#Anon asking about why I am not connecting to Louis

[twopoppies]

.

[londonfoginacup]

not the same anon and i’ve already asked this to someone else without an answer. i’ve never been to a show in the usa but it feels to me like there’s a different atmosphere in general over there so this comes from genuine curiosity: why do you feel like you have to bring a rainbow flag to a concert? let’s forget about louis for a second, just think of a random concert. you said you’ve gotten bad looks for bringing one but also you (and others) claim that flags in concerts are meant to feel people safe. do you not feel safe if you don’t bring a flag? do you not enjoy a concert if you don’t bring one/see one? what’s the need to bring flags? i promise this comes from curiosity because in all the years i’ve attended music shows and festivals, i’ve never felt like bringing the flags i own, but again, i’m not from the usa and i’m not well versed into tumblr queer culture.

Hi anon. I will take this as a good faith question, although your phrase “I’ve asked this to someone else without an answer” is something I suggest you do not include when asking things in future, because it implies you’re upset or blaming that other person for not responding. People have many reasons to not respond, some of which are simply time or time of day or spoons! We are all simply trying our best out here.

Now onto your question— I think that what’s missing here is fandom history. You said “forget about Louis for a second”, but actually what we need to do is look back at One Direction’s history.

I’ve written this out and tried to shorten it a number of times now, but the long and the short of it is that while the band was active, especially 2013-2014, the way that One Direction the Brand and Management handled rumors about Louis and Harry was to create a rift between “respectful fans” and “everyone else”. And the “everyone else” was people who thought Louis and Harry were in a relationship, yes, but it was also simply queer fans. Because those circles often overlap, OR because other fans would see that they were queer and put them in the same category.

Rainbow Direction was a movement made by fans in order to feel safe at One Direction shows specifically, because it was one direction shows specifically that people did not feel comfortable at, but desperately WANTED to feel comfortable at, because this band and these boys brought them comfort, spoke words in their songs that connected to their queer experience, etc.

I would not say that it’s USA specific so much that it’s 1D specific. I don’t… believe (I could be wrong) that I’ve brought a flag to a non-1D (or 1D adjacent) show, although I HAVE seen flags at those shows, like Declan McKenna I feel like I saw a flag or two there, for instance.

But honestly anon, when I bring a flag, it is not to make myself feel safe. It’s so that someone else who is queer can see that flag and know that I am a safe person. Likewise, when I see someone else with a flag, I know that I feel safe with them. It’s a way of saying you’re not alone.

Now, it might be helpful to know that I have attended EVERY 1D/Harry/Louis/Niall concert (but one) with @lululawrence . It’s her flags that I wear. She is the best sort of person you could ever hope to attend a concert with, but that’s beside the point. My point is that the one show that I remember the most dirty looks and feeling the most uncomfortable was the one Harry show we attended in… 2021? The end of the 2021. Harry’s fan base grew EXPONENTIALLY over the pandemic. That night, we saw maybe two flags in the pit and none anywhere else. There were more people dressed as bananas than people with flags. Sus and I had the bi and ace flags, and honestly anon, I started to want to hide it. The people around us gave us looks, I heard them talking about us although I tried not to listen. I wasnt afraid for our safety, but I was viscerally aware that the people around us didn’t understand the flags and didn’t want us there.

And I had been there in Nashville at the Ryman, when every flag had been confiscated and the security had been terribly mean and Harry had had to pull out his own and set it on stage at one point when the lights went down. That had been upsetting but we had all been on the same page, the fans and Harry, that the flags were important. Post-2020, that show was different. I felt like a creature on display for people to gawk at.

So when you talk about tumblr queer culture, I don’t actually know how much this extends past 1D/Louis/Harry. But in the beginning of 2023, when Sus and I went to the first concert we had booked (we had… four or five that year), and noticed how few flags there were, the two of us were specifically worried about concerts feeling the way that one in 2021 did. That’s why we did spent the next few months sending flags to every North America Louis show (and don’t get me wrong, I’d have done his other legs if I had the money to get them flags too. But all those flags in the NorthAmerica shows? A few friends whom I ADORE helped but mostly that was almost entirely out of my own personal budget). Because we wanted to make sure that everyone felt the safety of being able to spot a flag in the crowd and know that whoever was holding it was not someone who would reject them for their gender/sexuality.

Sure, another option is that no one brings flags and we all just sit and enjoy the music. That’s really fine. But I think for our fandom in particular it’s a bit of history, of being loudly rejected during the 1D days and then surging our support for one another for the solo tours.

And tbh yeah. Okay. America is scary and people are mean and i know so so SO many people who are ONLY out online or at shows like these. I want them to know im there with them.

So, I don’t know if I answered your question well. @takemehomefromnarnia or @lululawrence or any number of other people could probably answer it better.

[statementlou]

why do you talk about Louis using blue and green signalling as if it isn't about Harry, that what the blue and green are- do you not believe in larrie?

short answer for the reading challenged trolls to cut down on asks yes I am a larrie, not that anything is wrong with not being one. But longer (much more interesting imo) answer: We know H and L were together, but no one really knows if they are still or again- I personally mostly believe that they are, but I get why people don't think so and can't see any reason to get pressed about it. But you make a solid point- blue and green and certainly things like Louis wearing the H shirt don't potentially signify anything other than larry right? Well that's what makes it so interesting to me- I kind of don't think Louis IS using those things that way! As my recent anon pointed out (and I agree) he wants people to think he is Freddie's dad, he is not presently trying to be perceived as gay in the face of people trying to force him in the closet- he is in charge of his image and is choosing to publicly put forward that he is a guy who got someone pregnant and dates women. And I do think him and H are together, but I don't think he particularly wants to talk to us about that, if that makes sense? But I believe he does want to connect with his beloved fans on a more personal level, to revel in the acceptance and love and shared wink, I know you know I know, me and you until the end, our eyes meet, together we're the greatest- and I think he uses the larry imagery to do that, rather than to talk about his relationship. I could do this for days he gives us SO MANY examples to choose from but just to pick one: the all blue and green lighting for All This Time. Think about it- if he actually had images of a rainbow flag on the screens at his shows or waved one or something, it would make the articles and press and be a whole thing and revive every rumor ever about him in every tabloid! But if he makes the entire lighting and screens for a song blue and green (or wears a shirt with a giant H on it or any of the other one million coded things he does), well so what? No journalist would think a thing of it, nothing to see here- but the larrie majority of his fanbase hears him saying "you were right about everything and yes I am gay and I love you for seeing it" and go completely bananas! It's fucking ingenious tbh, SBB at his finest! And the fact that the song he chose for his current unhinged bluegreener fest was All This Time was for me the thing that really cemented this theory for me; I know some people disagree, but to me that song reads as being about him being closeted and his public life and the fans and choosing this lighting for that rather than for like We Made It or something really feeds my conviction that he is bluegreening on main as a way to tell us that he is gay rather than to tell us anything about his personal relationship. TLDR yeah I DO think he is signaling, a lot, but I don't think it tells us anything about the status of his relationship with Harry or anyone else and the reasons I think they are together don't have anything to do with Louis' stage lighting choices, but also that means I don't think it makes sense to say he's not signaling anything ever because you don't think they're together; both can coexist and I think it's just weird to act like he's not making pretty clear choices

