If my math is correct (it is!)... this makes 3/21/1910 the day they met. 🥰
The only question is: was this the night at the Fairplay, or the night Louis drew his dagger on Paul on Liberty Street? Knowing Lestat, it's gotta be the latter, right? 💕💕💕
And if Paul died in May 1911... it means their courtship era lasted longer than a year?
So they met in early spring instead of fall 1910, which I think is a slight retcon irl. But in-universe we can make it work, if we read Louis' introductory narration and the cold winter/coal fire analogy as something like, "that whole year had passed in a fog of love". 💞
Which then would place the family dinner with the du Lacs at the end of winter 1910/1911, or at the start of spring 1911.
WHAT IF that dinner was 3/21/1911? What if Lestat had the whole night planned specifically for their 1-year anniversary? Meet the family, have a gift (Miss Lilly) ready for Louis at RR... But only Lestat alone knew it was a special occasion, because he picked the night he first saw Louis as their anniversary, instead of the night they officially met, like any normal person would have?
Noticed a trend for the character work on the show...
You've probably come across some of these common complaints about our main book characters before the show came out:
- Louis is boring, he's too passive. What's a rich white slave owner gotta whine about anyway?
- Lestat's such a Gary Stu. All the trouble he gets into are of his own making.
- Marius can't say shit without pontificating for 50 pages first.
- Armand... I actually don't know about any complaints, other than when Anne tried to kill him off. Or that DM was only 1 chapter in 1 book and Daniel was all but written off after that...
(Mind you, I'm NOT agreeing with these takes, just saying they've been around a long time. Some of these I can't even take seriously.)
Do you see where I'm going with this yet? 🤔 It's almost like the writers took those hot takes and flipped them 180° for the show, right?
- Louis became Blade.
- Lestat is an abject FAILURE, and the passive one now.
- Marius gave a 5-seconds rundown for TWMBK, without starting at the beginning of civilization?
- And DM, DM, DM wherever we look...
The changes for Louis' character worked for IWTV s1+s2, bc they improved on the book. They took Louis from boring to badass... 😘
The changes for Lestat in TVL however? From hero to zero... 😭 That's an interesting adaptation choice for sure. One that didn't do this season any favors, I'm afraid.
Don't get me wrong. I loved season 3. It's not much of an adaptation, but it is a work of art on its own. I still think we have exceptionally talented writers. It's just now, I am worried they let fandom discourse color their storytelling too much. And I don't mean it in a pandering way...
They seem more interested in subverting fandom expectations than actually adapting the books. Again, it worked well enough for 2 seasons, but "flipping the script" as a strategy isn't sustainable for long-form storytelling.
The characters are designed to fulfill certain narrative roles. You can't turn your main character from an aspirational figure into a cautionary tale, and still go, "oh we're telling the same story, just in a different way"... It's NOT the same story. Your characters are literally the opposite of their book counterparts!
Where are they taking Akasha next season? Suddenly Great Mother Akasha, protector of women is a real possibility... 🤬 Especially if they cut out the twins completely, then Amel could potentially be made into the ultimate villain, and Akasha his unwilling, misunderstood victim.
Do I really believe that for season 4? No... Had someone asked me that at the start of s3, I would've laughed in their face. Now I'm 50% less confident in my answer.
I did speculate that Lemuel could actually be Seth in disguise... yk when that very first SDCC 2025 teaser trailer leaked... A YEAR AGO! 🤣 And we didn't even have his name yet...
NOW I pray that he isn't Seth, bc I WANT Seth, and Gregory, and Thorne & Cyril to still be 110% on Lestat's side... Is that too much to ask?
So Sam said this shot leaves it deliberately ambiguous whether it's at twilight, or Lestat looking into the rising sun. And according to Alan Taylor, the director of episode 7, the writers didn't want to confirm if Lestat is fully sun-proof yet. Keep in mind this is after Akasha!
I think it makes sense, not to confirm his daywalker status yet, if they wanted to keep the door open for that Gobi desert scene of totbt. There's only one problem with this:
How can Daniel, who's merely 2 years in the blood, walk in the sun, if the jury's still out on a post-Akasha Lestat? Armand's blood may be powerful, but his 500+ years have NOTHING on Akasha's 6000years lifespan!
Back then in season 1, I wasn't happy they made Armand walk in the sun, just to hide fake rashid's identity for a few episodes. See, only a handful of ancient vampires, and future Lestat who's transfused with Akasha's blood, are supposed to be able to survive direct sunlight. For example bookMarius, even though he drank from Akasha a couple of times, wasn't sun-proof in Venice at the age of 1500! So I thought the show would run into trouble irt power scaling further down the pipeline.
