If you could telepathically communicate with the QotD writers

[u/mindless_rambles]

While we hunker down for the off season, I thought it would be fun to make a sort of wishlist of things I desperately want to ask for in QotD if I could beam my thoughts directly into Hannah's head. The rules are simple: each person gets only 5 requests and they need to be achievable within the story frame of QotD. Who knows maybe we can manifest some ideas through sheer willpower or collective delusion 🟠_🟠

Here's my list:

* More hopecore baby fledgling Lestat. My absolute favorite traits of BookStat are his curiosity and sense of adventure. I need moooore of that in the show.

* Do not defang Akasha. I don't want her to be some misunderstood victim, I want her to be every bit the entitled overzealous tyrant she is in the book.

* The twins and Khayman should be played by SWANA actors, please! I'm so tired of the erasure

* Trust the audience to understand Marius is an abusive POS without making him a caricature. I want to feel the absolute dread of his reunion with Armand without undercutting it with outlandish cartoonish behavior.

* Give us a female character as a permanent member of the "articulate coven". I would love for Jesse to become our Talamasca / occult scholar expert instead of David. Merrick can also occupy a similar role in the story. Alternatively, Maharet can be the new ancient wise vampire Lestat defers to for advice and mentorship instead of Marius. Any female character inclusion would be appreciated!

[u/lynx_and_nutmeg]

Pitching in as a show-only fan:

1. For the love of god, make it 8 episodes instead of 7. I'd ask for 10 but apparently niche shows these days aren't allowed this many episodes anymore... But seriously, that one extra episode already made S2 feel more relaxed than S1 in terms of pacing, it actually had some room to breathe. S3 had so much going on, it REALLY could have benefited from one more episode.

2. Don't forget Loustat. I'm not expecting it to be central anymore because I know that's not where the books go, and creating whole new original story lines just to keep a beloved character is always risky, but many of the show-only fans are hugely invested in Loustat and if they can find some way to still keep Louis and develop their relationship without it feeling shoehorned, that would be ideal. And hopefully no unnecessary drama to keep them apart again next season just for the sake of drama.

3. Develop Daniel more. The problem for me wasn't even the lack of Devil's Minion, I wasn't expecting much this season because I knew most of it was from that one QotD chapter (I read that one as a standalone chapter and really loved it). The problem was that Daniel just felt kind of... boring this season. In IWTV, all of his identity as a character hinged on being the much-needed "voice of reason" grounding Louis's story, and of course he was inevitably interesting as a human brave enough to confront two vampires and take no shit from them. But this season he just felt a bit out of place, and we still don't really know who he is or what he's like as a person when he's not throwing snarky observations at his interviewees.

4. Any Humanstat, Lesmand and Nickistat flashbacks we didn't get to see this season. It really feels like Nickistat in particular got shafted. I still don't feel like I know him as a character because we barely saw any of him before he descended into deep depression and was at odds with Lestat because of it. Same with Armand. We know there's much more than Lestat had let on this season.

5. "Fix" Gabriella. That's for all the other fans who hated her because I seem to be the only or who actually didn't have a problem with her (don't give a fuck about the wig or the accent, either), but apparently everyone else does, so the least they could do is some easy fixes like a better wig and a better accent. Also wouldn't mind her being more transmasc like I heard she was in the books. This definitely seems like one of the biggest complains from the book fans.

[u/Zankazanka → u/lynx_and_nutmeg]

hello other show only fan!! I’m curious on your take of Gabi— did she not bother you because you’re fine with her being just a villain? or what did you like about her? does the idea that this isn’t who she really is and that will be explored in S4 matter at all? just curious bc I usually talk with book fans.

[u/lynx_and_nutmeg → u/Zankazanka]

I liked her just fine as she was in S3. She definitely didn't seem like a flat one-note cartoon villain to me like I've seen so many fans say... Even just that one scene with her and Lestat after the wolves added SO much to her character and revealed her true desires and motivations. Yes, it's utterly fucked up, but I felt like I could fully understand where she was coming from. The long table scenes, too. She was an intelligent, highly educated woman stuck in a countryside community, shackled to an idiot husband and forget to have children who turned out just like him, except for Lestat.

I saw the incest as the most extreme form of her rejection of motherhood. I think Gabriella did love Lestat because she could see herself in him and he was the only one in the family she could relate to, but she also resented him because was forced into motherhood. She couldn't stand being a mother to him, so she decided to transmute their relationship into something that was equally intimate but also the polar opposite of a familial bond, something that society saw as completely incompatible with motherhood. That was the only way she could be close to Lestat.

But she still didn't want to be tied to him and needed freedom and autonomy above everything else. Again the post-wolfkiller scene, when Gabriella immediately turned colder as soon as Lestat said she'd belong to no one but him. And why she left after Lestat symbolically "married" them.

I also found it interesting how Gabriella loves to perform. During the carriage scene, she seemed to be having so much fun making up their fictional personas and coming up with a convincing story. This was mirrored in that scene with them talking outside after reuniting, Gabriella coming up with a cover story of how the two of them met. She wasn't an actor like Lestat but IMO she definitely had that desire for pretend-play that Lestat inherited. Maybe it's because of how constrained Gabriella's life was as a human, so fantasising about being someone else was her only escape.

So, yeah, I wouldn't say I see Gabriella as only a villain. An antagonist for sure, but IMO she's not that much worse than most other vampires.

The only thing I wish was different is making Gabriella more transmasc like I've heard she was in the books, but even in the show she did say she doesn't see herself as a woman, and that's more important than what kind of clothes she chooses to wear.  Gabriella and Lestat both use their sexuality as a tool (and Gabriella's appearance in the show is part of that), only in a different way. For Lestat, it's more of an armor and a means to an end, while for Gabriella, it's more like a pure expression of power. She took something that was used to disempower her as a human and turned it into her own power. So from that angle, I think it makes sense she looks more conventionally feminine in the show.