goose

[lexdelioncourt]

You know what, I think some of us moved on too quickly from the idea that TVL was Lestat's POV and all the characters were being filtered through him. People were very quick to remind us all of this when they wanted to deny that Armand and Daniel had a unique bond or that DM was even real at all, but somehow this argument got forgotten along the way.

And there's something I've been reflecting on with regard to this when it comes to Daniel and the argument that he's been flattened.

Now I thought of this when I saw this interview with Jacob:

Now if Lestat's POV is influencing the portrayal of Louis, why wouldn't that be true of other characters, particularly ones that he doesn't really like very much? Why wouldn't he portray Daniel—a two-time Pulitzer prize winner who was always on his ass, pissed him off, and then cut off his head—in a terrible and unsympathetic light? Why wouldn't he portray Daniel—the annoying fledgling of the guy who killed his daughter—as a stroppy teenager who uses Gen Z slang and straight up says that Lestat might be smarter than him (Daniel Molloy would NEVER).

I'm not saying that certain events never happened, because see this post, however what I am saying is that the Lestat filter, if it can colour Louis, then it's going to colour the others.

Lestat uses cringey slang in episode 1, a lot. So is Daniel really the one saying things like "yaoi manther" or did Lestat put those words in his mouth? Is Armand really saying "armends" and "girlies" or is that a Lestatification of all that? Armand mispronounces Amhurst when he emphasises the "H", just like Lestat with Worcester. He also says he's going to "lob" Regina's head off when the phrase is actually to "lop" something off. You could even argue that Armand speaking in his French accent and Daniel not questioning it is a part of this (although there could easily be other reasons for this too).

Now none of this explains why they made Daniel say so many offensive things—maybe he's just that much of an evil boomer. And none of this is to say that all the writing is perfect. But I do think that some of the things (particularly language things) that are being written off as OOC are actually like that on purpose.

[knight-in-shimmering-armour]

Daniel has been one of my top favourite characters in the show.

But now that the season has ended, I don't feel much trepidation anymore, saying that I don't like vampire!Daniel. (Whew it feels good to finally say it out loud.) I love him but that's only because of the groundwork laid by human Daniel in s1 and s2. I have felt this way since before the season aired from all the footage we'd seen of the season. But I felt I was wrong, unjustified in thinking this way because everyone raved about how cool they found vampire!Daniel. Now that the supposed "coolness" has been his downfall, I kinda feel vindicated. His ridiculous juvenile edginess is sooo corny. He has been completely stripped of his interesting personality.

Of all the things the show has ruined this season, and there has been many such things, his butchering hurts me the most personally. I will never get over how they massacred his character. I loved him so so much. An incredibly intelligent person. A serious, brilliant, respectable, formidable journalist. A dying old man, who held his own against two massively powerful supernatural beings, by the sheer strength of his intelligence and wit.

The writers saw fans enjoying his witty quips and sarcasm and took that one quality and flanderized the fuck out of it. He's primarily just an asshole now. I'm not saying he wasn't a fucking asshole in s1 and s2, because he fully was, but that assholery was one aspect of his character. And it blended organically with other facets of his rich personality. They got rid of all the layers, all the depth of his character and made him into a 70 year old annoying hormonal teenager, who is always pissed at everyone, and is egregiously insensitive and offensive all the time. And who apparently has no mind of his own now, and does everything his companion tells him to do without question.

It hurts so much, man. So so much.

Oh human!Daniel, I'll never move on from you. You'll always be precious to me. You'll always be my favourite.

[valkugo]

gayboy molloy + his mannerisms i'm obsessed with

[dxxtruction]

