#lestat was PHYSICALLY ABUSIVE

[laniidae-passerine]

Lestat admitting in public that he domestically abused Louis. and Louis knows this and experienced it. and still will never not love him. like truly love him for what he is, not just accepting the good with bad, but loving the bad the ruined the indefensible. what the fuck is wrong with you girl I would tell you to get out but you find a man who doesn’t attack you and you call him boring and dream of your crazy ex. you don’t want to get out. you just wish that your lion pet husband would learn the difference between biting and mauling.

there is something so entirely fucked about Louis’ psyche… look at it all! the physical beatings to an obscene degree, the damaging affairs, the psychological warfare, the public humiliation, the participation in the murder of their only beloved daughter. Lestat does this all to him, or a significant amount even if memory is playing its wicked games. Lestat is a vicious horrible thing with his teeth marks on every part of Louis and yet even with decades of freedom, a new partner, the ability to recognise and condemn cruelty and abusive actions, Louis still wants him back. Knowing what he is, what he can do, Louis wants him back. It never mattered if vampires can dream, for Lestat haunts his waking days, a torturous vision of the only living one Louis really loves.

[divinemanicstate]

human au

claudia's their little artist

[fayevalcntine]

This is what it feels like reading some people's IWTV takes

[niarchery]

this person is so funny.

claims that their priority is 'louis and claudia' and then also 'louis pussy'

proceeds to then claim that louis's relationship to lestat > his relationship with armand and so unlike loumand, loustat is still ~ worth salvaging ~ in later seasons bc louis 'liked lestat more'. despite the fact that louis spent the entire season 1 a) conflicted about whether or not lestat murdered his baby brother — whom louis loved dearly and was his last tether to mortality b) loathing lestat for blatantly cheating on him and disrespecting him c) torn because claudia was extremely miserable and her hatred towards lestat was so strong she spent her entire adulthood at nola fighting for her freedom trying to escape lestat once and for all d) louis and lestat's relationship had suffered a lot since before claudia even came along that louis would spend years losing interest in sexual intimacy. after the dv he was shown to dissociate when they did have sex e) and the trauma of lestat's betrayal (violent abuse) in rue royale scarred louis so much it negatively affected his relationship with armand from the very beginning. but also - despite the little fact that lestat also lynched louis and claudia and that louis begrudged him for it so much that he chose to spend the rest of his life with the man who he atp knew sold him out to his lynchers..??

[winepresswrath]

the thing about revisit of the fight in 1x5 is that Louis started it and Louis kept it going and Louis threatened to kill Lestat but it's kicked off because Lestat put his hands on Claudia. that's what tips Louis over the edge into physical violence.

and the other thing about that fight is that Louis was not going to leave Lestat. He's not focused on trying to get away or comfort Claudia, though he is enraged on her behalf. He is trying to hurt Lestat. He can't really hurt him but he doesn't know that yet. He wants to punish him for both what he did to Claudia and for Claudia leaving in the first place. honestly knowing Louis probably for some other stuff while he's at it. he's been punishing him for seven years. But I really don't think he was going to actually try and leave him. that's so fucked up. they're so fucked up.

[kindaorangey]

also yes as far as emotional beats go, the way armand's abuse of louis is characterised is most similar to gaslighting, but i also think the supernatural-ness of it all puts it in a bit of a grey area - i think it sort-of counts as something close to physical abuse as well, because of the violation of louis' personal autonomy inherent to magically removing/changing his memories

[whatshehassaid]

As someone who had lived with an abuser… for like more than 15 years I can tell you right now from episode 4 that Armand is terrified of Louis. Yes he may be stronger than Louis physically… and this isn’t even me hating on Louis I do love Louis but there is something wrong with him to a dangerous degree and you can see the look of fear and immediately retracting of the statement (that I recognized immediately) when Armand tries to call him out about the photos saying he wouldn’t remember if he put them there himself and then says I take that back super quickly..

I’m telling you we have been reading this all wrong. Armand isn’t in control of shit. He’s trying to be but he is absolutely fucking terrified.

[ateerys-punctuationpanic]

If I could just write Loumand the way I write Sambucky ....

