#europe has never ever looked this good 😩

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV Musings - Justice for Claudia (she deserved better) ❤️👸🏼👸🏽👸🏾❤️ - S2

Everything that's ever happened to Claudia in her whole life is unfair and effed up, because my daughter's suffered more than Christ in the books, film, and tv show. 😩 This is not about seeing things in bad faith, it's about seeing things from CLAUDIA'S perspective, how SHE FEELS about her place in life, based on the way she's been treated and the things she's gone through & things she's seen happen to herself & the people she loves.

1) leaves NOLA/America for eastern Europe in the hopes of her & Louis starting "the adventure of our lives" looking for vampires overseas...only to be constantly disappointed every time they find nothing but empty castles & long-dead vampires.

2) They've arrived in Europe in the middle of WW2, so the entire continent's an active warzone--they can't even rest without having to run from air raids. They sleep in military foxholes in battlefields, and feed off the wounded & dying soldiers. Louis thinks "the blood is bad here," blaming the blood for how cold & sad HE feels. But meanwhile Claudia's just been getting stronger drinking the same exact blood, starting to learn the Cloud Gift all on her own--so much for Lestat/Loustat's BS about it being "not something you can teach"/learn. 🙄😒 (Ofc, she doesn't know the ins/outs of how the Dark Gifts get passed down.) She's still feeding Louis, sharing her kills with him to make sure he stays energized & can keep up with her; rather than the other way around, "you slow us down!" (TBF he warned her that he would in 1x6, but still, pull your friggin weight, Louis.)

3) Claudia quickly starts teaching herself German/Russian/Romanian/etc, telling everyone that Louis (who sucks with foreign languages) is just her "dumb/mute brother" only good for manual labor. She's the brains & he's the brawn; it's all he's good for; still pining over Lestat 4-5 years later. Claudia starts giving him the cold shoulder, icing him out & refusing to talk to him if every word out of his mouth's just gonna be about how he just wants to go home--"Home? could there be a more offensive question? Run back to New Orleans; pry up his bones, why don't you!? Louis de Pointe du Lac: dead weight." Claudia's been having really bad nightmares, but tries to keep a stiff upper lip and play it off as if she never dreams at all, rather than talk to Louis about any of her troubles.

4) She quickly catches on that Louis' thirsting for male company, slowing them down cuz he'd rather hang around & chat/flirt with Morgan ("giving him your real name") than help her investigate the Revenant she finally finds ("if he can't take you ballroom dancing and tell you you're pretty, hell with him, is that it?!"). This idiot really thinks there's baboons in Romania, and not an actual vampire they could get to know. 🤦🤦 Lou's been acting more & more like Lestat, doubting her at every turn, insulting her intelligence ("your books are bullsh*t!"), cuz he's not at all interested in vampires--there's only 1 vamp he's interested in, "I forgave you for messing up my plan; I did not forgive you for bringing him with you" in his mind & heart.

5) 40+ years old by now, Claudia's still being treated like a little kid; but uses it to her advantage to learn from the Romanian kids about "Anna." While lightskinned!Lou's busy being flattered & buttered up as a "man with good looks" by the adults, the kids are far more honest & direct with darkskinned!Claudia, touching her face without her permission calling her a "cioara" (Rom. "crow"), Romania's N-word. From the frying pan into the fire, Claudia's gone from the American Jim Crow to being called a literal crow by European racist brats, wtf.

6) The Revenant is also a effing jerk, beating the crap out of Claudia & Louis. Daciana gets the jump on them, and has the nerve to yell at Claudia for blinding her "child" (a grown frikkin man btw), when Daciana's the one who bashed his skull in--how was Claudia supposed to know he was too weak to heal?! He attacked her first, not the other way around, but she gets blamed?! 🙄😒 Daciana lets them talk about America and the blood and blahblah, tryna convince her to form a coven with them, and then completely sikes them out when she makes it seem like she's cool with joining them, only to then yeet herself into the fire in front of them; she'd rather die than make a coven with them, wow.

