#now more than ever I think daniels memories from paris are about armand/ at least some if not all

[noomyguts]

reading daniel and armands sections from queen of the damned, like damn yall its real, they kiss on the mouth and say shit like "my beautiful boy" "my beloved" "my lover", armand trying to be the ultimate sugar daddy and give daniel everything a human could want, while daniel begs to be turned and gets depressed when armand says he'd rather kill daniel than see him turned into a vampire

[dykekingofhell]

okay but the other thing (besides completely shifting armand motivations) about how the show decided to execute the armand betrayal, is that it weirdly softens louis as a character rather significantly. i remember in interviews towards the beginning of the season jacob anderson talking about how he hoped the audience would still be able to like louis after the season concluded, and yeah it's safe to say that we all still love louis, but honestly after seeing the finale, i'm surprised that was ever really a concern. the finale cut one aspect of louis that legitimately puts him a much worse light, the aspect that i thought jacob anderson was referring to. and it's the implication that in the book louis KNEW the extent to which armand was involved with claudia's execution beyond simply not preventing it while they were together and STAYED FOR YEARS.

directly from the book:

“ ‘You could have told me anything you wanted about Paris, Armand,’ I said. ‘Long before now. It wouldn’t have mattered.’ “ ‘Even that it was I who…?’ “I turned to him as he lay there looking at the sky. And I saw the extraordinary pain in his face, in his eyes. It seemed his eyes were huge, too huge, and the white face that framed them too gaunt. “ ‘That it was you who killed her? Who forced her out into that yard and locked her there?’ I asked. I smiled. ‘Don’t tell me you have been feeling pain for it all these years, not you.’

when armand attempts to "confess" to the betrayal, it's not just the louis is too depressed to have grand emotional reaction (which is also true), it's also that he wasn't the least bit surpised; he finishes armand's sentence!! it "wouldn't have mattered" because in all likelihood louis deduced this a long time ago. this is a far cry from the show where he chooses to stay with armand to spite lestat under the assumption that armand didn't direct the play and that he was simply too weak to intervene. in the book, he stays with armand partially out of apathy and an unwillingness to try living any other way after the depression onset by claudia's death hardens him, partially to punish himself out of self hatred by remaining with someone who he holds so much contempt for, and partially because he is haunted by his last interaction with claudia where he tells her that he loves armand, and claudia responds, "no doubt you do. But then again you could even love me." louis sees himself as bound to armand because he sees himself as doomed to constantly fully love (and simultaneously resent) creatures that lack humanity completely. and so he stays with armand, knowing the truth. even in this 70 year period of mourning for claudia he is selfish; wallowing in his own self hatred and pity rather than in her memory doing the very least of leaving the man that killed her. i think the finale would have worked much better for at least me, if this facet of louis had remained intact. i can imagine a version of the episode where daniel attempts a grand reveal only louis' reaction to be much more muted, and for it to be played as a confrimation of already long held suspicions which he chosen to ignore, and i think that would have gone hard.

[avelera]

I’m dying for your thoughts on what is going on in Dubai with the triangulation of Armand and Daniel in Dubai because nothing in 2.05 explain ms what they(beddeath vampires) could want him to tell them as referenced earlier in the season or warrant all the Rashid pageantry. Especially not with how Armand looks at Daniel like he just got home from the wars.

Your takes are exquisite and I’d love to hear them.

Ok, I THINK you're asking what the hell is going on with Daniel and Armand and Louis and the longing looks Armand keeps shooting Daniel and I might be missing some nuance to your question but that is the question I'm gonna answer because I can't stop thinking about it.

Ok. Ok, ok, SO!! The biggest question I think we're facing as of 2.05 is did the Devil's Minion chapter of Queen of the Damned ever happen?

For the uninitiated (LOTS of BOOK SPOILERS but like the books have been out for decades, sorry): Louis/Armand is like... not a thing. At least, it's not one of the big love affairs of the series compared to Louis/Lestat. I mean they've had a situationship but they're definitely not a long devoted love affair going right up to the beginning of the events of Vampire Lestat/Queen of the Damned, which is where the show seems to take place. They traveled together for a bit after the events of Interview with the Vampire but then parted ways because What Happened In Paris changed Louis irrevocably.

