I snort sugar

So some fanartist drew a “sexy” (read: booby) version of a (cartoon) character who is traditionally very non-sexualised. Fans of the character got mad about it because it’s kind of groundbreaking how that character is written and portrayed and this art totally ignores the entire point of the character. They demanded the art be deleted. In response to that other people said, well what the fanartist did may be distateful but they have every right to draw what they’re into. The two sides fight for days and each starts a harassment campaign and even report their “opponents’” accounts.

So far so typical. But things eventually come to a head and they decide that this will be settled by votes - not through a poll. Through donations to a children’s education charity via each side’s portal. Whoever can get the highest amount of donation wins.

I want him touching everything, going through everyone’s possessions, messing with the cameras and sound equipment, loosening the strings on all the guitars, critiquing the grammar in the band’s lyrics notebooks, running the shower and watching all the hot water run down the drain. I want him making potions out of everyone’s toiletries like little kids do. Maybe he puts Nair into all of Lestat’s hair products but you can never prove it was him.

And none of it’s malicious. That’s the key. He’s just exploring. He does that. He needs the enrichment. Daniel let him in so if you want to blame someone, it’s actually Daniel’s fault, but every time the band come back, there’s something slightly off.

I want him dead and yet feel oddly (and preemptively) protective of him.

On one end, we have the AI-generating faux-intellectuals who victim blame Armand and think real-life victims of pederasty could consent just because it was legal at the time. On the other, we’re going to have people who think you can’t even speak positively about what he brings to the story without it being viewed as a moral failing.

There's some people in the comments saying "fandoms have always been like this" and others saying "No, it's worse than it was." And both are to some extent right. Fans (or at least a small percentage of fans, and the larger a fanbase gets the larger a group this will describe) have always been Like That; but they did not always have the level of access to creators and actors that they have now.

The notion that a performer needs to be constantly available to public scrutiny, that their personal information should by default be available to any rando with google, is pretty new. It used to be that actors would only be expected to engage with the public on limited, specific, and controlled occasions, usually with security provided. Now they're being asked to rawdog exposure to the mob 24/7 on their own.

(Also, production companies have always always always been exploitative cowards, just to get that straight; reading the biographies of literally any actress from golden Hollywood years makes that clear. It's just, again, more public now.)

Here are the ways we can interpret that scene:

1. Daniel really said that. Louis said it didn’t happen to him and Lestat. He was telling the truth. That means Daniel and Armand’s bond is unique. We win.

2. Daniel really said that. Louis said it didn’t happen to him and Lestat. Louis was lying. That means Daniel and Armand’s bond is as potent as Loustat’s. We win.

3. Lestat made it up and in his version, Louis was telling the truth. That means Lestat felt it necessary to highlight that Armand and Daniel’s bond is unique. Lestat is a DM shipper (that’s just book canon tbh.) We win.

4. Lestat made it up and in his version, Louis was lying. That means Lestat felt it necessary to highlight that Armand and Daniel’s bond has major similarities to Loustat’s bond. Lestat is still a DM shipper. We (Lestat included) win.

It’s most likely that they didn’t say what they said in that exact way, but the takeaways from the scene are true. Louis seemed to be lying, although maybe the rapture part is a DM thing. Regardless, either Lestat was writing DM fanfiction or it actually happened. Either way feels like a win to me.