What Is Going On

halfass drawing cuz i got a job(insane) so i don't have much time to draw lmao

Anywayyyy ARMAND. good god. I've been obsessed with him since last september after watching the amc interview with the vampire show, and i FINALLYYYYYYYY started reading the book and now the obsession is at an all time high ahahah

So many people have been writing excellent posts about the issues with The Vampire Lestat, in particular regarding the show's anti-Black racism. I've been gathering some of these for my own reference and thought I would share. This list is by no means exhaustive. I tried not to have too much overlap on points among the posts, and have loosely organized them. Please add your own/others that you love! (As a reblog or comment)

The context/going into TVL

v4mpgrrl on anti-Black fandom meets the de-racialization of popular discussion around the show

lilacs-in-the-wind on the show’s choice to deliberately explore race and thereafter its attempts to ignore/avoid it

kriame on the show's changing racial dynamics across seasons (with particular attention to Armand)

coldeveryseason on white liberal insecurity and fandom response to critiques of TVL

General patterns/TVL choices

subcrypha (pre-finale but prophetic) on the white gaze and the taste for Black suffering

coldeveryseason on the decision to remove book Magnus/Marius/Gabrielle’s white supremacy from the narrative: 

tv-kiki on the specific brutalization of Black characters in IWTV/TVL

certifiedlurker on the S3 meta-trial and humiliation of Louis and Lestat's white goodness

crithir on problematic selective depiction of Armand’s violence

yaoiblackmold on TVL removing all blame from Lestat

Analyses of specific moments

crazykuroneko on inappropriate/reductive comparisons between Lestat and Claudia's assaults (3.3)

jeunesseoubliee on why the ‘slave’ language is so harmful vs. its use in s1 (3.6)

infinitelyweary on the seance scene, Louis’ grief, and issues with what Claudia does/doesn't mention (3.6)

claudialdpdl on the offensiveness of Claudia's words to Louis in the seance scene (3.6)

loyalhorror on the mistreatment of Claudia and sloppy writing (3.6)

certifiedlurker and crithir on why ‘it happened in the books’ isn’t a valid defense of Claudia’s seance speech (3.6)

tomato-frog43 on disproportionate violence against Black folks (3.7)

Things the creators have said

usaginoir on the 3.7 TVL After Dark finale (with specific quotes from Hannah in particular)

murfpersonalblog on victim blaming Louis

so! you have learned what "hanfu" is! congrats!

now i have to tell you, very politely, to forget the word "hanfu".

in most xianxia or historical chinese settings, where characters are assumed to be speaking in chinese, &/or have never been outside of china? all "fu" (clothing) is "hanfu" by default.

because most chinese people (mainland AND diasporic!) are han chinese and han chinese have been the ruling majority for pretty much all of china's history.

(primary exceptions are the mongolian-lead yuan dynasty & the manchu-lead ming dynasty but, in chinese fiction, it is always non-han chinese garments that are specified as such)

with this history in mind, it is almost always anachronistic to specify to chinese characters that something is chinese: the term "hanfu" was only invented when western dress became the assumed default!

so, when incorporating traditional chinese fashions in your english language work?

use descriptors such as "wide-" or "long-sleeved" when meaning these kinds of top garments

"frog-buttoned" or "wide-collared" when referencing manchu shirt styles (such as the modern qipao/cheongsam)

"trousers" is valid (if you're worried about being misunderstood, you can specify that they're "silk" or "wide-legged")

"robe" or "dress" for a single layer of full body hanfu; "robes" for multiple layers.

underwear is anachronistic pretty much everywhere, historically: historical dress uses an "inner layer" or "inner robe" for hygienic purposes. "shift" works too but is more associated with medieval european dress.

if looking up the history of sanitary napkins or loincloths feels daunting, you could sidestep the issue entirely with "undergarments".

"boots" or "slippers" for shoes (but you can also just say "shoes")

no one is wearing heels unless they're from a video game

"stockings" for socks

fabrics can be safely assumed to be "silk" (rich elite/inner layers of the middle-class); "cotton" or "linen" (commoners/inner layers/when exercising). you can also just say "cloth" or "fabric".

(other fabrics did exist historically, wool & hemp for example, but stereotypical hanfu moves like silk and most xianxia characters end up rich enough for it)

most closures will be tied, buttoned or belted. hooks are plausible and so are clasps. zippers do not exist.

