#akasha queen make it happen!!

[jilyandbambi]

the tiny tremor in Armand's voice when he describes being "donated" to his maker's friends.... Marius when Akasha catches you !!!!!

[elvesofnoldor]

Ancient Vampire woman with a God complex processing trauma accumulated from being entombed for 6000 years at the hands of her husband. 10,000 dead 3283247 injured.

[adamnablelittledevil]

"There is Lestat, first and foremost, the author of four books of his life and his adventures comprising everything you could ever possibly want to know about him and some of us. Lestat, ever the maverick and the laughing trickster. Six feet tall, a young man of twenty when made, with huge warm blue eyes and thick flashy blond hair, square of jaw, with a generous beautifully shaped mouth and skin darkened by a sojourn in the sun which would have killed a weaker vampire, a ladies' man, an Oscar Wildean fantasy, the glass of fashion, the most bold and disregarding dusty vagabond on occasion, loner, wanderer, heart-breaker and wise guy, dubbed the "Brat Prince" by my old Master - yes, imagine it, my Marius, yes, my Marius, who did indeed survive the torches of the Roman Coven-dubbed by Marius the 'Brat Prince,' though in whose Court and by whose Divine Right and whose Royal Blood I should like to know. Lestat, stuffed with the blood of the most ancient of our kind, indeed the very blood of the Eve of our species, some five to seven thousand years the survivor of her Eden, a perfect horror who, emerging from the deceptive poetical title of Queen Akasha of Those Who Must Be Kept, almost destroyed the world. Lestat, not a bad friend to have, and one for whom I would lay down my immortal life, one for whose love and companionship I have ofttimes begged, one whom I find maddening and fascinating and intolerably annoying, one without whom I cannot exist.

[...]

But Lestat was calling. Lestat was, or so he claimed, afraid. I had to go. The last time he'd been in trouble, I hadn't been free to rush to his rescue. There is a story to that, but nothing as important as this one which I tell now. Now I knew that my hard-won peace of mind might be shattered by the mere contact with him, but he wanted me to come, so I went.

[...]

Of course I knew the very moment that he left this world. I felt it. I was in New York already, very near to him and aware that you were there as well. Neither of us meant to let him out of our sight if at all possible. Then came the moment when he vanished in the blizzard, when he was sucked out of the earthly atmosphere as if he'd never been there. Being his fledgling you couldn't hear the perfect silence that descended when he vanished. You couldn't know how completely he'd been withdrawn from all things minuscule yet material which had once echoed with the beating of his heart. I knew.

[...]

I didn't fear for Lestat, not really. I had no hopes for his adventure, except that he would appear sooner or later and tell us some fantastical yarn. It would be regular Lestat talk, for nobody aggrandizes as he does his preposterous adventures. This is not to say that he hasn't switched bodies with a human. I know that he has. This is not to say that he didn't wake our fearsome goddess Mother, Akasha; I know that he did. This is not to say that he didn't smash my old superstitious Coven to bits and pieces in the garish years before the French Revolution. I've already told you so. But it's the way he describes things that happen to him that maddens me, the way that he connects one incident to another as though all these random and grisly occurrences were in fact links in some significant chain. They are not. They are capers. And he knows it. But he must make a gutter theatrical out of stubbing his toe. The James Bond of the Vampires, the Sam Spade of his own pages! A rock singer wailing on a mortal stage for all of two hours and, on the strength of that, retiring with a slew of recordings that feed him filthy lucre still from human agencies to this very night. He has a knack for making tragedy of tribulation, and forgiving himself for anything and everything in every confessional paragraph he pens. I can't fault him, really. I cannot help but hate it that he lies now in a coma on the floor of his chapel here, staring into a self-contained silence, despite the fledglings that circle him for precisely the same reason as I did, to see for themselves if the blood of Christ has transformed him somehow and he does not represent some magnificent manifestation of the miracle of the Transubstantiation. But I'll come to that soon enough. I've ranted myself into a little corner. I know why I resent him so, and find it so soothing to hammer at his reputation, to beat upon his immensity with both my fists. He has taught me too much. He has brought me to this very moment, here, where I stand dictating to you my past with a coherence and calm that would have been impossible before I came to his assistance with his precious Memnoch the Devil and his vulnerable little Dora. Two hundred years ago he stripped me of illusions, lies, excuses, and thrust me on the Paris pavements naked to find my way back to a glory in the starlight that I had once known and too painfully lost. But as we waited finally in the handsome high-rise apartment above St. Patrick's Cathedral, I had no idea how much more he could strip from me, and I hate him only because I cannot imagine my soul without him now, and, owing him all that I am and know, I can do nothing to make him wake from his frigid sleep. But let me take things one at a time. What good is it to go back down now to the chapel here and lay my hands on him again and beg him to listen to me, when he lies as though all sense has truly left him and will never return. I can't accept this. I won't. I've lost all patience; I've lost the numbness that was my consolation. I find this moment intolerable."

THIS CHAPTER ISN'T OVER YET AND IT'S ALREADY PEAK INSANITY OMG

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep7 Musings - Sam Reid’s Autumn Brown Interview (Pt2) S3 Akasha, the Drop, & Amel

Ok, returning to the whole "Blame Amel For Lestat's Abusive Behavior."

