I love beautiful things. She/her, black. I love mutishipping because I love mess. I'm also involved in a lot of Fandoms. Look out! 𝐈'𝐦 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮.
I keep fluctuating between it’s never Lesmandover and that there’s definitely subtext in this season about how in denial Lestat is about his true feelings for Armand and… I kinda don’t want that guy to go near Armand. If this is how he portrays him, this is how you treat someone you have love for, maybe it should be Lesmandover. That’s certainly not a love that’ll cradle you, Armand, even platonically. Stay away from that guy.
I can’t decide. I have no clue what I think, and I was so happy for the first six episodes. I just have no idea. I still mostly liked it but it’s always Armand who suffers when it comes to writing. It’s not to say there weren’t other weaknesses in the season, but even in season 2, he never got a chance and so much of his character was taken and given to other characters.
being a lesmand lover, a member of danlou nation, a loumand truther, a diabolicule defender if you will, is so hard when they insist on making this The Loustat Show™️
do you guys fucking remember what were the first words of the ancient vampire to the future love of his life i will not harm you and i never have. because the writers don't and they should have kept it
It’s not the content, it’s the fact that it didn’t make any sense. It came out of left field with zero set up. What do you mean Armand was still hung up on Louis, making amends at all, needing closure from Louis so they “can both move on with their lives” (he already has with Daniel, his new companion he is in love with, as far as we had been shown)?? What do you mean he did all this other stuff like breaking up Lestat’s band for fun when it didn’t look fun for him nor did that affect Louis in the slightest? What do you mean he started setting up the Regina thing three years prior but we don’t get shown the details, told the full details, or a real explanation of why that would help him achieve his goal in this moment? There wasn’t anything establishing this stuff so it made sense for that scene to happen, nothing that panned out during in a way that made sense. Im here for dark unhinged Armand stuff and if they were going this route then let’s do it, I’m here for it, but JFC make it work. It could’ve been soooooo good if it had been written differently; both the scene itself to give Louis words meaning instead of them being forced at the last second, and the entire plot involving Armand to hint that this was something he might want or care about.
Rolin Jones saw that people were genuinely fucking with Loumand and said: wait, let me shoot this ship in the head and then sink it because it's two people of color in a relationship and not a white+poc relationship
The fuck you mean loumand never loved each other? Are you fucking kidding me? The whole point of the relationship is that they loved each other but as time went by the love faded because Louis was too depressed and Armand was tired of trying to make him happy!!!
That whole writing room is my biggest enemy!
They can try and pry Loumand out of my dead, cold hands but they won't ever succeed.
And don't get me started on how the main black lead is being treated as a punching bag by everyone and the main Asian lead is side tracked and also made the punching bag for racist jokes.
A (probably unfaithful) recounting of the small crisis I just had:
“I don’t want it to be loumandover… I actually like loumand… I know it’s The Loustat Show and it’s Loustatendgame but they can work it out… Lestat is lying I don’t wanna believe it… I don’t want it to be Danlouover either I DON’T WANT LESTAT TO BE THE ONLY PERSON IN LOUIS’ LIFE THAT’S NOT HEALTHYYYYUUHHHJEEEHHG WKANKSN”
Ahem picture this with a high pitched near crying voice, ending in coughing
no. nuh-uh. absolutely not. these writers have NOT earned the right to insert any sort of conversation about the mutual toxicity of loumand into their show
I just read an article by entertainment weekly where they talked with Rolin and he mentions in the finale that Armand knew he had to get out of the butcher shop quick, for reasons unspecified I think, but that before he did, he wanted to leave a mark on Louis in regards to the initial he carved, and seemingly Rolin didn’t want to explain farther for what it may mean in regards to the future, and a little bit after he talks a little about how they’re gonna explore how Louis and Armand got to the first scene of this seasons where they’re in the same room together seemingly at least tolerant of each other, idk but from that I have a feeling(maybe a far reaching one) that Armand did that with intention of maybe protecting Louis from the vamps(or maybe something/someone else) he seems to be collecting for reasons still yet to be uncovered fully(most likely great conversion related), also I heard somewhere that apparently the mark is at the very least semi permanent and not going away anytime soon, but I can’t confirm who said that, but if that’s true then maybe the mark has a bigger purpose than just malice from Armand and it’ll have some importance next season, and maybe that and/or other actions Armand takes next season in regards to Louis somewhat repairs their relationship to the degree of at least being able to be in the same room, maybe frenemies, or maybe I’m reaching idk. I’m just trying to make sense of it all…apologies if none of this makes sense.
