#amc hot takes

[licncourt]

Hey there! I've recently read your post on whether one should read the VC books, and I'm still unsure. I really really loved the AMC show and from what I read on your blog the books are a lot different. Even if I only read the first three books, which is what I would do anyway after what you said in your post lol, it would feel like two different stories with the same characters, right?

What I wanna ask really is what are the main differences between loustat, armand, and the plot from the show and from the books? Are they completely different things? or somewhat similar?

I've talked about this quite a bit in various ways if you look through my older answers, but my take is that the AMC show is more "inspired by" VC than anything. A lot of the plot beats are the same (just in a different historical context), but I feel like the character motivations and essences are quite different. Both are good stories, but I would say they're kind of a Venn diagram with an equal amount of similarities and differences. If you read the books, you'll definitely find yourself knowing what's coming a lot of the time, but even the characters themselves are very different.

My AMC hot takes tag (which I'll leave in these tags too) can probably answer your questions better, but in a nutshell:

Book Lestat is very young (21) and has been a vampire for less than ten years when he turned Louis in 1791. He's very impulsive, quick to anger, and deeply unstable, but none of that is ever concealed from Louis. He's much more openly unpleasant In IWTV but because of that much less capable of manipulation and scheming than AMC Lestat, who seems to be much smarter and more calculated. Book Louis is just. A worse person in general than AMC Louis. I say that even though he is my little baby, it's just true. I wrote this last year about that business if you're interested.

That difference in personality and history makes book Loustat a lot different since the two of them are openly hostile to each other from day one but running off of loneliness and desperation. They're very hot and cold but mostly cold, just intense, insane love with no understanding or empathy between them whatsoever, though obviously that changes throughout the books. They're both very close to the same age (in physical age and total years) as well, so it's very much the blind leading the blind plus so much trauma and mental illness and so many impulsive, terrible ideas.

IWTV isn't that long of a book, so I'd really recommend just giving it a go, and if you're interested in learning about what makes book Lestat tick, TVL isn't either!

As far as Armand, he's basically just younger and a redhead, equally crazy and unhelpful, we love to see it.

[jacquelying]

its been a long polar night. pass the ‘ports

[dick-chugger]

My hot take is that Daniel actually wasn't closeted and hadn't forgotten that he's gay.

Like I think it'd be very odd to be like actually closeted but write a book about the AIDS crisis and show clips from Pride in the ad for your online course. Like I think the only thing pointing that him being closeted is him saying that he was at a gay bar to get drugs. But like, he never says that he wasn't there also because he was gay. I'd imagine that for 20-year-old heroin-addicted Daniel Molloy drugs were really the priority. He comes to Louis' apartment for the drugs, the gay sex is just a bonus.

[claudiadpdl]

there's a difference between a hot take and whatever the absolute fuck this is. im actually so tired of some of yall. also whether we're going off of the books or show one of the main tragedies with claudia was that she knew no one her (mental) age would want her aside from pedos/freaks.....so why would either of her adult fathers want her sexually or romantically?

[thesinlesssinner]

I saw a Twitter post asking what your IWTV hot takes that would make people flip out on you was here’s mine: the people who rabidly hate Lestat and Lestat fans are going to be REALLY upset when they find out he’s the main character. If you don’t like him at this point you shouldn’t keep watching the show. You’re just going to be complaining non stop about season 3 being about him and it’s like babes, everything is about him. Like eight fucking books in the series are written by him in the canon, Louis has one single book that’s written in his POV. Oh and wanting the main character of the Vampire Chronicles to be the main character doesn’t make you a bad person or pro abuse or whatever, like everyone on Twitter screams it is. It just means you’ve read the god damn books.

[toscrollperchancetomeme]

My toxic trait is thinking that Lestat and I would be besties because we would have the bitchiest Eurovision Song Contest watch parties.

[immortalmolloy]

Armand’s betrayal would have felt more like a betrayal if Louis wasn’t so toxic…

Listen, Louis has toxic traits. He manipulates Armand. You can pretend that’s not true but the actor has literally said this himself. He sees a vulnerability in Armand and tries to take advantage. A big part of their relationship revolves around how he can use Armand for safety and things.

He wants to control Armand. He thinks it’s working, but it’s not.

He thinks Armand is under his control and will do what he says. He’ll say yes to making a vampire because I said so.

Look at the expression on Armand’s face. He recognizes Louis is trying to make him do it, calls it out, and in the end refuses Louis. But it hurts. Armand recognizes that Louis is manipulating and controlling and he calls Claudia out for it too. Like fathers like daughter.

And the betrayal comes and I’m like yes queen slay! I love when Armand rages and acts crazy personally because he’ll tolerate this treatment and then snap!

Of course Armand has his issues and he also manipulates and controls in his relationships too. I’m just saying Louis is not innocent and the betrayal isn’t totally undeserved.