[desertfangs]

I haven't yet read the books (there's so many!) I've only watched the iwtv movie and TV show and I love Claudia in both but I've had people tell me in the books she's awful and considered to be one of the series villains. Idc about spoilers I just wanna know how true that is bc I dunno if I'd want to read that lol

Hi anon! I was excited to see your ask this morning because I'm gonna tell you something: Claudia was one of my first favorite characters in the series and her death devastated me. Louis was my first fav (understandable, he's literally the protagonist of the first book, we're meant to sympathize with him!) and when he lost Claudia and became numb in his grief, I related. I hated Armand for what happened to Claudia and I held a grudge for a long time.

Anyhow, I can't speak to the show so much as I've only seen season 1, but if you like the 94 movie, you will probably like the novel Interview with the Vampire. It's a pretty close adaptation.

To get to the heart of your question, no, Claudia not an awful villain. Anymore than Louis or Lestat are. If anyone is a villain in IwtV, it's Armand, and even he is not a mustache-twirling evil guy.* Everyone in this series in morally gray and does terrible stuff. I emphasize that because I've been in this fandom for a long time and I've seen all kinds of arguments about who is evil and who is not, and the fact is, all of our vampires do questionable things. That's sort of the point. So it's arguable how much there even is a villain in IwtV outside of Louis' own depression and grief, but Armand probably gets that honor.

Claudia in the books was turned around the age of 5. She is a very small, doll-like child who doesn't seem to retain much, if any, memory of her human life. She is more purely a vampire than Louis or Lestat can really fathom because she lacks that humanity and a connection to humans. She's a natural hunter and killer.

She doesn't understand Louis' sentimentality for humans, and resents Lestat for withholding information she knows he has about their kind. She is a complex and fascinating woman trapped in the body of a small child to the point where even Louis, who loves her dearly, cannot really see her as an adult and struggles to accept her agency. She does manipulate both her parents, in part because they don't often see her as a capable equal, which she very much is.

She does eventually rise up to kill to Lestat out of desperation. She believes he will not let Louis go and knows she can't travel around alone, given her appearance. Lestat himself is devastated by this and by her loss, and even says later he understands why she did it. That he probably deserved it for what he'd done to her, which was trap her forever in the body of a very young child, something he admits was selfish. (And something Marius had actually warned him against doing beforehand, LOL!!)

Like in the movie and the show, she does die at the Theatre des Vampires, and Armand is more responsible for that than I've heard he is on the show (he tells Louis he couldn't have stopped it, only to later reveal he orchestrated it, which Louis knew the whole time).

She appears later in The Tale of the Body Thief mocking Lestat and acting as a sort of voice for his subconscious, but she is just his hallucination in he book. He's dealing with a lot of trauma and grief and that manifests itself as Claudia's ghost.

Where you might be hearing she's a villain is from Merrick, where both her diary and spirit appear and are... not very nice. I gotta say, I am not convinced that is actually the spirit of Claudia that gets conjured, and even if it is, it's possible she's been warped somehow. But I also haven't read that book in decades and often tend to ignore it, so I am not an expert on that score.

I hope this helps! I'm always happy to answer questions about the books! (They are my special interest, if you cannot tell.)

But I do want to say that if you are a fan of the show and curious about the books--which are very different!--I highly recommend you read at least the first few yourself. The best way to judge if you'll like the book versions of the characters and story is to experience it yourself. There's a lot of misinformation that gets passed along about the books, and a lot of misinterpretation due to that because people just repeat what they've heard without having read them. And hey, they still may not be your cup of tea, and that's totally fine! But you won't know if you don't try, you know?

Anyhow, thank you so much for the ask! 💖 Claudia is awesome and deserves more love in the book fandom, but because she dies so early on, she doesn't get as much attention sadly.

*And even when he is, we love him.

[nightcolorz]

Hello friend (I’ve decided I’ve sent enough Babymand thoughts that we’re friends now) I am dying to know your thoughts about who would be the best babysitter for Little Armand.

I feel like Lestat would be surprisingly competent and Louis would be trying his best but just the absolute worst at knowing what you can and cannot do with a kid. Like Lestat is very sincerely engaging with Armand’s action figure world and asking good questions about the backstory and Louis is offering him a weed vape to soothe his nerves when he starts getting upset.

we r definitely friends baby mand anon ‼️

I’m crying over weed vape omgggg 😭😭😭😭 But yeah I definitely agree that lestat would be a better caretaker for Armand then Louis 😭. Louis I think is objectively more responsible and level headed but I think Armand needs someone less by the books and more willing to meet him where he’s at. The impression I’ve always got is that Louis is better as a functioning parent but Lestat is better at understanding and connecting with children. Lestat is also better at understanding and connecting with Armand then Louis is lol. Lestat is kind of a big baby so he rlly knows how to play with and talk to kids. Lestat is also very similar to Armand so I think he’d rlly be able to connect with a child Armand.

I also feel like Louis would react in the worst way possible when trying to help babymand if he’s meltdowing or trauaming or crying or misbehaving 😭 I think he’d just jump to punishment before trying to understand where the behavior is coming from. He gives me the vibes that he would be the sort of person to say “ur kid acts out bcus u don’t spank them! 😡” lmao. Louis is infinitely more patient then Lestat is but lestat is more empathetic when it comes to big displays of emotion, and I think he’d be better dealing with that when it comes to understanding why it’s happening + what is needed. So even tho I think Louis is overall better with kids then lestat is, Lestat would be better with Armand as a kid specifically lol, cuz they just get each other

[dearweirdme]

Hi Rain!

