Is My Very Nature That of a Devil?

They/He| Black | 28 | Vampire

[tiredopinions]

Louis’ costuming is defined by ‘billionaire,’ ‘more color and patterns,’ and ‘jewelry that marks him as Talamasca employee.’ You have to wonder if anyone on the creative team is even aware of how shallow their thought process has been wrt this character.

Wood’s costuming work for the other characters is also uninspired. I just am here to complain mostly about Louis so that is what I will be doing.

Source

[thevampprincex]

Ballet dancers Loumand based on a fic I started months ago and never finished...per usual.

[thevampprincex]

when you and your friend keep coming up with Loumand au fic ideas that neither of you have time to write

[feedingicetothedog]

louis’ middle and ring fingers having shorter nails, i know that’s right

[feedingicetothedog]

hey so me and my friend started a podcast and our first ep is about the toxic racist environment we've observed in the interview with the vampire fandom:

it would mean a lot to us if you guys checked it out!

[alwaysalir]

IWTV is sooo good at showing you things instead of telling you. The lack of intimacy in private between Armand & Louis is just so fucking loud when you look at the intimacy between Loustat even towards the end of their relationship.

[feedingicetothedog]

i think the context of the 2nd image is really important tho bc the circumstances surrounding these moments are VERY different. like actually for the most part we see louis and lestat sleeping apart. they don't share a coffin except on 4 occasions on screen. the only reason lestat is sharing louis' coffin is bc louis threw lestat's away and then lestat weasled his way back into the household and now louis has to sacrifice his own space for lestat. the "intimacy" is fabricated bc it's lestat imposing upon louis. lestat very easily could've bought another coffin but he's choosing to encroach upon a space that was originally just for louis. remember that this bit happens right after we hear claudia warning louis against giving lestat an inch bc he'll go back to being a controlling monster. now comparing to the loumand image, i think the fact that louis and armand using a singular bed as opposed to coffins already hints at 2 very likely realities for their relationship: 1) they have a sex life so active that coffins are impractical and/or 2) they want to comfortably sleep near each other

[sheepnamedog]

do you wanna lick my b o o t s?

[pinkpendulum]

it is the east, and louis is the sun.. the moon.

leyendecker study with loumand !! ^_^ 🩷🌙

[bloodfatcocks]

so i have thoughts. a lot of them i owe to @blueiight @likethemodel and @santuri

louis knows armand is dangerous but he doesn't believe armand will hurt claudia. he thinks whatever saved him in the sewer covers her. he doesn't know the coven and armand is plotting to kill her. it's important that he doesn't know. if he did he'd take the out armand offered him at the bench and leave paris. but his needs are more important than hers. like that's the entirety of louis and claudia's relationship so far in season 2. that his needs come before hers and that he wants her to take responsibility for herself. his promise to her about me and you doesn't even last as long as that scene because he brings lestat into it. also louis can barely talk about claudia in the modern day without breaking down. why is that? because he failed her in paris. funny the things one is preoccupied with when others are plotting.

claudia is telling us that louis is making the same mistakes he did before because this is how he is when he's in love. if you have to call claudia a liar for your argument to work maybe it's time to re-evaluate. claudia is the one person who when it comes to louis she has no hidden motivations. she sees him clearly. she's the one relationship where he has more power than the other person. so he's at his most honest with her. he's mad at her for joining the coven and sees it as claudia leaving him. you left me first and now you're mad that i've found someone. he's mad that when it gets bad she's expecting him to save her. he literally tells her you made your choice so lie in your bed. his concern for her wrt to how the coven is treating her is about it makes armand look weak to use his power in such a petty manner. not that it destroys claudia's mind to constantly be infantilised. to him armand needs to stop making her wear the dress constantly not stop the play entirely. on the bench he chooses armand for many reasons including loving armand, not needing the imaginary friend crutch, disappointment at not being good at photography, a need to make something out of his life and a confidence that he's in control of his own life. as for claudia's safety, he believes that was negotiated in the sewer just as the decision not to kill him was. he brings her up in the cafe and in the sewer but not on the bench.

