#Sorry if it's rambly

[o0anapher0o]

The prayer scene in ep 4. Once again there is so much going on.

For one it’s the only time we see ‘Rashid’ in a non-professional capacity. In every other scene he’s there as Louis right hand/blood bag; this is the only time we see him not working. Which means there is no immediate practical purpose for it (intradiagetically). In his other scenes Armand is organising/arranging things, keeping an eye on Louis, managing the household/the interview/Daniel’s treatment, making cocktails, guiding Daniel places. There is always a practical and obvious reason to why he is in the room at any given moment. They might not always be particularly good reasons (otherwise he couldn’t just leave at a whim whenever someone isn’t happy for him to be there), but you can bet if asked why he’s there he’d have an answer.

When he’s praying there is no reason at all. There isn’t even a reason for why he would be praying. Even if we assume this version of Armand is a devout Muslim who does pray regularly (for which we have no evidence, nor any against it. Only being brown doesn’t automatically mean he has to be hereditarily Islamic.), why would he do it in the room next to Daniel within hearing range of the old man. Surely he has his own room somewhere in the penthouse where he could go about it undisturbed. And if it’s just a part of the Rashid persona why include it at all. Because Daniel would expect a servant from Dubai to be a devout Muslim? Then why immediately undercut it by admitting he’s not from Dubai (ref back to not all brown people…)?

For some reason he wants Daniel to see him pray. Of course, the obvious answer is to mess with Daniel some more. The thing is though none of the incidents of Louis and Armand messing with Daniel are random. They always fit with the part of the story Louis is telling in that episode. The deliberately disturbing dinner parallels/illustrates Louis’ struggle with vampirism and provides conversational anchor points to his increased struggle with the morality of it all. Louis feeding from Armand at the beginning of ep 5 mirrors Lestat force feeding on Louis at the end.

In that regard I do not believe for a second that it is a coincidence that the episode in which Rashmand starts to become more than ‘guy behind an iPad’ (and starts blatantly flirting with Daniel) is the episode that introduces Claudia.

I do think the praying goes beyond that though. I think it’s also a way of testing Daniel. Hear me out: Asr namozi.

Again I don’t believe for a moment that Armand saying those words with Daniel in the room was an accident. That didn’t just slip out. He said it and looked to Daniel for his reaction. And that reaction is in fact the interesting part. Because I’m calling complete and utter bullshit on Daniel being able to identify the geographic origin of a language he has heard a total two short words in with any precision. Yes, I know Kazakhstan is ginormous but Crimea isn’t (it’s also nowhere near Kazakhstan. At least not anymore than England is near Italy). That’s a pretty specific location.The only way I would believe that someone could do that is if the were an insane polyglot or if they had had significant exposure to that or similar languages. According to Daniel’s official biography he falls into neither category. However, if we assume that official biography includes a couple vampire induces gaps…

It seems like the vampires are constantly testing Daniel’s memories, or rather the ones he shouldn’t have. Two episodes later Louis asks him point black what he remembers of their first meeting. And the Tintoretto conversation in ep 2 could be a similar thing. I wrote in another post how weird I thought it was to use Tintoretto as a reference (especially seeing the dates are off) and someone argued Armand would know that Daniel has the background knowledge to find that reference useful, but the thing is we don’t have a lot of indication that Daniel, as he remembers himself now, would have that knowledge (and I don’t count the puzzle at the beginning as such an indication. Just because you’re doing a jigsaw of a famous painting doesn’t mean you know anything about art. It only means you thought a picture with lots of figures on it would make a good jigsaw. Obviously not counting Daniel’s subconscious decision making here). I could go on a whole other tangent about that scene but this is already way too long.

The TLDR is Armand is praying in that scene because he decided that for some reason Daniel needed to see that and I think at least part of that reason was that he is testing Daniel’s memory, as he and Louis do this in different ways throughout the season (Other instances include ‘remember the best you ever had’, the proposal ice cream and reading from Daniel’s memoir, maybe even ‘I wasn’t sure you’d remember me’. All those refer to points in time that could conceivably have happened during or very close to the Devils Minion timeline. Most of those prod at the memories Daniel has as supposed to the ones that are missing). Which is interesting because it implies they don’t fully know the scope of the memory wipe.

[unforth]

Y'all I know that when so-called AI generates ridiculous results it's hilarious and I find it as funny as the next guy but I NEED y'all to remember that every single time an AI answer is generated it uses 5x as much energy as a conventional websearch and burns through 10 ml of water. FOR EVERY ANSWER. Each big llm is equal to 300,000 kiligrams of carbon dioxide emissions.

LLMs are killing the environment, and when we generate answers for the lolz we're still contributing to it.

Stop using it. Stop using it for a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. We need to kill it.

