#i prefer bailey to delainey

[nodominion]

I need Daniel's 'assistant' to be Jesse.

[zoya-nazyalenskys]

i haven't seen a poll for this so

[crazykuroneko]

Claudia's Celebration of Life: Spark in the Dark

As the title suggests, this event is to celebrate the wonderful Claudia; her personality, her aspirations, her journey. The heart for the past two seasons of AMC Interview with The Vampire. This is to take the narrative back to her, proving she's not just a shingle roof for us.

The event will be held for 30 days (from Aug 11th to Sept 9th) with 15 themes. Anyone can join, and you can post whatever you like, from gifsets, meta analysis, fic recs, fanvids, web weaving, fanarts, fanvids, even poems. You can post them on Tumblr, or Tiktok, or AO3 etc. The rule is just one: make sure to tag "#Claudia's Spark in the Dark" and her character tags #Claudia and #AMC Claudia. Let's flood her tags with posts about her again! (plus, please give TW or CW when it's appropriate)

Important point: This event is AMC Claudia & Madeleine focused only. Please try to minimize inclusion of other characters or iterations except when it's on the theme.

Themes and dates are under the cut!

(The order of themes are generated randomly. Feel free to interpret each theme. For the themes with 'OR', you can choose which one you want)

1. Aug 11th & 12th: Hobbies

2. Aug 13th & 14th: Alternate Universe

3. Aug 15th & 16th: Quotes (From TVC books, other cast, Anne Rice about Claudia OR web weaving with other media)

4. Aug 17th & 18th: Family (Her relationship with Louis and/or Lestat OR with the concept of family itself)

5. Aug 19th & 20th: Claudia's Voice and Lack There Of (e.g. Claudia's diaries as her outlet and how they're used by others)

6. Aug 21th & 22nd: As A Caged Bird OR In Solitude (e.g. the limitations Claudia faces as a seemingly 14-year old Black girl OR bird motif)

7. Aug 23rd & 24th: Happiness (Anything as long as Claudia is happy. I just want to see her happy)

8. Aug 25th & 26th: Favorite lines or scenes

9. Aug 27th & 28th: Womanhood OR Childhood (e.g. Claudia's relationship with womanhood OR the still childlike or innocent part of her)

10. Aug 29th & 30th: The Actress(es) (Bailey Bass and/or Delainey Hayles with or without Roxane Duran)

11. Aug 31th & Sept 1th: Finding The X (Claudia's quest in searching for love)

12. Sept 2nd & 3rd: Enduring (e.g. Claudia relentless determination to "make the best out of it" with her vampirism or how the abuse she suffers and witnesses shapes herself and her views)

13. Sept 4th & 5th: Fashion or Costumes

14. Sept 6th & 7th: FREE THEME!

15. Sept 8th & 9th: Claudia & Madeleine

Special thanks to my mutual (you know who you are) who has helped me with the themes.

Update! I also made a submission page available during the event, if that's your preferred way to post.

Feel free to ask by replying under this post or ask me on my account or on my Twitter @itskuronekos

Let's go!

[jockpoetry]

since this fandom has mirrored the IWC all season i'll compare it to a PPV - this was a solid ppv, slow build, that put a marquee match as the headliner, but the best match of the night that should've ben the headliner already happened. so no matter how good the main event is, we're all still thinking about how incredible omega ospreay 2 was. and unfortunately bryan/kazu didn't deliver.

yeah i get why people are down on this episode, it's easily the weakest of the whole season.

[island-in-the-shadows]

I always find it so wonderfully interesting when people prefer IWTV S1 to S2 but, tbh, they're both great seasons of television.

When I saw S1 as it premiered, I consistently struggled with it. There were (and to this day are) parts of it that severely pissed me off. "A Vile Hunger..." (1x5) is still the episode I like to rewatch the least, for example. It took me watching S1 twice to totally love the show. And it's because, when I saw S1, I was holding onto the source material while I watched.

