#qotd meta

[elrondsscribe]

look all I’m saying is, it’s hilarious and I’m 99% sure AR is completely in on the joke. cuz only the most thirstily, desperately straight woman EVER would end up doing an Akasha plan

like,, misogyny is the single problem in the world. the only solution: kill all men. except the handful I think are hot, they’re allowed to live cuz I say so.

[skydaemon]

so lyctors are infertile yes? at least mercy appears to be, and it's strongly implied that the reason is her lyctorhood. all necromancers are known to struggle w fertility (see: harrow's parents) which iirc is bc of their link to death, so i'm guessing actually having an ever-dying/ever-living soul combo meal is not to the benefit of conception.

the reason this matters to me is that anastasia (who, as a post by @ferretsarefurryappendagedsnakes brought up, is NOT listed as a saint to serve the king undying in the htn opening) did have children. she's harrow's direct ancestor, hence alecto king-konging her at the end of nona. she is the only lyctor we know of to have living descendants. now the details on exactly what the lyctoral timeline was post-resurrection are murky, but i do imagine it taking less than their natural lifespans for all the lyctors to ascend and anastasia to fail. that means anastasia's line has been around for 10,000 years, give or take - ~400 generations. For context, the Western Roman Empire fell 60-70 generations ago. For her to still have living descendants (especially with the known fertility rate of necromancers and the fact that necromancy appears to be inherited, at least in part) is absurd. it's ridiculous to think harrow's the only descendant - i mean, even being mega-conservative about birth rates, there could be dozens, if not hundreds. some of the babies from the genocide might well have been the blood of anastasia.

it must be fucking insane for the lyctors to see harrow, to have lived with her for months. she's supposedly the spit of anastasia. 10,000 years, 400 generations, and she's right there.

basically i'm desperate for someone (ideally alecto, bc it's totally in character for her) to have a QoTD Great Family moment and realise exactly how long 10,000 years is for people and how many of anastasia's descendants are alive. maybe some of them even escaped the nine houses? idk, it just makes me emotional and i want it to make THEM emotional

[camellia-thea]

okay. just rambling here, but, i think armand took more than just the end of the interview away from daniel.

we got that little moment about that night, saying 'you asked me to' to louis. 'you asked me to take this from you, you could not live with it,' leading into, 'i look after you when you cannot look after yourself, i make those choices for you.'

we know that during the chase and devil's minion era, daniel was an addict, who was, by his own admission, slowly killing himself. he was also addicted to blood.

it's really not too far to make the jump, if devil's minion occurred, that armand made the choice to step in, in his own mind, for daniel's best interests. i know this isn't a unique jump to make, but; again with armand's "i look after him when he cannot look after himself" continual reiteration, i think it's a fair assumption.

he can also replace and blur memories, which makes the discussion of alice and paris -- why the dessert from that night? -- and how immediate and sincere his answer of "she wanted to say yes, but she didn't trust you. you hadn't given her a reason to." this could be the night he took them away, replaced himself with alice, planted something similar for her to start the relationship, then step back and watch it fall. and i think the thing that stands out there is just how tender he is while saying it. there's an undercurrent of something else entirely underneath, it isn't a dig at daniel in the moment, despite the pushing earlier in the scene.

and then in s1, when louis say to daniel, "i'd give it to you now." and the cut to armand, still in disguise, and his micro-expression of horror, the way he stiffens and looks away... and the little moment of what i read as conflict when daniel says no. his jump to "may i be excused?" i can't tell in the moment, if he's horrified about the offer itself, the fact that it is louis offering to turn daniel rather than himself, or the fact that daniel denies it. because i don't think armand could actually let daniel die if this was the case.

the disguise itself-- why pretend to be rashid? i think part of it is to try and hide behind a human persona to keep those memories at bay; especially given the little moments of flashback that got triggered by little mannerisms. i can't decide whether they're intentional pushes or not, whether armand wanted/wants daniel to remember on his own, or wants to keep it under wraps. i think, even if he believes he doesn't want it to come forward, he truly does deep down.

and once he's revealed himself as armand, the way he gazes at daniel, his beautiful boy. the continued "our boy", from both he and louis, the "he's still in there, somewhere..."

