[twostarsinthesky]

the fact that people are in the odyssey tags criticising the nolan movie for its changes to the original myth (valid) only to then turn around and recommend epic: the musical of all things as a “more accurate” alternative is hysterical like please. let’s be serious now

[crowleysfall]

lestat knowing that louis called him the love of his life during his conversation with armand means that louis must’ve told him by the point of the recording so…. IT’S NEVER LOUSTATOVER

[defiantlestat]

This season made me dislike Daniel to the point i don't care anymore about DM. I hope they give Armand other gremlin things to do and they don't make his character all about that rl.

[userarmand]

if they wanted the arun name drop/age reveal to really hit they should've actually maybe let armand tell lestat and gabrielle his backstory and explored his dynamic with marius but no let's just blame it all on louis because that totally makes sense

[cryptidslair]

back on the evil masterplan thing because I can't stop thinking about how it's such a misunderstanding of who armand is that it's genuinely baffling that these are the same people who wrote him in s2.

for some reason they felt the need to retcon everything we've seen of him so far just to drop the underwhelming and overdone plot twist that armand has been lying about everything the whole time.

at some point during his cartoon villain monologue they quickly mention that armand planted the steins just to fuck with louis's head when in s2 the implication was always that he was coddling louis and making sure that he wasn't unhappy so that he wouldn't fucking leave him. the way armand controlled louis was specifically by "protecting his happiness", by keeping him calm and content in his gilded cage. he made himself subservient to louis in order to make him dependant on him. THAT'S how armand manipulates, out of fear, out of his obsession with control. it's something we're never told but that, in its subtlety, makes him so complex and fascinating. so it all gets thrown out the window to me when all we see him do is be evil for the sake of being evil without a genuine attempt at an arc or motivation.

and it's wild because the set up was there. we see him get involved with his AA cult at the beginning of the season and as ridiculous as it seems, it makes perfect sense. armand seeks purpose, he seeks control, he seeks routine, he seeks belonging. so it makes sense that, after watching everything he had built and "protected" for 70 years crumble, he needed to find something else to cling to. and they started heavily hinting at that thing being opposing the great conversion. so why set everything up for it and then not deliver??? why make it about louis instead? WHY NOT MAKE IT ABOUT LESTAT? especially with how little we have seen of their relationship, it could have been the perfect chance to delve into it a bit more and finally fucking do something with the tension that has been bubbling under the surface all season.

also while I'm at it— why the fuck did they make him purposely plant regina for louis to find? if he wanted to torture louis by threatening her life, why not just make it be louis' own doing, why not have him deal with the consequences of his actions for getting an innocent human girl involved in vampire affairs due to his own grief?? it would have been way more compelling and it would have at least tied in with louis's arc too but no, they just HAD to let us know that spooky evil armand has been behind it all along.

[aramblingjay]

#yearning 1x01 // 3x07

[crowleysfall]

it honestly felt a bit like they didn’t know what to do with daniel this season because why did they make him so dumb and useless??? this is the same guy who used to hold his own and do intellectual battle against two powerful vampires as a HUMAN. here he does literally nothing apart from be annoying and honestly when his fate was left ambiguous i didn’t really give a damn if he survived (even though we know he likely lives) because he just didn’t do much for me to care

[resinousroad]

DISCUSSING TVL FINALE

I plan to write something more thought out later, but I just wanted to get some thoughts off my chest. It's really irritating to me to see how Louis was handled in the finale, specifically seeing him tortured and forced to give ARMAND an apology. To be clear, I'm not someone who hates Armand, but the way that whole scene was framed was so gross.

Here's the thing, Louis wasn't the kind of narrator in the first two seasons that you were led to believe had no faults. Louis showed how he could be selfish, how he didn't prioritize Claudia, and how sometimes he lied to himself to cope with aspects of his reality that he doesn't like. He was also telling the story as someone who believed Lestat had killed their daughter which, as I discussed in a previous post, likely led to how he portrayed Lestat. He was also actively attempting not to miss him, and to not set Armand off by glorifying him. There were some really interesting dynamics at play that I feel like led to the version of events told by Louis (his own anger/bitterness, his own denial, Armand messing with his memories, believing Lestat killed Clauida, etc.) but I never walked away with the impression that Louis had no faults.

