My evil brother @joshdonalds drew this for me when he still loved me
tumblr dot com

No title available
Keni
Game of Thrones Daily

Origami Around
Noah Kahan
No title available
Stranger Things

No title available
šŖ¼

Andulka
Not today Justin
KIROKAZE

#extradirty
Today's Document
Mike Driver
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Sade Olutola

titsay
ojovivo
seen from Canada

seen from United States
seen from Malaysia

seen from Malaysia
seen from Netherlands

seen from Malaysia

seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom

seen from Türkiye

seen from Singapore

seen from Türkiye

seen from Netherlands
seen from United States

seen from Italy

seen from Türkiye
seen from Norway
seen from Serbia
seen from United States

seen from Malaysia

seen from Malaysia
@symposiumlover
My evil brother @joshdonalds drew this for me when he still loved me
Ep 7 spoiler warnings
Itās not necessarily the plot of the Loumand stuff that didnāt seem right to me (thatās a separate post) but the massive glaring aesthetic, tonal, and genre shift that suddenly happened during that scene and that scene alone. Why are we doing scifi now?? Why are they suddenly trying to rely on solely on shocking gruesome visual horror as the primary means to evoke a significant moment of emotional reaction in the audience?? The reason that IWtV/TVL has been the fantastic thing that it is is specifically because it does NOT do this. The gore is second to the stakes for the characters, what we care about with them. The big unforgettable moments this show is built on will never be achieved by over the top shocking visuals (like the Louis head/body reveal, the destruction in the final scene) to the degree it will be by things happening to/between the charactersāsmall scale stuff that sometimes include the speculative vampire elements, sure. But the sudden total reliance on brand new speculative elements for the plot to happen at all here, the scifi gore that immediately shifted everything to feeling like it was happening in a different universe, like wtf. That scene wouldāve been completely different if Louisā body had been lying on the floor or in front of Lestatās, his head sitting directly in a simple tin of blood on a table where Armand wouldāve picked it up or turned it or whatever. Something to give it that other element of intimacy and desperation as the time dwindled and Armand isnāt getting his apology. Idk choices in how this part was executed logistically and visually are the issue that had me feeling off about right away. That was not the show Iāve watched for 4+ years and 20ish hours of episodes.
looking back on it now, it's starting to feel like the whole dom/sub loumand dynamic was only introduced as a flimsy excuse for armand to take revenge on louis for all the abuse he suffered in his mortal youth as opposed to, you know. something to be unpacked and explored with care and nuance.
Okay, so, to sum up...
Armand stans are furious because he only had like 15 minutes in total this entire season and because, once again, he was turned into the unhinged, ultimate villain of the season, just because the audience needs a punchbag, and the writers decided that it's always going to be Armand.
Louis stans are furious because he was made to apologize for being a bad partner while being horrifically tortured and abused. And because he has suffered various racist micro-agressions throughout the season by various different characters, including Lestat.
Lestat stans are furious because he literally got nothing to do other than having introspective hallucinations and he has no agency or personality outside of his victimhood and woobification in this season.
Daniel fans are angry because he keeps using racist slurs and tries to sound like an edgy wannabe teenager while he's supposed to be a Pulitzer winning, serious reporter.
Claudia fans are angry because even in death she's disrespected and used by Loumand to reestablish their toxic love for one another.
Nicolas fans are furious because the character appeared merely in flashbacks for like 3 minutes in total and then as a fuckass hallucination.
Gabrielle and Marius fans are angry because they are nowhere to be found (no, what we got was not them guys).
Loustat stans are angry because they didn't even share a kiss and their relationship progression was hasty at best, completely unearned, and extremely disrespectful to Claudia.
Nickistat stans are angry because they got absolutely nothing except for one flirt scene at a tavern and then absolutely nothing at all.
Loumand stans are angry because their relationship had a violent ending rather than the emotional, mutual understanding and reconciliation that we were hoping for.
