#i wanted to be what daniel was to armand and what armand was to daniel

[minaharkerdailymirror]

"You've got two other reasons in the car right now," she said angrily, "Think of what it would do to them too."

Because while SHE might not value the vampires as highly as she probably should, the fact of the matter is they were all in SOME sort of relationship together (though platonically with Louis on her part) and both of them needed to remember that Daniel's actions and her anger could hurt Lestat and Louis as well

She wiped her angry tears away, "It's not a depression that just 'happens sometimes', it happens a lot lately and I've caught you nearly acting on it. It TERRIFIES me, Daniel. If you don't want to live for you then live for us. You know what losing Jonathan did. You know what I became because of it. We've had 50 years together and counting. They wouldn't save me from it, Rashid couldn't pull me out of it. I wouldn't ever be who you loved if you died. They wouldn't be the same either. And it would kill Armand."

He was loved and was far less the monster they all were, but the darkness kept pulling him under and she didn't know how to reach him.

“So, you want to interview vampires, so you?”

[fascinationstreetmp3]

you could take this as daniel being freaked out by armand looking dead when he sleeps and the video disturbing him but to me it comes across much more as his particular kind of... envy? the desire he has to be just like him. seeing him sleep in a coffin, hidden away somewhere secret, corpselike, his hair slowly growing back throughout the day... they're markers of what daniel wants to be so badly that sometimes he can hardly stand to look at armand

[iwtv-theories]

Unpopular opinion: but I hope Daniel and Armand don’t reunite (or become a couple) until AFTER Armand meets Benji & sybelle . Because it’s book canon that: Armand meets the 2 after he turns and abandons Daniel . And Armand & Daniel only became a couple/reunite again ( after the Benji/sybelle storyline ). And, since sybelle/benji lead to Armand evolving as a character , it would make sense that show-Daniel wants the Armand who actually grows as a person.

Since Iwtv timeline has already been altered I really hope we’re introduced to Benji and sybelle earlier on and they flesh out their storyline for a longer period of time. Because they’re the reason Armand finally gets love that is reciprocated (and for the first time ever he doesn’t have to put on a persona and use his sexuality to get it). I feel like that would really be healing for show-Armand. Armand even says his time with them “changed” him into a “new man”. In the books he “loves them selflessly” and even Marius says to Armand that he “loved them more respectfully than (he) ever loved (Armand)” . If show Armand does get a love interest … it’ll probably be because through sybelle and Benji he learned to love in a somewhat healthier fashion. He never tried to change Sybelle and Benji (and in return they loved Armand for who he truly was). If he stops pretending to be someone he isn’t - that would attract Daniel who hates bs and who would probably prefer the real Armand over the fake personas he puts on. In the books Daniel liked the real Armand (the good and the monstrous parts).

Assad himself said what Armand desires most is “acceptance for who and what he is “ . In the books Daniel … but also Benji and sybelle fulfill this.

In the show he’s “not prepared to show all of what he is … YET “(emphasis on the ‘yet’ because he will in time). Sybelle/ Benji love and accept him , even after seeing him at his most monstrous. Show Armand is a clean eater but when injured he ate in the most over the top way in front of them - messier than he has ever done in his entire immortal life . And they don’t even care cause he targets “evil doers” and did this after he already saved them from their violent abuser . They call Armand an “angel” after he saves them (like Claudia first called Lestat/louis “ angels”). But they also 100% accept the fact he’s in sybelle’s words a “monster “ and their “guardian angel”. Benji also reiterated this sentiment by calling Armand an “angel” and in the same sentence a “dybbuk” (demon) .

In the books, Armand also relates to them and vice versa. Benji is a gifted (adultified) young boy who is sold by his parents to an abusive man. And sybelle is a traumatized orphan whose “skills” are exploited by a man who makes money off her (and he corrupts an art form to do so). I hope in the show they expand on their similarities … maybe Armand starts processing some of that trauma and starts realizing Marius was more similar to sybelle & benji’s abuser than he cares to admit . A girl can dream .

