#dwreader

[blueiight]

#12

What were your favorite moments of season one? 

so the thing that actually sold the show on me my first watch around was the very beginning scene of episode 3, when lestat & louis are sitting down on that bench in jackson square.

LESTAT: There's a column in here about the history of this lovely square. It says that the man who designed it did so after the Place de Vosges in Paris.

LOUIS [ a native to New Orleans ]: I can see that.

LESTAT: Used to be called the Place d'Armes. I prefer that. Don't you?

LOUIS: Mm-hmm.

LESTAT: The Louisiana Purchase was signed here. Penny wise, franc foolish.

LOUIS: Say anything about how they used to take runaway slaves, cut their heads off, and pike 'em on the iron gates as a warning?

u can really see thru lestat’s character how the show takes a critical approach to anne rice’s fetishization of new orleans, and how louis responds to lestat is indicative of the native new orleanian, deeply fed up with& cynical toward the tourist fixations. jackson square up until 1856 was used as an execution site for runaway slaves, with maroon leader jean st. malo being one of the most well known executions in similar fashion as louis described. it is also foreshadowing for what louis will do to the alderman at the end of the episode.. ive talked abt that scene way too much but its when i sat up straight & started to pay attention fr. honestly the entire conversation honestly is such a character defining moment for lestat & louis and their relationship as a whole. louis has always been a character that struggled with his reason for existing, and lestat has always been someone eager to provide something (be that ‘reason’ for one: see the ‘i put you on this earth’ part of this conversation) and pilfer the ‘savage garden’ all he wants.

theres so many great moments on this show, im thinking of louis & paul on the roof, louis & jonah in e3, louis & claudia on the boat, the three of them going to the funeral home buying claudia’s coffin, claudia killing that man on the train tracks (happy jan 5!), claudia& charlie’s date, her e4 monologue, all of e5-7 to me, etc etc…but this scene truly let me know that this show was not generic ahistorical fetish of new orleans & understood the characters. i know some people complain that ‘lestat said the evildoers 1!1’ line, but lestat killed children & etc in the books and overall never is an existential internally driven sort of character the way louis is. anyways e5-7 is the prologue to the second season to me <3

[lestatdelioncoeur]

Jacob Anderson in The Big Issue, October 2023

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep8 Musings - Lestat & Gender: "I am she, she is me."

Scrolling the tags and sighing, cuz I just KNEW people were gonna take this line out of context, as proof that Lestat's the woman/wife/mother/femme-fatale (which @dwreader had to explain cuz folks just don't get it X X), blahblahblah. I've already said my whole bit on Lestat as the patriarchal father/husband, and the dandified matador/killer (a la Bruce). But I just wanna remind y'all that THE SAINT IS NOT A CITY.

Either the fandom's got a bunch of new Lestans posting who missed the discourse from S1 about the meaning behind Les's monologues from the books; or y'all just have frightfully short memories.

He's NOT talking about stupid effing New Orleans; and he's NOT calling himself a woman. He's talking about LOUIS. Louis' motherland! Louis' culture! Louis' ancestor's bones! Louis' grave soil! Louis's HOME--Louis' back at home, and Louis IS his home.

But here y'all go, always centering everything on Lestat's yaasification, and ignoring the Louis-shaped elephant in the room.

Lestat's been talking about Louis to his nameless Millennial Fledgling this whole time. Everyone knows who Louis is--and what he means to Lestat. This is CRUCIAL for Loustat going forward in TVC, when Lou's held as collateral against Lest by Akasha and Rhoshamandes.

But for some reason Lestans are hella quick to separate Lestat's identity from Louis every chance y'all get, then wanna whine & complain about the QotD movie pairing Lestat with Jesse, or AR tryna pair Les with Tom, Dick & Harry.

And YES, I will die on the hill that this whole anti-feminine discourse about AMC!Louis is couched in racial prejudice and biases--a trap that even Black fans who are pro-Louis fall into, while ignoring the struggles of effeminate/feminized gay Black men in their own effing community (X X X X).

But this is BY FAR more endemic in spaces predominately occupied by straight white women, who utterly fail to relate to their direct antithesis: gay Black men (X X). So of course they'll leap on every chance they get to glom onto long-haired blonde white drama queen Lestat as their spirit animal, even when he's LITERALLY TELLING Y'ALL that he himself identifies himself with LOUIS.

(Lestat's toxic color blindness is a whole 'nother conversation, omg. X X X)

Lestat says "she" because it's conventional speech to refer to places--especially continents, countries, and cities--as female, denoting motherhood and wives--places as people that take care of their own, as a mother would her children and/or spouse; a la the Statue of Liberty, personified virtues, and most abstract concepts we've inherited from Greco-Roman gender inequality about women as home-makers (HOUSEWIVES) being barefoot & pregnant in the kitchen. It's not even an exclusively English phenomenon. NOLA, like any city, is referred to as a "she."