Lesmand stans are rightfully furious because they made the ship completely one sided, with Armand truly being in love with Lestat while Lestat only ever saw him as a hole to shove his dick inside, and otherwise as boring and pathetic and not worthy of his time. While, in the books, the two of them are absolutely fascinated and in love with each other, and Lestat is always super affectionate with Armand, and even after all the bad blood between them, they still DEEPLY love and trust each other.
And, of course, Devil's Minion stans are also rightfully furious because we have been teased for four years and properly baited for two years to get us to show up and bring our online engagement for TVL, with all our enthusiasm and love for our ship, only to receive pathetic crumbs and implications, and to have Armand and Daniel's 12-year-relationahip turned into a 52-year, one-sided stalking (fuck you, writers).
So, guys, I genuinely have to ask myself... since we are ALL disappointed and furious... who the FUCK was this fuckass season even for??? š
It shouldāve been Lestat, not Louis. Armand would do that, but he would not do it to Louis. Thatās the issue. This was the replacement for the trial torture because theyāve made Lestat actually complicit (good decision) but the act itself was not the point. It was who it was done to, and it carries very different connotations in the book than what it would in the show. In the book, it is to whitewash Lestat of wrongdoing, in the show it would be the opposite.
I had been praying for the sexual side of Loumandās relationship to be addressed because it always made me so uneasy, and every word Louis said echoed how Iād felt in season 2. It was a conversation that needed to happen between them. I just donāt like how it happened.
And this change wouldnāt fix the season, but it would make sense of all the constant Armand references being made around Lestat. It would mean his avoidance of their past together amounted to something. Lestat has been running from real accountability the entire season and Armand makes it so he canāt run anymore. He has to face it, and we get to see, in real time, all the ways in which theyāre similar and all their differences.
But we wouldnāt get the ātwelveā bombshell. That had to be Loumand, I think. It was important for it to be them.
I think the Loumand apology shouldāve been sincere. It shouldāve happened earlier in the scene. Switch places with the Lesmand apology perhaps, and make this the Lesmand apology instead. Armand ought to be angrier at Lestat. Heās given him a hundred more reasons this season alone.
Rolin Jones saw that people were genuinely fucking with Loumand and said: wait, let me shoot this ship in the head and then sink it because it's two people of color in a relationship and not a white+poc relationship
The fuck you mean loumand never loved each other? Are you fucking kidding me? The whole point of the relationship is that they loved each other but as time went by the love faded because Louis was too depressed and Armand was tired of trying to make him happy!!!
That whole writing room is my biggest enemy!
They can try and pry Loumand out of my dead, cold hands but they won't ever succeed.
And don't get me started on how the main black lead is being treated as a punching bag by everyone and the main Asian lead is side tracked and also made the punching bag for racist jokes.
I think it wouldāve been infinitely more powerful for Louis to acknowledge his history as a pimp and how that affected Armand, a former sex slave, if the rest of the season didnāt keep using the word to insult him.
We didnāt need to be reminded a hundred times that Louis was a pimp. We know. He knows.
For this to be an actual moment of accountability for Louis where he is in such a compromised situation and despite that, he finally sincerely reveals to Armand that, yes this part of my past did affect my ability to give you the love you needed and that wasnāt fair to you ā that couldāve been so much more poignant if it was the first time in the season Louisā history as a pimp had been brought up.
Because it just sounds like a slur now. They shouldāve kept it as Louisā personal moment of reflection instead of having Lestatās narrative brand him as a pimp a hundred times.
Louis did not become a pimp because it was a passion of his. It was because he was a black man living in the Deep South in the early 20th century who wanted to provide for his family and make something for himself. If there were other options, he wouldāve taken them. He tells us this.