The finale almost feels like we're crossing into territory of having the narrative punish him. The Merrick reveal was bound to happen, and Claudia has every reason to hate both of her fathers (especially since she's stuck as a ghost and cannot find rest/healing), and I definitely understood why the Regina plotline was there. To be clear, there's things I would have changed about both, but it at least ties into some canon struggles Louis has (tbh I do think they should have reworked the part with Claudia as a ghost a bit more, especially as so many circumstances changed, but I digress). But having him get decapitated, tortured, and find out all the strings in his life were pulled by Armand again, is completely illogical, and to me makes no sense in the narrative of the show.

Louis doesn't have to be punished by the narrative to this extent. Specifically, it makes no sense to have ARMAND do the punishing. Think of last finale, we found out Armand had played with Louis' memories, killed Claudia, etc. Now, a finale later, we're having him torture Louis, brand him, and receive an APOLOGY? It makes absolutely 0 sense. It also makes all his interactions with Lestat this season borderline pointless. It does both characters an injustice, but the impact it has on Louis is inexcusable.

Louis doesn't owe Armand an apology. This isn't me writing as someone who is anti-Armand - this is me speaking as a writer, and someone invested in the narrative. Louis does NOT owe Armand an apology, and seeing him get tortured crosses ANOTHER line that did NOT need to be crossed. Armand could have just as easily taken LESTAT hostage, and it would have revealed more of their history, their book dynamic, and addressed questions built over the season we'd like answers to. Louis spent the last season defending Armand until the discovery at the end, he gave Armand several chances, his mind was manipulated by Armand, he was lied to by Armand, and now the narrative is pushing that he owes Armand an apology? Yes, there is one scene where both of them say horrible things to each other, and immediately after Louis suffers GREATLY.

It also does a disservice to Armand and Daniel's relationship to have Louis telling Armand he deserves to be loved for all he is. I would much rather see that narrative take shape between Armand and Daniel.

I'm not someone who is typically negative about this show, but as soon as I found out what happened I felt sick. We didn't need to see Louis struggling all season just to be tortured in the finale and find out that he AGAIN lacked autonomy over the events in his life. It was entirely unnecessary. I will have more cohesive thoughts later, but I'm sincerely disappointed by this ending to the season.

[whooshsoohw]

If the torture scene had been between Lestat and Armand instead of Louis and Armand, we could have used that time to have Lestat flip-flop between his dreamscape and the horror show with Armand. Literally going from heaven, purgatory and hell and vice versa constantly plus paying off all the Lesmand shit that they were supposedly building up but I guess not, plus exploring a bit of their past that we didn't get to see and not making their relationship completely meaningless.

[cuntessa-lestat]

????nah they’re fucking with me right?

[crowleysfall]

sorry but i still can’t believe that the writers really sat down and thought that louis getting kidnapped and forced into giving the man who murdered his daughter an apology with his decapitated head impaled and facing his body that he couldn’t even reach was a good idea. genuinely i would like to know the thought process behind it because i still can’t come up with a good reason why louis needed to be tortured in such a brutal way and for what???

[bishonenvoicedbyadyke]

can someone at the next sdcc panel do that to rolin jones please

[crowleysfall]

at least lestat finally yelled at gabrielle and called her out on her bullshit about the concert so that’s one good thing i suppose

[crowleysfall]

those autism jokes were some bullshit too rolin jones do you know you’re going to hell

[crowleysfall]

someone in that writers room inherited the anne rice hatred of louis de pointe du lac there’s no other explanation we need to find out who it is and perform an exorcism this cannot go on

[crowleysfall]

humiliated all season, called a slave by his daughter multiple times, kidnapped tortured and branded in episode 7 and he hasn’t even had his leg chopped off yet…. will these writers ever stop torturing louis i’m sick man

[crowleysfall]

these writers fucking hate louis it’s UNDENIABLE at this point. i literally cannot believe what i just watched. why has this season been a louis de pointe du lac humiliation ritual and why the HELL does he have to apologise to armand?? the man who caused him hell for 77 years and orchestrated the death of his daughter but louis is the one who has to give an apology?? it’s absolutely disgusting.