#LOUIS ILL SAVE YOU

[fanfictionroxs]

LESTAT AND ARMAND, ARE YOU MOTHERFUCKERS READY TO DIE?!

[attractive-nuisance-esq]

every single book!Lestat girlie after watching 2.7:

[skitskatdacat63]

“Amore et Timore” - King Fernando I “El Animoso”

[belladonicbloodsucker]

he was 33. he was just a fucking kid.

[peaklesbian-look]

.

[devotedlystrangewizard]

at first i considered engage to be one of the more strategic harder fire emblems (and compared to three houses it definitely is but thats a low bar) but no. its power fantasy. currently my main powerhouse is ivy + soren. they obliterate everything that dares to not have high resistance. wyvern rider? one shot. high def unit? one shot. everyone does decent damage at this point but for a unit i wrote off as a unit i only put on the field because i like her at first.

[disneyprincette]

i thought “after i get the bad ending i’m gonna rewatch the good ending to cheer myself up” but honestly watching the successors die is making me so sad i’m gonna need a whole nother good ending run to feel better after this OTL

[slaygentford]

it’s so craaaaaazy that armand said this time I won’t save your life to Daniel and yeah sure but also it was really louis who saved daniels life in the end wasnt it. not just in that he begged Armand not to kill him but in that he spoke to him and what he said fundamentally was the opposite of what Armand said about how empty and worthless his life would be and Daniel without even remembering Louis saying it was so affected by it that it lived deep within him for fifty years and guided his life and made him, quite literally made him who he is. no WONDERRRRRRR he fucking went to dubai. it wasn’t just curiosity and fear. he traveled during a pandemic with a degenerative illness bc of a deep down knowledge that this person had shaped him fundamentally despite Armand’s best efforts and without any tricks on Louis’ part. AND while Louis spoke to him we couldn’t hear it just like when Lestat spoke to Louis in the church and saved HIS life. I love you, Louis. You are loved. some stories need to be told

[cece693]

Could you an Interview with a vampire Lestat x fem reader Louis sister. She’s been sick for most of her life but the last illness that took out the rest of their family got to her. Louis tries to ease his sister’s pain while burying his own but it’s hard to. Lestat turns Louis and is curious about what he keeps in the east wing of the mansion. He sees a sleeping beauty and senses death is also watching. The reader wakes and tries to sit up to be polite/ introduce themselves, since they’ve heard from the servants her brother has brought a guest home, but Lestat turns on the charm and tells them to save their strength. Oh Louis it’s not nice to keep secrets🌹

Sleeping Beauty (Lestat de Lioncourt x GN! Reader)

tags: female reader, open-ended, Lestat being himself, dying reader, no specific Lestat in mind

The air in the east wing of the mansion was heavy with the scent of wilting flowers and fading life. Louis moved quietly, his footsteps muffled by the thick carpet, the candle in his hand casting flickering shadows along the walls. He took a deep breath before he opened the door to his sister's room.

She lay on her bed like a fragile porcelain doll, the fever having stolen much of her vitality, leaving only the faintest bloom of life on her pale cheeks. She had always been delicate, sickly since childhood, but this last illness, the one that had claimed the rest of their family, had nearly taken her, too. Louis's heart ached every time he looked at her—his only remaining kin. He clutched her cold hand in his, feeling the fragility of her bones beneath her thin skin.

"Louis." she murmured weakly, her eyes fluttering open. Her voice was barely above a whisper, each breath seeming to cost her more than she had to give. "You've brought someone home, haven't you? I’ve heard the servants talking."

“Yes.” he whispered back, forcing a small, reassuring smile to his lips. “A…guest.”

Outside the room, Lestat had been observing. The subtle hints, the secrecy of the servants, the hushed tones of Louis—all had piqued his curiosity. Louis had been a deliciously melancholic creature, so careful to keep certain doors closed. But this—this was different. The east wing had been carefully avoided, like some forbidden garden Louis did not want him to tread.

Lestat pushed open the door without knocking, his presence a sharp contrast to the soft light and gentle atmosphere of the room. The air seemed to grow colder, and even the dying flickers of candlelight trembled at his arrival.

He tilted his head, his eyes sweeping over the frail figure on the bed. She was a delicate creature, her beauty untouched by the disease that sapped her life away, and yet she was fading. Lestat could almost see Death standing in the corner, an unseen visitor waiting patiently.

