“She had an incredible talent, a sort of compulsive creativity,” said Jim O’Quinn, a fellow performer and frequent collaborator. “She was an artist in her heart and soul, and she lived the life of an artist. She wanted to transform life experiences into art.”
…She also appeared in movies such as “Hard Times,” “Everybody’s All-American” and “Interview With the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles,” in which Tom Cruise broke her neck – in character, as Lestat, the vampire.
“He was very careful and concerned not only about how he would break my neck, but how it would read on camera,” Ms. Owen said in a Times-Picayune interview. “He is the consummate professional film actor.”
This is pretty sad… also a reminder that even the vampires in the movie are mortal, too ;A;
Hi Anon, thank u for coming back! You’re welcome for that answer (so good to know you appreciated it), but gosh, I’m so sorry for misreading your intentions
*hugs*
It’s so easy to misread unintended emotions into text, especially when it’s such a short note. I apologize if my answer came off as crushing to you specifically.
I’ve seen so much Discourse from anti-shippers lately that I may be a little predisposed to seeing it in innocent asks, too. Engaging with the question itself could invite Discourse, so my response was more about supporting shippers as a general rule.
I absolutely never intend to shame other fans, I hope that much came through in my response and in my other posts. I do want my blog to be seen as something interesting and relatable, non-shaming and knowledgeable, but I’m absolutely not the authority on VC. Even the “Marges” of the fandom have every right to do what they do, I just choose not to engage with them. I wanted to make a point of identifying them for others, like you, so that you know that their way is not the only way, and they are not the authority on VC, either.
Your being fairly new and overwhelmed to this fandom, let me tell you, it’s a series about murderers, lovers, wacky shit, silliness, some religious stuff mixed in heavily, re-invention of the vampire origin story, etc. It’s not for the faint of heart but if you can manage not to take it too
seriously
you’ll probably have a better time. Please don’t let this one little interaction deter you from reading the books and/or making friends here, bc I’ve met some of my best friends through VC, honed my own writing, shared headcanons, etc., and I would wish all the good aspects of fandom on every new fan ❤
P.S. To answer your previous question a little more gently, Marius/Armand appeals to some fans bc of the taboo nature of it. It disgusts some fans bc of that, too. There’s no right or wrong. My opinion is that I like exploring scary things in fiction even if they’re dressed up to look good, so I would say it’s a perfectly decent ship to ship, even if Anne Rice holds it out as an ideal relationship.
Again, I’m not well-educated on the horror/goth lit aspect so I can’t fully address that, but I would think that Anne Rice had read some of those, and was inspired by them, that she felt her writing (especially in IWTV) was a natural update and/or extension of those characters/tropes/stories.
Marius himself is a character who is probably largely based on the benefactor characters in Dickens that Anne Rice has always loved. She mixed that in with some Daddy kink, some *healing dick* trope, and overall Father-knows-best sort of attitude, and that’s basically Marius. Is he a pedophile? That’s for the reader to decide. Again, I don’t want to make that distinction for you. I’m not interested in getting into a debate about it with the “Marges” of fandom, and tbh, I would recommend that you don’t try them, either, especially being fairly new and overwhelmed as it is.
Have an open mind, read the text yourself. Try to enjoy what you can. It’s a buffet, you don’t need to like all of it 😉
Louis & Armand’s child (if raised during the Trinity Gate era) would be, by far, the most loved and well taken care of out of all the ship children, lol.
Daniel & Marius’ kid was a suggestion (I forgot who though…) but I imagine they would be the most ‘arty’ of the bunch and super, duper snide. Not as vindictive as like… Armand and Lestat’s possible offspring, but as much of an ass for sure.
“It doesn’t matter who your problematic favorite character is. Even if they’re literally Satan (looking at you, Supernatural fandom), you don’t deserve to be harassed or bullied simply for liking them. Always remember that you’re just as entitled to your opinion as anyone else.
…There are a lot of don’ts when it comes to problematic characters… Navigating the minefield of fandom is tricky, but having a problematic fave is hardly the end of the world. As long as you’re considerate and respectful towards others, you can’t go wrong. So go on, get out there, and make the most of the experience!”
I can’t advise you, as we all have our own ideas about the canon characters, and “how to get them right,” a phrase I disagree with. Have you read all of canon? Do you accept all of canon into your personal headcanon? I wouldn’t force you to accept it all, I don’t accept it all. If we’re working from different text acceptance, there can be no universal “getting the characters right” authority (not even Anne Rice herself “gets the characters right,” according to the opinion of some of her fans). As an example, if I accept everything in The Vampire Armand but you don’t (or you haven’t read it yet), your fic probably won’t include/address anything that happened in TVA. That’s your prerogative as a fic writer. You are not required to include/address anything that you don’t want to.
