I saw this poem as lesmand-coded even before the series dropped, but now, considering Lestat is a fan of Baudelaire, it seems even more fitting...
Or it w o u l d be fitting, if Lestat was a French Orientalist Romantic like in the books, with a distorted and pRobLemAtIc, yet erotically charged vision of Armand. But in the show there is no real dynamic between them, Lestat just tries to gaslight us into thinking that Armand is undesirable. Again and again and with the same hollow insults. Like, don't get me wrong, ARMAND IS A BAD PERSON, but what he is not is ugly. Being desirable against all common sense is an integral part of his character, so them playing into Internet trolls' tropes of Desi men being "pathetic, sleazy and unattractive scammers" is not only racist, but narratively shallow and boring. Where is the love-hate angst??? Like... yes, INSULT HIM, but not for being a bottom or being groomed... What does it have to do with Claudia and Nicolas that Arun was raped as a child??? And look, I don't think that it is out of character for Lestat to be so mean and they could leave everything as it is IF they had counterbalanced those tired jabs with flashbacks of Armand being horrid with Niki, so the viewer could feel through Lestat's resentment or if they'd shown Arun/Amadeo being abused, so we could understand that Lestat's insults are unfair. We haven't really seen him neither as an uncanny monstrous creature, nor as an innocent child deserving of our sympathy. All we have is this "tell, no show" one-sided thing, rendering Armand just a comic relief punching bag. And it is so, so disaponting.












