#hallucination!lestat is my favorite

[acesstark]

favorite thing ever is how Louis is hallucinating lestat having perfect hair. like, that man was walking around with a shoulder-length bob full of split ends and flyaways, but in Louis’s mind he has the perfect, fresh out the salon, sleeps in a satin lined bonnet, Brazilian blowout. hallucination!lestat discovered deep conditioner, thank god

[linipikk]

okay im way too deep enjoying iwtv secondhandly in twitter (because i lost all control over my life and that's the best i can do given current circumstances)

But, to all my dearies who are mad and shocked and just really enjoying the reloaded Claudia tragedy, I hope we get to meet Merrick 🫶

I just really can't with Louis, but Claudia actively haunting the narrative is chef'skiss, having in mind that y'all give that role to Lestat and that would summarise Claudia's entire life.

[desertfangs]

I haven't yet read the books (there's so many!) I've only watched the iwtv movie and TV show and I love Claudia in both but I've had people tell me in the books she's awful and considered to be one of the series villains. Idc about spoilers I just wanna know how true that is bc I dunno if I'd want to read that lol

Hi anon! I was excited to see your ask this morning because I'm gonna tell you something: Claudia was one of my first favorite characters in the series and her death devastated me. Louis was my first fav (understandable, he's literally the protagonist of the first book, we're meant to sympathize with him!) and when he lost Claudia and became numb in his grief, I related. I hated Armand for what happened to Claudia and I held a grudge for a long time.

Anyhow, I can't speak to the show so much as I've only seen season 1, but if you like the 94 movie, you will probably like the novel Interview with the Vampire. It's a pretty close adaptation.

To get to the heart of your question, no, Claudia not an awful villain. Anymore than Louis or Lestat are. If anyone is a villain in IwtV, it's Armand, and even he is not a mustache-twirling evil guy.* Everyone in this series in morally gray and does terrible stuff. I emphasize that because I've been in this fandom for a long time and I've seen all kinds of arguments about who is evil and who is not, and the fact is, all of our vampires do questionable things. That's sort of the point. So it's arguable how much there even is a villain in IwtV outside of Louis' own depression and grief, but Armand probably gets that honor.

Claudia in the books was turned around the age of 5. She is a very small, doll-like child who doesn't seem to retain much, if any, memory of her human life. She is more purely a vampire than Louis or Lestat can really fathom because she lacks that humanity and a connection to humans. She's a natural hunter and killer.

She doesn't understand Louis' sentimentality for humans, and resents Lestat for withholding information she knows he has about their kind. She is a complex and fascinating woman trapped in the body of a small child to the point where even Louis, who loves her dearly, cannot really see her as an adult and struggles to accept her agency. She does manipulate both her parents, in part because they don't often see her as a capable equal, which she very much is.

She does eventually rise up to kill to Lestat out of desperation. She believes he will not let Louis go and knows she can't travel around alone, given her appearance. Lestat himself is devastated by this and by her loss, and even says later he understands why she did it. That he probably deserved it for what he'd done to her, which was trap her forever in the body of a very young child, something he admits was selfish. (And something Marius had actually warned him against doing beforehand, LOL!!)

Like in the movie and the show, she does die at the Theatre des Vampires, and Armand is more responsible for that than I've heard he is on the show (he tells Louis he couldn't have stopped it, only to later reveal he orchestrated it, which Louis knew the whole time).

She appears later in The Tale of the Body Thief mocking Lestat and acting as a sort of voice for his subconscious, but she is just his hallucination in he book. He's dealing with a lot of trauma and grief and that manifests itself as Claudia's ghost.

Where you might be hearing she's a villain is from Merrick, where both her diary and spirit appear and are... not very nice. I gotta say, I am not convinced that is actually the spirit of Claudia that gets conjured, and even if it is, it's possible she's been warped somehow. But I also haven't read that book in decades and often tend to ignore it, so I am not an expert on that score.

