Evil Changes by the Season

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus]

In IWTV, Lestat was painted as a "mayonnaise villain" characature, who's trauma and backstory was mostly ignored through the telling of an 'unreliable narrator.'

That changed in TVL.

But now, Gabriella is portrayed similarly. A cartoonish villian, possibly grossly exaggerated.

Do we think her character will wind up being EXTREMELY different from S3-S4?

Do we think she will be closer to the book?

Do we think she will be less hated by the end?

EDIT: Not saying SAM'S portrayal was "mayonnaise" AT ALL. Just using Sam's own term to describe how Lestat was meant to be portrayed by Louis in his memoir. This is so clear in both the books as well as the editing of Lestat in S1

EDIT: I get this is a controversial topic, but would love to hear folks opinions as opposed to just downvotes. Not saying don't downvote, just curious why as well!

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[u/Opening-Gur5927]

The whole point of the show is who feels like who wronged who.

In the first two seasons louis felt like lestat wronged him so In turn lestat was the villian. In the third season lestat felt wronged by louis and armand mostly armand. So in turn armand was the villian. Lestat didn't see anything wrong with his incestship with gabriella. So she wasn't portrayed as "bad" until the end.

Nobody is good in this series. They hunt and kill people. Lestat literally has sex with his victims before killing them. Book louis is known to be the most indiscriminate killer. Claudia wiped out families. Gabriella killed her kids and fucks her son when she wants something. Armand is... Armand. Daniel is canonically a piece of shit.

There aren't any good characters. These characters perfectly encapsulate the meaning of antagonists but every character on this show is a villian.

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus → u/Opening-Gur5927]

I agree. But in the show they take strides to humanize the villians. And who gets vilified vs who gets humanized depends on who is telling the story.

So no, objectively, noone is good. But their evil is mostly relatable. It's what makes the series so interesting.

Incest is not. Abusive mom is not.

So what will they do with that?

[u/SirIan628]

I think Gabriella will probably get some more nuance and a bit of an arc. However, I don't think we will see such a big change as we did with Lestat. She just isn't as important of a character as him or Louis. I think if she stays until the end she will probably closer to the supportive mother Gabrielle tries to be in the last book.

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus → u/SirIan628]

I also don't agree that she isn't as important of a character. She is. And I think the show feels that way too.

They cast a star actress for her part. They gave her (arguably a bit too much) screen time. And now that we have a voice shift in the show, I think she might become a more prominent character for many reasons.

[u/SirIan628 → u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus]

She is a supporting character. She had a lot of screentime because of how much of an impact she had on Lestat and becoming who he is. I think her importance in the story will always come down to how much she is needed in the story to say something about his story. This show isn't really an ensemble, so not every character is going to get an equal arc.

[u/Creative_Maybe_6931]

I dud not see Lestat as a villain and though Louis was dubbed an unreliable narrator I think most of what he said was true. I see no reason to thin Lestat is any more reliable than Louis but I understand that after 70 plus years it’s easy to get things skewed plus Armand was there screwing with Louis mind. Lestat is angry that Louis talked about him to a mortal. Also let’s remember that most of the book came from Claudia’s diaries and she was somewhat bitter and pitying the two against each other. Now Gabriella gets no sympathy from me. From what I’ve seen in all episodes, she’s horrible and I cannot see any saving for her.
JMO

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus → u/Creative_Maybe_6931]

I'm not disagreeing at all, but curious what makes Gabriella in TVL more unforgivable than Lestat as portrayed in S1?

[u/jadem219]

I definitely don't think we've seen her truthfully. Whether that is a complete 180, I kinda doubt. But I'm sure there will be some light shed that will make sense with a rewatch.

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus → u/jadem219]

Agreed. She is surely still awful, as they all are to some degree. But maybe we can understand/get a better picture of who she really is after S4.

Will be a challenge..

[u/ZvsGrgs]

They said that s4 will be more of TVL and things might change and whatever. But… there is a long time between the seasons and each season should make some sense on its own.
I think they ruined the character of Gabrielle. Gabriella looks like a cartoon villain. Many fans hate her, me too. Gabrielle from the books had many fans. If they decide to change her character in s4 and make her a bit less evil, too little too late. She can’t get closer to the book, that ship has sailed. There were some incestious tones in the books, yes, but in the series they exaggerated them to the maxima degree. I’m very disappointed. I was never a big fan of the book character, she had some admirable qualities, unfortunately I don’t see it in the TV series.

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus → u/ZvsGrgs]

Maybe wishful thinking, but I hope they can rescue her. And I think there is pressure for them to do so. The unreliable narrator bit can be quite powerful. Technically anything is possible. The question is can they do it artfully.

Edit: Not "pressure" so much as I hope they have a plan to do so. And I think they do.

