Okay Maybe I'll stop being annoyed if I make a big post about this finally.
TLDR: it makes no sense for Claudia to lie to Louis about the train scene. Zero goddamn sense straight up no excuses.
Long version: lets go back to S1E6 for a moment. because watching it I personally always interpreted it as she didn't tell him anything about what happened on the train at all? LESTAT takes control of the narrative and spins a story to explain to Louis why she's back: "But to think our sister, impulsive tot that she is, was on her way to holiday in Europe. I'm so glad she decided the better of it." and Claudia sits in hateful silence and doesn't contradict him. ALL THREE of them KNOW it's a lie so there's no point in saying it out loud. They go back to "enduring."
So then a few days later Claudia is playing chess with Lestat and telepathically says "I've been having a thought the last few days, Louis..." and goes into her iconic monologue that ends with the declaration "I'm going to kill him." she's already decided she's "done enduring" and is just letting Louis know, calmly.
Now what she doesn't do is manipulate Louis with female tears. Mostly bc she DOESN'T NEED TO!! Louis already knows all the reasons why she wants to kill him. They're both perfectly aware Lestat is a piece of shit there's no reason to bring up any specific event bc there's plenty all three of them have been present for.
The impact of her speech is due to the simple and brutal honesty of it. she's only putting into words what both of them already know deep down thats why she says "The secret is, Louis... you want to kill him too, and you will enjoy doing it." And past!Louis closes his eyes and Dubai!Louis in voiceover says: "SHE WAS RIGHT."
And so they go on to conspire to kill Lestat etc. This is how it happened originally.
So I cannot understand how in a million years any of the writers thought it was a good idea to try and retcon this into "Claudia whined and cried and played the victim and told Louis Lestat threatened to do worse than rape her on the train" to villainize Lestat/get pity points/manipulate Louis into killing or hating Lestat/whatever fake motive you people come up with?? here's every reason it makes no sense:
• Claudia wrote about it in her diary and thats why we see that scene in the interview. telling Louis about it isnt necessary at all and I think its just as likely that she didnt say anything at the time (but thats just my opinion)
• but even IF during those few days after she failed to leave but before the monologue Claudia off-screen told Louis anything (true or false!) about what happened on the train with Lestat it didn't/wouldn't have changed a thing bc Louis is already on her side and on board to kill this fool!!! one little lie wouldnt sway him one way or the other & I know that & Claudia knows that
▪︎ okay but lets imagine she did lie at some point like the show keeps telling us. this would mean Claudia lied to him verbally/telepathically offscreen and then went on to write a fake diary entry too which Louis wouldn't even read until years/decades later. WHY would she go to the trouble of any of this she's got a murder to plan this is useless busywork with zero things to gain
• she did not need to lie or make up a story to villainize Lestat
Anyway it DOES make sense if you remember all misogynistic men think "women love to cry fake tears and make up sexual assault allegations against innocent men to ruin their reputation and get attention and sympathy"
How groundbreaking! I've only heard every single fuckboy rapist and MRA say it before.
The train scene originally served as the breaking point for Claudia where she painfully learned that escape from her shitty household is impossible and that the only choice she felt she had was to kill Lestat. It was about HER being trapped and desperate and backed into the corner to the point she decides to murder her father to free herself (and Louis) from him.
It was never about manipulating Louis or ruining Lestat's reputation with SA accusations.
It only became that after the misogynists in the writers room decided to turn it into that and focus on one little detail from two seasons ago. "NEVER FUCKING HAPPENED" "Did I threaten Claudia with rape on the train?" "Some joy I know, knowin' is how good I humiliated you in New Orleans, how I ginned up the train for the slave here. "Lestat said he'd do worse than rape me, Daddy Lou." Worked good, didn't it?"
S3 is obssessed with this idea of Claudia saying Lestat threatened to rape her when the scene we saw was not about that & Ive seen people be confused because most viewers took it as threatening to kill her... and for the reasons I've laid out she has no reason to lie about Lestat on the train to Louis or in her diary (and in fact Lestat is the one who originally lies and comes up with a fake story about what happened on the train like omg whats with the "no u" energy)
Someone in the writers room was projecting his sexist fantasies onto her and its blatantly obvious right
Claudia does not manipulate people like this. If you want examples of her manipulation, sure, there are multiple in this very episode. Ragebaiting Lestat by leaving their chest game unfinished is using his pride against him to make him blow up. The whole reason shes able to trick him into drinking poisoned blood DESPITE Antoinette's spying is because she knows how to get him to do what she wants and thats to bruise/stroke his ego (same with getting him to agree to the Mardi Gras Ball) like she plays this guy like a fiddle all day every day we know shes capable.
Notice how they wrote her being cunning and manipulative in S1....without making her into a misogynistic caricature using the exact arguments that men do to cast suspicion on women who report real sexual misconduct like they did in S3.
What happened to my show dude...
(Also before some fool says "but in the book..." show me exactly the page where Claudia ran away on a train and Lestat dragged her back and then she went to Louis and told him he threatened to rape her. I'll wait.)
