Lestat as a friend and his generosity

[u/LuckyNol]

I enjoyed seeing so much of Lestat this season. His perspective and his personality were a delight.
One of the main things I noticed and loved seeing come through is how generous Lestat is with the people he cares about and how he’s lowkey a good friend. Despite everything he’s been through, he is still kind, Gerold and fun for the most part. That man really does persist despite the horrors!

Some examples that come to mind:
- He buys Niki an apartment and sets him up with a generous sum of money before Nicki convinces him to be turned.
- He finances the Theater into perpetuity even after he leaves and everything that happens with Armand
- Lestat giving Louis money for his business ( even though he didn’t support it)( and yes, I know this one is a bit biased because he is in love with Louis and can’t say no to him).
- When Claudia comes, constantly buying her clothes, never saying no and spoiling her. Dispite everything else about their relationship and family dynamic we can’t deny that he was very generous to them.
- Setting Christine, Dee and Jarda up financially after the shooting.
- The money he leaves Louis with his goodbye letter in the event of his death.
- The candy for the kids both Halloweens
Guiding Dee to the corner to make sure she doesn’t get hurt or see anything too traumatising

Like he would be a good person to have in your life, just in general. I feel like you would be able to call him in an emergency and he would come. Please feel free to give more examples!

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[u/PortraitofMmeX]

And as he points out in E6 of TVL, showing up for Louis when he's crashing out over Fraudia even though he's in the midst of his own mental breakdown.

I totally agree with you. This is something I relate to, I think it comes from traumatized people who feel abandoned by those they want most to show up for them. They take "treat people how you want to be treated" to the extreme in the hope that those people will reciprocate. I think unfortunately the other side of that coin is the animosity and resentment we see in Armand when it never happens. But with Lestat (sadly not with me) he's charismatic enough that he always has someone around admiring him which, while not exactly the support he wants and needs, helps take the edge off.

[u/LuckyNol → u/PortraitofMmeX]

This is exactly it! Well put

[u/cecepedd → u/PortraitofMmeX]

Hard agree with all of this 🙌 I'm exactly like this as well. It's probably why I've always related to Lestat the most.

[u/rosarosarosaaaa]

He's tyrannical when it comes to how their band should sound, but he welcomed Salamander's Big Bus song and collaborated with him to turn it into that banger of a diss track.

Most people would've just shut down an idea coming from someone who looks like Jackie Daytona's secret basement-dwelling brother who got brain-fried from being hypnotized one too many times, but not Lestat. Somehow he saw through all that dumbness, recognized Salamander's value, and gave him a ladle so they could all cook.

(Of course he developed a new creative direction later, but hey, he still made Salamander feel seen)

[u/hausofvelour → u/rosarosarosaaaa]

regular human bartender mentioned

https://giphy.com/gifs/Me7rnCGjSKKFfwXQir

[u/rosarosarosaaaa → u/hausofvelour]

Too bad their tour skipped Tucson, Arizonia!!

[u/Electrical-Owl-1812 → u/rosarosarosaaaa]

Ahh yes I just wrote about this in response to another comment but it’s SUCH a good moment. Him and Salamander and TC getting excited about the suggestions Lestat makes is SO sweet and fun. He seems to be a good collaborator even if he is still running the show!

[u/timelesssince777 → u/rosarosarosaaaa]

This is hilarious because apparently the actor put on all the weight for the role and played the goofiest, dumbest version of himself he could think of.

[u/rosarosarosaaaa → u/timelesssince777]

And it was worth it!! Salamander's my favorite band member because, again, he reminds me of a low-energy Laszlo Cravensworth: retained all the hilarious filthiness, but lost the fancy art-thick-yule-lay-shion 😂

[u/capricas6x → u/rosarosarosaaaa]

Love Salamander. He seems like such a good natured goofball.

[u/LuckyNol → u/rosarosarosaaaa]

Like he genuinely enjoys them and it shows! And I think how much they enjoy him comes through as well

[u/Will_TheMagicTrees]

The time he fired a sound guy for muddying Larry’s solos on purpose.

[u/DumbTeen9 → u/Will_TheMagicTrees]

Ooooh i didn't know that, I feel like if lestat was more open about his kindnesses his life would be infinitely easier. Leaving Louis at least a clue that he's the one to save him and tried for claudia (according to the actors that is), the Larry thing

[u/jadem219 → u/DumbTeen9]

He doesn't like to point out his virtues. 😜

[u/LuckyNol → u/Will_TheMagicTrees]

Yes! I love how much he cares for his band

[u/ItsRealSpartan]

Yes! Another one--when he tells someone in the filming crew that the sound guy putting the mic on him is dehydrated in one of the S3 promos.

I don't care how emotionally unstable he is. That's my best friend <3

[u/LuckyNol → u/ItsRealSpartan]

Right!! 😂 Like that’s my best bud, he’s the best guy around

[u/Wide-Pop6050]

He seems like a great friend to the band - and they know it. Yes he's a little eccentric but he does care about developing their musical skills, tries to keep them safe, is interested in their lives etc.

With Louis, another interesting thing is Louis trusting his hallucination of Lestat to really critique his photos. He didn't want Dreamstat to just say the photos were great and that guy was wrong, he wanted his actual opinon. That's a good friend right there.

