#Madeleine Éparvier

[the-uncanny-dag]

Claudia: *lights a cigarette* I had a body count in triple digits before you were born, isn't that weird

Madeleine, so drunk she can't stand straight: can yuo put that out on me

[madevampselle]

Please reblog for larger sample size. Thank you!

Should promise to make one especially for you DM freaks, yes?

[ahma-art]

"I am the vampire Madeleine Eparvier, and my immortal companion is Claudia. My coven is Claudia."

First attempt at gouache painting in TWO years! I'm very rusty with this medium, so the finished work is a lot less precise than with, say, watercolor pencils or digital painting. But you know what ? I am actually in love with this result, and I really hope you'll love it too!

[patron-saints]

on morality & madeleine: interview with the vampire meta (written after s2e6)

so far, i’ve found that trying to process my thoughts on madeleine feels really difficult when everyone online has their own opinions and their own biases. this post is kind of my attempt to sort out how i feel about her, and to refute and explore some arguments i’ve seen pop up in her tag.

i think the people who are pointing out that first and foremost these are fictional characters have it right: they’re not real people, their relative morality is only relevant as it pertains to the story itself. and in a story like interview with the vampire, your baseline is that every main character is a killer. in terms of morality, evaluating whether or not a character is a good person is pretty useless and also just… isn’t the point of the story. all characters are functions of a narrative, all characters are tools that you use to tell a story. their morality should not be judged in the same way as you would a real person’s! now. all that being said, let’s have some fun judging* madeleine anyway!

*doing some of my own biased character analysis on

what we know comes to us from a few sources: claudia’s diary, which daniel can read, (decent primary source, but filtered with her biases), louis’s recollection of madeleine’s memories (secondary source that relies on both of their ability to remember clearly) and presumably, louis and armand’s recollections of their interactions as well, which isn’t a whole lot to begin with.

part 1: the nazi fucking

when madeleine talks about sleeping with a nazi to claudia, she’s extremely casual about it. while she notes he brought her food, and cigarettes, she says in a way that invokes a courtship ritual, rather than a direct bribe. it’s impossible to divorce this from the context though: her neighbors are starving, and she was brought food. it likely was a bribe, but what’s important is that she doesn’t relay it as one. her focus when she starts talking about him is on the connection: “it was the comfort, the proof of life,” as she says. if she had been coerced, or if she felt like she had no choice in the matter, i think she would have presented it a little differently. but her affection for the guy is clear, and she even mocks him a little to claudia. in her own words, “i wasn’t inviting hitler to stay in france, i was inviting a frightened boy to cradle my tits.” 

which. let’s be real here: to claudia, she is downplaying it. she slept with an occupying soldier during an occupation. watching this scene for the first time, you could even reasonably assume she doesn’t get how serious that is. but once you see the degree of punishment she faced, and continues to face for her actions, you realize her framing here is a learned defense against genuine violence. she feels she has to downplay it to herself and to claudia because there is an imbalance here. it becomes harder to admit to your wrongdoings when the punishments you face for them feel wildly disproportionate.

madeleine did something she never should have done, something she doesn’t feel remorse for, but something that she’s being punished for in a way that far exceeds what any person deserves.

when she talks about it to armand, her framing changes again. she calls it a love, still, so the affection is still present, but she places a greater emphasis on doing what it takes to survive, implying more so that sleeping with a nazi was an act of self-preservation. regardless of whether this is more true than how she presents things to claudia, she has a motivation here too.

when she shares her experiences with claudia, she’s flirting, trying to make her laugh, trying to make a connection, and this part might be subconsciously, but she is certainly trying to get claudia to like her. when she talks to armand, however, she’s actively trying to convince him to grant her the dark gift. she has to portray herself as capable, as self-sufficient, and discerning, and it works! even though he denies her based on his own biases, armand is visibly impressed by all of madeleine’s answers to his questions.

and all we get from louis was that the experience was sweet. and let’s be real, it did look pretty sweet.

i don’t believe madeleine has any hatred for the boy she slept with. i don’t think there’s any evidence she has any hatred for jewish people either, or for her country, which her neighbors believe she betrayed. i think she chose to prioritize a moment of human connection (and possibly food) over the greater consequences of her actions.

i have been looking for the post again since i saw it, so if anyone sees it lmk! but! the op talked about the fact that madeleine as a collaborator isn’t changing her behavior in any meaningful way now: she watched claudia kill in front of her, and instead of running, she once again invited the danger in, joined up with it. i believe the post said something like: once a collaborator, always a collaborator.

this has really stuck with me and i really wish i could reference it properly.

cuz i think there is something there—i think madeleine’s self-preservation instinct is a little screwed on wrong, i think she is acting similarly with claudia as she did with the nazi, but i think it’s not just about the danger. portraying her choice to follow claudia as a cold moment of choosing survival takes away from her complexity, and from the veracity of her feelings for claudia. so, not just the danger. i think it’s about the connection again.

