Hi, here's my intro lol, I'm somewhere under the nonbinary umbrella (Idk - it's confusing - definitely not a girl though), my pronouns are they/he/she. I'm autistic and I love whales and cetaceans in general (if you couldn't tell by the @) as well as cartoons (amphibia, supernatural academy, rtte, the owl house, hilda, bee and puppycat, bluey, etc). Sometimes I can struggle to articulate myself or convey emotion through text but I will do my best! I would love to make friends especially if you have similar interests. DNI homophobes transphobes, racists, ableists, etc. I'm 18 and I will block you if I see a reason to.
I'm wondering if Enzo is at all related to Roger because he really does remind me of him... He's wearing a "sharp" suit, he had a beautifully wrapped gift with him, and he must be somewhat important given the amount of time he got. It doesn't fit the timeline at all, but idk, it's just weird to me that we spent so much time on this random guy who is kind of reminiscent of Roger.
Having the kind of day where I really want to just call a friend but unfortunately she's on a family holiday atm (which like I hope she's having a great time!!! but also, like I want to chat)
I do think this might be a dumb question, but if Lestat is rewriting all of his songs for the album, are we going to get a second version of all of the songs that have already been released
Some in the fandom have already been talking about how Thomas Pitty He's A Whore is a reference to the Jacobean revenge tragedy by John Ford, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Sam Reid played Soranzo in a particularly controversial production of it one time, we know this. The play, like all Jacobean revenge tragedies, deals with extreme violence in the context of an extremely salacious romantic relationship, and how the violence radiates out from that core to damage everyone around it. I won't get into how I think that applies in TVL (though I think it's less obvious than it sounds) because we're already having that conversation.
Instead, I want to talk about a cross-reference: "'Tis A Pity She Was A Whore", a track on David Bowie's 2016 album Blackstar. Because in my view, it's a very Loustat song on a very Failures-era Lestat album.
Basically, I think this is a layered reference to an album about posthumous art that tells us how the show is engaging with vampiric (im)mortality and ALSO it's Lestat getting out his bitterness about the hurt he feels he has had to accept from Louis in exchange for his love.
It's pretty obvious that Lestat's whole glam rock, experimental eclecticism vibe as a musical act draws heavily on Bowie's aesthetics. The Bowie connection is obvious and acknowledged, but we mostly talk about it in terms of like, Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie, for obvious fictional stage persona reasons.
Blackstar is much later than that. To understand what I'm seeing here, you need to know about Blackstar was two days off from being a posthumous album. Bowie wrote and recorded it largely in secret, while actively dying of live cancer. He released it on October 8, 2016, and died on October 10.
We know that at this point in the narrative, most of the world thinks Lestat is dead. He is recording in secret, he intends to release the album "posthumously", and the show consistently presents the failures as posthumous. Blackstar is Bowie engaging with his actual impending death, but I think that especially by Episode 5, Lestat is thinking about mortality also, just in a more vampiric way. And Blackstar can also speak to that.
Blackstar is really interested in transformation at the moment of death. The (sort of) title track's visuals remind me very much of Akasha/Those Who Must Be Kept, especially in the books:
In the villa of Ormen, in the villa of Ormen
Stands a solitary candle, stands a solitary candle
And at the centre of it all, your eyes
On the day of execution, only women kneel and smile
At the centre of it all, your eyes, your eyes
And then later, the transformation:
Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I'm a blackstar, I'm a blackstar)
How many times does an angel fall?
How many people lie instead of talking tall?
So in this song, death opens up the voice to "talk tall", but it's also someone who isn't really you doing the talking. Your narrative is no longer within your control. When I listen to this, I am thinking about The Book, but I'm also thinking about the people we see Daniel recording for the documentary after Lestat's "death".
On track 3, "Lazarus", there's another death-as-transformation moment, but this one reminds me of Claudia:
Look up here, I'm in Heaven
I've got scars that can't be seen
I've got drama, can't be stolen
Everybody knows me now
And then at the end of the song,
Just like that bluebird
Now, ain't that just like me?
Oh, I'll be free
In "Lazarus", death is a rebirth into freedom, but it's also a gateway to being known by "everybody" - and I think "known" here is partly in the sense of understanding, but also partly in the sense of posthumous fame. I think there's a little irony in that line that, for me, connects a lot to the idea that once your story is told, it belongs to the readers; you can't control how people understand you anymore. Death does the same thing, here.
