akashaisaslut

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IT'S FINE I JUST NEED A MINUTE IT'S FINE

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wanted a new phone wallpaper so i painted one myself

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🩸

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amc claudia is jus so personal to me. already dead and born on a lawless night. she became a lawless shadow figure in the story cause everyone else consumes even her ghost. and what was her full name? and what was her full personhood. with all her journals dissected she remains shrouded in mystique. her anger and sadness is the quiet eternal dying breath of all this (like paul cause…im thinking thoughts) and it’s a groan. she’s an icon. she’s one of a kind. she’s my babygirl. she’s my blorwtf-ever. she’s my big lil sis and i will bite you about her.

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It’s actually crazy how well the amc unholy family functions as a slavery metaphor. One of my professors, who studied slave narratives, said that he didn’t think we understood 1/10th of the psychological consequences of enslaved people living in such intimate quarters with their owners, and Louis, Claudia, and Lestat brought that so strongly to my mind. The intensity and complexity of their emotional bonds don’t just mimic a nuclear family structure, they mimic the monstrous “families” that slavery created, wherein slavers and enslaved lived their whole lifetimes as bizarre, Frankensteined family units, manipulated by the masters will.

Louis is “of Pointe du Lac Plantation.” From the very start the spectre of the plantation is haunting the narrative, and it’s presence becomes stronger and stronger as the story unfolds. “Locked together in hatred” could describe the way enslaved people and their “masters” felt about each other. The enslaved couldn’t leave because of the overwhelming institutional forces keeping them bound to the plantation, which in IWTV we can read as Lestat’s outsized vampiric powers. The masters, though they consistently (and necessarily, for the purpose of justifying slavery) disdained and dehumanized their slaves, were entirely dependent of them for their way of life. Lestat continually insults Louis’s physical and mental fortitude, and degrades Claudia and denies her intelligence, but he needs them both. He needs Louis to give his life meaning and purpose, and he needs Claudia to keep/sustain Louis. That’s why he chases her down, in a sequence that can easily be read as the escaped slave being dragged back to the plantation and put back to work (“come home and make him happy”)

Lestat selects Louis for a specific purpose, his companion (“I chose you”) the way one would select a slave for a specific purpose. (I’m not very familiar with the history of slaves serving as companions as an actual duty but emotional dependency of masters on their slaves was a consequence of their deeply enmeshed lives) When that purpose is not adequately fulfilled, physical punishment was often used as inducement. Lestat’s assault of Louis is a punishment for failing at his “duties” of emotional fulfillment (“I have waited in vain for you to love me”) Louis was also poised for potential “escape” from lestat in ep 5, so we can also read that scene as punishment for an escape attempt.

I also see parallels in the story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, which was actually a common occurrence (white masters having children with the black women they “owned”) Jefferson supposedly loved Hemmings, but freeing her was never an option, nor was the freeing of their children. They were his property. So the line “we’re his slaves, and I will free us both” that Claudia says draws attention to this metaphor which is really a lack of a metaphor (striking.) We are seeing the dynamics of a plantation play out on a micro scale. Fledgling sounds like slave because in this case, it means slave. Lestat, through turning Louis and Claudia, essentially bought them, literally dehumanizing them, absorbing their humanity into himself. They exist as these liminal creatures because of him. “I put you on this earth.” “I am your maker.” You exist in this state because of and for me. Just as a slave exists in their liminal, dehumanized state because of and for the master.

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she really killed someone just to steal a similar sweater to her mommy 😭

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My darling, the devil knows my name

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CLAUDIERRR

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the life you left behind ⚰️

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I just realized why lestat marked Tom, like the big stupid idiot I am

(I know everyone else probably already figured this out, but this is MY blog and I get to post whatever deranged thought crosses my pea brained mind.)

When I watched that scene in episode 5 where they're at the bar talking to Tom, I was confused as to why exactly. Why does Lestat mark Tom? If he's marked to kill, why does he wait almost 2 decades later? Well I realized, as all realizations come, in the shower.

Lestat has been planning on killing Tom the whole time.

(Warning before you click read more, this post is a lot longer than I first intended holy fuck)

Well not the whole time. Just right when Louis realized that Anderson and Fenwick had screwed him over. Maybe even longer if he knew it was a trick ("ridiculous of you to mix human and vampire business it always ends poorly"). Notice how he's upset with louis when he kills the guy who's microaggressive with him, cus lestat wasn't there (even if he was there I have my doubts Lestat would understand microaggressions, but he would have definitely killed him for touching Louis.) But tells Louis he's proud of him for killing Alderman. I think this has to be because he witnessed the disrespect first hand. He didn't give a fuck about the money, what he DID care about was that those two disrespected not only him, but Louis.

