I always post my analyses for AMC's Interview with the Vampire under the IWTV TVC Metas tag, but I also have masterlists in the menu on my front page, where everything's listed, latest to oldest.
Louis Metas1 (S1 - S2 | S3)
General Metas2 (S1 - S2 | S3): inc. my Anne Rice books tier list | AMC / TVC Timelines | S2 & S3 episode reactions | AMC's Book/Research References for S1, S2, & xtras
Claudia / Armand Metas3 (S1 - S2 | S3)
Lestat / Gabrielle Metas4 (S1 - S2 | S3)
Over time I've had to split them into 4 parts cuz of Tumblr's hyperlink limit--they used to all be in one nice & neat post, pre-Season 2. 😔
Disclaimer: I'm a Black goth female who's been reading Anne Rice for 30 years. I stan AMC!Louis & AMC!Claudia. Antiblack racists & misogynists can kick bricks. 😘
(Lies & slander about me that I refuted with RECEIPTS: x x)
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Camp is self aware but what season 3 is doing isn’t camp. If anything it’s become too self aware, too constantly aware of its audience to perform true camp. It hampers itself, second guesses itself, spotlights its own insecurities. It’s so self conscious, so concerned with the audience’s reaction— both in pleasing and disgusting them— that the performance cannot support its own scaffolding. It buckles under its own weight. The center doesn’t hold. When they write season 4 they need to be locked in a remote cabin with no internet and have their phones confiscated. It’s simply the only way forward after this
PREACH. I think the problem is that either AMC is so hyperaware of its audience that it thinks it's doing camp (the celebration of absurdity) but is really doing satire (cynical AF public censure in the guise of dark comedy); or that the audience itself is taking S3 so seriously that the campiness IS getting lost in translation--because AMC actually doesn't know/understand its audience at all. And I can't really tell which is worse. 😬 Esp. since S3's largely NOT camp at all--its Gothic Horror, but shoehorning a lot of other subgenres in; and YMMV on how successful overall that's all been, because of things like AMC's marketing, (show/book) fan expectations, etc. 🤔
IWTVL S3 Ep5 Musings - "The Metal Sun In My Veins"
I've been working my way up to this post, because there's A LOT to cover, and I wanted to break up some of my points into separate posts so I could refer back to all of them right here. TBH I hate having to talk about Amel/Akasha midway thru the season, cuz I fully expect 3x7 to drop some crazy plot twist/reveal to throw everything we've seen in S3 into a new light. But as of 3x5, here's what I think might be going on.
The Timeline
"Amelian Anger" & Possession Is Abuse Apologia
My Father's / Maker's Temper
Vampiric Bioessentialism: Nature vs Nurture
1) The Timeline
As always, thanks to @crazykuronekon for directing me to the tweet / IGN article where Rolin Jones explained that The Auction takes place 1.5 seasons in the future. Because that's what helped me realize something very important:
The Auction takes place AFTER S4 (QotD), and AFTER Akasha is already dead. Ostensibly, we'd be in S5's TotBT era (Raglan James shenanigans).... HOWEVER. ☝️🤓
Thanks to Akasha's monologue, we KNOW AMC is doing The Twins. Which means my GOAT Mekare is definitely coming, the one who'll take over as the Host of the Sacred Core; the new Queen of the Damned after she eats Akasha's brain & takes Amel into herself.
I've explained before that Amel, the source of Akasha's power, has been more or less asleep/dormant inside Akasha, due to how spirit possession works in Anne Rice's lore. Two spirits CANNOT both be consciously active in the same body at the same time; one WILL take over and render the weaker spirit inert.
☝️ And this is where I think AMC's gonna play with the S5 timeline. I suspect that they will MERGE TotBT with the PL Trilogy, and make Amel "The Voice" during the time of The Auction--when Lestat records The Failures, "a season and a half ahead." 👀
Because at that time, MEKARE will be the queen.
I think AMC realized that there was a MIGHTY big gap b/t the books, where Amel didn't start using The Voice as soon as he realized that Mekare was a TERRIBLE host after QotD (1980s); and only started resisting her in the PL Trilogy (20teens), some 40yrs LATER. So instead, I think AMC's expedited the process, and makes Amel start reaching out to vampires as The Voice as soon as Akasha's dead--and Lestat is MOST vulnerable.
Post-QotD (S4), Lestat's already guilt-ridden cuz he helped Akasha almost destroy the world. He's "totally friendless" because of all the damage he's caused. People are demanding to know WTF "you were thinking about, and how this happened."
The Failures were recorded 1.5 seasons after S3 for the AUCTION WINNER (whom Lestat has CONSISTENTLY referred to as HUMAN: x x x); he is talking directly to "The Privileged Person" he assumes will win the auction and hear all of his stuff. Meaning he's planned the Failures in advanced of the auction itself, and designed the recordings as something personalized for the winner, ("I like you already~!").
And I think in classic Lestat fashion, he doesn't WANT to take accountability. He WANTS to blame someone else for his bad actions. HE NEEDS a rationale, a reason, to cope with but also explain or even EXCUSE why he made such a terrible decision to fall under Akasha's sway and help his abuser perpetuate those cycles.
