brsb4hls

1. A shipped pairing does not have to have canonical validation, they do not need "chemistry" or anything else. (That's kinda the point, you ship them, because the show does not).

2. A canon pairing is not by default better or superior, what matters is personal preference.

3. The shipped characters do not have to agree to being shipped together! This might seem weird, but some people actually forget that fictional characters do not exist.

4. The creators/writers/actors do not have to agree to the shipped pairing. (Also kinda the point, they didn't bring them together, so you do). Just keep that stuff to yourself and don't pester them with it and you can do whatever you want.

5. You can absolutely ship pairings from different fictional sources. Crossovers are fun.

6. You can use any scene from canon for your pairing, it doesn't have to fit, it's your fantasy.

7. You can switch genders and sexual orientation of your pairing. Again, it's a fantasy, it doesn't change canon and how the GA views canon, so it doesn't matter. (This means swapping a canonical queer pairing/ character to straight in your fantasy does not take away the actual show's representation. Swapping a straight pairing/character to queer in your fantasy does not add representation).

8. Shipping something does not mean you want that dynamic in real life.

9. You do not need a specific reason for shipping, it's your fantasy, any reason is valid. It goes from kink to spite, covering anything in between.

10. You won't convince others to stop shipping something, because you don't like it or get them to ship your ship simply by spamming it. So tag your stuff, blacklist what you don't like and leave eachother alone.

Yeah, I get it now. What a neat movie.

I had like zero spoilers and expected a 'The Martian' kinda vibe and then the alien life form showed up.

I loved the pacing. Not too fast, decent built up, slow reveal in flash backs, made it interesting.

Great visuals.

Good use of score, soundtrack and no sound at all.

Every human interaction in the flashbacks felt very relatable.

I knew about half way in they forced Grace and that made it even better. It was so understandable and realistic to have him decline because that's what most people would have done.

It takes a very strong mind set to go on a mission like that.

I gotta say some of the Eridian interactions were a bit kitschy, but I don't mind, since the movie still managed to portray an amazing friendship there.

And side note, of cause we're watching the movie as humans from a human perspective so Rocky gets 'humanized', but it would be way cooler if instead of calling him Rocky, Grace had just tried to sing his actual name.

Just once I wanna see humans get 'alienized'

But that's my personal thing.

Still liked the movie very much.

I hope he remembers this:

And Lestat working trough all his trauma with key persons of his life and unlife was just a side affect of Armand wanting some time to talk to Louis in peace.

So that huge ass emotional resolve-scene was basically accidential.

I just wrote an Armand-defending -kinda- analysis, but that was still hilarious in it's whole pettiness and selfishness.

Like, that absolute archaic beheading was just so Louis had to listen and couldn't run off and to get Lestat out of the way.

Which leads to Daniel having to drag his head around in a bowling bag.

Imagine that conversation:

'Daniel, please, I need a moment with Louis alone and this fucking diva is way too distracting, so do daddy a favour and take him bowling, ok'

I also do wonder about Daniel's whole motivation. Besides from doing Armand a favour it was obvi to finally feel superior over Lestat for a moment.

Also extremely petty.

Peak was casually offing the new minion who thought he was doing something great but he was just needed to drive, because Armand obvi still can't do that.

Season four: The Vampire Armand, driving lessons.

First of all, I said this about 3 times already, but again: they are both monsters. They solve their issues in a monstrous way.

And it's not even as horrible as what some humans do to each other.

So, for the scene: yes, the body horror was exactly that, body horror. You could call that unnecessary, otoh it was simply practical. That may sound cynical, but it is what it is. Armand needed Louis immobilized for his confrontation and Lestat out of the picture, otherwise it wouldn't have worked out.

Since those two absolutely did not take him seriously.

Yes Armand is completely fucked up. As are a lot of vampires. But in interaction with other vampires who stregth-wise are somewhat equal or at least close to his level he could have gotten basic respect.

Both Louis and Lestat though thought he was too pathetic for that.

And Armand is caught between his need to somehow rectify that disrespect and his need for actual connection.

His way of finding whatever counts as closure for him was to confront Louis in a way where Louis had to react.

