sodomite’s townhouse

[Indistinct whispering] [Kisses]

One thing I appreciated about Louis' storyline is that the show made a conscious effort to frame the racism he experienced. Louis had a strong sense of self when it came to being Black. He recognized the discrimination he faced, he often called it out, and Claudia and other Black characters were also there to point out the racial dynamics at play. Even when Louis wasn't explicitly talking about race, the narrative gave the audience enough context to understand what was happening.

Armand is almost the complete opposite, and that makes sense for his character. He's someone whose identity has been systematically stripped away from him since childhood. He doesn't really have a stable sense of self to defend, so it wouldn't be out of character for him to not recognize, or simply accept, the racism and orientalism directed at him. But that's exactly what worries me.

The thing is, I don't even think this is just a concern for the future. I think it's already happening. Armand already experiences forms of discrimination and orientalism that mostly go unquestioned by both the characters and the audience. Because he doesn't push back against them, and because there isn't another, more aware, brown character around to identify what's happening, a lot of people don't even register those moments as racism in the first place.

I also think part of the reason for that is that the show is primarily made for an American audience. Most viewers are naturally more familiar with the history and language of anti-Black racism because it's such a visible part of American history and public discourse. Orientalism, especially the specific ways it manifests against brown people, is a lot less familiar. It often doesn't look like the kind of racism people immediately recognize. It can look like exoticization and fetishization, treating someone as an "ancient Eastern" fantasy, as inherently mysterious, unknowable, spiritually different, submissive, or inscrutable. It can also look like the opposite, portraying them as inherently sinister, demonic, manipulative, or possessing some kind of innate darkness or evil. Those ideas are so deeply embedded in Western portrayals of Eastern people that they often aren't recognized as racist at all.

So if your brown character isn't questioning the discrimination they face, and the narrative doesn't provide another perspective that helps the audience recognize it, then I think a lot of viewers will simply accept those dynamics at face value. They'll mistake them for personality traits, romance, or just "how Armand is," instead of recognizing how much of that image has been constructed through other people's projections and prejudices.

chibi nickimand ft armand de kind, armand de generous and armand the patron of the arts and violins.

... okay, I found the post, and I said it almost exactly one year ago, actually, lol!

So yeah, unless they fully adapted Memnoch the Devil, which I don't expect them to anymore at the moment (I think they will only take elements from it and put them in elsewhere, like they took elements from Merrick and put them in elsewhere), then Loustat will get together fully, once again, after TotBT and this time stay together.

Because it is after that that we will be going into the Prince Lestat stories. And that is when Louis and Lestat got back together and finally stayed together in the books.

By the way, side note: the same thing is basically true for Armand and Daniel as well. It was during the Prince Lestat era that they also finally got back together.

And Assad is already saying that Armand and Daniel's "romantic horror" is just about to begin after Season 3:

So yeah, I also don't see Armand and Daniel fully getting together and staying so until we go into the Prince Lestat era of stories, as well, which is also when it happened with them in the books.

Like it or not, the show is very much sticking to the broad overview of what happened in each of the books it looks set to fully adapt. Which, yes, means rifts are coming for each set of couples, in some way, for a time.

And if done well, I think it will be a time of good character building and development for all four characters. And when it comes to Louis, Armand, and Daniel, they can maybe also get similar healing time and growth that Lestat got during his wandering pre-Prince Lestat.

For Armand, in fact, I bet it will be around this time that we might even get his failed suicide attempt from Memnoch. Which is something I personally believe should be done and explored, particually the aftermath and Armand's outlook after it.