I hope this helps! I'm always happy to answer questions about the books! (They are my special interest, if you cannot tell.)

But I do want to say that if you are a fan of the show and curious about the books--which are very different!--I highly recommend you read at least the first few yourself. The best way to judge if you'll like the book versions of the characters and story is to experience it yourself. There's a lot of misinformation that gets passed along about the books, and a lot of misinterpretation due to that because people just repeat what they've heard without having read them. And hey, they still may not be your cup of tea, and that's totally fine! But you won't know if you don't try, you know?

Anyhow, thank you so much for the ask! 💖 Claudia is awesome and deserves more love in the book fandom, but because she dies so early on, she doesn't get as much attention sadly.

*And even when he is, we love him.

[indelicateink]

tagged by @hereticaas -- thank you!

make a poll with five of your all time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favourite.

okay so I have zero chill on EpisodeSevenWeekendEve and i'm going to kind of bend the rules here. they're five different characters, but they're all the same character--kind of. is he my fav characters of all time? HE IS/ARE TONIGHT, FRIENDS.

which lestat is your favorite lestat: lestat as recounted by louis, lestat as written about in claudia's diaries, lestat as relayed by armand, louis's 1940s dreamstat hallucinations, or the real lestat, whom we have yet to meet televised as of 21 june 2024?

(no sixth opt-out/nuanced/all-of-the-above/none-of-the-above option, you are brutally forced to choose)

if you are reading this, I am tagging *you* to do a five favs poll, too

[blacclotusss]

Do You Know What It Means to be Loved by Death?

My meta and analysis of my favorite scenes from IWTV s02e02

Louis and Claudia at the Cafe

Been a favorite of mine since the scene dropped way back in February. I've always loved Louis and Claudia moments where the two of them are just acting like the siblings they are. Claudia's question of who Louis is, I believe, implants something within him. Louis does dodge the question, of course, but I think we'll see what happens once he's without her. Now, the question is whether he will be without the hallucination of Lestat (I don't think so).

Claudia and Madeleine Meeting

Claudia and Madeleine's first meeting! Eep! There was more tension than I was expecting, but I liked the interaction. Claudia bursting in and demanding her wants is music to my ears.

Louis Cruising

Baby...I'm so glad Mr. du Lac is in Paris living it up and doing so freely. I do wish we could have seen him cruising more...explicitly; especially with the way Armand and Louis described their love lives. But, it's nice to know he was free and without judgement to do as he wanted.

Louis and Armand's First Meeting

Can we talk about legit love and first sight?! They're both so cute in this moment, it's the sweetest thing. The awkwardness of Louis against the smoothness of Armand meshed together beautifully. And the way the two looked at each other as they recounted the story was so magical. "I will not harm you" "And I never have." Such a tender moment and I hope and pray Armand has not hurt that man in any way, even indirectly. I can see it in the both of their faces that they wish to go back to that time, if only for a little while.

Introduction to the Theatre/Coven

I am such a sucker for all things camp and theater and this was both of those on steroids. The theatrics, the acting, the usage of both the projector and the blurred lines between real and fake was amazing. It felt like a show all on it's own. Louis and his facial expressions were hilarious and you can clearly tell it's not his thing, but Claudia wants to fully immerse herself in that. It was so sweet looking at how in awe and happy she was to see the production. Cannot wait to see her on the stage. I'm glad the show have each member of the coven a bit of backstory instead of just sticking them in the scene. We can already see on stage Santiago's personality and I'm intrigued with how he'll develop. I also noticed Armand seemed to be a bit distant when watching them interact. I believe he's already began to pivot his focus to Louis, which is confirmed in the murder mansion scene.