7) Claudia is deeply depressed after losing the chance to join the Revenant & Daciana, the first vampires they'd ever met since coming to Europe. Louis promises her that he won't do what Daciana did if things get tough ("taste the fire"); and tries to cheer her up ("you and me, me and you") by suggesting that they leave Eastern Europe & go to Paris instead. Claudia takes hope that he's sincere about finally choosing her over Lestat (but little does she know that he's still hallucinating DreamStat right next to her, OOF). But her mood doesn't pick up in Paris at all ("New Orleans, unhappy! Vampire homeland, unhappy! Paris, unhappy!"). The post-war city's broke as a joke, and they're stuck pick-pocketing just to get by, when what she wants is "francs and diamonds, and heaven to open up and rain down mink stoles" and to stop living like a bum already. She pays for a blunt AF dressmaker who calls her French "ugly" to tailor more adult clothes for her with the bloodstained jewellery she ripped off her victims. Louis' toxic positivity visibly grates on her nerves--"the male hunted to please her, the girl suffered philosophical conversation to please him," and she's tired of the burden of being his emotional support "throw-pillow" tryna seem cheerful just to keep Louis happy, when really she's "afraid my joylessness will take away his happiness and maybe I don't want his feelings to depend on mine anymore. Maybe I want to be joyfully joyless." 😔💔

8) Louis finally does something right and gets approached by Armand, nabbing them invites to the Theatre des Vampires--"the first time in Paris I had seen a smile or a laugh come out of her that wasn't for my benefit" ("come the coven, you're beaming like the whole world went technicolor!"). She LOVES their sadistic plays/snuff films, and Santiago especially, and wants to be an actress in their coven/Theatre. But trust Louis to be a Negative Nancy raining on her parade with his doom & gloom about how much danger they're in, just cuz the coven built a shrine to Lestat--who just so happened to have founded the Theatre 1 billion years ago & never told them ("I want to be with my own! Don't ruin this for me, Louis. I need this!").

9) When asked who their Maker was, Claudia finds herself finally forced to speak up about Bruce, a name she'd never spoken out loud; using him as a cover in order to not let it slip that she & Louis already offed Lestat. In order to get their lie/story straight, Claudia divulges all the deets about Bruce to Louis, from him being affiliated with Copenhagen (his Maker), to how many moles he had on his crotch as he raped her, "I remember what I remember!," to how many times he told her he loved her as he kept her pinned under the floorboards.

10) The coven hazes Claudia for weeks, but she "takes the abuse in stride" to prove her sincerity and value to the coven she's eager to join, "a flea no more!" Only to learn to her absolute horror that the "grand plans" they had for her was her being stuck "for the next 50 years" in the humiliating role of Baby LouLou (Louis' Baby), a child locked away by her abusive family, who goes crazy and kills herself when she realizes that death is the only way to ever be free. The novelty of being an actress swiftly wears off, and after 500 plays/18 months Claudia finally speaks up about how sick & tired she is of playing the role & being insulted & triggered & "reminded of it every night of my existence...while the mortals laugh and point. I relive every condescending look or f**king comment I have ever had to suffer!" Maitre Armand refuses to lose his cash cow, Blaxploitation in full effect as his Theatre's never been so successful until she showed up, pimping her out to stroke his ego & make his Theatre rich by having her walk the streets in her costume & racket up an even bigger audience for her shows. She looks to Louis for help, but Louis does eff all & just shrugs at her--she pledged herself to the coven/cult/gang, now she's stuck ("go sit in your choice, Sister!"). (Ofc she doesn't know Louis DID tell Armand off about it later on, cuz it did eff all to help.)

11) The ONE person she feels is in her corner is that same blunt AF dressmaker, Madeleine, who still says her French is ugly, but that the dress & songs are even worse and "they should kill whoever wrote it" (*cough* Sam! *cough*). Claudia starts giving Madz rides home from the Theatre, as they bond over how badly Claudia's being treated by the coven ("Are you their hostage?" "More like they're my family?"), and how badly Madz is being treated by the Parisians for being a Nazi collaborator who had the worst taste in men. Claudia sums up the story of her life: "Mom died. Dad ran off. Aunt didn't want me. A fire. Adopted. One of them was bad trouble. Ran away. One dark thing after another.... Even in between the dark things, there's something broken in me. A collision in me, like I wanna go BANG!" Madz encourages her to be her authentic self and go Bang, and Claudia realizes that Madz is maybe really seeing her.

