lestat was my coal fire

I blocked anon because I blocked many anons yesterday (😘), and I will address this more when I can actually get on my computer which I haven’t done in over a week and I genuinely despise typing on my phone so it’s too much to do atm, but —

the ask began with a questioning accusation of: aren’t you being too didactic and anal in how you’re approaching this?

discussing the anal accusation first, what I will say is this: for a show that has included obscure references to art in a multitude of mediums, religious symbolism from multiple religions, singular lines that recontexualize entire episodes, or even the season as a whole, etc. etc. I am supposed to be meticulous and I am supposed to be focused on small details as much as big ones. the way you can watch the pilot episode 15 times and still discover something new, or the way the pilot looks different after having watched the season 1 finale, and how it looks different again after watching the season 2 finale, this is a show meant to be viewed with that much attention to detail and it’s, in the past, been criminal to not do so and you would miss so so so much if you weren’t. the first two seasons introduced, to me, a lot of new concepts and ideas and art because there was so much detail that, when I watched the show for the nth time between seasons, I’d research something I didn’t know, I’d learn something new. it was incredible.

now, as for the didactic accusation, here is what I will say to that: with the pre-established existence of the first two seasons and with this very idea alone — “all art is political” — yes. yes, I absolutely should and have and will continue to analyze this story didactically. is that its only purpose? of course not. entertainment is a purpose rightfully on its own that this show has fit under. however, for a show that deals with subject matter like suicide, domestic violence, race, consent, incest, etc. and that has, in its first two seasons, handled that in a way that was meant to make you think about those topics with nuance and their purpose in driving plot but also as lessons and learnings (Sam advocating for a trigger warning on 1.06 for love bombing, Louis learning to find a reason to live versus just existing, characters facing abusers head on, etc.)

all art is political, and this show is art that has always been very political and has, in my opinion, been a beautifully complex look at the horrors of the world and of people, in a way that didn’t show perfect people but ones that can strive and want to be better while still being monstrous because isn’t that a human truth all on its own?

in a world, and in the USA right now in particular where this network is based out of, we are witnessing fascism. this season, with its lack of care toward its poc characters, its irrational violence toward Black bodies, its treatment of queer relationships (women only kissing for the enjoyment of men, m/m scenes hardly existing even just in intimacy not even in explicit sex), could have used those things to make commentary on that had they actually challenged those things in the narrative, framed them like the horrors they are; but instead, the show used them for shock value, believed in much of it given how the torture of Louis in particular had been discussed in the AD, and, in turn, reflected art that falls within a type of fascist world we currently are witnessing.

like I said, I’ll get into it more when I am on a computer, but one thing that is beautiful about art is that so much of it shows what the artist sees in the world around them at that moment. it’s how we end up with art from around the world with similar themes but in different mediums, or created so differently yet still the same ideas. something like TVL as a book does this; in the earliest pages of the novel, Lestat comments on the similarities and differences of the world around him from what he grew up in and when he has come to know through the centuries. it’s reflective of the time.

s1 of IWTV shows Jim Crow New Orleans and gives a very historically accurate look at it while challenging its norms, while showing us that Louis endured a life that he was always going to be looked at lowly, no matter how hard he worked or how much smarter he was or how much more successful, because of the color of his skin. how lestat said vampirism would free Louis from that and it didn’t because even as a vampire, Louis being Black was the first thing people saw. and him standing up for himself led to a race riot by white business men who had been itching to have a “reason” to finally destroy every Black business and home because one of their racist own was murdered. and Louis holds the blame for that in his heart despite the blame being the alderman, for being racism, for being a society that didn’t respect people for the color of their skin.

it was reflective of its time while challenging the time itself. this season, the show is reflective of its time by agreeing with its time as it challenges nothing and doubled down on the conservativism of the world around us atm.

Lestat doesn't seem to understand his feelings or motives about a lot of things so maybe this is the character journey we're going on, I don't know. Claudia has barely been addressed at all, she wasn't even in the table scenes.

The only thing lestat fully denies is a rape threat (which I still argue never happened in the first place so I’m confused) and everything else — despite his “we’re doing a rewrite” — is never challenged, contested, etc. ghost!claudia — who knows about things like his music and the dress on the wall so she’s very in-tune with modern happenings — accuses him of coming to kill her and rehearsing her death. muse!gabi in the finale mentions Lestat killing his daughter, he doesn’t argue. the lestat/armand scene on the bus shows Lestat more angry about 1700s Paris than 1900s Paris and admits to willingly wanting Louis miserable with Armand — despite saving Louis, knowing what Armand is capable of, and throwing Louis being with Armand in Louis’ face, like Louis didn’t leave the moment he learned the truth.

Claudia is very rarely discussed or thought of by lestat in any capacity. I thought we would be getting a totbt-esque Claudia this season that wouldn’t leave that man alone and yet his most vivid muse is Nicki, but Nicki wasn’t the reason he buried himself by any means.

Even if we address the trial in s4 at this point, it will be 3/4 years since the trial happened on screen, and it appears we have much bigger fish to fry given we haven’t seen this concert, how lestat ends up on stage anyway, loustat discussing what went down in that butcher shop, the talamasca, Akasha waking up, taking him, causing said destruction, how he’s casually recording some tapes while the end of the world — he inadvertently causes — is raging outside his home and where tf is Louis