this is my story corner @taleteller - Tumblr Blog

I'm going to wait until next week and watch both episodes together.

This is a quote from the production designer (Andres Cubillan) The way that the creative acts is so weird to me. Is that unfair? I mean, who is making this a competition but you? Nobody made you bring up the other characters.

Also in this article he references that Lestat probably crafts the apartment for Louis but he describes none of what that would mean 😪

Source

usaginoir

Can we seriously discuss the language being used ? “What does his skin tone look like against these colors?” ???!?!? They never say that shit about a white character

blackgirlasis

This kinda shit is why people are complaining. Do people really not see how weird this is?!

taleteller

The quotations highlighted in the original post are quite sensational, but I recommend clicking through and reading the entire article for a more complete picture.

Reading the article itself really helps bring home the creative approach of the person in question, the production designer, as one focused first and foremost on the look and feel of the show.

In so far as the interview represents the perspective of someone whose job is visuals-first, filtered through a journalist, it’s very illuminating. This is after all a television show, which is expected to do a lot of its storytelling through images.

The article also presents a number of instances of the production designer realizing and acknowledging in hindsight some personal knowledge gaps –practical, artistic, historic— in addition to those deficits that remain elusive at the time of the article.

Taking all of this into consideration, I invite anyone to explain how this doesn’t underscore the obvious and repeated assertion from the production team its highest levels of operation and well-considered presentation of this season have treated a PERSON of color as a slightly puzzling set piece.

#explain it to me like I'm five years old #may we all aspire to such levels of mediocrity #a self-confessed fan as the interviewer. I'm sure #the most important thing is that Lestat not fade into the background #quick question: what does the production team who worked on the former aristocrat's apartment think the French Revolution was about?#I think between describing Lestat's intentionally sexual table he can put his feet up on #and the recollection of pushing back on the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of the most expensive flooring for Lestat's character work #is the perfect place to discuss Lestat's Boyfriend Of Color

??? A) Claudia didn't want to not die enough B) Louis was never really in danger of dying from sun exposure C) Louis was malnourished from refusing to drink enough blood D) Claudia's concentration of Akasha-blood was too low as Lestat's second post-Akasha fledgling E) Louis AND Claudia had too low concentrations of Akasha-blood due to being a generation removed F) Whoops, forgot Louis and Claudia have Akasha's blood, too

#if there weren't so much effort to distance s3 from s1 and s2 I could believe this would actually be addressed at some point #if only the show had the time or opportunity to delve into how vampiric power is passed from maker to fledgling #Is it all or nothing or are there gradations? And if there are gradations are there other contributing factors?#someone get Fareed in here so we can discuss vampiric nature/nurture

sinsegyes

#oh he doesn't fuck with mr. woe-is-me my slave mother passed her barbaric coloring to me #which I was allowed since I'm an illegitimate bastard with no duties or responsibilities or expectations #and so those savages thinking me like unto a god nearly pulled a wickerman on me!#wow so he's really not a fan of mr. and that's why I was vulnerable to those backwards savages who I encountered while wandering aimlessly #but my blue eyes and blond hair singled me out amongst learned roman civilization #luckily their silly little ideas are so far from enlightened reality so I became the supreme specimen of undead prowess before you now #“those quaint northern savages! they're really very nearly as bad as those evil war-mongering monsters of the orient aren't they?#“what a relief it is to be a scion of the civiized evil-denouncing western world! don't you agree?"#I wonder why

livingincolorsagain

like sorry but his daughter died a horrible traumatic death and he unwillingly was in a relationship with the man responsible for it for 80 years and then the man he chose to open up to sold him out and that group he sold louis out to used louis’ pain and grief to manipulate him and have him kill the coven and bruce and it opened up all the old wounds and he came across someone who looks JUST LIKE HIS DEAD DAUGHTER. and he’s alone and lonely and hurt and grieving and no one even thinks he’s worthy of or deserves an apology for everything they’ve put him through and yet somehow he’s the worst. he deserves no empathy no understanding no compassion. everything he does must be malicious and selfish and evil. his pain his grief his suffering doesn’t matter at all. it never did.

ldpdlarchive

#I would like to hear more about this whole situation from both of them please and thank you 🥰#ESPECIALLY Regina #What do you MEAN Louis offered you that much money and you're still keeping the diner job just to be safe?#iwtv #iwtv s3 #iwtv spoilers #gifs

Tl;dr: if the show’s really going to try to use Louis as bait or cover their storytelling, they might start by actually using him as more than a semi-regularly timed reminder of Lesat’s capacity for ~~humanity or whatever

How astute of the writers to realize Regina is one of the only people I care about at all in this story.

Why present Regina telling Louis she’s worked out why he’s drawn to her first and then Louis swearing she’d never guess his reasoning? It’s backwards to what happened and doesn’t make any sense in that order unless her looking like Claudia isn’t actually important to Louis at all or a contributing factor to their whole arrangement.

How has Lestat ever kept a secret in his life? “Oh, Greece, where TWMBK live. Oh, did I mention I have the blood of Akasha in me? I already did? Well, I do.”

Alright, Album 41. We’re… not even halfway through-- what the fuck does Lestat mean his first coffin had Magnus’s likeness in it. Oh, wait, right. He’s referring to Magnus’s coffin. Why does Lestat consider that his first coffin?

Lestat must be stopped. That list of approved/discarded song titles? Awful. Why does Black Licorice have two check marks AND a star? And what the fuck is When I Call Out Your Name. I actually would love for Lestat to just be the most romantic ever, but instead he keeps having to do all this other bullshit instead.

“one of Mr. du Lac’s redirected moods” At this point I’m demanding a refund from Lestat’s therapist for myself.

17 takes isn’t even that many, Larry.

Where is Lestat hanging out that’s 1) 7,000 square feet and 2) considered his coffin? The studio?