We see him do it CONSTANTLY with GabriellA and the incest bomb (esp. since we know Daniel/DM put "the dirt in the sandwich"). "It's different for vampires, that's it~!"
And we KNOW that GabriellA's influence over Lestat is directly tied to AKASHA'S interest in HIM.
As such, I don't think that the Failures were made FOR Amel (the winner of the Auction). I also don't think he's directly talking TO Amel. I think it's more complicated; that Amel is ENABLING these thoughts in Lestat, as The Voice in Lestat's head as he talks to himself. We see Lestat constantly going-off topic and rambling in the Failures, and I think he's having multiple conversations with multiple listeners:
The Auction Winner (presumably a human, less likely a vampire)
Himself--as editor ("Note to self: Edit that out in the final version")
Himself--as a lonely man amusing himself ("I'm rambling a bit here. What am I trying to say?")
Amel/The Voice ("I digress")
+ The Documentary (often talking to Daniel directly; aware that the Final Cut will be released to the public, that he hasn't even seen yet as of recording The Failures--"I've seen a rough cut")
+ The Rerecorded Album (specifically designed For Vampire Ears & The Great Conversion), that Pitchfork critically panned
Hilariously, 3 & 4 might very well be the same thing, depending on what direction AMC chooses to take Amel's own level of sentience post-Akasha; and his relationship with Lestat; because Amel LOVED book!Lestat; and Lestat was very codependent on Amel during his loneliness in the PL Trilogy (which, again, I think AMC's merging with the TotBT era in S5).
But one thing I'm STRONGLY unconvinced by is the notion that there's been any indication that Lestat was POSSESSED--esp. not in S1, before Akasha was even dead yet. 🙄😒
S3 still has 2 episodes left to change my mind--or not.
2) "Amelian Anger" & Possession Is Abuse Apologia
☝️ That is a LIE. He DOES know "what possessed me that night," and he SAID why, to both Louis AND Claudia.
This stupid fandom keeps clutching their pearls--Oh, how DARE Louis share private details of Lestat's abuser Magnus~! 😩 The same Lestans who hate Louis for making Lestat a "mayonnaise B-Movie monster big white abuser," being too effing dumb to realize that Louis was HUMANIZING Lestat in the 1x6 Magnus Scene, by letting Lestat explain himself--at CLAUDIA'S demand--to understand WHY Lestat got so triggered during the Ep5 Fight that her beat the breaks offa them: Cuz he was SCARED that Louis was gonna ABANDON him.
He was PISSED at Louis, he had been for YEARS, and he SNAPPED.
Lestans WANT Lestat to have ZERO agency; to be the most passive creature on God's green earth--He's possessed by Amel, so he has zero impulse control & nothing's his fault, "I COULD NOT PREVENT IT".
Meanwhile Lestat admitted that he CAN control himself--A MILLION times, even. 💯 His violent vampiric "nature" does NOT override his AGENCY, and the choices he deliberately makes to NOT do harm.
And apparently, even in the midst of a nervous breakdown, The Muses STOPPED him from doing anything violent to Larry.
And I even said I suspect the Muses are triggered BY Akasha waking.
The Lestans would rather focus on Lestat's hair being different and face not being bloody as "proof" that the Ep5 Fight's Courtyard Scene never happened, where Lestat DRAGGED LOUIS BY HIS EFFING JAWBONE & MOPPED the flagstones with his blood. Meanwhile it's CRICKETS when in S3 Lestat confirms that HE DID THAT ISH.
And he even admitted that he did it ON PURPOSE during his apology.
AMC shared some of the 3x5 script in the After Dark, showing a bunch of deleted lines, and even in the midst of Lestat's "Amelian Anger," he's busy APOLOGIZING as Akasha rants about ABUSE/IPV/DV/etc.
Lestat warned Claudia that "the vampires out there are vicious"--but Hell, the vampires right there in that house are vicious too! 💀 Lestat was scared that Claudia was dragging herself & Louis to certain DEATH in Europe; but he couldn't COMMUNICATE that fear to them without being a total a-hole about it. And Claudia clocked his tea.
Louis DEEPLY empathized with Lestat--(funny how Lestans & so-called Loustaters refuse to empathize with LOUIS)--but CLAUDIA DGAF about Magnus, and thought Lestat was LYING the whole time. 💀 Cuz she's VERY similar to Lestat, and she KNOWS him in dark ways that LOUIS refuses to acknowledge--she KNOWS Lestat stays lying thru his effing teeth--and S3's been confirming since 3x1 that she was RIGHT!
Claudia's parallels with LARRY prove that she was right about Lestat. He OFTEN gets triggered by things that have NOTHING to do with Amel, and everything to do with his hurt feelings, his trauma, his painful memories. In order to avoid confronting those troubling thoughts & turbulent emotions, Lestat lashes out at the nearest irritant/victim, unleashing his NASTY effing temper on people.
