Juggling chainsaws

[nalyra-dreaming]

About me

Nalyra ⏛ she/her/they I love complicated characters and relationships. Vampire lover of old. I like a lot of things, so do mind the tags, please.

Ask | Ao3

This blog is NOT Vampire Chronicles / IWTV / TVL spoiler free.

Life is too short for hate, be brave enough to be kind.

PSA

I reserve the right to be silent human, at least until I‘m turned 😛

[nalyra-dreaming]

Do you think S4 would have Lestat staying with Akasha for the majority of the season?

I am guessing 4 of the 7? episodes.

[nalyra-dreaming]

HM saying Armand knows he’s been wronged and used by Louis. Did she even read these books?? Armand KILLED HIS DAUGHTER. And he knows HE’S been wrong by LOUIS? What the hell is wrong with her…

Also, this shows a severe lack of understanding of Armand's character.

Btw, this is them all listening to Hannah there in the After Dark.

No words needed.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Okay, so I watched the finale twice. I loved the symbolism of Paul's appearance and was relieved that Louis and Lestat are together at the end, even though their relationship status is still up in the air. The performances were immaculate, as expected. Lestat finally reclaiming his agency and calling out Gabriella was very cathartic.

I didn't love Armand torturing Louis -- it left me quite baffled. All of that effort to get Louis to apologize? And for what, exactly? Armand is directly responsible for Claudia's death! Louis has the right to be hateful towards him! And the purpose of Gabriella forcing Lestat to watch the witch burning was to spur him on to run away...at nine years old... Huh?? I wonder if that was supposed to elicit a positive reaction from the audience in regards to Gabriella's shit parenting. Like, "See, she did care, she wanted him to save himself but he refused to leave until he was 30!" Bad faith viewers might interpret it as victim-blaming, but imo, it reinforces the idea that Gabriella groomed him to be co-dependent and emotionally enmeshed with her. She fucking traumatized him.

The finale left me with more questions rather than answers, which is disappointing considering the two year wait. I hope the writers take note that episode 6 was the most critically acclaimed episode this season, and it is precisely because Louis and Lestat are the main focus. I agree with your assessment that the reappropriation of certain book-canon dynamics (like Armand torturing Louis instead of Lestat) are not working, and the writers really need to reevaluate their approach to Louis' character. JA can make anything work because he is a tremendous actor, but having to watch Louis battered and miserable every season is getting exhausting.

Overall, I did enjoy this season, but like I said, I was baffled by some of the writing choices and the lack of clarity regarding certain events that occurred 2 seasons ago. Like, 4+ years will have passed by the time they provide exposition on what really happened at the trial. I just hope we aren't overestimating the writers. I truly did have a lot of faith at the beginning of the season, but now I'm left with some concerns. I keep reminding myself that s1 ended on a perplexing note, too, so it is possible that s4 will redeem some of these questionable writing choices.

I just hope we aren't overestimating the writers. I truly did have a lot of faith at the beginning of the season, but now I'm left with some concerns. I keep reminding myself that s1 ended on a perplexing note, too, so it is possible that s4 will redeem some of these questionable writing choices.

Same. Here's to hoping!

And yes, I enjoyed the first six episodes, a LOT.

But the finale ruined what they carefully built there.

It's a shame.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Thank fuck I'm not dumb for being confused as hell about Armand's motives. Fandom people I trust, including you, are confused too. That makes me feel less insane.

I don't even hate the loumand scene in ep7. I really love that they got to air out stuff to each other. Although it could've been executed wayy better, and in different circumstances too. Loved the Regina thing. And I really really liked whatever tiny crumbs of Armand we got this season. Love love his deranged side.

BUT whole time I thought it was all leading upto something substantial. Especially that we'd get to know his motives. Oh boy. When I first watched ep7, I thought it flew over my head, because surely taking his revenge on louis and getting him to apologise was not his main motive?? SURELY NOT??

It makes NO sense. Like, what?? Why did he kill larry then?? Why did he release the revenge porn?? Were the apologies slightly genuine for once or was it all fake? If it was fake, why apologise at all to anyone except Daniel? Did he decapitate them only so that louis is incapacitated while he coaxes out his apology?? Was he going to let lestat die if RJ hadn't intervened?? Why did he cut Lestat's head? Because he would not let him torture louis? Because Armand didn't want him to do the concert?? WHY did he do the things he did this season??? Even the explanation that he was having a mental breakdown would be better than to make louis apologize. Because that motive is hilariously nonsensical.

Atp some of the fan theories and analysis are way better because the finale gave us absolutely nothing. The whole Armand being anti-GC and trying to stop it at any cost was the most credible theory. But it's not addressed at all?? Except Daniel kinda telling Raglan "really? You want him to do the concert?"

Rolin Jones is such a liar for saying screeners have an incomplete Armand arc and everything becomes clear in the finale. No it fucking doesn't. If anything, we're more confused.

Assad was INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT throughout so that's something ig.

Yes, the acting was top notch.

The rest though. The rest.

(And no, you're not insane. *sighs*)

[nalyra-dreaming]

I knew they were going to woobify Armand’s character the second he came in this season on an ‘apology tour’ 💔

I mean, I did like that setup, because they repeatedly pointed out that it was just a setup.

And if that scene in 3x07 would have been with Lestat?

It would have been book-accurate AND it would have made sense.

This... is just a clusterfuck.

[nalyra-dreaming]

I don't think Hannah believes Louis owed Armand an apology but rather Armand believes Louis owes him an apology. Still a shitty storyline though.

Same difference though.

They thought that Armand would feel justified to torture Louis for decades because Louis was cold and mean to him because *checks notes* Louis never forgave Armand for killing his daughter.

