Achilles

I don’t agree with every choice they’ve made (e.g. like the way Gabrielle is seen (altho this could be also due to lestat pov but a choice nonetheless) however! the hate and lack of basic media literacy of the fandom atm is truly astonishing.

You’ve been given a season from a completely different perspective, that goes hand in hand with the way lestat speaks in the books, a totally different personality from S1 & 2. A more, arguably, realistic version that blends with our modern times, songs that are able to express Lestat’s feelings yet also can speak to us as humans and fans. Every episode begs for repetition because I can guarantee you, you didn’t catch every detail the first time. A story so complex that leaves you feeling uneasy but if you let it, if you actually drop the hate act for a second, you’ll be able to see what they’re trying to tell you.

The best the writers can do is ignore social media and just do their thing. Just focus on their vision. Acknowledging this or that fandom discourse is pointless because those people won't change their mind and the majority of their audience doesn't know about what iwtvtwt or tumblr is whining about this week and doesn't care.

... not an ounce of self-awareness in some of you.

I don't mean that in any ill way to you particularly, but please, for the love of god, think about all the commentary this show has done before, about how they comment on REAL LIFE ISSUES and then think about what has been said about the writers, the cast and the crew, and that WE KNOW THAT THEY KNOW and how it affected Sam, who has spoken about it, and how the writers abandoned their Twitter account, how they had extra security at SDCC because of the shit some pulled and how allllll that fandom SHIT SHOW IMPACTED THEM IN REAL LIFE.

Like, seriously.

This season deals with someone being used and abused constantly, and people only see him as an object, not as a someone to see beyond the cardboard villain or sex object to use or insult as they see fit.

Indeed. I love that entire scene.

It is, perhaps, one of the most intimate Loustat scenes to date. ♥️

Hey,

Listen, I am right there with you. Because one of the things I absolutely hate, and repeatedly have said that I hate, is when shows or movies take characters who were white in the books/source material, change their race to black, and then make those characters less complex and multifaceted than their white counterparts in those books/source material.

Which is what usually happens because the writers are clearly way too afraid of making those characters not "good role models" and therefore, not really flawed. Which, in the end, just makes them cyphers, not real, actual complex people.

And in a Gothic Horror setting, such as this story is? OMG, you mean we not only get to be doing horrific shit, but we get to do it without apology, too? God, yes!

And look, maybe such storytelling, and seeing black women in such stories, is a shock to some people's system. They don't know how to process it, as it accounts for too many people infantilizing Claudia as a character (just like Louis did ironically) and not wanting to see her as the ruthless, vicious killer she actually was. And always was.

But I love it. I love getting to see a black female character get to be all of that and not apologize for it.

And if some people can't handle the reality of this about Claudia's character, then so be it. I, in turn, am in heaven... before I have to go into the hell of what House of the Dragon has done with its black characters, which I have been complaining about for two seasons now.

The cutting of Nettle's and merging her with Rhaena is just basically a culmination of it all at this point. 😒

Ahem. Anyway...

If some people can't handle these reveals about Claudia, which was 100% consistant with what we saw with her character all the way back in Season 1 (and which some seem to have apparently wiped from their memories regarding her 🙄), then they are not ready for Akasha.

I mean, yes, I am already uneasy about some of the takes I'm sure we'll see regarding her and the things she will do. Such as ordering the rape of the twins. But I do not, in any way, want the show to change Akasha's character, especially her ruthlessness, just because she is black.

I've said it a million times before, but that is not how color-conscious casting works.

Plus, as I have said before, Akasha originally lived in a time period before worldwide Western colonization was even a thing. If you listen closely, it seems they've kept her, at least partly, still being from Uruk, too.

So yeah, Akasha shouldn't even look at the world through that lens, and instead have the confidence and power of someone to whom that is not only an alien concept, but carry herself with the power of one of whom such ideas are beneath, and the ruthlessness of someone not afraid to use her power to do and have what she wants.

I honestly can't wait for it.

All that said, however? I would like there to be a black female on the show whose fate isn't already sealed, i.e., them being set to die. It's why I was wary of Merrick Mayfair being brought onto the show. But it looks like she might not get her book fate so far, so I hope she can stick around in at least one of the IU shows.

But the character I really hope the show eventually brings on is Rose, Louis, and Lestat's second adopted daughter, and the one in whom they actually get right with what they got wrong with Claudia. I truly feel confident that if Rose is brought into the story, the show will make her black. And she gets to grow up before she finally becomes a vampire, living quite a lovely life beforehand (for the most part, at least) before she does.

....or?

Y‘all argued for years it was and HAD to be to Lestat, because you wanted him to be this “big bad white abuser“ soooo badly and now… 💅

Only it turns out Claudia manipulated him.

Like THAT.

Book canon, sweetums. Quote below.

Don’t say I didn’t try to point things out, ALSO for years.

Oh, and also: do look at the language used there.

ALSO book canon.

Pretty ladies ❄