Midnight thought: Lestat will always try to make Louis happy and love him but he always gets it wrong. Louis grew up in a family full of love so he knows how, Lestat didn’t, he was never loved as a child and so, he never learnt how
Hmmm. So, I agree Lestat will always try to love Louis and make him happy. Within the context of the show, did Lestat really get it that wrong though? I know. I know, but hear me out. 😅
Louis skipped over their happy times. In Episode 2, they’re bantering back and forth about Louis’ nightmares. You can’t tell me Lestat wasn’t there to comfort Louis during those times when we later see in the exact same episode Lestat express concern about Louis skipping meals and literally wiping his tears while tenderly stroking his shoulder. He tries to help Louis by taking him to an opera, because he knows Louis likes them. What misses the mark is Lestat not completely understanding why Louis was so angry with that situation. However, when he tells Louis that he fears being lonely and that Louis takes that feeling away from him, Louis framed it as manipulation and trying to “disarm” him. Mmmm, not exactly. Lestat finally realized at the opera that Louis was upset. He’s telling Louis about his fear of loneliness, because he’s trying to make Louis understand that he is valuable and worth something to Lestat. In other words, Lestat was saying other people may look down on you, but you are everything to me. Lestat was trying.
We also see Lestat telling Louis that he doesn’t like sleeping angry and attempting to make it up to Louis over their fight. Lestat asks “How can I say no to you?” and Louis smiles. That smile was a smug smile of triumph, because Lestat routinely spoiled Louis and gave him everything he wanted or needed. Louis, however, says it was “pride” that made him pay Lestat back, because Louis had centered his entire worth and being over how successful he could be and how much money he could make. Notice that is the only thing he really talks about to Daniel during their honeymoon years — his businesses and the money. Louis has always been made to feel like he’s less than simply because of his skin color. He’s determined to make something of himself with status and money, because he’s proving his worth. This is the aspect Lestat doesn’t understand anymore, even though he was shown to relate to Louis in Episode 1 over the fact Louis was the provider for his family, just like Lestat was the provider and that Louis didn’t owe an explanation to anyone for doing what he did. When Lestat lost the ability to read Louis’ mind, that’s when all the misunderstandings happened.
In Episode 3, we see them on their bench and they’re discussing what the other is reading, meaning they did talk to each other. We also see Louis calling Lestat “Mon Cher.” They were happy. So, Lestat must’ve been doing something right all those years. It started going downhill when Louis rejected vampirism, thereby rejecting Lestat.
When Claudia comes along, we see more glimpses of their relationship from Claudia’s POV. We shriek and die over the coffin scene, but there was meaning to that. Lestat teases Louis with “Don’t you shush me” and Louis tells Lestat “I missed you.” Considering their relationship later deteriorates as Claudia becomes Louis’ person instead of Lestat, this coming from Louis says so much. Lestat replies “You missed me?” with a tone of awe and amazement. I fully believe Louis also said “I hated sleeping without you” once they close the coffin lid. Also, notice how tender Lestat is when he lies down with Louis. He immediately starts caressing Louis’ face, down his neck, and over his heart. It was a familiar gesture that Louis liked. Combine that with the context of their conversation in that Louis missed him and y’all. 😭 That was the norm for them. They slept together and loved on each other, and Louis enjoyed it.
They’re shown at Claudia’s birthday party, and Lestat places his hand over Louis’ heart again as he passes by to give Claudia her gift. They exchange a glance. Later they’re outside dancing together. Just because. Claudia looks over and smiles at them before she joins. There was a time when she loved them too. Both of them. She even writes in her diary that it was a happy home.
When Lestat is imitating Nosferatu, Louis is laughing and teases Lestat with “I prefer you like that.” There’s a lot implied in that too. They played around together. They joked. They teased. They made each other laugh. At Florence’s funeral, Louis smiles and looks proud when Lestat and Claudia come to get him.
When Claudia is rushing out to retrieve the flowers from Charlie, Louis and Lestat are sitting together on the sofa. They’re talking again. Louis had put his book down to actually listen to Lestat.
In Episode 5, Claudia asks “Who’s my Lestat? Who’s my Louis?” She spent all those years with them as her parents. The underlying meaning of her words is deep and revealing. She wanted someone to love her like Lestat loves Louis and like Louis loves Lestat. You don’t wish for a relationship like your parents unless your parents were happy and in love. Claudia had observed them together all those years, and she also wrote about it in her diary.
In Episode 6, they don’t ever get Lestat another coffin when he moves back in. Why is that? It’s because, more than likely, they always slept together in one coffin anyway. Even in Episode 7, when they were all supposedly “locked together in hatred”, Louis and Lestat are still sleeping together.