Lestat Reading His Letter to Louis

The only time we see Lestat in the episode and of course it's a tense moment. The first time we hear from de Lioncourt himself (will we have more of these moments?) and you can feel the tension and despair in the air. It probably made things worse for Louis for a couple of reasons. One, even in "death" Lestat, his first vampire love, loves and trusts him. "Know only this, mon cher, you are the only being I trust, and whom I love, above and beyond myself. All my love belongs to you. You are its keeper." That probably made Louis' heart swell. But, as much as it swelled, it hurt him beyond measure. The mention of treachery and seeking revenge probably made him feel as if he was choking. He knows he's the one that's going to have to let treachery eat away at him and let Lestat's face press up against his longing. I'm not sure if his hallucinations of him are longing, but the idea of killing him is still eating away at him.

Louis and Armand Toying with Daniel's Thoughts

Whew boy. This was a doozy, wasn't it? I was not expecting the flashback moment in that scene but I have a few theories. One: Armand is Alice. Yes, it's controversial but after this episode I don't think it's as far fetched as it was in season one. Armand popped up at that moment for a reason. And it's quite funny how no one has checked on the man, not even his daughters. I get strained relationships, but was it that bad? Now, I still don't fully believe this theory, but it's a thought. Another theory is that Armand's relationship with Daniel parallels his and Alice's. We don't know the full extent of what happened, but the two got divorced and no longer speak so it wasn't good. Third, Armand could have simply planted that in Daniel's head, which I think is the strongest one here. We all know Armand possesses the capabilities to do this and that flashback could have been him planting that in his mind. I saw someone say something about the editor messing with Daniel as well since they were the ones who pointed out flaws in his book (read by Louis in season one), which would be crazy, to say the least, because why?  And say what you want, that old bastard deserved it.

Murder Mansion Scene

Another scene I've been obsessed with since we saw it last year. These two are just lost in each other as there's a whole murder party happening behind them. I did like how protective Louis was of Claudia when Armand mentioned her (Armand please don't piss me off), but I hope he takes lessons from Maitre about shutting off his thoughts because that could definitely be his downfall.

[v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e]

So! I watched it yesterday, so spoilers for the second season of Interview With The Vampire:

- I think Delainey Hayles is doing an incredible job as Claudia. Not easy when Bailey Bass already did such a great job last season, but Hayles has great presence in scene and she pairs up nicely with Jacob Anderson, the tension between Louis and Claudia is portrayed beautifully by them

- I love hallucination!Lestat lol how this is essentially a manifestation of Louis' guilty and grief, and how raw this grief still is even five years later

- Not a lot of Armand yet, but I love to see him out of the disguise

- The parts with the revenants (i think that it's how they are called? I forgot the term in English) were actually my favorite part of the episode, a huge surprise to me considering that this is the most boring part of the book for me lol but the desperation that poor Claudia showed in looking for them, the hope and how crushed she was in the aftermath... it was great

- Louis got much more openly cruel in how he sees humans now. It was already there last season but it's more visible now, like when he turned around ver coldly when they were going to kill Emilia. I wonder if it's the five years of war or is he being more open about the narrative now.

- Jacob Anderson was terrific this episode. Hoping this year he gets at least some awards nom, hopefully AMC will promote the show more this season

[comebackali]

so far my favorite part of ep 1 of s2 of iwtv is louis being SO BAD at romanian. okay wait that's a lie, my favorite part is armand and daniel's bitchfest. third favorite is louis hallucinating lestat nonstop for four years straight.

[platoapproved]

Top five favorite scenes from interview with the vampire!

Choosing just five is going to be AGONY. I may do a few lil extra ones, some are just moments and some full scenes...

2x05 The San Francisco fight. It's just so completely out of control and so absolutely rancid. Literally watched the whole thing with my hands over my mouth like I could not BELIEVE.

2x02 The first flash of misplaced Armand memory Daniel has, while Louis is mocking him about Alice. I had to pause the episode and get up and walk around a little. The filmmaking is just so good. It's so jarring the way they slip it in there and leave it as this discordant little mystery.

