I care a lot

Hel. She/her. Asian. Tired Side blog

[kinkydorah]

ASSAD ZAMAN VERA 9.2

[lamiasage]

needed to draw Armand on that motorcycle because those glasses are everything

[some-other-thoughts]

A friendly reminder that Louis, Armand, Sybelle and Benji all live together at Trinity Gate. I know this will never happen on the show but in my head they live happily TOGETHER 🧘‍♀️

[kinkydorah]

ASSAD ZAMAN The Vampire Lestat Reddit AMA

[some-other-thoughts]

This season really subverted my expectations for lesmand btw. Before it aired, I thought they’d show the hate part first, maybe hinting that they slept together in Paris and then spend at least one episode revealing how much they actually care about each other. But turns out it was just these two fucking like bunnies in heat across Paris with absolutely no affection whatsoever. My bad for assuming Rolin would actually adapt the book just because he kept dragging it around everywhere 

[lesmandposting]

fic I would love to see but will probably never get around to writing is one that looks at how fucking lowkey sinister marius is during the prince lestat trilogy. I don't think this was anne's intent, but the textual support is there for an idea that marius was purposefully pushing the prince title on lestat to force a formal vampire hierarchy that he could be near the top of, with a charismatic and overpowered figurehead who would defer to him on any real decisions. and how this happens specifically after maharet denies marius the right to formally execute santino. and in this new vampire hierarchy created by the fiction of "prince lestat", maharet is implicitly excluded.

I really think all that is connected. and under these circumstances, no one could accuse marius of usurping maharet himself, or even of the fact that he's creating a formal hierarchy where there wasnt one before. MARIUS didn't appoint himself prince, he didnt even appoint himself prime minister! and of course lestat would be up to something like this. never mind that he constantly says he doesn't want it. lestat is incredibly easy to manipulate into thinking that he doesnt really have a choice and having done so, to be extremely hospitable to other vampires by creating the court at Auvergne. barely any manipulation is even required- lestat is lonely and loves people and if you tell him that he's the prince of all vampires and this primarily means that he gets to host the world's biggest sleepover, your work is already done.

the shivers of unease from lestat across that trilogy are really really interesting. he can't bring himself to have a confrontation with the ghost of magnus, who in death has finally stolen lestat's face for real, but he also visibly can't stand to be in the same room with him. he's constantly thinking about what a quiet terror it is for him to be ruling in his father's house, to be asked to kill other vampires or sanction killing them, to open the dungeons of his father's house to create a blood farm, but repeatedly, under the pressure of others (often specifically marius) he does it.

I'm always talking about the dynamic between Marius and Armand in these books because I think its so blatantly horrifying- the way Marius constantly speaks over or shuts him down or threatens to strike him. but i think there is a lot there with lestat as well, and how the vampire court even came about in the first place.

(and don't think i haven't also noticed that Marius was fine with Santino being around until Armand published his book and specifically contemplated having infinite time to come to forgive Santino, and only THEN was he suddenly so keen on having him dead, nor the fact that Marius summoned Armand as unspeaking evidence of property damage to Santino's trial after TVA was published. i don't think those are coincidences either. I think Marius saw that Armand might come to forgive Santino over time and said, absolutely not on my fucking watch)

[lesmandposting]

the fun thing about pl era dm and to somw extent even lesmand is that these are both inherently destabilizing to the whole everything I just said. dm explicitly so with marius's petty reaction to daniel leaving him for armand via not painting daniel into his mural of all the vampires, but i think lesmand also has this potential if they can get their heads out of their asses long enough

[crithir]

Thinking now about how Armand and Marius are not always at odds about What To Do about any given situation (i.e. they fight about the aliens but they both agree Rhosh has to go), yet Marius is consistently shutting Armand down at best or threatening him with physical violence if he doesn’t obey at worst. And aside from anything that could be said about how this is the history of their dynamic repeating itself in a new context, I think it’s notable that what’s different is Lestat’s existence in both of their lives. Marius fashions himself an advisor, and Armand wants to be someone Lestat confides in and consults with but feels that Lestat overlooks him. Right or wrong, Armand is someone who will never just tell Lestat what he wants to hear. He won’t coddle his feelings. He’s never manipulating Lestat to get a certain result, he’s just telling him straight to his face and without frills what he thinks should be done, and he’ll be the first person to tell Lestat when he think he’s being a fucking idiot and making a mistake. He is supportive but he does not buy into the whole monarchy concept and in fact even says explicitly that the reason he won’t fight any of their decisions is because he doesn’t want to be torn to shreds and destroyed like other vampires who protested the monarchy or acted against their decrees. In short, Armand is at his most blunt and honest in the PL trilogy, and he’s the only one who is consistently behaving like someone with a brain in his head. He’s as ruthless as ever (see his solution to the alien problem), but he is never hiding any thoughts or motives. He has no desire for power, only the desire to keep the people he loves safe, keep the mortal world in balance, and be considered a valuable confidant by Lestat. That’s it. And that makes him one of the best advisors that Lestat could possibly have, one who loves him deeply and cares for his well being while having no personal motives beyond the safety and well being of everyone that they mutually love. There is no ego or desire for power involved. And I would posit that consciously or subconsciously, this is why Marius is continually shutting Armand down, treating him like he’s still a child, or threatening him. He’s trying to discredit him as an advisor, because he cannot stand to have Armand disagree with him. He cannot stand to have Armand be strong and independent and have a mind of his own. He cannot stand for Armand to be all of these things that he is in the modern day and be just as or more valuable as an advisor to Lestat than him. His ego simply cannot abide that.