Sam referred to something VERY important that I think people overlooked in his segment on the Ep5 revisit; they heard the Akasha bit and just ran with it. But this is exactly what he said:

[SR] Loustat "had the potential to have something very beautiful, but [Lestat's] too messy and chaotic, and Louis and Lestat are also...the beauty of their violence and hatred together, their dynamic...you know.... [AB] It's the best! They have exactly what each other needs. But also everything that makes both of them the worst parts of themselves and the best parts of themselves. [SR] And I think that's kind of cool, when we revisit that scene from Episode 5 in Season 1. And you see that in the in the Trial. I think there's something really wildly beautiful, between the two of them, in that violence. Because Louis is unhinged and angry at Lestat, and I think Lestat is more obviously--he's way more powerful, and his act of violence is, you know, like unforgivable. [SR] But there's this space that private space that they have in the coffin room...how much they hate each other...that's how much Louis hates him, and that's how much Lestat is...hurt, and then turns into this violent, angry, I hate you!.... They have that much hate. They also have that much love; because they're also vampires, and so they operate on like a level of like-- [AB] Emotion that's dialed up to-- [SR] Pure chaos! They're operating on that level, and then Lestat drops him from the sky, and it is an irredeemable event in their relationship. It cannot come back from that. And it creates this kind of cascade in a set of events, that leads to Lestat being killed. And I think that's part of our adaptation. It's not necessarily the the real events Anne Rice's books, but this is what is in our adaptation. And I think it does feed into that overall sentiment that Lestat acknowledges his evil, hellish self-loathing self...that is there; and we obviously heighten things and make it bigger. [AB] In Season 1 you know that there's something else going on, on the other side of the wall; because you can hear the fight dies down. There's a break, and you think it's over, and suddenly starts back up again. And we have this moment of Lestat taking Louis into the sky. We finally get to see what that moment was. And Louis is chilling--oh my god that little laugh that he does! He's like I'm gonna cut your head off! I'm gonna feed it to the lions and I'm gonna laugh about it! I mean, do you think for Lestat in that moment...? Cuz what leads to Louis saying that is Lestat asking Are you going to leave me? Had Louis just said: Yeah! and walked out the door and left with Claudia, would that have led to the explosion? Was it the act of him leaving, or was it the words that instigated that level of vitriol? [SR] Uhhh....I don't know about that. And I don't know if it's worth speculating what would have happened if that didn't happen.

--MURF INTERJECTION-- Thank GOD Sam shut that ish down, omfg. Again: STOP tryna find ways to victim blame Louis for what went down or say he "instigated" the fight! 🤬 It doesn't frikkin MATTER what Louis said or didn't say. All that matters is what happened TO Louis, and TO Claudia, that was what got Lestat "killed."

[SR] But I think more importantly is that--and this is something that I've felt has been really important about playing Lestat from the beginning, and probably something that people find probably a little bit confronting--but for me, for Queen of the Damned to work, Lestat has to have a level of toxic male rage in him, so that when he is angry, and when he's violent, it has to be a toxic masculine rage for Akasha to follow through with the events that she does. And why she says: You are everything about masculinity that's wrong and terrible. And so that's why you're going to be my right-hand guy, and you're going to help me kill them all. And I think...I always felt like, when he does have those spurts of anger, it does have to come from a very toxic place. [SR] Where we're going, when we're looking at it, obviously there's a scene back in Season 1: he's had a drink of this, like, fountain that nobody knows he's had. Nobody knows. No one in the show. Nobody knows. The only person who knows is Lestat. And most of the people watching the show don't know this, at this point in time. [AB] There's just that one little throwaway line about Those Who Must Be Kept, and then nothing else. [SR] And originally in Season 1, when they're in the sky and they're having that moment, Lestat was originally scripted to tell Louis about The Sacred Fount! In that moment, Lestat actually tells Louis about what he has inside of him; what, who he's drunk from. I'm trying to be really vague for anyone who's watching this, and has no idea, and I'm not going to give anything away! But anyone who does know, will know. But originally it's that he's up in the sky. [SR] And I think that is the parallel line that we're drawing with. That level of rage that Lestat has. That toxic abusive rage is also coming from an extreme monstrous power, coming from this intense monster that he has, and he has no idea how to control; he's trying to repress it all the time. But he knows, if he can, if somebody just ticks him off a bit.... He's a volatile guy already, but he's got this thing in that makes him go: AAH! [AB] It's almost going back to that element of vanity that you're were talking about: being like, you would do this to ME?! You don't even KNOW what I have within me! [SR] Yeah, exactly! So that also means that we can feed that shame and shock into his monstrous self--and acknowledgement OF his monstrous self--into his progressive spiral, into where we're going. (34:10 - 40:59)

So. All of this stuff about Akasha (& Amel) needs to be recontextualized, cuz what Sam said is that "ORIGINALLY" the 1x5 script had Lestat threaten Louis with the warning: I'm trying to restrain the monstrous thing in me that makes me go AAH; you don't even KNOW what I have in me, AAH!

But guess what else happened? OBVIOUSLY, THEY TOTALLY TOSSED THAT ISH OUT OF THE SCRIPT, in S1 AND in the S2 revisit. 😂🤣 The time to have teased/suggested that there was something controlling Lestat that made him "accidentally" hurt Louis came & went in BOTH seasons, so arse-pulling Amel so late into the show after we already got Lestat's admission during the Trial looks goofy AF.

Cuz possession is a lazy abuse apologia COP OUT. Having "It was Amel's fault all along" would've directly contradicted AND undermined their whole point about PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY that they clearly wanted to get across MORE than using spirit possession as a crutch to explain/excuse Lestat's abusive behavior.

Possession would imply too many things, distracting from the overall thrust of Rolin's vision for telling a very real & very "aggressive, toxic, beautiful love story" about the ways soulmates find their way back to each other after hurting each other over & over.

Esp. since Hannah Moscovich (Ep5's writer) has already been VERY clear about her take on Lestat's capacity for "evil." She mentions his bad actions in TotBT, when Lestat was HUMAN again--he wasn't even in his own vampiric body (attached to Amel/Akasha's blood), and he was STILL doing effed up things! So his issues have nothing to do with spirit possession.

[SR] "it does feed into that overall sentiment that Lestat acknowledges his evil, hellish self-loathing self...that is there; and we obviously heighten things and make it bigger."

(Funny, when Sam something it's flowers & praise; but when Hannah says the same thing it's boos & hisses from the exact same fans, lol.)