and i think "our boy" is also really interesting, because why would daniel be armand's boy, based solely on the moments that louis initially remembered? armand didn't really have any emotional connection to daniel that night, sure, he saved him, but that doesn't really mean anything; he saved daniel for louis, not for daniel's sake.

and, jumping back "our boy,[...] he's still in there somewhere"... there's implication that louis might know about it? again, i don't think this is related to the original interview, or at least, limited to it? i don't have anything concrete here, just vibes, but again, why is armand's boy still in there somewhere?

and sure, some of these are reaches and i don't think i'm necessarily right, but god it would be deliciously awful if i was.

[hey-its-sybarite]

It’s been years since I’ve reread The Vampire Armand but if I recall correctly he has a black hole heart. Dark and consuming, always hungry, and with its own gravitational pull. He’s not normal and he knows it. He doesn’t know how to love in a way that isn’t broken.

Of course, it’s also work separating out Anne’s character-work from Anne’s sometimes incredibly annoying plot-work. One thing I remember hating from TVA was Benji and Sybelle. I recall them being very one-note characters and so I did not like to view them as a reflection on Armand’s character. I wonder if I will feel differently the next read through.

[nightcolorz]

nsfw..

Daniel Molloy is the monster in the closet to me. He’s the ideal son from the middle class suburban white family who seemed guaranteed to make his dad proud, ends up corrupted by literal blood lust, the desire for eternal dick up his ass so desperate that he would kill and die for it. Danny Molloy son of Daniel Molloy jr son of Daniel Molloy sr turned twinkish journalist going around shady bars asking seductive young people for their “stories” ogling the ghost of a man with the sharp cheekbones and the hungry eyes because something in him wants to burn out just to see how bright the fire would be, to feel that warmth. Danny who used to go to church on Sundays in his button up and tie and ride bikes in the evenings with his pals before family dinner now breathless and moaning while the devil himself skinks his teeth into his neck like a beast, wanting more, wanting it to go on forever. I bet his mom teased with the other new mothers about how one day her son would be a heart breaker amongst their then infant daughters, now he’s turned on at the thought of drinking another man’s blood. Now he begs every night to be with his violent predatory bug lover for eternity no matter the small price of killing every night forever, never to see God’s light again. I am so proud of him 💕

[desertfangs]

I've talked before about the similarities between Jesse and Daniel disconnecting from family as they pursue the supernatural, but there are so many other similarities between them and their experiences with vampires.

For example, they both have this moment of realization when looking at a vampire of how inhuman and strange the thing is (and yet they are both very attracted to said creature).

Daniel's realization gets passed around a lot because he compares Armand to an insect:

Daniel stared hard at the creature before him, this thing that looked human and sounded human but was not. There was a horrid shift in his consciousness; he saw this being like a great insect, a monstrous evil predator who had devoured a million human lives. And yet he loved this thing. He loved its smooth white skin, its great dark brown eyes. He loved it not because it looked like a gentle, thoughtful young man, but because it was ghastly and awful and loathsome, and beautiful all at the same time. He loved it the way people love evil, because it thrills them to the core of their souls.

This is right after Armand has come to him in Pompeii and he realizes they've been lovers for a while and Armand isn't going to kill him. He has a moment where the facade drops and he sees Armand for everything he is. (Spoiler, he still wants to hit it.)

Jesse has a similar realization about Mael, whom she does not yet know is a vampire:

Then, an odd realization had seized her. This isn't a human being. This is something pretending to be a human being. It was so clear. But it was also ridiculous! If it wasn't a human being, what the hell was it? It certainly was no ghost or spirit. That was obvious.

This is during a conversation with Mael where they're discussing ghosts and spirits, and Jesse is quite drunk and finds Mael very handsome and attractive. Yet she suddenly realizes that he's not human and has a moment of what the heck?

It's interesting to note that by this point, both Daniel and Jesse have a lot of experience with the supernatural. Daniel has met Louis, of course, and now has spent four years being chase around by Armand, whom he knows is a vampire. Jesse has seen ghosts (both of people and buildings, which is so fascinating!) all her life and is spending the summer in a house with vampires, though she does not know that is what they are.