So I have been an army since 2017 and I started shipping in like 2018-ish and I have an army twt and everything. But on my army twt I only have my army friends who believe shipping is for deranged ppl lol. I have had discussions with them about shipping and they hate shippers because they believe shippers objectify the members in a way. And almost all times I agree, especially when I see fans of other ships like jkk or larry or even jklisa. When I look at these ships, I definitely think that they only look at these ppl as a tool to satisfy their own void. Analysing every single behaviour is psychotic and they need to touch grass honestly.

BUT

I just cannot bring myself to think the same about tk. I like to believe I am definitely a sane tkkr (I know there are tons of delusional tkkrs). I am queer and most of my army friends are queer as well so we do joke about the members being gay and we do joke about tk as well but I will never be able to tell them I like tk (that I ship them). I do think there is something between them. I know I could be wrong and they could just be really close friends. The point is that my shipping has always been a secret in a way. I have never told any of my army friends this. If I did they would definitely think I am total weirdo since I have seen how they view shippers. I don't really have a twt for tk just bts as a whole so I have never really had any tkkr friends as well, I have just lurked here and there.

I wanna ask you do your irls or army friends (who are not tkkrs) know about your shipping? And how do you recognise delusional behaviour in other ships vs when it comes to tk? Cuz for me I could easily spot it other ships but sometimes I am afraid I am delulu when it comes to tk😭

Hi anon!

Well, I think there’s a difference between shipping and believing two persons are together. We use the term shipping/shippers for both those things, but it’s not the same although there can be some overlap. To me shipping is something like: enjoying the idea of two people together or thinking two people would be well suited. It does not directly mean that you think those people are actually together though. Believing without shipping is also possible. Personally, I am not a shipper in essence (though i do think Jk and Tae fit together well). When I came into this fandom it was for music, I love to see BTS perform… I still go through performance videos often. When I started to look at more other footage Tae became my bias.. but I wasn’t looking for someone to ship him with.. I rarely do that.. even in my life outside of fandom, I never connect two persons that way. But something about Tae and Jk just started to stand out to me. It was only after that, that I started to look into them more.. and well here I am believing that they might be a couple.

I think the only way to figure out if a ship is real or not is to look into it. Sometimes it’s very easy (the Liskook stuff for instance) and sometimes it takes a few more looks (Jkk, though I have little difficulty with that as well). But the difference between a ship and and a real relationship will always lie in the actual connection between two people. Most of the easily debunkable ships lack in the real connection part. It’s narrated by fans using similar clothes and jewelry for instance.. and other situational stuff. That is also why for some Jkk is harder to debunk, because it is clear that Jk and Jm do have a real close bond. So imo really looking into it (as a whole, within the context of everything around them) is necessary to understand if it’s real or not.

Now this is where you will lose all faith in me 😂 (it’s been good having you around anon!) because I do believe Harry and Louis were once together. I understand if you base your thoughts on that on Larry fandom these days that it all seems very farfetched and crazy. But, during 1d Louis and Harry imo did have that real connection I talked about before. In a way to me that is even more clear than Tae and Jk (their culture is similar to mine, and they were quite obvious). I do not believe they are together now though and probably haven’t been for a while.

We could be wrong about Tae and Jk. I could be wrong about Larry. We all deal with just tiny bit of information about their lives. But I also think it’s kinda crazy to think that two members of the same band cannot fall in love. Why couldn’t they? It is a unique situation for sure, but then again that is kinda why we are all here… we think we’ve spotted something special.

I don’t really speak to my irl friends about this. I’m 41 and for some reason people already find it weird that at this age I’d be a fan of BTS.. so I don’t really wanna let them steal my joy in Tkk. I have some Tkk friends around here who I talk to. And for me that is enough. I think.. that a reason why some of us don’t feel like we can share this is because we are made to feel ashamed of our thoughts. But believing in the love two people have for each other isn’t something we should have to be ashamed of. If anything.. Tae and Jk do love each other.. no matter to what extend that might go.

[allwaswell16]

✨ Twenty Questions for Fic Writers ✨

I was tagged by @reminiscingintherain to do this (thanks Roni!) and I loved reading her answers to these!

How many works do you have on ao3?

105

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

1,083,820

3. What fandoms do you write for?

One Direction and Harry Potter (Drarry)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I Didn't Fall For You (You Fucking Tripped Me) 3,949 (ooh getting close to the next thousand. I have an anon who comes and asks me for more of this fic every time I get a milestone # on this one, so I'll maybe be talking to you again soon, anon lol)

That's How I Know 3,443

Consequences 2,631

If I Loved You Less 2,387

Waiting 1,803

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I do! Every single one! I get pretty anxious if I don't answer them fairly quickly to be honest. Sometimes I get behind, but not by more than usually a month or so. I really loved getting a response from writers to my comments especially when I first started reading in fandom. To be fair, I left a lot of unhinged comments lol. They probably stood out a little. But I loved having that connection to a writer, so I try to have it in return with anyone reading my fics.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

For You I'd Bleed Myself Dry

I don't write unhappy endings, so this isn't exactly an unhappy ending. But it's a turning vampire fic so. Becoming the undead is angsty-ish, right?

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Until (series)

Probably this one because they end up having two weddings in the time stamp lol They're ridiculous and I love them.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not very often that I can think of. I can only think of it happening once off the top of my head and it was someone who hadn't even read the fic so.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I doooo! I wouldn't say I love writing it, but I write it when the story seems to go there. I am not really a pwp writer though, and I haven't written fics where the main point is the smut. And the only reason for that is because I just haven't had an idea that called for that!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I've written a couple of Potter Direction ficlets. But probably the weirder ones are the Louis/Rob Pattinson ones lol. The weirdest of those is probably: Interview with the vampire

I'm also writing a Peaky Blinders crossover right now actually.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I have, unfortunately. I ended up making a Wattpad account for the sole purpose of reporting my stolen fics.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, I allow translations so there's a bunch out there now.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Wine Not?

I have! Once! It was a giant group of us lol I made some great friends from writing that fic! And actually @taggiecb and I just started talking about writing a mystery fic, but who knows if we'll ever write it

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

OOF. I am a great lover of ships hence my running a rare pair fic fest. There's really something about Draco/Harry or Louis/Nick Grimshaw...I guess the enemies to lovers vibes of it all. The bickering. The drama. sighhh so good.

