IWTV Musings - Open Relationships vs Cheating
I'm still gobsmacked by Lestat's crashout in the S3 teaser boardroom scene. Lestat's hypocrisy is truly off the charts, to be reacting so negatively towards Louis being with Armand.
Lestat cheated on Louis with Antoinette.
Louis did not NOT cheat on Lestat with Armand in Paris/SanFran/Dubai; Loumand's marriage was valid.
Louis did NOT cheat on Armand in Paris/SanFran.
Open relationships are NOT the same as cheating.
An open relationship (ethical non-monogamy) is when both parties agree that it's ok for both of them to sleep with other people. Cheating (adultery, infidelity, etc) involves someone in a monogamous relationship going behind their S.O's back to sleep around in secret, without the S.O.'s consent/knowledge.
1) Lestat cheated on Louis
Of ALL people to be mad at someone cheating, ain't no way it's Lestat. The man who struts into every room penis first. The same penis that he bragged was his "considerable considerables," weaponizing sex as the ultimatum/excuse TO cheat on Louis with Antoinette in 1x5 cuz his poor lonely penis was "squandered;" when he effing KNEW Louis was out of his mind with grief missing Claudia after she ran away; "I cannot listen to this INSANITY about Claudia!"
Lestat. The same man who then LIED about when he cheated during that racist AF Trial, acting like he went to Antoinette only AFTER Louis "blamed himself, [and] folded inwards" in 1x5--as if Lestat wasn't the one talking about VARIETY all the way back in 1x3! 🤣 Then he has the nerve to manipulate the ignorant audience into agreeing with him that his infidelity was JUSTIFIED, all cuz his spouse was depressed & starving himself, too weak & sad to have sex?! Omfg I can't.
Lestat literally used the Mind Gift to egg on the Trial audience to yell "SHAME ON YOU!" at Louis for wanting a DIVORCE--Louis was finna leave Lestat and let him be with whoever TF he wanted, so long as Louis got away from his psychotic sadistic arse. Of course, that separation was short-lived, since Louis found out he was pregnant and came back home with Claudia. 😅 Louis begged for a real family, a real marriage, a real commitment, so Lestat could turn her in to a vampire and they could all be one big happy family--which they were! Claudia herself called it "The Easy Times," until Louis' MOTHER died; until CHARLIE died. And that's when ish hit the fan.
Cuz Lestat told Louis ❗TO HIS FACE❗ in 1x3 that he was gonna stop seeing "tedious" Antoinette for good:
CREDITS: Gif by Sophsun1 (x)
Loustat's "open relationship" was the most poorly negotiated setup in the history of failmarriages. Louis is PETTY AF--he didn't really wanna sleep around, but he wanted to prove a point to himself & Lestat: THIS is what you're missing out on, I'm hot, too, I could get my back blown out and you'd stand there like some CREEPER and watch, cuz you want ME more than all your triflin wenches! 😤💅🏽
And sure enough, Mr. I Heard Your Hearts Dancing was all bent outta shape cuz Louis got some face in a nasty bayou with a guy who was literally being deployed overseas to potentially get blown up by bombs. AFAWK, Louis never slept around on Lestat after they had Claudia, and expected Lestat to do the same. But Mr. Of Course (x4) As Long A You Come Home To Me gets to screw Antoinette for years on end and call LOUIS the whore?!
In 1x4 Claudia asked point blank where Les ran off to every night, and LOUIS thought Les was just out hunting/killing! 🤦
Claudia specifically asked Louis about liking GIRLS--Louis said he didn't hang around women anymore, and Claudia asked if that's what Lestat was doing, too--CUZ SHE BEEN KNEEEEEWWWWWW. 😭 "Extravagant" my arse! The last time Louis assumed Les was out killing ("she burn quick?"), Les was busy screwing Antoinette! Louis was gut-punched, cuz he didn't expect Lestat to be sleeping with ANYONE but him, "Aren't I enough?"
CREDITS: Gif by Prettynerdieworks
Lestat KNEW Louis was insecure about himself and his sexuality, and he KNEW Louis felt a type of way about him seeing Antoinette, which is why he went behind ALL of their backs to keep seeing her--Mr. No Secrets. That. 📢 Is. 📢 CHEATING. 📢
Which is why in 1x5 Claudia revealed that she'd been following Lestat, and knew his lying arse had been cheating on her Daddy Lou, over in Algiers--a whole 'nother city!--banging Antoinette!
