I adore these three men. To me, they are such a beautiful running thread through the series. The scholarly Roman forced into taking up the mantle of the wise and responsible leader, the lost soul stolen and rescued for luxury only to be lost again, and the boy, curious to a fault who became a ruined thing. For their blood line to come full circle and for Daniel, the one who started it all, the crux on which The Vampire Chronicles begins, to become the beloved companion to Marius, while both love and mourn for and reunite with Armand in their ways, how broken Marius leaves Armand, how broken Armand leaves Daniel, it’s the most beautiful and frightful trio.
A Christmas gift for @caravaggiovagabond as commissioned by their girlfriend!
I always loved the myth of Hades and Persephone, and there’s something to be said about the parallels to Marius and Armand, stealing the youth to darkness and watching them become something powerful
Well I’ve been there, sitting in that same chair, whispering that same prayer half a million times,
It’s a lie though, burying disciples, one page of the bible isn’t worth a life.
It took me a while to process what I wanted to say about the death of Anne Rice, and what she meant to me. There’s a long story, as there is for so many, but in the whole, Anne’s struggle with religion and meaning spoke to me in a very real way through Armand. So many times, even in her autobiography, she spoke of emerging from the darkness, and on the page, through Armand, she told a story of devotion, obsession, and eventually, martyrdom. What I believe though, is that this supposed darkness is the only place some of us can see any light at all.
I was raised Catholic. “Normal” Catholic. Go to mass but don’t read the Bible Catholic. More statues of Mary than pictures of Jesus, catechism classes, trussed up like a child bride for Christ. All that. I grew into an independent and liberal, ally and feminist teenager, but somehow, eventually, I was scared into what I can only call fundamentalist Catholicism. Cover my hair for church, confession twice a week, giving up everything in life that made me happy, because happiness outside of Christ was a sin.
Over the course of about 6 years, I evolved past this, from Catholic to trinitarian Wicca to Greek Pagan to, eventually, atheist. But trauma, obsession and issues with mental health have only become more pronounced as I got older, and around summer 2019 I realized I had some severe religious trauma to sort through. Then comes fall, and something snaps in my brain. To this day I don’t know what sparked it or triggered it but I suddenly became intensely convinced of the idea that Holy Mother Church was not only true, but Truth with a capital T, and I was, once again, going to hell. Because there is no liberal Christianity in my world. There is no love and light, no universalism, no salvation. In my teachings and the cult beliefs I know, almost nobody goes to heaven. Short sleeves, cut hair, homosexual thoughts, appearing to others that you are sinning- souls “fall into hell like snowflakes” so says our lady of Fatima, and there is absolutely no salvation outside the church.
I saw suicide once again as my only option, because if you are convinced beyond any doubt that you will go to hell, then what use is your life? 40 years on earth suffering and anticipating an inevitable eternity, what does it matter? I was beyond terrified. I am trans, I am queer, I had finally escaped an abusive home and family and was flourishing. Now here I was, looking at our new house with my wife and girlfriend, them so excited to begin moving in and planning renovations, and I was wondering how to tell them I was going to leave them forever. I was sick. I lost 20 pounds, I ended up in urgent care for heart palpitations and I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t sleep, I had constant nightmares when I did. I spent over 6 months in an unending state of terror from the time I woke up to the time I eventually passed out.
Early 2020, my wife, who I hid all this from, started listening to Anne Rice audiobooks, and getting obsessed. I listened to SOMETHING all the time, trying to distract myself somehow and I wanted to die. So, out of nothing else to do, I started to listen, and they were nice. They distracted me, they were dark, pleasant stories. But I wasn’t obsessed like I usually was with a media I would grow to love. So one day she comes home and throws me a copy of The Vampire Armand and tells me here, your daddy issues will love this. SO I started to read it. Only Venice. I didn’t know a lot of the set up, since I was going out of order and had only paid some attention to IWTV and TVL, but I devoured this story of Venice. It was the rescue fantasy I had played out in my head so many times as a child, isolated and hungry and made very well known the fact that I was unwanted. It was a gothic, morbid little Cinderella, and though I knew Armand’s story with Marius didn’t have a fairy tale ending, I didn’t care. I had that connection now, to continue to read, and devour one book after another. I fell in love with Marius, with Daniel, and with Quinn, but it was Armand who drug me back from that pit, Armand, through Anne’s words. Armand and his prayers and his willingness to die as a sinner, Armand with his rings as he reclaimed the beauty of the world.
