But.

WHY DOES MAO MAO HAVE TO BE DRAWN TO LOOK SO YOUNG LOOKING?!

Like. I thought she was genuinely a child character the first few screenshots and fanarts I scrolled past.

And its like, okay, in SOME of the official art, she looks like...i guess a teenager?

I'm assuming she's supposed to be an adult but thanks to modern anime forgetting what adult women, and yes I'm taking into consideration western beauty standards and animation standards, fucking look like, I'm sitting here torn.

I love historical fiction with some good court drama. No matter where the court is from.

Elements of these topics existed beforehamd, so i do trust in how season 3 will handle these topics. But uh...oh is the ante about to be upped. We're going from adaptation of Anne Rice coping with the loss of her daughter to adaptation of Anne Rice coping with...a lot.

The fascinating part is her surviving adult son is part of the show's crew, so it will be intriguing to see how topics of generational trauma are handled, particular between Lestat and his mother.

However, fascinating or no, its totally fine if you have to bail this season or skip through scenes. Its gothic horror and some horror topics just aren't for everyone! That's fine!

But I also adore JonTim.

Just because canonically the tragedy of how close they came to reconciling in Season 3, but Tim was too far gone, and there just wasn't enough time for Jon to figure out how to reach out to him.

Jon and Tim is also a very messy relationship dynamic to me, where you have these two very stubborn, very opinionated people, neither of whom are that great about communicating about their genuine emotions. But they both CARE about the other.

So they'll communicate via snark, and Jon will ramble about nonsense when he notices Tim is panicking since he knows it centers Tim, and Tim will remind Jon of all the ridiculous but very human things he does.

But they'll also have a shouting match when their paths conflict, or when one KNOWS they have to do something dangerous and the other doesn't want them to risk their life again.

Then spend a few hours getting drunk and enjoying each other's company, that they're both here. Now.

Literally my go to example now of how you can take the source material and go a step beyond.

Also how to properly change races. Louis and Claudia are now black, and while Armand's backstory is still unclear, he is very much Not White.

And while it doesn't change the core of these characters, as it shouldn't, the IWTV adaptation goes "okay, how does this change dynamics?" Then includes both blatantly and subtlely how Lestat's abuse of Claudia and Louis has ties to racism. How that effects how the characters feel about it. The racism is shown both in the world and at home. The show does not shy away from it.

But its not just the negatives. Armand is shown finishing up prayers with his prayer mat. Louis and his brother learned tapdancing which IS tied into black history. Louis's sister's wedding involved jumping over a broom which yes the mother called witchlike but is very much part of black history in the US due to white slave masters & systemic racism not allowing for elaborate weddings so yes, jumping over the broom.

And the fact they DEFINITELY did research and seemed to consult with people. I, as a white person, did not know the connection between tapdancing and American black culture until an older black man mentioned it to me. Many white folks wouldn't! These are the kinds of ties that in a show with white people at the helm come from research and a willingness to LISTEN.