#Claudia HATES Louis as a ghost

[armandssawtrap]

Getting on my soap box to scream about how Louis was also a genuinely terrible father who hardly tried and picked someone else over claudia not once but TWICE. And that’s the POINT. That’s WHY Madeline meant so much to her. SOMEONE PICKED CLAUDIA FOR ONCE. CLAUDIA. IS. HER. COVEN.

[blueiight]

the insistence that show lestat in s1 is "the fake lestat" and that later seasons will show "the real lestat" is crazy cuz no duh we have 50 years of 14 other books that r primarily told in unc les's PoV but the adaptation is cognizant of that LOL hes not just some one dimensional fop in s1 hes complicated .. hes A Lot [tm]

[elvesofnoldor]

the vampire lestat in audiobook format is 24 hours long and i finished listening to it in a week, meanwhile merrick is only 8 hours long and it took me three weeks to chew through the whole fucking thing. it's not even very badly written, i just really hate it when anne rice turned the dial up to 11 on her Sympathy with the P*dophile bullshit

[cowchickenbeefpork]

Me seeing a stupid ass theory on iwtv turn out to be because of what happened in the books AGAIN

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

drives me glass-eating batshit how Claudia and Amadeo were both teenagers rescued (or "rescued") from violently traumatic situations and taken in by paternal gentlemen vampires who taught them about the world and kept them safe and spoiled them rotten and loved them so so so much in profoundly unhealthy and dehumanizing ways. Claudia and Arun both entering the vampiric world as blank slates (like Claudia remembers her pre-turning past but we only get the barest details, it's hardly ever mentioned) and a wash of divinity, angel imagery and merciful gods. then as Claudia and Amadeo grew they started to pick up on the things that were off in their world and display aggressive behavior (Claudia's killing spree and Amadeo's The Shining moment, etc.) only to be physically punished for it. and then they experience the brutalities of life outside their maker's protection (Claudia under the floorboards and Armand under Rome) except she's able to come back home hardened and confront the realities of what's been done to her while Armand never gets that chance, he's stuck with the Children of Darkness, he's stuck deifying Marius, he's stuck clinging to ritual and tradition and all the things Claudia defies like breathing.

and then they finally cross paths and they're inverted mirrors of each other, Claudia the grown woman desperate to escape her teenager's body and Armand the grown man who wants to be loved and precocious and fascinating like he was as a teenager. Claudia being able to effortlessly pull off the veneer of innocence that Armand has to work so hard to maintain and she's not even grateful for it. she's got the youth he wants, she's got Louis's love, she's more free than Armand has ever been, she fought back against her Maker and got away with it, it's not Fair, it isn't right. so Armand punishes her with it, subjects her to the same cycle of objectification and dehumanization and violence that Amadeo went through (because it could be Worse right, he could be Donating her right). and when that's not enough to make up for everything he's missing he fucking kills her in an elaborate show just like she killed Lestat with the elaborate show that was Mardi Gras, only his writings recording the process damn him just like her writings damn her, their need to leave some mark of themselves above all else consuming everything.

and after killing her Armand spends years dragging around with a Louis who hates him just like Louis dragged around with a Claudia who hated him. he's the good nurse for Louis the way Claudia was and he competes with Lestat's ghost the way she did and he watches a fragile life with flowers growing from dead things all come crashing down in ash and dust like she did, all because of what he did to her. and at the end of the day they're both fucked-up kids whose most commonly used last names stem from the fathers who fucked them up and they could have lived each other's lives and in some ways they almost did.

[duke-of-gloom]

Look, I know media literacy is on the decline, but it's wild how many people don't get that dream/ghost Lestat isn't actually Lestat.

The cast has already explained that he's just a hallucination Louis is having, a manifestation of his guilt and fears. The reason he insults and mocks all of Louis' choices is because Louis hates himself.

Some of the theories out there are just absurd. Season one clearly showed that Lestat didn’t actually die, so he can’t be an actual ghost. And he can’t be using vampire mind tricks to invade Louis' thoughts either because it's stated in season one that he is completely cut off from Louis' and Claudia’s minds since he is their maker.

Like, when the song from the season 2 soundtrack came out and “Lestat” calls Louis a whore in it, people were like, "Why would Lestat say that?" But he clearly isn’t. It’s just Louis bastardizing the love song Lestat wrote for him because he feels guilty for moving on.

[kandelia-mangrove]

Wishlist/Predictions for season 3 of interview with the vampire (add your wishes in the tags!) 

Lestat's perspective on the trial 

So much is different in the show and the motives for everyone involved in the trial are still SO unclear, I need more!

Lestat's version of what went down in Paris with Nicky and the start of the Theatre de Vampire (like I do think he and Armand fucked, but also way more stuff also happened for sure)

It would be really funny to get some Armand interjections in this portion of the tale

Lestat being haunted by Claudia's ghost in the present!! Also the Past!! He can never know peace!

