There has been some excellent discourse around Louis and Lestat this week, and the question of how their relationship is presented in terms of love vs abuse, and abusive love. I’ve seen some great discussion from @monstersinthecosmos and @secret-les-mis-blog-ooo in particular, and that was neat. But I’ve also seen an alarming take that Louis is just a big fat liar and Lestat is ~misunderstood and, fam, I’m not here for that.
I’ve written out my thoughts on the abuse and what canon gives us to parse, and also I’m going to talk a bit about some vaguely triggering stuff from my own life with regard to abuse and gaslighting so whilst the VC part of this post is up for discussion, don’t come at me on the real life stuff kthnx. 🙂
I had chills reading this, both for the subject matter and
@wicked-felina’s writing style, which as always, is sensitive and even some humorous touches while addressing even the darkest topics.
I’m so sorry you went through all that, I’m grateful that you shared it with us, especially in the context of this ship.
Fiction is a way to explore the real world and the darker topics, we can see in L/L than an abusive person can be beautiful, charismatic, and even loving sometimes.
To my reading, it is clear that Lestat was/is an abusive character. We can still love fictional characters even as we unpack their flaws and try to reason out how they became what they became. Fiction can entertain but it can also be informative, and sometimes it’s both.
I-want-my-IWTV 