This was fucking stupid on my part, especially given I took a class on adaptation while at Uni and got the academic tools to discern what makes for a good adaptation in film terms (I've talked about other adaptations with people who are book readers first and they tend to view it way differently). Hell, I wrote a thesis on why Clueless is a great adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma regardless of the change of setting in both time and place.

But IWTV was way too personal to me, it went back to my childhood, so it was hard to let go. I did instantly love a lot of the changes. I love the time change and the change to Louis' race and background. I love that we saw more of Louis pre-vampirism and that show Louis has more complex reasons for his long term struggles whereas book Louis just seemed so whiny to me for no reason. On the other hand, I struggled with: why is it a second interview, why was Claudia SA-ed, why the DV, why is fucking Antoinette a canker sore that never leaves, why the fuck is Armand in Dubai, what the fuck is happening with this timeline? I couldn't let go and my viewing experience suffered for it.

When I sat down to watch a second time, I said, "Ok, do what you were taught and let the source go. Adaptations cannot be 1:1 due to the change in medium". And that's when things started clicking. I stopped viewing S1, and the show as a whole, as needing to use the books as a plot bible and viewed it as using them as a guidebook to function on TV terms and tell its own version of the story. It allowed me to appreciate the things I loved much more and to understand the ones I hadn't been so sure about and, even, love some of those things.

For S2, I went into it with that mentality already so I solely judged it on film/TV terms even though, having read books 1-4 and 6 and reading about the rest, I saw subtle things people with no knowledge of the source canon did not. Like when YT reactors consistently worried about Daniel being killed and I'm just filing my nails because, to those in the know, Daniel has massive plot armour. Or people being confused about Raglan James and I'm sat there like wtf does this trifling ass want? Nevertheless, I enjoyed the tale as it was told and what it was on solely TV terms.

Both season are great television but, to me, S2 just took it up a notch. Daniel Hart popped off extra hard. Carol Cutshall popped off extra hard in costuming (stg she played faves because why did Armand get more fashion slays than anyone else? ^_^). The sets went extra hard. The acting, which was already superb in S1 because this is a fucking excellent cast (Jacob, Sam, Eric, Bailey, and Delainey 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼), went harder as well because we have more players such as Ben Daniels doing the absolute MOST with Santiago, Roxane Duran being absolutely OUTSTANDING as the formidable Madeleine, and Assad Zaman stepping out from the background and giving a STUNNING performance as, to me, what's clearly the definitive Armand. To my taste, S2 is a lot less slow and I felt the pot boiling tension to the explosive ending build more keenly than in S1. And, again to my taste, the ending of S2 felt more satisfying because we have a sense of completion in Louis' journey rather than a, admittedly dope, cliffhanger. S2 has, arguably, the 3 best episodes of the show so far in "Don't Be Afraid..." (2x5) "I Could Not Prevent It" (2x7), and "And That's The End of It..." (2x8). For me, there's just no contest.

And yeah S2 isn't perfect either. The abrupt episode endings, for example, are a bit annoying---especially the end of 2x4. Yes, there's bits I would've changed a bit. (Though I will say, some book readers apparently wanted the show to include book Armand's Franken-experiments and I could very much do without it ever being included because it serves no narrative purpose other than to prolong Claudia's suffering. The show already goes hard to show Armand is a fucking asshole in other ways and it's gonna add to that in S3. We don't need that detail.) But, as a season of television, it just went the extra mile.

Still, I love that some people prefer S1. I love that they prefer S1 because it's more intimate or because it's more of a family season or because of the good Louis and Lestat moments or the good vampire family moments. Or maybe they love it for other reasons, it's all very personal.

I still think "In Throes of Increasing Wonder" is an outstanding pilot and it's one of my favourite episodes. Louis' confessional scene/the church scene is definitely one of the top moments of the show. Claudia's monologue at the end of "The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood..." still gives me goosebumps. Claudia stomping on Antoinette's fucking face and Daniel reading Louis to absolute FILTH at the end of "The Thing Lay Still" both make me clap and stomp like I'm at a concert or a sporting event.

