IWTVL S3 Ep7 Musings - DARVO, the "Mutual Abuse" myth, and The Armends
[x x] Hannah Moscovitch said that Armand "had been done wrong" and "used in all sorts of ways by Louis."
[x] Rolin Jones said that Louis only "rightfully" hurt Armand 5-10%; and that he's 90-95% "partially responsible" for his own predicament (read: torture & abuse) and "owes" something to Armand for having his head up his own arse (read: grieving & PTSD).
[x] Rolin Jones said "the twist" of Armand planning this elaborate years-long revenge was to for "Louis to finally understand the depth of the damage he’s inflicted on Armand, which prompts him to make genuine amends to Armand." "'What am I actually accountable for when I froze this guy out?.... What didn't [Louis] say when he threw him into the wall in Dubai?" Rolin feels "very empathetic towards Armand at that moment."
[x] Rolin Jones said that Louis found out what Armand did (read: sold him out to the coven, directed the play, lied on Lestat to Louis about killing Claudia, driving Louis to suicide, mindwiping him, more lies, Fred Steins, lied on Daniel about forging the real Trial script, etc), and because Louis "never apologized for the 50 years" of Loumand's failmarriage, that's why Armand's a gremlin now.
[x] Rolin Jones confirmed that the plan happened as Armand sat in the debris of the wall Louis shoved him onto (after Daniel exposed his Seismic Lie about "Banishment"). Since there were "two people in that relationship" (despite there not being two people who knew Armand lied about everything....)
[x] Rolin Jones said that Louis is the "most prideful" of the three vamps given Armends, and because he needs humbling Armand "is owed" an apology from Louis in the most brutal way imaginable.
[x] Rolin Jones said that Louis' humbling requires that he "owe[s]...some accountability for why we are here."
[x x] Rolin Jones said that Louis' "growth" requires that Louis finally realize that there is "some part of me, of what i did in my life" that "made" Armand decapitate him & scam him with Regina; Louis clearly had "something to do with that."
[x] Rolin Jones said that Louis actually has "culpability" in how he "ended up here" because of what he "did to this person for 77 years of shutting him out" (after Armand not only sold him out to the coven but also deliberately lied to him about his daughter's death that he has never stopped grieving and told Armand to his face "You'll never make it up to me.").
[x] Rolin Jones said something Louis owes Armand for having "iced out for 77 years," and is "culpable for having brought him to this level of extremity."
[x] Rolin Jones says Louis reminding Armand about the Seismic Lie is just him "playing the victim card."
[x x] Rolin Jones said that the first step towards Louis needing to "work on" himself (read: be humbled) is to apologize to Armand (read: for not loving or forgiving him post-Paris).
[x] Jacob Anderson said that Rolin told him he would "never put anything in the show" that the actors weren't happy with.
[x x] Jacob Anderson said that 3x7 was Louis' smaller way of taking accountability that "the fault" was his for being tportured.
[x] Jacob Anderson said "I don’t know that I agree that Louis would be like, it’s my fault that you chopped off my head."
[x] Jacob Anderson hopes that Louis doesn't believe what he says, that his "withholding is what led to" Louis to deserve Armand torturing him.
[x] Jacob Anderson said he "wholly disagrees" that Louis withholding love & affection from Armand post-Trial "led to this moment"; that it's his fault he was being tortured by Armand
[x x] Jacob Anderson says he doesn't think Louis means all of that; Louis' just under duress & "trying to stay alive."
[x] Jacob Anderson agreed that Louis' willingness to shoulder the blame saved himself and Regina.
[x x x] Jacob Anderson said that abuse is also part of Loumand's relationship, but that it comes from "different angles"--as if it was mutually abusive.
[x] Jacob Anderson said that Louis' confession "is real to a certain extent," but was still "under extreme duress, so there is an element of self-preservation."
What DEEPLY horrifies me about Rolin Jones' rhetoric in S3 is that not ONCE does he ever couch these ruminations of Louis' within the broader context of abuse victims who blame themselves or are gaslit into blaming themselves for being abused.
For all the seriousness with which they want us to treat Lestat's abuse by his mother and how that affects his propensity to shirk accountability for his own cycles of abuse, not ONCE does Rolin or Hannah step back from the vapid Teehee Armand is such a Gremlin aren't you all glad to finally see him acting crazy in our Horror™ show~!? 🤭 to actually have a serious conversation about the ways that he weaponizes Reverse-Victim-Offender to put the onus on the other person: "You drove me to this; you made me do this!"
Not ONCE in S3 does he discuss the complex psyche of survivor's guilt, or abuse survivors, or Stockholm Syndrome. Not ONCE does he acknowledge Louis' self-hared and tendency to internalize the awful things Armand has levied against him, as a way of rationalizing what Armand is even "owed."
Not ONCE does Rolin factor in what those 77 years was even based on, and how Louis would have never spared Armand his wrath in Paris had he known Armand lied about "Banishment."
Not ONCE is Armand's own culpability addressed, knowing even before he and Louis started having sex that Louis was hallucinating DreamStat all over the city and already deep in the throes of mental illness--even admitting to Daniel that he knew DreamStat was there, (albeit not as vividly as Louis saw/felt him), and that he would only be entering a relationship with Louis as a rebound still hung up on his ex.
Not ONCE does Rolin give Louis the grace to acknowledge that although there is no such thing as a perfect victim on this show Louis was always at a far bigger disadvantage because there was so much he didn't know about Armand's machinations--let alone the true history of his dynamic with Lestat (and even Nicki & GabriellA). Which flies in the face of any attempt to dress up Loumand's dynamic as "mutual abuse" (which does not exist); even if one nobly tries to be diplomatic and see things neutrally or try to avoid the Perfect Victim Frying Pan by landing in the Mutual Abuse Fire.
As such, the OBVIOUS biases Hannah & Rolin have towards Armand--and the BLATANT disdain and resentment they have towards Louis who needs to be "humbled"--is loud and clear. And it is truly heartbreaking to see Jacob Anderson visibly struggling to make sense of it all, contradicting himself when left & right; Rolin and Hannah have been VERY consistently doubling down on their own explanations. 🤦♂️
Dishonorable Mentions: Rolin Jones pre-S3 on Armand "Apologists"
I've already shared my thoughts on these post-S2 / pre-S3 quotes, and how problematic they were even then.
[x] Rolin Jones "hoped Armand Apologists would multiply" by the end of S3.
[x] Rolin Jones said that "in our writers' room, we ended up landing a very empathetic place for Armand," based on "how much he has thrown himself at Louis and Louis just couldn't" reciprocate Armand's callous desperation to put Paris behind them in the wake of Louis' crippling grief over his daughter's death (unknowingly by Armand's own hand).
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