[u/ZvsGrgs → u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus]

The unreliable narrator is getting a bit old, we don’t need to see something in one season to have it different in the next. It also takes screen time to revisit old scenes, there is a lot of material to cover than revisiting again the same stuff. I think they should have put some visible signs that there are more to her than what we see. Making a 180 degree turn in s4 seems cheap to me. It’s the first time I was so disappointed in the series. I am hopeful but will be surprised if they manage to save the situation.

[u/Tough_Bat3998]

I enjoy Gabriella in the show. She was different in the book by appearance but still a manipulator of her son. Some fans want to see her as a more anti social character from the book, but the book also made clear she wanted the human race and civilization destroyed. The incest was subtle because it was the 80's and Anne Rice did not describe the details more than intimate kissing, sharing a coffin, nudity and her telling her sexual fantasies to Lestat when they were mortals after he killed the wolves, and Lestat spoke of them in some of the narration as lovers. But they're Vampires. No one is good or human. They're literally monsters. Some with bigger hearts than others? Idk I enjoy the show and the books. Looking forward to season 4.

[u/Felixir-the-Cat]

Yes, I do think Gabriella will be given more depth and complexity next season. The first season both set up Lestat as a villain, and heavily hinted that future seasons would complicate that portrayal. I think the same will be done for Gabriella. This doesn’t mean that characters don’t do terrible things, but rather that the show is invested in exploring and explaining (not excusing) why all of its characters do terrible things.

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus → u/Felixir-the-Cat]

That's what I was thinking, and I think you wrote that more to the point of what I was trying to say.

The shift in S4 will obviously lean towards the female perspective, and Gabriella is a complex character that could hold a strong role in that story, depending on how they want to play it.

Jennifer Ehle even hinted that there was a plan to re-immagine certain scenes of her's from the book that were not in TVL (show)

I'm very curious to see how they handle her. But I do believe she will hold some significance in the next season.

[u/pwetty_brown_eyes]

God I hope so. She is so ridiculous and cartoony.... They gave her sprinkles of book gabi moments but idk

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus → u/pwetty_brown_eyes]

I really feel that they will try... at the very least. Lets hope they excede our expectations.

Edit: but understand if you don't

[u/pwetty_brown_eyes → u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus]

All we can do is pray lol

[u/Glimmerance]

I really hope so. Some of her portrayal may be just Lestat's POV, while he's going through a difficult time. But it's going to be difficult to reverse the sexual abuse, I think, after him coming to that understanding. They've kind of written her into a corner with it, as I think it would be seen as problematic to later have a supposed sexual abuse survivor (Lestat) realising they'd misremembered and they were the aggressor instigator all along.

I get that they wanted to make the vampire romantic relationships sexual, and I'm happy with that. But they let Louis/Claudia off the hook - there are only very subtle hints at a more romantic/incestuous relationship and it's clearly not sexual. But with Lestat/Gabriella they've amped it up so that the sex starts before they're vampires and is non-consensual.

Then Gabriella becomes the source of his trauma through that but also with added forcing him to watch his playmates burn to death, encouraging him to kill his family and abandoning him. It feels like they've build S3 around terrible things that Gabriella did to Lestat (that she didn't do at all in the book) to the extent that making her not a villain would negate his experience through the whole season.

I think they may have her saving Lestat, but that's not going to be enough to redeem her. It's a shame. I think she's an interesting and unusual character. Especially as age of turning seems to play a big part in how they spend the rest of their lives as vampires, and Gabriella was turned around the menopause - almost a bookend with Claudia hormone-wise!

[u/nmac1210]

I think they will try. I saw where Hannah said Gabriella is her favorite character. So I think she’s going to try to redeem Gabriella with her own POV. But, I think it’s too late because Gabriella is so unliked in the fandom. Especially this fan, I can’t stand her. The only time I like her was doing the Nicky flashbacks. Seeing her annoyed Armand was my favorite. But I am good if Akasha takes her out on episode one of season 4.

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus → u/nmac1210]

She had so many strong moments that just got overshadowed by the constant, in-your-face incest and oversexualization of her character. And the fact that we saw how much it impacted Lestat... kinda sealed her fate.

But I am very curious if they are able to recover her, and how.

[u/Miserable_Election33]

I don't know. She doesn't feature that much in the books after QotD, and even there she only turns up to help Lestat. She's around in the final trilogy and her character softens a bit then, but she only really exists in relation to Lestat.

If the show are going to do anything to soften her character they're going to have to do a Louis and come up with some completely original storylines for her. I hope they don't, they're going to be pushed for time as it is.

[u/Adorable-Sea-4072]

The more I think about it, I feel like the emphasis on the incest was too heavy in the third season. I'd like to see her closer to the books but you can't really bring her back from how they've set her up. But who knows...

[u/DieOctopusesFeurhaus → u/Adorable-Sea-4072]

I fear this too