But this persona he crafted to deal with the horror of what he was doing did create a degree of separation between him and Armand, who needs to be loved completely. That is what Louis admits to him. Itās not that heās still literally Louis the pimp, itās that this traumatic past he has as a result of the violent racism heās endured left him unable to commit to Armand in the way Armand needed. Louis did not enjoy being a pimp. He confesses this in the very first episode. He still did it, and thatās what makes him a complex interesting character, but it wasnāt a career he wanted, and Armand was potentially the very last person who shouldāve been relying on him for love. They arenāt incompatible completely and there was love there, but long-term they need very different things from their partners.
Itās a gorgeous moment with breathtaking acting from Jacob and Assad and I love when Louis has these kind moments. I just wish theyād stop using that fucking word. Let us be done with it now.
Ok hearing them talk on after dark about the loumand dynamic of a former pimp and former sex slave was healing to me. Because a few weeks ago some ppl were saying that Louis being a pimp wasnāt at play in their relationship. How could it not be???
Lamb Louis and Hare Armand
āMissing the psychodrama of Dubai?ā
Yes, I actually am, Lestat. Thank you for asking. Season 4 should just be a shot-for-shot remake of season 2. A psychodrama of the psychodrama of Dubai.
Them talking about Armand:
IWTVL S3 Ep7 Musings: A sloppy rushed FAILURE; a Humiliation Ritual; another LYNCHING; and a Racist AF Abuse Apologia INSULT (SPOILERS) Pt3: Armand's Letter to Louis
I have been enduring intense conversations with myself in the 3yrs since our companionship ended. And as part of that journey, I wish to say something from the deepest regions of my soul. 2 grievous lies, gross betrayals. The 1st is a well-trod pit of hot coals I blistered my feet on for 77yrs. I chose my coven over you; lured you into a production of a play in which your death would act as the grotesque climax. The coven was twisting my arm, but I took aesthetic pleasure in making your death visually exhilarating. All of which was made worse by our heady lovemaking throughout this period of betrayal. But the 2nd: I shamefully took credit when Lestat saved your life. That lie bound you to me, and it lay like a corpse in the boiler room of our companionship. Many times, I told myself the lie did not matter, because what we had built, a love that served as a bunker against time, was weightier and more consequential than the lie, but it wasn't true. The lie did matter, because the corpse was there, calling forth the facts. And as for the many boys you drugged, drained, and lay with, I feigned resentment, when in fact, I welcomed your straying; because your guilt in the aftermath bound you to me all the more tightly, and allowed me my hours of observation with Daniel. I told you I loved you, but did I? Hrm? Did I?! Or was it a clinging to the underside of anyone who would help me survive? And when I look back on who I've deceived and how I've deceived, how easy it was to lead a cult for 400 years; to burn in ritual any who broke the archaic laws we lived by, I-- I think I might be a room without walls, floors, a ceiling. An infinite nothing. Also, yes. I put the Fred Steins in your photo collection. And that is my full and heartfelt "Armends." Now, it's your turn!
I have been enduring intense conversations with myself in the 3yrs since our companionship ended. And as part of that journey, I wish to say something from the deepest regions of my soul.
2 grievous lies, gross betrayals.
So Armand was lying to DanLou in 2x6. Rolin said there were "2 really extraordinary lies," but that those were compounded by more & more lies.
The 1st is a well-trod pit of hot coals I blistered my feet on for 77yrs. I chose my coven over you; lured you into a production of a play in which your death would act as the grotesque climax.
Still the "production of a play"--so what Lestat (eff him too btw) said to Armand went in one ear and out the other. šš
What's WILD is that S3 has still REFUSED to confirm or deny wtf Lestat was doing at that Trial--and not even Armand's taken this as an opportunity to either admit that (following BOOK canon) he DID have Lestat tortured & forced to participate (just like he did with Louis here); or even better/worse: to rub it in Louis' face that Lestat was never forced at all, and that he wanted to get revenge on Louis for Murder Night & being a withholding/cold/selfish/depressed husband, too--all his abuse & suffering is his fault, etc etc.
