#anyways still not a lestat hater

[soft-potatoe]

yall, when the narcissistic serial killer doesn't refrain from domestic violence:

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep2 Musings

I absolutely adore the title cards; the "fangs" reflecting main locations of the episodes/seasons. GOD this show's attention to detail.

We open with Lou & Claud in Paris bickering about French & money; already shown in the Pix11 preview (I gave my opinions on the full scene, and another post about Claudia specifically.

Then we get Dubai. O_O Omfg. I made a separate post all about Louis & Loumand, cuz those queens were DIABOLICAL this episode.

Skipping ahead a bit! To the coven/theatre! ^0^

Ohhhh....that's a Children of Satan/Darkness nod! 👀 Only thing's that the old guard from the CoS/D actually weren't part of the Coven/Theatre anymore by the time Louis & Claudia arrived (Alessandra, Eleni, and the rest of Rhoshamandes' fledglings Santino indoctrinated & had train Armand).

So Armand is REALLY showing off, tryna impress Louis; cuz none of the members of THAT Theatre troupe are older than Armand, and not even he's as old as Charlemagne. Armand, your yaoi is showing. XD

It's wild how on one hand we have the coven simping over how pretty Louis is (except Santiago, cuz ofc 🙄); while just HATING on Claudia.

Naw, let her stay! Estelle is THIRSTY and I love her for it, bless! XD

Santiago, you shady wench, you're already on my hit list, BUFFOON; but THIS striped heifer, Celeste--

Wench, are all Parisian vampiresses frumpy busted haters like YOU?

Anyways. 🙄 I hate this effing coven already. 😒

Foreshadowing AF, Mr. I Could Not Prevent It.

Sure, Jan. 🙄 But not all violence/abuse/trauma is physical/sexual. By allowing the Theatre to put their hands on Claudia, Armand harmed Louis more than anyone ever could. Claudia was the glue keeping Louis together when he was already falling apart, and he hasn't been right ever since. BOTH of these dudes are living in a fantasy, frikkin la-la-land, as they think they're HELPING e/o, going thru all these theatrical acts & performances. But are they REALLY happy? Esp. cuz we know who's endgame for them in the books. It's bittersweet, cuz their affection's REAL. But this weird codependency just isn't healthy or right. U_U

Eff you, Daniel Hart. tryna make me cry!

Eff you, Daniel Hart, tryna make me laugh!

This scene with the naked lady (Annika) was SO GOOD! I'm glad they tastefully didn't fully show her whole body like they did in the film--if we can't see full frontal nudity for the dudes, then I don't wanna see it on the gals either. 😤 Fair's fair!

But WOAH, the sexckshuhality~!

👻💀⚰️

I don't even have words for this! 😅 Claudia! Let the man win ONCE!?

But I LOVE how candid this show is about everything from sexuality to race--and ofc discrimination.

Oh they're cooking. O_O

THEY ACTUALLY SPOKE ON THE FACT THAT ARMAND'S A BROWN ASIAN DARKER SKINNED THAN REDBONE LDPDL, I'M SHOOK--COLOR CONSCIOUS AWARD GOES TO~~~!

Armand gets to lead the coven through meritocracy, not racial privilege. HOWEVER, we've got bleach-blonde Santiago still waiting in the wings, so.... I can't wait to see more of their dynamics.

We been knew, Louis, it's ok. U_U

Armand clearly been knew, too! Like: Yeah, I'm not surprised he's cruising all the gay parks--I could tell by the way that American walked! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I KNOW this bish ain't talking, not Mr. Polynesian Marys! Not Mr. I Did What I Had To Do To SCORE. Not Mr. We Met In A GAY Bar. Not Mr. Black Tar And Heroin! Not Mr. Is Alicia Even REAL!? I KNOW he's not tryna shade Louis for cruising, when his closeted arse can't even handle being in a room with Armand making come-hither eyes!

I love Daniel, how he's written & acted, but ISTG I hate his character.

As opposed to Santiago, who is just--BRUH. WERK.

And this is exactly what Lestat was getting at, too. And why Akasha was wrong when she said men are the problem. Like, don't get me wrong, THEY ARE, but chile, ALL HUMANS are the problem; eff gender. Homegirl sold that old dude down the frikkin river, just to save her own skin, and her family's. COMPLICIT. OFFAL.

Santiago's disgusted by humanity, and Annika proved his point.

