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Sam said that Lestat isn’t going through a gender crisis tho and that “me too, sometimes” is about him acknowledging his male toxicity. I wish lestat being gender fluid was true but it doesn’t seem to be that

here’s source: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/sam-reid-vampire-lestat-interview-charts-1236298733/

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I don't think that quote undermines Lestat being fluid or GNC at all, rather it's a reiteration of it? After all, Sam's right, Lestat's not experiencing gender crisis or body dysphoria, he's not distressed or confused about his gender, he's been comfortable embodying both ends of the gender binary since season 1 - since the books - whether that be through drag, feminine and masculine pronouns, identifying as both mother and father, or through his dress and presentation broadly. He's King Queen, as Carol so aptly put it back in s1, everything to everyone, and I think that includes to himself.

His maleness is a part of him, an important part of him, just as his femininity is, and that moment in the show being ultimately about accepting the toxicity socialised into him as a part of that doesn't undermine his gender non-conformity or his fluidity, but rather speaks to his complex feelings around his own behaviour and his affiliation with the male part of him as the violent, uglier part of him, and - in my sense of it - the parts of him he affiliates as softer as the more feminine, which is pretty well reflected in the moments when he uses female pronouns. It's a reflection of his internalised gendering of his own actions and feelings as a part of his non-conforming and fluid identity, which is interesting in and of itself! It also makes for a compelling foundation for where we're heading in the QOTD arc, given Akasha chooses him for his maleness, but her own rage and violence is inherently tied to her femaleness.

#and yeah the costuming is really interesting!#it's fascinating with gabi too because i'm pretty sure she only wears that corset in the finale #when she feels like she's losing her handle on him #that weaponisation of gender there has me like #the eyes emoji haha #and really does make me think they're going to be exploring her own feelings and gender next season #lestat asks #vampire gender asks

Something clicked into my head when you said lestat associates his softer parts to his femininity because isnt that what gabi is doing by presenting as feminine with lestat because despite gabi always being awful to lestat he doesn't see femininity as an act of violence the way he sees maleness and thats were she keeps him tied to her by presenting a softness through her appearance despite her action says otherwise. If gabi was masculine presenting she won't have control over him because his looking for softness and he doesn't see that in masculinity in maleness he won't want her near him because his reminded of the horrors his gone through because of it he won't seek her out because what he wants is a mother not a father and her not being that means she has no hold on him. He likes her femininity the same way she likes his masculinity its the presentation of masculinity=power,freedom,dominance and femininity=nurturing, love,softness they have a distorted view that they have to act a certain way for being their gender because of society and their environment.

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I think that's definitely a part of it when it comes to their particular dynamic and his tangled up feelings and understanding of these things when it comes to the de Lioncourt family unit. I think it's important to pull them out, because I don't think Lestat necessarily has these same feelings outside of the family he comes from (I don't think he really ascribes these sorts of gendered feelings for instance to Nicki, Louis or Claudia, at least not on the same level, which I think goes back to this idea of the whole de Lioncourt family really having been enmeshed with one another, not just Lestat and Gabi).

Gabi presenting more femininely around and for Lestat is a thread in the books, of course, and it is, I think, tied to this idea of her doing it as a means of comfort when Lestat is distressed. How much of that is tied to her desire to genuinely bring him a degree of peace, versus how it may help to shroud her abuse to appear in a way that nurtures the child still in Lestat, even subconsciously, is an interesting set of ideas to unpack. I'd also add to that - and I do think this is where we're heading with the show - that I think her dressing more femininely around him is likely a reflection of her own trauma too, and the way she still feels shackled to womanhood around Lestat by nature of being his mother.

How she uses sex after all isn't just a tool to control him, but also a knife to try and sever herself from this thing that happened to her, because Lestat isn't just her son, he's the living product of her rape and the endless violation of her mortality. Those things tangling up and making her incapable of fully embracing these masculine parts of herself around him makes it all so complex, and I think lends itself to this idea that they're both performing around each other in ways I don't think either of them particularly want to.