Aside from the death-as-transformation, what does it mean for your art to be known after death themes, Blackstar in general resonates with 3x05 Lestat because Bowie very consciously avoided his old rock and roll sound in writing and producing it. He draws on experimental jazz, hip-hop, folk, and prog rock, but he doesn't go back into that old time rock and roll glam rock sound basically at all. We're getting this reference in TVL right when Lestat is turning away from the band's human rock sound to a more complicated sound tuned for vampires in particular.
So like, in general, thematically, you can see why I think Blackstar is such an appropriate reference for TVL. But I also think that "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" is an especially appropriate reference for Louis in particular.
First of all, the thematic connections from the reference to the play are very Loustat tension, in my opinion. 'Tis Pity is about an incestuous sibling relationship that ends in death and disaster, and I think a lot of Lestat's discomfort with Louis and Claudia's enmeshed dynamic isn't just about him always being on the outside, but also I think it reminds him uncomfortably of his actually incestuous enmeshment with Gabriell(e)(a).
The Bowie song has its own appropriate thematic connections. Originally, this was a B-side released in 2014, but Bowie rerecorded it for Blackstar. The A-side of the original single, "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" is kind of a "My Last Duchess"-y retelling of someone murdering his cheating wife. But "'Tis Pity" is like, a flipside to that violence. And I think Lestat is using that as short hand for his bitterest, meanest feelings about the breakdown of his relationship with Louis.
The rerecorded version starts with two intense inhales before the music comes in, like the singer is bracing for a fight. Here, the singer is the one getting hit ("Man, she punched me like a dude / Hold your mad hands, I cried"). This resonates for me with the trial version of the 2x05 fight - we see Louis beating the shit out of Lestat while he asks him to stop because he doesn't want to fight like that.
Lestat is beginning to see a pattern in his relationships, like he feels like he is allowing himself to be hurt for the sake of the relationship while his partners go to the crazy place. Nicki went mad and yelled at him and in some ways framed the violence he did to himself as Lestat's fault; Gabriella demands his sexuality and refuses to stay around unless he is hurt enough to "need" her.
Arguably, from Lestat's perspective, Louis asks the most of them all. Louis asks him to violate his ethics to make Claudia even though Lestat knows it will only hurt all of them and (though arguably this is more Claudia than Louis) requires him to kill someone he cares about if he wants to come home. This resonates with the next lines of the song: "'Tis a pity she was a whore / 'Tis my curse, I suppose". It's his curse - it just keeps happening.
A little later on there are a few lines that remind me even more of the situation where Lestat is supposed to kill Antoinette if he wants to come home to Louis and Claudia: "Black struck the kiss, she kept my cock / Smote the mistress, drifting on / 'Tis a pity she was a whore". Here, the dark, toxic kind of love Lestat feels he was experiencing at that point in their relationship "struck" him - he experienced love as violence at that time, but he was too entangled in loving Louis to do anything but keep going. Even though he doesn't kill Antoinette, he does hurt her for Louis (cutting off an appendage is not a small harm!), and then he is the reason that Louis/Claudia eventually do kill her.
There's also a refrain repeated in the song: "That was patrol / This is war". Lestat is obviously feeling an escalation of the conflict in his relationship with Louis after The Book, but he is also speaking back - finally he feels like he's engaging in a back and forth war instead of just patrolling his boundaries looking for the next painful thing he has to do to himself to keep someone he loves.
Another reason I feel like referencing this song indicates Lestat is thinking about Louis's violence in particular is the musicality - the experimental jazz, wall of sound, driving but chaotic rhythm of "'Tis Pity" reminds me so much of the soundtrack to Louis burning the coven in Paris, and to some extent also the soundtrack to killing the coven in Detroit. It has that same unhinged vibe to it that I think we often hear when Louis's inner violence becomes exterior.
And also, so much of Louis's character arc has been about unsatisfying revenge. It makes sense to reference a song about relationship violence and death that is itself referencing a revenge tragedy, if you're someone like Lestat, who thinks in layers of pop culture across time.
Basically what I'm saying is: I don't think the contact name is Lestat actually calling Louis a whore. I think it's him calling their relationship a Jacobean revenge tragedy that hurts Lestat and others around them, and I think it's him getting out his bitter feelings about the violence he feels he has had to accept from Louis. And I think, in the broader narrative, it's also a reference to the Bowie album, because what is 3x05 besides posthumous art and contemplation of vampiric (im)mortality.
