Murf's Personals

Nerdist's review recently spoiled that S3's Lawyer!Vamp Lemuel is Louis' new trade. But before they spilled the beans, other reviews were already struggling to stay quiet about Lou's new beau (TvCave, MarySue, HollywoodNews, etc):

It's only been a few days (Moses & Jacob are being cute online), but already the Lestans are being nasty all over Twitter (and even spreading right here on Tumblr to mock "Loumuel" x x x x). But this isn't surprising, since some Lestans have been vocal ever since the 2x8 Reunion (that they swore wasn't even real, lol) that what Louis told Lestat about being companion enough for himself was "bullsh*t", and now Louis being with Lemuel proves that.

Lestans (and even some Louistans who want him to stay single) seem to be operating under the presumption that Louis saying he's companion enough for himself in 2022 (fresh off a divorce from the companion who'd abused him for 77yrs straight; and still reeling from the anger, pain & confusion of the "Banishment" reveal BTW) means:

he'll have the same mindset 3yrs later in 2025 (once he's had TIME to process Armand's betrayal and decide that he's being unfair to himself to swear off men forever--as if he can't be 100% sincere at THAT point in his life, then change his mind later, as is his RIGHT)

he can't just not want to be companions with ARMAND & LESTAT, two specific men he knew he needed to maintain distance with for his own self-preservation & wellbeing, considering all the horrible ways they'd BOTH failed him as companions

him not wanting a companion in 2022 automatically means that he'll stay single & celibate and never have fun with other lovers ever again 🤦‍♂️

Meanwhile they're ALL ignoring the operative word:

COMPANION =/= FWB, boyfriend, lover, situationship

Granted, I haven't seen the season yet to hear how Louis talks about Lemuel and their status together, so I could be dead wrong about S3.

But going by what we've seen from S1 & S2, Louis has historically been skittish AF using the C-word, even with lovers he's very actively having sex with.

Nerdist said that Lemuel is an "emotionally unavailable FWB", NOT that LouLaw's in a companionship (or even omnipresent in the season at all). It sounds casual AF, which tracks with precisely how Louis drew lines in the sand with Armand in their earliest days (b4 the Maitre switcharoo ofc).

A companionship has been presented by AMC / TVC as something far more significant than vampires just banging whoever's in close & prolonged proximity to them--a la Armand bragging about casually sleeping with darn near every member of TdV before Louis showed up. 1x1 set the bar for precisely what companionship is: MARRIAGE.

Even in the books, Anne Rice prefers to call them Blood Spouses.

Aside from the Alphabettery randomly deciding to be heteronormative AF by only focusing on straight pairings, when Loustat was literally engaged/married by PlatRoA/BC (whither thou goest, hello?!), vampire companions are life partners. That is WAY different from whatever's going on with "emotionally unavailable" LouLaw. It's a commitment, to "endure" eternity TOGETHER--FOREVER.

(Claudia got the wires crossed in 1x6 "I'll be your companion, your sister;" which is why she and Louis drifted father & farther apart; cuz that's not how HE saw companionship at all.)

So if I'm wrong, and S3 reveals that Louis' been chasing after Lemuel on his hands and knees wanting more from him than just casual FWB hookups, and that LEMUEL is the one skittish AF telling Louis NO, then fine, I stand corrected ✋😔🤚 LouLaw's an embarrassment before the Lord and Louis should be yelled at for being a chronic Pick Me. 🤦‍♂️

But again, just cuz Louis' doing all that in 2025/2026 doesn't invalidate how he felt in 2022, considering the headspace he was in BACK THEN in S2 (very recently divorced from Armand) as opposed to how he's feeling NOW in S3 (the book totally ruining Loustat's budding reconciliation; likely making Louis feel like he'd lost his one chance to make things right Lestat, and that he should give up on hoping to get back with him, so instead he settles for Lemuel; not realizing that Lemuel's finna friendzone him).

TL;DR: Stay mad?

I'm just astounded at the dense AF double standards this fandom is drowning in when it comes to how swiftly Lestans & Louis Antis point the finger at Louis as a lying jezebel cheater who's "humiliating" Lestat, hates Lestat, abuses Lestat. They refuse to understand Louis' perspective and why he does what he does; and it's abundantly clear how much they truly hate Louis' guts.

