#gabriella vecce

[humanveil]

Scoo... "Puh." You have to put the "puh."

[pissbataille]

[...] I can do the things now that you used to do. I could fight those wolves on my own..." Her voice trailed off as she was lost in her thoughts. "The important thing," she said after a long moment, "is that we can go wherever we wish now, Lestat. We're free."

anne rice, the vampire lestat

[cannibalspicnic]

I was rewatching Toledo with my friend, and during the scene in the strip club, I said, "Gabriella's so funny. I think a lot of people hate that she's allowed to be funny."

And it's got me thinking a lot about humor and the way it's used in The Vampire Lestat/Interview with the Vampire. It's something I connect really deeply to because there's not really much separation between tragedy and humor the show in the way a lot of media will have funny moments and sad moments, and sometimes the two will mingle, but there's something very visceral about how tragedy and comedy interact in The Vampire Lestat.

I had a therapist once that said our sessions were different than any others he's had, and I asked him, "Is it because I call you an asshole all the time?"

He said, "No, that actually happens a lot." What was different, apparently, is that I'd be crying and talking about big traumatic shit and really digging into it, and all of a sudden I'd make a joke about it, and we'd both start laughing, and then we'd keep going, and it didn't detract from the therapy.

This has always kinda been my way, and it's why I used to do comedy and why I'm toying with the idea of going back. It's frustrating when people act like humor is simply a deflection. Humor CAN be a deflection or a defense mechanism, but it is also a way of processing other emotions. It's a way of processing major things including abuse and tragedy.

Which brings me back to Gabriella. I keep seeing people being upset about the scene with Jarda and calling it unnecessary, too graphic and too long. Skipping over some of the prudishness here, the "too long" comment baffles me because the length of the scene and the scene itself is very clearly played for comedy. And I thought it was fucking hilarious. I thought Gabriella was hilarious.

AND at the same time, we're getting Lestat's reactions, and we KNOW the deeper aspects of how she's tormenting him. So, the scene is still funny, but it has layers of tragedy and horror as well. THEN, in the next episode we find out how the scene mirrors a pivotal moment in Gabriella's abuse of Lestat, and it brings MORE layers of tragedy and horror to it.

And the scene itself is still funny. Gabriella's still funny in it. And the horror and tragedy is still there alongside the comedy.

This is an approach, too, that I think is very much in line with the books. The Vampire Lestat, the book, is full of trauma and pain, AND the first page is THE TEMPLATE for the oft-parodied My Immortal fanfiction intro. And, indeed, there is no Lestat-narrated novel in which he is not compelled to describe himself in horny detail. A lot about this book series is funny.

And Gabriella's character gets to be funny in the show. And abusive, and resentful, and selfish, and traumatized, and loving, and hateful, and sexual, and manipulative, and ambitious, and all these beautiful, horrible, INTERESTING layers just like ALL of the characters.

But she gets called one note. And her gender nonconformity gets shoved aside by fans because it doesn't fit in simple boxes. All these layers get ignored so people can shout "misogynistic writing" because she's expressing herself sexually just like ALL the characters do, and her relationship to sexuality is different than in the books just like ALL the characters' are because of the changes made to the adaptation itself.

And I think one thing people are not handling well about her is that she gets to be funny too. And I think some of that is definitely that she's not a man. And believe me I have plenty of personal experience with that too. But she's funny.

Gabriella is EVERYTHING. And she's funny too.

[queensabriel]

"my maker called for his mama and i came...and came....and came..."

GABRIELLA GIRRRRRLLLLL you're absolutely terrible i love you so much

[ladypaperwriterson]

Episode is out, for anyone who didn't see. And I'll say this... based on everything I'd heard, I expected to dislike the episode due to its treatment of Armand. Little did I know I was about to love (almost) everything about him in it...... but that I would also be astonished at the damage this fuckass episode inflicted on both Lestat and Louis.

