#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.

[in-kyblogs]

The fact that Armand - after a human lifetime of having very little control on how his body was accessible - is so reluctant to share his blood as a vampire - with the sexual connotations that sharing blood has in the vampire chronicles - is making me feel things. many things

And then he offers it in a plea to be loved. As the Italians say how are we feeling I am outside the grace of god

He offers it to Lestat btw, and the history between them goes that upon first meeting each other Armand tried to forcibly drink lestat’s blood. yeah. And Lestat was just turned by this point - against his consent. When I say their dynamic is everything. Something about looking at a mirror of yourself and yet your complete opposite, and we were after all of the same ilk and who can love us as we love each other

[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]

[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.

[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.

[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!!")

[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.

[vampirenicotine]

analyzing the lyrics for “long face” feat. lestat de lioncourt and realizing it’s a louis diss track (with love) is making me more unhinged by the second.

so we open with the gorgeous oooh oooh wah ahhh hypnotizing portion of this song that will stay in your head and where samuel thyne reid is also showing off his *cough* vocal talent.

next….

“why the long face? my pretty baby” — cause you know louis is a sad girlie but also so fucking beautiful and irresistible to lestat when they met he couldn’t possibly understand what louis would be sad about but also… he’s ready to comfort him ALWAYS.

“i got long fangs come appraise me” —lestat is talking about how he’s a vampire so come asess my value and also … fangs could be a metaphor for his pink pony so!

“bring your long stakes that doesn’t phase me” — lestat is saying you can talk shit about me louis and drive a stake through my heart but i still love you teehe.

“i’m an actor in my make up” — he’s saying i can play games too, louis.

“i’ll get fatter when we break up” —so he’s acknowledging the confidence issues he had over the 77 year break up and the break ups before which…. i don’t have the words to speak on otherwise i’ll die.

“why does it matter who i take up?” —he’s saying why does it matter who i sleep with in regardless to antoinette and it’s like love you king… but you’re crazy.

NEXT!

“another face, another year, another place, another tear, pick up the pace, rack up the fears, now we’re having fun.” — this is a little love letter to his cult (us) telling us to get amplified bitch it’s only the beginning

the instrumental break/oohing and ahhing just so immaculate tough cookie alex & larry really did that!

“i’m piano and you’re forte.” — so this lyric right here is what drove me feral because it has so many possible meanings and a few naughty innuendos. what im going to land on however is the fact that lestat is saying im piano because he can be used in whatever way louis wants to use him and he’s saying louis you’re forte (which means my strength) so he’s like idc what you say about me because you hold me together 🥹

“you’re allegro, i’m andante.” —THIS RIGHT HERE HAD ME ON MY KNEES. this is exposing their sex life in the best way because lestat is saying oh i’m your black tar heroin? ok noted and lemme match that because you’re allegro (which means energetic, fast, super active, loud) so basically he says i know you’re addicted to me because i was there. you’re wild in bed and you’re a screamer. he then says he’s andante (slow) because he likes to take his time and worship louis and really make love to him. BYE.

“we’re boléro, prostitué.” —and then he’s like just because i said we go slow sometimes first and foremost we’re freaks. we’re nasty and we’re unspeakable and well… thank you so much for those visuals queen de lioncourt.

“another taste, another year, another place, another tear, another chase, another sneer, without a trace, you disappear, pick up the pace, pack up the gear, gimme some face, a souvenir, here come the gays, here comes the fear, now we’re having fun.” — these bars are what’s going to give miss lioncourt her first grammy nominations because she is summarizing her relationship with louis and hopes for the future.

he’s also telling louis he’s giving him exactly what he wants. he’s chasing him. he knows louis is gonna sneer at him and be annoyed but come anyway. he’s saying you ghosted me after our reunion but im going on tour and you WILL be my rockstar girlfriend. you’ll kiss me (or the pink pony) before my shows as good luck. he’s saying we’re gonna be gay and proud, we’ll take over the world, cause the vampire apocalypse, scare bitches, and have fun. we own the night.

and finally for the song to end with lestat losing himself and moaning into the mic (coming, smirks) as he thinks about his chaotic plan to get louis back well… it’s just music to my ears. and i will listen to it again. and again. and again. and again.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating for you lestat

signed,

your loving groupie.