(And let's not even get into all the antiblack racists mad as all hell posting all kinds of snarky comments & mean-spirited AF vagueposts about Louis' fans/stans celebrating Louis finally having Black friends & lovers again. MYOB and stay in your lane--if Black people wanna celebrate Black couples/situationships/FWBs that's our own God-given RIGHT, and y'all evil wenches not invited to the cookout can stay mad!)

At the end of the day, what Louis was doing when he told Lestat he was his own companion is that he was finally FREE of Armand's clutches and not going back to that lying gremlin; AND that he was going to at least TRY learning to look forward to enduring eternity for his OWN sake, after being SUICIDAL and miserable all his life.

Lestat was in tears asking Louis what happened Sept 8th 1973, because Lestat KNEW how hard it had always been for Louis as a vampire, and that Louis was constantly "in a dark way" and ready to end it all, unless he had someone to glom onto & distract him from his own form of Vampire Loneliness (Lestat, Claudia, Armand).

Louis was THANKING Lestat, for giving him back his HOPE, that things could possibly get better for him one day, that he had the chance to be happy, and "MIGHT learn" to be more honest about who he was and what he wanted. But as usual these bimbos HATE giving Louis any grace, demanding that character growth be a straight linear path, as if Louis can never change his mind or make mistakes or try different hats--and men--to figure out what he even wanted at all?!

Just like I said. 🤷‍♂️

Instead of Loustaters/Louis Antis/Lestans/etc minding their own effing business and letting fans enjoy their nothingburger ship in peace, the split second there was a MILLISECOND where Louis was with someone other than Lestat or Armand (friggin HERESY apparently), here came the peanut gallery insulting people for actually ENJOYING the content on the show? (Ironic AF, since the actual meltdown about 3x2 is whether AMC's (mis)handled Lestat's backstory, NOT Louis' present situationship! 🙄

And ofc the hypocrisy's loud & clear, because just last week y'all had a dang thing to say about Lestat banging Christine, Baby Jenks, Dee Pharma, the bellhop, Larry, Tom, Dick, & Harry????

I'm SO glad Louis clocked Lestat's hypocritical arse, as if it's his right to demand details--let alone cast judgement--on who Louis' sleeping with while they're still DIVORCED.

Kelli: Do you have an answer about how frequently Armand was wiping Louis's memory?

Rolin: Yeah probably but I don't know how important it is... Everybody, Assad probably has a different idea, Jacob does, and maybe some of my writers room do –I love that, I think that's okay. For me I actually think it was very very very little. And I actually think –many people probably disagree with me– that Louis probably did ask him in Sausalito to erase it. I think he did. I always felt Armand having two really extraordinary lies. And just two. But because you have to continue with those, it becomes a series of lies and lies and lies, and it seems worse to me than it is. I always wanted to find this empathetic version of Armand, but I house it like everything else I did in the show: I house my idea about it, and there are open interpretations of the actor who is embodying it, the people who have had reactions about that, and I think that's cool. And it ends up letting the audience members– you get to see yourself in how you feel about all those things.

Kelli: I always thought that it might be believable that Louis could ask for that, but I don't know if he did, what do you guys think? Do you agree with Rolin?

Jacob: Yeah, I like Rolin's answer, I think it's open to interpretation. And kind of for me, the thing is that... I sort of don't–

Sam: It doesn't matter.

What the heck does this even mean? 🤨 Because while Armand (allegedly) might not have erased more memories, we KNOW he inserted additional memories--which is NOT what the interviewer asked about WIPING memories. 👀

So like I've said 1000x, when Armand treats/looks at Louis like the crazy wife in the attic, where does the line get drawn between Armand passively sitting back and enabling Louis' rampant delusions (eg: letting him eat HUMAN FOOD; tearing out the diary pages about Murder Night she couldn't burn him!), and Armand actively gaslighting TF out of Louis by abusing his power over the man he KNOWS is mentally unstable???

And how can we trust Rolin to not pull the same rug-pull gotchas! with his favorite opp, Armand de Plot Twist? 🤔🤷‍♂️

And Jam didn't even wanna commit yay or nay, cuz as much as people love quoting them about how much the writers invite them for consultation & are even allowed to make changes large (Sam wanting Lestat as a rockstar not a conductor, Jam in the 2x8 Reunion etc) or small (it's chiffon!) that can become larger later (Sam stuttering in the 2x8 Reunion, wanting longer hair), they are NOT the writers.

