#IS LOUIS TRYING TO PROTECT DANIEL FROM ARMAND?!?!

[inthefaceofadaffodil]

AMC YOU BITCH GET BACK HERE

[burneraccounttttttt]

I think a lot of people in the iwtv fandom pretend they care about racism until it uplifts their white fave or affects the actor of a character or character they don't like or care about. I wish you people would be normal.

[hvnnigrvhm]

the tragedy of armand in dubai is the fact that he genuinely likes daniel. yes, there is a threat there, and he hates how good at digging daniel is (as every liar despises the truth), but despite it all, for some unknown to us reason, he has an outstanding amount of sympathy for a boy he tried to once kill. that’s why at the end he is getting outsmarted and beaten. it’s because once his emotions stepped in, he wasn’t as guarded anymore (should i quote, unaware of the plotting around him because he was in love?).

armand tortured daniel back in sf, thinking him unimportant. it was louis who saved him. and yet in dubai there is a weird shift of the dynamics. in dubai it’s louis who messes with daniel’ parkinson’s and armand is the one to stop him. someone who likes to chase his mortal victims and gets the thrill out of them begging, suddenly decided that this mortal didn’t deserve that kind of a treatment. it’s louis raiding daniel’s memories and armand trying to clear the air, thinking it have gone too far. it’s armand apologising to daniel after louis raided his mind, explaining to him that he was invited there as a guest, trying to maintain a hospitable atmosphere in the house. it’s armand taking care of his levodopa transfusion and it’s armand getting weirdly intense about the last dinner and dropping that mysterious sentence “i do hope you’ll join us”, as if he actually cared.

what conclusions might be there apart from the obvious? in san francisco he wouldn’t have cared if daniel died, that’s how inconsequential he was to him, and for some reason fifty years later armand is weirdly protective of him. he still stays in the shadows, and only shows his concern once there is a crisis on the horizon. armand likes him, and for someone who never wanted the interview to happen he is weirdly drawn to their conversations and wants to actually tell him things about himself. something once again he would have never done in san francisco. if that’s all not a proof that the dm happened in between those decades, then i don’t know what is.

[cbrownjc]

Hi there! I'm sorry if this feels super obtuse and it has been ages since I read the novels, BUT...

After this recent episode I was a little confused about what Armand had done to infuriate Louis and Daniel so much. If he simply wiped their memories so neither Louis or Daniel didn't remember everything that went down, that doesn't seem so awful, especially since what went down WAS awful. So I think I must have missed something substantial because I was distracted by my cat, or something. 😅

BTW I love your blog and all the fantastic insight you provide! I used to be ride or die with IWTV but haven't paid much attention to it in the last 15-20 years, so I'm finding it immensely helpful for getting back into the swing of things!

Hello!

So why Louis and Daniel are so angry at Armand isn't because Armand simply erased their memories. (And, to be clear, their memories weren't actually erased, but just clouded over and blocked). Armand rewrote them. Armand basically reprogrammed Daniel and Louis' minds after the OG interview, Louis' mind especially.

That was what that final scene was about, what it was demonstrating. The answer that Louis gave at the beginning of the episode, as to why Armand saved Daniel's life in 1973 was a word-for-word repeat of what Armand's own answer was at the end of the episode to that same question.

The answer wasn't something Louis truly felt wrt his own real feelings. It was something Armand put into Louis' mind to think and say about the incident after the events of it from Louis attacking Daniel on were blocked and clouded over.

As @virginiaisforvampires notes here, the way Louis speaks of Lestat in the OG interview vs the new interview is very telling wrt that reprogramming done. Yes, in the OG interview, Louis was talking down Lestat in spiteful ways, but it was all surface-level stuff. Just saying that the way Lestat spoke revealed how stupid he was and that he wasn't at all skilled when trying to play music.

That is all a far cry from the things Louis has said and spoken about in the Dubai interview about Lestat. Lestat's crimes, as they are being talked about in this second interview, are not just surface-level transgressions said to simply make Lestat angry and draw him out, as Louis was originally trying to do back in 1973. The crimes of Lestat laid out in the Dubai interview, in contrast, are very much there to justify the murder of Lestat.

Because without that justification?

