#marius de romanus/armand

[haldora]

"I ran to him. He lifted me in both hands, clutching my arms ever so gently, and tucked his face against my neck. From the soles of my feet up my back through my arms and my neck and scalp, I felt it. Where he flung me I didn't know. Was it our bed or some hasty cushions he found in another closer salon? "Give it to me," I said sleepily, and when it came into my mouth, I was gone."

[pacipinka]

*taps mic* is this thing on? Yeah okay so every vampire in the vampire chronicles is turned at critical a moment in their lives and beyond just the body they are in when they are turned, their mentality stays at that standstill for their entire immortality, Lestat was turned against his will, he was clinging onto Magnus begging him to be freed, so he’s constantly seeking freedom and only finding loneliness and thus turning back to people again and again, however he can’t STAND being told what to do, since he desires agency in his life so desperately, Armand was turned after years and years of abuse and lack of control but such a desire for genuine love, by a man he ‘loved’ so wholly who he felt was barring his love from him, he needs control in his life, he needs a ‘master’ but he does not desire it, it does not fulfill him, he is trapped in a room but the door is unlocked! Louis was mourning his brother, he felt like an utter failure and so he’s always seeking family, seeking people he can care for, he can coddle, he can prove he is good too, but he loves people who either cannot stand coddeling and need a sense of looseness to live (Lestat) or people who grow out of coddling who prove to Louis he will always fail the people he loves (Claudia), Claudias turning, in many MANY ways mirrors lestats in that it was against her will, she was stolen from her home, and in her immortality she desires freedom but unlike Lestat does not have the agency/ form to get it, she will always be small, she will always be looked down on, even by Lestat who cannot deny how much she is just like him *taps mic* ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!! NONE OF THEM CAN BREAK THE CYCLE!!! TO BREAK IT WOULD BE TO UNDO THE VERY FIBER OF THEIR IMMORTAL SELVES!! THE CYCLE IS THE BLOOD THEY DRINK IT IS THE HEART IN THEIR CHEST AND IT ROLLS AND ROLLS DOWN THE MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OF THEIR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER AND IT CAN NEVER BE STOPPED BECAUSE THEY WILL NEVER STOP LOVING EACH OTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!

[r3burials]

portrait painter

modeled after Sofonisba Anguissola, Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola, c. 1559

[bishonenvoicedbyadyke]

thinking about the armand painting again and how violent its very existence is. like there's layers to this.....this is a painting that was paid for with your body. in it, along with cattle and dogs, you're pictured worshipping your abuser, kneeling at his feet. your skin is whitened. your features barely recognizable...... and now this painting is in a public museum here for everyone to see. like anyone can come and see your bare, vulnerable throat.

[suddenly-frankenstein]

uhmhmhmmm just occasional thoughts about Daniel's interaction with Marius

[fishfingersandscarves]

like father like son

[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.

[armandlastnamemarius]

“I knew then, as perhaps I've made plain in this story, that he wanted me to feel pity for these victims; he wanted me to experience horror. He wanted me to see death as an abomination. But due to my youth, my devotion to him and the violence done me in my short mortal life, I had not responded as he hoped.”

Excerpt From The Vampire Armand

[owlsnotes]

"Dubai is a child", Armand says.

Armand/Arun was born somewhen in the 15th century.

Dubai was founded in 19th century.

Armand is literally older than the whole city.

He is the oldest creature/thing there (if Marius is not somewhere around). Only the sun and the sea are older than him.

It blows my mind.

[miraculan-draws]

While I believe we'll see more similarities than differences in Show vs Book Lestat overall, and that Show Louis is now the Only Louis for me—as a narrative bone to chew I definitely see Book and Show Armand as very different characters who share very similar traits and I mean this in an overwhelmingly positive way like??

Book Armand was turned at SEVENTEEN. and by the sound of his descriptors, he could pass for younger than that. Young enough to have a bit of androgyny to his presentation. Book Armand is like. Ganymede. Frozen in time in what his maker must have thought as his prime. His name before was Andrei.

SHOW Armand is TWENTY SEVEN. Older by a long shot than the other boys in his maker's house. So what kept him there? He's no longer a Ganymede, he's an Adonis. In the light, you can see a shadow on his jaw. Hair on his chest. He's TALL, but always seated—attempting to look smaller and weaker than he is. His name before was Arun.

And here's the thing that really enamours me!!...Andrei could have like designed Arun for himself. Would your life be much different, if you were allowed to be a man and not a boy? Would you still want to be lovely? To whom? And in what way? Would you want to be tall? Would you want to be strong or slight? Would you want to keep your dark, doll eyes? Or would you give yourself a pair that were bright and sharp and curious—like a cat's, meant for the night?

And would Arun shun the boy who he is and was, the boy who made him? Curse him for wishing past childhood, where things were terrible but familiar, where choices were things other people made? Would you protect that boy, or shun him?

ANYWAY. I'm insane.

[polina-kov]

kill your idols

Art Print!!

[armandofnowhere]

Men and women fell in love with Armand, of course, “so innocent, so passionate, so brilliant!” You don’t say. In fact, Armand’s power to seduce was almost beyond his control.

ARMAND + paramours throughout the ages

[lukelemon-art]

Day 16 - FAMILY👨‍👨‍👧‍👦

Say "Blood bag squeeeeeeeeeeeze!" (and forgive me if butchered Benji and Sybelle)

[sam-reid]

All... fragments. Shackled on the boat. The brothel. My maker's purchase.

Assad Zaman as Armand INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE 2.04: I WANT YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORLD.

[asraeas]

Interview with the Vampire 2.04 'I Want You More Than Anything in the World'

[kaelio]

your usual heartbeat (none at all)

follow-up to this one