the sequence where the muses judge lestat as an unworthy failure would've hit so much harder if the show had adapted magnus, marius and gabriella's white supremacy from the tvl novel. and i think muse-magnus and muse-gabriella should've been the only characters to consistently refer to louis as "a pimp" or "the pimp". imagine if the show had textually addressed magnus' white supremacy and his fixation on finding a "superior" heir as one of the reasons for his specific victim pool (you could even connect him being an alchemist to him having proto-race science style beliefs- 1794 is 2 years before the idea of "cranioscopy" the precursor to phrenology was invented in england in 1796, magnus turns lestat during one of the periods where the idea of trying to scientifically codify and "prove" racism is really starting to take off). and imagine if instead of muse-louis, muse-magnus had spoken this line- "hops the "ss abandoned" in new orleans. gives the gift to a pimp who lives to make him miserable" contrasted with s1 footage of louis looking darling and sweet and not at all like the way he's being harshly stereotyped. (in this hypothetical alternate version of tvl that actually cares about race and blackness, muse-gabriella saying "kills the daughter. saves the pimp" would've worked too, given gabrielle's canon supremacist views, desire to lord over her victims like a goddess in africa, and her contempt for every lover lestat's ever had).
like ofc a white supremacist like magnus would be indignant and repulsed that lestat gave the gift to louis and claudia- literally shared his blood with his black husband and adopted daughter, metaphorical vampiric miscegenation in addition to the literal miscegenation of loustat's relationship that was x2 illegal under the jim crow regime and louisiana's "crimes against nature" laws. there could've been a longer horror scene in magnus' tower where magnus waxes creepily poetic about lestat's physical attributes and his gallic heritage and how that shows ~he's more finely made than other men~ while touching his body or his face in a gross way and lestat's half out of it with blood loss (then later, when marius admiringly and matter-of-factly talks about this when lestat meets him, the show smoothly affirms marius' racism that the s2ep4 museum scene already hinted at and shows how powerful either marius or akasha are that they could pluck this fixation from magnus' mind across the continent).
and lestat, knowing this about magnus, would represent him this way in his mind, knowing his maker would've been more than displeased that his blood was passed on to black vampires- and it could connect with lestat having a deeper reckoning about the way he treated louis and claudia, the fact that he was complicit in their lynching- when lestat was onstage in s2ep7, he said "i'm cursed with my maker's temper". my maker's temper, not "my father's temper" this time, when he's onstage spouting lines villainizing his black family, framing claudia as an inherently defective "cripple" (white supremacy and ableism go hand-in-hand!!) and acting as the star witness in a show trial that's meant to manufacture consent for louis and claudia's murder.
also remember magnus and armand knew each other- armand called magnus "my predecessor" in s2, meaning magnus was the leader of the parisian children of darkness chapter before he left the cult at some point and then armand took over, and at some point between magnus' departure and lestat's arrival in paris in 1789 magnus began actively pursuing a "perfect specimen" as his heir- and given enforcing the great laws by disproportionately targeting black people seems to be a paris coven specialty (maybe it's bc magnus was too powerful to fight directly or bc armand didn't wanna bother with it as long as magnus left him alone and was suitably discreet with his killings, but there's no indication armand tried to put magnus down for being a rogue vampire hunting in his territory) it's interesting to think about how that could have roots in magnus' tenure as the parisian coven leader or in the vampire laws in general- it's a major "freeze frame and squint" moment in s2 and given the massive change in the writers room i don't know if the show would even follow up on this idea anymore, but in the plaque in the coven's lair listing all the vampire laws in s2ep3, there's a law about not giving the gift to black people.
like. you can see how engaging with race and racism already makes the text richer and the characters and their motives more layered- and the tvl writers team consistently falls short of that. instead of examining the racialized context of black men being perceived as inherently sexually predatory for why racist characters would reduce louis down to pimp and pimp only as his core trait, the show just plays into that kind of racism- the writers are clearly fixated on "pimp" as something eternal and inherent about louis (notice they don't do this with lestat being a john, sex tourist or the angel investor for louis' biggest and most successful brothel in s1) so multiple characters just call louis a pimp left and right without considering whether it fits those characters' voices. like off the top of my head i can think of at least 10 different words lestat would use to refer to louis instead of "pimp"- but magnus insistently calling louis "a pimp" would make sense if his racism had been adapted, bc then it's clear it's a specific reflection of a character's personal politics. i miss the characters feeling like unique individuals with unique voices and worldviews instead of coming off like an assortment of mouthpieces for rolin's voice and worldview.
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