Mostly IWTV I Think @isglitterreall - Tumblr Blog

I’m so glad I never suggested this show to anyone. Especially not my mother. The segregated South isn’t a history lesson or black and white photos online, it’s a lived experience for her. Growing up, she was always searching for positive representation for herself and her children to watch and read about. I’m old enough to remember shouting and running to the tv whenever someone that looked like me was on tv.

Ep one season one still makes me so emotional when I watch it. A television series centered around a Black man. And not just him, we got to know his family (!) and their traditions and beliefs.

As much as she would love Nola Louis (especially that first episode), it would ultimately break her heart. Watching Louis’ journey and the stirring and powerful ending of season two would have my momma pumping her fist and saying, “I know that’s right! They better act like they know!” upon hearing, “I own the night!” Only for her to witness the horrible back of the bus treatment of Jacob/Louis from the marketing (that started before the credits cleared on s2) to the erasure and humbling of Louis’ character. And not just onscreen.

Yeah, maybe I’ll just tell her what amc told us: IWTV is its own thing and not at all connected to their next chapter, “nothing to see over there Ma!”

professional-rat-eater

I do want to say, in advance of the finale getting its usual release, to any POC fans, you’re going to have a lot of people telling you you’re reading too much into things, you probably already are, and you’re not.

You’re just not. And being white is not an excuse for not seeing this. Louis fans and Armand fans in particular have been noticing it because those two are most affected by this writing. You’re not crazy. You’re not being parasocial. It is that deep. The writers tell us repeatedly that they make this show very detailed, so you’re not crazy for reading between the lies. If they can plant hidden details in every episode, they can be aware of their biases and how they’re portraying the characters of colour. I’ve never understood the separation of these things. They aren’t different skill sets. If you’re a good writer, you’re a good writer.

I just want it to be clear because, as a white fan, it is so obvious. Disappointment is okay. Anything you’re feeling is okay, especially with the promise that this show presented in the first two seasons of being a post-colonial adaptation of what are frankly incredibly racist, xenophobic and orientalist novels.

I mean you read them and it’s jaw dropping frankly the shit Anne Rice came up with. And this season just furthers what the books were doing instead of breaking it down. So feel what you feel, stop watching if you want, and do not let anyone tell you it’s not really there because it is and white people are perfectly capable of seeing it and calling it out, so don’t let anyone gaslight you. You’re right. It did happen. It’s there.

bicreature

Episode 7 early (and possibly last) review:

This is a very anticlimatic and downright incomplete feeling episode. It's now clear this is a 'part 1' and not a whole story. I wouldn't call it even a half season, it feels more like an intro

This episode kind of feels like they realized 'oh shit this is the finale already, we need to do some character and plot development' and then rushed quickly through something that doesn't feel earned or even make sense. The only progress this episode brings is Lestat realizing his mother is evil. The last line of the last scene in the current timeline being him screaming at Gabriella 'you fucking monster' could've been good if Gabriella as a character and Lestat's relationship with her hadn't been so poorly depicted

This episode has essentially three sections: Lestat, Louis/Armand/Regina and Daniel/Talamasca and they're all bad in different ways

Daniel has become an incredibly bland and irritating character. He's bowling, he whines to Lestat's head, he's randomly says something offensive about autistic people. Alex is there and does nothing. Justin Kirk shows up and chews some scenery, the show seems to expect people to know that Talamasca is supporting the great conversion (i had forgotten that despite watching that spinoff). Daniel's 'companionship' with Armand and his sudden indifference to Louis makes no sense and i'm not sure does the show know it doesn't make sense

Louis and Armand scenes are some of the most violently antiblack scenes i've seen in my life. Despite having read descriptions beforehand nothing could prepare you for it and i still feel nauseous. Just to make clear Louis' entire screentime in this 54 minutes episode consists of him being brutalized. They wouldn't show Armand harming Lestat or Nicki like in the books but they had him do a literal snuff film of torturing Louis and Regina. Unless i missed it Lestat's severed head isn't even shown (!) but almost every time we see Louis' face it's his head on a spike

Jacob, Assad and Delainey are all phenomenal of course but the writing of these storyline is horrendous. Armand's words and actions inconsistent with his earlier characterization and even from a scene to scene. I don't think this episode is necessarily framing Armand's actions as 'right' but i feel it's framing them as understandable and redeemable. Armand decapitates Louis and sticks his head on a spike and threatens to sews it to Regina's body and brands his body like a slave and broadcasts it for people's enjoyement, and the writers consider this something the characters can come back from, to the point that in the future auction scene Louis doesn't appear scared of him and is smiling at him. Magnus and Gabriella are considered pure monsters for what they do to Lestat, but things that are done to black characters are considered forgivable. Like 1.05 which was also written by Hannah Moscovitch and included extensive graphic domestic violence againt Louis

Despite the extremely hateful racist treatment of Louis in this episode he's actually depicted in a way that makes him seem better. It's revealed that Armand carefully engineered the situation with Regina and it's not likely what Louis would've pursued otherwise. Louis is genuinely worried about Regina and ready to sacrifice himself for her. Even when Armand did all this to him he still feels sympathy for him, he cries when talking about Armand being abused as a child, and i think it's meant to be genuine especially when Armand is satisfied by it

