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literally waiting every episode to see why daniel gets a shelf of fucking books dumped on him still

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lorddd if i was at the ep 1-6 preview and had to stop on that ending i’d have gone absolutely feral

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ive watched fruits basket 2018 a solid 6 or 7 times and to this day i still have absolutely no idea what shigure thought he was doing or what he’s yapping on about in half his little vague conversions with akito in season 1

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they’ve outright admitted in interviews that devils minion will be in the show at some point whether it’s 70s or current like hope is in no way lost soldiers

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my reaction to ep5

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THIS FUCKING EPISODE MAN I’M IN SHAMBLES

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personally i think we’re still winning because i never through we’d get romantic devils minion confirmation in this ep bc of the scene w raglan “you fear armand you should fear the other one” so the scales of who daniel is most weary towards is gonna tip again in the last 3 episodes. plus i’m not letting those alice comparisons go.

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closed my laptop, grabbed my headphones, am now on a walk to reconnect w nature after what i just watched ❤️

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you know, i think whatever i watch tonight is going to change me on a fundamental level.

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what think/hope/pray will happen after ep 5 -

first off im running on the assumption that devils minion romantic/long form relationship has already happened in the past. my evidence (not really) for this is that i don’t believe their dynamic works properly with old man daniel because he doesn’t want to be turned anymore, so i can’t see that side of their combative push and pull working. you can argue that the only flashbacks daniel has are of the night in san francisco and nothing else, however he also seems to exclusively have flashbacks of only armand and not louis, which implies to me there is more to him and armand (ignore the fact we still have no idea if the flashbacks are organic or if armand is sending them to him purposely, or that we don’t know if armand knows he’s having them ok thanks). also obviously the whole alice/armand from ep 2. whether you’re a truther or not, you can’t argue that the show wasn’t purposefully setting up armand as a comparison to alice in that scene and others since she’s been brought up a lot this and last season.

anyway, i think the flashback section of ep 5 will end with armand either locking him in the basement or setting off their chase. if non of these, i think it’ll end with framing armand and daniels past relationship as something purely horrifying to current daniel. in the ep preview, he’s only sitting and talking with louis about it without armand present, which i’m assuming is purposeful on daniels part. then i think daniel is gonna step out of the dubai apartment probably from a negative reaction and run into raglan james/whoever the fuck talamasca man claims he is, which is where that whole trailer scene “you fear armand, you should fear the other one” comes from. we kinda have no other scenes from dubai that we can piece together from trailers after that, other than we know daniel goes back to the interview, and we get the scenes like louis throwing shit, books falling on daniel, walls cracking etc.

the final thing i hope and pray happens is in either ep 7 or 8 that no one has seen yet, we get some sort of in your face no context no build up confirmation that armand and daniels relationship was romantic at one point. like i’m thinking either some sort of out of left field flashback, daniel finding his photo in the threesome partner pile or more information on the “paramours” folder on the laptop. like i don’t put it past them at all to leave it on a cliffhanger for next season (pray) where bang we get some sort of explicit confirmation and that’s all we get, and we’re left with daniel being like “what the actual fuck”. the vibe i gather from interviews with cast and crew, i don’t think they’ve adapted a ton of devils minion yet, but they have added something after ep 5 and do plan to carry it on.

obviously this could all be bullshit because the context of why is daniel remembering, is it because of armand, is it natural, was it even armand who whipped his memories, did devils minion even happen properly?? like we still know nothing. so hope ep 5 answers some of those things for us. thank you for entertaining my brain rot because anticipating this ep has consumed my entire week.

preparing to beg for a link on socials again tomorrow like a common whore x

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disclaimer before this rant i’ve read like 2 volumes of the manga so maybe the stuff i’m about to bitch about is actually included and i have no idea

but i feel like there is sooo much more shit in moriarty the patriot that they could of explored, like stuff that was brushed on in the 24 episodes that i think would of been so fun to see and also would of (maybe???) made the main plot better? or things that i would of liked to see explored with more time. this is my comprehensive list which encompasses the main ones -

1) the relationship between william, albert and louis and how it’s less brotherhood and more worship between albert/louis to william, unpacking all of that and how it affected william.