As for Lestat, his cold willful detachment stems from his attitude that humans are just The Meat. This version of Lestat is SO dang jaded, that humans are reduced to mere food--just like he called Miss Lily.

He doesn't need the Evil Doer creed, if he thinks ALL humans are evil/irredeemable; only worth living if they can sing & make music or something artistic. Otherwise who cares? (Which makes it VERY interesting to see what AMC!Les would say to Memnoch the Devil....)

Speaking of....

I frikkin knew it. ISTG Lestat must be asleep in 2022--if y'all have him do a Merrick and wake up in the finale, I will pass out and DIE.

The question is: WHAT put him to sleep? Is he just sad & grieving post-trial? WTF is Raglan James doing in 2022? Are we post-Memnoch? Where are TWMBK? I NEED ANSWERS, AMC! 😭

[claudiablogger]

why is people taking that loumand transcript as real, that person made it half of it up, I really hate dm fans, like that just want to make Louis the bad guy, Armand the poor victim who wanted to break free of him and Daniel as his white knight ugh

sigh i knew something was off about it i thought i was just a hater but i have no idea how they could've gotten All That from the snippets the show actually gave us. i don't understand the purpose of it either way bc armand still comes off as who he is--controlling, abusive, gaslighting, etc and louis fighting back doesn't change any of that? louis' worst offense in their relationship is still loving lestat. armand knows this and armand can leave any time he wants but he chooses not to and chooses to keep louis locked in with him because he craves control and thinks his love for louis deserves his full life and attention. daniel as white knight is so fucking funny wow. armand is the tower lestat the dragon etc why the fuck would armand need a white knight.....anyway we all know what it's abt getting their faves to fuck bc god forbid they focus on the Black protagonist ever. daniel is louis' friend first in 2022 no matter what he may have had going on sexually with armand for six days in 1973. he's louis' mirror plus he wants her sososososo bad + armand didn't even see him as competition until the end lmao

[ca-suffit]

Maybe I'm wrong and it's just a perception,and also I'm not trying to absolve the fandom from racism, but how do you explain that Armand is totally accepted (I mean I'm happy for him) but I noticed recently that he's a big fan favorite despite having had his race changed.

I don't see him being stereotyped by the fandom because of his race.

So if the fandom is so racist why is Assad so loved ? They changed their beloved ginger and I've never seen anyone cry about it,just love.

Once again I don't wish him to receive racist treatment i have just noticed.

I even think he Overtaken Lestat (for the now in s2 because I think his fans are just asleep waiting for Lestat season)

Sorry if my ask seems like an hater i'm just trying to make some logical.I know fandom can be ugly for POC especially after racebending but if I'm not wrong Armand is a big fan favorite in the books and his show version too his ethnicity didn't change anything.I'm not saying Claudia and Louis deserve their treatment inside fandom,just sometimes i'm wondering if they had been white wouldn't it be the same ?

There's layers to what's going on with Armand. I just answered this ask ahead of this one, which says the opposite of this, but both of u are technically "correct" in what ur seeing.

Also, before I get too deep into this, just to mention that when the Armand reveal happened in S1, the racism was off the fucking CHARTS here.

Anyway, Armand *is* treated differently from book to show but it's not in the same way that the characters who are black are treated. Taken from this ask

"armand has his own history and is a brown man, but he’s a man who does have privilege in ways over louis and is shown abusing him with it too. it doesn’t mean his history is erased. but the fandom will defend (white) lestat first, then (brown) armand second, and….never really defend louis (or claudia)…..despite them being the only ones we’ve seen abused on screen so far. so it’s not rly about pitting anyone against each other as it is acknowledging who has the privilege across all these spaces and knowing why that is too."

Essentially what ur seeing is more acceptance for a non black person of color but who still isn't receiving the same treatment that the white character is getting when it comes to exploring his motivations and his backstory. Like I said in the first linked ask, ppl "accept" Armand and say "we love our evil gremlin" but Lestat is the one getting deep metas over God knows what, shit ppl just make up at this point. Armand isn't getting the same treatment for the show version.

I'm not saying Claudia and Louis deserve their treatment inside fandom,just sometimes i'm wondering if they had been white wouldn't it be the same ?