It's a fascinating example of what mortals see when they really, truly see a vampire. Most mortals simply ignore the strangeness of their movements, the mesmerizing nature of their eyes, the demonic nature they hold. They shrug it off as imagined or a mistake, or the vampire uses mind tricks to convince them it's nothing. But then a mortal really sees a vampire, they absolutely see how utterly inhuman they are.

[dreadfuldevotee]

Do you believe that Lestat confessing his love to everyone means he is romantically in love with all of them? That's odd i find it weird how every other character's abuse and trauma's inform their character and behaviour but when it comes to lestat it all gets waved away and he just happens to be a happy idiot whose in love with everyone including the people who abuse him, no one stops to think that this 'love' is a known reaction to trauma which later affects other relationships and bow you view love itself... but anyway nvm lestat made for poly bc he loves everyone and was born yesterday

I say this a lot about this show, but... these things can absolutely co-exist? Lestat is seriously insecure in his relationships and is aware of how selfishly he desires to hold all that he loves against his chest. He restless and craves attention and the next thrill and that often brings a new love into his life.

But truly he is a real lover, its one of his interesting parallels against Gabrielle. How she is bored of humanity and finds intrigue in the natural world, while Lestat is hopelessly tied humans and other monsters. He's oscillates between being jealous when the people in his life are together without him and delighted that they can all be under the same roof- even if for a short amount of time.

So where I'm going with this ends up being: I think your issue is more that Lestat could be non-monogamous? I'll admit that the phrase "vampire polycule" is a simplification of the arrangement, but if we are getting into the business of splitting hairs the show will have aired its final episode before we reached any satisfying conclusion. But, yes I do think that Lestat holds romantic love for several people at the same time. Some of those relationships fall to the background or feelings change, but his love for Louis and Armand is enduring throughout the books. Like feel how you want to feel, I am just one of many people who doesn't think that height of romance or healing of romantic trauma has to be a monogamous relationship

[avelera]

The “never made a vampire” scene for Devil’s Minion girlies(gender neutral)?

And the Whole Apology Scene holy shit. “Louis forgave me” “I don’t” nghhh “You’ve as sharp a mind as any that walks” “You tried to drain me pal”

Maggie. Maggie your thoughts????

Honestly, I kind of feel like we don't know enough yet??

To backtrack a little, I think you're asking what do I think of:

Daniel's incredulity about Armand never making another vampire.

Louis's easy, abused partner-style forgiveness of Armand's manipulations while Daniel looks on in horror and incredulity

Daniel standing firm and not giving Armand his usual blank check to act with high handed impunity

The reason I don't think we know enough yet is because we still don't know if the Devil's Minion happened between Daniel and Armand.

In theory, it could have happened in the 1970s, with Daniel chalking up his patchwork memories of those years fairly plausibly as having lost them to constant drug binges. In this theory, at some point Daniel begged Armand for the Dark Gift (perhaps even skirting suicide to try to force Armand's hand) and our point of divergence from the book is that Armand put his foot down, refused, wiped Daniel's memory, and Daniel went on in the 80s to get (mostly) clean, get married (twice) and divorced (twice) and have two daughters and live otherwise a fairly normal life plus get a Pulitzer.

The other possibility is that Devil's Minion hasn't happened yet. Because Devil's Minion is also the lead up to Queen of the Damned, it's when Daniel, tortured by his knowledge of a vampire world he can't enter except as Armand's cosseted mortal pet, begins to spiral and also see visions of the vampire apocalypse bearing down on the world because he's gotten little tastes of Armand's blood that make him extremely psychically receptive to vampiric projections and visions.

Thing is, either works really well with the current story, or even both, with elements of it broken up.

But the reason I bring it up now is because we really don't know if Daniel's reactions like his surprise that Armand has never made a fledgling, his pushing back and annoyance towards Armand's games, and his incredulity (and perhaps even hints of jealousy?) towards Louis with regards to Armand are faint echoes of memories of his years as Armand's lover or they are simply what they appear to be at present, Daniel being a take no shit reporter but also a human being who is heartbroken at the sight of Louis, who he rather likes actually, taking so much shit from Armand and standing firm in his own right to say no, it's not ok, none of this is ok.

