#lestat meta

[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.

[soliloqueeer]

Louis is often portrayed as the introspective one—reticent, introverted, prone to despair, and paralyzed by his own conscience. He enlists a journalist to help him unravel a story he's been turning over in his mind for nearly a century.

In contrast, Lestat is impulsive, gregarious, and uninhibited—a creature driven by his desires and urges. Unlike Louis, he lives firmly in the present, rarely dwelling on his past or future.

What fascinates me is how Louis’s introspection doesn’t make him an honest narrator. He omits his role in the darkest moments of his story, not out of malice, but because he’s not truthful with himself. Lestat, on the other hand, knows exactly who he is and doesn’t shy away from it. His lies are mostly ones of omission, but he doesn’t deny his nature.

When it’s Lestat’s turn to tell his story, the viewer won’t need to untangle truth from fabrication—he will lay it bare. He'll hold the narrative hostage and allow the viewer to draw their own conclusions, because, as rash and shallow as he may appear, Lestat does truly know who exactly who is and he isn't hiding anything.

I don't like myself, you know. I love myself, of course, I'm committed to myself till my dying day. But I don't like myself.

--- Memnoch the Devil.

[toscrollperchancetomeme]

One thing about „Long Face” I haven’t seen discussed yet is its “perfectly premeditated flaw”. While it’s obviously primarily meant to bait Louis, it does so in a very smart way.

The writers have gone out of their way to make us understand that Louis has built himself up to be this super posh art dealer. He’s a connoisseur, he has “ze eye”, he is extremely distinguished in his tastes. Or, as Lestat probably sees it: He’s super pretentious, “like every pompous art student” he’s ever eaten. (I think he gets it from his mum, but that would be a whole essay.) And a part of this is: He does not like camp. This is quite evident from the way he talks about “Lestat’s tastelessness on the float” in episode 1x7, but also reflects in his reaction to the “weirdness” of the Paris theatre.

Except - I think he secretly does like it, because otherwise he would not love Lestat. Him being in denial of his love for Lestat and of his enjoyment of “camp” art almost seem to stem from the same place within him - he is still denying parts of himself.

So, Lestat writing a song for him, that is this camp? That literally says “Come appraise me” to his art dealer husband? That says “see me for what I am and stop lying to yourself and pretending that you don’t love me and that you don’t enjoy having fuuuuuuun”? The lack of metaphor has never been more striking. I’m so here for this.

[hermit-frog]

[somevagrantchild]

Noooo friend. I know you're just being glib, but Lestat's aristocratic background very much does matter! It matters SO MUCH.

There is FAR more to being an aristocrat than money. It's a culture, it's an upbringing, it's customs and manners. Lestat says repeatedly that his "aristocratic bearing" got him places in life that others couldn't. His posture, his body language, his way of speaking. Got him his job as an actor, got him particular attention. He says how the moneyed bourgeoisie tried to emulate this aristocratic je ne sais quoi, but could never quite manage it. Being an aristocrat was the entire reason it was HIS responsibility to kill the wolves, and that plus his manners and affect were the very things that captured Magnus's attention and the whole reason he was chosen to be a vampire in the first place. His beauty/hotness is more than just bone structure and fabulous hair, it was in his attitude, his confidence, his way of facing the world that only someone born into his position could manifest. And not just the aristocratic position, but the impoverished/shamed aristocratic position. Having all the expectations of the ruling class heaped upon his family, but the inability to live up to them because of the lack of money and opportunities shaped his entire upbringing and personality. It's what made his brothers cruel and his mother cold and his father the sniveling old blind man he was burdened to care for. It's what fueled Lestat's darkness, but the privileges of having servants and serfs and subjects also left enough space for his exuberant light to still find a way to shine. If he were that poor and working class, it surely would have all been squashed out of him at a very early age.

And that's all just BEFORE he became a vampire! As a vampire, his aristocratic background was what made him GENTLEMAN death, the new unheard-of species of vampire that blew the minds of the Children of Satan and changed the entire vampiric culture of Paris. None of the other vampires who rejected the cult were gentlemen. Lestat's experience of knowing HOW to be gentry (even if he didn't act that way every day at home) was what gave him the skill and ability to seamlessly enter high society as soon as he had the money from Magnus's treasure to do so. It's why he didn't even think twice about striking out across the world to explore and then to find a place for himself in America, to make that ocean crossing that no vampire had ever been confident enough to try before. Lestat's not bold and confident (just) because he's an impulsive moron. It's bred in him.