I think this is saying if Louis and Claudia were white in the show, wouldn't the fan reactions be the same? And the answer is no, not at all. They're *drastically* different and it's solely bcuz they're black now. For example, Louis' anger was never treated as "a problem" until he was black. Claudia was never called "manipulative" or "too old" until she was black. The actress who played her in the Lestat play was 19 or something too. That plot follows the series p closely for Claudia's involvement with the coven as well, but nobody ever spoke negatively about that actress or character for any reason. They were rly never judged for anything when it was all white ppl (except for Louis being sad and whiny a lot).

[loelett]

sorry if this seems random but a little rant in response to what u reblogged about the new tv show.

TBH IT MAKES ME SO MAD THAT THEY ADDED *FORCED* RACISM (and by that I mean Louis taking lestat calling him his fledgling as "slave" like stop thats not what vc is about at ALL?????) AND HAD TO MAKE ANTOINE INTO ANTOINETTE TO SHOW HES BI 💀 I feel like the writers missed a lot of important points about the book and WHY Louis stuck with Lestat and was infatuated with him but hated him at the same time. they really changed character dynamics in it tbh. dont get me wrong, its a decent show, but I just can't see it as the same Louis and Lestat compared to the 1994 movie which I think did a good job in recreating what Anne wrote.

anyway hi 😍🥰😇...

I'm not really sure what forced racism means in the context of the iwtv show ngl. I mean I've really only seen the show through one and a half times but I do know that even Louis himself in the books labels himself as a slave to Lestat's whim (Claudia does as well; she also calls him a slave to Armand) (Lestat also does this in respects to Himself so even he agrees hrejgh) so even in the context of the books I don't really think it's forced or ooc for this connection to be made. Obviously the intention is different considering Louis' blackness in the show, but since this is a theme the show goes with (meaning the racism that Louis experiences in his time period) I don't really have a problem with that wording. I'm not black myself so this is just my opinion by the way, but I've always been pretty interested in the way they decided to change show Louis' race and backstory. It's probably the most interesting change they made imo.

Um yeah the Antoinette thing still sucks, I really don't know why they decided to go with that ?? Idk i always forget abt her so I guess I'm a hater. Agree 👍. We never needed to prove Lestat was bi esp in the first book so wharever? go off showrunners i Guess?? idk bout all that

Loustat's dynamic is completely different in the show and it's one I've rlly never been interested in. I know a lot of people enjoy it and I don't wanna take away from that, so no hate there idk do what you love. I'm just not an enjoyer of the abuser/abusee thing they kinda have going on. Um and the cheating stuff it's all just really exhausting to me. I just really like Louis' reaction to Lestat's actions in the book ! They aren't canon BECAUSE Lestat is abusive and controlling and manipulative and they don't even kiss until book 2, let alone express emotional/physical affection. Show Louis goes back to Lestat even after everything that goes on in ep 5 and. As a self proclaimed Louis self insert I just can't ever see him doing that in the books, at least not with Claudia still in the picture. IDK!

I'm really not a hater of the show, and I want all the Louis fans out there to really think about the way they react to the changes in his character from book to show. There are personality changes that I don't agree with either, but this is a different story and the original one has already been told. I don't have to like the show to respect it and its fans, and the whole pick a side thing between book and show is exhausting to me :/ there r things I like and things i don't like about both versions !

Sorry I know this goes really off topic HGFSHg.. love love

[musicalmoritz]

I wanna ask your opinion on people who ship Tsukasa with like, Kou or Mitsuba? Most of the AU’s or arts Aidairo do either have him close with one or the other. Or both. That one witch AU had him be friends with both of them. There were like two banners where he and Mitsuba were together I think, but the anime merch tended more to Tsukasa & Mitsuba than they did (I think, I can’t remember much art they posted) but the fandom seems to grab their pitchforks and threaten ANYONE who ships Tsukasa with them, or anyone of his age, claiming Tsukasa is a monster and a demon and that people who ship him are abuse apologists. Do you like, agree with that?

So I’m gonna be completely honest here, and I mean this in the most lighthearted way possible, I am not your mother. There are certain ships I deeply dislike, and I will shade those if I want to, but I make sure to censor them so they don’t end up in the tags of people who enjoy the ships. Even with ships that are deemed universally bad, I have no interest in arguing with anyone. My anxiety issues are too bad to carry out internet arguments anyway and also it’s so much easier and more fun to just block people

Equally, I cannot control what other fans do. I don’t agree with ship hate because it gets people nowhere, the person you’re telling to kys is only going to ship that thing harder out of spite. Some fans feel that they have a moral obligation to call out certain ships, and I don’t really have an opinion on that. If you strongly feel that you need to do something then that’s your business, not mine. I may not approve of the hate, or I may not approve of the ships themselves, but either way both are going to continue to exist

