jane

IWTV S1 & 2 may have an unreliable narrator but it has made one thing clear; Louis has been hurt by Lestat. S3 is therefore, a response from Lestat, and while a lot of the fandom is hesitant about this season overwriting Louis' abuse, I believe 'Your Biggest Fan' is a good indicator for how Lestat will be responding in the season.

YBF is sung through a predator's POV, more obviously, Magnus's POV. Every line is a reference to how Magnus kidnapped Lestat and turned him. There are lines lifted straight from the book. The song is romantic, contrasting with how traumatizing the week(or day in the book) was for Lestat. Lestat has a tendency to minimize his own suffering in order to live with himself. He doesn't ruminate on the past the way Louis does, he runs away from it, as evidenced by his unwillingness to speak about himself to LouClaudia.

The book is forcing Lestat to face the past. Prior to Louis, Lestat was often the victim, the one with less power. Magnus, Gabrielle, Armand, Marius, Akasha and Enkil. He does not like to think about himself as a victim, but he also does not think of himself as a superior the way Marius does(which becomes super obvious when the book switches to his POV). The book doesn't have any space for Lestat to reflect on his own privilege because he is Anne Rice's precious blorbo but the show fully explores how he can have power over Louis. While Lestat wants a companion, an equal, his social status and age as a vampire makes this difficult. This in addition to his unwillingness to look back makes it so that he repeats cycles.

YBF shows a lot of Lestat's worst tendencies of recontextualizing his trauma but at the same time, it feels like a great moment of self-reflection with respect to his relationship with Louis.

In the Magnus-Lestat POV, YBF acts like Magnus truly loved Lestat with his well-being in mind, and also shows Lestat as a willing participant. It shifts the blame for the transformation on Lestat as well.

If we see this through a Lestat-Louis POV, Lestat is very clearly the aggressor. The entire song plays like Loustat's first meeting. I don't know if Lestat noticed how his own approach to Louis mirrors the way Magnus approached him, but it's obvious to anyone listening to the song.

"You really caught my eye. I think you're something special babe"- Lestat falling for Louis at first sight.

"Don't let me catch you cryin', don't tell me the spell is breakin'. You're so perfect in the ragin' light. I know I'm hard to look at sometimes, but I'm here for the takin"- The end of episode 1, Louis crying to the priest, Lestat telling him these people aren't worth his tears. The fire in the church being the 'raging light', which is when Lestat calls him beautiful. 'I know I'm hard to look at', Lestat at the end of episode 1 is in his full, monstrous glory. He's even aware he looks awful because he wipes the blood off his mouth before he proposes to Louis.

"I wanna give you everything I've got. I know you're stubborn but you just have to ask for it"- Lestat bought the Rue Royale house for Louis, and in his POV what's his is Louis'. He about expresses as much when he gives Louis the funds to upgrade the Azalea. Lestat verbatim says 'you just have to ask for it' to Louis. EDIT: On 'give you everything I've got', it could be the vampirism and Magnus' wealth. Lestat had no real....desire for Magnus' riches. It's a great advantage for him, and he enjoys it, but he doesn't care for it. After Magnus' death, the wealth becomes an imposition and a constant reminder of what happened that night. A gift on the surface but a terrible burden which he can never be rid of, much like the vampirism.

Similarly, Louis does not care for Lestat's wealth. Louis ensured that he paid back Lestat the money he gave for the Azalea. He enjoyed the power he got from his own efforts. Louis' control over his wealth is related to his independence and pride. When everything he built was burnt down in S1, Louis felt trapped despite all the wealth Lestat threw at him, before and after dropping Louis from the sky. Lestat keeps going to material gifts to keep Louis but Louis does not care. It's more burden than an act of love. Louis really only finds his happiness in wealth when he has control over it.

YBF is Lestat putting himself in the role of the aggressor to gain a level of agency over his own turning, but I think this is because he is acknowledging that he abused Louis. He is a monster to Louis, Lestat thinks he's not a victim, therefore he was always a monster and actually Magnus never hurt him. He's figured out one part of this while completely botching the other. An inverse correlation. He couldn't have written this without some amount of reflection on Louis, because, his entire rock career is a response to Louis. He has a piece of text showing the way Louis perceived Lestat during the turning, and it is eerily similar to his own experience with Magnus.

You see this?

That's not a river. That's the South Canal in Mesa, Arizona (Phoenix metro area).

This is a view of the East and South canals. At least half of all the Phoenix metro canals were originally built by the Hohokam (from roughly 200-1400 CE), and are still in use (restored) today.

Phoenix, Arizona actually has more miles (kilometers) of Canals total than both Venice and Amsterdam. No, really. Phoenix has about 180 miles of canals, many of which are built on ancient canal foundations.

below is an aerial view photo taken in the late 1930's of one branch of Phoenix's canal systems:

Also have the "Montezuma Castle," if you need a castle:

SHANE HOLLANDER APPRECIATION WEEK 2026