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A good thing you can do with an ulcer or other painful sore inside your mouth is to keep pressing your tongue against it to make it hurt more, or even bother it with your teeth for some reason. You can do a similar thing with bad memories!

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rips my shirt open to reveal a second shirt underneath that says I ❤️ STICKING MY FINGERS IN THE OPEN WOUND OF CATHARTIC RELEASE

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Claudia

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One of the many things I love about Marius is that he is an artist, a painter 🎨 What can I say? I always feel for my fellows in the profession 😀

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Do you ever randomly remember that Daniel Molloy is the Vampire Armand's forever one and only fledgling and just go WEEEEEEEEEEEE and start kicking your feet?

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and from the blood of the wound

a flower sprang, lilylike, more brilliant

than the purples of Tyre

(Louise Glück)

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"I told you I would do it again," I said to Claudia. "Why do you bother to explain to me," she asked. "You know perfectly well that I never asked you any questions about it. I've been dead for years and years." - Tale of The Body Thief

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wip😵‍💫😵‍💫

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Do you think Marius regrets not taking Armand away from the cult when he saw him in Paris?

I mean... He just left. And then he told Lestat that it was already too late for Armand. Dude, he ended up there because of your enemies, and that's all you can say? You should have at least talked to him!

Armand is better than me if he was able to forgive such a terrible betrayal. I want to believe that Marius at least feels some regret 🙄

I know that Akasha also is involved, but I don't believe that's the deciding factor. He left without Armand because he made his choice.

This still frustrates even after all these years in fandom 🫠

✨ OH BOY ✨

you have no idea of how much you MADE MY WEEKEND when you sent me this. A chance to talk about my otp IN THIS ECONOMY?!?!

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 I love you so much for this, I am watering your crops myself. Please feel me giving you a lil smooch in the forehead

Imma preface this reply with: you don't have to agree with anything I say. Books are subjective! They are meant to be subjective! People are meant to have different opinions! If you feel like Marius and Armand should never be together again, you aren't in the wrong because there is no right and there is no wrong when it comes to books! Anne Rice might have clearly wanted them to end the series on a high note but you don't have to like that or agree with that.

ANYWAY, oh boy oh boy, this will be BIG. Not only because I will touch upon a lot of canon passages that I reference when I write about these characters (so yay receipts and book quotes!!!) but because I am insane about Marius and Armand. I am not kidding, I am crazy crazy CRAZY for them!!!!!! I am JUST now posting the chapters in my fic that handle this very subject AND YOU JUST PASSED ME THE MIC LIKE ASDFASFADFSFADS sorry, not sorry.

You can find me rambling (a lot) about my beloved OTP below the cut! ✨

1) Do you think Marius regrets not taking Armand away from the cult when he saw him in Paris?

It doesn't really matter what I think or don't think because Marius tells us that yes, he does regret not interfering with Armand's plight in plain text.

Remove the purple prose and this reads: Armand's life has been dogshit, and I failed to save him. I wish I had interfered but I was too much of a coward to do it. 

There isn't much room for interpretation here, Marius clearly regrets his own omission in Armand's misery. 

2) And then he told Lestat that it was already too late for Armand.

Yes, but it is worth mentioning that at the time Marius says this — he is right to think that.

At the time of this conversation not only is Armand the franchise's only established villain, even in-universe, he hasn't given anyone any sign to hope that he can reform. After Lestat and Marius have this conversation, Armand proves Marius' point by:

Plotting Claudia's murder

Torturing Lestat

Lying to Lestat about Louis being dead

Like I am sorry, I am a big Armand simp fan, he is my favourite character, but my man was NOT beating the allegations that it was maybe already too late for anyone to think he could go back to being a decent person. The author herself did not intend for that to be anything but the truth at the time of writing. In Vampire Companion Annd Rice admits he was a horrible person during Interview time, which happens after Marius and Lestat have their chat in the timeline.

We owe to Daniel that Armand reforms as a person — but this happens around 150yrs after Marius and Lestat have their conversation. At the time Marius says Armand can't be saved, he (and everyone in-universe) is fairly entitled to think that.

