Ace of 💜s

my brother in christ you cannot be more wrong and I'm so tired. also if you ask a random stranger this in real life, a random stranger who's mature enough to understand the difference between fiction and reality, they will look at you like you speak gibberish.

proship stance = anti harassing real people over goddamned fiction. your kink is not my kink and that's okay. don't like don't read. there are some prompts that trigger the fuck out of me. I don't read it. I don't even like it. but I will defend its rights to exist because

1.) it is fiction

2.) no one in real life is harmed

3.) it cannot harm you unless you go searching for it, knowing it will upset or trigger you

4.) a lot of victims and survivors cope and heal through fiction, a safe and controlled environment

5.) censorship is a fascist tool. once you allow one thing to be censored because someone somewhere doesn't want it to exist, anything and everything can and will be censored.

:))

I mean, they will surely find their own way of doing this.

And, like, you heard Lestat address Amel in the voice over? That (likely) means that Lestat has the core when he records "The Failures". And THAT has to be prior to TtotBT.

I have said ages ago in the ripples effects post that TtotBT and Memoch both necessarily have to work differently, because the body dysmorphia and jadedness because of the power up through Akasha falls away.

That aspect of it all just does not work in this setup, and so the arcs there will, by necessity, also be very different.

My guess is Lestat will take the core immediately. And then Raglan will steal it (with Lestat's body).

But now? Yeah, I think they are going to make Raglan just literally steal Lestat's body instead of it being an agreed-upon switch.

And I think everything that the Amsterdam Motherhouse appears to be up to has to do with them trying to acquire Amel, i.e., the Sacred Core.

Nigel Farage is the leader of Reform UK, a far right party who are currently in the process of a serious bid to become the UK government. they are just straight up evil.

Count Binface is an intergalactic space warrior with a bin on his head. he likes to run as a novelty candidate in general and mayoral elections. a big thing he likes to do is run as a candidate against the incumbent prime minister:

(Also pictured: Boris Johnson, Elmo)

Anyway, in brief:

Nigel Farage is currently in the midst of a big scandal about his finances

He has decided to deal with this by 1) making a show of nobly resigning from parliament and then 2) immediately running in the resulting by-election

He has stated that he is letting 'the people' judge his actions and implied that if he wins that will prove that he has been exonerated in the court of public opinion

His goal was presumably to get a big resounding win over the other parties, proving that The People still love him.

the other parties have thus far decided that this is a 'vanity election' and, well, there is one very easy way to ensure that he will not beat any of them, and that is simply not to play.

and as a result the only person who has so far confirmed they are running against him is Count Binface. no matter the outcome this makes Nigel Farage look like, u know, a fucking clown.

Now, before I start with this, let me say: there is no agenda behind what I am about to say and lay out in this post, though I know some people are going to assign one to me about it all anyway, no matter what I say beforehand. Because that is how this fandom, sadly, works: if you are predicting something is going to happen, that must mean you want it to happen. 🙄

No. At least with myself, saying what I think is happening, or going to happen, is not the same thing as it being something I hope is going to happen. I do know how to divorce the two things when it comes to meta writing, theorising, and predicting.

Frankly, if there is any agenda from me with this, it's just one of me being tired of not talking about this publicly after over a year. (Because there are those whom I've laid this all out privately before over that span of time.)

And I know, I know about the rampant ageism that has been going on about all of this with Daniel's character over the past two or so weeks now. I've seen it. Yes, it's always been there before now, but it has reached new heights since Armand's love confession to Daniel. So yeah, there was never going to be a good time to go into what I'm about to go into.

Not to mention the attacks on Eric's acting, which just feel very much like an extension of all of that, as well.

Yeah. What I'm going to say is NOT going to help with any of that. I know that right up front.

But I did say I would start talking about what I think is going on with Daniel and what the show might be doing with him after EP305 aired, and well... I might as well.

Because, again, there was never -- is never -- going to be a good time to say what I'm about to say. (I kept trying to wait for one and... yeah..).

Anyway, before reading this further, I please ask that you first go and read this post, which I’ll also link below, if you haven't before, which goes into and explains why I believe a body swap plotline is NOT going to be happening with Daniel, ever IMO:

Okay. (Seriously, please have read it if you haven’t already.)

So, yes, I think if this really is Eric's last season as a regular on the show (which I and some others have talked about here), then, IMO, Luke Brandon Field will be the one who will take over the role of Daniel Molloy full-time.

And it will only ever be Luke who does so, even if it doesn't happen at the end of this season.

And yet, well, given how Rolin and Eric were talking about Daniel "dying bad" in Episode 4 of the After Dark show? I think that it could be as soon as the very end of Season 3 (like, the last few moments of EP307), if not the opening of Season 4.

But whenever it might happen... I do think it will at some point, and for however many seasons the show continues on after that, Luke will be the primary actor who will play Daniel’s character IMO, once it does happen... and I do think, eventually it will.

And it will be no one else who does.

And that it is an actor switch between the two of them that Rolin has been planning on doing since the beginning IMO. Even if it doesn't end up happening by the end of this season.