I know they probably won’t show them in s3. But Armand does meet them after he’s broken up with Louis , and turns/ is temporarily separated from Daniel. It’d be so interesting to see Armand from lestat’s pov juxtaposed to the current version of him with Benji and sybelle cause it’s shockingly domestic in comparison (going to the movies/theatre, discussing politics, listening to music , Armand listening to their trauma, him giving the 2 trust funds and spoiling them rotten ). Don’t forget, in the show the first thing Armand says when he thinks of pure “goodness” is “ the innocence of a child” (cough cause he never had that himself 🥲) .

Also - Benji is Palestinian. Wouldn’t it be amazing to get Palestinian representation?! And for a show to delve into those hardships in a sympathetic light! It’s already show canon that Daniel doesn’t like the Mossad and empathized with the Algerians who went through a similar occupation (something something foreshadowing)👌. Since off screen (in the books) all 4 become a vampiric family of sorts . I want them to explore that in the show sooooo bad since they never did so in the novels. They could take a lot of creative liberties expanding on that since it was never shown how Daniel interacted with the trio in the books (after he got back with Armand).

Someone give me some found family fanfiction of the 4 … I’m begging on my knees 🙏.

[doctorwillseeyou]

Louis knew everyone including himself was evaluating this Daniel and trying to work him out. What was it about Armand that kept his human so enthralled and not scared?

“Alright we will find one big enough to share” Hannibal kissed her cheek. “You know I always want to make you happy.”

Armand simply smiled and stroked Daniel’s hair. “You are such an extraordinary person my boy.”

Love At First Bite, Part Two

New Orleans. 1910. 

Jil laughed aloud as she sipped coffee with her breakfast companion. Her husband of some several centuries.

They were waiting for the other member of their trio to emerge, but Lestat was late this morning. ‘He’s taking his sweet time,’ Jil snickered. ‘What’s the betting we see him much before sunrise?’ This time she was speaking to Hannibal in English, practicing as they’d newly arrived in America. 

Just then, there was a noise outside the parlour. She gave Hannibal a wide eyed look of amusement that said finally.

Neither of them expected the wide eyed slightly dishevelled and sheepish looking young man that stood in the doorway.

Her look turned to one of shock. ‘Hvem er han?’ Who is he? The shock had caused her to revert to her native Danish. She looked over at Hannibal, curious now.  

@doctorwillseeyou

[cornyonmains]

Listen, but I am losing my absolute mind over IWTV turning Devil's Minion into old man yaoi. Book spoilers ahead.

As a rule of thumb, vampires will do anything to avoid loneliness. Their desire for a companion is basically their reproductive cycle at work. In the books, Armand is a character who is acknowledged as needing help by the other vampires. He's isolated, believes he's incapable of being loved, and probably the most severely traumatized character in a long, long list of severely traumatized characters.

When Daniel comes along, he's in his early 20s. His sharp mind is forming, but he's still a 20 year old idiot, and Armand, who does not know how to love someone properly almost kills him with the obsessive mess their relationship turns into. This results in Armand breaking his 500 year old rule, and turning Daniel to save his life.

However, in the series, something has stymies this timeline. So now we have Old Maniel, who has been around the block. Who isn't a 20 year old kid too inexperienced to really understand the monster in his bed. This Daniel almost has a century of his own on this Earth, he's going to understand Armand's nature even more intimately than before. And you know what he's going to do?

He's going to hit it anyways.

AMC is feeding the worst parts of my personality with this show. I don't know how to describe it but to say I'm absolutely certain a decent chunk of the writer's room was on Tumblr in 2012. Like back when all the destiel girlies were in their mid-20s and hornyposting on Main. Those girls could do some magical shit with problematic smut that Gen Z has never been able to recreate. It's probably why they're all frigid now. The A/B/O fic was lightning bottled in the kind of storm you may not come back from standing in a second time. Hard to blame them for not wanting to standing on the shoulders of giants with wolf dicks, but I digress. ADHD makes it hard to write things, I just surrender to my stream of consciousness.

