♛Obviously I am. He’s just so stuffy about it! Needs to learn how to loosen up. I’m grateful that he IS willing to learn and can take an enormous amount of criticism so there’s a chance we’ll be able to dance at our
Was it an accident or kismet that Lestat found Louis randomly in a tavern in a sketchy neighborhood in NOLA?
Lestat went there for normal reasons: hunting evildoers as per usual, but it was NOLA bc he was looking for a fresh start in the New World. And Louis was there for also fairly normal – if not kind of upsetting – reasons, too: looking for someone to put him out of his misery, basically.
I would say it was kismet: Lestat was created for Louis, he was originally intended to serve as Louis’ maker, since we are introduced to him that way in the first book. Even Anne Rice didn’t anticipate that Lestat would essentially take the driver’s seat and create the rest of the series.
But it’s important to remember that, because he wouldn’t exist at all without Louis, in the fictional sense, and I think that’s part of what makes him so loyal to Louis in an ongoing way throughout the series. Louis’ rebelliousness as a fledgling and then the precarious but loving peace they shared for decades sets Lestat up for the pining for him forever after, and it’s only recently in the series that it feels like they are explicitly more in mutual love and awe of eachother than ever before.
If we look at it from Lestat’s perspective, which begins before Louis’ story chronologically, that relationship was a huge turning point for him. He lived out that lifetime that Marius told him to do, and for the most part, it was very good for all of them as long as it lasted. Lestat was the provider again, but this time, it was for a family who actually loved him, who he could love back ❤
^So of course I really love this fanart bc I COMMISSIONED IT, I asked for this composition, w/ Lestat in between Louis and his “dinner.” It’s actually based on an iconic moment in Dirty Dancing but anyway… Lestat had alot to teach Louis, and at least in this moment, he was saying, “I’ll bear the moral burden of killing tonight, it’s more important that you get what you need, so you can take it from me… rather than have /junk food/… but we’re not doing this EVERY night…” Also, he likes it when it’s HIS bodice being ripped open by Louis, for a change of pace!
They’ve also been through alot of canon events, terrible betrayals of eachother, generous forgiveness… so much feels. Which is why I can’t throw out entire books, there’s something worth saving in even the most difficult books to accept.
They say that your relationship with someone is established within the first 5 minutes of being with them, and I think those mutual feelings of friction and awe and attraction between them, added to the decades they shared as murder dads, and the other canon things they’ve survived, it’s all added up to keep them tied together, inexplicably. I think they’ve encouraged each other to be better versions of themselves, for the most part.
Hit the jump for moar thoughts.
In the universe of the books themselves, to elaborate a little: both Louis and Lestat were in a bad place when they found eachother. Lestat had a pretty rough first decade as a vampire, had already made and lost two fledglings. He lost them for different reasons but it still had to hurt. He had successfully gotten kicked out of Marius’ house for his usual bad behavior. Paris was no longer that great of a place for him. He had his blind old dad to deal with.
Louis was almost worse off, a lifetime spent as the man of the house, vigorously trying to kill himself by drinking all night and picking fights w/ whoever would fight him, feeling like a huge failure in the eyes of his family for the death of his younger brother.
So when they met and fell for eachother, it was intense, because they filled a void for eachother. Lestat wanted that companion that he thought Louis could be if he worked the magic on him, and Louis was overwhelmed by the attention of this supernatural creature, not just that he was a vampire (which would have been enough on its own!) but that he was LESTAT, with all that bravado and charm.
Add to that that they were both pretty awful to eachother, too, the friction actually adding to their mutual attraction in a way; Louis felt that vampiring was a great way to damn himself (tho he does admit he appreciated the heightened senses), and Lestat had found someone to question his authority ALL THE DAMN TIME.
It’s a very good ship from all angles, as dysfunctional as they both are.