Daniel and Lestat beefing

Lestat getting canceled (or truly any other social media reference) 

Louis Cameo in the present day (curious to see how they are going to keep him involved since I doubt they will spend a ton of time rehashing their relationship in New Orleans) 

I really need them to have very intense getting back together but also still kinda divorced energy

I’ll also accept cutaways from Lestat doing insane shit to Louis just chilling in Dubai, like reading a book or smth

But also I feel like Louis definitely funded the tour like no way Lestat was up to date on his finances, so Louis popping in as a producer/manager could be fun and cool too

Everyones reactions to the reveal that Marius is alive 

Like I NEED to see Armand fucking finding out Marius is alive because he is crashing set that day and has a catastrophic meltdown about the whole situation

Because the show implied he doesn’t know about it, with the whole “I have the blood of Akasha in me, he doesn’t know who that is” line. 

Also Need Daniel reacting to this information 

Also really want Louis’ reaction, because I genuinely think even during his Hating Armand Hours TM he would still hate Marius for what he did to him

Also, very unlikely, but I think should be explored: the Marius golden child Lestat racism/imperialism dynamics of it all especially with the AMC cast. Like… We gotta talk about it. 

Explicitly GNC, Nonbinary, or otherwise Trans Gabrielle

On that note, very intrigued to see if they will leave in all the incesty bits or just lean into the abandonment vibes 

Daniel has to clown on Lestat for this if they leave it in

Confirmation or Denial of 70s/80s devil’s minion (I just need to know if it happened or not!!)

Also if it did happen: I want some flashes to that era - setting up the night island of it all (just since I think that could be relevant going forward)

I think it makes sense plot and show production wise to have a little reference confirming it did or didn’t happen, but I doubt we’d see any of it if it did happen tbh. 

Great Conversion stuff just happening in the background 

Daniel Vampire phones Louis, and Louis the least curious vampire to ever exist genuinely tells him to just ignore it. Like that bitch is NOT going to help solve any mystery

Lestat telling the story of him fighting and killing a bunch of wolves as a human and Daniel just not believing him (because its genuinely wild)

Loumand Divorce Era

Lestat actually exploring the trauma of his turning (sexual assault)

Vampire Daniel being a vampire and doing vampire things!! 

The in universe reception to the book Interview with the vampire by Daniel Molloy 

Like do people believe it’s real? How has the impacted the great conversion stuff? 

Do other vamps know he is a vampire?? 

Do people think the popstar thing is an elaborate RPF/industry plant thing related to the book? 

I Gotta see some fake tweets about this please

[nalyra-dreaming]

"Let me know if you want to know more :))" If it's not asking much, yes, please?! I really know little to nothing about the books. I see what people post here, like, I didn't know about Rose and only found out about Viktor this week lol. Unfortunately the books aren't always available in my country and I'm still waiting to buy and read them. D:

Okay, for a rundown:)))

In the books:

Lestat finds Louis again through the rockstar career, and he writes his own story down for him, which Louis reads. Their reunion is quite beautiful, Louis and Gabrielle fight other vampires side by side with Lestat. There is a kiss backstage :)

Unfortunately Akasha kidnaps Lestat, because she thinks he is the epitome of toxic masculinity and that she can use him for her plan to take over the world (literally), burning a lot of the vampires. It’s a misjudgment though, Lestat is fearful of her killing the ones he loves, but starts to resist her ever more (she forces him to do her bidding via spells at times). Louis, Gabrielle reunite with all the others to hear the history behind Akasha and ultimately they meet up with her and Lestat, ending in Akasha‘s death. Louis and Lestat have a very romantic scene together.

Afterwards Lestat is changed though, battling with the event. He got a huge amount of blood from her, because she wanted him strong, and he experiences severe body dysmorphia and self hatred. Louis and he are in a weird “Netflix and chill“ era, visiting each other regularly, watching movies together, being petty with each other. Lestat’s guilt and that self hatred drive him to suicide, but he is too strong already to burn in the sun and he heals to retain a tan (only). The Body Thief sees his chance and offers him a mortal body for a while, and Lestat takes it. The Body Thief does not return his body though and so Lestat tries to bring Louis to turn him again but Louis refuses (very emotional scene). Louis tells Lestat to live that mortal life and Lestat has to turn to others (David in the book here maybe Daniel?!) to get his body back bc he realizes that he does want to be a vampire (after all). He manages, and there is a very beautiful but very raw scene with Louis in a church afterwards. Lestat tries to convince himself he is evil (for wanting that vampiric life back) and rapes David into darkness just as he was raped into it. All through the book Claudia‘s ghost is there and speaks with him. Lestat has Rue Royale fixed up and he and Louis (and David) live there again.

A while later a being claiming to be the Devil visits Lestat - he wants his help, and takes his soul onto a journey beyond (it is later confirmed that Lestat was gone from this plane of existence) and the events with heaven, hell, purgatory and Lestat drinking the blood of Christ (literally) shatter him. He loses an eye in purgatory, which is returned to him, altered. He goes a bit mad, confined to a church, where Louis and a few others tend to him. Louis comes by regularly to read to him, change clothes, etc. Lestat falls into a sleep.

Lestat’s coma continues, but it is involuntary at times. As he later tells it the altered eye allowed angels to take his soul to do their bidding, while threatening him. The unpublished novel at Tulane tells of one of those adventures. Lestat’s coma is hard on Louis. He is haunted by the fact that he has never seen Claudia’s ghost and with the help of Merrick, a witch, they conjure her, an event for which the diary pages are important. Claudia’s ghost is a vengeful one though, hating him, and he tries to commit suicide after. Lestat wakes up and saves him. They reunite and exchange a lot of blood and afterwards Louis is changed a lot. They leave NOLA because the Talamasca threaten them.

