PurpleHal

19 yrs old | agender | she/they | adhd

[purplehalnw]

✨BLOG INTRO✨

Hi!!! My name is Hal 💕

This is my only blog. I mostly make posts revolving around whatever fandoms I'm into at any given time. Definitely don't expect me to post regularly.

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Fandoms:

I'm currently into: Interview with the Vampire (AMC show specifically, haven't read the books yet), The Amazing Digital Circus, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss

I also like: the MCU (I especially love Daredevil, Captain America, and Moon Knight), Doctor Who, Hannibal, Good Omens, Percy Jackson, Spiderverse, Falsettos, Nimona, Heartbreak High, James Gunn's DCU, She-Ra, The Owl House, The Boys & Gen V, The Good Place, Heartstopper

Feel free to send me an ask about any of these. I wouldn't mind having someone I can info-dump to or having someone info-dump to me. But remember:

✨PROSHIPPERS, ZIONISTS, TERFS, SWERFS, AND ANY OTHER BIGOTS DNI✨

[wizzard890]

I really loved how the finale positioned Louis as such a better man than Armand. Armand demanded an apology from him at machete-point for everything. For "abandoning" him, for not loving him enough, for not throwing himself as fuel into the bottomless hole of Armand's heart. These are all apologies Armand feels like he's owed! How could you do this to him! He is so Small and so helpless and empty, all he asked for was everything! Give him the apology he deserves!!

Armand has been walking around this entire season reading out a litany of apologies that he's written down Exactly Right, skipping the crimes that don't register to him as crimes, or positioning his sins as understandable and therefore possible to simply reiterate according to the AA style guide. He does it perfectly and so we're square now, right? That's how forgiveness works? Why are you all still so angry at him??

It's telling that he brought Regina to his apology with Louis, because he knows Louis has his pride and that Louis is right to be angry with him, in a way that's so fresh and so personal that he'll need to grease the wheels a little. So Louis, put your apology in his little slot like he, Armand, did with everyone else and then he, Armand, will feel better. Yes, none of you seem to have felt better after his very good apologies, but surely he will be satisfied! Armand, who does things Correctly.

And then Louis offers sympathy for the single thing that represents his side in their failed relationship, which was not ever broaching the subject of Armand's sexual slavery. That's his regret. He was close enough to Armand - and yes, cared for him enough - to be able to identify where that big clawing hole inside of him comes from. And he never brought it up, and didn't care for Armand like Armand obviously needs, because he didn't want to. Because he was in love with someone else. Because the person Armand actually is is not a person that Louis, with his own needs and feelings, wants to love. No jury in the world would convict him.

You can hear Louis's emotion when he says this. You can hear that it's something he's known for a while, something he dwelt on when they were together and just didn't raise. It's an extorted apology, but one that moves Armand. And it's in such sharp contrast to how Armand read off his papers. Armand made little bullet lists of all the things (he thinks) you could nail him for and disavowed them in hindsight. Louis talked about how their relationship made Armand feel. How it probably still makes him feel.

This is a season that's all about our main characters coming to understand the impact they have on one another, and taking responsibility for the few things they can help, despite their vampiric state and all the suffering they've been through in their own lives. Louis has that capacity. Armand doesn't. Armand doesn't even know that that's an option. He can't conceive of it. Yes, he does things, sometimes very bad and terrible things. But they're not his fault. He's so small.

And I think the show posits that maybe the only way these monsters can make a case for their own souls is to accept fault or failure in their treatment of one another.

Louis knows what he wishes he'd done differently. He hands that to Armand and lets him make of it what he will.

[armandrundeo]

His thumb slips into his mouth, an instinct to self-soothe as his past is pushed into his mind.

“You were twelve.”

“Poor boy.”

He notices and pulls his hand away from his face, pulling away from the acknowledgement of what happened to him and how young he was. Even though that little boy still lives inside him.

[zenyteehee]

I really do think that the beheadings were primarily intended to stop the Great Conversion. I also recently realized I was operating under the assumption from the very beginning that the plan was never to kill either Louis or Lestat, merely to incapacitate them long enough and definitively enough to miss the concert (apparently this was not a common assumption in the fandom). Why? They had Fareed for one, who —per earlier in the season when discussing the Budapest experiments and estimating that Louis could survive about 2 hours post decapitation and that Lestat could theoretically survive 8-10 hours— already knew that death did not occur immediately at the point of decapitation (as did Louis, who seemed already aware of that fact when he went on his own beheading spree in talking to decapitated heads, which makes me believe some amount of continued life after beheading was decently common knowledge).

