s2e5 armand might be my favorite armand
I'm sorry but imagine being Daniels kid and your dad is blowing up in the media, everyone thinks he's schitzo, plus he's in a problematic age gap relationship but every time you bring this up to him and his little twink man who cannot possibly be over 21, the bambi-eyed boyfriend starts... defending himself.... like he's the problem (he is)
hmmm. blorbo dress up hours again
colours for my boiiiiiiiiiiiii <3
sike, he's wearing green. obviously
I love Interview with the Vampire so much and I know I always bring disability into the conversation but I'm not sorry because I really think it's a media lens too frequently glossed over.
And I can't watch Claudia's experiences being infantilized and not bring it back to disability.
Compared to the other vampires, Claudia is disabled. They even say it in the show as one of the rules: members of the coven are not allowed to change the disabled, the maimed, or children, lumping all of these things together as particularly cruel to inflict vampirism on. They talk about it all the time behind her back. She's wrong. She's the wrong kind of vampire, she won't last long, and her mind is fragile and will break before the rest of theirs because of the way she was made. Even though the vampires KNOW better, they still treat her like a child as much as humans do, just in slightly different ways.
I watched the post-show interview and they talked about how Claudia is desperate for people to take her seriously, demands it even. It's not her fault that she was made the way she was. It's not her fault her body looks like it does. She didn't ask for it, and yet she is punished for it. Her options are people less mature than her who she shares nothing in common with, and people who are too weirded out by the way she looks to touch her. So, she changes her clothes to look like a lady, more mature. She changes her hair. She learns languages, dialects, history, geography--she arms herself with knowledge beyond even Louise and yet in all of their schemes she is forced to play the child's role cause that's all anyone will believe about her no matter how she carries herself. Being disabled is perpetual adolescence no matter how old you are, what you've achieved, or how you look.
And then she meets the vampire coven. And they actually have intellectual conversation with her. They have the same pride for vampirism that she does, because despite everything she still loves being a vampire. She only ever wanted that pride and identity to be acknowledged by somebody other than her guilty maker. The coven calls her flea, less, but she can handle a little hazing if it means somebody will finally takes her seriously for once. It pays off. They include her in conversation, they give her a job to do. They let her join in on the rituals, they put their hands over her, she drinks their blood, they are one.
And it makes the punchline all the more heartbreaking. When they tell her she'll be in the play. A new one, written for her in mind. She's so excited until they wheel in her gift...a blue baby girl dress. And then it all sinks in at once. These people she thought were her tribe, who she just dedicated herself to, never saw her as an equal. She was just a tool, a prop, entertainment. Just like the humans. Just like always. When they called her "less", they meant it.
"...You want me to play the baby?"
It's true disabled horror and I'm not gonna shut up about it.