I’m not gonna ship Tsukasa with anyone because I headcanon him as aroace. I think some of the rarepairs are funny but I still won’t actively engage with them. Certain ships with him also make me uncomfortable, and yes that includes the ones with him and Mitsuba or Kou. I don’t want to see them so I’ll just block those tags and creators. I may not assume they’re horrible people, but I still don’t want to see the creations they make so they get blocked. I think everybody would have a much nicer internet experience if they realized they can block people for stupid reasons

All this to say, I’m not going to tell you what you can and cannot ship. There’s not really a point in being like “this ship is toxic, you can’t like it” when many fans ship things because they’re toxic or problematic. I’m also not a total hater, I can see edits of Mitsuba and Tsukasa and be like “hey that’s pretty good.” But the ship itself still makes me intensely uncomfortable so I’m gonna avoid it, unless it’s a past toxic relationship that ends in Mitsuba and Kou. I do think they’d be a funny friendship duo in AUs but even then I prefer to see Mitsuba with the Toilet Gang

Thank you for the ask, I hope none of this came off as rude. I just feel like I am not the best authority on what pairings people should and shouldn’t be allowed to ship lol, that’s more of a subjective thing. And I literally ship Louis and Lestat which is arguably way worse than Tsukasa with Kou or Mitsuba so yeah, I have no room to talk lol

[the-immortal-armand]

21. What would it take for them to break up with someone? What would be the last straw?

//Honestly, Armand has a bit of an issue breaking up with anyone... which is exceptionally toxic. Despite what is done to him, he still loves people strongly. Look at his relationship with Marius (And all you Marius-haters out there, back the fuck off right now).//Anyway. Marius basically abandoned him to life in the Cult. He could have saved Armand, brought him out of the Paris cemetery, but Marius was so disappointed that his favorite little toy had been broken by someone else and put back together again in the wrong order, that he didn’t care enough to try and fix him. //And Armand forgave him. Still loved him. //Marius chose to reveal himself to Lestat. Lestat whom had upended Armand’s entire existence, had nearly even killed Armand at one point, and when Armand had asked Lestat to accompany him, was shot down and left with babysitting duties... Lestat was young in the blood still at this point, yet Marius thought him old enough to reveal to him his secrets of Those Who Must Be Kept, while only vaguely ever having mentioned their existence to his own child? //And Armand forgave him. Still loved him.

//Armand, in all his lifetime, has spent very, very little time alone. And most of that time he spent alone was not of his own choosing. His partner left him. Abandoned him. And he was still always constantly seeking someone else to spend his time with. He was abandoned by Marius, so clung to the Children of Darkness. Then Lestat came in and turned that on it’s head, so he clung to the Theatre des Vampires. When that was insufficient to keep him going, he clung to Louis, who left him again. He searched for Lestat then, and that’s when he found Daniel... whom he refused to leave alone. And even after that, when Daniel was taken in by Marius, Armand opened the Night Island. After that, he was opening Trinity Gate.

//Armand, in my eyes, is so co-dependent on others that he cannot fully function on his own. So I doubt he’d ever really initiate a break-up with anyone. Because he’s far too co-dependent. Which makes it very easy for someone else to abuse him. He’s afraid to be alone. He’s more afraid of being alone then he is of allowing someone else to hurt him.

[monstersinthecosmos]

I MEAN YOU GUYS. I think the fandom is pretty evenly divided on this, you know? I was gonna answer each of you individually but this kinda illustrates my point. There’s ample meta out there about Marius being a scumbag and there’s also a TON of fanart and other positive content that show a lot of us like him regardless. 

ANYWAY CAN I BE RADICAL AND AGREE WITH BOTH OF YOU?

@  Bottom!Anon! Like, I don’t hide the fact that Marius is my fav lol. Honestly, he’s my fav in like.... probably anything. Every time I return to VC it’s such a familiar comfort to spend time with him again and I just, fucking love him. 

I’m not here to say he’s innocent or anything cause we all know he isn’t, but I deeply love him as a flawed person and a lot of the problems he has are problems I’ve had, and UGH listen, I love him. Even so, even admitting that he is flawed and can be awful, I still don’t think he’s the worst LOL. Like, Akasha? Enkil? Rhosh? Lestat? Santino? How do we measure who’s the WORST? Raglan James? Santiago? EVIL BIRD ALIENS? Like sometimes I wonder where the Santino haters are all hiding--a dude that snatched Armand from his home and burned his brothers alive in front of his face and fed him his best friend? lmao. Is Marius really worse? 