Louis turned sharply, his body tense, shielding his sister from Lestat’s gaze. “Leave.” he said, his voice low and strained, like a thread about to snap. But Lestat’s eyes were fixed on her. She was a curiosity, a fragile mortal soul teetering on the brink. And, like a cat with a cornered mouse, Lestat found himself intrigued.

The girl, sensing the tension, tried to push herself up, her limbs weak but her spirit evidently polite. “I’m sorry.” she began, her voice barely a breath. “I didn’t mean to not greet you properly.”

Lestat’s face softened into a smile, a beautiful yet predatory expression that seemed to steal the very air from the room. He moved closer, kneeling beside her bed with a grace that bordered on theatrical. “No need for such formalities, ma chère.” he murmured, his eyes catching hers, his tone dripping with dangerous warmth. “Save your strength. You’ll need it.”

He turned his gaze back to Louis, his smile widening with wicked delight. “Oh, Louis. It isn’t nice to keep secrets from me. Especially not such...charming ones.”

Louis’s jaw tightened, his hand trembling slightly as he held his sister’s. “This is none of your concern.”

“Oh, but it is.” His tone was softer now, meant only for their ears.“Because I can smell it—the scent of death lingering so closely here. You’ve kept her hidden away, like sleeping beauty, waiting for a fate you could neither prevent nor accept.”

Lestat’s gaze flickered to the girl, who was watching them both with a calmness that only came from years of suffering. She wasn’t afraid—no, there was something else in her eyes, a quiet acceptance, a resignation to the life she had been given.

“However, I’ll give her the same option I’ve given you.”

Louis felt a surge of panic rise within him, the very idea of his sister becoming like him—cursed with eternal life, forever tied to the darkness—was almost too much to bear. “Lestat, no.” he breathed, his voice trembling. “She doesn’t deserve this. She’s suffered enough.”

But Lestat wasn’t looking at Louis anymore. His attention was fully on the girl, his smile softening, though his eyes held the gleam of someone who saw a rare, precious opportunity. “What do you say, ma chère? Would you like to be free of this suffering? To escape the clutches of death and live beyond the reach of time?”

The room held a stillness that seemed almost alive, each second stretching longer than the last. Lestat watched her intently, his smile never wavering, yet his eyes glimmered with a secret that she couldn’t quite grasp. She was weak, teetering on the edge of life and death, and his words—his promises of a life beyond this one—were both enchanting and terrifying.

“Brother…what does he mean?” she asked, her voice trembling. “What is he offering me?”

Louis's lips parted, but no sound came out. He didn’t know how to explain it, how to tell her the truth about what he had become—what Lestat was. His mind raced with a thousand thoughts, each more painful than the last. He didn’t want to frighten her, but he also didn’t want her to be lured by Lestat’s honeyed words into a fate she didn’t understand.

Lestat chuckled softly, the sound almost musical. “Oh, Louis, do you see how you torture her with your silence? Your brother is worried, ma chère, but he should not be. What I offer is freedom—from pain, from weakness, from death itself.”

Her eyes widened slightly, a flicker of fear crossing her face. “You speak as if…as if you’re some kind of…” She trailed off, uncertain how to finish the thought. “What are you?”

Lestat’s smile widened, his fangs glinting ever so subtly in the dim light. “Ah, now you’re asking the right questions. We are something different. Something eternal. And I am offering you the chance to join us.”

Louis stepped forward, his voice breaking with desperation. “Please, don’t listen to him. You don’t know what he means. You don’t know the cost of his offer.”

She looked between them, her breath shallow, but eyes determined. "I don't want to die, brother."

Louis's face fell, his expression a mix of despair and helplessness. His grip on her hand tightened, his desperation clear in the way his fingers trembled against her skin. “I know.” he whispered, his voice barely holding together. “I know you don’t want to die. But what he’s offering…it’s not life.”

She could feel his fear radiating from him, could see the torment in his eyes, but her own fear of death—a slow, creeping end she had felt drawing closer every day—was stronger. She had lived with the shadow of death her entire life, felt its cold breath on her neck as she lay in bed, too weak to move. She was tired of it. Tired of waiting for the inevitable.