But ever since that flashy hunting attire in season 2, I've had a sneaky suspicion about Armand's daywalk abilities. And this season with him supposedly teaching Daniel an ability that shouldn't be teachable, plus Lestat possibly not even gaining that ability after Akasha, has only reinforced my theory...
What if Armand's and Daniel’s sun resistance isn't a vampire ability at all? What if Armand has cracked the daywalker cheat code by using modern science? Just like the UV-filter window coating, yk? Maybe the answer is as simple as a spf 3000 sunscreen that's been developed for astronauts or something?
Wouldn't that make the great conversion even a bigger threat to humanity, if any vampire could walk in daylight?
And Armand's just sitting on that knowledge? 🤣
Think about it, it's 2 birds with 1 stone actually: 1) it frees them up from the pesky night shoots, 2) they can still do the suicide by sun plotlines
Show!qotd, just so you know: we still need that verbal confirmation by Louis, when Lestat finally asks "Do you love me now?" ... 'Cause feeling secure that your husband loves you is one thing, but actually hearing the words that you've been waiting for since 1910? 🥹
Look at that flicker of hope that Louis might admit he cared. Samstat's acting here omg! The tease, the twinkle in his eyes, he's giddy of anticipation, a child before christmas... aaand instant heartbreak, when Louis said "guilt"... the child withdraws, the masks of the jester and the monster slide back into place... 💔💔💔
Honestly how Louis doesn't just blurt out a string of love confessions whenever Lestat looks at him with those watery heart eyes is beyond me.
Now don't come scream at me... but I really think that "the last person he said ILY to killed himself"-excuse is kinda lame. It's been over a CENTURY ffs!!! At this point, it comes off more egomaniac than anything, bc WDYM he's believed for 100+ years that HIS saying those 3 words could KILL someone?... And they say Lestat's the one with the God complex! 😂
(Just to be clear, this is NOT me dismissing Louis' trauma and grief over Paul! This is me saying: writers, either give us a proper loustat reunion, or come up with a better excuse if you wanna keep them apart any longer... Yes, I know they don't have to look far. Akasha's right around the corner. That's why I want the ILY sooner than later! 😭)
Interior: seedy underground bar 'Dr. Polidori'. Bright young reporter with no point of view Dale Jennings meets infamous vampire performance artist Baron von Kindergarten...
Exterior, daytime: Dale wakes up on a park bench, hungover and with no memories of the week past. His only leads to unleash his newly rediscovered investigative instincts on: two half-healed suspiciously shaped puncture wounds on his neck, and in his pocket an oldtimey calling card with only a name 'Lestat de Lioncourt' embossed in sprawling gold letters on one side, and nothing, no means of contact whatsoever on the back...
Oh, and his entire stash of video interview tapes are gone from his hotel room...
I think we've moved on from this beauty too fast, and I like this new version even more.
If you're upset they re-purposed the song for Gabriella... don't be! There's never only one correct way to interpret art.
For one Daniel Hart has confirmed it was written for Nicki originally. And you can hear it in every line. The song's placement in the episodes can't erase that. It's unfortunate that it didn't fit with the actual Nicki scenes, but I'm glad it found a place somewhere else.
For another if you want to think of it as Nicki's song within the episodes' context, you still can! Just look at the 2 scenes it plays in: Ep.1 Lestat is the only one awake in a huge hotel suite. Ep.4 he's the last one left in an empty tour bus.
He's clearly very lonely in both scenes, and wondering why EVERYONE always leaves. So he toils with this song. How you read the lyrics is up to you. Sure, some of the lines fit more than one person. 'Teach me how to kiss' could fit Gabi... 'should've listened & wrote 100 letters' could fit Louis... But ALL of these fit Nicki too, cause the song's written about him after all.
My point is: Lestat is all alone, feeling lost. Everyone left, and he's resigned to it. Who better to reflect that headspace than Nicki who's lost to him forever? See, Louis' and Gabi's songs at that point are a mix of anger and passion. Nicki's song is pure melancholy... Side note: We only ever see Lestat playing 'Hit the Lights' to himself (it might mean nothing, or everything... 🥺)
And here's how I reconcile the Gabi imagery playing over Nicki's song... Lestat just wants someone he loves to sit with him. But Nicki's long gone. He wasn't on speaking terms with Louis in ep.1. And Louis couldn't be bothered to pick up the phone after the shooting in ep.4.
He's struggling, he can't be alone, and Gabi is his last and only resort to reach out to (ep.1). Plus she's the root of all his abandonment issues in the first place (ep.4). 😭 However the song itself was never for or about Gabriella!