But I don't know that I can really say that I love any more than my OG Louis/Harry.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I am NOT linking it. But I have an unfinished wip out there on ao3 that haunts me. If I ever can figure out what to do with it, I'll finish it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Maybe humor as evidenced by my more popular fics, I guess. Dialogue maybe just because I find that easy to write. taggiecb is always having to tell me to add more of what the characters are thinking because all I want to write is them talking lol

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Some of the things I've worked on specifically over the years are: writing meaningful smut, writing more vivid sensory details, and having strong characters.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I probably wouldn't. I have a vague memory of using another language once. Italian? I'm pretty sure I set a fic in Rome and had a bit of Italian in it. But I had an Italian friend translate that bit for me. So I'd say have a native speaker help with that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

As Roni said in her answer...technically I wrote Bill/Ted fic with a childhood friend when we were little kids but we had no idea we were writing fanfiction. Purposely written fic would be One Direction.

20. Favourite fic you've written?

Hmmm this is hard. It changes on a whim but maybe Consequences because it probably has the best plot I've ever written. But I don't reread this one because it brings back weird memories for me. Like I dreamed up the plot twistyness on the way to my pulmonologist and immunologist appointments FUN TIMES. So in a way it reminds me of when I was very sick. Whomp. Okay now I've brought down the mood. Let me try and steer this in another direction...I love both If I Loved You Less and Ace of Spades because they are set during the Regency era and I have just now realized they both involve a kidnapping. Read the first one if you want Louis to be kidnapped and Ace if you want Harry to be kidnapped. THAT DID NOT HELP THE MOOD IM SORRY

I'll tag: @kingsofeverything @disgruntledkittenface @voulezloux @tommokat @loveislarryislove @alwaysxlarrie @larry-hiatus and anyone else who wants to do this just say I tagged you!

[ca-suffit]

anon from this ask: https://www.tumblr.com/ca-suffit/757613676896337920/im-sorry-your-takes-are-generally-pretty-great-and?source=share

first thanks for hearing me out and your thoughtful response. had to think about it a bit and analyze some of my own biases. i think i have a certain amount of trust in the show around what I expect they're going to do with lestat in terms of examining the privilege he has (a white abuser in the spotlight telling his story would be a great topic to unpack, especially via daniel), but i know that's fully based on nothing! it would just be such a waste if they didn't. so I am putting more expectations on an objectively minor glimpse of information so I'll pare that back in my reply.

the one thing i wanted to clarify and emphasize was the 'groundbreaking'-ness of whatever lestat is doing here. i am not really arguing that he appears to be doing something cutting edge or never been done before, and i don't think he needs to be. (practically speaking, we're talking about art within an art aka a tv show, the art of a fictional character, there are limits.) given the large list of influences, they appear to be leaning into recognizable fashion and sound, but just because it's pastiche doesn't make it, like, uninteresting as a queer performance. on a more meta level, it's really fucking cool to see them leaning into glam rock and queer influences after the heterosexualization of Queen of the Damned, and letting a lead queer character be trashy and messy and also polarizing - not everyone is going to LIKE his music.

and yes it will speak to the individual. not every queer person will find this interesting. i guess what i wanted to defend was the elements of queer fandom who feel seen or moved by what they've decided to do here and i hate to see that get dismissed as memes alone or like no real queer person would find this good/worthy, as some of the other asks have implied, or that it's ONLY a symptom of white fandom. but i get that your blog in particular makes a space for fandom critique and there certainly is a lot of critique, and a lot of uncritical ~slay queen~ type response. i wanted to offer an alternative perspective, i guess. (and when I think of lestat making himself into a "queer icon", i personally don't mean a champion of activism or a beacon of positive representation. he's a horror character at the same time and has done terrible things. this is why I like the show, though.)

lastly, your point about the other characters and their art connections: absolutely!!! the fact that EVERY character here has an art connection for me makes this tv show a queer text in general. I want to add these art connections are complicated. lestat is as much a monster about music as it gives him humanity. louis's struggle with photography feels like a coda about his former struggles about his homosexuality. claudia giving up on her passion for the stage through armand's abuse is heartbreaking.

emphasizing lestat as the only artist would be a mistake. I think what sets him apart for me is that his art and also his queerness vs, say, louis and his art and queerness, is more of a divide between public vs private. louis did make an attempt to enter a public space and was shut down/discouraged. lestat reaching an in-fiction iconic status is a matter of privilege (as well as his personality, lol). i don't really have an argument here, just responding and hopefully adding to the discourse.

hi and thank u for coming back!!

despite what some ppl want my reputation to be, I do actually like talking about things and giving space for multiple perspectives. it helps nothing to take sides and be at war with each other all the time. a lot of why this fandom has gotten worse is bcuz ppl are doing exactly that. u can like whatever u like, but understanding the criticisms of the thing are crucial too. a big issue surrounding lestat is that ppl aren't used to his whiteness (or whiteness in general) being commented on. white fans, especially, will find it rly jarring to be perceived that way and take it rly personally. there's so many ppl here who think I'm calling them racist just bcuz I'm talking about lestat and prbly his white ignorance or smthing. they apply it to themselves and feel like a bad person for liking him. then they shut down and block me, even if our conversation was calm. white fragility is a hard thing to overcome.

there's not much u can do to avoid maybe being clumped in with white fandom if u like lestat, but it's not like the reality is that those are the *only* ppl who like him. that lie they perpetuate that everyone else is a lestat hater, loumand shipper or whatver is bullshit. they're overly simplifying a deeper issue bcuz they're racist, manipulative, and stupid. plenty of ppl like lestat and aren't part of that group. but u are gonna have to get used to being judged for liking him in some ways bcuz this fandom *has* made association with him a red flag. it doesn't mean *everyone* is gonna be hostile to u about it tho, but it does mean ur gonna have to change expectations and be a lot more open to hearing criticisms of it all. ppl aren't rly dismissing him outright or saying ur bad for liking him, it's just a fatigue surrounding his character and the fierce protection of whiteness this fandom has built around him (alongside anne's racist history and favoring of him too already). I mean, it seems like ur already aware of this, but just to put it into words too. lestat has always been an interesting, fucked up character and ppl should feel free to identity and explore whatever with him just like any other character.

tbh a lot of his point has been to be a little stupid and cringe anyway. idk how ppl read his narration and take it srsly and believe he's actually hot shit. he should be a disaster idiot rockstar with an ego that doesn't match his actual presentation. I'm hoping they might explore a lot with that. he's having a mental breakdown in every book but doesn't seem aware that he is, so what better way to explore that than with the white rockstar angle. that's p much all of them anyway lol and if ur queer (and a vampire having a neverending existential crisis) then even more so prbly.

