#especially when we're already dealing with 'delulu' it's just another thing that tries to kick at an already vulnerable community

[camellia-thea]

mm. okay i've now rewatched the show and i'm actually standing a lot firmer on this one. i really don't like the season 2 finale's presentation of psychosis. especially as a response of rage and vengeance.

in part, it's related to a conversation had a little while ago where a friend tried to defend a (completely different show's) representation of psychosis that was harmful and upsetting as "humanising", where the entire point of the psychosis was to show the character was a "crazy killer not in control" and that you should pity the crazy person, but they're still going to hurt people! there is nothing humanising about these types of portrayals. it just reinforces the already prevalent stereotype that we're going to hurt people. it gives people justification to hurt us; the amount of violence we receive because people see us and immediately think "that person is dangerous" rather than "that person is vulnerable" is unspeakable.

there are so many ways they could have changed it to remove the ableism and sanism. i mean, "are you schizophrenic, louis?"? it's played as a fucking joke.

and the thing that gets me -- and always gets me in moments like this -- is that louis could've been full of rage and wanting to avenge claudia without the psychotic elements and it would have been even more powerful. in every instance of psychosis being used to "give reason" or "justify" acts of violence, it is more interesting and impactful for there to be an entirely different internal or external reason. i mean, louis, who for a very long time has grappled with the aspect of himself that hurts people, in very complex ways. a significant part of his character is grappling with his vampirism and his acts of harm, and even in s2 we see him eating animals over people. and he wants to hunt and be a hunter, he revels in it! but then he's overcome by guilt afterwards! would this not have been a good moment for that to truly absolve him of that guilt? have him, for one of the first times in the show, commit an unspeakable amount of violence without the prompting of another?

hell, i said it before, i don't mind dreamstat being present! i don't! i think there's an established place for guilt and grief to manifest as visions or hallucinations in media that isn't always bad! and i think conversations with dreamstat haunting louis everywhere is really powerful, especially when you see the real lestat countering it at the end! but not when louis hurts people because of it. that's the line i'm drawing.

and again, they're vampires! you don't need to lean into these tropes to portray them as awful people and show the horror of violence. you do not need to justify that behaviour; it's the vampire show where they're all awful to one another! that's part of the enjoyment! they're all meant to be hurting one another and deeply complicated people. the moral quandary of the vampire is that they inherently cannot exist without harming others, and how does one deal with an existence which entirely depends on preying upon others.

i know i'm repeating myself, and i will keep repeating myself until people listen. you don't need to justify acts of violence by throwing us under the bus.

this isn't a meta thing or a condemnation, i just wanted to write down some opinions. but i've thought about it a bit more. i really really don't like the hallucination/psychosis elements within iwtv.

i think it's in part because i experience hallucinations regularly and i've experienced psychosis, but i don't find value in it being shown in this instance and i think it could've been completely left out.

hell, it could've been just louis seeing lestat (and fuck, maybe even claudia) as manifestations of guilt, but the beginning of s2e8 wasn't it. i don't think i can properly convey what made me uncomfortable, but i had to pause for a little bit to let myself get through it.

i wasn't very keen on louis killing someone he thought was lestat, as a way of showing instability and as a way to make him obviously unreliable. i think it did give the impression they wanted; the unreliability, and i've talked about that in regards to unreliable narrators, but it didn't sit right at the time, and having now seen the finale, i don't think it was necessary.

the erratic behaviour and the hallucinations of his victims within those moments just felt. bad. especially since it was an element of driving louis to get revenge. it's just another case of psychosis being used to "motivate" harm. especially since he's a vampire! you don't need to justify him wanting to kill people! claudia's death pushed him to the edge without any elements of psychosis, he could've just killed them! and yes, he was tortured and had come back from the brink of death in those moments, but even still. it felt like it went too far.

i don't really have a point here, i don't think. i guess it's just, you can do horror and violence and instability without leaning into those tropes. i think it was unnecessary.