I mean, the skill is there but the inspiration isn't. I don't know why. I'm not going to but I did consider changing the names on this snippet of what I'm working on and will soon post:

Sam looks up at Bucky who’s an arm’s distance above him like Bucky possesses everything he’ll ever need. Like air, water, and shelter are all housed within the walls of Bucky’s skin. Bucky drinks in the adoration and pours it back out to Sam from someplace he’d never quite acknowledged, and squeezes it out through his fingertips, lips, and tongue. Both their temperatures rise at each touch making Sam feel like he’s about to combust. “Maybe someone else has done this to you before but it’s a good starting point,” Bucky says, circling his fist around Sam’s hard cock. Then he warms it in his mouth as Sam responds audibly. Sam nearly comes and is frustrated, almost driven to anger when Bucky pulls back and smiles up at him. “Why’d you stop?” “I don’t know your limits yet, don’t want to wear you out.” “I want to be worn out.” And he does. Like an old rag abused from cleaning every hard surface; fibers sticking out, edges frayed. So Bucky sucks him to completion and swallows down to the last drop. “God. Damn.” Sam says when his orgasm ends. He’s panting but doesn’t wait for his breaths to even out, for his chest to stop heaving, when he pulls at whatever skin of Bucky’s he can reach. Bucky gets the point and moves up, supplying his mouth for Sam to kiss in between his hurried, shallow breathing. He feels like he’s about to be swallowed whole, deep into Sam’s ravenous longing.

[pynkhues]

now their love is tainted unless louis becomes as strong as lestat and then he can stand up to lestat. Do you think rolin&co would ever entertain the idea of another big fight between loustat where louis is equally as powerful as lestat so a scene like 1x5 doesn’t happen again

...I don't think Rolin and Hannah are intending to say that Louis must prove he can beat up Lestat in a fight for them to be together, as though only the threat of a beat down would stop Lestat from being violent again. I can't tell if this is a real ask.

(x)

Oh gosh, yeah, I mean, I agree, but I understand where that anon is coming from too. I think there's been a bit of discourse in other parts of the fandom about the fact that there will always be a power difference between Louis and Lestat, and that means they'll always have a particular dynamic. It's - - mmm - - look. I lowkey think it comes from the same rather-online discourse that says every couple with an age gap has an inherent power dynamic (which some have! But many don't!), but y'know, in this particular context, there's a root to it with Lestat's singular act of violence and exertion of power.

But yeah, I mean, to argue that Louis has to have the same level or power, or to have an equally violent conflict (especially after he literally murdered him), I think does open up a broader conversation of what power in a relationship looks like, what it means to forgive someone, and what it means for both people and a relationship to grow not over something, but rather past it. It's complicated, but it's an interesting area to explore that I hope the show keeps leaning into.

[elvesofnoldor]

Local vampire (Lestat) thought he snatched the young hot rich single in the area, got trapped in an abusive relationship instead. More at 7 as the story develops

[mybelladonicbeauty]

OH MY GOD they are reading the diaries - her private thoughts backstage its all going to come to a head

[lesbianaang]

oh babygirl you are so mentally ill….

[pretty-weird-ideas]

Episode Seven and White Tears

The trial's allegory is not just a lynching, it is a lynching for a Black person entering a relationship with a respected White man, and proceeding to leave him. It's not a murder case, as seen through the show, there's actually very little emphasis on the murder in the episode in regards to Louis. The emphasis is on his "seduction", his "ungiving nature", and "refusing to give his body". It is a public humiliation and lynching for turning a respected white man down. The crime isn't hurting Lestat, it's hurting his feelings.

Lestat doesn't speak to the audience about the pain of his throat being slit. He speaks of loneliness, the audience chants and jeers about how cheating was justified if Louis isn't putting out. Santiago isn't talking about the murder, he's talking about how much of a sexual deviant Louis is the second he is introduced. The show is telling us what's important to the case, and what language hurt and stuck out to Louis the most. The deciding factor in the eyes of the audience, the story that Sam and Santiago are trying to tell, is that the crime is heinous because Louis turned down Lestat.

The audience isn't mad about the murder, they're mad about Lestat's emotions, they're mad about the betrayal, and they are mad that Louis and Claudia didn't put up with things. The case built against the two of them isn't based on violence, it's based on white tears. Louis isn't called a monster for slitting Lestat's throat, the audience member calls him a monster for turning down Lestat's advances.

The show is clear that the trial isn't really about the murder, it is about Louis not "giving enough" for Lestat. It's about Louis asking Lestat to turn Claudia and literally bargaining his happiness where he literally gets on his knees and says "I'll be happy for you, I will never leave you if you do this for me". It's never been about the murder, it's quite literally just shaming Louis for not "loving a good man who might be abusive".

At the end of the day, the trial as framed and written by Sam is building a case off of Lestat's tears, not actual physical harm.

