#lestat meta

When I first watched this episode, I was very confused about Lestat's motivations for being at the trial. During Claudia's execution, I kept thinking, why isn't he moving? Just do something. Help her.

I understand now that Lestat, at this point, is much weaker than usual for reasons that haven't yet been fully explored. From interviews with Sam Reid, I also learned that there was no way Lestat would miss this trial. However, Lestat isn't a planner—he arrived, memorized his lines, yet was utterly unprepared for what was about to unfold. The only thing he knew for sure was that he was going to save Louis. That was his sole plan.

When Claudia says, "It's never been about me," you can see the guilt and shame in Lestat's eyes. Yet, when she announces her plan to kill everyone in the crowd after her death, he's staring at her with pride.

I believe Lestat did a lot of reflecting while in his coffin, pondering how he ended up in this situation and what led his fledglings to turn against him. I think he was actually proud of Claudia for successfully orchestrating his murder. She outsmarted him, and he had entirely underestimated her. This final act of violence made them equals in his eyes.

However, I don't think Lestat ever truly saw himself as a 'father.' He had no example of good parenting in his human life and this had no idea how to treat a child. From the beginning, he was referred to as Uncle Les while Louis took on the paternal role. Then, when Claudia became an adult, Lestat was forced to regard her as a sister.

Lestat as a character is such a curious case to me. He’s surrounded by privileges that never quite feel like privilege.

He’s an aristocrat, but one in poverty. He goes through abuse but at least he has his mom, but that relationship becomes incestous. He’s white, has blue eyes and blond hair, but gets turned into a vampire without his consent because of those qualities. He gets lots of money later on, but at the cost of his maker essentially assaulting him and then setting himself on fire in front of him. He has attraction to women, but also men. He’s a man, yet also quite feminine and flamboyant.

I think this makes sense of why he is the way he is. He has a good basic understanding of the struggle of someone having power over you. However I think he struggles with the systemic and more complex stuff, such as him not recognizing Gabrielle’s “love” as abuse as it’s not overtly violent, or why he didn’t catch onto certain instances of discrimination against Louis and understand some of his or Claudia’s deeper feelings.

There’s this idea that Lestat is not very bright, he just does things without thinking. While I think that narrative is sometimes used to absolve him of his actions, I think there’s some truth to it. I think he thinks in very black and white ways, and while that simplistic attitude adds to his charm I also think it causes a lot of issues.

I’m sure Season 3 is going to be him doing a lot of looking inwards and coming in terms with the idea of complexity, and I’m really looking forward to that.

I also really hope they touch on the fact that a lot of the things that “just happen” to go well for Lestat likely come from his systemic privileges as being raised as a white aristocrat, although out of his control on an individual level (For example, Lestat using his knowledge of financial literacy for the money he inherited from Magnus. Ofc he would use that knowledge because he has it, but it does come from the privilege he has being from an aristocratic background.)

I’d also love to see Season 3 explore his bisexuality in depth, but also the biphobia he faces more in depth than the books do. I think there’s potential to make some very meaningful commentary on the high rates of sexual assault against bisexuals, and his struggle to define his queerness. (+ a lot of people forget that just because the term bisexual wasn’t popularized before the 1970-90s doesn’t mean biphobia didn’t exist!)