idk, I kind of like how Louis’s narrative in the first episode includes Lestat talking about the abuse he endured as a child (being specifically triggered into doing so at a family dining table which is a really interesting parallel), in this unflinching detail. We know right away that this is clearly something that’s affected this character: his father and brothers’ violence, his lack of education, the humiliation of being a product of those things…we feel that almost at once with Lestat, and it carries through the first season
Lestat goes back to the past with an aim to justify why he’s sleeping with his mom. He emphasizes how ridiculous his father and brothers were. It was him and his mother who were real, and they weren’t. That’s the story he’s told himself and tells us. But is it true?
It kind of reminds me of the books, where Louis talks a lot early on about Lestat and his father and how complicated and overwhelming their relationship is as Lestat cares for him and resents him and does not want to listen to his advice…Louis really sees it as significant and it defines the early part of the book.
And Lestat’s narrative really barely talks about his father, even though in the books he would not have been New Orleans without going to take care of him. And that dynamic is explored almost not at all, in any real depth. It’s all about his mother who shaped him! But of course that’s not telling us everything; we already know it’s not.
And the same thing is true here! Why do we need Lestat to tell us something, right now, that we already know from another character? I think that distinction might be the point.