IN FACT! We are explicitly told, in plain sight and several times, that many characters don't think Armand has reformed at all by the time we get to Prince Lestat timeline. I am pretty sure there is at least one vampire out there wondering what does Marius sees on him these days and at least one more who thinks Armand still being around in the year 2025 is proof nepotism is alive and well 🤪🤪🤪 A lot of people are going around assuming Armand is still a villain, holding grudges and refusing to accept he changed. Even those that absolutely love him, like Lestat, know that he is still autocratic and ruthless, they just also know he is capable of compassion. my man keeps giving them reason to think he's awful and I love that for him lmao

So yeah, sorry, but Marius was... Unfortunately right to both say and think that Armand was a lost cause circa the early 1800s.

3) He ended up there because of your enemies and that's all you can say?

Marius says that because Armand has, by all accounts in-universe, become one of his enemies at the time he walks away. 

He watches Armand having plenty of opportunity to escape and Marius waits to see if he will at least refuse to follow their creed, but he never sees anything beyond Armand choosing to be a prolific coven leader.

This is important — because it leads Marius to (correctly) assume Armand is making a conscious choice of rulling the Children of Satan/Darkness, which he is. Armand thrived as a coven master and tells us so himself, in his own biopic and in PL, too!

So we have a character that is apalled by another's choices, repelled by their difference, and who can tell the other has chosen to walk this path he cannot tolerate. I do not think it would make sense for him to break in there and save Armand beyond my own shipper ass wishful thinking that he should!!!! because!!!!! I want my little guys together!!!!!!! 🤪🤪🤪

Alas, based off what he sees and what Armand admits, Marius had no evidence to assume Armand's brainwash wasn't absolute.

Realistically speaking, Marius made a level-headed decision that I might bemoan as a shipper but which is, ultimately, fairly comprehensible and I can't fault him for that.

4) You should have at least talked to him!

My shipper ass, of course, wants to agree with you...

BUT!!!

I do not think Anne Rice wrote Armand's backstory, and thus created Marius to fill a role in it, with the intention of anyone thinking that had Marius intervened, Armand might have been saved. This isn't a chicken and egg situation. Armand is the older character. It is his backstory that spurned the need for Anne Rice to create the character of Marius. And the author created this backstory to explain a character that was, up until that point in her creative process, a villain that could not be redeemed.

Even a "Into the Multiverse" analysis of their situation should, in fact, go towards the direction of Marius NEVER being capable of saving him from his coven/dogmatic lifestyle after he's taken by the Children of Satan because the character whose narrative purpose consists of "destroying the old ways" is Lestat and the character whose narrative purpose consists of "saving Armand" is Daniel. Daniel spurning Armand's redemption is the canon event. Marius cannot do that. Marius role in Armand's story is showing that Armand was capable of love as a mortal man, but has lost his ways in such a way that when we're introduced to him, we are not meant to think he knows how to love as a vampire.

5) Armand is better than me if he was able to forgive such a betrayal

This is such a fun way of wording this, ngl. Don't hold yourself by VC character standards, they're all crazy lol they're all bad lmao

NOW!

This was my absolute favourite part of your ask because I see so many people in this fandom who put themselves in Armand's shoes, but it feels like they never put themselves in his shoes when it comes to the bad parts of his life and the accountability those bad parts entail.

I'll say it now that Armand has not forgiven Marius (I'll get to that), but the most important thing, is that Armand doesn't think Marius has forgiven him, because, under Armand's eyes, why should he?

Throughout canon, Armand never tones down his guilt and crimes by hiding behind the excuse of "brainwash". He is wholly aware of how badly he's fucked up. To deny his horrible crimes would remove his own agency from the equation. Armand does not do that. He bemoans that he's taken so long to stop being a horrible person, however, he very much goads (which is so very Armand of him lmao) about how his misery actually made him more equipped to handle life than Benedict, who did get to spend his whole life with his own maker.