12) Armand picks the right/wrong time to confront Claudia about breaking their rules & spending time with humans. She goes Bang! and reads him for filth, "I missed a chore and made a friend. And before you tell me to make friends with the coven, I can't, because they've turned inward too long ago and you know it! Which is why you run to Louis!" For her honest candor, Armand commences with Chokehold #5, threatening to kill her like "you treated your Maker" if she doesn't stop doing the "bare minimum" to follow his hypocritical AF rules the coven breaks all the time anyway (Santiago having sex in brothels with "half the working girls at Le Chanabais," and Gustave running down the streets drunk AF hollering "I am a vampire!").

13) Claudia confronts Louis for blabbing to Armand about Lestat, only to be shocked when Louis admits that Armand knew the very first time they showed up to the Theatre that they were lying about "Bruce" with his Mind Gift. She tells Lou that Armand threatened to kill her, only for Louis to show & prove how naive & d**kmatized he is, "That doesn't sound like him." Claudia is effing GOBSMACKED, and reads him for fiiiiiiilth, "Oh, I forgot! Love makes you STUPID! Makes you fickle and weak and blind! Let me guess, he's your companion finally? Well, good for f**king you! You and him! Him and you! You and f**king him! PICKED ANOTHER ONE, OVER ME!"

14) Having already moved out of the flat to live with the coven ("wtf's gone on without me here!?"), Claudia ditches her diaries behind with Louis. Her final entry says "Diaries are friends of last resort. I have found one not made of paper and glue. F**k these vampires." She's bonded with Madz, closer than ever after Madz is almost gang-raped by the anti-Nazi patriots & Claudia kills them all, revealing her vampiric nature to save Madz. Louis busts them together, and Claudia asks him to ask Armand to Turn Madz. Louis tries to appeal to Armand relishing not having to compete with "the burden of her" to be with Louis, and she's visibly hurt, but he's just confirming for her what she's already feared, that he'll always pick the man he's sleeping with over her--but it'll all be worth it if she gets her own companion, too. 🤞 But Armand says NO.

15) Meanwhile, Claudia had had no choice but to continue serving the coven, "always a yes, Maitre~!," having no effing clue that Santiago'd broken into Louis' flat & stolen all of her diaries, as part of a Trial the coven was devising right under her nose to sentence her & Louis to death for "killing" Lestat. Louis Turns Madz into a vampire after Armand refuses, and Claudeleine runs away from the coven & leaves Paris together. ✌️ That is the last straw for Armand (who's moved into HER apartment and is sleeping in HER effing coffin, btw). When Loumand invites Claudeleine for a family outing (barely even a few weeks later, if the timeline's any indication), Armand uses it as the opportunity to have Claudia, Louis, and Madeleine all abducted, dragged kicking & screaming back to the Theatre to be put on Trial and publicly executed for their "crimes" against the coven. 💀

16) Claudia is stuffed in the Rat Box to be chewed on by feral flesh-eating rodents, Louis is beat unconscious when he tries to fight the coven off and help her, and Madz is Mind Fogged by ONLY Santiago to STFU & not interfere with any of the proceedings. They're exhibited on stage with all of their ankles slashed thru the bones, hamstrung like runaway slaves to guarantee that they can't escape. Santiago flaunts her stolen diaries for the audience, letting them violate her privacy and read everything she ever wrote, "We have your words here, in all their chilling premeditation!," even reading them out loud in a mocking voice ("and that's when the black angel came~!"). Any time Claudia & Louis try to speak up & defend themselves & set the record straight, the ENTIRE coven collectively Mind Fogged them to make them STFU, hitting them so bad her nose bleeds & Louis' eye hemorrhages.

17) The cherry on top, friggin Lestat waltzes on the stage, and nearly every word out of his effing mouth is a damning testimony against Louis & Claudia in particular. He'd painted his star-crossed history with Louis as a "story of love," but has no such romantic purple prose for Claudia. His account of her Turning constantly emphasized how much he didn't want to make her, how she'd be "miserable" & "a cripple... defective... pain and anxiety as her only birthright;" and that following the coven's oh-so-Great Laws was more important than saving her life, "we didn't know any laws!" OTOH Les made it seem like he cared about her well-being, BOTOH Claudia points out that if Les cared so much he'd've refused regardless, but didn't, cuz he's just as d**kmatized as Louis, "Good luck on how that f**ker didn't ask. Gave me no say, made me more of a vampire than anyone up here!" And Lestat goes off-script to own up to breaking the law to make her, but Santiago quickly handwaves it cuz "you were manipulated into it" & babytrapped by Louis. Les then brags about how she was the "consummate killer" cuz HE "gifted her a predator's upbringing," despite Louis always tryna CODDLE & defang her vampiric potential. Like...? 🤔 Claudia just laughs in Lestat's face; all his love/pride's still not gonna stop her from getting killed.