Something not closer defined happens while they are in the jungles, and Louis goes to Armand in NYC, where he is safe from the ever multiplying vampires. They spend some time apart, Lestat roaming, Louis with Armand, both coming to terms with who they are now. This is when Rose needing help must have happened. When Viktor was conceived and raised.

Another burning is happening - the spirit that propels them is clming to consciousness: Amel. It uses older vampires to thin out the ranks. Lestat is called and finally returns from his wanderings, and he defeats an elder and takes the core, effectively becoming the prince of the vampires. He and Louis meet, Rose, Viktor and first trouble with Roshamandes happens.

Amel is coming further to consciousness, recalling the being he was, once. Recalling who he was with, too. Lestat sets up court in his old family castle, now renovated. All big players come. Lestat goes to Louis and Louis comes to him - for good, with a very emotional plea. They are together for good after. Amel need to be removed fromthe vampires and Lestat, he gets a cloned body. Louis comes up with the solution, and holds Lestat’s hand through it.

Roshamandes, the ancient slighted bc he did not get the core is outfor revenge tjough, and kidnaps Gabrielle, Louis and Marius, sending ashes to Lestat. Lestat… shuts down. Armand goes feral (in words, incredible scene!!).

Lestat goes to Roshamandes in an all-or-nothing move and kills him, creating the “Blood Communion“ with the remains. Louis and the others are found, and Lestat can finally breathe again There is a big celebration, and the book literally closes with them dancing and kissing and Lestat telling Louis he loves him and always had.

______

This is the rundown :)

As you can imagine there is a LOT the show can do with this. In the books they kiss, the show has added sex, and so I expect some scenes to be a lot more sexy :) Louis is a lot more involved in the later arcs, his and Lestat‘s arcs are inverted. When they finally come together (for good) once more they are at peace with each other.

They have a son, and a daughter, their friends are with them. Former loves, too.

They have left their human pains behind, have accepted themselves as vampires.

Louis calls it the “monarchy of darkness“ in the unpublished draft at Tulane, and knowing Rolin knows of those drafts… I do expect this on the show :)

Obviously some of this will be spun differently. Has already been used, and/or used differently. But I expect to see the Body Thief parts, definitely. Akasha and the aftermath. And we know we’re getting the rockstar era :))

I think the show has already hinted at Amel, and so I do think they’ll finish with that arc :)))

We‘ll see. Since the relationship in the show is deliberately more explicit I think a lot of the canon events will be a LOT more intimate. It’s not about sex for them.

It’s about eternity and acceptance, both self acceptance and acceptance of the other.

And I cannot wait to see what the show makes of it.

[bubblegum-blackwood]

Lestat just has so much love and forgiveness in him it makes me ILL. He and Armand and Louis can hurt each other over and over and at the end of the day Lestat is willing to put it aside every time. He holds no resentment for Gabrielle for not being there for him, choosing simply to be grateful for the time they do spend together. He loved Claudia even as she tried to murder him, he did not wish her dead and mourned when she burned, he looks back on her with fondness and pride. He takes care of Rose when nobody wants her, and immediately accepts Viktor into his life and his heart. He made Mona into a vampire as a favour for Quinn, and chose not to make Rowan a vampire because he knew it would be better for them both, even if he really wanted to in the moment, he didn’t want her to hate him or to suffer. His father was an utter ass to him his whole life and he still chose to take him in, feed him and clothe him in his old age, make sure he was comfortable, and he couldn’t bear to kill him even after all the man had done to him. Magnus tore him from his happy mortal life, frightened him, hurt him, made him a vampire, and abandoned him, and still when the guy comes back as a ghost Lestat is so ready to welcome him back with open arms. He chooses to let Rhoshamandes live even when everyone else around him is afraid of the threat he poses to them, and is appalled that they would suggest he devolve into such cruelty as to order the man’s death. People wrong him time and time again and he just shrugs it off, and he shows kindness and affection to almost everyone he meets. He is such a guy.

[winepresswrath]

genuinely don't understand how lestat nation is mad about that last episode. we have established.

Louis still thinks of Lestat as the one he trusts, is violently guilty and also horny about him

the final thing that makes him stop circling armand and go for it is confirmation that lestat and armand fucked. like they are clearly attracted to each other on their own merits but they are also appropriating lesbian culture.

lestat has the most magical dick in paris. probably europe. possibly the world. everyone who looks at him falls in love with him a little and no one who fucks him ever gets over it.

armand specifically isn't over it. 200 years later louis by his side he's still like that.

there is a 0% chance there isn't more to the nicki stuff. armand didn't even mention gabrielle and hannah moscovitch has already said gabby is what she's most looking forward to in season three (hard same). also if lestat did tell his creepy boyfriend kidnapping stalker he loved him as a distraction so he could run away the only thing he did wrong was not taking the boyfriend with him. he owes armand less than nothing! i love armand but if lestat wanted to slit his throat and leave him in a swamp he'd be justified in that. he doesn't, which is great for me, but that is the one person besides his dad and i guess the ghost of magnus where he can do whatever he wants forever and it's fine. unholy trinitity of bad men who were bad to him when he was vulnerable and couldn't fight back. if claudia hated him less they could talk about it. however, speaking of bad men who are bad to people. oops.