That being said, even I have a line, so as excited as I am by the fact two decrepit sociopaths are about to fuck nasty on network television, I REALLY hope Lestat doesn't tongue kiss his mom. That shit's not sexy, it's just weird and unsettling.

[demonpoppyseed]

“I wanted to show you I was happy,” Armand said, the dissociation in his voice only illuminating the depth of feeling beneath. “Even though it wouldn't matter. Even though you wouldn't know…”

He glanced down at the dust on his shirt, the rubble on the floor all around him, as if noticing it for the first time. He began to struggle to his feet. Louis had cracked one of his vertebrae, it seemed. He wouldn't let it show on his face. It didn't matter – it would be healed before the sun rose.

Daniel held out his hand. Armand froze in a crouch when he saw it. He looked up without taking it, eyes shining with distrust and confusion.

Daniel scoffed.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Armand,” he said, shaking the hand at him. “Only one of us bites, and it's not me.”

“Not for lack of trying,” Armand observed. Any other human would have called it blithe. Daniel thought how strange it was, to be able to read someone so well without remembering all the practice it had taken to learn him.

“Had that argument a lot did we?”

Armand, whose eyes had wandered, faux-casual, to the windows, glanced quickly up at him again and then away. The moon was low in the sky. Louis would be feeling the pull of the coffin. Where would he sleep?

With a flick of the wrist, and without even looking at him, he answered Daniel’s question.

Daniel stumbled back, his hands, trembling violently now, flying up to his face. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block it all out, but there was no stopping it – the images, sounds, sensations, flooding his every sense, as if he were living these memories all over again in the flesh, at a speed no human mind could process.

He screamed when the emotions hit him – lust, intrigue, fear. Anger, despair. Heartbreak.

He thought at first the hunger was the worst. He'd forgotten how entirely it had consumed him – hunger for experience, for sex, for his next fix. Hunger for Armand.

But it wasn't the hunger that brought him to his knees; it was the love.

“How long?” he asked. A small, detached part of himself still capable of observation noted with surprise that it came out a sob.

Armand looked down at his nails. He flexed his hand, watched the tendons move under his skin.

“Ten years,” he said. Then, seemingly unable to stop himself, the bitterness creeping in, “Ten years, two months, and one day.”

Daniel bowed his head down towards his knees and rocked, forward and backward. Tears flowed hot down his cheeks, dripping onto the worn knees of his jeans. This torment, this remembering, felt like nothing in his frame of reference. Later, when he would try to put it in writing, he would describe it as like every migraine he'd ever had hitting him all at once, layering over each other, building and building and building.

"Pain like a noise," he remembered Louis saying.

Armand glanced at him, too quickly for the human eye to detect, and then pretended that he hadn't. Daniel like this reminded him too much of their first meeting, the blissful feeling of not caring whether Daniel lived or died. He longed for it, that beautiful apathy. It had been so easy. He'd watched Daniel cry just like this and all he'd felt was a detached satisfaction, and a pinch of disdain. And all his anger at Louis, of course. But the point was, it hadn't hurt to look at him. It hadn't hurt to cause him pain.

I can take it away, if you'd prefer.

“Don't you fucking dare,” Daniel spat. “Don't you – Jesus, baby, I –”

He trailed off, disoriented. Armand huffed.

“It will settle,” he said. “You'll remember when you are in a moment.”

Daniel didn't think that was the source of his confusion, exactly. Already, his vision was clearing, and so he saw Armand hug his knees to his chest. He looked human, all of a sudden. The transformation would have shocked him less than an hour ago.

“You know what this means,” Daniel said solemnly, his voice strained, doing his mediocre best to close his mind and wincing with the effort.

Armand seemed to curl further into himself. Daniel leaned forward into his space, trying to catch his eye.

“You've been cheating on me since the seventies.”