So yes, to an extent, Lestat is channeling LOUIS; waiting at home for his spouse to come back and TAKE CARE OF HIM again. But Lestat is NOT a home-maker. He's living in a nasty AF shack, with only his music for company (and we know his tour's all about TVL & Akasha & Marius & Claudia & Louis). He treats his own Millennial Fledgling (his BLOOD CHILD) like trash; setting him on fire "IN LOUIS' HONOR" and not even knowing his name--he's NOT tryna be no one's MOTHER. He couldn't even bring himself to be Claudia's effing FATHER when she was literally burning alive two feet away from him, FFS.

But it's not about the brick & mortar or the PLACE itself--it's about the PERSON it's attached to--cuz Lestat always knew that Louis would eventually come back to NOLA--come back HOME--and FIND LESTAT WAITING FOR HIM THERE.

EVERYTHING & ANYTHING FOR LOUIS.

But AMC leaves it deliberately open-ended and ambiguous what Louis says to Lestat during their hug, and we don't see Lestat in Dubai, or any implication that Loustat is remarried/a couple again. Louis' putting down the torch, to stop accepting everyone's effing dregs; "your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...the wretched refuse of your teeming shore." Cuz Lou's decided to finally start learning how to live on his own for the first time in his entire life; for himself, not other people--AND realize that he doesn't need to rely on his husbands to fight his battles for him. "I own the night!"

[iwtvfanevents]

Rewind the Tape —Episode 1

Art of the episode

During our rewatch, we took note of the art shown and mentioned in the pilot, and we wanted to share. Did we miss any? Do you have any thoughts about how these references could be interpreted? How do you think Armand and Louis go about picking the art for their penthouse in Dubai?

The Fall of the Rebel Angels

Peter Bruegel the Elder, 1562

This painting is featured in the Interview with the Vampire book, and it was important enough to be included in the draft pilot script!

Bruegel the Elder was among the most significant Dutch and Flemish Renaissance artists. He was a painter and print-maker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes.

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion

Francis Bacon, 1944

Bacon was an Irish figurative painter, known for his raw, unsettling imagery and a number of triptychs and diptychs among his work. At a time when being gay was a criminal offense, Bacon was open about his sexuality, and was cast out by his family at 16 for this reason. He destroyed many of his early works, but about 590 still survive. The Tate, where these paintings are displayed, says this about the work: "Francis Bacon titled this work after the figures often featured in Christian paintings witnessing the death of Jesus. But he said the creatures represented the avenging Furies from Greek mythology. The Furies punish those who go against the natural order. In Aeschylus’s tragedy The Eumenides, for example, they pursue a man who has murdered his mother. Bacon first exhibited this painting in April 1945, towards the end of the Second World War. For some, it reflects the horror of the war and the Holocaust in a world lacking guiding principles."

On the Hunt or Captain Percy Williams On A Favorite Irish Hunter and Calling the Hounds Out of Cover

Samuel Sidney, 1881 [Identified by @vfevermillion.] and Heywood Hardy, 1906 [Identified by @destinationdartboard.]

Sidney was an English writer, and his prints usually accompanied his publications about hunting, agriculture, and about settling Australia during the colonial period. Hardy, also British, was a painter, in particular an animal painter. There's also a taxidermy deer, ram, and piebald deer on the wall.

Iolanta

Pyotr Tchaikovsky, 1892

The opera Louis and Lestat go to was composed by Tchaikovsky, another gay artist. The play tells a story "in which love prevails, light shines for all, lies are no longer necessary and no one must fear punishment," as put by Susanne Stähr for the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Strawberries and Cream

Raphaelle Peale, 1816 [Identified by @diasdelfuego.]

Peale is considered to have been the first professional American painter of still-life.

Outfits inspired by J.C. Leyendecker

Leyendecker was one of the most prominent and commercially successful freelance artists in the U.S. He studied in France, and was a pioneer of the Art Deco illustration. Leyendecker's model, Charles Beach, was also his lover of five decades. You can read costume designer Carol Cutshall's thoughts on these outfits on her Instagram.

The Artist's Sister, Melanie

Egon Schiele, 1908 [Identified by @dwreader.]

Schiele was an Austrian expressionist painter and protege of Gustav Klimt. Many of his portraits (self portraits and of others) were described as grotesque and disturbing.

A Stag at Sharkey's

George Wesley Bellows, 1909 [Identified by @vfevermillion.]

Bellows was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City.

Mildred-O Hat

Robert Henri, undated (likely 1890s) [Identified by @nicodelenfent, here.]

Henri was an American painter who studied in Paris, where he learned from the Impressionists and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against American academic art.