We'll see!

[greedandenby]

Akasha to Lestat:

Claudia, proving her point like a boss:

[velvet-dusk]

A friend suggested it to me and I went with it cause I thought it sounded nice. It wasn’t until later that I realized it was lore-accurate purely by accident!

WoL QotD: What made you choose your WoL's name? Does it have any important meaning or did it just sound nice?

Follow up: Is it lore accurate? If it isn't, why not?

[nightcolorz]

I always laugh a little bit I see fan content/metas/etc centering around the Devil’s Minion chapter that frame Daniel as if he’s the hapless victim of Armand’s insane whims cause like, he does not deserve that much dignity lmao. This man was kidnapped for days and stalked for years by a murderous otherworldly creature and instead of reacting to this with huh, I don’t know, absolute terror and misery, he instead decides that said creature is so irresistibly gorgeous and perfect that he must spend eternity with him. This requires no manipulation on Armand’s part, he simply behaves as his usual insane self and since Daniel is a bit fucked up actually he decides he finds said insanity unbelievably attractive. Daniel canonically envies and is turned on by Armand’s status as an inhuman predator. Like please, he probably found Armand’s blender explorations sexy as fuck.

[desertfangs]

What would Armand's evil alliance with Akasha even have looked like? Does he also want to kill abusive men (good for them tbh)? Is he trying to get in on a threesome with Lestat? Are they bonding over a mutual love of trash talking Marius and burning guys alive? I need to know what they could have had

I read this ask earlier today and I’ve been thinking about it since. It’s impossible to know how Anne would have approached it or what she intended because her mind worked in such weird and unpredictable ways! But that isn’t going to stop me from speculating so here we go: 

In this version, Daniel still goes to Lestat’s house (why wouldn't he?). Armand hears Louis’ voice on the tapes as he plays them. Armand is so stunned by it that he stands and listens, and then finally searches through Daniel’s mind to figure out where Louis is. And then he leaves. (And sure, he could kill Daniel or still lock him in the cellar but Daniel deserves better so we’re just going to assume they don’t interact at all and Daniel never even knows he was there. Besides, if Armand talks to him, he might get derailed. 😉 ) 

So let's say Armand goes to San Francisco and finds Louis. This could go a number of ways. Maybe he sees Louis out at bars and realizes he’s far more comfortable in the modern, mortal world than Armand feels and so Armand doesn’t even speak to him, just feels rejected from a far. Maybe they do speak, and they argue about the interview and why Louis would open up and tell his story—and Armand’s and Lestat’s—to some mortal reporter boy. And of course the subtext of that argument would be about the way things ended with them and the fact that Louis won’t be the person Armand needs him to be. Whatever happens, it doesn’t go well and Armand goes off alone. 

Who knows where he goes. Chicago, maybe. New York? He’s probably surprised when he finds Interview with the Vampire in bookstores, and maybe it makes him angry that mortals can read his name and part of his story. And then Lestat’s book comes out and the music videos and Armand is probably seething and bitter. It's important he's bitter in this version, that his resentment grows. He waited for Lestat to wake up and now he’s awake and look what he’s doing! Armand is lonely, he’s detached, and he has no purpose or direction. It wouldn’t take much for him to fall into anything that gives him purpose or meaning. 

I don’t think he’d work with Akasha and Lestat directly. I think Akasha’s plans hinged at least partially on having Lestat in her thrall and she doesn’t need distractions. But maybe she approaches Armand and sells him on this idea of a new vampire world order. She will spare Lestat and Louis and some of the others, but wants him to cull the fold. So she tasks him with helping to destroy Coven houses and other vampire lairs. So Armand goes around and helps destroy other immortals by himself. 

