https://www.tumblr.com/virginiaisforvampires/823140484415406080/im-sure-by-the-time-you-see-this-youve-read-that
Do you really not care? Pretty big change to Lestat's character.
I cared two years ago, but here's the thing with this.
You just had an entire season of Lestat confronting his "failures", yet Claudia was never framed as an outright failure. She was framed as a doomed inevitability with culpability for her fate being shared between Lestat and Louis. Oh and yes, Lestat loved her as her own person more than Louis did, because Lestat knows what he did to her when he turned her. Hence the lyrics in Stained Glass Eyes.
On top of that, you had the unholy family dynamic reframed to canonically prove Claudia hated them both, but preferred Lestat over Louis and would've poisoned Louis instead of Lestat, but she knew Louis would follow her like a dog and let her do whatever she wanted while Lestat, as I said, saw her as a whole person with agency. It wasn't because Lestat was the big bad she had to escape. It was because she knew Lestat and he knew her, and he would not allow her whims of traipsing through Europe looking for nothing but a coven of vipers while she harmed Louis with her murder plot. Claudia and Lestat were framed as the casualties to Louis' delusions. They were paralleled as the ones who understood each other while Louis was in his own little world and making them both miserable.
Claudia's beef with Lestat? She was pissed that Lestat was always, essentially, Louis' "bitch" and whether you agree with that or not, it pays into the trial of Lestat saving Louis while letting Claudia burn. Lestat was always going to put Louis first, and Claudia knew this. She wanted Lestat to choose her, but she knew that was never going to happen. That's the heartbreaking part. They were both brought into vampirism against their will. They were both raped. They were both aware of Louis' issues. They were both fantastic vampires. They understood each other. They knew each other. They were alike. But Lestat still loved Louis more than her. THAT was her beef with Lestat and to her surprise, when Louis choked her, too, she realized Louis would always choose Lestat over her, too. She understood that she was selfishly made for Louis to be a band-aid. She understood Lestat's motives. She blames Louis for her fate. Not Lestat. The only thing she holds against Lestat is how much he loves the likes of Louis instead of her.
The aftermath of the seance? They know they fucked up with her. They know she was a mistake that never should've been made. Do they truly care? Not wholly. It's passive acceptance. Fatalism, if you will, and again, that pays into the trial. Lestat saved Louis, and Louis LIKED that. None of it was ever about Claudia, including the trial and yes, Lestat was shown to be angry about the trial. He was shown to despise Sam, to hold it against Armand, and Sam was shown to be afraid of Lestat's wrath. So yes, Lestat was there "willingly", but he was not the actual driving force behind it. He didn't cook it up, and he had to save Louis. Also? Armand was shown controlling the entire coven with the slap of his hand, yet we're meant to believe they "twisted his arm"? That's bullshit, but it pays into what I said here. They place references that hint at conclusions either way, but they refuse to commit to an actual concrete answer.
So no, I don't really care that Lestat went "willingly" because that's always been the hinted narrative. That's the result of the changes they already made, which I've warned about for years. He ultimately went to save Louis. Claudia wasn't considered because the narrative is she never should've existed as a vampire in the first place.
THAT is the narrative they're going for, guys. Yeah, Lestat is "culpable" but it doesn't *matter* because Claudia was a doomed mistake in the Loustat love journey anyways and because Claudia's fate is ultimately because Louis wanted her and Lestat just loves Louis so much. I told y'all two years ago they gutted the meaning of the unholy family the minute they changed the circumstances of her turning and made Claudia's death a mere footnote of "drama" in their relationship. She was always nothing more than a roof shingle. The two selfish parents who chose each other over their child. The casualty to their love, and Louis and Lestat *would* destroy her by choice if it meant preserving the other. And oh, look at that. The child fucking hates them for it.
Deeply romantic? Yes. Deeply fucked up? Yes.
And Louis and Lestat are aware of that. Look no further than their reaction after the seance —
*Claudia is lost in hell without Madeleine for all eternity thanks to Louis' and Lestat's selfishness and all-consuming love*
*Louis and Lestat know this*
Louis and Lestat: "Oh no. Anyways. Utah? Nevada? Do you want to design our love nest trailer or shall I?"
Look at the aftermath of the trial —
*Claudia has just been killed*
*Louis believes Lestat and Armand had something to do with it*
Louis: "Oh no. Claudia is dead. But you know what? Lemme turn this into a petty game to spite my husband by flaunting the loveless situationship in his face and creating a fake companionship just to make him jealous and make him chase after me again because I'm pretending to care that my child just died."
They didn't care about Claudia over each other and frankly, it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that Gabs was pushing Lestat to seek actual "revenge" due to the fact she was there with him in NOLA in the aftermath of the murder and she pulled the strings with the revenge plot against their family and even with that, Claudia is being treated as an object that Lestat could just "take away" to punish Louis for abandoning him. None of it was ever about Claudia. She was used as a chess piece by everyone, but Lestat was the character shown to love her and to see her as more than the object, but that doesn't matter because Louis is still always the priority.
After all, Claudia looked to Lestat as she died. At the end of the day, Lestat was the one she clung to, but he wouldn't cling to her if it meant sacrificing Louis. Again, hence the lyrics in Stained Glass Eyes. He's telling her to haunt him. Bring her malice. Don't break the stare, because he knows what he did when he turned her, but he did it for Louis, and he's sorry that he loves Louis more than her and that she had to suffer the consequences for it. He's sorry for her being flung into the hurricane that is their union.
That's why I wasn't moved by Rolin's crocodile tears over Claudia being trapped in hell without Madeleine. He fucking wrote it that way because he sees Claudia as a monster, too, but he doesn't have the balls to say that. The most he'll say is he doesn't understand the "sainting" of Claudia.
Golly. I don't know, Rolin. Maybe because you wrote it that way when you decided to change the entire dynamic of her relationship with her parents and remove her meaning in their life together.
