#he loves and is protective of Louis

[thequeenofsastiel]

Armand doing anything in s3 other than guarding Louis from the vampires who will attack him would be EXTREMELY out of character and I will die on that hill.

[eminentzayn]

paul higgins will forever have my love and admiration. thank you, paul. you are heaven-sent.

[terrorgirls]

Armand + "Bad Faith"

Sartre explained: From bad faith to authenticity, David Detmer // Interview with the Vampire // Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre

[part one]

[noirve]

god, armand as a character is giving me serious brainrot. he's such a control freak because he desperately needs to derive meaning from something—anything. whether it's god, rituals, or coven life, he needs to give a purpose to his existence. this is why he upholds these stringent laws and regulations in both of his covens, which are ultimately destroyed by someone he loves who stands outside it all. and he kind of just allows that destruction, despite all of his power, because he is also... bored? it's like he's on autopilot, going through life in this meticulously constructed routine until he meets lestat and later louis, who both refuse to adhere to his carefully crafted structures and disrupt the status quo. this is attractive to armand because deep down, underneath his all masked emotions, he is very lonely and desperate for connection! which is just awfully human for such an ancient powerful being

imagine being this old and alone, how do you endure? armand tries to find value in these rigid structures because otherwise, his life feels empty. "he needs rules to give him purpose" but in the end, this doesn't fulfill him completely because, despite his feigned confidence and stoicism, he is insecure, needy, and traumatized. this is why he seeks out chaos despite having spent all this time trying to control everything and everyone around him. he lets it happen—for love, but also, i think, because unconsciously he desires that total loss of control, which allows him to actually feel something real. every few decades, he almost intentionally lets his entire world, the world he worked so hard to manipulate into his will, be ruined. yet, when he tells daniel he "let it happen," he is lying, too (at least about lestat) because he presents himself as more passive, composed, and reasonable than he really was when his way of life was threatened. he just tells himself that he wanted it that way all along so he remains the one in control. i need to see him crack

[my-coven-is-claudia]

a moment that’s really stuck with me from the trial is during lestat’s apology when claudia reminds louis of his possible insincerity and the futility of his apology. what’s most significant is that in the face of danger claudia is the one out of the two who takes the lead. claudia always as louis’s protector. nursing him after being brutally beaten by lestat. conceiving the plan to murder their maker. leading them through war-torn europe. claudia’s fearlessness and determination is what urges louis to continue moving forward. to leave america behind and all the pain it signifies and find others like them. to start a new life and finally (try to) escape lestat’s grasp. claudia was louis’s spark in the dark but that spark was his life-force. his willingness to continue living was tied to her existence. his anchor amidst the chaos. if claudia was not by his side then what was the point in hiding from the sun anymore. it takes a failing relationship, two interviews and suppressing his grief for over half a century for louis to be able to speak of how much he loved and adored claudia. and learning to live without her will surely take more than a few thousand sunsets.

[sunshineandlyrics]

☀️ This fan sharing her experience when she and her friend met Louis at Missy Elliot's set at Coachella Day One, 11 April 2025.

Also there's a pic and vid on her IG post x

[professional-girlkisser]

armand as rashid being so protective of louis. literally running to his side any time he showed the slightest bit of discomfort. only revealing his vampiric nature when louis was pushed too far and was overwhelmed. take me back 😭

[cordyceph]

went to bed and woke up in a cold sweat realizing that claudia's play, the birdie one, is both a direct analogy for her story and also foreshadowing of her death WHILE ALSO nodding to pauls death

claudia'a single minded, desperate drive for freedom eventually lead her directly to her death. she was "nailed down" by lestat (by LOUIS, actually- lestat only kept her for him.), and tore herself free at the loss of her 'foot,' being a stand in for the personal pain she suffered for freedom

no matter what she or anyone did, she was going to die painfully, because she was so desperate to be free that everything was suffocating. lestat, louis, romania, the coven. the only thing that didnt rot in her mind was madeline, because... there simply wasnt time. madeline was fresh and new and, given time, would have probably suffered the same heel-turn claudia gave to everything.

of course thats because she shared louis' hopeful outlook. being free of her parents? would fix everything. when it didn't? maybe if she had louis, it would be worth it. but its not, lestats still here, louis is still in love with him... killing lestat, thatll fix it, and she and louis will be happy in romania, right, the homeland for vampirekind? not quite, so better try paris, the city of love. that doesnt work. the coven, though, will give her what she wants, right? she'll be happy with other vampires?

the only person who makes her happy is? a modern version of lestat? a weird white woman she met on happenstance, who has little to no care for societal norms or faux pas. a blunt, kind of funny, kind of sad woman who lost her family but has a capacity for enduring because what else is she going to do? die? no, she cant do that. she had no friends because she was weird and offputting and had dangerous rumors, no hangups on loving claudia, no hangups on dying or being a killer.

