the light side of the moon

links: my art | text posts yusi, they/them

[yusiyomogi]

hey, if someone wanna follow me because of my old iwtv posts, my warning is that in the next few weeks this blog will be mostly negativity which i post under "iwtv rant" tag. also i still haven't decided if i'll leave or stay in iwtv fandom but i'm definitely not gonna post as much meta about it anymore (and fanart is a random rare thing anyway, so you should not follow me for fanart lol).

[calliticebergs-blog]

Louis knows Lestat is hurt, but so far he doesn’t take any responsibility for it. Is he going to finally start realizing that HE hurt Lestat with the book? And start taking some accountability?

Yes the season ends with Louis finally realizing how badly he hurt Lestat. He wants to run to him and apologize immediately but suddenly starts vomitting with flower petals. He googles it and finds out it's hanahaki disease. Lestat doesn't love him anymore. Louis is too late. Daniels Hart's take on "Apologize" by One Republic starts playing

[huariqueje]

Hatch - Mia Bergeron , 2026.

American, b. 1979   -    

Acrylic on flat panel , 6 x 6 in.

[yusiyomogi]

i'm glad i'm not on twitter because it's one thing to get angry lestat stan in my askbox and it's another when the actual professional critic qrts your opinion because they're defensive of their own

[yusiyomogi]

okay, it's the second attempt to interfere and "calm down" the fans by critics/media outlets. i take my words back, they're definitely getting paid to do damage control & it has nothing to do with defensiveness of certain individuals. i hate the state of modern journalism, why do we even listen to their opinions at this point lmao. the whole industry is one big advertising agency, it's useless!

[srdcovka]

i dont think blond french men need to tell their side of whatever story they're in

[yusiyomogi]

jacob has a spirit of true louis fan, because he's always critical of him and his flaws, but loves him & empathizes with him beyond measure. it's like louis is his best friend who makes mistakes but is loved unconditionally. i feel like that's what we do here. jacob is like our guiding light.

[yusiyomogi]

once again, jacob is one of us because he kept saying that the legal negotiations scene was absolutely wild, and apparently, the "wild" part was a slight mischaracterization of louis de pointe du lac. the wildest shit imaginable indeed

[yusiyomogi]

not people stanning christine, this fandom will never beat the allegations

[kinkydorah]

Do vampires have group chats? ❤️‍🩹🧛🏻‍♂️🧛🏽‍♂️🧛🏾‍♀️❤️‍🩹

[guelwaar]

iwtv s3 is crazy cause if they ended at s2 i was prepared to be like yknow there are failures here but overall, it seems like at least one person making creative decisions was thinking about the way racism perfuses anne rices work, and the show's not a totally unsuccessful attempt to explore those dynamics... but instead they had to keep going like anne before them & from the second i saw the very first trailer for s3 it was abundantly clear in fact no one working on the show has any interesting thoughts about anything wjatsoever & any conceptual coherence in the first two seasons is purely coincidence & does not reflect the views of amc or roland jones. some fascinating ip there in that it evidently contains its own killswitch

[yusiyomogi]

i'm glad i'm not on twitter because it's one thing to get angry lestat stan in my askbox and it's another when the actual professional critic qrts your opinion because they're defensive of their own

[yusiyomogi]

when i understood the proper meaning behind gabriella's "i see why you took her back" i was like. ofc gabriella immediately assumed that when louis had a daughter, he didn't want lestat (his husband) anymore. and ofc she guessed right that lestat wouldn't wanna "share" louis with claudia, because she's directly responsible for this worldview. that was actually a pretty good bit of writing there... now can she go back to the woods?

[yusiyomogi]

https://www.tumblr.com/yusiyomogi/819425836279185408/httpswwwtumblrcomyusiyomogi81942218044512665

No, you didn’t sound like that at all. I was just sharing some thoughts I had because I had the same initial reaction that it seems like Louis’s is being kinda provocative and I had to track back and consider why he would

I agree that the writing is not up to par but I’m approaching it from a character perspective and what lines up with these characters overall in their storylines. Even if the writers don’t remember Louis’s trauma and the fact that he also has valid complaints against Lestat and even if they don’t give him the agency to actually bring that up (especially the fact that he did the interview still thinking he was talking about Claudia’s murderer) I will remember all that

I do think Louis is overall conflicted but I also see very narrow POV elsewhere that he should be feeling regret, remorse etc with no regard for any resentment or fear of getting close to Lestat again that he might be feeling himself

And I’m of the belief that his apology for the drop was irrelevant because there’s no space for real dialogue or for the wounded individual to fully express themselves and their hurt when they are in the middle of being lynched and threatened with violence if they dare speak out of turn so even the drop is still relatively unaddressed to me. Until Louis is allowed to speak his piece, it was not an apology but just a monologue of Lestat crying about how bad HE feels (I do believe he was 100% genuine but the point still stands that only he was allowed a voice with regards to that issue)

