#armand....u and i are meant to be

[ctadiablotin]

armand's reaction to daniel ripping his (failed)marriage a new one. imagine lestat posts shit like this to his social media.

except it was me. don't worry i was just a quick conduit for lestat's soul as he watched that episode with me

[cthulhum]

did u save my life in paris ? i gave u to armand u tell me if that was saving. why didnt u say it was me who saved u not him ? i dont like to point out my virtues. besides i knew ud figure it out and look. u have. i was right. all hail me. been enduring here ? not enduring. living. here in new orleans the whole time ? its my home. i am she she is me. i didnt know it was a gift. i wore it like a curse i was selfish. i- i tried to make the nights awful for u. i see. i wanted u to suffer cuz i was suffering. oh shall we list all the ways we have wronged each other and why it will never be right between monstrous- i came to thank u. for the gift u offered me. the gift i denied. for the nights in front of me where i might learn to live honestly. thank u. spetember 8th. 1973. september 8th 1973. it was 11:07 here. it wouldve been 9:07 in san francisco. armand called me. where u there ? yeah. did u hurt urself ? i was lost. i was in a dark way and i was thinking about- i cant i cant get her out of my mind. u have the same problem ? yeah. i cant louis- i cant-. hey hey its not on u u hear me ? i carried her home i made u turn her. i saved her from a fire so a half century later she could... she looked at me at the end... like a child looking to her father... but i was never-

[idontwikeit]

Black Sails 3.03 XXI Interview with the Vampire 2.04 I Want You More Than Anything in the World

for @nonbinarybriarmoss

[covenofthearticulate]

wait a fucking second I am just now putting the dots together and realizing all these short sentence drabble prompts are all coming about because I reblogged that sentence starter meme originally on my Louis RP blog LMFAO. It is so jarring to see niche tumblr rp things make it into the wider fandom and I was so confused but now I'm mostly delighted LOL

[nightcolorz]

While looking for the last post I found this one, and it ALSO feels like it works with the whole… god and their devoted sacrificial lamb theme going on. I am here for unbelievably gutting but also fascinating insights into Amadeo hours.

In the show I can definitely see Amadeo becoming more obedient as he nears 30, because of what you said about the like… choices to keep him in line becoming more intense. It’s one thing to act out and be punished at 17, and another for your very existence as an ageing boy-turn-man to be the problem, so he speaks out of turn less to try and minimize what he suspects will come anyway.

THIS POST IS SOOOO ARMAND/AMADEO!! I’ve seen it before and always thought that!! I think this post can apply to Armand’s relationship with Marius but also like, how he gets himself into a pattern of being a perpetual victim. Especially the part about how everytime he comes back and the priest always chooses him, it reminds me of Louis and Armand’s relationship (in the amc verse) where Armand kind of recreates his relationship with Marius and his history of being abused as a child in his dynamic with Louis bcus he misses feeling like he had a purpose or a reason for being around or someone to just tell him what he’s meant to do (be the lamb).

the ending paragraph is very Marius and Armand tho. “He always places one hand on my small twitching nose to calm me while he lifts the knife and he doesn’t do it for the other lambs only me because I’m his favorite” is INCREDIBLY Amadeo. It reminds me of that paragraph in the vampire armand where armand lovingly talks about how since he was Marius’s favorite he was the only boy to ever see his bedchambers. Like yeah I bet the priest is so gentle when he lifts the knife sure armand 😭. But yeah. When marius disciplined me by whipping my backside he always touched my private areas to sooth me until I climaxed and then he licked the blood from my back and he never did that with the other lambs only me because I’m his favorite 🥰—like no honey u were just sexually assaulted 🙏

[frigidwife]

First off, sorry if I'm about to sound utterly clueless. I've watched the show since day one, but only started properly engaging with fandom discussions recently so I'm probably missing a lot or being dumb. My question is, why do you think some fans were so scandalized by the reveal that Armand was seemingly going to let Louis die in the trial, but completely indifferent to the fact that he actively DID let Claudia die? I get why betraying Louis was a bigger deal to Armand himself, and why the reveal of that betrayal had the narrative ramifications it did. I even get that many fans had pre-emptively come to terms with Claudia's death to some extent, and were likely prepared for the possibility that Armand was (at best) complicit in the trial, if not outright responsible. Even the staunchest Armand fans weren't buying his "I could not prevent it" mantra as far as I saw, but they didn't seem bothered by it until they realized Louis was meant to die too? I know this particular twist wasn't in the book, but it felt plausible in context (to me, at least) and pretty much in keeping with how Armand was written the whole season. And yet some fans are still upset about it, even fans who claim to love Claudia. Is there an angle I'm missing here, or is it really a case of 'I can excuse daughter-murdering as long as it's in a romantic cause'??

