𝖁𝖎𝖗𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖎𝖆

𝔇𝔢𝔡𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰 ℑ𝔫𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔳𝔦𝔢𝔴 𝔚𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔙𝔞𝔪𝔭𝔦𝔯𝔢, 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔙𝔞𝔪𝔭𝔦𝔯𝔢 𝔏𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔱, 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔙𝔞𝔪𝔭𝔦𝔯𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔫𝔦𝔠𝔩𝔢𝔰, 𝔏𝔬𝔲𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔱, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔍𝔞𝔪 ℜ𝔢𝔦𝔡𝔢𝔯𝔰𝔬𝔫!

[virginiaisforvampires]

These are my parents if you even care. 💜🎃

[virginiaisforvampires]

Okay I’m not sure how to articulate this properly, and this doesn’t necessarily make me like the decision. But I can’t help but wonder if the focus they gave on Armand torturing Louis stems… to a degree… from soooooo many people still not getting it after season 2.

I know the writers stick to their plans and don’t care about the tantrums people throw. They also get meta as hell in addressing the shit they inevitably see online.

To this day, a very significant portion of viewers do not grasp the degree to which that relationship was abusive, bc it wasn’t physical or in your face the same way the drop was.

While I do selfishly wish we got the pre-concert kiss this episode (now holding out hope for the season 4 premiere I suppose😪), I feel like this season did a fantastic job establishing why loustat need each other. Why it’s good that they have each other. Why they are the great love story.

To me, and I could be wildly wrong. It almost feels as if this is them taking a proverbial sledgehammer to the notion that loumand was in any way a “better” or “healthier” or whatever you want to call that relationship on the simple basis of them never showing Armand being physically violent towards Louis like we saw in 1x05. This episode pretty effectively… eliminates… all of that. Because it was incredibly violent and in your face and something that was planned out by Armand as a way to torture Louis because he felt… wronged by him??? (That aspect is book!Armand in a way, but him feeling wronged and taking it out on the other person is generally a lesmand thing which… yeah I’m trying to not lose hope on them there💔)

I don’t like the decision. But from the lens of them wanting everyone to get it. The approach they took here was quite effective.

Or perhaps I’m completely off base and their reasoning has nothing to do with slamming the door shut on any misconceptions about what loumand was. Idk. It is what it is I suppose🫠

Hmmm....yeah. I do tend to agree certain writing choices were made in a direct effort to make certain fandom factions *get it* and this might very well be one of them.

Especially considering their After Dark comments and them inadvertently revealing that, to make the "apology" fiasco work, they had to ignore what they established between Loumand in S2 with the Maître/Arun stuff. Pretending it was never an addressed element between them when it very much was and was the entire point of reference for their dynamic.

So whatever. You're right. It is what it is. 😬

[virginiaisforvampires]

What did you think of the Loustat scenes?

Everything. ♥️

The way he ran to Louis. The way they're looking at each other says everything. The gentle way they touch each other's neck scars. The profound emotions laden beneath this tender exchange. The reverence for each other. The quiet appreciation and thankfulness that they're both safe and alive.

They are the beating heart. The touchstone. The spine holding this entire organism together.

[virginiaisforvampires]

Lestat said that Louis told him what happened to him after the concert and in butcher scene he tells Armand that Lestat is the love of his life, does that mean that Louis is gonna tell Lestat he loves him after the concert ?

Yes. Just like it happens in the books.

[virginiaisforvampires]

I have the feeling Hannah doesn’t understand the characters she’s writing about. I hated 1x05 and the choices she made, and I hated a lot of choices she made here.

Same.

I can only shake my head in irritated disgust.

[virginiaisforvampires]

So where do you think Louis is at the finale with everything destroyed?

Asleep in Loustat's bed.

Let me have this. 🙏🏽🥺

[virginiaisforvampires]

Hi Virginia! Do you still see room for exploring the Lesmand dynamic from the books? I don't understand why they did what they did with Loumand in this episode. I think the writers went nuts along the way. But Armand didn't love Louis, he was hurt by how Louis treated him, but he didn't love Louis. So the obsession is more about his own feeling than Louis himself. And that is the major difference to book!Lesmand. But the writers seems to be allergic to repeating stuff from earlier seasons (even if necessary) so I don't know what to expect anymore.

What a mess...

Well, how does that even work now? You know?

Let's say they try to delve into the canon of Lesmand in S4. How does that work now? Because they've established Armand was obsessed with Louis and enraged at Louis for not loving him and being "cold" to him. Are they gonna repeat that same dynamic with Lestat, too?

It just....doesn't work anymore. The show has seemingly taken the cheap route and framed Lesmand as just "petty exes" while peripherally destroying the heart of another key relationship to Lestat — Nicki.

