One of my favorite things about Armand as a character is how much of a hypocrite he is like. It’s this combination of being one of the more empathetic characters in the series (ironically. And this doesn’t mean he feels sympathy to be clear) and a staunch refusal or inability to examine or face anything he’s been through that leads to like. It’s complicated but in the books (spoilers) he gives his children, who TLDR of The Vampire Armand are human kids who remind him of himself as a human child (again I don’t know if he ever notices this) to Marius for safekeeping and is fucking shocked and horrified when Marius hurts them to hurt Armand (turns them). Like. He has this whole crash out at Marius for doing to these kids exactly what he did to him but he could never see it for what it was until it was done to others like him. In IWTV he makes some mention of like oh Claudia was made too young how tragic her life will be so hard and Louis (understandably) frames this as Armand not knowing Claudia and like ofc being generally a dick responsible for her death which like yeah all true but also like would (book) Armand maybe know something about being made too early? And in TVL Armand fucking HATES Gabrielle like HATES her and it’s like oh ok so there’s this parental figure with a very predatory relationship with her child which ofc Armand would know nothing abt duhh except here he immediately is like wow this woman is the worst. And yeah I think a lot of it’s framed as like he’s obsessed with Lestat which right true but. Come on. Like he’s always the first to clock something being genuinely wrong for other characters when it mirrors his own trauma but also he staunchly refuses to examine any of his own trauma or the fact that it exists. Like idk man it’s so interesting.