Technically. Everything the audience has seen Lestat do since Paris is posthumous. So I don’t know why he keeps using that word/bringing it up. 😂

How exactly is “But I, Amel, digress” meant to be interpreted except for, “Amel is the one speaking?” That is weird albeit possible syntax for, “I digress, Amel,” but also it would imply Lestat is speaking to Amel, not an unknown and random auction winner. Which. Either way. What.

And why does that guy look like Sam (the vampire, not the actor)?

Of course Christine has a sex dungeon. Of course it’s wallpapered with billable hour invoices. Of course Lestat claims that’s true even if he just made all of those details up.

The casual intersplicing of Lestat’s (acknowledged) hallucinations with reality is actu-- Louis spotted. This no longer feels good. 🙁

Oh, only that one album was/will be performed live once.

Which is more interesting: Louis actually never shows up in person, or Lestat keeps hallucinating Louis as he was before even when he’s there in person now?

The way Lestat looks up at his Louis hallucination for approval. If only he acted like Louis’s approval was that valuable to him in the course of his every day life.

I have no questions about why Gabriella would inflict Sam on Lestat, but I do want to know how she got out him out from underneath Louis’s alleged control.

Both Louis and Lestat said their hallucinations obey the laws of physics, yes, even when that means they have to deal with opening and closing all doors. 😂 Their psychoses are quite matched.

“The drums have to sound like death approaching” made me think about Louis’s description of their hearts in the church before Lestat clarified he’s repressing a traumatic flashback to Marius yanking him out of the ground like a stubborn carrot.

Unfortunately, I also think being left at the altar is a comparatively mild wound, given all possibilities. But that Yoko Mirren was well-crafted and deserved (with respect to Yoko. I don’t know enough about Mirren).

Oh, Lestat’s self-aware! “Three-century train wreck”. OK! So now what’s his excuse?

This breakdown of the instruments is corny, it’s very appropriate the world’s tiniest violin is playing in the background.

“My husband killed me much more elegantly than this, I know he has no comparison, but could you at least TRY to complete? 🙄” Lestat is never beating the down bad allegations. His husband, sure. But not the allegations.

Akasha. 😍😍 I’m excited to see her on screen! Not for what’s to come, probably. Although. Maybe. 🤔

...What is happening. Why is Marius digging blond-haired, blue-eyed orphan fledglings out of paupers’ graves to take over his job??? I have more questions, but they are all book-informed, and the show is the show.

Planning on a single in-memoriam concert? For Lestat? For humanity??? What is Gabriella planning?? For Lestat makes since, given how fatalistic he’s being.

Oh, ok, I missed that with the whole dead/exiled Jarda bit, they’re genuinely pretending for the public that Lestat died. Not that that makes any sense if he’s a vampire, unless the band’s official stance is “of course we’re not really vampires”, in which case, again: why were (because they don’t seem to be anymore!!) so many vampires so pissed with Lestat singing his little songs with his little human hostages band?

I don’t know, actually, I’m with Larry, let’s talk about Vegan, AA Alex drinking and eating meat again.

80 years, Marius says. But didn’t Lestat say he was buried longer during the lynching in Paris?

Ah, Akasha specifically requested Lestat. That’s why Marius went out and brought him and said it’s Lestat’s turn to be the keeper now. And what is this about a tree of vampires? A family tree of vampires? I want to know more about that. Who’s been making it? Who’s been keeping it up to date? Is it up to date? Is Claudia on it now? Does it still exist in the modern day? Are people judging Lestat for how many fledglings he has already😂.

Who is Enkil? I can’t tell from the quick glance at his face.

“Was Enkil?”

Disregarding the books. Disregarding the books.

Alright, so Marius isn’t dependable and is a drunk party boy more interested in his own pleasure than his duty even knowing that neglect of Akasha and Enkil will hurt himself. What, did Marius go back up topside and drag Enkil down in pieces and then lay him beside Akasha like an unfinished puzzle, just “eh, good enough”?

...Marius being a party boy wiped out vampires. And now Gabriella is in support of the Great Conversion. What the fuck. Sure, why not.

“I don’t like being alone.” Lestat. I promise. We noticed.

How fucking big is Marius? 😂

So is Marius still with Akasha and Enkil, or did Lestat go, “Yeah, sure, I’ll look after them”, and then just… not do that??

Album 46. Really cruising along, here, and yet very much not when the season only has two more episodes.

Yesssss, Louis getting to talk about his work and how much he knows and how good he is at what he does. Louis should get more credit, whatever he works on, he always does it well. Someone should have told him about being an eternal stude--- Louis, what. Who’s watching what, now. Also, aw, he can say, “I’m gay,” now, but he’s still not great with, “I’m a vampire” except in extenuating circumstances.🤭

I should not be laughing about Louis being like, “Yeah, I saw the pervert vampire-dick-riding crowd Meyers left out in the cold after she got her checks and said Won’t anyone think of the poor not-so-y-anymore-a stans?”

I mean, I think Louis would actually be fine with getting to talk about mundane shit, things he’s proud of figuring out, the way he keeps surviving despite all the horrors, with someone who looked like they wanted to hear it about him, even if he wasn’t getting to say it to Claudia’s (literal) face. He just wants to talk to anyone who wants to listen to him. He was so content talking to Claudia about the Paris art scene.

...I’m going to be honest, I did not before this moment consider that Louis would miss Madeline. Does Louis miss Madeline? Whose idea was the Madeline stand-in, his or Regina’s?

AND WHO DECIDED THEATER KIDS MAKE CLAUDIA!REGINA MOODY!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I don’t even know if I can watch this, Louis’s so put out by the Madeline simulacrum.

I just really want to know who decided how this was going to go. Because it’s not just Louis talking to Claudia again, it’s Louis talking to his daughter sister daughter, who’s happy and fulfilled with a life away from him. Claudia’s visit is short-term in his fantasy. She came to see him, but she’s leaving again.