So which one is it, AMC? 𤨠Cuz now it looks like a missed opportunity that y'all didn't plan for AT ALL, and had no intention of revisiting.
And now AMC's written themselves into a corner, cuz if Lestat was tortured, then Armand will AGAIN be exposed as the gotcha! for THE 4th TIME IN A ROW; and contradict everything they said about Armand NOT being a duplicitous AF evil AF mustache-twirling villain. And if Lestat was NOT tortured, then ghost!Claudia was right that he was there on purpose to watch her die.
The coven was twisting my arm, but....
"I could not prevent it"--sure, Jan. šš
I took aesthetic pleasure in making your death visually exhilarating.
Which instantly INVALIDATES any drivel from the writers, cast, stans, etc that Louis "abused" Armand, and that Armand in any way "deserves" an apology from Louis--WTF is going on with folks actually tryna gaslight people into thinking ANY of this was okay?!
All of which was made worse by our heady lovemaking throughout this period of betrayal, but....
So Armand's admitted to being Louis' rapist too, since he was acknowledges he was still regularly having sex/"heady lovemaking" with Louis under false pretenses (violating Louis' trust/consent is rape) all while planning Louis' death as the "climax" of the Trial.
The 2nd: I shamefully took credit when Lestat saved your life.
We been knew, but go on.
That lie bound you to me, and it lay like a corpse in the boiler room of our companionship. Many times, I told myself the lie did not matter, because what we had built, a love that served as a bunker against time, was weightier and more consequential than the lie, but it wasn't true. The lie did matter, because the corpse was there, calling forth the facts.
"The corpse" is the seismic lie about "Banishment," but "the thing lay still," and Jacob Anderson BEEN said Armand gave Louis the ick the whole time cuz Louis KNEW something wasn't right with that dude--which is why he tagged-teamed Daniel to call forth the facts.
And as for the many boys you drugged, drained, and lay with, I feigned resentment, when in fact, I welcomed your straying; because your guilt in the aftermath bound you to me all the more tightly.
Literally Claudia's reheated nachos from Merrick, but wtvr AMC. š
And every time Louis felt guilty killing those men, he would look for more drugs to get high and forget/dull the pain; causing an ouroboros loop while Armand just sat there pretending he GAF when really he was enjoying Louis' suffering & spiraling out of his mind the whole time, jfc.
and allowed me my hours of observation with Daniel.
WOAH WOAH BACK TF UP. I'm confused here. Cuz if DM was happening while Louis was the Zodiac Killer, that meant Louis did NOT stop spiraling AFTER Armand mindwiped him in 1973; he was still doing it the whole time into the 2020s? Then what was the point of mindwiping him if he'd still be getting high, killing, hallucinating Claudia's voice, feedback loop, etc etc? What is Armand talking about? Why say "hours" and not "YEARS/DECADES"? This makes no sense.
I told you I loved you, but did I? Hrm? Did I?! Or was it a clinging to the underside of anyone who would help me survive?
I mean DUH, you're a vampire--they're ALL parasitic evil barnacles glomming onto driftwood like leeches sucking the lifeblood of the corpses they feed on. Which is why TRUE COMPANIONS--Blood Spouses--are so important & rare.
And when I look back on who I've deceived and how I've deceived, how easy it was to lead a cult for 400 years; to burn in ritual any who broke the archaic laws we lived by, I-- I think I might be a room without walls, floors, a ceiling. An infinite nothing.
Yeah, sounds about right. FAILURE! Your whole life wasted.
And how was that 400yrs of wasted life from the MIDDLE AGES down to 1949 (Louis only met you in 1945 btw) LOUIS' fault again??????? š¤Ø
Also, yes. I put the Fred Steins in your photo collection, just to f**k with your head.
THIS P.O.S.!
REAL RASHID, I'm so sorry I ever doubted you! šš©ššāāļø (I still don't trust your arse cuz you work for RAGLAN JAMES š but I'll take back everything I said about you messing with the Steins at least.)
And that is my full and heartfelt "Armends." Now, it's your turn!
Eat an entire bag of Lestat's bloody vomit and choke on it, Armand.
TL;DR: ROTTEN BOY!
YES, Assad acted his gorgeous behind off, Gremlin Mode in full effect, blahblahblah.
But that's only me being able to process that almost 48 hours later, cuz in the moment I was just screaming at my screen in a rage seeing Louis' EFFING DECAPITATED BODY desperately reaching for his DISEMBODIED HEAD.
