Noo don't kill yourself youre so sexy haha

it's a huge failing on the shows part to assume that the exploration of race should end because the main character is now white. Lestat as a character is a PERFECT vehicle to tackle themes like white supremecy and Whiteness as firstness. The book is ripe with these implications!

For example, we have three instances of Lestat being Choosen by older, powerful vampires:

Magnus looking for a young male heir based on characteristics such as blue eyes and blond hair. Sure, Lestat ends up making the cut because Magnus also sees strength and durability in him (i.e killing the wolfs) but he would not have taken him at all if Lestat didn't fullfill an ideal of white beauty.

Marius making Lestat his pupil and taking him to see Those Who Must Be Kept, because there's, in his own words, "innocence and honesty" in him. Marius sees his idea of the supreme western civilisation in Lestat. This would of course be even more interesting in the show!verse with Armand being the "failed" pupil and Lestat being deemed worthy. (i cant stop thinking about marius saying armand has the "savage soul of a child" in Blood Communion...absolutely vile)

Akasha choosing Lestat as her cohort because she sees him as the pinacle of masculinity. As already established, this is a White masculinity.

And that's not even to mention the setting! Im not an expert in french history at all, but 1700s France was the center of the enlightenment, which cemented a lot of modern western ideas about intellectual reason and individuality, a school of thought that was at it's very structure white (and therefore harboured a lot of racism).

Assad Zaman as Armand

ethel cain for dior

hair by jorge buccio

I also think this season’s version of “camp” feels very kitsch, which granted is intentional in many ways bc there’s supposed to be a commercial quality to Lestat’s performance and success. But that also means it can’t fully oppose the majority culture in the way that camp is supposed to. It becomes a question of: what is camp when image and transgression and performance are a part of the majority culture? When everything is transgressive, then nothing is. There are some genuinely interesting questions to be explored there, and I can see what they’ve been trying to do, I just don’t think they’ve really succeeded.

louis loves armand, lestat loves armand, daniel loves armand, marius loves armand (which is a whole can of worms but his love is important to armand regardless), benji and sybelle love armand. riccardo and the palazzo boys loved armand. bianca loved armand.

but the show has both of them speaking in the same irreverent, quippy voice and cycling through the same types of jokes in a way that makes it clear this is what the writers think is funny, that this is a reflection of the writers' (esp rolin's) racism. rolin said the audience was gonna feel the whiplash of the show suddenly being taken over by lestat and feeling like we're in lestat's head, but the tone shift fails bc it specifically doesn't feel like we're in lestat's head or that the kind of narration and dialogue we're immersed in reflects lestat's character in any meaningful way- instead, it feels like rolin has taken the fact that the show is now set mostly in the present day and the general premise of "lestat is chaotic and terminally online" as a free pass to use lestat as a mouthpiece for his own voice and sense of humor. lestat isn't just any random mid-30s rockstar edgelord on tour, he's a specific character with a specific background, and while it's believable that he became terminally online and obsessed with pop culture in the 3 years since he reunited with louis in s2ep8, that doesn't mean all traces of his past and the history that shaped him is gonna vanish from the way he speaks, narrates and views other people.