[faith--in-the-future]

I’d love more of Louis on social media, like the Q&A and fan challenges ideas the previous anon mentioned. And I agree LTHQ is dropping the ball in lots of ways. But I also think Louis not doing social media in the same way, for example, that Niall does ultimately comes down to Louis just not wanting to do it. It seems to me (and I know I might be totally wrong!) like he’s measured the pros of how social media could advance his career against the cons of having to do something he doesn’t enjoy, and he’s decided his dislike of doing social media outweighs the benefits. Maybe LTHQ isn’t doing a good job of pitching it to him, but with his experience in the industry, it’s weird they should have to. And of course there’s still so much more they could do on social media without even needing his direct involvement.

But even if he’s decided not to put a lot of direct effort into expanding his fan base - and that’s obviously his call to make, and we might all make the same decision if we were him and knew all the considerations involved - I’m still surprised and disappointed he doesn’t do it just as a way to engage with current fans. 😔 I think he’s authentic when he talks about his relationship with his fans, and more social media would be such a great way to connect with us. Doesn’t have to be anything formal! And it’s especially a great way to give back to fans who can’t get to a show. I always appreciate your take on things - am I really off base? Thanks for your patience with newbie asks! 🙂

hi! sorry I'm answering late but I was busy earlier

when I talked about fun promo I was thinking more of things like YouTube interviews/late night shows with games etc (I have been campaigning for the celebrity bake off thing for YEARS) and fun photoshoots, things that keep fans engaged, that give us content and also insight in a different side of louis in a more relaxed environment.

I think its really important to make the fan experience actually fun in general but especially with louis bc there are so many things to get frustrated about that nobody can really change like the radio blacklisting or the close contact with sides of the fandom that hate each other so its crucial imo to offer fun distractions and in general to keep fans interested! this is a sort of hobby for people right? and nobody wants an hobby that's not enjoyable!

I do think louis doesn't like social media and honestly it's fine like it doesn't have to be the end all be all of everything, and a good a social media manager can work on it anyways (regular posting especially in promo season would help him get more followers/not lose them and it wouldn't be so hard).

but like, we already know radio is out, award shows and other events don't invite him/he doesn't go, he doesn't do festivals bc "they don't call him" (although I think it's more like he has a shitty booking agent), he doesn't do collaborations, and then if we cut out photoshoots and social media and YouTube stuff too what is left?? like genuinely we're just left with the usual rehearsed print interviews with the same questions and answers and then the classic promo interviews on TV that louis doesn't even like doing bc they make him anxious!! like how is that productive in any way! neither him or us are actually happy ! also it would be great for him to be seen by the gp in an actual happy light instead of the "hope after tragedy/difficulties " light!

look, this is totally speculation bc I don't know him, but I do think that louis is not comfortable with/scared of uncontrollable environment and of engaging with funny things, imo bc for years people have been either laughing at him and insulting him or analyzing his every gesture to spot "gayness" or whatever. nobody who has been subjected to that for years will remain unscathed, it's like putting a plant in a dark room without water and asking why is it not giving flowers.

but the problem with comfort zones is that they can very very easily become our own limits, we think they're keeping the world out but really they're just trapping us in. if u leave someone in the dark too long their eyes get adjusted to it and then they won't get out bc the light hurts them !

what I'm saying is that when I say louis needs a new manager/team it's bc I think he needs someone who won't just settle for the bare minimum necessary to keep louis happy, he needs someone with ideas and ambitions and the guts to push him a little out of his comfort zone and to encourage his growth! his team is way too lazy and unimaginative and they're just happy with what they have now , and for some reason don't seem to realize that things are always changing and u can't expect to keep something forever without taking proper care of it

it's sad bc louis works so hard on what he does but then it all gets washed away into nothingness and he ends up blaming himself all the time, I just want that cycle to be broken

somewhat related: I also think that his story/image/persona whatever you want to call it won't quite be complete/make sense/be truly compelling until he actually gives us the bigger picture, like he always talks about the difficulties he's faced but what are they exactly? who's the enemy? (a good story needs a good enemy just as much as it needs a good hero!) ,he was insecure and lost after the band but why? what made him feel that way? he's always telling up about the "after" and the consequences but we never quite understand the before

us fans know the answer to these questions or at least we've tried to come up with them but to people who don't have access to all that background knowledge and who are just checking him out it's not so clear, and a story like that can truly be efficient if it stops being superficial imo

so I'm curious to see how that has been explored in the documentary and I really hope that it won't be the same few things we already know but actually the real underbelly of the story (within the legal confines that I'm sure he has to respect rip)

[zisurru]

shit anon once again ty for your response

unfortunately yes i do mean the whole turning - i’m not sure how into it i’d be irl, but reading about it definitely; as for why personally probably partially a really intense dennis cooper phase when i was relatively young (still king of my heart), and with iwtv it’s like okay he’s a dead body

like the disgust of that, all of his bodily fluids being forced from him without his control - it’s not graphic at all in the book, louis is very demure about it which i think is funny. yeah girl beautiful women don’t poop 💖

we don’t know really know anything about his life pre brother death, but safe to assume he’s incredibly repressed, and here’s this beautiful guy, who wants to whisk him away, who reminds him of his brother who’s death he feels responsible for.

Like he wants Lestat to kill him, we don’t know if he’s ever had sex with another man before, but from his whole deal i think it’s safe to assume he never ‘initiated’ or ‘asked for it’. but like he wants this to happen, he kills the overseer (before the actual act he keeps changing his mind, and lestat has his arm wrapped around his chest, and in the book louis bullshits daniel, like my fate was sealed from the first night i saw him 😔).

and then that boy is murdered and the murder is the sex act — like there’s this trope of sublimated homosexual desire leading to violence / murder and the sex-death drive, and i’m not getting into how i feel about that lol, but obviously here lestat is not repressed at all and he’s doing the murdering; but it makes me think about how louis is perceiving it or wants to perceive it. like that desire mingled with alienation and contempt and terror to the point of masochistic anguish.

and obviously in tvc blood sharing and taking a life is the ultimate pleasure etc.

