eurydice's forgiveness

ASSAD ZAMAN

they already associated armand with islam via him praying as fake rashid

they conflated armand with assad, a british bangladeshi muslim (as far as i know), by referring to him as a french bengali in the show when that had nothing to do with what we previously knew about the character

armand is assisted in torturing louis by fareed, presumably supposed to be muslim

louis is beheaded and armand is using livestreaming - reminiscent of videos used of hostages beheaded by terrorist groups in west asia

armand is wearing a metal bangle reminiscent of the one sikhs wear

armand is wearing a vaguely military-looking shirt even though this is very unlike his normal taste

all this is saying to me that theyre just jumbling together anything that says to them brown person terrorist muslim torturer insane fanatic

then theres the big boss song

lyrics about armand perpetrating executions (never mind he got taught that in rome - if hes doing eugenics they are in fact catholic tinged eugenics) and stating its his decision alone who dies (ignoring the involvement of white characters)

big SS on the cd cover blatantly associating him with nazis

daniel calls him dr mengele - a nazi who tortured ppl by experimenting on them

armand and fareed desecrate a kosher space by spilling human blood in the butchers shop

so its not exactly a coherent framing but i think its still a framing

then theres the fact that his csa history, after being the subject of mockery, is now brought up seriously, at long last, in this context! what is that telling us? especially since so much focus has been given to lestat over an abuse story they made up from whole cloth.

but lestat was abused by a woman. armand, we are constantly told, was a catamite. hes a twink bottom. he was a limp, passive ragdoll for sale. his daddy groomed him into a little bitch. hes emasculated, a beige pillow, his sexual performance is so-so, hes desperate and needy, hes a pussy and a betaboi. in short, hes too gay, not lestats ideal of a masculine bisexual man. like this is some kind of corruption of character, being the receptive partner in anal sex

what the fuck are they doing here. hes a nazi, and also a brown terrorist, and also a 'passive' homosexual. what the actual fuck are they doing. they chose his indian background for him and have done nothing with it except racism.

anyway im off again. as soon as the conversations started being more about 'how dare armand be cruel to louis' instead of 'how dare the writers do this to the characters and the viewers' it felt like we slipped off the track you know?

it's a weird trend i've always seen in fandom that seems to overlap with the idea that failing to achieve moral purity in art is indicative of evil intentions and actions on the part of the creator.

i cannot think of a single time i saw fandom get their dander up about a queer-flavored piece of media failing to execute all aspects of leftist thought perfectly without flaw... and then seen real world positive change come from that vitriol. not once. at best, shows get canceled. at worst, small queer creators with unique perspective get doxxed and harassed offline. In both cases, we don't get more art of that kind and everyone's bummed out.

But if you were going to do that, I think a much better approach would've been to have Armand come to Louis with his own apology while expecting one in return, only to become angry and violent on impulse when Louis refused to give it to him. It would've made the point about how dangerous, delusional, unstable, and sadistic he can be without betraying the characterization the show had already established.

Because almost every time Armand has done something violent or harmful, it's been impulsive. San Francisco was driven by emotional weariness, anger, and impulse. His lie about the extent of his participation in the trial, and about saving Louis, was a spur-of-the-moment decision when he saw an opportunity and seized it, not something he'd been planning beforehand. The only thing he planned carefully over a long period of time was the trial, and even then it wasn't his idea in the first place. Someone else came up with it, and he went along with it.

A person who is constantly in survival mode, who stays on sinking boats because they're too afraid that if they jump and swim they'll never find land, only an endless sea that will drown them, just isn't someone who takes initiative as a master planner. They aren't the kind of person who orchestrates something as complex as the entire Regina scheme or constructs an elaborate torture scenario. They'd improvise it instead, just like they did in San Francisco.

hey guys? Do we maybe think that Armand's tit-for-tat mentality, and the way he's been tallying up his and everyone else's sins against each other is a problem? Is it maybe possible that Louis managing to find empathy for Armand in the face of the monstrosity being done to him, and that radical act of kindness and honesty (about the ways he unintentionally hurt Armand) moving Armand so much that it nearly breaks him, is idk a major theme of this whole season?

you know, sorta like how Lestat was holding onto his feelings of betrayal about the book, and all it did to serve him was make him absolutely miserable and lonely and push him into the arms of someone actively harming him. And how it was only after he let that go, and helped Louis even though he still thought that Louis didn't give a shit about him, that they were able to connect again and be happier than we've ever seen them.

Or like how Louis was able to look past his initial feelings of revulsion and betrayal about the Sophia lie, and offered comfort and a space to speak honestly, and how that granted him a deeper understanding of Lestat, and ultimately strengthened their bond.