#because louis would be pretending to be a man? actually no that doesn't really work lol

[bombasticsalt]

Loustat and Loumand love vs fascination (take this analysis with no grammar because it's 1am)

One of the scenes that really sticks out to me with Loumand in season two is when Louis tells Armand he loves him and dreamstat starts laughing it's crazy because if this were a Louis and Lestat scene it would have been framed as dramatic and their would have been tears but it's comedic almost when Louis and Armand do it especially when you remember that we never see Louis tell Lestat he loves him yet we as the audience can obviously see he did. Both Armand and Lestat stalked Louis and they both had some sort of soft spot for him before they even actually talked to him and yet, look at how different the way Louis views their first meeting as he says he left the meeting with Lestat thinking only of him but Lestat was real he said things that he meant with Armand it's almost like their meeting is framed as some meetcute he says I will not harm you which yeah sounds sweet until you consider the fact that meetings later he talks about killing Louis. Ever since they met Armand has been presenting himself as a sheep in wolfs clothing and you can say a lot about Lestat but for all his acting he showed Louis who he really was before Louis got in too deep he shows Louis his temper he shows Louis his passions his ramblings his privilege everything I think that says something that Armand would rather pretend to be anything else but what he is a dangerous predator.

And the worst part is it still doesn't work sure love at first sight wasn't something to expect in a gothic romance but listen to how Louis describes meeting Lestat he wanted to be the man and murder the man when Louis was at the party getting ready to kill Lestat he still wanted him all to himself there was this passion for Lestat since their first meeting yeah sure Louis at the moment thinks of this memory fondly but at that time when it happened he was confused like the scene was almost eerily sweet to me

I don't think Louis feels absolutely nothing for Armand I think Louis thinks he loves Armand or at least Armand interests him at first he loves armand in the way you love a spring fling that you don't expect to last through the winter it's fun, interesting and new and that's the main problem with Loumand it lasted way longer than it should have because both Louis and Armand can't be alone a spring fling is nice during the spring when you're bored and depressed but what about when you have a thousand other things you could be doing and you're stuck in a marriage thats like a candle that went out almost five seconds after you lit it for 77 years when the person stops being interesting and fun what's really left of the relationship? Love? Yeah sure maybe but not when you know there's a person out there you loved more than anybody else somebody like Lestat

I feel like this is further proved by how Lestat and Armand react to the boys Louis confides in, for Lestat it was Jonah he got mad about Jonah because he famously heard their hearts dancing and felt the affection Louis had for Jonah especially since Lestat was a lot for Louis. It seems like Lestat thought Louis could fall in love with Jonah and leave him and for Lestat leaving equates with somebody not loving him anymore what threatens Lestat is the idea Louis might not love him and that's ultimately what Lestat wants love he needs attention more than we ever see him need blood he's greedy for it. However, with Daniel he didn't even sleep with Louis so what threatens Armand isn't that Louis might not love him anymore it's that Louis finds Daniel more interesting than him because I think deep down that Armand knows that their love was short lived and the only reason why Louis was still with him was desperation and fascination because Armand knows things even though Louis isn't exactly always curious about vampires he taught Louis how to use fire he does know things that prove useful he clearly doesn't care all that much about the great laws if he let Daniel live this experience because it was never about the great laws it's about Lestat the first interview was a call out to Lestat from Louis and Armand knew that I'm not saying love isn't involved but I'm saying I believe in my opinion it was more about him not wanting Louis to leave because Armand believes he needs a master he needs somebody else to pretend like they have control over him sure yeah him calling Louis Maitre is just for fun he doesn't have to listen to Louis in fact he doesn't listen to Louis sure he keeps Daniel alive but also he turns Daniel eventually Armand is so interesting to me because Armand is a puppet master who wants to feel like a puppet because he never really realized he got cut loose from his strings that's why he potrays himself as helpless even his clothes are meant to make him seem smaller than he actually is he makes people do things for him indirectly TWICE he lets Lestat and Louis destroy his cult coven and then hides behind the words I could not prevent it. Both Lestat and Armand are afraid that Louis will leave them but for different reasons Lestat's afraid Louis will leave him because Louis doesn't love him and Armand literally fucking tortures Daniel aesthetictly just because he's afraid Louis finds him boring he has to be fascinating or else Louis will leave.