[reticent-vampire]

ASSAD ZAMAN as ARMAND — Interview with the vampire 2.04

[reticent-vampire]

— Interview with the vampire 2.03

[covenendearment]

digging into edward said's orientalism again and finding parts of his critiques of flaubert and lane incredibly relevant to tvl's treatment of armand

throughout tvl we are encouraged to think of the character of armand almost exclusively through the lens of sex. this is not in itself a problem; armand's sexuality was important to his character before he was adapted as south asian and coded as muslim. however, the particular forms that this focus takes are strikingly different from his white, christian book counterpart, those being mockery of his sexual submission/deviance...

...mockery of the (alleged, we'll get to it) unrequitedness of his sexual interests and the inappropriate emotions he attaches to them...

...and, perhaps most disturbingly, disparaging references to his history of sexual enslavement.

despite all this, midseason, i thought they could turn it around. i had thought the reason they'd put so fine a point on lestat and armand's sucking and fucking all over paris was building to some grand deconstruction of lestat's hypocrisy towards armand. this, of course, never materialized, casting this plot element in a rather different light.

notice in all of the screencaps so far, armand's sexuality is being spoken about by white characters, in and out of his presence. and what does armand have to say about his own sexuality? about any of this treatment?

[screencap not found]

let's not forget.

it is my contention that the inclusion of this framing device, as well as all of the material discussed above, transforms tvl into a work of textual orientalism. not only is the subject of armand's sexuality, which has been newly characterized as repellent, unseemly, and offensive, exclusively filtered through the lens of white observers. he is literally, canonically being spoken for by a white frenchman for a majority of his screen time in this season.

[bloodyspector]

First time seeing a close-up of Assad's hands rocking his vampire nails. Feel dizzy

[https://www.instagram.com/matthewsantos/p/DbQ8aZamvQG/]

[some-other-thoughts]

I think one of the main reasons I feel so frustrated with how the relationships are developing this season is that the show makes them feel almost interchangeable. Rather than giving each pairing its own distinct identity, the dynamics feel recycled and passed around. Rolin already admitted to lifting elements originally belonging to Nickistat and giving them to Loustat. It doesn't stop there though, they even handed a key Loumand confession in the book over to Loustat as well. In the last episode, they also gave Lesmand dynamic to Loumand. While not really clear yet, I get the impression that modern DM is being pushed to replicate Lestat/David (lesvid?) dynamic. All these decisions don't even feel like an attempt to create parallels or character development, it is simply treating these dynamics as tools for plot convenience (the plots also suck), cherry picking iconic moments from the books whenever it suits the narrative, completely stripping each pairing of its unique weight and traits

[ursafuriosa]

[awhitetulip1997]

So the writers have finally addressed Lestat’s role in the trial by saying he wasn’t forced against his will. I don’t understand why we have to learn this information through supplemental interviews with the writers and cast. And since they have basically decided to not adapt any of the actual awful things Armand does to Lestat and Nicki and his 18th century coven from the book, why was Lestat so antagonist and cruel to Armand the whole season?? He also said he let Armand leave with Louis to punish them?? What is the point of this??

[userarmand]

pretty face #1 and pretty face #2

[userarmand]

just out here twirling his hair

[hollowwaveremnant]

Please watch this interview with Alan Taylor, the director of the show pilot, and now the director of TVL finale, and you'll get how it's not just the actors who seem to have a problem with Rolin Jones' vision, but also the directors.

Alan is complimentary of all the actors, but in particular Assad. He said something about the Rolin Jones Final Cut of the season finale and how it's more chaotic as opposed to his vision which was more romantic. He’s very clear that his episode was drastically changed and that he barely recognized the final product. He even seemed a bit angry at one point, and insisted that this was not the case for the show pilot where only one scene was changed a bit. He said one of his favorite scenes was a long closeup shot of Assad and that he LOVED it…but it was cut.He said that close up of Assad made him realize that he is one of the greatest actors he's ever witnessed.

And yet, as is the case in show biz, he is ultimately complimentary of Rolin Jones. I am so tired of RJ shennanigans.

[userarmand]

louis + grounding armand when he starts to spiral

2.04 / 2.06 / 2.05