i’m rambling but in short i think what does it for me is — deeply repressed, overcome with grief over his dead brother whom he feels he killed, seemingly the perfect sexual and romantic partner who he mistakes at first sight for dead brother, but he can’t admit to himself that it’s sexual or romantic attraction, the murder, being completely overcome in every way by this guy, but the aftermath of it too. like his body won’t decompose, he doesn’t disappear, but his body is dying - anne rice doesn’t go into it and i’m not sure about vampire biology, but what i think is the sex is over, he’s dead and his muscles loosen and his bowels release. like that boy is a dead body now and lestat did that to him. and it makes me feel a lot of things and it also makes my dick hard.

sorry for vomiting in ur inbox idk how much sense this makes lmao

i am aslo a fan of ur writing btw!

that’s a detailed breakdown thank you for sharing anon. sex and death are obviously intimately connected concepts but i’ve never heard it described quite like this before

and thank you! my stuff is pretty light and low-stakes obviously but i do understand the appeal of like…overwhelming shame vs. loss of control vs. desire and alienation from desire. louis is the perfect vessel for that because he’s SO repressed that you want to puncture him with a pin like a balloon that’s been filled up too much and see what comes out

[persephoneflouwers]

So I read your posts about Saturdays and I agree with your analysis, I liked them a lot, thanks for making them because I couldn't put some thoughts into words like you did. What I was going with this anon is that I don't understand why when Louis sang it live there was a sea of ​​rainbows. I'm not against it or anything, I really love everything and the different interpretations seem perfect to me. But I don't understand how they connect Saturdays with something related to the community? I ask you why you can explain me better. I thought that maybe how the melody can convey hope to you, something like "yes, we said that Saturdays take away the pain but it's not always like that, and that's fine" and as if as the song progresses everything intensifies until it reaches the boom and yell "today may not be okay, my heart may be broken, but this isn't always going to be this way either, and it's okay because I'm going to be!" I don't know if what I said is logical but it's just thoughts I had at 1:30 am hahaha sorry for bothering you, I hope you're well :))

Hi angel! How are you? Thank you for asking. Saturdays is a layered song, it’s not easy to extract the true meaning and obviously every analysis is personal and super-valid. I was surprised to see the rainbows during the song ngl! Saturdays is such a melancholic song and maybe people like to involve it during fan actions because the slow tempo and the emotional burden it carries help building an intimate moment with all the flags and colours. Personally I would choose different songs for rainbows (bigger than me would be my first choice!).

If we go a bit through the lyrics of Saturdays, they don’t stand out as very queer to me. But that’s my interpretation and I can’t really talk over how a song can resonate for other fans. There are some lines that can recall this image of belonging to a queer community. For example “I’m not supposed to be feeling dirty cheap in Silver street”. It can be read as “i’m alone (dirty cheap) in a crowd (silver street)”, like a way of saying he struggles to find his place in a community where he doesn’t feel like he belongs entirely because he’s not out? Is he acknowledging the fact that his public image doesn’t meet the community standards in a way? Idk. This feels a bit forced and too much projection imo. That’s why my interpretation of the song goes in a complete different direction.

What I find extremely interesting when it comes to Louis’s songs is how constant such themes happen to be. Of course, I don’t know what they mean to him but this consistency helps me figure out.

He mentions change/changes/changing a lot in his songs. There are songs where he says change is inevitable and others where he says nothing changes. I don’t think he is contradicting himself (possible, but I like to give things a deep meaning usually). I think he refers to changes in different ways because he’s approaching changes in different moments, situations. I will elaborate my thoughts a bit. And I’m sorry this is taking so long to reply… anyway. Let’s report how many times Louis talks about this topic in his songs:

The Greatest: time came and changed it all

Bigger Than Me: when somebody told me I would change

Saturdays: some things change

Common People: nothing’s changed

Holding Onto Heartache: the nights they changed in seasons

Change: everything has changed, but I feel the same inside.

High in California: spent my whole life just thinking I had to change

COACOAC is the epitome of things that don’t change.

I listened to walls after a loooong time and AFAIK this topic/word are not in it. There are references to changes VS something that remains the same tho. Habit, Always you etc give this idea of a person/a thing that stays when everything around is somehow changing. Surprisingly Perfect Now has the line don’t ever change, which made my heart happy cause I love PN and she didn’t deserve the treatment she got starting from Louis and from all fans too but alas.

Where I am going with this is clearly change(s) are a huge topic in Louis’ music. I know my method of analysis is too scientific but making a list of how he approaches the topic in his songs allows me to distinguish 2 big categories that I will label as “Change YES” and “Change NO” lol.

I can’t go on for ever about this, I’ll cut it short. To me, when he wants to talk about the person he is or wants to be, about his personal journey with his sexuality, inner struggles and/or inner emotional fights, his resolution is clear: he’s not changed. He embraces it and accepts it (when you know, you know in OTB / I can tell you’re the same as me in ATT / all the above mentioned examples). My point is when he speaks on his queerness experience or the perception of it, he seems pretty sure he can’t change. Just to elaborate it a bit: somebody told him he would change in BTM, meaning he hasn’t changed and we knew already because he had made it pretty clear in Change and obviously in COACOAC.

When he’s talking about daily life things, ordinary things… well shit happens and he knows it. He knows some events can happen that will change more or less you and the way you go on with your days. Events like grief, hiatus, decisions from when you were 18… do you see what I mean?

That’s a pretty safe key for me to interpret his songs actually. Of course, I may be wrong! But til now, this Change YES/NO algorithm (lol) has helped me navigate his lyrics with a clear idea in mind. My opinion might be a little biased since I associate the poetics of Saturday as a concept to the poets I’ve read before with the theory of pleasure and stuff, but it makes sense to me like this for now!

We could write a similar post about the way he drops light/dark theme too, but that’s another story.

Hope this answered your question and thank you for asking <3

[alarrytale]

Regarding the McDonald's thing, the issue is that it's useless tiktok activism centering Westerners who wish to feel like they're helping rather than people who actually need help. People are congratulating themselves for somewhat impacting a fast food restaurant which has nothing to do with anything when they could be donating or writing their local politicians. And it is sadly one or the other because the average person isn't going to do more than a few small actions. I know you talk about Louis' image often so I rate you for openly saying it's about how this will be perceived, but on Xitter and Tiktok they insist it's about being disappointed in him and holding him accountable, and then when the facts are raised (that the boycott isn't actually doing anything) and their opinion doesn't change, it becomes clear that it's actually about how well they can promote him and defend him against H*rries and locals. Certain solo fans were absolutely loving holding this issue over H fan's heads and are simply disappointed they no longer have that card to play, and the whole thing is just really distasteful.

Hi, again anon!