Lestat loved Nicki. Yet what did the show do? They've framed it as Lestat "cheating" on him with Armand (when Armand was canonically his rapist and that's the entire reason WHY it was never a consensual "exes" relationship!) and as if Lestat didn't love Nicki as much as Nicki loved him.

It's just....idk. We'll see what they do with it, but it's mind-boggling. Honestly.

[virginiaisforvampires]

I read your thoughts ❤️

I still don't understand when Lestat says "it is you right? It's your idea" to Gabriella. What is he talking about??

The concert and the mess that's unfolding because of her pushing Lestat to be the vampire "leader."

Him and Louis almost died, yet here she comes haranguing him and pushing him to immediately get on stage and perform and like I said, they almost died already. Lestat doesn't want to do this. He never did, yet she pushed and pushed, and Louis and Lestat got their heads chopped off in the process. (Lestat doesn't know the motivation behind that at that point.)

He screams at her for her to go on stage and "get torn apart." It's not right what she's doing to him and what she's putting on his shoulders that's putting them in danger. A lot of that outburst was rooted in the knowledge that he almost lost Louis, and he's acknowledging that her influence on him has been the reason as to why he almost lost Louis in the past, too.

[virginiaisforvampires]

I think one thing that made what happened with Louis even more horrendous is, whether they intended it to or not, Louis being decapitated and put on a spike has racial undertones and same with him being marked. Someone pointed out how even Louis mentions that slaves who dared to run away would be put on spikes similarly. My issue with this season is I don't think the navigated the racial themes as well as the previous two.

I mean, I've never really agreed they handled the racial themes well.

Look what they did with 1x05. The racial implications there are the reason this fandom spun into the mess that it did, yet Rolin and Co. don't care. Hannah Moscovitch, the writer of both 1x05 and 3x07, is on record laughing about the backlash to 1x05 and telling people to "get over it" and that "there's real life shit."

I don't know if they consider the optics. Maybe they do, but it's quite clear (to me) that they don't actually care how things come across and never did.

[virginiaisforvampires]

Hi V!

I was reading your answer about why you’re unhappy with the Loumand scene (I did not enjoy watching Louis suffer like that either 😭), and I think it’s very interesting how for me it felt a little different. I’m currently reading the books so I come from the show, and I’m sure that affects my experience too. but I feel like if that was Lestat that Armand was torturing, it would have felt a bit out of nowhere if you don’t know the books? Not to be the devil’s advocate (I just love these discussions!), but it felt like it finally closed Loumand’s story for me. These two lived together for 7 decades just so Louis could punish Lestat, and hearing him say those things TO ARMAND specifically (“he was the love of my life”, “even now, still thinking about him”) felt like… oh yeah. it took all of THAT, but he finally said it.

I hated seeing him like that, it truly broke my heart. but it felt very armand to me and I personally think it made sense in the show’s context?

I have to say that you’re the first negative take I read about this where I’m like “oh yeah, I really understand that,” because I’ve seen so many complaints about this scene where I’m like… guys, you wanted the gremlin this whole time!!! he’s here, you got him! but yeah I also understand the strong reactions to that because it was a crazy heavy scene.

anyway, appreciate you and love your blog! always end up coming back here after the episodes, it’s been a wild ride. can’t wait for s4!

I mean, I understand your feelings.

For me, it made zero sense, because they did close that chapter in S2. There was nothing left and even now, Rolin and Hannah are on After Dark acting as if the Maître/Arun dynamic was never addressed, but it was. That was the entire basis for their pairing after 2x04. Assad has talked about it in several interviews.

Armand tortured Louis in S2. Armand never loved Louis as he admits in this episode. Armand wanted Louis dead in Paris for the "aesthetic." Armand deliberately fucked with Louis' head. Armand brainwashed him. Erased his memories. Implanted new memories. Gaslit him. Stalked him. Killed Claudia. Lied to him about his involvement in her death. Lied to him about Lestat's involvement in her death. Lied to him about Lestat saving him. Isolated him in Dubai. Cruelly tortured him in San Francisco after his suicide attempt. Deliberately delayed care to his burns after his suicide attempt. Dangled Lestat in his face after his suicide attempt. Orchestrated the Regina spiral just to fuck with his head like he did with the planted Stein photos. Bugged Lestat's apartment to spy on them. Took Regina hostage after mind-controlling her. Killed Larry. Mind-controlled Alex. Beheaded Lestat. Beheaded Louis.

Meanwhile, Louis was "mean" to Armand. He said "mean" things and was cold to him. Yes, and? Do you blame him? After everything Armand did to him?

But because of that we were subjected to almost an hour of nothing but grotesque torture porn with racial connotations in place of what is canonically the Lesmand dynamic with Louis taking the blame and admitting his "coldness" is what drove Armand to this?!

I just find the entire choice appalling.

