the vampire chronicles

Hey!

In (very!) short, Armand was canonically obsessed with Lestat. When Lestat was a newborn vampire in Paris, Armand stalked him and kidnapped Nicki to, essentially, try to make Lestat follow the old laws that had been established under the children of satan cult. Lestat, of course, refuses and upends the coven hierarchies and destroys it by showing them that they don't have to live like neglected and deprived phantoms under the tombs in darkness and be governed by archaic bullshit.

As a result, Armand had it in for Lestat. He continued to stalk Lestat, kept spellbinding him, tried to convince him to kill Gabrielle and Nicki and to be his companion. Lestat refuses. This culminates in Armand spellbinding Lestat again and raping him. Lestat, as a result, beats the shit out of Armand and leaves him the theater in Paris. Nicki and Armand were the true founders of the Théâtre des Vampires. It was not Lestat. He actually hated the idea.

The (blood) rape ^^ is why Lestat never becomes a lover or a companion with Armand.

When the trial happens, Armand keeps Lestat as a prisoner, he tortures him into a confession, he starves him, and he mind-fucks him into participating and testifying against Claudia. In the aftermath, he basically tells Lestat that he did all that because Lestat wouldn't love him, and he pushes Lestat off a tower. (Fans have been wanting this showdown since S2, but I digress.)

What you saw in Episode 7 between Armand and Louis is, canonically, what should've been happening between Armand and Lestat. Instead, the show has seemingly transferred that canon obsession to Louis and has framed Armand's relationship with Lestat as "consensual" and as if Lestat was "cheating" on Nicki with Armand.

They've seemingly erased the entire heart of the real dynamic between Lestat and Armand by framing them as "petty exes" instead of including the major WHY they were never in a relationship in the first place — the rape.

How does that impact Nicki? As I said, it frames Lestat as "cheating" on Nicki. It frames Lestat as being in cahoots with Armand to, essentially, murder Nicki instead of the canon way Nicki actually died — suicide — and the suicide was after Armand had tortured Nicki and cut off his hands due to Nicki's madness and Armand not knowing how to handle it.

They've cheapened Lestat's relationship with Nicki into it just being a mistake Lestat made and one he "fixed" by basically killing the problem. They've written it as Nicki loving Lestat more than Lestat loved him and, canonically speaking, the opposite was true. Lestat loved him. Nicki? Some believe he loved Lestat, too, but I don't hold that opinion given the climax of their pairing was Nicki going on a tirade and telling Lestat that he always hated him, had always been jealous of him, and actively wanted him to fail and die in the gutters of Paris. It was a very formative experience for Lestat and one he carried with him for an entirely different reason than what they've done in the show. In the show, they've softened Nicki's character, made him much more sympathetic, and framed Lestat as the "bad" partner who drove Nicki to his demise when the entire point of that in the book canon was that Lestat was not the "bad" partner and what happened with Nicki actually was not his fault, because Nicki was determined to destroy himself but merely used Lestat as the scapegoat. As I said, all of that has been softened and cheapened.

And going back to Armand, like I said, they've made it seem as if Lestat was just off carelessly fucking and frolicking with Armand while Nicki mentally spiraled when that NEVER would've happened in the books because one, Lestat loved Nicki and two, Armand raped Lestat and therefore, that ruined any hope of them having an actual relationship.

That history between Lestat and Armand has been erased, canon Nickistat is the casualty of that erasure, and the canon "why wouldn't you love me?!?!" torturing meltdown that Armand has on Lestat has now been inexplicably given to Louis and therefore, we're asked to pretend the Loumand dynamic in S2 wasn't what it was, because now we're meant to believe Louis and Armand never addressed the Maître/Arun role-play when that was the entire premise of their pairing and one they routinely implemented to have the upper-hand on each other in their scheming. We're meant to think Armand actually gave a shit about that pairing when, book canonically, he did not and states (in the show!) that he never loved Louis and wanted him dead in Paris for the aesthetic of it all. Therefore, this effectively erases a key canon trait between Louis and Armand — Armand was always the only other being (besides Lestat) who loved Louis and would keep Louis safe.