Another reason that really shows the differences between Love and fascination is what Louis says to both of them when he wants to hurt them, Louis tells Lestat that's why he's always going to be alone and why they won't work because Louis knows Lestat he knows the thing that will hurt Lestat more than anything else is threatening to take his love and affection away and leave him all alone because Lestat is also a part of the three musketeers of making bad decisions because he can't handle being alone, with Armand though Louis calls him boring because for Louis the worst possible thing to say to Armand isn't I won't love you anymore and I'll leave it's you're boring something that hurts Armand worse if Armand isn't fascinating or fun to Louis then what's the point? What's the point to be in a marriage of spite what's the point of living if Claudia is dead Lestat fucked off to God knows where after the trial and Louis's only companion has lost all the traits that make him want to stay but Louis would rather die than be alone and unloved. But for Loumand the words I love you are like a dagger in both instances when Louis says it (it's fucking 3:46 am if they say it more than twice I'll edit) it's mocked dreamstat laughs Louis laughs while saying it in San Frisco. Love is a weapon when Louis verbally says it after Paul's death. In fact Louis not saying he loves Lestat seems more romantic than him telling Armand he does. Because we as the viewers know he loves Lestat in the way he talks about him, the way he remembers Lestat's ramblings, the way he reacts to Lestat telling him about Magnus, because even though Louis memory has bias ultimately he remembers Lestat as this beautiful monster who he was in love with we're shown that he loves him. But with Armand and Louis we're told their in love but when is it shown with Loustat their was an intimacy in the shadows because they were in a openly homophobic town but with Loumand their relationship seems more like a performance they hold hands in public but in private they're divided when Louis was supposedly falling in love with Armand in Paris he says they aren't companions to Santiago and I think that's why Armand lied about saving Louis because that was the only major thing he could do that would make Louis want to stay, Lestat turned Claudia for Louis in his love Lestat brought the azalea for Louis because he loves him he shows Louis he loves him but what does Armand do? He threatens to kill Louis he won't turn Madeline for Louis sure he tells Louis he loves him but it's not shown not like how Lestat's love is. AND LESTAT DOES IT AGAIN he saves Louis again he proves that he loves Louis again when Armand can't or won't the only thing is the opportunity presented itself where Armand could take the credit for it he could please the coven and keep the guy at the same time because if Armand wouldn't have taken credit for that they wouldn't have stayed together he would have left. Would Louis have gotten back together with Lestat? Probably not but the point is the 77 years wouldn't have happened. Daniel calls it a seismic lie because it is that's what the relationship is based on that's the reason Louis stayed because he felt like he owed it to Armand and that's why he doesn't hesitate to leave Armands when he learns it.

I think that's what makes Loumand so interesting is that Louis doesn't want someone soft he wants the chaos back of Lestat once it's taken away he doesn't want a manipulative pillow who hides all his flaws and does everything he says he wants Lestat who screams back at him with the same passion that burns like a furnace Lestat who can't help but be so passionate about everything he does Lestat who does too much and that passion makes Lestat feel so human even when he's doing the most inhumane things whereas Armand acts as if he's above it all like he's some type of God but also portraying himself as weak and helpless in other situations that makes him so inhumane which could also be why Daniel ends up falling for him.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Oh I love these:

Jacob Anderson

On Sam Reid's performance as dream Lestat: "I noticed after we did a few scenes together with that dynamic, I would just notice Sam copying me. I would have to be like, 'OK, he's studying the way that I stand or the way that I say things. It's the story. It's what's supposed to be happening.' But occasionally I was like, 'I don't do that!' Now I've seen the season, and I'm like, 'It's genius.' I'm looking forward to seeing what Sam says about playing Louis, essentially. It's Lestat as Louis remembers him, filtered through the things that Louis doesn't want to say, and can't say. And maybe the things that Louis is embarrassed or ashamed about, Lestat just says it."

Sam Reid

On Lestat and Armand's relationship: "They have a very, very, very messy relationship. I think a big part of why Lestat didn't want to go back to France, in Season 1, when they were in New Orleans, is because he doesn't want to run into Armand. He doesn't want to see Armand. He's got a very, very complex relationship with him. It's not like he's like, "Ugh, Armand!" [Disgusted noise] It's like, "Ugh." [Exasperated noise] He's not twisty, turny, thinking about Armand every single day or whatever. He's like, "Ugh, I just would rather… Yeah, I don't want him around." But when he does the flick of his wrist when he thinks about Armand, he's also flicking a huge chunk of his life away."