Either way, S1 or S2, it's great TV and it deserves more love and recognition. I hope it gets it because it's truly deserving. Maybe we just need to hear our Brat Prince have his say for the uninitiated to awaken to it. S3 I have been seated since they made the call to release that teaser.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Is it horrible of me to say that... if they do the Ghost Claudia plotline in future seasons..... that they get Bailey back for it?

I simply preferred her interpretation of the character.

…

I can only say that it will be Delainey and I‘m happy it is.

She took an almost impossible job, and absolutely slayed it, imho.

[overthegardenwirtt]

i have a slight preference for delainey claudia I admit but it's mainly because she's the claudia who was allowed to lez out. bailey claudia was wonderful but she never had the opportunity to lez out like delainey claudia did. it was never gonna be a fair competition.

[emtmercy]

I’ll always respect and love Baileys performance for making me love the character but I definitely prefer Delainey now like she’s just a spectacular talent and rly owning the role

[reloha]

It occurred to me that Daniel could be picturing Claudia differently, but there are some reasons I personally don’t want them to do that. I have never been the biggest fan of the idea that what we see is what Daniel pictures and not some combination of what Louis remembers and what he wants to share (Louis narrates something and we see something slightly different happening, etc.). I don’t think Daniel is imagining floating sex or Louis is saying they floated, but I think Louis felt like they floated or remembers they floated. I don’t think Louis is telling Daniel everything we see, and I don’t think Daniel is imagining everything in such specific detail and beyond what Louis does tell him. People feel different ways about this theory, but this is how I feel.

Having Daniel have a specific-Bailey view of Claudia suggests he has a specific-Sam view of Lestat. This leads to the question of whether he’s seen Lestat before. This could be a plus if you think that’s a storyline you want to follow—Lestat as rock star, maybe under a pseudonym, and Daniel unconsciously picturing this guy as he fits Louis’s description of Lestat. Or maybe Daniel knew Lestat in the earlier era that has his messed-up memories. Or they could recast Lestat too, which I don’t think anyone wants.

It seems like a cute meta to have Bailey Bass just how Daniel pictured Claudia, but it feels (to me) like throwing out the incredible work that she did in season one, and that is one thing I don’t want retconned. I keep that in my treasure box. I would prefer to just have Delainey Hayles take over the role and see where it goes. I hope she gets the essence of Claudia.

Her relationships will be very different in the next season and unless there are flashbacks with Lestat (which, actually, I hope there will be), she may not work much with Sam Reid. I would have loved Bailey Bass to finish out the series, but I welcome Delainey Hayles with an open, if wounded, heart. I hope it will be a great experience for everyone. This is just my 5,000 cents.

[louisredsuit]

thoughts on the poll about claudia actresses really quick. slightly negative, so it’s under the cut

that poll had so many comments about preferring bailey’s accent to delainey’s, and i’m honestly surprised. my southern friend and I called claudia foghorn leghorn when we started watching s1 bc her accent felt so forced to us. as I watched, I fell in love with her performance, but there were still moments where her accent was an obstacle for me.

delainey’s accent wasn’t perfect but I preferred it. I also felt like delainey moved out of her southern accent during claudia’s time in europe in the same way jacob did for louis. idk, I’m not saying I’m objectively right or anything. I’m just surprised that so many people have the exact opposite opinion

[pepminttea]

starting iwtv season two I was disappointed when I heard Bailey Bass was leaving but I think I prefer Delainey Hayles

[murfpersonalblog]

"Anyone who loves Louis more than Lestat and Armand always sees him as a victim. Maybe this is in reaction to the Lestat-centred side of the fandom that always points out everything Louis does wrong. But since I'm not on that side of the fandom, most of the takes I see are in defense of Louis' victimhood as a weaker/feminine man/woman."