you don't sound clueless you sound very very sensible! literally if ur paying attention to the season it’s a shock but not really a surprise like the escalation to physical abuse in 1.05 . was texting my friend this actually the other day the people who feel blindsided and betrayed by the twist just want armand to be lestat. Like there is a character who abuses claudia and fails her fundamentally despite loving her and seeing himself reflected in her. There is a character who is unable to pick her over louis even for louis’s sake because he wants louis so badly and loves him so selfishly . and that choice will haunt him forever and ever and both tie him and louis closer together and drive them forever apart. and people wanted it to be armand but this is the nuclear family gothic romance show so it’s not ! it’s lestat. which obviously isn’t to say lestats abuse is “better” or intrinsically more forgivable or whatever bc they don’t exist on a scale. but it is qualitatively different like u could read s1 as a study in how patriarchy couches abuse in family and romance . season 2 it’s not couched in anything but performance . & also not every man who wants to possess and control his lover is Heathcliff wuthering heights style devoted sometimes they just love control

[ca-suffit]

im sorry your takes are generally pretty great and i appreciate the space you make in fandom but i find the dismissal around lestat's queerness to be diminishing.

louis is a fantastic gay character and u r right about how he represents his queerness which is fabulously. he is mother he is fashion he is wife, a lot, and lestat is a lot more masc in aspects of their dynamic. louis also struggles with it, had internalized homophobia, and his relationship to his sexuality is fraught. now you can have that complexity and still be a "gay icon" sure but what i see here is a gay man existing. not every gay man existing has to be ~iconic~. louis is working on himself.

lestat is a different person and is going out there to make a mark on culture actively, regardless of why. he's not putting on a dress for five seconds (which btw was still pretty impactful in context but ok), he is being meaningfully gnc and making art. this is what queer culture is. it's frustrating to see this element diminished like it's just a meme or a bunch of people being thirsty.

im all for critiquing fandom being weirdos about it but i think the showrunners are doing something spectacular and pretending like fans are making lestat into something he is not just isn't the vibe.

reading this made me realize that I left out a sentence in this ask, so it did come off differently than I intended. I'd meant to say there's already been a lot of exploration of characters / ppl like lestat, but there's never been a character like louis before. I wasn't rly ever talking about lestat's queerness itself, I was talking about how he's prioritized bcuz he's white.

if u personally identity with him in this then that's ur right to, obviously. no group is a monolith and I was never trying to say one way is more "right" than the other. I rly do apologize if it came across like that, cuz I can see why it did.

"he's not putting on a dress for five seconds (which btw was still pretty impactful in context but ok)"

I don't rly know what u mean here bcuz within the show, nobody comments on the dress. ppl react to the baby but everything we know of the dress otherwise was only revealed by carol cutshall bts. I don't know what impact ur meaning here. to the tv audience, sure, but the NOLA audience?? or is it the fact he designed it in the first place.

tbh the thing I most noticed was that once again a white, european immigrant got to be center stage in an event that louis, as a black, louisiana native, isn't (like the card game lestat already had a place at more favored than louis earlier in S1). he also was able to wear that dress in public without public scorn (being european prbly helped here too, he's "other'd" but not the same way as louis is "other'd" for being black), which is something louis could never have done and actually survived at all. it's not that lestat doesn't experience homophobia otherwise, but he's still got a lot more room to confront it than louis, claudia, or armand would have, as ppl who would be confronting homophobia *and* racism with no access to white privilege (claudia literally dies in the same hour we see lestat confront a homophobe otherwise on his and louis' behalf and "win").