Sources:

[a-drama-addict]

not caring too much about a fandom’s favourite guy is the worst. you’ll think “oh i’ll look into the tag see if anything new and cool’s there” and it’s just that fucking guy again

[technikki]

Top 5 women?

bro i can't even top one woman ha ha h[two drums and a cymbal fall from the ceiling killing me instantly

[pulim-v]

Hi my name is Cozier and this is my new song Take me to bed (I'm sleepy)

[risetherivermoon]

ppl dont talk about the fact that even Daisuke's characterization is affected by Jimmy's unreliable perspective. He refers to Daisuke as a spoiled rich kid who has his mommy and daddy behind him, that he's impressionable and stupid, and i do see people kinda characterizing him like that

like he has these rich parents who will dote on him and give him everything, that he's an airhead who isn't good at anything...

yet in curly's perspective we see that he's good at board games, he's trying his best, he's trying to listen to swansea and learn from him. He did get the internship from his parents but not because he wanted to, but because his parents thought he wasn't going anywhere in life, that he needed to be doing something. Daisuke is silly and a positive person but that's just for show, we see in the scene where Jimmy finds him lying on the floor drunk on mouthwash, that Daisuke isn't doing well, he's scared and feels sad about his parents. He makes jokes to cope with the horrible tension on the ship.

people characterize him as a stupid little kid too much for my liking, that's how Jimmy sees him. As a spoiled brat who came on the ship just to be an inconvenience. Even Swansea didn't see him like that, sure he complained about him but in Daisuke's final moments we see Swansea's true colors and how much he actually cares for him. He's an adult, who's putting on this happy go-lucky persona because he truly wants to succeed in life, and he's doing the internship for his mom and dad even though he doesn't want to. So he makes friends, he tries his best, he wants to be on the good side of everyone on the ship.

Jimmy just saw him as an easy target, someone too trusting and easily manipulated. A stupid kid he can use to get what he wants. He even plays with Daisuke's feelings of needing validation from Swansea, someone he looks up to. He tells Daisuke that by going in the vent, he'd make Swansea proud.

Daisuke isn't someone who has it easy or someone who's a stupid airhead. Jimmy just saw kindness and positivity as weakness.

[fishparasite]

i can't lie to you i loveee bad endings sometimes. what if nothing worked out. what if the characters gave into their worst instincts. what if they became worse. what if there's truly no hope left. what will they do out of desperation? who will they become as their worst selves?

[teaboot]

On of the less intuitive things about love, I've found, of any kind, is the importance of needing things.

I didn't realize it until recently, but I've always seen love as something requiring sacrifice, selflessness, patience, and generosity- to ask for nothing is to be the best person I can be, small and quiet and never in the way, always happy and helpful, self-sufficient and present when desired.

It's only as an adult, now, that I'm beginning to see the selfishness of wanting nothing.

I cut my friend's hair in my kitchen the other day. They wanted a trim and I had the skills, so I offered, and was genuinely excited when they stopped hesitating over "bothering me" and took me up on it. It was a peaceful afternoon, and we had tea and chatted for an hour or more.

My brother and I shared popcorn at the movies a while ago. When I came time to pay, I pulled my card out like a wild western sheriff and slapped it on the machine before he could fight me for it first. The satisfaction was delightful.

Someone called me crying on the phone the other day. Kept apologizing for disturbing me at work, talking about how they were bothering me on my lunch break. I was telling the truth when I told them that really, I was flattered and honored and relieved, knowing that if they were hurting I would know, that I didn't have to worry in silence. It felt good to hear them slowly come down, and to know that they knew it would be better soon, and to hear them laugh wetly on the other end. We're getting together for a visit next week.

It's hard to need things, if you've trained yourself not to. It's hard to want things, when you don't know how to want anymore. Trusting people is difficult, and so is relying on them, but I don't know where I'd be without the people who rely on me.

I've heard a lot of people say, "Nobody will love you unless you love yourself". I've had a lot of thoughts about it. It's not right, but it's not wrong, either, I think.

"Nobody will love you unless you love yourself"... I've always taken that to mean, "You will not be lovable until you develop a positive view of yourself as a person".

Now, I think it's sort of inside-out.

"Nobody will love you unless you love yourself"... because nobody can show their love to you in a way that you can accept until you treat yourself kindly, and learn what you need, and what you want, and how to ask for it, and then give that vulnerability away.

Love, for me, is someone I ask for a ride to the airport. Whether they end up doing this or not is irrelevant.

It's not needy, or selfish, or taking up energy. It's giving the gift of being wanted, and needed, and thought of. It's giving someone the security of being part of someone's life.

[dillyt]

[spacenintendogs]

me booping my moots on tumblr circa march/april 2024

[onlinedolly]

nanami who secretly gets off to being so much older then you, his cock twitching whenever you remind him of the gap between your ages. he loved having you clinged around his arm in public, a subtle ego boost as he watched how people reacted. he pretended to be better then that, rolling his eyes everytime satoru said something crude. you were barely in university when he had gotten with you and didn’t like the way his cock stirred when gojo joked about ‘robbing the craddle.’ he just couldn’t help it, not when you were so young and pretty. not when you got so shy when he worked his cock into you, something an older more experienced woman would never do. the thought itself could make him cum, knowing you were innocent and shy and young.

nanami would just love his younger girlfriend so much 🤒

[noodles-and-tea]

Just some more thoughts on that jayvik dbh au

[notherpuppet]

@/coma_0423’s cursed cat alastor will bring you happiness ♥️

Lulu scolds the cat

[who-the-fuck-are-you-bruh]

[jevthejester]

Today is the only day you can reblog this

[jettreno]