Oh, so was AMEL possessing Lestat in 3x5 when he went ballistic on Larry after being bombarded by painful memories of Louis & GabriellA abandoning him--Murder Night & Blood Marriage--after ge got triggered receiving Louis' phonecall asking for help after going radio silent for months ("Someone tried to murder me~!"/ "And it did not feel like 9 days~!"). GabriellA said it best: GROW UP! 🙄
Was AMEL possessing Lestat in 3x1 when Larry stole his violin solo & refused to play the tambourines, and Lestat was finna KILL him right there on stage--before The Muses STOPPED him? 🙄
As such, I am FAR less convinced that AMC is using Akasha's blood as some sort of shield/excuse for uncontrollable violent abusive behavior; as some sort of Berserk Juice that turns Lestat into frikkin Jekyll & Hyde--as Gothic Horror as that admittedly very much is, LOL. 😅 I deeply suspect that AMC WANTS us to take it for granted that just because Lestat attributes his abusive behavior to "the metal sun in my veins" that that's the Objective Truth.
I think Lestat's carrying the "burden" of Akasha's Blood as the red herring of The Abuse Show about how generational trauma & abuse perpetuate; rather than abusive behavior as the red herring of The Vampire Show the way so many (Lestans) want it to be; so Lestat can be absolved of his wrongdoing. 👀 Because if Lestat's possessed by Amel or her blood drives vampires crazy--then EVERY vampire is crazy and NONE of their actions are their own fault, since they ALL have her blood in them, just in different proportions--she's the MOTHER OF ALL VAMPIRES, DUH.
3) My Father's / Maker's Temper
IMO, the CHARACTERS are rationalizing Akasha's Blood as an excuse (specifically: Lestat himself), because they themselves don't know/understand the limits of Amel's influence over Akasha--let alone they themselves--and because this is both the Unreliable Narrator Show AND The Accountability Show.
I've been doing the My Maker's Temper miniseries specifically because of what Lestat said at that racist AF Trial:
In Pt1 I focused on the parallel b/t how in 3x2 Lioncest strung up the abusive Marquis de Lioncourt by his intestines; and how in 1x3 Louis strung up Alderman Fenwick by his intestines--because both the Lioncourts and the Alderman represent different iterations of "the wolves" Loustat each wanted to kill in order to try liberating themselves from the oppressive systems they'd suffered under.
In Pt2 the parallel is Lestat & Louis both lashing out at the hallucinations dogging their steps (Magnus for Lestat, and Lestat for Louis), that each represent the deep traumas they're carrying and struggling to confront/process.
In Pt3 the parallel is the deeply manipulative ways that both GabriellA and Lestat exert control over their paramours (Gabrielle over Lestat on the Devil's Road; and Lestat over Louis with Antoinette)--which Sam Reid himself described as "toxic lovebombing" MULTIPLE times. This parallel is arguably the most important, because this is a character trait/flaw Lestat possessed BEFORE he ever met TWMBK and drank Akasha's blood. It's something he inherited from his PARENTS; it's what THEY taught him, based on how THEY treated him and raised him and taught him how to behave in order to survive in that toxic AF family.
Like I said in my convo with @theartofdisobedience, the fandom's been acting like Lestat's temper has anything to do with Akasha/Amel, and not precisely what he said it was: the result of the horrible upbringing he had under his father the Marquis, where disobedience--or any mild inconvenience--was always met with insults, violence, and corporal punishment ("Break his legs!"); a trauma response his Maker Magnus; and the dogtrash relationship he has with his disgusting mother GabriellA. 🤷♂️
That was part of Lestat before he ever became a vampire. He had a personality disorder & a bad temper BEFORE he ever drank Akasha's blood--or was his crashout when the phonograph record scratched on New Years 1900 not proof enough about precisely what Sam Reid said about Lestat's "volatile temper"? 🤨 THE BLOOD IS BAD HERE, but it doesn't have to be supernatural to still be PART of Lestat and who he is and what he needs to--and CAN!--CHANGE about himself.
💬 6 🔁 2 ❤️ 13 · 1) Lestat's S3 Characterization: "Man of Action"? 🤨🤔 · @theartofdisobdedience LET'S TALK ABOUT IT! 💯😤 Thank you for your r
4) Vampiric Bioessentialism: Nature vs Nurture
[DANIEL] How does your average Jo Mo vampire keep people like you in line? Unspoken threats?
[REAL RASHID (A Talamascan Opp, BTW)] The threat is always there. He could kill us both now. But he doesn't. They are peaceful beings.
[DANIEL] They drain and disappear us.
[REAL RASHID] They have a biological imperative that is in conflict with human morality. But what is that morality other than rules agreed upon?
[ARMAND] Thank you, Rashid. A romantic answer to your question.
Last but certainly not least, let's get into the "biological imperative" that compels vampires to kill...or not.
