#though there might be a parallel to be made with Armand and Marius

[hekateinhell]

I’m high and in my TVA feelings, so naturally I made an incomplete, incoherent wish list for what we should’ve gotten but didn’t:

Daniel

Can’t skip over the obvious. Armand literally and figuratively destroys this man’s life and he only gets couple paragraphs? I get the subtext, the wound’s still fresh, etc etc, but like…

Was there a time where Armand realized Daniel was starting to lose it/lose what little of it he had left? If he so, did he feel responsible? Did he panic that he might have another Nicolas on his hands, only this one belonged to him?

Who left who? Did Daniel nope out of there one last time? Did Armand just abandon him to his own devices to go stalk Lestat? Was it another angsty (it was), sort-of-mutual, sort-of-not disintegration/separation like with Armand and Louis? Was Armand the one chewing grass this time?

I could devote an essay to Daniel Questions, so I won’t right now. But know I have them.

Speaking of…

Louis

What was that reunion like? You know they’d never planned on seeing each other again, then Armand shows up with Mr. Daniel “You Are a Gift to Me From Louis” Molloy.

Did Louis get a thank you, at least? Was he absolutely mortified when he saw Daniel? Louis is someone who knows good and well what Armand is capable of, and in fact, had witnessed first-hand what became of one of Armand’s other human pets.

Which brings me to…

Denis

???

I don’t believe for a second Armand only had two human pets over the past 500 hundred years (maybe 200 years, since it was a CoD rule that vampires weren’t allowed to reveal themselves to humans, so it would’ve been after the dissolution of the Les Innocents cult — but back to CoD in a minute).

How many more pets were there? What was the criteria? We know Denis was quite young, but Daniel was an adult. Was Daniel the exception to the rule because he had known Louis? Did Armand ever have any rules here to begin with?

We got to see a human/vampire dynamic at play in the Venice years, but would’ve been a fascinating parallel to read in Armand’s own words a detailed account what it was like being on the flip side of that, with any of his pets!

Was he intentionally trying to emulate Marius (as he remembered him) with Daniel? Denis, maybe, to an extent? I doubt Armand formed any sort of deeper, beyond-the-blood attachments to Denis and the others—which is what set Daniel apart when the time came (and once again, I would’ve loved for Armand to tell us what exactly it was about Daniel that did it for him).

Last, but most certainly not least…

Children of Darkness, Theatre des Vampires

TVA gave us a basic intro to the tortures practices of the Roman coven, and we already met the later Parisian coven in TVL, but I wonder—what was their day to day like?

Just how intricate were the CoD social hierarchies?

How developed was their system for dealing with “unwell vampires”? Armand clearly already had a very refined, methodical approach by the time Lestat dropped Nicki in his lap. Eleni seems to be in the know when she’s corresponding with Lestat in TVL, it’s obviously part of their coven culture. So where/with whom did this originate? How expansive was it?

Theatre des Vampires! What was the development of that like? What did Armand think about making it in the Parisian newspapers, after spending so long in complete obscurity? We know he didn’t care too much for this coven either (evidently), but why?

I don’t believe for a second he Frankenstein-monstered Claudia (he’s a smart guy, he’d been around 400 years by then—I have to imagine he played around with heads before and knew it wouldn’t work). I do believe he had a lab though! Especially given how obsessed he was with taking things apart and experimenting in QotD.

There’s more, but I don’t remember it right now. I’m in a mood.

#hekate rambles #I can headcanon answers to all of this but I’ll never really know #truly devastating #I also have more Louis questions but they don’t come up until around the Trinity Gate era SO #the vampire chronicles #vc #armand #tva

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi, about Lestat's 'rehab' I have to agree with the last anon that it will be tough to do. In the book, Louis realizes he had misjudged Lestat and that he was keeping them in ignorance and being controlling for their own safety (also because of his vow to Marius etc).

But on the show, Lestat is a lot more open about his past and about vampiric knowledge: he teaches Louis how to read minds, how to control his powers, shares how he was made and even name-drops those who must remain at one point, and it doesn't seem to be a major concern for Louis and Claudia.

The show completely changed the main conflict of the story from Lestat withholding knowledge and being controlling to him being an abusive psycho and a cheater. I don't see how the writers can walk that back without some major retcons, at least in terms of episode 5.

Hmmm, I think there is a big difference between hinting and comments and telling. The show addresses the "withholding" part and that Claudia thinks that when Lestat does tell something, that he is lying, so this is already a theme.

And they didn't change the whole conflict, they changed the narrated tale to that conflict - so far. That is, especially in this show, a big difference? We haven't seen "the story" yet. We might have after season 2, though I think it will swap over into season 3. It might be good to remember that, since they even had Armand spell it out in episode 7.

I said it before, I'm gonna "judge" what they did after season 2, or maybe even after season 3. Because this show does arcs, and parallels.

And... tough or not but it is going to happen. Yes, Lestat will eat the infamous "humble pie" next season, that too... but for the rest...

The abuse and the fights were in the book. The dragging and the flight was not. There are reasons why book fans were skeptical of what was shown there, but I've talked about that, and Armand's likely involvement here.

But we'll see.

#Anonymous #asks #amc iwtv #iwtv #amc interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire amc #iwtv amc #iwtv 2022 #interview with the vampire #lestat de lioncourt #louis de pointe du lac #loustat #the famous episode 5 #episode 5 #ask nalyra

[tatselk]

TVC: Thoughts on Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis

Finally got hold of PLATROA. Definitely not one of my fav TVC books. Would probably give it an overall score of 5/10. 

