Yooo fam whatâs up. Your blog seems cool and you seem smart and I feel like youâre the best person to answer this question. So in regards to season 1, when it comes to Jonah, (the guy Louis hooked up with), louis said him and Louis first hooked up when Jonah was 16 and he was ââŚ..olderâ. And IâmâŚ.how much older exactly? đ
But also cuz Louis also, when propositioning Jonah, asked âremember when we were kids?â So now Iâm lost
Hi! đ Thank you for the compliment!
WELL the actual answer to your question is that we don't know because the show never tells us đââď¸ I've seen some discourse around how to interpret this "older" line but personally I think if it was important, if the writers wanted to make a point about Louis being drastically older than Jonah or that relationship being predatory in some way, they would have put a finer point on it and made it more clear.
I think the fact that it's kept vague and Louis's other mentions of their past put his and Jonah's ages as being within the same range (as you've observed) implies this "older" line isn't meant to be taken as indicative of anything unsavory (rather I think that line was meant to indicate something else entirely, but I'll get there later). There are a few other things that tip me off in this direction.
Generally, when Louis speaks of himself and Jonah, he positions them as having been close in age/"kids" when they had their "early fumbles".
Louis characterizes his and Jonah's "fumbles" being so early in their development that he says "even then" they knew they were "a little different" aka gay. "Even then" meaning that, in Louis's eyes, they were a little young to have an understanding of their sexualities at the time they were experimenting.
I think Louis's relative sexual conservatism/sheltered experience with sexuality (due to being closeted/Catholic/black in that time period etc) is coming through here, because most people would consider 16 to be a perfectly average time to understand your sexuality? Some would even say it's a little late, bc I know some kids will experiment as early as 14-15. In any case, if Louis considers Jonah's understanding of sexuality to be 'early' at 16, he can't have been much older. I don't think Louis would be calling himself a "kid" having an "early" sexual experience if he was describing himself in his twenties? My thought is that Louis was probably 17-18, MAYBE 19 at the most when he was having encounters with Jonah.
I've also seen people express concern over this line:
Thinking it means that the last time they saw each other was during this "early fumble" period, and that Louis was in his thirties when he was with Jonah, since Louis physically looks 33 still, but that doesn't make sense.
Louis's father died in 1905 (1910 was five years after his father's passing) and he quickly started building his business on Liberty street to prevent his family losing the house (presumably in that same year, since they were only four months away from losing the house) - the whole "you can't look weak on Liberty street" is a part of why Louis starts seeing Lily to "keep up appearances"; SO in 1905, when Louis was in his late twenties (either 27 or 28 having been born in either 1877 or 1878 depending on if his stated birthdate in 107 or the birthdate on his tombstone is correct), Louis was in his "keeping up appearances/can't look weak" era where he is seeing a female prostitute to disguise his gayness, aka would not have been having "early fumbles" with Jonah during this period.
Considering Jonah remarks on Louis being a businessman as though this is a new development to him (along with Paul's passing and Grace having children) but doesn't remark on Louis's father's passing, it stands to reason that Jonah left NOLA around 1905, in the period after Louis's father passed and before Louis became a 'big shot businessman' - meaning they kept in casual contact as adults after this 'early fumble period'.
Also Grace knows who Jonah is, which implies Louis has brought Jonah to meet the family as a friend of his - since Louis probably wouldn't bring an "early fumble" partner home and wouldn't bring Jonah around during his "can't look weak"/"don't everybody need to know what I do" post-father era either, this means that Louis/Jonah kept in contact as friends after they stopped their 'fumbling' and Jonah knowing what Louis looked like as an adult/in his late twenties (which would not look that different from his early thirties, though ofc in 1917 when he sees Jonah in 103 Louis is technically 39-40 and looks younger and that's what he's remarking on) doesn't indicate they were still 'fumbling' when Louis was that age.
