The Vampire Chronicles / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- The way Louis depicts Lestat is very different from the way Lestat depicts Lestat. It's ultimately up to you whose account you believe, though it is worth nothing that there was a lot of information Louis didn't have access to that helps explain Lestat somewhat, and Lestat isn't completely unaware of his flaws. Most of the fandom seems to Take a Third Option, arguing that they're both unreliable narrators. It's even somewhat common to joke that they're both equally insufferable and self-centered, and that's why they're perfect for each other.
- Is Louis so tortured because, deep down, he still believes in human morality but is forced by his vampire nature to live at odds with it, or is he so self centered that all he can see is his own pain? Both. Louis remains strongly Catholic, and struggles with trying to adhere to a moral system designed for humans when he no longer is one himself. At the same time, he has a marked disinterest in others unless he believes that they can offer some guidance in his internal conflicts. Maharet offers him her blood, because she finds his frailty disturbing, but he refuses. He cannot see her as a spiritual mentor because she is older even than Judaism, much less Christianity, and so she is too alien to serve as a moral guide, as is the case with most ancient vampires. Ultimately, he is not close with the others because they cannot resolve his inner conflict for him.
Complete Monster: Queen Akasha was the first vampire ever made and also the evilest, being a selfish, nihilistic predator with a desire to dominate everyone else. She orders the massacre of Maharet and Mekare's village down to the last woman and child, all so that she could obtain their spirit-summoning powers for herself, has them publicly raped and humiliated before her court, and finally sentences them to be mutilated and burned because she unfairly blamed them for the accident that turned her and her husband King Enkil into the Mother and Father. It is worse in modern times, as she plans to execute almost every human male in the world in order to set up a paradise over which she will rule as a goddess, flying around the globe and hypnotizing hundreds of women at a time into committing these murders while she watches. She massacres most of the vampires in the world and threatens to do the same to the lone survivors if they refuse to join her New World Order. She even drains her husband to death to take his powers and have Lestat as her new mate. Among the actions of countless morally gray characters that appear within The Chronicles, her crimes are a stark contrast that make it all the more apparent.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Even before he became a vampire, Quinn was far from stable mentally with being able to see spirits and having No Social Skills to the point where he comes off as fanatically eccentric. And that's not even taking Goblin into account...
Fanon Discontinuity: A good chunk of the fandom will only accept certain books as canon, and just ignore what they don't like, though which books "count" depends on how you ask. Some cut off everything after The Queen of the Damned, while others still enjoy a few books after that. Others just don't worry about consistency and cherry-pick the books (or even certain segments of the books) they consider canon, regardless of what order they're in. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't accept the first three books, though, and people who don't accept the first two are basically nonexistent.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Louis is the preferred partner for Lestat across the fandom despite Louis getting much, much less screen time than in the first few books and Lestat falling for other people left and right, such as Rowan Mayfair in the last book. This is probably why AR makes a point of having Lestat call Louis "most beloved" in later books and sulk over missing him.
Franchise Original Sin: A lot of the later books' issues (Purple Prose, having too many characters and plotlines to keep track of, a lack of anyone to really root for, the "rules" of the canon getting stretched, the series getting gradually weirder and weirder) are present in the generally-liked Queen of the Damned, and even a little bit in the first two books (especially the purple prose). It's just that those first three books, QOTD included, have enough going for them—compelling characters, good plotlines, interesting worldbuilding—to make up for those problems, while later books do not, at least for a significant portion of the fandom.
Funny Moments: Lestat's response when Louis shouts at him for playing a spinet while his father is dying? Banging Pots and Pans like a 10-year-old child.
- Louis' gentlemanly personality extends so absurdly far, he taught Claudia the proper use of different silverware.
- Armand stalking Daniel is mostly Nightmare Fuel, but the former is such a cloudcuckoolander that it - and their subsequent "love affair" - have their moments of levity:
  - Daniel waking up to Armand dragging him out of bed, shouting:
  Armand: "That telephone, I want you to dial Paris, I want to see if it can really talk to Paris."
  Daniel: "Goddamn it, do it yourself! You're five hundred years old and you can't use a telephone? Read the instructions. What are you, an immortal idiot?"
  - Armand discovering and obsessing over various technologies, such as blenders (which he feeds various items sorted by color), garbage disposers (which he feeds paper towels and packs of cigarettes), television (watching the same movies/scenes over and over and cackling over gruesome scenes), and video cameras (taping, among other things, hours-long videos of himself sleeping in a coffin).
Ho Yay: Stomps all over the line between subtext and text; the only thing that precludes the many intense romances between male vampires from being canonically sexual is the fact that the transformation from humanity renders sex obsolete, as killing becomes the height of achievable pleasure. However, that doesn't stop the pairings from being deeply romantic and erotic.
Jerkass Woobie:
- Lestat — for all the terrible things he's done, you have to sympathize with him for being turned against his will. And while he's largely to blame for the Humiliation Conga that begins when Claudia attacks him, it's still pretty intense.
- Armand. He spent centuries as a torturer for the world's creepiest Church Militant, but that might not have happened if he hadn't been kidnapped, raped, and tricked into eating his last friend.
Memetic Mutation: Anne Rice's habit of suing fanfic writers (at least, in the days before fanfic became more mainstream and Archive of Our Own popped up) has led to "Anne Rice is gonna sue over this" and variants becoming something of a Running Gag in the fandom, especially among Millennial and Gen Z readers. You're most likely see it on shitposts, memes, or humorous meta posts relating to the books, especially if they're lampshading how ridiculous the canon can get. Once news of her death came out, it turned into "Anne can't sue me now!"
Narm Charm: The ridiculously lavish dimensions of a text can actually work to the advantage of the novel. This could be due to one of three reasons: 1 - the writing itself is actually good quality, 2 - it works to illustrate how hedonistic and sensual Lestat's Point of View is, or 3 - it's a triumphant example of So Bad, It's Good. Personal preference determines where and if it crosses the line.
Portmanteau Couple Name: The fandom likes to use "Loustat" for the very popular Louis/Lestat ship.
Sequelitis: The first three novels in the series are universally beloved in the fandom. Your mileage of what comes after may vary, though all of her works have their supporters, with the possible exception of Blood Canticle. Quite a few fans think Queen of the Damned is when the series went completely batshit.
Squick: Lestat and Gabrielle are shockingly comfortable with sharing passionate lovers-kisses the moment she's turned into a vampire, considering she's his mother. Taken up to eleven when he slits his tongue so he can both feed and make out with her at the same time.
- Regardless of Really 700 Years Old and vampires being functionally Asexual, Claudia and Louis' relationship is almost inherently unnerving as they discuss their mutual love while she's stuck in the body of a six-year-old.
- In a similar vein, many readers are disturbed by fully adult vampires gushing over adolescent Armand’s beauty, especially since they often talk about how young and childlike he looks at the same time. Taken up to eleven in “The Vampire Armand”, in which he has near-constant sex with older men at an even younger age.
The Woobie: Louis, most obviously. David and Jessie, too, neither of them having had any choice in being turned.

YMMV / The Vampire Chronicles

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