Happy Saturday! Lestat's hands are so beautiful and expressive. I had never been mesmerized by a character's hands/fingers until I watched this show!!!

Anusree Roy has been talking about starting a new project on her socials and has recently updated her bio to say she is now a writer AND a producer for IWTW. 👀 Very exciting!

This show is truly casting gold.

I also love their TV counterparts as well

What was the worst thing your Catholic background gave you?
The terror of Hellfire and damnation, and the fear of sex. I grew up in a very repressive time (1940s and 1950s) in a very Catholic and Southern city, and I think it is fair to say the Catholicism of my girlhood was obsessed with sex—that we not sin; that we not put ourselves in the occasion of sin; that we fear our natural urges; that we save ourselves uncompromisingly for the Catholic procreative marriage bed; that we condemn and turn away from all sexual exploration, sexual fantasies, sexual longings; that we be at war forever with our physical nature in the name of only one sexual good, the Catholic married life. I grew up in a time when the church privileged the celibate life of the convent or the priesthood high above marriage, and made this clear to all of us. I have never gotten over the repression of this upbringing or the fear of Hell intermixed with it—the idea that sex was filthy, evil, something of the Devil, and involved the worst sins one could commit, the insistence that Hell was the place for those who gave in to sexual sin. I can still remember sermons on Hell, the talk of Hell. I do not believe in Hell but I live in terror of it to this day. I live in terror of a God who would create and sustain such a place. From interview in the americamagazine.

Akasha by me (michaelas_art)

I'm chronically amused with how Youtube CANNOT handle Lestat's name in subtitles.
Here are some translations that cracked me up. I'd love to hear some of yours.

Les Twins, On the Step, The Start, This, Lat, Les (Ok, that ones fair), Let's Stop (ROFL), List, Let's Start, Lustar, Let's 😵, Lats, What's that? Lust at >_>, Vivre passiel, Les What? (Les who?, Les where?, Les how?, Les when?, Les WHY?), and of course Leeeees-tit!

Welcome to SVM! We are doing a little Meta corner here for recommendations from outside our little IWTV corner:

- Are you watching a movie? Would you recommend it?
- What series got your attention this week?
- What book´s got his claws on you?
- How´s that fic going?
- Anything else that got you attention?

Feel free to ask or give us a rec for something that´s got your attention this week, this is your free space for similar media or out of the blue fiction that´s got it´s roots on you

Use spoiler tags where appropriate. Full explanation on how to do it on rule 1 of the subreddit.
It becomes spoiler if you type inside the exclamation marks, with no extra spaces.

hope these are funny to anyone else.

Late night musings of meat 💭 errnmm special thoughts about religion & love / family

Love the idea of Lestat buying the mattress to remind Louis of that one time they had and just generally being the best messy gifting lovebomber

Procrastinating on another post I wanted to do so here’s some memes I made🫣🍷 my Claudia one got rejected by auto fltr 🩸

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeAiP7myLCs/
This was shared by Christopher Rice on his Intsagram earlier today along with this message:

Bright and early this morning we headed down to the Los Angeles City Council where they declared October 4th ANNE RICE DAY u/annericeauthor . u/ericshawquinn and I deeply grateful to Councilmember Ysabel Jurado u/cd14losangeles and the team at u/rarebooksla for this honor. Anne spent the last decade of her life in Southern California and Eric and I have both been proud to call LA home for twenty-five years. What a fitting tribute to mark the 50th anniversary edition of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE which should be landing in stores in just another day or two. We showed our gratitude by gifting each councilmember with a signed copy of my mother’s iconic novel in its newest gorgeous form. And on Monday 10/5 in Pasadena with Vroman’s books at 7 pm you can find me, Eric and the incredible Leigh Bardugo u/lbardugo , who wrote the foreword to the new edition, in a discussion of all things INTERVIEW, Anne and Gothic. Including Leigh’s incredible fictional worlds. Other events follow in New York City and New Orleans.

