#the vampire companion

[sofipitch]

Interview with the Vampire first draft trivia

I've been meaning to make this post for a while now so I'm doing it. The Vampire Companion is a reference book for the Vampire Chronicles made in collaboration with Anne Rice. It is basically the VC wiki in book form from the 90s but with analysis of lots of themes and symbolism (there's entries for literally anything got even a passing mention in the series, and example of entries on one page chose at random are " adventure, Aegean sea, aesthetic choice" with multiple paragraphs each I shit you not like the "Aegean sea" entry explains it is basically just mentioned in passing it is COMPREHENSIVE. It also famously has an entry for penis/phallus (none for vagina or vulva tho booo). This book features a lot of analysis of VC and it's themes and it is legit some of the worst analysis I've ever seen. A lot of it is in the Freudian mindset/style which *Kubrick stares in psychology student*. It also just reflects a lot of the opinions Anne Rice had about her characters she had in the 90s, the entry on Louis really shows she hates him.

HOWEVER The Vampire Companion has one really cool feature and that is that it mentions things that were in the first draft of IWTV which was later removed. I love this kind of trivia, I love reading the IMDB trivia for these kinds of facts, so I'm collecting them all here in this post:

Lestat was supposed to die in the fire at Rue Royale. When he comes back from the swamp it was originally his last appearance and even then when they meet the Nosferatu/zombie-like vampires of Eastern Europe Louis concludes that the murder attempt left Lestat like those vampires, literally an animated corpse when he came back from the swamp and to Louis, whether Lestat survived the fire or not, Lestat is dead

Lestat's original backstory in IWTV is that Lestat was a poet as a boy. I'm just transcribing this part bc I love it so much: "....it was his poetry full of dreams and longings, that endeared Louis to him. When Louis tries to get Lestat to talk about his poetry, Lestat curtly dismisses it, as if he views it as an idealistic boy's worthless fancies." T_T I think about this part a lot and I kind of wish this part had not been removed but given that Lestat was originally based on Anne's husband Stan who was a poet, she probably removed it for personal reasons.

Rice had originally planned for Louis's tone in IWTV to be similar to that of Oscar Wilde but it changed when she changed from the POV of Daniel (1st draft) to Louis (final version). As annoying as the constant quotation marks are in IWTV, I think nonstop "the vampire said___" would have been worse

The reporter says that Louis looks to be around 35 instead of the final 25

When in Paris Louis and Claudia both accidently run into a random vampire and he runs away scared, Louis and Claudia then make themselves more obvious as vampires to attract the others to them

One evening they come home and a whole bunch of vampires are in their flat, and they take them to a rotting mansion with older human servants who are hoping to be turned into vampires. There they finally meet Armand

The vampires then get together in a room and recite Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal" and then a blonde woman is brought in, begging for her life, and she is passed around as they drink from her. Louis is horrified but drinks from her, and then Armand takes Louis to his bedroom where a woman is asleep on the bed and Louis crawls into the bed and drinks from her, killing her in her sleep

The group of vampires have more strict rules than the theater ones seem to described as loving conformity, abhor wasted opportunities, and constantly provoking each other into dares and challenges (vampire Jackass). Louis doesn't like the vampires but Claudia joins them, dressing in all black, dies her hair white, and befriends 3 brothers and has fun tormenting priests

In the original version of IWTV Claudia goes off with three vampire brothers she meets in Paris and does not die (I think Claudia leaving and meeting Bruce in the AMC show might have been an allusion to this). However AR claims she experienced "psychological difficulties" (the book's phrasing not mine) until she rewrote the ending where Claudia dies. Having Louis grieve Claudia was cathartic for her

When the vampires learn that Claudia killed Lestat they think his death was just and no punishment is required XD

Louis finally leaves not fitting in and Armand chases after him, asking why he left and then leaves the others for Louis. He also tells Louis his backstory (which is never revealed in IWTV)

