hotniatheron
It's really crazy how people can't figure out how restrained Louis is by how clipped the narrative is. By how the space between him and Daniel grows smaller physically and emotionally. By how windows disappear from their scenes, replaced by art pieces about restraint. By how Armand gets closer and closer each episode. Until Daniel is quite literally under him.
dictee
this post juxtaposing louis and lestat and antoinette with the 70s bar scene is really reminding me that like. yes louis is going from one hundreds-year-old levitating monster to another but the Kind of relationship is itself completely different and so the exchanges between lestat and louis and then louis and armand although theres an element of jealousy in both they mean different things. louis and lestat are for all intents and purposes in a traditional and period typical marriage. lestats betrayal and the fact that he literally did not want to be in a conventional monogamous marriage makes the marriage even MORE conventional bc that exact attitude is expected of husbands. but then louis and armand in the 70s are cruising for thirds in gay bars their relationship is period typical for a GAY relationship and thus very much outside of hegemonic society. which is interesting bc louis's identity before this is sooo contingent on being part of a family unit in a comprehensible role first as the oldest son and head of the house then as housewife and mediating parent even when he tells daniel becoming a vampire was also his "coming out" hes still in this framework hes just changed places. (to the shame of queer theorists everywhere?) this post is becoming too long and confusing but like the fact that this seems to have changed is so interesting. like the last years of their marriage were so horrible they broken him out of the tradwife mindset for good. this is adding to my theory that there is something almost refreshing for louis about the honesty of armands control and his even greater removal from humanity. because lestat's control is so obscured by like the entire structure of patriarchy legitimizing it. he didnt tell me he could fly because he wanted us to feel we were equals vs their art-gallery-cave penthouse where armand clearly just floats around
danieldaystreep
idk if its talked about enough that in 1x03 when lestat drags antoinette onto the scene its not just about him being pissed that louis is ashamed of their vampirism or wanting variety or whatever, it’s literally his response to louis for the first time since his turning taking control of his bodily autonomy and not allowing lestat to dictate what he does with his body. like hello the previous episode louis says he drank human blood and pretended to like it cause he didn’t want to disappoint and he’s now finally chosen to take one tiny bit of control back in his life. not drinking human blood being tied directly with a depressed sex drive its like the show is pretty obvious in what this is an analogy for??? in 1917 if a wife was not completely and fully sexually available to her husband it would’ve seen as just reason to get it somewhere else or even take it by force as her body is basically his property.
shinka
ngl that quote of eric about daniel chasing the truth like a dog chases cars until he catches them but then he doesn’t know what to do with them and get run over is sooooooo louis-coded no wonder these two had such a complicated relationship they are so alike!!! louis sees in daniel what he could have become as a human daniel sees in louis what he could do if he were free of that human life that daniel wants to escape
diasdelasombra
i actually think a lot about how in the book louis does several things to minimize his guilt (and maximize his pleasure) when he feeds: he hunts alone, he starves himself until near-incoherence before killing, and he rarely interacts with his victims at all because (he explains) it becomes near impossible for him to kill them once he's developed a connection, unlike claudia or lestat who enjoy seducing and even befriending their victims.
in the book, he tells daniel that he would have killed him that night at the bar, but daniel caught his attention and his interest instead —then louis attacks him at the end of the book, but doesn't kill him, which imho speaks to the same "attachment" preventing him from going through with the kill.
in the show i think we see some of the same inclinations: he feels bad about the death of the salesman because they got to know him too well, he avoids killing black people because he feels closer to them, and after he decides to stop killing in e3, we only see the murder of the alderman (irrational from hunger, years of resentment) and the council members (ibid) and we know he kills strangers off-camera but always alone.
now he feeds without killing, something armand first introduces him to in the book, oftentimes being the one to step in and prevent louis from killing off the human he's drinking from. and we know armand was close enough to save daniel's life when louis took him home in san francisco.
all of this to say one take i like is that during the period when we meet him in san francisco, fucking and killing are two things that are strictly compartmentalized in louis' mind, which allows him to make some degree of peace with his sexuality, or that's how he thinks about it at the time. so i imagine the whole seduce random guy get him high feed off (and thus get high off) him and have armand there as both voyeur and chaperone ready to step in if louis is about to kill the guy in question might have been their usual practice together, while louis is probably still going off to hunt and kill random men in extremely violent ways but exclusively on his own.
i think whatever happened during that last kill of 2000 could very well have been the collapse of this careful division, though on what terms exactly and prompted by what exactly is another whole world of possibilities. i need answers i need season two and i need louis to get some therapy immediately.
what i need to talk about is armand preying on suicidal people versus louis apparently targeting guys with substance abuse issues can we talk about that can we talk about that
WHAT'S INTERESTING ACTUALLY is that his drinking is a defining character trait for louis in the books and a drinking habit is also one of the things the pilot establishes about his human life AND before lestat attacks him he's going to bars getting drunk trying to get killed in a duel AND i think i lost the thread of this thought but i'll find it eventually
therealrashid
iiiii personally think that like what changed louis from that saucy little sexbomb in the 70s to the broken shell of a hermit we see before us today. why does daniel misjudge how far he can push louis re claudia. well because claudia died between the two interviews. and daniel doesn’t know it yet
like louis didn’t HAVE the diaries then. claudia wasn’t around but she was just pissed because he was spending all his time with his new beau. the only thing that would’ve made him hunt the diaries down would be her death. but him turning to armand to help him through this either means he doesn’t know abt armands involvement in her death (he’s gonna find out in front of us) OR he’s repressed it so hard just like everything else (daniels not gonna let him get away with that)
wordforworldisforestdeactivated
hi hello good afternoon anyways 70s louis is so fascinating to me like his manic apathy and bored arrogant flirting and bar-cruising…”am i the man you came here to kill?” a menace to semicloseted 20 year old journalism students. i think he asked daniel to choke him. i think hes having crazy under-negotiated sex in seedy bathrooms with strangers who are often blond and then eating them afterwards while armand is on the ceiling like the mom in hereditary