And clearly even the writers disagree! 🤣🤦‍♂️

So yeah, I think what's been happening is the slow but steady deterioration of the writing from season to season, as they try to keep things fresh for book readers, make things exciting for the sake of tv, but also have to wrangle multiple headcanons they're reluctant to commit to, and multiple errors they've backed themselves into too deep of a corner to fix; so they're just left in the air until someone figures out how to thread it into the larger narrative fabric.

Frame by frame breakdown, as usual! LFG, Rolin Cut!

Is...Marius shaking Lestat like a sack of potatoes?! 🤣😂 Cuz I think I called this back during NYCC25.

My only question is if it's Marius or Magnus singing in that eyeball clip.

[EDIT] Now that I'm out of IMAGE UPLOADING JAIL, I can finish my frikkin thoughts! 🙄

All I wanted to say about Lestat's dirt nap is how I LOVE the roots they put on him--he looks HORRIFYING--like a Revenant. 😍

I'd love to see more vampires caught fresh out of the grave looking like that, cuz it makes sense! OF COURSE you're gonna be covered in weeds and bugs and have a mole-rat nibbling on your junk and worms falling out of your arse! 🤢 (Vampires are disgusting, I could never, Werewolf Supremacy Gang! 💪🐺)

Even during the Trail Lestat said that roots covered him as he slept:

The jury's still out for how long Lestat was asleep though. That scene with Marius had better be in 1908, Lestat, ISTG!

Cuz if it's true he was underground for the whole 100 years, that means everything he told Louis & Claudia was A EFFING LIE.

I already laid into Lestat's lyin arse in Pt1, but ANOTHER THING! ☝️😤

Like I've said 100x, I'm fine with Lestat being asleep for 100yrs and Marius waking him up in 1908 or wtvr.

But I slept on it, and I'm awake now my dang self with more questions:

How TF did Marius dig Lestat out of the dirt and wake Lestat up....IN PARIS?! 🤨

Lestat told the coven he was asleep RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES the whole time in Paris--which I BEEN said made no sense.

Which means that unless Lestat was asleep at multiple times in multiple places, Marius MUST have been IN PARIS to dig him up. 🤔

You know....

Paris. 💀

The same city MARIUS' OWN FLEDGLING ARMAND RULED OVER AND HAD SPIES CRAWLING EVERYWHERE????

So if even weak AF LOUIS "could sense Armand's ancient power" right away, how in the HELL would 🚨MARIUS 🚨 be able to travel ANYWHERE in Paris to dig up ANY vamps without Armand's spidey senses gaydar instantly tingling that My Vampire Daddy's Home?! 🤨

You know.... MARIUS. 👀💀

The same Vampire Daddy Armand thought had been DEAD for centuries?

You mean to tell me Armand wouldn't bat an eyelash with his Alpha's pheromones wafting all the way across the Seine?!!!

TL;DR: Lestat, stop playing with me, ISTG 🔫😤

I need answers RIGHT NOW:

WHERE did Lestat go to sleep? Paris or nah?

WHERE did Marius dig Lestat out of his dirt nap & wake him up? Cairo or nah?

WHERE was Marius stashing TWMBK?

With #3, it's perfectly fine for Marius to keep TWMBK in one country then fly to another one to wake Lestat up. That's not the problem here--he did that in the books, too (Lestat was asleep in CAIRO, and Marius was hiding TWMBK in Greece). I just wanna know how far Marius had to travel with Lestat to take him to his hideaway, cuz I'm nosey. 😅

So, Inverse just answered my question, AND spoiled something that hadn't even been on my mind, but thanks I guess? 🤦‍♂️😂

Not only does this mean that Marius was letting TWMBK "hibernate in a Paris catacomb," but I guess this also means that Lestat really was asleep in Paris, not Cairo. Which...?

I got QUESTIONS, AMC. Cuz how in the HELL?

Literally, the Children of Satan are in the same dang city. HOW were they not sensing Lestat!? And NGL, I'm looking at Armand hella crazy right now, cuz was he in on this?! Did he already KNOW? Was he protecting Lestat's resting place Memnoch the Devil style, like when Lestat was in his coma?

Fun trivia: The ice cream scooper was invented around the 1870s by a Black man (but the type in the AFD music video is more modern), so that tracks for Lestat waking in 1908.