And it’s also a reenactment of their last night together before they were betrayed and abducted and brutally lynched. Louis. 😭 Can we take Louis’s suffering and give it to everyone else?

Also, I’m waiting for Louis to run away from this/tell Regina he actually doesn’t need to watch her making out with…is this woman Regina’s friend? A flatmate? Girlfriend? On the one hand, yes, Louis wants to see a vision of his daughter happy and loved (literally the image in Madeline’s mind that carried him through transforming her), on the other hand… he so clearly does noooootttt want to be seeing this. His expression is awful.

Is that fucking Raglan.

Is this supposed to be romantic???

So Daniel’s always been a parasitic, disastrous, entitled, in-denial piece of shit. Got it.

I genuinely do not care about this.

The only thing of interest or, arguably, any truth in this is finally talking about Gabriella’s actual identity. And of course all Daniel hears is “more power?? 👀”

Oh, Louis, you never stood a chance. You and Lestat didn’t need pre-nups, you needed therapy. Mood-stabilizers. Restraining orders for Gabriella. Lestat laughingly singing along to I want you to you want me, etc. etc., and then setting the radio on fire violently five seconds later. Yeah. That’s the mood. Insight doesn’t help.

Why is Lestat’s accent stronger than when he came out of the earth?

Lestat really does best when given structure, purpose, and routine.

Awfully bold of Lestat to get pissed at his daughter asking who made vampires when he did the same. At his husband asking if he’s evil when Lestat asked the same. And by bold I mean he needs another 1000 hours of anti-bias training, stat.

No one in the studio with Lestat is at all concerned with his tears and clearly in progress breakdown because why should they be.

I did think Lestat running into the sunlight was some kind of stunt for the band, but I did not expect it would be a repeated attempted to capture the proper amount of torture for the record.

He chipmunked himself. 🤣🤣🤣

Album 49. Hm.

Louis, please. 😭 This regression/exposure therapy/store-bought pseudo-fix-it revisionism for your own life is not doing what you think it does for your mental health. Could we maybe just start with some re-parenting? Do you want a stuffed animal? Let’s start with a stuffed animal. I think you’d liked a Squishable. They have food shaped ones!

But I do want to hear more about Lemeul. 👀

Louis. Really. Just wants a friend. Which he deserves.

Where did Regina get that diary.

I don’t care, I don’t care, who wouldn’t take the opportunity to do anything you want/everything you’ve ever been denied on the strength of your fun new desperately sad and desperately lonely companion’s unlimited money and power?

Regina, you are SO loved, but also please be gentle with Louis because he… is not loved.

What happened to Akasha’s hair? Ah, it’s just a weird angle, everything is fine.

The cake and cabbages I get, but what is that other thing on the table? Just a rock?

Lonely baby Lestat and lonely baby Louis. Can we get someone on this, please?

This man needs mood stabilizers the way few people have ever needed mood stabilizers.

If this were a better fandom, there could be much made of Louis benefiting from Lestat having had to learn to take care of Akasha’s hai-- oh, look, every time I start thinking something soft and forgiving about Lestat, he has to go and ruin it. Trying to bait Enkil about both his brother’s effigy being molested and himself (allegedly) molesting Akasha. Class act, Lestat.

So how long has Lestat been here, exactly? And where did Marius go? 1900, thank you for a definitive year.

Lestat’s most formative memory of “come to me” being the experience of an unarguably more powerful being overpowering him makes him levying that accusation in particular against Louis in the lynching even more heinous. Could have been a romantic gesture between the two of them at some other time in completely different context, but no.

Sam regrets so much, and he deserves to regret even more.

I am annoyed by the “he’s a whore”, but that’s so much tamer and less hateful than I’d feared from this show. That being said, what fucking nerve! Lestat, claiming Louis’s a whore in between fucking everyone and his literal mom!

I want a baby!Lestat in the modern era AU.

Lestat. Do you want to talk about the way you’ve linked your mother and your husband in your mind?

Lestat’s going to snap the fucking string, twisting the tuning peg that way.

Does the band know Sam’s a vampire, too? What is Alex doing? Actively recruiting for the cult he got pulled into but hasn’t talked about? Actually, yeah, Alex has been on screen a bunch this episode already, and there’s been no discussion about him looking out into the crowd and seeing his fucking sponsor while Lestat screams about getting depressingly mid hole and by the way, surprise, your supposedly miraculous salvation is ALSO a vampire, and apparently one of the WORST. Is someone going to talk to Alex about that????

Louis. 🥺 “She’s not our daughter? But she could be? Sometimes I feel like she might be? Do I want her to be? Can I want that? Or is that bad? It feels bad.”

Stop, no, no more writing scenes where Louis cries, please this is devastating. And the way he reins it back in because he doesn’t get vulnerable and cry in front of Lestat anymore.

ANNNNNND LESTAT IMMEDIATELY PROVING WHY. Came running when Louis called, but first Lestat wants to whine about Louis not paying him enough attention, grow up! If Lestat wanted help, he could have called! Louis called when he wanted help! Louis called when he thought Lestat wanted help! It’s not Louis’s job to anticipate every time Lestat wants help when Lestat won’t bother to ask for it himself!!!

Louis doesn’t have to have an answer for not calling after Lestat got shot, LOUIS was shot, at a much younger age and under more harrowing circumstances, and then Louis got on with hanging the alderman up as one of the only good examples of helpful signage especially for that time, and Lestat laughed and said it didn’t matter if people were being burned alive and chased through the streets because Lestat thought Louis had never looked hotter and they should celebrate!

I love that Regina doesn’t even recognize Lestat at first. And then does.

Poor fucking Regina. Developing all kinds of previously unconceived of sympathies for Claudia, who would have had to deal with these two as her parents, non-stop, night in and night out, for years. The yikes in her head could not be more obvious.

Ah. Lestat is not unmoved. Not nearly as unmoved as he’s trying to pretend. As he should be. I hope seeing Regina alive and living is really drive home to Lestat even more how much he failed Claudia.