[desertfangs]

I haven't yet read the books (there's so many!) I've only watched the iwtv movie and TV show and I love Claudia in both but I've had people tell me in the books she's awful and considered to be one of the series villains. Idc about spoilers I just wanna know how true that is bc I dunno if I'd want to read that lol

Hi anon! I was excited to see your ask this morning because I'm gonna tell you something: Claudia was one of my first favorite characters in the series and her death devastated me. Louis was my first fav (understandable, he's literally the protagonist of the first book, we're meant to sympathize with him!) and when he lost Claudia and became numb in his grief, I related. I hated Armand for what happened to Claudia and I held a grudge for a long time.

Anyhow, I can't speak to the show so much as I've only seen season 1, but if you like the 94 movie, you will probably like the novel Interview with the Vampire. It's a pretty close adaptation.

To get to the heart of your question, no, Claudia not an awful villain. Anymore than Louis or Lestat are. If anyone is a villain in IwtV, it's Armand, and even he is not a mustache-twirling evil guy.* Everyone in this series in morally gray and does terrible stuff. I emphasize that because I've been in this fandom for a long time and I've seen all kinds of arguments about who is evil and who is not, and the fact is, all of our vampires do questionable things. That's sort of the point. So it's arguable how much there even is a villain in IwtV outside of Louis' own depression and grief, but Armand probably gets that honor.

Claudia in the books was turned around the age of 5. She is a very small, doll-like child who doesn't seem to retain much, if any, memory of her human life. She is more purely a vampire than Louis or Lestat can really fathom because she lacks that humanity and a connection to humans. She's a natural hunter and killer.

She doesn't understand Louis' sentimentality for humans, and resents Lestat for withholding information she knows he has about their kind. She is a complex and fascinating woman trapped in the body of a small child to the point where even Louis, who loves her dearly, cannot really see her as an adult and struggles to accept her agency. She does manipulate both her parents, in part because they don't often see her as a capable equal, which she very much is.

She does eventually rise up to kill to Lestat out of desperation. She believes he will not let Louis go and knows she can't travel around alone, given her appearance. Lestat himself is devastated by this and by her loss, and even says later he understands why she did it. That he probably deserved it for what he'd done to her, which was trap her forever in the body of a very young child, something he admits was selfish. (And something Marius had actually warned him against doing beforehand, LOL!!)

Like in the movie and the show, she does die at the Theatre des Vampires, and Armand is more responsible for that than I've heard he is on the show (he tells Louis he couldn't have stopped it, only to later reveal he orchestrated it, which Louis knew the whole time).

She appears later in The Tale of the Body Thief mocking Lestat and acting as a sort of voice for his subconscious, but she is just his hallucination in he book. He's dealing with a lot of trauma and grief and that manifests itself as Claudia's ghost.

Where you might be hearing she's a villain is from Merrick, where both her diary and spirit appear and are... not very nice. I gotta say, I am not convinced that is actually the spirit of Claudia that gets conjured, and even if it is, it's possible she's been warped somehow. But I also haven't read that book in decades and often tend to ignore it, so I am not an expert on that score.

I hope this helps! I'm always happy to answer questions about the books! (They are my special interest, if you cannot tell.)

But I do want to say that if you are a fan of the show and curious about the books--which are very different!--I highly recommend you read at least the first few yourself. The best way to judge if you'll like the book versions of the characters and story is to experience it yourself. There's a lot of misinformation that gets passed along about the books, and a lot of misinterpretation due to that because people just repeat what they've heard without having read them. And hey, they still may not be your cup of tea, and that's totally fine! But you won't know if you don't try, you know?

Anyhow, thank you so much for the ask! 💖 Claudia is awesome and deserves more love in the book fandom, but because she dies so early on, she doesn't get as much attention sadly.

*And even when he is, we love him.

[leslutdepointedulac]

Leslutdepointedulac Fic Masterlist

♰ Louis/Lestat ♰

☾ Nothing's Fair in Love and War ~ G | 1k Louis unintentionally causes panic in Claudia and Lestat [Hurt/Comfort]

☾ Merry Christmas, Darling ~ G | 1k Louis and Lestat remember Claudia on Christmas Eve [Angst, Hurt/Comfort]

☾ Let Sleeping Lions Lie ~ G | 900 Louis watches over Lestat in his coma [Angst]

☾ Lupercalia ~ M | 2k Lestat reminds Louis of the origins of Valentine's Day [Canon compliant, Blood drinking]

☾ Daddy's Little Girl ~ G | 3k Louis and Lestat take Claudia out for the night to do whatever she wants [Hurt/Comfort]

☾ Second Chances ~ G | 10k Louis is successful in trying out a dating app [Modern/Human au]

☾ Drunken Matrimony ~ G | 2k Lestat looks after Louis after he gets drunk on alcohol infused blood [Fluff, Blood drinking]