Maybe it's here Armand runs into Daniel again, the journalist trying to track down vampires. Maybe Daniel sees him outside a coven house he's managed to locate and thinks Armand's name. He recognizes him for who he is. And then he sees him dispatch all of the vampires inside and when Armand comes out, he’s shocked. Frozen in fear. Daniel tries to reason with him, to say that the Armand Louis spoke of wanted to be part of the world, wanted to find meaning and love. So did the Armand that Lestat wrote about! Also, something big is happening, Daniel knows from his reporting and tracking of vampires, and he thinks there’s danger. Does Armand know what it is? Is it Armand who’s killing all of the unworthy vampires like in his coven days in Lestat’s book? Surely it’s bigger than that! Armand is baffled by this boy, who’s curious and knows so much about their kind and…. 

Wait, sorry, got off track. Clearly Armand leaves him there because he has a mission. So then when the Coven is gathered in the Sonoma Compound, Armand appears. He reveals he was working with Akasha the whole time (gasp!) He wanted to show all of them that he’s powerful and important but Louis and Marius just look disappointed and Akasha is fixated on Lestat. Lestat, meanwhile, looks only confused but he’s distracted (look, a lot is going on, Armand’s timing is not great!) 

Armand is immediately deflated by the fact that no one is really shocked or even seems to care, they're all focused on Akasha who's the real threat. And even Akasha clearly saw him as a pawn to use. So he turns on her and helps the others destroy her. 

(And then clearly he goes off to find that handsome reporter boy he ran into.) 

So yeah, I don’t know. I don’t really see Armand and Lestat working with Akasha as a team although that’s full of hilarious potential. If I were Anne, that is how I would have done it. But again, Anne was so unpredictable and it’s impossible to say. Maybe she intended him to die as the villain here, or just to be a minor sidekick to Akasha, or something else entirely. I guess we’ll never really know.

Thank you so much for the ask! This was so much fun to think about. 

[tsnbrainrot]

#daniel’s turning in the show compared to the books does make me so sad in some ways :’(#but also#the potential for this is good#like we obviously don’t really know *how* daniel was turned so it could have been loving and peaceful but daniel’s just putting on an act#but I imagine show!armand’s thought process with the modernized changes was like ‘well if he’s my fledgling he’ll grow to hate me but—#—he must hate me anyways so it doesn’t matter’#but daniel falling in love with him post-turning would also be super meaningful for armand#like: I’ve seen you do your worst! you’ve done your worst unto me and I love you anyways! (@sylvies-chen)

thinking about how vulnerable and insecure and needy daniel the new fledgling is in queen of the damned, even though his maker is his lover, even though daniel very very much wanted armand to turn him, even though armand is completely enamored with him and doting on him, even though it seems like it was actually one of the most peaceful, gentle Dark Tricks we've seen in the series thus far. because becoming a vampire is scary! he needs reassurance and comfort and love!

i just don't think that this daniel got any of those things :(

[licncourt]

hi!!! i'm new to tvc and your blog so im not sure if this has been done yet but :'D i just wanted to ask your thoughts on akasha, even generally speaking? thanks!

Welcome!!! I have lots of thoughts on Akasha, but mainly I think her existence tells us a lot about the author and provides a lot of context for how AR approaches female characters in the series overall. I think Akasha, Claudia, and Gabrielle are a very succinct look at how Anne viewed women and the archetypes she felt existed within womanhood. Akasha is really the final boss of anti-feminist strawmen, written to be the ultimate evil and Bad Woman, but she just kind of ends up being an almost-compelling female character instead.

I think Gabrielle has strong elements of that, but the fact that she was so heavily inspired by AR's mother softens the narrative to her some despite the bitterness there. Akasha is something else though, and the narrative on a meta level does not seem to feel sympathy for her.

AR obviously had a very complicated relationship with her own womanhood and a virtually unshakable "not like other girls" mentality her entire life. It was some truly breathtaking internalized misogyny or maybe even a case of gender dysphoria that turned toxic. I doubt we'll ever know for sure, but that loathing she seemed to feel towards womanhood is very much on display in QotD.

Looking at the book as a female reader, I can't help but feel sorry for Akasha on some fundamental level despite the absolute evil she also commits. She was a queen, but doomed to be subservient to her husband on the basis of gender. Then, through some incredible accident, she's suddenly the most powerful human being there's even been, only to then be tortured and spend thousands of years internally conscious but unable to move, speak, or do anything at all.

