this is just a drill

officially Old (30+); disabled queer; described as needlessly combative, obstinate, and too critical; occasionally leaves their cave to post bad fic

[iimpavidwrites]

I feel like there's this impulse in the fandom to infantalize Armand because he is both 1) beautiful and 2) an abuse survivor.

This is deeply ironic because that is, more or less, how he's treated in the books as well. There is a general assumption among the cast that Armand is too damaged and beautiful and sad to actually do harm on purpose and be fully responsible for himself. This cognitive dissonance is the source of a lot of conflict with most people who interact with him. It's just so hard to square that someone they like looking at so much, who can be so kind, can also intentionally do really awful things.

It's damn difficult to look at a creature like Armand and remember, at the same time, that he has survived 500 years of torture, abuse, and vicious cult social dynamics, becoming a competent strategist and tactician who is capable of great viciousness if he feels it will serve his mission. Whatever that mission is. "Ends justify means" is a big part of how Armand comports himself at times. (The exceptions being Daniel and his "children", Sybelle and Benji. They seem to see Armand as a whole person and accept him for who he is. The good and the bad. He's the gentle artist who longs to do good and be loved... and he's everything else too)

What I'm saying is: Armand released the video of Gabrielle and Lestat because he knew precisely how emotionally devastating it would be.

Hell, I'd bet money he had Alex film it.

Armand did this not because he's a petty bitch or because he thinks its something a person could just get over. He did it because his goal is to prevent Lestat from going on stage again by any means necessary. The ends justify the means. Based on Lestat's reaction of being physically debilitated by panic upon realizing the video was out, I'd say Armand made a pretty good choice when it comes to attack points.

Put another way: He already offered Lestat the carrot to try to get Lestat to go where Armand felt he should be going. Lestat didn't want it. Now Lestat gets the stick.

[ytpforyouandme]

the snitchuation

[ytpforyouandme]

given recent events, an important reminder

[pastelalleycat]

[ Video ID: A YTP of a training video for grocery store employees. A man in a grey suit and blue tie speaks to the camera, but his words have been edited in post: "If you suspect a customer of shoplifting, do not take action. Do not tell your manager for any reason. Your manager will take it too far. The key point to remember is, don't become a snitch. Any type of "snitchuation" affects your community negatively. We understand that many people are in financially detrimental types of situations. Do them a favor and don't get involved. Just let them steal from your store's enormous amount of extra profits because after all, everyone should be able to eat and that's common sense. Well, take care and stay fresh!" End ID. ]

[iimpavidwrites]

Themes in the AMC Vampire Chronicles I’m loving and wish I had the time to unpack in expansive detail:

Every narrator is unreliable especially when they insist they are not

Generational trauma is a bitch to break free from

What is the nature of good or evil? Is it about impact or intent or something else entirely?

Manifestations of oppression and exploitation that persist even among those “outside” society

Parenting & estrangement

Music is a vehicle for the unspeakable/unspoken regardless of the composer’s intentions

Conservation vs. Accelerationism

Playing musical addictions does not resolve underlying issues

Living long enough to see your own legacy become irrelevant

The lengths immortals will go to to avoid being alone with their thoughts

Bodily autonomy and morality

The lengths immortals will go to to avoid being bored

Is Aesthetic beauty truly the highest possible good a person can aspire to?

Memory is about the process and feelings of remembering— and the actions you take as a result— not so much the literal events being remembered

[iimpavidwrites]

Holy shit I can't believe I forgot the huge one that Daniel himself tells us:

"Once you put it out there, they decide what it is."

It's "Death of the Author" in the way that Barthes described it: the intent of the author does dictate the way a text will be interpreted.

[iimpavidwrites]

it is so fucking wild to me how much Lestat and Armand despise each other this much in the show canon because there's even less basis for this feud than the books.

It makes me wonder if Louis didn't spend the last 77 years saying shit to Armand like, "Lestat never did ____" and the last year-or-so with Lestat saying, "Armand always _____". So now they've just built up a resentment toward each other to the point where neither of them can stand to hear the other's name said in conversation.

I love Louis so much but I gotta wonder if he's the kind of self-centered, grass-is-always-greener, glass-half-empty guy who only has bad exes.

[professional-rat-eater]

Need a scene in episode 7 of Armand holding Lestat or Louis’ head and monologuing to them like he’s Hamlet.

“Alas, poor Lestat, I knew him, Daniel. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times. And now how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kiss'd I know not how oft.”

And it works on multiple levels. We have experienced Shakespearean actor Assad delivering the lines and we can have Armand getting revenge for Dreamstat laughing at his very earnest Romeo and Juliet reference in season 2.

[iimpavidwrites]

Hey if you want more of my self-indulgent takes about Armand but with more Devil's Minion flavoring you should check out:

Necromancin'

Daniel's Little Interlude

Selenic in Sausalito

If you'd like to know more about my extremely unhinged and divergent headcanons about Sybelle you can read:

Prodigy

And, as always, if you want to be extremely based and cool, you can just begin the series with a deep dive into Armand's psyche, which ought to have fresh updates in the next week or so:

Rats & Honey

But whatever you do please make sure you comment on what you liked so I know you stopped by!

[iimpavidwrites]

This might not be a perspective on TVL episode 6 that carries much weight but here are some disorganized thoughts on Claudia as an animist-polytheist spiritworker:

From where I stand, sirits are to be respected like we would other humans;

Claudia is the kind of spirit I would refer to “counseling”, so to speak, along with her living relations.

For me this work would entail first getting personal wards and Claudia’s consent and terms before anything else. Before money changes hands. Before saying I’ll take the job. If i don’t do magic on non consenting living folks, the same is true for the Dead.