As a Louis-truther who loves AMC!Lou more than Lestat & Armand, I wanted to respond to this, cuz there's a lot going on here. YES, to a certain extent, I've personally found myself reacting against the Lestans & DM girlies who demonize AMC!Louis with thinly veiled racist rhetoric (or just overtly racist, calling Jacob ugly & saying they wish Louis was still a plantation-owning white man & that Armand was still a redheaded teenaged Russian & that they prefer Bailey over Delainey cuz colorism); and refuse to acknowledge the multifaceted & complex sides of him that, when put in context with Les & Armand, casts those non-Black characters in uncomfortably bad lights. But that's the whole point of IWTV as a body of work--the book was specifically written to put Lestat specifically in a horrible light. AMC presents a more nuanced picture, making Les more sympathetic, but he's still the VILLAIN, in Rolin & Carol/Sam's own words! So ofc I defend Louis as a victim of Les's oppression and Armand's manipulation.

It's one thing to not like Louis and point the finger at him cuz he makes hella dumb decisions--which he does! I know Black & PoC gay men who read Louis for filth, cuz sometimes the man's just effing stupid! But I've not ONCE heard a gay man speak against Louis in a feminine role. BY FAR this is done by straight women, which is interesting, how Lestat can be Mother and Yaas Queen'd by women until the sun goes down, but Louis can't?! 🤨 The second Louis is feminized, it's homophobic, racist, misogynist, etcetc.

A crucial part of Loustat & Loumand's dynamics are rooted in gendered roles (that both straight AND gay men participate in). But I wouldn't say I victimize Louis "as a weaker/feminine man/woman" because he's NOT a man, or cuz women ARE inherently weaker and lesser than men. But cuz Lou IS weaker, and the show PROVED it.

"Could the children murder the father? He was stronger than us, quicker than us, in possession of ancient powers that had been passed on to his progeny only in a diminished form." (1x7) "My only sustenance, the ancient blood already inside me." (2x7) "Lestat has within his veins, a most ancient blood. A godlike strength." (2x7) "I did it to hurt him. And it did hurt him. And afterwards he was a broken thing. I know, I saw, because I am the one who broke him! I couldn't persuade him to return my affections. I couldn't force him to love me and so…I broke him! What is worse than that? Crushing what you cannot own?" (2x7) "I have the blood of Magnus in me. Magnus burned. I have the blood of Akasha in me.... The fact, in and of itself, makes your immediate desire an impossibility. And I have to be willing, and I'm not in the mood." (2x8)

How Lou's TREATED BY his husbands proves that he's a victim OF them.

"Within the show's universe, Louis took on the more feminine role, particularly in his relationship with Lestat.... In analyzing his characterization in a heteropatriarchal setting Louis is no less a man than Lestat."

This is precisely the problem. In a heteropatriarchal setting, Louis IS less of a man than Lestat--hence how Lou gets TREATED BY that man. Lestat CONSTANTLY reaffirms his place at the top of their household's patriarchal structure. "It's not as simple as choosing a new family configuration--I AM your Maker." The Maker is the Coven Master with the sole power of life & death; and the man's the head of the household with all the power & control, as per the Head and Master Laws that LOUISIANA was the LAST state to get rid of in the 70s! 😬 Hence Claudia constantly calling Lestat "Massa," and she & Louis his slaves. Also, her VERY explicit declaration that folks just LOVE ignoring:

Les's very first convo put Lou directly in the place of a placage bride, but these references are just lost if you don't know the gendered & racial history of US marriage dynamics--esp. interracial ones.

Lestat is NOT the progressive modernist fans desperately want him to be. He's from the effing middle ages; born & raised in a literal medieval castle where he saw his father beat the absolute hell out of his shut-in bookish resentful "emotionally vacant" mother; and terrorize him & his brothers for not being "manly" enough--I AM CURSED WITH MY FATHER'S TEMPER. His Maker Magnus was a eugenicist who abducted blonde boys & chained them up in his Rapunzel tower, tryna find the perfect Aryan ubermensch to grant all of his superblood & bottomless wealth to--I HAVE MY MAKER'S TEMPER. Les did NOT create Lou to be his EQUAL, who'd be free to decide whether he'd stay with Les or leave & lead his own life with his own agency. Les suffers from chronic ABANDONMENT issues; lovebombing his loneliness (X); or flat-out weaponizing it (X). He wanted to create a vampire who would be his ETERNAL COMPANION; glued to his hip; who would--COULD--never leave him. A literal HOUSEwife, y'all--when the home becomes the jail! ""