2) the significance of william to moran and fred. how did they meet? why are they so willing to die for william? is it just that they believe in the cause so much or is it because william helped them in some way?

3) sherlock and mycroft and their relationship, maybe their childhood. maybe this is just common knowledge in other sherlock adaptations but i want more explanation.

4) the whole french revolution thing like hello i need more explanation why did that never come up again.

5) sherlock and his cheeky drug problem.

6) are the characters patriots or not (yes i know it’s the name of the story give me a sec). characters like mycroft, william, sherlock and albert seem to toe the line between being pro-british empire anti-revolution and then switching 2 seconds later. they admonish the class system but mycroft works for the fucking queen of england? i find the dissonance of them being seemingly fine with the british empire but wanting to destroy the consequences of it very jarring at times. from a political and social standpoint it doesn’t make a ton of sense. i feel like more content on it would make it clearer.

7) generally i think the plot would benefit from introducing some characters earlier, mainly patterson (inside man in scotland yard), mary (mainly to flesh out john as a character a bit more) and milverton (because mans figured out william as lord of crime in two seconds flat, he could of been a bit more of a longer standing adversary).

8) also introducing irene/bonde earlier because i feel like their supposed impact on sherlock was too profound considering they knew each other for 3 days.

9) more on mycroft and albert and whatever power dynamic they where fucking with.

10) THIS ONE IS UNREALISTIC but the whole show through an overtly queer lens would of been everything to me.

the actual plot and show in itself is so ridiculous but in a really fun way. ive watched it 3 times i think and i enjoy it every time, but in an ideal world having all these 10 things included i think would of padded out a lot of grey areas thematically where the plot isn’t as strong.

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how many people think devils minion long/eventually romantic relationship had already happened, and how many people think they’ll do it w old man daniel in the future?? because i was thinking about it and one of the key components of their dynamic is that daniel wants armand to turn him eventually. obviously that is not the only thing that keeps them together, but it’s definitely a big part. current old man daniel seems to be very much over wanting to be turned (unless he’s lying and we just haven’t seen enough of his perspective) so i’d wonder how the dynamic would play out if they decided to save the main relationship as the books tell it for future seasons.

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fucking hell waiting for next week is going to kill me off after that preview

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Armand and Unbreakable Cycles

So (perhaps unsurprisingly at this point) I have a TON of Armand thoughts after yesterday’s episode. Specifically I want to talk about the function of the 1790s section, and how it perfectly illuminates the cycle of maladaptive behavior that Armand is caught up in and the difference between his stated wants and his actual needs. I think the setup we saw in this episode will also be crucial to understanding how Dubai plays out, so I want to talk about that too.

I know a lot of people love the show and TVC because of Lestat, and there’s some frustration that Lestat was presented in a way that was untrue or filtered. But I really think you have to view this episode as a lens into Armand, which we in turn need in order to understand Louis. Everyone has someone similar to Lestat’s role in Armand’s life; an ex or a situationship or a former friend who takes up so much real estate in your brain because of their outsized impact  on you, who probably never thinks of you in return. We give these people a role in the story we craft of how we became who we are. That narrativizing is kind of the only way to understand yourself and survive (especially if you’re going to live forever). So I don’t doubt that there are things that Armand says that are untrue, or exaggerated, or twisted in his favor. But I do think the important part is the emotional impact his encounter with Lestat had on him, and I do think he’s being honest about those emotions.

(That being said I am of course very excited to see these events play out again in season 3 from Lestat’s POV. Don’t fuck it up AMC!!!)

The main thing that the flashback does is set up the cycle that Armand finds himself in over and over again. He consistently finds himself clinging to control in an institution he is starting to lose faith in, and is then shaken out of his complacency by a new love that seems– falsely– to rescue him.

Depending on how they adapt his very early backstory, I think we can probably assume that this pattern started in childhood for him. Marius rescued him from being forced into sex work, and seemed to offer a much better life. But in reality he was just grooming Armand, and eventually put him to work in maintaining the oppressive coven system that we find him in in Paris. (In the show he mentions that he was sent to Paris from Rome).