Starry night

Edvard Munch, 1893 [Identified by @vfevermillion.]

Munch was a Norwegian painter, one of the best known figures of late 19th-century Symbolism and a great influence in German Expressionism in the early 20th century. His work dealt with psychological themes, and he personally struggled with mental illness.

If you spot or put a name to any other references, let us know if you'd like us to add them with credit to the post!

Starting tonight, we will be rewatching and discussing Episode 2, ...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self. We hope to see you there!

And, if you're just getting caught up, learn all about our group rewatch here ►

[weather-mood]

A Mini Rec List Medley

For this year’s meal to remember event by @iwtvfanevents, a medley of twelve themed mini rec lists ranging from ‘Car Guy Daniel’ to ‘Dyke Loumand Supremacy’

Trying to more or less stick to newer fics that I didn’t list during my last years’s meal to remember lists (loumand bingo and canon compliant recs) but there are some repetitions!

Recent Claudia

the hour of lead (M) by @dictee

The Night After (T) by @wouriqueen

Amber (M) and Forge (M) by @nlbv

Wolfkiller (M) by @iwtvdramacd18

cursed / blessed (M) by @enterprisery

I’m normal and fine about biblical references and imagery I swear

the golden calf (M) by @devotiondroid

rapture (E) by baberainbow

Leslou that had me saying ‘oh my God’ out loud

Perfect (E) by Anonymous

Exposure (E) by @iwtvdramacd18

All Things in One (E) by @nakiaslilhoodoo

Works that first sold me on a pairing and a recent gem

Danlou: nothing left to give you now (E) and i'll let you win (E) by @diasdelasombra

Loumand: dirges (E) by @dictee and Keep me Humming (T) by @meastyeyes

Lesmand: Humble Through Hunger (E) by @iwtvdramacd18 and bruise pristine (E) by @knifeeater

Nickimand: To Pluck Gently at Strings (M) by @iwtvdramacd18 and sīc. (E) by @salmoncakepls

Car Guy Daniel

rocket man (M) by @keithal

long live the car crash hearts (M) by @keepoffthetardis

Bonus: Somewhere in Portugal, September 1975 (M, chapter 32, little kidnaps) by @diasdelasombra

Fairytale and Fantasy AUs

rhododendron by @blueiight

Allude me, Pursue me, Consume me (E) by @salmoncakepls

Lunacy (E) by @iwtvdramacd18

Dyke Loumand Supremacy

Snow in the Champagne (E) by @nakiaslilhoodoo

i am amazed by peace (E) by @dictee

Lives rent free in my head

in a lonely place (M) by @devotiondroid

Yawning, Terrible Voids (M) by @iwtvdramacd18

in the delta breeze [dare to breathe] (T) by @blueiight

cleave / tie (E) @kittyldpdl

*Octavia Butler voice* symbiosis is deeply sexy

coalescence (M) by @enterprisery

Body Open as a Wound (E) by @feedingicetothedog

He's inside me, he takes out my insides, he sews me up (M) by @salmoncakepls

Alluvium (E) by @knifeeater

Fluff! Time for some fluff!

Warmth (M) by @nakiaslilhoodoo

The Indwelling-Place of Love (E) by @thelioncourts

I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (T) by @meastyeyes

Yellow (T) by @dlsintegration

Sexual Immorality (E) by @blacclotusss

Creative uses and mixes of formats!

Théâtre Revue (T) by @sygoflyy (Human Actor AU, magazine article format)

Design;Intricate (E) by @salmoncakepls (Android AU, hidden pages, codes, and links)

the first interview (E) by @kittyldpdl (scripts)

reply by baberainbow (emails)

Longer fic and current wips my beloved

a holy love (E, Crime Boss AU, Complete) by @shewhomustbecalledking

like a heathen clung to the homily (E, Sex Club AU, WIP) by @thelioncourts

overlords (E, Murder Mystery AU, WIP) by @diasdelasombra and @shewhomustbecalledking

before death (M, Afterlife AU, WIP) by @dwreader

Capillary (E, Phantom Thread AU, WIP) by @salmoncakepls and @kittyldpdl

Wrath of the Lamb (E, Hannibal AU, WIP) by @iwtvdramacd18 and @kittyldpdl

[idontwikeit]

any suggestions for iwtv blogs who are also like. lmfao not racist as hell? preferably not book loyalists either bc i do nooooot care for anne rice, but mostly i'm just tired of following big blogs and seeing that they talk abt louis and armand (whose situations are fundamentally changed by their races) only in relation to lestat

disclaimer first I’m on mobile so these are just some at top of my head rn I know there are many more and I am not deeply involved in the fandom also I don’t follow every single one bc I’m trying to keep my following count low if anyone has any blog recs as well feel free to add too