Lestat's season has the callous meanness of an internet troll trying to rile up a comment section by giving you his worst, coming in your room and throwing all your things in a tantrum, only to fumble into some honesty and sincerity by chance of still wanting to not be seen like a monster, over and over again, everyone you know is joining him in it too, even if that makes no sense, because the loneliness dude he's gotta not be the only one losing it - so in other words... almost the whole thing seems contrived, fantastical nonsense, for the characters to go on, and it gets nowhere. Louis seasons were an honest attempt at self reflection and admittance of history he's pondered a lot on (ie: an attempt at adapting the book it's based on fairly closely). In an odyssey of recollection he's decided he's now in the best state to tell this for that purpose. Even when it is revealed Louis has holes in his recollection still, it still felt confident enough to finally open up to truth, and let go of shame, and all the things which were in the way of living fully as who Louis wanted to be. Lestat is truly just vibes and to fuck shit up, when Louis was facts to get shit together. You felt driven by Louis to go on that with him, and feel threatened by Lestat who is just yanking your chain, telling you everything and everyone you know is the opposite of what you think, and he is frankly kind of annoying, which also didn't used to be an issue. That's what they've written, and it kind of sucks, because it also doesn't seem to have genuinely landed on a point worth grabbing onto. It just seems to quite actually have aimed to fuck this up.

[jumpscart]

Sometimes you will be a lesbian to your parents and a straight man to your partners parents and a gay man to your partner and a woman to your grandparents and out to your friends and stealth to your classmates and a nice young lady to the cashier at the coffee shop and then people on your computer will ask you to choose which of these identities you ACTUALLY are and which you are Appropriating The Oppression Of because don’t you know they contract each other. You can only be one thing solidly forever

[hellcatsandcars]

my friend sent me this and i am UNWELL

[holewithoutorgans]

S3 shouldve been Lestat open hearted and telling his story to draw the loves of his life to him, fucckkk:/. Who is this angry edgelord??? Where's my byronic hero?? LESTAT NEVER CARED ABOUT THE BOOK THAT DAMN MUCH .

I've been more concerned with other issues this season but Lestat is rendered the most ooc out of everyone:/. Its quite sad actually. Bookstat would kill s3 Lestat (s1 lestat lowkey would too).

Actually, really everybody is so damn mean spirited😭. Yes, Lestat can be spiteful but I wouldn't call him hateful! What happened to the heartbreaking and beautifully written prose that imbued the series with sincerity? Why is everything so detached and ironic? Why did he call Armand a "fuck cloud"? Why did you think i would find that clever or funny? Why is Eric Bogosian saying twink? He would just say faggot.

You lose so much when you're overly focused on dropping memeable lines for annoying subgroups of fans on twitter.

[lexdelioncourt]

Eric really said "we're here, we're queer, give us our own show so we can finally bang uninterrupted."

(Also talking excitedly of Daniel's future and not giving any indication he's leaving the show so jot that down)

Source

[fascinationstreetmp3]

Assad Zaman as Armand / Christopher Heyerdahl as Marius de Romanus

[holewithoutorgans]

"I planted the fred steins to fuck with your head" He would not fucking say that! Thats not why he did it! I've always preferred the ambiguity of it never being confirmed but whatever. Does no one remember the "you think I want to be hyped up, coddled, lied to" conversation??😭. It was a stupid and misguided attempt to massage Louis's ego a little.

The foundation of post paris loumand is that they both want the relationship to work! They NEED it to work actually. Desperately. They dont think they can survive with out each other.

Armand wanting to intentionally push Louis into a breakdown makes no fucking sense. How does that help his goal of keeping the relationship together?????????? Everytime Louis has an emotional outburst doing the interview, Armand is trying to shut it down. This season just butchers Armand, fuck.

[funeralspirit]

the writers themselves seem to not understand what that scene was even about. it's not important if armand planted the fred steins or not because the point of that scene was to show how little trust there was between louis & armand regardless if he'd put them there or not. the tragedy between their marriage is that they were doomed from the beginning because armand betrayed louis for the coven and helped orchestrate the death of claudia. full trust is impossible to achieve after a betrayal of that magnitude and the fred stein moment was a perfect example. in addition, that moment was meant to make us question armand when he stated louis asked him to erase the memories of divisadero. it's supposed to be ambiguous because it ties back to the theme of memory and point of views and who you trust to tell the story in the first place.

[hillhouseeleanor]

I know the “Vane called Flint gay for living in a house” thing is funny but I think in all seriousness Vane was calling Flint a class traitor for living in a house which is in some ways much funnier

[fuck-you-jack]

i love these tags so much

[ohwolfling]

Lovingly, y'all have to get better at and more comfortable with talking about sex work and sex workers if you're going to continue critiquing TVL on that note. Because some of y'all are tip toeing in a way that doesn't acknowledge that the show failed to even show this Louis they're claiming in s3, and also its a little dehumanizing to sex workers, when s1 went out of its way to show us them as living, breathing, real people DOING A JOB. SEX WORK IS LABOR.

