#lestat also taught her way more than louis did and i think louis resented lestat for it

[cordyceph]

went to bed and woke up in a cold sweat realizing that claudia's play, the birdie one, is both a direct analogy for her story and also foreshadowing of her death WHILE ALSO nodding to pauls death

claudia'a single minded, desperate drive for freedom eventually lead her directly to her death. she was "nailed down" by lestat (by LOUIS, actually- lestat only kept her for him.), and tore herself free at the loss of her 'foot,' being a stand in for the personal pain she suffered for freedom

no matter what she or anyone did, she was going to die painfully, because she was so desperate to be free that everything was suffocating. lestat, louis, romania, the coven. the only thing that didnt rot in her mind was madeline, because... there simply wasnt time. madeline was fresh and new and, given time, would have probably suffered the same heel-turn claudia gave to everything.

of course thats because she shared louis' hopeful outlook. being free of her parents? would fix everything. when it didn't? maybe if she had louis, it would be worth it. but its not, lestats still here, louis is still in love with him... killing lestat, thatll fix it, and she and louis will be happy in romania, right, the homeland for vampirekind? not quite, so better try paris, the city of love. that doesnt work. the coven, though, will give her what she wants, right? she'll be happy with other vampires?

the only person who makes her happy is? a modern version of lestat? a weird white woman she met on happenstance, who has little to no care for societal norms or faux pas. a blunt, kind of funny, kind of sad woman who lost her family but has a capacity for enduring because what else is she going to do? die? no, she cant do that. she had no friends because she was weird and offputting and had dangerous rumors, no hangups on loving claudia, no hangups on dying or being a killer.

that's... just lestat. without the immortality and the specific traumas, of course, but like. claudia's most beloved person was a funhouse mirror of her most hated. which really speaks volumes for what they could have had, because it wasnt just a clash of personalities. it was lestats bpd clashing with hers and both of their attachment to louis clashing. if lestat had been better at sharing, if louis had been better at loving both of them, if claudia had been less angry at the world for nothing but existing? maybe they could have been a good family. a happy one forever, just like they all wanted, but were unable to give each other

[gallierhouse]

Some thoughts on Louis and Lestat’s reunion in New Orleans.

First, I don’t think it makes Lestat look better, nor does it redeem him. He still did literally everything he was accused of; he was just sad about it after, and we still see him mistreating a fledgling he presumably made for the sole purpose of being his personal DoorDasher. He mostly looks pathetic, which can be charming, but it’s still pathetic.

Second, I don’t think Louis is forgiving Lestat so much as he’s allowing himself to move on. He’s been punishing himself by keeping himself away from Lestat because he couldn’t forgive Lestat for his role in Claudia’s death. When he finds out that Armand orchestrated the trial, nothing about Lestat’s role in Claudia’s death truly changes. He was still at the trial, he still said all those things, he still failed to save Claudia. It’s just that Louis has someone else to blame instead. He loves Lestat, he always has. This is his out. This is him getting the freedom to love Lestat again without feeling guilty. This is him getting the freedom to see Lestat without betraying the memory of their daughter. This isn’t Louis forgiving Lestat, this is Louis pretending Lestat never did anything worth forgiving, and this is Louis finally allowing himself to let go of all the resentment and remember the love.

Third, when Louis thanks Lestat for the gift of vampirism, and when he tells Lestat it’s not his fault, and he comforts Lestat and whispers sweet nothings to him, it’s not him retroactively erasing the abuse or the pain or the arguments or the fights or any of that. It’s him finally being able to see their marriage from Lestat’s perspective. For the first time in a century he’s able to see that Lestat did so much out of love — and made mistakes out of the same love — and he’s able to be grateful for that, and to see their marriage from a new place. He’s able to see that his turning wasn’t just Lestat cursing him, or trying to isolate him from his family, or trying to have him for himself, it was also love. Something being love doesn’t negate it also being possession, or spite, or a million other things, but I think that scene is Louis being able to see the love in Lestat’s actions, along with the possessiveness, and the spite, and the resentment, and all the pain he’s told Daniel about in the span of two interviews. It doesn’t mean Lestat didn’t abuse him, it doesn’t mean Lestat was a good husband or a good father, all it means is that Louis is seeing everything in a new light, without the burden of having to blame Lestat for their daughter’s death. Is it accurate for him to exonerate Lestat from the role he played in Claudia’s death? That’s up to the audience. But it’s easy to understand why that would be such a relief for Louis.

Fourth, Louis is finally getting to grieve Claudia with the only other person in the world who loved her. Her father. Her maker. The man who bought her dolls and took her to the theatre and taught her to hunt. The only other person in the whole world who raised her, the only other person in the world who still loves her, the only other person in the world who could even begin to understand how much Louis loved her. Don’t you think that’s a relief? He’s been alone in his grief for so long. More than half a century of sitting alone with his grief, unable to even talk to anyone else about her, thinking that only other person who walks the Earth who remembers her as a daughter murdered her. If you lost a child, and you couldn’t save her, and you couldn’t bring her back, wouldn’t you want to remember her with the only other person who loved her the way you did? The only other person who would remember her as a daughter, and not as a killer, or an employee, or an interloper? Wouldn’t you want to grieve with the only person left who loves her? Even if he fucked up, even if he failed her, even if he failed both of you, he’s still the only person left who remembers her and who loves her. He’s the only person left you could mourn with. For the first time, Louis isn’t alone in his grief. Don’t you think that’s a relief that cuts through the resentment and the regret? There’s someone who understands his pain. There’s someone who remembers his daughter. There’s someone who misses his daughter. Their daughter. The daughter they made, the daughter they failed, the daughter they couldn’t save. Their daughter.

I think Louis’ actions make sense. Louis isn’t the audience surrogate, nor is he the measure of morality in the show. He’s just Louis. He finally gets to grieve his daughter with the only other person who still loves her. He finally gets to see the man he loved and still loves without having to blame him for killing her. Of course he’s emotional, of course he’s forgiving. He never really wanted to hate Lestat, but he had to for Claudia. Now he doesn’t have to anymore. It’s a relief. It’s forgiveness. It’s finally getting to mourn and move on.