@gayvampiredivorce @brotherconstant @annevbonny @therealrashid @slaygentford @killejoie @weather-mood @saintarmand @loumandiel @cypresssunns @ca-suffit @claudiasjustice @dictee @dlsintegration @dwreader @lgbtiwtv @hermit-frog @captainsaltymuyfancy

Also honorary mention for what they do in the fandom @iwtvfanevents

[sleevebuscemii]

hey so there's this white tumblr user dwreader who's fashioned herself into the rep for black characters in iwtv and her jobless ass recently called you & shesnake out. thought you might want to know dwreader dot tumblr dot com/post/754460532876214272/rip-you-wont-be-missed#notes

thank you for confirming that they’re white

[waxedpaperdoor]

9-ish People You'd Like To Know More

I was tagged by @sdwolfpup, thanks pal!

last song: "The Scale of the Human Heart" from the soundtrack of Foundation season 2 (and the first half of "Bel & Glawen", which is GORGEOUS)

currently watching: The Exorcist rewatch continues on a loop as I once again obssessively track all the touching and eye contact that makes me crazy. I'm also watching Strange New Worlds, Nancy Drew and Foundation, and once SNW and ND are finished I'm going to finally start watching M*A*S*H (two plus years after it was recommended to me)

currently reading: "Unlikeable Female Characters: The Women Pop Culture Wants You To Hate", by Anna Bogutskaya

current obsession: my counsellor suggested I channel all the energy I no longer put into work into something else, so I'm sewing and building models on my days off. Also really into buying candles and vampire-themed stuff (which is not a new obsession)

Tagging: @dlsintegration; @killejoie; @baberainbowao3; @iwtvdramacd18; @weather-mood; @likethemodel; @dwreader; @blueiight; @thelioncourts; @revolution-starter; @gayvampiredivorce; @vampdf and anyone else who wants to do it :)

[blacclotusss]

Thanks for the tag @sygoflyy 🖤

Share 10 Different Favorite Characters from Ten Different Pieces of Media in a particular order, then 10 people *including book characters*

Here's my list in no particular order!

Sula Peace (Sula by Toni Morrison)

Tita de la Garza (Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel)

Minerva Mirabel (In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez)

Ezinma (Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe)

Louis de Pointe du Lac (2022) (AMC's Interview with the Vampire)

Spider Punk/Hobie Brown

Lilo Pelekai (Lilo & Stitch)

Princess Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)

Dominique Pierre (Grand Army)

Penny Proud (The Proud Family)

Bonus!

Marcus Gaines and Frankie Hines (Fellow Travelers)

Gonna tag @dwreader @nlbv @iwtvdramacd18

[bayoubodycount]

in keeping with the 1940's cinema theme, I'm getting some Humphrey Bogart/Casablanca vibes😍

Pic cred to @dwreader

[blueiight]

#honestly think they’ll be at sdcc again next year#cause idt the season is airing until fall 2024

good point... i hope ur right

im eating the amptp for breakfast delainey needed her a lil comic con sesh >:(

[thelioncourts]

You need a tag for all this jam talk because I’m a sicko and will need to revisit these asks

I will be going back in just a few minutes and adding 'jam confessions' (I was totally going to do 'jam sessions' via @dwreader but don't want to harass innocent music fans) to everything so fellow sickos can find all the mess

[emofujoshi]

Saw your fic on a list of recs!! And I started reading and I’m obsessed

https://www.tumblr.com/dwreader/727366226882494464/a-meal-to-remember-by-iwtvfanevents

Thank you for the link! I’ve never been able to see where my fic has been rec’d before until this fan event happened, so this is nice and also surprising. 😁 I hope you continue to enjoy reading. ❤️

[weather-mood]

Last line challenge

Tagged by @irregularcollapse (Hi! Love you! 💕💕)

Rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote (or drew) and tag as many people as there are words.

My last line was published in the new chapter of Tidelines: “There’s a little gold.”

4 words so 4 people! Tagging @thelioncourts @dlsintegration @blueiight and @dwreader if you’d like to do it! 💕

[eyestrain-addict]

Tagged by @dwreader

Last song: "Let's Dance Boys!", actively listening to "Tomorrow is Mine". Both from the Bayonetta OST

Currently Watching: I don't really watch a lot of shows but I guess WWDITS

Currently Reading: i usually read the same stuff over and over again. But I guess Grimms fairy tales?

Current Obsession: Interview with the Vampire (AMC) and Elden Ring (my beloved)

I can't tag 9 people cus i st8 up don't have that many mutuals (that weren't already tagged): @yakkos-warners

[sleevebuscemii]

youre being aired out on dwreader btw … nasty post you made

i dont know who that is and thats what god wants for me because he loves me