I fucking love Regina. She’s just getting out ahead of whatever ridiculousness Lestat is about to unleash, I don’t even believe she genuinely for a single second believed Louis would spring Lestat on her without warning and expect her to go along with it, especially when Louis already asked her not to imitate Claudia’s accent anymore.

I want to know more about Claudia’s heart murmur, actually. 👀 Why did the vampirism not fix it, when did Lestat realize it, how soon would she have died in early 1900s Louisiana with it?

My first thought when Lestat said Regina wasn’t anything like Claudia was outrage he would gaslight Louis, but then they were both just being the parents in a fairytale when presented with an imitation and responding “That’s actually not our daughter, did you think we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference?” Which is actually kind of cute.

Maybe don’t get yourself into a position to be murdered again, Lestat, have you tried that? He’s always so sulky, but if you say so, he gets defensive and pissed.

Is Lestat going to write a song for Claudia, now?

Yeahhh, I hate this. The time for being tender about your child is so, so, so long past, Lestat. He couldn’t even muster up more than 10 seconds of continuous vulnerability with his own husband about their dead daughter. With his husband! Her other parent! Get help!

Sam is also confused. 🤣 But also Sam helped kill her, so actually. 😑

Lestat trying to play off the significance of everything that happened to Claudia as sadly predictable, inevitable, and in no way influenced by him when all of that is actually exactly opposite to reality makes it difficult to turn around and feel sympathy for his devastation over his daughter being lynched. Especially when Lestat goes around earnestly sharing that regret and devastation with everyone except Louis, Claudia’s other parent. But no, let’s make sure Sam and the band all witness and are stirringly moved by Lestat’s 3!!! minute tribute to the daughter he helped get brutally hunted down and killed.

I’m sorry, even Gabriella gets to hear directly from Lestat that he’s both saddened by and regrets what happened to Claudia before Louis does? If Louis ever does????

No, Lestat whimpering three years ago about how Claudia looked at him for help and he didn’t do anything because he didn’t think it was his place to—a declaration that Lestat didn’t even have to finish putting into words and saying out loud because Louis was so overwhelmed by his own grief he reached out for Lestat immediately as the only other person Louis figured could understand what he was feeling-- doesn’t count!

And after the only words Gabriella had to say about Claudia at all were so disrespectful!

Lestat is forever doing shit and then being all stunned Pikachu when there are consequences and ALSO "🥺 help me! I don’t how this happened!” Exhausting.

And hey, can we talk about why Marius is so intent on Akasha being unresponsive and inanimate on the slab.

Akasha is beautiful, no, can we stay here a bit longer, please? I want to stay with Akasha. She’s great. We will not discuss what she is speaking of.

Lestat should definitely continue to regret every way he wrong Louis, but also can we please stop coming back to these images of Louis being brutalized again and again, especially when the writing is still brutalizing Louis.

I see. It’s not my fault I don’t appreciate The Vampire Lestat’s songs, it’s just that I’m insufficiently vampiric. I literally can’t appreciate them! 😌

...Is this idiot about to turn the whole fucking band. Can’t we just… give them a little blood before a recording session and let that be that. That’s what’s most likely to happen here, right?

Does he consider himself Lestat’s personal fucking custodian or something, constantly trailing behind like this to collect the messes Lestat leaves in his wake????

I have to say, though, that’s the only interesting thing I’ve seen him accomplish this whole season.

I was just about to say I was underwhelmed with the Louis/Lestat scenes even in this episode, and then forgot to stop the video before the first few seconds of the next episode preview, and then remembered, oh, right. The celebrity couple dig hasn’t happened, yet. That… could be fun. Maybe. I guess.

I don’t know anymore, I’m just tired.

#iwtv #iwtv s3 #iwtv spoilers #agonizing/exhausting as it was I miss the adrenaline of being up at odd hours to watch (and rewatch) as soon as possible #and the anticipation of waiting for everyone to have reasonably caught up so everyone could scream together in excitment and delight #now most of it just feels like homework to slog through for new Louis image #just something that has to be got through the sooner the better #and then there's never even enough Louis image #and the pattern that's been emerging of tagging acknowledgements of racist behavior as “critical” has been noticed #opposition to racism should be the default neutral position #the fact that it isn't is a big contributor to the overall degradation in quality #no matter how well a plane gets landed the passengers aren't going to forget the turbelence or the oxygen masks dropping on their heads #who gets excited about flying after an experience like that?#I thought I'd miss the weekly watch and debriefs with my friend who decided to wait until everything was over to watch all at once. I don't

Criticizing from a position of ignorance is just hatred for the sake of hatred.

Always cite your sources.

#does your lit teacher know about the way you treat receipts?

We can’t have conversations about what it does/doesn’t mean for Louis as a character to read Claudia’s diary entries about her rape out loud because first we have to have the conversation about what it means that the writers deemed it necessary to 1) detail Claudia’s rape so directly after 2) themselves declaring that any narration past the point Claudia’s voice-over cuts off/Louis ripped out the diary pages would be unnecessary exploitation and that 3) a brand new story line of Claudia being raped was introduced in the first place only to 4) ultimately be used to narrate Lestat’s own rape while simultaneously 5) Lestat’s rape was depicted much less graphically/more metaphorically and 6) Lestat never has to put words to his own experience because he gets to stand behind Claudia’s expression of her pain as if it were his own.

And so many people are so eager to demonize Louis for the act of reading the diaries in and of itself that they drown out or ignore the bigger question first and foremost of “why is this depiction of rape part of the narrative AT ALL?”

Louis’s a character! He was CREATED by someone walking around in the world with us! He’s the expression of their thoughts and intentions!

Up until the moment of Louis reading the recollection of the rape out loud, what is the function of Claudia’s rape in the story? In what ways does giving Claudia a rape narrative affect her character arc?

