what the hell, people

Where I think the finale is going: there are scenes from the final trailer with Lestat and his fledglings (including TC) sitting around a long table, which seems to be the table Magnus referenced in episode three. One shot has Daniels head coming through the ceiling as he berates Lestat, and Lestat says himself in his voice over that Daniel will seek revenge on him for his telepathic prank. There is speculation going around, that I agree with, that Daniel and possibly Armand will find a way to subdue Lestat somehow (possibly by beheading him? There are hints) to stop him from continuing with his music (Armand) and/or to get in his head (Daniel) and as a result at least part of the episode will take place inside of Lestat's head as he is finally forced to confront his Failures.

In terms of Armand and Lestat this season, the show has been a bit cagey about a couple of things with them. Lestat keeps bringing up the trial, but it hasnt been revisited. Also, Lestat and Armand's involvement around Nicki's death seems a bit murky as of right now: Lestat is taking most of the responsibility, even saying Armand did him a favor by doing what he couldn't in putting Nicky out of his misery, but is quietly refusing to address Nicky's accusation that he cheated on him with Armand as well as Armand's reference to him "sharing his body" with him and the coven. So, given that Rolin has said Armand has a big role in the finale, I think the finale will do one of two things regarding this relationship: Option 1: it will follow book canon and it will be revealed that Armand had a much bigger hand in Nicky's demise, that anything physical that happened between him and Lestat in the past was either dubcon or outright noncon, and/or Armand had a much bigger hand in forcing Lestat to participate in the trial than he has admitted to thus far. OR, Option 2: the show will do the opposite and reveal that Lestat's guilt over advancing Nicky's psychosis by cheating on him and gaslighting him, as well as his guilt over freely participating in the trial, is causing him to unfairly blame Armand for his own actions, and this will be one of the Failures he has to admit to himself, which would be an inversion of the book.

Now I can't speak to whether or not this is good or bad writing or better for the show because honestly I can't be objective about it because Lestat is my favorite character and option 1 is what I WANT and expected to see. Like I freely admit that lmao you will not get any arguments from me that I am speaking as a fan, not as an objective critic. With that I mind I, personally, think option 2 kind of flattens both characters: if everything happened as told so far, then Lestat's beef with Armand in the past storyline is flimsy: yes, Armand kidnapped his boyfriend and led him and his mother to a cult orgy, but Lestat immediately dismantled said cult, and arguably had a bigger hand in Nicky's death than Armand did by turning him and then lying to him. Which means, Lestat hated Armand because he found him and the cult kind of boring and lame and would rather hang out with his mom? If that's the case, why didn't Lestat tell Louis and Claudia about other vampires/the coven back in Nola? Why did he tell them other vampires are vicious? He would have basically been holding a grudge against Armand for no reason, which is a total inversion of one of his major characteristics in the book, where he is empathetic to such a degree he can't hold a grudge to save his life. And it weakens Armanstat, because the beauty of that ship is that Lestat *does* love him, is attracted to him, understands him and eventually wants him around, but will never ever see him as a romantic option because Armand snapped when they first met and violated not just him but everyone he cares about. Whereas if none of that happened, Lestat just doesn't fuck with Armand because he's boring? Because he reminds him of how he failed Nicky? Idk it's weak, to me at least. And worse, it makes his treatment of Louis and Claudia worse, when the whole point of TVL is to provide the context of his behavior, and to alleviate the misunderstandings he and Louis had of each other. So far they are only doing this through Gabriella, which takes a lot of heat off Armand and makes the changes to her character feel a bit compensatory for making HIM less awful as well as just contextualizing Lestat's trauma and idk if I like that.

Which brings me to Armand. As I already mentioned, I've *been* annoyed about the drop, not just because it never happened in the book, but because they changed it from something that Armand does *to* Lestat, something that further shattered any chance of a romantic relationship between them, and instead made it something Lestat does to Louis, who is supposed to be the love of his life. And it would bother me less if they let Armand be equally awful on the show, but instead the pattern has been to either remove Armand's worst actions or recontextualize them so they aren't as bad. If option 1 happens, that would alleviate this, but if not? If it's option 2? Then that means Armand has been made totally passive in a way that feels unbalanced to me: unlike in the books, he never cuts off Nicky's hands, he never throws his coven into the fire (they offed themselves, according to him) he never mindfucked Claudia into trying to kill herself, he never mindfucked Louis into turning Madeline against his will, he never had a child sex slave (Dennis), he never pushed Lestat off the tower, he never assaulted Lestat, and his participation in the trial that killed Louis and Claudia is passive - it's an inaction, a decision not to stop something already in motion because he's scared of being alone instead of a decision he actively makes to keep Louis, as it was in the book. He never performed Frankenstein experiments on Claudia and Madeleine - instead Santiago violated their ashes. Even DM is kind of defanged in the show - Armand tortured Daniel when he is a stranger, but afterwards lovingly looks after him without his knowledge, whereas in the book chapter he actively makes Daniel addicted to his blood, makes him dependent on him, it's a very dark cat and mouse game that to me is way more interesting. If Daniel's turning was violent or noncon, it has happened off screen, as of now. Compare this to how Lestat has been handled - the most visceral, visually horrible act of violence thus far on the show happened directly from Lestat's hands onto the other main character, this after the show established a much bigger power difference between them then there ever was in the books. In the books, Lestat is seen weeping holding Claudia's dress during the trial, giving an enormous hint that he was distraught and didn't want to be there, whereas on the show they made his involvement ambiguous. Armand's tragic backstory was given to the audience within two episodes of introducing his character, giving us context for his actions before he even did anything bad. Lestat's back story was pushed to season 3, and his feelings towards Louis and Claudia are only just now beginning to be addressed with two episodes left. From my perspective, as a fan of both characters in the book, I can't help but feel that, right now on this moment, one is being portrayed more empathetically than the other by the writers. Like, everyone is excited that Armand is finally going "full gremlin" this episode by killing Larry, but it feels weak to me because it feels like revenge for Lestat doing a mild diss track, and/or part of a plan to get Lestat to stop encouraging the great conversion, which is honestly the right thing to do. And as much as I like Larry, he's ultimately like, an NPC yk? Like yeah it's evil but why isn't Armand allowed to be a villain directly towards the actual main characters for a while, the way he was in the books? Why are Lestat and Gabriella more fucked up instead? Why is the fact that he mindfucked Louis for 77 years unaddressed? It just doesn't make sense to me. But of course this is coming from a Lestat stan, I imagine Armand fans have very different feelings about all of this, and that's fine. I'm not trying to argue, I have already admitted that I am biased and not speaking objectively. But as you said, the rift in the fandom is a direct result of 1x05, and nothing Armand has done has been fully allowed to equal that. If Armand does harm Lestat in these next two episodes, people would be cheering lol like it just feels unbalanced!