Omg I know, wouldn’t it be lovely for them to just flop into eachothers’ arms and smile and laugh and everything is all sparkles and rainbows again? *u*
Relationships – platonic or romantic – are not guaranteed, they change and evolve over time. Even marriages fail! When Nicki asks for the Dark Gift, it’s not to be with Lestat, it’s what he thinks he deserves, one of the last gifts Lestat can give him to apologize. They were good for each other at one time, and grew apart. I think they both loved the idea of each other more than the ppl they really were, as often happens in relationships.
As a side note: I really didn’t realize there was so much love for Nicolas until I got on tumblr! I think he represents this generation’s disillusionment with society at large better than Lestat does, Nicolas’ rebellion is a modern-era grunge rebellion, bc he HAS TALENT, and is angry with the way it’s recognized, angry with so much about the way the world runs on autopilot, angry with societal ideals of success. He probably does have some mental issues, too, and I think this generation is more comfortable “coming out” with BPD, or manic-depression, etc. than in 18th century France or at the time TVL was written… with some counseling and/or medication, he might have had a better life.
So if Nicki came back:
If Nicki came back, they might get a little closure as long as they had a mediator present in the room to prevent carnage from breaking out. But they broke up on such bad terms that really, nothing can heal that breakage ;A; At this point, civil is probably the best they could manage, even though Lestat would probably bend over backwards if he thought he could get better than civil from Nicki.
Ask a Lestat or Nicolas RPer and they might have a more detailed answer on this, but anytime I see those muses interact with eachother, it’s pretty strained, and only slightly better if the thread takes place when they’re both still mortal.
BC let’s face it, by the time Lestat’s star was rising at the theatre, Nicolas was withdrawing deeper into himself and had had just about enough of Lestat’s bouncy optimism.
After Nicolas is turned he admits as much:
“It was to hurt others, don’t you see, the violin
playing, to anger them, to secure for me an island where they could not rule. They
would watch my ruin, unable to do anything about it.” I didn’t answer. I
wanted him to go on.
“And
when we decided to go to Paris, I thought we would starve in Paris, that we
would go down and down and down. It was what I wanted, rather than what they
wanted, that I, the favored son, should rise for them. I thought we would go
down! We were supposed to go down.” – Nicolas, The Vampire Lestat
Hit the jump for a little more, cut for length.
I think Nicki and Lestat needed eachother in the beginning and were very well-matched, they seem to be the first to really love eachother in the cruel environment they came from. They encouraged eachother to be better ppl, they were mutually supportive.
It all fell apart in Paris, and even if Lestat hadn’t been kidnapped by Magnus, it’s doubtful their relationship could have lasted.
The betrayal Nicolas felt when Lestat just disappeared that night was too great. Lestat leaves in the middle of the night, screaming, and reports that he’s fallen in love with some wealthy lady? No amount of gifts and money he sent to Nicolas could really substitute Lestat physically being with Nicolas the way that they were.
Hello there, another anon! 😉 Right off the bat, check out @remarried, she is hella awesome ❤ garama used to make cool VC art but he doesn’t anymore and deleted most of his old stuff but check out his blog anyway and @i-want-my-iwtv (aside from having an awesome VC blog herself!) has a nice collection of his works. @ashetray did some hella rad VC fanarts, so did @devmin-art. But I reccommend going into @i-want-my-iwtv‘s fanart tag, you will surely find something to enjoy 😉
I probably forgot some people and I’m going to feel super bad in 3… 2… 1…
*appears in a magical sparkly cloud poof* DID SOMEONE SUMMON MOI?
Yes, @sheepskeleton is among those she mentioned as great fanartists in our fandom! We do have a bunch more active ones, but there is definitely some gold (older works or works by artists who have only done a small number of VC pieces) in my #fanart tag. All of our fanartists are awesome and some are even open to suggestion, if you send them an ask with a good prompt.
Some other VC fanartists that come to mind in addition to those already mentioned above, in no particular order:
Then there are a few I would recommend bc altho they do not post as often, they are definitely worth checking out (please do NOT take it personally if I didn’t mention you here, these are just the names that immediately come to mind):
omg I thought it was Lestat at first and then saw the caption and like THAT MAKES IT EVEN MORE PERFECT bc he’s supposed to resemble her pretty closely!
I-want-my-IWTV 