She felt tears well up in her eyes, her heart torn between the brother she loved and the lure of a life free from suffering. She could see the anguish in Louis’s face, the way his soul seemed to cry out in protest. But she could also see the hope, the promise of something more in Lestat’s gaze.

“I want to live.”

Lestat’s smile widened, his expression one of pure, almost childlike delight. “Oh, you will, ma chère. You will.”

[bigevildoeeyes]

rewatching 2x05 and thinking about louis' motivation in saving daniel. daniel who was in deaths embrace before louis intervened, and doesn't that sound familiar? louis does something careless, people get caught in the crossfire, and scrambling for absolution he cant find in himself he insists to his partner this innocent must be saved

depressed, suicidal, spiraling from the guilt and grief of deeply loving claudia yet not in the ways which counted, here is this boy. this boy who should be dead, this boy who is intertwined with louis at his worst and is in some form a reincarnation of the same hope that prompted louis to turn claudia.

drenched in guilt with low resolve to live, here is proof of redemption. in ruins of homes aflame and families dying because of me, here is a girl i can save. in this apartment of dozens dead in my get high, fuck and kill spree, here is a boy i can save.

"She asked if I was an angel! Me!"

"Listen as though I'm the voice of God or an angel, talking to you (...) youre not inconsequential or a junkie. Youre a bright young reporter with a point of view."

i like to think saving daniel was louis first attempt of transforming his love for claudia into something non-destructive after her death. it became guilt, became violence, became hatred but with daniel it returned to the beacon of hope she was originally

so let him live. let me save you without the harm of staying with me. live a long full life unburdened and with the joy and success i wasnt able to give her. 'as long as you walk the earth ill never taste the fire', then she stopped walking the earth, then i did taste the fire, and this is me trying to stay alive. trying to refamiliarize with love using her blueprint

[covid-safer-hotties]

Nasal COVID-19 vaccine halts transmission - Published July 31, 2024

Study in hamsters indicates vaccines targeting nose, mouth may be key to controlling spread of respiratory infections

A nasal COVID-19 vaccine blocks transmission of the virus, according to an animal study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings suggest that vaccines delivered directly to the nose or mouth could play a critical role in containing the spread of respiratory infections.

The lightning-fast development of COVID-19 vaccines just months after the virus appeared was a triumph of modern science and saved millions of lives. But for all the good they did in reducing illnesses and deaths, the shots were unable to end the pandemic because of one notable weakness: They couldn’t stop the spread of the virus.

A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that next-generation vaccines that target the virus’s points of entry — the nose and mouth — may be able to do what traditional shots cannot: contain the spread of respiratory infections and prevent transmission. Using a nasal COVID-19 vaccine based on Washington University technology, approved for use in India and licensed to Ocugen for further development in the U.S., the researchers showed that vaccinated hamsters that developed infections did not pass the virus on to others, breaking the cycle of transmission. In contrast, an approved COVID-19 vaccine that is injected failed to prevent the spread of the virus.

The findings, published July 31 in Science Advances, provide further evidence that so-called mucosal vaccines sprayed into the nose or dropped into the mouth may be the key to controlling respiratory infections such as influenza and COVID-19 that continue to circulate and cause significant illness and death.

“To prevent transmission, you need to keep the amount of virus in the upper airways low,” said senior author Jacco Boon, PhD, a professor of medicine, of molecular microbiology and of pathology & immunology. “The less virus that is there to begin with, the less likely you are to infect someone else if you cough or sneeze or even just breathe on them. This study shows that mucosal vaccines are superior to injected vaccines in terms of limiting viral replication in the upper airways and preventing spread to the next individual. In an epidemic or pandemic situation, this is the kind of vaccine you’re going to want.”

Developing vaccines that can control virus levels in the nose has proven challenging. Viruses such as influenza virus, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) multiply rapidly in the nose and spread from person to person within a few days of initial exposure. Traditional injectable vaccines generate immune responses that can take a week to build to full strength and are much less potent in the nose than in the bloodstream, leaving the nose relatively unprotected against a fast-multiplying, fast-spreading virus.

In principle, a vaccine sprayed or dropped directly into the nose or mouth could limit viral reproduction and thereby reduce transmission by eliciting an immune response right where it’s needed most. But gathering evidence that mucosal vaccines actually do reduce transmission has proven tricky. Animal models of transmission are not well-established, and tracking person-to-person transmission is fiendishly complicated, given the number and variety of encounters a typical person has on any given day.

