Dearest Lestat, I was just watching Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and I noticed that the Beast’s human form looks an awful lot like you. What do you think?
♛I would say that the resemblance is uncanny… in more ways than one. Yes, budding youth, handsome, blue eyes and blond hair. Even the expression in the painted portrait we see of Prince Adam is a familiar expression of mine *winks*
I relate deeply to that story. If I’m the Beast, and I’m constantly swooning over Louis’s slightest glance at me, does that make him Beauty? Probably.
As much as I do praise myself (and others do, as well!) to the high heavens for my looks… Being at home in my own body has been, and still is, a constant a struggle. It’s a love-hate relationship with the mirror. As often as I say it, the impact remains the same: my reflection has startled me on more than one occasion, it’s depressed me, it’s made me almost lose the will to live. There were times that I couldn’t look in a mirror. I wouldn’t wish that feeling on my worst enemy.
There is a real horror in what we are, hosts to a vampiric parasite. That moment of awakening, that first breath after the change. Beautiful and monstrous all in one. And each time I survive something and my reflection shows me something close to what I was before all this happened, that’s a small comfort.
OMFG no really can we talk about parallels between these stories.
HELLO WOLFKILLER LOL
Let’s talk about how Belle and Louis are both pretty brunette book nerds.
Lestat experiences horrific changes to himself (his soul and his body both) throughout his life that turn him into a literal monster and he’s often terrified by his own body.
Belle basically winds up with Stockholm Syndrome, HI LOUIS. Like, the Beast keeps her captive for selfish reasons, eventually he grows on her. Louis entered this relationship with his eyes a little more open, and he was enthralled by Lestat in the very beginning, but Lestat did trap him there by withholding Important Vampire Information AND ALSO trapping him with a kid. Claudia is basically the library in this analogy.
//ooc: Very good addition from @monstersinthecosmos! I’m sure essays could be written on this. Lots of comparison could be made.
The story of Beauty and the Beast is far older than the Disney movie (1991) and has been adapted many times over, I wouldn’t be surprised if AR had drawn on some of that story – or any of the various adaptations – for inspiration as TVL was published in 1985. Still, it’s worth comparing this Disney version (or the story itself) with TVL, being made within the same decade. Maybe the Disney ppl were influenced by AR ;]
I-want-my-IWTV 