2x04 Armand's backstory monologue. It's like. So hard to watch and agonizing, but the writing is so careful and spare, and the acting is haunting. Does the thing I always wish I was better at with writing where it suggests so much with a few deliberate very evocative choices. The vacillating between first and third person pronouns, the shifting between Armand's face and the painting, the music. Just a great bit of filmmaking.

2x08 "For the nights in front of me, where I might learn to live honestly" still can't watch or think too hard about this scene without tearing up a little bit. Louis means so much to me. 😭

2x04 The slow zoom in on Armand as Louis is talking about hallucinating Lestat. It's just such a fantastic use of like... there is no dialogue here to communicate what is happening. It's all in the performance and the focus of the camera on Armand, getting closer and closer, looking at Louis as he's talking, so the focus isn't on his words but on the pain that is creeping out past Armand's mask. Brilliant stuff.

1x01 The church scene, specifically Lestat convincing Louis to accept the Dark Gift. This is like.... It. If I had to show someone just one scene to explain to them what IWTV is, it would be that one.

2x04 The jarring hard cut ending of Daniel listening to the mp3 of the argument. It's SO abrupt and violent and wonderful. What a fucking cliffhanger.

Okay, so I did a top 7, I'm restraining myself from any more although there are so many...

[thelioncourts]

the absolutely amazing and lovely people over at @iwtvfanevents are hosting an event this weekend in which we share and discuss some of our favorite fics in the fandom. I know I'm going to miss some, but here are some fics that have utterly ruined me and make me so grateful to be part of this fandom 💕

reformation by verseau

we're gonna heal. we're gonna start again. you've brought the orchestra, synchronized swimmers. // It makes him speechless sometimes, how much he loves Lestat. He thought for years, a decade, that it was sickness. It’s not. It’s not. Even when Louis hated Lestat, nothing was more certain than that he loved him. Rating: E; Pairing: Lestat/Louis; Complete/WIP: WIP

bookmarked this months and months ago with the note, "the best louis and lestat characterization."

till forever falls apart by lesfleursrouges

"That night we met for the first time, I wanted to punch you in the face, you know," Louis mutters, "You were so infuriating. Getting on my nerves." Lestat scoffs. "You couldn’t even look away," he counters, "You liked it." Louis laughs and brushes a stray lock of blonde hair behind his ear. "Of course I did," he whispers, "You got me good, that night. You were on my mind all the time after." Set in episode 1x2. Rating: E; Pairing: Lestat/Louis; Complete/WIP: Complete

there is a line in this that I literally think about once a week

catacomb by @baberainbowao3

The ghost of Lestat follows Louis throughout Europe. Rating: E; Pairing: Lestat/Louis, Armand/Louis; Complete/WIP: Complete

posted just yesterday and I am....so unwell....babe never misses. e v e r.

part of your world by @weather-mood

When Crown Prince Louis de Pointe du Lac’s ship is attacked by a siren, all crew are lost at sea and Louis washes up ashore, uncertain if he hallucinated the monster. Until that monster shows up, seemingly human, in the lead up to his coronation. The Little Mermaid but make it Fairytale Horror. Rating: E; Pairing: Lestat/Louis; Complete/WIP: Complete

You all should have a general idea as to how I feel about this fic, but it 1) changed the chemistry of my brain 2) legit had me dropping EVERYTHING to see read the newest chapter.

a potentiality for corruption by @vampdf

It was a good story for the rumour mill: the de Pointe du Lac boy flees under the cover of night without a word to his parents and at the same time that strange European returns home across the Atlantic. In spite of all of the gossip about that morning of extortion and intimidation, Louis had gone willingly. or: God, the château de lioncourt and a fistful of poison. Rating: E; Pairing: Lestat/Louis, Lestat/Armand, Armand/Louis, Lestat/Louis/Armand; Complete/WIP: Complete

words will not do this justice...............they simply won't. read it.

