In the iconography: 20 y old Daniel is on his knees (and 20 y old Amadeo is on his knees in the painting). I also have to point out that young Daniel has a startling resemblance to the white-washed Amadeo painting as well.Ā A visual cue that theyāre more alike than meets the eye.
"Bartering with desire" vs "in kind". At 20, both were 'rent boys'. Daniel 'bartered' himself for dr*gs. While Armand was 'donated...in kind' to pay for art work . "In kind" = payment in goods or services as opposed to money. "Bartering"= trade by exchanging one commodity for another.Ā
At the end of Louis' interviews both get their heads shoved into walls.This could be visual symbolism : both their āminds are brokenā because both of them canāt recall a decadeās worth of memories. Ironically, Louis may know more of his own story , than Daniel or Armand .
"curiosity"
āAn instinct to self efface" . Effacement :āto erase oneself from a situation (to keep oneself in the background ) ā . Cough Armand literally erasing himself from memories & his Rashid disguise. Interestingly, out of all the traits Armand lists about Daniel this is the one trait Daniel agrees is true about himself. Both of them use āself-effacementā as a manipulation tactic to find connection with others. Armand does so to stay with Louis. Daniel uses it to "get anglesā and get people to "open up" to him. Literally right after Daniel said this he almost got Armand to open up about his life story
Armand:" That warrants investigation" vs Daniel the "investigative journalist".
Daniel & Armand lounging on the couch and saying Louis is being overly dramatic XD
being turned while having terminal illnesses : Parkinson's (Daniel) & in the show an unknown illness (for Armand) . Similarly , in the books Daniel was turned due to alcohol poisoning and Armand due to being poisoned.
Armand says in ep 4 his memories as a human are āfragmentsā vs Daniel saying his memories from the 70s-80s were a āblurā .
Both are called āboyā despite being old men. Santiago, the youngest coven member referring to the oldest : āI donāt know what the boy sees in him.ā Louis: āhe looked like a boy masquerading as a gentleman.ā Daniel: āIām not your f*cking boy! Iām an old man with all the triggers that come with it.ā Daniel : āsave it for the rent boy.ā Armand looking visibly triggered by the comment then asking to leave the room . Armand to Marius (who often called him āboyā) : āI hate you! Iām a man and you deny it!ā
As a human , book Amadeo had a drinking problem while book Daniel almost died of alcohol poisoning. Young Daniel (in the show) may also have drinking issues like his book counterpart /book Amadeo. Armand to Daniel in episode 5 : āa genteel drinking problem , like your father .ā Armandās dad : āIvan the drunkardā¦ Ivan was hopeless. Ivan would never see another sober night or day .Ivan would die soon poisoned by liquor./ a soft prayer for my father that he would not freeze to death tonight as he had almost done so many times, falling down drunk as he did in the snow. (*this echoes human amadeo getting so drunk he fell into the canal)ā
Show Armand says Marius called him his "beloved Amadeo", which seems like foreshadowing/an easteregg of 70s dm since "beloved" was his nickname for Daniel in the books. Armand tries to emulate the Marius/Amadeo dynamic in his future relationships since he still equates it to love. Like how he tries to put himself in the Amadeo role with Louis as his 'Maitre (master) '. But for d.m he put Daniel in the Amadeo position (partially because itās his first relationship with a human , since becoming a vampire and his relationship with Marius is the only vampire/human relationship heās had) . So at least on some superficial level he recreates some aspects of the Marius/Amadeo dynamic, with Daniel .
In the books Marius feeds human Amadeo his blood, like Armand does to human Daniel. In the books amadeo says Mariusā blood tastes like āhoneyā.Cough- Louis describing Armand's blood as tasting like "honey" and Armand saying to Daniel in ep 5 "like honey on your tongue" (*this could be foreshadowing he will drink Armand's blood in the 70s/80sā¦ or simply when he was turned).
Armand , during their first encounter, says āitās okay itāll be like a bath ā after he uses a rag (to remove the dried blood from his neck). This reminds me of when Marius first met amadeo and used a rag to clean his face / give him a bath. āHe bathed me slowly . He had a soft gathered cloth with which he wiped my face.ā
Human Amadeo/daniel were incredibly sarcastic and snarky to their future vampire makers
In the books, when Armand reunited with Marius in Tva he mumbled annoyed āsame old tricksā. In tqotd , when Daniel reunited with Armand he says āsame old dance.ā
And both of their makers abandoned them
The parallels between Armand/Daniel persist throughout ep 5 , Daniel says heād be a good companion to Louis because he has traits similar to Lestat and Claudia .Ā
But the IRONY is throughout the whole episode we see Daniel has A LOT of similarities to Armand . Possibly laying the groundwork for devil's minion in the 70s-80s.
I think while Armand was reading Danielās mind -whether it was as subconscious or conscious - it irritated him even more that they had so much in common. Or at least how similar Daniel was to Amadeo. Especially because he was trying to discern why Louis found him āmore fascinatingā .
For Example , all the other traits Armand lists out about Danielās could also be attributed to himself
'Dirty'
'deceitful'
'Enterprising'
'A splinter of coldness ' .
āHe wants you in pieces for the privilege of putting you back together ā
Thereās also other more superficial similarities like Daniel saying heād do night swims if he was a vampire (similar to Armand who swims often). Or the fact they both read the newspaper often.
I feel one of the MANY reasons Daniel and Armand were probably constantly butting heads and being snarky to each other in the present timeline is because on some subconscious level they remind each other of themselves (and they donāt want to acknowledge that). Especially Armand who is constantly playing a new character to placate his lovers . Young Daniel definitely reminded him of Amadeo . Similar to how Claudia reminded Armand of his past self as well . Ā
If I missed anything feel free to add to the comments or in a reblog :P
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