As for TWMBK, Imma PRAY that Marius moved to Paris AFTER 1949--AFTER Louis killed the coven and Loumand LEFT Europe to go to Egypt or wherever.

Cuz if not, and he was in Paris the whole dang time pre-1949, that more than anything is gonna PMO the most; so AMC better have such a good explanation for this istg. (ARMAND, I'm still looking at you sideways! Don't let me find you were in on the secret about Akasha too, I will ROTFLMFAO cuz that would actually be an amazing twist NGL--it would certainly explain how he can walk in the effing sunlight--and jfc were all The Groan theories onto something?!)

Regardless, what makes me mad isn't that "they're doing the books"--cuz none of this is anywhere NEAR the books--but rather that AMC's once again gonna IGNORE LORE LOGIC that THEY THEMSELVES already established.

Vampires can sense, hear & even smell each other across great distances.

The Paris coven is particularly vicious & dangerous.

Marius already got burned by the CoS once before.

Armand didn't know who Akasha was.

So AT LEAST one of these is a lie, and ARMAND's the one who told half of them.

Cuz WHY is Marius in Armand's city--in FRANCE at all--and WITH the Parents? TdV MUST be already dead by the time we see Akasha in Paris, there's just no way. 😭🙏 It MUST be after 1949?! 🙏

👀🤔 I mean, there's MANY reasons to fear Marius, so...?

I am SO excited to see wtf this even means.

Cuz in the books, Lestat is Marius' biggest glazer bar none, all the way to the end of the franchise. Which ofc could be its own form of grooming/abuse too, (Marius hems & haws with his death threats in TVL warning Lestat to not be a snitch about TWMBK, but he's also a gigantic hypocrite so who GAF what he says 🙄). I been said that my biggest beef with Marius is his patriarchal AF Father Knows Best My Way or the Highway callous AF treatment of Armand leaving him with Santino. So AMC could totally lean into that with his dynamic with Lestat, and make him more of a tyrant to have Marius' death threats be LEGIT, esp. if he DOESN'T trust Lestat to not run off blabbing. Esp. since AMC seems like they've hated Marius this whole time; so I wouldn't be surprised if he's a huge a-hole to Lestat too--to strip away the rose-colored glasses Anne Rice/Lestat wrote Marius with.

OR, they could play it straight and let The Brat Prince give rules the middle finger--esp. since he already mentioned them in front of Louis TWICE (1x7 & 2x8). Who knows. 🤷‍♂️

But my theory's that Armand's GOTTA have something to do with all this, (which makes me look at Rolin & Assad SUPER SUS).

IWTVL S3 Musings: Akasha (Tentative Timeline)

I'm tryna do multiple things at once: finish reacting to Ebogo's Rolin Cut, AND read thru the long AF SFX magazine article Rolin & Sam did. But eff it--I need to get this off my chest first.

A clever way of allowing Lestat to tell his own story via a series of his vocal remembrances pressed to vinyl, called The Failures. When and where he recorded them for posterity is part of their mystery.

My question is if these vinyls are even REAL? 🤔 Like, if they're really telling the truth, or they're what he's thinking they're saying in his own head? Cuz the woman hollering FAILURE over & over is either Gabrielle, Claudia, or AKASHA. 👀

We already know (hallucinations?) Gabrielle & Claudia will be cussing Lestat out--Claudia's even IN the studio with him.

But I can also easily see Akasha dragging Lestat for filth on her Valar Morghulis schtick, a la her (in)famous monologue in QotD about Lestat representing everything wrong with toxic masculinity.

The most fascinating thing about Akasha's that she's half right & half wrong dang near every time she speaks. She has a point, but she's the WRONG one to be making it, and for all the wrong reasons. She is NOT the hero--let alone goddess--she thinks she is. (I've been sitting on a draft/rant about Akasha for months now and I'll never finish it. 🤦‍♂️😩)

So maybe, rather than AMC letting Lestat go on some antiblack genocide like book!Lestat did, instead they're having him go on some rock music reckoning, where he internalizes all the hateful things she's telling him, sits her down to record some tracks with him...

Another question: WHEN?

They're recorded the 1st time Akasha wakes (Lestat goes to NOLA with Nicki's music box AND the vinyls (or are they with Roget?)

They're recorded the 2nd time Akasha wakes (modern era)

NGL I'm worried that it's #1--that the vinyls are from her 1st awakening.