idk what they're going to explore for S3 yet, but what we've seen so far is....not that deep tbh. it's not even especially "queer." we're aware he is so we know it is, but straight men have worn makeup and flashy outfits and done homoerotic shit as musicians before too. very often. nothing we've seen from lestat so far has been pushing any boundary as a queer artist or making any kind of statement. I'm not trying to sound like a total bitch here, but a lot of what ur saying is pushing this white fandom agenda of the "importance" of so much that any white, queer character does that....just isn't. lestat's image and sound is taking a lot from other ppl in real music history who *were* doing groundbreaking things at the time, straight or not, but what he's doing is just wearing it as a costume rn. his lyrics even say "I'm an actor / in my makeup." like I said, S3 in full will bring more to the table, obviously, but for what we've seen so far....this hasn't said anything in any objective way that's "deep." u can still like it and identity with it, but idk how u'd argue that it's doing anything tbh. ur welcome to do it tho, I'm not trying to shut down the conversation here. I'm just giving my perspective. I *do* actually think this is stuff we should talk about exactly *bcuz* fandom rides so hard for it all the time. it should be explored why that is, what's the logic behind it. I rly am interested.

edit: wanted to add too that p much everyone we see in this show is queer and creative so literally why is nobody ever saying all this about louis' photography, claudia's acting and interest in fashion (or her general observations on the world thru so many diaries that are referenced in multiple ways as she's not around anymore to speak otherwise), armand's theatre work, madeleine's dressmaking. that's usually why ppl comment on lestat, bcuz he's the most noticed and praised but he's literally not the only one doing it at all.

[starofhisheart]

My hope for IWTV: (POTENTIAL SPOILERS for show & books AHEAD)

Loustat reuinion obvi

Maybe stuff happens between the 4, Lestat tells his side of things, etc

Loustat leaves Dubai and Armand, rockstar Lestat arc begins (idk i havent read the books)

Meanwhile, Armand expects Daniel to leave as well, but...he stays

Devil's minion arc begins with Daniel getting Armand to bring his memories back and/or tell him their history

Armand was Alice the whole time!!!! When Armand said he'd keep digging to find out what was so fascinating abt Daniel he meant it!!!!

The story goes between flashbacks of their psychosexual stalker relationship & how they build an actual romantic relationship, to present day where Daniel is starting to feel very hot under the collar around Armand but too much of a bitch to drop his guard. Bickering ensues.

God i want devil's minion SO BAD u dont understand

[blueiight]

IWTV E4 “A Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child’s Demanding.” Claudia discussing how it feels to escape poverty to being adopted into wealth, struggling in her existence without peers even during her second childhood and how she does not even care to have the veneer of mortal manners around Louis’s family, what Charlie as her last peer meant to her, and her mortal upbringing prior to Lestat + Louis.

And I realized, what I thought was Heaven was just some nice room. And what I thought were angels were really hell demons.

Uncle Les and Daddy Louis were rich. They had nice clothes and a nice auto carriage and a funny way of being nice to each other.

I gotta go to bed when the rest of the world wakes up, so there's less kids to play with...

Daddy Lou said I had been away from people too long. I didn't know how to behave right anymore. But Uncle Les said, I behaved just fine.

Diary, his name is Charlie. He's got veins like rivers. They flow right down his arms. …Charlie's death ushered in one of the darkest eras in our lives. The oh-so-delicate balance of our oh-so-delicate household was shattered. For Claudia, all humans died with Charlie.

And, diary, you'd think a girl whose mama died in childbirth... whose daddy gave her away to a mean old auntie who beat her 'cause no one said she couldn't, who died in a fire but came back by the blood magic of two demons, well, you'd think that girl wouldn't know what funny was. But you'd be wrong, diary. And if I told you, dumb diary, that that same girl was being raised to kill like her demon parents did, to take two souls a day so she could stay in the same flat-chested, hairless-crotched 14-year-old baby doll body as her mind and spirit turn 19, 20, 25, 63, 358, you dumb, dumb diary, I bet you'd say to anyone who'd listen, "Fun? Fun? How does she even get up in the morning?" Well, let me tell you something, you stuck-up, flower-covered, three-dollar fancy fսcking paper diary, I'm doin' just fine. (diary pages read aloud as Claudia self harms at the end of e4)

IWTV E5 “A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart”. Claudia discussing her life/reckoning with the fate of her premature existence.

"Dear Diary, am I gonna be a virgin every single time I do it? Won't my skin down there grow back like my hair does when I cut it?"

