At the risk of sounding like a pretentious asshole I think a lot of people who are demanding more "real" lesmand and then go on to mention the cinderella at the ball thing simply don't understand what was happening in that scene at all

Armand's memory manipulation gift was such a fucking genius move from the writers and honestly the fandom response to it just proves it further

Imagine taking a character who has lost his memories to trauma and can no longer trust his own recollection of events and giving him the ability to manipulate other people's memories. Imagine taking a character who is terrified of trusting anybody or anything and making him inherently untrustworthy. All Armand wants is to be accepted and understood but how can anybody do that when they can never fully believe their own perception of him 😭😭