OK now that I'm not mad at everything "Big Boss" related to the point of wanting to quit watching TVL I need to analyze it because IMO it's a perfect example of how fucking up lesmand flashbacks fucks up the whole show
So, you know the whole "ragdoll for sale" discourse? How some Lestat stans say it's not about Armand being trafficked, Lestat-would-never, it's about Children of Satan and him enforcing "the Great Laws"? I was so angry at everyone trying to defend Lestat like that. I simply couldn't imagine how anyone could interpret it that way... until I saw a book-reading Lestat hater who said book!Lestat was mocking Armand's trauma too and proved it with this quote from TVL:
"I've been a rebel always," I said. "You've been the slave of everything that ever claimed you."
"I was the leader of my coven!"
"No. You were the slave of Marius and then of the Children of Darkness. You fell under the spell of one and then the other. What you suffer now is the absence of a spell. I think I shudder that you caused me so to understand it for a little while, to know it as if I were a different being than I am."
"How could you have ever believed anything that they told you after they burned those paintings?" I asked. "How could you have given yourself over to them?"
That's when I finally understood what they were probably trying to say with that song. Spoiler: they failed miserably, because even book readers (myself included) generally don't see it that way in the context of the show.
Let's start with the book quote. Yes, we see Lestat victimblaming Armand 'cause he can't understand the abuse he's suffered. So, if you're a Lestat hater first and a person second, it's very convenient to take this quote out of context to make Lestat seem worse. Obviously, there's more nuance to it than just Lestat mocking Armand's trauma. For one, Lestat struggles to understand Armand because in many ways his traumas mirror Armand's traumas. Both of them had abusive biological fathers, both of them were religious and wanted to be priests, both of them were groomed by their parental figures (Gabrielle for Lestat, Marius for Armand). Armand was kidnapped and sold to a brothel, Lestat was kidnapped and turned into a vampire against his will. Both of them were kidnapped by Children of Satan, both of them saw their loved ones suffer at the hands of this cult (Nicki for Lestat, Riccardo for Armand). The thing is, just like Lestat, Armand was rebellious in the brothel, he tried to resist what Children of Satan forced him to believe, but he was tortured for far longer than Lestat, so they managed to break him. Book!Lestat struggles to acknowledge even his own trauma, it's not hard to see why it's so difficult for him to understand Armand. He doesn't want to feel even more helpless than he already does every time he remembers Magnus, he wants to believe there's a reason why he managed not to lose himself the way Armand did. He's afraid to think that maybe he's not stronger, maybe Armand's just unluckier. But enough of that, we're not here to discuss just-world fallacy, I just wanted to say that in the books neither Armand nor Lestat is good at acknowledging their traumas, both of them are romanticizing the abuse they suffered, so you can imagine why them talking about their traumatic experiences is such a train wreck.
IMO the most important thing about the context of the book quote is that Lestat's not saying it to mock Armand. In fact, he's trying to help because he loves Armand:
I didn't care what he was, or what he had done in that doomed moment of lying to me, or even trying to overpower me, I didn't care that I was no longer mortal and would never be again. I wanted only that <Armand> should remain. I wanted to be with him, what he was, and all the things he had said were true. Yet it could never be as he wished it to be. He could not have this power over us. He could not divide Gabrielle from me. Yet I wondered, did he himself really understand what he was asking?
"We cannot be Marius for you," I said, "or the dark lord, Santino. We are not artists with a great vision that will carry you forward. And we are not evil coven masters with the conviction to condemn a legion to perdition. And this domination-this glorious mandate-is what you must have." I had risen to my feet without meaning to. I had come close to the fireplace and I was looking down at him. And I saw, out of the corner of my eye, Gabrielle's subtle nod of approval, and the way that she closed her eyes for a moment as if she were allowing herself a sigh of relief. He was perfectly still.
"You have to suffer through this emptiness," I said, "and find what impels you to continue. If you come with us we will fail you and you will destroy us."
