#that whole conversation also between loumand in that scene

[usernamesoft]

okay but what if armand just took louis out on a silly little art date but then louis got super philosopcal and was like ‘well who are you then?’ and armand had to change his main date activity to trauma dump

[lioncourtie]

hurricanes & sun-dented rooms: a symbolic analysis of relationships in interview with the vampire. 

˖⋆࿐໋

hello. i have decided to resurrect this blog to point out a symbolic element that caught my eye after my first watch of interview with the vampire’s eighth episode, the unholy finale of what was quite frankly one of the best seasons out there.

now, i know that maybe this wasn’t that intentional, even if the remarkably talented crew behind the show loves incorporating hidden, symbolic details in it , but the visible sunray during the loumand reunion (post burning the theatre des vampires, all hail the pointe du lac heir) was so flagrant to me. quite literally, i felt as thought it was denting the scene, keeping both characters apart, louis on one side, calmer, proud of his newly accomplished plan, yet still tormented by the trial, and armand, desperately trying to lie, to convince, to make louis stagger so that they'd once again end up on the same side.

different feelings, different states of mind, different motivations.

now, we all know how vampires die most of the time: sun exposure, right? and what was right in the middle of the room, as present as a third entity? the sun, keeping them apart, even if, for the seventy years that followed, louis had granted armand his forgiveness, however never whole, after the latter had lied to him about his implications in the trial, and therefore, in the death of his beloved daughter.

but alsoooooo. one thing that i keep hearing is armand being a seventy year rebound for louis, and while i do agree with that statement, i also feel like that postburningodowntheatredesvampires paris apartment scene showcases that very aspect of their relationship well. two people who will never be able to fully merge, to fully meet, to be one, because they'll forever be set apart by the sun, by death. the death of louis and lestat (the real soulmates, after all) after that scene in magnus’ lair. the death of claudia, as orchestrated by armand, even if unknown at the time, remains still in the midst of their closeness, their proximity clouded by that energy, those lies. louis flew toxicity only to make his home in a manipulator's, a liar's warm, welcoming, yearning arms, only to realize that the abuse had shape shifted. a relationship built on lies and fragments of memories can never last forever, after all. and while lestat isn't that much better, (and boy am i not getting into this conversation today!!!!), he is louis’s love. one and only real love, bound together by the unique maker creation red string of fate, by shared dreams, promises, tragedies, and a daughter. who (arguably) died at their hand, but first and foremost, in front of their eyes. anne rice's characters will always be toxic, part vile, part good, but always fucked, and everyone has their own interpretation of why these two or these two belong together: that was mine, heavily shortened.

now, if we take a peek (not too long or i’ll curl up in a ball and die), at the loustat reunion scene, yes, as in, those ten minutes of emotional torture, what do we hear? the almost ominous sound of windy weather. yeah, nature was having a breakdown too lmfao.

This Odette, said to be at least a three. Could be a four.

typical new orleans: a hurricane is on its way. and louis du pointe du lac has business to tend to. he's eternal. all is well. he sees the rat killing sketchy gangstpire, follows him, dives into whatever the hell remains of lestat’s lair, they talk, they bawl, they embrace each other like two star-crossed fucking lovers who haven't touched each other in a millenium… and the hurricane outside, odette’s introduction, grows stronger. the windowpanes rattle, clatter, sirens are heard from the streets, the wind only grows stronger, fiercer. and amidst all that chaos, that upcoming destruction, they stand as one, in the middle of it all, holding onto one another.

if loumand were to forever have that fossé, that gap between the two of them, loustat were the opposite. hurricanes bring death and havoc, but those two things were keeping them together. they saw death, gave death, offered death to strangers, to one another at a certain point, and that is what their love is about, in the end. lies and death kept louis and armand seemingly apart, but louis and lestat built their relationships on death, mourning their daughter’s demise and their love’s revival in the middle of a damn hurricane. loumand's relationship was always headed towards its death, its extinction, as if the bricks were meant to crack sooner or later, as if that sun ray would have lured them in and set the whole thing ablaze, then to dust. but loustat were always meant to find each other again, in my most humble opinion, fighting the chaos side by side.

know your soulmates, folks.

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི

[nalyra-dreaming]

I start to think it's not really a loumand season with the amount of times Lestat is mentioned so far. It's more like loumand and Lestat in between. I won't be surprised if he is there every conversation and every intimacy. That idea about a threesome, not really a threesome seems very real to me. They are both fucking obsessed with the same person, and it seems that he is looming over their whole relationship more than it was in the books. Maybe I'm a delulu and think into it too much, but we got that mention in the 2/2 vids they dropped, when I expected none, and the whole Dubai situation was stale as it is but now it feels like yearning from Rashmand too for some reason.

Well, I mean, it's clever to leave Lestat out of the teasers and published content for now, because if you do not know the books the upcoming twists will take you by surprise, no matter how they spin them. And there are a lot of new viewers, and also those who do not plan on reading the books (which is fine).

I think it IS Loumand season next season... but probably not 100% the way (some) fans expect it to be? Like, as you said, they are both obsessed with the same person, and it is Louis' luck Armand falls for him... but Loumand is far from wholesome in Paris, and the "Gaslight" posters at the SDCC clearly referenced that as well.

And we know that they are including parts of "before". Of the theater's origins. Of Lesmand's origins.

Oh and yes, of course, ending both teaser and scene with "Lestat" is a choice as well, and it brings us back to what the writers have said:

O’Byrne promises that Louis’ first love, Lestat, will also figure prominently next season, even though “he has been knocked down a peg.”

Prominently. I mean, we also have to get to season 3 and The Vampire Lestat somehow... :)

So far, nothing I have seen or heard of the next season makes me believe that they'll change the actual emotional points - if we actually get to see the "surgery" (for example)? I'm not sure, we were also sure we would get Swamp!stat. Maybe they're only playing with our expectations here, but that's ... a detail, in the grand scheme of things. They'll put their own spin on things, and I honestly cannot wait to see it.

Dubai depends a LOT on where we "are" in the books. There are several possibilities, and the Loumand there also depends heavily on the actual state of things. But, I have said it before, Dubai is also heavily Devil's Minion coded. Daniel cannot be dismissed in all of this, nor can the other vampires (hinted at or shown) be ignored.

Sooooo..... Personally I do not think you're "delulu". Especially given the upcoming seasons and what Jacob said recently... it just wouldn't make sense imho:)

[nalyra-dreaming]

Idk how some people still believe "love of my life" Line. Jacob clearly stated he and Armand were instructed by Rolin to think of Graduate last scene when acting it out. You don't even have to watch whole movie, it's iconic scene description of which you can freely find. Whole point of scene is "realization that maybe it was mistake" With one character still desperate to keep smiling and holding into delusion that thing work out (but failing) (Louis)

Also (in my person opinion) nobody between three of them actually believe love of my life line. I love theory of loumand trying to make Daniel remember. I don't think Louis was improvising here, but I think it was last effort because whole interview fell from its course with Daniel tearing narrative apart. We need to remember that Dubai are from Daniel's perspective, we don't see where Loumand go and what are they doing out of scene and we can't hear their mental conversations. I imagine Louis dropping LOML line and Armand in his mind going "ok we're doing this, think it'll work?" And Louis going "well we need to try anyway because now the only buried memories that are returning are mine"

Haha I love that last bit, with Loumand mentally prepaing this ;))

But yeah, re The Graduate there is a great analysis thread here. It was indeed quite deliberate.