As such, I also think that Armand, worn down more than a little bit by the emotional upheaval of the last years and especially by the last weeks (I’m looking at you, “Big Boss”), saw the opportunity for what it was and cracked. I hear what Assad said that Armand wouldn’t have gone through with it, and indeed he didn’t go through with it. He had Fareed there to monitor Louis and sew him back together. If the point was to torture Louis until he died, he could have approximated how much time Louis had left for the purpose of his own torture plans just by observing him.

Furthermore, I think this hypothesis is evidenced by the fact that Fareed did not look to be there all that willingly or happily (and further evidenced by Fareed’s obvious discomfort during that shoulder massage scene and his general tense affect). If Fareed were there just to monitor for the purpose of research, we would’ve seen him with the same sort of disengaged, stony-faced affect we’ve seen him with previously in Dubai and on the tour bus. But he was not happy, he was uncomfortable. When Armand asks towards the end how Louis is doing, he says “terrible”. If he were willingly there to “research” a subject post-beheading to the point of death, he wouldn’t have cared. He might’ve said, “declining” or something similar. But he did care and grew more visibly anxious the closer Louis got to death, making me think Louis was never supposed to die. The more Fareed believed he might, the more uncomfortable with the situation he became.

Similarly, because Lestat was estimated to have the capacity to survive 8-10 hours post-decapitation, I wonder if the plan really was to let Lestat die or if putting Lestat’s head in a bag and walking off with it served as a pressure point for Louis and a bit of catharsis for Daniel. They had 8-10 hours, it was a fairly safe move given that Louis would only have about 2. The Talamasca then interfered before we could properly answer the question or explore it further.

So no, I don’t think this was inherently OOC or diverging from the established plot. I just think that Armand and Daniel had a plan, saw the opportunity for a side quest, took it, and were then interrupted.

[purplehalnw]

First off, thank you for this. The hate for this season has been really intense, especially with this latest episode. So, I appreciate someone trying to be more understanding.

I do agree with people that this episode does feel pretty messy.

(Cjbrown theorized that episode 6 was actually intended to be the season finale. But that AMC didn't want the season to be that short and so the crew had to rush an extra episode. I know nothing about tv production stuff so idk if this is actually a solid theory but at the moment it makes the most sense to me).

I'll definitely have to rewatch the episode so maybe I'm forgetting something.

But I don't think the finale outright said that stopping the Great Conversion was never a part of Armand's plan? Did it? Because I've been seeing some people say it did.

I mean sure Armand claims that him infiltrating Lestat's band was "ruining for the sake of ruining". But idk if I believe him. Just like I don't believe that he just put in the Fred Stein photos just to "fuck with Louis' head" (I agree with Louis' opinion that Armand put in the photos to coddle/hype up Louis). I think either Armand is intentionally trying to frame himself as having petty motivations in order to make himself come off as more intimidating or these seemingly petty motivations are a result of Lestat's narration and his limited perspective. (Although I'm less inclined to believe the latter. Since I don't think the Failures album narrative device and the effects that device would have on every scene were completely thought out/constantly considered).

From my understanding, the idea of getting revenge on Louis came first. But then as Lestat's music started becoming more popular, and the other vampires started talking, the Great Conversion started to become a concern. So, Armand momentarily shifted to focusing on getting through to Lestat.

I never thought that Armand and Daniel's plan was to kill Lestat and/or just stop him from attending the concert. If Lestat just up and disappeared I think that would just make him into martyr for the movement rather than stop it, something that I feel Armand and Daniel would've anticipated. So, I figured their plan would be to convince Lestat to call off the Great Conversion at the concert.

So, I was confused about why Armand just had Daniel fuck off with Lestat's head.

But I think I might get it now. Armand was going to torture an apology out of Louis FIRST, and then negotiate with Lestat about the Great Conversion AFTER that.

But still I'm not too sure about this, seems pretty risky. The 8-10 hours thing isn't a concrete fact, just an estimate from Fareed. And we did see that Lestat would have died if Raglan hadn't saved him. So, to just leave Lestat's head unattached and basically unattended in Daniel's bag for who knows how long seems pretty irresponsible, if Armand really didn't want Lestat to die.

Also, I'm starting to realize that the beheading was very much a last minute thing.

I think Armand's initial plan was to have Regina put Louis in a vulnerable emotional state, that would hopefully make Louis more willing to forgive Armand and apologize to Armand. But Lestat put a wrench in that shit by comforting Louis and convincing Louis to stay away from Regina.

And also Armand was struggling trying to prevent the Great Conversion. Trying to convince Lestat to stop playing music? Didn't work. Killing Larry to break up the band? Didn't really have much of an impact. Releasing the Gabistat sex tape*? Louis comforted Lestat about that, so Lestat likely wasn't gonna cancel/quit the concert out of shame. So, I think Armand saw beheading Lestat and Louis as killing two birds with one stone. Louis and Lestat are causing issues by being together? Just chop their heads off and separate them.

