Sharing this post that was made when season 2 was airing.
There was never a point in that relationship where Louis held any real power. In Paris, Armand was playing chess while Louis was playing checkers. Louis's past as a pimp didn't suddenly grant him the ability to make a vampire who was centuries older, far more experienced, and significantly more powerful than him, submit to his will.
This is not meant to dismiss Armand's trauma. But the idea that Louis's past as a pimp somewhat shifted the power dynamic in his favor is reductive because it ignores the broader context of their relationship. That argument only works in a vacuum. It doesn't hold weight once you take everything else into account: Armand's age, power (especially in Paris as the leader of the coven), influence, and outstanding abilities.
That said, I do believe there was a discussion worth having about the elephant in the room: Louis's past as a pimp and Armand's history as a victim of CSA. However, if the writers wanted Louis's past as a pimp to be a meaningful fault line in the relationship, the groundwork should have been laid much earlier. We should have seen hints of this tension in Paris, Dubai, San Francisco, or at some point during the 77 years they were together. We should have seen indications that this was an unresolved issue neither Louis nor Armand wanted to confront. The narrative should have shown signs of Louis's reluctance to engage with it in a meaningful way, and Armand's discomfort with that reluctance.
Had they done that, it would have made far more sense for Louis and Armand to have that conversation in the present, in a completely different setting, one where they were on more equal footing.
PS: Before anyone brings it up, no I haven't forgotten the fight in San Francisco, where Louis said that awful and completely unnecessary below the belt line about Armand's CSA, but that doesn't contradict my point.
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