Hey all, been a while. I've been watching the newest adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, which is deliciously gay, BTW. If you'd like to watch, beware that there will be spoilers in the following review.
First, I want to acknowledge that Louis x Lestat is toxic AF. Lestat cheats on Louis, he manipulates him, and he gaslights him. No one even knows if anything Lestat tells Louis is the truth because he lies so often. It is, however, a very powerful and dynamic relationship for a couple of reasons.
Lestat is the first white man to acknowledge Louis without seeing him as inferior, even though Lestat looks down on humans in general. There is a nice little bit where Lestat loses his cool over religion while he's wooing Louis and that kind of gives you some indication about his past. This is confirmed later in the show when Lestat mocks the other vampires for fearing the cross. Lestat definitely has some religious trauma in his past, but prior to hearing Armand's side of the story we don't really get any glimpse into the Lestat before Louis. He claims he wants Louis because he's lonely, but he then cheats on him because he "likes variety". I have my suspicions about why Lestat cheats, and I don't think it has anything to do with his bi-sexuality (and don't even get me started on why portraying Lestat as cheating with a woman and saying it's because he likes variety is problematic and bi-phobic because that is a whole other blog post). Anyway, moving on...during the period of time Lestat is wooing Louis, he tries to pull him away from thinking of himself as inferior, but after Louis chooses to be vamped (a really violent but sexy scene BTW) he feels inferior in a different way. He can't let go of his humanity and just be a vamp. Lestat hates this about him and it is the cause of most of their bickering.
Then along comes Claudia. Prior to vamping her, Lestat and Louis already have plenty of problems, but after Lestat concedes to Louis' request, they seem happy for a time. This is a band aid on their relationship just as the journalist states. The big problem with that is, band aids only work if the damage is minor. Lestat and Louis have major problems. After Claudia accidentally kills her first boyfriend in the throes of passion, she and Lestat begin to clash a lot. However, it is not until she runs away that things really get out of hand because she finds out that other vamps can be just as dangerous as Lestat claimed. I don't know if you've ever had a relationship with an abusive or authoritarian person before, but when they give you kernels of truth like this, and you end up getting hurt by straying from what they're trying to control you to do, it messes you up. Claudia comes back broken, and then the enormous fight between Lestat and Louis happens after her return. This is the first time Lestat ever brings the abuse to a physical level, and just as many abusers do, he attempts to make amends afterwards by romantic gestures. However, it is not until he appeals to Louis' jealousy about Lestat having a relationship with his human lover Antoinette that Louis finally relents and lets Lestat back into his life.
Now Lestat is a complex person, and the way he treats Louis is absolutely horrific, but I will concede that I think he actually does love Louis in his own way. Take, for instance, how things play out for the plot to kill Lestat towards the end of the first season. Louis and Claudia decide on this course of action after Louis realizes that Lestat has lied to him about killing Antoinette and that he's still cheating with her, and after Lestat prevents Claudia from leaving him. One could contribute Lestat's downfall to him being overly confident in his abilities, but I maintain that he knew that Claudia would succeed in taking him down from the moment she beat him in chess. There are a couple of clues I found which support this assessment:
First, at the ball, when Lestat supposedly thinks he's got the upper hand (Antoinette has been eavesdropping on all the conversations between Louis and Claudia when Lestat cannot, after all) he talks to Louis as if he's saying goodbye.
Second, you don't learn this until the next season, but Lestat wrote Louis a note in case something happened to him. Now perhaps this was just because he suspected that Armand would try to kill him upon their arrival in Europe, which was why he resisted it for so long, but if he thought he would win, why would they be arriving in Europe at all? Wouldn't he just keep Louis in the US and just move to a new place? He could have even planned to kill Louis for his betrayal, although, to be fair he could have killed both Louis and Claudia the moment he learned of their intentions. He did not. He allowed the ball, and the cockamamie scheme of drugging him to go on. In truth, he probably wanted to die that night, by Louis' hand. I think because he actually loved Louis in his own way, the knowledge that Louis wanted to kill him made him want to die.
I don't think Lestat ever loved Armand. He used Armand's attraction to him to manipulate the older vampire. I think he decided to do this when Armand kidnapped his human lover, although it is doubtful that Lestat had any feelings for him either. After turning him, he quickly turned his back on the man making out with Armand right in front of him (though he did this to Louis too with Antoinette), so perhaps he did have some small love for the human lover that Armand corrupted.
Now, you may ask, why does Lestat cheat if he loves Louis and it's not about his bisexuality? He cheats on Louis because he wants to elicit that jealousy from him. Louis doesn't take to being a vampire, still clinging to his human life, but when he's riled up, he tends to let his vicious side out. Lestat wants him to be vicious. He doesn't want him to be sweet, or kind. This is why I think Lestat was so eager to let Louis kill him. Not only because the idea of Louis doing that hurt because he loved him, but because he knew it would create in Louis the monster Lestat was hoping to cultivate. The one who fully embraced his vampire side without remorse.
Anyway, it is a very poignant show. Some elements are problematic, to be sure. I did absolutely love that it was their shared trauma concerning Lestat that brought Armand and Louis together, although I would also argue that Louis' trauma is much greater than Armand's. The older vampire got his heart broken after someone he loved used him for what he had. Louis was played with, cheated on, beaten, and lied to over many years. He spent so much time revolving around Lestat and then had to live with the trauma of having "killed" him. I don't really know if Lestat is possibly still alive since they didn't burn his body. According to the lawyer, he hadn't been in contact, so if he was he probably decided to leave Louis to it and not seek revenge (unless the note was a part of his revenge, there is more to come after all).
I am dreading the eventual death of Claudia because of how adversely this is going to affect poor Louis. He's been through enough shit. I just want him to get to be happy. However, knowing he gets to live the next 70 years in a loving relationship helps a bit.
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