In Paris he continues maintaining a strictly enforced life of misery for the coven long after he stops believing in it himself, and (by his telling at least) he was grateful to Lestat for having the strength to end it when he could not. It’s so clear why Armand falls for Lestat. Lestat’s refusal to live in shame, his love of the arts, his ability to exist amongst humanity (at least when he is on stage). Lestat is of the world, while Armand and the coven hide from it. 

The reason I think it is so important that we got to see this play out in Paris is the way it illuminates the sometimes tricky relationship between Louis and Armand. Once again, Armand is the head of an institution that operates on strict and oppressive rules. Once again, we can feel Armand’s enthusiasm for this system waning (and see it reflected physically in the lack of ticket sales and general shabbiness of the theatre). And once again, Armand is swept off his feet by this new vampire who refuses to join, who loves humanity, and who has a passion for art. Louis is very much of the world. He refuses to be pinned down into coven life. Armand can’t resist taking what looks like the opportunity for escape in Louis’s love. 

What I think is so fascinating about this cycle is that it allows Armand to remain passive. He never has to be the one to make the hard call to walk away from a kind of life that is no longer serving him. He just has to wait for the next gorgeous man to arrive to deliver him.  As he says to Louis, “those with the most power are often the weakest”. His status and power in the coven prevents him from changing his own life. Or at least that’s what he believes. 

Thinking about this helped me understand the dynamic of what goes down in the sewers, when Armand threatens Louis’s life. Assad says in the behind the scenes clips that Armand goes into that encounter very set on killing Louis, and I believe him.  So I rewatched it a couple of times trying to understand when, and why, Armand changes his mind. The shift occurs when they start talking about Claudia, and Armand says that her mind will break apart soon because she was made too young. Louis says “you don’t know her,” and Armand responds, “I don’t have to. I’ve seen it before. I’ve seen too much.” That admission– I’ve lived through this cycle multiple times before, it is painful, and I don’t want to do it again– is what shifts Armand from being ready to kill Louis to letting him go. 

There is of course an irony here; mentally ill and child vampires do not necessarily need to go mad. Generally they go mad at least partially because of Armand’s actions. And as we’ve already discussed, Armand going to sleep with Louis instead of killing him is really just a repeat of his actions with Lestat. He isn’t really breaking a cycle at all. But I think in that moment he believes that he is. Maybe he even believes that by being with a man who enacted great violence on Lestat, he can drown out the love and anguish he still feels about Lestat. At the very least, Louis has also loved Lestat and can therefore understand Armand’s narration of his own life in a way that not many other people can. 

Ok, so now we are caught up on the past. Let’s talk about Dubai, and how once again Armand is engaged in the exact same cycle of behavior.

The penthouse is Armand’s new coven. He maintains perfect order by controlling the physical environment and shaping Louis’s moods and memories. But just like before, this way of life is no longer serving Armand (or Louis for that matter). You can see that the spark between them has died, only rekindled as a kind of performance when they are in front of Daniel. When Armand is telling Daniel about Lestat destroying the coven, and Daniel accuses Armand of leading Lestat to the coven intentionally… he might as well be talking about himself. Armand has let Daniel into his fortress, and there is at least a part of him that wants whatever destruction Daniel is about to bring into his life.

Daniel fits Armand’s type completely. Daniel is of course more human than Lestat or Louis could ever be. He knows about telenovelas and Bollywood and all other types of art. He’s whipsmart and inquisitive and is not going to let Armand get away with passively maintaining his old order. He’s of the world in a way that Armand finds irresistible. 

I specifically found it interesting how many of the “Great Laws” Armand would be breaking by being with Daniel. Granted, Armand isn’t in the coven anymore when he meets Daniel. But I imagine old habits are hard to break, and being with Daniel would break almost all of them. Daniel is a mortal Armand has revealed his true nature to and allowed to live, Daniel has written about and exposed vampire secrets, and (if we’re looking at book canon) Daniel begs for the dark gift himself, a thing only the maitre is supposed to be able to approve. 

Assuming that a chunk of Devil’s Minion did happen in the 1970s, something interrupted that love affair, before it could settle back down into a new but still oppressive status quo. Something prompted Armand to actively break his pattern of behavior and erase Daniel’s memories. I think it’s impossible not to think about Nicki’s example here, especially after seeing the 1790s flashback. I’m going to assume that 1970s Daniel was struggling with addiction and mental health issues in a way that may have been reminiscent of Nicki. How intentional was Armand in withdrawing because he saw what vampire involvement- his involvement- did to Nicki? How much was his treatment of Daniel a reparation for past mistakes he made?

