She Has A Couple Of Self Soothing Techniques, One Of Them Being This Little Move She's Doing In The Last

She has a couple of self soothing techniques, one of them being this little move she's doing in the last image. It's the same thing she does when she's confronted with trying to explain why she never left the tower in the movie. That is, of course, directly before putting on "The mask of her optimism" (ouch) and asking Eugene about his backstory. Just pointing that out because good grief is this so realistic to what she went through and the types of feelings/habits real people have. She's so personal to me so it made me really happy to see the reblogs also all understand her.

Once again my wife is winning world's most relatable character award 3 years running.

It will never not be heartbreaking how even now Rapunzel tries so hard to utilize the mask of her optimism. Especially if she’s around other people, she refuses to let others see her in despair. And you can tell here, the poor girl is hanging by a thread emotionally.

Everyone's reaction to her is a little more understandable in the books because she's 5 years old and not 14. Madeline thought she was an adult and malnourished from the war, which is an excuse somebody in a 14 year old body can make. But not a 5 year old one. Or in the movie's case a body around like 10 ish.

As much as nearly every character she meets tends to act like there's something uniquely broken and wrong with Claudia, at no point does it truly seem to me like there actually really is? I mean, obviously she is extremely fucked up, she straight up went through a serial killer collecting trophies phase, but there's a level of fucked up that's sort of the baseline for every character in the show, and obviously being turned into a vampire as a child puts her at a unique disadvantage. But for all that everyone around her spends their time bemoaning how dreadful and doomed her life is, even Louis who genuinely loves her but also builds so much of his identity around feeling responsible for her Terrible Fate™, I really don't think she's like, fundamentally damaged any more than any of the other vampires are.

But Lestat is so unwilling to be wrong that every time her life hits an inevitable road bump instead of helping her through it he points and says "look! see! she IS a monster, I was right Louis, making her was a mistake!" (and I think he sees his own monstrousness in her but fails to also see her humanity)

And then Armand meets her and sees only someone who will inevitably lose her mind, so of course speeding up the "inevitable" and siding with the coven to plan her death is just a mercy, absolving himself of any blame. (and he projects his own frailty and desire for death onto her, failing to see her strength and her desire for life)

Which makes it so cathartic when she meets Madeleine, admits to her how broken she feels sometimes, and Madeleine's response is just. Well that's normal. Who isn't a little broken these days. Let yourself feel it, move on, let yourself feel it again if you need to. After spending her life having others act as if her emotions are something uniquely dark and worrying, Madeleine's incredibly blase attitude must have been such an incredible breath of fresh air for Claudia!

To spend her whole life being made to feel like something is Wrong™ with her, and then meet someone who's just like, "yeah, and?? Who isn't? Join the club I guess"

Which makes her death so incredibly tragic and frustrating because like. She was fine! She was making a life for herself! She wasn't doomed by her nature, she wasn't "doomed by the narrative" (whatever the fuck that even means), she was doomed for no reason other than that everyone around her (except for Madeleine) preemptively DECIDED she was doomed and never gave her a chance to prove them wrong.

Made this yesterday while fighting for my life. Enjoy my suffering babes

[X]

Maître

sometimes I talk to the universe, or to plants, or to myself. And it's mega embarrassing because what if somebody sees me look at a plant growing out of some concrete and go

"Wow! look at you! good job! that was probably super difficult but you did it, i'm proud of you little plant." or i'll be looking for something and I won't be able to find it, but then when I complete a chore it's suddenly just on the table or right behind me in plain sight where I've definitely checked before and i'll go "Oh, is this for doing my chore? are you (the universe) rewarding me for being responsible? Thank you, I get the lesson, I'll try to do chores more often." bcs like cmon that's my mom (the universe / mother nature / whatever you wanna call everything around us) And I want to do it more often, it's like praying I think, but it's SO embarrassing. depending on who i'm around I probably wouldn't be in any danger or anything but also I don't think very many people would understand. but also, how could I tell the universe I'm ashamed of her? just because not many would understand? that's it? idk man i'm rambling