The author reinforce this by adding that, when they adopted Claudia, Louis took the maternal role. What do you think? ( Pt 2/2 )
It’s not a groundbreaking concept, we often talk of mommy!Louis in fandom. If there were a “mom” in that relationship, Louis would be more of that than Lestat was! ❤
#don’t you love the way Claudia snuggles in there #tucks herself in #like she’s actually Louis’ doll? #she is 80% made of that dress and those curls #how he places that little kiss on top of her head right before he shuts the lid #Right before theyll be in total darkness #just to reassure her #He is such a good mom
^my tags on that gif, bc I do love mommy!Louis ❤
(Lestat was actually Claudia’s biological maker, it’s his blood that turns her; she is technically Lestat’s fledgling, which actually makes Louis her “brother”!)
Louis was based on Anne Rice herself; Lestat was based on her husband, Stan; and Claudia on her own daughter, Michele, so you could say Louis was the “mom” bc of who he was based on. IWTV was partly about AR investigating the tragic loss of her own daughter through these characters. Louis’ separation from Claudia was not his choice; neither was AR’s from her own daughter ;A;
When you’re a Ricean vampire, gender doesn’t really matter, it definitely doesn’t matter physically in making new vampires, which is how they procreate. Post-IWTV!Lestat is much more into fashion, jewelry, and other typically “feminine-specific” stuff/activities that Louis has little or no tolerance for. Lestat is also one of the most prolific makers we know of in the series. The act of making fledglings could be compared to pregnancy, and he loves doing it, so that could make him more “feminine” than Louis, who has only made two fledglings (but both were made under duress, not 100% his choice).
Lestat and Louis both parented her in their own ways. Lestat took Claudia out and taught her to hunt, and all this other stuff he shared with her that Louis couldn’t. Hunting can be considered more “masculine.” You could label more domestic things like literature “feminine,” I guess, and that’s what Louis offered her. IWTV!Lestat was just more interested in action and less interested in introspection. Your author says that one of Louis’ feminine traits is “speaking about his feelings,” Lestat does TONS of that in later books. So if you only read IWTV, you miss out on that.
The other thing is that IWTV is Louis’ account, so yes, it paints Lestat a certain way, when Lestat was frustrated that he couldn’t reveal so many secrets that it drove a wedge between them. I feel like most of Lestat’s “masculine” behavior is just about that frustration, at having to keep his history a secret because of Marius’s threats.
As Lestat puts it in TVL, Louis’ account is somewhat accurate:
“…which for all its contradictions and terrible
misunderstandings manages to capture the atmosphere in which Claudia and Louis and I came together and stayed together for sixty-five
years…
But he adds this about Louis as a narrator:
“[Louis’] blindness to
the motives or the suffering of others was as much a part of his charm
as his soft unkempt black hair or the eternally troubled expression in
his green eyes.
So I wouldn’t say you can totally define Lestat and Louis’ gender roles in their relationship based solely on reading IWTV. But many of us, myself included, enjoy daydreaming about mommy!Louis ❤
Poor Madeleine! Did not deserve to die like that ;A; Unfortunately, I’d say she was condembed to die by proxy, being so attached to Claudia.
I don’t think Madeleine’s death was totally under Armand’s control. He was not really the leader of the TdV (see more quotes on that below the cut); in TVA Armand says: “For the record, [Claudia] was slain by my Coven of mad demon actors and actresses,… it became all too clear to too many that she had tried to murder her principal Maker, The Vampire Lestat. It was a crime punishable by death, the murdering of one’s creator or the attempt at it”
^“slain by my Coven”but not that he ordered them to do it. Just that he didn’t stop it from happening.
This is an #unreliable narrator situation again, as there are at least three different accounts of the trial that was held under TdV (see more below the cut)(four if you include the above statement from TVA). In all instances, the important part of the “trial” was that Claudia was the one who had to be convicted and sentenced to death. Louis and Madeleine were secondary concerns.
