totally agree with everything in your last reblog re: the writing of the show and the drop sequence. out of curiosity, do you know what line rolin cut that was initially supposed to be before that scene? i wasn’t in the fandom then so didn’t realize that was the case
I think @virginiaisforvampires has the exact line that was cut somewhere. But, by and large, in summary, it was a line of Lestat telling Louis there was this "thing" inside of him that he didn't understand that gave him power he didn't understand.
It was a line that was said to Louis right before the drop.
And Rolin cut it because he thought it gave away too much too early.
But it is something that only gives away too much if you've read the books, IMO. Outside of those viewers, however, I think more show-only people might have at least begun to pick up that there was something vampiric going on with their fight as well, if that line had been left in. And not just viewed it only through a very human-domestic abuse lens.
A view which, btw, the writing hung a lampshade on about in the very next episode, with Daniel's "he only beat me the one time, officer" line. So Rolin and the show's writers very much knew how that fight could and would be seen by many people as well.
The problem was that that was never the only lens they wanted viewers to see that fight under. They honestly thought people would get that there was a vampiric nature level to that fight as well, and said afterwards themselves that they were surprised by the reaction to the fight, that so many didn't get that layer about it as well.
Well, sorry guys, but of course, people missed it. Because, being supernatural vampires or not, the fight itself -- that it wrecked the house and ended with the reveal that Lestat could fly -- was never enough to convey that aspect of it all regarding the root nature of what makes vampires vampires in this universe and how that can... affect them on other levels outside of the physical as well.
So yeah, of course many people missed that layer to it all when you cut the line that gave even a little hint to all of that about it. 😑
One more thing: I'd read all the Vampire Chronicles books up to Blackwood Farm before the show started. So I hadn't read the Prince Lestat Trilogy yet when I first saw that fight.
But I did know about a specific plot point that happened in the book Prince Lestat at that point when I did. And, along with some other things I knew from the other books I had already read, I picked up that something seemed to be off about that fight the first time I watched it. And that we would, for sure, be revisiting that fight in Season 2 and Season 3, for sure, given that Rolin has already said at that point that Season 3 would be The Vampire Lestat season.
And then, after EP106, @nalyra-dreaming pointed out a line Lestat had about the fight, and it all clicked for me what the show was doing/setting up to do at some point down the road.
And even figuring all that out? It didn't click for me why the show did that fight and drop in the first place until I read Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis last summer. I got to a specific thing in that book and, right after reading it, said out loud to myself, "Oh, that's why they did the 1x05 fight!" (And then came another reason, toward the end of the book, why they likely did it as well.)
So yeah, there is a long-term vampiric lore and story reason why the show did all of this with that fight and drop. The problem is that the show didn't set that reason up more, even in a little way, which I feel Lestat's cut line would have at least helped to do.
And cutting that line was looking at it all through the lens of knowing where you are going with it all and not wanting to "give away" too much too soon. And so yes, being too clever about it all when they did so.
