There seems to be at least two separate instances in the trailers we’ve seen so far where Lestat is hallucinating Louis and both times dream!Louis is wearing the clothes he wore when he was first turned by Lestat (even seems to look damp from the rain). What do you think this means compared to the Lestat hallucinations from last season where Louis saw him in a variety of outfits? I feel like there may be a connection since we know Louis liked taking Lestat clothes shopping in S1Ep1 which is one of the reasons we saw Lestat in so many different outfits? And maybe Lestat misses his wife so bad next season he keeps hallucinating her in her wedding dress? 😂
I try not to dabble too much in speculation but this is interesting to consider....it's possible that we will end up seeing Dreamlou in various outfits in s3 but you're right, in the trailer we only see him in what appears to be his turning garb
My first thought was kinda cynical, that since we know Lestat is hallucinating various ppl (like Nicki) in addition to Louis that maybe it was simplest to have Dreamlou just have one costume? But on a character level, I do think it could make sense for Lestat to remember Louis in this outfit when he pictures him.
The night of Louis's turning is his final moments as a human, and the last moments Lestat could read Louis's mind. We know that Lestat had insecurities about not feeling loved by Louis later in the relationship, but when Louis was human, Lestat felt all the love he had for Louis returned to him.
Lestat seems pretty bummed to lose access to Louis's mind post-turning (calls it a 'humbling' experience and a 'sacrifice') its clearly something Lestat would have preferred not to have given up if it weren't required to have Louis as a companion. I think with Louis having trouble articulating his feelings (esp ones of emotional intimacy/closeness, which he never experienced before Lestat and are completely new and overwhelming for him; not to mention "I love you" being a sore spot after Paul's death), and Lestat being fairly emotionally needy/needing verbal reassurance* of Louis's feelings to feel loved, losing that easy access to Louis's thoughts would mean losing confirmation that Louis loves him.
Like bear in mind that after their hookup, Louis spent weeks avoiding Lestat while Lestat was waiting on his balcony night after night for Louis to come to him. There was no expression of love or affection at all from Louis, but Lestat felt sure that Louis returned his love because he could look into Louis's mind and see it; sure enough that he was determined to take Louis as his immortal companion. The strongest and clearest proof Lestat feels of Louis's love, he loses when Louis is turned.
And of course, Louis nodding his head and agreeing to accept Lestat as his companion is the most powerful voluntary expression of love Louis gives him. Lestat really bares himself to Louis in the church, showing him the monstrous destructive parts of him as well as his poetic, deeply loving side. In their courting phase, Lestat tried to only share the 'good' parts of himself: romantic, understanding, a good listener, a pleasant companion, etc; but now he's sharing the nasty parts too. Sam has spoken in interviews about Lestat fearing being 'unlovable' because of the monstrous parts of him. In the church he makes himself very emotionally vulnerable by showing Louis all of him, offering himself up, thorns and all.
"The crux, the reality of Lestat is that he knows he's also terrifying. And potentially unlovable ...That's why when he does his proposal, and he says 'I wanna be with you forever', he does it immediately after he's put his fist through a priest's head. So he's like, 'This is who I am'."
And Louis accepts him with a kiss.
You can see how moved Lestat is just remembering this night by his dreamy-eyed expression in 207, overcome with the tenderness of the memory even in the insane circumstances of the trial.
It's possible this moment was the most loved Lestat ever felt, by Louis, but also maybe by anyone. His greatest fear is being alone forever because of his monstrous nature, so being seen for all that he is and accepted and loved anyway... He only asked Louis to nod his head and say yes, but Louis went even further and wanted to kiss him, even after seeing the horror Lestat is capable of... I think it makes total sense for this to be what Lestat thinks of when he thinks of Louis. The love he felt from Louis in this moment, the love he lost when they separated, is the ghost Lestat is haunted by.
(I am obsessed with your imagery of Lestat imagining his wife in her wedding dress all the time 😖💖 bc yeah basically that!!!)
