#and lestat is all the bad parts of rocky horror

[sagabrielle]

I've seen people try to make the claim that lestat, armand, and even marius were good at their art forms, and it was just louis that sucked at his chosen art form.

are we reading/watching the same series?

vampires are bad at art. they can't do art. art is a human trait, and they are no longer human. their capacity to make meaningful, innovative art has been severed, as penance for the dark gift. lestat's lyrics are cringe, marius can't accurately capture the likeness of his muse (i.e. WHITEWASHES them)*, and armand makes plays/musicals like...that. their art forms come with a thick layer of ignorance. there are certain aspects of their art that are good; lestat's voice, armand's drama, marius technical skill, etc. but the emotion and humanness of art that draws us, humans, to it, is gone. not for their lack of trying, necessarily. they do try. they just...can't.

in the same breath, we can argue that louis wasn't good at getting the right 'moment,' but louis was successful in capturing people that meant something to him. claudia, armand, his victims, etc. that was his goal. he achieved that. so. they are all equal parts good and bad at their chosen art form, such is the consequence of being a vampire.

*marius was the donor. however, imo how the hell are you going to pay someone to paint, have your love model, and then keep the painting where he is depicted so poorly...still a disconnect.

[pynkhues]

this may be a weird ask so i'm sorry in advance! are we supposed to think that the long face is purposefully a bad song? i thought it was a solid rock song with a great guitar and interesting lyrics (especially love the part with the italian music terms) but so mamy people say its embarassingly bad and cringy and how much louis'd hate it and i'm confused? is it really objectively not that good and i'm just old and out of touch with reality? i know that music is very subjective so of course not everyone'll like it, but i've seen so many takes how lestat is a terrible songwriter and how louis will bully him over it and i'm like?? i'm autistic so i dont get certain things, again i'm sorry and have a nice day!

Ah, don't apologise, anon! You're totally right about music being subjective, and I personally love the song for all the reasons you said, plus for how good Sam's voice sounds in it, but I can get why people may not like it too.

I -- mmm. I think there is a portion of people who are treating it as a song independent of the context of not just the show, but of the genre the show is shifting into. Which makes sense! The song's been dropped in a teaser, we're not seeing it within the framework of an episode itself, but I think to treat it as a commercial song designed to chart is actually completely divorced from the fact that it's a part of a musical soundtrack.

Lestat might be a rockstar in the universe of the show, but that universe is one that is highly dictated by the structure and conventions of theatre. I mean, his character is literally a theatre kid being written by theatre kids, and Rolin's been pretty clear that this season is being heavily influenced by rock opera musicals like Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Rocky Horror (and I see other rock opera influences too, personally, which I talked about here). It's going to be loud and camp and ridiculous, because that's the genre, and people should probably be expecting more Time Warp than Long Way to the Top.

[margridarnauds]

Characters from the mythological cycle celebrating Halloween or Samhain!

*Mandatory Disclaimer about my headcanons VS the material as it stands, yada yada yada, the paucity of sources on pre-Christian festivals yada yada yada NOW ONTO THE FUN STUFF* 

Bres and Sreng

Funny thing, I was actually TOYING with writing something Halloweeny for these two, so you can get an outline. 

Bres and Sreng are focused purely in Munster, which has mixed emotions for Bres because….Carn úi Neit. Being killed by your arch rival via some bad milk REALLY leaves an impression. But, after a couple centuries living there with Sreng, his main association with it is them. Like, Munster = Sreng and Sreng = Safe Person. And, it’s far enough away from Lugh and a decent number of the other Tuatha dé that he’s perfectly happy as a hermit. 

Samhain is…a DIFFICULT time for Bres, because it’s the anniversary of when he lost the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh. And it comes shortly after the anniversary of Ruadan’s death. (And I will die on the hill of Bres still DEEPLY feeling that one centuries down the line. Like, there is no getting over that, it’s just getting on.) So, Sreng does his best to distract him, because he knows it might be the only thing he CAN do. Keep Bres distracted by going from place to place, like flashing shiny objects in front of a cat, and by the time he realizes, it might be already past them. 

And, luckily enough, there are a few areas really close by that happen to have some cool stuff going on. Being immortals, they aren’t nearly as affected by the housing crunch as…certain…mortal inhabitants read: Broke American grad students might have, so they keep a place in both Cork City and Limerick for when they stay there. (It’s easier to have anonymity in a big city, and that suits Bres perfectly fine.) 

