NOMI

@kpopcreators throwback bingo ╚ Free Space

they already associated armand with islam via him praying as fake rashid

they conflated armand with assad, a british bangladeshi muslim (as far as i know), by referring to him as a french bengali in the show when that had nothing to do with what we previously knew about the character

armand is assisted in torturing louis by fareed, presumably supposed to be muslim

louis is beheaded and armand is using livestreaming - reminiscent of videos used of hostages beheaded by terrorist groups in west asia

armand is wearing a metal bangle reminiscent of the one sikhs wear

armand is wearing a vaguely military-looking shirt even though this is very unlike his normal taste

all this is saying to me that theyre just jumbling together anything that says to them brown person terrorist muslim torturer insane fanatic

then theres the big boss song

lyrics about armand perpetrating executions (never mind he got taught that in rome - if hes doing eugenics they are in fact catholic tinged eugenics) and stating its his decision alone who dies (ignoring the involvement of white characters)

big SS on the cd cover blatantly associating him with nazis

daniel calls him dr mengele - a nazi who tortured ppl by experimenting on them

armand and fareed desecrate a kosher space by spilling human blood in the butchers shop

so its not exactly a coherent framing but i think its still a framing

then theres the fact that his csa history, after being the subject of mockery, is now brought up seriously, at long last, in this context! what is that telling us? especially since so much focus has been given to lestat over an abuse story they made up from whole cloth.

but lestat was abused by a woman. armand, we are constantly told, was a catamite. hes a twink bottom. he was a limp, passive ragdoll for sale. his daddy groomed him into a little bitch. hes emasculated, a beige pillow, his sexual performance is so-so, hes desperate and needy, hes a pussy and a betaboi. in short, hes too gay, not lestats ideal of a masculine bisexual man. like this is some kind of corruption of character, being the receptive partner in anal sex

what the fuck are they doing here. hes a nazi, and also a brown terrorist, and also a 'passive' homosexual. what the actual fuck are they doing. they chose his indian background for him and have done nothing with it except racism.

anyway im off again. as soon as the conversations started being more about 'how dare armand be cruel to louis' instead of 'how dare the writers do this to the characters and the viewers' it felt like we slipped off the track you know?

what made daniel so interesting in season 1-2 of IWTV was his personality, straight up. he was witty, even if it could get him killed, he was incredibly intelligent, pressuring, and he still had that constant curiosity that kept the story moving along.

we were told he had a hunger for life in his youth that followed him even as he stopped fearing death as it grew closer. his strong sense of perseverance was what made it make sense for him to be in the story in the first place, what made it make sense for him to be holding together the pieces of a gothic romance. we could see how his methods of journalism were harsh, but effective, and he did actually feel like a person who someone like armand would find "fascinating" or someone like louis could find important enough to reach out to again.

TVL daniel is, to put it simply, an idiot.

there are some things i can give him props for, such as him maintaining some of his wit and fearless nature, but other than that, he doesn't even feel like daniel anymore.

the fandom has already been able to deduct one of the main issues the writers have, which is their problem with showing and telling, or lack-there-of. unfortunately, when it comes to daniel's intellect, curiosity, mystery, and empathy, the writers decided to do neither of the two and skip straight to lobotomy.

to start, his intellect was straight up not present this season. his questions felt less like a seasoned interviewer and journalist getting information he feels he has a right to access, and instead felt like he was desperately trying to get a word out every three seconds. daniel's dialog was rushed and empty, in IWTV if daniel had said any line of dialog at all, you'd feel like you were connecting pieces of a puzzle, like you could tell it was leading to a big reveal.

daniel this season had zero mystery to him. im sure we all know at this point that the writers said daniel was supposed to be a "moody teenage fledgling" this season. and yeah, that's fine. that's what he is, hes a new fledgling whos maker left him right off the bat. but daniel is also a full grown man with the life experience of one. in s1x1, after being called "boy" by louis he quite literally says "i'm not you're fucking boy, im an old man with all the triggers that come with it." this cannot be the same man that decided his whole personality this season should be built on being angry at lestat.

theres many arguments that could be made against this, and I accept them all, especially when they're about his nature as a character and how it would make sense for him to act the way he does this season. im alright with him turning to drugs and sex and party life after his turning, that makes sense. what doesn't make sense is that THATS the most life we see out of him this season.