Since no one can decide definitively if you’ve “gotten them right,” don’t be afraid to get them WRONG! Get them however YOU see them, Anon. And it’s not really that black and white; I’ve read fics where there was characterization I loved, and some that seemed out-of-character to me in the next paragraph (but again, that’s just ONE PERSON’S opinion. Another reader might have loved/hated all of it). It could be that you struggle with dialogue in general, so it might be out-of-character now, but you’ll improve by writing more fics. And like a painting, it may not be your failure; you might purposely invest more attention/effort on some aspects of your fic than on others, again, that’s
^Here’re two paintings done in different styles, Morisot’s is Impressionist, and Sargent practiced his own form of Realism, with some obvious Impressionist influence. An essay could be written comparing/contrasting these but briefly: just between these two works, you can see that Morisot was less interested in capturing the details that Sargent has, but both portraits are evocative to me in their own way. There’s a breathless kind of anticipation in both. They both look like women I would love to get to know better! The Sargent one might have been painted on commission, idk about the Morisot one, but in the case of a commissioned work, there is a dialogue between the artist and the commissioner. When I’ve commissioned fanart, the artist will aim to meet my requirements, but ultimately, art is nebulous, and I’ve always been pleasantly surprised by the choices my commissioned artists make within the limitations of the request!
Bc here’s the thing, fanfic is for free. And no matter how you write them, even if you just copied text out of canon, there will be ppl who will tell you you’re getting the characters wrong. Again, the actual published author “gets them wrong,” according to some fans. So if she can’t write her own characters “right,” then, like Anne herself, you’re not obligated to appease anyone except yourself.
Here are a few “advice” pairings, with narrow-minded advice first and open-minded advice second.
“Make sure to include a paragraph about Armand’s physical appearance or else he’s not really in it!!!”– Dye Armand’s hair purple. Have Daniel comment about how striking the color is against his skin. Write Daniel as a POC. Write Armand as if he was able to age, make an AU so that Daniel is the vampire who approaches 50 year old Armand.
“Make sure to address Marius’ anger management issues!!!” – Write an AU where Marius didn’t turn Armand, maybe they met as vampires on more equal footing. Write that Marius gets angry about dumb inconsequential things like being stuck in transit and the other two tease him about being so impatient.
“Make sure that if there’s any dubious-consent or non-consensual sexual content at all, to condemn it in the narrative!!!!”– Have a PWP with BDSM with all 3 of them that fails laughably and one of them storms out, naked and angry. WHY NOT???
Fiction is a space where we can explore anything and everything and it does not harm anyone.
Inevitably, some ppl won’t like it no matter what you do, so please yourself.
Whatever you’re writing:Write the fic you want to read! Here’s your permit:
All that said, I do ask for specific and trusted ppl’s advice when I’m writing a fic if I think they’ve got good ideas bc they’re invested in those characters, maybe they’ve even written fics about those characters. I’m working on a fic that I had to ask a few ppl privately about bc I wanted to bounce my ideas off of them, and gain a little insight as to my specific fic situation, but I wasn’t looking for their permission to write what I’m writing.
Stuff I personally would like to see explored re: Armand, Daniel, and/or Marius:
some backstory on Daniel’s mortal life
some Difficult Conversations in any combination of those three characters discussing their past relationships
some closure on things, agreement/forgiveness may not be possible, but some closure would be great.
some fluff in any combination of those characters, they’ve had so much suffering already
I always like the fanon that Daniel has glasses even though he doesn’t need to wear them now, bc reasons
give them roles in a story that move the plot along substantively
One of the great things about fiction is that we can revisit how we feel about characters at different points in our lives. I know I felt differently about Claudia as I got older. I think I had an idea of what she felt when I first read IWTV, but as an adult I can better understand how devastating it must have been for her, and how frustrating for her ‘parents’ who were unable to help guide her in any significant way re: the fact that she would never physically age ;A;
With Daniel, I admit he’s not one of the characters I engaged with as much as others, so I can’t really speak specifically to your comments about him. You may change your opinion again as you get older, too. I always liked that he seemed to fly by the seat of his pants, and was ballsy enough to just keep asking for what he wanted, knowing Armand wouldn’t give it to him. That even in his darkest moments, he demonstrated an inquisitive nature, and was obviously capable of giving/receiving love. That’s inspiring, at least to me.
He’s one of the first VC characters (Jesse is another one) who we get to spend significant time with in canon as a mortal, and get an idea about what it’s like to get involved with vampires; it can’t be easy to just sit down and be quiet when you have one of these supernatural beings fixated on you!
I-want-my-IWTV 