Who am I supposed to love? You two have each other. Who's my Lestat? Who's my Louis? I’m not human. What human would want me? Perverts? Like the uncle at the roomin' house who used to watch me pee? Or little boys? And 40 years from now... still little boys? How are you gonna fix it, huh?… (turns to Louis) [Lestat] treats us like shit and you just take it! And you, [turns to Lestat] cruel as the devil ever made, to deny me one love when you’ve got two.

[Talking to Louis in her room after the confrontation at the dinner table] I remember the night I was made, the fire chokin' me, you carryin' me out through the flame and the smokes. But then why'd you take me home? Why not a hospital? …. But I was breathin'! Maybe I'd have a handsome husband by now. Or maybe he'd be plain but with a good disposition. That'd be fine, too. I'd be sweepin' floors, makin' dinners, nursin' babies. Maybe I'd go to church. You think on that some.

How does Claudia react after her rape? She exhibits textbook behaviors.

Co-dependency.

I spend time following Louis and Lestat now that I am my own woman... with no obvious sense of why I follow them, other than meaning slowly disintegrates without them...My companions in immortality.

but wait.. u might ask: doesn’t this contradict what she said years earlier in this same episode about wanting ‘her own Lestat and Louis’? is this Louis or Armand somehow forging Claudia’s diary? or is this a rape victim shortly after the actual experience struggling with her emotional+ mental state and in that frame of mind going back to the immortal family she finds to be a more familiar sort of ‘evil’ than the unknown vampire that raped her, especially after witnessing Louis weep over the grave Grace made of him? to Claudia here, being Louis’s ‘sister’ is balm put onto a bleeding wound.

Hypervigilance over her wider situation ad an Enmeshment with Louis, as they both have endured incredibly traumatizing events (with Claudia being raped + shortly after, witnessing Louis being beaten) and are without Lestat for six years following the end of E5 picking up the pieces. it is Claudia who tends to Louis in his most vulnerable here, and Louis struggles with that, wanting to be ‘her knight in vengeful black’ in return.

She's grown very protective of me. That's what this is. It's why it's hard. She came back altered when she left us. There's a darkness in her that wasn't there before. Give her a little time. [Louis is trying to appease Lestat here in their ‘compromise’, but there is a key bit of truth in his observations here.]

Claudia learned very early on, as early as E4 when Louis asked her mentally about Charlie, how to block her mind off from Louis. and with her traumatic experiences, its all but said that hypervigilance protects her mind further (as shown in the S2 trailer when Armand comments on it). When Lestat steals her from off the train, he also threatens her:

Because if you try this again, Claudia, I won't snap your leg, defile your pocket, and zoom off on a motorbike. I'll turn your bones to dust.

Is it any wonder Claudia draws the comparison to Bruce when she talks to Louis, especially when Louis in the season finale plays the role of a honey trap to the very same lover who almost ‘killed Louis’, as Claudia [and Daniel alike] frame the ending of E5 as abuse + attempted murder, as Claudia seethes , is ‘done enduring?’ and just before she creates her own murder plan:

Or did you kill him, like you did Antoinette, and how you tried to do with Louis?

I have to wonder why, over a year from airing, blogs and reviews claiming to be dedicated to the series rehash the most juvenile questions that the episodes themselves directly answer? How can S2 spec or complex discussion occur, if callout PSAs shutting down any sort of canon-compliant discussion is the way to go? If people constantly exhibit their refusal to meet the show where its at and engage the material for what it is, where can we go from here? AMC IWTV is very didactic. ‘The absence of metaphor is striking’. Yet for all the waxing about loving ‘fucked-up gothic romance’, there is a willful ignorance in understanding where & what makes the situation fucked up to begin with. Or even an interest in understanding the basics of the setting!

[loelett]

Umm hayyy.... thank u to @butchybats (love of my life) for tagging me in the snippet of a wip challenge !! for once I actually have a wip and it's actually all Ray's fault proof:

Here's my favorite part of the wip (WHICH IS OVER 1000 WORDS NOW BTW)

“Ah. Armand… I hope you know that I don’t actually eat grass.”