ALL THAT ASIDE what I think was the actual intention behind the "I was older" line has more to do with Louis wanting to downplay his relationship to Jonah in front of Lestat. The line comes about after Louis returns from the bayou with Jonah, when Lestat is very obviously Feeling A Way about the fact that Louis left the Azalea with Jonah and came back late (after spying on their tryst, but Louis doesn't know that yet).
Louis is immediately defensive about the encounter. Lestat doesn't even ask a follow-up question past "How was your night?" before Louis feels the need to justify himself, sensing the tension in the air
"He found me", clarifying that Louis didn't go looking for a sexual encounter, it came to him. It's interesting that Louis feels the need to say this after "so I can fuck whoever I want?"/"of course" x 4; he seemed to assert his own sexual agency almost as a challenge to Lestat in the courtyard scene, like "oh okay, if you're just going to fuck whoever, I'll go fuck whoever too", and in the Azalea Louis looks straight at Lestat (who is watching him) before he propositions Jonah, but all that challenging attitude is gone after Louis's actually done the deed. He seems ashamed, like he's done something dirty, or something he feels guilty about and feels the need to make excuses for (and Louis never sleeps with any other man while he and Lestat are together, even as Lestat continues to cheat).
Compare how Louis is undressing the second he reaches the coffin room, immediately ridding himself of the remnants of his encounter before Lestat even turns around to see him vs Lestat who hangs around in the courtyard having a cigarette in the same suit he fucked Antoinette in hours after the fact
Maybe Louis doesn't want Lestat to have to smell Jonah on him the way Louis smelled Antoinette on Lestat đ Whether out of Louis's own sense of shame for having sex outside of his marriage, or out of courtesy for not wanting to offend Lestat the way he felt offended, Louis approaches the 'cheating' with a lot more discretion. He goes out to a random bayou to do it (where no one will see them, not just Lestat), whereas Lestat just cheats right there in the living room. Louis even tells Jonah (unprompted) that he is 1. in a relationship currently and 2. that they have an arrangement so it isnt actually cheating. Like Louis is trying so hard to be ethically non-monogamous but he still feels so guilty after đ
(it's so funny, Jonah just says "so anyway i joined the army so I could be gay" and Louis's like "JUST SO YOU KNOW MY HEART BELONGS TO ANOTHER!!!!" đââď¸ he's like...trying to be faithful even as he cheats With Permission...that's a Catholic wife....)
Meanwhile Lestat won't even answer directly when Antoinette questions his relationship status...he just gets coy and starts talking about music notes đ
(which is another reason I can never get too mad at Antoinette, bc as far as she knows Loustat have an open relationship situation?? like she's kinda trying to ask, but instead of answering in terms of commitment level/boundaries, Lestat answers in terms of desire: 'sure i have sex with Louis, but i also wanna have sex with you, let's be a chord etc')
that was a tangent......>ANYWAY......
after Louis tries to make excuses about how 'the sanctioned cheating he received express permission to do wasn't actually his fault bc Jonah tracked him down with Grace's help', Lestat says
Framing Louis/Jonah as romantic, a lost love from the past. Louis and Jonah have a shared history (along with the shared experience of being black, though Jonah's story about working in a hotel and a gunpowder mill and his comments about Louis's nice shoes etc imply he is from a less wealthy background than Louis). Jonah has known Louis for longer than Lestat has. Lestat knows well how indelible a mark an old love can leave on someone's heart, and he's clearly threatened by the fact that Louis has one, and that they shared an intimate moment all these years later, that Louis still desires Jonah.
After Lestat says this, we get this shot of Louis looking at the mark he left from biting himself, the evidence of his desire (since fangs come out in times of heightened emotion, anger/fear/desire etc), it's a physical manifestation of the emotion being with Jonah brought out in him. And Louis immediately looks guilty and worried Lestat will see, and quickly pulls on his robe to cover himself with his back to Lestat.
Then we get the early fumbles line and then we get "He was 16. I was...older."