Well, we see that starting when it comes to the false memory -- yes, false -- of Louis thinking Claudia couldn't burn Lestat. Louis thinking that -- that Claudia couldn't burn Lestat -- would take away Louis' guilt at having stopped Claudia from trying to burn Lestat if it was something they both couldn't do. Especially if the killing of Lestat had been justified.

But if there was no justification for killing Lestat? Then the reason Louis stopped Claudia from burning Lestat was because Louis knew that killing Lestat had been wrong. Louis knew it the night Claudia did it, which would be the real reason why he stopped her from burning him.

And because Lestat didn't burn, because he was still alive, that led to the events of the trial in Paris and what happened to Claudia there. And what is looking to be the show's version of the Merrick reveal about Claudia's true feelings wrt Louis. Which, in the book Merrick, the revelation of that is what sent Louis to try to destroy himself via sunlight exposure, as we saw him try to do back in 1973 -- which the cocaine and other drugs that were in Daniel's blood had Louis unable to either ignore anymore -- or lifted a veil that had been placed over his mind about it until then.

Do you see the cascade effect in all of this?

And look, maybe some will see what Armand has done here as not that awful, but Armand didn't do it just to try and protect Louis. That was very damn clear when he didn't relay Lestat's full "I love you" message to Louis after Louis' 1973 attempt to end his life. It's because part of Armand very much still wants to live with the illusion that he and Louis can be happy together, even after what happened in Paris and Armand's role in those events.

I've said before that Armand's flaw when it comes to love is that he will go way, way, WAY overboard to obtain or keep love. And this is all just, once again, him repeating that pattern. Armand rewrote Louis' memories of both Lestat and Claudia's actions all to try and assuage the true guilt and pain Louis has over everything that happened and Louis' own role (mostly due to his own inactions) in it all that has led to such suicidal guilt about it, but also because IMO Armand wishes to hide -- as much as he can -- his own role in everything that happened as well . . . and all of this so as to keep Louis by his side so that Louis doesn't leave him -- be it for Lestat, or even in death.

Armand isn't being altruistic in his reprogramming of Louis' mind and memories. Because really being so would have been not only telling Louis what Lestat was trying to relay to Louis back in 1973 but then probably having to let Louis go as well . . . let Louis go back to and be with Lestat, the person who Louis was trying to draw the attention of with that whole OG interview in the first place.

Honestly, I see the whole situation as kind of expanding on this line of Louis' in the book, as he and Armand are breaking up:

And when I came to Paris I thought you were powerful and beautiful and without regret, and I wanted that desperately. But you were a destroyer just as I was a destroyer, more ruthless and cunning even than I. You showed me the only thing that I could really hope to become, what depth of evil, what degree of coldness I would have to attain to end my pain. And I accepted that. And so that passion, that love you saw in me, was extinguished. And you see now simply a mirror of yourself.

With the rewriting/reprogramming of Louis' memories, this is very much what Armand has created with Louis in many ways -- a mirror of himself. The pieces of himself that Armand blocked and changed had Louis "knowing who he was" . . . but who that person is, isn't the real Louis. Just a reflection of the person who made those changes.

So yeah, that is where the anger is coming from. Moreso Louis than Daniel when it comes to the rewriting aspect of it all I'd say; Daniel is likely just angry that his mind was messed with in the first place. One thing you can say about Daniel is that he's brutally honest, even when it comes to his own foibles. He's the type who'd rather know all the horrible shit that happened to him, than not.

Anyway, I'm glad you like my blog and comments about the show, and I hope this answer explains some of it for you. 🙂

[danlous]

It's an underdiscussed part of the show, maybe because it's so obvious, that ultimately this whole interview is happening because Daniel Molloy wanted to fuck that vampire. Like before the 1st season even started Eric Bogosian was already talking about Daniel feeling attracted to Louis, and that attraction is an essential part of their complicated history and relationship and is always underneath every other thought and feeling Daniel has about Louis.

Daniel's intellectual/journalistic interest in Louis is inseparable from his physical attraction to him. When they met in the 70s Daniel felt an instant pull towards Louis, and as he said he really wanted to interview him, but he was also quite obviously assuming they would sleep together. Decades later that pull is still so strong he's ready to throw everything else away to get some kind of closure. I think he's sort of embarrassed by his own emotions (especially when he seemingly hasn't come to terms with his sexuality) and that they still have so much power over him no matter how old and mature he is. He's so snarky and rude to Louis to protect himself, to hide his vulnerability and feel like he has some kind of control over the situation. It's something similar with Armand; whether Daniel and Armand have a history or not, Armand is an attractive, powerful man who managed to trick Daniel, so Daniel feels the need show that he's in control and that he's not afraid of or intrigued by Armand, even though he's both.

