he is getting euthanized. TODAY! sorry to all those who might still find it within themselves to grieve him. he told to leave him out in the sun for a bit and then lend his ashes to his estranged husband but unfortunately there are no means of transportation available to me right now and i have no way to find him so i’m not going to fulfil his dying wish
Okay I just said this on discord but I'm reminded of this passage in terms of everything the TVL show is doing wrong. The context for these lines is in the wake of Armand's extensive torture at the hands of Santino and Allessandra, when he has been so utterly broken down that he accepts them and sees them as fellow victims in suffering, rather than the ones responsible what he's endured (at least partially; they're obv not the only ones who have hurt him.) And the power of the passage lies in the fact that obviously this is not actually the case—Santino and Allessandra are the ones with the power, and they've tortured Armand and killed virtually everyone he knows—and so we see Armand's internal process of reconciling himself to the Children of Darkness (because he has no other choice) but the dissonance here underlines the extent of the pain he's endured.
And TVL the show seems to be attempting to do something similar in its positioning of Lestat as an equal victim, but the dissonance is not present in any real intentional way. Obviously we as viewers are aware of the abuse Lestat has perpetuated towards Louis and Claudia, but the show hardly ever mentions it, beyond Lestat being angry about IWTV the book. I think this is most egregious when the show evokes Claudia. A casual viewer watching only this season could easily conclude that Lestat had absolutely nothing to do with Claudia's murder—his involvement in the trial isn't discussed (or, for that matter, the fact that he's the reason why Louis and Claudia fled to Europe to begin with.) See the Louis/Lestat scene from Episode 5, where discussing Claudia is painful for both of them and their grief is paralleled (Lestat is also emotional seeing Regina.) And theoretically one could write a storyline about Louis grieving Claudia so deeply that he chooses to reconcile with Lestat despite everything Lestat did to them both, but this is not what the show is communicating, because the details of Lestat's relationships with Louis and Claudia hardly ever come up. And again, it's wholly possible to examine Lestat to mourn Claudia despite abusing her, but that's not what the show's doing. It's like the show is setting Louis and Lestat up as two people on equal footing who lost a loved one to a random unspecified blameless tragedy, which is obviously not what happened in the two previous seasons of the show.
Do you think Lestat's outburst against Claudia before the drop, is also informed by his relationship to Gabriella? Doing everything he can to make Gabriella love him- the incest ( even though he doesn't say it, there must be some revulsion subconsciously). The love perverted by Gabriella-> unconditional between Louis and Claudia. In his jealousy he says some crude and unthinkable things about Louclaudia. None of his parents were ever there for Lestat-Gabriella never was his immortal companion. Louis was ready to be so for Claudia.
About 90% of Lestat’s feelings about LouClaudia are related to Gabriella. The last 10% is more about Lestat projecting his grief over Nicki onto Claudia. But that’s a diff convo.
So yes, Lestat’s reaction to the love between LouClaudia is heavily based on the traumatic relationship with his own mother. But imo it’s about more than the unconditional love between them. It’s about their enmeshment and Louis’ dependency on Claudia. LouClaudia had the unhealthy dynamic Lestat wishes he had with Gabriella.
Young Lestat & Gabriella looked a lot like LouClaudia. Bonding with each other to a heightened degree due to the patriarchal abuse in their household.
Similar to Louis, Gabriella projected her own identity onto Lestat. However, the difference is Gabriella turned their dynamic into sexual assault. She felt empowered living vicariously through Lestat, while at the same time feeling empowered by hurting and controlling him.
On the flip side, Louis seeks redemption and purity through Claudia. He feels his life can finally have value by identifying himself solely in relation to her (“Who are you, Louis?” “I’m your brother.”) He is not living through her, he is being saved through her.
Both GabiLou reached for their ideal selves through LesClaudia, but where Lestat’s masculinity was the goal for Gabriella, Claudia’s innocence was the goal for Louis. (And both were false perspectives, mind you, but that’s also a different convo. I’m going to kms with all these possible tangents!!)
So LouClaudia’s relationship does not and would not ever turn sexual, but it was emotionally incestuous. Their identities blended together and eliminated the very needed boundaries that are supposed to exist between parent/child or brother/sister.
The “two blood fat cocks” line in S2 was funny from an outside pov, but what siblings are actually saying that to each other?!
The Loustat sex scene where Claudia telepathically talks to Louis is referenced often, but even before that.
Lestat wasn’t wrong that Antoinette should generally be his and Louis’ business rather than hers. But LouClaudia (as one identity) felt she had the place to get involved.
And even before that, before the drop, Louis became despondent when Claudia went off on her college phase. It’s one thing to feel guilt given they just had an argument when Claudia left out the door, but Louis practically fell apart. And stayed this way for years!
I say all this to point out that Louis & Claudia’s relationship, while beautiful and full of love, was also unhealthy.
And it was the way they were unhealthy that Lestat was envious of. Lestat projects onto Claudia a LOT and the older she got, the more he saw of himself in her. And this viewpoint leads him to becoming paranoid about LouClaudia given what happened with him and Gabi. Except there is no sex(ual assault) involved. Only emotional codependency. And this, ironically, makes Lestat even more furious about it.
He does not want to be in a sexual relationship with his mother, but he does want to be in a codependent relationship with his loved ones. He wanted Gabriella to “belong” to no one except himself, and the same with Louis. He wants all of their attention all the time, and wants to be needed & sought after by them always.
He would’ve done anything to have a mother who’d waste away by the simple suggestion he go somewhere by himself. He would’ve done anything to have a mother who would want to forever share a coffin with him and have little to no interest in separating.