Basically, Lestat says: "I know you think you want to be my companion. You don't. You just want another Master because you need someone to tell you who you are. I can't do it, you need to figure it out yourself." He knows what Armand's trauma did to him, and he knows starting a relationship with him now will only make it worse, so no matter how much Lestat wants to be with him, he chooses to reject him. Because he cares. He doesn't know how to show it properly because he's a very traumatized 20 years old boy in 18th century, but he cares about Armand and it's obvious to anyone who's read the books.
It's not that obvious to Armand. He said he was more alone than he had ever been when he was calling out to Lestat in hopes that he would come to him. Of course he feels abandoned by him. Vampire loneliness? Armand has something on top of that: his trauma tells him the only way to survive is to be with someone. Nothing good ever happened to him when he was alone against a crowd. This fear of loneliness is even more prominent in show version of Armand: while book!Armand was willing to risk it and ruin his own coven to be with Louis, show!Armand was too afraid Louis would abandon him the way Lestat did, that is why he chose the only thing he saw as constant — the coven.
Why is Lestat mocking Armand's trauma, his appearance and sexual prowess in a song about the trial? Because Armand's trauma, his fear of loneliness is the reason why he let the trial happen. I feel like it's Lestat's way of saying: "Oh, you did it because you're traumatized? You sent Louis and Claudia to their deaths because you were afraid of loneliness? Do you expect me to pity you? You had no right to do it no matter how traumatized you are, so fuck you, you're always going to be alone, you're ugly and no one will ever want you." Immature and cruel? Yes, but it's Lestat, so what's new? Hypocritical? That's lesmand for you: Lestat hates Armand for the same reasons he hates himself, it's just easier to take it out on him. I think "Big Boss" is about Lestat crossing a line because he thinks Armand crossed it with the trial.
...except it doesn't look like that in the show. It could've looked like that if we had seen Lestat's love for Armand in the past. The contrast between past lesmand and present lesmand would've made us as an audience realize just how much Armand hurt Lestat for him to go so low. It would've been obvious even without seeing what really happened at the trial. Unfortunately, that's not the case at all. "Big Boss" doesn't feel like a song born of Lestat's anger toward Armand for playing his part at the trial because show!Lestat is very consistent about mocking Armand's trauma and calling him undesirable. Remember: in the books Lestat rejects Armand despite wanting to be with him because he cares about him. In the show he doesn't mind hooking up with him, but is disgusted when Armand tells him he loves him. "Us? What is us?" like sex with Armand never meant anything at all and there's nothing for Nicki to know about. In the books, Lestat sees a romanticized version of Marius in Armand's memories and is intrigued by him, yes, but book!Lestat never joked about their relationship. In the show, it's very hard to romanticize what Marius did to Armand, his crimes against him made considerably worse. Nevertheless, we see Gabriella joking about Marius being bored to death by their tart nephew Armand — and Lestat laughing with her. So why would we think about "Big Boss" as Lestat's revenge for the trial when it looks like an excuse to insult and humiliate Armand some more? We know all about his history of mocking Armand, but we are yet to see him mourning Claudia this season. Right now it feels like he hates the abuser more than he ever loved the abused.
So, this is how you fuck up something that could've been brilliant by writing horrible flashbacks. I'm so sorry, Daniel Hart, your songs deserve better than this.
P.S. No, don't tell me about "the narrative" and "Lestat doesn't want to talk/think about it" and "we're going to revisit lesmand flashbacks/the trial and then you'll change your mind", I'm tired of it. At this point I highly doubt they can fix even half of what they ruined: they'd have to revisit literally every flashback they showed us this season. But even if they somehow managed that — do you really think rewriting absolutely everything counts as a good writing choice? Iwtv was so good because it showed us how important little details can be, we didn't have to revisit everything Louis told us about his past to like his story and like him as a character. Hell, I liked iwtv!Lestat way more than I like tvl!Lestat, and this was supposed to be his season. As a Lestat fan, I couldn't wait for tvl to come so that everyone would get to know and love him just as I do. And now I have to watch the writers erase everything I liked about this character in the books. Instead of balancing his negative traits with positive ones, they decided to simply turn him into even more of a victim — because, apparently, you can do no wrong if you’re a victim, fuck what iwtv s1-2 said. And you know what? Even if the last three episodes are absolutely perfect, 10/10 no notes, the best episodes in television history, it doesn't make the first four episodes any better.
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