[onlylove4louis]

Louis finds Armand BORING... and not because he's not Lestat. Not exactly

This is another one of those things I keep randomly thinking about. Just musings. Also, this one really shouldn't be too deep and definitely no intense, emotional dramatics 😅

Now, the take that Louis finds Armand "boring" because Armand is not Lestat. Who I like to call; a category 5 hurricane. Definitely isn't wrong, it goes hand in hand with this one... it's just that, as everything else in this show/series, I think it's more nuanced then just that. To really get to it, I want to point out one of the fundamental differences between Lestat & Armand, as people and/or as Vampires. And then contrast (that's not the right word), with Louis. Lets start with Louis though, because I mean come on.

Louis always comes first

Louis de Pointe du Lac, as well all should know by now, is seen as and regarded as; the most HUMAN Vampire. -- interjection real quick: I don't mean he is human, because he's not. He's still very much a Vampire. He's not any less of a Vampire, than the rest. Alot of people tend to sort of confuse that. It's just that, in comparison to OTHER Vampires, he's more human. Even Claudia didn't regard him as her own "kind", because he's too human -- He has a very human heart, he gravitates and clearly feels more comfortable, more at home... with/around humans. He relates more to humans. And while he doesn't really seem to actually like the individual human much, because he is a Vampire, and they are "food". He clearly loves humanity as a whole. Because humans and humanity = life. Louis is attracted to, desires, and ultimately THRIVES... when he's surrounded by life. He always is drawn to being as close to life, and the living, as he possibly can get. And interesting enough, even while its one of the main things about him that sets him apart from other Vampires, and has him mocked, ridiculed and ultimately outcast by them (for being other)... it's also one of the main reasons, why Vampires, particularly the more predatory ones. Are so drawn to him. He draws Vampires to him, like humans do.

Which now leads me to, Lestat

Lestat, even as a Vampire pulses with LIFE. It just comes out of him. And it's one of the main reasons, why he too feels so at home among humans and humanity. It's why he too thrives in an environment, filled with life. For those of you who don't know that, or somehow don't see it, yet. Just wait, you will 😉 It's why he's able to blend/fit in so well with humans, and why he desires too... Even though he is better at being a Vampire, than most. So just like Louis, it's also one of the main things about him that draws other Vampires (like Armand) to him.

Now Armand, is so very NOT human. He's so far removed from humanity, from "life". And honestly not all together by choice. But other than certain things that have been done to him, and forced on him, that have shaped him into this... He is also just so OLD, as a Vampire. Therefore hasn't been a human and hasn't lived among humans for so long... The point of that being, he's not "alive". There is no humanity in Armand, there is no life or living in/with Armand. There is only death. There is only stagnation.

And there-in lies, why Louis finds Armand boring, especially in contrast to Lestat. Lestat gives off life, he breathes life. Lestat lives and surrounds himself (and Louis) with life; passion, music, art, etc. Armand, does not... All the way down to just having hobbies, he mocks and basically scoffs at the very idea of a Vampire having a 'hobby'. He has no aptitude or interest in music or art, has no interest in the human world as a whole. He barely tolerates and ultimately just humors Louis' humanity, and Louis' thirst for life. But like you do a child. You think it's cute, amusing even but you only engage with it for their benefit. Armand, to Louis is like a statue, or a painting. Static, cold, lifeless. Unmoving.

And the thing is, he was bored with Armand in Paris, he was clearly bored with Armand in San Fransisco, which came to a head:

And he's bored with Armand in Dubai.