☾ The Chance to Get It Right ~ G | 2k Lestat and Louis learn to be parents again [Canon divergence, Angst and feels, Fluff]

☾ Distraction ~ G | 1k Louis pulls Lestat away from his duties as prince [Fluff]

☾ Experimentations ~ M | 2k Louis and Lestat discover just how sensitive vampire's fangs are [Canon compliant, Overstimulation]

☾ The Long Road ~ T | 2k Lestat takes Louis to Trinity Gate after his suicide attempt [Angst, Hurt/Comfort]

☾ I Did This For Us ~ G | 1k Lestat watches Louis and Claudia sleep after turning her

☾ The Desire You Feel ~ G | 1k Lestat seduces Louis to quiet his lecturing [Kissing]

☾ Drowned in Your Depths ~ T | 10k Lestat investigates the lack of fish in the sea and the missing fishermen [Human/Siren au, Rule 63, Mild Gore]

☾ The Ghost of You ~ G | 1k Louis finds someone who resembles Lestat during a time of loneliness [Angst, Blood drinking]

☾ Treasured Finds ~ E | 9k (ongoing) Louisa is taken aboard a pirate ship and held hostage by the ship's captain [Human au, Rule 63, Kidnapping, Tags to be added]

☾ Touched by an Angel ~ E | 3k Lestat visits Louis to offer him eternal life [Canon divergence, Dubcon, Hand jobs, Breathplay]

☾ Take Me Off This Cross ~ E | 3k Lestat begs for Louis to help him get his body back [Humiliation, Cock & ball torture, Begging]

☾ Drain Me Slow ~ M | 6k Lestat gets his blood drawn by a highly attractive nurse [Modern/Human au, Medical kink, Praise kink, Sexual undertones]

☾ Tumblr Drabbles - 'Why Do You Hate Me?' ~ G | 700 Lestat tries to get out of his duties [Fluff]

☾ Signs of Affection ~ G | 1k Louis is forced to overcome his apprehension at sharing a coffin with Lestat [Only one coffin]

☾ To Bring You Home ~ T | 5k Louis and Lestat talk after reviving Louis from his suicide attempt [Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Blood drinking]

☾ Come Home To Me ~ M | 3k Louis receives a phone call from Lestat which turns erotic [Canon compliant, Phone sex, Masturbation]

♰ Louis/Armand ♰

⯎ See You Later ~ G | 1k Armand gives Louis a gift before Louis leaves Trinity Gate for Court [Fluff]

⯎ The Long Road ~ T | 2k Armand takes Louis in after his suicide attempt [Hurt/Comfort, Angst]

⯎ Fairytales Do Come True ~ T | 6k (ongoing) Louisa cares for an injured mermaid she meets on the beach [Human/Mermaid au, Rule 63, Gore]

⯎ The Gift ~ M | 3k Louisa meets a strange woman on the beach who makes her an offer [Human au, Rule 63, Drowning]

⯎ You, Who I Pity ~ T | 1k Louis shuts Armand out after Claudia's death [Angst, Hurt/No comfort, Grief]

⯎ Treasured Finds ~ E | 9k (ongoing) Louisa finds herself hostage on board a pirate ship [Human au, Rule 63, Kidnapping, Tags to be added]

⯎ Old Flame ~ M | 4k Armand indulges Louis in a long awaited fantasy [Pet play, Fluff, Character study]

⯎ Tumblr Drabbles - 'Why Did You Help Me?' ~ G | 500 Armand reassures Louis' welcome in Trinity Gate [Hurt/Comfort]

⯎ Little Comforts ~ M | 6k Armand takes Louis' mind off his inner turmoil [Body Worship, Hurt/Comfort, Blood drinking]

⯎ Let Me Get Close to You ~ G | 1k Armand can't get through to Louis a year after Claudia's death [Angst, Hurt/No comfort]

♰ Nicolas/Lestat ♰

☽ The Light Behind Your Eyes ~ T | 900 Lestat receives a letter from Nicki after his death [Canon divergence, Angst]

☽ Our Conversations ~ T | 3k Vignettes of Nicki and Lestat's life together [Emotional hurt/Comfort, Pining]

☽ Drag Me Down Memory Lane ~ E | 4k Nicki is forced to relive a memory of himself and Lestat [Noncon elements, Blood drinking, Smut, Voyeurism, Violence]

☽ He Lives On In My Mind ~ E | 4k Lestat finds someone who looks like Nicki while mourning his death [Rape/Noncon, Smut, Blood drinking, Character death]

☽ No Good At Goodbyes ~ T | 4k Lestat visits Nicki's makeshift grave with Armand [Grief]

☽ Patience Is a Virtue ~ E | 5k Nicki teaches Lestat how to be patient [PWP, Dom/Sub, Edging, Outdoor sex]

☽ Selfish Desires ~ E | 5k Lestat tries to distract Nicki from his violin practice [PWP, Degradation, Hair Pulling, Strip Tease]

☽ A Love I've Never Known ~ E | 6k Nicki and Lestat warm up after being out on the snow [Tooth rotting fluff, Cockwarming, Smut, Gentle sex]

♰ Nicolas/Armand ♰

⯏ Drag Me Down Memory Lane ~ E | 4k Armand delves into Nicki's mind to search his memories [Noncon elements, Blood drinking, Smut, Voyeurism, Violence]