that's... just lestat. without the immortality and the specific traumas, of course, but like. claudia's most beloved person was a funhouse mirror of her most hated. which really speaks volumes for what they could have had, because it wasnt just a clash of personalities. it was lestats bpd clashing with hers and both of their attachment to louis clashing. if lestat had been better at sharing, if louis had been better at loving both of them, if claudia had been less angry at the world for nothing but existing? maybe they could have been a good family. a happy one forever, just like they all wanted, but were unable to give each other

[eyestrain-addict]

Every time I start thinking about how we don't know who louis truly is because he doesn't even know who he truly is, I go a little more insane.

[1dfanfictionbookcovers]

This Multiplicity of Powers by HelloAmHere ( @helloamhere )

Maybe there’s a universe where he doesn’t have to keep all his secrets on the inside. But this isn’t that universe. //an X-Men AU.

covers here

[faithandfairies]

I really love this moment, right after Lestat has just turned Claudia. Louis moves closer to Claudia and Lestat stops him with a gentle hand on his chest.

And you just know here Lestat is thinking something along the lines of "We do not know this girl. I've never made a child vampire before and don't know what to expect. If she chooses to attack, I need it to be me, Louis, not you."

And then Claudia politely asks for some of Louis' blood and you can see Lestat breathe a sigh of relief.

You can say a lot of shit about Lestat, but one thing, he will do his best to protect Louis from every perceived threat that isn't him if it's the last thing he does.

[pynkhues]

Something-something Daniel and Louis both wanting to distance themselves from portraiture - Louis because he's not good at it (yet) as a photographer, Daniel because he views it as a lesser form of journalism - yet both being drawn to it as an artform. An embedded need to pin someone like a butterfly to a board, to capture them, to understand them, to find and show the story of them, to know as an artist without being known, and what does it mean for Louis to let himself be in this way? To let himself be the subject of a portrait, instead of the observer of one? To invite Daniel to his own capture? To want to be seen for once instead of the one who sees?

[thegroundhogdidit]

armand haters love to make shit up about him and then get mad at you for not engaging with their incredibly bad faith interpretations of his character

[claudiablogger]

people would understand armanlou a lot better if they were familiar w marriages of convenience. hard to see it as any other. starts off a flirtatious courting turns into a threat of social exile (at best) and/or death (think of the child. stay for the child.) then a hard won fumble at companionship you think you can endure -- before long you are forced to, with little idea of the extent of your agency. it's literally an arranged marriage w domestic violence

[gladiatorcunt]

i fear my avoidant attachment style but easily prone to jealousy and crashing out personality, appreciation for music and fashion, and fat figure would be like catnip to lestat

[pynkhues]

I don't think Louis loved Armand or even seemed to strongly like him after the early stages of their relationship, at least based on what we see on-screen, but I've never quite seen where people are coming from with the idea that Louis was dating Armand solely because he thought that otherwise he and Claudia were in danger from the coven. If that were truly his single motivator, they could have just left Paris? He says "I had you covered" to Claudia, and I think he did feel that his and Armand's relationship guaranteed Claudia's safety, but I don't think that was his entire reason for it (I just don't think the reason had to do with strong feelings for Armand either lol)

I get that, anon. I think it's definitely a space that's left open to personal readings, but just for me, I do think Louis and Armand loved each other, although I don't think they were ever in love. I think they found each other at a time that they both needed someone, and I think that initial attraction and desire was genuine, and that the sort of 'summer love' component to them was a real intimacy that had an expiration date that they both ignored. In that sense, I think in better circumstances, they would've parted ways after a few weeks and been a seasonal love story that they told future friends and lovers with a smile and a hint of nostalgia, but instead they commit and dragged that love through the years until it rot and festered. To me, they were a flash in the pan tossed into the slow cooker, haha.

But yeah, I agree that he and Claudia could've left Paris, especially given Louis at that point has access to Lestat's trust / Magnus' money. I get why they didn't - they're both building lives and relationships - but if anything, I see that as an indicator of the fact that they didn't actually feel that threatened by Armand or the Coven. Claudia had gotten her answers, Louis had fulfilled his promise in helping her find some of those answers, they stay because they want to, and yeah, a part of Louis choosing to commit to Armand is probably a bit about Claudia's security and safety, but they're still both choosing to stay. That doesn't make what happened to them any less a lynching, or any less an utter physical, emotional, personal violation - in many ways to me, it makes it even more of one, which is why I think it's important to acknowledge.

In that sense too, Louis, Claudia, and Lestat all choose and find a freedom in Paris, and Paris would kill them all. That, to me at least, is a part of the tragedy of it all.