the connection she has with claudia is real, the love she has for claudia is incredibly real. but madeleine is once again prioritizing an interpersonal connection over anything else, and that is the pattern she’s repeating here.

part 2: the apparent age gap issues

every single person who says their relationship is problematic because claudia is a child owes me and claudia fifty bucks.

i don’t really even want to get into that because i don’t think it’s worth my time. the show has put a lot of effort into demonstrating that claudia is an adult trapped in the body of a teenager, and that experience is hard enough on her without all you people insisting she’s still a kid anyway.

however, there’s a secondary argument i’ve seen which i do want to address, which is madeleine’s perception of her.

in their first meeting in the shop, it’s clear that madeleine is seeing claudia as a teenager. she calls her one directly, and references her “body about to bloom” when they meet again two years later. however, when they do meet two years later, claudia has not grown. we know madeleine has noticed this by the dress fitting scene for certain, but it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume she noticed that sooner. additionally, in the same breath, madeleine also references claudia’s “mind of a sophisticate.” by the time claudia tells her that her growth was stunted due to the war, it’s extremely likely that madeleine had already reached a similar conclusion. she doesn’t look surprised at all when claudia says it, and it’s because claudia seems like an adult. even if she doesn’t look like one, she carries herself like one, she makes conversation like one, and it’s very easy for madeleine to accept the reality that she is one, because she may have suspected as much already. 

the reason i say all of this is because i’ve seen multiple people saying it’s inappropriate for her to flirt with claudia before she knows she’s an adult.

is their interaction at the shop window flirting? are they flirting outside the theatre, just after the play? both of these scenes are before claudia says her growth was stunted. i think it’s impossible to say they were definitively flirtatious, but i will certainly say there was a vibe. and i think that’s… kind of fine actually ? two people can have chemistry and it doesn’t have to mean anything about them morally. and my coworker andy said it would have been weirder if they had no chemistry and then did suddenly after madeleine realizes she’s an adult, which made me laugh, and which i think is correct. i like the way they get along before the dress fitting, i think those scenes are fun, and the ambiguity of the flavor adds to it.

i did see at least one post that said it was inappropriate for madeleine to talk about sex frankly with claudia if she thinks she’s a teenager, and to that i say. you can talk to teens about sex. even if she didn’t suspect claudia was older, it’s still fine. they are friends, and she’s sharing an experience she had because claudia asked her about it. 

additionally, it’s both a very contemporary & a very american idea that People Under 18 need to be kept from conversations about sex. frankness about sexuality is in fact, very french lol.  

i did originally think that this was after the conversation about claudia not growing, but i just watched the scene again to be sure and it was, in fact, also before, but i think my point stands. 

i don’t know for certain if she intended to come across as flirtatious in these scenes, but i know something clicked for her right around her confession. you can see it, when they lock eyes in the mirror, that whatever the vibe is, they’ve both clocked it. and she finds out claudia’s older than she looks only seconds later, because she’s the one pointing out that claudia hasn’t grown. (but, yes, i’ll add anyway: after claudia says her growth was stunted, and after that moment of connection, madeleine’s expressions do seem a lot more… Interested too, lol). 

i understand and i empathize so much with people’s criticisms of madeleine’s past. i have no intention to exonerate her in that regard (other than her previously mentioned narrative tool status) but i will jump to her defense when it comes to her relationship with claudia.

madeleine sees claudia as an adult, because claudia is an adult.

if they weren’t vampires, and if they weren’t queer in the 1940s, maybe she’d be worried about how others saw their relationship. or maybe it would be weird if she didn’t care how it looked. but given that the only people who will know they’re romantically together are other vampires, i don’t see her lack of concern for the optics being that much of an issue either.

and the reason she’s not concerned is because she knows what claudia is to her. which brings us to:

part 3: the sister stuff

once again i think the show does a pretty good job of refuting this one on its own, but i’d like to get all my arguments in the same place.

so. i see “don’t worry about the blood, it’s the blood that made you,” getting thrown around a lot as proof that madeleine is replacing claudia as her sister.

why would they have a scene that directly refutes this if they were true? when louis asks if that’s what’s going on, claudia says they already “had it out,” and madeleine clarifies that claudia is nothing like her sister, and cannot be a replacement.