I recently had a lovely convo with @theuniverseisaholigram, and it darn near brought a tear to my eye--I promised that I'd put your ask in my Amel/Akasha meta, because you were COOKING! 🎯👌❤️
All I have to say, I've already said in my Nature vs Nurture tag, but ESPECIALLY in the book analysis I did on Les Morts ont tous le Meme Peau (The Dead All Have the Same Skin) by Boris Vian, the book Louis read in 2x3. I BEEN said that Rolin (and ofc Anne Rice) DISAGREES that vampires are proof of bioessentialist assumptions about the amoral nature of evil controling people--human or vampire alike.
Anyone who's actually been paying attention to the larger messages Rolin Jones has been peppering across this whole effing show should've realized by now that he's been using a Gothic Horror story about vampires to talk VERY poignantly about IRL society; about the MONSTERS IN US, as humans with SOULS, who rationalize our misdeeds by attributing everything to "EVIL;" the evil nature in us because of our parents, or the Devil, or mental illness, or trauma, WTVR. And how that monster is constantly at war with THE DIVINE IN US--"THE GODS ARE US." In each of us is the capacity to do evil, AND good--if we so CHOOSE to learn & grow & change.
Louis PROVED that vampires can rise above the biological imperative to be sadistic killers--he was vegan for DECADES; and was met with nothing but severe ridicule & vicious mockery by Lestat, the Coven, and the Trial audience that lynched him for DARING to not CONFORM to draconian Old World dogmas about what a proper vampire must/mustn't do--how to do vampirism The Right Way or the highway. And he's not the only one; even on the Talamasca spinoff, Jasper described Vesel the Vampire, who swore off human blood to only drink the blood of chickens--in the 13th century!
Claudeleine PROVED that vampires can rise above their genetic origins--Claudia didn't even want Louis to be Madeleine's Maker, because she HATED the idea that Madz might inherit whatever effed up genes were clearly in Lestat's bloodline that made her & Louis so bad. But Madeleine was THE GOAT:
Lestat's Blood had NOTHING to do with whether Louis might ruin Madz by turning her intyo a vampire; passing Lestat';s bad genes down to Claudia's companion. They "found the X," and grew their own (savage) garden planting flowers over the corpses of the people they killed; turning something ugly into something beautiful. "Flowers growing from the dead. Cold things becoming warm." 😭❤️
Sp yeah, if I'm wrong, and Akasha/Amel really has been out here puppetting TF outta Lestat this whole time, then it's dogtrash writing and I'll flame TF out of AMC every chance I get.
But because Rolin IS a sadistic gaslighter playing the long game, with plot twists every other season completely flipping the script on things we THINK we know & understand; I think it's premature AF to leap on Lestat talking about Akasha's blood making him do horrible things as some sort of gotcha! to "prove" that he was NEVER the "mayonniase B-pmovie brute big white abuser" y'all can't effing stomach in this hypocritical AF "Let Problematic Characters Be Problematic~!" fandom. 🙄😒
TL:DR: We shall see, but I'm unconvinced AF, fam 🤷♂️
The effect of GabriellA's negative influence over Lestat has become increasingly obvious as of 3x4 & 3x5, as she's clearly manipulating & controlling TF out of him; as a parallel and also a foreshadowing of how Akasha will sink her claws into him in S4 (QotD) as her Champion/ Agent of Chaos as well.
But POSSESSION was NEVER a factor in book canon wrt how she controlled Lestat--let alone AMEL--and it is extraordinarily disingenuous of any so-called book reader to lie or twist the narrative to pretend that that was EVER the case.
YES, Akasha exerted her Dark Gifts over Lestat to bring him to heel (literally kidnapping him, a la Magnus); to prove to him that she could destroy him & all of his loved ones with ease if he refused to COMPLY. Because as Santiago said: "YOU ARE ALL COMPLICIT. REPUGNANT. AND APPALLING."
At the end of the day, book!Akasha had to use her WORDS to get Lestat to do what she wanted. She had to TALK him into AGREEING to play by her rules. She did not PUPPET him like a marionette on blood-red strings. NO, he was not with her consensually or of his own desire to destroy the world, but he DOES have Free Will, Agency, & Autonomy; and he said precisely why he worked with her in QotD: TO SURVIVE.
So at some point both AMC and the IWTVL fandom is going to gave to allow Lestat to own up to his own "Monster Choices" and stop coddling TF out of him as if he never made a single basd decision in his life of his own volition--YES, INCLUDING THE EP5 FIGHT & THE DROP. 🤷♂️
IWTVL S3 Ep5 Musings - Out with the old, in with the new
I find this scene SO fascinating, because it foreshadows everything that would happen for the rest of Lestat's 20th century.
He ignores/breaks Marius' rule ("practical limitations") to NEVER feed Akasha blood (NEVER feed Gremlins after midnight!) that he sees no point or purpose to. Likewise, he doesn't tell Louis & Claudia about The Great Laws (enough or at all, it doesn't matter).
He wants to make Akasha beautiful as they ring in the New Year ("a splash of red"); "a romantic gesture" (that he probably secretly hoped might actually wake her up--a la book!Lestat playing the violin). Likewise, he turned Louis & Claudia into vampires; more "romantic gestures," that entirely ignored the red flags & warning signs about what BAD IDEAS those were ("Disaster, my son").