At best, it can be argued that being raped complicates Claudia’s desire to get away from Lestat (and Louis) because she discovers first-hand just how vulnerable she is. Because having Claudia constantly accosted and confronted and pushed out of any space she tried to access solely on the basis of her being Black – the thing that was happening at the university the moment Bruce showed up and intervened, by the way. That’s what was happening. Those white human students were attempting to prey on Claudia because she was Black AND because she was a woman. LSU for example didn’t accept their first female student until 1905, and they didn’t accept Black students until 1953, that’s why Claudia had to make up an excuse for her own presence when all she wanted to do was read a book – is itself a violence she’s already experiencing. It’s a violence that Louis and Lestat were able to partially mitigate through a combination of their own standing in New Orleans and money, neither of which Claudia had access to while traveling alone outside of New Orleans. But for people who can’t make the obvious connection to the innate vulnerability of a young, Black girl living under Jim Crow, Claudia getting raped is a quick and dirty shortcut for comprehension.

When Louis’s reading Claudia’s rape out loud, what is the function of Claudia’s rape in the story? Why is Louis even in that house ripping out Bruce’s spine and burning him down to ashes?

Yes, Louis saves some other humans and takes out a bunch of (presumably) new vampires turned in the interest of the Great Conversion, and that’s very altruistic and humane of him. But when the Talamasca asks him nicely to go be their clean-up crew 🙄 after getting Daniel to help them ambush Louis in a moment of vulnerability at the restaurant, Louis turns them down point blank, says “I don’t care,” and walks away.

The only reason Louis engages at all with the Talamasca, who he has every reason to hate given their connection to the publication/fabrication of Interview with the Vampire –which he just finished telling Daniel has caused multiple problems in his life and skews his character for the worst— is because they go, “By the way, Claudia’s rapist is involved.” So now Claudia’s rape is a reason for Louis to avenge her—by doing the thing the Talamasca wanted him to do all along. It’s a side quest.

And Louis’s revenge is not about closure, because Louis was finding his way to peace with his murdered daughter and his own experiences ever since leaving New Orleans without looking up Bruce, which he could have done at any point through either his vampire powers or wealth. At no point when Claudia was alive –from the moment when she first came home and her only priority was asking Louis to leave the country with her, to her taking care of Louis after Lestat beat and broke him, to the moment Claudia demonstrated zero compunctions about getting Louis to help her with murdering Lestat, someone they both actually cared about!– did Claudia present an opportunity to Louis to handle Bruce in any capacity other than listening to her and validating her experience.

So who wants Bruce dead? Like I said before, the writers made the narrative such thatRaglan shames Louis into action not just over the Fang Gang in general, but Bruce in particular. As if Louis’s journey and catharsis without killing Bruce was incomplete and wrong.

Now Louis’s reading Claudia’s private recollection of her rape out loud, not just to Bruce but to the audience. Why doesn’t the reading stand alone? Claudia’s explicit diary entry of her rape is cut over imagery of Lestat’s rape, which as depicted is highly suggestive of brutalization but not, in this world where vampires are completely capable of penetrative sex, explicitly sexual assault.

Lestat’s clothes stay on, while Louis describes Claudia’s being taken off.

Lestat claws at the ground trying to escape and has mysterious hands pulling at his face and hair in the car where he’s hallucinating/having a flashback while we hear, “I fought him even with my broken arm, and then my rebroken arm,” from Louis-as-Claudia.

Lestat writhes on the ground (shown from the shoulders up) while Magnus lies on top of him (also from the shoulders up) and holds his head down, and then Lestat’s grimacing face takes up the entire frame while Louis speaks Claudia’s physical recollections out loud. AMC’s lack of male-on-male thrusting comes back around, but also, Lestat’s clothes are all still on and in place, unlike Claudia's in her narration.

Lestat’s shirt collar is pulled aside and then the camera cuts away from the actual moment Magnus sticks his fangs in Lestat’s neck while Louis-as-Claudia says, “I hope one day he feels this, small and cornered.”

Lestat screams as Magnus drips blood into his mouth while we hear, “He let me go cause I seemed small and it looked like he’d won.” (yes, yes, vampire reproduction, blood = other body fluids/semen, but Claudia’s words do not shy around the physicality of her rape while blood in the mouth and fangs in the neck is what’s explicitly shown on the screen for Lestat)

And this is where Claudia’s and Lestat’s narratives diverge even further. Lestat wasn’t let go, Magnus successfully passed on his legacy (vampirism and wealth, and Lestat’s described his framing of the relationship between a vampire maker (father) and their fledgling (child) quite enough as of episode 4 for the obvious connections to be made), and then killed himself. Bruce got bored and left with no expectations of Claudia and arguably no lasting memory of her if not for the fact the encounter was immortalized in the book. Lestat didn’t think he was “the thing lurking in the shadows,” he was an unextraordinary human who was deeply affected by a lifetime of abuse at his family’s hand and deeply traumatized from an encounter with wolves. Claudia was a vampire who thought she finally didn’t have to be afraid after a lifetime of a mean old auntie and an “uncle” who watched her in the bathroom. They are not the same, before, during, or after.

What does Claudia’s rape do in the story? Whose story does Claudia’s rape serve? Who does the audience learn about through Claudia’s rape?

The answer is not Claudia. That’s just one part of the problem.