One of the most heartbreaking things in this episode (most things just made me angry) is when Regina thinking they're going to die sincerely tells Louis that she liked him even though he was a bit messed up. I think it's one of the only times this season anyone has show kindness to Louis

Everything with Lestat left me just frustrated and tired. The concept of Lestat sitting at the long table where his fledglings and makers judge him is great. In practice it's mostly lackluster and doesn't go anywhere. Couldn't even enjoy Louis and Nicki commenting and sitting next to each other. The most important things aren't addressed. Lestat in the end is seemingly still in the denial even about those things that are said. The table scene is presumably from Lestat's subconscious. Gabriella says 'kills the daughter, saves the pimp' which once again implies that he actively wanted to kill Claudia when he went to Paris, and that he views Louis with disdain, which is also shown in the earlier part of the scene. Everything towards Louis this season is spiteful

Because this season ended up being a part 1 Lestat's arc is interrupted and vague. This episode makes me think they likely do have an intention to explore the unsaid things later. You can literally see him go back in denial and put his arrogant 'i'm a monster so what' mask back on in the hallucination. The line of the season set in the future being Lestat saying 'the fault was mine. all mine' is poignant. The problem is that i don't give a shit. This show has used up all the goodwill i had for it. I don't care if literally everything in Lestat's narration is revealed to be fake. This season still remains one of the most racist, misogynist and anti-victim pieces of television i've seen and in addition it's just terrible storytelling. This used to be my favorite show and s3/tvl is unrecognizable to me. The inevitable s4 can't get any better unless the writers' room is changed and yes, that includes the showrunner

vitasaurus

the vampire lestat fans on here are making me understand why people hate marvel fans so much

why are they making so many excuses for obvious racism and bad writing in these writers and then pretending like everyone else is stupid? why are they digging in all other directions instead of digging into the glaring prejudice? are they scared of tripping over their own shovel???

marvel fans do the same thing and that's why i'm only here for the fanfic and like three ships

but i've always held iwtv and it's fans to a higher standard and now i'm wondering how long i've been reposting racists who genuinely believe that racists writing racist shit is the same as respectfully writing complex and evil- yet complete- Black characters

every Black character and character of color in this whole show has been torn to shreds and flattened into lifelessness and it kinda reminds me of what people in the marvel/mcu fandom do to characters like sam wilson, rhodey, karli morgenthau, and isaiah bradley, you know?

it's always "the curtains are never just blue" but when fans point out racism then it's "not that deep" and "everyone is illiterate" and "let the tale seduce you", and it's "always deeper" when there's easter eggs and callbacks, yet always "no media literacy" when people point out the most obvious hatred and propaganda and stereotypical bullshit

"this isn't the whole story, be patient", and "if it was that bad, the actors would say something", and "they're not racist, they're just writing about racism, that's all!!" as if they think they can tell the difference when they're too busy telling all those other people that they have no media literacy, coddling the writers and everyone's prejudices before wondering why they, the white and non-Black majority fans, see only their owns views so comfortably reflected back by the narrative, the writers, the showrunners

🙏🏻 🕯️🕯️please god/s let us get some actual anti-racism and actual media literacy on this site and please please please help me block everyone who bitches about how dumb and illiterate everybody but themself and their mutuals are 🕯️🕯️🙏🏻

I don’t feel like Armand is particularly the main villain of this season, his motives are clear: he is trying to stop the “Great Conversion,” which I am assuming as a concept is going to feed into Akasha/QotD plot-lines, which Lestat is on the “wrong” side of (not rlly by his choice). I understand the frustration with this season but like Loustat pre the season 2 trial episode, we are still missing huge parts of the overarching story that most likely won’t be resolved until the end of season 4. I don’t think Armand is being cartoonishly evil, or at least it isn’t maligned with his book character (although criticisms of his book character are so completely valid—I have a million bones to pick with Anne Rice and TVA). I think there is a lot to digest and I do in some ways wish the Loumand scene could have happened earlier, where they were on equal playing fields but I am also not sure that Louis was in a place where he could have done that so the writers engineered a situation where he was forced into it (I also completely understand disagreeing with that as a writing choice—for a multitude of reasons).

They have also just been overly condensing this entire season and so are jigsawing pieces that maybe don’t fit (like it makes less sense for Armand do be doing this to Louis rather than Claudia, who he does that to in the book) but personally I like the crueler and more violent sides to book Armand. He is a victim and a perpetrator and he has only known love with violence. His father’s love came with violence, Marius’ “love” came with violence. Armand perceived his persual of Bianca as violent (which I could write a whole separate essay about that scene tbh). Then of course him feeding on Ricardo. The “love” of the coven that came with rules enforced with violence that Armand enforced. Armand doesn’t have a normal outlook on love, or on “right or wrong,” he rips a guys hair out because he gets annoyed with David Talbot infantilising him and wants to prove he’s a devil not a cherub.

