IWTVL S3 Musings - Keeping Tabs (Pt3c: The Failures Voice Overs - 3x3)
The problem I'm having with S3's narrative format is figuring out what the point of The Failures even is. So I'm just marking everything Lestat says in the audio recordings, to try getting a better sense of wtf is up.
(22A: Newlyweds) The vainglorious homogeny of the Toronto skyline is something to behold, an onslaught of impractical condom dominated by a 147-floor Waterpik. Its banality is lost on the polite citizenry of Canada. To them, it's iconic, and what the friends and family of Avery Olson and Natalie Boekelheide confirmed as a must-see when the two planned their honeymoon and waited for Avery's divorce to finalize [[Is this a dig at "Pitty He's A Whore"?]]. Had they stayed within the realities of their budget and consummated their union in their home province, the marriage might have lasted longer. But love born from a speed dating event in Moose Jaw, "Sakasatchewan," merited an unhurried commemoration. And thus amenities from the Radisson Blu honeymoon package went unused, exchanged, as they were, for a vampiric appointment in Samarra. Gabriella's divine intervention had raised my raptorial spirits, and I channeled our kills into prurient performances, licking the underside of Lake Erie in Cleveland and Buffalo before rounding the shaft of Lake Ontario.
(22A: Sit-Down with Daniel) Daniel Molloy, delivered unto the world April 16, 1953, into the arms of his mother in a hospital, I assume [[He admits he doesn't know, and is NOT as "omniscient" as otherwise claimed]]. It's not something vampires ask one another, the details of their mortal existence. It's considered rude. *clears throat* Nurtured or not nurtured, nudged in San Francisco towards a career of distinction and moderate fame. Murdered and reborn July 18, 2022, by the gremlin Armand. He led a brief, incidental life as a vampire. Incidental… hmm, is that the right word? [[Foreshadowing much? 👀💀]] He found me shallow. I gave him every reason to. I have regrets when it comes to Dan.
The BULK of this episode is Lestat in front of Daniel's camera (whether it's recording or not, LOL).
FlopStat's "40 shows in 43 nights" to mostly half-empty venues; because no one really cares about vampires, DanLou's book, or Lestat's music. But Lestat insists that this tour is a passion project, NOT a vanity project (but because it's ego-driven to clear his name after the book smeared him...he's still dancing around the question).
Lestat did ask a very important question about Daniel--
--cuz in 3x2 Daniel admitted on camera to being a vampire ("3 of us, 9 of you!").
Lestat tells the story of the Witches' Place & how Nickistat started & Nicki got him the job at Renaud's that allowed him to train the stutters away; because although he's very embarrassed about this "deformity/affliction," he's also very proud of himself for overcoming it, and not letting it hold him back from accomplishing his childhood dream of being an actor/singer.
But he's also EXTREMELY guarded and reluctant to share anything with the audience/camera/etc about Nicki.
(22A: Nickistat) [[This is NOT Lestat's narration from The Failures, it's his narration filmed on Daniel's Documentary]] I heard music. Eyes closed, mouth distorted. What struck my heart was the way that his whole body leaned into the music. Had I the ear I have now, I would have found it pedestrian. But I was an ape from Auvergne, and it sounded like a god machine played by an angel.
(22A: Louis vs The Fang Gang) No voice-overs.
(22A: "Your Biggest Fan") [[Highly romanticized & glamorous music video playing in Lestat's mind, to cope with his severe PTSD.]]
Once again, Lestat denies, deflects & gaslights when Daniel presses him on something TRUE that Louis told him about Lestat, that Lestat doesn't want to admit to (a la the stutters "Was he there in 18th-century Auvergne?"); at the expense of making Louis look like a liar on cams.
However, on The Failures we ofc see how Lestat chooses to overlay Louis reading Claudia's diary to Bruce with his own recollection of Magnus' attack, actually confirming that what Louis said was true.
Only to double-down again on making Louis look like a liar about The Vampire Gabriella being his mother/fledgling (when in 3x2 he directly contradicts himself about what he even told Louis about her at all; so who knows who Lestat lied to--Louis, Gabrielle, or Daniel). 🤷♂️
Daniel switches gears to finally ask about The Great Conversion:
But Lestat IMMEDIATELY gets distracted by Hallucination!Nicki--
--and THIS is where the cameras stop recording, and Lestat's Mind/Spell Gift kicks in for the next 30-minutes of interview time.
(22A: TdV & Armand) No v/o
(22A: Nicki's hand/death) I told Nicki that I loved him. From the first seconds I saw him in Paris. That I was drunk with his love. I was engulfed by it. Your maker would tell you I was being kind, but in the moment, the words were true. I think. I remember the light. Fireplace reflecting golden onto his face and his bare arms. But I would not look at the wound. I could not. I couldn't do it. But I watched, as Armand pushed him into the fire and made sure he stayed there with a poker in his chest. Nicki had a bemused look on his face as he burned. His mouth formed into a circle. And he made only one sound. *Ohhhhhh~!* As though he knew that in death, it was a nothingness.
Lestat has a nervous breakdown and breaks the spell & the interview.
So Daniel only joined the tour 2 months prior (early 2025--Jan/Feb/March).
(22A: Outro) A mean-spirited telepathic prank, a price paid for amusing my muses. It brought poor Dan to his knees and seeded a hate for me inside him, there to be watered in the sunlight later. [[Lestat knows this is what caused the beef b/t him & Dan]] But what can I say? Serving c*ոt has its consequences.
(28B: Bruce/Magnus) [[Louis' voice-over reading Claudia's diary pages]]
(28B: "The Loneliness") I imagine you naked in your gold, gilded bathtub [[Lestat assumes the auction winner is rich & lavish AF, listening to the Failures for the lolz]] wondering why it didn't end on the highway, how I got onstage the following night to another feverishly modest audience. I couldn't pretend anymore that we were a Ticketmaster must-have or that I wasn't having a nervous breakdown or that psychosis wasn't the exhilarating, horrifying byproduct of romping and stomping around the hippocampus. But here's the thing. I loved the music. I loved it. It was compelling me forward, pulling me through the perennial walls of my psyche. And I thought, why not ride it to blindness? [[Lestat's a slave to the music.]] Because it seemed possible this was the muddy bottom, and on the other side, a marble floor polished to the horizon. Music, in its purest expression, would make me worse and then make me better. [[Music is the poison and the panacea.]] Bring on the muses.
(28B: Alex & Arun at AA) No v/o
