#tvl ep2

[mrosetta]

my immediate thought when i saw lestat's family on screen was: ah, i understand where he got the loudness from...

[terryxsi]

Bad accents shitty wigs and incestuous woundplay. that family is a mess

[mrosetta]

Okay, I've been thinking about one specific scene from tvl ep2 toledo... so, minor spoilers. Mostly rambling with maybe (not) a small amount of palpable thought ><

If daniel feels the world around him disappearing when he feels this vampiric connection to armand, surely armand feels the same. I really hope that is explored in some capacity. The bond between a 500+ year old vampire and his one and only fledgling has got to be something more than Louis and Lestat experienced? Perhaps. Also, this is Armand's first time in all his vampiric life actually feeling first hand the bond Louis and Lestat have spoke about. I hope it's at least touched on.

I also wonder, the disappearance of the people around molloy as if the rapture has come (whether he meant this literally or figuratively I don't know, I can't tell) is it a metaphorical manifestation of the loneliness Armand feels? Armand has said it himself, without him (Louis, or if applied here, someone, anyone!) he feels he is nothing. Perhaps this is the reason why Armand was so hesitant to give the gift to anyone in the first place? The idea that he could make someone experience the kind of loneliness he feels through that vampiric bond repulsed him. Take for example his conversation with Madeline upon being asked to turn her for Claudia in season two. He asks her how she'll cope with eternity even without Claudia, I think he is speaking about himself here too. This, to me, speaks to his character in a way... "Armand has always been good" as Assad Zaman has said. Good in an Armand-shaped way, a vampire way, in a way human morality can't really describe.

On that note, I sincerely think he regrets turning Daniel. Like he seems to in the books, the turning of Daniel is a last resort. Assad mentioned in the first after dark interview too that his turning was done out of spite--which is not, at least from what I understood in the devils minion chapter of qotd, (which I have now read) the case in the books? However, I believe there was some form of love there. He didn't want Daniel to die, Armand would never want that. He didn't want his relationship with Louis to die and Daniel was a sort of symbol of Louis and Armand's companionship.

This doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I don't think the decision on Armand's part to turn Daniel makes complete sense either. He is a very morally ambiguous character, due to his history, and very calculating ALTHOUGH he has a capacity for impulsiveness when something is out of his control. ie. mostly everything that involves daniel.

Anyhow, point I'm really trying to posit here is that what Daniel is feeling and experiencing is potentially his own loneliness in the face of eternity and also Armand's loneliness from his mortal and his immortal life. I mean, Armand at this point in the show really has nobody. He only has his fragile connection to Daniel... and Daniel won't even say his name.

Armand really does encapsulate everything that a vampire could be a metaphor for. I love him. And I truly understand him. But then again. What do I know 🤷

A huge slab of text, sorry, but these ramblings NEED an outlet or I may implode or something haha