tini

It would have taken another immortal to keep up with him.

so i haven't read the books but i did read the Devil's Minion chapter and this part made me laugh out loud:

i think louis is doing this with armand/daniel because he wants to stop lestat from being killed. armand/daniel prob has a different motive but louis i think is in on it.

Louis then drinks Lestat’s blood, perhaps it’s for extra strength for when his head gets cut off, with pointing out Alex being an ok signal to Daniel and Armand. He did bring dreamstat out to a bench to essentially kill him (from his mind) in season 2 too.

I highly doubt Louis didn’t notice Lestat’s behavior being so off throughout the events of this season, especially in the way Lestat is talking to him. Lestat asks Louis why he didn’t call when he got shot— and something interesting that another person pointed out was that we see Louis get shot multiple times in Season 1 and he didn’t even flinch. Which then also reminds me of this quote from TVA:

“[Lestat] must make a gutter theatrical out of stubbing his toe.”

As I mentioned in my tags, the main purpose of the Dubai interview was to prevent the great conversion. But also, if there’s one thing that Louis and Armand bonded on throughout the years in-spite of the lies and everything was how they felt Lestat treated them, especially as people of color.

Even if Louis does want to make up with Lestat, I think he would be more careful about whether Lestat has changed or not. As we can see as an audience, he has not and I can imagine Louis would’ve noticed it too. That’s not to say he hasn’t changed at all or doesn’t want to, but there are big factors (like Gabriella!!!) still playing a part in preventing him from full growth. There’s also a degree of antagonism that needs to remain in Lestat in order for the QOTD events to happen.

another thing weird to me is how easily louis just brushed over ghost!claudia. in s1 and 2, that would have made him depressed as fuck for 365 business days. for him to just be like okay and then sit on the bench after the most diabolical racially charged language being thrown at him by his own daughter - something tells me even ghost!claudia is something louis knows about - either it not being actual ghost!claudia or something else. that i don't know (they also had to mention 'fraudia' in the beginning and louis had a bit of a strange reaction to it).

louis's complacency all throughout e6 was just really ooc in general. louis loves lestat, but we've seen him push back multiple times in s1 and even to dreamstat. it's just very ooc to me that he was just not challenging lestat at all. and this may mean nothing at all but louis had a teaser where he's being interviewed by daniel. i think he might even be in the same exact outfit as e6? i need to fact check (or if someone else beats me to it, please rb or reply and let me know).

he mentions that lestat's music is passable which contradicts his reaction to the performance lestat gave him. i think louis did feel moved by the song but if this clip has anything to do with this, it seems he is being interviewed by daniel perhaps after they put his head back on and he's saying passable to discourage people from attending the concert or possibly derailing the plan - not sure.

ASSAD ZAMAN as Armand

I'm not black and I don't want to speak for or talk over those of you who are, so please feel free to completely disregard my opinion or correct me here. Assuming it really is Claudia saying those words, the racist language used in that scene doesn't make sense to me. I've tried to understand it and I can't. I'm South Asian and there isn't a world where I can imagine an argument between two South Asian people where one of them calls the other "a curry-munching monkey" mid argument, in an attempt to hurt them as much as possible. Like hello?????? That's weaponising stereotypes that would be used against both of us by racists/our oppressors. I've tried to understand it but I just can't.

All I’m saying is that it’s telling that before Claudia started ripping into Louis, she had to confirm that he’s back together with Lestat. Another one over her, over her memory. Louis does a séance to say goodbye, he hangs her dress on the wall, but he’s gone back to Lestat which is the one thing she never wanted for him. Even as they were under the threat of dying, she’s trying to remind him he’s hurting you again. Trying to pull him from that edge. And when it’s confirmed that after everything it was all for naught, all resentment boils over.

I don’t think everything Claudia said is true true. Bear with me, I fear I’m sounding like I’m dismissing Claudia but I’m not trying to. I believe she thought of poisoning Louis, yes, you can’t keep a child in an environment Claudia was in and expect them to not be a resentful of both parents. Louis is the one who saved her from the fire, but he doesn’t know who he is and that makes him weak. He can’t untangle himself without her. How burdening. But underneath that there was love, because they were both victims of Lestat. That’s why she didn’t poison Louis because there is a notch in his rib that read slave and she wanted to free him. Then comes the ritual and Louis has not freed himself, he failed her because he went from Lestat’s to Her’s to Armand then back to Her’s lugging her corpse to define himself. Thats the crux of her resentment and by the time she’s face to face with it she’s lost everything her life, her Madeleine, and there’s Louis so she tears into him, saying things she might not mean but she knows will hurt him like he’s hurting her and hurt her in life.

Pulling out my Magician tarot card for anyone with an Armand infested brain

in The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice - Armand is compared to Verrocchio's David (seen below).

Armand in Interview with the Vampire:

emotional lestat

Daniel's interruptions may be small — not loud or flailing or aggressive — but they're impactful. And while Armand remains composed throughout and continues his practiced monologue without wavering, I'd say for the first three quarters of it he's talking at Daniel. He talks over him, but not really to him. Not until the very end.

Daniel rebuts with:

"I don't want to rest."

"I like my life."

"I have a thing happening in the city."

"I'm a bright young reporter with a point of view."

He's trying so hard to cling onto life. He doesn't want death, even if it is an easeful one. Armand cuts that last interjection off with a "ssh-ssh-ssh," which makes me think this might be a point where Armand's patience is tested. Because things aren't going the way they perhaps normally go when he gives this speech! Daniel isn't begging for death! He's resisting!

And so then, Armand says "rest" a lot near the end of the speech, which we know by this point is an indicator of him controlling bodies. He says, "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. It'll feel like a bath. Rest. Like honey on your tongue," etc, and maybe this is Armand struggling and fighting harder to get Daniel into the state of obeisance that he wants in his victims. The speech hasn't been working as intended, so he has to rely more on his methods of control and hypnosis.

And finally, after all this, you can see the moment when Daniel finally falls into the trance. It's after a lot of effort on Armand's part, and after he's resorted to his cheaper tricks.

So, if we do get a past Devil's Minion arc, I can see Armand fixating on the fact that Daniel was able to resist the pull and performance of Gentleman Death for an impressive amount of time. That despite all the words Armand said to him, he still longed for life.