[brian-kinney-apologist]

so you know how we've heard lesmand and loumand saying I love yous to each other, right?? so my hot take/prediction of the day is that we will hear loustat (louis I'm looking at you) saying that to each other during their reunion in the end of the season :)

[nashvillethotchicken]

If we all band together and get him therapy, we may be able to see a lil peak of louis’s ankle or maybe even elbow, inshallah

[turnwashingtonsbaddies]

André attempting to rebound from Peggy moodboard

this entire moodboard is just banger after banger, but i am especially losing it at how the whole "pardon me good sir" exchange is literally going down in THE GRINDR MESSAGES..... that's sooooo intimate intercourse coded

[licncourt]

I think Lestat's love language and the way he interacts with his partners (Louis mainly) is very different in the show. He is too open and direct about his feelings and demands love from Louis, but in the book Lestat has a closed personality despite being extroverted and he doesn't talk about his deepest feelings, except in the books he writes. What do you think about this? Do you prefer Lestat being more romantic from the beginning? Or do you prefer Lestat who, due to his trauma, always tried to hide his feelings?

Disclaimer and reminder that I really don't like what the show did with Lestat/his dynamic with Louis in general, but I definitely have opinions about that.

The tl;dr of my take on this is that IWTV-era book Lestat at his most fundamental is a loving, well-intentioned, even kind person who puts on a front of cruelty and callousness to protect himself. Show Lestat seems like a controlling, calculated, abusive person who pretends to be kind, loving, and understanding to get what he wants, which is much less sympathetic to me.

In the book, you don't feel like Louis was manipulated into becoming Lestat's partner. Lestat was a dickhead right out of the gate, there was no lovebombing or months of intense romancing and wooing. In the book, it's very sudden and immediately a toxic dynamic that they both contribute to. It's super dysfunctional and Lestat is emotionally abusive sometimes, but there was no fronting. If anything, he represented himself much worse than he actually is.

Book Lestat is also all bark and no bite when it comes to Louis, so the cutting comments don't feel as gross as show Lestat's do knowing what happens in the fifth episode. Even after Louis lights him on fire and leaves him for dead in a swamp, Lestat came back to talk, not to attack him. That demonstrates his true intentions pretty clearly imo.

Show Lestat, for all his openly affectionate behavior in the beginning, flew into a violent, homicidal rage just over being dumped. It doesn't feel like he loves Louis as much as he wants to own him, so the past romance rings hollow. It feels like textbook abuse tactics rather than a deeply traumatized twenty-one year old handling his feelings in an abysmally awful way, and the latter is what makes me root for him as a character.

[samnia]

Is it just me, or do they need to let The Walking Dead franchise rip

[vividxp]

I think fanon theory drift can occur so maybe people are responding to recent interpretations but if I recall clearly, the original Loumand bed death posts were not that wild and are not incompatible with season 1 or the season 2 trailer. Just people’s attempt and figuring out what the heck is going on in Dubai and why is Loumand doing what they’re doing

I think the perception of it has turned into this notion that Louis and Armand don’t have physical attraction to each other and never have sex ever and I don’t think that’s what people meant.

[pandaass0]

The Match made in Hell

Credit goes to @margotsbazzar on YouTube

[psychicbluebirdmiracle]

TURNsgiving day 6: Hot Takes

I can not stand Anna the whole affair was dumb and just made me mad but at least abe has some redeeming qualities so I can feel neutral to him but Anna is just...annoying. She reminds me of those characters written to satisfy women by being like "look we gave you a strong female character" but put no effort in it so it just falls flat (meanwhile Mary is a great strong female she can kick anyones butt but still feels like a likeable person) I just never understood why people liked her, after the whole affair arc I hated her so bad and I didn't even her like before.

[daftmooncretin]

I’m not sure if this is a hot take or not but oh my god in terms of character depth the show has completely eclipsed the original books. obviously lestat was always an insanely fleshed out character because anne rice was obsessed with him but tbh armand, daniel and louis have been given more depth in this 5 episode run then in what 14 books of the vampire chronicles? i mean armand was already a fascinating character to begin with and assad takes what he’s given from the source material and just creates a whole new being with his performance!! plus the additions to his backstory and relationship with louis add a lot i think. but daniel and louis in the source material? they had none of the original armand potential! louis was a white plantation owner.! plus he was incredibly whiney and i always found him flat and kind of two dimensional in the books. how the writers and jacob anderson managed to create the perfect horrific anomaly that is our louis from that…? fucking astounding to me. and daniel??? book daniel is a fine character, sure. but the layers the show added by letting daniel move on from his first encounter and grow into eric! daniel add so much to his charcter!! ITS THE WAY OLD AND YOUNG DANIEL CONTRAST EACHOTHER COMPLETELY AS INTERVIEWERS YET ARE STILL COMPLETE EMOTIONAL MIRRORS OF EACHOTHER. ITS THE WAY THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN THE VAMPIRES AND 70’s AND PRESENT DANIEL SEEM LIKE OPPOSITES AT FIRST BUT GRADUALLY WE SEE ITS BEEN THE SAME BETWEEN THEM THE WHOLE TIMS. DANIEL IS STILL TERRIFIED AND DANIEL IS STILL BRAVE DESPITE IT. HE’S STILL FUCKING SIMULTANEOUSLY PRISONER AND JUDGE. he’s the idealistic boy high off his mind and he’s the cynical dying old man and he’s both and he’s neither. (can you tell daniel molloy is the most fascinating and tragic character in this show) ITS SUCH A FUCKING FANTASTIC PARALLEL. anyway i love you amc iwtv. you are doing such a good fucking job. also thank you eric. i love you eric. your performance both haunts and captivates me eric.