Yes, I love his big cozy sweater + unkempt look aesthetic, too. Louis is a professional couch potato ;D
I love how soulful and wise and beautiful and plain human Louis is.
Yes definitely! He takes immense pleasure in simple things. Still uses oil lamps because the flame is so much friendlier than an electric lamp š
Itās stupid, but if I got to meet him I think weād get along. Iād love to bring him old books of poetry and candles, surprise him with a fountain pen and parchment, and spend warm New Orleans nights at the Rue Royale flat with him. I just really really love Louis so much ugh jeez
What you suggested is absolutely NOT STUPID, I do think youād get along well with him, it sounds like a perfect evening with a close friend ā¤ More power to you, anon!Ā
[Itās a great reminder of canon characterization as too often fanon has casted him as a beautiful, frail flower destined and carried by Lestatās will.] *nods* Yep.Ā
I think we can blame movie!IWTV for some of that fanon, bc heās shown at his weakest in that movie, when he was struggling emotionally about vampiring, and the film also emphasized his appeal to other characters (like the scenes where Santiago is stroking his hair while deciding his punishment, and when Lestat literally sweeps him off his feet with the first bite), and the film took a number of important BAMF-moments/lines from him (like the one I mentioned in that post). Consequently, there are fans who base their headcanon of him mainly on the movie interpretation, even after theyāve read the book(s), since it left such a strong impression for them.
[I love that he knows heās beautiful and he lowkey manipulates the fuck out of people and that he isnāt a delicate pretty face, like you said, he can still cut a bitch! Heās equally if not alot more dangerous than the rest.]
^YEP. In his speech to Madeleine about her wanting to be a vampire, he acknowledgesĀ āDo you find us beautiful? Magical?ā He knows how he appears to mortals and other vampires. Heās calling her out on her request as being flimsy and uneducated, that she is completely out of her depth and has no idea what sheās really asking for, itās not just a makeover!Ā
We use the wordĀ āmanipulativeā on tumblr as having a negative connotation, and I wouldnāt say that Louis manipulates for nefarious purposes. I think heās tactical. He wants to keep the peace in this scene:
āI wish you would play the music,ā I said softly, unobtrusively, butĀ as persuasively as possible. Sometimes this worked with Lestat. If IĀ said something just right he found himself doing what Iād said. AndĀ now he did just that: with a little snarl, as if to say, `You fool,ā he beganĀ playing the music.ā (IWTV)
I donāt think Louis finds himself particularly attractive, I think when he calls himself handsome in IWTV, itās his acknowledgement that others find him attractive; it still baffles him that they do. He absolutely recognizes it as a tactical advantage,Ā he just doesnāt explicitly preen about it like Lestat does. No need š
Hit the jump for a little more re: theĀ āfrail flowerā trope, under a cut for respect to the anon bc I this anon isnāt fond of it.
As you mentioned, you may not be fond of it, and that is absolutely fine! Itās not for everyone. I know I canāt read those trashy romance novels at the supermarket. Theyāre unappealing to me. But I get that they have an audience, bc theyāre still there, still selling!
With Louis, other than all those loving descriptions of him from other characters, I think itās worth noting that there are truly very few canon moments wherein heās a *~a beautiful, frail flower destined and carried by Lestatās (or whoever elseās) will,~* yes, itās that damsel-in-distress, bodice-ripper kind of trope. Is it as effective if heās always pursued and never caught? I think some readers, like myself, need a bite of carrot now and then. Itās a subjective thing. We should be glad AR hasnāt turned him into the smut vehicle so many other characters became *sigh*
Itās a fantasy to be carried off by some angelic stranger, itās been around since ppl have told stories. We can identify with Louis, or we can identify with Lestat, both sides of the fantasy is appealing in its own way. In shipping them, you get to have both. So I understand the appeal, but again, itās not necessarily for everyone. Not everyone likes shipping, period, and thatās absolutely fine, too!