Because my issue is that we saw Louis take the racial slur/heat from a John who rightfully got pummeled when he assaulted a sex worker. She's framed as CORRECT for fighting back and stopping that assault btw. We saw Louis and Miss Lily have a very clear understanding, though unspoken, that Louis was gay as the day is long. I believe the first sex worker we see is disabled, not as a bit or joke, and Louis addresses her by name immediately. It's Daniel implying harm and ill intent on Louis' part in those early scenes. But later in IWTV, we hear the way wealthy white men talk about their brothels and it's not at all warm or familiar...

I didn't see Louis coercing them or selling them against their will. And yes, there is always some level of ethical issue in sex work, especially as it's criminalized and relies on authorities turning a blind eye which also means they can manipulate sex workers and their whole house all the want. But from what the show itself gave us, Louis is practical and protective of the sex workers under his care. His only violence is making an example of Paul because he HAS TO. I think the show could've explored how Louis can compartmentalize anyone in his life into a calculated business asset, a means to an end, and I do think it's possible that his guilt with the pastor was genuine. But the SHOW chose not to do that.

Season 1 and 2 also establish that Daniel did sex work to fuel his addictions and perhaps an affinity for self harm. But it's then Daniel who refers to Armand as a rentboy. Armand, I *think* is the only person who says sex worker, but even then, it's unclear if Louis' using terms like "girls" or "hookers" when recalling the time period is supposed to be a derogatory habit or just part of the recollection, as that is what they'd be called.

I don't think Louis is a saint. I don't NEED or WANT Louis to be a Saint and if they'd fucking bothered actually adapting Lestat, that makes it all the more beautiful that to Lestat he IS sainted, not to mention the parallels or Lestat leaving a monastery and falling in love with/running away to Paris to be with Nicki versus Louis' desperate and self flagellating confession being interrupted by Lestat telling him he could have a life bigger than this religion and the limits of his race (which obv the show could've explored that not being 100% true as being gay & a biracial couple does still limit them despite their vampiric power). But if the show thought they were showing me a nightmare cold and cruel pimp, a master exploitation who dehumanized anyone at any time, they're outta their fucking minds.

Louis' father ran a sugar plantation and/or mill into ruin. Louis took the money he could selling it off to white business men who most definitely didn't want to help lift up a Black man. And we see how those men try to rip him off at the poker game (which also pisses Lestat off, so it's wiiiiiild the leaps and bounds they took from thoughtless French man to like... idk, Iggy Klan or Third Reich Bowie). Louis' call to being a pimp wasn't about owning women. It was the only avenue he had left to keep his family living the way they did. A white person falling from upper to kindle class is one thing. An entire Black family falling from the upper class in the Jim Crow south? There isn't a middle; There's only rock bottom. Did exploitation and violation lead the women who worked in his brothel there? Probably. But that's not unique to sex work. That's an issue of capitalism, of labor, and the additional challenges of being an unkept woman. I'm not gonna assume their Black boss who smoothes it over when they fight back is the worst thing that ever happened to them. And that's what the show has asked us to do all season.

And if the show wanted to get into how Louis' lashing out at those white businessmen likely harmed those women, it could've done that! But it didn't!

[roostercrowned]

what if Clerres was pronounced like “Claire’s”

[userarmand]

"After that speech, Armand carved an A in Louis’ chest. Anderson admits that he, Reid, and Zaman struggled to understand Armand’s “weird” move."

should probably tell the writers something if three for three actors don't understand why a character did something lmao.

whole house confused

[professional-rat-eater]

Armand also had his driver kill himself. If you want more proof this guy doesn’t plan anything out and only wants to seem like a meticulous mastermind, he said he had this guy drive him there and then made him slit his own throat. Good luck driving yourself home, idiot (affectionate.)

[casgirl]

i think grace teaching on erid was rocky babytrapping him. i think at one point grace was like the only thing i miss about earth is teaching my kids and rocky was like hmm...rocky make some calls.

[innerchildabortionclinic]

Do you threaten murder on everyone who gives you book recommendations?

it was ayn rand...

[lighthouseweeper]