#went to an intensive iwtv event

[lachrymimosaa]

being drunk as fuck with someone u love.......

utterly magical

[nicoleanell]

One change in the AMC IWTV show i really go back and forth on is the circumstances of Claudia's turning. The fact that in the novel - and it's something I vividly remembered from the '90s movie as well - Louis had drank from Claudia and almost killed her initially. Not in a "trying to make her a vampire himself" way which is how they ultimately portrayed it on the show, just purely in a moment of hunger and bloodlust and giving into the worst of his nature that he'd been repressing for so long. And that's what leads to his intense guilt over it and the emotional babytrap moment, though in the original source it's Lestat's idea.

I definitely DO like that it's Louis's idea in both ~versions of the scene we saw in the show... honestly the s2 version didn't change all that much to the sequence of events except in tone. We already *knew* it was Louis who begged him to turn her, the only thing the S2 remix added was it was all less heroic, more painful and desperately selfish, and that Lestat put up slightly more resistance and showed more emotion over it. (Not that either version was meant to be 100% accurate and I'll die on that hill. Why would anyone kill me on that hill?)

The motivation of him being the cause of her death to begin with is... you know what, it IS there in the show but in a much less direct way. In his eyes the fire that almost killed her was his fault, the racist massacre unfolding was his fault, he was more desperate than usual to prove he could be Good, etc. But truthfully, he's not actually responsible for any of that, murdering one deserving white dude or no.

Anyway, for season one I like the way they altered that. But part of me thinks about what it would've done for his character and the tragedy of his relationship with Claudia if *that* had been the reveal/alternate version of what happened that came out during the trial in 2x07. A nice little nod to the book as well that he'd essentially be telling Daniel to print that version. This is maybe the *one* instance where I almost relate to those fans who want anything that diverges from book canon to turn out to be an unreliable narrator/selective amnesia thing lol. Like, it actually might've been good for the story there, if not for the discourse.

I do question if it's one of those moments where the writers were a little afraid it would make him Too Unlikable or something and shied away from it, which is so much like where they landed with Armand as well. On the other hand, given how parts of fandom react to Louis regardless and will vilify him with stuff he didn't even do when all the stuff he Did is right there (see also how ppl react to Armand), maybe that was the right call??

Yeah I don't really have any conclusion here just... conflicted thoughts! It's a pretty significant change I haven't seen a lot of people discuss, and I don't think it's a necessarily bad one, but interesting that they went that way.