Armand finally met his gaze, eyes flashing.

“I was with Louis for decades before I ever laid eyes on – are you laughing?”

“You're such a fucking drama queen,” Daniel said, wiping a tear from his eye, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “I mean I'm shit at relationships, but you didn't think to, I dunno, fucking talk to me? No, of course not. Why have a conversation when you could just wipe your boyfriend’s memory, spend fifty fucking years drowning in romantic despair, and then bring him back around to rub his nose in how happy you are without him? But you know what the problem is, Armand? You never fucking broke up with me.”

Armand hissed at him, fangs bared. Daniel felt a familiar thrill run down his back and into his balls.

“You're trying to provoke me,” Armand spat.

“OF COURSE I AM!” Daniel shouted. “Fucking – fight back!”

The words had hardly left his mouth before his back hit the floor. Armand’s hand closed around his throat. Daniel’s reaction pressed, hard and unmistakable, against Armand’s thigh.

They stared at each other for a long moment.

“Call me baby again,” Armand said.

[nalyra-dreaming]

I know it'll brobably be a huge post, but if it's not too much of a hassle, can you summarize which questions from s1 they've left completely unanswered in s2 (in your opinion)? And which answers you aren't satisfied with even though the show seemingly is (like Rashid disguise for many fans)?

Alright!

So I did a rewatch, and just wrote down everything that is not fully clarified, yet. Obviously I have theories for a lot of these, and have talked about a lot of them, but… all these are not “officially” resolved imho :). I’m skipping all the date discrepancies and “errors” (like the stab wounds disappearing in the church), because I believe those were all intentional for the “memory is a monster” theme :)

Daniel doing a certain puzzle - a memory or just a nod to the book audience?

The tapes in the post box - addressed in s2, yes, but without real answer, as to who put them there, actually. (Real) Rashid seems to know more, but it does seem connected to Raglan as well?

Louis signs “Louis de Pointe du Lac”, but his monogram is LDL - and throughout the show he is sometimes addressed by full name, sometimes by the abbreviated “Louis de Lac” - why?

Why does Armand go along with the subterfuge in the first place? Louis behaves quite differently prior to Armand revealing himself which can be part of the sub/dom-play they do, yes, but why did he allow this to happen at all, given all the “tinkering” he does? And if we are to believe that Louis is indeed pulling in Daniel as a “lifeline”, then why allow it at all?

What else is in the box that Louis pulls the “Lestat” card from?

What other things did Lestat bring from the continent?

“The vampire is bored” - in the context of said lifeline, does not make much sense to me

The “groan” - and also why Armand has hung a painting of Marius, of all people, in what will turn out to be Louis' apartment.

The “I serve a god comment” - does Armand only … extrapolate from the other servants? Or is there more to it all.

The “farm”

How many children did Grace have, and, given the context of the chronicles - why did they give her twins?

What happened in the year 2000 to make Louis stop killing?

What medicine did they give Daniel? It’s not the one Armand claims they’ll give, as other bloggers have pointed out

Why exactly did Louis and Claudia resort to eating prisoners of war? Why go to prisons to feed? (Foreshadowing to the dungeons they later have in the books?)

Why did Armand pretend(?) to be praying (in a slightly wrong way?)

Why does Armand see the book as a suicide (again, why does he let it happen?)

If the book of hours was the one from Memnoch as Sam said in the episode insider, then that book must have been taken to Europe by Louis, and then left or have been stolen there.

When and where was the new version of “Come to me” recorded?

The salt circles and bibles and all - it can be argued that were just random citizens, but given the fact that the Mayfairs are part of the universe…

Why did they change the means of killing a vampire in contrast to the books? I mean, I get Santiago, but… all in all? Why change canon there? (Or the sick blood, too.)

Why did Lestat choose their food at the end as seen with him choosing the man with the balloons for Claudia? Like, is that connected to the sick blood?

Who is Armand on the phone with and why did the show put such a focus on it?