alluvium by serpentskirts

Armand sinks down to squat in the water, sets himself at level with Louis' dull eyes. Under the cradle of his fingers the blood is caked and brittle. "If I may, Mr. Du Lac." With a piece of soft cloth soaked in clear water the stranger's blood is wiped away. Brown to red the crust dissolves in the stream, swirls for a moment before it is carried away, inconsequential. Rating: E; Pairing: Armand/Louis; Complete/WIP: WIP

chapter 5. chapter. 5.

good to love/ruthless in love by @brightfelon

Lestat and Armand's decade-long rivalry has finally come to a head, leading to an affair neither of them planned for, but that both feel powerless to stop. Louis and Daniel are friendly neighbors, nothing more, until they find out their husbands are having an affair with one another. Revenge has them carrying out an affair of their own. But it may be becoming more than revenge. Maybe it always was. and It had been nearly four years since Lestat lost his husband, his best friend, and his ambition, leading him to sell the family company and leave the city. Louis, Armand, and Daniel are still caught in the riptide Lestat believed he managed to escape. But when he attempts to sever his ties to them permanently, he may get drawn back in. Ratings: M; Pairing: ~in general~ Lestat/Louis, Lestat/Armand, Armand/Louis, Lestat/Louis/Armand (??!), Armand/Daniel, Daniel/Louis, Armand/Louis/Daniel; Complete/WIP: GTL - Complete, RiL - WIP

Listen..............I don't do poly and yet I found myself (and still do find myself) literally salivating for the next update. truly revolutionary.

roadkill by @baberainbowao3 and nlbv

A family trip to the circus ends with a satisfying supper and an attempt to fill Louis' belly. Rating: E; Pairing: Lestat/Louis; Complete/WIP: Complete

would give babe and nlbv anything in the world......would destroy the world for them if they asked

rosary by flowerplots

Alternate ways to pray the Rosary. “It is best to be on your knees for worship and repentance, I believe.” Rating: E; Pairing: Armand/Louis; Complete/WIP: Complete

*thousand yard stare*

rumplestiltskin by @weather-mood

Louis wakes up in a tower. Rating: E; Pairing: Armand/Louis; Complete/WIP: Complete

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wish I could be coherent about this, idk idk, there's no coping with it.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

there are. so many for fics. I'll try to do a post tomorrow too because I want to praise everyone. truly such a talented fandom. go give these fics and their authors all the love ❤

[zodiacsea]

my favorite activity lately has been piecing the iwtv show together via out of order gifsets on my dash and i think so far my favorite change between the book and the show is the lestat louis is apparently hallucinating all the time in season 2. honestly he should have been hallucinating a lestat in the book too i think it would have been so much more entertaining to have his constantly depressed narration in the second half of the book occasionally broken up with like. lestat saying something cunty and extremely inappropriate every few pages

[runningwithfangs]

Vampire Chronicles Book Review/Rant #4

The Tale of the Body Thief

Things take a turn once again! We got into silly Lestat adventures, met new vampires, the world was a bit changed after Akasha’s murder spree, the vamps who are left have to stick together now so we must get another chapter of this new coven right? WRONG.

Anne said it’s time for The Most Special Boy to have a turn in the spotlight again! 

I mean, it was still fun and I liked it overall, don’t get me wrong, but I think this is where The Vampire Chronicles start to get unhinged. It was a bit like watching a slow train crash, you know The Body Thief is lying, everyone warns Lestat not to do it, you know everything is going to go wrong, and you watch Lestat do it anyway. 

Overall I liked David and Lestat’s relationship, learning about David’s life and how he was unsatisfied that after devoting his life to studying mysteries he didn’t feel like he gained any more purpose or understanding in life. I didn’t get much out of Lestat’s hallucinations/memories of Claudia however. 

It was interesting how every vampire, even Louis, turns on Lestat in the human body, we know Marius lets him get away with everything, Louis will always be loyal despite himself, and the other vampires all love him, but once he’s renounced vampirism he’s dead to them all, even though Lestat could be turned again! Sure, Louis won’t do it, but I thought someone would offer! So it’s very convenient Lestat has made one human friend to save his ass.