And Louis does not want to play that game at first. So he refuses.

Which drives Armand to extremer measures.

To Regina, the one human and actual victim in that scene. As a non vampire she could not withstabd Armand's manipulation and was in a vulnerable position. So she played along.

And got severely traumatized and almost killed for it. That was the one part I found unnecessary. I don't think Claudia needed to be brought back that way and I don't think Regina needed to be dragged into that shitshow.

But emotionally, she served as a strong visual representation of Louis' guilt and regret. Him seemingly cooperating when Armand threatened to kill her just showed that Louis still didn't get over Claudia and never will.

As a quick side note, I do love how Armand decides who lives and dies. Some 'mindless' follower gets offed without a thought. Regina, who was smart and interesting gets to live, but with a warning.

Now to Louis seemingly cooperating. Yes, he was not honest at first, of course, he was forced to play along by extreme measures.

But in the end he decided to switch to openness and honesty.

Maybe because he thought 'fuck it, might as well before I choke' or because it also meant closure for himself in regards to his relationship with Armand or because he thought Armand should finally get some closure himself.

So Louis apologized for the only thing he was responsible for: staying in a loveless relationship. He also acknowleded Armand's trauma from his past human life, which nobody ever did before and took responsibility for using kniwledge of that trauma to emotionally control Armand.

Because he did, in combination with their Dom/Sub relationship.

So yes, Armand built the 'relationship' on a lie. He did it out of desperation, but that is no excuse. He also fucked with Louis and manipulated his memories to keep him.

Also horrible and totally on him.

But Louis started the relationship, despite not being in love with Armand. He could have walked (ok, as soon as he was able too) away after the trial. But he instead stayed with Armand. At first as a fuck you to Lestat. That was very clear in the tower scene. Louis doesn't feel anything during that kiss. It is a demonstration to Lestat how little Lestat seemingly means to him.

Louis then proceeds to treat Armand as a doormat, he pity fucked him without any genuine care and outright ignored him, pushed him away and insulted him.

He fucked (ad drained) -what was it?- 138 dudes? and let Armand clean up the mess.

While cosplaying the happy rich hipster gay marriage for his own fucked up reasons.

That certainly caused another crack in Armand's already fractured psyche.

They both abused each other.

And now Armand forced his closure (which also served as closure for Louis, at least in regards to Arman) and got it.

And he was satisfied with it.

He let Regina go, he let Louis and Lestat go and simply fucked off.

And I consider that a happy ending. For a gothic horror show. I've seen and read way worse.

I don't disregard Louis' trauma btw, but he had two whole seasons of focus. Lestat had one season. Armand can get one scene.

They obvi wanted to wrap up the emotional arcs the way they did and there wouldn't have been time for a proper solution plus the action on top.

But we at least got to see the fall out, which is a nice wtf moment at the end and possible cliffhanger with enough material for a fourth season, if there will be one.

I gotta say, in hindsight I should have expected the show to go the way it did.

Seasons 1 and 2 also mainly focused on emotions and relationships, humanity vs monstrosity and in a very laid back way for a horror show.

And what action we got there was replaced by Lestat's performances in season 3, which took quite some room.

A lot of stuff from the books was boiled down to it's essence and presented that way or used as background plot decor.

Which is a choice, certainly. But the creative team had to make one at one point. With TVC you have a massive amount of material to work with and if you try to incorporate everything, you might lose depth, it could become too convoluted and you could possibly get cancelled in the middle of an unfinished arc.

So you can cherry pick and chose your own main focus.

And then the audience has to to decide if they like that interpretation or vision.

I personally liked it. And that's what I see it as.

A new interpretation and a hommage to the books, not a 1:1 adaption.

Maybe it's easy for me to be positive, because I'm not emitionally attached to the books anymore.

I was very much into them as a teen in my vampire and goth face, but upon rereading I found that while I still like certain aspects, the books in themselves are not my personal taste anymore and weren't for a long time.

On top of that I also don't feel the show did the books an actual disservice. They just prioritized differently.

I also liked the pacing and the overall esthetic of the show. And I did not find it hard to follow or confusing.