“don’t worry about the blood, it’s the blood that made you,” is something that madeleine says because she loves claudia, because she loves the person and the vampire that she is. because she wants claudia to know that her past does not define her. because she wants her to know she doesn’t feel tainted by it, and that claudia doesn’t have to either.

and yeah, it’s not that there’s zero incestuous tones to it! or to the whole arrangement, certainly. but i think any that are there pretty neatly fall under the ���iwtv typical wire crossings” flavor rather than the “you’re my dead sister’s replacement” flavor.

so, yeah. despite saying fictional character morality doesn’t matter, i’ve just written several paragraphs trying to figure out if madeleine is a good person or not. really, though, that’s not the question iwtv wants us to ask, or the question i really want to ask its viewers either. is madeleine a good person? eh, probably not. is madeleine a good person for claudia? absolutely.

on this, iwtv is extremely clear. madeleine is an ideal partner. she’s not scared, she’s not surrounded by friends and family she’d grieve, she’s weirdly suited to vampirism, and she loves claudia so much. they share a morbid sense of humor, they’re comfortable teasing each other, they communicate in an extremely healthy way, and every single step of their relationship is based on consent.

the entire time i was watching her scene with armand, i just kept whispering, “oh my god, she’s perfect.” she nailed absolutely every question because she’s perfect for what she’s supposed to do as character, as a function of the narrative she is a part of. madeleine is perfect because she is perfect for claudia.

[guerillaedits]

madeleine éparvier icons

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[overthegardenwirtt]

im gonna be honest i need madeleine éparvier biblically

[lyricalquotesofsong]

I've been sleepin', barely dreamin'

Through one year and one half

Found another, called him my lover

Helped me get my old self back

It was you

It was you

.

.

And you said

Let me help you wake you up

Let me help you break you up

Let me help you open up

I'm in love, I'm alive

Oh, I'm burning

[stromuprisahat]

He's weak and cannot bear the thought of someone effortlessly strong turning up.

Armand orchestrated Madeleine’s death because she so easily outcunted him. Absolutely no effort just laughed him in the face at his questions “yeah I can live and be mentally stable for eternity. what, like it’s hard?” she said skill issue if you can’t handle killing as a vampire. Every night Armand has seven different existential crisis and Madeleine sleeps soundly without a shred of guilt WHILE ALSO looking dead drop gorgeous and being funnier than everyone around her. Armand had to take her out early. He never stood a chance

[upinyourcortex]

shout out to madeleine éparvier though. unbuttoned her sleeve and said take a sip to a vampire she had previously seen murdering 3 people. told a 400 year old vampire to go fuck himself. had a glass of chardonnay before being turned and said fuck too bad i don't like that shit. flipped off the crowd before dying. where are HER diaries

[the-uncanny-dag]

Claudeleine enjoyers: please do not forget that Claudia was 46 years old in 1949 & Madeleine, judging by Roxane Duran's age at the moment of filming, can't be older than 30. Also while Claudia fell first, Madeleine fell harder after reading her diaries. Please don't get it twisted

[madevampselle]

And the final results of my Who's your fave VILF (vampire I'd love to fuck)? poll are in.

Armand - 31.8% Lestat - 26% Louis - 11.3% Madeleine - 10.3% Danny - 7.3% Santiago - 4.1% Fareed - 1.7% Eglee - 1.6% Antoinette - 1.3% Rashid - 0.6% Sam - 0.3%

Other (I'll comment/tag) - 3.9%

I didn't expect these results tbh. Did you? Armand - I voted for him, but I didn't think he'd win, and by quite a margin Lestat - I thought he'd win Louis - I thought he'd get much more votes Madeleine - I didn't know she was so popular, but totally deserved Danny - I thought he'd get much more votes

And 700 votes?! Thank you so much to everyone who interacted with this poll by liking, reblogging or commenting!

Next poll will be for my fellow DM freaks, I think.

[shelfperson]

[patron-saints]

hello. can anyone hear me. hello

[eclecticelectriceccentric]

IWTV vampires rated by Frenchness:

Lestat de Lioncourt. He is aggressively French, even when not in France. Speaks French to his lover constantly

Madeleine Éparvier. French, lives and dies in France. Loses to Lestat because she's just like, incidentally French.

Louis de Pointe du Lac. From NOLA, speaks some French, views Paris as the Mother of NOLA. Continues to have an attachment to NOLA.

Armand. Lives in Paris for 200 years, speaks French, but loses to Louis because he isn't like, especially attached to France or Frenchness, just the Coven, which happens to be French.

Claudia. From NOLA, lives in Paris, but the locations are very much incidental.

Daniel Molloy. Not at all French, hates Paris.

Didn't include any other vampires because I don't know enough about their Frenchness to judge.