Hey! 👋🏾
So first off, no apologies needed. The final episode itself was kind of confusing in many respects anyway, so the question was fine.
So to start, I actually saw a mention on @nalyra-dreaming last night about that mark on Louis being permanent. And look, if that is so, I am not thrilled about it.
And that is because I have a feeling that, if Armand did do it for protection, as you say? And which I freely admit is not only possible, but even probable? And which I fully admit right now is something that I thought of myself as to why Armand did it when I first saw he did it?
Then that means it is something that the show directly stole from Devil's Minion and might have given to Louis here if that does turn out to be the reason why Armand did it.
Just like many of the character dynamics between Louis and Armand in that torture scene were taken from the dynamics between Lestat and Armand. That 'A' carved into Louis' chest would be imagery taken directly from Armand and Daniel's dynamic and story together.
So yes, if it really was something Armand did for that reason, for protection, that means it is just another instance of the show giving Louis' character things that are unique to Armand's dynamic with another character and giving it to Louis first.
And that honestly ticks me off.
Because the blood amulet necklace that Armand gives to Daniel for protection -- that has Armand's 'A' initial carved into it -- is one of the top things I have been waiting to see adapted when they finally adapt the Devil's Minion story.
And now, because of this, Armand giving Daniel that amulet won't even be all that unique anymore.
Yes, Armand would have given that amulet with its 'A' protection imagery to Daniel first because he gave it to him in the past, back during their original time together (and I hope the show keeps that about it at the very least). And we might get the full explanation when he gives it to Daniel (which, yes, I also hope we see!) that it is something for protection, which would tie back into what we saw here with Louis, giving it that same explanation.
But the uniqueness of it all to Daniel and Armand will now be completely gone if this turns out to be the case for why Armand did it.
And look, a lot of what made the dynamic between Lestat and Armand compelling and unique also got somewhat appropriated to Louis and Armand as well, as others like @nalyra-dreaming and @virginiaisforvampires have said, and I noted above.
And you know? Louis and Armand actually had a unique dynamic of their own during the first two seasons of the show. With them having really fleshed out even more what had been their dynamic in the first book.
However, with one episode, this show appears to have basically reduced the whole thing by stealing a dynamic Armand has with Lestat.
And now, it is also very possible that they also stole some imagery Armand uniquely had with Daniel, if Armand's branding of Louis in that way does end up being for protection.
Yeah, you know what ticks me off the most when it comes to bad writing?
When it's just lazy.
Because I can handle bad writing that was clearly trying to do something original and just missed the mark.
But taking the imagery and dynamics Armand has with other characters and just throwing them in here with Louis to make something happen/work?
What I said about Hannah yesterday was basically me being nice when it comes to her writing of that episode:
💬 0 🔁 3 ❤️ 31 · Post by @cbrownjc · 1 link · I kept asking myself why Rolin didn't write the finale himself. He only wrote 3x01 and that w
Because, in all honesty? I already had a sneaking suspicion in my gut about what might have been really going on with that 'A' that Armand was revealed to have carved into Louis' chest, but I just didn't want to say it.
Because I didn't want to believe that Hannah appeared to have taken that whole protection imagery that Armand had with Daniel and given it to, and technically revealed it here first, with Louis.
But that very much could be what is going on with it.
And I don't like it.
What do the kids today like to say? "Reheated nachos?" Well, that is very much what Louis and Armand's dynamic became in that finale episode -- things stolen and "reheated" from other dynamics just to make that scene work and give it an out-of-context setup for next season.
Especially if this does turn out to be the reason for the branding Armand gave Louis.
That, in the end, only came off looking like a slave branding given the conversation Armand and Louis were having just before it was revealed.
Like, I will never love that they had Armand do that, even if the protection reveal of it does happen, because it very much does steal something from Armand and Daniel, in my opinion.
But if they were going to have Armand do it at all, then she should have had him do it during the torture, not right before he left the room, if they really were not, at the very least, trying to link it back into what Claudia had said in the episode right before about Louis having the word slave etched onto his rib.
So yeah. Sloppy, muddled, and now also possibly lazy, too, when it comes to that final episode, if that does end up being what is really behind whyArmand branded Louis in that way.