Even with Lestats little understanding of race relations of the time in America, he did understand hierarchys. He's from 1700s France for God's sake. It's no coincidence wanted to be king of mardi gras. Lestat came to New Orleans and saw himself as the king, even if no one knew it. And he wanted Louis to be his queen. Honestly I could make an entire other post about how Lestat almost literally saw himself as if he was a King and Louis his beloved Queen, which is why he thought it was okay for him to sleep with other women (mistresses and playthings of the king should mean nothing compared to the queen in lestats eyes) but that's getting off topic. I only bring that up because I'm trying to paint a picture of how I think Lestat sees disrespect done to Louis. To him that goes beyond disrespect or rudeness, it's irreverence.

You begin to notice if you watch scenes with them together. Because while I wouldn't say lestat is good at controlling his anger, he's definitely great at concealing it until it erupts (props to Sam Reid have to be given here) lestat is always on the verge of fury when talking to Tom. It starts as a distaste then as he begins to fall more in love with Louis and become more protective of him, his anger builds. Claudia was wrong about one thing, it was no petty slight that was the reason Lestat killed Tom first, it was a loooonng time coming.

I could list every detail I think supports this but I'm sure you get the gist by now. My main point is really the layer of complexity this adds to not only the story, the characters, but also lestat and louis' relationship. Consider it for a second, Lestat saw all his violence as justified, everything he did one can see it through the lense of him punishing the disrespectful (take a shot every time I say disrespect in this post jesus christ). "I bring death to those deserving" indeed. Lestat has a god complex out the wazoo, and every attack, torture, and death he caused was righteous to him and thus enjoyable. Louis on the other hand didn't see himself so highly. He may seem confident but if you look through the cracks it's apparent Louis's self worth in near nonexistent and he's horribly insecure. I think lestat thought when Louis was made a vampire he would see himself as Lestat saw himself, and as Lestat saw Louis. But again, another post for another time.

Despite Louis' insecurities (or perhaps because of them) louis revels in the violence lestat commits for his sake. That's probably why louis is so quick to forgive lestat about the priests. For a brief moment Lestat truly said the truth to Louis and Louis could forgive him because of it. As lestat says, he doesn't kill the priests to intimidate Louis, nor does he do it just because he enjoys it. He does it because he sees them as humiliating Louis, charlatans that don't deserve Louis' sorrow. Louis didn't want the priest's to die, but he could understand why lestat killed them, simply because for once in his goddamn life lestat told the truth, and louis loved that truth. That truth being that lestat killed and mutilated and committed such horrors not just because he liked it, but because he did it out of a fucked up sense of protection. Him killing the priests was essentially a knight killing a dragon to earn the princess' hand in marriage.

The worst part is that Lestat doesn't even realize it. Not fully anyway. Let's be honest with ourselves, lestat doesn't understand Louis. Obviously there's the race, background, culture differences that lestat doesn't understand nor seems inclined to try, but there are better posts about that made by smarter people than moi. I'm mostly talking about lestat doesn't understand louis' mind itself (louis' mind in a vacuum I suppose you could say) he understands Louis' desire for violence sure, but he doesn't understand the core of that want. Honestly I'm on the fence of if he ever understood that Louis loved it when lestat was protective in the first place. I guess it can be dumbed down to Louis wants Lestat to kill to protect Louis and to protect the family (and anyone who deeply disrepects them), lestat perhaps understood a little at one point, but since he sees everyone as a threat and everything is a slight to him, he has no trouble and qualms with delighting in the torture of people Louis views as innocent. Louis' heart is a bit dark, but ultimately human, so he's disgusted by lestats violence towards the undeserving. Lestat can no longer read Louis' mind and even if he could, Louis doesn't quite understand the difference himself (that's why he tries to hunt for criminals briefly) so the cracks of miscommunication starts to form, and neither of them even realize there is miscommunication.

Therein lies the importance of Tom Anderson for season 1. Not much of a character, more of a plot device in human skin. Claudia can see that Lestat hates him, but doesn't understand why, nor does she care to get to the depths of that. (*Mr house voice* understandable) I think it's notable that Louis rarely brought him up, he didn't understand the depths of lestats love. Nor did he know about Lestats 3 decade long grudge, all because Tom disrespected Louis.

Now I'm not excusing Lestat's actions, I just think it's interesting how this one throwaway character reveals a whole level of complexity to the relationship between him and Louis, and better sheds light on not only Lestats personal philosophy but louis' as well. Even Claudia to a degree.

Anyway, uh. End of essay. Bye.

[akashaisaslut]

SAM REID AS LESTAT DE LIONCOURT AMC'S INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE SEASON ONE EPISODE THREE

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But you don't know what hell you put me through To have someone kiss the skin that crawls from you To feel your weight in arms I'd never use It's the God that heroin prays to