Favorites:

Lestat laying naked face down ass up on David’s rug for days 😂

Lestat immediately screws up having a body, he’s getting knocked out, he’s pratfalling, he’s injuring himself, getting himself horribly sick. Hilarious! I did get worried when he almost died at the hospital though.

Lestat and other vampires are always describing Louis as “the most human” at best, and like a sickly, weak piece of shit vampire that can’t begin to keep up with the rest at worst. But when Lestat as a human visits him, he’s immediately like, oh shit why did I ever think that?! Louis is so obviously not a human! 

Mojo 💗

Least Favorites:

Anne didn’t let Lestat fuck that old man!! (Link fanfics if you got them 😛)

It’s not an immediate dislike, but disappointment? David, an old white man, takes over the already stolen body of a brown man. The death of this mechanic is not David’s fault, his taking over was the only way to save his own life. However, the old white man becomes a young hot brown man. . . it’s giving Get Out 😣 

There is a missed opportunity in not having David experience not being white in the world, giving that old man a moment to reflect on his past privilege and to grow as a person in the few months before he’s turned. Idk, it’s not that big of a deal but I would have liked to see it. 

And where’s @noncontextlestat at with the list of his crimes? Pretty sure they got SA on there already. 

Smutt:

Lestat gets to fuck a nun, a nun who just happens to be on nun sabbatical where she’s free to sin a little, as a treat. Wowowowow.

Nonsense Meter:

Automatic 9/10 nonsense, I think the reasons are clear.

Gross limp human dick < vampire permaboner. ANNE!!

Misc:

Ok, I must have been reading wrong because it wasn’t until this book that I realized Anne Rice vampires don’t have sex. I thought the sex was implied this whole time 😂

Hear me out, when Daniel and Armand are snuggling in bed and then showering, I’m not supposed to think sex happened at some point? Lestat and Akasha rolling around in bed in some Greek Villa, I’m not supposed to think sex happened?! 

When Claudia asks Louis what sex was like before, I thought she meant it like, “before you and my other dad started hating each other” and not “when you were human because you don’t do that as a vampire.” I’m not crazy, right? 

Chapter 7 (Lestat talking to Louis): “You described my weeping in your miserable memoir in a scene which we both know did not take place!” WHAT SCENE?!

[lioncunt]

i love hearing your opinions on all the characters!!

what do you think about claudia?

thank you so much!!! 🥹🥰

and ohhhhh my. my daughter my GIRL

first impression: kirsten dunst claudia (again when i was 15) and i loved her INSTANTLY she played the fuck out of that part, i loved how gleefully evil she was and her rage and torment and just the LOOK and concept of her was so fucking cool to me!!!!! i was devastated when she died, it broke me to pieces. her and tomstat were my favorite parts of the movie and i think they’re the reason i have such a deep love for claudia’s relationship with lestat, because you could just feel all the complicated love and hate between them in the film. when i read the book, i felt much the same way, but i understood her hatred of lestat even more and i was further enthralled by her predicament. i loved her reasoning for killing him, how it was for HER, how it was revenge for dooming her, for not seeing her beyond anything but a dress-up doll who will never change, for not taking her seriously, for this selfish act of creating her for his and louis’ sake. i loved how she took back her ownership of herself, how she’s the truest vampire because she has no memory of being a human, and how she’s always the smartest person in the room. i also was touched when i read the history behind her character and the tragedy of michele rice, so claudia holds a lot of meaning for me in that way as well.