The big love of Armand's life in the books is Daniel.

And we learn this in the chapter of Queen of the Damned called the Devil's Minion.

Because Armand stumbles upon "The Interviewer" and falls in love and they have this fucked up whirlwind torrid romance where Daniel teaches Armand about the modern world and basically "how to be fascinating" and Daniel begs over and over to be made into a vampire.

Lots of stuff happens between them but short, TRAGIC version is that Armand does make Daniel into a vampire and it breaks Daniel's mind. He's not a cool powerful vampire once he's turned, he's basically a vegetable, he loses his mind and becomes a hollow husk of himself. (Ironically, insane-new-vampire!Daniel is left in the care of Marius of all people lol)

SO, from the book reader perspective, I shot upright on my couch when I saw old Daniel. Because Old Daniel means we're in... some flavor of happy AU? We're in an AU where Armand did the "responsible" thing and didn't give Daniel the Dark Gift, so Daniel got to grow old and actually be a person instead of being the Devil's Minion where Armand became his whole personality and then he lost his mind.

Thing is, since S1, I've been assuming, like others I think, that we're in an AU where the Devil's Minion didn't happen at all. That Daniel did the interview, he and Louis parted ways, and now he's back to finish it. It seemed neat, clear, if a little confusing for book fans because Daniel/Armand is one of THE great love affairs and it seems like it just got skipped entirely, which kind of makes sense since no other film version has really delved into it, right?

WRONG. OK, so with the longing looks that begin RIGHT when Armand finally reveals himself, the whole mic drop moment of "Armand, the love of my life" while Armand stares at Daniel, almost seeming to plead with his eyes "GET ME AWAY FROM HIM" and looking at Daniel with such longing, going into SEASON 2 where we learn that ok, the 1970s beat was WAY more complicated than it seems, Louis' memory is very faulty, Armand has actively tampered with both of them and we DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH....?

So my current theory is: the Devil's Minion DID happen.

Armand and Daniel had their love affair, but instead of turning Daniel, which by the way he had to be talked into doing because of Daniel's suicide attempt basically, Armand set him free. But CLEARLY he continued to stalk and pine after Daniel, if he was there at Daniel's fucking engagement reading his girlfriend's mind enough to tell Daniel what she was really thinking then. Armand was definitely still OBSESSIVELY IN LOVE. And, IMO, has been the whole time.

Now, what does this mean going forward? What do I think is going on?

Armand wants out of his relationship with Louis but he's chronically, pathologically, incapable of breaking up with anyone. He used Lestat to break up the Children of Darkness, he used Louis to break up the Theatre des Vampires, and now he's using Daniel to end this fucked up marriage he and Louis are in.

Armand is doing this first by consenting to renew the interview, Louis gets a walk down memory lane, remembers how much he loves Lestat. Not to solidify their bond with how good things are now, but to break it up with nostalgia.

Armand is also going to reveal things he's hidden from Louis, I think. Like the fact Armand killed Claudia. I think right now they're both operating under the excuse that Santiago and the coven did it in defiance of Armand but that is simply not true, Armand ordered her death to get Louis all to himself. But (book canon) her death broke Louis so basically Armand destroyed what he wanted in Louis in the gaining of him.

Armand also misses Daniel. He's doing the classic passive lover thing, using the next lover to get rid of the current one. That's why he picked Daniel specifically as the vehicle of his liberation. Boy wants to get white knighted in the most fucked up way possible. Evidence: every single painfully longing, puppy dog look he shoots Daniel's way and how those looks only get more intense the more Louis waxes poetic about how great the Loumand relationship is.

