Sanguinem et Aurum-A Marius de Romanus Lover

Do you sometimes think about this quote from PLatRoA:

I mean this is already a strong statement if you view it out of context but once you realize that it's Derek, a Replimoid, who immediately saw Marius and Lestat as father and son… as soon as you realize how these Replimoids procreate… this becomes an even stronger statement. When Derek says it, it really hits differently.

And then there's another layer which gets unpacked as you think of Derek and Dertu in particular but I can't put into proper words. Something about both Lestat and Dertu being simpler souls compared to their "fathers", less sensitive/thoughtful but more efficient in emergency situations.

(The second paragraph is just here to show some appreciation towards their different styles. "... as though he'd never slouched or slumped or relaxed in his entire long immortal life..." - somebody plz give this old man a beanbag chair and a head massage OK?)

There are times in Blood and Gold when Marius is sincerely just really cute like laying down on the floor to Process

Or getting overwhelmed meeting his painter crush

I want to squish his cheeks a bit

I need to remind everyone that in the audiobook his actor actually stammers and LAUGHS AT HIMSELF ABOUT IT and its the cutest thing ever

It’s always interesting to me that so much Marius hate seems to hinge on 1) he’s older so should know better than to do ________, or 2) that he’s often viewed as just somehow irredeemable, which is ironic given the hate directed at him is typically by people that will forgive their blorbos of equal or worse offenses.

Marius sometimes also gets cast as having no substance or growth capability, or he’s ragged on for not having evolved or ‘figured out his shit yet’ which is also interesting that he’s not viewed with the same grace as other characters are when it comes to their trauma. I guess some of the irony for me boils down to he’s often viewed as a figurehead of toxic masculinity, but then by turn he’s expected to get over shit faster or man up or any number of things that are rooted in toxic masculinity. 

It feels like he often gets reduced down to a convenient ‘old gross white guy’ trope to hate on because it’s so EASY to do by specific demographics in this fandom. Which shouldn’t surprise me given how much of this fandom views some of it’s male characters and even how it views and treats it’s male fans, and I guess it doesn’t surprise me, it annoys the fuck out of me given how queer the series is.