Vampirism EXACERBATES & INTENSIFIES aspects of ALL people's character/nature that was ALREADY there; "all feels amplified." Cuz ALL vampires have Amel's spirit in them, NOT just Lestat. ALL of them are powered by his monstrous spirit, and ALL of them are capable of heinous sadistic bloodlust & inhuman acts of violence--look at Claudia's 56 Floaters & Santiago at the Chateau & Armand chasing Malik (& book!Daniel) for the lolz; and how hard Louis tries to FIGHT succumbing to those same impulses too. (Nebamun/Gregory & Teskhamen drank Akasha/Amel's blood. Marius & Pandora & Bianca drank her blood. Sweet baby Khayman drank her blood. Her son Seth drank her blood. Even Big Bad Rhoshamandes drank her blood, and as twisted as he is, even HE was like naaah this heifer's crazy, I'm outta here. Plenty of vamps drank from the Sacred Fountain, and aren't half as crazy & abusive & evil as the vampires that DIDN'T: Magnus, Santiago, Santino, Bruce/Killer, etc.) So the (weak) argument that Amel/Akasha's blood alone is what drives vamps to go totally effing ballistic on their significant others whenever they get mad is patently false, by the book AND the show's own logic.

So I'm glad they got rid of those lines, and just had Les say EXACTLY why he "fought myself a million times; fought my nature, controlled my temper!" and got mad enough to beat the breaks off Lou:

It's INSECURITY--not that Les can't control the monster in him (though ofc that's a VERY legit fear, his struggles with his temper & anger issues); it's that he can't control his family; his husband & child; and can't even "force Louis to love me;" esp. cuz despite all the Dark Gifts he has, he CAN'T read Louis' mind or manipulate his thoughts the way he could back when Lou was still human.

Cuz what Lestat DOES have from Amel/Akasha is direct access to more raw POWER & more Dark Gifts than the average vampire his age. He got her blood straight from the source, not diluted across vampiric generations. Those Gifts are why his rage so dangerous--his ability to overpower weaker vamps & fly them up in the air to drop them & set Millennial Fledglings on fire just for irritating him, etc. Esp. cuz we know "he's a volatile guy already;" he's got patented anger issues up the wazoo ("I am cursed with my father's temper; I am burdened with my Maker's temper").

ALSO, why would Amel have possessed Les to do something so counter-productive to his Chosen One's survival as almost winding up in the incinerator right next to Antoinette? By that logic, we'd have to say that Louis chokeslammed Claudia cuz HE was possessed by Amel too! That entirely strips away precisely what Sam said: how much Loustat LOVES each other drives them to unhinged levels of violence AGAINST each other, AND ultimately Claudia, as they each fear she'll take them away from each other (to Europe/the incinerator).

Hence why AMC hasn't laid ANY breadcrumbs indicating that Lestat was "possessed" by anything--just plain ole oppressive patriarchal toxic masculinity, just like I've been saying all along:

Cuz that machismo's what draws Magnus to Les in TVL & Akasha to Les in QotD; and that "vanity" is what draws Raglan James to Les in TotBT, and that sin/guilt/shame/self-loathing is what draws Memnoch to Les in MtD. In every book until Merrick, Lestat proves the villain right, before he finally realizes how bad he's messed up AGAIN, and course corrects to try proving them WRONG about him.

But Lestat's character development is a marathon, not a sprint; so it's not until Blackwood Farm that Lestat finally simmers TF down, and it's not till the PL Trilogy that his redemption arc really shines best. In PLatRoA, Louis proposes to Lestat WITH AMEL STILL IN HIM, as the Sacred Core directly communicating with Lestat, with the greatest chance to ACTUALLY take over Les if he wanted to! Louis is arguably the MOST concerned about Amel staying posted up in Lestat & possibly taking over him, so sure, I CAN see AMC leaning into the fear that Lestat's underestimating the chance of being spiritually possessed; esp. when compared with Akasha & Rhoshamandes. But that's also what SEPARATES Lestat from those 2, cuz he IS different; he IS special--to Amel. Cuz Les has a massive capacity to LOVE; he LISTENS, and treats Amel like a FRIEND, a PERSON, not a monster. And Lestat was SAD when Kapetria darn near kidnapped him & forced the surgical operation that finally separated Amel from him--cuz Lestat's ALWAYS carried that fear of abandonment in him.

Cuz it's not about Amel at all: it's about the HUMAN SOUL in each & every vampire; at the core of Gothic lit as a genre.

Cuz vampires ARE monsters, but the whole point of TVC is how they all learn how to be BETTER monsters/people; and NOT act like "barbarians" & wild animals--hence: Lestat's Vampire Court in the Chateau Era at the end of the franchise. Hence: Lestat finally becoming WORTHY of Louis' love.

So if AMC succumbs to pressure from the Lestans and retcons S1 & S2 to blame it all on Amel, Imma call that weak ish out on the spot.

[nalyra-dreaming]

hi! I hope you are doing well! i saw people on twitter say akasha actually rapes lestat. when she drinks from him he’s reminded of magnus. i wanted to ask is this true? if u remember could u tell me where specifically this is in the book?

That... let's call it "causality" does not exist in the book.

There are exactly two instances where Magnus is mentioned in QotD, one is when Akasha and Lestat are flying:

"You've never had a teacher, have you?" she asked. "Magnus orphaned you the night he made you. Your father and brothers were fools. As for your mother, she hated her children." "I've always been my own teacher," I said soberly. "And I must confess I've always been my favorite pupil as well."

And the other is when Lestat sits down to reflect on his new powers a bit after he accidentally destroyed his watch:

I was trembling just a little. I sat on the bed to think this over, but I was too curious to think. The important thing to realize was this: it was physical; it was energy. And it was no more than an extension of powers I'd possessed before. For example, even in the beginning, in the first few weeks after Magnus had made me, I'd managed once to move another-my beloved Nicolas with whom I'd been arguing-across a room as if I'd struck him with an invisible fist. I'd been in a rage then; I hadn't been able to duplicate the little trick later. But it was the same power; the same verifiable and measurable trait.

In no scene I could find is there a mention of what Magnus did when they drink from each other.

Now, let me be clear, just because I think this take is... BS^^, does not mean that I don't think Akasha in fact abuses Lestat.

I have talked about that. He reframes what happens to him as love, but he actually does not have that much choice, and she sometimes spell-binds him to do her bidding, too.

