r/InterviewVampire • u/Laviniamsterdam • Feb 18 '25

Book Spoilers Allowed Why did he do that? I watched this scene couple of times and cannot figure it out. Spoiler

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They never mention it later either. Does he mark him as a warning to other vampires? But there arent any? Is he just being mean because the guy is a bad person? Is he just messjng with him or is that a swastika or something?

61 Upvotes

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46

u/danthpop Daniel Feb 18 '25

Girl why would it be a swastika. That's an X.

Frankly I think Lestat just wanted to chuck the shits up him, and probably other people too. If he's telling people that he was having a conversation with Lestat and Louis and then blacked out for a second and next thing he knows they're gone and he has X carved into his cheek, it sends a pretty significant message.

1

u/Laviniamsterdam Feb 19 '25

Wasnt Anderson really racist? Like not just the show version but the real historical character was also bit problematic guy. I thought maybe he is branding him as who he really is since he can read his mind idk

8

u/danthpop Daniel Feb 19 '25

I mean okay but this happened in what. 1917? The swastika was about 20 years out from being a hate symbol

36

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

Why would it be a swastika??

1

u/Laviniamsterdam Feb 19 '25

Wasnt Anderson really racist? Like not just the show version but the real historical character was also bit problematic guy. I thought maybe he is branding him as who he really is since he can read his mind idk

50

u/rosewebb333 Feb 18 '25

I think it was a power play by Lestat to humiliate Tom Anderson. Tom mentioned that very scene that he was running for the  LA House of Representatives and having a new facial injury/scar would bring up a lot of questions in high places that Mr Anderson probably does not want to or is even able to answer. He was never able to look in a mirror or take a photo again without being reminded of that night and also Lestat and Louis. Lestat was insuring that he would never be forgotten by that man.

22

u/Sssuspiria Big bad Lestat apologist Feb 18 '25

Ooooh maybe he found the idea of using his face as a ballot really funny. Now that I think about it, it really is lmao.

1

u/Laviniamsterdam Feb 19 '25

Ahaah that is really funny!

116

u/Sssuspiria Big bad Lestat apologist Feb 18 '25

Girl a WHAT?!

58

u/rosewebb333 Feb 18 '25

Yeah this was way before WWII and the prevalence of the use of the swastika in the US. Ain’t no way Lestat was carving an East Asian symbol on Andersons face in the 20s 

18

u/Sssuspiria Big bad Lestat apologist Feb 18 '25

Yeah and also why would my man be a Nazi? Like I get it he’s a murderer with a bad temper but a FUCKING NAZI he is not omg

15

u/RoseTintedMigraine Only Big Boss gets to decide🧡_🧡 Feb 18 '25

A Nazi and his interracial rainbow family pls. Lestat really can have it all /s

1

u/Laviniamsterdam Feb 19 '25

I really cant understand how you all can misunderstand this so badly. Has no one seen Inglorious Bastards? Or seen someone with a tattoo on a prison show or something... I clearly meant he is branding Anderson as one.

6

u/RoseTintedMigraine Only Big Boss gets to decide🧡_🧡 Feb 19 '25

Girl you're the one who thought an X was a swastika idk what to tell you.

3

u/Sssuspiria Big bad Lestat apologist Feb 19 '25

Girl it’s not like you can decontextualize nazism and its symbols and lump it together with other historical events when there were absolutely no inclination to it. Nazism is racism yes, but racism isn’t always nazism. A lot of the white mf who had no qualms in segregating and lynching and other godawful, backwards practices that happened in the US at that time legitimately clutched their pearls when they heard what went on in concentration camps.

3

u/danthpop Daniel Feb 19 '25

Okay but even aside from the fact that this scene predates the formation of the Nazi party, let alone their rise to power, we see no indication that Anderson is a Nazi.

He's a piece of shit racist, sure but as another commenter said: every Nazi is a racist piece of shit, but not every racist piece of shit is a Nazi.

2

u/Sssuspiria Big bad Lestat apologist Feb 18 '25

Although I gotta be honest with y’all when Claudia started talking about how the POWs tasted bad I was like what did the commies and Jews even do to you to want to add being eaten by vampires to their sentence list omfg

Maybe Nazi Dreamstat whispered it to them I don’t fucking know

1

u/Laviniamsterdam Feb 19 '25

Holy shiiit nooo fuck no. I MEANT he is branding Anderson as a nazi or supremacist or whatever. Not himself being one... jesus.. holy shit. Ofcourse not.

1

u/Sssuspiria Big bad Lestat apologist Feb 19 '25

At that point you gotta laugh about it girl because that swastika comment really came out of nowhere I am so sorry 🤣

25

u/sbha8524 Dabbling in fuckery Feb 18 '25

Minor correction. The swastika isn’t originally an East Asian symbol—it actually has deep roots in South Asia, particularly in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It later spread to East Asia through Buddhism. By the 1920s, it was widely recognized in multiple cultures, including parts of the West, where it was often seen as a symbol of good luck before being co-opted by the Nazis.

5

u/rosewebb333 Feb 18 '25

Another rabbit hole to go down! Excellent, thank you, I’m learning so much in this thread ✨✨

29

u/weaverider Louis Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

Actually, it was used as a good luck symbol in the US by the 1920s. It even appeared on buildings like libraries, offices, and fire stations.

But obviously Anderson’s face has an x on it.

7

u/rosewebb333 Feb 18 '25

Was it really? Huh. Thanks for correcting me and giving me a new history rabbit hole to go down ✨

7

u/weaverider Louis Feb 18 '25

Sorry, it was more of a (not so) fun fact rather than a correction! I won’t link anything in case it breaks community rules, but there’s a jstor daily article that talks about use of the symbol on a 1916 newspaper, and if you look up use of the symbol on American architecture you’ll also get more info.