These last couple of paragraphs are speculation, really, because we won’t know exactly what Armandaniel looked like until Ep 5. But I think it was crucial that we saw this part of Armand’s story before we see San Francisco, because his actions with Daniel will make more sense if we can compare them with the love affairs of Armand’s past.

Regardless, I do think the disparity between what Armand claims to want (maintaining the status quo) vs what he actually wants (to be liberated by a romantic partner) vs what I think he actually needs (to take action himself, instead of waiting for someone to do it for him) is going to play a role in the way Dubai unfolds. I don’t know that Armand will ever get to the point where he’s actively able to break out of the cycle he’s in, because this is Interview with the Vampire, the show of fucked up gothic romances. Vampire life is a series of bad decisions! It’s a weird arrested development you never quite get out of despite living for forever! So it would make total sense if the ending of Dubai mimics the ending of the Children of Satan and the Paris Coven in an unhealthy way. But regardless, it’s gonna be a fun ride, and I can’t wait to see it.

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i stg people better not be fucking complaining because armand/lestat backstory isn’t the same as the books when the whole point of the series is they’re all SHITTY NARRATORS with SHITTY MEMORY who CANT BE TRUSTED because versions of events frequently CHANGE depending on WHO IS NARRATING

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i’ll absolutely lose it if part of the 70s/armandaniel/loumandaniel reveal comes with daniel finding his own photo in that collection of partners loumand shared

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I’ve been thinking about Armand/Daniel a lot lately (as one does) and yes the whole thing is incredible but for some reason I can’t get this line out of my head: “In the midst of life they plunged”, and how perfectly it encapsulates their entire relationship. Like the IMPLICATIONS of it. Armand hadn’t actually had a life, perhaps only a semblance of it, in over 300 years, and this mortal boy gave it to him and offered him a shot at an actual existence. Full of experiences, adventures, discoveries, opportunities, romance, fighting, crying, LIVING. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Daniel giving Armand the opportunity to have a life and to reclaim his youth will never not make me feral ❤️‍🩹

Anon! It's like you're inside my head, because I, too, think about them all the time. That line though is really awesome and it does encapsulate their relationship so well. You're so right about this and you should say it.

Like, if you think about it, it's exactly true that Armand hasn't had much of a life for a long time. He spent decades with Louis, living in a shared misery. And while I fully believe they had tender moments during that period, I think it was few and far between. Armand wanted Louis to be his guide to the modern era, but Louis was too lost in his grief and pain and numbness to be that for him. When that finally ends, he spends the next decades watching over a sleeping Lestat, keeping the city free of "vermin" to protect him like a guardian who wasn't asked for.

And basically seems to be his life when Daniel crashes into Lestat's house and starts playing those tapes. He's just chilling in New Orleans, watching over the dirt where Lestat is buried, as life moves around him.

The Chase gives Armand something else to do, to focus on. He follows this young reporter boy around tormenting him and teasing him and in the process, he starts to delve into the modern era, learning about things Daniel does and places he goes and even his means of travel - accosting him on a train, in a taxi. He bails him out of jail. He orders dinner for him at a restaurant in the most unhinged way possible, but it's also the sort of thing you might do if you just want to push some of the limits around you.

And then they come together as a couple, finally, and then into the very midst of life they plunge! Armand finally has someone who will do all the things with him: parties, shows, concerts, museums, travel. Daniel has been patiently (and not so patiently) teaching him about the modern world for years already, so now they really dive in. And as you point out, they also plunge head first into a relationship, living together, existing together as a couple and figuring out what that means, and everything that entails, good and bad.

It really is Armand getting a second chance at his youth and his first opportunity in centuries to just be a guy and experience the world on the arm of this beautiful, curious, sardonic boy who loves him for what he is and who he is and is passionate and gentle, even as he can be defiant and argumentative.

It makes me feral, too. Like it's just so good. Daniel gives him the world and the love he deserves, and in the end, Armand gives him forever. And I just... love them so, so much. 😭😭💖

Thank you so much for this ask!