Why is tiktok activism useless? I think tiktok is helping to spread information about the atrocities happening in Gaza to a group of people who otherwise wouldn't know, because they don't read or watch the news. It has a far reach and engages young people who were formerly apolitical and makes them aware, engaged and wanting to help. They are are also learning what to do to help out. It's centering westeners because Israel and Gaza is in Europe. There is war happening in Europe, so it's particularly relevant to europeans and westeners. I don't know what you mean by "westerners who wish to feel like they're helping rather than actually people who need help".

Like i said in the previous ask, not everyone is in a position to help out monitarily. Some live in countries with corrupt politicians or some have governments already helping. People will never feel like what they're doing is good enough when there is children dying. I also am pretty sure that if you're one of the people who has donated to Gaza, you won't go to a McDonalds for a meal afterwards if you're aware of the brand's involvement in the conflict. You absolutely can donate and avoid McD at the same time. You can also not buy a Sod* Str*am or other isr*elian products as long as you're aware of what to avoid buying.

Also, lesson learned for McDonalds is that your brand and reputation will suffer if you support genocide. Even if it's just one branch out of thousands doing it, it will hurt the brand as a whole. This is also lesson learned for other brands. So this might have prevented other brands from supporting I*rael. At least where i live, i see brands pulling out of deals and companies cut connections to Isr*ael everyday. Tiktok activism does help. Singning petitions helps, voting helps. Even if all you can do is spread the word, it helps. Everything helps. So do what you can to help. If the only thing you can do is avoiding McDonalds and telling others to do the same and explain to them why, then that helps too.

I still very much disagree with you that the boycott isn't helping. It is, both as a "see what happens when you support genocide" statement and as a warning to other brands to not do the same. The politicians do notice the opinions of the masses. And tiktok is an opinion forming place where you can influence and reach the masses. I happen to think that tiktok activism is more helpful than you picking up the phone and calling your representative. The threshold for a 14 year old girl to call a 60 year old man and lecture him in politics is also high. If the alternative is nothing or doing something, then do something. Boycotting works.

Fans are allowed to be disappointed in Louis. He's obviously not paying attention to world politics, discourses or public opinion. That's disappointing in itself. His ignorance is currently hurting his own brand and reputation. People aren’t happy with him. And again, i disagree that the boycott isn't helping (it is!). So when people are holding him accountable it's valid. He's promoting a brand currently feeding I*f soldiers while the children of Gaza is starving. He needs to be aware of it to protect his own brand. I'm pretty sure if he was aware he wouldn't do it.

[oliwrightofficial]

Also odd bc what else could oli possibly talk about if not Louis or 1D? What else is their in his life other than that?

SO MANY THINGS ANON!! Oli is an iceberg, we see only the barest sliver of his life, and this is exactly why I would love to hear what he might get up to or think about in his off time, it's fascinating.

In all seriousness, I do think this is a weird (although very common) conception of Oli, that's he's stupid, that his only identity is to follow Louis around, that he is Louis' companion because otherwise he'd be, idk, homeless or whatever. I personally think pretty highly of Louis and find it hard to imagine his closest friend and trusted companion for navigating his work life being someone he didn't feel like he could connect with both intellectually and emotionally! Or what about Krystle, people think she's smart and interesting and cool right- she also connected with Oli and became great friends with him and I REALLY doubt it was over how cool Louis is and that was their only common ground. Clearly Oli has something to offer the world, and since he selfishly refuses to share with us I am here for whatever clues we can gather! IDK maybe he talked to this girl about being a student, or about learning languages, or working out or football or music or having annoying friends who think they're the center of the world or trying to establish yourself in a career and then having COVID happen or trying to connect with people when you work all the time and travel a lot or maybe he asked her a lot about herself which tbh, seems like a skill he very likely does have a lot of practice at- being a good listener and offering a certain amount of care taking to people. I mean when you think about it in terms of his work experience, he'd probably be a pretty great boyfriend! A dumbass a lot of the time for sure but really, that's implied in "boyfriend" anyway lbr, a girl could do worse than to have what Louis has in Oli

[statementlou]

Does it though? Liam’s socials have been as weird as his promo since they cancelled his album in 2018. He’s said he doesn’t have access to his social media accounts and he doesn’t have management either. Who is booking a tour for him? Why random dates in South America? Why the short notice? Is Liam even aware someone has booked tour dates for him? Plus there were anons to several blogs ‘reminding’ people there was nothing odd about Louis canceling those Asian dates the day before these dates dropped. I’ll be shocked if they actually take place.

I don't think there is anything weird about Louis Asia dates being cancelled, I didn't see any anons like that but wonder if they have to do with the fact that we were discussing it, or if they were just a response to the fact that tbh, whatever story is apparently gaining ground sounds kind of fucking nuts. I would also like to remind people that there's nothing weird about it! I can't imagine what you think is the connection between Louis' tour dates and Liam's announced dates and who on the inside is allegedly sending these anons about it, what kind of weird conspiracy would somehow connect the two and result in them being announced and then cancelled. I would actually really love if you came back and laid out for me exactly what that would be and how it would work (I mean this- whatever you are implying makes no sense to me and I am curious); but I (perhaps overly optimistically) suspect if you try to actually articulate this vague scenario you yourself will see how little sense it makes. But hey, maybe this mysterious conspiracy also involves all the other artists who had to cancel their Asia dates this year due to the exorbitant costs of touring there! But anyway while we're at it: it's not WEIRD that Liam's album was cancelled either or that his management is a mess- it's a BUMMER and it sucks for him, but it isn't some huge inexplicable conundrum. I feel like this kind of stuff in the fandom is related to how when you're young, no matter how much people say otherwise, it's impossible not to believe that adults are Different and that grown ups possess some kind of magic competence- similarly people in this fandom continually discard the idea that behind the scenes things are just kind of a fucking mess sometimes, especially if the person at the top of the pyramid isn't the most together. I have been more up on the exact details of Liam's situation at other times in the past than I am now so I admit, I'm not sure of some exact things and where they stand right now (if anyone is). But one thing I notice here is that I believe you are mashing together things about Liam's situation from the past couple years, some of which may or may not still be true, and things from now. I'm not at all sure that Liam doesn't at this moment have any management and given how many things he's actively up to that seems very unlikely to still be true to me. But also that term is pretty vague- like these guys have various different people and agencies for different things. He could lack a direct personal Manager (again do we know for sure that that's still the case, or just WAS the case) and still employ a booking agency and a PR agency, for example. I'm going to ignore the part where you ask if Liam even knows he's had dates booked because wtf. We all worry about Liam but I personally think the story you've apparently settled on about what's happening with him is unnecessarily extreme and somewhat insulting to him. He may or may not make every one of his social media posts himself (few famous people do) but he is definitely making most of them himself (thus why they are weird tbh, because he is a weirdo and is running wild a bit on the socials, bless him). Also if you think he has no management who do you think is posting his socials and holding him captive and announcing fake dates?? This is giving me a headache. Anyway: yes I do think Liam will play the LATAM shows if he's personally able to, which tbh seems a more likely danger to them going ahead than an international conspiracy.