In Lestat's supreme delusion, he trusted Armand of all people ("rotten boy!") to "watch the music," (a la Nicki & TDV; "I gave you to Armand" x x). When everything inevitably goes to Hell, Lestat is furious with Armand "I don't know why I invite you, worthless!" But there's still that kernel where he knows that HE chose to put Armand in charge ("I INVITE YOU") against his better judgement ("I don't know why"). The onus is on HIM for putting Armand in charge at all, when he should've handled it himself.
The record scratched BEFORE he ever touched it ("divine error"), because he is doomed by the narrator ("my life...a three-century trainwreck"). Like Louis, he DOES blame himself for things that are out of his control. Magnus was psychotic BEFORE he met Lestat, but Lestat made an entire music video absolving Magnus for "losing all decorum" after seeing his 19 performances as Lelio ("I scratched it!"). Nicki was bipolar & depressed BEFORE he met Lestat. Louis was suicidal & depressed BEFORE he met Lestat.
But he's a crashout with a volatile & violent temper, that leads him to make mountains out of molehills, making bad thing even worse when his maladapted personality disorder rears its ugly head & escalates the situation unnecessarily. ("Stupid! I ruined your party.") What happened to Nicki & Louis (& Claudia/Larry) was made worse partially/largely through some of Lestat's horrible behavior towards them, too ("I carried the box because I destroyed him, Dan.").
"We made it!" The horrors persist, but so does Lestat ("I have a capacity for enduring"). His book canonical optimism & HOPE still shines through; always looking for the silver lining where things will get better tomorrow.
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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.
(41b: Studio, "Big Bad Wolf") My first coffin had the likeness of my maker carved into its lid, indecipherable Latin etched around the rim and, as I was an orphan vampire, my sleep within troubled. I spent half of 2 decades in the silken embrace of a chestnut casket, purchased for my French Quarter town home, before it was hurled off a balcony during one of Mr. du Lac's redirected moods. I have slumbered in a variety of sarcophagi over the centuries. But if I had to choose a favorite, it would be the 7,000-square-foot model I endured in the fall of 2025 [[time frame]], while I recorded my posthumously-produced album [[the public thinks he died post-shooting]] that Pitchfork would trash and for which the world shouts in feeble attempts to explain away clearly attributable devastation, "J'accuse." *laughs* But I, Amel, digress. [[Post-QotD era / Amel's "awake/active" (in Mekare--or Lestat himself 👀) now that Akasha's dead--PL Trilogy being expedited into TotBT time frame]] The deranged Wegmans produce manager, Beau Riddley, provided me the Frenchest of exits. And the good fortune of a second mass shooting with a higher body count occurring that same night made the faking of my death all the easier. An amnesia fund was created. [[Hush-money.]] And annual payments in perpetuity were issued to Jarda Klapek, a coroner, an obituary writer for the Czech broadsheet "Právo,". Dee, Daniel, Fareed, and two dozen other collaborators, including Christine Claire (who bought a retirement villa and wallpapered her basement sеx dungeon with billable hour invoices). I would leave this coffin only once in 4 months. [[time frame--To help Louis with Regina]] I would butcher the band for bloom and marbling, fleece the muses of their animus, and stop at nothing until an album worthy of the long, lurid life of Lestat de Lioncourt burned into elegiac audio formats. And when that was achieved, I would perform it once live in that now-infamous concert. [[Foreshadowing AF--the QotD book concert?]] And, well… *chuckles* We will come to that later. But like Elvis or Andy Kaufman, rumors swirled of my survival. So Sofia Gabriella de Lioncourt di Vece took over [["Make More!"]] for Christine and whittled down my entourage to the essentials, which was her and the Vampire Sam Barclay, whom she hired as a producer for three reasons. 1: he had faked his death once before, so he could be trusted to maintain the rite. 2: he knew the board well enough from his own recordings. And 3: she knew I hated him for his part in Paris. And that would keep me lively. So straighten your tie, inflate your lips, be it facial or labial. We are going to trace my self-taught musicianship back to its weird and haunting origins. That's right. I am finally going to talk about the Queen. [[He's talking to someone who knows nothing about Akasha and is eager to hear the deets.]]
(41B: "When I Call Out Your Name," Metaphorical Drums) No voice-over
AH! I think I have an identification for the book that Claudia reads in this 1x06 scene?!
‘Mysterious Legends of Edinburgh’ which was part of the lot of books that I think is a mix of season 1 books (despite being sold as 'Paris Apartment' books)
And they used to call Blues, Jazz and Rock'n'Roll "The Devils" music so "good god fearing Christians" would be shamed into not listing/loving music created by Black Folk.
Little Richard, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Lead Belly, Bo Diddley and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
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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.