In the original draft of IWTV Claudia is described as 3 or 4 instead of 5

Anne Rice did not originally realize that Claudia, the 5 year old who can never die, was a projection of her own desire for her daughter who died at 5. She originally saw Claudia as a way to talk about how women can be infantilized or considered inferior to men, by making the way women can be treated (not intelligent, not strong, not rational) physical in the form of a child

AR did use Michelle's (her daughter's) physical appearance, blond hair and blue eyes for describing Claudia, but again, denies that she was aware of a deeper significance at the time, but says it made a lot of sense later. However Claudia's personality is not based on Michelle (which makes sense bc we mostly see an adult Claudia in the book and movie and Michelle died at 5)

AR originally planned for Armand to be a central figure and villain in Queen of the Damned but decided he wasn't evil enough (I think this is cute)

Armand was completely different. He is described as innocent and angelic and in his twenties (However the final version of IWTV simply describes him as young, being 17 was added later and I personally always see him as early 20s bc of how I pictured him reading IWTV)

Armand was originally only from Venice, not Kiev, son of a guilder and later living with his maker for over a century (similar to what we learn in TVL and TVA but not nearly as dark, no sex trafficking or pedophilia)

Louis and Armand originally genuinely have a good relationship, traveling the world together after leaving Paris, and at one point Louis convinces him finally that vampires are inherently evil, he offers to go into the sun with Louis T_T However Louis cannot bring himself to do that so he adopts Armand's morals

Armand shows Louis a way to humanely kill and drink, by identifying "Those Who Want To Die" and Louis describes going to a cemetery and finding the mother of a child who had passed doesn't want to live anymore and Armand gently kills her. However Louis decides he simply likes it better when is victims fight back

The original ending of IWTV is Louis mentions that he hates going back to New Orleans because it was where he met his mortal love, but he never elaborates on who this was. (??? Anne???) As the interview ends around there Daniel notices the sun coming up and starts backing out of the room while Louis keeps talking because he was still afraid of Louis eating him. XD Louis finally realizes what was going on when Daniel makes it all the way to his car XD and is angry with him and asks for the tapes back. Armand arrives and says Daniel should have the tapes, that what Louis really wants is the tale to be public. Louis and Armand get in a cab and ride off into the night together (I also wonder if the end of s1 being Louis and Armand holding hands in front of Daniel is an allusion to this)

AR also points out that the book has large tonal differences, she wondered if it was an issue but then decided she liked it, saying Louis is a cynical cold person who warms up and then grows cold again throughout the novel. This character arc was never intentional though

Anne Rice says two main inspirations for IWTV are Richard Matheson's "Dress of White Silk" which is from the POV of a child vampire, and the movie "Dracula's Daughter" which had a tragic and sensual vampire.

The original IWTV short story (which you can still read) is very different, the vampire is not like Louis but based on Oscar Wilde, she intended the tone to be ironic and witty. The vampire enjoys killing and tells the reporter that, and like in the books says "the room the interview is in is just a room" but at the end reveals he is waiting for the occupant to come home so he can kill him, and the reporter runs away frightened. Lestat does not really exist other than as a nameless maker and Claudia and Armand also do not exist

The Vampire Companion does not really have "first draft" comments on any of the other books (only the first 4 had been out when it was published). I imagine it is because an author's first book is usually subjected to more edits and rewrites while they are struggling to get it published, but once the foot is in the door you don't have to do that as much (and AR took this a step further with firing her editor after becoming a NYT bestseller!).