Despite what I said about Lestat's mourning the loss of access to Louis's mind, I think it's also notable that Lestat envisions Dreamlou with his vampiric eyes, so post-turning, after Louis's acceptance and after their bond has been formed, vs picturing human Louis, whose mind he could still read. I think this moment right after Louis has been turned is probably the most secure Lestat felt in the relationship, since he spent all that time having access to Louis's mind before this night and then it was all confirmed when Louis agrees to be his companion. It's kinda all downhill after this point, when Louis starts fighting his vampiric nature/wanting to return to his human life etc, but at THIS MOMENT Lestat probably feels like he's found the perfect companion and everything is gonna be great forever from now on
If we compare with Louis/Dreamstat, I think you could read it as Louis felt more of the peaks and valleys of their relationship, loving Lestat and hating him, the sharp contrast of the good and bad of their time together. Since Louis's feelings for Lestat have always been conflicted ones, when he looks back on their relationship, he might see it more in terms of variance/high and low points
(even though Louis is seeing Dreamstat in a fond light in this scene I feel like the trial would objectively stand out as a low point in their relationship...but maybe Louis truly looks back fondly on some parts of it, like getting to hear Lestat sincerely complimenting Claudia, which was near-unheard of in their Rue Royale days)
By contrast, you could read Lestat only seeing Louis in one outfit as being symbolic of the consistent nature of his love for Louis. Louis's feelings were conflicted and he saw Lestat in different lights throughout the relationship, but Lestat was never conflicted over loving Louis, so maybe he always saw Louis in that same light as he did in the beginning.
OR, you could read Lestat's focus on the night of Louis's turning as that night being the high point that Lestat wanted to get back to over the course of their relationship; as things deteriorated between them, he always sought to recapture that incredible feeling of being loved he felt from Louis when he accepted his dark gift.
So when Lestat says this:
Maybe Lestat doesn't mean he was waiting the past seven years of Louis's depression, but maybe he's been waiting since that first night, for Louis to make him feel as loved as he did then. He's waited patiently as Louis adjusted to vampirism, all the while eagerly looking forward to the day that Louis accepts him again the way he did in the church all those years ago...I imagine Lestat craves that feeling of unconditional acceptance, wishes he could feel it all the time, and would stay with Louis forever, through any amount of conflict, as long as there's a chance Louis could make him feel that way again...hence him asking Louis to just tell him if that's never going to happen ("Say, 'Lestat, I'm never going to love you'") put him out of his misery so he can stop hoping.
So I guess those are my thoughts........that maybe Louis sees Lestat in terms of the breadth of their relationship, all their different ups and downs, and Lestat sees Louis in terms of that first night, that promise of love Louis showed him when he accepted Lestat with a kiss, and Lestat's feeling of being robbed of that over the course of the relationship. Lestat viewing things in a more stagnant way is in accordance with this Sam quote about Lestat only remembering the good when he looks back on their relationship, only envisioning the love when he envisions Louis:
So the Louis that Lestat felt most loved by is the Louis he remembers when he thinks of him.
It will be interesting to see if we do end up having Dreamlou in different outfits and what outfits they choose. Like I kinda hope I'm wrong about all this lol just bc I wanna see more flashback Louis ensembles 😖 But if they do just stick with the wedding outfit I can see why!
*An aside re: Lestat's neediness and Louis's communication difficulty, but I feel like Lestat is a classic example of anxious attachment style:
And Louis is fearful-avoidant:
Which sums up a lot of their issues around communicating/showing love. Imagine that someone with an anxious attachment could just pop into their fearful-avoidant partner's head whenever they're feeling unloved and see - 'yeah, ok, they still love me, all good!' It would be hugely comforting, and losing that would be absolutely crazy-making, so I can see why it affected Lestat so much (and why he is so jealous that Claudia gets that access to Louis he can never have again)