#like maybe shooting the part where lestat is dragging louis differently

[danlous]

I feel we’ve as a fandom pretty much collectively ignored the scene where Lestat bites Louis maybe specifically because of its disturbing implications but enough time has passed that i think i’m just gonna say it. It’s essentially a rape scene and i think it was probably intentionally portrayed that way. There was some discussion on twitter about this a while ago (one of the few times i’ve seen it talked about at all) and people were quick to point that while drinking blood between vampires is generally portrayed as intimacy equivalent to sex in the books it’s not always sexual and the context matters. Vampires being able to have sex in traditional way in the show also makes it more complicated. But i think in this case the context actually strongly supports interpreting it as sexual violence. Louis and Lestat are a married couple who we can infer were probably frequently drinking from each other while having sex - we actually see many times that they associate blood with their attraction toward each other. Every time we see them drinking from each other it is in sexual context. For Lestat his sexual lust and bloodlust for Louis were inseparable in the beginning. The scene in 1.5 is a direct dark parallel to their first sex scene with flying. 1.5 is sort of bookended by vampire couples drinking from each other, opening with Louis drinking from Armand and it being clearly sexual for them, and closing with Lestat’s violent assault on Louis. There is a heavy emphasis on Lestat’s resentment and frustration that Louis isn’t having sex with him anymore. The way he goes about his assault, like that bitter, possessive “i chose you!”, makes it clear there is an element of trying to establish dominance and ownership over Louis and his body. The entire DV scene is intentionally structured as a supernatural version of everyday realistic domestic violence which makes the marital rape aspect rather obvious. Notably the writer of the episode mentioned in an interview Lestat raping a woman in the books as an example why she felt this type of domestic violence wouldn’t be ooc for him. Claudia is raped in the same episode and her and Louis’ experiences are paralleled, like when in the next episode they’re talking about Bruce when Lestat tries to come to talk to Louis. Lestat is such an impulsive and unstable person he probably couldn’t even himself explain why he did what he did in that moment, but in my opinion aside from trying to weaken Louis so that he couldn’t leave there was definitely a component of sexual aggression. Would be interesting to hear directly from the writers did they mean it to be viewed that way