i feel like the show made it very very obvious how much armand had lost control of the coven. and while i personally believe he could have murdered them all easily, that obviously does not serve him when his primary goal is to not be alone. and he walked in on louis sitting in a puddle of his own blood because he did something armand begged him not to do. so choosing louis is also a huge risk. this doesn’t mean armand wants either louis or claudia dead.
armand’s self assessment is cowardice and it is correct.
armand is a classic femme fatale character. he spends most of the season telling louis he can’t or won’t protect him from the coven, and then he doesn’t.
directing the play shows how committed he is to putting his own ptsd riddled need for security over louis’ well being (which is tragic because he does loves louis), not that he orchestrated the whole thing. not that he wanted it to happen. given how much this show is about racism, it is wild to me how much people want to minimize santiago’s jealousy of louis as the inciting action for all of this.
