Meat! It's what you're made of; Keep that in mind

this is the blog where i quarantine the bulk of my insanity

[feedingicetothedog]

thinking about gabriella again and how i HOPE in s4 when we're freed from the tyranny of lestat pov and the """"""necessity""""" of having song writers in the writers room for the possibility of fleshing her out more bc the bones of an extremely fascinating character is there. like i don't have a HUGE problem w/ the hypersexuality of the character bc i do think it makes sense from an emotional/trauma informed perspective (it's just that every single women in this season is hypersexualized to the point that it feels misogynistic). she was 15 when she was forced to marry a much older man and have children as a child herself. her very first sexual experiences were marital rape and then forced pregnancy. she's trapped in this house and the witch burning scene also reinforces the ways in which female sexuality is punished by death if expressed in a way that it deemed deviant. her fantasy (both in the original novel and in the show) is the ability to experience sexual pleasure w/ whoever she wants w/o consequence while also understanding that the reason this is not available to her is bc of how her body is seen as an extension of her husband (and her sons!) and is directly tied to his status. it makes sense to me that post-vampiric turning she starts to engage in frequent casual sex as a means to reclaim her body as hers.

i feel like, similar to armand (and lestat tbh), gabriella experiences a significant amount of arrested development and retains a lot of that adolescent impulsiveness that she was never allowed to express bc of her circumstances. and i feel like bc she's a woman in her mid-50s it feels really uncomfortable to see her behave basically like a teenager but i feel like it makes sense. i just wish we had had more time to explore her psychologically and be allowed to feel compassion for her situation considering the underlying narrative of the series has always been exploring the realistic and messy psychological landscapes that often lead victims of severe abuse and trauma to perpetuate their abuse on others the minute they possess power over someone else

[feedingicetothedog]

"i told you i loved you but did i? hmmm? did i? or was it a clinging to the underside of anyone who would help me survive? and when i look back on who i've deceived, how i've deceived, how easy it was for me to lead a cult for 400 years, to burn in ritual anyone who broke the archaic laws we lived by, i think i might be a room without walls, floors, a ceiling. an infinite nothing."

looking back on the dialogue here on it's own, armand being like "i don't know that i can truly say i love/loved you b/c i don't know that i'm capable of love, i might just be an empty space" is very compelling and also an interesting dodging of responsibility

[mistressvera]

Gopal Divan as Dr. Fareed Bhansali and Assad Zaman as Armand

IWTV - The Vampire Lestat 3.07 "The Failures"

[feedingicetothedog]

https://www.tumblr.com/feedingicetothedog/822858386526928896/its-crazy-how-much-sense-the-finale-wouldve-been you’re right, I just feel like the paul scene wouldn’t be offensive if it was louis who got to speak with his own brother. Swapping their roles probably wouldn’t have improved the writing but it at least would have made this season less racist

yeah for sure, but also the paul scene shouldn't have happened at all 😭. i wish they had been able to implement that in season 2 like they had originally planned but at that point, you either have to give up on the whole idea of a paul hallucination or wait until louis has his own pov again to do it. bc you're right, louis SHOULD'VE been the one to speak to paul! lestat and paul have no real emotional connection, it's so fucking stupid for him to be there and to be the one to reassure lestat that he was good for louis actually??????????????? crazy

[feedingicetothedog]

also can you imagine the impact and interesting conversation that could've been had if, once again, this season leaned into the backdrop of the first french revolution and the overthrowing of the monarchy overlayed w/ the second trump administration (which is referenced but not engaged w/) and then ends w/ the waking of akasha?

[feedingicetothedog]

It’s crazy how much sense the finale would’ve been and better written it would be if only louis and lestat just swapped roles

the thing is the evangelion-esque psychological dream sequence thing for lestat DID make sense and was ok to me (except for certain parts....) but honestly that bit should've happened earlier or been reoccurring over the season. i think it should've first come up after he got drugged by baby jenks and then over and over again. i think this works for lestat and doesn't work for louis in a season structured as being told from lestat's point of view.

BUT you're also very right that the armand head thing ALSO should've happened to lestat if it had to happen at all bc it doesn't really make sense and was just there to try and prove that the series should be taken seriously as "Real Horror"™. if they wanted armand to do crazy horror shit this season then they should've just shown him murdering his coven and cutting off nicki's hands/burning him to death

[feedingicetothedog]

i was talking to my friend about this last night but the louis and armand stuff in the finale is so clearly trying to emulate don't be afraid just start the tape but the difference between the finale scene and that episode and also s1 episode 5 is that in the first 2 seasons those horrifically violent scenes were culminating scenes. there was a build up and then explosion that you could clearly plot from the earlier episodes. there is not enough emotional build up or palpable emotional carry over from the previous seasons to indicate this moment so it just sorta feels like....ok fine i guess this is happening now

[feedingicetothedog]

the thing is, if rolin and co were so concerned w/ actually being seen as horror proper and not "horror-lite" as he put it then there are like a million scenes from the novel The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice published in 1985 that could've been adapted that would've gotten the job done