Louis is not safe with Armand, and that is ON TOP OF the horrific choice to make Louis "apologize" to Armand when the show made the point that Armand had been Louis' actual abuser for decades and killed his daughter. (This isn't even going into the fact the writers continue to dance around the trial elephant in the room and cannot commit to a clear answer of what actually happened and how actively involved Lestat actually was but again, I digress. Fans have been waiting two years for an answer and now, with the way they've left it yet again, they'll be waiting another two years for a total of four years of the festering implication that Lestat actively participated and wanted Claudia dead, and a clarification on that isn't even guaranteed anymore given what they've seemingly done with Armand and Lestat + Nicki being apparently murdered by them. ^^)

I have been enduring intense conversations with myself in the 3yrs since our companionship ended. And as part of that journey, I wish to say something from the deepest regions of my soul. 2 grievous lies, gross betrayals. The 1st is a well-trod pit of hot coals I blistered my feet on for 77yrs. I chose my coven over you; lured you into a production of a play in which your death would act as the grotesque climax. The coven was twisting my arm, but I took aesthetic pleasure in making your death visually exhilarating. All of which was made worse by our heady lovemaking throughout this period of betrayal. But the 2nd: I shamefully took credit when Lestat saved your life. That lie bound you to me, and it lay like a corpse in the boiler room of our companionship. Many times, I told myself the lie did not matter, because what we had built, a love that served as a bunker against time, was weightier and more consequential than the lie, but it wasn't true. The lie did matter, because the corpse was there, calling forth the facts. And as for the many boys you drugged, drained, and lay with, I feigned resentment, when in fact, I welcomed your straying; because your guilt in the aftermath bound you to me all the more tightly, and allowed me my hours of observation with Daniel. I told you I loved you, but did I? Hrm? Did I?! Or was it a clinging to the underside of anyone who would help me survive? And when I look back on who I've deceived and how I've deceived, how easy it was to lead a cult for 400 years; to burn in ritual any who broke the archaic laws we lived by, I-- I think I might be a room without walls, floors, a ceiling. An infinite nothing. Also, yes. I put the Fred Steins in your photo collection. And that is my full and heartfelt "Armends." Now, it's your turn!

I have been enduring intense conversations with myself in the 3yrs since our companionship ended. And as part of that journey, I wish to say something from the deepest regions of my soul.

2 grievous lies, gross betrayals.

So Armand was lying to DanLou in 2x6. Rolin said there were "2 really extraordinary lies," but that those were compounded by more & more lies.

The 1st is a well-trod pit of hot coals I blistered my feet on for 77yrs. I chose my coven over you; lured you into a production of a play in which your death would act as the grotesque climax.

Still the "production of a play"--so what Lestat (eff him too btw) said to Armand went in one ear and out the other. 🙄😒

What's WILD is that S3 has still REFUSED to confirm or deny wtf Lestat was doing at that Trial--and not even Armand's taken this as an opportunity to either admit that (following BOOK canon) he DID have Lestat tortured & forced to participate (just like he did with Louis here); or even better/worse: to rub it in Louis' face that Lestat was never forced at all, and that he wanted to get revenge on Louis for Murder Night & being a withholding/cold/selfish/depressed husband, too--all his abuse & suffering is his fault, etc etc.

So which one is it, AMC? 🤨 Cuz now it looks like a missed opportunity that y'all didn't plan for AT ALL, and had no intention of revisiting.

And now AMC's written themselves into a corner, cuz if Lestat was tortured, then Armand will AGAIN be exposed as the gotcha! for THE 4th TIME IN A ROW; and contradict everything they said about Armand NOT being a duplicitous AF evil AF mustache-twirling villain. And if Lestat was NOT tortured, then ghost!Claudia was right that he was there on purpose to watch her die.

The coven was twisting my arm, but....

"I could not prevent it"--sure, Jan. 🙄😒

I took aesthetic pleasure in making your death visually exhilarating.

Which instantly INVALIDATES any drivel from the writers, cast, stans, etc that Louis "abused" Armand, and that Armand in any way "deserves" an apology from Louis--WTF is going on with folks actually tryna gaslight people into thinking ANY of this was okay?!

All of which was made worse by our heady lovemaking throughout this period of betrayal, but....

So Armand's admitted to being Louis' rapist too, since he was acknowledges he was still regularly having sex/"heady lovemaking" with Louis under false pretenses (violating Louis' trust/consent is rape) all while planning Louis' death as the "climax" of the Trial.

The 2nd: I shamefully took credit when Lestat saved your life.

We been knew, but go on.

That lie bound you to me, and it lay like a corpse in the boiler room of our companionship. Many times, I told myself the lie did not matter, because what we had built, a love that served as a bunker against time, was weightier and more consequential than the lie, but it wasn't true. The lie did matter, because the corpse was there, calling forth the facts.