The show might make it more drastic, like they did with all the abuse so far. Akasha will be a very dark queen, I think, very far from the movie version. We'll see.

[nightcolorz]

hey bro love your posts never stop entertaining us pls

random ass question whats your favorite minor character from tvc?

Thank u ❤️❤️ 😁😁

this is a touch question lol bcus I have so many favorite minor characters, I’m a tvc minor character fanatic. I can’t choose one so I’m just gonna list of all my fav minor characters lmao.

I love Khayman hes so real. He reminds me of a socially anxious large dog who just really wants to make friends but he keeps scaring them off 😭. That part in queen of the damned where he reacts to the popularity of vampires in pop culture like a kid seeing themselves represented in tv for the first time was so funny omh i was living. Vampire from ancient Egypt buys Dracula cosplay bcus he wants ppl to like him was a genius idea thanks Anne rice. Khayman just, his whole personality reminds me of a character who’d be in what we do in the shadows he’s so inspired. Omg remember when he was so excited to go to lestats concert and meet other vampires and then he’s inside for two seconds, instantly gets overstimulated, and then sits outside for the rest of the time 😭 Khayman might be me guys.

I also love Fareed and Seth 😭😭. I love that Anne rice casually wrote an ancient Egyptian vampire and a modern day Anglo Indian vampire falling in gay love with each other and funding an unhinged vampire mad science hospital, and the Egyptian vampire is AKASHA’S SON 😭😭. the reveal that Akasha has a living vampire son who has been quietly living under the radar for the entire book series just practicing science and pursuing his passion for healthcare alongside his long term partner had me clapping and cheering I stg. They also have sm personality 😭 especially Fareed he’s so iconic. This bitch tricked lestat into giving him his sperm for cloning experiments and he served cunt while doing it. I love that they raised Lestat’s clone son as their gay dads, just so much there. Fareed and Seth u will always be famous

BENJI MAHMOUD!!! I love him sm. I’m also a big fan of sybelle but Benji occupies my mind a concerning amount. Like what kind of character?? There is sm going on with him. First of all he’s Bedouin and Palestinian and then he’s human trafficked to America by an insane man who wants him to be the house slave and take care of his disabled sister second of all he’s twelve and he’s a canon genius and he chain smokes to cope with his insane life third of all he is turned into a vampire by Marius and grows up into an immortal child who’s unfazed by being twelve for ever bcus hes such a chad it doesn’t affect him and he becomes a rich and famous business owner who wears fedoras and runs a vampire podcast and he single handedly kickstarts the plot of Prince lestat and causes the vampire government to happen bcus hes such a good activist he convinces all the characters to be better. Anyways wtf. Also I love sybelle she’s such a darling ❤️ Benji and sybelle and Armand’s little family is everything to me.

DENIS??? Wtf even was that. On a similar note Antoine. I love them both bcus they r incredibly interesting and rlly sad and they reveal so much evil about my fav characters anddd they both happened to be unforgivably butchered by the amc show ❤️

andddd last and also least haha kidding, Benedict ❤️. I feel so bad for him 😭but he’s also so real. Ben was the guy who Magnus manipulated and pretended to be friends with and then he chained him up and forced him to turn him into a vampire 😰. I love the concept where he was the first and only vampire to ever be “raped” by his fledgling, and I feel bad that all the other vampires treat him like shit for it 😭. He’s just a little guy. He’s such a pillow princess also. I can’t count all the times in Prince lestat where Bens described as lounging gracefully on the bed or whatever. Forever twink and hashtag loving it. What a dude

[avelera]

Vibrating over Daniel’s ending.

I’d love your thoughts on what it means for next season?

(And any other thoughts you have about the finale are so welcome 🙏)

Heya! I actually wrote up my thoughts here.

But, short Daniel-specific version:

I think we'll get Louis-as-Lestat's-agent inviting Daniel to interview Rockstar Lestat for his next book and Daniel salivating at the chance to do so.

(Very different tonally from what I was expecting, btw. No joke, I thought the falling books were going to be Lestat crashing through the ceiling to kidnap Daniel for an interview so he could tell HIS version of the story lol, but I can see why they went for a tearful Loustat reunion instead and how kidnapping Daniel wouldn't have worked with that, funny as it is in my head).

The good news is that I believe we'll get Daniel's snark throughout Lestat's book since that's been the framing device of the show so far (though, there's less of a "mystery" to unravel in Lestat's narrative than in Louis's so... who knows, maybe they will break the format since you don't need an investigative reporter with Lestat to drag secrets out, Lestat literally can't shut up). Honestly, I am SALIVATING to hear Daniel tear Lestat's narrative limb from limb lol.

The bad news is that I think, sadly, that if we dive right into 1-2 seasons of The Vampire Lestat, we won't be getting the space to explore Armand/Daniel and why that happened and if Devil's Minion happened in the past until a theoretical Season 5, if we follow the books and leave the end of TVL to go into Queen of the Damned, where that beat takes place.

IF we do that, sadly, it means we'll have to wait on the full explanation of Daniel/Armand.

HOWEVER, I also wouldn't put it past the show to actually do more interweaving of past and present than that. Have some modern stuff like Daniel/Armand/Devil's Minion in the present day while we're ducking in and out of Lestat's trip down memory lane to 18th century France.

GENUINELY, even as a writer, I don't know how they'll tackle the order of events given that means it'll be a LONG time before we get an explanation for stuff they set up in this season like Daniel's turning and part of me thinks they won't wait THAT long because the eagerness to learn this info is here now, and might not be there in a couple years, people might have forgotten by then.

That said, they also introduced Raglan James, the villain of Vampire Chronicles Book 4, the Body Thief, so that actually signals that they're willing to seed things very early before the pay-off, UNLESS they remix the order of the books significantly and Akasha gets pushed back.

It actually would kinda make sense to push Akasha back she is an EXCELLENT final boss and Body Thief is a bit of a come-down after her so I wouldn't totally blame them for swapping those two books in terms of the order we see their events in. But maybe not! They've been surprisingly faithful in a lot of ways. Regardless, I trust their discretion.