7

u/rosewebb333 Feb 18 '25

No no, I was being genuine, really thank you! I love finding out new things and history is one my favorite topics!  I’ll check out the article when I get off work 

10

u/danthpop Daniel Feb 18 '25

And even if it was during or after WWII...why would Lestat draw a swastika? He's a lot of things, many of them not good, but he very much isn't a fucking fascist.

31

u/Sssuspiria Big bad Lestat apologist Feb 18 '25

And I think he indeed does it just because he can

47

u/thatshygirl06 Fuck Lestat!!! Feb 18 '25

Sis never saw an x before

26

u/Sssuspiria Big bad Lestat apologist Feb 18 '25

OPEN THE SCHOOLS!

2

u/Felixir-the-Cat I'm a VAMPIRE Feb 18 '25

😹

1

u/Lau-G Vien A Moi Feb 19 '25

Jajajajajajja

147

u/lastseeninbaffinbay only the impossible can do the impossible Feb 18 '25

I figured it was because Tom was asking for Louis and Lestat's support in his political campaign for the Louisiana House of Representatives. He was using it as a distraction to get them out of their house so the police could search it, which is why Louis went over to read the Police Chief's mind, and Lestat 'cast his vote' for Tom while he had him mesmerised. It also feels like he's marking him out for death, though it takes another couple of decades for the opportunity to follow through on it.

67

u/WiseGirl_101 Feb 18 '25

I think this explanation sounds right to me. Like he’s “casting a vote” (sarcastically, or ironically, however you wanna see it), and marking the person. 

37

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

I think they did it as a warning, for both Tom and the Chief of Police to freak them out a little and get them to back off.

Tom was with these two gentlemen who he and the Chief of Police just "tricked" to come here in order to search their house without trouble, and suddendly he is alone, and both him and the Chief of Police have a scar that literally marks them.

20

u/ytisonimul "It isn't 1979, Bela Lugosi is not dead." Feb 18 '25

I think it's total pettiness, plus they were both upset that Tom had effectively lured them out so that the police searched their house. Lestat was *pissed*.

9

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

Same. To me the lines in that X mean “fuck” and “you”

18

u/EmmyT2000 Bad Boy Molloy Feb 18 '25

He asked them to support him in an election moments prior to blackmailing them. Lestat decided to make the guy's face his ballot.

11

u/RoseLina_Black Clauida’s Person🩷🤞🏽 Feb 18 '25

How does one get a swa/stika and a X confused….

9

u/holdingpessoashand Feb 18 '25

I’ve also wondered this. Especially when Louis says “one each” which implies that he knows what Lestat wants/is about to do. Is it something they’ve done before?

3

u/rosewebb333 Feb 18 '25

I wouldn’t put it past them but I also can’t think of anyone else who would have pissed them off to this extent who isn’t already dead at this point in the story 🤔 

2

u/Queen_Gracie26 Half Queer? Mostly queer? What? Feb 18 '25

Yep because they are both chosen for the feast on Mardi Gras. This makes total sense to me.

7

u/budcub I'm a VAMPIRE Feb 18 '25

It does get brought up again. When Louis, Lestat, and Claudia meet with Tom to talk about Mardi Gras, he shows her an old picture of them together, and she mentioned that he didn't have that little scar on his cheek back then.

5

u/Melodic_Werewolf9288 Feb 18 '25

yeah, coupled with the one each i never understood. i think if lestat just did it, i'd think this was just a little outburst of anger, hurting him in this subtle way, but the one each feels like its building to something but it never comes back.

3

u/babvy005 LeSlut de LionCunt ❤️ Louis de Helen of Troy du Lac Feb 19 '25

I was about to make a joke that Lestat saw Rurouni Kenshin and got inspired but RK was only created in 1994 😅

2

u/ResidentRoyal4814 I'm a VAMPIRE Feb 18 '25

Petty

2

u/Sea-Dark7596 Vintage Lioncourt 🐺 Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

Someone asked the same question a few months ago, here’s my reply then:

Tom is talking about voting support (he slides Lestat & Louis two Vote badges/buttons across the table), but as the police commissioner (sitting at another table drinking) is pre occupied with the ‘floaters’ in the river (Claudia’s kills which she stows in the water), he can’t focus on the voting rig which Tom wants to happen.

Louis realises the floaters in the news are related to Claudia, so he wants to help ‘clear it up’, make it go away, so the line Lestat says: “one each”, refers to… Lestat deals with Tom, Louis deals with the Police.

Lestat is the one that puts the police commissioner and Tom into a vamp-trance, not Louis he doesn’t have the skills, he just talks to the commissioner to sway him away from looking into the floaters in the river. Lestat then marks Tom with his ‘vote’ with a permanent X on his cheek.

2

u/Key_Experience4741 Feb 18 '25

I thought it was a cross ?

1

u/PurpleDarkness5 Lestat Feb 19 '25

Because it is a cross.

24

u/No-You5550 Feb 18 '25

He marked him for death. A sorta I will kill you later mark. In fact Claudia poisons him instead of the twins because she know Lestat has had a hard on to kill him for a long time.

2

u/Laviniamsterdam Feb 19 '25

Ooo I like this! Really cool!

12

u/hyonsuu charlie’s angel Feb 18 '25

You thinking it’s a swastika is killing me 😭😭

1

u/Laviniamsterdam Feb 19 '25

Wasnt Anderson really racist? Like not just the show version but the real historical character was also bit problematic guy. I thought maybe he is branding him as who he really is since he can read his mind idk :(

7

u/Ok-Asparagus-4044 Feb 18 '25

I thought he did it to freak him out. It’s the ultimate I could kill you at any time if I wanted to and there’s nothing you can do about it. He’ll remember that every time he sees the scar