But this exterior started to crack at the same time Louis' own did. In the beginning Daniel tried to keep his distance (and he probably reminded himself 'these people serial killers' every time he found himself feeling sympathy towards vampires) but when Louis is now acting so vulnerable and strikingly human, doing things like openly crying when talking about his daughter and sincerely thanking Daniel for helping him, it's impossible for Daniel to not feel empathy for him. In the s2 premiere you can see he's genuinely sympathizing with Louis and not even always trying to hide it anymore. Although Daniel says he doesn't really care it's a blatant lie; he's personally invested in Louis' situation. He cares about finding out what's going on and he cares about Louis. He wants to solve this and he wants to help Louis. He still feels strongly attracted to him. Hell, he might even be a litte bit in love with him. Most people who meet Louis are.

In the first season Daniel often perceived Louis as his opponent, and in the s2 premiere he acts like Louis and Armand are both his opponents, but i think the situation will (based on what we've seen so far and promo/cast interviews) now probably pretty fast evolve into Daniel starting to think he and Louis are in the same team and Armand is their common enemy. We know Daniel is basically inserting himself between Louis and Armand's relationship and even the word love triangle has also been used. Armand and Daniel were famously a couple in the books and might end up together in the show too, but at least for now they're both focused on Louis. I wouldn't be surprised if Daniel starts to feel like he has to 'save' Louis from Armand - even though Louis probably doesn't want to be saved

[claudiablogger]

god the ep5 fight fucks severely obviously but it's the aftermath that hits the hardest so well written and now all the groundwork laid for the abusive relationship REALLY pays off the dynamic we've been seeing so far pushed to the breaking point of hostility and pain held together by marionette strings and guilt. louis suffocating from the pain on the bed as he apologizes not for the suicide but for the hurt caused to armand thereof. meaningless word meaningless. it's chilling it's crazy to watch how he has it down to an art all the cornerstones of abuse the conflict escalation the victim blaming the mockery pushing louis over the edge on purpose bc she wasnt sufficiently (or at all) contrite over giving daniel the interview + deserting armand. never mind that armand said he didnt want to join them. never mind that armand was picking lint off the sofa and could easily have stopped them before morning and kicked daniel out of the apartment if he so desired. he let the hours stretch out he let his frustration peak so he could waltz into the apartment and rip off the paper over the window and rile louis up into saying things she'd regret. in the heat of the argument it's easy to miss but after when armand is reveling in being able to manage louis' pain and withhold relief at his desire as a punishment it's so clear he'd been desperate for a new avenue of control this whole time, the whole era of "consummate and drain," and the two hundredth boy indulged in without at all the appropriate amount of deference and repentance from louis was too much. i take care of you i protect you from yourself bc look the second i call you out you try to kill yourself. driving the victim to do something that he can then hold over their head as proof that they can't be in charge of their own life. he's a lot more subtle than lestat ever was and he took claudia from louis forever nothing stopping him from making louis watch as he tortures the boy ! finality of the message this is what happens when you pick people that aren't me this is the selfishness of your want. small wonder we don't really see louis eat in dubai in s2

[lizardkingeliot]

Fair warning this is going to be a mess and my brain is running on fumes so... bear with me lol.

I'm thinking about Louis not uttering Lestat's name for 23 years until he starts unloading on a stranger trying to convince himself Lestat was nothing to him. He wasn't in LOVE what are you TALKING about. He wasn't a great musician who wrote me love songs so infuriatingly perfect I swam the Mississippi to bite him like a cat and fuck him on the floor! Lestat wasn't that great at all I promise look at me, Daniel, do I look like the sort of guy who would lie about something like that!!!