In Episode 7, Louis lets himself go with Lestat, telling himself it’s for Claudia’s sake to distract Lestat, but I always go back to that interview with Jacob in which he talked about Louis truly falling head over heels for Lestat again. “The well with no bottom.” Jacob said it was easy for Louis to fall in love with Lestat, because it reminded Louis of how things used to be, back when things were good. Lestat did make Louis happy.
Within the context of the books, we see a lot of Lestat’s behavioral traits of love demonstrated in Episodes 2, 3, 4, and 6. I’ll try to make this short (heh yeah right 😅), but Lestat learned a lot of his traits on how to love from his mother. She showed her love to him by giving him gifts. What does Lestat do to show he loves someone? He gives them lavish, extravagant gifts. As soon as he got the money from Magnus, he immediately started sending money back to his father and brothers to provide for them. He sent money to his mother. He sent gifts to his little nieces and nephews. This goes back to Lestat placing his worth on his ability to provide and care for his loved ones, just like Louis. In Episode 2, right after Louis is turned, he tells Louis that Rue Royale is now his home and that Lestat has all the money they need. Lestat fully intended to take care of Louis and provide for him for the rest of his existence. In Episode 3, when the Azalea is about to be closed, Lestat tells Louis that they don’t need the money. In Lestat’s mind, this “hobby” was pointless, mostly because Lestat could easily take care of Louis’ every whim and need. In Episode 4, after Lestat turns Claudia, we already see Lestat immediately equating Claudia with Louis. He tells Claudia that he’ll teach her everything just like he taught Louis everything. Later, we hear Lestat say “I don’t recall buying that outfit” which implied Lestat had become the provider for both Louis and Claudia by that point.
In Episode 6, Lestat is seemingly just a stereotype, trying to win back his spouse with empty gifts. However! Every gift we see (or the ones Louis chose to tell us about), hold deep meaning for Louis and Lestat. The Books Of Hours, which was from Louis’ favorite bookshop. Lestat knew what his favorite bookshop was, because I’m certain he’d gifted Louis numerous books over the years. The backstory on this is heart-wrenching. Lestat was purposely kept illiterate until he became a vampire. His mother would hide herself away and read all the time. Lestat resented this. Lestat talks about Nicki having to help him learn his lines at Renaud’s, because he couldn’t read. The fact that he gifts Louis books, because he knows it’s what Louis enjoys, even though Louis used books to shut Lestat out in Episode 5, just like Gabrielle did, really says so much about how Lestat loves him. The Rolls Royce is another example that goes back to their happier times, when Louis enjoyed “pretty automobiles” as a symbol of his success and worth. @nalyra-dreaming has an excellent summary of the meaning behind the Rolls Royce gift. Lestat knew Louis. He paid attention to him over the years. That’s how he knew the song would be the thing to finally get Louis’ attention.
For all his many fuck ups, I do believe Lestat made Louis happy and did know how to love him. The thing with Lestat is that he came from a cold, abusive, neglectful, unloving family, but he was nothing like them. It is canon that Lestat was the gentle one. He was the dreamer, the one with the capacity to love. On his deathbed, Lestat’s father says that Lestat was “the Joseph among his brothers” and if you know the story of Joseph from the Bible, that comparison fits Lestat. He’s full of strength, courage, hope, positivity, and love. That’s the key to Lestat.
The misconception that Lestat gets loving wrong, stems from the times when Lestat is feeling rejected and abandoned, because he’s so terrified of someone not loving him or accepting him, because he really looks down on himself in reality. It’s the past trauma of everyone he’s ever loved abusing him and abandoning him. Sam has talked about Lestat being terrified of not being loved, so he acts out and becomes aggressive and, at times, sadistic in the ways he goes about looking for love. For example, Antoinette was always a symptom of the problems within Lestat’s relationship with Louis, because Louis was rejecting vampirism, which extended to rejecting/resenting/hating Lestat. She was never the actual issue.
Lestat called his relationship with Nicki “….the little miracle of love turned into hate.” Lestat believed the fact that Nicki could ever love him was a miracle, but it was inevitable to Lestat that Nicki would grow to hate him, because Lestat thinks of himself as an evil, unlovable monster. He still feels the same with Louis, which was perfectly highlighted in Episode 1 when Louis accepts Lestat’s offer, and in Episode 6 when Lestat is amazed to learn Louis actually cared enough about him to swim the Mississippi River. “I hate you” is what Louis said to him. Lestat responds with “As you should.” In Lestat’s mind, Louis hating Lestat was better than feeling nothing at all, because Lestat thinks he’s unworthy of Louis and that Louis should hate him, because he’s just a monster.
“….instead he turned me into this.” This thing, this monster that’s not worth anything and especially not worth Louis loving in return.
“I love you,” he said softly. I was amazed.
— Louis and Lestat from Tale Of The Body Thief