god truly the framing of claudia's death as this unavoidable tragedy boils my blood. it's in the episode title how the appearance of futility in resistance was carefully orchestrated and claudia herself says it's a stoning but I guess the narrative of the Black woman always meant to have been dead is better. my god. the horror is she never shouldve been dead she was murdered !!!! the horror is they conspired and plotted against her in a fury of bigotry on behalf of a white frenchman (their own) and the person who was supposed to protect her facilitated her downfall and death because she posed a threat to him. again, as the episode title spells out for us, armand could have prevented it !!!!! we see such and greater displays of power from him time and time again the whole point of the title is hes gaslighted louis into believing it so the reason he did it is preserved (he has louis all to himself). not a fan of the term media literacy but this is a didactic show. come on
besides that's not even what "dead from the beginning" means we need to start putting it on the high shelf until people can use it properly. it refers to a character whose very introduction or birth in the narrative is emblematic of their inevitable, eventual, cruel, and tragic death. claudia's death is predicted over and over again BY PPL WHO WISH FOR IT ! the same people who, when it suits them, comment on how well she's taken to vampiric life and how she transcends the tragedy of how she was made. (shes a prodigious killer; why you'd want to limit her is beyond comprehension. / imagine her in a body equal to her mind. etc etc) but her actions and outlook always contradict this declaration of doom. time and time again she's proven herself better suited for vampire life than louis, even--often what's said about her inability to take to it is to keep him doubting and dependent. undoubtedly claudia's story is a tragedy, but not because she was always going to fail as a vampire. it's the opposite; it's because she would have and did thrive. we're conflating her struggles with louis' here, the way the men in louis' life do on purpose
the way it's all misogynoir too: ppl cant see her as the multifaceted character she is or reconcile her victimhood with her agency and strength. its there w louis too but worse with her because shes always a pawn in men w more structural power than her abusing her and abusing that power when she outwits them to get to louis. so to act like this was always meant to happen to her. when an calculated intentional series of events maneuvered her to her death left her with only her love........not the oresteian tragedy ppl think it is. save it for daniel being significant due to armands self fulfilling prophetic jealousy. not claudia