He talks in later books about how new young vampires, even in modern times, become vagabonds who don't know how to make/save money or integrate with society. They don't have the background structure to know how to climb in the world and need to be taught. Lestat spent his whole childhood upbringing being taught. His aristocratic education (even if it wasn't an academic education) gave him a huge step up over vampires made from commoners, so that even without a maker or any friends in the world, he was able to in a manner of weeks become the most fabulous vampire the world had ever seen since Marius's days in Venice.

And let's also talk about the most important thing--Louis! The difference between their classes impacted their relationship in a huge way from the very beginning! Even if Anne didn't have the idea for Lestat to be poor nobility when she wrote the first book, I'll bet she realized she had no other choice for him when it came time to create his backstory, because she had already used all the building blocks of it. He talks of Louis's naivete due to his "strange bourgeois faith that God was still God even if he turned his back on us, that damnation and salvation established the boundaries of a small and hopeless world" in contrast to the cynicism and atheism that were the result of his own aristocratic upbringing.

Lestat says, "As for his belief that I was a peasant, well that was understandable. He was, after all, a discriminating and inhibited child of the middle class, aspiring as all the colonial planters did to be a genuine aristocrat even though he had never met one, and I came from a long line of feudal lords who licked their fingers and threw the bones over their shoulders to the dogs as they dined." Upper class aristocracy in reality was different from and a whole lot more than how middle class men like Louis imagined it, that assumption of glamor and propriety. It was darker, messier, meaner than those who fantasized about it liked to believe. Aristocracy was the duty to risk your life alone to kill eight wolves in the snow with medieval weapons because an entire countryside of people depended upon you to survive the winter.

Their differences in upbringing and resultant perspectives on life and the world doesn't just impact Louis and Lestat's relationship, but is also the backbone of the philosophies that provide major themes in the books. Of the darkness, the cynicism, the disillusionment of becoming a vampire for Louis. Like the bourgeois dream of climbing the class ladder to aristocracy, becoming a vampire seems like a very desirable transformation until Louis actually makes it and is faced with the dark reality of what his new role in life must be.

the funniest thing about lestat is he was secretly a member of the gentry!! woaaah!! plot twist!!! except it doesn't really matter at all. they had no money. it doesn't define his perception of himself. it was nothing but a stricture and eventually he left and even that mattered in no material terms to anyone. to the extent he returns to auvergne in like 200 years the vibes are rancid as hell and it has no continuity. it never actually mattered. if it's a lie and he was the groundskeeper it's the same. his existence shed everything human. he's playing with the shadows in the cave

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

drives me glass-eating batshit how Claudia and Amadeo were both teenagers rescued (or "rescued") from violently traumatic situations and taken in by paternal gentlemen vampires who taught them about the world and kept them safe and spoiled them rotten and loved them so so so much in profoundly unhealthy and dehumanizing ways. Claudia and Arun both entering the vampiric world as blank slates (like Claudia remembers her pre-turning past but we only get the barest details, it's hardly ever mentioned) and a wash of divinity, angel imagery and merciful gods. then as Claudia and Amadeo grew they started to pick up on the things that were off in their world and display aggressive behavior (Claudia's killing spree and Amadeo's The Shining moment, etc.) only to be physically punished for it. and then they experience the brutalities of life outside their maker's protection (Claudia under the floorboards and Armand under Rome) except she's able to come back home hardened and confront the realities of what's been done to her while Armand never gets that chance, he's stuck with the Children of Darkness, he's stuck deifying Marius, he's stuck clinging to ritual and tradition and all the things Claudia defies like breathing.

and then they finally cross paths and they're inverted mirrors of each other, Claudia the grown woman desperate to escape her teenager's body and Armand the grown man who wants to be loved and precocious and fascinating like he was as a teenager. Claudia being able to effortlessly pull off the veneer of innocence that Armand has to work so hard to maintain and she's not even grateful for it. she's got the youth he wants, she's got Louis's love, she's more free than Armand has ever been, she fought back against her Maker and got away with it, it's not Fair, it isn't right. so Armand punishes her with it, subjects her to the same cycle of objectification and dehumanization and violence that Amadeo went through (because it could be Worse right, he could be Donating her right). and when that's not enough to make up for everything he's missing he fucking kills her in an elaborate show just like she killed Lestat with the elaborate show that was Mardi Gras, only his writings recording the process damn him just like her writings damn her, their need to leave some mark of themselves above all else consuming everything.