How TF is Armand seriously expecting anyone to accept this bullcrap apology in the first place, when he's literally just rubbing everything in Louis' face and gloating about all the ways he used & abused Louis' trust and violated & brutalized his body for public spectacle, and backstabbed him a zillion times?! (While also admitting how he effed over Lestat and "enjoyed ruining for the sake of ruining"!)
Louis was ALWAYS honest with Armand about where he thought they stood, as someone he genuinely felt love for and cared about, but who initially was NOT his companion and whom he was NOT with for the sake of their own relationship, but only for Claudia's sake vs the coven ("the Secret" 1946 - 1949), and then to spite Lestat ("here is your death, Lestat" 1949 - 1973), and then to save Daniel's life in 1973 ("I need this one to live. As a testament to our companionship. Of its endurance. This boy to live out the night.") Louis ALWAYS put someone else above Armand during their failmarriage, but at least he always TOLD Armand so, and why they were together, so Armand would have NO DELUSIONS about how Louis felt.
But this effing idiot clearly never got the message! š¤¦āāļø
"I think you know you've wrong me."
BISH, how?! š”š¢
AMC HATES Louis, and these are all the specific ways in which they've proved it.
And what's even worse is how Armand's laying out all the reasons he hates Louis and expects Louis "to repent" and "owes" him an apology; meanwhile simultaneously LIVESTREAMING Louis' 2nd lynching to yet another bunch of sickos in Europe, while Dr Fareed sits as moderator transcribing everything & to see how long their little Tuskegee experiment can last as Armand tortures him.
And what utterly SICKENS me is how hard in the paint AMC is going to BACK UP everything Armand's saying, that Louis will "grow" by admitting to how he wronged Armand and apologized to his effing abuser doing all this to him--I can't.
i've complained about this before, but why does amc seem so willing to slaughter every romantic relationship that isn't loustat or devil's minion? i loved the different dynamics between the characters in the books, but they have been completely removed from the series. like even if they wanted the characters to end up in monogamous relationships by the end of the story, i don't think it would be far-fetched for someone who has been alive for hundreds of years to have loved many people over the years.
plus, i think it makes the writers seem a little insecure if they think the only way to emphasize the special connection between loustat and devil's minion is to remove any other relationships that the audience could compare them to.
Iām not Black, Iām Asian, so Iām not even going to touch the racial aspect of this. But purely from a trauma and abuse standpoint, Armand and Lestat turned out to be even worse to Louis than I originally thought after watching the finale.
First of all, itās funny to everyone who kept insisting Louis was the pimp in the Regina situation. It was Armand who pimped out Regina. He intentionally used her to trigger another psychotic episode in Louis. Then he brought her back and forced Louis to watch someone who looked like his daughter self harm and kill herself in front of him.
Oh, Lestat de I Gave You to Armand Lioncourt. I bet youāre enjoying your revenge.
Armand said it himself in his letter. He enjoyed watching Louis spiral in grief, addiction, and guilt because it kept Louis bound to him. He pretended to care so he could manipulate Louis into staying longer, gaslight him, and keep messing with his mind. And then thereās the lie. The lie both of these manchildren maintained while painting themselves as the victims who were never understood or loved enough by ācold, selfish Louis.ā
Oh, Lestat. Have you ever actually asked why Louis stopped sleeping in a coffin? Did it ever occur to you that it might have something to do with the trial you obviously participated in, the same trial where you still havenāt answered the question of why you crossed the ocean to rehearse a play and kill your daughter, and lynched your ex-husband and willingly let him go with another abuser?
I can accept it if Lestat genuinely hates Louis and sees his actions as revenge. At least that would be honest. But now weāre supposed to believe Paul is thanking him for loving Louis the āright wayā? Paul?
Lestat, you are truly narcissistic if you believe you are the best Louis can ever have when you have openly admitted that you gave him to Armand so that you can make Louis suffer.
Iām not from America, but how can the fandom be so oblivious to what feels like victim blaming from the writers and actually think Louis, out of all these fucked up vampires, is the one who needs to be better? Heās the only one who has ever shown Lestat and Armandās BPD abusive asses genuine compassion. And people donāt think itās a form of self harm for him to sympathize with his abusers? They clapped and enjoyed that?