And, well, to explain why, we actually have to go into the TV Production side of things here. Because that is the side of things the major signals about it, IMO, are coming from.

* * * * *

And yes, to make it clear, even with no body switching plot to make it happen (which I explained why in my other post I linked above), there are ways to do such a switch between Eric and Luke that can make it make sense in-show, with established book lore as well.

And ones that do not involve "de-aging" Daniel to do it either. Mentally, he would still be as old as he was/is now.

However, let me also say that even though I don’t think what might be coming (at least from what I'm seeing) story-wise for Daniel, that might do something like this to him, then that means they’d have to do a primary actor switch for Daniel's character.

I just think Rolin Jones is going to do one at some point, and he was always planning to, right from the start.

And, IF the show does it (because again, IF it happens, then I think this was something that was always coming), it was always going to result in a switch to Luke taking over the part of Daniel, IMO, and no one else. 

Because had Interview with the Vampire not been split into two seasons? IMO, this switch between Eric and Luke would have happened at the end of Season 2, which was originally supposed to be The Vampire Lestat adaptation season, and not Season 3. And so that is why the actor switch I think is coming is happening now, and didn’t happen before.

Honestly, even before this season, even before I finally read the Prince Lestat Trilogy, I figured Luke would take over the part at some point in some way, pretty much for all the boring, practical reasons when it comes to TV Production that I listed in a post I made on this subject over two years ago. 

But, well… only later on did I begin to also figure out that there were clues — very big clues — that Rolin Jones actually never intended for Eric to be the one to primarily play out the modern-day part of the romance regarding Daniel and Armand. 

And the biggest clue about that being that… Rolin Jones never told Eric Bogosian about the Devil’s Minion romance when he hired Eric to play the part of older Daniel.

Which, when you really think about it? Makes no damn sense if Eric was going to be the actor primarily playing Daniel’s character for the full, modern-day romance storyline with Armand’s character.

* * * * *

To begin, think back to the story Assad and Eric told about how Eric actually found out about the Devil’s Minion romance: that it was something that Assad himself told Eric about… and that Eric didn’t believe him when he did!

(Source)

And, recently, we also heard, from Eric himself, in an interview he did with Autumn Brown, that he didn’t even know Assad was playing Armand until they reached filming the end of EP107!

But, again, we know from what Assad said after he was revealed to be Armand, following Season 1’s airing, that he did chemistry reads “with Daniel.”

So if Assad chemistry read with “Daniel”… how the hell would Eric not have known that Assad was playing Armand and that a romance between Daniel’s character and Armand’s character had happened in the book, and was set to be adapted on the show? 

Unless… Eric wasn’t the “Daniel” that Assad chemistry read with. Or, at the very least, didn’t do a romantic chemistry read with... though, given what Eric said about the very first time he met Assad was on set, well...

When it comes to casting two people who are set to portray a romantic relationship on screen, chemistry reads are pretty important. Rolin, right out the gate, was praising the chemistry between Jacob and Sam when it came to their chemistry reads together when they were auditioning for their parts: 

Which we have seen a little video footage for ourselves of:

(Source)

So I do not think, for one moment, that Rolin Jones has Assad Zaman chemistry read with actors for “Daniel” to only lock the actor he chose from those readings to play Daniel into playing the romance aspects of the Devil’s Minion relationship into only past flashback scenes. 

And especially not so if it looks like Rolin not only did not tell the actor who is playing Daniel in the present day part of the story beforehand about the romance his character would be having before hiring him for the part, but also might not have had that actor do any chemistry reads together beforehand with the actor who would be playing Armand, either. 

Again, Eric and Assad met for the first time on set. And when Assad told them that their characters would be hooking up, Eric had no idea what Assad was talking about. 

I’m sorry, but given how carefully crafted this show is? With Rolin flat out saying that one of the primary important aspects of the Loustat relationship was making sure the two actors he cast as Louis and Lestat had great chemistry with each other? 

Then I do not think for one second that Rolin Jones would not have also gone through a similar vigorous audition and chemistry reading process for the two actors who would be playing Armand and Daniel, if he was really intending to adapt the Devil’s Minion storyline and romance. 

Which, Rolin made very clear at SDCC 2022 that he was. 

And Rolin was not — IS NOT — just going to randomly cast someone as Daniel Molloy just because he liked them / wants to work with them / worked with them before without some kind of chemistry reads with the actor playing Armand, which means Assad, first at the very least. 

And, as said, Assad said so himself that he did read “with Daniel.” So why waste the results of whatever chemistry read happened by trying to cast some new actor into the part via a “body swap” plotline when there is book lore right there that gives you ways that you won’t have to do something like that at all? And can just use the same actor you originally chose, specifically because of the chemistry he had with Assad?

And, just for the record? I didn’t put these clues together regarding Eric not knowing about the Devil’s Minion romance and what that likely meant until around the spring of 2025. 

So yeah, for a few years, I, too, missed the implications and clues regarding what it all meant. And yes, I felt like an idiot the moment I figured it all out. 

But once I did figure it out….

No, the actor who is playing Alex was never going to take over playing Daniel’s character, and be put into a “Devil’s Minion romance” with Armand’s character.