Lestat is fucking annoying. As much as it hurts me to admit it, it's true. He's not cool, he's not edgy, he's not vitriol - he's a fucking annoying crybaby. I rolled my eyes and cringed so hard at almost everything he did this episode (more of that in another post). I honestly thought this episode did more to humiliate Lestat rather than Armand! 😭

All I'm about to say on Louis's Regina/Claudia subplot is not only that it's super creepy, but also completely unnecessaryand doesn't lead anywhere. Hard pass. I'm not interested at all.

Once again: I cannot stretch enough how upset I am about what they've done to the original book Gabrielle. Basically she's non existent. This nasty caricature they've replaced her with in the show is beyond shameful for everyone involved. And misogynistic as fuck.

I'll also make a separate post about Devil's Minion because I absolutely loved everything about them, but here, I'm just going to say that if I hadn't read The Vampire Chronicles and was merely a show viewer, I would be confused AS FUCK. 😭 Like I'm trying to put myself in that position and it's so funny because they would genuinely have no idea what's going on?? 🤣 LMAO. Absolutely hasty and terrible writing. And it did feel a little bit like someone in the writers room said "oh for God's sake let's just squeeze DM lore in episode 4 cause people will already be upset there was no Armand in the first three episodes" 😭

Finally: once again, the pace and editing of the show are horrible (and no it's not because Lestat is a different kind of narrator, it's because they've chosen to present him as such). I hate the completely unnecessary edgy band orgies that just steal time from actually important things. I hate how LOUD and unromantic everything is. I HATE that I haven't felt emotional even once so far, in four whole episodes.

I HATE that I'm not seduced in the slightest by the tale I'm watching. And I'm very disappointed.

Ps. I feel like we've been seeing the band extras more than Louis this season. Definitely more Gabriella than him. Which is fucked. And we're fucked too.

[mai-komagata]

No Pain

rewatching the Lestat and Armand bits of s2e3 take a whole new light after learning about Lestat's past -- it is so dark and harrowing. And this is the account from Armand's POV, since Lestat hasn't given his.

Because imagine, you have been raped and forcibly turned to a vampire by a grubby, powerful vampire giving you all sorts of PTSD, and not a short time later a SECOND grubby powerful vampire comes to stare at you creepily at your shows, asking you to come to him under mental compulsion? ::shivers:: And then he stalks you when you are out minding your own business with your boyfriend, and violently tosses you against a statue in the air, and kidnaps your human boyfriend, and having the coven feed off of him?

That coven is *lucky* all Lestat had was his charisma and no real vampiric powers that night.

Then you see a dejected Lestat (again, we are still in Armand's POV) seeks him out under duress of Nicki not taking well to his training, and his too demanding mother probably singlemindedly interested in learning more vampiric powers. Like we have been told how Lestat believes he needs to perform to get what he needs -- he has been groomed from childhood to exchange sex for it. And then the description of Lestat in the box being such a contradiction of what Lestat said -- ignoring how much Lestat cared for Nicki at the time, and how distressed he was about him, and not mentioning Gabriella at ALL, even though she was ALSO a fledgling vampire, no doubt causing issues.

And then we cut to them saying Lestat left the coven. Which we know he did at Gabriella's request. We know he wasn't "selfishly abandoning Armand" or being a narcissist -- and didn't even love him in order to have any obligation to Armand. AND HE STILL FULLY FUNDED THE THEATER. (and if we take the deleted scene as where Rolin was thinking of going with this and that Assad liked enough to wish it was kept in as an indication of his mindset, Armand stalked his carriage and attacked them as he left). And we don't have complete clarity on when exactly Nicki died and what Lestat saw or was made to see.

[thunder-puss]

The inverted Madonna that is Gabriella. Not a virgin, nicked in the womb, a son who will live forever, who died and rose again but not through obedient resignation to the whim of some Heavenly Father but in a fight instead for his mortal soul with the devil.

[defiantlestat]

Listening to the new songs and i can't believe i am saying this but Gabrielle's song is very good.