He does not seem to understand, briefly. “I saw you eat it. Quite clearly. A vampire memory is nearly infallible, you know.” He looks suspicious. “This is very strange for you, Louis. Are you very upset at me? Is that why you won’t accept?” “Um… no.” Louis pats the top of Armand’s hand once, then motions for him to sit. He does, and Louis sits across from him, eye to eye. “I’m a vampire just as you are, Armand. I don’t actually… You see, I was very upset when that happened. I only wished to feel…” He coughs into his fist. “Something. I suppose I wanted to feel closer to the mortal world. In any way I could. You understand how things were, after…” Louis trails off. His expression sobers, but his eyes are still kind. “Well, it’s not something I prefer to linger on. The grass eating, I mean. Call it a moment of weakness.”

Armand’s own expression sours as he listens along. His hands grip tightly on the grass stalks next to him, and his eyes burn. “I see.” He is silent for a long time, breaking eye contact to glare at the tip of Louis’ shoe. “I have offended you.”

“N-no, I-”

“Grass ingestion is a pastime only expressed in times of great distress. And I have brought back sour memories. Memories brought on by my own actions. How monstrous you must see me. You, a modern century angel. I can only apologize.” His head bows softly.

Louis, flustered, simply makes a small noise of protest. He rests a hand on Armand’s head, fingers stroking his curly hair before sliding beneath his chin to lift his bowed head. “Please, Armand. Don’t chide yourself over such things. You know I cannot blame you for past events any more than I blame myself.”

“Oh Louis! That does not make me feel any better. I know better than anyone how your self loathing-!”

“Ah, that’s not what I meant! I mean- it’s okay. I’m not offended. Please, I’m actually flattered.

UMMyeah. Maybe i'll post it one day if i actually finish it???? lmao

I think Ray already tagged everyone i know so this is an open invitation for anyone who wants to join in

[rollercoasterwords]

hi rae how are uu!!!

i was reading about mulvey and the female gaze and i remembered you saying something about how it pushes bioessentialist agendas but i don't remember what u said exactly so do you mind sharing a piece of ur mind about this again

also!!!!! i've read captive prince with ur influence and then read ur laurent's pov rewrite and god!!!!! it was so so good it brought me to tears and made me laugh out loud and scream into my pillow at times... the first book didn't stick out to me that well but afterwards?? their dynamic is everything i was missing in life. also reading the first book in laurent's pov was an otherworldly experience, him getting surprised to see damien isn't the definition of all things evil like he thought ahhhh u captured him perfectly i think

also read all for the game series (saw a fanart of neil in ur blog and it kickstarted me getting into yet another fandom) and i was like wtf is this and then later i was like wtf is this but in a positive way. now the characters are all my babies (except kevin like yes i understand his struggles and all but i still see that guy as a little bitch which is a bit ironic when andreil are the biggest bitches to exist but still)

also binge-watched iwtv and goddddd gays with communication problems who happen to be vampires i love them all sm <333 do u have a fav character i wonder AND any thoughts on the last episode?

anyways i hope life is treating you kindly much kisses and good wishes <3

hi i'm good hope ur doing good as well!! such a fun message hang on let me take this piece by piece...

mulvey's male gaze the bane of my existence lmao...yeah the entire theory is rooted in bioessentialism. basically mulvey is basing her theory in freud who assumes that the categories 'father' 'mother' 'son' and 'daughter' are stable + static & therefore assumes that the categories 'male' and 'female' are stable + static biological categories which engender inherently different psychic/interior qualities. mulvey's entire argument hinges on the idea that men will be categorically unable to relate to/empathize with/see themselves as women onscreen--this argument begins to break down when you start asking questions like 'how is mulvey defining 'men' and 'women'? is she defining them, or is she assuming that they're static biological categories? are they static biological categories?' also i disagree with the idea that people are categorically unable to identify with characters across sex and/or gender & think it's kinda dumb tbh. to be fair, mulvey's theory was meant to apply to a pretty specific context and has largely been taken out of that context in ways that are very annoying but not necessarily her fault; still, when the original theory is so rooted in bioessentialism i don't really find any of it useful.

anyway. moving on to the fun stuff captive prince omg!! so glad u enjoyed the series & my own take on laurent...it was SO fun trying to get inside his head & imagine what would have been going on in there i love him so much <3 <3 tricky to write tho bc i was definitely trying 2 walk the line of like. not diminishing/excusing laurent's cruelty while simultaneously showing why he acts the way he does in the first book...abuse as cyclical etc...