I'm thinking about how what Louis was doing here wasn't actually that at all. Armand read him for filth because he's always known who the real love of Louis' life is, hasn't he? And Louis couldn't bear it anymore. He couldn't find Lestat (which begs the question WHY they were separated after Paris if Louis knows he isn't dead at this point but I guess the show will tell us that in the upcoming episodes lol), and this was going to be his way out. Had he been searching for him in secret? Did Armand know? I'm thinking prooooobably not but I guess we'll have to see what happens in Paris and in the final three episodes to be sure why Louis was so INSISTENT he didn't want to see Lestat even while very obviously trying to do just that. I assume it has to do with the events surrounding The Trial???? A desperate attempt to protect Lestat (wherever he may be) from Armand? Who knows!

I'm thinking about Louis insisting all he did was talk trash about Lestat and Armand immediately answering... that's not exactly how you talked about him to me. Yet Armand says Lestat's name hasn't been uttered in 23 years. Which would have been around 1950 in the timeline. Right after Paris. So clearly we're meant to understand Louis confided something about the true nature of his relationship with Lestat to Armand. Yet Louis insisted right there in that coffin that Lestat was his maker and nothing more. Again, I guess we'll just have to wait for the end of the season to see how we're meant to piece that whole thing together lol.

I'm thinking about the way the show let us hear Lestat's voice as he spoke to Louis through Armand. They let US hear Lestat insisting Armand tell Louis "I love you". Yet that's not something Louis could possibly remember because he didn't hear it. Which seems confusing but it's actually confirming this theory I've had brewing in my head that the show intentionally shows us things Louis isn't actually saying in the interview. Like making out with Dreamstat in the park. If you rewatch 2x03 there's no way Louis actually told Daniel and Armand about that. Or in this case, it's the show showing us something Louis can't possibly know himself.

And I'm thinking... why? The only real reason to do that is to drive home that what we're watching is in fact the Louis and Lestat love story at its core. I mean... think about it. Every iteration we've seen of Lestat this season has been so ROMANTIC. They were so in LOVE. All the stuff Louis tried his best to omit in season one is leaking in around the cracks like sunlight through the slats of a window shade and it's only a matter of time before that shade is opened...

Also. One more thing. Not to dump allll of this in one post but....... we finally got confirmation in this episode that Armand IS messing with Louis' head and erasing things and overwriting memories and I am foaming at the mouth waiting to see what else is in there Louis doesn't know about...

[yearnerspermit]

I’ve seen people bring up the fact that at the end of 2x04 Louis and Armand are fighting and then boom, start of 2x05 they’re the most sickly sweet in love we’ve seen them yet

I could be misremembering things. But uh. We haven’t heard anything about the removed diary pages since Louis asked to see them at the end of 2x01 and Armand agreed to gather them for him, have we?

Louis definitely hasn’t been given them because we know what’s in those pages, and we know it’s something Armand is trying to protect Louis from. But Louis was pretty insistent about it. And he hasn’t followed up on that at all since.

I’ve seen the interpretation that the beginning of 2x05 lovesick storytelling is just Louis and Armand putting up a united front to make up for fighting in front of Daniel before that. But the diary page discussion doesn’t happen in front of him. They have no reason to pretend in front of him for that particular thing.

Louis asked for the diary pages, Armand agreed. Louis was never given them. And we haven’t heard anything about it since.

I could see the performative unity interpretation of the 2x05 scene if it were in isolation. But both of these happen as they’re getting ready to sleep — getting ready to rest — and then the story abruptly forgets they ever happened. They parallel each other too closely for me to think the writers don’t want us to connect those

Armand, for as loving and protective as I know he’s trying to be, as well intentioned as I know he thinks he is, has rewritten the memory and mind and intentions and feelings of the love of his life multiple times in a matter of days

[the-quiet-youve-been-longing-for]

"I destroyed two marriages, I fucked up two daughters"

"You proposed to your Alice in Paris" "And she divorced me in Staten Island"

"Time to see your daughters marry" "And divorce. And die."

"My daughters aren't even speaking to me anymore, the least I could do is leave them some cash. But an honest reckoning? No."

We have crumbs about Daniel's past, but I was thinking about these lines while at work.

One, Daniel feels guilt about what happened with his family, a big heap of it. His wife divorced him, not the other way around and not something that was done because they both felt it wasn't the right relationship. He destroyed the marriage. He fucked up the daughters. At this point, I believe the daughters are both from Alice's marriage (I'll get to why in a moment).

Two, he believes it's something that can't be repaired. There can't be an honest reckoning for him, there can't be a heart to heart where he says he's sorry and he's forgiven. He's old and sick, and yet the only phone call we see him take is one to his editor.