louis gets rid of dreamstat because finally he has found the strength inside himself and dealt with his insecurities and fears. he even says now i can make you say what i want you to say. it's growth on his part that he no longer needs that safety blanket. i know a lot of people were thinking about the romance of it all so they failed to see when lestat actually appears. he appears when louis is at his most vulnerable. like go back and watch all the dreamstat scenes. in his relationship with armand lestat appears when things get emotional. when louis feels himself slipping closer to armand or wanting to get close to armand or armand asking him to get closer. even in the gallery dreamstat doesn't appear until louis takes the risk of telling armand how you use your power and then come grovelling with grand loving gestures reminds me of lestat. that's a huge thing for louis to tell armand because he's at once admitting that lestat has harmed him and that through grand loving gestures louis took him back. on their river date lestat appears when armand brings up bruce and the whole time he's there is when armand is saying i like you too. at the cafe lestat appears when louis is having one of the most pivotal conversation of their interactions. louis in the present day tells us how much it meant to how he saw himself when he spoke to armand about these things. and in bed lestat appears when armand asks what are we and he derides the love confessions and the seeking of emotional intimacy and commitment.

this is getting long but i had to.

[feedingicetothedog]

don't like ppl calling loumand a situationship.

[feedingicetothedog]

like the idea that louis doesn't like armand or isn't actually that into him and is just w him to protect himself (or claudia) is truly baffling to me. like i suppose if you only take into account ep 4 and throw out everything before it then sure but that's clearly not what's happening. louis really really likes armand but is hesitant to enter into a new relationship. ghost!lestat functions as a means of self-sabotage, it ties back to his first appearance in the s2 premiere where he says he's gonna kill louis but he's waiting until he's happy before he does so. louis is forcing himself to remain detached for many reasons but also bc he acutely remembers what happened the last time he was rushed headlong into a relationship w a very powerful vampire. but he wants armand, he likes armand. does he think he's weird? yes. does find his adherence to the strict rules of his coven a little annoying? sure. but he's pursuing of armand is out of a desire for companionship, not as a means of protection, that's an insane reading and doesn't make any sense. if that were the case, he wouldn't have told claudia that armand threatening her doesn't sound like something he would do. and honestly? this take is giving the same energy as when ppl say that lestat's gonna deny that he and armand were ever together. it's feeding into the racist stereotype that asian men are undesirable. like why is it so unbelievable that louis loves armand and desires him and wants to be w him but also has extenuating circumstances that make him hesitant to fully commit in that moment? bc louis does commit, at the end of the ep when he asks armand if he's sure that he wants louis more than anything else after louis has let go of ghost!lestat to allow himself to be present w armand. like that's commitment. and they remain committed to each other for the next 77 years. so. not exactly what i would call a situationship

[diasdelfuego]

episode four isn’t even officially out in most of the world and the number of vile racist takes i’ve seen about louis and armand’s park scene is already crazy.

this episode has armand explain to louis that both his current name and the name he had before that, “amadeo,” were forced upon him: “amadeo” by a man who bought him from a brothel and then “donated” him for his sexual services to his friends, “armand” by the coven that burned down the only home he had at that point and forced him into their ranks.

he ends his story asking louis “who am i, louis? am i my history that has happened to me? am i my job i do not want?”

in the scene in the park, louis first offers him a way out of the “job [he] does not want” and, then, calls him by his birth name, “arun,” the only thing armand has from before his “history that has happened to [him],” the only name that wasn’t forced upon him by an european master, a name from his homeland. and surely we all can see how louis, a black man from the united states, might see the value in reconnecting with one’s roots after being ripped from them and sold into slavery, right? and why he might want to offer armand freedom from a role that was forced upon him? right?