*(Wait actually now that I think about it. Maybe they did want Lestat dead? Maybe Daniel and Armand thought that the Gabistat sex tape combined with Lestat not showing up for the concert would be enough to stop the Great Conversion? Like maybe they figured that the Gabistat sex tape would put some people off to holding up Lestat as a leader, and then him not showing up to the concert would be the final nail in the coffin. It would also serve as an alibi. "Where is Lestat? Oh he's probably run away and hiding out of shame because of the sex tape". That way people won't assume that he's dead and make him into a martyr. Idk still pretty risky though).

Once again, I definitely think the production of this episode was rushed so I don't imagine the writers had all of this planned out. They probably just tried to leave things as ambiguous as possible so they could work out the kinks and properly deliver in s4.

Also, wow Jesus Christ this was long sorry 😅. Definitely would like some more feedback from you.

[interviewwiththewerepire]

"armand isn't owed an apology after all the shit he did to louis, i can't believe they made him do that"

hey guys? Do we maybe think that Armand's tit-for-tat mentality, and the way he's been tallying up his and everyone else's sins against each other is a problem? Is it maybe possible that Louis managing to find empathy for Armand in the face of the monstrosity being done to him, and that radical act of kindness and honesty (about the ways he unintentionally hurt Armand) moving Armand so much that it nearly breaks him, is idk a major theme of this whole season?

you know, sorta like how Lestat was holding onto his feelings of betrayal about the book, and all it did to serve him was make him absolutely miserable and lonely and push him into the arms of someone actively harming him. And how it was only after he let that go, and helped Louis even though he still thought that Louis didn't give a shit about him, that they were able to connect again and be happier than we've ever seen them.

Or like how Louis was able to look past his initial feelings of revulsion and betrayal about the Sophia lie, and offered comfort and a space to speak honestly, and how that granted him a deeper understanding of Lestat, and ultimately strengthened their bond.

Are we seeing the pattern here? How they're breaking the curse of loneliness when they stop seeing each other as monsters, and extend a bit of empathy, even when it's hard or not deserved? How addressing the gaping wound behind the actions might open the door to healing for both parties?

[house-of-mirrors]

Post about increasingly niche stuff that nobody follows you for and barely has a tumblr presence NOW

[beardedmrbean]

Next up someone is going to claim that the Narnia series isn't kids books.

Kids books is probably not the best way to word it, you can enjoy them at every age, including your childhood, as you get older you may find new truths in them, but they're still good for any age.

[girlfailure-poetics]

I have kind of a niche political view on tumblr, which is that I think misogyny is bad even when it’s just hurting women

[purplehalnw]

Also, transphobia is bad even when it's just hurting trans people.

[purplehalnw]

I made Gangle and Zooble figures!

Here's how I made them-

For Gangle:

-I glued some red paper around five wire pieces to make the two arms, two legs, and the body (I wrapped that piece around my finger to get the shape right). Then I hot glued them all together.

-The mask is just paper that I drew on, cut out, and glued onto the body.

For Zooble:

-I cut out some cardboard pieces and glued them together to make the triangle shape. Then I put on some paper mache to smooth out the edges and make it look more like one big piece. Then I painted it.

-The antennas are made of tiny pieces of cardboard I painted and glued onto the head.

-The eyes are made out of Crayola air-dry clay that I painted and hot glued onto the head.

[purplehalnw]

Okay just so y'all know I'm gonna be taking somewhat of a break from IWTV.

Now I enjoyed this season for the most part but I do have some criticisms and I agree that the finale for this season is pretty messy.

However, none of that compares to how miserable this fandom has become.

So, I'm gonna try stepping back a bit. I've blocked as many IWTV/TVL tags as I can. So, don't expect me to engage with posts outside of who I currently follow.

I do have plans to make a Loumand s2 post and a Madeleine s2 post. And I do have a few ideas for fanfics and edits so I'll post those if/when I get around to making those. But don't expect much posts aside from that, especially not text posts about s3 (aside from maybe a reblog every now and then. I just don't want to make a post and then have my inbox be flooded with negativity about this season).

It's probably gonna be a few months, maybe even a year. Idk, long enough for things to die down a bit.

[iimpavidwrites]

even if i despise the newest episode of the amc vampire chronicles adaptation i don't think i'm going to agree with the decision some folks are making to be like "ah yes we should murder this writer/producer/director" ... i don't know that i agree that sloppiness, poor pacing, shitty theme execution, and/or incorrect artistic perspectives in anything-- including the stories i personally hold as formative and important and dear-- actually warrants that level of vitriol online.

it's a weird trend i've always seen in fandom that seems to overlap with the idea that failing to achieve moral purity in art is indicative of evil intentions and actions on the part of the creator.

i cannot think of a single time i saw fandom get their dander up about a queer-flavored piece of media failing to execute all aspects of leftist thought perfectly without flaw... and then seen real world positive change come from that vitriol. not once. at best, shows get canceled. at worst, small queer creators with unique perspective get doxxed and harassed offline. In both cases, we don't get more art of that kind and everyone's bummed out.