For this study, Boon and colleagues developed and validated a model for community transmission using hamsters and then used it to assess the effect of mucosal vaccination on the spread of SARS-CoV-2. (Unlike mice, hamsters are naturally susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2, making them the ideal laboratory animals for a transmission study.)

The researchers immunized groups of hamsters with laboratory versions of approved COVID-19 vaccines: the nasal iNCOVACC used in India or the injected Pfizer vaccine. For comparison, some hamsters were not immunized. After giving the vaccinated hamsters a few weeks for their immune responses to fully mature, the researchers infected other hamsters with SARS-CoV-2 and then placed the immunized hamsters with the infected hamsters for eight hours. This first step of the experiment mimics the experience of vaccinated people who are exposed to a person with COVID-19.

After spending eight hours rubbing shoulders with infected hamsters, most of the vaccinated animals became infected. Virus was found in the noses and lungs of 12 of 14 (86%) hamsters that had received the nasal vaccine, and 15 of 16 (94%) hamsters that had received the injected vaccine. Importantly, while most animals in both groups were infected, they weren’t infected to the same degree. Hamsters that had been nasally immunized had virus levels in the airways 100 to 100,000 times lower than those that had received the shot or had not been vaccinated. The study did not assess the animals’ health, but previous studies have shown that both vaccines reduce the likelihood of severe illness and death from COVID-19.

The second step of the experiment yielded even more striking results. The researchers took vaccinated hamsters that subsequently developed infections and placed them with healthy vaccinated and unvaccinated hamsters for eight hours to model transmission of virus from a vaccinated person to others.

None of the hamsters that were exposed to nasally vaccinated hamsters became infected, regardless of whether the recipient hamster had been vaccinated or not. In contrast, roughly half of the hamsters that were exposed to hamsters vaccinated by injection became infected — again, regardless of the recipient’s immunization status. In other words, vaccination through the nose — but not by injection — broke the cycle of transmission.

These data, Boon said, could be important as the world prepares for the possibility that avian influenza, currently causing an outbreak in dairy cows, might adapt to humans and trigger a flu epidemic. An injectable vaccine for avian influenza already exists, and a team of researchers at Washington University is working toward a nasal vaccine for avian influenza. That team includes Boon and co-author Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine and one of the inventors of the nasal vaccine technology used in this paper.

“Mucosal vaccines are the future of vaccines for respiratory infections,” Boon said. “Historically, developing such vaccines has been challenging. There’s still so much we don’t know about the kind of immune response we need and how to elicit it. I think we’re going to see a lot of very exciting research in the next few years that could lead to big improvements in vaccines for respiratory infections.”

Study linked in the first link!

[gallierhouse]

Some thoughts on Armand’s relationship with love, control, and his trauma. Armand’s relationship with Marius is the template for all his subsequent relationships. I know we haven’t met Marius yet, but of course Armand loves and loathes and worships and fears Marius in equal measure. Anything else would be surprising. Of course he loves the man who saved him, sold him, donated him, raised him, loved him, in whatever way Marius was capable of (“Amadeo” wouldn’t be in the painting if Marius didn’t), eventually tossed him aside, and then turned him (“the ones we turn always resent us for it”). I’m guessing that Armand half wants to go back to Marius (or whatever it was like with Marius, back in Venice) and half never wants to see him again. If he ever does see Marius again he’s probably going to shut down and try to avoid him, and the moment Marius is gone, he’s going to miss him and wish he’d acted differently. Marius, as far as I can tell, seems to be something between a master, father, and god for Armand. You see it leak through when he goes to Lestat’s play and in the way Louis comforts him. He treats Lestat like a child, he’s trying to seduce Lestat into joining the coven, Louis cups his face the way you’d comfort a child. His relationship with Marius is probably ultimately familial on some level, all the comfort and authority of a father, along with the abuse that comes with it. And we know that Marius sexually abused Armand and trafficked him to his friends, but that’s not incompatible with being a fatherly figure, it just means that the result it produced in Armand is probably a fundamental blurring of familial, romantic, and sexual boundaries, which does explain a lot of his behavior. When Armand reflects on what Marius was like, he says he “basked in his worshipful mercy,” and it makes sense. Marius saved him from the brothel, Marius held his life in his hands, Marius eventually gave him eternal life to save him from his illness. For Armand, he’s a god. And the thing about gods is that as much as you worship and revere and love them, they’re also objects of fear. That’s why you worship them. Fear and love go hand in hand. I think that mixture of fear and love, and the blurring of familial/romantic/sexual boundaries is essentially what explains all of Armand’s relationships post-Marius.

