i want to believe theyre going somewhere with this whole everyone treats armand like an old rag thing
they take a character whos intensely desirable, who is loved by the main narrators, who is seductive beyond his power to control it, who is compared to so many beautiful artworks, and who is also a survivor of csa, of trafficking, of being groomed by the man who adopted him, of torture and brainwashing, a literal former child sex slave
then they cast a south asian actor, and now hes not only unloved and barely seen as desirable but routinely humiliated, specifically derided for his sexuality, treated like a receptacle by the people who canonically loved him, emasculated, subjected to really distasteful comments on his sexuality in front of crowds, in front of book readerships
and in real life they know full well the audience at home is gonna be hooting along, that theyre gonna say this is the funniest thing they ever saw, bc this treatment is getting meted out to the guy who was raped and mistreated so severely as a little boy that he didnt know his own name
and we're shown him practically slavering for more attention from lestat like a hungry dog, stumbling over his words bc hes so into the guy who as far as we know was his first consensual partner, who used and discarded him, and is about to stage a highly sexualised ritual humiliation for him supposedly in revenge for something they were both implicated in
if that was a distortion are we ever gonna be shown that? bc what is the point in everything we are shown being so grotesque if thats the only perspective we ever get? we see everyone get shat on but then lestat is sad too, boohoo, am i supposed to care?
why are they amplifying the most nauseating attitudes in the show - the pretty brown guy is a rent boy, hes disposable, hes property that can be passed around if you want a taste - knowing that most of the fanbase will take it up unironically and uncritically, and most of the rest wont really care bc it clears some incredibly low bar of gay bitchiness
i feel really worried that even if they are going to try to interrogate the whole 'former catamite is a worthless bottom bitch' narrative (big if) they arent gonna be able to do it with any success, its gonna be just as entrenched as armand is boring bc louis says so, lestat would never touch armand bc hes a horrible gremlin etc etc
