Whatttt is with the tendency of Tumblr users to seek absolution from every single person who offhandedly posts about disagreeing with something they do
I say this not unkindly, but firmly: to function as a member of a social species, you have to get comfortable with the idea that not everyone will like you
And they didn't even remember to bring back Miss Lily on top of everything else. A room full of people Lestat is supposed to feel sorry for killing, and he leaves out the woman who helped him meet "the love of his life" and was Louis' one semi-close friend who accepted his queerness. This season is just an endless series of kicks to the face
you know i really wish i just hated this season because lestat was talking like he was on a drag race mini challenge. i wish it wasnāt as serious as flippantly cruel anti-blackness and the fundamental mischaracterization of virtually every character and the complete erasure of any love that may have existed between characters outside of their endgame pairings. i wish it wasnāt because of the erasure of trans identity, the constant punching down, the pointless retconning, the absolution of an abuse, the very obvious vitriol for the first two seasons and everything that the series has cultivated as a result of the first two seasons. i wish it was just the proverbial dangling of keys in front of the audience. i wish it was as simple as i heard āserving cunt has its consequencesā turned off my laptop and never watched another episode
I can follow the line of thinking that says that Armand would feel like he was owed an apology from Louis, and that he wanted to punish him. I donāt agree with it, but I get it.
But youāre telling me that Armand planned this shit for three years? That he used some sort of magical CSI level program to search all the humans in the world to find one who looked like Claudia and then arranged international documents to get her to America to torment Louis repeatedly?
The Armand that flailed as soon as the coven presented him with a choice, the Armand that erased Louisās memory because how else was he supposed to cope with the events of San Francisco, the Armand that didnāt even notice that Daniel was about to fuck up his whole life because he remembered how hot he was?
He does evil bad things sometimes, but guys. Heās not smart. Heās not a mastermind. He is flying by the seat of his pants at all times.
Assad spent so much time saying āI donāt think heās a mustache twirling villain, heās always just fighting to surviveā in interviews and then they just went and wrote him as a mustache twirling villain with a years long master plan. Have him spontaneously hurt Louis when Louis wouldnāt listen to his amends. Sure. But donāt try to tell me Armand has been planning this for years!
claudia says she hates my guts move on next scene. you say you love me move on next scene. you say you stalked me for 52 years move on next scene. i was in love with a boy once he killed himself he was my first love move on next scene. armand was there move on next scene. I'm telling you we started hanging out offscreen move on next scene. my mom and i killed our whole family move on next scene. I'm on an apology tour syke move on next scene. i have a body double oops hes dead move on next scene. i was in aa with your guitarist move on next scene. i don't have transformational trauma now im in cahoots with my maker move on next scene. god forbid we let the weight of anything settle
this technically is true but I think this also perfectly encapsulates why I am inherently distrustful of like. āācozyāā āturn your brain offā fiction lmfao. like okay WHO gets to turn their brain off and who has to suffer through bigoted caricatures of themselves while everyone else is having cozy silly no brain time š
while iām yapping today. armandās motivations this season hold no damn water when held up to the books or the previous seasons of this show. is he violent? yes! is he cruel? yes! is he an evil mastermind and machiavellian schemer always ten steps ahead while plotting vengeance? no! what!
armand is desperate. armand wants to be in a cult, whether it be two people (him and his companion) or huge. armand doesnāt want to lead a cult. armand wants companionship, total devotion, and to be wholly loved by those he falls in love with. armand is controlling and manipulative on a scale that does not extend to willing, enthusiastic cult leadership. he picks people he wants to love him, and if they donāt, he tries to make that happen by any means necessary. armand is impulsive and shortsighted, blinded by his ideals of devotion and worship, and terrified of abandonment
armand in season two reacted impulsively and in shame when he stuck by louisā side after the trial. louis assumed armand saved him and armand was too afraid and insecure to correct him. armand tripped into the perfect excuse and ran with it for 70 years out of desperation. he gaslit louis for decades in a relationship they were both clearly miserable in because heās the fucking poster child of the sunk cost fallacy. armand doesnāt let go of anything until heās FORCED to
santiago was the major schemer in putting the play together and armandās cowardice and insecurity compelled him to participate and direct it. armand was VERY much responsible for his actions there- he played a major role in orchestrating the lynching of louis and claudia, but he wasnāt the sole scheming manipulator of that plot. he didnāt trust louis enough to abandon the coven for him, made his choice when santiago organized a mutiny, and those actions were fueled by his insecurity and desperation
armand is dangerous when heās afraid. armand will do anything to latch onto others and feel loved when he thinks heās backed into a corner. heās a monster who is desperate for love. not a machiavellian schemer. not a mastermind. vengeance and petty cruelty have never been the driving factors of armandās worst behavior; his misguided understanding of love is always at the core of the worst things he does
in 2x05 he asks louis if louis is miserable inside the prison of empathy armand has built for him
that line understands armand SO well. armand thinks heās acting out of love. armand thinks heās constructed a safe harbor for him and louis. armand thinks if he loves louis in the right way, if he can manipulate louis into loving him back, that things simply have to work out, because if they donāt, armand will be alone and unmoored. armand has NO CLUE who he is without tying himself to someone else
armand genuinely thinks that heās acting in louisā best interest for all of season two. heās decided that this is their happy ending and he is DESPERATE to maintain it. armand goes down with the ship because he will not fucking accept that itās sinking. he tries to scoop water out of the hull with his bare hands no matter how hopeless the situation is, because when heās in a corner, he blinds himself to reality
i was so incredibly impressed and moved by season twoās depiction of armand. by assad zamanās clear love for armand and deep understanding of everything that makes armand tick. armand is a monster. heās a pathetic, clinging monster who at his core is so insecure and so blinded by desperation that he convinces himself he has no other option than to cling on to whoever he thinks will keep him by their side
louis spends all of his time in paris insisting that the devolving status quo is maintainable, that thereās a balance to find between himself and the coven, that armand can just tell them to fuck off and everything will be okay. louis doesnt budge a fucking inch for armand in paris. and that makes sense for louisā character! itās an overcorrection driven by his experiences with lestat; he was burned so badly in new orleans that he puts his fucking foot down and decides that heās never giving someone that type of in again. he will not be hurt like that again. heās in control of the relationship this time, heās the dominant partner, and he gives armand the ultimatum of choosing between him or the coven because joining the coven would NEVER be an option for louis
they were doomed from the start. fresh off of his travels with claudia and the assassination of lestat, louis never wouldāve given armand any ground. he completely ignores and disregards armandās insistence that what they have isnāt maintainable and that something needs to change; louis places all of the onus for that change on armand. and when armand is caught between his coven of centuries and a man he wants to love who has never budged an inch for him, he picks the coven. he goes with the safer option. because armand would never take the risk of abandoning miserable stability for a potentially happier scenario that requires him to leave his comfort zone
maitre in the bedroom, maitre when itās convenient. armand needs control. armand pretends at submission and enjoys playing the role occasionally, but armand is a control FREAK. he couldnāt control louis. he couldnāt predict louis would actually stay with him or keep armand by his side because louis spent their entire relationship withholding. so armand picks the coven, and then, when he canāt pick the coven anymore, he takes the in and stays with louis
the armand of season three is not the armand of seasons one and two. yes, armand is cruel. yes, armand is a monster. but the nuances of why he does what he does have vanished by 3x07. itās as if the writers saw the fanbaseās ecstatic response to 2x05 and the only lesson they took from it was that we like armand being evil and violent, and that armand being evil and violent in any capacity is true to the character without ever considering the reasons heās driven to violence. what a fucking disappointment
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