(INTRO) All rockers sing about the road. It's practically preordained. "Seger turned the page. Brown loaded out. Jon Bon played for keeps because he had too many doubts." I mean, that's not the lyric, but it should have been. And Phil X was a better guitarist than Richie Sambora. There, I said it so you don't have to. I'm rambling a bit here. What am I trying to say? [[Rambling, unscripted streams of consciousness.]] Clichés about the road can be concussive, but it doesn't make them conclusive. It can grind you down or deliver you home. And which would it be for our Marginal Mystery Tour back in the bosom of the nifty 50 United States? Digitally, there was some optimism, as somewhere between the P Diddler and Chipotle's new Adobo Ranch sauce, The Vampire Lestat found itself momentarily trending. Cell phone footage of yours truly went viral as both irrefutable proof of the cloud gift and deepfake Antichrist. More red meat for Reddit. But a shot in the arm for your front man, distracted by a lingering muse and the sudden disappearance of the Vampire Sofia. [[Nicki is the lingering muse, more bitter & sassy & talkative than the cheerful laughing man in the crowd during The Loneliness--so there's still something nigglinmg Lestat about him specifically, that 3x3 didn't reconcile.]] I would later find out the hits were predominantly bots paid for out of a Talamasca discretionary fund. Should your privileged purse strings become interested in pursuing the actual truth of our recent apocalyptic adversities, look no further than that watchful order of the river of discreet money flowing in dark directions. [[Part of the Talamasca is pushing for Lestat to be more popular with botted streams; while the other part is actively sabotaging the book/tour.]] Nonetheless, I was in my grand brat phase, with more gigs in the rearview than the road ahead. And our bus never stopped for gas. We ran on bots and abandonment.
Viral footage:
Daniel's documentary: The cameraman is SUS.
Non-linear footage:
The text refers to GabriellA ditching him AFTER The Loneliness, but the SHIRT he's wearing are from 3x1 when he texted her Toi/Moi.
This is the outfit he wears at the END of 3x4 when he gets shot.
These are all from 3x3, during his sit-down with Daniel. (There was a BTS image of Amaka on Sam's lap from this same scene, but IDER where I saw it.)
(INTRO: Cop bust) Officer Giloogly took a week off. TC thought for the first time, maybe she could be a vampire. [[Foreshadowing AF.]] Larry wished his brother could have been there. And on a computer hard drive in a public library somewhere on the eastern seaboard, a manifesto waited patiently. [[Lestat's shooter.]] We were on the devil's road now, hurtling towards end times.
(33B: Regina) Service stations. Travel plazas. Off the Autobahn they're called Raststatte. On the devil's road, these liminal spaces have no name, for the occupants are not aware they need rest or service. Louis du Lac, or "Thomas Pitt," or he who licenses and franchises the night was more feared than wanted now. And he could do his business wherever he wanted. And being in the same space with her was satisfying in a way the destruction of the Vampire Bruce was not. He told himself he was in control. We all did that year. [[Foreshadowing AF--none of them had anything under control; they were all spiraling out.]]
(33B: "Big Bus") No voice over
Daniel's documentary footage: Daniel pressing Lestat on his mother again (Lestat lied up & down the Documentary footage about GabriellA's fate), with some POWERFUL dialogue:
Lestat DEEPLY resents Daniel's role in writing the book, and his ties to the Talamasca. Speaking of which--
--I've said 100x that Daniel's a crap investigative journalist. His biggest scoops were because someone FED him the information (not what you know, but who you know): first Raglan James about Armand's real Trial script; and now Armand about Sofia's true identity.
(37A: DM Bowling) No voice-over
(37A: Regina) No v/o
Viral footage:
(37A: Lioncest in Italy) No v/o
(37A: "Plastic Fiends" & Dan vs Lestat) No v/o
I'm unsure if the footage on the tv is supposed to be a MV/visualization for "Plastic Fiends" or something else. 🤷♂️
Daniel's Documentary footage:
Lestat tells Daniel that the "trick" he played on him in 3x3 was "a gift" for Dan alone, "not for our film" to blast his past with Nicki on cams.
Dan's PISSED, and cuts Lestat to the quick about the Ep5 Fight/Drop.
Lestat calls Armand a deadbeat dad, and raises a VERY interesting question about why Dan's vampirism's not manifesting properly yet, and Dan cuts the Documentary.
(37A: Lioncest) No v/o
(40B: Lesmand) The nomad Armand, with passport stamps from India, Venice, Paris, San Francisco, Dubai. He entered our tour in diminutive disguise, faded wallpaper, waiting for lights to dim so it could peel off and suffocate you in the dark. He would do more damage than the Queen ever did. [[Foreshadowing AF]]
(40B: Regina) No v/o
(40B: "Big Boss") No v/o
(40B: DM) No v/o
(40B: Nickistat vs Lestantoinette vs Lioncest) No v/o
(40B: "The Wheels on Lestat") Lestat & Christine get shot
(40B: Lioncest "Blood Marriage")
(40B: Regina) No v/o
(40B: "Hit the Lights") A poignant tableau, conspiring mother advising a distraught son. [[The Great Conversion]] And you'll get no argument here if you were to interrupt and say, Lestat, an excellent time to end it. What words did she conjure up to turn me and that bus back around, you ask? Hmm. I'll never do them justice. Instead, let me paraphrase a more eminent vampire caught in a similar situation. "It is difficult to explain how her words disarmed me, how efficiently succinct and impenetrable her argument was." *mocking laughter* You had to be there, I guess!