impression now: just like with louis, the show took this character and elevated her to new heights. i again loved her instantaneously on the show, she was so DELIGHTFUL in episode 4 i fell completely in love with her all over again. the change to her age and backstory adds a whole new dimension to her character, and the acknowledgement of how her predicament affects her love life is soooo horrifying and tragic. episode 4 remains my favorite of the series, i feel like it’s such a complete arc contained in a single episode for her and i love it so much. i adore how bailey played her, her acting is phenomenal ESPECIALLY in her “who am i supposed to love” monologue, the change from her innocent childlike personality to the angst-driven teen to the bitter adult is fucking exquisite, i want everyone to award her for her work it’s better than 90% of performances i’ve seen this year. the relationship between her and louis in this adaptation is sacred, this complicated dynamic from parent-child to brother-sister and then even further where she ends up almost parenting him is so fascinating and disturbing and bittersweet and i tear up if i think about them too hard. my only qualm is i feel she deserved to stab lestat 90000 times more in this version but alas it was not to be. as for book claudia my impression is pretty much the same except that i LOVE her ghost hallucination appearance in body thief i think she should haunt lestat every day of his life and in hell too!

favorite moment: like i said above “who am i supposed to love” brings me to tears every time. also when she mocks lestat choking on his blood fjdksk and in the book “i’ll put you in your coffin father” is the most iconic line i WISH they kept it in

idea for a story: madeleine being the same age and them having a romance is something i’ve wanted for a year now, it’s probably not going to happen in the show given the actress playing maddie’s age but i’d still love to see it in a fic

unpopular opinion: in the book, i feel people get caught up in whether claudia was morally right in killing lestat, and to me, it’s more about how it was an act for HER. she did it for Herself, no one else. it doesn’t matter whether she was right or wrong to do it. she needed to be free of him. in the show, i think she should have killed even more innocent people :)))))) fill up the river with bodies babe drown out the pain ur doing great

favorite relationship: non romantic relationship in the book is her and lestat, and in the show it’s her and louis!

favorite headcanon: she is a LESBIAN

[theplanetcafe]

how dare they use the 2nd mvt of the ravel piano concerto during louis’ lestat hallucinations 😡 that’s my favorite slow movement ever bitches got me emotional

[jazuthevulcanprincess]

im so angry and im privileged to be mad abt something that so doesnt matter

but man. why.

the show does so many cool things i love like the lestat hallucination and the weird mind fuckery daniel is having and the weird relationship with armand and louis and claudias new lesbian paramour

but then they mae lestat and louis relationship

m u c h worse

and now they are fucking with marius? where is bianca gonna fit in?

man the vampire armand was my favorite as a child i will go postal if its mistreated

[hekateinhell]

I’m having the start of a thought before my coffee so it may be half-cracked (and it’s definitely underdeveloped), but I’m thinking about Armand’s relationships with women and how they could be categorized as being more maternal/paternal overall as opposed to sexual/sensual (by the vampire definition here).

We know Andrei/Amadeo/Armand loved his mother dearly. He treasured the egg she gave him and kept it in his sarcophagus in Venice. Even years later he tells us that during his cult years, he would wonder what became of it (it was all he had left of his mom, guys!). Not to mention what the vision of his mother symbolizes to him when he hallucinates in the in-between of life and death during his suicide attempt. Forget everyone else, five centuries later and his parents are what Armand sees as he’s “dying.”

I'll start off with Bianca. The obvious aside, she’s a very nurturing and caregiving presence in his life as a mortal. She's really the only one he can talk to about his frustrations and anxieties regarding Marius, and he seeks her out often for comfort and advice. In a much more equal and healthy way, I believe she was a lot of things to Amadeo at a time when he needed it (not entirely unlike Marius).

In Santino's cult and then the Parisian coven, Allesandra is shown as having quite a lot of tenderness for Armand. She tries to comfort him when he's absolutely hysterical in the aftermath of Riccardo, which Santino admonishes her for; suggesting to me that wasn't standard procedure in the CoD indoctrination/initiation process. Later, she comes to Armand whenever he has nightmares and warns him, "You dream the sad dreams, the dreams that precede madness." She also gives him his final and lasting name: Armand.