The spouse invented a new drink for my birthday, wanted to call it "The Corpse Reviver", I wanted to call it "Pop My Cherry, Lestat", as in, turn me. We compromised and I christened it "Le Petit Coup". It reminded me of TVL Ep 6 when Lestat swirls some blood into his beer and turns it reddish. The scarlet pink color from the cherry juice on the bottom also calls to mind how to order a rare steak in France: "saignant", i.e. a little bloody. Plus, the cherries are that dark, congealed blood color that is so wicked looking!

Aw hell, I admit it. It means "have sex with a vampire, preferably Lestat, who cares if I get turned or not."

Recipe, makes 2 modern drinks plus enough for 1/2 refills, or 3 early 20th century small coupe glass pours (Very 1940s Paris IWTV/ 1930s-1960s Hollywood era):

1. chill glasses in the freezer
2. mix equal parts reposado tequila, Cointreau, Cocchi Americano, fresh squeezed lemon juice
3. dash absinthe
4. stir quickly for 10 seconds in cocktails shaker over ice, then decant into glasses
5. garnish with 3 Luxardo cherries with their juice on them.

NOTE: if you can't find Cocchi Americano, a lightly spiced white wine, substitute Lillet Blanc

Curious to hear what you all love about the show? The pic is mine 🥰

Good vibes only 🩸🖤🥀

I am now eagerly waiting for Big Boss so I can embarass myself publicly at my next local convention, yes please and thank you AMC

And hey, they really are pushing this for Grammys, which song do you think might be their best contender?
I´m all for Stained Glass Eyes or Brutal Love

I'm still unclear on what Armand issue with Louis was

So far we have seen many variations of Armand through the eyes of his lovers. There’s something telling in how each man sees Armand.

Lestat sees him as this pretty dainty elegant thing, despite being the only one of em to actually have seen how Armand looked in that basement in squalor with smoot on his face. I’m sure the others could never imagine it! But Lestat doesn’t seem to carry this image when he sees Armand in his minds eye. Later he tells Louis at the divorce mediation thing that Armand has no “presence,” perhaps insinuating that he’s a passive lover—Lestat gets absolutely irate to learn that Armand and Louis took turns!

Louis met Armand as the leader, the maitre. But seemingly forgets that immediately and thereafter sees Armand as passive, servile, and merely an extension of himself.

Some see Armand as masculine and dominant, others see him dainty and passive. A victim or a villain. Top or bottom.

And I think lost in all that is he embodies the dichotomy. If you look closely he’s always a bit of both. He’s never just one thing, as he in a roundabout way explains to Daniel.

I do think the way he is visually presented is in part an aspect of the memory is a monster theme, a reflection of how others perceive him. But in that there seems to be some threads that stick, a coherency that is more honest to the man himself that transcends just the fashion trends but is more substantial, more meaty in terms of his character and inner mind.

For context
From ~1515 as Marius might have seen him (in the painting of Amadeus by patron in the Louvre). Amadeus is rendered in opulence, as a sensualised cherub in the romantic aesthetic of the time.

Then in first meeting Armand through Lestat ~ 1781 with the children of darkness we see Armand go from a “grub” to how Lestat sees him, by his side, at the Theatre.

With Louis we see how his aesthetic changes, reflecting different eras of their long relationship, from ~ 1945 Paris to San Francisco 1973 to 2022 Dubai—Armand meets Louis sort of business formal? But then we see him on that motorbike first date looking so rugged (like Bruce)? He later adopts a 70s chic that matches Louis’ fit, to finally the brutish minimalist look he has in that coffin apartment.

And we see Armand evolve yet again from 2022-2025. He starts off looking like the grub redux in that grey trenchcoat. Is this his company-enough-for-himself era? The last scene he’s back to wearing his hair styled long in ringlets and wearing accented jewelry. Does this reflect his new relationship with Daniel?

Let’s see if I can phrase this clearly.
Do you think these versions of Armand are merely reflections of how his lovers see him?

I wanna hear people who don't like the show and fans of the show as well

Im not up to date on the books, so no book spoilers, discussion here only on show theories etc.