And I fully understand why Louis would feel resentful and even angry because if I stuck it out through DECADES of Antoinette, being mocked through my depression and then being violently assaulted, I’d be pretty damn pissed to not even be given the grace of a conversation for the crime of telling my story and then being betrayed and having my consent stomped on

Like I understand Lestat’s psychology and why we’re seeing him act this way but I also understand Louis’s side too and it feels like we are few and far in between in doing so

I don’t blame anyone for feeling disappointed or wary. The writers do not have a perfect track records when it comes to race and abuse, although they have done a lot right and that’s the only reason I’m still giving this season a chance as they do have a tendency to let things simmer before we see the clear picture but it’s still wise to keep your guard up and step back when you feel the need to ❤️

thank you for this thoughtful reply! once again, i agree with everything. the way this fandom talks about louis and always focuses on the way all other characters were hurt except for him tends to be extremely frustrating.

i think i probably talked too much about it on my blog, but here are some thoughts i had about the way people wanna louis to "apologize" to lestat (x x), what i think about lestat's reactions to the book (x x) and what i think about the idea that louis should be "humbled" this season (x x). tldr: fuck everyone, i'm always on louis' side (except when it comes to claudia because come on).

and i couldn't agree more about the apology at the trial! i only count this as apology because it was genuine and it feels like the show won't return to it, at least in the context of the drop. it was an awful time and place for it and louis deserved to hear a proper apology from lestat that wasn't forced from him in some stressful situation (since lestat wasn't sure if he sees louis again). and particularly in environment where louis was held against his will and couldn't even properly respond, so it feels like just another layer of the performance where louis is the only person watching (except he doesn't even have a choice if he wanna watch it or not).

but more than anything i want a proper apology for everything else. lestat needs to figure out his shit before he can apologize properly, but at least i need it to be acknowledged by the show itself that it's not louis who owes anything to lestat, it's lestat who still owes so many things to louis. i'm tired of endless abuse apologia in the fandom, and this season doesn't give me hope that it's different in that regard.

anyway, thank you again for your analysis!

[yusiyomogi]

Rolin saying over and over how much they loved and honor the books and Anne’s work was a roadmap reminds me of some of the Season One interviews where it sounded like he was trying to pacify the book fan audience about them making big adaptational changes. I don’t think the people that want the show to be completely loyal to the books will be happy with this season, as happy as they are that Lestat is the focus now.

oh yeah, i feel like he gave a lot of hints already that this season will be very experimental and will deviate from the source material. the fact that they put a lot more focus on rockstar arc & modern storyline is already a pretty big change by itself. he already had half-apologizing tone back in the summer about this. but in his last interview it seems like he's very straightforward that this adaptation will continue to be its own thing, while keeping "the spirit" of the books.

he even said that they didn't wanna write another origin story, so it seems like a lot of lestat's past will be repackaged into different formats (hallucinations? random flashbacks? songs?). i don't know if people will be disappointed by this or not, but once again people who for some reason still expected direct adaptation, should lower their expectations. probably even more than for the first two seasons (i explained it a bit here). all we know is that they're trying to make a great tv show, like they always did.

[coldeveryseason]

i think there's a lack of clarity on whether the writers want lestat's narration to have some wry self-awareness in hindsight or if they want his narration to represent lestat's mindset in the scenes we see onscreen, and at times i feel like they lazily drift between the two depending on what they want to depict. if his narration is meant to represent how lestat feels when he made the recordings, it doesn't bode well for his character development and limits the possibility of him coming to certain realizations by the end of s3. lestat insults louis' perception of events and calls him "insane" (yeah he adds a note about removing that comment in the final version of the recordings, but he didn't do that) but that doesn't make sense if he's come to respect louis' truth more over the course of the season. he says he's gonna talk about his relationship with gabriella "how it felt then" at the end of s3ep1 but in s3ep2 he rationalizes the incest in the present tense, especially when delivering the "*sigh* fuck it. it's different for vampires. that's it" line as if he still believes it (and again, it doesn't bode well wrt the incest being framed as a serious form of abuse or lestat coming to any kind of realization about gabriella's behavior with him if that's how he still thinks of it after the events of qotd)

in s1-s2 there was a clear separation between louis' unreliable, often distorted narration (and no i'm not calling louis a liar, i'm talking about scenes like "i don't consider myself abused. i'm not a victim" or him describing parts of the paris era as idyllic when we could see he was deeply stressed and unhappy in the flashbacks) and how the writers themselves were framing the story- but with s3 and lestat's narration being both undisputed by another character's voice and covering the entire story, the lines are blurred. i don't think the writers are firm enough in what they want lestat's narration to be- what he's supposed to think and feel when he's making the recordings v what he thought and felt in the flashbacks he's describing, how he's changed over time- for this storytelling device to work. i honestly think they should've kept the rockstat modern day plot grounded in "objective" 3rd person pov like the dubai scenes in s1-s2 and only had lestat's narration featured over the flashbacks. i feel like the writers are using it as a crutch to tell not show several key aspects of lestat's character, handwave their pacing issues and skim over the parts of the source material they didn't care about adapting, and the story is a lot weaker for it.