And finally, my hope when we DO finally get Devil's Minion, we're going to have the modern Daniel/Armand juxtaposed with the 1970s one, ending in Armand refusing to turn him in the 1970s, wiping his memory (perhaps knowing that vampirism would drive young Daniel mad, as it canonically did in the books, but old Daniel is made of sterner stuff now) and then we flash forward to the present and old man vampire Daniel and Armand and whatever THEY'VE got going on (hopefully: Daniel domming the shit out of Armand the way he always wanted).

So ok, I lied, I had more thoughts, lol!

[flowersinthegrocerystore]

OKAY SO I wasn't able to watch IWTV when it first came because I didn't have the time/money, but I just watched the first episode. Without further ado: here were all my thoughts

AUGH IM SO EXCITED

Paul 🙁

Omg I can’t wait for Armand this season

Claudia I’m free any day any time 

The odyssey of recollection I like that

Lmao Daniel calling himself a whore

Armand you sneaky bitch 

Okay here we go

The red sky intro I’m obsessed

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

On god let’s go

I love claudia 

Creepy start let’s go

Love the page turning sound affects

My girl Claudia I love her I love her I love her I lover her 

Ohhhh wait is this the holocaust

Ohhhh

OH

Hey Louis 

You look so depressed babygirl 

Armand stop being like that 

Lmao Daniel you petty bitch

They’re already fighting I love them

Intriguing. And disregarding! 

Did I mention how much I love Claudia

What an icon

I’d wanna explore some abandoned buildings with her

They both look miserable damn

Louis being constantly cold because he’s more human than she is

He’s so fucking alone stop not him talking to himself

I wanna be a historian. A deranged geologist or anthropologist

“It’s dead” shocking info Louis

DEAD WEIGHT MY GOD

Daniel just sitting there chewing while he suffers

Real Rashid is so fucking funny

Unworthy damn Armand

DISREGARD 

I hate them I want them to make out

OOh creepy

Love the vibes

Lestat you drama queen I missed you

The love in his eyes is insane

His voice with nobody there damn I love it 

Obsessed with Louis’ soft apology and Lestat just continuing on like nothing happened

His fear but the chin hold and the I’m gonna kill you

This is love this is love I want them I want to be them

Why the fuck are they shooting graves

Why everyone quiet 

Oh they think louis is hot lol 

God will forget when you die. Preach lady

Something’s wrong what 

There’s gaps in his memory. HIS MEMORY’S WRONG

Or Claudia’s wrong? 

Armand why are you looking like that

The tension in the room is crazy

Daniel smirking he knows what’s happening 

Armand what are you doing

Creepy song with children let's go

Claudia knocking a child over!

So glad I read the book and I know what’s happening

This would have scared the fuck out of me 

Edith Piaf it’s giving la vie en rose it’s giving Izzy Hands

Does red mean communist? 

Oh

Louis’ drunk. Don’t be drunk king. 

Oh he’s deductive damn 

Claudia’s so excited 🙁

Fighting like siblings

Adam and Eve of the damned- oh like the king and queen? ENKIL AND AKASHA MENTIONED

Louis looks so tormented my baby

What is happening what is happening why is he crying why

LOUIS??? 

Daniel looks so devastated but he looks like he cares aw

Oh my god I love this show

Humanity is so. Uh. Fun. God I love this show

That’s a fucking catfish with teeth

Louis is such a sarcastic shit I love him 

What is that thing

Oh it’s a woman

Louis trying to help her and understand her against all odds

All those in darkness go in darkness 

All of them dead now, what about her

How has she lived

Claudia giving her blood

I don’t remember this in the book

But Claudia looks so happy!!

AND so does the woman!! 

Daciana is such a pretty name 

Oh shit…

Getting their hopes up for nothing 

Domestic couple aww Louis and armand 

Why is Louis asking permission…

They’re both cute and vaguely unsettling

The silence is so comfortable but also tense

Armand misses the boy from san francisco??? 

But why do they want to do this. What’s the deal

What is happening why does he want him enthralled what’s his plan

Daniel does not give af lmao the whistling

My man didn’t look up once

So fellas, what’s up?? I love him 

The way they’re so possessive of each other! The little touches and the hand holding. The stares that Daniel is so disgusted by I’m screaming

“We’ll get to you” KILL HIM DANIEL

Claudia looks so small :(

Louis and his talk of death is so relatable

But his HOPE. His HOPE. I’m killing myself. 

If you were the last vampire on earth it would be enough!!

AHH THE CUT TO LESTAT OH MY GOD OH MY GOD 

YOU AND ME AND IT’S LESTAT BUT IT’S ACTUALLY CLAUDIA

CLAUDIA’S FACE. SHE KNOWS. SHE KNOWS. 

Oh the next episode is about to be soooo good

This was so good I’m killing myself

Why did it feel so short?? 

I’m saving the rest for later but OH MY FUCKING GOD.

[liviavanrouge]

Aventurine: *Lays asleep in his bed, opening his eyes when hands grabbed his shirt*

Aventurine: Hm? *Looks down, finding Karina there* Karina, what are you doing awake?

Karina: *Stares at him, her stomach growling* Food?

Aventurine: *Ruffles her hair and gets up yawning* Alright, let me see what would make a good late night meal...

Aventurine: *Picks Karina up, settling her on his hip as he headed to the kitchen*

Aventurine: *Sets Karina down in a chair, opening the fridge* Let's see...how about toast with jam and eggs?

Karina: *Smiles and nods, kicking her feet* Yes!