Delainey Hayles

On Louis and Claudia's relationship: "The book became like my Bible in a way, where I was able to look back and look at how Anne Rice describes Claudia. And I was taking into consideration that it's been her and Louis for a very long time. As a child, you absorb your surroundings. Claudia has spent a lot of time with Louis over the past couple of years. So I think, in a way, his empathy kind of rubs off on her."

Assad Zaman

On the show's memory theme: "I personally think often we equate — if the memory's a little bit inaccurate, then the feeling isn't real. [But] if you think back to our childhood, we elaborate on the stories in our heads so much, and often the tiniest things, moments that meant a lot to us become bigger as we remember them. Time slows down or speeds up, and people become larger or smaller in our heads depending on how they made us feel in that time. I think [there's] a lot of that this season — when we go into Paris, I think that's where the performative nature comes into it. We get to really embrace those emotions. The love between Louis and Armand, the romance, is one of the most beautiful parts of it, the way it starts."

Eric Bogosian

On his experience working on the show: "To be working on such complex material and be asked to do things that I haven't done before, and to be working with such amazing creative team — I mean... I've been around. I'm not speaking from, like, this is my second show or my third show. This is like, my 35th show, or 60th, or something. So when I say that Rolin [Jones] is amazing, Hannah [Moscovitch] is amazing — that's our writing team — and that Jacob and Assad are amazing — these guys are very generous. And I think a lot about [how] when you go into deep work as an actor, you have to feel safe. I have definitely not been safe [in the past], especially with men. Men can be real jerks on set, and the audience can't see it, because we have to do our job. But if you're with a bully star, it's hard to go to where you need to go to. And Jacob, who's mainly who I'm working with, he's a very loving guy. Maybe people don't want to know this about him. Maybe I'm only supposed to say things like, 'In real life he's actually a vampire,' but in real life, he's actually a real, very sweet man. Very human."

Ben Daniels

On Santiago's approach to the theater: "It's like people trolling on Twitter. It's like, they're hidden behind the screen, but his screen is the fact that he's pretending to be a human. And he sort of is getting those mortals by the scruff of the neck and saying, 'Look at yourselves. Look how ridiculous and pathetic you are.' But they lap it up because they think it's a show."

THERE'S MORE!

[twopoppies]

I would like to add a bit to the ‘bi as a stepping stone’ discussion.

We all know how Ricky Martin was sold at the end of 90’s/ early 00’s - his hypersexual videos with tuns of half naked women & occasionally making out with some of them. Idk in how many relationships he was with women (and if they were real or just for a bearding purpose) before he came out but according to wiki, it says:

“In March 2010, Martin publicly came out as gay via a message on his website, stating: "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am."In an interview with Vanity Fair, he declared: "There was love, passion. I do not regret anything, any of the relationships I lived, they taught me a lot, both men and women." Martin also told Fama!: "I know that I like both men and women, I'm against sexual labels, we are simply human beings with emotional and sexual needs. I like to enjoy sex in total freedom, so I'm open to having sex with a woman if I feel desire." Despite this, he expressed that he would not be interested in "an ongoing relationship with a woman", stating: "Men are my thing"”

So there it is - he talked about relationships/being in love and sleeping with women but yet he came out as gay, not bi.

So in my theory and based on the fact that I believe H doesn’t want to lie about important things (we all know how he denied Larry when asked about Sweet Creature), if he (and Louis) will want & be able to come out, he will make sure his PR team will work harder than the devil to come out with a bulletproof strategy to come out without using bi as a stepping stone. And also if he’s actually bi (like he’s not), imo he would come out already because he plays both straight and gay anyway so I don’t think it would be such a biggie if you get what I mean. But there’s a reason why he keeps it to himself and so I don’t think (and I really hope) he won’t come out as bi.

I agree with you. I think the idea that he's bisexual has been put out there by his team as a way to "explain" his lyrics/behavior/appearance etc. and keep playing all sides. But I don't think he's actually going to confirm he's bisexual. He's made it quite clear he doesn't think the public needs to know anything about his sexuality. What I would hope for him is the end of the PR relationships and the ability to stop pretending. If he ever wants to confirm or clarify, that's up to him.

I think with Ricky Martin, it's possible he was still discovering himself early on when he had relationships with women, but I don't know. He identifies as a gay man at this point, and he seems very happy. I believe Harry has known for a long time that he's not interested in women (in fact, the only time he's ever directly answered a question about his sexuality was to say he WASN'T bisexual, but everyone seems to ignore that now).