Feel free to send me rants about this mournful-yet-will-cut-a-bitch-while-looking-like-an-angel angel (<ā NICE), bc #we appreciate and love louis in this house, as @13bels so eloquently tagged that post ā¤
[EDIT: Tumblr ate half my post! I took out all the indented āquoteā formatting to fix it]
IKR?? He tolerates it, rolls his eyes at it when he reads it, but when it gets to a certain amountā¦
Louis says of himself in IWTV:
āYou wonder if I was a handsome man when I was alive,ā said the vampire. The boy nodded. āI was. Nothing structurally is changed in me. Only I never knew that I wasĀ handsome. Life whirled about me a wind of petty concerns, as Iāve said. I gazed atĀ nothing, not even a mirrorā¦ especially not a mirrorā¦ with a free eye.ā
TheĀ compilation of descriptions of Louis that @i-see-light-blog put together are mostly from Lestat, I think, and at least one or two are from Armand, both were lovers of Louis at one point. The others who describe him are Daniel, David, and Marius.*
And I think the deal with describing Louis is partly that, hey, itās fun to do, like having a favorite flower, and AR takes the opportunity to remind us of it, and put the camera on him in a scene, so we know heās present. It also serves a purpose, we usually get at least a scrap of context about him and/or the scene:
āI glared at him, at the sharp graceful angles of his imperturbable face, [ā¦] his wide-set eyes, with their fine rich black lashes. How perfect the tender indentation of his upper lip.ā -Lestat, The Tale of the Body Thief
Lestat glares at Louis. ā> Lestat is clearly pissed.
Louisā imperturbable faceĀ ā>
Louis is not scaredĀ of Lestat being pissed.
And then Lestat lavishes this extra description on him, appreciatively. Attention on the lip area, now weāre picturing him pointedly staring there, which might precede a kiss, so we can infer that Lestat desperately wants to kiss him, probably. What I get from all that is the exquisite tension of Lestat wanting someone he canāt have, someone he treasures and wants even MORE bc of the difficulty. And Louis knows this when he reads those flowery descriptions. I think Louis secretly enjoys the power that he holds over all these hopeless admirers, when he reads these descriptions.
Itās the tension of the other charactersĀ pining for Louis that AR wrings every drop out for us, sheās showing us how helpless these other characters are that they can only try to capture Louis with descriptions since he defies being owned by anyone. Unrequited love is a powerful thing.
In my reading of IWTV, Louis was not just some dishrag Lestat could toss around at will. Even before Claudia appears, Louis is setting boundaries with Lestat:
āAnd to Babette I came now with Lestat. He would have killed the Frenieres long ago if I hadnāt stopped him,ā¦
ā¦`You call me the idiot, and youāve been the idiot all along. Do you think I donāt know why you made me a vampire? You couldnāt live by yourself, you couldnāt manage even the simplest things. For years now, Iāve managed everything while you sat about making a pretense of superiority. Thereās nothing left for you to tell me about life. I have no need of you and no use for you. Itās you who need me, and if you touch but one of the Freniere slaves, Iāll get rid of you. It will be a battle between us, and I neednāt point out to you I have more wit to fare better in my little finger than you in your entire frame. Do as I say.ā – Louis, Interview with the Vampire
^And this is part of Louisās hawtness, as well. He absolutely will cut a b*tch, if necessary.
Hit the jump for a little more, cut for itās-slightly-off-topic-but-oh-well
*Iām pretty sure the other quotes are from Daniel, David, and Marius, Iām not checking bc Iām like 90% sure.
Danielās drawn to him in IWTV bc his story is so compelling, and that Louis is a vampire in the presence of a mortal who knows what he is, so he has that preternatural thing going on, mortal!Daniel is enthralled. Plus, Louis may have spellbound him inadvertently, as according to Armand:
āLouisā¦ unable to read minds, or to levitate, or to spellbind others except inadvertently, which can be hilarious, an immortal with whom mortals fall in loveā¦ā – the Vampire Armand
David probably has some mixed feelings about Louis, especially in Merrick, bc Lestatās out of the picture for most of that book, and I think David is stepping into Lestatās role in his absence, to some extent, so I think heās trying see Louis as Lestat sees him.