[nightcolorz]

i like your meta about armand in the finale but i have a question. if lestat saved louis from being exposed to the sun, i don't think he was also the one who got him out of the vault (or maybe he was) but i am convinced that armand was the one who poured his blood on the rocks to wake louis. if it had been lestat's blood, louis would have recognized the smell (? why would armand help louis if it means danger for the coven? I just want to fully understand armand's actions 💀

hiii anon thank u!! I’m glad u like my meta and want to hear my thoughts ❤️

I think it’s possible that lestat saved Louis with his blood (it stood out to me while watching how they don’t show the face or even the arm of Armand when he’s sharing his blood during that scene, which makes me think either it was lestat who actually did it or they want us to speculate over whether it was him or not. Either way, I have a feeling it will come up in the next season). But I think it’s more likely that Armand saved Louis out of guilt and possibly empathy. I tried to re-contextualize the episode from the perspective that lestat saved Louis with his blood and Armand took credit for it, but it left too many gaps. It makes more sense to me that while Armand was taking the low servitude role in the coven (which i do think he was telling the truth about), hearing the screams of Louis starving to death horrifically brought him back to how he experienced the same thing (was kidnapped by the Satan cult and imprisoned as he starved until he lost his mind), and he had a Rare Empathy Moment that worked with his primary goal of self preservation, and Armand realized that 1. he has already lost this battle, lestat saved Louis and he’s been defeated (a more vindictive or competent villain would not see this as a defeat and find a work around, but armand has his learned helplessness due to his repeated victimhood and he tends to accept defeat very easily). And 2. Armand has failed to preserve his own safety, because listening to Louis scream and die as he plays the servitude role he was originally subject to when he was first indoctrinated into the Satan cult, is super triggering and definitely not giving him the reassurance and security he is looking for. his coven don’t trust or like him so he has no security in his new role, and his lover who he relied on for an alternate purpose if the coven went sour is dying. so armand probably reasoned that freeing louis and then committing to being his partner again was more in his best interest then watching painfully as he died. Also, weirdly enough lol 😭 Armand is capable of love and emotion sometimes, and he didn’t want Louis to die bcus he doesn’t care about him, only bcus he saw it as inevitable and in his best interest, so I imagine that listening for days on end as Louis painfully dies in a way that connects to Armand’s own trauma would upset him enough to move him to do smth that doesn’t rlly make sense considering any of the actions he has taken 😭. Even Armand makes irrational decisions out of emotion that don’t rlly make sense, tho very very rarely haha.

still, I think it’s possible that Lestat did the blood thing, and amc will use that reveal as a haphazard sort of cop out red herring explanation to support a possibly bigger plot line or twist, and just say Louis didn’t recognize the smell cuz Armand messed with his memories or whatever (a dumb red herring ie “what is the sun to a 514 yr old vampire”, I’m never gonna be over how dumb that was 💀💀). But regardless, I think they could find a way to make either explanation make sense for the characters

thank u for the ask!!

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

I kinda have a hard time making sense off the btm lyrics when connecting them to what Louis has said about the song and how it was written for the fans:

„(...)from doing the tour shows, you do see how much these shows mean to people, how much these songs mean to fans and that’s an incredible feeling.”

There are lines in the song that made me feel slightly different than I feel like most people interpreted them as, for example:

„So, come on, call me liar
Yeah, you're so quick to judge“

or

„It's not black and white
How you sleep at night when you're just like me?“

These lines stood out to me from the beginning but even apart from that I don’t really know how to feel about Louis quote. I don’t wanna write a whole essay here about how I personally interpret the song bc I guess that’s on everyone their own but I will say as a fan and as someone who was also always quite interested in Louis and who observed the fandom discourse about his life closely over the past years I almost felt a little called out with the lines above (call me liar). And so when he says the song is inspired by live shows and the meaning his music has to people it leaves me a bit at a loss. The chorus makes sense to me with that conclusion of everything becoming bigger than him, it’s more than just him and his emotions. It’s now something that other people have made their own and it belongs to them in many different ways now and he just put it out there but has no control on how it will be perceived or treated as.

I struggle to put into words what makes me feel so confused so this all probably sounds a bit senseless. I just would be very interested in how you view Louis words about bigger than me and if it makes sense to you when connecting those quotes to the lyrics.

Thanks for your thoughts anon (and sorry for the delay in replying). Despite my crotchety reply yesterday I am really interested in people's thoughts about lyrics - I just struggle with anons that seem to want me to be an arbiter of the songwriters intent.

I thought your ideas were really interesting - but I'm not sure I understood them fully. It seems like you're thinking that the 'you' of Better Than Me might be fans, and that makes you feel uncomfortable? If I'm wrong about your point let me know.

That idea hadn't occurred to me, but it is an interesting read of the song. If you look at the first verses I don't think they're particularly specific - they're looking back and it feels like a representative 'somebody' who told him some time ago. While the 'you' feels more current. It could be a 'you' that is about a specific person, about a group of people, (like fans), or more general.

I can see why: So come on, call me liar/Yeah, you're so quick to judge/'Cause, yeah, I might have changed/But everybody does - could be addressed at fans (the fact that it would be a reasonable response to anons I answered today is pretty telling). And 'Do you ever ask why it's not black and white?' - is always relevant. But I don't know how to make much sense of 'How you sleep at night when you're just like me?' in that context.

Ultimately I think the song makes most sense to me if the verses are about a range of frustrations and tensions that he's experienced in his life (I assume the lack of specificity is intentional), while the chorus is about the co-creation that goes on between fan and artist as a way of making meaning in the face of those frustrations.

Anyway if you have more thoughts I'd love to hear them. It wouldn't be unusual if something was both a source of tension and a way of making meaning in the face of that tension. So the two interpretations aren't incompatible.