[monstersinthecosmos]

I have no intention of watching the new IWTV show, but I was wondering why you think Armand's characterization was so bad. I kinda hated how Antonio Banderas played him in the 1994 movie (not on its own, just in comparison to the books - I feel like his personality/demeanor was totally different), so it's sad that they still haven't gotten him right... Judging from pictures alone, I did think the casting for him was more fitting this time. Anyway, just curious to hear your thoughts!

Oh man!!!!!!!!! I do wanna say up front, I think Antonio was NOT A GREAT ARMAND but I like those scenes in the movie so much because they feel SO RICEY to me. Like I LOVE Movie!Armand even though he isn't Book!Armand, and if you read IWTV in good faith it's the only book that doens't harp on Armand looking like a smol uwu cherub so like ! SURE. He definitely still brings the calm nurturing mentor vibe in a huge way and the scenes in his room feel the most like the books to me.

I also know from the director's commentary that they specifically wanted Armand to look like that so that the Europe vampires would feel like OLD WORLD SCARY vs like, another twink lol. So he's got a little more of a tropey Dracula vibe going on and I think like as a visual contrast it works really well.

As far as the show; I think Assad is EXCELLENT. And like the whole fandom was joking even when the credits hit IMDB that it was gonna be Armand because everyone was like "OHH ARRIGHT.. LOUIS'S """""ASSISTANT"""""" OKAY !" so like I was one of the conspiracy theorists looking for clues the whole time. And his MANNERISMS are dead on and gave him away before anything else did. I have zero issue with the actor, I think he's so spooky and a complete smokeshow which Armand DESERVES. And I wish I could like the show for him, I really do! But it's just NOT WORKING FOR ME.

I'll put the rest under a cut cause it got lengthy and I'm not trying to like be a downer on anyone's dashboard but TLDR the show is so completely unrecognizable to me and I think it would've been so much better as an original concept, and personally I'm not excited by randos who share names with the books I read. The show is a hit! People really like it! But idk like showing me these two random ass men and saying "Hey this is Daniel and Armand" doesn't excite me because the story they're showing me actually ISNT Daniel and Armand lol. I'm here for the story!!! I'm not here for Easter Eggs!

Here's my main few gripes with how they wrote Armand which I find mega disappointing:

He spends 6.9/7 episodes pretending to be Louis's assistant named Rashid. WHY! LOL. Why would he do that! DANIEL DOESN'T REMEMBER HIM ANYWAY SO WHY???????? I DONT UNDERSTAND. Like Armand is a weirdo but is he THIS WEIRD? idk. idk.

The show also (in my opinion!) horrifically botched Lestat, but there's like this grain of doubt because the show has a theme of memory being unreliable, so the speculation is that maybe Armand planted a skewed version of events in Louis's head? Even the show runner sort of hinted at this? LIKE I HATE THIS?? Because if we get to S2 and it turns out that Lestat's been misrepresented, it then turns the tables and makes it that ARMAND is the one who's horrifically botched????? Like I'm all for silly Armand jokes and memes and whatever but like. sigh idk i just looked really forward to this show and hoped to see Armand on screen and I didn't really want a meme version of him. ((Also as an aside I really dislike the unreliable memory themes on the show the way they're presented because like the books frame unreliable narration as like interpretive and emotional but the vampire lore canonically is that they have like mega supernatural photographic memory? idk. If memory is faulty because they still have that human fallibility it's one thing unless they're saying Armand planted memories in Louis's head??? idk idk.))

And like speaking towards whether or not Armand is a person who would plant false memories in Louis's head; I concede that he psychically influenced Louis to join him in IWTV but like. ARMAND IS A NUANCED CHARACTER WHO ACTS FROM A PLACE OF NEED AND HURT. And idk it's just so fucking clunky I can't imagine the manipulation taking this type of shape. There's just, to me LOL, a huge difference between the mental nudge of "You are lonely and you need guidance please come with me" and "Lestat was a horrific domestic abuser." And like. idk. Just within the package of the whole rest of the season, this team has the subtlety of dropping a fucking piano so I just have no trust in them to write him with any sense of nuance.

AND THE BIGGEST OFFENSE THAT I'M JUST COMPLETELY DISGUSTED BY IS THAT HE'S A DAYWALKER?????????????????????????????????????????????????

I just hate the daywalking shit so fucking much I can't even start. Like the show changes a lot of the lore which is fine whatever it's their show change lore if you feel like it whatever but like. ARMAND'S ENTIRE LIFE IS THEMATICALLY BOOKENDED BY DARKNESS. He grows up in a CAVE. He lives in a CULT BENEATH A CEMETARY. He tries to KILL HIMSELF by GOING INTO THE SUN.