The Vampire Lestat ✮ Big Bad Wolf ✮ Live at Beacon Theatre in NY ✮ - Lyrics Breakdown
Nope, y'all can keep this one, fam. 🤷♂️ It's that grunge/punk rock I have no desire for. 🙅🛑 Which is a real shame, cuz the lyrics are great; I love a petty AF diss track, and trust: Lestat's being petttyyyyyy. 😈👌
As usual, thanks to Genius!
"Died a monster just like my father"
Murder Night ("the HORROR that had been Lestat....the THING lay still"). Yeah. I hope that sat with him for a good long while: ("I thought of this often in the coffin. That you left me. And I've thought of this in the years since. I will always be sorry for what I did to you.").
And I can't WAIT to see the Marquis in action & how he died, since he got his throat slit & decapitated too--cycles are cycling, like Jam said!
Oh yeah, he's talking to Louis.
I BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS NOW! (x x) Louis' self-loathing & low self-esteem made it impossible for him to even accept the flawed love Lestat gave him, let alone return it. Neither of them were READY to be in that relationship.
🤔 Yeah, I can see why Lestat would think that. He's wrong though. Louis never wanted him to be anyone else. Louis wanted Lestat to be precisely who Lestat presented himself as: A FRIEND. His BEST friend.
I wonder if Lestat even knows about DreamStat, and just how badly Louis missed him; missed having his confidant, his ally, his sounding board, his guiding light, his mentor, his lover, his HUSBAND. So many people keep saying that Louis presented Lestat incorrectly, and I'm like HOW?! 🤨
Murder Night, and ofc the book.
(Has it been confirmed that the long-alleged Murder Night Revisit actually happened or not? Is it still up in the air about hows much of that was lies?)
The book, ofc. What I love about this song is that Anne Rice's TVC was always framed as stories about vampires from the villain's perspective. Humanizing the monster by getting his side of the story--not that it matters, really, cuz first impressions are everything. (Kudos to TheVampireCaspian for spotting the Love Me boots!)
Lestat is desperate for love, but he will always carry the stains on his image because of the book; and on the meta level because of S1 (esp. 1x5 & possibly even 2x7). Lestans can call Louis "the lying aggressor who kindled/instigated the fight" all they want; they'll always be stuck in the trenches defending their uwu blorbo from every new viewer who walks into S1 and sees Lestat's heinous behavior thru Louis & Claudia's eyes FIRST. 😬 Did Louis lie about being Dropped? Exactly. 😤
Sure, Lestat gets the last word, and will be forgiven by those who want to forgive him--but for others, his so-called "Rewrite" just contextualizes the monster, it can never excuse/absolve him the way Lestans want it to. The Big Bad Wolf is STILL called the Big Bad Wolf for a reason; eff what he said to defend himself later. 🤷♂️
And Lestat KNOWS that; and he's frustrated AF about it as he tries to clear his name--or realizes/resigns himself that actually he CAN'T:
"Now I'm the big bad wolf f**king everyday, oh I'm the Big Bad Wolf."
I think the lyrics are wrong here--it's probably "You tell / told the tale"?
[EDIT] Someone on Reddit has different lyrics that make way more sense (thanks byronicbisexuals for the heads up!):
"All of your stories with their tiny holes"
Like I keep saying: does Lestat know about Armand wiping Louis' memory, and lying about "Banishment"? 🤨 Cuz he seems hella uninformed his dang self about WHY Louis told the tale in the first place.
"Half the truth is worse than no truth at all."
🤔🤔🤔 I guess????? Cuz yeah, it would probably be easier if the whole thing was just straight up fiction, where Lestat could toss the whole thing in the trash and say with confidence that 0% of the book is true at all. But it's killing him that there IS truth in the book. Again, Rolin repeatedly said 70-85% of Louis' version is TRUE. Lestat's going crazy over the 30-15% giving him an ulcer because that's where Louis does call him The Devil he sold his soul to, damning himself to Hell for the love of someone who HE THOUGHT didn't love him back. So Lestat's beating at the windows screaming I DID LOVE YOU, WITH ALL OF MYSELF! 😭
TL;DR: YMMV
So yeah, I think as far as Lestat taking accountability, this is probably as good as it'll get from him; as he's still clearly angry & lashing out, mad as all hell about how the public and LOUIS most of all perceived him. Depends when in the season he's singing this though. If it's earlier he's mad. If it's later then he's sad/resigned.
The official release has more parts in the spoken verse/rant, the first half of which I've already covered:
This part's the same, but then it changes.
Lestat is LITERALLY Vampire Fabio, like bffr. 🤣😂
I already explained that Dreamstat telling Louis about the monogrammed handkerchief is exactly the same as him eating the bad photographs--what Louis WANTED Lestat to do for him, not what was actually true.
