What is ONE thing you'd ask viewers to NOT judge Lestat for? (People Magazine)
Jacob: That's what this whole season is, right? This whole season is CONTEXT. It's very important. I love Lestat! I've always loved Lestat. I don't judge him anymore.
Sam: I don't feel the need to ask the audience to NOT judge him. It's within his remit and his DNA to be judged, and he kind of welcomes that. And he is: "Love me or hate me!" I'm gonna be The Vampire Lestat anyway.
This is a very leading question, and smacks of a psyop, so I think Jam was very good to give a sensible & safe character-centric answer; rather than telling the audience what we should or shouldn't subjectively feel about a character. Cuz there's PLENTY Lestat can be judged for, clearly--esp. if People's scrambling to hear just ONE (1) thing to unequivocally redeem him for; and Jam refused to name anything. So if they're not even gonna be specific, then ofc they have no room to determine how the audience takes anything or not anyway. So yeah, just keep it character-centric.
Because like Sam just told Vulture, the whole point of the show is that no matter what, the one person Lestat is seeking validation/attention--forgiveness and/or judgement--from is LOUIS. And everyone knows that no matter what, Louis WILL forgive Lestat, with or without context, even. He swam the Mississippi in the middle of being rage-baited, and took Lestat back, warts and all. He loves that man, bless his heart.
So the context is really most necessary for each characters' own benefit.
Louis needs to understand that Lestat never hated his guts or regretted making him--that the love was always there; just buried under a mountain of trauma triggered by pisspoor communication & huge misunderstandings. BUT also, just like Lestat said in Big Bad Wolf, he can't ever be worthy of Louis' love if Louis doesn't even know what his own worth even is enough to love himself.
And Lestat needs to understand that Louis requires patience & empathy as he walks down his particular Devil's Road, and that he is allowed to find his way and make mistakes without being treated like a disappointment or a crazy person who can't be trusted to have his own agency/autonomy/independence. And how that independence does NOT automatically mean that Louis' rejecting Lestat, or trying to replace Lestat with something/someone else--he contains multitudes.
And they BOTH need to understand that they failed Claudia horrendously, in different but not unrelated ways (cuz cycles are cycling whodathunk). They can never be a family together as long as that gaping wound is still oozing pus & bile. But they need to actually TALK about it, and get more context about ALL the things that went wrong with the Unholy Family. Folks love acting like it was just ONE (1) thing that went wrong (even People is tryna pin it down to ONE thing, lol); when NO. Their family collapsed under a domino effect of catastrophes that befell them. ALL of this needs to be addressed.
A person can still be judged harshly for the things they did wrong, and still ultimately be forgiven; they're NOT mutually exclusive. Like Louis said in 1x1, this story is about "truth and reconciliation."
So I'm glad Jam was non-committal. Cuz it's not up to them to decide what the audience should feel. If the writing's solid enough, the fandom will decide that on their own.
