the real fantasy of heated rivalry isn’t that the hot cocky sex god will fall in love with the uptight socially awkward virgin… the real fantasy is that you can be sooooooo fucking annoying & avoidant & allergic to intimacy and someone who is securely attached will nevertheless doggedly pursue you, make you feel your feelings, and then marry you
getting fixated on something is funny because the first like week i have an insatiable need to tell everyone i know about it and spread the good word but by weeks 2 and 3 it becomes so intense and personal that even hearing it mentioned in public makes me sweat as if a dark secret was alluded to
yeah i think marly's scary mirror is my favorite part of this whole thing. its so fucking funny. the raiders dont even know he's a vampire or that he's immortal they're just like yeah marly's scary mirror. we make the rookies look into it and they see their own deaths and they see their past lives as warriors. its why our team cohesion is so strong and why we're totally fearless on the ice. because nothing we could face on the ice will compare to what we've seen in Marly's Scary Mirror
@raan-miir-tah it’s 2014. The Raiders just won the Stanley Cup. Ilya Rozanov and Cliff Marleau keep referencing a “scary mirror” in their interviews when they’re asked about their victory. Hockey RPF tumblr is having a blast making memes about it. 13-year-old Luca Haas is the only one who believes Marleau might really have a cursed mirror
This is an attempt to summarize/source some of the recent Tumblr discussion of The Vampire Marleau and Cliff Marleau (Marlow) as The Immortal Warrior
The first mention on Tumblr of Cliff Marleau being a vampire was a reply by cephalopodie on this post on February 20, 2026. Since then, the fandom has come up with a lot of variations on the concept. If you know if any major variations or any notable posts that you think should be included here, please let me know so I can add them! This list is kinda biased towards my posts/my friends posts because that's what I'm most familiar with but I'd like to expand it if you have suggestions.
Rather than laying out a timeline, I'm grouping this list by major concepts.
"Cliff Marlow was turned in 2006"
I made a few posts with lore for a version of The Vampire Cliff Marlow who was turned in 2006.
Feb 22: "The Vampire Cliff Marlow, b. 1973, was turned at age 33 in 2006."
Feb 23: "When Cliff Marlow was turned in 2006, the first Twilight book had been published...The Vampire Marleau would eventually watch the Twilight movies in secret..."
Feb 25: "...Marley can never truly be ensouled because he was turned into a vampire in 2006."
Ancient Marleau
Once the idea of Marleau as a very ancient warrior vampire was introduced, this became the prevailing headcanon.
Feb 25, from clytemnestraaa: the introduction of The Vampire Marleau as an ancient warrior
Feb 25, from clytemnestraaa: introduces Scott Hunter as a vampire slayer
Montreal: The Vampire Lestat crossover
Feb 24, an oddly prescient post from cuppydogshane: "and thats without considering the vampire marleau"
Feb 25, a teaser clip for the new season of Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat was released, revealing that Lestat is living in Montreal
Post from me and cuppydogshane: Marleau's reaction to Lestat living in Montreal
March 6-7, 2026
TVM posting kind of exploded in the evening of March 6/morning of march 7. There are genuinely too many posts to link them all here, so I'm trying to stick to the most load-bearing ones that are needed to understand other posts. All of the following posts are from March 6-7 except where otherwise noted.
Marly's Scary Mirror
The concept of Marleau having a cursed mirror is most strongly associated with more ancient variations of The Vampire Marleau, but the original idea came from a tag on a 2006!TVM post linked above.
Tag from iwrotemrtambourineman: "#his soul is trapped in the cursed mirror he does coke off of"
Post from iwrotemrtambourineman: "ilya: marly, i told you to put the scary mirror away! it freaks out the hoes!"
Mine, with tag from clytemnestraaa: "Marly making the rookies stare into the Scary Mirror" / "#everyone on the raiders knows exactly where and when they are going to die"
The Immortal Warrior
As far as I can tell, the first usage of the term The Immortal Warrior was in this poll from gayhockeyshow. While The Immortal Warrior exists primarily as an offshoot of The Vampire Marleau, it's worth noting that some people prefer to imagine him as a non-vampiric immortal. March 8th, post from cuppydogshane and urlocalhotmess
Post from clytemnestraaa: "marleau is always calling his hockey stick his sword"
Post from clytemnestraaa: "marleau nearly slew the beloved of his brethren in battle"
Post from cuppydogshane: "his idea. I don't mind it."
My post: crossover with Serial Killer Scott Hunter/The Borgias
Other notable memes
Hrœrekr/Hrœker
Post from clytemnestraaa: "ilya who looks identical to his original best warrior brother from another mother hrœrekr who died of a sheep disease"
Twilight crossover
Post from clytemnestraaa, tags from cuppydogshane: "just realized the reason shane almost died when marleau hit him was the vampire strength…"
March 8, post from nonlynear: where the hell you been, loca?
"What Is It You Desire"
This post from cuppydogshane is a reference to this tumblr post and this tweet.
A Month in the Atlantic
Post from marbertyphoon: "marleau was on a galleon that went down in a storm in the sixteenth century so he spent about a month swimming out of the atlantic ocean"
The Vampire Cult
Post from cuppydogshane and catalpa-waltz
Arthuriana/Jackie Le Fay
My post, with tag from clytemnestraaa: I believe this was the first TVM post referencing Arthuriana. Tags from cly introduce Morgan Le Fay ("a MILF") into the mix
As far as I can tell, Jackie as Morgan Le Fay started with this post from cuppydogshane.
Post from clytemnestraaa: "the witch is HERE…. as the prophecy foretold…."
Post from graceebooks: "jackie le fay when she sees marleau: hey i heard you once spent a month swimming out of the atlantic ocean"
Crossover with Shane's Mysterious Powers
March 7 saw quite a lot of posts that referenced both The Vampire Marleau and Shane's Mysterious Powers. I think this one is the most notable.
Fandom Meta
March 7, from bedlund: XKCD 2501 with The Vampire Marleau, Serial Killer Scott hunter, and The Rick Owens
March 8, from dragonmuse: on "unhinged hiatus shenanigans"
THRILLED that jacob tierney’s celebrated niche is adapting sexy gay romance novels written by women into moody artful television. thank you i can’t wait for more
This blog is so weirdddddd sorry I got my heart broken in January and it kind of got too painful to blog about heated rivalry but I’m back dw im sooooooo back
This blog is so weirdddddd sorry I got my heart broken in January and it kind of got too painful to blog about heated rivalry but I’m back dw im sooooooo back
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