v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e:

It has been a long while since I last read this book, so it completely passed me by when I watched the show, but there is a strong parallel in the Mayfair Witches show from a scene that happens in Blackwood Farm.

In this scene, the ghost of Julien Mayfair reveals to Quinn Blackwood that he is his ancestor, and he reveals the manner of how it came to be.

TW for rape by deception bellow:

This is very similar to the show, when Deirdre thinks she’s having sex with the young man she met at the party…

But it was actually Cortland, wearing a mask and a costume.

Thinking about this again - they really gave Cortland a lot of Julien’s traits in the show, and i still strikes me as odd because Cortland actually was very well fleshed in the books but he was very different from his father.

It has been a long while since I last read this book, so it completely passed me by when I watched the show, but there is a strong parallel in the Mayfair Witches show from a scene that happens in Blackwood Farm.

In this scene, the ghost of Julien Mayfair reveals to Quinn Blackwood that he is his ancestor, and he reveals the manner of how it came to be.

TW for rape by deception bellow:

This is very similar to the show, when Deirdre thinks she’s having sex with the young man she met at the party…

But it was actually Cortland, wearing a mask and a costume.

One of the things Anne Rice was very good at was when she introduced a character in a book who was seen in a certain manner, only to introduce their POV in a later book that would either turn the previous characterization in its head or would give it more depth (or maybe both).

The most famous case is, of course, Lestat, and also Armand, I would say. These are the best ones, and the ones most talked about.

I wasn’t expecting this in the books about the Mayfairs but it was a nice surprise to see she did it with Julien. We only knew him by the Talamasca archive and outside sources, so it was very entertaining to read him narrate his life.

It added more depth to him, even if I think he mostly downplayed his most monstrous acts (with the exception of Katherine’s rape, this was truly atrocious and even more so in his own words) but it was ver interesting to see how he saw himself.

I liked to read that he and Lasher had a more tense relationship since Julien had the (rightful) suspicion that if Lasher ever realized his desire of being flesh it would be his family’s ruin. But tbh I don’t believe Julien when he says he never loved Lasher. I think he didn’t want to love him since he knew how dangerous he was, but I don’t think he could help it. Lasher was his lifelong companion, lover, confident, a being who could read his thoughts and that gave Julien everything he wanted, and even if he downplayed it in his own narrative, in the Talamasca file it was clear the had a lot of fun together.

And also, Lasher is the kind of being who enjoys being adored by his witches, so if fear and hatred where the only things he got from him I don’t think Lasher would have let him live such a long, fullfiling and happy life and I don’t think he would have remained so close until the end if this were the case.

This article has going me hmmmm and not in good ways lmao. I can’t put a read more on mobile, but discussion about ep. 5 below, mentions for domestic violence and rape

When the episode first came out, I remember saying that I thought it was a possible extrapolation of Lestat’s character that was not impossible to exist in the books and it seem it was exactly this the writer’s thoughts. I still retain that it’s an extrapolation that they shouldn’t have done because it’s one of the few lines Lestat never crossed - even in book 4, when he thinks he could hurt Louis in a fit of rage, he leaves the city until he calms down enough because he knows it’s something he would regret.

But the justification of Oh Lestat would totally do it since he raped that random woman in the books and, really? It’s a horrible scene in the books and written in a way that shows that he doesn’t understand that consent withdrawl means rape and it’s awful but even in the book he feels bad for what he did (ofc not that this justifies anything) with a strange woman and like… this is a strange woman, not his partner, the man he knows for years and it’s supposed to love. We never even seen Lestat feeling awful for beating Louis, not even once.

All in all, not a very fair comparition between these events, methinks

Have watched episode five of IWTV - if you don’t want spoilers, skip this post.

I went into this expecting to absolutely hate it but honestly I actually did like most of the episode. The deterioration of their relationships - both as a family unit and Lestat and Louis as a couple - was well portrayed, methinks. I liked the beginning, Claudia going full serial killer colecting trophies, and I liked seeing Claudia away from the for a while, and seeing how lost and depressed Louis was without Claudia in their lives.

But the thing with Claudia and Killer like ohh boy I think this was the one thing that made me more mad? Like this is the cameo from a QotD character that the showrunners mentioned, a small one-time character in that book raping Claudia? And even if it was offscreen it seemed to utterly unnecessary and cruel to me. I hate rape storylines most of the time, even more so if they’re adding something that does not exist in the original books like this. There was not even any reason to make Killer’s violence on Claudia be sexual, so the whole thing left me with such a bitter taste.

And the whole beat down with Lestat and Louis… yeah that was very tough to watch. Earlier today I mentioned I don’t think this is such an extrapolation of Lestat’s character in the book - he can be very cruel, capable of great violence and Anne even made him a rapist in book four - and I kept thinking about that one part of The Tale of the Body Thief where he is seething at Louis, the angriest he gets at him in the books.

And the part ehere he knew that if he saw Louis in that moment of pure anger, he would do something he would regret.

And then he goes and stays away for a week, letting his anger get colder and trying to get his temper to calm down so he wouldn’t actually hurt Louis when he saw him again.

So the thing is that he Lestat never does this especifically kind of violence in the books (domestic violence). It’s one of the few lines he never did cross, Anne never went there with him so yeah, even if I think it was not a strech of who Lestat is capable of being, it’s an extrapolation I wish they hadn’t done.

It’s sad that it didn’t feel out of the place in the episode, but it was very upsetting to see they going there in the show and considering that Lestat is The protagonist of the books it seems a very weird and bold choice to make the main protagonist a domestic abuser, especially this early on.

I’m still waiting for the last two episodes to make a full judgment but, this far it’s really hard to understand how they’re going to spin this in any way.