⯏ Tumblr Drabbles - 'Have You Come To Laugh At Me In My Miserable State?' ~ G | 700 Armand visits Nicki after one of his outbursts [Angst]

⯏ No Good At Goodbyes ~ T | 4k Armand pays Nicki's 'grave' a visit with Lestat [Grief]

⯏ A Dog With No Bite ~ M | 9k (ongoing) Nicki's reckless behaviour to put a stop [Non-consensual body modification, Mind manipulation, De-fanging, Tags to be added]

⯏ The Path to Peace ~ T | 11k Armand returns Nicki's hands to him and faces a tough decision [Canonical character death, Aftercare, Fluff and Angst]

♰ Lestat/Armand ♰

☼ Hē Seirḗn ~ E | 3k Lestat and Armande encounter something in the sea [Human/Siren au, Rule 63, Dead dove: do not eat, Body horror, noncon elements, character death]

☼ Treasured Finds ~ E | 9k (ongoing) Armande is the first mate to Lestat aboard a pirate ship [Human au, Rule 63, Kidnapping, Tags to be added]

☼ Drag Me Down Memory Lane ~ E | 4k Armand longs after Lestat while looking through Nicki's memories [Noncon elements, Blood drinking, Smut, Voyeurism, Violence]

☼ No Good At Goodbyes ~ T | 4k Armand takes Lestat to Nicki's 'grave' and gives him comfort [Grief]

♰ Louis/Lestat/Armand ♰

⬨ Treasured Finds ~ E | 9k (ongoing) Louisa is held captive on a pirate ship by Armande and Lestat [Human au, Rule 63, Kidnapping, Tags to be added]

⬨ The Art of Patience ~ M | 2k Louis and Armand test Lestat's endurance for pleasure [Canon compliant, Blood drinking, Fluff]

♰ Armand/Daniel ♰

⛌ Second Chances ~ G | 10k Armand and Daniel support Louis with his dating life [Modern/Human au]

♰ Antoine/Lestat ♰

⬦ Invisible ~ G | 1k Antoine thinks back on his time with Lestat [Angst, Hurt/No comfort]

♰ Gabrielle/Lestat ♰

⬭ Fils à Maman ~ M | 2k Gabrielle tames the brat in Lestat [Mommy kink, Spanking, Praise kink]

♰ Akasha/Lestat ♰

☥ The Mother Knows Best ~ G | 1k Akasha tries to show Lestat what they're doing is good [Akasha being a radical feminist]

♰ Louis/Lestat/Armand/Daniel ♰

⬯ A Well Earnt Break ~ G | 2k Armand, Louis, Lestat and Daniel spend some time together on the Night Island [Fluff]

♰ Claudia & Louis & Lestat ♰

⬫ Do You Want Me to be A Doll Forever? ~ G | 2k Claudia makes herself into a living doll to lure in a victim [Angst, Hurt/No comfort]

♰ Louis & Daniel ♰

⭒ Childhood Fears ~ G | 4k Louis reveals a hidden fear of his to Daniel [Thalassophobia]

[succubusfuccubus]

Feel like I’m the only vampire chronicles fan who loves the new iwtv series

“Book Louis was white!!!”

He was a slave owner and while Anne Rice contextualizes it real well—she doesn’t try to soften the subject matter, she doesn’t try the “he was nice to his slaves” book Louis is like “yeah I was a slave owner, it was fucked up” —still I feel no attachment to white Louis. It was not the most interesting thing about him.

Anne Rice was weird about any POC in her books. It’s still a white centric narrative, the main cast of vampires is white. Boring. Black Louis is much more interesting. A Black vampire navigating his immortality among a society hostile to his kin is so much more captivating.

Many of the main vampires in her series get a book dedicated to them where they explain their origins, their experience with immortality and their philosophies. Except...the vampires that get their own narrative are white. I would love to see an Ancient Black vampire that was kicking before any racism as it is now was invented. I wanna know their perspective, I wanna see them philosophize.

“Vampires can’t have sex!!”

Later in the books they invent vampire viagra—also cry harder im glad they’re fucking and sucking

“Book Claudia was supposed to be turned at 5 Years old. Book Claudia would kill to be a teenager even!! This Claudia almost looks like an adult!”

Teenagers definitely aren’t adults. Imagine being on the Cusp of adulthood and then you are paused mid puberty unable to develop any further. That would be maddening She looks like a young girl trying very hard to dress older than she is. Also it would be rough getting an actual 5 year old to act her part. Also there's some weird pedophile shit in the books, I'm glad we're writing that part out.

“Anne rice would be rolling in her grave”

Let her roll. Anne rice hated any adaptation—she was a control freak. Look up “interrogating the text from the wrong perspective” it’s her melt down in response to bad Amazon reviews on her vampire chronicles’ “Blood Canticle”

She didn’t even respect her own canon. She retcons it multiple times. In the end she retcons the origin of vampires (which had been established in books 2 and 3) and made it the product of an alien parasite. All bcuz some took a sudden interest in science fiction, she just had to turn it into science fiction

This series is not a masterpiece, it becomes pulp fiction by book 4, almost every book opens up like a personal vlog, Lestat is her Mary sue and also self insert. There is gay ghost sex that turns out to be incest. Actually there is so much incest, ntm the pedophilia it becomes almost unreadable.

