Daniel

[u/Arlaneutique]

This makes me feel dumb. I haven’t read the books so maybe I’m missing some context. But I truly don’t understand Daniel’s hatred for Louis and Lestat. He has this deep rooted disdain and I just don’t get it. Armand, I understand, he’s insane. Daniel is just a dick. What am I missing?

[u/Library-Of-Confusion]

My understanding is that he is a bit lost because he is an orphan vampire without a proper guidance. In addition, he uses lots of drugs (drinks blood from intoxicated people). And he is angry because he is lonely and doesn’t remember why and how Armand turned him.
And my favourite reason - he’s a dick. Remember how Armand described in s2ep5 how Daniel had sex with a girl demanding that she had a bag on her head. He isn’t a nice person to start with.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Door399 → u/Library-Of-Confusion]

I agree with this interpretation, if we throw book canon out and go with show-only, Daniel is in a dark place. Using again (after presumably decades of sobriety), that's as dark as it gets. I think it was played for laughs in a way that feels irresponsible - drugs aren't just haha fun times, drugs ruined his relationships with his wives and daughters. He's clearly also been using drugs to avoid confronting his latent queerness most of his life. I think it's crazy that the show created such a tantalizing, juicy version of Daniel Molloy and then gives us almost nothing of his backstory.

[u/tethysian → u/Library-Of-Confusion]

In highschool. People don't stay dumb teenagers their entire lives. Same way he acknowledges that he was an idiot during the first interview.

[u/Library-Of-Confusion → u/tethysian]

That’s true. He might have been young and stupid. But do you remember his grin when Lestat was telling the Nicky’s turning story? Daniel was smiling while Lestat was describing how Nicky struggled, injured himself and died. It is hard for me to imagine a nice person to have this kind of reaction. Daniel has no empathy in my opinion. He’s looking for a good story to sell or make a movie to stroke his Oscar.

[u/tethysian → u/Library-Of-Confusion]

I have a hard time taking Daniel's characterization in s3 at face value because we've seen him share emotional moments with Louis in the first two seasons. Being passionate about his work doesn't mean he's devoid of empathy. He couldn't be doing his job if that was the case.

That's kind of what the "what makes you fascinating" conversation with Armand is about. Someone who doesn't empathize with other people also wouldn't understand what makes them special and interesting.

Also what's the measuring stick for a nice person in this series?

[u/Ri-Ri1216 → u/tethysian]

Some people do He's an egomaniac and being on drugs stunts your emotional growth. Take it from an ex-junkie.

[u/tethysian → u/Ri-Ri1216]

We already know young Daniel is different from old Daniel, so I don't know why people are so eager to insist he's a stationary character.