"The corpse" is the seismic lie about "Banishment," but "the thing lay still," and Jacob Anderson BEEN said Armand gave Louis the ick the whole time cuz Louis KNEW something wasn't right with that dude--which is why he tagged-teamed Daniel to call forth the facts.

And as for the many boys you drugged, drained, and lay with, I feigned resentment, when in fact, I welcomed your straying; because your guilt in the aftermath bound you to me all the more tightly.

Literally Claudia's reheated nachos from Merrick, but wtvr AMC. 🙄

And every time Louis felt guilty killing those men, he would look for more drugs to get high and forget/dull the pain; causing an ouroboros loop while Armand just sat there pretending he GAF when really he was enjoying Louis' suffering & spiraling out of his mind the whole time, jfc.

and allowed me my hours of observation with Daniel.

WOAH WOAH BACK TF UP. I'm confused here. Cuz if DM was happening while Louis was the Zodiac Killer, that meant Louis did NOT stop spiraling AFTER Armand mindwiped him in 1973; he was still doing it the whole time into the 2020s? Then what was the point of mindwiping him if he'd still be getting high, killing, hallucinating Claudia's voice, feedback loop, etc etc? What is Armand talking about? Why say "hours" and not "YEARS/DECADES"? This makes no sense.

I told you I loved you, but did I? Hrm? Did I?! Or was it a clinging to the underside of anyone who would help me survive?

I mean DUH, you're a vampire--they're ALL parasitic evil barnacles glomming onto driftwood like leeches sucking the lifeblood of the corpses they feed on. Which is why TRUE COMPANIONS--Blood Spouses--are so important & rare.

And when I look back on who I've deceived and how I've deceived, how easy it was to lead a cult for 400 years; to burn in ritual any who broke the archaic laws we lived by, I-- I think I might be a room without walls, floors, a ceiling. An infinite nothing.

Yeah, sounds about right. FAILURE! Your whole life wasted.

And how was that 400yrs of wasted life from the MIDDLE AGES down to 1949 (Louis only met you in 1945 btw) LOUIS' fault again??????? 🤨

Also, yes. I put the Fred Steins in your photo collection, just to f**k with your head.

THIS P.O.S.!

REAL RASHID, I'm so sorry I ever doubted you! 😭😩🙏🙇‍♂️ (I still don't trust your arse cuz you work for RAGLAN JAMES 💀 but I'll take back everything I said about you messing with the Steins at least.)

And that is my full and heartfelt "Armends." Now, it's your turn!

Eat an entire bag of Lestat's bloody vomit and choke on it, Armand.

TL;DR: ROTTEN BOY!

YES, Assad acted his gorgeous behind off, Gremlin Mode in full effect, blahblahblah.

But that's only me being able to process that almost 48 hours later, cuz in the moment I was just screaming at my screen in a rage seeing Louis' EFFING DECAPITATED BODY desperately reaching for his DISEMBODIED HEAD.

How TF is Armand seriously expecting anyone to accept this bullcrap apology in the first place, when he's literally just rubbing everything in Louis' face and gloating about all the ways he used & abused Louis' trust and violated & brutalized his body for public spectacle, and backstabbed him a zillion times?! (While also admitting how he effed over Lestat and "enjoyed ruining for the sake of ruining"!)

Louis was ALWAYS honest with Armand about where he thought they stood, as someone he genuinely felt love for and cared about, but who initially was NOT his companion and whom he was NOT with for the sake of their own relationship, but only for Claudia's sake vs the coven ("the Secret" 1946 - 1949), and then to spite Lestat ("here is your death, Lestat" 1949 - 1973), and then to save Daniel's life in 1973 ("I need this one to live. As a testament to our companionship. Of its endurance. This boy to live out the night.") Louis ALWAYS put someone else above Armand during their failmarriage, but at least he always TOLD Armand so, and why they were together, so Armand would have NO DELUSIONS about how Louis felt.

But this effing idiot clearly never got the message! 🤦‍♂️

"I think you know you've wrong me."

BISH, how?! 😡💢

AMC HATES Louis, and these are all the specific ways in which they've proved it.

And what's even worse is how Armand's laying out all the reasons he hates Louis and expects Louis "to repent" and "owes" him an apology; meanwhile simultaneously LIVESTREAMING Louis' 2nd lynching to yet another bunch of sickos in Europe, while Dr Fareed sits as moderator transcribing everything & to see how long their little Tuskegee experiment can last as Armand tortures him.