can there be a less charitable interpretation of the scene? sure. is louis being manipulative? i mean, it’s what jacob said in the episode insider, let’s run with it! but to jump straight from louis using armand’s birth name in this scene to saying that he called him by his “slave name,” that he was “acting like a pimp again,” or that “the plantation owner jumped out” (all real quotes) is, in my opinion, fucking insane.

smarter people than me have already said this, over and over, but we keep coming back to the same tired, disingenous argument. book!lewis was a plantation owner. and book!armand was already a sex slave. sex trafficking and rape were structural to the slave plantation system, and yet there were never widespread arguments about what it meant for lewis and armand’s relationship that lewis was a slaver. so, to act like there’s some entirely new imbalance or conflict in the show, where louis was a pimp, which wasn’t present in the books, is at best very fucking weird, and at worst a willfully racist whitewashing of the history of the transatlantic slave trade.

[vintageunknown]

It is so interesting that Louis uses Armand's supposed birth name during the bench scene.

Naming is such a significant part of Armand's life, moreso than any character. His maker named him Amadeo, the cult named him Armand and his birth parents probably named him Arun. Unlike Louis and Lestat and all the other vampires we've seen, Armand's identity pre-vampirism is not concrete. His human life was marked by trauma and memory loss and even parts of his undead life. He tells Louis his story through 3rd person, as if regaling someone else's tale.

His identity is a fluid thing decided by whatever structure he finds himself in, hence the different names he is given at different stages. He portrays himself as someone who is seemingly powerless despite his ancient aura and terrifying powers.

"Who am I?" he asks Louis in the museum. His great comfort is by sticking to the Great Laws which he does not believe in and rituals he does not care about because they offer a comforting routine he can cling to. That is why he easily breaks his own rules when it comes to Louis, because their romance offers him another purpose.

When Louis asserts his presence in Paris, he tells Armand to let go of the coven. Once Santiago runs it to the ground, then Armand can return and decide if he wants to be coven leader or not.

Louis offers him something different: choice. No one ever gave Armand a choice. Everything that ever happens to him as been someone else deciding for him. This is new territory because the concept of free will is so unique to Armand. Even Lestat's shake-up was not a choice, but more of a coup—Armand knew Lestat breaking up the coven was inevitable the moment they met.

By calling him Arun, Louis shows Armand he is acknowledging the vulnerability offered to him. He's telling Armand that whoever you are, I will accept, even the most fragile and scariest pieces you hide from everyone else. And Armand says "Yes, Maitre," because for once, someone is really teaching him how to live. Not forcing or commanding, but teaching.

[feedingicetothedog]

also i wrote a review for ep 2 that i'm pretty proud of for me and my friend's blog 🫣

[thevampprincex]

My friend writes some good stuff

[beautyindiversity]

I'm finally done editing this. It's literally only like 18 minutes long and I've been at this for hours lolol anywho,enjoy,y'all 💚💚💚💚💚💚 and like I said send questions or opinions or whatever to my asks 🫶🏾

[diasdelfuego]

i was thinking about the "she didn't trust you" line in regards to armand's feelings about louis earlier but z's "you remind me of my wife" post and a thought from @weather-mood about the dessert from s01e02 sent me down a different path:

he's talking about alice when he says "she wanted to say yes, but she didn't trust you; you hadn't given her a reason to," but first he was talking about louis: "it's a haunting memory louis just shared with you —what a comfort, your ability to continue his pain;" explaining alice's rejection then as a shorthand to explain away louis's retaliation now (both, of course, deserved!) and get the interview back on track

but then, from louis: "would you like to know what she thinks of you now? if she thinks of you now? we could do that;" obviously a taunt and a show of power, but if you want to read into it (and i always want to read into it) you could see louis also aligning himself with her —are they not, in a way, exes, and wasn't that first interview a sort of failed proposal?

—there was an offhanded remark in your memoir about this dessert, i hope you don't mind. —this is the dessert I had after i proposed to my first wife, after i got my shit together. we were in paris.

[bloodfatcocks]

hi res images of armand as played by assad zaman on IWTV

photography by larry horricks

[splashesdarling]