[feedingicetothedog]

what's insane is that i made a post before s2 came out about the possibility of them using paul as a way to haunt louis esp irt to misplaced guilt bc the iwtv novel literally does that and to think that they also thought about that but then didn't

[feedingicetothedog]

if they had explored more how gabriella DID gain a lot more freedom when she became a vampire but also was still limited by how the world views women so she continued to live vicariously through lestat even into her vampiric life and why she came back to influence lestat to lead the great conversion and bring it into fruition is bc despite it all, despite her best efforts, the world is more willing to rally behind a man than a woman that would've added to the conversation put forward by seasons 1 and 2 that being turned into a vampire doesn't free you from how the world sees you

[symphany]

Or picture you at twelve. At twelve. You were twelve.

[feedingicetothedog]

Oh loumand these racist writers will never make me hate you, the most compelling, interesting relationship in this season and the whole show

like at the end of the day the characters of armand and louis and the relationships between them are too important to me personally for me to have them ruined by a bad season of tv. like that's just the reality. if they didn't want me to like them then they shouldn't have written such a compelling relationship in s2 and cast 2 amazing actors w/ the most electric chemistry i've ever seen in my life

[feedingicetothedog]

and what's crazy is that despite everything that happened w/ louis and armand this episode, they're STILL the most compelling relationship this season. and i think the reason is that unlike loustat and dm, their scenes didn't happen off screen

[feedingicetothedog]

the way that loumand absolutely could have had an actual conversation post divorce to be transparent with each other. the book had that scene of them walking near the river, wonderful quotes like "I look into your eyes and my reflection isn't there" because these were two people who genuinely loved each other but louis couldn't fully accept that armand was responsible for killing another person in his heart (claudia). we could have had a version of this in the show, I'm still angry that s2 finale cut away from jassad's acting to show daniel panicking over his laptop who gives a fuck?? such a waste of a complex dynamic and combined talent between two actors of color with great onscreen chemistry, nah let's toss in racist saw trap 2.0! these writers are full of shit.

what’s killing me is that in s1 and s2, the adaptational changes and recontextualizations for the new narratives strengthened the original themes of the novels or challenged problematic ideas in the source material but it felt like almost every time something from the novel the vampire lestat was incorporated into this season it was weak, weird, and narratively ineffective. there are so many parts from the book iwtv, tvl, qotd, tva, etc. that could've been reworked EFFECTIVELY for the show that supposed the new contexts and racial realities of the characters and elevated the original moments but it felt sloppy and bad and like an afterthought. which is crazy bc i have no clue what they were prioritizing this season

[feedingicetothedog]

i would be more inclined (but not completely) to buy into the louis and armand scene if louis was actually emotionally affected by the claudia seance. like if he was a complete emotional wreck in the aftermath and having a breakdown, i could see him indulging in the feeling that he's experiencing an appropriate punishment for how he failed claudia (i do not think this is correct or representative of actual reality but i believe the character would see it this way). but bc he was so blase about the whole thing it was like...what's the fucking point of any of this?

[feedingicetothedog]

and like the problem is there are elements of the louis and armand plot in the finale that would make for a very compelling story. like louis and armand having a big fight upon first interacting after s2 that ultimately resolves in them realizing that they loved each other and saw each other but never in the way they really needed to grow and feel secure? great. armand demanding an apology from louis but not even really knowing what he's looking for, just that he feels like he's owed SOMETHING after everything that happened between them despite knowing that he's the problem? great. louis being in a position where he can save regina in a way that he couldn't save claudia? great. but like....the execution.

[feedingicetothedog]

the way this isn't even a revelation because of all the damn characters, louis has always been the most empathetic in regards to armand's past and csa and we didn't need a gratuitous torture scene to understand this! louis acknowledged arun as armand's birth name before sexual slavery while the "love of his life" daniel was busy being racist and calling him a rent boy. fans always treated louis as a callous pimp while pretending as if a white savior was going to save armand. it's such bullshit.

writers wanted to punish louis for any reason for things that weren't even his fault. it's so cruel and i'm so angry that the talented cast of color were expected to act this out.

like the whole time i was watching that plot i was like this could've been a normal conversation lmao. like they literally didn't have to do any of that. i don't even know what to say about it tbh. like there have been so many writing choices this season that are so wildly offensive, mean-spirited, and RANDOM that i'm just mostly confused by them. and louis' storyline feels like they're trying to say that he's being selfish for grieving claudia. that he's stupid for being introspective. that he's evil for being mean sometimes to the much more powerful men in his life that mistreat him and ABUSE HIM time and time again. like why does louis have to be like "armand YOU have a REAL excuse for being fucked up, i'm sorry for being emotionally unavailable sometimes after you participated in the murder of my daughter" while armand is literally doing a vampire snuff stream??? and what sucks is that jacob and assad are literally so talented and they perform that last scene so well that i was actually moved and then i got angry bc why did this moment have to happen w/ this fucked up evil backdrop?? anyway.