It's almost an Eve story, a woman who is designed to be a man's inferior who instead seized knowledge and power (and the narrative), gained autonomy from and influence over her male counterpart, and then was punished for it by the larger forces at play. In some ways she reminds me of Claudia too, driven insane by her circumstances and unable to comprehend her own monstrosity, but she's also more evil than Claudia was ever capable of being due to her age (torturing and ordering the rape of of Maharet and Mekare, forcibly turning Khayman, etc).

If Anne had left it at that and changed her goals to be less grandiose, I think her character would have read better and been a more complex and convincing villain in the evil-but-a-victim-of-circumstance way that so many VC vampires are. That's one of my favorite things about the original VC vampires that was present in Akasha but not executed with quite enough finesse. Instead, I think Anne takes it way too far into cartoonish hatred for feminist stereotypes.

For most authors I wouldn't feel confident saying that was the intention but AR, if nothing else, aggressively involves her personal feelings and beliefs in her work, often to the detriment of the story. VC is just the fictionalized inside of her head and we know that. Combined with her other female characters and her own public statements, it's hard not to eye roll at the climax of QotD when Akasha decides she's going to kill 90% of human men and turn the Earth into a new Eden with her as the goddess for the human women (and male human chattel).

In that sense of her character, it seems like foreshadowing to Blood Canticle Lestat reprimanding the audience directly, just Anne finding something to be irrationally angry about and writing it into her book. I've said before that QotD is a step below IWTV and TVL because the cracks in her writing really start to drag the book down like they would for the rest of the series to a rather extreme degree. Knowing this was her last book with an editor, I'm curious how much of the overall readability of the book can be attributed to that/how far gone Anne already was at this point.

In spite of all that, it is kind of fun to go balls to the wall and take a Hell Yeah Get Them mentality when Akasha goes scorched earth because despite it all, it's sort of cathartic to watch a overpowered female vampire go on the warpath and scream all the deepest frustrations with patriarchy that many women struggle with. At the same time, it's hard to fully enjoy it knowing authorial intent (and reading it all within the context of the sexual violence Akasha perpetrated with Anne's usual lack of nuance). That's kind of par for the course though, most things in VC are Almost Good and that's what keeps us on the hook.

[nightcolorz]

I would love to hear your thoughts on autistic Armand, if you haven’t already spoke about this! Imo he’s very autsitic coded, and it’s very precious to me as an autistic iwtv fan :]

OMG!!! RUNS AROUND. Yes lmao I talk about this a lot actually it is one of my favorite Armand things to meta about bcus I’m also autistic and he is my special interest🙏I was trying to find some of the stuff I’ve written about autistic Armand but tumblrs search engine makes it near impossible to find anything so I gave up 😭, but believe me they r out there. Even tho I talk about this a lot I would love love love to talk about it some more for u anon because I can never get enough of armandtism.

I first figured Armand was autistic when I was reading the vampire Lestat because when he is first introduced he is completely non verbal and only communicates through the mind gift. through further explanation it’s very much implied that he does this because he finds putting his thoughts into words hard and he considers just projecting them into peoples brains much easier. Armand speaks out loud for the first time like more than halfway through the book, and lestat is surprised to hear him lol. This is super autistic I feel like that’s obvious 🙏 it’s basically the vampire power equivalent of using a non verbal communication device. Armand having trouble with connecting with people, understanding how to “fit in”, and talking r prevailing parts of his character throughout the whole series (not just tvl) which solidified my headcanon into basically a canon fact in my mind lol.

When Armand is first introduced in iwtv his strangeness is chalked up to his vampirism, but it’s soon revealed throughout tvl and qotd that Armand is considered a strange outcast by other vampires. The things he struggles with r unique to him and r not representative of vampires in general. His otherness/strangeness can also not be chalked up to his trauma or his age turned because Armand was also an outcast as a young child. It’s described in the vampire Armand that Armand was not understood by his parents or his community because he was obsessed with and freakishly good at painting. His community interprets his unusualness as a sign of some divine intervention, the priests believe he is a saint or a prophet sent to earth, even at times saying things implying that he is “not human”. Unusually high quickly developing skill in childhood is an autistic trait, as is hyper fixation on an activity/topic that becomes a core identity factor and prevailing obsession. The affects of Armand’s trauma only worsen the severity of his autistic traits. C-ptsd and autism often overlap and coexist in autistic people who were traumatized in childhood, which seems to be Armand’s case.