18) Lestat decontextualizes her struggles in NOLA, diminishing everything down to how her "defect caught up with her [as her] moods worsened" as she started burning herself. He conveniently doesn't mention how Claudia at first only burned herself just to childishly experiment with vampire sunburning/healing; and that her moods only worsened AFTER she'd accidentally killed Charlie--cuz Lerstat hadn't told her about the Little Drink--who's not mentioned in the Trial AT ALL, and whom Les then forced Claudia to watch burn, which deeply traumatized her. Instead, Les mocks her grief AGAIN a la 1x5, weaponizing it against her by saying she only burned herself "for attention" not as the cry for HELP it was. It had nothing to do with her being"defective," and everything to do with Lestat not teaching/treating her right.

19) Claudia is then depicted as a raving monster during the segment about her killing sprees, again having her grief and "penchant for human souvenirs" decontexualized--it's not mentioned how she's collecting ADULT body parts--including adult female breasts she'd never be able to grow ("your chest…you don't have more than you did two years ago"). Instead, she's just a defect acting with no moral compass whatsoever, and is thus punishable by death for being a monster--(even though Santiago uses the same argument to excuse Les Dropping Lou a few minutes later cuz "I ask you to set aside your mortal biases and remember that we are monsters~!" 🙄😒)

20) Claudia is so infuriated & offended by Lestat's White Tears that she goes BANG!, and gets to her feet to cuss him out to his face, despite how much pain she's in as she struggles to hobble over to him on her gashed feet oozing blood all over the stage. Lestat can be forgiven for beating the dog snot of of Louis & dropping him "like an egg from an airplane;" but she can't be forgiven for being born "defective," and made that way BY Lestat?! "CAN I CRY AND SAY THAT I'M SORRY, TOO!?" Hayul to the naw, and she calls this kangaroo court exactly what it is: "it's not a Trial, it's a stoning!"

21) She's done arguing, cuz she knows Lestat DGAF about her, he's just there for wax poetic about Louis and whine about his hurt feelings; without a single apology to HER for how he treated her and WHY she wanted him dead, "it's never been about me!" She feels like a "roof shingle" that flew off of Loustat's house during the "stormy romance of YOU TWO!," sick to dangit death of her parents not GAF about putting her first, so wrapped up in their own mess. But MADELEINE stood 10 toes deep for Claudia, even in the face of imminent death, and announced "MY COVEN IS CLAUDIA." Her dads raised her for 20+ years, but Madz only knew her for less than 5, and STILL put Claudia first and martyred herself for love, incredible.

22) Claudia is sentenced to death next, and Lestat does her ONE effing favor by making Santiago let Claudia have her final request. Like the BAMF she is, Claudia goes BANG! and puts a whole hex on the audience, promising to come back from the dead and kill every last one of them, come Hell or high water! 😈👻🙏 It's the LEAST Lestat can effing do for his daughter before she's burned alive at the stake. Meanwhile, Louis is fighting tooth & nail to not be torn from his daughter when the coven drags him downstairs to be buried alive--the man who has NO Maker/Fledgling Vampire Bond connection with her whatsoever, but who leapt through fire into a burning building to save her, and who crossed an ocean to wander through the European war-theater to make her happy, and who gave her MADELEINE as a companion when he knew his company was inadequate. book!Claudia died hating Louis' guts, but AMC!Claudia died loving Louis (even though he drove her nuts), and the last words Louis ever heard Claudia say was her screaming his name, as she watched him struggling to stay by her side. Meanwhile, Lestat stood on that stage and heard her sing that wretched song, sobbing in pain as she held onto the ashes of her companion Madeleine, before succumbing to the sunlight too. She turns to Lestat for HELP in her last dying moments, "the last thing she saw on Earth was him," watching her burn to nothing but ash and doing eff all to help her, feeling unwanted & unloved by her Blood Father (ofc not knowing that Les had drained himself saving Louis with Banishment, and COULDN'T help her).