and aftg lol such a trip...wtf is honestly an accurate response it's a wild ride but so much fun <3 & not liking kevin...valid honestly i like him but i also don't care abt him that much compared 2 the other characters...u should read 'the sunshine court' at some point it's abt jean & it will probably make u like kevin even less lmao

& finally. iwtv!!!!!!!! i've been obsessed w that show the past few weeks i just binge watched season 1 & have now been watching season 2...SO fucking good omg. personally my favorite character is. armand <3 idc what he does they could never make me hate him...last episode was soooo good claudia is my second-fave character just a smidge after armand i truly think her story is probably the most interesting + tragic out of all of them like. makes me feel a bit crazyinsane thinking abt it BUT her & madeleine. oh my goddddd that scene broke me. don't have many more coherent thoughts currently other than wailing + tearing my hair out etc but i am having a great time nonetheless...

anyway thank u 4 the message love catching up life has been busy but mostly treating me kindly hope it's doing the same for u!! <3

[nalyra-dreaming]

I hope we get some snippets of the 70's interview in s2 - I'd guess it's closer to the the book plot, but I'm curious about how it differs from the present tale & why Louis changed his tune so much. I don't get why some fans ignore this plot point & the way it's informing Daniel's current approach. In his line of work, if someone gives you two contradictory stories, admits the first was a performance but is vague when you ask why & deflects when u challenge them, they're an unreliable source.

Definitely, and something must have happened.

And there is another level to it, the interview we "see" is not the one that was "recorded".

There is no "Lestat had surrounded me" when Louis leaves after their first time. But there is on the recording Daniel has. For example (there was a very interesting post the other day in regards to this).

Which gives an interesting spin to the meta level of the show itself, because you literally cannot trust anything.

Did Louis say "surrounded me" and Daniel's interpretation is that which we "saw"? Is it Louis' imagination, and what we saw is what he meant, but he chose to use a different word for Daniel?

And of course, as you rightfully point out, the big, big discrepancies between the tape and recording, that Daniel himself points out.

Why is that.

There is only one logical reason (imho) and that is that some kind of reconciliation has happened in-between those interviews. As Louis hints at himself. Perspective, for one.

How did Louis get to a different perspective on Lestat? And why does he still suppress memories? What other memories does he suppress? Are suppressed?

He mirrors Daniel here (a bit), in the way that they both remember differently, a parallel that Louis himself points out to Daniel.

The odyssey of recollection.

And... I think both hope for a more tranquil crossing.

But odyssey's are always a mess, they come with sirens, death and storms.

And the passage of time. :)

So yes, Louis is an unreliable source.

Unfortunately, Daniel is, too.

And I bet Armand will be as well 😈

[licncourt]

Me, reading the entire VC wiki just to know who Rashid is: WHO ARE YOU??? (the electronic inbox and Ukraine comment are sus 👀 I know there's drama around this but that sounds like a certain vamp whose name starts with the letter A... or could Rashid be... David? 😬)

so what are u thinking? is rashid a stand in for khayman or benji or is he armand messing with daniel

Aaaaah GOD Rashid is driving me crazy because he's so clearly important. Sitting there like a smug little Chekhov's gun.

I was never convinced by the "Rashid is Armand" theory before this and tbh I'm still not really, but that line about him speaking in a Kazakh or Crimean dialect?? Both are right near Kievan Rus', Armand’s homeland. I believe northern Kazakh territory was IN Kieven Rus' at the time of Armand’s childhood. Seems REAL specific and like quite the coincidence. Maybe it's just meant to be a red herring and we're all chasing our tails just like they want us too akskjahfad

Wouldn't it be wild if this was actually the end of the Armand era of IWTV instead of PL timeline or pre-TVL? I don't think that's out of the question at this point. It sounds like Louis didn't tell Daniel about Claudia in the first interview?? So I think that opens up a LOT of possibilities for stuff Louis is keeping hidden.

[showdown-of-the-undead]

Hey! Just so u know I think the Armand submitter meant the version from the show (AMC) not movie! Cos he’s the one who has an iPad!

I had gotten an ask from the submitter saying the same thing! If he moves on to the next round, I will use a picture from the show! Thank you for letting me know!

[coffin-hopping]

when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, publish. then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (positivity is cool)🎶✨ luv u

YAYYYYY ILY TOOOO!!!

uhhhhh here’s sum stuffs I like listening to lately!!

