IWTV Characters as Tarot

Major Spoilers for the show and future seasons

The Fool

The Fool signals the beginning of a new journey with an optimistic and ignorant heart. For that reason, the Fool is young Daniel Molloy because he begins his interview not comprehending the danger of the situation and just how life-changing this interview will be. He's sort of optimistic, hoping to get a good story and cocaine out of the initial interview and as a young guy he was so full of opportunity.

The Magician

The High Priestess

The High Priestess represents inner knowledge and following your intuition. Claudia went on a journey to find herself even though everyone around her was telling her that it was a bad idea. First with the boy, then with her murder spree, then with her traveling around. After she was brutally sa'd she turns away from herself but after leaving New Orleans she listens to her intuition again, finds Daciana and Madeline, and would've lived happily if Armand hadn't fucked it all up. She always knew what she wanted and after finding herself she always knew who she was.

The Empress

The Emperor

The Hierophant

The Hierophant represents adhering to society and following a process through. It's asking someone to stick to what they know. Armand is known for this. Instead of going and trying something new he will stay in something that he knows isn't for him until it all blows up like with the Coven in Paris, Theatre des Vampires, and his relationship with Louis.

The Lovers

This card represents harmony, value alignment, and great love in a relationship. Obviously this is very hard to represent in this series as all lovers have disagreements. Louis and Lestat differ in values on killing and Claudia, Armand always leaves Daniel and has a chaotic relationship with him, Marius and Pandora from what I've read have disagreements on Akasha, Nicolas and Lestat have disagreements on life, Akasha and Lestat also disagree on life, Antoinette cares more about Lestat than Lestat does her, so that just leaves Madeline and Claudia. Though we saw little of their love, they both had the same view on murder, on each other, and generally never fought in their short-lived relationship. Madeline even agrees to die with Claudia even though she doesn't need to, because Claudia is her greatest love.

The Chariot

The Chariot card is about overcoming challenges and succeeding after a journey that requires determination and perseverance. I think Gabriella in her coffin signifies this. Her human life was marked with hardship and a lack of autonomy. She lived day by day hating her life and when Lestat comes and turns her she finally has the freedom she always desired. The actual physical chariot would be represented with the coffin.

Strength

The Strength card represents emotions enduring and having the strength to see a situation through. This role is hard to cast it fits both Louis and Lestat, however I'll give the edge to Lestat here. His emotions for Louis have always remained the same and even when Louis killed him, he nursed himself back to health enough to go save him from Armand and patiently waited eighty years until Louis found out the truth and came back to him.

The Hermit

The Hermit represents a lone walker on the path to discover their inner self. Claudia is perfect as the Hermit. In season 1 she decides that she wants to travel the world and goes out and does that, maturing herself, and encountering true suffering for the first time. When she goes back to Louis and Lestat and Lestat usurps her agency, she alone (lets be honest Louis was just going along with the ride) planned her freedom and really came to herself in the attempted murder of Lestat. After that she went on a journey to find vampires, Louis tagged along but she was doing most of the work, and she encountered new perspectives (Daciana) and braved debasement of herself, and found her true calling (going around with Madeline).

Wheel of Fortune

The Wheel of Fortune represents life, both the good and the bad, and the cyclical nature of the good and the bad. Armand was a child prodigy, turned child prostitute, turned disciple, turned leader (forced), turned foil in Louis and Lestat's relationship. He generally had a good childhood up until his kidnapping, where he was then subjected to unspeakable terrors. Then Marius buys him, and he is subjected to unspeakable terrors but also a kindness his previous situations lacked. When he is ripped away from that by the Children of Darkness he squanders his immortal life away and falls in love with Lestat. When he fucks that up (which he doesn't take responsibility for) he becomes the coven leader to the Theater Des Vampires. When he decides he doesn't like that he inserts himself into Louis' life. When he grows tired of Louis he inserts himself into Daniel's life. Apparently, later in the books, he even finds family in caring for two children. He has had love for all of the characters mentioned above, and he has had hatred for all of them as well. His good situation with Louis turned bad, his bad situation which he viewed as good with Marius turned worse, and his bad situation with Daniel turned out for the better. He's truly experienced the highs and lows of life.

