once loved a long time ago

eldest son of the draper. music was my first love. hands intact as seen above. working a nighttime job. service industry. invisible in plain sight. in France. long story. never mind. this place is for: screaming into the void what I can't speak to anyone. ever. for sanity's sake. because not speaking has caused problems in the past. not speaking ends up leaving me with deep regrets after inevitably cracking and lashing out in the worst way. words cut deep. double edged blade. fuck. [vampire chronicles rp blog] [all books are canon] [mun of age] [open to rp with anyone] [NSFW friendly] [all hail Amel]

[bringonthemuses]

How it feels to genuinely enjoy both Loustat and Devil's Minion and not pit the two ships against each other

[halyasgirl]

Armand really did have everything on display this episode. Sliding in and out of accents admitting a complete lack of stable identity, how he spoke to Regina as a fellow sex worker even after centuries. The way his voice broke, repeating someone else’s account of his trauma because he could not do it for himself, because he can only believe in himself reflected by other people.

The petty, immature little jabs in his “Armends.” Imposing his will onto others in truly frightening ways. Forcing Louis to validate his pain in the most sadistic way possible. The inability to internalize that his rage is not at Louis but an injustice too big for him to name.  

I wanted to rush across the room and hold him. I wanted to run away from him screaming. I wish we got more of Armand this season but goddamn, Assad Zaman killed it in every scene. Bravo.

[panicstar]

Can’t stand devils minion and with season 3, I dislike it even more. The shows telling me Armand needs someone to cradle him and that’s suppose to be Daniel? With the way they’ve written him this season…crass, rude, entitled…I don’t see it

/shrug

[infinitelybetteratbeingmiserable]

Who ever said it's supposed to be Daniel?

Armand said he wants to be Daniel's maker. That's the reverse.

Just because Daniel's mortal body matured more than Armand's doesn't mean anything here. The entire drama between them was Armand not being there for Daniel in that way.

[panicstar]

The show....? The show is saying its Daniel.

I don't understand what you're trying to say here. I don't care about Daniel's physical age, I care about his personality. Hes an asshole. And before anyone says they all are, okay are they all making racist comments too?

Louis quite literally said Armand needs someone to take care of him. With how things have been written, Daniel is not that person imo.

[infinitelybetteratbeingmiserable]

No, the show says quite literally Armand wants to take care of Daniel.

"I want to be your maker."

I don't care about his physical age either by the way. It's just a plot from the books that was specifically hinted at only once on the show and only in a dialogue with the character that was involved with the body switching in the books and Daniel. The character that got a younger body in the books is already dead on the show. This is why it looks like they might do this with Daniel eventually.

[violet-moonstone]

the amount of pearl clutching and moralizing in the iwtv/tvl fandom I'm seeing is insane

I cannot understand watching a show about violent, immortal beings who kill humans (most of whom enjoy the act) and getting upset when they say or do offensive things that make sense in the context of the show

on claudia's rant:

Claudia is trying to be as hurtful and cruel to louis as possible because she's trapped in some kind of hellish limbo, reliving all her pain and resentment in isolation without actually living. If you were in that situation would you be worried about being politically correct in your tirade against the parents who failed you?

claudia calling louis lestat's slave is in alignment both with the books and previous seasons. Both book and show claudia are disgusted by how willing louis is to follow lestat rather than stand on his own. The added racial element in the show only adds to claudia's resentment towards lestat. Considering the cultural context of seasons 1 and 2 she clearly does not like the idea of being ordered around and threatened by an arrogant white man. Louis' comparative willingness to do so infuriates her. Hence calling louis a slave -- like calling another black person uncle tom or a coon -- it's calling him out for being complicit in lestat suppressing their agency. A less racialized insult might be calling him a bootlicker, or sycophant or something like that, but clearly she wants to drive home the shame she thinks louis should feel at his lack of spine, so she calls him the most hurtful thing she can think of.

I've seen people call out black republican politicians and those who play into respectability politics by drawing parallels between them and a house slave -- a harsh reminder to them that even if they have the veneer of respectability, material comforts, and assimilation, they are ultimately cozying up to people who don't respect them as human beings

claudia calling louis' hair nappy is like...dear god in the grand scheme of things why tf are we getting mad about this? Yes, calling a black person's hair nappy is insulting. Claudia and louis have a shared cultural background and trading insults that are informed by your own experiences with cultural beauty standards and/or discrimination is pretty common. It's a shitty thing to do when it's not meant with affection, but Claudia is trying to be shitty.

So was this this offensive and even problematic? sure! but something being upsetting and having a problematic history associated with it doesn't mean your immediate response should be to condemn it entirely. Media isn't bad or irredeemable just because it makes you feel uncomfortable.

for the record -- I think it is absolutely valid to critcize the show and I have my fair share for this season. But being upset about Claudia's rant specifically just baffles me

[infinitelybetteratbeingmiserable]

She's trying to be as hurtful as possible, so of course she says the most problematic things.

The funny thing is that there has always been an element of a master/slave dynamic between a vampire and their lover/creation etc in vampire lore, even if desire was involved. It was aj excuse to explore forbidden desires especially because it wasn't fully voluntarily but the 'victim was being enthralled (guess what thrall means) by the vampire. It was Anne Rice that radically changed this idea. She first came up with so many tropes that are now taken for granted.

And all she did was purposefully hitting a sore spot for Louis by saying the worst thing she could. That was the entire point. It's meant to be offensive as fuck.

I gets even wilder, because it's implied that this wasn't even Claudia when she mixed them up at first and needed Lestat to sort it out for her.