And if we can go back to one of the other posts I made today, this is an area where I take authorial intent into consideration. I really believe that Anne handled him poorly and I don’t think she intended for him to be as evil as he comes off. I think he’s operating in the universe she created and acting accordingly. He has been a victim of sloppy writing and her weird power fantasies.

I’ve talked about this ad nauseam but I just feel like we all have our own experiences that we bring to the table, and it colors the way we read things. A lot of this is up to interpretation and not everyone interprets these characters the same way. I’m not gonna try to change anyone’s minds about this, and likewise, no one is going to change mine haha. 

As to Top!Anon’s comment!!!!!! 

1) “Unhealthy” like. I mean. I think the point here might be “Armand was too young”, because like almost every relationship in VC has a huge age gap. Marius and Akasha have a big age gap. Fareed and Seth are a SUUUUUUPER big age gap. Armand and Daniel. Mael and Jesse? By these standards Marius’s entire dating pool can basically be drawn down to... Mael. I don’t think Marius & Armand are worse than Armand & Daniel--especially considering how manipulative and abusive Armand was when they met, and although Daniel was “legal” he was also an addict whose buttons got pushed for years. I also don’t think it’s worse than Lestat & Akasha. Definitely not worse than Lestat & David. And like I know comparing any of these ships doesn’t negate the badness, but I’m saying it to say I think Marius/Armand is an easy target because it fits a certain modern standard we have, and like, hate on it all you want! Legit! I get it. But it’s not like it’s the only toxic relationship in the series lol. 

Anne loves power imbalances LOL so it’s gonna come up again and again. I guess it’s one of her fantasies or whatever. But this happens with so many of them and I don’t find harping on Marius & Armand to be that interesting.   Because they’re vampires like.. there’s gonna be big age gaps. Otherwise we’re condemning them to never having relationships. Armand’s age may be a problem here, but even if he were a couple years older and met some arbitrary modern age of consent I don’t see what difference it would’ve made. Like the age gap isn’t like, oh, Marius is 10 years older and Armand is underage. It’s fifteen hundred years lmao. Armand could be 30 and it would still be sketch. I’m not gonna deny that it was super coercive but I don’t think Armand being a teenager had a TON to do with it and, again, it’s not something that we don’t see again and again all over this fucking series. 

2) “Predatory” ... like ya he’s a vampire lol. 

TIME FOR MY UNPOPULAR OPINION ABOUT THIS THOUGH: I think in the real world we often read relationships like this with a predator/victim binary, as we should!, and in fiction that isn’t always the case. I know that AR has used underage characters to revisit the way she felt when she was underage, and the focus is on empowering her vs. putting the older person in context as a predator. This is what fiction is for, it’s a safe place to exercise these ideas without real people. This is what I mean about her being clumsy with it, and also what I mean where Marius is just living his life in this fucked up ass backwards Riceverse. And listen yall, like, I dropped out of high school and I was working full time, illegally, by the time I was 17. I was there, I know how it felt. And it’s easy for me to look back and brush off the whims of a 17 year old, but I know that at the time I was very serious and mature and knew what I wanted and I was working for it. 

So sometimes I think this framing of the situation turns Armand into a victim, and I don’t like to think that he was. I don’t think it’s fair that fandom gets on AR’s ass so often about infantilizing her characters but then also refuses to allow Armand a shred of agency.  BUT!!!!!! You’re not wrong dude. And Marius was predatory. And he admits it in his own book and goes on about it at length. 

I don’t think it’s black & white but I’m also not here to change anyone’s minds and try to tell you that you should like him anyway, cause like, it’s a fictional character and I don’t care if anyone likes him or not and you are under no obligation to sympathize with him if you think he’s an irredeemable monster. We all carry our own experiences with us all the time and it’s natural for them to dictate how we receive the world. 

AND! For the record? I don’t “ship” them lmao. I’ll repost art and stuff because I like art and it’s canon and I ache for like the one time they were happy LOL but like. I WANT MARIUS WITH MAEL OR PANDORA OR NO ONE AT ALL. I will settle for like, bicentennial Santino hatesex but that’s about it. I don’t think either of them have anything to gain by trying to repair or imitate what they had.