Anne gave up her vampires for a time as she went back to the church, and while I can’t pretend to be an expert or say I’ve read hardly any of her interviews or articles on the subject, I can imagine her sorrow and pain to have to shelf something that once saved you. I put away, gave away, and turned away so many parts of myself to fit the good little Catholic mold, and that mold is a *lie*. It’s wicked, it’s foul, it does nothing but steal joy and light while claiming to cure us of all that ails us.
I do not believe Anne is with Stan and Michele. I know for so many fans that is a comfort, but it’s simply not a part of reality for me. Anne isn’t anywhere. She died, and she has left us words and pictures and love, but there is no soul, no afterlife, no eternity, and *that* is the true light I see in death. To some it’s so sad to think that we won’t see those we love again, and as someone who lost their mother this year, I know that mourning. But it also means our loved ones aren’t burning and being tortured for eternity for not being Catholic or not being Catholic *enough*. All I can hope is that Anne, no matter what she thought at the very end, faced her last moments in peace and conviction and was without the fear that our past religion says we should all carry in our hearts. I hope she only thought of her own beautiful darkness.
More practice with marker, Amadeo in Venice. I bought a painting of Venice at dusk a few weeks ago at work and I’m so in love with it, it was definite inspo
“For reddish locks such as these,” he said, caressing my hair, “for eyes of the deepest and most sympathetic brown. For skin like the fresh cream of milk in the morning; for lips indistinguishable from the petals of a rose.”
He took a ring from his finger and put it on mine, his fingertips stroking my finger gently as he made sure of the fit. Diamonds are the white light of God, he said. Diamonds are pure.
A fairly well-known panel of the “Queen of the Damned” comic re-drawn by me.
I swear, I genuinely tried to make this sweet and poignant, but Armand was just not having it. Try as I might, his facial expression repeatedly came out like this. So I gave up.
A fairly well-known panel of the “Queen of the Damned” comic re-drawn by me.
I swear, I genuinely tried to make this sweet and poignant, but Armand was just not having it. Try as I might, his facial expression repeatedly came out like this. So I gave up.
Once again, Armand has tainted the vibe.
That’s our boy seems like he spoke through you here lol
I’m sharing a personal theory on a little inconsistency in the Vampire Chronicles that has always bugged me. I’m very much aware that this is most probably just Anne having changed her mind or just lacking continuity, but damn was this fun to think about and speculate! This is obviously my opinion only and I’m sharing just for fun, so don’t take it too seriously
So here’s my first meta/fan theory/conspiracy theory/something:
Lord Harlech – To be or not to be!
Armand becoming a vampire when he was so young is a massive part of his character and it’s often been brought up as a disadvantage to him in canon (mostly by leaving him in a more childish mindset). The story of Armand’s mortal life and turning into a blood drinker has been told in three separate books by three separate narrators in three somewhat different periods. Below are some screenshots of the event of Armand’s turning told by our three narrators:
If they’re TLRD for you (and I get it lol) just skip to the part after that. They’re just reference anyway.
Book: The Vampire Lestat
Narrator: Lestat retelling what Armand showed him through the mind gift
Book: The Vampire Armand
Narrator: Armand retelling his own story to David
(I’m just adding bits, cuz his whole transition was a bazillion pages lol)
Book: Blood And Gold
Narrator: Marius retelling his own story to Thorne
(Just snippets again)
TLDR, right? Lol
So there are some differences between the three versions, although TVA and B&G are mostly in line (with a few exceptions that I’ll list below).
But the most noticeable thing for me is the famous Lord Harlech, who is suspiciously omitted and entirely missing in TVL.
Here’s the breakdown:
I love Excel and it has endless applications in life lol
So the question here is – was there a Lord Harlech at all? Was Marius truly left without a choice in turning Amadeo so young, or was it all by design? The question I try to ask is:
Why lie?
Assuming that this is not just a mistake (which I’m pretty sure it is lol), one of our three narrators is lying. But who?
Is Lestat lying? – If Lestat is lying, then that means that Armand showed him his story with Harlech included and then Lestat deciding to change it centuries later. However, the event in question happened three centuries before he was ever even born, so it doesn’t pertain to him. The only reason I can think of him maybe lying is to piss off Armand with whom he has a shaky relationship. However, that might also piss off Marius, for whom he feels quite a bit of respect. Either way, it seems that it’s unlikely that he’s lying (imo).
