#marimand

[desertfangs]

Feels like a good day to post this: Marius' hierarchy of needs

[rebelrevenant]

"And what if I never go of my own free will? Will you pitch me from some window so that I must fly or fall? Will you bolt all shutters after me?

You had better, because I'll knock and knock and knock until I fall down dead.

I'll have no wings that take me away from you."

- Anne Rice, The Vampire Armand

Amadeo, reaching for his Gods. Yes, when he once reached for both of them.

[This is just a completed lineart WIP! Has a long way to go yet!]

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

drives me glass-eating batshit how Claudia and Amadeo were both teenagers rescued (or "rescued") from violently traumatic situations and taken in by paternal gentlemen vampires who taught them about the world and kept them safe and spoiled them rotten and loved them so so so much in profoundly unhealthy and dehumanizing ways. Claudia and Arun both entering the vampiric world as blank slates (like Claudia remembers her pre-turning past but we only get the barest details, it's hardly ever mentioned) and a wash of divinity, angel imagery and merciful gods. then as Claudia and Amadeo grew they started to pick up on the things that were off in their world and display aggressive behavior (Claudia's killing spree and Amadeo's The Shining moment, etc.) only to be physically punished for it. and then they experience the brutalities of life outside their maker's protection (Claudia under the floorboards and Armand under Rome) except she's able to come back home hardened and confront the realities of what's been done to her while Armand never gets that chance, he's stuck with the Children of Darkness, he's stuck deifying Marius, he's stuck clinging to ritual and tradition and all the things Claudia defies like breathing.

and then they finally cross paths and they're inverted mirrors of each other, Claudia the grown woman desperate to escape her teenager's body and Armand the grown man who wants to be loved and precocious and fascinating like he was as a teenager. Claudia being able to effortlessly pull off the veneer of innocence that Armand has to work so hard to maintain and she's not even grateful for it. she's got the youth he wants, she's got Louis's love, she's more free than Armand has ever been, she fought back against her Maker and got away with it, it's not Fair, it isn't right. so Armand punishes her with it, subjects her to the same cycle of objectification and dehumanization and violence that Amadeo went through (because it could be Worse right, he could be Donating her right). and when that's not enough to make up for everything he's missing he fucking kills her in an elaborate show just like she killed Lestat with the elaborate show that was Mardi Gras, only his writings recording the process damn him just like her writings damn her, their need to leave some mark of themselves above all else consuming everything.

and after killing her Armand spends years dragging around with a Louis who hates him just like Louis dragged around with a Claudia who hated him. he's the good nurse for Louis the way Claudia was and he competes with Lestat's ghost the way she did and he watches a fragile life with flowers growing from dead things all come crashing down in ash and dust like she did, all because of what he did to her. and at the end of the day they're both fucked-up kids whose most commonly used last names stem from the fathers who fucked them up and they could have lived each other's lives and in some ways they almost did.

[vampire-dove]

Anne Rice, creating TVC: And when ALL the ships are problematic, none of them will be.

[arduennadubaidivorce]

Reading the Armand bits of blood and gold today

Marius being jealous Armand loves his father more than he loves Marius✨

Armand loving his father so much because his father refused to abandon him to starve and rot in the Monastery of Caves ✨

Marius leaving Armand to stay brainwashed and rotting with the Children of Darkness ✨

They're so fucked up, Your Honour. I can't wait to see them on TV.

[marimanding]

Marius & Armand by @vamp4rebatscave

[ihaventcomeupwthanameforaheroyet]

I just love this moment in BC btw:

The first known drawing made by Armand in 500 years. Made after Marius was taken away from him (again). His artistic talent was blocked due to a trauma half of a millennia ago, blocked after he was taken away from his home and from his father. It took a trauma of comparable size - the trauma of being separated from Marius (again) - to unblock his artistic superpowers back.

And I just love how we are never told whose portrait was this. Like, wasn't it obvious? No need to say it.

[zombyvamp]

indulgences

[cardamomboy]

anne rice’s interview with the vampire, season 2 episode 4

“your father sunbathing” from ovid at fifteen by christopher bursk

the vampire armand, by anne rice

[half-as-big-as-life]

Values or whatever

[chicalepidoptera]

I will be your father figure

[iloustat]

saw there’s a list going around on twitter where we’re “outing” marius fans

too bad im not on twitter anymore, yall couldve added me :( i feel left out 💔

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

I can't stop thinking about the "Dubai penthouse belongs to Marius" theory from s1. like imagine you're Louis de Pointe du Lac and you've semi-consensually locked yourself into concrete purgatory with your doe-eyed gaslighting daughter-killing freaky little sub of a husband AND. his father/abuser/god/ex is your landlord. excruciatingly awkward family dinners where Marius clearly thinks he's a better dom than Louis and drops at least one poorly thought out comment about "the West" per meal while Louis watches Dreamstat jack off in the corner and Armand is sososo happy to be surrounded by the people he loves he's fine it's fine. Marius locks in painting and doesn't leave his room for weeks, has no idea the interview's even happening until he hears fighting and comes out to find Louis gone and Armand giving birth on the floor. Akasha and Enkil are ominously watching Netflix in the basement this whole time.

[vampire-dove]

How I imagine the "Marius is alive" reveal will go

[vampire-cenobite]

Imagery in Fellini Satyricon: Amadeo, Beloved of God

[taleofthebodythief]

Marimand my lovelies

This was a very quick drawing