There was an artist in IWTV who painted Louisā portrait, it makes sense that Marius, another artist who has done portraits, would also be drawn to Louis for this reason. Marius also thinks about what would happen if Louis were upgraded, and hey, I would think heās had those thoughts about other vampires who are significantly younger than himself, for whom an upgrade really might change them. Now that Iām thinking about it, this was info that Marius confessed to Lestat when Lestat was drafting QOTD, and I bet this comment stuck in his mind, he very much wanted to upgrade Louis for awhile, but for different reasons.Ā
Bon soir to you, thank you (I need this week to be amazing bc itās my first 5-day week at work in awhile, bc of the holidays and the snow day last week, omg itās gonna be rough, lol), Iām very well! Hope you are, too, and that 2018 is treating you well, so far. Iām stretching my creative muscles again, making promises to ppl about fanworks I have in the pipeline that are ACTUALLY GOING TO HAPPEN. Yissss. 2018 is going to be a more productive yearĀ ^_______^
(No worries re: the spam of questions, Iām going to treat them as one mushed-together question, hope thatās ok with you!)
Louis having a living lineage and
being a patron to itĀ is entirely possible! Do I personally headcanon that he does, definitively? Thatās hard to sayā¦ I could go either way on it. I can parallel-headcanon, and have it both ways š It depends on the fanfic/fanart/etc. Iām consuming, whether I headcanon yes/no on that.
A) On the one hand, I think heād be charmed by seeing his own mannerisms (or that of his immediate family!) in his descendants, as can happen. ā¤
I know Iāve seen at least one fic that had Louis discover a great-great-greatā¦.(idk how many?)ā¦grand-niece in NOLA, and even being just a child, she resembled Louis physically and/or psychologically, and he was deeply touched about that *u* I donāt remember whether he became a secret patron to herā¦ I think the fic was by @gairidā/ @vampchronficā, if that ficwriter sees this post, they are invited to reblog/comment the name of the fic! It was sweet without being pure fluff.Ā
B) On the other hand, I think Louis might take some comfort in the fact that he no longer has a family to support financially or emotionally, and no family to worry about from a distance,Ā
ā¦which Maharet has made a career of doing with her own family bc she enjoys it. Louis is fiercely devoted to and protective of those he loves, and he chooses those loved ones very selectively. Canonically (post-IWTV), he has few ties to the other vampires in the coven, and no mortal tiesĀ other than Merrick, but she bewitched him, and admitted to doing so, so I donāt think that she really counts.Ā If we include PL/ROA, then one could argue he has an attachment to some of the mortals in those books, including Rose.
Another thing thatās come up in canon now and then is the idea that mortal relatives/descendants can be used to try to blackmail the vampires; mortals can be taken hostage and threatened with violence unless ransom of some kind is paid for them, as happened in PL. So I think Louis would be relieved that he wasnāt unintentionally placing any innocent mortals in harmās way simply for being related to him.Ā
^^^ALL THAT SAID, we could always use fresh fanart/fanfic/etc., especially on this kind of rarer topic, so anyone who sees this post is invited to share their headcanons on it, too š
Hit the jump for just a little bit more.
Canonically, Louis tells us that his sister married, and yes, he did give her money to invest for the family:
āMy sister was married in my absence, for example, while I had a `malarial chill,āĀ
ā¦With dozens of miserable headaches I would receive my sister in a darkened bedroom, the covers up to my chin, bid her and her husband bear with the dim light on account of the pain in my eyes, as I entrusted to them largeĀ amounts of money to invest for us all. Fortunately her husband was an idiot; a harmless one, but an idiot, the product of four generations of marriages between first cousins.ā (IWTV)
I skimmed IWTV and I didnāt see any mention of his sister having any children.Ā
I donāt know why AR included that the husband was the result of an incestuous lineage, that may have been normal at the time? I donāt know what impact AR intended that information to have on the story. Maybe just that the husband never questioned Louisā strange behavior re: meetings in his darkened bedroom bc he was, as Louis said, āan idiotā? Maybe this was a little reminder of Louisās ego, that he felt he was a better man than his sisterās husband?Ā
BTW, Louisās sister has a fanon name, some fans have accepted it as fanon anyway, Henriette.Ā
Personally, I do headcanon that Louis has at least a few mortal friends in NOLA and San Francisco, like a particular barista at a coffee shop he haunts in the French Quarter, and a few other locals who have done work at Rue Royale over the years. @gairidā/ @vampchronficā also has an OC, Brian Callahan, who I think Louis cares very deeply about ā¤
I-want-my-IWTV 