i know who you pretend i am

The Handmaiden (2016) dir. Park Chan-wook // Interview with the Vampire episode 11 (2024) dir. Levan Akin

He lost his Hindu-originated name “Arun” when he was trafficked from Dehli as a child, was renamed “Amadeo” by his paedophile Maker the vampire Marius, then finally assigned “Armand” by the Roman coven before they sent him to France. He’s also lost his voice in a way, shown code-switching and adopting different accents in different settings. Throughout world history, colonised peoples have often been forced to adopt the languages and names of their oppressive colonisers as a way to erase their cultural identities.

Armand’s history was essentially colonised. His personal sexual trauma is an allegory for wider colonial trauma. This idea was explored similarly in Park Chan-wook’s 2016 film The Handmaiden, where the character Hideko’s forced exposure to pornographic Japanese literature as a child is meant to parallel the colonial oppression of the Japanese occupation of Korea.

The only evidence remaining of Armand’s experiences of sexual and colonial violence is this painting The Adoration of the Shephards With a Donor that hangs in the Louvre. Another cruel irony here is that ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ is an episode of Jesus’s nativity. Arun as a (presumably) Hindu boy was used as a prop in a Christian narrative. The one historical document that exists of his mortal life is a depiction of his religious assimilation. Completely divorced from his roots, with no identity outside the roles his abusers assigned him, Armand, Amadeo, and Arun “were cut loose and dead like children turned to stone.” Being immortalised, “donated”, and placed on display in a European museum, a space he’s not even really allowed to access, for the mostly-white gaze is a clear metaphor for colonisers’ persisting theft of cultural artefacts belonging to their victims.

The only consolation this journey has for Armand is creative inspiration. He took Amadeo, trapped in the horror of his youth for the entertainment of others, and transferred that idea into the play My Baby Loves Windows to torture Claudia.

LOCKED IN | LOCKED OUT

And that's the end of it. There's nothing else.

(through gritted teeth) so incheresting how you have interpreted this television show we have both seen! you know it's like i always say. the world is full of many people and in my necessarily limited perspective i may only ever understand but a few of them. haha!

No Rest

CW: blood

lestat: sooooo zis is my traileurr allez allez find what space you can pardon I made such a mess getting dressed this evening I left everything lying around Oh that? this is my blood bag frigo for when I'm thirsty. all ethically and locally sourced from my adoring fans

lestat: over Here in this frame? c'est un vinyl I had framed of the first song I ever wrote pour mon cheri Louis. and over Hereee oh excusé moi would you mind not leaning your boom stick on my coffin? merci okay here is the costume I have planned for the meet-and-bite later tonight after the show. as you can see I know what parts of me my fans love to see. it was really difficulte when my mother left me for another woman

lestat: là, je ne sais pas if your little sony fx6 can pick it up I don't know but that's Claudia's ghost she's just appeared on top of the frid-- the FRIGO

Interview with the Vampire 2.01 | 2.08

Devils your minion

i get top surgery tomorrow and I know there's like a 50% chance of me waking up loopy and immediately going Oh God the vampires because of The State Of Things

update: i succeeded in not talking about The Vampires but did tell my post op nurse about the "ritual" my grandpa told me i should do in which i gather my friends and family to burn my boobs and "send them back to mother earth"

why would they say this

#I hope Claughostdia comes back to haunt them (insp)

louis venez ici i’m incredibly distressed i’ve been trawling here on the wifi and i’ve come across something most loathsome do you see this monstrosity? regarde ça this deceitful little bar has been advertised to me as a form of electronic cigarette! they say it is blue raspberry flavored louis i hate this so utterly i cannot stand it. je vais me fuer this century is shallow and rude there is no such thing as a blue raspberry and there is no such thing as an electronic cigarette i refuse to accept it. what makes this cigarette electronic in the least? does it connect to the wifi? i love the wifi louis i wish that the wifi would not associate with this hateful institution. is this one and the same with that detestable object armand refers to as his ‘banana ice puff bar’ i abhor that one most of all it emits the worst odor c’est vraiment mauvais. louis mon cher you must promise that you will never fall sway under the influence of this infernal device i do not know if my heart could take such a beating. i will not allow those plastic pretenders in my home la main à dieu we must find a way to end this

You were one of our finest and now you're a Bigfoot hunter chasing Jesus' bloodline.

crucial and complex entry to the "he fucked that old man" canon