Re: ascribing morality to monsters. Sorry to resurrect a dead thread but I think there’s also a need to make one party “right” and one party “wrong” when really, they all had their moments of right and wrong and good and bad because people (or in this case vampires) are inherently complex and nuanced. Like I’ve seen people be like “Armand was the healthier partner” and that’s laughable to me, because while I will concede there are things he knew how to do well such as give Louis space and quiet or just have nights in, which admittedly was something Lestat struggled with. I don’t think it’s an accident the “Baby Lou” play was a recreation of one of Louis greatest traumas- which was Paul’s suicide on the wedding day. He could have healed Louis after he went into the sun with his blood. He also dangled Lestat in front of him but didn’t tell him a key part of his message. He’s a mean little fucker when he wants to be. We talk at length about Lestat’s flaws, but they all have them. It’s good character building. That’s the point. Modern audiences are afraid of that. (I still want Louis and Lestat to work it out, even after everything).
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Don't apologise, anon! I agree with you. I'm actually kind of fascinated by this intersection between modern fandom, shipping, moralising and virtue signalling that seems to be becoming endemic, in no small part because I'm just sort of baffled by it. I think a lot of it boils down to the social media echo chambers and the desire to turn fandom and shipping into something between a sport and political activism, the former of which has been bolstered by capitalism and the commercialisation of fandom (I'm thinking of things like the Team Edward/Team Jacob Twilight craze which really made shipping competitive in a way I'm not sure it was before that), and the way social media has broken communities and further individualised culture so that many find what they say online more important than what they do in real life, if that makes sense?
(It doesn't help that the breakdown of the social contract and the shift towards fascism and authoritarianism has infiltrated fandom either, which I've talked about before).
But yeah, I mean arguing which relationship is healthier, or which character is better on a show like IWTV (on any show, honestly), is a bit silly to me, and pretty far removed from the point of it all. I do think a lot of it is happening in bad faith in this particular fandom too, which is a bit shit.