Armand is both tyrannical and loving towards the coven, but it’s the same thing. What he does to and for them is love. We know he’s abusing Louis in episode 5, but it is love. It’s punishment, it’s resentment, it’s hurt, and it’s love. When he talks about the “prison of empathy” he’s not being facetious. That’s genuinely how he sees it. All of this, Louis half-burnt to death, screaming for him to stop torturing Daniel, is love. Because if he didn’t love Louis he would’ve let him burn to death on the roof, if he didn’t love Louis he would’ve left him instead of taking care of him, and when Louis finally evokes their relationship to stop Armand from eating Daniel, Armand is genuinely hurt. How could you deny him this one thing? When all he’s done is love you? All he does is clean up after Louis, pick up the pieces of these broken and battered young men, pick up the pieces of Louis’ addiction. It’s love. And it’s not healthy and it’s not kind, and it’s selfish and it’s abusive, but it is love. I think, for Armand, punishment and abuse and servitude aren’t antithetical to love, but a necessary part of it. That’s the shape love takes for him. And when he asks Louis, “are you asking or making me?” I don’t necessarily think he’s trying to skirt responsibility or trap Louis by retreating into the safety of their BDSM dynamic. Louis obviously wants Armand there because he wants to share something beautiful with Armand. He’s asking Armand because he loves Armand and he wants to share something important and beautiful with him, Louis wants to be a family. But Armand’s obviously conflicted, he doesn’t believe in turning vampires, he doesn’t want to be there because he’s still caught between the coven and Louis’ love (if the story we’ve been told is accurate). I don’t think he retreats into the dynamic because he’s guilt tripping Louis or attempting to use the power of his sad amber eyes, he’s really just asking. Is this what you require of me? Is this what you want? To love someone is to obey them, to submit, even when it’s unpleasant, especially when it’s unpleasant. That’s how you show the value of your love. Louis detects this and immediately comforts him, and the way Armand responds is childlike. Louis is cupping his face, telling him it’s okay, Armand looks at him with a genuine expression of vulnerability. I think this is just the shape of love for Armand. Yeah, it’s fucked up, but that’s how he loves, and in turn, how he expects to be loved. So when he punishes Louis it’s not because he doesn’t love him, but because if Louis loved him, he’d take it. That’s just part and parcel of what love is for him. It’s why he doesn’t see the way he treats Claudia (or the coven) as abusive, that’s just love. You wouldn’t bother punishing someone if you didn’t love them, and their tolerance and acceptance of the punishment is proof of their love for you. It’s deeply masochistic. But he was trafficked and then raised by a man who continued to abuse and save him all at once. So it’s really only expected.

Ultimately, the reasons for his issues with sex and control and his inability to express agency are rooted in his abuse. It’s frozen his development and rendered him unable to express agency or even want without the comfort of submission. It’s also rendered him terrified of abandonment — which is probably related to being kidnapped by the Children of Darkness and taken away from Marius — which leads him to engage in self-defeating behavior. He desires submission, but he can’t truly submit, because he can’t let anyone leave him, so he must control them, but he can’t submit to them if he controls them. That’s the core of his power play with Louis. He’s the dominant figure (he’s older, stronger, in San Francisco and Dubai he essentially controls Louis’ life) but he plays at submission (their D/S dynamic) in an attempt to have his cake and eat it. He’s emotionally stuck being that scared child who worships this terrifying, loving, abusive father-master-god figure, and he alternates between trying to find the security of familiarity in being that scared child, and trying to emulate Marius when he’s projecting power. He’s a father, master and god to the coven, and the scared child to Louis. It’s all the same.

