#sybelle

hough biancamand.............. waugh dadmand............ *keels over and dies*

based on this and this gifset from The Winter's Tale <3

---

The only reason Lestat ever said anything about what happened to him was because Louis and Claudia demanded to know more about his past. And even then, Lestat downplayed it so much to the point that if you haven’t read the books and realize that forcibly turning someone into a vampire/forcibly taking blood from a vampire is considered assault(this is what I’ve heard, correct me if I’m wrong)you wouldn’t completely understand what Lestat went through.

I’ve seen a few people say they didn’t like how Lestat’s assault “overshadowed” Claudia’s. I don’t feel like this is what that scene did. Firstly, I feel like Claudia was allowed her dignity. We never see anything between her and Bruce. Secondly, I feel like the parallel was necessary so that people would understand that this was rape. I made a post a while back saying that part of the reason(whether the writers realized it or not)why it fits to have Marius exploit Armand in the show is to show the audience how sick he truly was. I’ve seen people infantilize Magnus and Marius to hell in back, as if both these vampires didn’t take advantage of their fledglings. 

Also, since many people unfortunately do not take sexual abuse against men seriously, I truly think paralleling Lestat’s assault with Claudia really helped drive the point home that he went through the same thing Claudia did. Watching Lestat desperately try to get away from him, watching him call out to God, watching him recite prayers as his rapist loomed over him, it was soul crushing to witness.

Back to what I said before, Lestat most likely never wanted to relive that moment, never wanted to go back to that dark place. So he tried to warp the story, make it his fault, and bury it away in a box in his mind. And he figured that the best thing Claudia could do was try to forget about it too. They truly captured Lestat being a dysfunctional parent so well. Since he saw someone else so much in his child, in this case himself, he decided to deal with Claudia in how he wanted himself himself dealt with instead of how things should have been dealt with.

I feel like this is the only reason why Lestat didn’t try to hunt down Bruce. He wanted to leave it all behind, to move on from it as quickly as he could, so that everything could return to normal. In his mind, Claudia wouldn’t be at risk again, she was safe at home again. No point in digging up the past.

No, I don’t think Lestat threatened Claudia with rape on the train, I don’t even think he was trying to hurt her in any way shape or form. I think Lestat was trying to tell her that if she tries to leave, she will most likely wind up attacked and possibly assaulted again. If I remember correctly, Louis told Claudia that she was smarter now, that she would be fine on her own when she left. This is not true. Claudia was not at all a powerful vampire at this point in her life and didn’t acquire any of the gifts. 

The second Bruce set his sights on Claudia, she was screwed. It wouldn’t have mattered if Claudia willingly went with him to that campfire or not, she likely would have faced the same outcome. Lestat, as controlling as he was, was right. The second time Claudia successfully ran off, she wound up dead.

I wonder if they’re going to tie in any parallels of Lestat and Magnus to Armand and Marius and if maybe they’ll wrap in Claudia and Bruce to it all. I wonder if Lestat sees a bit of himself in Armand. Armand saw the best in Marius, just like how Lestat tried to see the best in Magnus and deny how traumatic his turning was.

And speaking of Armand and Claudia, I wonder how much of himself Armand saw in her. I wonder if when he heard Claudia’s innocence, ie, her questions about sex and puberty, he was jealous that he never had the opportunity to ask these questions because he was sexually assaulted repeatedly for years. Remember that he was around Claudia’s age when Marius took him from the brothel. I wonder if when he read Claudia’s rape and torture, he thought of his time in the brothel, his time with Marius, his time with the Roman coven.

   My only worry is that the audience will excuse Marius’ actions solely because he’s attractive. Magnus looked fucking decrepit and horrifying, but he’s as much of a predator as Marius is.

This also feeds into my theory that Marius turning Sybelle and Benji is borderline equivalent to statutory rape. Yes, the two wanted to be turned, and yes, they gave Marius their consent, but that doesn’t matter because they couldn’t give their consent. Benji because of his age and Sybelle because of where she stood mentally(as an autistic person, I am not trying to say that people with autism cannot fall in love or give consent in a relationship. However, Sybelle was clearly written to be mentally younger than she was. We’re told that Benji needed to remind her to bathe, help her bathe, even needed to remind her to eat. Sybelle was not in a mental state to consent).

Gee Armand, how come you get to have two emotional support kids?

So right next to iwtv book is 2 famous Palestinian books that explore the plight of Gaza/occupied Palestine . So this is low key confirmation (to me) we're getting Palestinian Benji in the show !!!!! I'm so excited >.< Give Armand his foster son pronto! Interesting they show these books when they mention Armand having layers... hmm. Armand already name dropped a film in s2 which was about fostering a 12 year old (Benji was also 12 ) . And in s2, Daniel mentioned white supremacy having correlations to the Mossad ( as a possible hint we'll eventually get Benji) .

We also see Daniel's old memoir in the back . I want to do a bigger break down of all the books in the store later (since I saw some other interesting titles that have interesting subtext for other characters too). So stay tuned and follow for that breakdown; it'll probably be long! But, I just saw the teaser -and had to point this out immediately .

First book is " The 100 years war on Palestine: History of settler colonialism & resistance". And I actually read the 2nd book called "light in Gaza: writings born in fire" (great read )! It's an anthology with a different Gazan writer for every chapter . It was even given out as a free pdf on a lot of websites -because they simply wanted to educate readers about their predicament when it was 1st published .