Lou's Catholic--but LES is Catholic, too! He don't believe in no divorce! 🤣 He takes "till death do we part" SERIOUSLY, and even then, death is just a "THIN veil"--the dude is literally Wife's Body in the Freezer nuts--there are IRL cases of WHITE MEN who've killed their BLACK WIVES who wanted to leave them--"crushing what you cannot OWN;" omg. 💀

It's not that Lou IS in essence less of a man than Les (or even Armand). It's about how Lou's TREATED--and how he BEHAVES, as a way to try avoiding having people take advantage of him or ABUSE his trust. Cuz he IS a man, and demands to be acknowledged & treated as such; while also being scared to death to reveal any vulnerability/softness to the men he loves/trusts the most, cuz they keep USING IT AGAINST HIM!

The crucial performance aspect of Louis' behavior is SO overlooked.

"But I haven't seen people mention that despite Louis taking the more feminine (read nurturing) role in Season 1, esp wrt to Claudia, he isn't feminine? Yes, some of his masculinity was a performance (aside from the way that most gender roles are a performance), but Louis is still a masculine man."

Louis' femininity is NOT just about Claudia, or his nurturing role. It goes back to how Lou sees himself as a GAY man navigating Jim Crow society; and how he wants to be seen by others.

I've said this a million times: Louis was not at LIBERTY (i.e.: FREE) to be himself. You can tell this was a point Rolin REALLY wanted to drive home, cuz in the OG pilot script the line (and scene) is different:

In the script, Louis says all of this right after he asks Finn O'Shea if he's hiding money in his fat rolls, then drives off when Finn says No (a lie). But like we see on the show, Louis then says this:

(And Rolin adds the shot of Doris hobbling around on her peg leg as Louis talks about people doing what they need to in order to SURVIVE.)

But whole extra scenes are inserted next--Bricktop cracks the Alderman's skull open, and Paul is sermonizing in the streets on the show--b4 Lou speaks the lines about looking weak in public after pulling his cane-sword on Paul.

ALSO, RJ changed the name of the street from Iberville Street to Liberty Street. Lestat calls Louis the Dark Prince of Iberville in Ep3, but in Ep1 his businesses are on Liberty Street, in the heart of Storyville, the Red Light District where men go to BE free with their desires and are at liberty to express themselves however they want--living out their fantasies. Everyone other man can be honest with themselves on Liberty--EXCEPT for Louis, the man who RUNS it! The abundance of ironic metaphor is striking!

You can't apply 21st century norms to 19th-20th century characters. Contextualize the time period. Louis was born in 1877. Loustat was married from 1910-1940; one of the most flagrantly gendered, misogynist, homophobic, racist times in US history.

Society's rules were stringent AF, dictating what a PROPER/RIGHT man & woman's roles were in society; from the Hays Code on down. It was accepted for husbands to treat their wife AND kids like PROPERTY.

Loustat's marriage is NOT a perfect 1:1 parallel with heterosexual ones. But it IS a deliberate parallel, nonetheless. Lestat IS a patriarchal overlord, but there are ways he does differ from the standard--he's a maverick--even amongst vampires! (esp. the cult-like covens). His God Complex preaches that almighty vampires SHOULD be above social norms & rules--while hypocritically constantly exerting/reifying very normative behavior--esp. once he becomes Prince of all vampires in the last 3 books of TVC.

"His masculinity is softer in appearance than maybe most people's in his world, including Lestat's who had no problem dressing up as a woman, but it's still there."

This speaks to Loustat's difference in power, and the performance aspect of Louis' appearance/clothes. LESTAT CAN DO/BE/WEAR WHATEVER TF HE WANTS (X X). He can wear drag and be BOTH the King AND Drag Queen of Mardi Gras, like Caroll Cutshall said.

