#if any of y'all take this to mean I'm demanding that Claudia relive the trauma of being raped I will bite you

[fayevalcntine]

I don't actually think the show does well enough in terms of handling Claudia's backstory and internalized feelings re: a lot of what happens in the latter half of the season, but apparently that's an unpopular opinion of sorts in this fandom.

To put it simply, Claudia reminiscing about her past life prior to being a vampire in all but 6 lines is not a proper exploration of said life. In comparison to her parents getting a more expanded view of theirs (Louis thankfully had at least one episode prior to being turned while Lestat's backstory is even going to be repeatedly hinted at in season 2), she mentions a dead mother all but once (twice if you count an easy lie she tells in 1.06), an aunt beating her, having to deal with perverts at the rooming house she stayed in, and not having any more children to play with during the night because she's now a vampire. Again, all this is explored in less than 10 lines total. This isn't really us getting enough info on her so much as barely getting the most basic information that we can get on her past, and again, it's also not a proper exploration of a child suddenly going from an abusive poor household to a rich people's home, with two strangers that suddenly become her parents, and her becoming completely estranged to the life she once knew. Claudia remembers her past life in comparison to her book counterpart because she's 14, yet somehow I'm supposed to accept that she is completely fine with all of these changes until she suddenly isn't?

Subtlety is also not this show's Forte nor is it even the thing it's remembered by: we have Louis referencing books that are clearly meant for us to look up, we have a 10 minute domestic violence scene where the white vampire deliberately tries to kill his Black partner. This just makes the lack of info on Claudia obviously glaring because she is also raped, but her rape is never even talked about BY her. It's hinted at by Louis, it's nagged for more information on by Daniel, it's mocked by Lestat. The only time we even get Claudia referring to Bruce is in a scene that is clearly meant to serve as a not-so-subtle hint that Louis is being raped by his husband? So again, a hint of a moment that Claudia gives is again turned into a message about what Louis is going through. When a show has more men talk about this traumatic incident that happened to this girl than the girl herself, then yeah, it IS glaring and unless Rolin and Co. make some effort to rectify a general lack of attention they give her, or turn it into some commentary about how a Black girl's story is shaped and disfigured by all the men in her life that abused her, then it's still pretty glaring and lacking.