wide circles of timelessness

kit, 27, southeast wasian she/they

[crazykuroneko]

A Note from IWTV S2 Writer A. Zell Williams

Read here:

Fan Appreciation Daze

How a show's fans lifted my spirits years after working on the series.

[themisconceptions]

I'm going to miss this place

[louis-love-fest]

Louis Love Fest

-This is an event to celebrate the lovely vampire Louis De Pointe Du Lac.

The rules are as follows

-Must be Louis-focused

-any ship/pairing is allowed

-angst is allowed but there must be a happy ending

-be kind to your fellow participants

-Absolutely no AI

-Art, Moodboards and Writing are welcome (NSFW Included)

This will be open on July 20th and Ending August 11th at 11 pm EST

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[ldpdlarchives]

JACOB ANDERSON - the vampire lestat: after dark (2026)

[coldeveryseason]

one of iwtv's key narrative themes was "love and abuse can coexist in the same relationship" but tvl has seemingly replaced that with "love redeems abuse"- instead of engaging with the weight of louis as a survivor of antiblack violence/gaslighting/psychological abuse or engaging with the weight of lestat as a survivor of incestuous sexual/emotional abuse, the narrative condemns loumand and gabistat bc armand and gabriella didn't truly love their victims. the show has this really weird and problematic idea that as long as there's love in a relationship, that can make up for all kinds of harm and violence...but if there's a lack of love that's the breaking point. and i just find that really weak as a theme and disconnected from the emotional reality of abuse survivors- it also feels like a cop-out for the writers to avoid confronting the nature of the abuse of either fan favorite (armand) or author's darling (gabriella) characters.

textually engaging with the fact that armand is a lyncher and the violence he does to louis is often directly pulled from the violence done to black people under enslavement and segregation would mean the nonblack writers would have to textually engage with blackness as a central theme and question their own impulses like why the show disproportionaly and voyeuristically depicts the brutalization of black bodies- textually engaging with the fact that gabriella has been raping her own son for over 200 years would mean the misogynistic writers would have to engage with the subject of sexual abuse and assault beyond "louis the pimp" and question their own impulses like why so many of gabriella's scenes with lestat are played for taboo titillation or "comic relief". it's a lot easier to sidestep all of that and go "oh these relationships were fucked up and doomed bc there's no real love there".

and this reductive and anti-survivor take on "love conquers all" even reflects in how the writers approach relationships that aren't meant to be narrative dead-ends. the lack of care in how they wrote loustat this season makes a lot of sense when you realize the writers think they can depict lestat doing and saying all kinds of shit to louis and it doesn't matter, they don't have to show lestat expressing true contrition or growth bc they love each other (or so we're told) abuse doesn't matter if there's love ok

[excretal]

“should i do like you instead? read the first ten pages of every book, pass myself off as cultured? use my middling command of literary canon to impress some hapless human i’m gonna kill in a few hours anyway” this gagged me like nothing has gagged me before friend you’re very sharp i love that about you

[gaypeople]

[greynails]

i saved these pages from lundy bancroft's book why does he do that? after episode 6 and after reading @ghostof-manderley 's post on loustat and abuse in romantic relationships because i think it captures what i've struggled with this season and it's even more relevant now.

to see not one but both of louis's abusers shown in this understanding and empathetic light while louis is tortured and beaten down physically and emotionally is just beyond what i ever thought this show was capable of. louis goes through three seasons of confronting his faults, his mistakes, and his history, while his abusers don't have to do even a fraction of that work to be "redeemed" in the story.

it's beyond fucked up.

[asliceofoceanmist]

She's so crazzzzzzzy! Love her!!!

[yellowtambourine]

Interview with the Vampire (2022)

SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1: "IN THROES OF INCREASING WONDER"

12 / ?

[barelybalthazarr]

I made this yesterday before the frankly horrific spoiler leaks came out and I am resolved to triple down on my love for LDPDL. He's the story he's the takeaway he IS the moment and I refuse to let them take that away!!! hold the line Louis girlies!!!

[saintfem]

the paul scene really really solidified the fact that rolin has fundamentally misunderstood what is interesting about loustat. absolving lestat of any wrongdoing and going as far as having FUCKING LOUIS’ DEAD BROTHER come in and THANK lestat for “loving louis the way that he needed to be loved”. loustat, and i say this as a firm loustat girlie, is NOT HEALTHY. lestat did not SAVE louis with his love. louis was not saved by his love. they are both CURSED with loving each other.

louis was coerced, manipulated, intentionally isolated by lestat. lestat killed lily, the only person who he confided to, accelerated louis into severing contact with his family (whom he did love), and LOATHED paul from the one instance where he met him, because it was clear he did not approve of them. paul’s death and his stance on lestat was the eerie foreshadowing for how lestat would go on to treat louis throughout season one. i.e., enraged that in spite of all his UNWANTED efforts to receive louis’ unconditional affection, there was deep resentment from louis for stripping of something that he valued as much as his humanity.

and louis was not resentful because it is his nature. he was not cold to him because “it is his father’s way” like paul said. he was cold to him because louis is embittered by the fact that the majority of his suffering would have never happened if he had never met lestat. just as the majority of his greatest euphoria would have never happened if he’d met lestat: claudia entering their life, becoming bold enough to truly define who he is, experiencing a love that he was constantly told was wrong and unholy. but none of that changes the fact that lestat TRAPPED him—louis is constantly battling between these two opposing facts regarding the love of his life, and he learned to utilize resentment and coldness to make lestat feel the same constant turmoil and insecurity that lestat made HIM feel.

louis and lestat do not love each other BECAUSE of what they’ve been through. they love each other IN SPITE of what they’ve been through. they’ve made each other’s lives a living hell, but the love is STILL there and it always has. that’s what makes them interesting. they’ve lost everything for loving each other. yes, as the episode pointed out, lestat was insulted, betrayed, had his throat slit by louis. but what they failed to mention is that louis suffered for loving lestat as well. claudia detests louis in large part because they still love each other. louis lost everyone in his human life. louis is constantly facing threats from LESTAT’S past, his mother, theatre des vampires, whoever else. they’ve damned each other: lestat damns louis, louis damns lestat, and the cycle always continues because they cannot fucking resist each other. it is the love and the hatred, euphoria and abject misery, profound connectedness and the most acute loneliness. they are EVERYTHING to one another. rolin’s incessant need on victimizing lestat is butchering one of the best gothic romances of all time.

[sophsun1]

JACOB ANDERSON as Louis de Pointe du Lac

[saintfem]

man fuck this season

[reticent-vampire]

If not him, would have been the next man. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE 1.02

[livingincolorsagain]

thank you jacob

[greynails]

This one’s for me. (@jacobanderson on Instagram)