In Paris, Louis had no interest in his theatre, he had no interest in his coven. He got nothing from their massacre level 'hunt parties'. Everything Armand was, everything he stood for, everything he surrounded himself by was boring to Louis. Because it was lifeless. It ultimately made a mockery of life, brought death to life, and remained wholly separate from life. To both Louis AND Lestat, it was stifling, suffocating... boring. In San Fran, Louis was having the time of his life with Daniel Molloy, for 8+hrs, while we come to find out that Armand was... sitting at home "picking LINT off the SoFa" Louis was climbing the walls, feeling suffocated by Armand. Not because he was controlling or anything like that, but because he was "beige". He was stifling in his stagnation. In Dubai, "the Vampire is BORED". He's bored with death, he's bored in his coffin/tomb. He's bored with the cold, hard stone, and white clinical lights. Beige, whites and blacks. So far above and therefore removed from, the human world. Removed from life.

In Nola, with Lestat, Louis world & life, looked like this:

So much color, art, always music. Warm, soft lights as well as lots of wood, soft fabrics and nature, etc. So it's not Armand himself he's "bored" of, it's death, it's the static, stilted, stagnate existence. And it's not exactly Lestat he's comparing him too, or he's missing (which he is, again the take is not wrong at all), but it's passion and art and music, and growth... it's life. Which is why, when Daniel helps free Louis from Armand, for good. He immediately goes back to color, and art. He goes "home" and brings back... life.

[lizardkingeliot]

i could not prevent it

[notagaindammit]

Lestat on Ugly Crying

"I rolled over on my face and tucked my arm under my head and started crying like a child. I was perishing from exhaustion. I was worn and miserable and I loved crying. I couldn't do anything else. I gave in to it fully. I felt that profound release of the utterly grief-stricken. I didn't give a damn who saw or heard. I cried and cried.

"Do you know what I think about crying? I think some people have to learn to do it. But once you learn, once you know how to really cry, there's nothing quite like it. I feel sorry for those who don't know the trick. It's like whistling or singing.

"Whatever the case, I was too miserable to take much consolation just from feeling good for a moment in a welter of shudders and salted, bloodstained tears."

~~from Memnoch the Devil

[cbrownjc]

Hi there! I'm sorry if this feels super obtuse and it has been ages since I read the novels, BUT...

After this recent episode I was a little confused about what Armand had done to infuriate Louis and Daniel so much. If he simply wiped their memories so neither Louis or Daniel didn't remember everything that went down, that doesn't seem so awful, especially since what went down WAS awful. So I think I must have missed something substantial because I was distracted by my cat, or something. 😅

BTW I love your blog and all the fantastic insight you provide! I used to be ride or die with IWTV but haven't paid much attention to it in the last 15-20 years, so I'm finding it immensely helpful for getting back into the swing of things!

Hello!

So why Louis and Daniel are so angry at Armand isn't because Armand simply erased their memories. (And, to be clear, their memories weren't actually erased, but just clouded over and blocked). Armand rewrote them. Armand basically reprogrammed Daniel and Louis' minds after the OG interview, Louis' mind especially.

That was what that final scene was about, what it was demonstrating. The answer that Louis gave at the beginning of the episode, as to why Armand saved Daniel's life in 1973 was a word-for-word repeat of what Armand's own answer was at the end of the episode to that same question.

The answer wasn't something Louis truly felt wrt his own real feelings. It was something Armand put into Louis' mind to think and say about the incident after the events of it from Louis attacking Daniel on were blocked and clouded over.

As @virginiaisforvampires notes here, the way Louis speaks of Lestat in the OG interview vs the new interview is very telling wrt that reprogramming done. Yes, in the OG interview, Louis was talking down Lestat in spiteful ways, but it was all surface-level stuff. Just saying that the way Lestat spoke revealed how stupid he was and that he wasn't at all skilled when trying to play music.