and after killing her Armand spends years dragging around with a Louis who hates him just like Louis dragged around with a Claudia who hated him. he's the good nurse for Louis the way Claudia was and he competes with Lestat's ghost the way she did and he watches a fragile life with flowers growing from dead things all come crashing down in ash and dust like she did, all because of what he did to her. and at the end of the day they're both fucked-up kids whose most commonly used last names stem from the fathers who fucked them up and they could have lived each other's lives and in some ways they almost did.

[and-fishing-equipment]

lestat's version of the claudia turning is actually the most fucked up haunting scene in the entire show by miles, just everything about it gives me the fucking shivers. the way louis drags her across the floor like a doll. the way it becomes clear that claudia really was just another step in the ladder of their fucked up immortal romance. the fact that she as an individual didn't matter at all but just the idea of her. the way we see louis properly, honestly selfish, lost, and out of control in contrast to how he was caring and considerate in the story he told with confidence and continuity. the way he seems like nothing we've ever seen him as, sort of hollow, unrecognizable. the way lestat warned him about the law. the way he USED,,, LESTAT'S IMMORTAL FEAR OF ABANDONMENT AND LONELINESS AGAINST HIM TO GET WHAT HE WANTED. HE KNEW THE THOUGHT OF BEING ALONE AGAIN WOULD MAKE HIM AGREE TO ANYTHING. it makes me sick to my stomach actually. it immediately sets a contrast to how we were introduced to their relationship in the first few episodes where daniel calls lestat and louis the abused and the abuser. it puts everything in a different light. for me the most horrifying thing about watching it for the first time though was the sudden realization that the person who we think louis is, who we think all the characters we got to know through his retelling of the story are, is completely biased and warped by louis' traumas, repressions, beliefs, false perceptions of the truth, and coping mechanisms. it completely broke down the narrative they had been building for two seasons, and made you question everything you'd watched and felt about these characters. absolutely fucking bone chilling. 10/10 no notes.

[ortofosforico]

Louis went from dating the classics theater kid, barely enduring operas and comedies and tragedies, to dating the unhinged avantgarde theater kid that would make him sit through shit like "The revisitation of Hansel and Gretel from the pov of the breadcrumbs starting a class war against the gingerbread house from a futuristic perspective and ending in a bloodbath as all characters die due to the mold infesting the house as a metaphor of our society."

And HIS FACE-

[limonmelon]

One idea which I think is central to IWTV is the idea that becoming a vampire is the antithesis of improvement - stagnation. Your hair can't change length, your body will never grow, and as we know with Claudia, your hormones don't even change and you can be perpetually stuck in puberty.

But I love how this is reflected even in the vampire's art and creations throughout the show. The first song we see Lestat play on the piano is a jazz interpolation of a Bach song, his other song a piece created just to goad Louis back to him. Louis's photographs are derivative, and he has no patience to wait for his shots in order to actually capture the essence of his subjects, even if he has a good eye for art, and he drops photography quickly after one criticism. Claudia, who can't ever mature out of her teenage body, can't even make another vampire. The Théâtre des Vampires is struggling before Claudia becomes their main attraction, but it's not her acting that brings people - as we see her giving half-hearted performances to a crowd that barely seems to notice - but her exploitation. Armand had been a muse and model for other artists while alive, but he has no real motivation to make art, and he runs plays for 50 years until they're tired to a half-empty audience. He can also recognize good art, but he can't seem to make it himself. And they all have a horrible attitude towards criticism of their creations as well, sometimes even getting violent in their rejection of the words of critics or other vampires.

But you know who does create, and improves over time? Daniel. While he may have been terrible at interviewing Louis the first time, which he acknowledges, part of the reason he comes back to interview Louis again is because he knows he can do better. Over time he has become a great journalist and interviewer, winning Pulitzer prizes, writing books, working for major newspapers, even having his own Masterclass. He doesn't stagnate with technology, we see him using his laptop and talking about how his cell phone has become the great equalizer in the world or reporting. Being human has allowed him to grow and change and improve, to learn how to be better.

