Armand told the truth

Does Louis know? What does he think of it? Does he care? He’s currently not talking to either of them so they’re probably perfect for each other in his mind.

But they are abusive. Abuse is pretty much an entry level requirement for the gothic genre. It’s all about exploring taboo subjects but not necessarily imposing judgement on them and that’s precisely what she did. It doesn’t mean she’s a bad person. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person if you like her characters. I actually wish passive exploration of abuse was more common than it is because it is fascinating.

In Anne’s work, there is constant abuse, and that is what it is. That is the word we’ve coined for dynamics like the ones she writes about. She just writes about them as if she were a passive observer, which is where half the appeal of the books comes from imo. It’s far more interesting to read about how characters respond to toxic dynamics rather than for author to hold your hand and tell you they’re bad. Labelling it abuse isn’t passing judgment on the books or the characters. It’s just a clearer word for what’s going on.

We know Armand is being abused by Marius because his emotional outbursts (amongst other examples) are the most obvious kinds you’d witness in a real child being abused as he was.

We know Gabrielle is abusing Lestat (neglect is abuse) because Lestat desperately fawns over her whenever she’s around to try and prevent her from leaving again. We also know because Anne had a real issue with how neglectful Gabi was and said so directly.

The characters give real life responses that abused people exhibit and the story only benefits from this. Anne’s vampires are so heightened yet they’re still so terribly human which is why they’re so powerful. She doesn’t need to tell you it’s bad because it’s horror. That’s sort of a given.

And there are obviously a thousand other examples. You can pick any character and analyse their actions and intentions and you’ll find abuse. Louis and Claudia is in an underrated example. That’s what the series is about. Ironically, the readers who insist this isn’t the case could probably benefit from Anne being a little more direct in her framing of it, but I don’t think she needed to be necessarily. I actually love when a book or other piece of media doesn’t directly call out whatever issues it’s dealing with. It’s far more elegant to explore the impact this behaviour has on the characters rather than to just say it.

The implication is that the show is exaggerating it or something because they only kiss a few times in the book. Guys… your eyes need to be open when you read. I think maybe you closed them and forgot.

Do you think incest is purely physical? The damage is done to Lestat not by the few kisses, but by the way Gabrielle views him and treats him. The boundaries between the two were blurred even when they were humans and it only gets worse when they’re vampires. It is deeply emotional incest and it’s egregious. A relationship doesn’t have to be explicitly sexual to be incestuous.

There are so many occasions in the book where Lestat yearns for his mother and for her support and he never fully gets it. Not in the way a child would need from their parent. Anne has an issue with framing abusive relationships as abusive, something the show has no issue with, but if a parent treats their child like Gabi treats Lestat, the child will respond in the ways Lestat does. There are clear signs of emotional abuse everywhere, you just have to know what they look like. He behaves like an abused child, just like Armand does, though it manifests very differently in them both.