Carol called Lestat's corseted outfit an "institutional restraint," because ironically, Lestat HAS no restraint! Like I've said: Les in drag is a POWER MOVE. Drag is FREEING for men who enjoy it; as a form of art, as well as gendered resistance--a FLEX.

The non-Black side of this fandom has a hard time grasping that as a Black man, Louis CANNOT just walk around in a dress--hell, even in a POWER SUIT!!!!--and not worry about getting GAY-BASHED; even at Mardi Gras! RuPaul was controversial even in the 90s, AFTER Divine!--imagine the effing 40s! Drag Balls became super popular in the Roaring 20s--we saw Les go out partying with Antoinette in Ep5, but Lou'd gone UNDERGROUND from 1923-31; he missed the "Pansy Craze" that had allowed even Black gay men to perform in drag; as the Great Depression led to increased crackdowns on gay men to literally set the moral values of America "straight" again (X X). ANYTHING Black men did could get them in trouble--real or fabricated, but ALWAYS under white scrutiny: dehumanized as effeminate/emasculated eunuchs & clowns to be humiliated & laughed at, or hypermasculine lusty rapists to be feared & demonized. Lou was lucky he was a vampire & had Les's race & wealthy to protect him; and even THAT didn't stop the homophobic cops from threatening them in their own home!

Louis was bold enough wearing the MALE ball costume (all dolled up in the wig, heels & makeup)--but even as their final Eff You/hurrah in NOLA he wasn't crazy enough to wear a dress like Lestat did (and even LESTAT changed out of the dress to wear a suit, too).

So no, we've never seen Louis in drag. But the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence--so much of Lou's life & identity's been shaped by how much he denies himself, and lies & hides & conforms--even in his Parisian rebirth/re-identification, Cutshall noted that Louis' still holding onto his "fastidiousness" thru fashion.

Cutshall says Lou's clothes are symbolic of the VISUAL HIERARCHY he has with other vampires: namely: Armand, and the coven in general--but ALSO Lestat. Lou has LESS power & freedom than everyone else, and he dresses accordingly! When will Lou feel/be FREE enough to express himself honestly? But clothes aren't prerequisite to Lou being effeminate--as seen with Les, who CARES what he wears, when his actual BEHAVIOR says something different?

The fandom keeps gushing over Sam's remarks that we haven't seen the "real" Lestat yet, but PLEASE--we haven't even seen the real LOUIS yet! This is why Claudia's question was so poignant: WHO ARE YOU, LOUIS?

Louis had no answer for her. He told Armand that hew was roaming Paris trying to "find myself;" and all he experiences is failure (as a photographer, hallucinating his ex in the middle of his Hot Girl Summer, his strained relationship w/ his SisterDaughter, etc). But by the finale, he tells Lestat that he's finally ready to start "living honestly," as his own companion, for his own sake.

"My issue is Louis is a very lightskinned black man. Such men are typically not regarded as masculine in the black community, especially if they're homosexual. It's the other side of the coin of darkskin women being denied femininity.... Because aside from being colourist....."

This is SO valid. The show highlights his lightskinned privilege, but also subverts it by highlighting that in a white world he's still Black AF, and still finna get his Negro Wakeup Call every time these white folk have had enough of him.

"it also sort of absolves Louis of the harm he inflicts on the women he pimped out, Claudia, and yes, even his companions. It makes it seem like he was only given bad options and he had no choice but to pick the ones he could live with."

Only if you look at the show without realizing that Lou's ALWAYS been an unethical/immoral bloodless exploitative capitalist. The show never explains why Louis became a pimp, cuz it doesn't have to: the DPDLs are hypocrites--from Florence on down.

The Confession Booth scene puts it very bluntly that Lou's a P.O.S. He doesn't make excuses for why he pimps out women; he's brutally honest about how he screws over women AND men just to keep him & his slave-owning plantation-running family rich--prostitution's lucrative, just like slavery. Same with Claudia--in Ep3 Lou's very honest about wanting Claudia to be his "redemption"--his ticket to Heaven; as if raising an undead serial killer could ever absolve him of his sins, LOL. XD Again: hypocrisy's one of Lou's defining traits, right next to his cowardice.

