Here's the thing with *that* scene in IWTV S3 E06
I get why they put that scene in. I know what they were going for. Delainey is an incredible actress and I'm really glad she got to absolutely kill it with that scene, she did an incredible job. It was meant to be deeply deeply uncomfortable and provoke people and in that it achieved its aims. I have also read some of the books and knew this moment was coming for a couple weeks now and what they were pulling from the books to make it.
And as for the whether she would say that of it all, it's complicated. We're getting a double unreliable narrator here, firstly in season 1 and 2 we get Louis' version of events which we know to be heavily warped either by Louis' own denial of events, or by Armand's memory erasing and general mind fucking, and now in S3 we have Lestat's perspective on things. All 3 seasons have been told retroactively through recollection either in the tapes of the Interview or now through the recordings of The Failures.
In fact, the only *real* events we've gotten to see are the scenes in Dubai, and Louis and Lestat's reconciliation in New Orleans. There are differences in the characterisations of Louis, Lestat, and Armand that we can use to understand which ways the depictions in each narration aren't quite true to the characters, Lestat views Armand as much more pathetic and desperate than he is, and views Louis as much more unstable and less self aware than Louis probably is. Louis conversely remembers Lestat as much more self aware and composed than he really is, even when his temper comes out.
What we don't have, however, is a real version of Claudia. She only exists in the narration of both Louis and Lestat.
Now does that mean I think the racialised elements of that scene are ok? Absolutely the fuck not. I think they handled this particular scene pretty poorly.
This scene was actually incredibly book Claudia accurate. She did prefer Lestat over Louis. She did stick with Louis because he was easier to manipulate until she could find someone else. However, this is because in the books she was 5 fucking years old. One of the interesting things about book Claudia is that she has no memories of mortal life, she is the most pure vampire we meet, just total and complete vampire instinct, which is why she likes Lestat because he at least revels in his nature. As a 5 year old she is literally incapable of looking after herself, the world just isn't made for her to function in, and so she clings to Louis who uses her as a comfort blanket, and arguably even manipulates Madelaine's grief over her lost daughter as the new person to look after her.
And that..that just isn't true for show Claudia. She is much more independent and self reliant, she was able to make it on her own in a way book Claudia never could. She didn't actually need to manipulate Louis, at least not in a way that justifies the seance. Yes, there was the trauma from Bruce, but actually this kinda brings the necessity of that brutalisation into question. If that was added to give a justification for her needing Louis then uhhhhhhhh, and besides she was totally still ready to leave on her own so still kinda no?
And that's where the racial element comes into things. There are reasons why show Louis and Claudia would stick together, both having been raised under incredibly racist conditions and both beholden to a white man who held power over them. Even if Louis infantilises her in person and in his own mind and keeps her as a "throw pillow" there are justified reasons for them to be bonded and look out for each other. Especially travelling Europe in the 1940s Jesus fucking Christ. But not out of pure necessity, they can easily kill any humans they want, but because they understand their situation in a way Lestat was repeatedly shown not to understand. Even with Louis' unreliable narration of her personality? That would still be true.
And so really the writers put themselves in a bind. They needed a scene that called those two fuckers out for what they did to Claudia in life and were still continuing to do with Claudia's memory in death, and they wanted it to be devastating. They intentionally pulled a scene from a future book that would do what they wanted it to do, but failed to consider just how fundamentally they had changed the character. Oh they sure did keep the race bending in mind with the things Claudia tells Louis, but in completely the wrong way in my opinion. They put black racialised language onto a version of the character that was much closer to the 5 year old white girl from the books and that just doesn't work.
Was there a way to achieve the same narrative aims to put Loustat rightfully in their place? Yes absolutely. Would it have been less devastating and upsetting keeping it true to the changes they did put in? Yeah, probably. But honestly in an episode like that? I dunno man there was already so much it would have been *fine* to turn it down a notch or two Jesus Harry Christ.