But I'm also very much into surrealism, dream sequences, trips, simulations etc. in media. My fave genre is 'everyone's dead already, they just don't know it'.

People write fanfiction and some people make a living writing bodice rippers. Don't understand the interpretation of this hobby as some kind of character flaw.

I don't undersrand it either. It isn't a character flaw. It's how Stolas works through things. He never knew actual romance or romantic relationships and always escaped to fantasy. Now he's writing his own as a hobby and to indulge himself.

Which is perfectly fine, he doesn't have much left. And he obviously loves writing and making stuff up in general, as seen in the new short. Even if it's cliché tropes, like evil twins and treasures, it makes Stolas happy and excited about something.

He can also connect to someone. He bonded with Moxxie over his fiction.

It's an overall positive thing.

The newest one tho basically boils down to 'Stolas is just continuing to live his life while Via is stuck with Stella'.

Ok.

And what is he supposed to do exactly?

Via made it very clear she doesn't want any contact with him, willingly walked into her uncle's castle ad froze the door behind her.

(Understandably, she is a hurt teenager, very normal and justified, still on her).

And Stolas doesn't have any powers.

He cannot physically get to her.

Even if he could, she doesn't want that.

Now lets say they take it to family court, nvm that it was already decided during the trial that Via stays with Stella, and Stolas would fight for custody of Via against her will, where would they even live? On Blitzø's couch?

And how would he provide for her?

Since people love to measure a cartoon show set in hell by realistic standards lets do that:

We have Stella, who still has the family home and all the money. She made some crude remarks towards Stolas in front of Via, but so did he.

It was never proven officially that she hired Striker. So that would not be taken into account.

She never was directly abusive to Via. We don't now if she neglected her, that wasn't shown. During the trial, Stella comforts Via (for selfish reasons, but still).

The only shitty thing she does is cutting off Stolas when he tries to contact Via.

Then there's Stolas. He genuinly loves his daughter in his own faulty way but he is basically homeless. He lives on his boyfriend's couch. They both don't even have their own room.

He has a job but that obvi doesn't pay enough to move out. It's questionable if it even actually pays or if Blitzø just tries to keep him occupied and gives him pocket money, since Blitzø is paying for everything anyways.

Stolas has no experience working actual jobs, plus he's a social pariah, so nobody would hire him.

On top of that he's struggling with mental health issues.

Who do you think would get custody?

Stolas would be lucky to get supervised visiting hours, which would only happen if Via agreed, which she wont.

So what is Stolas supposed to do? Mope on the couch and bawl about fucking things up with his daughter? He did that. He has to continue to live his life at some point and at least try to contribute.

So he works. And he has 'free' time at the office. Everyone does, Loona took like maybe three phone calls a day, was rude and played on her phone or snacked the rest of the day.

So Stolas can write shitty porn. That's his only hobby now. He doesn't have access to his plants or the stars anymore after all.

And I'm sure if Via would call him he'd fling that notebook aside immediatly.

Since this is all very logical and hardly debatable I guess the main problem lies with Stolas still being interested in sex, even if it's more by proxy right now.

But that's also very normal. Having kids does not necessarily kill your libido. Fighting with your kids also does not necessarily kill your libido. Some people have sex to cope with sadness or trauma.

Someone will put Humpty and Dumpty together again so Lestat can give the concert that will fully awaken and summon Akasha.

Then cliffhanger.

Question is, what's Armand doing?

Will he try to stop the concert by other means? Try to slaughter all the newbies?

Could be interesting.

So the show's still entertaining.

Also there was a ton of quality Loustat stuff. Idg why people are pissed again.

Oh edit: forgot about Gabriella. Probs cause I'm convinced she'll just fuck off before it gets to chaotic.

I mean I was obssessed with the Mayfair witches back when I was a moody goth teen, then started a reread a few years ago and broke off mid book 1. It's so corny and kitschy, I couldn't.

But this version of Merrick was ok.

The séance in itself worked for the show and I get why they did it. Probably the best way to close the Claudia arc, although pretty damn depressing.

That's how you make people happy.

Look at him going from silly to sexy and back

Stolas representing every fanfic writer out there