in queen of the damned Armand is at his peak autistic lol, I feel like this is when most book readers gain that head canon. The Devils minion chapter revolves around Armand using Daniel as a guide to help him learn how to be “normal” and to blend in to the modern age. Armand can’t seem to figure out how to blend in on his own because he is unable to understand social norms of any time period enough to integrate himself into society. Armand is in love with technology and what most would consider monotonous sensory experiences. He stares at his own reflection for hours, he loves kitchen appliances and watching ingredients whir in blenders, cameras, he watches the same movie over and over again and never gets bored of it. The way Armand fixates on technology really reminds me of how a lot of autistic people played as children. He enjoys repetitive, sensory behaviors over “fun”. For Armand this means watching the same things repeatedly, which is a form of visual stimming. There r moments where Armand is trying to understand his world, but is so blind to what he is trying to understand that he goes about his discoveries wrong. Such as in qotd when he tries to interrogate strangers to gain information on societal norms but he only gets uncomfortable glances. Armand is desperate to understand and to connect but he is consistently inherently alienated, whether it be from humanity or from other vampires or from himself.

Armand also can not process his memories comprehendingly. This is part trauma part autism, but autism is def a factor. Because of his repressed trauma induced memory loss Armand finds it difficult to talk about himself to people. This is worsened by Armand being unable to comprehend the aspects of story telling that he needs to be able to tell people about his life. Armand explains to Daniel that he vividly remembers small details, such as dates and weather, but he could not tell Daniel what “things were like” because he “doesn’t know what that means”. Literal thinking, the inability to grasp vague, fiction based concepts like narratives and metaphor, and strict fixation on minor details like numbers, are all autistic traits!

Armand also struggles heavily with emotional regulation. He is described as often having intense and extreme meltdowns where he cries and screams and breaks things. Armand is easily bothered, in tva he mentions that he covers his ears when he is overwhelmed. The vampire Armand begins actually with Armand becoming overwhelmed in public and trying to escape to an attic so that he can be alone in silence. Armand copes with his intense emotions by putting on a mask of neutrality. He is often described as expressionless and blank, uncanny. But this is a mask, and when Armand can no longer mask and his disguise lapses his facial expressions r described by lestat as being so over the top and emotional that they are disturbing and weird. Over the top unnatural facial expressions as well as blank unreadable ones are both autistic traits. For Armand he is naturally overly emotive to the point of being considered horrifying, and he hides this by taking the opposite extreme. Either way, either expression Armand puts on causes him to be socially outcast.

Armand often describes feeling like there is something wrong with him that causes him to be isolated from others and he’s not sure what it is. In prince lestat he tells Gregory that he doesn’t know why it’s so hard for him to have relationships when other vampires are fully capable of doing that. In the vampire Armand he explains to David that he’s crazy because his mind isn’t built right and his senses are tripled so he shouldn’t bother trying to understand him. I rlly relate to this as someone who felt like I was from another dimension as a child bcus i didn’t know the unspoken life rules everyone else did.

Armand is often treated like a child by the other vampires and assumed to be emotionally immature and too fragile and insane to be helpful. Armand says in the vampire Armand that he doesn’t consider himself an adult because he can’t function like one. This could be due to the age he was turned, but it’s shown to us that characters like Benji and even to an extent Claudia r able to self regulate and function appropriately despite being turned even younger then Armand was.

in conclusion, book Armand is an autistic person who was never given proper support or understanding because the environment and the time period he was born in decided to alienate him further rather then work to help him socialize and learn appropriate skills, and because of the necessities he has been deprived of and the horrible trauma he endured Armand is never able to learn to function in the way he was likely capable of. this recessive quality in pair with his autism caused Armand it be unable to cope or self regulate or learn ways to understand himself since he wasn’t given a chance to in his formative years. He’s a great representative of what many autistic people who experienced intense child abuse experience.