God and the Devil are ex bfs that are in a millennia long theological and philosophical debate, also the Devil tries to recruit Lestat as the prince of hell and he drinks Jesus's blood. But several books later, just kidding, that wasn't the Devil that was just a spirit fucking around with Lestat.

The second to last book is called Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis--there are bird-reptile aliens pissed off about the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs and want to eradicate mammals bcuz in every other universe reptiles are the dominant-sentient species.

There is nothing sacred about the original, this is not Beowolf or the Epic of Gilgamesh--this is Anne rice and her self-insert blorbo getting into scrapes. When adapting a piece of fiction the most important thing is preserving the Themes--which the show is doing superbly. What truly matters is that every character in Anne Rice's show is bisexual and polyamorous and a disaster.

If you're that upset about Louis being Black and Armand being Muslim you're just racist and either in denial or you know full well.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep4 Musings - Baby LouLou

Yeah, Louis' right: this whole joint is WEIRD. It's SICK.

Did she literally take a dump? Or lay an egg? Lord, wtf am I watching?

It's like Disney and Dr Seuss got married & had Rosemary's Baby.

More caged bird bird analogies and suicidal ideation.

And it's a YELLOW bird, too--AMC STOP IT, MY FEELS.

NOOOOOO. No sunshine! BAD sunshine!

Nail in the coffin/birdie/child.

Amputation foreshaowing perhaps? Of another body part of Claudia's that will get cut off by the Coven, before she dies? Hrm....

And the COMPLICIT audience is lapping it all up, it's just syrup. (NGL I lowkey want one of those umbrellas.)

Lesmand's tower scene foreshadowing?

This image is cursed. Ghost!Claudia's dress looks a yellowish--UGH.

Sam, you need to be studied.

Louis & Santiago finally have something in common. Cuz SAME! Wtf. Like wtF?

LOL! Luchenbaum said this song is so bad it gives him child abuse PTSD! 😭

Jeeze. 😅 Marked reversal--cuz Claudia LOVES Santiago's performances, esp. No Pain. Like--NGL, I hate the song, too, it's deliberately awful, LOL. But methinks the vamp doth protest too much--maybe you're hating cuz someone's stealing the spotlight from YOU? 😜😜😜

Literally her feelings in S1 post-Ep5 about Loustat. GOD.

Both "Birdie" Baby LouLou AND Louis are caught in a trap, amen.

Armand has some nerve--maybe y'all need new frikkin material!? How the heck do you play the same exact shows 500 times in a row?! Just shows how DEAD INSIDE these vamps are--not even monotony & excessive repetition registers for them; that someone could lose their "childlike wonder" once the novelty wears off. Louis gets it, but Armand doesn't--he represents the vampire trope of them easily getting lost in hypnotic patterns--which is why in some lore they can get stuck counting spilled rice/beans/sand & beans, and staring at flecks of light on a fly's wing or microwaving 1000 rats a night or whatever. book!Daniel had it WAY worse, but Armand had it, too. (And lord, don't get me started on Lasher....)

SELF-sabotage, Mr. I Could Not Prevent It. The only thing "bromidic" here is YOUR "creative" vision! Give her a new play, DANG! 😡

[avalonia320]

all of the ghouls come out to play

I'm flexing my slightly atrophied writer's muscles with a swing at an IWTV fic. Here's a sneak peek if anyone's interested. This is going to be a canon compliant fic, bridging the gap between season 2 & season 3. Louis has returned to New Orleans once more to reconnect with Lestat, but this time Lestat is no where to be found. Instead, Louis is distracted by dreams of Claudia and reaches out for help. This fic will cover the beginning of Ghost Claudia, & maybe even the start of Devil's Minion.

This is from the first chapter, after Louis has woken up from a particularly intense dream. I have to say, I really enjoy writing Louis/Daniel convos.

***

A few minutes later, Louis found what he was looking for: Daniel, in a bar in Chicago, side-eyeing a bartender who had watered down his drinks like the man was lunch. Which, by the direction of Daniel’s thoughts, was exactly what the man was going to be. A high price for trying to save 50 cents on bourbon.

Daniel, it’s Louis.

Louis du Pointe du Lac. It’s about fucking time. Glad to hear you’re still alive. You went radio silent after your big challenge. I was getting a little concerned.

He got right to the point. I need a favor. I need you to use your research skills to check on something for me. Something to do with Paris.

Of course it’s fucking Paris. I knew all that ‘time heals’ crap was bullshit. What is it that you’re wanting to know?

Louis steeled himself. I had a dream. About Claudia. It took him several painful minutes to explain, recounting everything he had seen, what he thought it might mean. 

There was a long silence once Louis was done speaking. He could picture Daniel so clearly, as if he were in front of him, reading the expression Daniel undoubtedly had on his face right now. The disapproval. The worry tinged with fear. And finally…that hint of insatiable curiosity that Louis was banking on.

Daniel, he thought finally. Will you look into it or not?

I'm just trying to think how to talk you out of this. You know this is a bad road to go down.