That is all a far cry from the things Louis has said and spoken about in the Dubai interview about Lestat. Lestat's crimes, as they are being talked about in this second interview, are not just surface-level transgressions said to simply make Lestat angry and draw him out, as Louis was originally trying to do back in 1973. The crimes of Lestat laid out in the Dubai interview, in contrast, are very much there to justify the murder of Lestat.

Because without that justification?

Well, we see that starting when it comes to the false memory -- yes, false -- of Louis thinking Claudia couldn't burn Lestat. Louis thinking that -- that Claudia couldn't burn Lestat -- would take away Louis' guilt at having stopped Claudia from trying to burn Lestat if it was something they both couldn't do. Especially if the killing of Lestat had been justified.

But if there was no justification for killing Lestat? Then the reason Louis stopped Claudia from burning Lestat was because Louis knew that killing Lestat had been wrong. Louis knew it the night Claudia did it, which would be the real reason why he stopped her from burning him.

And because Lestat didn't burn, because he was still alive, that led to the events of the trial in Paris and what happened to Claudia there. And what is looking to be the show's version of the Merrick reveal about Claudia's true feelings wrt Louis. Which, in the book Merrick, the revelation of that is what sent Louis to try to destroy himself via sunlight exposure, as we saw him try to do back in 1973 -- which the cocaine and other drugs that were in Daniel's blood had Louis unable to either ignore anymore -- or lifted a veil that had been placed over his mind about it until then.

Do you see the cascade effect in all of this?

And look, maybe some will see what Armand has done here as not that awful, but Armand didn't do it just to try and protect Louis. That was very damn clear when he didn't relay Lestat's full "I love you" message to Louis after Louis' 1973 attempt to end his life. It's because part of Armand very much still wants to live with the illusion that he and Louis can be happy together, even after what happened in Paris and Armand's role in those events.

I've said before that Armand's flaw when it comes to love is that he will go way, way, WAY overboard to obtain or keep love. And this is all just, once again, him repeating that pattern. Armand rewrote Louis' memories of both Lestat and Claudia's actions all to try and assuage the true guilt and pain Louis has over everything that happened and Louis' own role (mostly due to his own inactions) in it all that has led to such suicidal guilt about it, but also because IMO Armand wishes to hide -- as much as he can -- his own role in everything that happened as well . . . and all of this so as to keep Louis by his side so that Louis doesn't leave him -- be it for Lestat, or even in death.

Armand isn't being altruistic in his reprogramming of Louis' mind and memories. Because really being so would have been not only telling Louis what Lestat was trying to relay to Louis back in 1973 but then probably having to let Louis go as well . . . let Louis go back to and be with Lestat, the person who Louis was trying to draw the attention of with that whole OG interview in the first place.

Honestly, I see the whole situation as kind of expanding on this line of Louis' in the book, as he and Armand are breaking up:

And when I came to Paris I thought you were powerful and beautiful and without regret, and I wanted that desperately. But you were a destroyer just as I was a destroyer, more ruthless and cunning even than I. You showed me the only thing that I could really hope to become, what depth of evil, what degree of coldness I would have to attain to end my pain. And I accepted that. And so that passion, that love you saw in me, was extinguished. And you see now simply a mirror of yourself.

With the rewriting/reprogramming of Louis' memories, this is very much what Armand has created with Louis in many ways -- a mirror of himself. The pieces of himself that Armand blocked and changed had Louis "knowing who he was" . . . but who that person is, isn't the real Louis. Just a reflection of the person who made those changes.

So yeah, that is where the anger is coming from. Moreso Louis than Daniel when it comes to the rewriting aspect of it all I'd say; Daniel is likely just angry that his mind was messed with in the first place. One thing you can say about Daniel is that he's brutally honest, even when it comes to his own foibles. He's the type who'd rather know all the horrible shit that happened to him, than not.

Anyway, I'm glad you like my blog and comments about the show, and I hope this answer explains some of it for you. 🙂