#iwtv #iwtv s3 #iwtv spoilers #tw antiblackness #tw rape #tw misogynoir #read the (writers') room #this started out as a comment on another post but I had more to say #no really if we're going to talk about Lestat's abuse #let's talk about Lestat's position as the abused heir to his abusive fathers' legacies or Lestat's ongoing history of abusive families #this doesn't even get into the fact that Louis keeps getting positioned to relive his daugther's pain again and again #or how Louis verbalizing his trauma over his daughter's pain and his trauma over his role in it keeps getting dismissed #or that Claudia's trauma is almost never given any space or consideration except for when she's already out of the picture #or that Lestat has so far only even interacted with Claudia's pain on screen in a mocking fashion #and Lestat hasn't expressed any empathy with Claudia even though we're supposed to perceive him as having gone through similar abuse #does Lestat even care that Claudia was raped? Or does he just care about being accused of it himself? The show hasn't said!#for all that it keeps bringing up Claudia's rape!#there's no ambiguity that Louis is heartbroken and pissed and traumatized about Claudia's rape! It's brought up everytime!#Lestat hasn't even acknowledged Claudia's rape by Bruce out loud except for when he tells Claudia he knows it happened on the train #but if that scene never happened.... 🤔

tl;dr: it feels a bit more like the storytelling has a direction as of now. Unfortunately, the direction portends … very bad things. And not in a fun way.

I actually do still want to know about the Great Conversion. We’re two years into it, at least. I want some answers, not just continued allusions that ultimately go nowhere.

Also, what’s with all the vampires with tattoos? Are they getting tattooed after being turned? (How??) Are there disproportionately more people with tattoos (and specifically shitty ones; culty book reactions, dated pop-culture enshrined racism) getting turned? (Why??)

Ew. The bobbleheads. (though does that mean Lestat got to meet Chestnut the way he said he wanted to?)

Dee with the little holder. So elegant and classy. Lestat has been spoiled by Louis for all others.

Wait, was “dug on your own” the lyric?

This is kind of making me want a road-trip fic.

Get it TC, I guess. I mean. In the interest of there not being double-standards. 😐

I’m actually quite done with Salamander, actually, can he leave now? Again; why is he here? What am I missing about him?

...what is happening between Christine and Salamander???

I absolutely want Gabriella away from him and think this is best, but poor Lestat texting her and not getting a response. Eternity means Lestat gets to be abandoned by his mother again and again. 😥 He is not learning the lesson.

Quick question, no particular reason: rough estimate, how much is Louis funding (🙄) Lestat’s """sexual exploitation""" via Lestat’s self-driven tour and volitional song-writing/performances versus, you know. The Talamasca. Speaking of whom: are they just desperate for cash? Taking advantage of various supernatural happenings for their own benefit? First the book, now Lestat’s tour. Can we examine why they have soooo many business interests that tie into Louis and Lestat and presumably larger vampire events of the early 21st century? What’s with the financial stakes angle? Can we follow the money?

Seriously, what the fuck is with Christine? These clips are making the parallels between her and Gabriella much more apparent. Lestat is truly the only discrepancy, and that can easily be explained, unfortunately, by him being the person who signs her checks.

Is Daniel sleeping in the shower? A linen closet? He doesn’t like coffins, or he just doesn’t have one, or Lestat just refused to make room for it on the bus?

Dee just doing coke of her own volition and letting Lestat feed on her isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I heard “pharmaceutically enhanced”, and I ask once again: why is Fareed here? Even if he’s tied to the farm and Lestat’s utilizing the farm, why can’t Lestat just have a standing order or arrange for deliveries based on his location without Fareed being literally, constantly present? Who is that blood bag for? Wouldn’t Lestat just drink it? But it seems to be hooked up to an IV. ????

Is Daniel not able to skim Lestat’s mind at all? Does he have no idea about Lestat’s hallucinations?

...That is SO much coke.

They’re probably just getting pulled over because the cop’s a fan, let’s be honest.🙄

Lestat taunting the cop with Dee sitting right there, and even encouraging Dee to participate, is weird as fuck. This is just one of the many reasons Lestat’s Black spouse left him, in case anyone was wondering.

I’ll take him calling the cop a clown, at least.

I want to hear more about TC thinking of being a vampire and the manifesto, obviously.

Ok, starting this episode off on episode sorry, album 33. That’s a lot of albums, so far--

The diner! Louis! 🥰 Hello!

Lestat said, “Louis said what he said. He owns the night.” Even when they’re fighting, he’s still so irrefutably in love. Can’t even help himself. And he’s right, because it’s Louis.

Wait, her accent wasn’t British a moment ago, was it? What’s happening? I guess I missed that she was British. 😅

Ah, Louis, still eating human food he shouldn’t/can’t.

Regina called Louis a posh boy. That’s so cute.

Oh, no, Louis’s sooo cute. I cannot. Louis. Please. Please. Am I meant to keep watching after that? How is the episode supposed to get better than Regina giving Louis a hard time and setting a firm boundary because she’s still a single woman with a mysterious rich guy hanging around her place of employment, and Louis backpedaling so hard and throwing out his sexuality in defence when he spent so long struggling with it?

Lestat, honey, still with the texting. And the fucking turtleneck. That’s new for him. Feeling a little vulnerable, are we?

Is Larry back there talking to his brother?

I still like that Lestat does, in fact, actually care about musical technique. He genuinely is moved by and cares about music.

Don’t like Dee giving Christine a massage. Don’t like Christine.

Wait, Lestat’s only wearing an earring in his right ear. What are you doing, Lestat. Stop it. The campy theater cosplay is nooootttt working for him, is this him acting out because he’s experiencing some Big Feelings?

Daniel is not seriously complaining about Gabriella fucking the doppelganger before he got to her. He’s about to get the truth out of Lestat, isn’t he? There’s no way Daniel actually cares about Gabriella not seriously responding to his insincere passes. He’s just digging into the Lestat/Sofia of it all. I mean. It’s hard to get further diametrically opposed to Louis than ...her.

Lestat is aware that Gabriella gives distracting details to avoid answering, but does he know he’s learned this behavior from her and frequently does the exact same thing? 54,554 days indeed.

The balance between present and past is working better so far this episode, and would have done better earlier in the season vs what was previously happening.

Lestat is always such a giddy child in his mother’s presence until she makes it clear she doesn’t give a fuck about his happiness and he’s left dealing with her abandonment again. And then he’s just a sad, heartbroken child.