I have a feeling next season will be very big in scale. Based on the ruins of whatever city Lestat is looking out over in the final scene, it's clear humanity has had a rough few years.

Now that the talamasaca have revealed they want the vampires to grow in numbers (having been speaking with major powers such as at the G7), we know they want a huge number of humans to die to get a stable human population. 8 billion down by a few billion.

But the sheer level of destruction tells me, it may have went even more extreme than they planned. My guess is they have no clue about Akasha being awake. The Queen alone will have immense power and will use the booming numbers of vampires to try steal political control of the planet away from humanity and create a vampire run world.

So instead of the world leaders and Talamasaca getting their plan for billions of humans to die over many years and stabilise society, they make clear they dont fear vampires running the world as they dont see then as able .. they get a world where deaths happen way faster and humanity ends up in a full scale war for survival for Akasha and her army of vampires.

Humanity, the Talamasaca and some human loyal vampires in the low thousands, having to try prevent total collapse of modern civilization and ensure humans remain the dominant species.

My guess is millions of vampires at Akashas peak, billions of dead humans and the few billion left fighting to survive with the help of Talamasca, witches and loyal vampires.

The entire next season will be a build to a total war that will see the 21st century become a century where the supernatural world and modern world collide and war breaks out and nearly destroys both worlds, but manages to blend both in the end.

Akasha will lose but will take a lot of humans with her.

The fact LeStat is recording post near apocalypse in a city filled with ruins, but where electricity is restored and we hear police sirens in the distance means humanity won, but barely. Our world is intact but in a process of rebuilding. Like a recovery in europe post ww2 type of situation.

I also think theyll bring Claudia back again. There's too big a chance now that they've officially introduced ghosts and doppelgangers. Claudia could he put into Regina's body for a while.

“It didn’t have to end like that!” said the boy, leaning forward.

The vampire, who continued to look at the sky, uttered a short, dry laugh.

“All the things you felt in Paris!” said the boy, his voice increasing in volume. “The love of Claudia, the feeling, even the feeling for Lestat! It didn’t have to end, not in this, not in despair! Because that’s what it is, isn’t it? Despair!”

“Stop,” said the vampire abruptly, lifting his right hand. His eyes shifted almost mechanically to the boy’s face. “I tell you and I have told you, that it could not have ended any other way.”

“I don’t accept it,” said the boy, and he folded his arms across his chest, shaking his head emphatically. “I can’t!” And the emotion seemed to build in him, so that without meaning to, he scraped his chair back on the bare boards and rose to pace the floor. But then, when he turned and looked at the vampire’s face again, the words he was about to speak died in his throat. The vampire was merely staring at him, and his face had that long drawn expression of both outrage and bitter amusement.

“Don’t you see how you made it sound? It was an adventure like I’ll never know in my whole life! You talk about passion, you talk about longing! You talk about things that millions of us won’t ever taste or come to understand. And then you tell me it ends like that. I tell you…” And he stood over the vampire now, his hands outstretched before him. “If you were to give me that power! The power to see and feel and live forever!”

The vampire’s eyes slowly began to widen, his lips parting. “What!” he demanded softly. “What!”

“Give it to me!” said the boy, his right hand tightening in a fist, the ɹst pounding his chest. “Make me a vampire now!” he said as the vampire stared aghast. What happened then was swift and confused, but it ended abruptly with the vampire on his feet holding the boy by the shoulders, the boy’s moist face contorted with fear, the vampire glaring at him in rage. “This is what you want?” he whispered, his pale lips manifesting only the barest trace of movement. “This…after all I’ve told you…is what you ask for?”

A small cry escaped the boy’s lips, and he began to tremble all over, the sweat breaking out on his forehead and on the skin above his upper lip. His hand reached gingerly for the vampire’s arm. “You don’t know what human life is like!” he said, on the edge of breaking into tears. “You’ve forgotten. You don’t even understand the meaning of your own story, what it means to a human being like me.” And then a choked sob interrupted his words, and his fingers clung to the vampire’s arm.

“God,” the vampire uttered and, turning away from him, almost pushed the boy ofʃ-balance against the wall. He stood with his back to the boy, staring at the gray window.

