I can't imagine the decision to make Gabriella a "nymphomaniac" and explicit sexual predator not to backfire. It seems to be so far removed from how she and her relationship with Lestat are portrayed in the books. How can any book readers who liked their dynamic or sympathized with Gabrielle not be sad and mad about it? And I can't imagine people who have never read the books would feel any sympathy for a woman who's been molesting and controlling her child for decades/centuries. There is already a nonstop hate train online and most people haven't even seen the worst of it yet.
It feels like such a misogynistic choice for her character too. Hypersexualizing her, removing the real love and understanding between her and Lestat (even if the dynamic is complex and messy).
To me personally it feels like the drop all over again. But when the drop was mostly a singular (horrific and unjustifiable) moment, Gabi is experiencing this character assassination nonstop. Or another analogy, it would be akin to taking Louis and Claudia's dynamic from the first book and extrapolating it to make Louis a pedofile who preys on his adopted child. I don't think they've twisted the book so much with any of the male characters. And it seems iffy that this season other dynamics between male characters will be explicitly contrasted with Gabriella and Lestat (to highlight the abuse and awfulness in the latter).
And not making Gabi GNC/trans precisely because they wanted parent-child incest to be portrayed so explicitly and "realistically" makes it worse! If that was the choice they were making between Gabi's whole gender deal and making her an Abuser from the capital A to explicitly be Bad for and torment Lestat... So, we could have had a GNC Gabriella without the nymphomania and sexual abuse? Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
I don't know how to enjoy the season where Gabriella is featured so prominently, yet her character and her relationship with Lestat is reframed to whatever it is now :(
You've written that the dynamic between Gabrielle and Lestat was your second favorite in the books. I've wanted to ask you, how do you reconcile to this different dynamic in the show and not feel bitter about it?
Oh, I am bitter about it, but going into S3, I had a (short) list of non-negotiables, and Gabrielle(a) wasn't part of that list.
The show met my required expectations. Obviously, that will look different for each person.
But having said that, I do want to make it clear that Gabriella doesn't fit the profile of a one-note villain. She is still complex with multiple facets (there were times when I wanted to like her), but it's just the sexual abuse overshadows the rest. I've seen a lot of claims that this was done for "shock value", but I have to disagree with that.
In the books, as with everything else, Rolin has taken what could've already been gleaned from between the lines, and he's dialed it up x1000. Gabriella did canonically abuse Lestat. She is canonically the reason for why he is the way he is. There's always been somewhat of a debate amongst the fandom on whether or not the relationship was fully incestuous, and I was always on the side of Anne's writing in that the vampirism made it different โ roles of mother and son were stripped away, and they became other. That is technically true.
However, the show takes that stance to task. I literally wrote in my notes about how I've shifted my view(s) on it, and it's exactly because Rolin has stuck the fingers into the wounds, and he's pulled out the mess of bloody guts. He's addressed both the stance of it being "okay" because, hey, vampires! But he's also addressed the stance of it being horrific sexual abuse. As with everything, the "answer" (because there really isn't one) is something quite messy and disturbing.
And of course, as I said, he's dialed it up x1000 on the terror scale, and he's added a cruel dynamic between them that didn't exist within the books. A dynamic that's so extreme, it does push her character into the OC territory. But like I discussed here, I don't know where Rolin is going with this, but I am open to seeing how the arc plays out.
In the meantime though, I will be here loathing every second of it, because I don't want her near Lestat. I HATE what she does to him, and the show makes it crystal clear that she's abusing him and really, at the end of the day, if that is what it takes to get people to finally understand Lestat and the shit he's endured from the people who were supposed to love him and protect him? I can (begrudgingly) accept that.
Lestat (and Louis) is my priority. If they're done justice, I can overlook....a lot. ๐
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