What are you doing with someone like me?

Sophie. She/her. 30s. IWTV, Good Girls, Succession. AO3 flashindie / fandom sideblog of @owlishgirl

[pynkhues]

when people argue about bottomstat and topstat are they arguing about what Lestat usually does, or arguing that he’s one or the other 100% of the time? Is that the yaoi brain poisoning? Because even apart from Louis canonically topping Lestat at least once on the show, and Louis canonically topping Armand at least once, it seems weird to think vampires who live forever would stick to one thing. Even most humans don’t do that, whatever their preferences.

but there’s a weird subset in twitter that get so angry at any suggestion of Lestat ever bottoming or being remotely feminine or not some massive beefy Hulk.

I feel like I could write a book on the fandom politics of this, anon, haha, but given this is the topic that got me doxxed, I do try to temper how I talk about it publicly.

Look, I will say that most, if not all of the people I know of who like bottom!stat (myself included), think he's vers and that he and Louis switch (although admittedly, I do tend to headcanon just personally that they have preferences), and I think historically that's been the case for at least as long as I've been in this fandom. There is a very strong subset of people (not just on twitter, trust me, they're here too) who are very committed to the concept of masc/top!/Lestat and fem/bottom!/Louis, and try to position their preference as not only as canon/the default, but as a form of activism. I still get - - mm, probably weekly/every ten days or so, I would say (so down significantly from what it was) anons telling me I'm racist for writing bottom!stat in fics / saying I don't think Louis' particularly fem. I just don't post them.

I think a lot of the arguments these days are a little rooted in the fact that there does tend to be more support with pushback these days than there were for a while (again, people [like me] were doxxed for this, which I think did quieten conversation for a while), which is in many ways a product of the growth within the fandom. It's - - yes. Ever interesting, haha, but I agree it's kind of nuts to imagine immortal creatures would stick to one role for eternity, both in bed and out of it.

[pynkhues]

I AM SO EXCITED THAT YOU LOVED IT TELL US ALL YOUR THOUGHTS!!!!!

I've watched it twice through now, and I'm genuinely still processing my thoughts! It moves so quickly and just feels so jam packed, I feel like I could watch it a hundred more times and pick up on more and more!! I started to reply, but then put on the second ep, so it kind of deteriorates into a bit of a live blog, haha, but hopefully I am vaguely coherent:

While I was watching the episode the first time, the word that kept coming to mind was tragicomic, and I was so happy to hear Rolin say it in the After Dark episode too, particularly in the context of Lestat as a character, because he is. It's funny and devastating and unhinged! As any show centred on Lestat should be!!

Already loved the songs obviously, but the work Daniel's doing too with the score is just incredible. It feels like such a beautiful progression of the compositions from the first two seasons, and I love the way it plays with different types of orchestral arrangements and different genres and more stripped back sounds. I really love the jazzier music over the hotel opening scene and how it switches to something orchestral when we get to the final fight, and the way that guitar piece across the end of Daniel and Lestat's interview on the bus in particular builds to Lestat singing those couple of lines in the hotel as he texts Gabrielle, it's just really beautiful.

Speaking of, I love the scene of Lestat and Daniel on the bus. Their dynamic already feels so different, and I laughed at the transformational trauma line given Eric obviously spoiled that but got away with saying Sam said it to him instead of Lestat. The way both of them go through a spectrum of nuanced emotions in that scene though is incredible, and I LOVE that Daniel wouldn't let the childhood stutter line go, and that it's specifically something Louis told him, even if it didn't seemingly make the book. A really nice way to show that Louis told Daniel more than what we saw, and that those things were real in a way some things in the book weren't. Also love that it became such a scab for the episode to pick at.

Concert scenes were awesome, but I feel like we knew that already.

The doppelganger also sent me, and as I just said, had me making eyes re: the Body Thief arc, haha.

Still love the scene from the IGN clip. Lestat and Louis at their flirtiest before the betrayal of it all!

The band!! The entourage!! Love all of them already, especially Dee who got one of the funniest lines of the episode. Also I YELLED at Lestat suggesting more frequent showers in the band room at the end of that scene.

"You're like some wet clothes in a coin op dryer, just 265 years round and round. Why are you so sad?" SUCH a great line.

ALSO: GIVING THE PAPS MY PUSSYCAT!!!

VERY curious what they're doing with Baby Jenks, and I'd speculated that she'd be the connecting point between Lestat and Louis and Bruce and the Fang Gang, but it's nice to have that confirmed. I hope they do delve into the darker stuff with her too, but we'll see.

Lestat vomiting talking about listening to transactional sex through the adjoining walls before Gabriella comes at the end of the episode, and they have, well. Transactional sex, just not in a way involving money, ate me up.

I know we knew already, but him calling Louis Mr. du Lac killed meeee, as did him immediately regretting calling Louis insane, haha.

BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE TWIRL TWIRL OVERSHARE

The elevator orgy scene is! SO Much!

Describing his rockstar act as a bawdy burlesque, I know that's right, haha.

"We are the children of darkness reborn." [hysterical laughter] "Jesus fucking Christ" SAM REID, THE ACTOR YOU ARE!! Which I could say about basically every scene in this episode, but that one sent me to the moon.

'"This is why gods prefer hiding in clouds, there's nothing there but water waiting to fall."

Just that entire last sequence with Gabriella's arrival and Lestat age regressing - - GOD. I feel like I need to watch it a hundred more times, I'm genuinely obsessed and thinking about it already relentlessly. Dam is just unbelievably good in it, a total open wound already, even before he stutters, and I just am screaming into my pillow. What an episode! What a show!!