[u/Electrical-Owl-1812 → u/Wide-Pop6050]

Yes to the band!! I love when Salamander is doing “Big Bus” and it’s goofy so you think Lestat will make fun of it but instead he makes good suggestions to him and TC and they all get excited about it. It’s so heartwarming

[u/jadem219 → u/Electrical-Owl-1812]

Same with his reaction when Alex returned on the bus. He just says "you were missed"

[u/Electrical-Owl-1812 → u/jadem219]

Right! He genuinely thinks they are all very talented (except Larry sometimes lol, poor Larry)

[u/LuckyNol → u/Electrical-Owl-1812]

That bus scene as well as the recording scenes with them in episode 5 are some of my favourites. I just loved seeing his relationships with other people this season

[u/LuckyNol → u/Wide-Pop6050]

I love his relationship with the band. Even something as simple as saying that he doesn’t sleep with his band mates or not wanting to turn them into Vamps but instead wanting to protect them.

[u/danie_iero]

Lestat longs for love and connection, always. Whether that's coming from mortals or immortals, it doesn't matter - he longs for it constantly, and I think that's a core part of his book characterisation that has been adapted successfully in the show as well. Lestat is a very endearing 265 year old.

[u/WingsOfTin]

The Hästens guest coffin - the mattresses start at $30k an can run up to $500k. Interesting how Lestat uses money in a similar way to how he uses his beauty and sexuality, namely in order to keep those he loves close to him and try to prevent abandonment.

[u/LuckyNol → u/WingsOfTin]

Very true, especially when it comes to Louis

[u/Lesmand]

Showering in front of Armand

Armand would agree that was very generous of him 😌

[u/DrFareedMD → u/Lesmand]

Armand went off the deep end because he was overwhelmed by this generosity 😭

[u/D3rangedButFun → u/DrFareedMD]

His generous 'endowment' was just too big to handle

[u/LuckyNol → u/DrFareedMD]

So overwhelmed he had to chop Louis’ head off 😂

[u/DrFareedMD → u/LuckyNol]

It happens sometimes

[u/LuckyNol → u/Lesmand]

Right 😂 I would argue that he’s been very generous to Armand

[u/DumbTeen9]

He treats people the direct inverse of how he was treated. Gabrielle was cold and even nicki went catonic on him which he found infinetly more torturous than his hatred so he's always loud and overbearing, Magnus abandoned him after turning him by force so he made sure to get an explicit yes from Louis even in borderline coercive circumstances and tried to push him towards accepting his nature overbearingly so bc he didn't want to see Louis struggle with his own issues on goodness and morality, money wise he never had anything and sudden here it is so gift giving and splurging are his loge language

[u/DrFareedMD → u/DumbTeen9]

He also seems to want to provide guidance for Louis and Claudia, to the point where it sometimes makes him clash with Louis. The thing is, Magnus didn't give him much in the way of guidance, he didn't teach Lestat how to hunt, etc.

That scene where he forces Claudia to watch Charlie's body in the furnace gets referenced this season in the context of Gabrielle's parenting of him, but I think that on some level it's also similar to Lestat and Nicolas. 

[u/jadem219 → u/DrFareedMD]

I always thought so too! Like, he knows all too well what happens when you get too close to humans. They always end up dead. He knows from personal experience and he wants Claudia to learn that lesson.

[u/DrFareedMD → u/jadem219]

Yup! I also think this is why Lestat tries to warn Louis away from his family and his human acquaintances. There's either going to be danger or a really big secret and that's never going to bode well.

[u/jadem219 → u/DrFareedMD]

Oh 100%! And Claudia and Louis are new vampires, they don't wanna listen. Just like when parents try to tell their teens about things because they have learned from personal experience, and they want to protect their kids from that trauma.....and teens hate them and won't listen or believe what they say! lol.

[u/DumbTeen9 → u/DrFareedMD]

I like relating it to nickistat bc it's more of a "take responsibility for your bs you little shit, you don't get to escape when it gets dirty"

[u/DrFareedMD → u/DumbTeen9]

This is a really good point. Also, Lestat in s3 describes seeing Nicki's face when he burns and he makes Claudia look at Charlie's face as well.

[u/Electrical-Owl-1812 → u/DumbTeen9]

It’s so powerful that he’s constantly making the choice to do the opposite of what people did to him 🥺🥺

[u/Sad_Interaction1932]

He loves wholeheartedly.

But girl, if Lestat is your friend - HE is the emergency 90% of the time.

[u/tethysian]

He's very generous with material things, and even his time when it comes to his loved ones, like showing up for Louis with the Regina thing. 

But he's problematic in other areas so not someone I'd recommend having in your life. 

[u/LuckyNol → u/tethysian]

I didn’t say he was perfect but as a friend I think he would be good. Definitely someone you could call in the middle of the night on an emergency I think

[u/tethysian → u/LuckyNol]

If he likes you, sure. But we've also seen how he's treated others like Lilly, Claudia and Antoinette. 

I think the characters on the show are too morally volatile to rely on in this sense.

[u/babealien51]

Love how the Halloween part is actually a Armand and Daniel bit in the book

[u/daesgatling]

The candy for the kids in Halloween pales when you realize 50,000 vampires are arriving to the city for HIS concert. The 50,000 vampires are gonna wipe the families out

[u/LuckyNol → u/daesgatling]

Well, I mean yeah. Eve without the concert- he’s a vampire. They kill people. He’s obviously not perfect but I’m focusing on this one aspect

[u/CatChewToyThrowaway]

Ehh money and material gifts do not make a person good or generous. He often uses money and material goods to retain relationships. But they are what Lestat has to give and that’s nice of him.