#lester needs someone who doesnt see him as an afterthought (he needs someone who isnt me

[hersweetrevenge]

thinking about lester for once. and about how i usually don't think about him.

lester is the youngest child of a middle-class couple who could have done without having any children, never mind three. i see lester as being trudy and victor's marriage saving baby, their chance to have another go at that whole parenting thing, seeing as the twins turned out to be such hardwork. this baby, they think, will be easier. but then it turns out the sinclairs just... don't really like children.

lester falls to the wayside, because not only are his parents just not that interested in him, but the twins just take up so much of their time.

the twins take up so much of their time.

lester was destined to be overshadowed in life. how couldn't he be, when his older siblings stand out so badly?

they were conjoined twins, a quality which even now (let alone in the early 70s) is looked at with a certain sort of morbid curiosity. even after they were separated, vincent still bears the scars of "what" they were. bo is labelled as the "troublemaker" and, as they get older, he lives up to it. vincent is labelled as the "child prodigy" and, as they get older, he tries to keep living up to it. they cut a striking picture, six feet tall and hostile to outsiders. but it's not just that, they're weird. they have an interest in the macabre, they listen to loud music and as teenagers they were just about the only people under 50 who go to the matinee showings of baby jane and east of eden and house of usher the theatre puts on for the old folk in town. the twins talk to each other and nobody else understands.

lester, on the other hand, is unremarkable. he didn't need as much as the twins did in terms of extra care (which probably, ultimately contributed to his neglect). in all the ways that make vince and bo fundamentally strange, lester is fundamentally ordinary. and sure, maybe he's weird, but not in the enigmatic way that vincent is, or the intimidating way that bo is.

there's not a doubt in my mind that lester is interesting. his knowledge, his interests, his morals and his choices. all of these things make him interesting, but in comparison to his brothers -- the terrible twins -- he isn't interesting enough for people. people don't notice him.

lester needs someone who is enamoured with him, even with the twins casting their shadow over him. he needs someone who doesn't see the twins first and him as an after thought.