Louis is not ever abandoning Claudia, the only way she’d gain independence is by being the one to leave him (and the second time she tries to in S1, Louis literally plans to kill himself the morning after. He could not live without Claudia!) It’s the direct opposite of GabiStat where Gabriella routinely leaves him behind without a care in the world. Lestat wanted that part of Louis’ attachment to Claudia. The ruinous devotion with no threat of abandonment ever. Where separation would feel like the equivalent of death for both of them.
One of the biggest reasons I think Lestat fell in love with Louis during their courtship era is because he could see how full of love and affection Louis was when it came to the people he cared about. It’s a trait they both share, being lover boys, while also being complementary: Lestat feeling wholly unloved and Louis overflowing with his capacity to love.
But when Louis gets turned and Lestat stops being able to read his mind, and they stop having sex, and, presumably, stop sharing blood, Lestat feels denied this aspect of Louis while believing Claudia is receiving all of it.
Lestat wants the love and emotional intimacy, but more pointedly he wants the enmeshment. He wants the “I’ll completely fall apart or even kill myself if you leave”, he wants the codependency. And it all ties back to Gabriella’s abuse as her relationship with Lestat was at the extreme other end in terms of affection and care. Because of how deprived of love Lestat has been his entire life, he craves the near-obsession toxic kind. LouClaudia’s codependency was his most desired kind’ve dynamic to have with someone, and the fact he witnessed it every single day drove him mad.
Mind you, LouClaudia’s enmeshment is a result of Lestat’s own abuse towards them. He played a role in creating the very relationship he always wanted. Just that its foundation is built as an outlet from him, their own messed up safe space. Making the cycle never ending where Lestat abuses LouClaudia -> LouClaudia grow closer to each other in response -> Lestat feels more excluded and the abuse gets worse. And it just kept going until you got the drop and again and again before exploding as Mardi Gras.
A lot of what happened at Rue Royale were the three of them projecting onto each other. We know Louis loves Lestat & Claudia equally. In 1x05, Louis doesn’t even actually agree to leave with Claudia and abandon Lestat. He wants to be with them both. And if S2 Dreamstat isn’t a reflection of Louis’ cavernous grief during Claudia’s college phase then idk what is. But it really is about Lestat projecting his own trauma, desires, and fears onto LouClaudia that makes things spiral into hell.
This isn’t to say Louis was completely blameless. He wasn’t. 2022 Louis looked back and acknowledged that during Claudia’s college phase, he took satisfaction in provoking Lestat. In his depression, he wasn’t only sad but was also weaponizing his own guilt against Lestat. And so after years of this, Claudia does nothing but walk through the door and instantly receives a gentle, worshipful hug from Louis. On top of everything else, it’s contrasts like these that also unravelled Lestat, who laser focuses on the negatives of his and Louis’ relationship while only seeing the positives of Louis’ relationships with other people.
But overall, yes. A lot of what upset Lestat about LouClaudia was a trauma response from his relationship with Gabriella. Unholy Family is an extremely complex dynamic that you could spend years talking about, and this is definitely one aspect of them.
The only thing Louis ever had to apologize to Lestat for was not warning him about the book coming out. That's it. Louis was never wrong to tell his story. It's his life. And once again LOUIS NEVER WANTED THE BOOK OUT AT ALL IN THE FIRST PLACE. DANIEL WENT AGAINST HIS WISHES ALONG WITH THE TALAMASCA TO HAVE IT PUBLISHED.
Put your phone down and watch the episodes with subtitles on if you must. Louis is consistently attacked for this by fans because Lestat is angry about it and sorry but it's literally victim-blaming.
ALSO the interview was done before he even knew the full scope of the trial and that Lestat saved him. That's what's frustrating about the hatred and the response to Louis by fans.
A lot of you are missing key moments about why Louis is dealing with it the way he is. Lestat ignored him for like a year and a half after the book came out and left his ass on read. And then toured while dragging him for filth in his music all because Louis had the gall to express his life's story from his perspective in order to make sense of his past.
The writers having Louis portrayed as in the wrong as if he needs to apologize about this is a bizarre choice. I'm hoping somehow in the next two episodes the victim-blaming ends but I'm losing hope.
Lestat is allowed to be hurt by his portrayal in the book but again Louis is not wrong for giving an interview about his own life.
And making things up in the narrative that never occurred in IWTV. Lestat more or less says "I didn't threaten to rape her!" Well Louis never said nor implied Lestat threatened to rape Claudia? Does Rolin Jones remember what he wrote?
And will Rolin ever answer any hard questions about his writing or will he continually push out his BIPOC actors to answer for writing choices that aren't landing well?
i have bad things to say about this scene in particular. louis was shot point blank as a fledgling vampire and he was fine, plus lestat didn't come rushing to his aid, nor did he ask if louis was alright in the aftermath. why are we playing it like louis is the bad guy (or singular bad guy i suppose) in their relationship—and just in general—every single time?? louis is a selfish bastard and not lestat? the man with a track record of being incredibly selfish, especially in regards to his treatment of louis? why is he being made to feel like he's selfish for not checking in on lestat "i have the blood of akasha in me" de lioncourt? there is so much to say about this moment and none of it is good.
and of course, once again, louis is treated like shit and expected to swallow his trauma and apologize. during an extremely emotionally distressing moment for him, lestat turns the importance back upon himself. a moment that would arguably not have even happened had he, you know, had the opportunity to grieve properly in the aftermath of claudia's death, instead of living with the man responsible because someone who's supposed to love him wanted to make him miserable....where have i seen this before.....
the biggest weakness of tvl is how much shit happens offscreen and is explained thru narration or clever dialog. I cant see how a person who is not familiar with book!tvl will understand much of anything.
kaledo-art
andulkaphoto
areudirty
pixelskylines
tangentwithtanner
vaporwave
yousharknotpass