[yusiyomogi]

i feel super bad for everyone who's trying to analyze this show with the same level of attention and trust they had for the first two seasons. i simply can't anymore. i can't see myself being on the same page as the writers for this season. lowkey i don't know where they're going with this thing anymore. if they manage to land it perfectly with the final episode, i'll rewatch it and probably write meta for it. but for now, please, i love you all and i appreciate your thoughtful analysis, but i don't wanna discuss it too deeply (it just makes me sad)

[yusiyomogi]

https://www.tumblr.com/yusiyomogi/819422180445126656/you-all-know-how-much-i-love-louis-and-im-a-huge

I think he does care underneath it all but I think he’s also (fairly) holding onto some resentment himself. He mentioned the trial and Lestat getting on a boat and memorising the lines etc so I think there’s still somethings left unspoken and unasked between them that got cut off after the book

And wouldn’t we all feel a little bitter if we stayed through some horrific shit like cheating and forgave DV and then the second you fuck up, you’re cut off immediately? Like even in the concert scene, people thought he looked remorseful and regretful but I think he looked kinda pissed off and bitter

I think Louis was being sarcastic in that scene but I don’t think it’s out of a sense of not really caring but because he’s afraid of either caring too much or showing how much he cares.

We also have to remember that he’s only a couple of years out of his relationship with Armand too and has been in consecutive abusive relationships for 100 years in total so he’s going to be very emotionally vulnerable and raw in his own right. Louis has his own traumas and need for healing that is often ignored because Lestat’s is so obvious and loud

I think Louis just probably doesn’t have the energy to shoulder someone else’s emotional burden right now which is why he’s with Lemuel who doesn’t put that pressure on him but he can’t help but caring about Lestat BUT he also can’t do anything about it if he’s being stonewalled and he’s not going to beg because as I said, he’s still feeling residual hurt from a lot of shit done to him that hasn’t been discussed or addressed

I don’t think it will be the book or even Lestat’s feelings around it that cracks Louis. It’s going to be Claudia and that is what is gonna open up the lines of communication between Loustat and force those much needed discussion and I think it’s going to get dirty and painful on both sides as EVERYTHING comes out and no stone of hypocrisy and hurt is left unturned but I think that’s also what needs to happen

Claudia and New Orleans is being kept in a locked box between them and until that lid comes off, neither is going to take any great or significant leap towards the other

oh man i hope i didn't sound like i was saying that louis' trauma doesn't matter. because again, if you know me, you know that louis and claudia are my priority in this show and i actually don't give a fuck how upset lestat is at his portrayal in the book.

honestly, i think the show is very poorly written now and louis was not upset and resentful enough for my taste. like, the fact that lestat even brought up armand would piss me off so much i'd burn down his hair in louis' place. i think we can interpret that as him suppressing his own trauma for now and acting like he has everything under control... we can even have hope that the writers still care about his trauma from his fucked up relationship.

my post was mostly a reaction to people saying that louis was acting genuine in that scene and i don't think he was. he was rightfully pissed and sarcastic/defensive because of that. and when he saw that the book did actually hurt lestat and lestat was spiraling all alone about it, i think louis (who's very empathetic) actually started to feel bad for lestat, but not in a way that solves anything in their relationship, rather in a way that made his anger dissipate. and it's definitely not what lestat deserves either, considering he didn't even apologize for anything other than the drop. i think louis simply decided that he doesn't wanna antagonize lestat anymore.

and thank you for this nice analysis! i agree with everything you said. it hurts me to know that i can no longer trust the writers to put this on paper in a way that feels satisfying for me. but that's how i'd write their relationship this season!

[yusiyomogi]

you all know how much i love louis and i'm a huge "louis is empathetic" believer but i think when he was saying "and i flew in because i care" he was trolling. i'm probably stating the obvious, but i saw some posts that said that louis was genuine there and i don't think he was. i mean he does care obviously, but it feels like in that moment he was being sarcastic and petty because he thought that lestat was throwing a tantrum and mostly needed some intervention. but just like jacob said, when he saw his tortured copy of the book, that's when he did actually start to feel bad and worried for lestat