Like. And he's only 500? That's like adolescent for a vampire LOL.

There were a couple times in the season where they had some continuity errors on the show!lore so I got the vibe that the writers didn't really care about all the VAMPIRE STUFF which is kinda disappointing to me bc I'm a nerd lol but it felt like they used Armand in the sun to just give the audience a red herring and it came across as really cheap to me. So I wouldn't put it past this team to kinda be like DAYWALKING SURE LOL and not really take it seriously or think about the larger picture of how that unfolds for the character over more seasons.

IT'S WHATEVER, I JUST. I know it wouldn't make good television but I like VC because it's like existential dread and consuming darkness, I want it to hurt me, I want it to feel bleak, I want Armand's entire arc to be about how much he struggles with the idea that there's no God. It just feels like if you can make it a few centuries and be able to withstand the sun, what's the fucking point? What sacrifice did you make for being immortal? Especially for a character like Armand who so fully believes himself to be damned and would never want to make another vampire, would never subject even an enemy to it.

Especially bc like in the show the vampires can like ? Smoke? And have sex? And they can eat food (even though it tastes like paste but they can eat food). IF YOU CAN SMOKE AND FUCK AND GO IN THE SUN YOU'RE JUST A GUY. Where's the fucking DAMNATION OF IT ALL? Also what's the fucking point of Those Who Must Be Kept if you can go in the sun lol. I just . Ugh what a clusterfuck.

The show turns vampirism into more of a power fantasy than the way the books treat it as damnation or a symbol of being othered so it doesn't really mesh with like, my idea of VC and what I want out of it.

So Armand being a daywalker = Instant Nope From Me. I'm not interested in whatever they're trying to sell me lol.

A few other things that are NOT confirmed but generally just giving me the ick that I worry about:

I really, really, deeply, truly, hated how they wrote Claudia's character and how they wrote about rape, and that gives me a really bad feeling about how they'd potentially tackle Armand's canon background. The two options are: They don't, and he's a completely different character with a different background, with completely different context for his personality/motivations/etc (in which case who the fuck cares he's just some guy who shares a name with the book I like, and not really Armand), or: They GO THERE and it's just extremely heavy handed and insensitive and not fun to watch. I think show!Claudia maybe has more in common with Armand than book!Claudia because they aged her up to be a teenager so it's just, yikes. THEN AGAIN ARMAND IS NO LONGER A TEENAGER ON THE SHOW?

And to that point like. I don't need a bunch of fucking conservatives getting in my face about how I want to see a teenager sexualized because that's not the point; logistically for TV it makes sense that he's older, but again, it changes his backstory so much. imho, Armand being turned as a teenager and looking like a teenager is a huge element of his character! It's important! It just is! And I'm sorry that the show decided that the vampires could have sex, because they invented this problem for themselves! If they kept the canon lore you wouldn't have to see them have sex anyway LOL.

I also was not a fan of the truncated timeline of the show; season 1 takes place in like 30 years I think? And covers from the beginning of the story until Lestat's murder. And I believe Louis will meet Armand in the 1940s; they have the original interview in the 70s and they're together then, and they're together in the present in 2022. Idk I'm just not impressed; humans can get divorced after 30 years too, what's the point of having immortal characters if you're not gonna stretch out the timeline? And so much happens for Armand and Louis in canon and I have no idea what's happened or not happened on the show yet, no one's really sure which events have happened yet in the present day segments of the show. So like idk there's just a lot of Armand/Louis stuff to be smushing into 70 years lol and I'm bummed that they're rushing through the timeline so much.

So I just. Sigh. There's a lot of themes in VC that I really adore that the show doesn't care about, like being VERY OLD and NEVER SEEING THE SUN AGAIN but. I'm in the minority on this one because people love the show LOL. I'm happy for everyone who likes it, but it's not for me.

And like. Just! I knew going in that it would be the Loustat Show, I think everyone knew that, I didn't have huge expectations for Armand/Daniel content but it's such a small part of the books that like it would've been nice to get a couple scenes or some gifs out of it or whatever. It just sucks that like they SET UP the series in a way that the Devil's Minion won't happen on screen. And it sucks that like, depending how long the show runs for or how long AMC retains the rights, this might be the only chance in my lifetime that I had to see Devil's Minion on screen and it's not going to happen.

It's just a bummer man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry to anyone who likes the show lol I just found it to be like mega disappointing and I don't think I'm going to watch S2, I'm too upset about Armand & Daniel LOL.