[endiness]

[kinkydorah]

ASSAD ZAMAN as ARMAND THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 1.01

[lestatscunt]

lestat's stutter coming back the moment he sees gabriella for the first time in hundreds of years and says her name

[fascinationstreetmp3]

Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy Interview with the Vampire — 3.01

[pynkhues]

TVL SPOILERS

.

Soooo it HAS to be Lestat in Raglan's body????

They're definitely setting it up to look that way re: Lestat as Raglan, but I agree with the second anon too that it could be a red herring and was a bit 👀 re: the doppelganger as well! It felt really potentially loaded, and it would make sense if it's a part of the plan to keep Sam playing Lestat in the Body Thief arc (even if he might be for a time in Raglan's too), because as you said, that arc's more about being in a mortal body than it is about changing the way he looks. Those dynamics were played as a really interesting beat at the auction house though, so I can't wait to see how it all plays out!

[texasbama]

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 3.01 'DETROIT'

[pynkhues]

So how come Gabriela is called toi(you)?

It's hard to know at this stage, but my initial thought is that it feels like it might be in conversation with Louis' 'me and you' monologue to Claudia from 2.01, and I suspect it might be a similar narrative throughline with Lestat clinging to Gabriella when he wants, but won't let himself have Louis, just as Louis clung to Claudia when he wanted, but wouldn't let himself have Lestat.

[pynkhues]

I haven’t been able to watch but someone said the bellboy hasn’t entered yet at that point? But if so, that does seem like they shot it ambiguously because that distinctly looks more like bouncing than thrusting…

(x)

Mm, I'd need to watch it in full again, but that whole sequence is out of order (and Lestat keeps jumping around in time because he's off his face), so I don't necessarily think when the bellboy is shown to come into the lift is an indication of all that much beyond the fact that he joined in at some point and left before Lestat and Dee got out into the hallway? Agreed though it's more bouncing than thrusting!

[endiness]

[pynkhues]

I haven't watched the episode yet and am mostly trying to avoid it until I can but am I seeing things? Vers Lestat, at minimum, confirmed?????? Did they really give us this?

https://x.com/wolflioncourt/status/2063346716825305475

Um, I think they did, anons, because that's how I read that shot, haha, especially when compared to the more obvious thrusting ones and with the earlier line from the doco about both ways and guessing who gets the fangs and who gets the vodka bottle, which also seems to me a comment on both his sexuality and versatility, but I do think it's deliberately shot in a semi-ambiguous way too. I choose to read it that way though, hahaha.

[pynkhues]

I'm still so confused how is that first person who shared the link getting the episode early? I'm still not seeing it on amc+ australia? Can a fellow australian confirm this.....

There are two ways to get AMC+ here, one is the app itself, which is pretty terrible unfortunately, and the other is as a channel on Amazon Prime, and it’s the channel on Prime that has both the episode and the After Dark eps. I already had AMC+ through Prime as I get it bundled with Shudder, and it was all there when I woke up this morning. My guess is it’ll be uploaded to the AMC+ app itself at 5pm today, as they said on Facebook. It’s - - a bit of a mess, haha.

[lestatdelioncuort]

Jacob Anderson as LOUIS DE POINTE DU LAC

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT | 3.01 "DETROIT"

[saryasy]

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (2022-) 1.04 The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood With All a Child's Demanding

[pynkhues]

I'm surprised AMC doesn't want to change when other countries get the episode so that it comes out in the US first. Isn't that the main audience they care about with viewing numbers, and doesn't having it out so many hours earlier make it less likely they'll view it legally? Or is that not true somehow? Is the number of people who are going to be online during the day on Saturday to download a file of an episode and watch it just not big enough? And is that mostly the hardcore fandom who will rewatch it, for the most part, legally on AMC if they can? Someone who talked to Sam after the concert said this: i told him we’re so excited to see him this season and he said “make sure you actually watch it on the amc. i mean pirate it, but then do with it on amc ;)”

So is the pirating an issue, or not really? And if it is an issue, wouldn't it be easy for AMC to just change the release times in other countries?

I actually think it has to be a part of AMC's marketing strategy at this point, because it was the exact same with both Killing Eve and the original run of Orphan Black with Australia/New Zealand getting the episodes almost 24 hours earlier as a result of timezones, and the subsequent flurry of activity across the fandoms that that inspired. Australia's actually used as a testing ground for media a lot too because our population's so small and contained, so I do think that partially plays into the early releases here to gauge general audience reaction and make projections on international viewership based on this sort of 24-hour container.

I think as a part of that they probably do anticipate that for shows like this, there'll be people pirating and distributing the episodes internationally early, but I think they've probably learnt that it's worth it because the people doing that will be mostly in fandom, and as a result a) will be re-watching the show anyway and b) talking about the episodes online, which means it's generating a lot of buzz, build and engagement before the general international audience actually picks it up. That can create a pretty big digital footprint for them, which I think ultimately is something they find valuable in terms of organic marketing in a way that brings more legitimate viewers than it might lose them.

It's definitely an interesting strategy though, and again, I doubt it's not one given this has been a factor with multiple shows for over a decade. Also maybe interestingly, they don't do it for every show - Talamasca for instance was released here on the US timezone, which suggests to me that they're specific with the shows they do this with.

[lioncourtz]

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 01.01 | "Detroit"