After he beat the breaks offa Louis and Dropped him a gazillion miles from the sky, Lestat took his sorry arse back to Algiers and lived with Antoinette for 3 years before he came crawling back to Louis in 1x6. These 3yrs were scummy, but not technically cheating, since Louis kicked him out the house--they were technically Separated, at the very least. In a separation, having other partners is usually fine (since Divorce is often pending anyway). But when Louis changed his mind and took Les back, Rule #4 was that Lestat kill her: Thou Shalt Not Suffer A Sidechick To Live! 😤
But whaddaya know, nothing's changed in 1x6, other than Les keeping her stashed away in Ponchatoula instead! Lestat told Louis & Claudia❗TO THEIR FACES❗that Antoinette had burned to death, and gave them her burnt finger as a souvenir. Meanwhile he was still shacked up with her; lying the whole time! That. 📢 Is. 📢 CHEATING. 📢
The dynamic we see with Loumand vs Loustat is LEAGUES apart.
2) Louis did not NOT cheat on Lestat with Armand
Louis DIVORCED Lestat in 1x7. He and Claudia quite literally turned him into a PACK. 💀 They stuffed him in a trunk and let him get thrown out to the DUMP! He's been DUMPED! Garbage! Refuse! Waste! Detritus! Yes, Lou spared Lestat's life, but Louis' taste in men is TRASH! 💩 Louis was single in Europe, and had every right to get with Armand.
Lestat all but called Louis a traitorous whore for being with Armand--meanwhile Lestat said he'd rather Louis had slept with SANTIAGO instead, LOL! 🤣 Not Mr. I Gave You To Armand. Mr. ENJOY HIM, Mr. Let's See How Long It Holds. Ok fine--the Bitter Betty's desperate to prove that Louis lied about everything under the effing sun insist that the 2x8 Tower Scene & Reunion Scenes both never happened--basically, 2x8 was a effing dream sequence and a huge waste of everyone's time since it's gonna be revisted to prove The Truuuth~!
Interesting how the onus keeps getting put on Loumand, as if they're the problem, when I wouldn't be surprised if the actual problem is that LESTAT'S MEMORY WAS FAULTY, TOO--esp. in 2x8! Everyone keeps talking about Louis' mind being mush, but I have seen literally NO ONE point out how Lestat was out of his mind in 2x8, both in Magnus' Tower where he was busy quoting book!Magnus to himself; and in the SadShack where he was playing on a wooden plank he thought was a keyboard!
Do either of these look like a mentally stable reliable narrator?! 🤣 But OF COURSE, if Lestat says it, it MUST be true! 🙄😒 He could be conked TF out, coked TF out, full out of his skull, and even proven to be INTENTIONALLY lying, and yet every word from his lips is gospel truth--and yet this has nothing to do with race--sure, Jan. 😒
So even IF Les fixes his mouth to say the 2x8 scenes didn't happen and that he never knew Lou was with Armand, I can give him that! I'm cool with that! Cuz it'll just further convince me that HIS memory's a monster, too, and that he DEKWTF was going on, either. He said, she said: Les said it never happened; Loumand say it did. 🤷 At the end of the day, Lestat still has no right to get mad at Louis for being with Armand, cuz again: Louis DUMPED him. Louis was divorced & single as a Pringle ready to mingle, and he didn't owe it to Lestat to stay a chaste divorcee/widow, PERIODT. 😤
But TBF, Louis was cheating on Lestat--he's Catholic after all. 💀😅
3) Louis didn't cheat on Armand
Once again, we're back to poorly negotiated open relationships. It was hypocritical AF for Armand to whine about sitting at home "picking lint off the sofa," as if he was some innocent jilted cuck who had no idea what his husband was up to with all these men. Loumand's relationship was NEVER built on monogamy, and Louis NEVER hid the fact that he was gallivanting around SanFran as a glorified glory-hole--he even INVITED Armand along (Is that ok with you, would you like to join us?" "No, you go ahead, have your fun.").