[nightcolorz]

Can I ask what was Armand 's time like with the original coven/cult? I haven't read the books but I have heard how he was forced into him and it seems like a terrible time. I get how it started but he seems to have spent centuries working for the cult, if you can call it that and I was wondering how was it like? Did he really spent all that time in a cemetery? The coven seems to form the largest part of his life and I have really been wondering what those years have been like to him.

omg good question!! Thank u for the ask!!

the cult backstory part of the vampire Armand is actually relatively short considering how much time he spent there, but we r given a lot of details that give us an idea of what it was like. U said u know how it started but imma talk about that anyway for comprehension sake lol. So when he’s seventeen (in the book of course lol, in the show he’d be much older when this happens) and he had been turned into a vampire maybe within the last month or so, very very young vampire, the “children of darkness” storm Marius’s palazzo with intent to kill him. The children of darkness are a vampire coven (that most ppl in the fandom call a cult bcus they r by definition a religious cult lol) that has existed for a long time, has multiple covens throughout multiple parts of Europe. and believes that vampires are part of gods plan as demon like servants who r put on earth to serve him by spreading evil that god can fight. They believe that goodness can only exist if evil exists to combat it, and by spreading evil they r working for gods plan. So the children of darkness think that vampires, as servants of evil, should live in cemeteries with the rats, bcus they are meant to be low lives, and to refuse any indulgences such as living in houses or having mortal friends. The logic is that bcus they r like devils, they must create their own personal hell, bcus Devils arent worthy of having nice things and shouldn’t be nice to humans. So that’s why they live in cemeteries lol, and don’t have clean clothes.

so Marius is not catholic lmao (all children of darkness members are), he literally is Roman and was born before the Christian god was created. And he lives in a giant palace and has a team of mortal servants and, yknow a prostitute child who he turned into a vampire recklessly. So the Children of darkness r a very big cult, and so they believe that they r the ultimate authority that every vampire should follow, and vampires who don’t follow them r heretics (basically like Christianity historically). So to punish Marius they kill him with fire, kill all his mortal residents and the children who r living with him as his painting apprentices. They obviously can tell Armand is a vampire lol, and for being a breaking of the laws in his very existence (a vampire who was made without authority from the coven and was made as a child, also a vampire who has severe mental illness that Marius acknowledges as a disability that will make him unable to function as a vampire), they plan to kill him, sort of for the same logic Armand kills Claudia and Madeline, bcus he will die soon anyway. They line all the children (who Armand considers his brothers) up in front of a huge bonfire and throw them in as Armand is being held back screaming and trying to fight them. They are about to throw Armand in the fire with them, but the leader of the coven Santino, who is an Italian catholic who u can tell is sort of resigned and non violent, believes in the coven but doesn’t take any joy in the cruelty, sees that Armand has a history of being very very catholic and sees that he has a learned servitude and learned helplessness that would make him a very willing part of a catholic cult. He knows that Armand’s devotion to god and willingness to debase himself to honor god (he used to be a monk as a kid) would make him a good cult member, but he also can see that living with Marius has buried those tendencies in him, and he’s much more secular now. So he decides to let Armand live and indoctrinate him into the coven, aiming to beat the cult member tendencies back into him.

Santino takes armand into the catacombs and Armand is very resistant lol, he’s like why do u think I would join u I hate u u killed my master and u killed my brothers. He’s being mocked by the coven members, one guy throws his brothers ashes on his face 😭 and Armand in retaliation violently kills the guy and rips his head off and throws it into the skulls lined on the wall. Santino is Like wow. This kid is strong, he has like genuine potential. So he becomes dead set on making sure Armand becomes a part of their cult.

