he was complex or something, right?

Young Lestat & Gabriella looked a lot like LouClaudia. Bonding with each other to a heightened degree due to the patriarchal abuse in their household.

Similar to Louis, Gabriella projected her own identity onto Lestat. However, the difference is Gabriella turned their dynamic into sexual assault. She felt empowered living vicariously through Lestat, while at the same time feeling empowered by hurting and controlling him.

On the flip side, Louis seeks redemption and purity through Claudia. He feels his life can finally have value by identifying himself solely in relation to her (“Who are you, Louis?” “I’m your brother.”) He is not living through her, he is being saved through her.

Both GabiLou reached for their ideal selves through LesClaudia, but where Lestat’s masculinity was the goal for Gabriella, Claudia’s innocence was the goal for Louis. (And both were false perspectives, mind you, but that’s also a different convo. I’m going to kms with all these possible tangents!!)

So LouClaudia’s relationship does not and would not ever turn sexual, but it was emotionally incestuous. Their identities blended together and eliminated the very needed boundaries that are supposed to exist between parent/child or brother/sister.

The “two blood fat cocks” line in S2 was funny from an outside pov, but what siblings are actually saying that to each other?!

The Loustat sex scene where Claudia telepathically talks to Louis is referenced often, but even before that.

Lestat wasn’t wrong that Antoinette should generally be his and Louis’ business rather than hers. But LouClaudia (as one identity) felt she had the place to get involved.

And even before that, before the drop, Louis became despondent when Claudia went off on her college phase. It’s one thing to feel guilt given they just had an argument when Claudia left out the door, but Louis practically fell apart. And stayed this way for years!

I say all this to point out that Louis & Claudia’s relationship, while beautiful and full of love, was also unhealthy.

And it was the way they were unhealthy that Lestat was envious of. Lestat projects onto Claudia a LOT and the older she got, the more he saw of himself in her. And this viewpoint leads him to becoming paranoid about LouClaudia given what happened with him and Gabi. Except there is no sex(ual assault) involved. Only emotional codependency. And this, ironically, makes Lestat even more furious about it.

He does not want to be in a sexual relationship with his mother, but he does want to be in a codependent relationship with his loved ones. He wanted Gabriella to “belong” to no one except himself, and the same with Louis. He wants all of their attention all the time, and wants to be needed & sought after by them always.

He would’ve done anything to have a mother who’d waste away by the simple suggestion he go somewhere by himself. He would’ve done anything to have a mother who would want to forever share a coffin with him and have little to no interest in separating.

Louis is not ever abandoning Claudia, the only way she’d gain independence is by being the one to leave him (and the second time she tries to in S1, Louis literally plans to kill himself the morning after. He could not live without Claudia!) It’s the direct opposite of GabiStat where Gabriella routinely leaves him behind without a care in the world. Lestat wanted that part of Louis’ attachment to Claudia. The ruinous devotion with no threat of abandonment ever. Where separation would feel like the equivalent of death for both of them.

One of the biggest reasons I think Lestat fell in love with Louis during their courtship era is because he could see how full of love and affection Louis was when it came to the people he cared about. It’s a trait they both share, being lover boys, while also being complementary: Lestat feeling wholly unloved and Louis overflowing with his capacity to love.

But when Louis gets turned and Lestat stops being able to read his mind, and they stop having sex, and, presumably, stop sharing blood, Lestat feels denied this aspect of Louis while believing Claudia is receiving all of it.

Lestat wants the love and emotional intimacy, but more pointedly he wants the enmeshment. He wants the “I’ll completely fall apart or even kill myself if you leave”, he wants the codependency. And it all ties back to Gabriella’s abuse as her relationship with Lestat was at the extreme other end in terms of affection and care. Because of how deprived of love Lestat has been his entire life, he craves the near-obsession toxic kind. LouClaudia’s codependency was his most desired kind’ve dynamic to have with someone, and the fact he witnessed it every single day drove him mad.

Mind you, LouClaudia’s enmeshment is a result of Lestat’s own abuse towards them. He played a role in creating the very relationship he always wanted. Just that its foundation is built as an outlet from him, their own messed up safe space. Making the cycle never ending where Lestat abuses LouClaudia -> LouClaudia grow closer to each other in response -> Lestat feels more excluded and the abuse gets worse. And it just kept going until you got the drop and again and again before exploding as Mardi Gras.

A lot of what happened at Rue Royale were the three of them projecting onto each other. We know Louis loves Lestat & Claudia equally. In 1x05, Louis doesn’t even actually agree to leave with Claudia and abandon Lestat. He wants to be with them both. And if S2 Dreamstat isn’t a reflection of Louis’ cavernous grief during Claudia’s college phase then idk what is. But it really is about Lestat projecting his own trauma, desires, and fears onto LouClaudia that makes things spiral into hell.

This isn’t to say Louis was completely blameless. He wasn’t. 2022 Louis looked back and acknowledged that during Claudia’s college phase, he took satisfaction in provoking Lestat. In his depression, he wasn’t only sad but was also weaponizing his own guilt against Lestat. And so after years of this, Claudia does nothing but walk through the door and instantly receives a gentle, worshipful hug from Louis. On top of everything else, it’s contrasts like these that also unravelled Lestat, who laser focuses on the negatives of his and Louis’ relationship while only seeing the positives of Louis’ relationships with other people.