In the week before Halloween, Sreng takes Bres all around Cork and Kinsale for the Jazz Festival. He’s not overly fond of it himself, thinking that it sounds like a bunch of noise, but Bres likes it, and he likes seeing Bres happy, so they stay out as late as they can to watch the last of the shows, walking back to their place in the very, very late hours and collapsing on their bed in a mass of limbs. At least one of the children, either Indusa or Dui, will usually come as well, taking the opportunity for some family time. (They don’t really say why, and neither Bres or Sreng asks; it’s one of those things that they all get.) They also watch the Dragon of Shandon parade, because MOTHERFUCKING DRAGON. Sreng does NOT talk about the year Bres dressed them up as Louis and Lestat. Also, even though Bres is...Bres when it comes to adults, when it comes to kids? He’s very generous with the candy. (Cue the Dagda being like “I’M BASICALLY A CHILD.” “YOU’RE OVER THREE THOUSAND YEARS, AND AT LEAST 20 YEARS MY SENIOR” “THAT’S CLOSE ENOUGH.”) Sometimes, they’ll also catch a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture show, though Bres isn’t as fond of it as he was when it first came out, since he has an...odd relationship with it, not being particularly binary himself. But, hey, he also gets to lob toilet paper at a big screen, so he’s in heaven. 

The Dagda

The Dagda LOVES modern Halloween, considering it an excuse to have as much alcohol, food, and candy as he could possibly want. And kids LOVE the old “Kill people with the magic staff, then bring them back again” trick. (Parents less so.) Yeah, he might be a little fuzzy on a few of the nuances here and there, yeah, some of the party stories that he tells are slightly NSFW, but it’s the ENTHUSIASM that counts. 

If he’s not partying it up in Newgrange with Aengus (he’s still a little bitter that the little shit STOLE it from him), he’s usually in and around Derry, which is considered to be one of the premiere Halloween hot spots in the world, with a four day festival. And yes, every year, he does SOMETHING to get noticed. 

As part of Bres and the Dagda’s fragile truce (AKA “We have to at least TRY to get along because we’re brothers whether we like it or not, also we both hate Lugh’s guts”), he keeps trying to get Bres to visit with him, considering his refusal to be one more sign of his brother’s lack of fun. (Ruadan isn’t something he even really…puts into the equation, or if he does, he equates it more to Bríg’s loss than something Bres ALSO had to experience.) 

Ogma 

Bram Stoker festival, in Dublin. You know he would. He specializes in telling scary stories to the kids. I wish I could say more, but Bram Stoker festival. Ogma. It’s inevitable. 

Lugh 

On one hand, Lugh HATES modern Halloween. HATES it. He’s not particularly fond of mortals who aren’t immediately connected to him to begin with, and then there’s THIS. It’s gone from a time when strange things happened to mortals who dared to go too close to them, when there was some level of respect for what they were capable of, to...this. 

So, he and Cairpre kick back and do dramatic readings of poorly researched internet articles on Samhain. He does not admit that he has a fun time. Absolutely not. (He does though.) He also has the most immaculately decorated house in...well, if not the WORLD, then in Ireland, both Northern and Southern. Like, it’s not one of those cases where he just bought up everything in the nearest Halloween shop and dropped it in his yard, oh NO, EVERYTHING is specifically designed to be in a particular place. Most of them don’t even come from a STORE, since Lugh considers it beneath his dignity to get something that the masses could buy as easily as him. So many visitors are shocked to see magnificent decorations that they’ve never seen anywhere else, as if they were handmade. (He’s not called “Master of all skills” for nothing, even if he can’t do....any type of manual work.)

The Morrigan 

She volunteers in The Nightmare Realm scarehouse in Dublin. She personally feels like it’s slightly weaksauce compared to REAL blood and gore, but she supposes it works. She’s more interested in seeing OTHER people screaming their heads off, anyway, even if it’s only with fake blood, and visitors to the already terrifying attraction will say, unanimously, that when she’s around, there’s something that makes the entire process that little bit scarier. Eriu thinks this might be the healthiest her sister’s been, as far as only having that affect on people who PAID for it as opposed to randoms in a war.

Bríg

Bríg is much more ascetic, these days, having been thoroughly at ease with the conversion. As such, she observes the traditional vigil for the saints, attends mass, visits the graveyard in St. Brigid’s tries not to think too much of Ruadan and the others near her whose graves have been lost to time, and spends the day in quiet meditation. Sometimes, one of the children who hasn’t gone to be with their father will visit he, or else Áine, her sister, will, and they’ll share a few glasses of wine between them. She’s never alone, that’s for sure, and she’s very generous to any children who come over.