#I mean he is not Lestat

[brian-kinney-apologist]

have you even thought about that louis in lestat's pov in s3 is going to be the hottest sexiest babiest helen of troy of all time??? have you conSIDERED THAT????? HUH??????

[soliloqueeer]

When I first watched this episode, I was very confused about Lestat's motivations for being at the trial. During Claudia's execution, I kept thinking, why isn't he moving? Just do something. Help her.

I understand now that Lestat, at this point, is much weaker than usual for reasons that haven't yet been fully explored. From interviews with Sam Reid, I also learned that there was no way Lestat would miss this trial. However, Lestat isn't a planner—he arrived, memorized his lines, yet was utterly unprepared for what was about to unfold. The only thing he knew for sure was that he was going to save Louis. That was his sole plan.

When Claudia says, "It's never been about me," you can see the guilt and shame in Lestat's eyes. Yet, when she announces her plan to kill everyone in the crowd after her death, he's staring at her with pride.

I believe Lestat did a lot of reflecting while in his coffin, pondering how he ended up in this situation and what led his fledglings to turn against him. I think he was actually proud of Claudia for successfully orchestrating his murder. She outsmarted him, and he had entirely underestimated her. This final act of violence made them equals in his eyes.

However, I don't think Lestat ever truly saw himself as a 'father.' He had no example of good parenting in his human life and this had no idea how to treat a child. From the beginning, he was referred to as Uncle Les while Louis took on the paternal role. Then, when Claudia became an adult, Lestat was forced to regard her as a sister.

The idea that someone could look to him as a father wasn't even conceivable to Lestat. In Claudia's final moments, when she looks to him like a child looks to a parent for help, it is horrifying on so many levels. It shocks him to his core when he realizes that he is her father and that he's letting her die right before his eyes. And even worse, Claudia was right—it was never about her.

[inheroes--wetrust]

louis was really going to expose vampires to the whole world just so he can call his ex-husband a talentless ugly bitch in front of as many people as possible, all in the hopes that lestat would be so angry with him that he'll finally come find him and louis would be able to see him again

and all he had to do!!!!! was just say he wanted lestat back! actually scratch that he just had to say fucking hello and lestat would be there in a heartbeat, saying he loves him, begging for louis to come back to him

[fascinationstreetmp3]

i need daniel to be overcompensating for his insecurities so bad. 100 times more cocky and rude and aggressive and insensitive than he was as a human, falling back into old dangerous habits and vices, not just because now he has new energy and power and wealth to flaunt but because it's ALL he has, and he needs to cling onto it. play it up and revel in it so no one sees that underneath, he feels like a botched fledgling in the body of a sick, faded old man who maybe has no real idea why he was even made. that armand might think he failed in making him. that his maker didn't even really want him.

[pretty-weird-ideas]

Episode Seven and White Tears

The trial's allegory is not just a lynching, it is a lynching for a Black person entering a relationship with a respected White man, and proceeding to leave him. It's not a murder case, as seen through the show, there's actually very little emphasis on the murder in the episode in regards to Louis. The emphasis is on his "seduction", his "ungiving nature", and "refusing to give his body". It is a public humiliation and lynching for turning a respected white man down. The crime isn't hurting Lestat, it's hurting his feelings.

Lestat doesn't speak to the audience about the pain of his throat being slit. He speaks of loneliness, the audience chants and jeers about how cheating was justified if Louis isn't putting out. Santiago isn't talking about the murder, he's talking about how much of a sexual deviant Louis is the second he is introduced. The show is telling us what's important to the case, and what language hurt and stuck out to Louis the most. The deciding factor in the eyes of the audience, the story that Sam and Santiago are trying to tell, is that the crime is heinous because Louis turned down Lestat.

The audience isn't mad about the murder, they're mad about Lestat's emotions, they're mad about the betrayal, and they are mad that Louis and Claudia didn't put up with things. The case built against the two of them isn't based on violence, it's based on white tears. Louis isn't called a monster for slitting Lestat's throat, the audience member calls him a monster for turning down Lestat's advances.

The show is clear that the trial isn't really about the murder, it is about Louis not "giving enough" for Lestat. It's about Louis asking Lestat to turn Claudia and literally bargaining his happiness where he literally gets on his knees and says "I'll be happy for you, I will never leave you if you do this for me". It's never been about the murder, it's quite literally just shaming Louis for not "loving a good man who might be abusive".

At the end of the day, the trial as framed and written by Sam is building a case off of Lestat's tears, not actual physical harm.

Like my skin is crawling but also the show is so chilling with how it portrayed the "He's a good man so hold your tongue and endure! Lest you read as ungrateful".

Anyways someone take the laptop from me before this becomes my life.

[rocketrouquine]

What are we putting on the wall now to replace the Francis Bacon ?