[triviareads]

Hi, do you happen to have any fave recs for a heroine in disguise trope? It can be e.g. a heroine that wants to seem mousy/inconspicuous at first sight (Cat in Married by Morning) or perhaps a heroine with secret indentity (Chase in Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover)....? I know it's more common in historicals but it can be modern rom com too. Thank you in advance!

Hi! Sorry for the delay. Here are the ones I could think of off the top of my head:

The Wolf and the Wildflower by Stacy Reid: The heroine's been disguised as a man her entire life because her mother didn't want to go through childbirth again so she lied and said she was a boy to her husband. She's now a psychologist and is invited to help this WOLFY DUKE who's been in the wilds of Alaska for years and needs help getting reacclimated to society. I can confirm he susses her out as a woman within moments of meeting her and by susses her out he SNIFFS her out.

The Courtesan Duchess by Joanna Shupe: Exactly what it says on the tin; the hero and heroine are married but have been estranged for years. Her situation is getting pretty desperate so she disguises herself as a courtesan and goes to him in Italy where he's been fucking around for like 8 years and tries to seduce him into getting her pregnant.

The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes by Eva Leigh: The heroine asks the hero to take her to all his demimonde haunts so she disguises herself with a wig and makeup as "Salome".

Her Husband’s Harlot by Grace Callaway: Another heroine who disguises herself as a prostitute to find her husband except he doesn't recognizes her and she ends up getting devirginized in a brothel........ and then goes back for a repeat experience.

Her Wanton Wager by Grace Callaway: This heroine really tries to slap on a mustache to go meet this underworld gambling hell owner so she can persuade him to let go of her brother's debts, except obviously the hero recognizes she's a woman in 10 seconds after ripping her mustache off.

Duke of Pleasure by Elizabeth Hoyt: She's THE GHOST OF ST. GILES, also, she does disguise herself as a boy because it's easier to be a boy on the streets; the hero is soooo confused and sooooo turned on by it.

The Bride Goes Rogue by Joanna Shupe: She attends a costume ball/mildly an orgy as Madame de Pompadour and hooks up with the hero who is conveniently dressed as Louis XV. Neither of them recognize each other as their betrothed until the hero called it off quite recently.

Hyacinth by Minerva Spencer/S.M. LaViolette: Another heroine disguised as a man; in this case, she's quite the card shark and wants to get into the good gambling places so she can earn back her family's fortune. The hero figures out it's a disguise but kind of plays along and teases her, culminating in him asking her to jerk off with him in a voyeur room 💀

His Valet by S.M. LaViolette: So our modern understanding of this MC is that they would be nonbinary but Jo does refer to herself using she/her pronouns. This disguise here is twofold: she dresses in masculine clothing and works as the hero's valet, and because she really wants to be with the hero, she disguises herself as a woman and pretends to be a prostitute so she can sleep with him. It's WILD but LaViolette handles it with a lot of care.

One Kiss to Desire by Grace Callaway: The heroine purposely makes herself look uglier/older so she can get the job as the hero's housekeeper.

Rules of Engagement by Christina Dodd: Another heroine who disguises herself to look uglier/older; the hero actually specifies it as a qualification for the governess he's looking to hire for the child he BOUGHT to make himself look more respectable; apparently the good-looking servants keep throwing themselves at him because he's soooo hot so he needs a complete uggo to serve his purposes.

[ileftherbackhome]

Some day, we're going to have to talk about the toxic positivity in the swiftie fandom tbh. 2016 was 7 years ago, please grow up and realize treating taylor with kid gloves and glowing about her like she's perfect is so unhealthy for her and yall.

I'm seeing a lot of swifties have to manage their negative emotions that taylor makes them feel to "fit in" with the fandom and this is so fucking toxic to people just in general. Yall are doing to each other what yall did to taylor, which is demand she be happy all the time for you guys and willing to be around you all the time.

Idk yall, I'm seeing many swifties ask people not to attack them for critiquing taylor, I've seen people try and mitigate the harassment from other swifties they're gunna get for openly talking about how Taylor's capitalistic ways hurt them.

