Know only this, mon cher: you are the only being I trust, and whom I love, above and beyond myself. All my love belongs to you. You are its keeper. A veil will now forever separate our union, but it is a thin veil. And I'm always on the other side, face pressed up against your longing.
The Lovers René Magritte | The Vampire Lestat 3.06 "Montreal" (insp.)
People go crazy over indirect kissing, but when a vampire licks another vampires blood off a glass and basically has an orgasm at the bar people are like “why doesn’t this show have sex in it?”. That was indirect sex. Lestat put himself inside of Louis. Vampire sex can be many things…
i was training a young person at work, and she referred to sexual assault as "SA" out loud, and i immediately was like, "no, it's sexual assault, call it what it is," bc idgaf if the algorithm overlords have taught y'all that you should fear direct language, how tf do any of you expect to ever address real issues with any amount of seriousness if you can't even say the words? imagine an advocate looking a sexual assault survivor in the eyes and asking "did he grape you?" it's absolutely fucking absurd, but these young interns and new hires are coming into an environment where we deal with survivors of all different kinds of abuse, and they're coming with the mindset that the words are as bad as the actions, and that makes them shitty at the job and look juvenile af
i HATE self-censorship for a lot of reasons, but being in crisis work makes it even more frustrating. who are you censoring for? like i am being so fr, WHO are you censoring for? have you even thought it through? people who have been raped know that they have been raped. if someone attempts suicide or is grieving someone who did, saying "sewer slide" isn't going to protect them from any of the feelings. a murder victim's family isn't going to feel better bc you said "unalived" instead of murdered. if anything, it's just extremely invalidating and othering. it's saying "what happened to you is so bad that i won't even say the word," which is NOT trauma-informed care. you are not protecting survivors/victims when you self-censor. the ONLY things you protect when you self-censor are the puritanical ideologies that are being encouraged by rich fascists who want your money and obedience
say the fucking words, guys. just say the goddamn words before i go insane!!!
i've seen many discussions about the seance scene over these past couple of days, and most of them seem to be focused on what it supposedly says about louis and claudia's relationship, and what it means for louis' arc, etc. but after thinking about it some more... i actually don't think it's even part of LOUIS' arc at all?
TL;DR. in short, i don't think the seance was about giving louis any new revelations he hadn't already had in IWTV. it was about opening lestat's eyes to the reality of louis and claudia's relationship that he previously held a very idealised and rose-tinted view of.
what's happening here (imo) is that people get hung up on merrick (the book) being a part of louis' arc in the book series, so they assume that the same must be true for the show. but must it?
let's look at what actually happens in the show.
summoning claudia is LESTAT'S idea. he's the one who gets into contact with merrick. he's the one who organises everything. he's the one who seems to view it as a way for louis to get closure and move forward after the regina debacle. he thinks he's doing it for louis.
and what is louis' reaction to that? we don't know how he reacted to it at first, but on the day of, he drags his feet and wants to cancel. why?
because he already KNOWS everything that claudia is going to tell him.
now, i know the word "delusional" has been thrown at louis a lot this season, and many people seem to take that at face value. but if you go back to S1 and S2 and pay attention to the character journey unfolding before you, then you realise that the arc of louis finding out claudia's true feelings about him already HAPPENED. he recounted their entire life together. he read claudia's diaries. he faced the truth of his involvement in her turning. he remembered his failed suicide attempt. he contented with the reality of their relationship. he KNOWS that claudia hated him.
but who doesn't know that? LESTAT.
i think it's important to admit that, for most of their time together, lestat doesn't actually view claudia as a daughter, he views her as a RIVAL for louis' love and attention. he thinks that loucladia have a unique bond (they're both black; they immediately jump into the roles of "father" and "daughter" while he's just an "uncle"; they can communicate telepathically while he's shut out of their minds forever) that he's intensely jealous and insecure about.
lestat also knows that claudia hates him (i mean, she plotted his death, that would be a strong enough hint for most people). but i think that his jealousy and insecurity over loucladia cloud his judgement to the point where he can't imagine claudia hating louis, even after reading the book.
that's why he suggests doing the seance! he genuinely believes it may be a positive and soothing experience for louis. because he can recognise all the ways he failed claudia, but he was never privy to the pain and conflict brewing behind the deadlocked gates of loucladia's mind. he thought they had a great time together at their two-person party he was never a welcome guest at.
i think all of that also explains their rather muted reactions to the whole ordeal (that i know rubbed some people the wrong way). louis has no reason to cry and walk into the sun again in response to claudia's lashings because he'd already fully come to terms with her hating him by the end of S2. lestat has no reason to cry and have a crisis because, well, he's not the one who just got a lashing. but he does have to re-consider and restructure his whole conception of louis and claudia's relationship that he's held for decades at this point.
TVL is some of the densest writing I have ever seen on a tv show. The writers treat every single line like it needs to be doing three jobs at once - foreshadowing, character work AND a callback to something said in season one. No show is above criticism and when all is said and done i'll have my own critiques of season 3 but the quality of the writing or the writers room not understanding these characters is not one of them. you WILL need the rewatch. you WILL need to pay attention or you miss something important or misunderstand the characters. they will not hand it to you easily.
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