Im rlly happy with the shows portrayal with Armand so far partly because he is omg, so autistic. Show Armand shares so many of book Armand’s autistic traits. inability to understand himself or others, fixation on small details but inability to understand the big picture, etc. even his iPad is autistic asf! My ipad is my comfort item that I carry around with me to self sooth, and this is def the vibe Armand’s iPad gives me in the show. Even assads performance is autistic! He is able to play Armand masking and Armand unmasking, the stilted expressions he gives and the blank stares, the uncomprehending earnestness. AGHHHH!! Assad stims with his fingers when Armand is nervous too which is just an amazing touch. I hope the show explores Armand’s autism, because that would literally be a dream come true. Even still, for now I’m satisfied.

thank u so so much anon for the ask this made me so happy 🙏❤️ autistic Armand means so much to me and has gotten me though some tough times. Understanding and analyzing Armand helps me understand myself better and feel more comfortable with how I am. Earlier this year I gave myself a concussion because I was harmfully stimming during a meltdown, and while I was in the emergency room I was holding the vampire Armand and imaging that he would relate to what I was going through. So yeah he is very special to me too! And once again it makes me so so happy that u got me to talk some about it. I hope this was coherent or interesting lol I felt like I was all over the place

[nalyra-dreaming]

Who is your favorite and least favorite IWTV series, movie, and book character and why?

Hey nonny!

(There's two ways of reading your question, so I'm just gonna answer both versions^^)

My favorite is the new IWTV series, the revamping (ha, pun^^), of the characters, arcs, books in and by themselves while keeping the important bits and elevating it all to art is breathtaking. I love how clever it is, how much it subverts some tropes, how it plays with the meta level by giving us the books Louis reads, or what is laying around in the set behind characters. Hints over hints, and every friggin' line counts. Show of the decade, truly.

I will always love the 1994 movie, since it was what introduced me to the Chronicles, I cannot tell you the state I was in after I came home from the theater. I watched it daily as soon as I could get it on tape, I shit you not. (Easily Tom Cruise's best performance, too, imho, as a note^^)

And I waited years for the sequel... only to get Queen of the Damned. Ahem.

I am sorry, but that has to be my least favorite of it all, though Aaliyah was breathtaking. And the soundtrack was good.

Now character-wise...interestingly enough book-Louis came to mind immediately. He is (probably) my least favorite. And I say that as a fan *laughs* He is just... IDK. I know the history behind it, and I know the pain Anne must have been in (and which I do not dare to imagine), and I know why she had to leave him behind... but even though he has his reasons, too, they never really resonated with me. And neither did his backstory. As a vessel he works very well, because he is empty in IWTV, or he feels so for me, but as a character I do not feel him.

Thankfully the show version has completely eclipsed him for me, and I can finally enjoy who Louis truly is and who he will become - quite the feat I have to say, and I love, love, LOVE them for it.

All in all Lestat is probably the character who is my favorite though, not the least because he can be so capricious. There are... parallels to my own life, parallels the show will yet touch upon in future seasons. When I read The Vampire Lestat I felt those in my bones. It doesn't matter here if show, 1994 movie or book, though of course Sam... IS Lestat now. ^^ Season 1, filtered through Louis' (influenced) POV was only a hint after all, and... Lestat is yet to fully appear.

I do not really have characters that I don't like in the show - every character they have is very well cast, and very poignant in their function for the story, even the repugnant ones. They vibe. Maybe there will be a future show character I do not like in and by "themselves", but... I actually doubt it. They're so terrific at casting.

In the movie it is the same, on the contrary, I always remember here that Christian Slater jumped in for the late River Phoenix, and donated his salary, so there is always a warm feeling when watching him. For example. Antonio Banderas did have the gravitas and managed to... insinuate at least.^^ And watching that scene with the girl on stage in the theater, totally unprepared was something else. There was no sound in the theater. NONE. Absolutely breathtaking.

Now QotD of course... (the movie). Where should I start *laughs*. I said it before, but maybe the best thing that came of it was Sam getting into the VC through it. The worst was probably Armand there, lol. Not sure if he ever says anything in the theater cut (I know there were scenes cut), but... just...

So yeah.

Show characters and show have taken over^^. Will continue to take over, too, I bet. I cannot wait.