrielle: What have you done this time?
I sent Anne Rice an e-mail asking if Nabokov’s Lolita inspired Marius to some extent and she replied WITHIN A DAY! I didn’t even expect a reply to be honest! Is really nice of her to check fanmail so often.
She says the similarities were not intentional but Nobokov did inspire her in some ways.
*In IwTV when Armand is teaching Louis how to use his powers*
Louis: Armand, I have to ask you… Is this a date?
Armand: A date???? This??? A DATE??? Hahahahahahahaha
Armand: *quietly* Would you like it to be a date?
“Daddy issues” is an unfair term in real life bc it’s a judgment that carries different implications, either that someone is functioning badly bc of a bad relationship with their father, or that they had too good ofa relationship with their father and are spoiled; etc.; there is a wide range, but it basically all boils down to the cheap jab: “That person has daddy issues.”
When I see that term used on fictional characters, it’s more about people outright shitposting or having a touch of dark humor (sometimes more than a touch!) because we know these characters are not real people, they’ll never actually hear us insulting them. And what’s intriguing to me about that term used in analysis or in canon about these characters is that sometimes it’s considered a huge fault, something you say to put a character down; but at other times, it’s a badge of honor that a character can function so well even carrying the burden of “daddy issues.”
[^ source unknown]
(530): THAT GUY IS NOTHING BUT TROUBLE. HE’S 40% PRETTY HAIR AND 60% DADDY ISSUES.
Loki and Tony Stark are great examples of fictional characters w/ “daddy issues,” bc they both had unhealthy relationships with their fathers and it was a very formative experience for them. They are very layered and intellectually stimulating characters, would they be this way if they’d had the benefit of better relationships with their fathers? Isn’t there a kind of catharsis in watching them struggle and battle through their demons in order to reach their goals? Isn’t there extra reward when we see them succeed despite the emotional burdens they bear? And especially when others taunt them about their “daddy issues” and they are strong in the face of that adversity, too?
Google gives the definition of “Daddy issues” as:
“a pejorative for a lot of social, psychological or behavioral issues that may OR MAY NOT stem from an unhealthy relationship with one’s father. It’s usually used to marginalize issues women are having, though to be honest men are perfectly capable of having “daddy issues” too.”
I was asked this a few months ago and it’s a delicate subject bc, again, “daddy issues” is a pejorative, and therefore it can belittle/marginalize real people who have ‘social, psychological or behavioral issues that may OR MAY NOT stem from an unhealthy relationship with one’s father.’
But since these are fictional characters I feel like we can discuss it without causing harm, and I would agree with @vampires-and-witches who had made commentary that Claudia would probably be the fictional character with the most daddy issues in VC [X].
^And yet, in spite of her “daddy issues,” Claudia had persevered (at least, temporarily) when she thought she had killed her own dad/maker. As much as I love Lestat, he did have that coming to him, he deserved it, and he doesn’t even blame her for doing it. So when Claudia rose up and attacked the one who had wronged her the most? 12 year old me was thrilled, cheering her on! I wasn’t about to copy her and kill my parents *eyeroll* but what it showed me was the immense strength of character, someone who was at a great physical disadvantage, AND burdened with “daddy issues,” and yet she executed her plan entirely on her own and succeeded!
I will add that I think VC has a ton of terrible fictional parents (mortal/biological and vampiric/makers). Many are neglectful, abusive, manipulative, etc. or a combination. A terrible or absent parent/maker can affect someone’s future relationships with everyone they interact with. It’s those fictional characters who bear that burden and rise up and succeed (or at least keep trying!) despite it, those are some of the best characters in the series, in my opinion.
So I’ll open this up, anyone can reblog/comment about the characters with the most “daddy/maker issues”!
Headcanon: Lestat forces everyone in the coven to make a “special secret handshake” everytime they meet that looks like Will Smith’s handshake in the Fresh Prince of Bail-Air
I met a photographer in New Orleans who said Anne Rice told him she started dressing flashier because Elvis came to her in a dream and told her to. God bless Anne Rice.
You can really see the before and after of Ghost-Elvis fashion advice
That sounds like a great idea to me! I bet AR would be down, too, as much as she loves Shakespeare, the way his plays do that. As you say, it’s been done for a long time. Or a transman. I wouldn’t require the actor to be cismale.
^In Shakespeare in Love (1998), Gwyneth Paltrow played Viola De Lesseps, passing as male actor Thomas Kent. In this screencap, I think “Thomas” is about to kiss a male actor who is playing a female role, another thing Shakespeare would do.
^She still looked like a woman to me, but it didn’t matter, bc the other characters saw her as male, they believed it, so I could suspend disbelief. That was probably part of the cheeky quality of that film, that we as viewers still saw her as female, but everyone else seemed so easily fooled, like Clark Kent w/ glasses is so obviously NOT Superman! Pfffft.
But yeah, the idea of casting a woman or another gender to play a youthful male character like Armand? VERY COOL SIGN ME TF UP.*
*I mean, not suggesting casting me specifically bc I don’t think there’s enough movie magic to transform me into a male character, but conceptually, I support this 😉
I-want-my-IWTV 