what made him fascinating was his humanity and perspectives on the world. he was interested in politics, he was alive during the AIDS crisis as a man who slept with men for drugs or a place to stay, he wrote books and articles and news covers and let his need for information take him everywhere. compare that to TVL, where daniel now has a brand new perspective on the world, literally and figuratively. he can see new colors, hear new sounds, feel new textures, and most importantly, meet an entirely new side of the world he only had a taste of previously. and he has eternity to do it all. daniel this season should've been fucking thriving. daniel should've been doing interviews left and right, dealing with the newfound trauma of being murdered and left to deal with being born again by his maker, watch him maintain his love for living even through death.

instead we got him smoking a hookah, asking "did you have a stutter?" over and over again, talking to louis like last season never happened and louis just being chill with the fact the only mortal he ever told his full story to is acting like skipper from barbie life in the dreamhouse, and we didnt even see any of the things he claimed happened to him, happen. never saw him go through his transformational trauma, never saw him get turned at all, literally nothing.

TVL daniel makes his conversations with armand almost laughable, because armand will be spouting poetry at him about their past and his love for all of daniel and daniel is just like "lmao do you think lestat had a stutter?" this is not a character i could ever picture anyone, let alone an ancient vampire, finding fascinating. he no longer feels like he has a part in a dramatic gothic romance.

I can follow the line of thinking that says that Armand would feel like he was owed an apology from Louis, and that he wanted to punish him. I don’t agree with it, but I get it.

But you’re telling me that Armand planned this shit for three years? That he used some sort of magical CSI level program to search all the humans in the world to find one who looked like Claudia and then arranged international documents to get her to America to torment Louis repeatedly?

The Armand that flailed as soon as the coven presented him with a choice, the Armand that erased Louis’s memory because how else was he supposed to cope with the events of San Francisco, the Armand that didn’t even notice that Daniel was about to fuck up his whole life because he remembered how hot he was?

He does evil bad things sometimes, but guys. He’s not smart. He’s not a mastermind. He is flying by the seat of his pants at all times.

Armand stans are furious because he only had like 15 minutes in total this entire season and because, once again, he was turned into the unhinged, ultimate villain of the season, just because the audience needs a punchbag, and the writers decided that it's always going to be Armand.

Louis stans are furious because he was made to apologize for being a bad partner while being horrifically tortured and abused. And because he has suffered various racist micro-agressions throughout the season by various different characters, including Lestat.

Lestat stans are furious because he literally got nothing to do other than having introspective hallucinations and he has no agency or personality outside of his victimhood and woobification in this season.

Daniel fans are angry because he keeps using racist slurs and tries to sound like an edgy wannabe teenager while he's supposed to be a Pulitzer winning, serious reporter.

Claudia fans are angry because even in death she's disrespected and used by Loumand to reestablish their toxic love for one another.

Nicolas fans are furious because the character appeared merely in flashbacks for like 3 minutes in total and then as a fuckass hallucination.

Gabrielle and Marius fans are angry because they are nowhere to be found (no, what we got was not them guys).

Loustat stans are angry because they didn't even share a kiss and their relationship progression was hasty at best, completely unearned, and extremely disrespectful to Claudia.

Nickistat stans are angry because they got absolutely nothing except for one flirt scene at a tavern and then absolutely nothing at all.

Loumand stans are angry because their relationship had a violent ending rather than the emotional, mutual understanding and reconciliation that we were hoping for.

Lesmand stans are rightfully furious because they made the ship completely one sided, with Armand truly being in love with Lestat while Lestat only ever saw him as a hole to shove his dick inside, and otherwise as boring and pathetic and not worthy of his time. While, in the books, the two of them are absolutely fascinated and in love with each other, and Lestat is always super affectionate with Armand, and even after all the bad blood between them, they still DEEPLY love and trust each other.

And, of course, Devil's Minion stans are also rightfully furious because we have been teased for four years and properly baited for two years to get us to show up and bring our online engagement for TVL, with all our enthusiasm and love for our ship, only to receive pathetic crumbs and implications, and to have Armand and Daniel's 12-year-relationahip turned into a 52-year, one-sided stalking (fuck you, writers).