The Hanged Man

Justice

Death

Death signifies a rebirth, the ending of one thing and the moving on to another. Vampire turning is pretty much this and Gabriella's is the best example. Pretty much the minute she's a vampire she slaughters her entire family, ending her old captivity, and travels the world. She even becomes gender non-conforming, rejecting all values of her old life. To be clear, I am not a Gabriella supporter, I don't like the relationship she has with Lestat and I think she's narcissistic but her vampire turning is the most "death" one there is.

Temperance

Temperance represents moderation and balance in life along with having a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how to get it. Old Man, pre-turning, Daniel Molloy best represents this to me. The problem with this card and IWTV is that none of the characters are truly balanced they'll always have emotional outbursts and problems. Old Man Daniel though has accepted death, moving forward with his last book in life and standing up for himself when his creative vision is being tampered with by both Louis and Armand. He's not afraid to link himself to a dangerous secret society to achieve his goal.

The Devil

This card represents a lack of fufillment and being a slave to material pleasures. Akasha actually fit into this role. She has a rather nihilistic view of the world thinking that everyone in it sucks and should therefore die. From what I understand, in the books when something doesn't go her way such as people proving her lore wrong (Maharet and Mekare) she has them brutalized or killed. From what I've gathered, she seems obsessed with the way she is seen and portrayed and many of her actions is in response to that considering she goes around committing genocide.

The Tower

The Tower represents ground-breaking change. Nothing really changed the story more than Claudia's death. It truly changed Lestat, it changed Louis, and informs many of their future decisions.

The Star

The Star represents the power to continue on in life with a hopeful outlook. Lestat has pretty much had an optimistic outlook on whatever venture he takes even if he's not feeling so great about it. After being brutalized by Magnus he opens up a theater and begins acting, becoming very successful. After wallowing in pity for many years he finds Louis and hopes that their connection will be a happy one. After Claudia's death Lestat holds out hope that Louis will realize that Armand lied and that he actually saved him. After the Talamasca publishes Interview with the Vampire Lestat decides that he won't let his name be slandered like that and starts a thriving music career. Whenever bad things happen to him, whenever he does bad things, after a period of mourning, he looks at the future with optimism.

The Moon

From my research, The Moon Card represents hiding things, truth, and the unity of the good and bad in someone. Louis is this card. As a human he hides his feelings for men, as a vampire he hides his often cruel actions and both love and hatred for Lestat (both done poorly), his own nature, and he's known to be an unreliable narrator. When he's with Armand he hides his discontent with the relationship from him along with his true feelings. When I say the Moon represents truth I mean hidden facts/feelings bubbling in the moonlight. This happens frequently like when he first gets with Lestat, when he confesses his emotions to the priest, when Lestat drops him from the sky, when he spills his guts out to Daniel in 1972, and when he reunites with Lestat. A lot of this is of course because he can't do much during the day but I'm using that plot device to my full advantage. I think the fact that the truth comes out during the day with Armand just points to how not-himself Louis was when he was with him. Throughout season 1 he's shown to be ashamed of his nature and tries to compensate by drinking animal blood. As Louis reflects on the book he frequently catches himself absolving himself of blame in many situations and has Daniel update some parts of the story to better show the accuracy of his tale, merging the good and the bad.

The Sun

Jessica Dore interpreted the Sun as a meaning I hold to this day, The Sun shines its light on all parts of ourselves, both the beautiful and the ugly. Lestat is the Sun to Louis' moon. Light most certainly shines on Lestat. We see his caring and loving nature, his devotion to those he loves, his impulsivity and fury leading him to batter Louis, his loneliness when he isolates himself in the mansion him and Louis used to live in, his confidence and bravado in his performances in both Theater and the Piano, his disregard for others like when he kills his victims, and his vulnerability before he is "killed."

Judgement

Judgement as a card represents when someone reflects on their actions and chooses a path forward based on said reflection. The entire interview with Daniel, Louis, and Armand perfectly represent this. The most clear moment for this card would probably be at the end when Louis makes his, "I am the Night," speech, signifying the beginning of his next arc.

The World

If anyone wants to comment any other ideas with book characters in the Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches that would be appreciated because I know there are characters like Jesse Reeves and Marius that could fit one of these cards that the current batch of characters really doesn't. I haven't read the books though I'm just making an assumption that one of those 2 could fit the cards. To be clear, I watched the Queen of the Damned movie and read the wikis of a lot of characters like Maharet, Pandora, Akasha, and Marius, along with reading an ao3 story or 2, which is why I know some events.