For all that, in Armand's eyes, why should Marius be interested in him? He's not exactly showing remorse and he's still acting like a ruthless asshole here and there. Do a fun exercise! Put yourself in Armand's shoes for real. Ask yourself if you would go back to date an ex who spent several years being a nazi, terf, right-winger, or whatever extremist group you absolutely loathe. From Armand's perspective, why should Marius be interested in him?

We actually see a lot more evidence that Armand thinks Marius hates him at worse and tolerates him at best. Even when Marius tells him otherwise to his face, Armand cannot believe that Marius loves him in the modern era, because he is wholly aware of his past mistakes in a way I fear a lot of us cannot relate.

But Armand does voice his resentment on page once Marius is supposed dead in Blood Communion and he's having a "truth comes out" moment with Lestat.

It's there! In the middle of his frustrations with Lestat, Armand makes it clear how very obviously he resents Marius. Even if it's fairly clear he is WRECKED by Marius' death (with several characters noticing that), Armand still resents that Marius never came for him. Even if he somehow can see/understand why Marius didn't come (hence why he never confronts Marius directly about it), he still loves him too much, and he wishes that he had.

So it's not that Armand "forgives" Marius — I think he doesn't and Anne deliberately left it up to reader's discretion if he ever will. It's just that taking his own crimes, the old betrayal and his own feelings for him all into account — Armand simply loves and needs Marius' love more than he resents his maker's omission.

6) I know that Akasha is involved, but I don't believe that's the deciding factor. He left without Armand because he made his choice.

I am not sure if Akasha was involved. I also don't think it matters. What matters is what Marius thinks is the truth.

Blaming Akasha is just how Marius has chosen to frame his cowardice when he retells his life story to Thorne — under the circumstance that he has reunited with Armand and they are very clearly at odds (even if Lestat didn't see it lmao) He certainly wasn't mentioning this doubt to Lestat with Akasha on the building. And while Marius/Akasha is another essay, you might argue that he didn't need to consider/entertain this option before because he's had another coping mechanism going on.

During the time he's not seeing any evidence of Armand being anything but Awful™️ Marius clearly copes hard / hardly copes by separating Armand into two entities — his beloved Amadeo, and the horrible cult leader Armand. That checks out with him never once calling Armand anything but Armand in TVL. It makes sense that he was fully in denial that Armand could be his lost lover in the 1800s.

We do see him acknowledging and confronting this when he calls him by both names in QOTD. He's removed the divide. Even when Armand was (is) a world-class bastard, he's come to realise that he still loves him.

By the time Marius is in Trondheim, he no longer separates Armand from Amadeo. He only ever calls Armand by Amadeo when he's speaking with Thorne, to the point where even when the narrative shifts to Thorne's POV, he doesn't know Armand is Armand — only we, as readers, know that. Thorne also calls him Amadeo when he sees him for the first time and only later on starts calling him Armand, and Marius himself is calling Armand "Armand" by PL era. Why? Reader's discretion.

So that's the one coping mechanisms he had going on for him shattered and gone.

Their reunion brings a new conundrum — Marius starts believing that, after 500 years of every single evidence on the board pointing otherwise, Armand could have been saved by him and as you said, he chose not to.

I have already said I do not think it has ever been Anne Rice's intention that Marius might have been able to have saved Armand, but like I said, what matters is that Marius believes this is the truth. He obviously thinks he could have saved Armand (like so many in this fandom apparently oops not me though) because he dreams of burning them all and forcing Armand out of it.

I honestly think that his shifting the blame onto Akasha is just how he's coping. Whether you believe Akasha swayed him from saving Armand doesn't really matter, because what matters is that Marius wants to believe that. Easier to blame another than face his own self-admitted cowardice. Unsurprisingly, once she's gone and the distance between him and Armand widens post Benji and Sybelle, he shifts the blame to Santino with a lot more vengeance, whereas he was seemingly civil to him in Night Island.

I honestly think Marius finishes canon believing Akasha shifted him away from Armand because it hurts him less, and this is what I take from it. Whether she did or didn't makes no difference to me.