You can see Louis look at Lestat during his pause, taking in Lestat's expression before averting his eyes and deciding to finish his sentence with simply "...older."
To me, I see this as Louis realizing he's painting the relationship in too much detail and deliberately pulling back (maybe this is a stretch but it's how I always saw it??). Like it's one thing for Jonah to just be some meaningless fling from the past, someone you experimented with as a kid, vs remembering the exact age (instead of just "oh we used to mess around when we were younger")...idk the specificity of remembering that (when Louis is 39/40 at this point)...IDK MAYBE ITS JUST ME but if you asked me how old the person i had a crush on two decades ago was I could not be definitive (but then again I cannot even remember his name lol). TO ME it's like, clearly he made a mark on Louis because he remembers him in detail, and Lestat feels the same way, and Louis sees that he feels that way and decides to give up and be vague with "I was...older" vs "He was 16 and I was 17 and he was my first kiss and I remember he brought me flowers once on my birthday but he had to hide them so my parents wouldn't see so they got crumpled up in the bottom of his bag and so we had this inside joke and and etc". that was my read at least!!!
Bc the whole conflict around Jonah is about emotional attachment. That's why we get "hearts dancing": Lestat is screaming about this bc he witnessed Louis having real romantic feelings/attraction/attachment to someone else and it freaked him out!! I don't think Lestat (or the episode tbh) rly cares how old Jonah was or how old Louis was, he cares about the emotional reaction Jonah was able to get from Louis, as seen by the fangs coming out/biting and hearing their hearts dancing (HEARTS plural, not just Louis's heart, Jonah's heart was also dancing, their hearts were dancing in tandem, meaning whatever feelings exist between them were reciprocated mutual feelings).
Lestat says so verbatim: Louis/Jonah are an issue in a way Lestat/Antoinette are not, bc Lestat doesn't have feelings for Antoinette (implication being, Louis does have feelings for Jonah)
Adding to that, Louis got so aroused his fangs came out in an era where he had a lessened libido overall due to not feeding enough (and Louis said he 'understood Lestat's indulgence with Antoinette' implying Loustat were having little, if any, sex during this time)
So Louis was having one rat a night and was never horny when Lestat wanted it...and then Lestat watches him getting SO turned on after two minutes with Jonah that he can't stop his fangs from coming out and he has to pull over to feed on a dog and two rats after he dropped Jonah off...Jonah was stoking Louis's appetite in all the ways Lestat hadn't been able to during that period. Of course Lestat was threatened!!
It proves that the issue is with Lestat/between Loustat, rather than Louis just not being a particularly sexual person. Bc I think Lestat's comment to Louis in the courtyard implies he was originally thinking along those lines: Lestat says he needs 'the pleasures of the flesh/of the kill' to get by in his eternal life, while Louis just needs 'the pleasures of the good book by the fire', as though he assumes Louis doesn't need sex/blood in the same way Lestat does (hence him agreeing to let Louis have sex with whoever he wants, bc he probably didn't actually think Louis would want to go through with it).
But obvs when he sees Louis get all horny with Jonah that goes out the window.....Louis does want sex, he just hasn't wanted it lately with Lestat, probably bc of a mixture of feeding issues/tension in the relationship around Louis's not wanting to kill (idk how much you can blame the feeding issues bc, of course, Louis didn't feed a bunch and then go have sex with Jonah, his appetite came around afterwards, so whatever was affecting Louis's libido with Lestat wasn't happening with Jonah in the bayou). Not that Lestat thinks Louis is going to run off with Jonah, but if Louis can have that with someone else when he isn't having it with Lestat...that's scary for Lestat.
I have more I wanna say about Lestat seeing his sexuality as tied to his self-worth/the insecurity/fear that comes up whenever he doesn't feel desired by Louis, but I have another ask about that I still need to answer and this is already way too long!!!!
I hope I answered your question. đââď¸ Basically, I think the age aspect isn't the thing the show wants us to get from that interaction, so I wouldn't get too hung up on it!