Aventurine: *Chuckles, smiling at her* I'm not much of a cook but eggs and toast should be simple

~~~

Topaz: *Glares at Aventurine, her arms crossed* You called me thid late for a night time snack?

Aventurine: *Scratches the back of his head* ...I burned the scrambled eggs and the toast..

Karina: *Hugs her aventurine doll close, watching them both*

Topaz: *Sighs and walks past him* Be lucky I touched up on my skills because of Akasha

Aventurine: Haha, thanks!

Topaz: Don't let this happen again

@queen-of-twisted

[notquitedeadpod]

What do you think about interview with the vampire (both the books and series)?

As briefly mentioned in my audio essay Based Vampirification, I got pretty into the movie when I was a teen, and then read a couple of the books.

I'm going to waffle for a bit about this, so I'll put it under the cut. CW discussions of blood, sex, and rock and roll. No really.

Spoilers for: IwtV, Queen of the Damned

TL;DR: dead blood is stupid; let gay vampires fuck; i want to put Lestat under a microscope

Please note in addition that the following is all just my opinion and should not be taken as anything but such.

There are some interesting limitations on the vampires in that series, and some things I find frustrating about their mechanics. What is, for example, 'dead blood'? This is a nonsensical concept. It does feel vaguely folkloric to me, and I think primarily is there to explain why vampires don't simply drink the blood of the recently deceased. It irritates me. They lean towards being more magical beings and that's okay, but the introduction of such a mechanism as 'dead blood' troubles that and implies-- it just annoys me. We'll be here all week if I go on.

I also find it frustrating that they can't fuck. There's a lot of discomfort about the idea of two men having sex, and the mechanical changes which happen when an Anne Rice vampire turns canonically (in the books) mean he can't get it up in most instances. Whilst I don't think sex between two cis queer men begins and ends with dicks, discomfort about this precise thing is rife, so I find it annoying that these are men who are unable to connect in this way not through choice, and with biting and drinking each others blood - acts of violence and exploitation - serving as a substitution. This stands in sharp contrast to Lestat's escapades with Vampire God Queen Akasha, where he goes out of his way to specifically note that sometimes male vampires CAN get it up.

This is all troubling to me for what it infers about how the text views mlm vs wlm romantic and sexual connections. It should also be made clear that whilst the recent TV adaptation shows Louis and Lestat as explicitly queer in text, in the OG IwtV, this was not overt and space was left for doubt as to the real nature of their relationship. This is partly because of when the novel was written, but it also strikes me as pretty cowardly.

I've enjoyed what I have seen of the recent TV adaptation. I'm interested in how it's exploring the toxic back and forth between Lestat and Louis, and how it makes explicit a lot of things which were left implicit in the book and in prior adaptations. I really like that they've taken the choice to make Louis black, too. Textually this is really fascinating for his character. I think he's extraordinarily well cast as Louis and is now the default Louis I picture in my head. Plus I'm always thrilled when an adaptation takes the initiative to include more people of colour in major roles.

I find Lestat as a character MOST intriguing. He's unpleasant, abusive, and entitled. He goes on to become a rock star and attempts to out vampires to the human world and I'm fucking obsessed with that as a concept, have been for years. He's a horrible little man, and I love that for him. So does he, tbf. He's properly vile. I really enjoy it, not because I think his actions are good but because I enjoy watching him be horribly wrong. It's fun for me.

Anyway there are my fairly comprehensive thoughts on Anne Rice's vampires as far as I know them.

Hope this was illuminating!!

--- Eira xxx

[creaturefeaturecommando]

Every time I think of getting back into IWTV something racist happens within the fandom and it reminds me to just stick with The Queen of The Damned movie because that movie and soundtrack was fire plus Aaliyah 🥰🥰🥰

One of these days I’m gonna figure out how to make an Akasha costume and I’m gonna try to do her justice

[faerywhimsy]

Vamptember Day 12 - "Love never dies a natural death"

Today I'm back to my nonsense about my beloved Bianca Solderini.

Here is a chronology of our girl Bianca: Marius' briefly human companion after Santino abducts Amadeo, burning down the Palazzo and leaving Marius a blackened shadow of his former self. Marius brings Bianca into the blood. They occasionally argue to the point where Marius cloud gifts her to a place she can't return to him again, before he feels really bad about it and brings her back again—

While there's an argument to be made that—just as The Vampire Armand was Armand's burn book—Blood and Gold was Marius' maudlin self pity after seeing Armand in Queen of the Damned, I'm still sore about that.

Bianca accepts his temper is just a part of Marius and stands loyal by him for centuries. But they come to a permanent separation after Bianca overhears the way Marius throws her aside for the possibility of being with Pandora again. Like, does Bianca comfort him on the night Pandora rejects, bringing Marius to her cold grave. "It is early for you, but I must go and I can't leave you this way." <3

Less than a page later, as soon as Marius is himself again, my girl, like a boss, informs him in no uncertain terms that she's finally put up with enough and is leaving.

"I heard the things you said to her. And I'm leaving you."

This is around the mid-17th century.

So it's not impossible Bianca goes immediately from Marius in Dresden to Armand in Paris in that brief, possible interaction in TVA before Armand comes across Louis for the first time. Likely she's licking her wounds and building her courage. But then Armand scares her away.

This actually does make a great deal of sense from Bianca's PoV. Marius had regularly been utilising the Telamasca to keep tabs not just on Pandora, but also on Amadeo (now of course Armand). Through Marius, Bianca understands Armand has spent the last hundred years making himself coven master to the Children of Darkness. At his worst, he has completely eschewed any softer feelings or the lessons Marius left him with over only killing the evil doer. In fact, the more innocent the mortal, the more pleasure Armand seems to take in the killing.

Secondhand knowledge is confirmed by reality at the dawn of the 20th century: Armand has changed from the Amadeo she loved into a man Bianca has no ability to recognise.

And then... We don't see Bianca chronologically in canon until Lestat finds her and Allesandra in Paris in Prince Lestat.

It's the century between that visitation at the turn of the 20th century and the end of it that captivates me. Bianca isn't at all present or mentioned by the time we have Queen of the Damned in 1988. Other characters that she's later seen with in Prince Lestat are present for Akasha's Burnings.

And so my investigation begins.