[starregulus]

right before louis brought claudia to lestat he was going to leave him. he told lestat "you're going to be alone forvever" (fear of abandonment go brrrr) and walked out the door. Only to come back with claudia and tell him if you turn her I'll never leave you. She'll be our daughter. And Lestat's face at that moment is like "Im gonna have a family. 2 people in my life so I wont feel that feared vampire loneliness" so he turns her

Not only so he can keep Louis but also because the thought of having a daughter as well as Louis was hbdhbhdbfnjdscdbf. And he loves her,. He teaches her to hunt. He teaches her to drive. He teaches her chess and piano. He buys her coffin. Buys her dresses. Like that HIS daughter. And then he realizes that Louis and Claudia can have conversations without him. And he'll never have any idea what they're saying about him (mental illness go brrrrr). And Louis may love Claudia more than him now. His person is gone and now he has to share (which we already know he does not want to do LMAo) And then Claudia leaves. He tells her not to cause vampires out there suck. But he lets her go for whatever reason that we may or may not ever find out. And he has Louis again. Except he doesnt. Because Louis is depresssed that Claudia is gone. Despite that he stays with Louis. Even though Louis is ignoring him and his love languages are not being met. He stays, but he's still alone. blah blah vampire loneliness is the worst thing ever (enter Antoinette; not getting into her). Anyway. Claudia comes back and starts begging Louis to leave Lestat with her. (Claudia hates him by now because Lestat is Lestat and he turned her into a vampire and now she's stuck in the body of a 14 year old forever and it's the worst thingf ever, and also the thing with Charlie)

So anyway Claudia is leaving. And she wants to take Louis with her. His 2 people are leaving him and he's going to be alone again. Eventhough Louis promised him they would stay. That they would be a family. That he would have a family. And he wouldn't be alone. But they're going to leave him. He turned Claudia, saved her life, even though he didn't want to, to prevent this , but now she's taking Louis away from him. So obvioisly, like any sane and rational human being (vampire i guess), he loses his shit and rages and beats the fuck out Louis. As one does ofc when you're a 160 year old vampire. Definitely not evidence of an underlying personality disorder or anything

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep8 Musings - LDPDL: Burning Questions

I was reading this Variety article, and they mentioned something that made me think of fan critiques of Louis' opaque motivations in the finale, and the fun laughs we've shared over how he's so unbothered by vamp nonsense that he never seems to ask important questions.

I'm drafting a separate post specifically about "Vampire Grace," but I wanted to focus here on only one point in particular:

PAUL.

We always talk about whether Louis chose Lestat over Claudia; "you take him with you, in HERE!" But I haven't seen talk about how Louis chose Lestat over Paul, and how that factors into Lou's habit of not asking HELLA important questions that could've saved Loustat DECADES of resentment.

Paul's suicide "opened the series," setting this whole thing in motion. Florence blames Louis for his death, making Lou feel like a failure.

--the first time we see Louis outright say to someone's face "I love you," it's mere seconds b4 Paul jumps off a roof. (The only other person we see him say it to is Armand, right after saying they're not companions. 💀)

Paul's memory is wrapped up in Louis' love of Lestat, cuz until Les showed up, Paul had been Lou's one and only companion--the sole person he could TALK to. As a closeted gay man, Lou was desperate for MALE companionship: understanding, acceptance & love.

Sure, he had Grace & Lily (& later Claudia)--all WOMEN--but:

his daddy's dead, and who knows what their deal was, but it couldn't be worse than effing Florence. So there's a lingering want of a father-figure; someone older/wiser who could teach & guide Lou when he was feeling "lost...in a dark way" (*cough* Armand *cough*)

a father or brother is still not the companion Louis REALLY wants/needs, so ofc there's things Lou can't tell Paul, or have with him. Les's an upgraded Paul-- a HUSBAND, not a SIBLING (*cough* Claudia *cough*).

(deep down) Lou was jealous of how candid & honest Paul was; regardless that Paul's lack of a filter was a side effect of his mental illness & religious fanaticism (cuz vampirism's an allegory for sexuality--and even in gay mecca Paris & SanFran Lou was still tryna "find himself" as the Zodiac Killer *cough Daniel *cough*)

Paul's dying wish was for Loustat to never be together

and Lou felt he'd betrayed Paul; that he'd lied/hadn't kept his word

folding like a leaf rather than saying NO, or killing himself like he'd implied (suicide by vampire instead of cane-sword/alcohol poisoning)

(and Queen Claudia called Lestat the "Father of Lies" (aka The Devil), and she ain't never lie a day in her life, either)

So the Catholic guilt was extra strong, cuz Saint Paul was right about Les; but Lou chose Les anyway--in the church, on the altar--after Paul died trusting that Lou WOULDN'T take him back.