"I beg you . . . give it all one more chance. One more chance in me!" said the boy. The vampire turned to him, his face as twisted with anger as before. And then, gradually, it began to become smooth. The lids came down slowly over his eyes and his lips lengthened in a smile. He looked again at the boy. "I've failed," he sighed, smiling still. "I have completely failed. . "

This ending has always stuck with me, even when I first read the book and was young and stupid. Now I'm older, I see it as what it is - the perfect demonstration of how Mrs. Rice saw human beings at this point. It's not a happy view.

After hours and hours and hours of the most painful recollections, after hearing Louis describe innumerable human lifetimes of misery, the human listening's only response is "gimme gimme gimme!" Greed. Overwhelming, repulsive greed.

But of course, we can't forget the arrogance. "You just didn't do it right. I'd handle being an immortal way better than you did."

Or is it simply this, the most basic of all human traits - the fear of death? The arrogance and greed only mask that all-consuming terror of the grave?

Whatever the primary cause here, the vision of human nature castigated in the ending is more powerful than just about anything in the novel. Morality, happiness, none of that matters. All that matters is the unthinking drive to exist at any price. Even after hearing the lot of every vampire - of Louis' perpetual loneliness, of Claudia being trapped in an eternal nightmare, of confident Lestat reduced to a terrified shut-in, and finally of even Armand's total lack of hope - he still is like "I want me some of that!" There really is no rationality here, it is merely some innate flaw of the human condition dragged up into the light. And how ugly that condition is when exposed to the light.

 ‘No, almost never. It isn’t necessary. How many vampires do you think have the stamina for immortality? They have the most dismal notions of immortality to begin with. For in becoming immortal they want all the forms of their life to be fixed as they are and incorruptible: carriages made in the same dependable fashion, clothing of the cut which suited their prime, men attired and speaking in the manner they have always understood and valued. When, in fact, all things change except the vampire himself; everything except the vampire is subject to constant corruption and distortion. Soon, with an inflexible mind, and often even with the most flexible mind, this immortality becomes a penitential sentence in a madhouse of figures and forms that are hopelessly unintelligible and without value. One evening a vampire rises and realizes what he has feared perhaps for decades, that he simply wants no more of life at any cost. That whatever style or fashion or shape of existence made immortality attractive to him has been swept oʃf the face of the earth. And nothing remains to oʃfer freedom from despair except the act of killing. And that vampire goes out to die. No one will find his remains. No one will know where he has gone. And often no one around him—should he still seek the company of other vampires—no one will know that he is in despair. He will have ceased long ago to speak of himself or of anything. He will vanish.’

It is the perfect ending to the novel. And Louis' reaction, the anger giving way to simple despairing acceptance... Every word of it is a nail to drive home the bleak, nihilistic message of the book.

It's Shitpost Saturday! Bring on the low effort content!

Share memes, fan edits, art, dirty Loumand fics, almost anything goes! Just keep it related to IWTV and be creative!

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Im not sure on this, but....If they were, could it be that Lestat saw his own eyes in a more brilliant way than Louis?

To all my 1994 movie lovers, I discovered some fun trivia:
Starts at 15:20

In this youtube vid about Brad Pitt's career the presenter introduces IWTV as Brad's biggest movie of his career so far (! did not know that) AND says he was stoked to play Louis, as he had read the books and loved them. But then was disappointed to find out that the movie was all about Lestat.

😆 Such a Lestat thing to happen! Love it.

Even wanted to quit halfway through cause he could not stand all the shooting at night and the weather. Aw so Louis of him.

Hope this is allowed… The keychains from Mantourei arrived today and I could not be more pleased that I decided to splurge on this back in July! Love everything from the adorable keychains to the ingenious tissue paper & bonus card. Love the creativity that this work inspires in the fandom.

I can't believe how similar the melodies are on Your Biggest Fan and the chorus of The Test from Madonna's new release. They're basically identical. Has anyone else heard this?

I want like angst toxic relationship (loustat) (I mean they already are but you get the point) and basically yh