Maybe Bianca had not forgiven Marius by the time Pandora and Santino (🙃) were searching for Marius at the beginning of Akasha's reign of terror. And that's why Bianca did not come to his aid. (It's not like Armand pulled himself away from Daniel either.)

That explanation suffices, or else more simply: The first burning passed over Bianca and her still relatively new fledgling. They were grateful and saw no need to involve themselves in happenings that were by majority occurring on the other side of the world. It's just... they were not so lucky when it came to the second Burning.

"But I'll tell you that, why I am suffering," Bianca said, drawing near but talking in a normal and not a confidential voice, her arm slipping around me [Lestat]. "I lost one I loved in the attack in Paris, a young one, one I'd made and lived with for decades. But this was the Voice at work, not the one he'd brought out of the earth to do his bidding."

This moment where Bianca is just... comfortable enough to slip her arm around Lestat? It's so incredibly maddening to me because the two of them have never before had an interaction on the page before Paris.

How does this moment between Lestat and Bianca come about? There are two obvious options that immediately come to mind for an explanation, then, of the affection evident between Bianca and Lestat (outside of the love every vampire in this universe has for Lestat).

1) more happened between Armand and Bianca directly in the years between 1998 (TVA) and 2013 (PL) when Lestat and Armand were on better terms (??)

2) Armand told Lestat of his beloved Bianca Solderini before Lestat went into the ground

Picture this: Lestat is weakened from Louis' and Claudia's attack on him. He asks and is refused healing blood from Armand. Fair enough. Maybe Armand makes a throwaway line, "I wouldn't give my healing blood to even my beloved Bianca Solderini if she had treated me as you have!"

It's entirely possible Armand would have mentioned her here, after all. Remember he thinks he sighted Bianca in Paris earlier in the decade.

And so Lestat, hurting and humbled, wanders back towards New Orleans. But it just so happens that Bianca has also found herself in this part of the world at the same time. She has come across the occasional immortal on her travels up till now but, with them, a quick scan of the mind always shows little more than whether or not there is an intention to harm.

Lestat's mind is different in two ways: He is clearly far from his best but, also, there are familiar figures in this immortal's mind. Marius, and Armand.

They stare at each other in shock, hardly able to parse that they have two such influential figures on each of their lives in common - yet they have never before met. Bianca immediately offers him aid, and Lestat's mind throws up the memory of the words Armand threw at him.

She doesn't completely recoil. Bianca's used to Marius' temper. She knows how unkind men can be and does not jump to assume either Lestat or Armand must be the right. She's just tired, so tired of being alone. So she asks Lestat to give her stories of Armand and, in exchange, she will offer him a little of her blood that is almost as powerful as Armand's.

Lestat accepts this deal, and Bianca hears about Armand from someone other than Marius for the first time in almost 400 years. She ends up in tears with it. Lestat cannot stand the idea of yet another blood drinker flying into a rage over what is only truth to him. He knows he will not survive it, even with the small amount of blood she has granted him.

That will be just enough to get him safely the rest of the way back to New Orleans.

And so, while Bianca mourns, Lestat takes his leave from her, apologising, thanking her for her kindness, but asking her not to follow him.

She doesn't. Bianca wishes Lestat well and thinks on him often while he sleeps.

Because he is the last blood drinker she holds company with for several decades. By the 1950s, she finds herself in California, at which point the mind of a human girl captivates her. She is strong, this girl, recently sent away from her family to give birth to a baby she was forced to then give up for adoption.

But this girl refuses to fall down to depression despite the current isolation from her family, her younger brother, her old friends. She's getting her diploma in night classes, and Bianca finds herself quietly stalking her, curious at her thoughts and her resilience.

She's not as subtle as she thinks she is, and the girl confronts her one night, telling her that if she's going to be appearing out of nowhere every night, the very least she can do is buy her a soda.

The first time Bianca reaches for her hand, the girl pulls it away, before realising she doesn't need to worry anymore about what others might think of her holding another woman's hand. Bianca asks her where she would like to go in the world if she could go anywhere. Her eyes light up at the idea of being able to leave California behind her.

And this is the fledgling Bianca mentions in passing. The reason Bianca does not appear in Queen of the Damned is explained: Bbecause her fledgling refused to go back to California, and Bianca wouldn't make her. Lestat gave her the highlights after it was all over. He even visited the two of them on one of his visits to France.

The hug Bianca gives to Lestat in that moment of Prince Lestat, then, gets to be a quiet moment of recognition between them. Bianca is glad to know Lestat is okay because she can't help but think of their first meeting, and this time it is Bianca who's the one that's utterly bereft, while Lestat is as fit and healthy as Bianca was on their first meeting.

Their roles have quite reversed.

@vamptember

[mademoisellebianx]

I feel like everyone painting Santino into this moustache-twirling villain conveniently forgot that Santino didn't stay the leader of Children of Darkness up until the modern era. Santino had lost all faith in the Great Laws not long after Armand and Allesandra left for Paris, that he then abandoned his Roman coven when that happened, that he then went with Pandora in Queen of the Damned to help her rescue Marius despite the imminent danger that posed his life while Akasha was burning fledglings left and right, that he accompanied Marius to destroy all the vampiric evidence post-Memnoch the Devil. He absolutely tried doing everything to make up to all the atrocious things he's done in the past, until he was killed by in Blood and Gold by Thorne as retribution to what he did to Marius and as a way to flip Maharet off. Santino got what he ""deserved"" - or so what most of the readers think he deserved - in the end.

It blows my mind that people think Santino is a villain. He's a horrible person, sure. An asshole, maybe. A fucking bastard or whatever. But a villain? Santino? We are talking about the very same Santino who didn't - according to his own words - enjoy doing all the shit he must do as a cult leader but felt like he was required and entitled to do? Santino, whose reaction when Akasha reminded him of his time as a cult leader in front of all these other vampires, was shame as the old wound in him started to bleed again? The very same Santino who pets rats, feeds them, and wept for Armand while he refused to join them (yeah, I am aware that he tortured Armand and fed him his bestie and burned his master and his other friends I know but still)? Santino, who said he had loved Armand? That Santino??? Okay............