Instead, we get this boatload of excuses from Louis about the "vampire bond," when the only bond that matters is LOVE. But this is the crux of Louis' personality/problems, and why the interview took so long for him to attempt either the 1st or 2nd time around. Cuz Louis is a hypocritical coward stuffed to gills with self-loathing & GUILT. He runs away from the truth, he runs away from his issues, and he hides from himself and everyone around him.

So OF COURSE Louis doesn't ask important questions. It's not that he doesn't care--it's that HE'S SCARED of asking, and terrified of what the answer is. So it takes him forever to even BEGIN addressing the elephants in the room.

Louis ALWAYS suspected. But he was:

Scared of the answer/truth

Scared that Les would LIE

Scared he'd forgive Les regardless

Paul died in 1911. It had been 26 YEARS until Lou finally piped up in 1937 (the end of Les's Grovel Era). But this was the PERFECT chance to call Les' bluff & get some honest answers out of him for once, cuz:

If Les (unapologetically) caused Paul's death, he can just stay gone

It's in Les' best interest to tell the truth regardless, cuz he's been desperately tryna get back in Lou's (& Claudia's) good graces for 6 years, and being sincere will earn him more cookies (he'd also be banking on Lou forgiving him regardless, cuz he's been missing Les so bad, even after being beat into the next decade & dropped a billion miles in the air)

If Les IS lying, how would they even frikkin know if they can't read his mind? Lou just wants to see what Les will say

(In 2x6 he waited to ask Madeleine if she only saw Claudia as a replacement for her dead sister--a question he should've asked BEFORE he Turned her, but... 🤷 Moot.)

So in the finale, there's 2 painful truths Lou has to contend with:

WHY is he doing the 2nd interview?

WHO saved him during the Trial?

It takes Louis 77 YEARS to reclaim the "pieces of myself" he'd lost/forgotten. He ALWAYS knew things weren't adding up with Armand. He KNEW there were things missing. Even in SanFran, BEFORE the mind-wipe, he was already losing his mind/memories--PTSD from all the awful things he'd been through.

Even book!Louis knew about Claudia's diaries for a decade b4 he finally got the courage to ask the Talamasca if he could read them & speak to her ghost.

Although Lou's naive AF, he's not an idiot--he HAD A HUNCH that Armand knew more than he was letting on, which is precisely why he kept ignoring Armand every time he asked to stop the interview.

However, for once, Lou actually wastes VERY little time with this one:

As soon as he learns the truth about "Banishment," he divorces Armand, and runs back to NOLA to find Lestat. Memory is a monster Lou'd been running scared from all this time. He's tired of running away, wasting so much time, wasting the gift, when he could be actively tryna solve his problems to make life bearable/better. The hellish prison he'd lived in was by his own design--only he could chose to stand up, take control of his life; and finally ask the burning questions. "Truth and reconciliation."

Lou could finally make peace with the memory of the two people he'd been avoiding for so long; whom he felt he'd let down the most:

For once Lou chooses to be "companion enough for myself," and live with/for himself, not relying other people to save/fix/determine his life for him anymore. That's really the only way he'll be able to be with Les in a healthier, guilt-free relationship in the future.

[louisupdates]

Within a few years, [Lottie] Tomlinson would be touring America, Asia and Europe, flying first class with Louis, part of the biggest boy band in the world, but until she was 15, the family had only ever gone to France once a year all packed into a seven-seater car, with her mother’s new partner, snacks laid out in the middle. They stayed in a caravan park. On a Sunday, a treat was to go to their mother’s hospital to see the babies.

While Louis just wanted to sing, play the guitar and listen to Oasis, the girls were obsessed with make-up.

Saturday nights were spent watching The X Factor. “My mother and brother kept applying; in 2010, he got in and the whole family went for the audition. We believed in him, but we never thought it would go that far.” One day the family were going to the live shows, the next the boy band was formed with Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne. “He was 18. For my mum it was a big shock. It was all so sudden. The press and fans were in our front garden every day.”