And back to the Lesmand issue, they did spend the season building to it. They were hinting at it and building in S2. Yet this is what we got?

It makes zero sense to me, and I do think it's a misstep in the writing.

The only *good* thing from this "apology" fiasco? It gave us Louis verbally acknowledging his love for Lestat. Louis is being tortured. He's dying. Yet he never denies his love for Lestat. In his dying moments, he doubles-down on it. He won't deny Lestat anymore. Not even to save his own life.

Thread that with Lestat's realization of his love for Louis being his salvation and his blood being the thing to save Louis' life? It's the saving grace of the episode.

And yes, S4! Hopefully the wait isn't as long this time. 😅

[virginiaisforvampires]

i've disagreed with A LOT of your takes in the past, but thank you for being bold and calling the writers out wrt their handling of loumand and lesmand. it was a shitty adaptational change AND straight up bad writing to set up armand purposefully targeting lestat over the course of the entire season just to have it result in a weird loumand saw trap. i guess rolin realised that the best way of having a shocking twist that no one (including book readers) would see coming is to do random shit that destroys established character dynamics with zero setup.

I mean, I did say I thought ending the season with Akasha abducting Lestat was too predictable and that they'd throw us a curveball. 😅😬

I just LOATHE said curveball.

Leave Louis alone. Please.

He doesn't deserve anything but to be tucked away in a warm bed while being showered with love by Lestat.

[virginiaisforvampires]

Hey, Virgínia. Could you explain your interpretation of that final part—where we see Lestat alone in his apartment, heading toward the sun and seeing the city completely destroyed? I didn't understand why Louis isn't with him.

That's the aftermath of Akasha's global destruction mayhem.

And we don't know if Louis wasn't with him. He could've been asleep in their bedroom because, if you notice, it's daylight. Lestat is awake and in the sun with no burning.

Akasha's blood.

[virginiaisforvampires]

Seeing HM talk about that Loumand scene as something sympathetic to Armand is killing me because they glossed over everything in the books that made me legitimately sympathetic to his character.

Wish we could have gotten more CoS Armand and Lesmand because the cult shit is what made Armand become Armand.

Let's not even touch Hannah's comments. It's the same bullshit as when she said the waitress incident in TOTBT justified the drop.

And now she's on After Dark spewing bullshit about Armand being "used" by Louis (Armand was the one using Louis as his Stepford Wife vessel!) and how Armand believed that Louis owed him an apology, and she's erasing their dynamic in S2 and acting like they never addressed the Arun/Maître factor. Uh, that was the entire POINT to their pairing after Armand threatened Claudia. Louis let go of DreamStat and hardened himself back into Louis the pimp. He thought he was in control of Armand with that role play for the sake of keeping Claudia safe from the rest of the coven, but Armand was always the one in control and was actively conspiring behind Louis' back to kill Claudia with the trial and to kill Louis, too, for the "aesthetic" of it all. And that's ON TOP OF all the shit Armand did to Louis after Paris.

Yet Louis owed Armand an apology?! He threw that fucker into the wall and walked out. That was the "closure"! Louis owed him SHIT after that mess.

I mean, they wrote an entire scene in 2x04 of their dynamic being addressed and now it was never addressed?! Louis owed Armand?! No he did not!

*sighs*

I guess we did touch her comments, didn't we? 😅

But seriously. This choice just makes me furious. Both mistakes — the drop and the torture porn — have come from her, and they've been at Louis' expense and at the expense of another canon character dynamic — Lesmand.

I'm sorry, but I just loathe this choice the same as I loathed the drop.

[lioncourtz]

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 03.07 | "The Failures"

[adsari]

Where is Louis?

[lioncourtz]

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 03.07 | "The Failures"

[virginiaisforvampires]

Could you please share what your non-negotiables for the season were? I'm thinking about mine and I'm not sure but I mostly feel let down.

It basically amounted to —

1. Proper development for Lestat and Louis. I got that.

2. Lestat and Claudia. I got that to an extent. It's still hidden between-the-lines, but it's also clear that he did love her and didn't actively want her dead in Paris, because his behavior towards other characters would make zero sense unless Lestat was coerced under duress into participating.

3. Lestat and Magnus. If they dared depict his turning as anything other than rape, I would've dropped the show.

4. Lestat's true character and the truth of his arc on full display. I got that.

5. I wanted it made clear that the tale from S1 of big bad Lestat was, in fact, a tale. I got that.

Going into this season, the bar started in hell. I significantly managed my expectations. The first six episodes? Masterpiece. I had a bloody ball! They did the damn thing! The finale? They wrecked the plane, but managed to get it soaring back into the air in the last 10-12 minutes.

This thread throughout the entire finale episode was the saving grace. It's been the backbone of the entire season.