[lavender-lady-777]

something something this mary zimmerman passage in relation to the vampire Claudia and the vampire Madeleine Éparvier… as much as their love story is marred by tragedy (the parallels between Claudia dying in the body of a child and Madeline dying so young for an “immortal being”), it’s still satisfying in the end because it is a love story. Claudia dies knowing that she is loved. Madeline is one of the few vampires that we, the audience, know of who gets to perish in the arms of the woman she most adores. yes we can resent Lestat as much as we want for choosing Louis over his daughter (again) but in a way he also granted her the sort of ending he could only dream of for himself… the beauty of not having to die alone. Lestat and Armand both spend their immortal lives so terrified of loneliness, of abandonment, of being rejected by the people they claim to care about, that they are willing to do the most morally repugnant things you can think of just to make those same people stay… yet there’s none of that with Claudia and Madeline. there is no need to hurt or manipulate or lie to one another. they are in love. it is a love story. by some small act of mercy, they die, still loving, and so, never die.

[greedandenby]

Transcript of the French dialogue in IWTV S2 Ep6 - Like the Light by Which God Made the World Before He Made Light 

Attack at Madeleine’s shop:

[The song the attackers are singing here is the "Chant des Girondins", which was the short-lived French national anthem under the Second Republic (1848-1852). Here are the lyrics sung in this portion of the show:

"La France appelle ses enfants, – Allons dit le soldat, aux armes ! C’est ma mère, je la défends.

Mourir pour la Patrie"

Which translates to:

"France calls to its children,

- Come, says the soldier, to arms!

She is my mother, so I shall defend her.

To die for the motherland"]

Woman attacker: Bonsoir, Madame Éparvier !

Madeleine: Allez-y ! Faites vos dessins très ingénieux !

Bald attacker: Arrête de les laver et on arrête de revenir, hein !

Woman attacker: On l’a ! On l’a, la pute !... Madeleine est pas bien, elle a attaqué, t’as vu ?... Crie tout ce que tu veux, hein. Tes voisins s’en fichent.

Madeleine: Arrête ! Non !

Bald attacker: On va voir ce qu’elle a donné à l’Allemand !

Madeleine: Tu suces du sang… T’es un v…

Armand and Madeleine discuss her turning:

Armand: Tu aimerais être l’une des nôtres ?

Madeleine: Non, je veux être avec elle. Et toi, tu peux aller te faire foutre.

Armand: They always think they’re different. Stronger. Superior. Jusqu’à ce que la solitude arrive.

Madeleine: Monsieur, ça fait longtemps que je suis toute seule.

Armand: Tu seras un monstre.

Madeleine: Si tu fais de moi un monstre, tu feras que me transformer en ce que je suis déjà.

Armand: Tu vas manger des humains comme tu manges ta pomme ? Un par nuit, aucune pitié pour l’enfant, la mère, l’invalide ?

Madeleine: Je suis un humain et j’aime ma nourriture. Quand je serai un vampire, est-ce que j’aimerai ma nourriture ?

Armand: Comment choisiras-tu qui tuer ?

Madeleine: Je tuerai sur les bords. Les faibles d’abord, et occasionnellement je me livrerai à mes appétits.

Armand: Et quand les derniers vestiges de ton époque auront disparu ? Les voitures, les coiffures, les croyances ? Comment continueras-tu ?

Madeleine: Jeune homme… There’s been a war. Claudia! He thinks there’s something left of my era!... Mais quel con ! [not captioned, but she’s basically calling Armand a dumbass.]

Armand: Comment vas-tu survivre à l’éternité ?

Madeleine: L’homme qui vivait en face… La Gestapo est venue le chercher. On a entendu un coup de feu quand la voiture a tourné au coin de la rue. Et la femme qui habitait plus bas, elle est morte de faim dans sa chambre. Elle portait des vêtements très chics. Elle devenait de plus en plus maigre jusqu’à ce qu’un jour, je regarde par sa porte et elle était là, un squelette dans des vêtements chics. Parfois, je le voyais dans leurs yeux, quand ils étaient sur le point d’abandonner. Et moi, j’ai survécu. Moi, j’ai suivi mes instincts. J’ai trouvé l’amour dont j’avais besoin, même quand c’était un amour dangereux. And I have again.

Armand: Et que feras-tu dans quelques décennies quand elle se jettera dans le feu ? Parce qu’elle le fera.

Madeleine: Peut-être qu’elle le fera pas. T’en sais rien. Peut-être que je suis ce dont elle a besoin pour survivre.

Louis and Armand at the Sacré-Cœur:

Okay, this is a subtle one.

While Loumand kiss on the steps of the Sacré-Cœur, you can hear a man taunting them in the background.

He says: "Hé ! Mais vas-y hé ! Mais suce-le, tant que t’y es ! Sale pédé !"

Which translates to: "Hey! Well go on then! Why don’t you suck him off while you’re at it! Fucking faggots!"

This explains why Louis turns his head around for a second after kissing Armand...

Madeleine’s turning:

Madeleine: J’arrive pas à croire que mon dernier verre de vin soit un Chardonnay. J’aurais dû en prévoir plus.

Madeleine: La pièce tourne…

That's it for this episode! See you in a week for the next one!

Ep. 2 here

Ep. 3 here

Ep. 4 here