23) And Claudeleine wasn't even left alone after death, cuz that dirty mofo Santiago took their ashes and desecrated them, "We used her as eye shadow for the next month's performances. We put them in the pepper shaker for the popcorn we sold in the aisles. And some nights, Louis, I put a pinch of them in my fist before I closed my coffin at night. I would spit in them and I'd use her hot, wet ashes to pleasure myself!" 🤢🤮

TL;DR: Claudia didn't get to kill nearly enough people. 😔

[the-invisible-queer]

Thoughts on the Jonas Brothers and their spouses' met gala looks?

In the past? I doubt any of them are showing up this year because Nick has the flu, Pri is still in Europe shooting and Joe is going through his life changes

Has Kev and Dani ever gone? I couldn't find any pics and I feel like I've only seen Prick and Jophie in the past

But yeah I'll share my thoughts on their looks

Idk what year these looks are from and don't feel like looking it up out of laziness and idk if I got every year they've gone but I tried.

Jophie trigger warning for those who need it

Joe & Sophie

So THIS is what I think of when I think of Joe at the MET Gala because the image of him with his hand on Sophie's pregnant belly gets me every time. 🥺

Despite how things ended their love was still beautiful while it lasted and their love gave us two beautiful girls

Their fits are good. I LOVE his cape(?!?) or the tail of his jacket. Could do with more chest hair but that's just ME

His hairrrr 😩 and the facial hairrrr he could get me pregnant if he wants

Sophie's dress is simple but still pretty. I know I kept reading about her wearing flats - hence why they're almost the same height for once. But I mean who expects a pregnant woman to be in heels all night?

Her hair and makeup is giving AU Morticia Addams - which they did do Morticia and Gomez for Halloween one year and it lives rent free in my head

Then we have what might have been their first MET Gala together? Maybe. Like I said I'm not sure.

Joe is wearing my favorite color which looks *chef's kiss* on him. Always love seeing my guys

Sophie's dress is gorgeous and looks so fucking good on her

And then we have whatever the fuck this was:

They both look incredible as expected. I mean they're both hot as fuck.

I like her bodysuit more than his turtleneck.

Can't not mention how short my guy is next to her in those heels I'm lowkey obsessed with it

Nick & Priyanka

Nick wasn't with Pri yet.

I believe this was the year they got married but they had a very quick and short romance. Like they went on one date and then he proposed and they got married a few months later ALLEGEDLY

I love this fit. Simple, elegant and it looks good on him. Though I don't like the shoes.

I wish his hair was better so I could use this for Lip but Lip would NEVER cut his hair that short.

Was this the religious theme year? The one when Chadwick and Rihanna won the whole night

I don't know what was going on. What the hell was the theme?

But hi bald 👋

I really love his jacket. It's giving me Baz Luhrman Gatsby aesthetic.

I have a love/hate relationship with her trench coat dress with a train. Like she obviously looks incredible. But also why? I'm not mad at it. Just confused.

LISTEN

This is one of my least favorite Nick looks and I cannot pinpoint WHY!

It's not the stache because we learned I'm like the only person besides Pri who didn't mind the Bruno stache. Could be the eyeliner which I usually find hot on men but I guess he's the exception. Sorry, Nick. 😔

She's giving the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland. Reminiscent of Iracebeth in Burton's Alice in Wonderland with the hair.

I love her fit. I hate his.

NOW

The photo of them looking at each other makes me want to throw up in a good way. I love how in love and obsessed with each other they are. It's one of my favorite photos of them.

Probably my least favorite look of Pri's for the gala. The dress is gorgeous and I love the gloves, but the outer layer looks like a giant sleeping bag with drapes.

Not a fan of her hair either. HOWEVER she still looks hot as fuck. Like there is no possible way she could ever look bad.

Nick looks good. Like the leather jacket and the tie with the broach(?) shaped like a dragon(?). Simple but it works for it.

I'll be the first to ADMIT Nick doesn't need much to look good because he looks good in most fits. He's handsome and most clothes look good on his form.