Santino talks to Armand to a while and explains their beliefs, hoping to convince Armand to be complaint that way. He tells him he’ll kill him if he doesn’t join them, which still doesn’t get Armand to want to comply. Santino introduces Armand to a vampire named Allessandra, who becomes sort of a maternal and mentor figure for Armand while he joins the coven. To force Armand to comply Santino then locks him in a cage and starves him of blood for weeks and weeks on end. Since Armand is a very young vampire, and young vampires need to eat multiple times a night, he’s been reduced to an animal because of how hungry he is. It’s basically like when Louis is trapped in the coffin in iwtv s2. It’s described that he’s yowling and throwing himself at the bars, biting into his arms and drinking his own blood, going completely insane, hallucinating. (Alessandra sometimes comes to sooth him while he’s loosing his shit in the cage and calls him a poor boy, pleads with Santino to let him out, stuff like that, which I think is sweet lol). Eventually the coven vampires feed Armand, and they release a teenaged boy into his cage. Armand instantly attacks and kills the boy without thinking or seeing him, and after he’s already dead Armand realizes that he just killed his closest friend and brother Riccardo, who was kept from being killed in the fire for this purpose. Armand desperately tries to turn Riccardo so he won’t die, but he’s long gone.

This absolutely pushes Armand over the edge, and he’s forced to share his containment now with the corpse of his best friend who he just killed. He tears his corpse apart so he doesn’t have to look at his face, starts throwing his limbs outside the bars, insane stuff like that. Armand is then starved again for several more weeks, and when he is eventually fed he is given a scared orphan child. Armand kills the child in his starvation and then starts to hallucinate guilty visions of the dead child in containment with him. It’s implied that this goes on in similar fashion for a long time.

when Armand is eventually released the indoctrination has worked. The intent of the torture was to teach Armand that he was a monster who deserved to live in catacombs, and that he wasn’t meant to live a life of indulgence like his master. The torture was also intended to drain him of any fight he had and to drain any hope he had of escaping. Armand is so defeated and devastated that he doesn’t care about escaping, he just goes through the motions, he’s lost everything. The coven decides that Armand’s name can not remain Amadeo, bcus of what it represents, since Marius named him Amadeo and means it “beloved of god”. Alessandra renames Armand to well, Armand lol. Armand means warrior.

after this Armand’s time in the coven isn’t described in depth, but we r told that the daily routine of the coven includes going out and tormenting and violently killing humans, indoctrinating and kidnapping vampires, and sleeping in coffins and doing rituals in the catacombs. Pretty quickly into his time as a coven member Santino sends Armand to go rule a coven in Paris, which has been abandoned by its master and needs a new one. Armand is given this opportunity bcus of how strong he is from Marius’s blood, and bcus of how uniquely dedicated and obedient he is. Santino knows that Armand is strong and resilient enough to be a leader, while also being obedient and compliant enough to not abandon his position. Armand asks to bring Alessandra with him bcus he needs someone to guide him in this position he’s never had before, and Santino allows him to.

Armand falls into the role of leader easily, just going through the motions passionlessly. He’s never been a leader before, but he’s able to fall into it with the mindset of obedience he has taken when being a part of the cult. Armand is in charge as coven master of doing all the thing to others that he was once put through, he tortures and starves vampires, kills them for breaking rules, stuff like that. Armand doesn’t believe in the covens principles, he is only a part of the coven because he feel he has no other choice. Coven leaders often abandon their stations and live normal lives, but Armand doesn’t do this bcus he doesn’t know how to live without smth to devote himself to. He’s never lived independently, he was turned as a teenager 😭 a teen who was being abused, and that’s all he knows how to be. He daydreams often about Marius coming to save him, but obviously this never happens.

We are told that Armand’s life continues in this way in much the same low action, depressing fashion until lestat comes around, the only change being that Allessandra goes crazy from old age and depression and kills herself. Lestat is the only reason Armand’s life with the coven ends, it’s implied he would have lived that way forever if he hadn’t been stopped.

Even tho the children of darkness part is pretty short and doesn’t detail much of the long time Armand spent there, it definitely informs a lot about Armand’s character. It’s a massive influence on how he perceives life as a vampire and why he reacts with so much disproportionate violence and cruelty for seemingly no reason. The reason Armand kills Claudia is very cult based, bcus for him he sees her death as a necessary part of Vampire Law. And Armand continues for the rest of his life to see extreme violence and torture as a necessary, common aspect of life that some scenarios demand. The cult also changes his personality a lot, within a few months he goes from a rebellious strong spirited kid to a cold and wide eyed monster who moves through the world like a ghost. It’s only during devils minion that Armand starts to regain his ability to be a person and starts to find a life for himself where he isn’t submitting to a purpose or a leader, for the first time in his existence

thank u again for the ask!!! I hope I answer ur question + this is what u were looking for, lol