#brought to you by: people thinking that lestat wrote that letter to manipulate louis.l

[casyawn]

so the thing is.. the thing is. lestat is manipulative yes but crucially, CRUCIALLY he's not good at it. in ep 1 he had a plan for seducing louis but the moment it stopped going his way he got impatient threw a tantrum and basically strongarmed louis into becoming his companion which only really worked because louis is also crazy. but the thing is the thing IS that that's exactly what's scary about lestat, that he's a selfish irrational violent man with no impulse control and he's also often kind of stupid. and the fact that he DOES love louis extremely sincerely and passionately only ADDS to the horror of it because there's a level of volatility and unpredictability that simply wouldn't be present if he was a cold savvy master manipulator. there's simply nothing he wouldn't do to keep him and he is insane!!!!

and this is also what makes season 2 interesting because armand actually IS a master manipulator and that's scary in the completely opposite way, in a subtle way where you don't even get that you've been manipulated until it's too late or potentially ever. and he too is insane and capable of doing anything to get and keep what he wants. lestat was incapable of keeping louis with him without resorting to violence but armand doesn't even need to and better for him yet he's convinced louis that it's all his choice and that he has real agency in the relationship and that is also scary!!!! they are both really scary that's the thing