Lestat lies so easily. He barely even stops to think about it. Or maybe he’s just that practiced at spinning stories about his mother in ways that let him sleep in the day.

Yeah, Larry was talking with Alex. Who… apparently got brought back by the motherfucker.

This season’s subtitle is just “children of abusive parents”.

I will take humour in the fact that at the tender age of 70-whatever, Daniel is getting to experience new and exciting daddy issues he only ever imagined before.

Album 33 to 35 is a big jump. What is happening?

No shit, it’s him. 🙄 Can it be someone else now?

Literally everyone wants him gone.

Well. Someone’s bitter.

Not. The fucking. 12 steps.

Excuse me, Daniel’s who he’s done the most harm to?!?!??!??!!?? Daniel’s fucking emphatically alive/undead, fully aware of everything that’s been happening to him over the past two years (not decades!), and actively still pursuing things that he enjoys. I’d say Daniel made off pretty damn well!

They absolutely fucked before/right after Daniel got turned (both? Either is awful), this isn’t just angry child confronting a deadbeat parent, this is a lover scorned.

...Daniel’s so angry??? That’s actually kind of funny. And very in character that his biggest gripes are 1) being turned in New Jersey and 2) more importantly, not getting any of the good fucking vampire powers. Which is admittedly unusual. Extremely so, even.

Maybe Daniel’s just a bad fledgling/student. 😐

But Daniel being a week vampire truly makes no sense. He’s eating plenty, he’s literally the first and only fledgling of his maker, who’s ancient and has also always fed well. Unless Daniel was made poorly on purpose, he should be at least on par with Louis in the first few years. Lestat was a teen dad in comparison.

I think the year listening to Phish is entirely on Daniel, actually.

Daniel is not complaining about Louis saving his fucking life while simultaneously comparing Louis to Popeyes. I am clearly misinterpreting that line because there’s no way that’s what he’s saying.

Well, at least Louis’s back. ...Being tormented by his husband acting out, per usual. Oh, Louis. (I know he’s probably actually amused at least a little. 🙄 That’s his stupid man, the same one who showed his ass in Louis’s own place of business, we know, we know.)

Is Louis thinking about what if this was really Claudia, and Lestat was still being Lestat, as usual, but it’s him and his daughter sharing eye rolls and laughs over their ridiculous husband/father? Who do we talk to about an unholy family AU series, please?

Regina’s so adorable. And smart. I love her. Can we keep her? Louis, can we keep her? Show writers, I mean healthy and untraumatized and unexploited, just to be clear. It should go without saying, but it’s been made clear it doesn’t.

Louis, you can just tell her she reminds you of your daughter, you don’t even have to get into any specif--

Ouch. Not his sister, Regina. And is the year three teacher something about Regina herself? 👀

Louis. Please. He’s really going the total honesty route???? Just because he’s a bad liar doesn’t mean he should practice radical honesty with everyone he meets instead.

Someone save him. Why is Louis this precious? Regina’s probably sitting here going, “Please tell me you’re not fighting with your boyfriend, because I really feel like I should be calling your boyfriend, you’re definitely older than me, you cannot be my little meow meow. Did you hear me when I said six flatmates, one toilet???”

Louis’s so sad. Louis should not be this sad.

This is not acceptable. Fuck this.

Oh, just had a terrible thought. What if Regina asks to be a vampire and offers to stay with Louis since he’s clearly lonely and rich and she’s clearly lonely and not rich? I mean. I think Regina’s smarter than that. But who wouldn’t be at least tempted, in the position Regina’s described being in, knowing Louis’s said he’s gay, gay, gay, and having seen already the extent to which he’s clearly sad and a little lost and so far harmless and definitely drawn to her in a let-me-take-care-of-you way?

Lestat being a better vampire with better control of his senses than his mother. Interesting.

I don’t know how to feel about Gabriella taking Lestat to see her home or letting him see how highly people thought of her in the specific context of “the young blonde daughter of a noble family”.

Actually not sold on Lestat’s sexual fluidity, AMC. Maybe if we actually saw it?

$50,000 isn’t even that much for car anymore…

NO ONE IS ASKING ALEX ABOUT ANYTHING except Larry, and Larry doesn’t have enough insight—Oh, he’s literally a cult leader. Again. Still. What was that about old dogs, new tricks?

So is that man actually Marius, or just a random Italian man of no real import? He’s just a random man, I think.

Ah. Lestat killed the man out of jealousy. So much for that shared free use dream, I guess. No, wait, Gabriella killed him for leverage over Lestat?? Someone take Lestat away from her, please.

I appreciate how clear they’re making it that this whole thing, on Gabriella’s part, is not about any genuine affection, just a continued desire to own Lestat and dictate his life the way Gabriella could never own any of the other de Lioncourt men (whose lives were very literally bought at the expense of her body), or any man at all.

Album 40. Another jump.

Truly just putting Lestat through the wringer, I see.

Lestat is constantly using his body as his final shield/ most reliable weapon. It literally couldn’t be clearer. Feeling abandoned? Offer sex. Experiencing loneliness? Strip down, remind solicitors about sex (with you). The dynamic black void of absent sentiment in your chest going through a growth phase when you’d rather it was shrinking and would do anything for it to get smaller again? Well.

I would also have liked a shower after a nightmare like that, and yet. Somehow that doesn’t seem the vibe here.

“I didn’t know you’d do that, and it was so, so hard waiting for you to fuck everything up for me after all.” He did not suffer nearly enough. He should have suffered more. I’m not convinced he suffered at all.

Other side of the moon or kill yourself is actually too generous.

How could Lestat be blamed for the Great Conversion when it was already happening before he went on tour??? The demonstrating everything about vampiric life isn’t misery and self-denial and repression, fine, sure, this conversation already happened in Paris with the original cult.

Louis. I love you to pieces. Please seek a therapist.

You’re right, Regina, it is mental. I mean. Louis could have stalked her home, so. He’s not doing so badly.