However there were a few things about characters who appear later which I found interesting:

In the Daniel entry she says she wanted to explore Armand and Daniel's relationship more in future books, which we know she never does :(

Gabrielle was deliberately based on AR's own mother. Her mother was a feminist activist, often making AR feel like her mother paid more attention to her activism than to her, which mirrors Lestat wishing Gabrielle would teach him to read so he can enjoy the escapism. However both Gabrielle and AR's mother were unhappy in their domestic motherly roles, which is reflected in Gabrielle. AR's mother was also an alcoholic and died when AR was young of complications due to alcoholism. AR deliberately wrote Lestat saving his mother from death by making her a vampire, and Gabrielle being freed from the expectations of her gender as a wish she could have done the same with her mother T_T

David is also meant to be her father, he was dying due to some heart disease at the time she wrote TOTBT (he was not actually dead yet but I think was by the time she published or shortly after) and David is described as dying due to similar causes. So she wrote once again one of her parents not dying but becoming immortal. TOTBT is also much darker compared to TVL and QOTD, the previous two Lestat narrated books, and her grief helps explain why (but also "AR pls go to therapy" challenge)

I also find this excerpt on Anne Rice projecting onto Lestat interesting bc this is VERY similar to what Gabrielle says to Lestat: "As a writer I put myself into Lestat much more deeply than I had put myself into Louis because I was dealing with aggression in Lestat, and dealing with my own repressions. Lestat was my male hero who could do what I couldn't. I wanted to get out of the mindset of the passive grieving person [from when she was writing IWTV]." :/

[nalyra-dreaming]

Ohhh! I didn’t know there were drafts of the books out there with slight differences! I’m now obviously desperate to know what was different with Armand in QotD, if you don’t mind sharing

:) Just dug it out.

Lasher: The incubus spirit in The Witching Hour and Lasher. Originally, Rice had planned to use the character of Lasher in QD. He was going to come to Armand and together they were going to solve the problem of stopping Akasha's evil plan. [...]

There is also a post here on it:

Rolin has stated they have read and have access to all kinds of sources, and a lot in the show hints at other "versions" or "drafts" of Anne's work, as well as the unpublished ones at Tulane, as said.

For the show I could easily see them dig into this - maybe even use it for crossover with Mayfair Witches, depending.

I mean, it could be extremely interesting, to bring the original idea in, because anyone who has read QotD knows that the finale... is a bit anticlimactic, which might not work so well for a TV show.

But there's just a whole lot of possibilities with that original thought, especially since Maharet and Mekare are also witches (and Amel the spirit that drives Akasha).

As a final note - I can only recommend going through the "Vampire Companion"... there's a lot of comments on first drafts and what those contained, what was actually meant with Louis' "feminine mind" and so on. It's extremely interesting. (Unfortunately it only goes up to Memnoch iirc.)

[nightcolorz]

this passage from the vampire companion is making me loose it

The use of the word betrays gives me the mental image of Akasha like, “Lestat u r my specialist boy 🥺💕 im killing all men except u bb bcus ily and ur so special 😍 and sweet. My lil prince boy, my lil angel”

(Five minutes later)

EVERYONE LOOK AT HOW VIOLENT AND BRUTISH THIS STUPID IDIOT MAN IS (gestures to Lestat who’s standing there with his pecs out like ☹️) LOOK AT HIS OAFISH EXPRESSION AND UNUSUALLY BRICK JAWLINE. LOOK UPON HIM AND SHUDDER! THIS IS WHY WE MUST BE RID OF MEN. FEMALES REVOLT!!!

[faerywhimsy]

For anyone (like me) who is an avid fic writer and wants a selection of pre-drawn maps—complete with Anne's annotations—in order to make sense of place?

Behold!

I bring to you a PSA taken from the back of The Vampire Companion and shows us San Francisco when the 1973 interview took place, Paris in the time of TVL, as well as the Gathering of Immortals occurring in QotD.

(There are several other maps, but those don't contain these kinds of annotations)

That last one, and it's key in the lower left corner? I would have killed for one of these back in the day (just like I'd kill today for one portraying the Gathering of the Elders in Prince Lestat, if I'm being honest).

[iwt-v]

Just wanted to let people know about this awesome book. It covers the original 5 of Rice's Vampire Chronicles with gothic, encyclopedia-like entires and has been an excellent source for me for the last 20 years. You can still get it on Amazon, I believe. I think it would be amazing whether or not you've read the books.