The eras tour marketing is not the first time that she has disappointed fans, the "unique" midnights recordings just happened a few months ago, why are yall paying for vip packages if yall aren't meeting taylor (to stand around in MERCH LINES earlier??? Are yall okay, seriously, ask yourself how much money you're spending on her and what ur getting out of it), working with a child rapist director (that convo got shut down because all her friends were doing it too! Which is not a defense but I digress), her working with Zoe Kravitz and Lena Dunham and Lana del ray gets swept under the rug, her working on a racist murderers film adaptation was ignored and celebrated, there is so much more that she's been doing recently since she turned 30 that are really just gross things to be doing and she deserves to see her fans angry at her, even yelling at her online, because that's the only way she will bother to café about this issues.

Like yall were laughing about her behavior at the grammys like it wasn't the most OUT OF TOUCH THING I've ever seen. Rolling your eyes at a BLACK MAN who is more culturally aware of the financial burden of his own fanbase than you???????????

And you get swifties who just lick her asshole all day long and call you entitled and rude because you're fucking angry at being used FOR MONEY when that has never been Taylor's branding. You act like the people who critique her branding and her actions not aligning are the ones in the wrong when product honesty is like the #1 that consumers look for in a product.

We buy into taylor the artist ourselves precisely because we are so aware of the way she markets herself being unique but we are very aware of the way we support other artists that are purely financial (beyonce, ed sheeran, louis are all artists that I'm well aware they're not in it for the fans, they're in it for either money, fame, or music is their life but taylor is STILL pushing this narrative on tour that she's alllll about the fans.... is she?)

Like, the eras tour is a money grab because tour is always a money grab but the marketing of this particular money grab is that ALL albums would be fairly represented. Did you forget all the setlists taylor Nation posted that included debut ???? And people were actually picking several songs for debut like cold as you was featured ???????? They put out album shirts, highlighting all albums, she talks about it being a journey through "17" years of music and each era, one at a time.

These are conflicting narratives when you don't put debut or speak now in the setlist.

It's just disrespectful. She asks us to be okay with a lot of stuff that she just ignores and doesn't apologize for because she doesn't care about our feelings, she cares only about the money.

And I wish she would just fucking SAY THAT instead pretending like she cares when she doesn't.

And I wish yall would stop attacking other swifties who are gunna expect things to be a certain way when the marketing is telling you that is the way it's gunna be.

For fucks sake, I wish yall got angrier at taylor more often.

[naivety]

i really, truly, honestly hate to get Serious about the fictional fun and freaky moral ambiguity show but it is driving me crazyyyy to see people write full essays on why loustat are a mutually harmful dynamic and not an abusive one as if that isn't Exactly how real life abuse gets downplayed and misconstrued and misinterpreted until it is taken so unseriously that the abuse gets perpetuated. like you are. exactly doing The Thing. this is how it happens, because it makes sense, and people see that someone has been dishonest, or nasty, or mean, or toxic, or Insert The Illusion Of Mutual Harm Here, and it is compelling! that's how real life abuse apologia happens! people aren't just stupid or cruel, they try to think it through and still drop the ball because intimate relationships of any kind are minefields of subjective experience that cast very reasonable doubt. just because it's reasonable and half of the truth doesn't mean it isn't still harmful and something you maybe have to and actually should check yourself on. it's a tangled yarn of half truths you have to sift through with no way to verify anything because it's all based on he-said she-said information, who are ALSO working with subjective experiences of half truths that they could not escape even if they tried.

every time louis shows himself to be an unreliable narrator it is a narrative device made to cast doubt on his recollection of everything he tells daniel, instances of abuse or otherwise. yes, this is true, you are correct! this is also true for literally every single person on earth! and it is also exactly how real life people are gaslit! because they Do remember things wrong and they Are subject to their own blind spots and willful ignorance, and abusers see this and know this, and they use it to cast doubt on truths AND half truths! and abusers are also subject to this just as well, and they often have very human reasons for exploiting this fact, they aren't supervillians cackling to themselves around corners. it is a Human trait to subjectively interpret information, and it can be knowingly and even unknowingly exploited for personal gain, because we all have a device in our brains that is looking out for our own self interest, whether it's an obvious material one, or a more nebulous idea of the self; it's there, and it will gladly work with us to enact itself or work behind the scenes in our willfully ignorant blind spots to protect what it thinks is being threatened. real abuse is abusive because of the presence of an imbalance of power that cannot be willed away, even if the person with greater power wanted to. the harm they deal someone who Lacks that power can never be reciprocated in the same caliber, even if they wanted to. that's why abuse is abuse and not just harm. that's why it's called a power imbalance. it cannot be avoided or undone or erased. just because you want to pretend you don't have an advantage over someone you love doesn't mean that you Don't have that advantage. this is like basic revoking white privilege virtue signaling stuff.