Esp. if Lestat meets Akasha in 1908 after his dirt nap, NOT the 1700s. 👀

Rolin says these Failures are all on vinyl. But AFAIK vinyls were invented in the 1900s, not the 1700s (x x). 🤔

☝️ And that gold/brass horn is definitely a phonograph/gramophone.

(Granted, that scene's in Magnus' Tower, which is also confusing the timeline--1700s, 1949, or hallucination?)

And we know book!Akasha was singing/screaming with him when he played Nicki's violin.

AND we know Sheila Atim got THE RANGE. 🎶🤌

So my money's on the Failures vinyls being sung by Akasha. 👀😅

My only problem is the ramifications of the dreaded AMC timeline, as far as WHEN Lestat went to ground, and when Marius woke him up.

In my mind, it made way more sense that Lestat & Gabe would be on the Devil's Road, then Lestat sleeps (briefly!), then Marius wakes him, then Lestat meets Akasha (1700s), THEN he's either in 1800s Paris for 100yrs OR he's asleep for 100yrs (a effing lie), and then he goes to NOLA (1910).

But I guess I can see how Lestat & Gabe are on the Devil's Road, then Lestat either hangs out in 1800s Paris (a effing lie) OR he's asleep for 100yrs, THEN Marius wakes him (1908), THEN he meets Akasha (1908), then goes to NOLA (1910).

My problem's that in the Timeline I chose to BELIEVE Lestat when he said he hung out in 1800s Paris. I assumed him being asleep was the lie, cuz he was hiding from the coven that he found Marius & TWMBK, so it was easier to just tell them that he was asleep the whole time. 🤷‍♂️

But if Lestat told the truth to the coven at the Trial, that means he lied to Louis & Claudia in NOLA. Which was always my WORST case scenario for him. (Folks swear I hate his guts and I really don't. I hate his mouth. 😅)

TL;DR: We Shall See!

AMC:

Flipped:

I think this is either Marius (or Lestat?) playing music for Akasha on a phonograph vinyl.

And (from the Insider footage after the episode) just like I already said: I think Akaha wakes up SINGING/SCREAMING. 👀 Her mouth is open like she's singing.

(I doubt the song is Black Licorice if this really is 1908--it was probably some opera or whatever.)

Marius looks crazy cuz he was probably singing to the music, and Akasha woke up cuz of all the ruckus and wanted to join in on the fun--Marius looks like a GIANT CLOWN. 🤦‍♂️😅

nonono--DO GO ON 👀📝

WHEN? The first time she wakes up?

😱 WHAT?! 😱

Uhhhh, YEAH! In the books he's barely there for a few nights, let alone "many, many years".

Now I'm looking at the whole timeline crazy--this is STILL not adding up right.

If Lestat really slept for 100yrs "after Nicki's death", woke up in 1908 like he said during the Trial, and he arrived in NOLA in 1910, then I reckon he spent the whole 2yrs with TWMBK.

But Sheila's saying "many many years" not TWO.

So this means that what I said about his actual lie during the Trial still holds, cuz Nicki died 1796, so it's STILL not true that he slept right after Nicki died, that's impossible:

"100yrs" from 1908 would mean 1808. So @likecopperlikesalt's c. 1804 date is closer than my c.1799 date for the Devil's Road (I assume we can put a pin in everything about the Marquis & the French Revolution, since Ehle already spoiled that Lioncest killed the Lioncourts, but Lestat told Claudia it was a mob that did it--IDFK),

So maybe "many many years" is 12yrs max? 🤔

Which is insane. Cuz if that means he was GUZZLING her blood? JFC.

And yet people wanna act like it's "proof" that Lestat was being abused/assaulted in the Ep5 Fight cuz he held back?! THANK GOD HE DID. 💀 Cuz like people BEEN said, it was NEVER an even fight, and Lestat LET Louis wail on him, because he IS that much stronger than Louis--"equals in the quiet dark" my arse; even book!Lestat said he held back his powers from Louis. Santiago even SAID Lestat had "godlike strength" (he just didn't know it was from Akasha, instead of Magnus--but let's not sneeze at Magnus' blood either ofc; he's strong too).

Do people not appreciate rollers? Holding spray? Conditioner! 😭

Yes, I know he was demonic AF in that chess scene, but his hair was frizz-free! Does that count for NOTHING!? 😩