#i felt. very little positive light on louis in this episode at all tbh.

[ghostzzy]

it’s rly strange to me that people are reading the “are you asking or making me” scene as tender and/or indicative of louis’s compassion and respect for armand’s boundaries. that is NOT how i read it at all

[corvidclub]

in light of discourse of potential drag in s3 here's the iwtv guys' relationship to drag/crossdressing

Lestat: He does it. We've already seen him do it. He thinks it's fun :). his taste level and makeup skills are...not all the way there. I imagine his drag aesthetic without Louis' supervision is either 5yo girl at a princess tea party or hot mall slut. Regardless, he's having fun that doesn't involve inhuman violence so good for him ig. Knows very little about modern drag culture apart from what his gay tour interns tell him and the occasional bar visit. He is blocked by several drag race queens bc he keeps sliding into their dms with critiques and/or flirtations based on whatever episode he happened to catch a glimpse of.

Louis: Knows the most about contemporary drag culture by far out of anyone on the cast. Was on the ground floor observing the ballroom scene develop. Thinks rupaul's drag race ruined real drag culture (but has seen every episode). Is absolutely vicious in his criticisms of the queens and def ate some baby queens back in the day. Internally thinks he would slay drag race but whenever someone suggests he actually do drag he always comes up with some excuse like 'I can't shave bc I'm a vampire' or 'I can't find a drag mother I'll eat them'. In reality he is just afraid of getting similar criticisms and would like to keep his ego intact. If he were to do drag though his aesthetic would be very sleek and sophisticated a lot of 80s powersuits/powerdresses (executive realness is his fav category), slinky jewel tone gowns, big hats, fur coats, some tasteful bdsm elements. While his style is fairly modern I imagine he's quite old-fashioned about certain elements of drag like: NO body hair! NO boy nipples! FEMALE ILLUSION ONLY! I think he'd get really into the interiority of his drag persona as well...Lestat is like "Je suis Lisette :) it is like my name but I'm a girl :)" Louis on the other hand is looking in the mirror face beat like.. "who is Celine Emerald VanMichaels DuPree? does she dream? what does she dream of? what am I trying to embody when I become her?" tdlr: he is very annoying.

Armand: Doesn't really have much interest in drag tbh sure he'll drink a glass of AB on drag race nights with loustat and bitch about fabric with the best of them but it's not something he'd really do on his own. If he felt he had to crossdress for whatever reason he'd do it but wouldn't feel that strongly about it positively or negatively. I imagine some elements of women's clothing would bring him back to the renaissance since men were very much gowned-up back then which could be good or bad depending on the day he's having. I imagine his past painting skills would transfer so he'd be weirdly very good at drag makeup like he and Lestat would follow the same tutorial on youtube and Armand would come out looking like Plastique Tiara while Lestat looks crazy. He wore eyeliner casually in Paris and I could see him having fun with eye makeup under certain circumstances. However, I don't think the idea of having a drag persona would appeal to him bc 1. repressed femininity and enforced masculinity wasn't really a significant part of his human life unlike loustat and 2. a performance is only worth it for Armand if someone actually fully believes it otherwise it's Just Acting and that's Lestat's thing not his. He loves typical drag queen camp movies though like Mommie Dearest, Showgirls, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, etc. are some of his faves. Louis thinks those films are bad/weird (he's more of a Steel Magnolias queen) but Daniel and Lestat watch with him.

Daniel: He did drag/crossdressed for special occasions back when he was younger like halloween and pride events/protests. He'd do one of those stories where the reporter becomes part of the community they're writing about and he'd do drag for like a week just for the story ofc. He has a Frank n' Furter costume that he's owned since 1976 and worn to at least a decade's worth of Rocky Horror screenings. Also a playboy bunny look which he tries to claim he wore as some sort of feminist commentary but was really about showing off his twunk body to various substance users. He probably sees these past antics as him 'being secure in his masculinity' rather than expressing femininity which is.... kinda true but also not. He's a huge fan of John Waters and Divine. Like Louis he also believes that rpdr ruined drag culture but actually doesn't watch it except for clips of untucked fights (he would like dragula though). He thinks the most important thing for a drag queen to be is funny and shocking to straight people rather than to serve looks, in fact, he prefers queens who are a bit busted or purposely strange looking. This makes going to drag shows with him and Louis very entertaining because they are guaranteed to have exact opposite opinions and fight about it.