She seriously thought this was something Armand would feel he was justified to do.

And that THIS is what "full gremlin" amounts to.

[nalyra-dreaming]

hey, i know you don’t like negativity brought to you but i actually do think this should have awareness drawn to it with sdcc coming up and with everything that happened last year as well, not trying to be an alarmist but this shit is deranged and fans need to remain vigilant

I think the network, cast and SDCC management and personnel are very much aware of it all.

I don't mean to make light of this, this is very fucked up and ... yeah. Deranged behavior.

But they are aware of this already.

Unfortunately.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Back when season 1 was airing I was only lurking in the IWTV tags sometimes, because I didn’t have AMC, and when I heard about the drop in episode 5 I pretty much stopped checking the tags, because as a book fan all I could think was “WTF?”

Give it another chance with season 2, loved it, have loved all of season 3 so far, I haven’t seen the finale for season 3 yet, but I’ve seen the discourse, and I was just wondering if you think the discourse we’re seeing now is at the same level as it was back then with S1E5, or worse, or less?

Mhhh. Other than back then, I have not checked the tags.

It might surpass the discourse for 1x05 though, from what I have heard.

I have to say, for ME... it is once more extremely frustrating to hear people are deactivating or leaving the fandom after this episode. Don't get me wrong, I get it. I got it back then as well, though back then I was still naive enough to think pointing out canon and how the show was structured would make a difference.

But this fandom is losing the actual fans through shit like this, bit by bit.

I don't mean to throw shade here at any show fan btw.

No, what I mean is that this fandom has always had a certain portion of the fandom who more or less hate watched, and refused to engage with the tale and what that would mean for the narrative, and refused to acknowledge that the shifts to Lestat and his version to events would come.

And now, with even more people who loved it TILL NOW deactivating the proportions will shift once more. You know?

And that is such a crying shame.

As said before, also as a book fan, I am not going anywhere. No, I am not happy with this episode, and with the patterns that are showing up. With the dynamics which are, at times, just wrong.

But I also know that this IS what we'll get for the foreseeable future.

I'll take what I can get.

And for everything else... there's fanfiction.

[nalyra-dreaming]

The more I think about it, the more I’m like they should have stopped at episode 6. And then came back with 8 episodes for season 4. I’m still baffled by the finale.

I hated Armand’s storyline, hated whatever they were doing with Daniel. These are my faves here. At least with Louis storyline it was building up to his reunion with Lestat in 3x06 and closure on Claudia, it didn’t just come out of nowhere. But loumand wtf where was this coming from.

They killed Larry for this???? My head is still spinning.

Yeah, I feel the same, unfortunately.

[nalyra-dreaming]

If the writers had a favorite character, it was probably Raglan James and Gabriella.

I believe in a recent interview Hannah said hers was Gabriella

Could've fooled me.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hannah is a weird Armand fan. She put the blame in Louis and implied he's the one abusing him. She doesn't understand him and thinks he will want to physically torture Louis to hear him apologising. She dismissed his relationship with Lestat. And she delivered a lackluster DM plot. Like I don't understand how you can do so wrong to your favourite character.

Me neither.

Which actually says that he really isn't her favorite character.

Not the "real Armand". Just this woobified version of him.

[nalyra-dreaming]

You know, after drop we WERE telling everyone that Anna writing is questionable but we were called all kind of names, because Louis fans were okay with Lestat being evil abuser. They ignored that Louis is hurt by that too. But now they're finally waking up.

You know, I always assumed Lestat would be her biggest victim, but by erasing armandstat (which I think is her doing) I'm pretty sure he dodged the bullet lol. Poor Louis is taking the brunt of it by Hannah deciding he's the biggest transgressor for Armand.

As said before, the justifications for 1x05 were always bullshit, and now a certain pattern shows itself, and it is decidedly NOT pretty.

I mean, maybe one can say "at least people are finally waking up", god knows better late than never.

They are doing such a disservice to all the other characters by woobifying Armand, it's not even funny. ARMAND.

SMH

[nalyra-dreaming]

So for this, I think this lends credence to my theory that the show uses yellow/orange eyes to show vampire sickness, even if they don't exclusively use yellow eyes to show vampire sickness. (But also... what if they did? We know Santiago, for instance, was made without the permission of a coven leader. What if there was a reason for that beyond just "didn't ask me.") Not that that's necessarily going to be where they go with it, but @cbrownjc is still pretty certain that Daniel's illness will factor into why he gets transformed into LBF

Hmm.

I don't think Daniel's state of being is an indication of a vampire sickness.

And I personally do not think that there is a general sickness, either, sorry.

I think this is their way of showing how much the blood "is them".

In the books, when they lose enough blood to die, they become husks, the skin and eyes change color into transparency.

The show obviously does not go the plastic skin route.

So they had to visualize that differently.

[nalyra-dreaming]

The finale was such a mess I didn’t even notice the sun being out when Lestat went outside in the final scene 🤦‍♀️

:) I mean, that is something that was hinted at in the last books, so it makes sense for them to pull it up and into the show, imho.

But yeah. This is post Akasha, post Amel even (at least to a certain point, it has to be, since he addresses Amel in 3x05), so Lestat is now a literal powerhouse, and apparently sunproof.

[nalyra-dreaming]

we’re never getting book accurate lesmand if HM is the one writing it💔💔💔

Probably not. -.-

And the way it apparently does not compute how that just... cheapens the characters and relationships is mind-boggling to me.

[nalyra-dreaming]

the mutual abuse narrative they're pushing in the after dark episode is crazy, what the hell is going on?

Victim blaming