Armand appears as Rashid in order to establish for plausible deniability for Louis that he DIDN'T have a relationship with Daniel OR, if Louis knows about it, that he really did do as promised and wiped Daniel's mind. Look, Daniel doesn't even remember him! When he's standing right there! Pretending to be Rashid! He definitely didn't summon his former lover here to break up Louis and him, obviously this is JUST about Louis' desire to do the interview haha, definitely not trying to bring his old ex to break up his current relationship the guy doesn't even remember who he is.

In conclusion: Armand still wants to fuck that boy old man. And he wants to get rid of Louis by making Louis break up with him because that's how Armand rolls. And that's why this whole ridiculous pantomime is happening, because Armand will never, ever be the active party in the breakup because the boy is way, way too fucked up by his supremely fucked up life up to this point to ever be the initiator. Instead he will always, always manipulate those around him to do what he wants.

[intervieweird]

‘ you craved me all this time... and you resisted. ’ 

@childofmanynames | continued.

Short, yet potent came his answer: “I had to.” It was all Armand uttered as he laid there with his back flat against the bed, video game controller in hand. He didn’t know what to make of Daniel’s expression - no longer able reach in and steal his thoughts; the puzzling mind of his fledgling closed to him forevermore - and, watching him the wrong way around - almost upside-down - made his face difficult to decipher.

Armand paused the game and seated himself upright; he smoothed out the front of his sweater with one hand and set aside the controller with the other. There were rings on both hands - just as he liked there to be - each of them unique and curious to look at. In their collective, they formed an irregular rainbow across his slender, white fingers. And, when the precious metals and pricey gemstones caught in the lamp light, they were a marvel to look at with vampiric sight. He had spent many nights studying his collection of jeweled rings.

With resistance he was well acquainted. Though, in recent years it was oftentimes overshadowed by his desire to indulge; he did love to indulge. His maker had taught him to surround himself in beautiful things, to love and crave beautiful things - only the best was good enough, that had been the lesson - and Armand was more than happy to have found his way back to that mindset, after having spent more than half of his existence resisting just about everything the world had to offer; centuries spent as the scary coven master under infamous Cimetière des Innocents in Paris, as well as his earlier years in Rome, were to thank - or, rather, to blame - for that. While still very much capable of resisting temptations, in the twenty-first century Armand had the freedom not to. He reveled in that freedom.

“What could I have- no, what else was I supposed to do?” He asked, in reference to their time apart; years during which their relationship was…strained, simply put. There was no cleverly hidden subtext, yet he elaborated for good measure; “If I hadn’t, nothing would have changed.” Not for the better, anyway. Their separation had been necessary, came the verdict; his belief was that staying together would have ruined all chances of future reconciliation. It was a risk he had been unwilling to take - a decision he still stood by - separation was the smarter choice. Wasn’t it? Heartbreaking as it was, it had worked out alright. Hadn’t it? He wanted to think so. The conversations regarding their years apart were fragmented; Armand didn’t pry, knowing well that Daniel treasured privacy - and he fully intended to let him have it - and Daniel…Armand wasn’t certain. In the privacy of his mind, he could admit it was fear which stopped him from asking. He refused to believe his fledgling didn’t care - why reunite at all if he didn’t care? - yet the underlying fear had it’s claws in him. When the conversations did come, he didn’t reject them like he had the relentless questioning throughout the last decade of Daniel’s mortal life. They were both guilty of peppering the other with questions Armand was reminded, the memories of his own cluelessness at the time of their first meeting bubbling to the surface.

He pressed his naked feet to the hardwood floor. A tender stare caressed the shapes of Daniel’s face, along the curve of his nose and the form of his lips, from the solid jaw to the ashen brows, and the gemstone eyes. Time would do nothing to him - age would not touch him like it did the last time they were together this way - time did nothing but smooth away the remaining traces of human in him, now.

And, Armand was infinitely glad they had found back to one another; but, it was only in recent years their world - the coven’s world - had calmed down, allowing its residents to at least try and enjoy the current millennium. Armand was as closely involved with the coven as ever, and his New York residence, Trinity Gate, had become a headquarters of sorts for many - he didn’t mind; Sybelle and Benji loved it - and, it was his love for their undead kinsmen that tied him to the coven, as much as it was his deep-rooted fear of losing everything - his companions of past and present, his children, his chance at happiness - again. The coven of the new millennium offered a stability he would not turn his back on; he didn’t trust the peace to last forever, but, for now, it was enough.

