Maleficent Cannoli

the opening scene begins with a voice over from louis saying that claudia once told him that she doesn't dream. louis follows by saying that she might have said that to shut him up, "but yet she writes it here, so let's believe it" (with a sarcastic "let's" from daniel). later on in the episode, louis is recounting waking up next to claudia and he realizes that she was having a nightmare and what she said about not dreaming was "just something she wrote, but it wasn't true"

Some parallels I’ve noticed between Claudia opening up about the assault in S2 and Magnus:

Claudia: he kept her under the floorboards for a week

Lestat: Magnus kept him for a week

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Claudia: Bruce told her he loved her before, during, and after the assaults

Lestat: Magnus was obsessed with him

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Claudia: When she and Louis were making up a story about their maker ‘Bruce’ for if the coven ever asked, they said he lit himself on fire in front of them

Lestat: Magnus threw himself into a fire in front of him

The most obvious:

Claudia: he SAed her and had her autonomy taken away

Lestat: was violently fed on and make into a vampire without his consent (also taking away his autonomy) and there is a possibility that the show was hinting that Magnus SAed him as well

To then, a season later, get Armand's pov. Armand finding something worthwhile at last, fragile and precious to him, scared to give in, scared of losing Daniel, panicking about Daniel's recklessness and instability due to drugs and Armand's blood, reckoning with being the thing destroying who he loves and making the sacrifice of losing them to preserve their safety.

On one pov, the erasing of the memories looks scary and violating, on the other, deeply tragic and as a heavy burden.

I KNOOOOWWWWW!!!!

Did Armand watch as the drugs damaged Daniel's mind, knowing that he could never turn him now because he feared Daniel would face the same fate as Nicki? Did he think the same thing about the Parkinson's once he was old? HE MUST HAVE BEEN SO SCARED 😭