(unless you're in a modern setting where characters are regular people buying off taobao)

generally speaking, you only need to use another language's terminology when there is no english equivalent or there is a strong cultural nuance that would be missed. the latter is only true of hanfu when worn IRL, in the modern era, by real people (typically at graduations or weddings).

for more specific terms and insights on traditional chinese dress (hanfu & otherwise), i recommend checking out @ziseviolet and other dedicated chinese-by-chinese fashion bloggers.

if you've been hesitant to write in a historical chinese setting, i hope this post has reassured you that you don't need to learn pinyin to do it. it's scary to write a culture you're unused to! these tips are chinese-specific but the same logic broadly applies to all non-eurocentred cultures.

(the big exception is the names of people and places: don't translate these into english until you have a REALLY strong justification for it. even then, don't treat machine translation a being a reliable source when it really isn't.)

What is your opinion on this?

Hey!

My opinion is that, unless someone has read the Devil’s Minion chapter in QOTD, they would see the relationship as “adversarial”, because it very much does start out as a warped cat and mouse game of mind fuckery. The chase. The addiction. The wearing down of Daniel. The growing fascination of Armand.

Rolin confirmed last night that 2x05 will reveal the meaning of the original interview for one character, and 2x08 will reveal the meaning for another character, which ties in with part of the reason(s) for why this second interview is taking place.

Devil’s Minion starts out very dark and very much a Stockholm Syndrome. Some people will not understand that, and they will not understand the nuances without it being explicitly spelled out if they are not familiar with the source material.

Again, Armand & Daniel was not love at first sight. From Daniel's POV, the start of it all was very much a horror movie as he got stalked around the whole world, with Armand popping up everywhere Daniel ended up, with the threat/promise from Armand himself that he would kill Daniel at some point.

And for the first few months of this chase? Armand never actually speaks to Daniel when he confronts him. He would just stare at Daniel, quietly. That was it.

Then, after a few months, it started becoming things like this over and over:

Armand basically stalked Daniel like a serial killer. Like a cat just playing with his prey.

It took a year and a half of all of this before Daniel even began to feel enough courage to actually talk with Armand in some way:

And soon Daniel starts to show more guts and actually starts talking back to Armand, even fighting (verbally) with him. As said in the text itself about Armand and Daniel's interactions at this time:

Conversations, sparring matches, and downright fights became the rule.

Talking back like this to an immortal vampire who's threatened to kill you -- even fighting with him -- takes a lot of guts. And we're talking about someone who was only 21-22 at the time as well.

And things like this are all very much "adversarial."

(And, just personally, I think this is all one of the main reasons Armand never grew bored of Daniel, didn't kill him, and actually fell in love with him. Because Daniel would talk back and fight with him -- even insult him -- in this way. But I digress.)

Anyway this all, in total, went on for four years before it all finally ended with the beginning of their true love affair:

So yeah, if you actually haven't read The Devil's Minion chapter, then you wouldn't know that Armand and Daniel's relationship actually began in this way. That it wasn't love at first sight, let alone healthy. It was, in fact, not just adversarial, but an actual horror movie come to life. Daniel was very sure that Armand was going to kill him at some point, for four years.

And something I always found interesting was that, when the chase did stop in Pompeii and Armand does the "little drink" from Daniel for the first time, Daniel actually asks if Armand is going to finally kill him -- and lovingly asks Armand to do it:

Anyway, what all of this DID do, however, was give Daniel ZERO illusions about who and what Armand actually was when their love affair actually began in Pompeii:

So yeah. Not only did things for Armand and Daniel begin this way, but the fighting and being adversarial didn't actually fully stop after they got together either, mostly because Armand kept refusing to turn Daniel into a vampire too:

Now, don't get me wrong, their love affair also has its truly romantic moments too. The Pompeii confession, the amulet giving. The two of them roaming the streets of New York together. When Armand confesses that he doesn't want to go on anymore if Daniel dies and finally breaks down and turns him.

But if you haven't read that chapter and only know about Armand and Daniel's relationship secondhand then yeah, you are going to miss that "adversarial" is the least of how that romance started. Or what it contained after they officially got together.

And, just me personally? I never once thought older Daniel would remember that his younger self was once in love with Armand, and even had a romantic relationship with him, and would be happy to learn about that fact. And that is why I always felt, even before this, that Daniel wasn't going to remember that part -- that he and Armand were once lovers -- until the final episode of the season, Episode 8.

“不管是赎罪、被责备，还是原谅……都得活着才是有可能的事”