Undeniably, Lou's had some BAD things happen to him. But part of GOTHIC HORROR is observing how characters make bad choices due to humanity's inherent evil--the monster/beast within each of us that drives us to tragedy & ruin. The vampire is just an exaggerated reflection of the human condition of selfish greed & dissatisfaction with life & self-destructive cowardice; running from one's problems by creating brand new problems that are even worse.

Louis' Strength (Power in Submission)

"I find serious analysis of the show that depicts him as a helpless maiden without agency in the face of stronger men and a misogynistic society very wanting. "

I've argued at length from another angle: that although Lou's TREATED like a helpless maiden without agency by his husbands, Lou is NOT in fact helpless or without agency; and that there are very subtle ways that he too practices resistance in the face of oppression. Lou weaponizes passivity; Les weaponizes action; & Armand weaponizes submissiveness.

The sheer fact that Lou's insistent upon Daniel doing the interview shows he's got considerable agency--even under 50 YEARS of brainwashing, something in Louis still snapped, and broke through Armand's mind-effery, to make him wanna redo the interview and get to the bottom of things once and for all. Take that in! WHY did Louis even want this? Was he triggered by listening to the tapes? Finding Claudia's diaries? The show doesn't tell us, but Lou digs his heels in & goes against Armand's CONSTANT nagging to stop doing the interview and get rid of Daniel.

Louis' strength is subtle, and understated, usually only coming out in bursts when he's mad. But he IS strong; in his own way, which is why he was ultimately able to leave Lestat's arse in NOLA (twice, in 1x7 & 2x8), and ofc dump Armand like a bad habit. Lers was right that he HAS The Spark that allows vampires to endure eternity--Louis just has to be brave enough to own up to his faults & do better.

"There's a lot of Louis MTF characterization (?), and like the other anon said, most of it is very positive and fun.... But, and this may be my ignorance speaking, there's a racial/colourist element in casting Louis as a woman that I think many overlook.... In a MTF fanfic I understand making Louis a woman, but in analyzing his characterization in a heteropatriarchal setting Louis is no less a man than Lestat."

Hope y'all don't mind if I include Omegaverse in this conversation.

I've vociferously advocated for Omega!Louis & mpreg!Louis in fanfic, but always with the emphasis that giving Louis (a man) the ability to give birth is a Power Fantasy.

AMC has shown over & over how Loustat's dynamic--from Les carrying Lou over the threshold, and proposing marriage in the church on the altar--and Lou's "nurturing" nature is all directly tied to Lou's burning desire to have his own "sons, daughters." He only calls Claudia "Sister" only to her face, cuz that's what she wanted, but to EVERYONE else Claudia is his daughter.

Louis IS a man, and he IS Les's husband, but he reflects the same desires & anxieties about motherhood that Anne Rice herself had when she self-inserted herself as Louis to write IWTV in the first place.

TL;DR:

ANNE RICE literally said: "It’s fine for Louis to be a woman because he is a woman--he’s really me."

Hi. I love your blog. Good conversations are happening here and I love reading through them all. I have a question re: the depiction of Louis as a woman in what I don't believe to be AU scenarios. Forgive me if my vocab is a bit stilted, English isn't my first language.

I'm a cis, pan, black, female who came into the fandom a bit late. Due to my religious background I haven't been in a lot of queer spaces, online or irl. I've been interacting with the IWTV fandom here, on Twitter and AO3, which has been enlightening. There's a lot of Louis MTF characterization (?), and like the other anon said, most of it is very positive and fun. But, and this may be my ignorance speaking, there's a racial/colourist element in casting Louis as a woman that I think many overlook.