7) I want to believe that Marius at least feels some regret

I've put this for last because I want to say that on top of admitting his regret, Marius also faces a lot of his bullshit towards Armand throughout canon.

He admits how conditional his love was that he forsook Armand. At the end of TVA, faced with Benji and Sybelle's unconditional love for Armand, destructive faith and all, Marius admits his wasn't a selfless love. He offers Armand some form of apology. He's finally seeing that Armand's faith isn't something that should be "perfected". He's taking baby steps.

He also makes it clear time after time, in canon, that he will help Armand going forward. He won't repeat the mistake of abandoning him and it seems Armand knows. While Armand's suicidal in the ice in NY, he dreads Marius hearing him because he knows his maker will come for him and he's not sure what he's meant to do going forward (until he confronts God and his faith through Lestat's blood and all that jazz). After the veil, Marius offers Armand his house because he wants for him to have someplace to rest; and when Armand is in distress over Louis' presumed death at Rhoshamandes' hand, he promptly comes to soothe and comfort him.

It's all a big hestrying.jpg

Every detail in the final few pages of the chronicles makes it clear Anne Rice intended for them to have a happy ending with a maybe ever after. Lestat (who wasn't even aware there was any issue between them bless him), says he feels calm when he thinks of Armand and Marius. This isn't Anne Rice saying "they fought and can never fix it". That's an obvious "they'll make it work". Armand is smiling again in his final appearance. Marius, who's famously known as the red power ranger, has painted Armand in "red the color of blood" in spite of having once picked blue for Amadeo. That man is making it clear he is claiming the boy now, flaws and all, cowardice, resentment and all.

They still have a lot of shit to discuss and sort. Armand clearly hasn't forgiven Marius. Marius clearly hasn't accepted his cowardice, in spite of having once admitted. The two obviously want to be together again, but they have work to do. I really love that their story ends on a very clear "they're willing to mend" note while never showing it. That makes for a much more interesting setting than if we had gotten a Marimand wedding Dreamworks style with all the characters dancing to the sound of Celine Dion's It's all coming back to me now.

So yeah.

TL;DR

Marius has massively fucked up with Armand, but

1) he knows, admits it and regrets never helping him

2) everyone in the vampire chronicles universe was entitled to think armand was a lost case by tvl time and plenty of people still do by the end of canon

3) Marius had no reason to ever consider saving Armand while he was coven leader, but he really is 100% at fault to not do it later on when Armand is trying to blend with the world and failing

4) I do not think Anne Rice intended for [The Character Of Marius] to have ever been able to save [The Character Of Armand] from his own attachment to the coven and I honestly believe that even if Marius had, in fact, tried to intervene, he would have failed

5) Armand thinks Marius hates him for his past crimes as coven leader throughout most of the modern era canon. He clearly resent his maker for never coming for him. However, all things taken into account, he just happens to love more Marius more than he resents him. In a way, his very resentment stems from how much he loves Marius and wishes he had been saved by him.

6) Akasha is just another of Marius' coping mechanisms and it doesn't really matter whether she manipulated him to leave Armand behind or not because what matters in this equation is that Marius wants to believe it. His belief says more about him, his guilt and his current distant relationship with Armand at the time this information is presented to us as readers.

7) Marius has fucked up immensely but he is trying to make ammends as far as ammends go in this franchise of burn book vs. burn book. It is reader's discretion whether they think his efforts make up for it.

Adding a final point:

Just because Anne Rice (author) intended for these two characters to finish the series on a positive note, it doesn't mean you (reader) must agree with it.

THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING TO MY MARIMAND TEDTALK!!!!!!!!!

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Louis whenever Lestat opens his mouth and he senses some bs coming his way:

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Promised to draw him four years ago. And in four years I never delivered...

Well, here he is,

Khayman, my Khayman.

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Haven’t picked up a pen or pencil in years at this point, but I decided to draw a little chibi Amadeo

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shh

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Antique 1920's Rat Perfume Figural Bottle from Germany ebay Diane's Clearinghouse

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Cat!Louis has come into your life🐱