Justin Kirk was never going to play Daniel Molloy and be in a “Devil’s Minion romance” storyline with Assad’s Armand. 

Neither was Bally Gill, nor anyone else, either. 

It is going to be Luke Brandon Field who takes over the role from Eric at some point. 

And it was always only ever going to be Luke, and no one else.

It’s just, before Season 2 ended the way it did, I thought such a switch wouldn’t happen until around Season 5 or so. Even without having figured out the chemistry reading clue by that point yet. (Never mind having not yet read the Prince Lestat Trilogy of books, which would be the books that gave me the lore regarding how such a thing would be very simple to do, and way less convoluted — for general audience viewers to follow — than a body-swap plotline would be.)

But now? With everything I’ve laid out, along with that clue, and with everything else going on with Daniel’s character in Season 3? His clearly ill body (still shaking and using antibodies)? Lestat, talking about Daniel in the past tense in EP303? Rolin and Eric talking openly about Daniel "dying bad" in Episode 4 of After Dark?

I think the actor switch between Eric and Luke might be coming at the very, very end of Season 3. Or, at least, the start of Season 4.

And I think the actor switch between them would originally have happened at the end of Season 2, if not for the one-month-out-from-filming switch to splitting IWTV into two seasons instead of one. 

And for the record? I don’t think Eric knew that this was likely his last season as a regular until he began filming EP305. Because that man has made it clear, on multiple occasions, that they only give him the scripts for things right before he shoots them.

Like, for EP205, Eric had no idea what the past stuff with Armand, Louis, and Daniel all was until he saw it in the final cut of the episode… and then, as he said himself, everything about it all clicked for him. 

Or just this past year, when, again, during SDCC, he made it clear he only knows and shoots what he’s given, and so doesn’t always have the full context wrt things when he does so.

Most people in fandom just focused on the “steamy, beany, beefy soup” part of his comment at the time. 

I, on the other hand? I was mainly busy being flabbergasted by the fact that Eric confirmed that he really didn’t know what Daniel’s character was up to, or what was coming up for the character, except when he was about to film each episode in question. (And even then, he didn’t understand the context of some things, like EP205, until he got to watch the whole episode. Meaning… they probably didn’t even give him the full script for EP205, and just his relevant pages only.)

Unlike Jacob, Sam, and Assad, Eric didn’t know in advance about anything. (Again, Assad not only knew about Devil’s Minion, he knew back when  S2 was almost done airing that Armand’s backstory was coming in Season 4; heck, Sam Reid knew in advance which scenes in Season 1 and 2 were real and which ones were fake).

Eric was never told about Devil’s Minion in advance. And was now, during that SDCC interview, saying he’d never been told anything in advance about anything regarding the story, and Daniel’s role in it, at all during the filming of Seasons 1, 2, and currently Season 3, either. 

Honestly, by the time Eric revealed in his interview with Autumn a few weeks ago that he didn’t even know Assad was playing The Vampire Armand until they were filming EP107? I was just kind of, like, “Yeah, that would track and fit given what he’s said before regarding things like this…” 

And look, I’m sorry, but I just do not see Rolin leaving Eric to find out about the Devil’s Minion relationship from reading the books, or not having him chemistry screen-test with potential Armand actors beforehand, either, the same way he had Louis and Lestat actors do so, if he had seriously intended Eric's Daniel to play out the full romance with Armand in the modern day.

Hell, even if he hadn’t ended up testing with Assad but other perspective Armand actors only, I think Eric would have at least been told about the Armand and Daniel love story for such tests… or, at the very least, before filming began. 

And he wasn't.

Devil’s Minion is like Loustat in status when it comes to this show. Meaning, if you are going to adapt it, and make the two actors part of a "core four" of actors for the show along with their romance together, then not only are you going to have two actors’ chemistry read togther for it, but it is something you would have told the actor who is hired to play Daniel Molloy about while they were still auditioning/or in talks about before you hire them for the part.

It is NOT something you’d leave them to find out about, by themselves, from reading the books after you’ve already hired them for the part.

IMO, Rolin Jones would have NEVER cast someone as Daniel Molloy to play the romance -- especially the one Armand/Daniel have and everything that it entails -- without making sure both actors were comfortable doing it, and comfortable with each other, first.

Not unless he never planned for that actor to be the one to portray Daniel when the show got into the full, present-day romantic relationship part of the storyline with Armand's character on screen in the first place.

Assad knew all about The Devil’s Minion by the time he was hired. Hence, his joke to Eric about them “hooking up.” Luke also clearly knew all about it, too. 

Eric, on the other hand? Didn’t.

* * * * *

Anyway, if I am correct about what's coming, I think we’ll probably only see a few seconds of Luke as Daniel in EP307, if it happens this season and not during Season 4 or something. But if we do, I think it will be long enough to establish that Luke Brandon Field will be the one primarily playing the part of Daniel Molloy going forward from that point on. 

And I think this IG post from Assad, wishing Eric a Happy Birthday, was a cheeky nod to that actor switch that I feel is coming:

Hannibal (2013-2015)