I was wondering why this reminded me so much of loustat... and then at that last part (7:07)💡: That's exactly why Lestat started the band after he found out about the book and got his heart broken again! 😭
And then I realized something else: my princess wasn't crashing out? She was actually doing everything right, exactly what science says she should be doing in that situation! 😏
Aww, what a heartbreakingly beautiful dreamscape PENULTIMATE episode! It's a mind bending, thought provoking, masterpiece of surrealism, suspense and horror! And now... that it has set the table and wet our appetite for the GRAND FINALE so scrumptiously, can we please have the release date for episode 8 SOON?
Seriously tho, I loved it! But WHY aren't there 8 episodes this season? 😭
Seriously seriously tho, Rolin and Hannah, what were you thinking? Why torture us like this?
A rant about ep. 7's placement as the TVL season finale
It'd be fine if tv shows still had 20+ episodes per season, and summer hiatus were like 3 months. But to dedicate one entire episode out of only 7 to this, to a dare-I-say-it 'filler episode'? Deliciously complex it may be...
This kind of episodes typically come before or after the big finale. I know it's setting up the Akasha season, so this is the calm before that storm. But you can't put a 2 year break between these two parts without delivering any resolution to tide us over!
(superficial spoilers ahead)
We don't get emotional resolution. I mean we get some character development: Lestat fully seeing the incestuous abuse as what it is, and finding back to his equilibrium (I was great/at least I did things/some of which I regret - paraphrasing here). Louis confirming to Armand that Lestat's been his one true love (next step: say it to Lestat), and acknowledging his coldness in a relationship as a cruelty...
These are all important milestones to reach, but are they finale-worthy? Lestat has yet to confront Gabriella about the abuse. And Louis? Baby steps, for now the silent touches and comfort between loustat... perfection, no notes! 🫠🫠🫠
We don't get the climax that the whole season has been building up to. Why would you move THE concert to next season, Rolin? Budget? (later) Time constraints? Maybe push your how-to-sever-a-soul-from-a-body set up to a season where it's actually relevant?
How is this good pacing? You didn't end s1 on Claudia's declaration of war, did you? No, you closed it out with murder night, with a BANG! Where's TVL's big action piece? No wolves, no children of darkness standoff, no concert to stop all concerts?
And then what? Unless you stretch QotD over 2 seasons, you kick season 4 off with a massacre, then bridge with a worldwide genocide, then end on a boss fight between ancients with godlike powers? 2 questions: is this a Marvel show suddenly? And is amc gonna back it with a REAL budget next season?
I'm sorry, Rolin & Hannah. I love the episode, I really do! But it's sorely misplaced as this season's finale. This isn't BtVS Restless (which came AFTER the s4 boss fight). This feals LESS like Angel season 5 finale (staring into the abyss ✅, character resolution ❌), and more like HotD season 2 finale (unfulfilled).
(Sorry about the old Buffy & Angel references, but we are talking about vampires, so...)
Who wants to talk about the synopsis for ep. 7 'The Failures'?
(Spoiler warning obviously)
It's from the BBC, don't worry about that date. Here's what I'm thinking:
1) "testing Louis' limits" = Dr. Armandstein experiments w/ lougina? Is this dj Sam in the teaser (below)? And is that a new trial script by Samuel Barclay (1st picture)? Was he working for Armand this whole time? Pls don't make Fareed a part of that betrayal 🙏🙏🙏
2) "Lestat revives memories" = How 'consensual' was Paris era armandstat really? And how did Nicki really die, M. le directeur artistique?
My 🔗: thoughts after ep. 3 - although I do think Nicki is dead, only it went down very differently. I think we saw a memory that was implanted by Armand, the same way he'd edited Louis' trial and 1973 memories.
3) "Daniel's 🎳 is disrupted" = pls let it be by Akasha! 🙏 She won't be amused by this grumpy ass great-great_x3000-grandfledgling of hers, when she sees what they've done to her bright-eyed keeper full of whimsy! (Oooh and I BET, she'll find an icecream scoooP somewhere - Armand 👀)
Go give my half crack/half genuine 🔗: speculations about ep. 7 and future seasons some love pls 😉 (the bits about 3x07 are in the middle of that piece, and the last paragraph is about Daniel specifically - fair warning tho: I wrote those parts fresh off ep. 6)
I f*king knew it! Louis' contact got upgraded from 'Thomas Pitty he's a w...' to 'Lui'! 🤣 Oh Lestat, you brat, never change!
I knew that's the 2nd layer they were setting up, when they gave us 'moi & toi' in ep. 1. The Thomas Pitty one was so funny too. It had me doubt myself for a while, but now here it is! Chapeau to whomever in the writers' room it was who thought up this 5-layer-cake for us:
1. twist reveal: Toi=Gabs
2. Lui being a homophone for Louis
3. Lui=HIM: It's a huge step up from Thomas Pitty... , but it's still kinda an insult? 😂 Remember Tom Anderson?
4. But it's kinda romantic too: 'moi-toi-lui' it's a very small family of words and it's for his family! 🥹 There's only one slot left... elle=TC?
