in the book, lestat DOES try to leave by joining the monastery, but is dragged back home by his abusive brothers and is violently reprimended by the marquis, reminding the reader of just how much abuse lestat faces FROM MEN. and when he does SUCCESSFULLY leave, it's with nicki so the two of them can be in a relationship together in paris. it's this touching queer reclamation of the abused self, asserted even further by gabrielle financing their moving to paris.

They are dead set on monogamy. And it's hurting the characters' relationships.

I always kind of imagined that this would happen to a certain point, but this season really amplified it by 100%. I can tell they want loustat and devil's minion to be The Couples™, so they want no possible ambiguity that they could love anyone else.

Nickistat is okay, because Nicolas is dead. But lesmand? Oh, well, they MAYBE fucked around a little in the past, but really Armand is just unilaterally obsessed with Lestat, and Lestat only really dislikes him, and takes joy in mocking and humiliating him. Doesn't give a single fuck about him - "apathy", as they called it in the After Dark episode after E6. Loumand? You thought their relationship just deteriorated over time? No, turns out they NEVER loved each other! Yeah, Armand only was with him because it was the only thing left for him - being with a man he took "aesthetic pleasure" in torturing back then and, apparently, in the present as well, and willing to just let die both times -, and Louis was only with Armand as a cope that he couldn't be with Lestat, and really everything that he did with Armand was really about Lestat. A way to get back at him.

It's like they want to burn every bridge between characters that in the book cannon do love each other deeply, because they want to be sure we can only picture The Couples™ together and nothing else (and I'm going to refrain from speaking in detail about how shit DM's development has been this season, with most of it happening off-screen and all, and I'll also not mention how we barely got any physical affection or even a kiss - bare minimum - between any of these couples for a whole season, but it is all pretty funny). There can't be even an INKLING of possibility that maybe there was love between anyone else, or, god forbid, still is.

I didn't expect them to follow the book route, really, with everyone sort of loving each other very deeply and going back and forth between each other, because at the end of the day this is TV and I know that many people would flip at this approach. Not palatable, I guess. But taking such profound and nuanced relationships and flattening them completely for the sake of keeping the main ships intact is really annoying.

(The way they went about lesmand in particular is very upsetting to me, because the love-hate thing they have going on in so important for the both of them in the books, and it's so clear, so it's really sad to see what they made them into the show - a past fling at best, vaguely referred to as "ex" in one scene.)

(But also, there could be something to be said about how they make sure that these relationships between characters of color and white characters work, so for that they felt had to destroy the only relationship that was had between two characters of color in a way that doesn't even happen in the books. Yes, they were miserable together post-trial, but Armand just gave Louis space and left when he realized it was beyond saving. I guess he did try to hide that he left Claudia to die, even if if Louis secretly knew, so I can see where they got the manipulation from. But the gratuitous violence that was inflicted on Louis? That was 100% the show. There is a main character Armand tortures in the books, and that's Lestat, and with the humiliation he put him through in the show it would make some sense, but oh well. Interesting choice, to not say something else...)

I also feel like the books' general love could also say something about how vampires exist outside of the norms of society in so many ways, but I don't think the show is going for that. Still, maybe they could have embraced it as part of the queerness. Or they could have at least given these relationships the care they deserved to feel like there's something keeping these characters coming back to each other that isn't just circumstance. But maybe they will only be around each other because of circumstance, who knows.

The Black writers for seasons 1-2 of IWTV were Ben Philippe, David B Harris, and A. Zell Williams.

These are the men responsible for providing substance and depth to the Black characters in the first two seasons, mainly Louis and Claudia. They knew how to tackle struggle, injustices, history, rage, pain, and the ugly truth of American and European Black history. They didn’t pull punches with the hard stuff and they knew how to work with the soft stuff.

Season 3 tried to create edgy content and humor without these men and absolutely failed at it in every way possible. And they have failed both Louis and Claudia.

The Black jokes about Louis being “Louisiana Fried Chicken”, Louis continuing to be the pimp and needing his White savior that is Lestat, Claudia’s entire monologue about Louis being a literal slave to Lestat in that old Louisiana accent. And not to mention the complete erasure of Lemuel after only a couple episodes.

It’s not working.

Armand stans are furious because he only had like 15 minutes in total this entire season and because, once again, he was turned into the unhinged, ultimate villain of the season, just because the audience needs a punchbag, and the writers decided that it's always going to be Armand.

Louis stans are furious because he was made to apologize for being a bad partner while being horrifically tortured and abused. And because he has suffered various racist micro-agressions throughout the season by various different characters, including Lestat.

Lestat stans are furious because he literally got nothing to do other than having introspective hallucinations and he has no agency or personality outside of his victimhood and woobification in this season.

Daniel fans are angry because he keeps using racist slurs and tries to sound like an edgy wannabe teenager while he's supposed to be a Pulitzer winning, serious reporter.

Claudia fans are angry because even in death she's disrespected and used by Loumand to reestablish their toxic love for one another.

Nicolas fans are furious because the character appeared merely in flashbacks for like 3 minutes in total and then as a fuckass hallucination.

Gabrielle and Marius fans are angry because they are nowhere to be found (no, what we got was not them guys).

Loustat stans are angry because they didn't even share a kiss and their relationship progression was hasty at best, completely unearned, and extremely disrespectful to Claudia.

Nickistat stans are angry because they got absolutely nothing except for one flirt scene at a tavern and then absolutely nothing at all.

Loumand stans are angry because their relationship had a violent ending rather than the emotional, mutual understanding and reconciliation that we were hoping for.

Lesmand stans are rightfully furious because they made the ship completely one sided, with Armand truly being in love with Lestat while Lestat only ever saw him as a hole to shove his dick inside, and otherwise as boring and pathetic and not worthy of his time. While, in the books, the two of them are absolutely fascinated and in love with each other, and Lestat is always super affectionate with Armand, and even after all the bad blood between them, they still DEEPLY love and trust each other.

Both Loumand and Lesmand stans are furious because, after what these fuckass writers had Armand do at the finale, now there's zero chance of us getting our ships or at the very least see them all in good, friendly terms with each other.

And, of course, Devil's Minion stans are also rightfully furious because we have been teased for four years and properly baited for two years to get us to show up and bring our online engagement for TVL, with all our enthusiasm and love for our ship, only to receive pathetic crumbs and implications, and to have Armand and Daniel's 12-year-relationahip turned into a 52-year, one-sided stalking (fuck you, writers).

Louis and Armand? Actually met in a cafe. It was a very productive conversation. Amends were made. Closure was given.

Daniel? Gets to have one episode where he’s not being cartoonishly bigoted.

Regina? Nothing like Claudia. Actually played by Kirsten Dunst.

Gabriella? Still the worst but not quite so… flat? There’s something likable about her?

Interviews with the band. We get to see how they’ve been adjusting to vamp life. Cue one shot of Salamander making his first kill and it’s just:

Oh and Dm. We get real Dm. Not a whole lot. Maybe just a cute little interview with Armand. It’s early days for them so he’s very bashful around Daniel and it’s very sweet, meanwhile he’s answering questions about the death cult he’s been building.

And it's just laughable, because they had the set-up there. Devil's Minion in QotD is about addiction. Daniel relapsing, and Armand in AA as an addict, could have developed the subtext and meat of the relationship. "Too little" or "too early" aren't the problems with the writing, there, the problem is the fact that there wasn't any substance. Where did Daniel's struggle go? Why is Armand doing anything?

They are untethered, which is why they don't have the sauce. For a season with explicit drug use in it, it is not only shameful, but a waste of a motif, to not include two characters who are deeply involved in those themes.