Lestat is STILL calling Louis "an insane person" -- well, I'm glad he at least consistently realizes Louis IS mentally ill (Lestat clearly has a type--or rather: HE drives his lovers insane!).
Too bad he never once in his life RESPECTED Louis' struggles--like I BEEN SAID about him. 😒
Once again going on & on about the Train Scene--I don't care what he said or didn't say. The fact that she ran away at all tells me everything I ever needed to know about Lestat. He's busy insulting his soulmate's mental illness, yet acts like he's oh-so-above mocking his daughter's rape--bish, please spare me. 🙄
"You cancerous jackal" -- Huh. Well, if Louis' a cancerous jackal, that makes Lestat a toxic radioactive son-of-a-LITERAL-b*tch; so....? Pot meets kettle. 🤷♂️ Go run back to the dog house Louis kicked you to the curb in 80yrs ago, and go kiss your mother with that mouth, Lestat. 👎
@azulmarinodpdl I was gonna reply in the comments, but this is important, and i have 4 main things to say:
lestat has a NASTY mouth (my father/maker's temper)
lestat is incredibly angry at louis for the book
lestat's mad at louis for not calling him after he got shot
"it's called an arc!"....?
1) lestat has a NASTY mouth (my father/maker's temper)
in 1x6 we saw lestat going ballistic on claudia AND louis, crashing TF out just for losing a chess game.
lestat's a domestic abuser who Dropped louis from the sky crashing TF out at even the THOUGHT that louis MIGHT agree to leave with claudia--louis hadn't even SAID anything at all. 💀
in s3 he has louis saved as "thomas pitty he's a whore;" crashing TF out cuz louis' CASUALLY seeing lemuel ("he's NOT my companion")--ONE (1) man; meanwhile lestat's shagged every woman on this show except for TC! 😬
so NGL these new lyrics & insults don't surprise me at all; my opinion on lestat's BEEN basement-low ever since he told louis to STFU about feeling like his "slave" in 1x2 (x x). 🤷♂️
2) lestat is incredibly angry at louis for the book
he's been crashing TF out all season over that book, for making him look like "the big bad wolf" (the DEEP irony is how his behavior all season's just proven the book RIGHT about him, LOL 🤡)
3) lestat's mad at louis for not calling him after he got shot
dreamlou is in the booth with lestat as he sings BBW to louis' face, mad as all hell. cuz he WANTS louis around; he WANTS louis to support & care about him; and like his music & stand beside him. he thinks louis' distance/silence is proof that their relationship is over; that louis DGAF about him anymore--esp. cuz he got shot. his sensitive AF feelings are hurt, so he's throwing a tantrum again.
4) "it's called an arc!"....?
jacob anderson once shared an anecdote about his convos/arguments about how mean/ooc louis was being to claudia in s2, and rolin told jacob to trust the process cuz "it's called an arc!" the jury's still out on if rolin wasn't just gaslighting TF out of jacob and blowing smoke up his arse so jacob wouldn't walk out of the show entirely (*cough*). but IF rolin actually is legit and playing the long game, where we only SLOWLY see character development & growth across multiple seasons, then the same way louis' development is a marathon not a sprint is the same way lestat's character growth will be, too.
lestans get mad that calling him an abuser "flattens" his character--but they're ignoring how lestat has to PROVE himself WORTHY of louis by CHANGING his abusive behavior going forward, like sam reid said. 🎯
lestat's an abusive a-hole, and he's proven it over & over in s3 (larry, hello?) 😬💀 but what will he do to prove to louis that HE CAN change for the better?
and i think the same way we saw lestat pissed at louis with big bad wolf in 3x5 is the same way we'll see lestat hopelessly in love with louis with brutal love in 3x6--my favorite song out of everything so far.
💬 1 🔁 0 ❤️ 12 · The Vampire Lestat ✮ Brutal Love ✮ Live at Beacon Theatre in New York ✮ - Lyrics Breakdown · Now THIS is a love ballad! 👏😭
TL;DR: we shall see?
we see lestat record big bad wolf at the BEGINNING of 3x5, but my main question is if BBW will still be part of the rerecorded album lestat makes for the Great Conversion, after he turns TVL into vampires? 🤔
he already confirmed that songs like long face WON'T be on the rerecorded album; that he's scrapping so many of the (very angry/pointed) songs that had defined TVL's whole aesthetic/vibe. lestat scrapping all the cool songs is what finally makes larry quit TVL.
instead, he (read: gabriellA) wants songs that will talk to the vampires about THEIR struggles ("Make More!"). so if that's the case, what purpose does BBW have on the album anymore? sure, it's a direct response to the book, but it's also the wedge keeping loustat APART.
so we shall see what the actual album tracklist is, and if BBW's still on it. cuz if it's been scrapped, then i think that's proof that lestat IS taking back some of the things he said about louis (esp. if brutal love STAYS on the album). 🙏
but if BBW's still on the album.... 😬 then yeah, we might have to kill this mofo again. 💀😅
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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: Nicki) No v/o
(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: "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.
