Rolin and co are trying very hard to convince you that Armand is the antagonist of TVL but he’s not. He’s getting the villain edit right now but villainy is the not the same as the structural role of an antagonist, the person creating obstacles to the protagonist’s actualization.
Lestat was Louis’s antagonist in the first season, and now he’s our protagonist. Armand was the antagonist in season 2, so people are primed to just view him in the same way.
But Gabriella is actually Lestat’s antagonist. That’s why Rolin talked about her as the second most important character this season. She’s the one pushing Lestat into a role he doesn’t want and preventing him from making peace with his muses. She’s the one bringing on the end of the world and using sex to manipulate and abuse him.
Louis is the B plot protagonist this season; his plot with Bruce, Regina, and Claudia is its own separate little track. But the fact that he and Lestat are finally not each other’s antagonists is what is allowing them to slowly but surely come back together this season.
Armand is actually the protagonist of the C plot of the series. They’ve chosen to completely mask the where’s and the whys of that c plot from view of the audience. They’re using it to generate suspense, and to show that we’re still firmly rooted in a limited point of view even in this new season. When Lestat doesn’t know what Armand is doing, neither do we.
They’re going to reveal at least part of what Armand has been up to in his own little side plot in the finale, at least enough for his actions to make sense and to understand how they impact Lestat. They’re trying to convince us he’s the villain now because it will make the reveal of his real motives, which I guarantee are more complicated than “being evil” more of a subversion and a surprise. Armand has been that last minute twist (Volta, if you will) in every season so far, and I don’t think this one is going to be any different.
The only thing I’m sure about what they’re setting up is that whatever Armand is doing is going to be the opposite of what is “expected” (by general audiences I have to say, not real Armand understanders). Instead of standing by helplessly, he is trying very hard to prevent something. Instead of destruction, he’s protecting something (while still being willing to break a few Larry shaped eggs to make an omelette 😂). I think he is doing it with a real sense of brokenness and bitterness that Louis and Lestat have rejected him so thoroughly, but he’s still showing up. What were effectively going to see in ep 7 is the end point (or maybe the midpoint really) of Armand’s arc. He’s been changing behind the scenes, but we don’t know how. That character shift is part of the reveal.
If I had to guess, I would say that I don’t think we’re going to get a full window into what’s going on with Armand until season 4. When Lestat is grabbed by Akasha and is no longer around to limit our perspective, there’s going to be a chance to relive the whole thing from Armand’s POV. At that point he will finally be the protagonist of his own story, and we’ll be able to see a full arc from him. And I actually suspect they’ll start that timeline much further in the past, with flashbacks to the 70s and 80s with Daniel and maybe even glimpses of Venice, and take it through the time of the tour. That would be fitting with the way the book Queen of the Damned is structured, with a focus on Devil’s minion and a structure that repeats the timeline of The Vampire Lestat, just viewed through different perspectives. That was also the book where Armand transformed from an antagonist into a character in his own right in Anne’s mind So I don’t think we should expect a full Armand arc until 2028 (😭). (I also hope season 4 will give us multiple other POVs as well to match the structure of qotd, but that’s just more future speculating at this point).