I’m having these dreams for a reason. I need to know. If it’s really her or if I’m just -

Crazy? I hate to say it -  alright I’m lying, I enjoy saying it - but we both know that crazy train pulled out of the station a long, long time ago.

Louis chuckled quietly to himself. That may be true, he admitted. But I still need to know.

You want my advice? Of course you don’t but I’m gonna give it to you anyway. Let a dream be just a dream. You don’t always need to go digging up the bones, trying to see if they’ll talk to you.

I trust you understand the rich irony of those words coming from you, my friend.

A long capitulating sigh was the only response for several seconds before Daniel spoke again. Fine. I’ll look into it. His words were saturated with reluctance. At least tell me something good. Tell me you’re not in Dubai anymore.

I’m not in Dubai. I’m in New Orleans.

Oh Jesus fucking Christ. Daniel groaned loudly. No wonder you’re in the mood for a seance. You know that’s the first place anyone’s gonna come looking for you once they figure out you’re not in Dubai.

It’s sweet that you care, Daniel. But this is where I need to be right now.

Who says I care? I just need you alive for the next book.

Louis smiled to himself. Sure. 

OK, I admit it. I care. So listen to what I’m saying now. There’s nothing for you in New Orleans. Lestat isn’t even there anymore. Stop chasing ghosts and come visit me instead. I’m flying out to California to start the second half of the press tour tomorrow. Why don’t you come with me? You don’t have to be on camera if you don’t want to. We can relive old times at Polynesian Mary’s when we’re in San Francisco. Go night swimming in Santa Monica. It’ll be good for you.

Louis stretched before he stood up, stepping out of the coffin. It’s tempting. But I’m not ready to - He stopped as sudden realization struck him. Wait. How do you know Lestat isn’t in New Orleans anymore?

There was an uncharacteristic hesitation. Uh..

What is it that you’re not telling me, Daniel?

My agent’s calling me. I have to go.

DANIEL.

I’m hanging up now. This is me slamming down the metaphorical phone. If you really want to know, get on a fucking plane. His voice gentled slightly. I’ll let you know what I find out about Paris. 

DANIEL MOLLOY DON’T YOU DARE - 

It was too late. Daniel’s voice was gone. 

[licncourt]

What character development do you think Anne rice missed out on for Louis when she threw him to dust? I know he pops up a few times in the books here and there but we never get to explore him again 😭

Oh my God soooo much!! Firstly I wish TotBT was a better book overall because Louis' characterization is so spot on and there's some really compelling stuff going on with Lestat too in a way that could have been promising in another universe....

Even if everything bad and annoying about the later books remained exactly the same, I think Louis could have had a really satisfying arc! In TotBT I wouldn't really change anything about him really, I just wish he'd been around more because that's such a weird time period for him where his life is almost normal but he's at this weird impasse with Lestat where they have to decide to move forward, repeat cycles, or just stay in limbo. I would have loved to see even more of that as a pivot point for Louis.

Memnoch was a HUGE wasted opportunity because of how explicitly it grapples with religion (for better or worse). I feel like we see more of this with Armand, but I would have loved to see a lot more about how Louis is handling this..? Even though Anne retcons Memnoch somewhat later, at the time it should have been a truly crushing blow for Louis, basically confirmation that God and the devil are real, Christianity is the true religion, and he is indeed inherently evil and damned to burn in hell. I feel like this should have been huge for him, like full on spiral into religious obsession.

If that had happened, I think Merrick would have had even more impact7yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu56 (leaving my cat's input on the subject...) if Louis was coming off this ultimate religious trauma, it would make his aimless state make even more sense than just being without Lestat and give him a fundamental issue to grapple with. In my opinion, it would also really drive home his mental state in Merrick.

Even with the supposed knowledge that eternal damnation is waiting for him, the anguish of being vampirically sexually assaulted/forced to turn a human, hearing that Claudia's maybe-ghost hates him and always did, and the knowledge that Lestat might be gone forever still drives him to a suicide attempt which is even more horrible to think about. Then when he "dies" and Lestat brings him back, the realization that nothing actually happened would be something to grieve, but also a potential fresh start to start questioning the validity of Memnoch and his Catholic upbringing by extension.

I think that slow progress out of a vampire-length lifetime of intermingled religious fervor and nihilism would be an excellent backdrop to his time at Trinity Gate. I wish so much that we had gotten a way more in-depth look at that ten years because the change at the end of PL is DRAMATIC. In his epilogue, he's somehow almost completely at peace. I feel like we really missed out on watching him come full circle from the man we met in IWTV. There are so many character chapters in the final trilogy, I wish Anne had cut 95% of the new characters and split the chapters between the established major characters, especially Louis considering where he's at by the end of PL.

I've always felt like the PL trilogy could have easily been just one or two books, but since there's three, I feel like RoA should have been heavily Louis-focused as we see him living his new life in full. Especially with his background, seeing him in a position of power in a royal court structure would have been really interesting. I don't even want him to be a good person in this role, just Himself only happier and therefore potentially worse. I think it would have been really fun to see him as snobby, perpetually dissatisfied, detail-oriented businessman doing the real ruling and making everyone miserable from his fancy consort position while Lestat fucks around with a crown on. That was stolen from me, that's Louis' final form.