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The concept behind the Replimoids, Amel and Atalantaya is actually quite interesting. But it probably would have worked better as a standalone book/ series with cameos by TVC characters, rather than what is essentially a crossover book. 

Kapetria’s Tale gave us so much extra information which didn’t really seem to matter to the plot that it felt like some sort of omake chapter of PLATROA or a chapter torn from a textbook on the secret history of the world. This chapter might have been easier to take if Kapetria’s monologue was slightly punctuated by questions and/ or reactions from the other vampires (like Daniel did with Louis’s interview in IWTV).

I couldn’t relate to the Replimoids as individuals at all since I don’t get what their motivations are other than to band together and keep replicating. I’m not quite sure why 4 Replimoids were needed for the story either. Ok so, Kapetria is the Analytical One who told the Replimoids’ story and Derek is the Emotional One who helped to introduce the Replimoids into the TVC universe. But frankly, Welf and Garekyn felt like interchangeable characters who could have been combined into just 1. In fact, Kapetria was basically the only Replimoid involved in an active/ speaking role in the second half of the book/ when liaising with the vampires so...

As for the vampires themselves, it felt needlessly complex to intellectualise/ scientific-ise the vampires’ origins by going another 6000 years into the past and bringing in bird-alien creators to explain everything. Kinda took all the magic and mystery out of the vampires’ nature (i.e. moving from horror to sci-fi territory).

For me, all those sweet little Loustat moments were amongst the main highlights in PLATROA (yeah ok, there was about 30% bitterness there since it took them over 200 years to get this far and on some level, Louis seemed to have returned to Lestat as some form of sacrificial lamb but still…). In particular, Chapter 4 was a treasure trove for any Loustat fan. It also helped that Amel is like the President of the Loustat Society. XD

Another highlight was the phone call between Lestat and Armand in Chapter 6. This little exchange probably tells you all that you need to know about these two and the dynamics between them. 

Yet another highlight was the sarcastic exchanges between Lestat and Amel and how they battled for dominance in Lestat’s body. Although it was abit of a missed opportunity to make more out of this battle of contesting wills since it ended with barely a blip with Amel being quickly and conveniently moved into a new body of his own.

The whole brain surgery thing with Lestat could have been more been more impactful if there were more tension/ drama as to how it unfolded (e.g. more protests made, more details about the battle which apparently ensued before Lestat’s abduction, something going wrong during the surgery itself). All that happened was Rhosh more or less spiriting Lestat away effortlessly for the operation and the operation happening quickly, without incident and without further explanation about it from anyone.

I would have liked to have seen more of the Rhosh/Benedict relationship since it now seems to be a Dark!parallel of the Lestat/Louis relationship. I would also have liked to have seen what exactly happened with Marius, Armand and Daniel rather than just having one short paragraph describing how they are in some relationship angst. On a side-note, it was actually painful to see the Marius/Armand relationship disintegrating again (the only hopeful note that they will be okay with each other is the tiny detail that Armand has a crypt kept just for Marius in Trinity Gate). 

Not sure whether to find Gregory’s evasive answers to Fareed’s questioning in Chapter 9 amusing or threatening. Probably should keep an eye on Gregory in future TVC books…

Also not sure why Rhosh is now so deeply reviled in the vampire community when other vampires have also done things that are just about as murder-y as what he did. Especially when Amel was kinda responsible for Rhosh’s actions too...?

When was Lestat’s father downgraded from being a Marquis to a Count (Chapter 17)???

Technically, the role of the Vampire Court’s Prime Minister looks like it was made for Marius’s interests and inclinations. You know, since he likes asserting control whilst not being in the limelight and has an innate need to act as a caretaker. But it is a little disconcerting that not only did Marius seem to be the only one who was left to draw up the rules that were to apply to the entire Court (what in the world were all the other Elders doing?! They can’t just be attending balls all the time…), Lestat had to step in eventually and help Marius with this because the latter’s rules were too biased/ one-sided (if even Lestat can perceive the rules as such, they are pretty poorly drafted). Marius’s unilateral law-making sounds like something that is going to blow up in the later TVC books…

Since Lestat is the Prince of the Vampire Court and Marius is its Prime Minister, can we go ahead and make Armand the Duke of the Vampire Court? He does own the properties housing the Paris and American Courts, is de facto in charge of the Paris Court and one of the few people at the Vampire Court who are powerful enough to voice out/ comfortable with voicing out dissenting opinions (i.e. not falling prey to groupthink which some of the other vampires are seemingly increasingly subscribing to).

As much as the Vampire Court likes to pretend that it is all stately and ruled in an orderly manner by a Council of Elders (i.e. Old and Powerful Vampires), I think it is pretty clear that anyone who happens to be in Lestat’s inner circle/ close to at least one person who really is an Elder can have a lot of power/ say at the Court. Like Louis, David and Gabrielle were at the council meeting in Chapter 13 even though they are technically not Elders and had nothing to contribute to the issue of dealing with the Replimoids anyway??? Fareed’s presence there was also iffy but at least he could arguably contribute to the council’s discussion since he was involved in suspecting/ investigating Kapetria in the first place.

Wanted to see Viktor and Rose develop real personalities. It didn’t happen. 

#prince lestat and the realms of atlantis #plroa #platroa #anne rice #the vampire chronicles #vampire chronicles