(…)

Ok let’s leave it bare for now… wait for revelation.

This is the wall in question. And the revelation, you guessed it.

They are insane.

[hellameyers]

Only took a third watch for it to really hit me. But Louis completely missed Lestat throwing himself on the sword during the trial. He admitted to willingly breaking the second vampire law, and that if they're going to put Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine on trial, he should be tried with them.

Lestat knew the coven wouldn't harm him. He was trying to save them. That was why he came. Not for revenge, as Louis thought, as all the vampires there thought. He came to find a way to save them. But Louis was too caught up in recalling his spotty memories that he didn't notice it. Like much of their relationship, Louis wasn't really listening to Lestat.

I know it had to be this way for the narrative, but... Damn I just made myself sad.

[vigilantempathy]

How many brokenhearted queers do we need in “my partner left me to go try to resolve their guilt over their past fuck-ups” depression!robes before it’s a trope?

[armandposting]

I can't think about armand's age/gender dysphoria without wanting to scream for a thousand years. how he's constantly seen as a young boy because he was turned at 17 but by that point even before he's lived a minute as a vampire he already hasn't felt like a boy for years. and all the men who see him this way want to use him like a man without treating him as one. he's constantly saying to their faces that he is a man with wants and desires and feelings and they're like hmm that's nice. not to me though. but not in a way that protects any of the child in him. they're not like, you're a boy and that means you should be kept safe. they're like, you're a boy and that means whatever I do to you is not real. because you're not real and now you're so frozen that no matter what you do you never will be. literally no wonder he has every problem.

[oldbutchdaniel]

something that drives me super crazy forever and always is the “do you want to hear my story?” / “yes. yes!” exchange. like, daniel is in every way a hostage of that situation. he’s going to say he thinks armand is interesting! he’s going to agree to anything armand presents to him because he’s hoping armand will show him just a little bit of mercy. i think armand must know this, even though he’s asking these questions out of desperation rather than some test. it’s not an uncommon thing to armand, the vampire who likes the hunt. likes to have humans as his mercy the way he has daniel. but i like to think that, while daniel agreed because he felt he had no other choice, he also agreed because it was the truth. armand can read minds and he thinks that’s awesome. daniel wants to hear his story because he thinks armand is interesting, and he wants to hear the stories of people he thinks are interesting. i like to think that armand took a peek inside daniel’s mind, expecting to see nothing more than fear and survival instinct. he sees those things, but more than that he sees truth. genuine curiosity. daniel, given the choice, would want to know him. that’s why, for a moment, he gives in — tells daniel his first memory. that’s why, to armand, he’s so fascinating.

[massiveharmonytiger]

Poor Louis. Armand sitting, like, a mile away from him in bed

while Daniel is getting these fuck me eyes.

He really wants to fuck that old man.

[kindaorangey]

oh also the fact that it's armand who suggests the hockney lemons for the wall (which louis snidely dismisses because it'd be too much effort to change the furniture to match the bright yellows) and then as soon as armand leaves louis does replace the sofa, and the cushions, and a bunch of the interior decor to be more bright and colourful... like they stifle each other, it's not as simple as armand gaslighting louis and keeping him on a short leash so he doesn’t leave or louis using the maître/arun dynamic to control armand, they both sap the life out of each other over a torturous 7 decades. and neither of them realise it, or louis just thinks that's how companionship is, and at least to outsiders they just look like normal minimalists with way too much money and no desire for colour in their life. but the desire was there; louis was just with the wrong person.

[moondustinfj]

Armand: Lestat has a 'burn book'?

Louis: *nods solemnly*

Armand: What does it say about me?

Louis: .........uhh...you're not in it

Armand: That. bitch

[confirmeddead]

Daniel is learning a lot about Armand next season, as told by Lestat.

Do we remember how Daniel was so delighted at the idea of Armand being furious reading Lestat’s book (in QotD)?

Now it’s him writing these books in the show, hoping to piss off his maker with all the dirt Lestat spills about him.

[loustat-lover]

Regarding gender roles in AMCs unholy family, I think it's interesting how Lestat is Claudia's mother, narratively/subtextually, but he's also plays the role of The Husband™. While Louis is Claudia's father but he's also plays the role of the housewife.

It's not "Lestat is the man and Louis is the woman", that's reductive and doesn't do their roles justice (not to mention the thinly veiled homophobia of that thought process). The gender roles expressed during The Unholy Family era are more complicated then I see some of the fandom paint it, and I wish people could really appreciate the way that they toy with gender in the show.

It's not the same way that Anne Rice toys with gender in the books by making every vampire a (thin white) androgynous creature of the night, but it's still has it's own subtle air of gender fuckery that is arguably perhaps more nuanced then "vampires become genderless because they're no longer human".

[droltatzuentes]

Lestat…talking to Louis…via Armand…