Giovanni are a cool clan, why that is (imho)

Something I find, at times, irritating is the reduction of the Giovanni to either a racists stereotype toward Italians or to the aspect of incest, sometimes both.

Thus I want to explain why I think they are a very cool vampire clan, and for me both one of the most vampiric ones and one I gravitate to the most

First of all, I think it is somewhat relevant that I was born in 1980 in Germany, as it offered me vampire media to consume that might be different from eg the USA.

Maven of the Eventide once assessed that there was and kind of is a lack of Vampire media from Germany starting from about Nosferatu to We are the Night, because of censorship. I would only partially agree, and would limit it to "media addressed to adults".

The first series I remember associating with vampires was The Addams family and by extensions The Munsters. While for a very long time I did thought if the Munsters as a b/w version of the Addams family. Thanks to that I somehow reached the conclusion that Morticia (as well as Mrs Munsters) were Vampires. They looked like one, they walked like one, they were pale and liked crypts... qed (for my kid brain).

This might have been influenced by the series "The Little Vampire", which is a Canadian-German cooroduction. It tells the story of the titular little vampire moving to a town, befriending a kid and having adventures. While the vampires parents were afraid they would get murked for being vampires, the normal ppl having prejudices and an evil vampire hunter wanting to murder the vampire family.

It was a mix of adventure and comedy, with a wholey sympathetic vampire family of outsiders who just want to exists.

Themewise it might fit the Vampirella series? Only seen the remake but it feels similar.

Next to "The little Vampire" there was an animated series called "Ketchup Vampires". About a familiar group of vampires...living of ketchup. Well and way later there were the "Vampire Sisters".

The only vampire that scared me was the Count from the sesame Street, because he could summon thunder and lightning by counting.

Otherwise I didn't get my godmother who told me how afraid she was when she watched a Nosferatu movie as a teenager. The one were the vampire burns because of moonlight.

This vampires, for me, were usually a family of outsiders, trying their best, not being mean, lived at graveyards and usually they could fly.

Note: If a German in a ttrpg session ask if a vtm vampire can fly, it is usually because of that, not because they want to power game. Every vamp in Vampire Sisters, Ketchup Vampires, Little Vampire could fly.. in their human form,... in the Little Vampire movie even cows that got nipped upon.

I gew up and watched Buffy and then Interview with a Vampire. IwtV makes a lot of sense from that baclground:

Lestat embraces Louis because he wants a partner/family, Louis doesn't want to murk anyone, they proceed to make a little nuclear family and once that breaks apart Louis goes berserk. It even has some flying when Louis is embraced. Plus a somewhat closeness to death with Lestat dancing with corpse.

Thus looking at Vampire: The Masquerade, the moment I discovered the Giovanni I found what got closests to vampires as I knew them and as I expected them to be, by the virtue of being a family.

I didn't gravitate to the incest aspect at all and took it as a sign of the times. The 90s being 90s. Like you got Angel Sanctuary siblings, Godfather 3 (cousins) and German soaps like "Forbidden Love" referenced brother and sister before introducing the ""scandalous"" concept of gay pairings years into their run.

Plus I did as well bounced off hard of the "blood purity" thing. Both because of a thorough "don't be a Nazi" as well as that just not making sense as described.

It did, from my perspective, made sense that they were Italian or started there. Morticia Addams and Mrs Munster both rocked cloths that fit my idea of Italian high fashion. Next to stuff like Calimero (about a hatching from Palermo) I associated Italy with dynasties like the Medici and Borgias. Mostly those two. Plus the Ventian carnival thing and stuff like The Divine Comedy fit a connection to Necromancy. Plus I was pretty sure that especially Morticia can do some serious stuff with Zombies and ghosts

The blood purity thing I put more on Americans ideas how stuff like the Habsburg face happened.

Allthewhile I sponged up about any ghost stories I could find.. starting with Casper, the friendly ghost. (And namesake of the homuniculi ferret of my Giovanni Hecata).

Did I associate it with the Godfather, in a positive way? Yeah. The association is close and got build upon. Though I would argue that the whole structure fits both Giovanni and the Camarilla. Plus the Godfather is, for me, a very American story. That ends with Michael dying, very unhappily, in a country he didn't want to be in and didn't like.

(Though I watched part three around...2008 or so, rather late. Plus funnily tried to get through the last part of the story with like my Duolingo 200day-orso-Italian streak, noticing just after quite a while that there must be subtitles)

Tl:Dr

Giovanni are cool because

- Family! (Tempted to do a Vin Diesel voice)

Found family and blood family. Deathless family.

- Dynasty! (Okay related to family)

- Death/Morbidity/Graveyard factor (they are the most inclined to go Addams family mansion or reside in a crypt)

- Necromancy. Specifically ghosts... you can't really talk to Zombies.

Which hopefully might explain why I don't gravitate to the other necromantic clans. Who might have cool stuff going from them, but none got the family aspect and none got the "old dynasty" aspect.

They don't fill in any of the Italian stereotypes I know. Maybe except of having a sexy/good fashion sense?