And the writers⦠I donāt understand what kind of resentment they have toward Louis. Itās like they canāt let him be confident or happy. Honestly, the fandom and this season really echo Alderman Fenwick: āThe problem with you, Louis, is that youāre too arrogant.ā
The whole show seems determined to humble Louis, a man who has already spent so much of his existence drowning in self hatred and guilt. Not only did they make him carry guilt for decades over the very man who tried or threatened to kill him three times, but they also make him apologise to and take care of men who repeatedly lied to him while accusing him of not being vulnerable enough.
I honestly wonder if Lestat and Armand have ever asked themselves why Louis would struggle to trust them enough to be vulnerable and give himself completely to them. Every time Louis got close to opening up, these men did something that shattered that trust all over again.
Louis trusted Armand in the beginning, until Claudia screamed at him that she was threatened by Armand. Louis asked Lestat, āAm I not enough?ā and Lestat laughed in his face and suggested an already open relationship. Louis forgave Lestat after hearing the Magnus story and sympathising with his trauma, only for Lestat to cheat on him again, pushing Louis back into depression. Which makes the entire Antoinette discussion in 03x06 even more outrageous.
And Armand, Madeleine said it herself, she felt Louis love for Armand after Armand told him he chose him over the coven. BUT WHY DID LOUIS STOP LOVING HIM? WHY WAS HE NEVER ABLE TO LOVE HIM AGAIN? INDEED, WHY???
It feels like people completely ignored everything established in the first two seasons, and now suddenly Louis is āthe pimp,ā Louis is the cold and selfish one, while Lestat and Armand are portrayed as poor victims who had no choice but to suffer because of him.
They are traumatized, sure. But instead of confronting their own abusers, they repeatedly displaced that pain onto, further brutalised and blame their partner who was centuries younger, and already drowning in self hate themselves. And somehow the writers think itās that partner who needs to confront his flaws.
TF
The Paul scene pisses me off the most. They barely mentioned Paul for the longest time, especially in season two, despite him being such an important part of Louisās own story. Then they bring him back only to use him as a way to validate Lestatās delusions about himself.
Fine, if the writers want to torture Louis, thatās one thing. But did they really have to taint the most important person in his life just to whitewash his abuser?
That scene really could have been good if it was just the two of them in a room talking. If Armand didnāt torture the apology out of him. Maybe he goes into the conversation with bad intentions. He wants to manipulate Louis into saying sorry. Twist the knife of the divorce a bit. And then Louis actually does apologize to him, genuinely, and it disarms Armand completely. All the illusions of their life together are finally stripped back and they are just two damaged people looking at one another for the very first time.
Can you imagine how good that scene could have been if they were just sitting in a room together? No body horror, no weird fish eye filter, just Jacob and Assad delivering the performances we know they can deliver with the chemistry of the s2e5 fight???
But of course this would require a level of sincerity that the writers seem incapable of this season.
something something about how louis uses arun to dismantle armand. in 2x04 when he first talks about his past is the first time louis sees him be truly and utterly vulnerable. in 2x05 when armand is about to kill daniel and louis stops him, "Are you asking, matire?" "No, Arun. I'm not asking" and he gets up and walks away. in 3x07 when armand stops the torture after louis brings up the harm done to arun.
there are definitely a lot of flaws with that scene (that whole episode honestly) but to me it seems like louis has found this the only way to completely snap armand back to the reality his actions, and i find it so interesting that armand has that distinct version of himself that just utterly breaks him.
Armandās face when Louis finally says something kind to him kills me.
It took 77 years and a beheading for Louis to acknowledge that his past as a pimp would be difficult for Armand.
Iām not saying Armand is blameless, but damn he really has to act out to get some attention.
He just wants to be loved without having to beg for it.