Like my skin is crawling but also the show is so chilling with how it portrayed the "He's a good man so hold your tongue and endure! Lest you read as ungrateful".

Anyways someone take the laptop from me before this becomes my life.

[fayevalcntine]

The whole "Claudia is now his sister"/Louis' sibling comparisons are never gonna sit right with me because that's never going to erase the fact that Claudia exists as a vampire partly because of him. Their relationship will never have this clearly defined role of siblings in the same manner Louis had with Grace or Paul, even if he was their older brother and was implicitly given the role of providing for them as the successor and manager of his family's estate. Because Louis was never responsible in part for their creation, the reason why they existed the way that they do in terms of behavior and life itself.

It also makes his betrayal of her all the more heartbreaking in ways that him and Grace drifting apart never will. He was her father, and didn't provide emotional support for her. She had to turn the tables and try to assume the role of being on an equal level because of this failure but this doesn't make him not choosing her any less painful than it did the first time. Even as they shift roles, take or give emotional responsibility one has towards the other, the fact that Claudia exists the way she does because of him and Lestat will always be there.

[themonsterunderthebed]

thinking about louis de pointe du lac meeting a man who is manipulative, alluring, powerful, secretive, and obsessively in love with him; a man who reminds him so much of lestat, a man who has a history with lestat; he meets that man, and finds himself falling again. but this man, it turns out, has a submissive streak that lestat didn't. and somewhere in him, louis de pointe du lac thinks, "a lestat i can control."

he meets someone who reminds him so much of his abuser -- and i do believe that's how he's conceptualizing lestat at this point in time, possibly in a conscious effort rather than an internalized perception, but still -- and thinks, "a do-over. a part 2. and this time, i can get it right. this time, i'll be in control."

louis accuses armand of being similar to lestat at the museum, and in direct response, armand shares the vulnerability of his past, and reveals that that vulnerability is still present and thus still exploitable. this is how he differentiates himself from lestat (notably, without having to change his behavior at all otherwise -- the very next thing he does is physically threaten claudia in the exact way lestat once did). and louis accepts that as sufficient and immediately incorporates it into their power dynamic. and sure, i'm perfectly willing to believe that a part of that was a natural tendency towards being dominant. but i am also absolutely convinced that another part is louis, whose last relationship made him a tamed thing, meek and frightened, grasping this opportunity to rewrite that narrative for himself. taking this replica of lestat and asserting his power over him from the start, to prove that he can.

[nightcolorz]

why do so many people act like lestat has better morals or is nicer then Armand in some way? there is nothing in the books that suggest this, Lestat and Armand have committed like the same exact crimes (even the sexual ones.) have fairly similar philosophies on murder (lestat tries to only kill criminals cuz he doesn’t want to take innocent life, Armand tries to only kill people who want to die and would otherwise take there own lives bcus he doesn’t want to take the life of someone who wants to live) Lestats moral stance on killing is more brutal arguably then Armand’s bcus he chooses to kill criminals cuz he likes chasing down his prey and tormenting them it’s fun for him, and Lestat finds maintaining his criminals only rule very hard bcus he “loves innocent blood it tastes better” which is fun. Armand sometimes brutally kills or hunts too and definitely drinks a lot of innocent blood but more often then not tries to make his killing as sparse and merciful as possible. Literally the only evidence at all that Lestat is a better person then Armand is the fact that most of the books are narrated by Lestat who is always informing the audience of his perspective while committing his crimes while Armand never explains anything he ever does even in his own book. But taking “we know more about what lestat thinks” to mean “lestat is a better person then Armand cuz he’s easier to understand” is shallow and biased imo.

show only fans who think Lestat is a better person then Armand make even less sense to me bcus there is even less to suggest this in the show, in fact there is significant evidence to suggest the opposite 😭? But again, Lestat and Armand both torture people, they both are physically violent and scary, both are abusive, both are highly motivated by histories of trauma and being crazy, etc. they are like the same amount of bad 😭 did I miss the thing that told everyone that lestat has a kind heart and Armand doesn’t 💀. I think people just sympathize easier with Lestat in the show bcus he has a really sad backstory we r informed of, but idk bcus we r also informed of Armand’s very sad backstory that In my opinion is easier to conceptualize as capable of breaking someone’s brain to the point where they casually enact torture and live in a constant state of violence. the worst of Lestat’s trauma happens to him when he is like (in the show) 37? 💀 which is still terrible, obviously, but man. I don’t see how he is more sympathetic then Armand😭