Oh, Regina’s been busy. 👀

Louis, she’s not actually Claudia. I’m glad Regina said it. Doesn’t make it hurt less.

Every part of Lestat’s sentence about the book got worse and worse, starting with “thong-busting” and all the way through “cocklet-sucking”, wow. Wonder how the band feels knowing the book’s actually true. For a given value of true, anyway.

I feel so vindicated for calling Lestat a show-pony.

Who taught Lestat….any of those words.

Oh, no, wait, thinking about Regina again and hoping she doesn’t suddenly find herself in a very bad spot that Louis has to make a sudden decision about.

Ok, back to Lestat.

And the fact that Lestat’s taunting like this while wearing all that make-up and childish/girlish pigtails. Lestat. What is the message, here.

Why are there people swearing the motherfucker was right/telling the truth and reciting the Great Laws from the book at the show, exactly? They know the band doesn’t care if they paid for their tickets with glee or hate in their hearts, right?

Oh, Lestat’s a bastard. It’s great, actually. And poor Alex realizing he doesn’t know what the fuck is happening around him anymore and that he’s probably been tricked. Again. What are the chances he shows up soon with his own culty tattoo about demonstrated liars telling the truth?

Not a big fan of the song, but I appreciate Lestat’s unadulterated, vitriolic fuck off.

And of course now Daniel is feeling sympathetic, because he’s a fucking idiot and the vampire cord or bond or whatever the fuck, blah blah blah.

Oh, wait, no, Daniels’s actually just pissed about how this all affects him. That tracks and is more in character. That’s hilarious.

Maybe if the Great Conversion is such a concern, something that addresses that whole situation could be done instead of just lingering around Lestat and blaming him for something that, again, was happening before and without him.

Can we all accept the motherfucker did not love Louis, now?

Nicki’s fully aware he doesn’t rank above Louis and also didn’t rank above the twisted affection Lestat constantly sought from his mother. At least the hallucination isn’t delusional. I actually enjoy the things Louis and Lestat are comfortable telling themselves --as long as they’re not actively admitting to themselves they already know the truth-- being relayed through hallucinations.

Every now and then, this IP reminds everyone how Catholic it is.

Louis! 🥰

100 years later, Louis’s still waiting for someone to ask him inside. 🥺The way Louis is with Regina really, really makes me want to see him meet Grace’s great-great-(great?) grandchildren, if they exist. Louis’s just so desperate to have a single relationship where his influence is a net positive.

Hmm. Not. Quite. Literally vampiric. But. Yeah. I don’t trust this writers’ room with this relationship between Louis and Regina, yet. But I kind of did ask for it? 😔

The hair?? Gabriella cut it? It was a wig all along after all?

Who’s teaching any of them any of these words?????

Lestat. Really. Doesn’t take being left alone well. I had only the barest inkling how right I was when I said Lestat was not invited to the cookout, he just can’t stand being alone.

I guess Gabriella is a genuine believer in the Great Conversion, then? Why, I guess is my biggest question.

I wonder if TC got turned into a vampire off screen after the shooting? I thought maybe Lestat would at least be asked in the aftermath, but it seems pretty clear he wasn’t.

No. Lestat. You do not get to quote your husband’s words about you to explain why you’re so moved by your abusive mother, not even if you compliment him, first. I mean. He literally invoked Louis’s self-attested reaction to his fucking wedding vows.

Does he hear himself? Lestat just keeps calling himself his mother’s son (derogatory) again and again and again.

My anxiety about Lestat revealing he even once thought about/referred to Louis as his son has brand new dimensions of despair.

Not only does Lestat emphatically not need a MILF, he fumbled the only good one he made.

#iwtv #iwtv s3 #iwtv spoilers

gaypeople

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT - 3.03 “Toronto”

#cannot express enough how happy I am that Louis has someone who checks in on him after horrible shit happens #that Louis has a friend who calls to make sure he gets home safe #(and that to Louis 'home' was Claudia or at least as close as he could get)#I love Lemuel #can we keep Lemuel?#please don't let him secretly be someone else #or get him killed by Khaymin. Or Akasha.#I would like all the stories about Louis and his caring sweet good-looking good-lay good-natured friend Lemuel please #that picture's so cute too!#Louis please take up photography again #you and Lemuel need to do a fun photoshoot #iwtv spoilers #iwtv #I really love Lemuel and his and Louis's relationship so far

Tl;dr: I guess I kind of trust that the writers can write a story, now, but I’m still not sold that all of them should.*

* which is a shitty feeling, based on the writer of this episode vs the previous two

#iwtv #iwtv s3 #iwtv spoilers

#iwtv spoilers #Louis can't even have mourning parental grief and trauma now #and if that super cute “might be nice” Loustat scene is them discussing not!Claudia/Regina potentially having a happy human life #perhaps helped along by them being her distant patrons/guardian fiends #or Loustat imagining what if they had another kid and did it right this time #or torturing themselves over what if they'd done it right the FIRST time #then what?#recently had a friend describe an individual trying to record a personal relationship on legally binding paperwork as “baby mama/daddy”#and no. No one invovled in the story was Black. It's that pervasive and just accepted despite being antiblack

I'm going to keep sitting on my reaction to the latest episode, except for this part, because sitting with it so far has only made it worse, not better:

I’m pretty sure the audience actually didn’t need the literal writing from the diary to be shared. No wonder Louis ripped out those pages. Sure, it’s interesting to parallel Claudia's rape with Lestat’s rape in the course of analysis. But it really wasn't necessary to depict the retelling of Claudia's rape in explicit detail. Claudia’s exploitation and pain was used by the writers to elevate Lestat’s pain. Because how else could people be expected to understand the message being conveyed about Lestat’s violation except to bring Claudia’s back and put it all over the screen?

And to do it after last season when Louis specifically said he didn’t want Claudia's pain exploited and consumed. And to make Louis the one who has to read it? OK.