Three, it must have been something for both daughters to stop speaking to him altogether. Either a drip of small hurtful acts on his part or something so huge you can't get past it, to decide to cut off all contact with him, even in his state. Both of them, mind you. If it were daughters from two different marriages, I'd hope he would try to clean up his act at least for the second daughter, or that one of the two has a different opinion of him, but that doesn't seem to be the case. So probably the daughters opinion and decision was taken by both of them together? Which is why I think they could have the same mother, but it's all speculation.

He cares for them, he still has their things from when they were kids, he writes down to protect them from Louis and Armand in case they go rummage in his head again. But doing that step forward to rebuild that bridge... He's either scared to do it or he thinks it's a lost cause, he's a lost cause.

Four, it will happen again. They will get married, divorce and die. It won't be a happy ending, in his mind, even for them, they won't be married so he can be a grandpa with nephews. It's like he got the jaded idea that whatever cycle he started, they will perpetuate it.

[dulacdat]

something about louis being severely traumatized by his fall in s1e5 even as he recalls it to Daniel a century later and how his house in Dubai is literally so high that they can feel the building sway from time to time.

(really trying not to be cynical with the show BUT)

it seems to fit well with how loumand's house is full of symbolism- with how louis is literally caged in the home, he doesn't have his coffin, is in one of the hottest countries in the world while being "sunchallenged" and can't really access his books that are high up to the ceilings. the house being really high is just another way to torment him imo.

"I protect louis even when he can't himself" (not verbatim) in the sense that armand has "justifications" for these choices. Dubai has privacy, the building provides safety, the tint protects you from the sun-you don't need a coffin,, etc.

(louis not using his coffin is also interesting to me. thought it was the trauma with s2e7 aftermath, but he had it in sanfran? although that could just be there out of necessity? will unpack later)

thinking about how triggering that might be; the feeling of falling every time you feel a shake or you hear a groan. (and with heightened senses)

[divorceblogger]

I have such weird feelings about danlou because I enjoy them so so much but under very conditional circumstances. it SHOULD be about daniel craving and trying to achieve the sexual attention that he thought he received from louis in ‘73. it SHOULD be about louis being protective of him and maybe transferring some of his paternal feelings for claudia to daniel because he’s the only person around to receive it. it SHOULD be about armand always because that’s their stupid son they accidentally adopted and then abandoned within a week after putting him through rue royale redux.

[glitter-covered-bodybag]

I don't think we talk about how awful the Dubai penthouse really is. I mean look at the dining room.

HUGE table that encourages distance (especially as there's only 2 of them living here). When it's only Louis with his little bowls of blood he's gonna sit there alone with the heaps of space available at this table and no one else sat at it and be reminded that he really is alone. The bland walls with only a painting or two. The crisp and cleaners of everything. No warmth.

Then there's Louis's (supposedly) relaxation room with Armand's magnolia tree and Armand's library. A library that book-obsessed Louis cannot access. He's wholly dependent on Armand to retrieve things from it. "Please daddy Armand, may I have a book?" 😒 We literally see this when Louis asks to see the removed pages. Those belonged to Claudia, Louis's companion/sister/daughter. Why should that be something he has to ask for? Bare, grey walls like concrete. Like a prison. White stones in the zen garden the same as those Louis was buried in.

Then the bedroom. LOOK AT THIS BED. ITS MADE OF ROCKS. You CANNOT convince me this is comfortable to sleep in. The width of it meaning Louis and Armand can sleep entirely separately. The coffins, padded as they were look so much more comfortable and we know Louis likes laying in his coffin more than a bed from when he was recovering from the full body burns and asked to be put in his coffin even though the room was sun-proof and he would have been safe on the bed. Then the bars surrounding the bedroom. He's sleeping in a cell. (I've seen other people point out the similarity between the bars over the arches and the turning of Louis which is a detail I LOVE for reasons unrelated to this post. Here's a visual)

Everything is controlled through Armand's iPad. Armand controls the lighting. Armand controls the window shades. It just shows this unequal dynamic between Louis and Armand. "Armand protects my happiness"?? No, Armand is the one with the power here. You're his pet. You're his ward. Armand is an owner, a parent, almost a jailer (I'm not saying Louis can't leave or Armand is Evil, at all, just that the power dynamic is heavily tipped towards Armand as he tries to prevent a repeat of San Francisco. I wholeheartedly think he's just so overprotective that it tips into unhealthy territory). Louis doesn't do anything for himself. This is not how romantic relationships work. This is the first clue that their relationship is not what it seems, the first sign that Armand is trying to keep control of the narrative.

