#complicated!

As I'm typing, I'm thinking that maybe this is obvious--of course most people want their partners to find them attractive AND not to feel like that's the main/only reason their partner is with them. It just somehow feels more complicated with Lestat. And I think you're already exploring this really gorgeously in your fics, actually...just by the way you show that Louis and Lestat have this insane physical connection and need for each other, but Louis keeps fighting to know Lestat on a deeper level too, and Lestat can see that. But anyway, if you had any particular thoughts in this area, I'd love to hear them.

It's definitely an interesting thing to consider, anon! Lestat's vanity is definitely a major part of his character, and while I do think it pre-dates Magnus, I agree that it's probably in part compounded by his turning. Like you said, Magnus chose him in part for his looks, and his beauty is really emphasised throughout his turning, both through Anne's prose, but also specifically through Magnus and Lestat himself.

Half of what Magnus says during his turning is about Lestat's looks, and even in the immediate aftermath, he's laid out a beautiful outfit for him to wear (red slippers and white hose and a red velvet suit worked with gold and rubies and pearls and the same Italian lace of his mother's wedding dress, which has been a fascinating detail to me since I picked it up on re-read) and Lestat spends paragraphs looking at, and admiring himself in a mirror. There's something to it that sort of feels soaked in the sense that Lestat was intended to be a kept boy, only now he has no keeper, and I suspect that's probably partially why Rolin and co have made the decision to extend it from two nights to a week.

Your ask actually brought two beats from s1 to mind - first Lestat's considerable considerables line from 1.05 when Louis' ignoring him as he searches the newspapers for Claudia, but also that tiny moment in 1.01 when he and Louis first meet and Louis makes that jab at Lestat's wardrobe that Sam lets land on Lestat's face in a way that I always love.

(And this is a sidebar, but there's an interesting thread with the clothes too in that people really do dress Lestat a lot - from the theatre troupe to Nicki giving Lestat the wolfkiller cloak, to Magnus laying out those clothes, to Louis updating his wardrobe in New Orleans, than dressing Dreamstat in his favourite suit - - it's one I think about a lot).

Both moments I think speak directly to what you're saying in that Lestat places a lot of his own value on his physicality - both in terms of his appearance and his sexuality - and so the lack of acknowledgement of either, or even a perceived slight against them, I do think is probably felt pretty deeply? It's all intrinsically tied up for him with the trauma of Magnus, yes, but I think also his freedom and ability to survive in Paris was dependent on his looks. He was beautiful enough to be on the stage, for people to want to look at him, something Nicki makes clear in the books and Armand makes clear in 2.03, and in that sense, what he looks like (and his ability to play a role that an audience wants) marks his life and his death and his rebirth in a way that probably only Armand could relate to.

So yeah, I think you're right that even beyond the natural desire to have your partner be physically attracted to you, Lestat probably needs it as a form of validation and that it probably carries a lot of weight in conversations about his self-worth. As for what it would take for him to feel confident in that? I don't know! A part of the fun with Lestat is that he's so in-the-moment that I think he'd probably pendulum between knowing exactly how much Louis wants him / is attracted to him, and being crippled by insecurity about it if, like, Louis didn't look up from his book fast enough, haha. I do think he'd probably like it when Louis dresses him though, because not to go back to that sidebar, but between those relationships (and his conviction is always that he and Magnus loved each other), I do think he probably sees that as an act of love and attraction.

(x)

Yeah! I mean, I think the nature of the show being in such a closed POV so far does mean that we've been dealing mostly with characters who have a deep understanding of why Louis and Claudia did it, and empathy for the context. Gosh, even Lestat understands that. The only opposition to that so far has been the trial, which was so diabolical and twisted and a deliberate bastardisation that it practically doubles down on the fact that Louis and Claudia were right to do it (and they were!) As the story opens up though, I think it makes sense that we might see mm, not different opinions, per se, but perhaps different feelings around it. Like, gosh, even the teaser has Lestat wearing a choker where his throat was slit, so if nothing else, he's probably going to make it a part of his act, haha.