Gabriel🧍‍♂️

@chxrry-cxcaine

I should preface that the closest I got to watching 9-1-1 was half of the first season and clips via YouTube shorts. Unfortunately, I limited my YouTube shorts and haven’t watched the show since so my context is limited. Anyway!

It’s really hard to say where Buck and Eddie’s relationship is going because 9-1-1 is a soap opera, so it could be years until it’s known for sure where their relationship is going to go.

It’s not like Louis published the book. He just told Daniel—who Lestat gives no more than a few quips. Lestat can actively tolerate Daniel, but not Louis? I don’t know, man…

Then, there’s the bigger question: why is he mad about the story being aired in the first place? At the trial in season 2, he basically told everybody everything (albeit with bases in narratives by the Theatre de Vampires) for…content. He never really apologized for that, just for not saving Claudia. He never really apologized for dropping Louis out of the fucking sky. He never really apologized for cutting every support system Louis had—an abuse tactic—and turning him into a vampire. Why does Louis have to apologize to Lestat? For…telling his side of the story as an abuse victim?

Don’t get me wrong—Louis has some shit to apologize for. But Lestat’s not at all innocent, and I would argue he’s not the main person Louis needs to apologize to (it’s Claudia). He doesn’t deserve an apology from Louis for this book being published. He can have one if he wants it, but it shouldn’t be guaranteed.

I think what a lot of people miss about this whole series is that Louis isn’t a stereotypical unreliable narrator; I think most people hear that and they think “The voice of this story is a liar.” That’s just wrong, in this case; UNs aren’t necessarily lying to you, but they are blinded by their experience. They can’t offer a nuanced take on every single character. In other words: Lestat absolutely did all the things Louis said he did. Louis just had no idea about the motivation behind it, partly because Lestat, actually, lies a lot, but also because Louis can’t get into his head (the whole “As your maker, I can’t read your thoughts” thing).

I understand the whole season is supposed to be about Lestat being considered a failure for daring to love at all (took seven episodes to get it, but I don’t know if that’s my fault; the season was confusing), but that doesn’t mean he deserves an apology for the people he loved being hurt by his method of loving. It is toxic! He’s a toxic man! He wants to force people to love him, force them to want to be with him strongly enough that they will tolerate his love wrapped abuse, which should get the audience to think about abuse and love in different ways, not divide the fandom into Pro-Lestat vs Antiracist. Lestat loved Louis, but like season 1 and 2 always underlined, he never quite respected him.

We also have to consider, regarding the book, that Daniel is going off a perception of Louis that is different from who he was between 1910-1950. The Louis that Daniel got the “real story” from WAS passive and unfeeling, only having moments of emotion when Daniel triggered something. He was eerily collected—that’s the Louis that Lestat read in the book. TL;DR Lestat is upset with a Louis that isn’t real to how he knows Louis.

I think it should finally wrap down to this though: why are Lestat fans on Lestat’s side? I believe the point of the show should be the fact that you can’t pick a side with any character in the story—even Madeleine. But I see so many people ride so hard for Lestat, to the point of completely shitting on every character BUT him, and I rarely see reasons why. The most justification I’ve gotten is “He serves cunt and he’s camp” which…okay. Fine, whatever. You can like his aesthetic, that’s fine. But why are so many people unwilling to examine his choices and abuse, even going so far as to find reason within it, despite…everything? Because you like the way he looks? That’s textbook racism. That’s literally what makes the difference between two drug dealers of different races.

Anyway, to end this, I think Lestat has reasons to be mad, but I don’t think all of his anger should be directed toward Louis, especially not for this. I don’t think his anger means he has nothing to apologize for in his own right.