There is not one thing that shows me that Louis enjoys his space. Nothing to show it's lived in. It's cold and plain and boring. Compare to Daniel's apartment, a man who has had a long successful career and also lives alone.

Warm. A little messy. Lived in. An apartment of Daniel's size is hardly cheap either. But you can feel that Daniel's space is Daniel's space. The Dubai penthouse has no identity. I know this is just a modern, high-value aesthetic but there are so many other 'rich person' aesthetics that could be adopted that would be comfortable. Even keeping the clean lines. Look at these...

Still clean, still modern but warm. Everything about the penthouse is depressing to me.

[moonlit-void-to-the-far-unknown]

Armand does not know how to properly love or be loved by someone if it’s not him being a means of service to them. He is unable to fully understand what real companionship and love is.

He was molded by the grooming of Marius, who as we learned, doted on him and showed him ‘love’ but it was all a means for Marius to keep him as a sex object (of sorts I’m still reading Armands book but from my eyes, bro just straight up grooming a harem of boys) until he was turned. And then pimp him out to his friends. He was molded to be a thing for people. So that he could be ‘loved’

He was molded to hate humanity, and hate being what he was turned into by the children of darkness. He finds being a vampire a fate worse then death, he hates humanity until he meets Lestat.

Lestat comes in, fucks up all his ideals of what being a vampire is, destroyed the original coven, and Armand became obsessed with him, with serving him, even if it wasn’t really serving Lestat it was simply being…a means to an end for him. After Lestat learned what he could do as a vampire he fucked off. And Armand has been obsessed with him since because it’s how he was molded to love.

Then he meets Louis who comes in, no care for the new take on the laws, and lets Armand be a service, when he needs something, when he wants something, it becomes ‘Arun’ and ‘maître’ it becomes 70 years of trying to atone for the lies on lies he built and him trying to keep them all in place so Louis will stay with him. So he is needed.

Then Daniel comes in, and threatens it all, and succefully ruins the 77 year old lies Armand has built a shell with. The lies that kept Louis with him and while not happy, kept him sedated enough just thinking it was hurting who he thought killed Claudia.

Armand is molded by the need to be a service to others to be loved by others. He is incapable of thinking love is anything other then, being a service to someone. Be it him destroying everything and everyone in the way, burning his companions daughter alive, lying to make it seem he had no choice when he was the one who directed every second on that stage. It was still a fucked up ideal of ‘love’

“I love you so much I let you burn all things I had down, I let you kill my family of 200 years, I let you do as you please with others because I know they can not give you what I give you. Because you need me. And yes I played a big hand in killing your daughter, yes i lied over and over, but it’s forgiven, you said it was. Because you need me and I need you. I love you so much because without I am a shell, a void, no insides because you don’t tell me what I should be. How do I be of service to you. How do I fix it. How to I fix the decades of lies I used to protect me from you leaving.”

Armand built lie on lie on lie because he is a shell of a void of a boy once named Arun, who was taken by slavers, and sold to a brothel, to be used and molded into whatever a paying person wanted, a boy taken and renamed Amadeo, to be shaped into what Marius wanted, to be used and used again. To be taken by a cult, and used as a leader figure, to hate humanity, to be used as a teacher, to be used as a coven leader, to be used as an object of spite. Armand is a shell, a void. A hole. Because he never got to learn how to be anything else. In 514 years he never learned how to simply be Armand. To be whoever HE wants to be.

Because he doesn’t know what he wants to be.

[avalonia320]

IWTV Thoughts

I finally got to watch the finale last night and when I tell you I am SHOOK to my damn core. I don't know how to put it into words. I'm older than a lot of people here. I first read the Vampire Chronicles when I was 11; I found them in a box that belonged to my mother. When I tell you I devoured those books, re-read them over and over and over, fell in love with Lestat and New Orleans & Paris, cried over Claudia and Louis...I was totally besotted by the world Anne Rice created.