His mouth curved into a smile, small and faintly sad. “Didn’t you?”

Christ, to look at him. 

There’s a kind of figurative, unsettling beauty to Armand’s inverted stare; Daniel falls into the wide dizziness he’d felt to peer into the unreachable vault of the Sistine Chapel, where heaven had been untouchable and remote, and he could not lower the angels to fit under the shape of his hand. Or maybe he’s thinking of a Bacon portrait, faces a smear of something unsettlingly recognizable; a smudge of paint that might have been a mouth; or a wound. Daniel’s throat closes to see how Armand studies him; near, at distance. Agonizing to exist so aware of the nearness of each other, and the way their bodies once conformed in space. This brutal, intimate image of Armand’s feet, bare upon the floor. 

Daniel figures you’d have to have been a believer first for belief to lapse: he’d taken First Communion and been a bad Catholic since. But, God, he reads the Catechism in the shape of Armand’s brows, in the even horizon of his eyes, and thinks these are the articles of his faith. 

The controller is cold under his skin. Daniel’s hands are absent of the kind of warmth that leeches into plastic. Whatever the heat in him now is only borrowed.

But Daniel won’t warm the inside of a coffin.

Colors scatter across the round swell of Armand’s cheek like drowned coins under the waters of the Trevi, and Daniel’s breath catches by instinct. The television seems to him a kind of muted, dull chatter of noise, just traffic at a distance, and Daniel’s disinterest softens the snarl. It’d been a strange, abortive thing, to summon these old images, like memories, and finding that neither had been like he’d recalled. 

Daniel lifts his arm over the denim rough of his knee, wrist draped loose, blue light blinking violet through the skin of his thumb.

Nothing would have changed.

It might be true, but the certainty punches into him like a fist. 

He’d like to lean into the bitter. He can feel it, still, the old resent gathering behind his teeth. It would be so easy to let it come. But he can’t hold on to it. He digests the ugliness with an unfamiliar unease; he’s not used to chewing it down. It makes for an unfulfilling meal. 

“Is that why?” There’s a thickness in the question, tenderness fluttering under the plane of his sternum, where his heart closes achingly around a throb. “You didn’t come.” Somewhere along the line, without his realizing, they had slipped the rope of each other and unmoored. Was it the mortal allure that had, in the end, always summoned Armand back to him? The immediacy of loving something bound to die? And when Armand had sealed Daniel to his body with his blood, hadn’t it killed them both, anyway?

Maybe it wasn’t a rope. Maybe it was a bone, growing out of the cage of Armand’s ribs, like the first woman from Adam, like Armand’s first child; like his last. Maybe it was a bone. Maybe it snapped.

Daniel hears a strained laugh, threadbare around the edges, and supposes it must have been his.

A plaintive warble of something dying issues from the television screen, neglected. So let it die. It’s all only pixels. 

Daniel leans toward him. The air is dead between them, and Daniel longs to resuscitate their old frequencies. He lifts his hand like a compulsion, like the spellbinding he used to accuse of Armand, when Daniel couldn’t face that when he returned, treading the old paths back to these ancient, young eyes, it had always been for missing him. 

Armand’s face is so close beneath him. Daniel falls into it, like he always has, and the world tilts away. His vision spins with that same slanted dizziness, until he anchors himself against Armand’s skin; he slips his hand under his hair, and remembers the geography of these well-loved contours under his palm. 

“Jesus,” he breathes, raggedly, unsticking from the starchy quiet of his throat. He feels a weight under his tongue to see him, to breathe in the nearness of his skin, the way that time would never touch them again. “Doesn’t anything last? Aren’t we meant to?” Why ask it? Maybe they’re fucked. Maybe this is a confession.