Eleni, we know considerably less about since she's not mentioned TVA (rude), and I'm not sure if she belongs here, but I'll spare my girl a couple sentences anyway. She survives the destruction of the Parisian coven, and becomes one of the founding members of the theatre. Her correspondence to Lestat indicates she has a good level of insight on Armand's emotional state, particularly when she says re: Nicolas - "But we do love him. And Our Oldest Friend, in particular, bears him great affection."

Moving on to Pandora. What I wouldn't have done to see more of them together! The two greatest loves of Marius's life, with the Emotional Damage to show for it. One of my favorite parts in the TVA is when Pandora gently reminds Armand that she pre-dates Christianity, and my boy is stunned as if it never once occurred to him in his 500 years of life (and she elaborates on this a bit in her book, "What possessed him?"). She's shown to be extremely affected when Armand is breaking down on Marius after finding out he turned Benji and Sybelle. Tolstoy said it, “[…] every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Yikes!

Which brings me to my last lady... Sybelle! While Armand is very clearly the physical protector and financial provider here (read: sugar daddy), Sybelle offers him a lot in terms of unconditional love and affection. Armand himself notes that their relationship greatly differs from the one he has with Benji, and there's emphasis on them pulling him out of his "depressive episodes," overall acting like his emotional caregivers/safety buddies (I can't think of a better way to put it right now).

Bonus: Armand HATES Gabrielle. And I think it’s for the same reason Anne said she hates Gabrielle — she’s a terrible mother.

[illwynd]

loki, avengers: endgame, iron man 1

thank youuuu! :D

iron man 1 - what made you first get into fanfiction?

hmm well when i was 6 my mom read The Hobbit to me and then, for a long time, when I'd play out in the yard I was Bilbo on another adventure, which i guess was kinda fanfic even if i didn’t know it yet

then when i was 13 and the internet existed in usenet form, my gf and i would write (actual paper!) letters to each other, in character as lestat and louis, and i was aware of the existence of fanfic and that what we were doing was kinda like that but i was in fuckin anne rice fandom in 1994 so good luck finding any

then when i was 18/19 and the internet actually existed as websites and shit, i found a few fic repositories for a couple shows i was into at the time, and that time i actually posted like... 3 or 4 fics? they weren't terrible but i am glad i had not yet started using the name illwynd lol

then when i was ~22 i got on LJ in the lotr fandom and that was that, my fate was sealed

avengers: endgame - here is your opportunity to rant about how AWFUL endgame’s ending was. (or, if you liked it, explain why!)

y'know, i'm actually kinda glad it was as terrible as it was, for two reasons: at least i don't have to deal with most of the fandom considering it good, unlike some other movies i could name, and also it was so bad it like. exceeded my threshold. my brain just stopped counting the badness after a certain point, decided i must be hallucinating, and fucked off to go rotate a cow or something. it was so bad i ceased to care about anything within a 2 mile radius of it, out of sheer self-preservation.

(if i start thinking about what that movie did to thor, i might answer differently, but i’ve definitely blocked that out and i’m trying not to remember it again)

but aside from that, the thing that really does bother me about EG is that it still made so disgustingly much money that now marvel/d*sn*y know that they can crank out whatever terrible, uninspired, duct-taped-plot, nonsensical cardboard character choices, wooden acting because the actors weren’t allowed to read the script, a million other problems total shit... and the whole enterprise is too huge, has too much momentum, for people to just... stop paying for it. they now know they don’t actually have to do better than that. so they won’t.   

loki - what’s the most outlandish (or it could just be your favorite) au you’ve ever read/wanted to write/thought of?

uhhh idk, i don’t really tend to do a whole lot of weird AUs... i guess i could say the 1870s hobo au that i like to imagine every now and then but will probably never write because, idk, i feel like nobody would be interested? 

but if we’re including UAs, then lol my current fic (LMD) is a pretty wild concept, i think XD

MCU fic asks