[ladisgarde]

I thought this 2nd hand copy got lost in the mail. It smells of cigarettes but that's fine, I'm entering a super busy time so I've time to air it out before I can dive into it. I didn't expect it to be such a thick book??

[swagphilosopherdragon]

You ever look for something really hard, stop looking, and then it pops up right in front of your face?

[taygra5shaon]

he taste like shit. 🩸

Fix-it AU

one comment made me think what would happen if Astarion brought my Durge to Cazaldor before the main story.

[jenofthefar]

Some Astarion studies cause look at that pretty face 🥰

[sofipitch]

@missfreija91 asked to see the Louis entry in The Vampire Companion so here you are. I did annotations when I first read it in case this book ever makes itself into someone else's hands that they know it's bullshit. I'm also including Lestat's entry bc I think it is a good source of comparison in how it speaks about Lestat but also how Anne and Kathy can't compliment Lestat without putting down Louis at the same time (the Armand entry is the same, but Lestat and Marius are constantly mentioned as the better versions)

Louis (I pointed out how often she used passive or dependent to describe Louis by crossing them out bc goddamn maybe a little not as much as AR rides him for tho):

Lestat:

[murchellie]

⁺⋆♱❤︎♱⋆⁺ | Astarion Ancunín | ⁺⋆♱❤︎♱⋆⁺

So my post with Gale aesthetic got 1.5k notes hello?? thank you :33

Here, have some Astarion vibes guys. Idk, if this one also get many notes maybe I will made another one with one of the companions ;)

Astarion | Gale | Wyll | Halsin

Lae'zel | Shadowheart | Minthara | Karlach

──── ⋆⋅ ♰ ⋅⋆ ────

Commissions: Open

[nightcolorz]

I now am the proud owner of The Vampire Companion (spent my hard earned money on this) 3 pages in and I’m already loosing my shit

WHY IS KATHERINE BODYING LOUIS LMFAO

[faerywhimsy]

I f-ing love this fandom. I randomly mention it might be my birthday tomorrow, like, a fortnight ago? So, if she needs to rehome her spare Hook DVD, she should totally do so. And @saintrayne doesn't only do that.

Oh no.

She looks at her freaking books and goes, "I have a spare copy of this OUT OF PRINT BOOK, I'll just send that along as a birthday surprise."

(If it looks like I was in tears shortly before taking this photo, IT'S BECAUSE I WAS)

[nalyra-dreaming]

Addendum:

I've been just to the "Vampire Companion" bc of something else, and stumbled over this entry (which I'd forgotten):

Felix: A tall male vampire who is part of Armand's coven. He is one of only four who survive Armand's attempts to destroy the coven and he begs for Lestat's help. He is also a founding member of the Theater of the Vampires. Lestat sees Felix's death through Akasha's eves, for she burned Felix along with the other vampires she destroyed. (VL 246, QD 250)

So, not only is "Felix" NOT a random name once more, no, it actually is the name of a rather old vampire they (seem to have) repurposed. Like "Rashid", too.

Given that "Real Rashid" likely is a vampire, too (see 2x05 and the nails and missing masks around Daniel), it stands to reason that "Felix" has maybe more meaning as well, especially given the "contested" status of that reunion.

It is just very, very interesting to me that these writers would use "Felix" for the random, millennial vampire in 2x08 and it actually enforces my belief that a) the reunion is the contested one and b) Felix, too, is more than meets-the-eye.

about the crossover, Kelly Boyle revealed that it is only Felix crossing from iwtv and for the life of me I can't remember a Felix

That‘s that millenial fledgling in NOLA :))

At the reunion.

As said I do not see him as Lestat‘s fledgling (until Rolin says so I guess). Louis only surmised they had to be his when he told of him/them (several in the book).

[tasteofgrave]

interview with the vampire (2022) // emily brontë, wuthering heights

[handthattakes]

Her name……….. is Howdy. Howdy the cowboy vampire. Howdy says say happy birthday to my girlfriend or else