CREDITS: Gifs by BrotherConstant, Alivedean
ARMAND was the one who chose not to indulge anymore--and Louis called him BORING, and left on his own, knowing Armand's Mind Gift let him "FIND ME LATER," esp. since Armand could always easily read Louis' mind--there were no secrets Louis was keeping in SanFran. YES, it was callous & inconsiderate of him (and ofc sloppy & dangerous if they were exposed--but Lou DGAF cuz he was SUICIDAL). But it wasn't cheating--Armand knew what type of "companionship" he'd signed up for back in 1949, "this is your death; you can never make it up to me." 💀 From Day One Lou made it VERY clear that he ALWAYS had one foot out the door wrt Armand ("Are you companions?" "NO." "Yes." 💀)--which is why Armand knew Lou wouldn't stay with him for 200yrs, and sold him out to die. 💀 Loumand's marriage was to spite Lestat; Armand was a REBOUND.
CREDITS: Gif by tuserlivia
I've already spoken on Loumand's kinky arses, how folks point to the 128 men Louis killed in 1970s SanFran as if this is brand new behavior from him and he's so terrible he cheated on Armand he got his karma and deserved to die at the Trial--(some of these Louis-antis are SICK)--but no one ever has EFF ALL to say about the who-knows-how-many-men LOUMAND killed in Paris in the 1940s.
CREDITS: Gifs by Splashesdarling, Unicornspwnall
Folks crack me up when they act like Louis was some immoral/amoral wild AF degenerate just cuz he USED to be a pimp (who hated his job btw), when no, Louis' a frikkin pearl-clutching old-fashioned prude. He was visibly SHOCKED at the kinky antics ARMAND had been up to in that Theatre--he had orgies with darn near everyone in that mug, and had an incestuous threesome with Tuan & Quang. But as part of his effort to "find himself" and have his Hot Girl Summer, Louis decided to start letting loose and have wild orgies too--NOT with the gross Theatre, ofc, but with the men Louis AND Armand would bang-n-fang TOGETHER, as a couple in an open relationship. Louis was finally channeling Lestat ("You can f**k them, I can eat them"); but flipped it, since Lou was the one banging & Armand was the one fanging.
TL;DR: Lestat, take several seats, please
There is a HUGE difference between cheating on someone (sleeping with someone else without your S.O.'s permission/knowledge/consent; sneaking around behind someone's back, lying about who they're with, and hiding the evidence); and being in an open relationship (point blank stating that the relationship is NOT monogamous and that they're both free to bang whoever they want).
The difference with Loustat & Loumand is that Lestat only proposed an open relationship AFTER he had already cheated: Lou didn't KNOW Les was gonna keep Antoinette alive--she wasn't FOOD, she was SEX. And Lou was NOT happy about it, "Aren't I enough?" Why are you having sex with other people? What's wrong with ME? Louis was backed into a corner, but flipped it on Lestat by getting with Jonah; swiftly revealing how dishonest Les was about "Of Course," and how Les was hypocritically wanting to be the only one who slept around. Louis KNEW Les was watching in the bayou, and LET Les see them together, and kept asking about Antoinette cuz he knew Lestat was jealous and just having his cake & wanting to eat it, too.
With Loumand, Louis announced from the very beginning how he wasn't interested in joining Armand's coven or being Armand's companion. He didn't want any rules or any labels or any man telling him what to do anymore, not after Lestat's crazy territorial arse. The night they had sex was transactional, so Armand would "keep the secret" about "Bruce," and protect Louis & Claudia from the coven. And after the Trial, Louis was only with Armand to get back at Lestat. Armand plays the victim, when he had Lestat on the phone and could've easily told him to collect his charred up ex-husband. No, instead, HE chose to cockblock Loustat so he wouldn't be alone, and then had the nerve to whine about it, just like he whined about the sofa lint. 🙄😒 YES, Loumand was fond of e/o, but by the 1970s Louis was ready to either leave Armand, or die trying; he DGAF about keeping up pretenses about them being together-together--hence: Operation Mindwipe(s).
We don't have the full context of the boardroom scene yet, but even the little bit we already got let me know that as usual, Lestat is losing his effing mind at the mere idea that Louis would be with anyone but him--or anyone he gives Louis PERMISSION to be with, like he owns Louis or something. Lestat acts like he's been betrayed and cheated on, when he and Louis haven't even been on the same continent in 70+ years, let alone in a relationship. The bloody cheek of him, I can't.