[vampire-sugar]

Ignore my last posts bruh tbh my fault for interacting. So I’m reading The Queen of the Damned and Part I and Part II were a bit lack luster…. But I just finished reading the first two chapters of Part III and we are sooo back!! These were some of my thoughts reading.

(Spoilers ahead!!)

1. Lestat: In the Arms of the Goddess

The story has finally begun!!!! Lestat drinks from Akasha and gains some cool new powers like flight and teleportation, we love to see it.

Lestat’s back at his old chateau and is forced to remember his past… any time Lestat thinks about the wolves gets to me… “My only moment of glory, and what had it got me? The admiration of an accursed bloodsucker who chose to make me his heir.”

And when Akasha shows him the weapons he used to kill those wolves and asks him to use his new skills to kill for her, he wonders “Wasn’t the same thing happening now? Loved for what I’d been in those early thoughtless mortal years.”

Reminding him of the monastery, and 200 year old Lestat of course remembering it still so clearly “God I didn’t want to think of those times. But some things can never be forgotten.”

Akasha reminding him how he had knelt on the floor of the chapel and begged God to make him good (shoot meeee) and then telling him “You wanted to be a saint when you knelt in that chapel, now you shall be a god with me”. Fire.

And also “I am your true Mother, the Mother who will never abandon you,” OK Gabrielle shade….

Really enjoyed this chapter.

2. Marius: Coming Together

Vampire conference chapter!! So turns out Akasha smoked all the vampires in the world except for the ones in the conference room. Interesting. I wonder if Azim is also smoked he seemed important in the Pandora chapter.

Love all the vampires interacting with one another. We got a lot of backstory for most of the new ones but not for everyone present which makes me wonder whether they will be killed off soon or whether a Santino or Eric chapter will be in this book’s future. I know I complained ab all the previous lore chapters but im low key intrigued who are these ppl lol (I know Santino is Armand’s old coven master, but what’s Eric’s deal?).

There’s a part where Marius is looking around the conference at all the hot vampires and wonders “Was nobody ugly ever given immortality?” I laughed out loud.

I also love Gabrielle going “If I waste this bitch, to use the vernacular, do I waste the rest of us too?”Ooh ok Gabrielle! I really want to see her and Akasha interact.

I’m excited to get the full story of the twins! So far what I’m getting is that Akasha blames the twins and their culture of interacting w spirits for the creation of vampires? And that’s why she and Enkil sent the soldiers to their village and put the twins through hell? I feel like the dreams started bc the Queen had awoken and Makare sensed this so sent out the dreams to warn the other vamps of the Queen’s intentions. Idk excited to find out though.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi Nalrya, I have been a fan since the first season came out and I didn't know anything about the books so every character was (is) new to me, I am as shocked as Daniel is when he realises stuff. So, I am a huge fan of Daniel, especially this season, I think he makes the show lively and more dynamical. I have only read one chapter of The Queen of the Damned and that is chapter 4 Devil's minion (pls don't judge i am planning on reading all). If the show doesn't adapt that, I don't understand why Armand would save Daniel and not just let Louis drain him; he already said that Louis brought back 128 boys which he consummated and drained, I am still wondering why Armand didn't let him do it. Also, he is quite keen to justify his actions to Daniel rather than to Louis and saying he wanted to protect himself from Daniel?!?!?!?¿

Hey!

I... think we're right in the middle of "Devil's Minion" already.

That is why Armand is protecting himself (his heart) there. That is why he justifies himself to Daniel. Apologizes to him, too.

Armand saved Daniel back then, because he could sense Louis, and Louis... had a different kind of connection to Daniel, than to any of those other boys. AND, maybe, because Armand was fed up with "cleaning up after Louis". Because this seemed to happen regularly after all. So I think it's a mixed thing.

I think... I think DM happened in the past, up to a certain point. Akasha did not rise, Daniel did not get turned. Something else happened that made him lose his memories (or someone).

I think there is a lot more that we are not being told right now. I think there is a lot more we will still get to see in upcoming seasons... and I think, given these writers? That will become much clearer then :)))

[nightcolorz]

Thots on finale?? Loumand divorce, vamp Daniel???, lestat the rockstar....I sense your internet drama au will soon be canon

hahaha omg!! Millennia gate amc iwtv addition 💀 that’s amazing. I agree lmao, we r in for some insane shit. Rockstar Lestat is going to get cancelled to hell. My thoughts on the Loumand divorce and vampire Daniel r mostly here:

https://www.tumblr.com/nightcolorz/754735260443525121/let-your-thoughts-on-the-finale-run-wild-god-knows?source=share , but in summary ‼️🙏 perfect, ten out of ten. I was expecting the divorce to be in this episode so it could lead into the vampire lestat in s3, and they sure delivered there. Peak television. I was NOT expecting Daniel to be turned in this episode, and boy omg that made me so excited. I am thinking we will get the full story of daniels turning in s3, and I’m so excited for that.

I loved seeing “the real lestat” who isn’t being filtered by Louis or Armand’s perspective, god he was so much softer and oddly more feminine then the lestat we r used to 😭 I loved the noticeable differences in Sam Reid’s performance, and I laughed my ass off when I heard “siri pause” come out of lestat de Lioncourt’s mouth. Who taught his ass how to use a Siri 💀. That whole scene was incredible. The reunion scene in the iwtv book is my favorite scene in the whole thing, and they did it so well.

I can see the pieces being put in place for the vampire lestat and queen of the damned to happen (i screamed at the Akasha mention 💀) and it’s making my cringe little fanboy heart soar. Louis wearing his grandpa sweaters book-style after the divorce brought me so much life 🙏😭 good for him tbh, entering his thriving era. But I felt so bad for Armand 💔 (I might be alone in that but he’s my princess ok).

He is clearly so devastated by the end of the episode and it makes me so sad for him, how he is constantly unknowingly self destructing and ruining his chances of experiencing authentic love and connection bcus he thinks of his life as a constant fight for survival and is willing to lie and hurt ppl to achieve this so called survival. By the end of the episode, as he sees it he’s “nothing”, bcus without a purpose to cling to hes nothing, and he will never know that this isn’t how it has to be 😭 poor dude.

in conclusion tho, this episode was so unexpectedly funny 😭 while still being super heartfelt and sad. I laughed out loud a lot, Santiago’s giant balls rlly got me. Amazing television thank u amc. And ty for the ask!