And what utterly SICKENS me is how hard in the paint AMC is going to BACK UP everything Armand's saying, that Louis will "grow" by admitting to how he wronged Armand and apologized to his effing abuser doing all this to him--I can't.

especially if you keep making the same character play a major role in the twist every season

Inside ‘The Vampire Lestat’ Finale With the Queen and the Damned

However, there really wasn't any suspense or tension at all, so I kind of get why people are calling this a filler season.

curious now if there's more to it and the girls saw his mother being inappropriate with him? didn't he start stuttering when he was nine?

loved how Lestat started to stand up to Sofia from ep6 onwards.

It's a really dense scene, but I actually think the little girls dying aren't intended to be the punch, it's the first woman, Marguerite, who's burned for being raped by her father:

It's implied there that the mother murdered the father for it, but also turned her daughter forwards, blaming her for the violence of the father. I think in that sense, the girls are a means to underscore Marguerite's death and elevate the message Gabi intends (and we can definitely debate why she intends it, because I think her intentionality is deliberately oblique) - his age won't save him, and to speak is to burn, to be punished. The monks say confession will save these women, and it's actually Augustin who says that they have confessed, yet nobody will let them free of the pyre. Their fate is sealed, they have been tried in the court of public and divine opinion, and it's not crimes that see them killed, but the violence they too briefly were able to survive.

This moment is formative because it becomes the foundation of Lestat's understanding of his own abuse - the monks say Margueritte seduced her father and Gabi effectively affirms it. Anything that happens later is on him, he ceased his prayers, he put a spell on his mother, on Magnus ('if I had seen 19 straight performances of my Lelio, I would have abandoned all decorum too'), on Armand, on Larry, on all those who touch him without his consent, and to speak about it is to be punished. The thing about this season is that that's only been punctuated for Lestat - he tells Louis about Magnus and it ends up in the book, 3.03 ties the Magnus and Nicki chapters together and in doing so connects both beats to Daniel's subsequent witch hunt, culminating in the revenge porn, and, of course, the revenge porn itself - - all of these are about exposure and the ways victims are punished for speaking and surviving.

Much has been said about the differences in Gabrielle's characterisation in the books, to Gabriella in the TV show. And I agree, it's quite different, if we're only looking at TVL. But, I recently re-read The Vampire Armand, and [minus the sexual abuse] his description of her is much, much closer to the one in the show.

Highlights of Armand's description of Gabrielle include:

Everyone hates her.

She abandons Lestat for centuries

Doesn't heed Lestat’s frantic cries for help

Looks just like Lestat, except she’s a woman,

small-waisted

big-breasted

Sweet-eyed in the most unnerving and dishonest fashion

Looks gorgeous in a black ball gown with her hair free

A vampire so cunning and cold that she has forgotten what it ever meant to be human or in pain... if she ever knew it.

In mortal life...she always wondered what the others were carrying on about.

Low-voiced

Unintentionally vicious

Glacial

Forbidding

Ungiving

a wanderer

Something more akin to a prehistoric reptile than a human.

A stalker

a quick killer

a pitiless and seemingly thoughtful but eternally secretive thing.

virtually useless to anyone but herself

See what I mean?!

It makes me suspect that Rolin and Hannah agree with Armand. In writing her character for Season 3, it seems likely they consciously decided to put aside much of Lestat's perspective on her personality, in favor of Armand's much more blunt and unforgiving assessment.

Fascinating choice!

(full TVA quotes under the cut)

100%. and i was so angry and disappointed in that writing choice for lestat in s1. it was the first in a string of awful tone deaf decisions made for the show. now armand has suffered the same fate.

Next up someone is going to claim that the Narnia series isn't kids books.

Instead, he got me my own copy of The Hobbit to read for myself when I was around 5 or 6. My mother was a teacher as well, so I started learning to read before I was two years old.

As I said recently, the two Alice books are my favorite children's books of all time. I first read them as a child, and I still re-read them as an adult.

Did I understand everything I read in these books at the time? No. But I was never afraid to ask questions, or look up the info I didn't get, or words I didn't understand... in either an encyclopedia or dictionary. (Because you know, this was a time before the modern internet, of course.)

Anyway, by the time I was 8-9, reading a 300-page book was nothing to me. I never looked at the page counts when I would choose a book to read anyway.

By the time I was 11-12, I could read a 300-page book in a day or so (if I had the time to do so).

When I was 14, I read all of Stephen King's IT in 3 days, over a long weekend.