Within the show's universe, Louis took on the more feminine role, particularly in his relationship with Lestat. So when some Twitter user drew Louis as a darkskin man with a very blond Lestat straddling him a la Santiago and Eglee, many accurately argued that drawing him as a hypermasculine black man was very racist. But I haven't seen people mention that despite Louis taking the more feminine (read nurturing) role in Season 1, esp wrt to Claudia, he isn't feminine? Yes, some of his masculinity was a performance (aside from the way that most gender roles are a performance), but Louis is still a masculine man. His masculinity is softer in appearance than maybe most people's in his world, including Lestat's who had no problem dressing up as a woman, but it's still there. In a MTF fanfic I understand making Louis a woman, but in analyzing his characterization in a heteropatriarchal setting Louis is no less a man than Lestat.

My issue is Louis is a very lightskinned black man. Such men are typically not regarded as masculine in the black community, especially if they're homosexual. It's the other side of the coin of darkskin women being denied femininity. So while casting him as a woman in an AU is fine, I find serious analysis of the show that depicts him as a helpless maiden without agency in the face of stronger men and a misogynistic society very wanting. Because aside from being colourist, it also sort of absolves Louis of the harm he inflicts on the women he pimped out, Claudia, and yes, even his companions. It makes it seem like he was only given bad options and he had no choice but to pick the ones he could live with.

And this happens a lot. Anyone who loves Louis more than Lestat and Armand always sees him as a victim. Maybe this is in reaction to the Lestat-centred side of the fandom that always points out everything Louis does wrong. But since I'm not on that side of the fandom, most of the takes I see are in defense of Louis' victimhood as a weaker/feminine man/woman.

Idk if this makes sense at all. Don't post it if it doesn't. I hope it doesn't cause offense to anyone because it's not meant in that way at all. I think maybe there's something I'm missing about how the black/POC/Louis-loving side of the fandom views him, so if anyone who understands things better than I do can tell me what I'm not getting I'll be very grateful.

Thanks for all you do.

hi and thank u!<3

I think there's definitely a lot to talk about here. There's a lot I've observed of the fandom changing over time as the show has aired, bcuz none of this stuff was rly happening with the character of louis until the show aired. I don't have solid thoughts on this all yet, this has me thinking about a lot of things at once and I gotta organize it all. so otherwise I'd like to turn this over to the fandom as a whole to give feedback on for rn.

[nalyra-dreaming]

In reference to your " anon" response..I prefer Delainey over Bailey for Ghost Claudia. I think Bailey leaned into the young version of Claudia and don't think she would translate to a more mature Claudia. I couldn't have seen her with the Madelaine storyline from S2. Imo.

I think it’s impossible to tell now, tbh, outside the fact that Delainey did a fantastic job - and Bailey did, too.

There is no way to compare the “Claudias“, imho… at least not for me. They just are. 😅

[nalyra-dreaming]

Based on what we got from the trailer, I think I will like Delainey more than Bailey as Claudia *ducks*

🤷🏽‍♀️ Preference …

I said it before, Bailey did a wonderful job, but Delainey will bring / does bring her own approach and I think that is just as valid. And from what I‘ve seen she’s doing a fantastic job as well.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Do you think that Delainey will be the one who "killed" Lestat when they revisit ep 7 or do you think they will use Bailey's scenes?

That depends on whether they decide to "use" the change of actress, or if she is "simply" replacing Bailey.

I would prefer the "usage", but I also think they might have filmed that already. I could imagine they probably adapt to it a bit, maybe film another few scenes there - IF they revisit it (which I think they will).

Because yes, I think it was Claudia who killed him, like in the book.

[nalyra-dreaming]

I'm going to give a very unpopular opinion, so I'm fine if you don't post it.

I personally think it's good that Bailey is leaving. And yes, I liked her as Claudia as well, but let's just say her acting was sometimes… lacking (especially compared to other cast members).

I'm very supportive of the new girl (Delainy Hayles). Can't wait to see what she brings to the role of Claudia.

I personally really liked her performance so I don’t concur here^^, but…. I mean we all have preferences 🤷🏽‍♀️

I think Delainey will do a great job and I think the show will do its very best to adapt, whatever way they choose to take. And the rest… is just what it is now.