“At first Louis didn’t really want his little sister gate crashing his new rock-star life, but now it feels like the best time of our lives — we experienced that craziness together,” [Lottie] says.

Her mother asked the family to keep her illness secret. “It was hard because you feel so isolated, but I understood. Louis was in the public eye and she didn’t want him questioned. She was determined to fight it and didn’t want everyone pitying her. My friends noticed I was acting differently for a few months. But I wanted to respect her wishes. It was her one request.”

Meanwhile, her older brother, who was launching his solo career, ensured there was enough money. “He’s incredibly generous. We looked after each other.”

Louis was also forging his career as a solo artist, eventually creating the song Two of Us about his mother’s death. “We were always so proud of Louis and what he was doing. We were not going to match up to being a global superstar, but we didn’t want to — ‘successful’ looks different for everyone,” she says.

When [Lottie] Tomlinson was invited to Bali, she asked Fizz whether she wanted her to stay behind. “She said she was OK, and then it happened while I was away,” she says. (Fizz accidentally overdosed on cocaine, an anxiety drug and painkillers, her inquest found.) “Louis called me…” She stops talking.

“[…] it’s funny, [Lucky] actually looks a lot like Louis did — and I thought, this is what my mother must have felt. But then I had so many questions I couldn’t ask, even more because she was a midwife.”

- Excerpts from the INTERVIEW: Lottie Tomlinson: we lost our mum and sister. Louis saved me. By Alice Thomson, The Times [23.7.2024] to promote Lottie’s book, Lucky Girl

[blueiight]

“…i was haunted by my brother’s death, by the abandonment of my sister…”

majority of the conversation around paul in the amc setting revolves around the question of whodunnit, jokes about him at the second dinner table scene of the pilot, or paralleling his mental illness to louis [a parallel the show admittedly draws upon - with louis stopping his suicide attempt bc “paul forever ruining grace’s wedding night, and [louis] not wanting to do the same to claudia on the anniversary of her escape”] what i intend to focus on, is the specific nature of paul’s complaints with respect to levi, and what paul and claudia represent to louis.

in the book, paul wants louis to sell the plantations & town homes they own in new orleans, and give louis the money so that paul could travel and become a missionary saving france from the godless jacobins. the paul that we’re introduced to in the show is… similar in motivation, but fundamentally divergent. tithe the money over to st. augustine’s so the house dont fall in on them, but the first dinner table goes as this after he says that:

whats of note too is the divergence of the draft v the pilot release. the show excises the freniere family w the exception of levi himself to drive home how paul’s objections to levi’s religious and ethnic background are overruled by the lingering shadow of jim crow.

paul is also reminded that his autonomy is conditional in this first dinner scene here: louis quips back to his point about sugarcane with “if daddy was still here, you’d be locked up in that asylum over in jackson”. its a reminder of the earlier point, but also speaks to something else.

bc of paul’s profound mental illness, he would never be allowed to live an autonomous life, much less hold authority over anyone: whether its the man of the house [as louis was in the du lac family], or as a bride [grace] or as the mother [florence].

this is strongly reminiscent of claudia — someone whos personal autonomy is entirely dependent on the purview of physically mature vampires by nature of permanently being trapped in the body of a preteen. it is also reminiscent of claudia in that louis in both cases plays a sort of savior in relation to them — whether its louis taking paul out of the asylum, or louis taking claudia out of the burning rooming home. louis views paul and claudia, especially claudia, as people that save him from his own self-loathing.. claudia somehow possessing this redemptive quality re: baby jesus…

louis loves both of them deeply, but as iwtv has established, love as a feeling does not exempt someone from enacting violence toward you. in fact, the very loved one that harmed you has an entire framework of rationalizing that violent act as being ‘for your[my] own good’ as is.

the title of this little post comes from the season one finale, where louis collapses in on himself to try to make sense of why he spared lestat, invoking paul and grace to create this red herring to the ‘murder of lestat’. but truly, the thread is false. louis did not abandon grace, and lestat’s death was only an attempted murder sabotaged by louis. modern day louis in the season finale triggers himself through daniel in order to provoke armand, the “protector of his pain”, to reveal himself + question him on the death of claudia, just as he questioned lestat on the death of paul in s1e6.