Why do Lestat’s words in Claudia’s diary not match what we saw

Why is Antoinette’s finger a fresh wound?

What happened to the torn and cut out diary pages? What exactly did they contain?

Why, within the universe, does Louis get upset when Daniel does what he (supposedly) wanted him to do?

Why does Armand point out that Daniel has only heard half the story? Like, within the universe, why does he say Daniel would be ashamed of what he says there? If Armand’s intention is to “keep” Louis… why does he say that? Why does he let it go on, and not just throw Daniel out right there and then?

Now... some of these can be "explained" by the way the show is structured to keep the suspense, others... not so much. Some were already said to be revisited still, like "murder night" - which will likely include the diary pages in some kind of fashion.

So some of these will definitely be addressed in s3 or even later I think (but since you asked about season2... :))

[gnarptado]

[Not about the books]

Loustat edit to ‘Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call’ by the Bleachers putting Lestat over the lyrics ‘Oh, golden boy don’t act like you were kind / you were mine but you were awful everytime’ trending tag ‘#lestatcrashoutcore’ tiktok comments of Lestat ‘my princess with a disorder’ ‘bipolar king’ I will not deny you representation of your mental disorders I’m not refuting that however I don’t think the clips we are shown of his ‘overreactions’ or ‘crash outs’ are truthful to his real temperament.

In the scenes just before Lestat drops Louis while they were fighting, the audience was under the impression that Lestat was the aggressor and extremely mentally ill to the point of rationalizing his behavior. “I do not want to fight you” “I am holding back” all said while we were selectively shown clips of Lestat defending himself and then later revealed that in that instance, Louis was in fact the aggressor, upon his reflection with Daniel.

I don’t know how it was intended because I haven’t seen many people share my frame of reference but after witnessing that scene it led me to believe that all of Lestat’s ‘crash outs’ were exaggerated by Louis thus, giving me the impression that Lestat, who previously I saw as childish and emotionally underdeveloped, may have been more sane than Louis led us to believe.

Of course there was my thought of ‘if Lestat’s actions can be explained by Louis being an unreliable narrator than what if Claudia’s perspective?’ i want to preface this by saying; I do not have kids, and I am in high school— so my opinion is not informed or should be held to any regard. That being said, I am not going to call Lestat an A+ dad, he definitely fucked up, but he was never intentionally malicious. What he did in making Claudia watch Charlie burn (i think that’s his name…) was what he believed to be the proper way to teach her about the vampiric necessity to disconnect from human life— we’re there better ways to do this, *absolutely*. You’re 14 years old and your dog of 13 years died, being forced to watch what’s the closest thing to a best friend be burned in front of you is traumatizing. Whether it was out of sadism or not is irrelevant in this conversation, Claudia had experienced a trauma and I think this clouded her judgement of Lestat’s character *just a little bit*. I don’t think he would have been as heartless as Claudia had described, and I think later (and I mean like, *decades* later) after writing the entries I think she also came to understand Lestat wasn’t as heartless and she believed when she was younger.

The only authentic clips we have of Lestat are that of the trial after Molloy gentle parents Louis into some critical thinking. the only unbiased perspective we get of Lestat is a final grand gesture of love, using all of his power to break Louis free. Even in the end he did not care when Louis went with Armand (well, he did but he didn’t intervene…) because he loves Louis above all else. In these authentic scenes Lestat displayed what I first thought was *uncharacteristically* mature, however the only thing leading me to believe he wasn’t before was the word of a man who’s memory had been tampered with.

Oh, and there’s that. They blatantly spelled out that none of Louis memories of Lestat were reliable because Armand had poisoned his mind against him to gain an upper hand. I don’t understand if I am just being really dense or if i misinterpreted something but I see people doing the whole ‘omg he’s so crazy he’s so insane’ and I don’t know if i should feel really dumb or really smart because IS HE??? IS HE THOUGH??????

if your boyfriend came limping over to you covered in blood dragging what you can only assume is the corpse of a dead child, I would have reacted *way* more insane than Lestat did.