Where do our boys stand in a potential vampire civil war?
This is part 2 of my Akasha vs Amel theory... 🔗: part 1
We all know Lestat is Akasha's designated prince consort. But he's also gonna carry Amel someday... Double agent, non? 😎 Bonus question: who do you think chose him first, Akasha or Amel?
Armand has already declared himself against the great conversion. So wouldn't his canon penchant for culling fledgling vamps make him the natural choice to become Amel's enforcer?
I think the show has given Roshamandes' pl arc to Armand... rip great-grand-papa Rosh🫗
It certainly fits with Lestat's comment about Armand causing more harm than Akasha. And if you need more convincing, just look at their names... 🤔 (It's actually one of the few things I dislike about this adaptation. They keep making the world of tvc smaller and more pedestrian. Wdym 500 is considered ancient now? I'll have the 5000yo sea farer from the bronze age pls!)
Louis couldn't care less about which side wins. He just can't let Akasha keep Lestat. 😡 He's in his luxury bdsm torture chamber, sharpening his favorite machete as we speak.
And here are my predictions for the next 3 seasons - according to my 🔮
(possible spoilers for seasons 4-6 & book spoilers for qotd, Memnoch, Prince Lestat ahead...)
Previously bts/unseen on season 3:
Lestat's music has already awakened Akasha. She might have been accelerating the great conversion through the Talamasca and Gabriella ever since. But she's still physically confined to where Marius keeps her atm.
Season 4: qotd + vampire civil war
3x07 After freeing herself she (kidnaps) rescues Lestat from whatever horror show Daniel & Armand have cooked up. The gremlin might lose a little something here. 👀
Random vamp/coven burnings all over the world -> Akasha's doing her thing, Lestat's her press secretary -> Armand has mysterious blackouts, intercut with past dm -> Louis is trying to get to Lestat, but has some choice words with Gabriella first (yep definitely just words 🔥) -> meanwhile open coven/gang wars, since nobody knows who's behind the burnings -> is it our favorite pyromaniac? (if you've paid attention above, the answer's no, but we don't know that YET) -> everyone has jungle forest dreams + flashes of vampiric origin story -> the children of millennia converge -> Maharet initiates human-vampire peace talks -> flashbacks from ancient times to modernity, of vampire lore intersecting with human history (i.e. the great family, the Talamasca) -> finale: Akasha is killed, Mekare's the new qotd
Season 5: totbt + Amel
Loustat & the body thief shenanigans (Louis I-killed-agent-david-talbot du Lac has to step up now, right?) -> 🔥situation is still ongoing, it's now revealed that Amel was puppeteering RoshArmand this whole time -> Lestat after getting his body back offers himself as the new vessel (bc he's more fun than Mekare and Armand combined 😁) -> but once he hosts Amel he goes into exile instead, where he records 'the failures' for Louis (remember: everything he does, he does for Louis + he's expecting to stay in exile for all eternity now. So how else is he gonna finally open up to Louis? But he has to do it secretly without Amel finding out just how important Louis is to him 🥺) -> et voilà full circle: the auction
If season 6 happens: Memnoch + Prince Lestat
Memnoch's a huge maybe - might get skipped and we go straight to vampire court. But I'm kinda leaning towards running both plots concurrently:
Lestat dissociates with Memnoch (ghostdia might be the bait), while Louis gets kidnapped (yeah you know by who... 😈). Well if Louis's in danger, then Lestat HAS to come out of his exile/Memnoch induced coma, right? -> welcome back @vampirecourtAuvergne.fr
Now after what dm just pulled in 3x06, I really need that Prince Lestat scene where RoshArmand meets the sharp edge of that cunty little bejeweled 🪓🙃 asap! And 1) no, one eye isn't gonna cut it! 2) that's only poetic justice for the beheadings. 3) I haven't found a punishment befitting the crime that was the revenge porn yet. Any suggestions?
...Oh have I forgotten to include present day Daniel? No, I haven't. He's in protective custody (cough:housearrest) in Marius' basement and playing with model trains. He'll stay there until his baby-vamp 🙃 gets fully screwed back on, bc Akasha ripped it right off when she came to fetch Lestat.
Let me treat this seriously for a sec... I think they each chose the one who "wronged" them the most.
Armand's pov: 77ys of suicide watch just for Louis to run off the second a tiny little white lie of omission (the trial!) got exposed? And what, no thanks at all? For his patience and care, for all the times he had to sit through tedious business negotiations when he could've just set ANY price and be done with it? And to add insult to injury, Louis had to turn HIS boy against him before leaving?
Daniel's just pissed that Lestat showed him up, that he, twotimepulitzerprizewinner!Molloy, isn't the smartest smartass in the room anymore.