Armand is incredibly multi-faceted, he also sets up Night Island and his home there as a place for any lonely immortals to stay if they need. He is not *only* cruel or *only* violent but I don’t feel that he has been characterised as solely those things over the course of this show and even within the last episode, he is not portrayed as only those things.

But ALSO this is Lestat’s narrative, who has been headlining the Great Conversion because he felt like throwing himself a pity party—Im being reductive but my point is, Lestat is quite likely on the “wrong” side of things and following into the QotD, Armand, Lestat and Louis will all end up on the same side, when it comes to facing Akasha. So yes, Armand is an antagonist during this season but I wouldn’t say he is the main villain, as he is technically one of the few people on the “right” side of the fight right now.

We just have to hold out for another year ig

professional-rat-eater

It should’ve been Lestat, not Louis. Armand would do that, but he would not do it to Louis. That’s the issue. This was the replacement for the trial torture because they’ve made Lestat actually complicit (good decision) but the act itself was not the point. It was who it was done to, and it carries very different connotations in the book than what it would in the show. In the book, it is to whitewash Lestat of wrongdoing, in the show it would be the opposite.

I had been praying for the sexual side of Loumand’s relationship to be addressed because it always made me so uneasy, and every word Louis said echoed how I’d felt in season 2. It was a conversation that needed to happen between them. I just don’t like how it happened.

And this change wouldn’t fix the season, but it would make sense of all the constant Armand references being made around Lestat. It would mean his avoidance of their past together amounted to something. Lestat has been running from real accountability the entire season and Armand makes it so he can’t run anymore. He has to face it, and we get to see, in real time, all the ways in which they’re similar and all their differences.

But we wouldn’t get the “twelve” bombshell. That had to be Loumand, I think. It was important for it to be them.

I think the Loumand apology should’ve been sincere. It should’ve happened earlier in the scene. Switch places with the Lesmand apology perhaps, and make this the Lesmand apology instead. Armand ought to be angrier at Lestat. He’s given him a hundred more reasons this season alone.

isglitterreall

Yeah I think the biggest thing for me was that the apology/conversation should have happened with Loumand on equal footing. I understand that the head-chopping was partially part of Armand’s plan to stop the great conversion and also it is echoing what Armand actually does to Claudia in the book, but Armand violently coercing an apology out of Louis somewhat undermines it and I think it takes away from what they are/were to each other. Book Armand held no care/regard for Claudia but Loumand, especially show Loumand did love each other deeply despite all the everything.

#interview with the vampire #iwtv #tvl spoilers #tvl #iwtv spoilers #the vampire armand #armand #loumand #ldpdlac #ldpdl

wrvqre

First time posting on here…hello 👋

heres-to-your-eternity

And that Loumand moment when Louis was making Armand tear up and cry did nothing to me. Shit wasn’t built up enough because Louis rarely mentioned Armand’s abuse. The only time he mentioned it really was during their San Fran fight and he was high af and throwing it in his face.

isglitterreall

Personally I feel like the build up was the entire 77 years of their relationship spent NOT talking about it. Like, the entire reason their relationship imploded was because everything was too big, what Armand did in Paris, Armand’s abuse, Louis’ guilt about the person he was and what he did, being a pimp, Louis addiction and suicide attempt, Armand’s mindfuckery. They just kept adding pressure with no release until Daniel came in and blew it up and then it was just over…barely even a fight. I mean, their bedroom was INTENTIONALLY designed to look like a brothel

I think the build-up WAS there but the build-up was Louis’ avoidance and Armands need to control him through ‘serving’ him because he didn’t know how to do anything else. I think the build-up was their silence and everything that went unsaid

Paul being in amongst Lestat’s victims is interesting. I do believe that he didn’t kill him but I wonder if he holds some sense of guilt/responsibility over his death anyway?

#iwtv #amc iwtv #interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire amc #mysillythoughtsandtextposts #the vampire lestat #the vampire lestat spoilers #paul de pointe du lac #iwtv amc

isglitterreall

“I saw good in you, for awhile”

Ok so yeah seeing Armand break completely broke me. I actually can’t do this today. Assad Zaman the actor that you are

isglitterreall

Also I think peice playing under this scene reprises some parts of “Who are all the young men” which is the peice that plays during the first time they meet 😭🥹 .

I genuinely cannot wait until the actual score of this season comes out

#iwtv amc #daniel hart #the vampire armand #loumand #ldpdlac #ldpdl

“I saw good in you, for awhile”

Ok so yeah seeing Armand break completely broke me. I actually can’t do this today. Assad Zaman the actor that you are

#amc iwtv #the vampire armand #the vampire lestat spoilers #assad zaman #ldpdlac #ldpdl #loumand #louis iwtv #iwtv #interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire amc #mysillythoughtsandtextposts

“You were sold by who you were sold by, sold into what you were sold into. Saw a lot of that in New Orleans, on the opposite shore, running houses I ran. And you and I didn’t—”

“We didn’t talk about it much”

Crying. Idk why but I wasn’t expecting them to address it so explicitly