[inspireland]

for me it's all of this OR something similar to a scene I read in a fic (I'll have to look it up, my memory is shit sorryyyy) where the tension between the two of them (not the fun kind, it's about Daniel asking to be turned and Armand always refusing and Daniel's health declining more and more bc of his lifestyle) gets so bad that Armand half-heartedly offers to take away the memories, and Daniel actually accepts, and instructs him on how to to it, and tells him to erase everything but the love. And Armand has to live with that, he has to be sooo selective to make sure to erase them the way Daniel wants. For hours. The one time he didn't want to do it, he's actively asked by his lover to do it.

Can you imagine what emotional torture that would be? I need Assad Zaman to emote the fuck out of that pain.

If we see 70s DM and we see Armand taking Daniel’s memories, I need it to seem like a really selfish moment for Armand. Because when he turns Daniel in Queen of the Damned, he doesn’t think he’s giving a gift, he thinks he is committing the ultimate act of selfishness, that he loves Daniel too much to let him go, that they’ll be in hell together. I want him to take the memories for the same reason. Daniel BEGGING him not to, but he cannot keep him around because he’ll turn him. I want absolute “I love you, I’m sorry” energy.

[camellia-thea]

initially this post had some commentary about interests right now. and then it turned into a ramble about personal healing in the tags. so the interest post is going separately.

[cryptocism]

that half-blank, half-apocalyptic look

"i can b ur angle or yuor devil" etc etc "get a man who can do both" etc etc

obsessed with this vamp i think he should get to do whatever he wants forever

[shelfperson]

okay but WHYYY is no one talking about louis and daniel WHYYYYYYYYYY is no one talking about the greatest grandpa4grandpa relationship known to man and i don’t even mean romantically i mean in the most basic human platonic level their relationship is FASCINATING.

like louis SAUGHT HIM OUT after FIFTY YEARS he FOUND HIS BOY, this horrible infant who DID NOT UNDERSTAND A THING HE TOLD HIM, who saw his raw, decades-old pain and wanted in on it, AND HE GOES BACK FOR HIM BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE’S CHANGED. he can understand now. he can help him find the truth.

and like, they’re both absolutely terrified by each other because they’re both uniquely skilled at getting under each other’s skin and finding that truth (and also because… louis could just up and eat daniel anytime but shhhh…) and it’s because they UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. louis’s interviewing daniel as much as daniel’s interviewing him, just. pulling teeth from each other’s head, trying to pull out all the rot with such violence and cruelty (from both of them!! daniel is a cockwallop!!) but they want to help each other they CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER.

LIKE THIS????

THIS FUCKING SHIT?????

GAGGED ME. RUINED ME. I HAD TO STOP AND TAKE A WALK AROUND THE ROOM.

(the gifs are from @loumands account btw. great work my guy)

[platoapproved]

iwtv ships + book quotes

[loumandforyou]

Armand + why would you say that if you have only met this man once

[fascinationstreetmp3]

i need daniel to be overcompensating for his insecurities so bad. 100 times more cocky and rude and aggressive and insensitive than he was as a human, falling back into old dangerous habits and vices, not just because now he has new energy and power and wealth to flaunt but because it's ALL he has, and he needs to cling onto it. play it up and revel in it so no one sees that underneath, he feels like a botched fledgling in the body of a sick, faded old man who maybe has no real idea why he was even made. that armand might think he failed in making him. that his maker didn't even really want him.

[queenoftheimps]

OK but imagine if Season 3 kicks off, Daniel is still trying to figure out where Armand is while tagging along on the Rockstar Lestat tour for the second book, he's having no luck figuring out where Armand has squirrelled away, then he winds up at some concert venue chatting with some aging punk who's around his mortal age and it gets mildly flirty and then LIKE A BAT OUT OF HELL, HERE COMES ARMAND WITH THE STEEL CHAIR