Certain Lestans in AMC's IWTV fandom keep harping about "the tale that was told" as a thinly veiled way of exonerating Lestat of any wrongdoing or accountability, by accusing Claudia & Louis & Armand of lying about everything in S1 & S2. But it's interesting how they don't actually seem to be paying attention to the actual chronological order of events, and who's been telling which tales when, and for whom:
1917 - 1949: Claudia's diaries narrate HER life from HER authentic pov (via journaling), for HER private venting (folks keep confusing sincerity/authenticity for reliability)
1949: The Trial narrates LESTAT'S life from HIS compromised/ventriloquiized pov (via the coven script), for public consumption
1973: Louis narrates HIS life from HIS compromised pov (via Armand's Seismic Lie about "Banishment"), for public consumption. (These sessions are recorded on tape, pre-Armand wiping Louis' memory.)
2022: Louis narrates HIS life from HIS AND CLAUDIA'S compromised povs (via Armand's lies/memory wipes & the editorialized/missing diary pages), for public consumption
2023ish: Daniel narrates The Unholy Family's life & HIS encounters with Loumand from HIS compromised pov (via the Talamasca's edits), for public consumption
2025/2026ish: Lestat narrates HIS life from HIS compromised pov (via the documentary/music videos/TVL book/etc), for public consumption
"The tale that was told" in narrative form was FIRST told to the public BY LESTAT, as part of the Trial designed to have Louis & Claudia publicly lynched & KILLED.
Everything Louis has done since then is REACTIONARY, based on the words that came out of LESTAT'S mouth, and what LESTAT said about him & Claudia, and their life together, on that public stage in front of a bunch of hateful AF strangers who wanted Louis & Claudia dead.
The TVC fandom's always given the credit to Louis as THEE titular vampire who was the first one to publish a vampire's (auto)biography (via Daniel); but AMC's changed it to make LESTAT was the first one--because they changed the nature of the Trial itself.
In the books, Lestat doesn't talk about his tragic love life with Nicki & how he met Louis & who said "Come to Me" first & his affair with Antoine(tte) & the night Claudia was turned & Louis refusing to have sex with him & blahblahblah. In the books, the Trial's strictly about 2 things:
confirming who had a hand in having Lestat killed (was Claudia working alone, or was Louis in on it, too?)
confirming whether or not Lestat told them about the Great Laws
There is no tale--it's an interrogation that's quick & efficient. book!Lestat's forced to tell the truth, that Claudia was the only one involved in poisoning him & slitting his throat. Armand saved Louis's life, and Lestat went crazy with guilt & hid in his NOLA sad shack until he went to ground & slept for the next 100ish years until Satan's Night Out woke him up with their rock music in the modern day.
AMC is the one that made a gigantic deal about the Trial, and gods bless them for that, it was an incredible adaptive choice. 👍 But people in this fandom don't seem to realize that Louis' version of events in S1 (2022) & esp. S2 (1973) do NOT exist in a vacuum. Defensive AF Lestans are acting like the Trial is based on the things (read: lies) Louis said, when NO--what Louis' saying is based entirely around everything that went down during the Trial--especially the ramifications of "Banishment."
AMC!Lestat lied up & down that Trial (forced or willing), and Louis' been pissed ever since, cuz the Trial heavily impacted his idea of Lestat's character & vampirism as a solution to his problems; and whether or not he'd sold his soul to the white devil who never GAF about him and "paid the biblical price for his first love" by losing Claudia cuz he made the wrong choice by accepting Lestat's companionship--"snatching the piece of candy;" when he should've just "worn a different suit" or killed himself in the church like he originally planned.
So it's rather comical seeing the Lestans twist themselves into knots to point the finger at Tom Dick & Harry, everyone but LESTAT for the things LESTAT did that snowballed this entire effed up situation, including but by no means limited to just the Ep5 Fight. 🙄🤷♂️