In the books it's left ambitious if it was her or some spirit who just took the opportunity to mess with Lestat who saw her alone. This would mean what she said was basically what their own guilt fed into it. Maybe what they think they deserve to hear? Maybe we had two Fraudia's this season. But this is so far just speculation.

[prokopetz]

I know it's never going to happen considering how much hassle it was just to get book two green-lit, but I kind of want the Vampire Chronicles TV adaptations to survive at least long enough that we get to see the show-only fans react to the part where aliens show up.

[tiedanklestotheocean]

They just need to recast armand to someome who looks more book accurate!

Oh no my dear, the Armand described as Verrocchio's David?

The Armand that looks like a Botticelli Painting?

St Sebastian Armand?

Oh no I think he's perfection.

[roanlovesvampires]

ok and what are we all gonna do when Armand's French accent turns into an Italian accent when he sees Marius again? what then?

[infinitelybetteratbeingmiserable]

What if it's an Indian accent?

Imagine him arriving in Paris with an Italian accent which turned into a French one by the time Louis and Claudia showed up.

The funny part is, he is really good at accents as proven by tvl episode 7, which means his French accent is a choice.

[otiitti]

That 70-year-old with a full career and a couple of straight marriages under his belt wouldn't know what yaoi is.

Please no more fandom phrases inserted into the mouths of the elderly.

[infinitelybetteratbeingmiserable]

Crazy fan theory time.

See how Lestat mentioned that Alex's involvement in retrieving Lestat's head staid mysterious?

See how Armand keeps using meat puppets all over the season?

See how he did this to Alex before?

How Alex doesn't speak much at all?

Wonder why RAGLAN JAMES, famous body switcher from the books who has mentioned body switching to Daniel on the show, tells Alex he thinks they should open with Big Boss?

What if he was very aware that Armand was puppeting Alex at that time and actually talking to him.

Even Daniel wondered if Armand had sent Alex, just didn't realise he was being babysat by a meat puppet.

Alex pointing out he wanted to play the concert was the only thing he said at all.

What if Armand ended up making sure Lestat would survive in the end?

He has been involved in everything else this season, and he does have a love hate relationship with Lestat.

If Alex's mind is just fried by the time Armand is done, it would be an awfully convenient side effect for the time the show eventually does the David Talbot plot and gets Daniel a shiny new young vampire body whose mind Armand can get into.

Why else would Raglan James have mentioned body switching to Daniel of all people anyway?

[otiitti]

That 70-year-old with a full career and a couple of straight marriages under his belt wouldn't know what yaoi is.

Please no more fandom phrases inserted into the mouths of the elderly.

[infinitelybetteratbeingmiserable]

Daniel Malloy hasn't spent his entire life in the US and he has a wild history of fucking other men. Especially because he was married with children he's very likely to have spent some time online digging through filth. We've seen him internet savvy. What makes you think old people are too pure and innocent to know this kind of stuff? Just think of all these senators constantly being caught on certain apps most people wouldn't think that age group would access. If you were into gay stuff in the early 00s and online, you were bound to come across yaoi at some point. That's probably how the show runners know about it too. The thing that's unusually here is just that Daniel speaks about it, because most people that age don't irl.

[otiitti]

How does thinking that an older character wouldn't know what yaoi is equate to assuming innocence? It's not the epitome of all things sexual even in regards to gay stuff. I agree with you about most of this stuff though. Didn't think to clarify it in a post intended to be lighthearted but yeah the problem I had with that line is precisely the fact that using the word in that context feels ooc for Daniel not only because of his age but due to the fact that that's not the type of character we saw in s1-2 at all. He's crude and makes pop culture references but not in the tvl "yaoi manther bottom twink serving cunt grippy socks prison japanime" way at all, which imo vastly cheapens the storytelling when no character or moment is exempt from this memey way of speaking.

And as a side note, I think it was rude to mention old man/manther yaoi by name without showing almost any of it. This is just a personal, non-serious gripe but it felt like "yeah audience trust me we had the craziest off-screen age gap old man yaoi. go write fanfiction." :D

[infinitelybetteratbeingmiserable]

Fair. I focused too much on the yaoi thing and that alone is not once for a guy that who has been using media professionally and sort of led a questionable life. It came across differently to me. But I agree that they are going for meme speech. I can see this as possibly IC considering Daniel having to come to terms to spend eternity in his body. Transitional trauma. It's what drove Magnus to his obsession with Lestat. His clothing style goes hand in hand with that. Trying to be more youthful among all these immortal supermodels. But this may be reading too much into it. Lestat canonically used modern slang, but he mixed it with peculiar 30s slang. There was an entire paragraph about how he learned English. I don't see any of that weird blend on the show, so it may be just trying to write for the fandom people after all.

And you are 100 % correct. Rude of them not to show us the yaoi they kept teasing.

[bifauxnenarmand]

I just know joe was sad af he didn’t get to be tortured by assad 💔

[fandiagnosis]

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 3.3

[thearmandthinker]

i honestly don't think anyone could have done nicki like joseph potter did nicki. that was one of the most phenomenal performances i have ever seen and i hope he knows it

[mademoisellebianx]

You don't like my music, maître. Well, it's not me - it's my hands. But I don't have my letter opener. I think my music will improve once I find my letter opener.

Joseph Potter as Nicolas de Lenfent (AMC's The Vampire Lestat)

[charmingpickles]

episode 7 The Failures photoset 1

[cliozaur]

Nicki!

At the end of the day, my main regret is that there was no justice for Nicki. He remained merely a sad example of the rule that you should not turn the sick into vampires. An unappreciated first love. 😭

[dykesynthezoid]

Actually the fact that Nicki feels more authentically camp than Lestat does at any time this season is lowkey really funny… when the hallucination of your dead ex is better at queening out than u….