“Lestat is an abuser!!!”
No shit. Name a single vampire in The Vampire Chronicles who wasn't abusive, manipulative, or exploitative in some way. That's quite literally the POINT. Ann rices vampire are immortal children are frozen in their flaws, condemned to repeat cycles of cruelty and selfishness. Pretending (or god forbid believing) Lestat is uniquely monstrous is missing the forest for the trees.
Anns vampires were never written as aspirational. They were written as FLAWED *DEEPLY* flawed decadent disasters that REFLECT HUMAN CORRUPTION turned eternal. This and this alone is why people read and watch the series. The obsession with pointing out"Lestat is abusive" as though it's a revelation just proves you don't have the range or intellect to engage with nuance. You're actively asking for tidy morality tales in a series that's explicitly about moral decay, trauma cycles, and power imbalances.
If you asked me? Lestat stands out because of his *awareness* of his behaviors especially in his hindsight!!! He self mythologies through it and is more honest in EXCESS in his narcissism than HALF the vampires who pretend to be “better” than him (that you seem to foolishly believe).
I'm not excusing him. He's not an exception. He's just the rulebook, and my affinity for him is not one I'm going to apologize for or grovel to nobodies on the internet for. You only focus on him because he's louder, gayer and more theatrical about his behaviors than those who are literally written to pull wool over your eyes.
So yes, congratulations: you've noticed that vampires are abusive. Next step is realizing that's the narrative design, not a personal discovery.
Coming to my comment section with your weak remark about it doesn't exactly reek of intelligence either. If anything it just exposes how little critical thought you're capable of. If you seriously digested all this media and all you came to me with is “lestat bad” “he's an abuser btw” as your thesis? congratulations you've basically shown up to a graduate seminar with a coloring book.