There was no explanation for why Madeleine was also condemned to death, I would suggest that Santiago (and/or Armand) wanted to kill Madeleine bc she was mad (the extent of which we don’t really know) and/or they didn’t really know what else to do with her. Santiago probably wanted to do it bc it’s thrilling to kill another vampire, as Armand pointed out in book!IWTV: “`You see,’ he said, `killing other vampires is very exciting; that is why it is forbidden under penalty of death.’
Poor Madeleine! Did not deserve to die like that ;A; Unfortunately, I’d say she was condemned to die by proxy, being so attached to Claudia.
I don’t think Madeleine’s death was totally under Armand’s control. He was not really the leader of the TdV (see more quotes on that below the cut); in TVA Armand says: “For the record, [Claudia] was slain by my Coven of mad demon actors and actresses,… it became all too clear to too many that she had tried to murder her principal Maker, The Vampire Lestat. It was a crime punishable by death, the murdering of one’s creator or the attempt at it”
^“slain by my Coven”but not that he ordered them to do it. Just that he didn’t stop it from happening.
This is an #unreliable narrator situation again, as there are at least three different accounts of the trial that was held under TdV (see more below the cut)(four if you include the above statement from TVA). In all instances, the important part of the “trial” was that Claudia was the one who had to be convicted and sentenced to death. Louis and Madeleine were secondary concerns.
There was no explanation for why Madeleine was also condemned to death, I would suggest that Santiago (and/or Armand) wanted to kill Madeleine bc she was mad (the extent of which we don’t really know) and/or they didn’t really know what else to do with her. Santiago probably wanted to do it bc it’s thrilling to kill another vampire, as Armand pointed out in book!IWTV: “`You see,’ he said, `killing other vampires is very exciting; that is why it is forbidden under penalty of death.’
Movie!IWTV – Armand is not part of the “trial,” we see him close the door against the whole scene, and he waits until later to free Louis from his (upside-down!!! SO MEAN) imprisonment in the walled-in coffin o’ doom. So one would guess that Armand at least negotiated w/ Santiago to have Louis’ life to be spared in this way.
Book!IWTV – Armand was not present at the “trial.” Santiago seemed to be the one running that show.
Again, one would guess that Armand at least negotiated w/ Santiago beforehand.
TVL – Armand was present at the “trial” and seemed to be the one running that show, and Madeleine is not even mentioned.
In movie!IWTV, we see Armand closing the door on the screams of the condemned, and the explanation as to why he didn’t come out to help when Louis called for him? He had told Louis that he wasn’t really the leader of this coven, “But if there were a leader, I would be that one.”
In book!IWTV, similarly:
“ `Are you the leader of this group?’ [Louis] asked him. ” `Not in the way you mean leader,’ [Armand] answered. But if there were a leader here, I would be that one.’
Armand knows that to exert power, you have to defend it:
[Louis says:] “ `Stop them if you will, advise them that we don’t mean any harm.
Why can’t you do this? You say yourself we’re not your enemies, no
matter what we’ve done… ’
” I could hear him sigh, faintly. [Armand says:] `I have stopped them for the time
being,’ he said. `But I don’t want such power over them as would be
necessary to stop them entirely. Because if I exercise such power, then
I must protect it. I will make enemies. And I would have forever to
deal with my enemies when all I want here as a certain space, a certain
peace. Or not to be here at all. I accept the scepter of sorts they’ve
given me, but not to rule over them, only to keep them at a distance.‘
♛I hadn’t heard of him before your mentioning him to me, I must say… while I don’t eat meat this man is making me salivate for it. His knifework is very impressive.
♛Merci, my hair is magnificent, is it not? No real routine, just rinse the blood and dirt out after a kill, if there is any to be rid of… Louis doesn’t like scented products. Perhaps the blood and the dirt are good for one’s hair? Hmmm…
I-want-my-IWTV 