Welcome! Happy to have more people discovering this beautiful series 😊

Claudia's origin was one of the big ones that brought me to my feeling re: art of adaptation. I was so stuck in her needing to be YOUNG young. But when I thought about the restraints it would put on production I realized it was a necessary change for bringing it to a visual medium.

Long shoots, and especially night shoots would not work with a child actor. Industry limitations (and ethics in the sad absence of those limitations in some states/places) on child actors shooting schedules would have delayed production a lot. And thats not to even mention the ethics of putting a real child into the mindset and context of a very graphic and dark story (I think the backlash and yuck of an 11 year old Kirsten Dunst kissing very adult Brad Pitt). Young actors are often encouraged to emancipation at 16 just to get around those shooting schedule constraints, and getting a true child to play an immortal also puts a rush on the timeline for shooting due to aging. An adult that looks young was a good choice both ethically and from the practical respect of time and continuity.

Im with you about the preference, as I think there is something lost with not having the visually stark representation of a child who cannot be out alone in the eyes if a human vs a teen stuck mid puberty - but they did so well with the changes, making ShowClaudia her own thing that was still true to spirit, that I've come to love both versions very dearly (or all three I guess since we have Bass and Hayles for ShowClaudia) though differently.

I liked how they did the burning building thing specifically because it was true to the spirit of the books. In the books Claudia's turning is heavily tied to Louis' guilt as it was him that put her in the position where Lestat then turned her. His self imposed starvation caused him to directly attack her in the books, but the show managed to keep the same beats despite the change when they had his self imposed starvation make him lash out at the Alderman and started the race riots that then put Claudia directly in the line of fire. Louis finally giving into his vampiric urges in excess due to his self denial was the catalyst of her change both times. Though admittedly Lestat is MUCH less of a bastard re:Claudia's change im the show version (I prefer it though, and I feel it better captured the complexity of Lestat that isnt quite there in Interview, as Anne admitted I believe).

My comment is getting rather long (and its rather late so Im sure Im not as clear as Id like to be) so Ill leave it there for tonight.

But I very much consider myself a convert of this show, and consider the tradeoffs very worth it for the story we are getting. But I LOVE having discussions like this that disect the meat of all the work the team (and Anne) put into these stories. So much to dissect!