Is Armand lying? – Well yes lol! If we assume that Lestat is not lying (which I do) then it means that Armand either lied to Lestat or in his autobiography. Here I’d consider his mental state during the time – when he was showing Lestat his past, he’s truly hit rock bottom – he’s desperate, beaten, directionless, starved for love, light and purpose, he’s lost everything, he’s exposing all his vulnerabilities to Lestat and just let’s the guard fall down – not too likely to lie. But what about in TVA? He’s at a turning point in his life, trying to outgrow his past, having reconnected with Marius who has expressed a regret for turning him so young. He also admits that Marius brings out the best in him and he admits to loving him still.
So what if he invented Lord Harlech to protect Marius’ reputation? What if, having seen that Marius is regretful of it, he uses his own autobiography to exonerate his maker and tell the world “hey, he had no choice, it’s not his fault!” The newly-fabricated Lord Harlech is Armand’s gift to Marius, a way out of his “great crime”. To top it all off, Armand paints a picture of Marius being terribly conflicted and hesitant before giving him the blood. Which of course strengthens the image of Marius’ assumed innocence in the matter.
And if that’s the case, why didn’t he do that in the beginning when telling his story to Lestat? Why not come up with the story from the get go and stick to it? Well…he thought Marius dead then and what’s the purpose of defending the reputation of a dead man? Or a living one that had chosen to never come back for him?
Is Marius lying? – Marius is most definitely the most subtle of the three narrators (although the bar’s not very high with Lestat and Armand lol). He admits to having made up his mind that he’d turn Amadeo the following night and then lo and behold – said following night Amadeo is dying by the elusive Lord Harlech’s poisoned blade. He even goes on to say “It was not his decision that mattered now. For I had made mine.”
So what Marius is basically saying is ‘yeah, sure I turned him while he was on his death bed, but I would’ve done it that night anyway.’
So how to interpret this? I see it this way – Marius indulges in the Harlech fantasy (perhaps because he wants to respect Armand’s whishes and sticks to the version he has chosen for his own transition into the Blood), but he also clearly states that in the end that didn’t matter and he takes responsibility. Perhaps that admission is his gift to Armand, he’s respecting his decision but also wants it to be known that he’s owning up to it (and dare I say – not regretting it really).
And Also the whole “greatest crime against our kind” line from TVL takes a very different meaning, dependent on Harlech’s existence:
If Harlech doesn’t exist – his crime was not waiting until Amadeo was old enough
If Harlech did exist – his crime was turning Amadeo instead of letting him die
I guess I’ve spent so much time thinking about this, because Armand’s premature turning is such a big aspect of his character. Also, it’s been brought up time and time again for the dynamic between Armand and Marius – Marius calling him childish, faulting him for being too naïve or immature or savage. And all this because he was turned at the tender age of 16 or 17.
So what was it? Was Armand made so young because otherwise he would’ve died? Or was he turned young for no reason other than that Marius willed it that way? Did Lestat just bitch around or did he accidentally expose Marius and Armand’s dirty little secret?
I’d like to preface this by saying this is absolutely just for fun. This is what my brain thinks about at 3 in the morning when I can’t sleep. Discussion and other opinions are welcome
Lestat- Alice in Wonderland (cartoon); it’s whimsical, musical and he loves the colors. Also loves shouting “off with their head” at a certain Botticelli angel. Louis is hardly impressed.
Louis- Beauty and the Beast. THAT LIBRARY THOUGH! Seriously, he’s found his prince, has his own library and technically lives in a French castle. Belle is totally relatable, and he secretly finds Lumiere absolutely charming.
Armand- He tells everyone it’s Hunchback of Notre Dame becasue Paris, but Daniel has caught him watching and rewatching Poor Unfortunate Souls (not to mention he has all of Ursula’s dialogue memorized). You be the judge.
Marius- Though he finds this all juvenile and pedestrian, if he must choose one it would have to be the Lion King simply for its Shakesperian undertones. Besides, Scar’s not entirely wrong.
Daniel- Finding Nemo. I really don’t know why, but I can picture him singing Just Keep Swimming until it drives Armand up a wall, and calling Marius Mr. Grumpy Gills
Gabrielle- She can appreciate the adventure in Peter Pan and wants nothing more than to explore Neverland.
Bianca- Doesn’t seem to have a favorite. Any princess, any time.
Is it morally wrong for any of the adult vampires to date the child vampires? Such as Claudia, and I think Armand? By his description I’m assuming he was at least a teenager when he was turned.
Mentally they’re adults, but physically they’re still children, and it’s very weird to me when they date the adult vampires.