One of the biggest components of any work with living relations is making damn sure they understand that they may not get what they want;

Most people find it damn hard to lie, even to themselves, in ritual space— I love that we see Louis come up against that, finally! This is the most honest he’s ever been;

it’s gonna generally be a good idea to follow through on what the unrestful Dead folks ask for (within reasonable limits; destroying their belongings is perfectly fine, hurting living people on their behalf won’t fly in my house, for example);

If they don’t burn that dress and diary i personally consider that a major crime;

Something I find compelling as hell: some spirits expect offerings when they come to visit. If you don’t make appropriate offerings they might just take it from you. The first thing Claudia did was smash out one of Merrick’s teeth. Blood and bone. Not unlike the souvenirs she kept in life. Good liquor and smoke naturally would not be enough for her: she’s a dead vampire and a furious one at that.

It’s amazing to me that Claudia’s desire is to be forgotten when nearly all the men on this show (Daniel, Louis, Lestat) are so concerned with how they’re perceived and remembered.

As an academic exercise I’m now wondering what kind of way-opening might be done to help a spirit like Claudia get to where she needed to be: at rest and among her people (namely Madeline). That begins with destroying her belongings. If I were feeling kind I might offer her living people help creating a taboo for themselves so they could stop using her name.

These are just ideas floating around my head. The tradition I work within is not Vodou or any of its diasporic siblings nor is it whatever Anne Rice was writing nor is it a spooky Halloween game. Your mileage may vary.

If anyone does work within traditions from down in New Orleans and has a perspective on this scene I’d love it if yall could link me to it so I could share it around.

[iimpavidwrites]

I do have to say that my pet hivemind theory has some really interesting, horrifying implications regarding Claudia.

If the older a vampire's blood is, the more entrenched in the hivemind they are, then of course Claudia is trapped forever circulating in limbo. She's a direct descendant of Akasha in this universe. Of course Madeline would have had an easier time moving on to whatever's next -- she's much further removed.

It even makes sense to me that the "treatment" for this, from a spiritwork perspective, would be to lay to rest all psychic/energetic/emotional ties to Claudia. Destroy her things. Stop saying her name. Let her actually be forgotten in the all-mind of vampires... a much harder task now that Louis' dang book is out, too.

[savage--antinous]

post 80's breakup DM. Daniel doesn't remember where this heartache is coming from so he falls back into drugs hard. Armand mourns their relationship, spending hours and hours in the little bathtub from the flat where everything began on divisadero street.

things to look for : they have matching ashtrays. Daniel has the remnants of a vampire bite but Armand also sports a human-shaped bitemark where he was letting Daniel mock-bite him. Hard so see because of the angle but Armand is sporting a black bindi (symbol of mourning) but his hands and feet are still adorning joyful mehndi from when he was with his beloved. The tapes around Armand are all recordings of Daniel's voice. They are both crying.

closeups of Armand's mehndi under the cut !!!

[empire-of-light]

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE 2.05 THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 1.05

[vampirefamilylaw]

Has anyone else noticed how many tritones are happening in what I've been thinking of as the devil's minion theme? The music that plays this season whenever Armand is alone with Daniel, or when he does something especially creepy or evil?

Like, they are mobilizing the diabolus in musica effect so hard which is PRETTY APPROPRIATE for the Armand is the devil vibe. It feels viscerally evil. It's a little on the nose but counterpoint: I love it

[iimpavidwrites]

from back before i realized the quality of the "The Vampire Lestat" soundtrack was directly tied to the story arc:

i have a few complaints about the music composed for the vampire lestat and one of them is that they should have employed an electric violin. i don't care that this wouldn't be book-accurate. it'd sound sick as hell. maybe i just liked emilie autumn too much as a teen? probably.

[iimpavidwrites]

Anne Rice's vampires share a hive consciousness which is what enables them to have psychic powers, even if an individual vampire had none in their mortal life, and what allows some of them to handle living forever without going totally off the rails and losing all sense of self. The cognitive burden is spread out across many minds instead. (Think along the lines of drifting in Pacific Rim but not voluntary and on a much bigger scale.) This is also why loneliness and alienation are two of the chiefmost horrors a vampire can struggle with. It's unnatural to them to be wholly cut off from the rest of their species. It's also impossible for them to be united into one being.

[nhyhu]

she wanted to say yes,

[iimpavidwrites]

Unrelated to my constant vampire soap opera screaming:

The most benignly annoying part about fire season is the acne. Every fucking year the fires come and my skin decided it hates being skin. Like clockwork.

[iimpavidwrites]

I am chomping at the bit to get more of the AMC adaptation’s take on Armand’s childhood. The books center religion as a major interest/motivator/trauma for him— will they carry that through? He’s shown to be combative and vain— will we get to see that? How much verisimilitude will there be about the culture of medieval Delhi? I don’t even care if I agree with what the showrunners decided to go with— I have my own ideas and I’m pretty wedded to them— I just need to know.

[iimpavidwrites]

I’m really perturbed by how straightforwardly linear the most recent episode is. The lack of flashbacks, avoidant banter, b-plot… it feels really uncomfortable.

I dont think it’s the oft-accused sins of bad or lazy writing. I can’t put my finger on why this is the pattern change that’s off-putting to me though. Why it feels more abrupt than anything else.

I do have a feeling that this should have been the a-plot stretched across two episodes, though. The Gabrielle abuse reveal and the seance feel like they belong in two different nights. Not that real life is ever so kind in its slings and arrows…

Something substantial is being withheld. We’re now out of the sphere of my book-based knowledge so that might be the issue…

Is it because our narrator is Amel? Is there something obvious I’ve missed to cause Lestat’s whole world to narrow to this? To lose the noise and color? Is it just to emphasize the difference between Lestat performing and Lestat at his most vulnerable?

If y’all have thoughts I’d love to know them.