When the movie was announced when I was a teen (yes I'm that old), first I was so excited and then I was furious, as many of us Anne Rice devotees were, when Tom Cruise was cast as Lestat. I could not imagine an actor further away from how I had imagined Lestat. But still, I had to see it, and while it was still miles away from what I had wanted, I came away impressed with Tom Cruise. He still wasn't my Lestat, but he threw himself into the role in a way that made me believe he'd been waiting his whole life to let his inner Queen off the chain.

The movie itself...I had loved parts of it, but there was still so much more that I wanted. When the sequel came out (Queen of the Damned) I liked parts of that too and I actually enjoyed Stuart Townsend as Lestat. I hated most of it though, especially what they did with Marius (to this day I don't know what the hell that was about) but it was obvious at that point that I was never going to see the vampire world I was so enthralled with on the screen.

Then this series comes out. And while my expectations were low, I was still pretty excited. And then I watched it.

Holy fucking shitballs, you guys. I am normally so protective of my favorite books, resenting any little change unless it makes sense but everything they've done with this series, everything they've changed makes so much fucking sense. I don't want to try and break it down, I don't have the words. Lestat was always my big love in the books, but in this series, I've fallen in love with Louis and Claudia in a way I never imagined. I always loved their characters, don't get me wrong, but I never connected with them this way until now. And don't even get me started on Daniel, who I will admit I actively disliked in the books for the unforgivable crime of being boring. Um....that's a word I will never ever use in connect to Daniel Molloy ever ever ever again. And Armand and Madeleine and...I can't.

And Lestat. I loved him in the first season but in the second season, when he showed up with that long hair, I saw him for the first time like someone took the Lestat that has lived in my head since I was 11 years old and put him on the screen. He is EXACTLY how I imagined him. The way he looks, the way he talks, his emotion, his breakdowns, his unbelievable flair for the dramatic...this is HIM. I feel like I've been been unconsciously waiting decades for him to show up and for people to see him the way I saw him back then. I can't be the only old school fan that feels this way. It's just so surreal to see it so exact, it takes me right back to my childhood and the way I fell into stories then. The way you feel things when you're so young is something so hard to recapture but I feel like I'm right back there again on my bed, reading the books over and over again.

I'm just so grateful. To everyone involved with this series, the writers, the cast...I know i'm getting overly emotional but everything's been so shit lately and we've all needed an escape, a good one for once. I needed this so badly.

And I have to believe, wherever she is now, Anne Rice is so fucking proud.

[achllsun]

IWTV S2EP2 SPOILERS

trying to sell it as if armand is trying to EXCLUSIVELY protect louis from himself seems kinda unfair when he's out here comforting daniel after louis was just a little too mean to him.

the soft "she wanted to say yes" coming from the same guy that's acting like the only reason why he hasn't finished that old man yet is because of louis?

cause the way i see it if there was someone being "protected", or rather soothed, by armand in that specific instance, it was NOT louis.

[nalyra-dreaming]

COMMENTS on 2x04 - SPOILERS ahead, obviously^^

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God that play is really…. and to see the joy just leave Claudia

And the foreshadowing with her soul leaving her body!!!!!! Holy shit.

Louis’ face mirroring the disillusionment.

Lol, Santiago getting a BJ while getting ready and bitching about the play. 💀

Armand and Louis in Dubai saying different things about that time…

Armand’s notes threw😬 me - and to call her lack of enjoyment of this play after 500 performances sabotage? Definitely a choice.

Ah, I see that is where that Santiago outfit comes in^^ - I would not have expected it to be Claudia there. I so feel for her there, it is so bitter. And Santiago having her back there and challenging Armand (and his relationship with Louis) damn. Also, Louis being so… IDK. Happy to ignore the warning signs now??? Ouch.

The coven going at each other, lol

That discussion “after”. And Louis’ “inner Lestat” commenting on it all - bitter

“Do you notice how hot the room gets”!!!!! FUCK

“I try to find the vulnerability in the object.” DAMN

The laughter. And Louis calling himself out there lmao.

They didn’t like Daniel changing track that’s for sure^^.

Santiago and Claudia 😭 - god I wished. And his warning her… damn.

Oh…. so THAT is where the “tender” comes in. Ouch again.

Madeleine and Claudia

The mimicry at the banquet. Ohhhhh it’s going to go SO BAD

But it’s nice to see that when Louis snaps… he snaps^^. Canon, baby, canon.