So I'm really curious to see how the handle Rockstar and Vampire Lestat next season, how his music is created, how in-universe critics are responding to it, etc. especially after this recent glam rock Rocky Horror-esque song has been released. I also wonder if being a vampire has changed how Daniel works as a journalist, especially now that we know his role in the next season will be him interviewing Lestat in this MTV Behind the Music documentary setting.

[hellotailor]

Apologies if you've already done a post on this and I've just missed it, but can I ask for your take on the pyjamas worn by the cast of interview with vampire? I mean technically they're not a 100% necessary item, but just from a quick look there seems to be a lot of variety and they do change over the series

ok, i’m delighted by the specificity of this question, and it turns out that i have a VERY extensive answer.

there’s a lot of sleepwear in IWTV due to the volume of bedroom/coffin scenes, and like any other outfit, these costumes are shaped by characterization and historical period. for instance claudia initially wears a long, modest, frilly nightgown - an old-fashioned style that plays into her girlish doll wardrobe purchased by louis and lestat. however her sleepwear matures over the years, including a trendy lace nightdress with bloomers in the 1920s (note the rectangular silhouette), and a pink padded jacket/pastel robe outfit in 1940s paris. she's following contemporary trends while charting a visible trajectory from child to adult.

when i wrote about the Théâtre des Vampires coven costumes, i noted that while their wardrobes share certain themes (ie. monochrome patterns and stripes), they each have specific personal tastes. that holds true for sleepwear. in the S2 finale we see the coven going to bed in their coffins, with Eglee in a gorgeous (maybe 1940s?) robe, Celeste in a striped pajama suit reflecting her 1920s-30s cabaret style, and Armand in a plain grey set of prison jammies because he's Suffering.

of course, the star pajama outfits all belong to Louis and Lestat, playing into their wealthy domestic aesthetic in S1. they receive multiple bedroom/coffin scenes, and Lestat's gold Leyendecker robe is obviously iconic.

touching on the historical side of things for a moment, pajamas (as in a matching buttondown top and loose pants) were popularized in the western world in the 19th century, as a repurposed south asian import - kind of like how banyans became trendy among the upper classes in 18th century england. this was when loungewear started to catch on as a concept, both in terms of dressing gowns and smoking jackets (which you could wear while socializing at home) and actual pajamas, which became unisex in the 1920s.

back in his human life in the 18th century, Lestat probably slept naked or wore a shapeless white nightgown (and possibly a nightcap, the sexiest of garments). but in New Orleans he adopts Louis' lifestyle, which involves a luxurious wardrobe of fashionable menswear. they're both into shopping and looking good, and i think they enjoy the ritual of getting dressed together each night.

(i also have a personal theory that Lestat may prefer to sleep fully clothed because his formative traumatic memory involves waking up naked in the dark. after all, he doesn't need pajamas to stay warm, and he doesn't have a recent habit of wearing them in his human life like Louis does. then again, maybe he just enjoys having a new outfit for every occasion!)

in Dubai, we only get one scene (iirc) with Louis and Armand in their pajamas, lying in bed wearing outfits that tie into the striped prison bar imagery of their bedroom. Armand is in warmer brown tones (like his Paris wardrobe) while Louis is in black and grey, like the rest of his Dubai outfits. i'd also note that this is the one place where they're genuine in private, meaning that they aren't putting on a show for Daniel. so this is potentially Armand's most relaxed costume in the present day.

the fact that they're wearing this kind of old-school sleepwear feels very appropriate for their whole deal, imo. in the 21st century, a lot of people just sleep in boxers and t-shirts or whatever. there's a slightly 20th century vibe to wearing a full set of buttondown pajamas, and Armand's outfit reads as more stylish (and possibly more wealthy) than your average millennial guy. which makes sense! they're old men.

i think we can assume that every single thing in their Dubai home is ferociously expensive, even when it doesn't need to be. considering the way Louis gives himself a modern makeover in the finale, i do wonder if he'll switch over to sleeping in t-shirts etc next season, or if he'll stick with variations of the same sleepwear he wore during his mortal life.

p.s. all of my iwtv design posts are available on this tag!

[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.

[soliloqueeer]

“I was being hunted.”

With each rewatch, I’m always struck by the look Lestat gives Louis in 1x01. As Louis tells Daniel, "I was being hunted," the camera pans to Lestat, who is staring at Louis with an expression that can only be described as love and longing.