With it coming across to many people right now as it did because you didn't really think about the convo the two of them were having before it was finally shown, did you, Hannah? 🙄
the drop came after 5 episodes dedicated to detailing the slow fracturing of loustat's relationship in NOLA.
the trial came after 6 episodes dedicated to exploring the dynamics between louis, claudia, armand and the coven in paris.
the loumand saw trap came after 6 episodes that had absolutely nothing to do with loumand apart from them briefly appearing on screen together at the very beginning of episode 1.
saw a post and got bitter again like. I don't go here anymore idk how they would even spin that shit but wtf did louis have to apologise to armand for lmao. does anyone in the writers room remember what louis did to nearly everyone else who participated in claudia's murder? ffs.
going into reading IWTV blind from the show I assumed Loustat would be the most queercoded relationship. Why did nobody tell me that the first Loumand meeting is genuinely the gayest part of this fucking novel
The camera zooming into Rolin laughing at this part specifically during the DM line read 👀 Which, apparently, is exactly Rolin's type of humor:
Throughout S1-3, to quote Snequanimity:
"Armand, we are constantly told, was a catamite. He's a twink bottom. He was a limp, passive ragdoll for sale. His daddy groomed him into a little bitch. He's emasculated, a beige pillow, his sexual performance is so-so, he's desperate and needy, he's a pussy and a betaboi. In short, he's too gay, not Lestat's ideal of a masculine bisexual man. like this is some kind of corruption of character, being the receptive partner in anal sex"
Recently, ONE journalist has FINALLY commented on this
and that's because the journalist himself is a gay Indian man:
Being friends with someone on steam is so fun because you get to see then open and then reopen a game that keeps crashing on them. Ngl I get a sick parasocial thrill off it
and from a structural standpoint, i also don't understand why we had to reheat loumand for the season finale. and im saying this with loumand as one of my fav dynamics. there is so much to resolve and build this season, that to waste the finale on character dynamics that were resolved in season 2 is baffling to me. we didn't need it spelled out that armand planted the stein photos, we didn't need an explicit explanation on what arun/maitre meant, because it was all already in the text in season 2. the complexity of their dynamic can be drawn without it being spoonfed via monologue at us. we dont need any of that! what we DID need was the show now building on these traits of armand and louis separately, and tying that into new storylines for them. instead, this finale basically gave us a s2 character analysis and did not effectively develop these character, both of whom already have limited screentime.
i mean, there's a reason everyone was so confident armand was trying to stop the great conversion, and that's because it was actually hinted at in 3x04. instead, we get whiplash with armand being responsible for regina, which robs both him and louis of all their build-up this season.
(and, sure, this could be resolved in s4, but that's not an excuse for a finale that chose to spend its limited time in this manner instead, imo).
One of the biggest things that I think the writers do have to contend with, and hopefully they will listen to real feedback, is a lot of the writing of Armand is entrenched in xenophobia in the books. Anne treated Armand as a sin-eater, so to speak, for Lestat. He exists, mostly, in The Vampire Lestat to: attack Lestat, inform Lestat and absolve Lestat. It’s all about making Lestat more sympathetic and making his journey simpler and more compelling.
Assad’s casting should be the biggest strength of this adaptation because the colonial nature of Lestat, Gabrielle and Marius’ treatment of him and the kind of language they use to refer to him could be highlighted and critiqued. All those slights against Armand from Lestat and Gabi across the season could’ve amounted to something.
But they chose to neglect this completely, relegate him to the background and only focus on the hyper-violent side of the character. I think the scene will be enough to connect with the most casual viewers a little because it’s spelt out for them what they’d supposed to feel, but the deeper context deserves examining.
And then you factor in show!Louis and how he’s also been treated this season, and it’s so much worse.
Both characters, in different ways, were used as punching bags this season which would be something if it had gone anywhere, but the big climax is Armand taking out anger that ought to be directed at Lestat on Louis?
Look, I do think this is the work of people who just switched Louis and Lestat’s roles and didn’t consider the consequences. Perhaps that’s being generous, but it’s better than the alternative. But it still is what it is. It still looks how it looks. Can’t blame the budget for this one. This beautiful, nuanced exchange between Louis and Armand which was a conversation that needed to be had is buried inside this scene, and it’s a shame because Assad and Jacob carried this episode.
They’ve made great changes to Louis through casting Jacob, whereas Assad is much more in line with his book counterpart and both of these things ought to be strengths. But thoughtless writing robbed them of that. There is a learning opportunity here and I hope it is taken, but if you can and if you want to, do take the time to email AMC with a detailed complaint. I’m drafting mine right now.
One surprise shot of Armand in the crowd at that concert in Lestat’s head at the end would complete the Lesmand arc. Just one long shot of him, implying he was more important to Lestat that he was letting on, which is what they were getting at all season.
That’s all you’d need. That would fix everything about them, for me at least.
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