I felt so bad for him at the photography evaluation…

The fragility comment re Armand.

The photographs mixed in!!!! Holy shit. What is going on there - has been going on there????

“This is a Stein”. LOL Armand… “Probably Rashid”. Yeah, sure.

The body in the plastic!!!! Oh we are going full horror next episode, aren’t we.

Louis letting his “inner Lestat” criticize him. Aw sweetie. “I end up eating them”…. yeah.

The laughter again. And ”Lestat” mocking Armand as being “barely Balthasar”. 💀 Oh Louis. (I do feel bad for Armand. He wants love so badly.)

Madeleine’s story. One of many I would think. I … liked how they did it.

The Louvre.

“Vintage Lioncourt” - and then his “inner Lestat”!!! That expression, lol. And also the “ha” later… that is interesting.

In sync. “Okay” Argh.

HOLY SHIT! I KNEW THEY WOULD GO FULL IN AND DARK. AND THEY ARE 😵‍💫 OHHHH DAMN.

The coven abandoned by Magnus(??). And “Lestat” shaking his head.” Interesting.

I ALMOST thought we would get a Memnoch-type event!!!!! Damn, I wanted them to go there :))))

Armand threatening Claudia -.- . And letting her know. Talk about making things clear.

The thing about Santiago’s maker again...

Practicing the fire gift I see. Ah yisssss. *rubs hands*

“manipulative gremlin” LOOOOOLLLL LOUIS HOLY SHIT

God that scene with Claudia. Me and you, indeed.

“Bad decisions”. “Love makes you stupid”. “The wilderness that is our daughter”. 😭😭😭😭

Louis trying to say goodbye to Lestat there… heartbreaking. “An elicit couple out for the cheat”. Yeah. No double meaning at all. NONE. Their theme.The initials stitched in. Letting the rain pour down. Summoning Armand. “Mutiny brewing”. 😭 God Louis, why didn’t you just leave. “I used to be real good at running things”. Louis geeeeeeeeezzzzzz you are playing with FIRE. (Yes, I know, foreshadowing.)

And Santiago and the others using that moment to get the evidence they “need”. 💀

“You sure about that, Arun?” “Yes, Maitre.” Ohhhhh fuck. So fucking dangerous. “He is Louis’ creature indeed.” DAMN. Louis dammit you beeeeep Sorry, but honestly, that was… STUPID. You make your only protection look WEAK.

And them arguing in the bedroom. Louis probably having done that himself??!?!!!

Daniel using the time to go through the material - and remember. Oh the FORESHADOWING

And cut.

So in total:

Loved it, lots of very bitter foreshadowing once more. Loved all the little flashback hints. Knowing where the “tender” as a description for them comes from is… 😬. Louis trying to let Lestat go - I KNEW that would be a breakup scene, but I had guessed it would be another one that came later in the book^^, loved this change though. Unfortunately we already know it won’t quite work… Louis deciding to (try to) let Lestat go (which we know won’t work), and trying to take the “bull by its horns”… god. I mean. I get him. But that made my teeth hurt I clenched them so hard because that is literally… like, I said it above, but ARMAND calling HIM “maitre”? When the coven is already plotting? Oh boy. Not good in the long run. Not good.

So yeah. Loved it. So much in it!!!

And... my heart breaks for Armand.

__

And the EPISODE INSIDER. Spelling it out once more: (A gag order definitely dropped away^^)

“Lestat is just ruining Armand’s and Louis’ romantic evenings together.”

“He almost takes on the Lestat role in his relationship with Armand.” 😬

“Louis’ relationship is a response to his relationship with Lestat.” “Armand is a rebound. A rebound that lasts for 70 to 80 years.” 💀

“I think Louis knows he can get away with more.” “Like Armand is maybe a bit of a pushover. He realizes he can manipulate that relationship a little bit more.” (LOOOOOOL JACOB)

“Ghost Lestat [] is also like Louis’ doubts about Armand.” “He tries to accept Armand the way he is.”

“Armand will always see a little bit of Lestat in Louis.” “His paranoia is all encompassing.”(!!!!)

“It’s this really sad aspect of his life.” (indeed.)

And last, but not least:

“But it’s also seeing Louis slip faster with Armand than she had planned.”(!!)

HOLY SHIT. 💀