The first time I watched, I took Louis’ story at face value, believing him as I did with most of his claims. Thus, I perceived this glance far differently than I do now. Now that we know Louis is an unreliable narrator, I see this framing as attempt for Louis way to avoid the guilt and shame he feels over being seduced by Lestat. By casting Lestat as a predator, Louis distances himself from the guilt of choosing him again and again.

While there are countless reasons why Louis might have portrayed Lestat this way, it’s worth revisiting the narrative with the knowledge we have now: that Lestat fell desperately in love with Louis and courted him for months. The look we see here is not that of a manipulator with a grand, conniving plan, but of someone patiently and desperately waiting for Louis to meet him where he is, and to love him deeply as he loves him - a dynamic that will the continue throughout the entire narrative.

[toscrollperchancetomeme]

Has anyone yet pointed out the parallels between Louis starving himself and giving Lestat the cold shoulder for 7 years and Louis becoming a drug addict who kills his sex partners with Armand cleaning up after him for years?

And how both of these times, where he essentially denies his partners love and affection as a form of punishment and self-punishment, culminate in a big fight, in which he verbally abuses his partners until they snap, getting them to punish him even further - Lestat by dropping him, Armand by leaving him with the untreated burns for days?

Anyway I’m fine. This is fine.

[vaperarmand]

daniel was so enthralled and delighted seeing louis' fangs, was fascinated with the knowledge that armand can read minds, that it stands to reason he would go balls to the wall insane to find out armand can fly. in the 70s he'd ask armand to do it all the time and armand would always do it so daniel would cheer for him and get all excited again. so in dubai in 2022 when armand is revealing himself as the ancient vampire and not the servant boy, i like to think he was like "well, there's one surefire way to make sure this reveal makes daniel's eyes bug out and makes him freak out and go crazy and realize how cool and hot and powerful i am." and then he just. starts fucking flying

[some-vagrant-child]

How many times is she going to use the word "preternatural"?!

Interview with the Vampire: 13

The Vampire Lestat: 15

The Queen of the Damned: 13

Tale of the Body Thief: 39

Memnoch the Devil: 15

The Vampire Armand: 16

Merrick: 11

Blood and Gold: 12

Blackwood Farm: 1

Blood Canticle: 4

Prince Lestat: 28

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis: 9

Blood Communion: 14

[brawlingdiscontent]

I’ve been thinking more about Lestat’s wedding ring, which we see him wearing publicly during the trial, and later on tour—but not elsewhere, including alone in his vampire hovel. It seems that he’s not wearing the ring for himself. My sense is that Lestat thinks of marriage as a human construct (along with his general disdain for many human institutions like religion), and that he considers his and Louis’ companionship (their “transcendent love between two vampires of the same sex”) to be far above the limitations of human definitions, and so doesn’t feel the need to tokenize it accordingly. But we do see him mobilize marriage and the wedding ring strategically for two audiences: humans and Louis. 

As the trial makes clear, Lestat is very conscious of the implications of his ‘wedding’ to Louis on the night of Louis’ turning when he speaks of offering himself, “in the church, on the altar.” But never does he use the term ‘marriage’ to describe what they have - it’s always ‘companionship’ or ‘union.’ 

At the moment of Louis’ turning, I think the marriage parallels are about making clear to the then-human Louis that what he is offering is akin to (better than) human marriage, and also that he takes not-so-secret delight in profaning the rites of Christianity through their bloody same-sex union (just like he gleefully destroys the wooden figure of crucified Jesus). 

During the trial, besides the marriage analogy being a tool to win over the human audience to his and Louis’ relationship (who he needs onside as much as possible to ease the way for his little mind-bending trick), I think the wedding ring functions as a signal to LOUIS, who he has always chided for his stubborn attachment to his humanity. He can’t do much within the trial’s carefully-controlled confines, but he can signal to Louis through the ring that he still loves him, that he still believes in their union, that he’s here to save him. 

So then what about the tour wedding ring? I would argue it’s both 1) A signal to his fans – “Back off! I’m taken.” – and, more importantly 2) A signal to Louis: “It’s you; it’s always you. I’ll wait forever.” (And also probably, mascara streaming down his face, "I never agreed to our breakup so it never happened!!")