Articles - Fansplaining

K-pop fans onstage at K-pop Fest perform to the music of K-pop band Itzy, whose images are shown on an overhead screen behind the performers.

Features

African K-Pop Fans Are Building Their Own Spaces

While the K-pop industry largely ignores them, fans in Kenya and Nigeria create K-pop communities for themselves.

Production still featuring Lestat performing on a stage, his arm stretched upwards.

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: The Long Table

In episode 7, “The Failures,” Louis has a gruesome reunion with Armand, while Lestat faces judgment from specters of his past.

Features

How Fans Make Fictional Languages Real

Na’vi, Klingon, and other conlangs get more use IRL than they ever have onscreen.

Production still featuring Lestat and Louis sitting together on a bench, gazing into each others' eyes.

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: Sparing the Ambiguity

In episode 6, “Montreal,” Louis and Lestat share a tumultuous night ahead of Lestat’s farewell show.

Image of Shane and Ilya facing off on the ice in Heated Rivalry, with Claude code responses overlaid on top

Features

Heated Rivalry is at the Center of Fanfic’s AI Reckoning

A controversial anonymous document exposing Claude remnants in fics has collided with a fandom culture of production at hyper-speed.

Production still of Lestat playing the violin for Akasha who is lying on her slab.

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: The Queen of the Damned

In episode 5, “New York,” Lestat strips back his rock-star facade and confronts his memories of Akasha.

Image of Pasha the pirate captain, falling into a swirling sea.

Criticism

Be Gay, Do (Sea) Crimes: Pirate Tropes and Queer Resistance

As Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, pirate stories thrive on “all the old romance, retold exactly in the ancient way.”

Production still featuring Lestat posing for selfies surrounded by a crowd of fans with their phones out.

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: Hurtling Towards End Times

In episode 4, “The Devil’s Road,” Lestat’s reality begins to fracture as Armand returns with portents of doom.

A nighttime photo of a display of the main characters from Heaven Official's Blessing. The display is a 3-D stand of the couple sitting together on the crescent moon together.

Features

The Global Crackdown on Creativity

Governments around the world are censoring—and criminalizing—the currents in which fanworks flow.

Still from the episode featuring a line drawing of Lestat in a gilded frame, set on a table with a glass of wine and three burning candle

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: You Have to Ask for It

In episode 3, “Toronto,” the show takes bold creative swings as Lestat tries (and fails) to rewrite his own sexual trauma.

Image from Game of Thrones featuring Daenerys and Jon Snow walking towards a pair of dragons, with many skeletal remains on the ground.

Features

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dragons

Working in the Game of Thrones content mines killed my fannish feelings for the franchise. Here’s how I got them back.

Production still featuring Sam Reid as Lestat and Jennifer Ehle as Gabriella, both sitting at a piano, Gabriella smoking a cigarette and resting her head on Lestat's shoulder.

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: The Oedipiphany

In episode 2, “Toledo,” Gabriella stars in a Freudian trip down memory lane, pairing flashbacks to Lestat’s youth with a sleazy mother/son date in Ohio.