the fact of the matter is that every instance in which louis harms lestat, lestat can actually physically leave, or outright physically stop louis from enacting the harm. this is just a fact. knowing what we do about lestat and vampires as a whole, it would cause him emotional harm, he would be alone, the single most horrible thing he can possibly imagine and has already experienced in all it's all epic highs and lows, etc, etc, this is also true, but it is still an escape he can make even theoretically, while louis has absolutely no material safety net to leave lestat literally ever. he was a black man turned fledgling vampire in the early 1900s in the midst of a suicidal episode, with hardly any knowledge of how he can orient himself in this new vampiric world because lestat has purposefully withheld the information due to his own fears (of louis leaving and of his own traumatic experiences in it probably), he has no family, a precarious source of income that lestat often props up with his whiteness, no community he can maintain even outside of his human family because he knows no other vampires and is physically incapable of creating and maintaining new human relationships, and even when he does finally leave, it doesn't end well for him Because of all the aforementioned reasons! it feels silly to pretend these factors are not at play in their dynamic whatsoever, let alone that they interact with and impact in big and small ways every interaction they have in season one. it is Not an equal playing field, even if lestat himself were to wish it was! that is how abuse can even happen. these are inescapable truths of the world they live in. both can harm each other and both do, yet only one is fully capable of denying the other with a semblance of material safety, while the other is absolutely not. real love can be there, but that does not mean it changes anything, or saves anyone, etc, that is often exactly why these dynamics are such a mindfuck to fully extract yourself from.

this is what an instance of power imbalance looks like guys like. that's what it is. you are walking headfirst into the point, beloved. this isn't a #cancellestat post, i am simply begging you to at least enjoy lestat in a way that doesn't include blatant abuse apologia. there are incredibly interesting discussions we could be engaging with about the source material here. you can enjoy lestat for what he is, and i honestly wish you would instead of fearing some cop in your head might cancel you if you admit a fictional character has been abusive and that you still enjoy them. but refusing to engage with the epic highs and lows of core aspects of his place in the narrative and their implications seems counterproductive and also incredibly boring lol

very weird to frame your abuse apologia as being aware that the writers intended to illustrate a mutually harmful dynamic and not an abusive one. when the writers in question also wrote the line 'once you put it out there, they [the audience] decide what it is' because nothing you ever create has any innate definition. when the writers in question decided to racebend major characters and then showcase them being harmed by white or nonblack characters in a repeatedly racialized pattern when they Did Not Have To Do That and then genuinely or disingenuously decide to dialogue about their directly or indirectly illustrated racialized dynamic of intimate partner violence within and outside the narrative. like to be quite honest it does not matter what they intended because this is what they made and this is how it Looks to a notably large amount of people. who just happen to be interpreting it wrong? according to what metric? the very metric they say Doesn't Work in their own fictional creation? ok

[anexlarrieblog]

As for the theory that Brett and Tammi are Freddie’s ‘real parents’ just… what? HOW? WHY? WHEN? What purpose would they have for a) having a child via surrogate. Did they do this as part of a stunt? If so that’s extreme measures to go to.. even by Larrie standards. What were they gonna just have a child anyway and this was a happy coincidence? 😅 so what did/do they gain out of this theory with pretending their own son isn’t theirs? Have they had any ‘promo’/fame? How do the logistics of this work? ///

Larries think that Louis pays the whole family a substantial sum every month to keep up the facade. If Louis really was hiring a child to commit identity fraud it would actually be classified as child abuse, but that doesn't stop them.

😳😳😳 please. And it would be classed as him because his management team works for him right not the other way around? I don’t get it either man. Even if Larries think Louis is forced to fake being a father to Freddie by some magical contract that is allowed to break just about every law possible, why do they think he would want to? Why isn’t he challenging it? Why can’t he sue? Why can’t he just say NO ??? Same with his E tattoo they think he was forced to do that. On what planet, would getting a TATTOO be in a contract???? His team could force him to permanently mark his body for the sake of a closet? That would be classed as actual physical abuse. Or is Louis just some idiot who doesn’t know these things? Nothing they say makes sense in the actual real world.

[alivingfire]

FAKE DATING FAKE DATING FAKE DATING FAKE DATING FAKE DATING I WANNA SEE U DO FAKE DATING PLEAAAAAAASE

i’d love to do fake dating tbh!! but my thing is, like, i’d have to spin it somehow, you know? throw in a twist. and i don’t know how i’d do that, so i’ll keep thinking.