Put more succinctly: getting mad at art is not the same thing as activism and the sooner we all internalize that, I think, the better.

[interviewwiththewerepire]

"armand isn't owed an apology after all the shit he did to louis, i can't believe they made him do that"

hey guys? Do we maybe think that Armand's tit-for-tat mentality, and the way he's been tallying up his and everyone else's sins against each other is a problem? Is it maybe possible that Louis managing to find empathy for Armand in the face of the monstrosity being done to him, and that radical act of kindness and honesty (about the ways he unintentionally hurt Armand) moving Armand so much that it nearly breaks him, is idk a major theme of this whole season?

you know, sorta like how Lestat was holding onto his feelings of betrayal about the book, and all it did to serve him was make him absolutely miserable and lonely and push him into the arms of someone actively harming him. And how it was only after he let that go, and helped Louis even though he still thought that Louis didn't give a shit about him, that they were able to connect again and be happier than we've ever seen them.

Or like how Louis was able to look past his initial feelings of revulsion and betrayal about the Sophia lie, and offered comfort and a space to speak honestly, and how that granted him a deeper understanding of Lestat, and ultimately strengthened their bond.

Are we seeing the pattern here? How they're breaking the curse of loneliness when they stop seeing each other as monsters, and extend a bit of empathy, even when it's hard or not deserved? How addressing the gaping wound behind the actions might open the door to healing for both parties?

[hinasho]

the amount of people saying that the show is romanticizing gabistat and acting like incest is being condoned is so weird to me. I’ve never once watched this season and went “ah, yes. they’re portraying this as acceptable and okay!”

Lestat looks disgusted and pained every time. There is not one single moment where he seemed to be experiencing enjoyment from their dynamic. It’s his mother sexually assaulting him in exchange for affection knowing she’s spent his entire childhood depriving him of it.

Narrator Lestat spends a whole episode trying to convince the listener their dynamic is okay, to the point where it’s obvious he’s just trying to convince himself. Lestat asks Gabriella to please stop coming onto him, she tries her damndest to violate and manipulate him in practically every scene afterwards. Lestat saw a video of them together, of himself being assaulted by his mother, the first person in his life he ever loved and trusted, and went into a full on panic attack, yelling at Louis that “it’s normal” while he literally falls apart at it’s acknowledgment.

This is not subtext. It’s not implied. It’s not ambiguous. It’s clear cut abuse.

[purplehalnw]

I saw someone on TikTok comment that the show treats Lestat's abuse "like a joke" and I'm sorry fucking where?

Sure not every scene is "horrifying" and "sad" like the Gabistat flashback scene in ep 4 but they're very clearly meant to make you feel uncomfortable.

I really think this is the case of people seeing the dumbass reactions of general audiences and assuming that must mean the show is bad. And I'm sorry but that is just a stupid way to analyze media.

Like just because some YouTube reactor laughed and made a joke during the scene of Gabriella groping Lestat when he was injured doesn't suddenly mean that the show is bad at portraying abuse.

[eroscestlavie]

Sometimes I see iwtv fans on here who aren’t my circle of trusted friends and it’s like WHAT are any of them talking about ever omg

[purplehalnw]

Okay where the hell did Armand and Daniel post that video because I doubt they would be able to get that shit past YouTube guidelines.

[purplehalnw]

So, I am still thinking about the bar scene after the Gabistat sex tape leak.

After trying to avoid Louis' questions by steering the conversation to be about Paul's death, Lestat says:

"The blame. If we can find the blame, if we agree on the blame, then it's all mapped. The why we are, the why we do."

He then scoffs and says, "I conduct the chaos. [Gabriella] is one of the many chainsaws I juggle".

I think what Lestat is trying to say is that there's no point in pinning the blame on Gabriella.

Because the only way to pin the blame is if you truly understand the person and know why they did what they did. Louis is trying to get Lestat to realize that Gabriella is the one at fault but Lestat refuses to accept Louis' opinion because Louis doesn't know Gabriella. He doesn't know the "bitter life" she had, which in Lestat's eyes absolves her of her actions.

I think Lestat also believes that he can't pin the blame on Gabriella because he is willingly engaging with her. It was easier for Lestat to accept that he was sexually assaulted by Magnus because he was actively trying to get away from him. But because Lestat is "consensually" having sex with Gabriella, he is hesitant to label it as abuse.

[innerchildabortionclinic]

they should give you the option to unblock in these circumstances. just to see the drama unfold