this scene shows that louis would never ask armand to do something he really didn’t want to do. louis can immediately recognize that and he puts a stop to their game to reassure him. it’s deeply upsetting cause armand does not have the same respect for louis at all.
it’s amazing how iwtv uses vampirism to magnify mundane norms of society like children don’t ask to be born, they don’t ask for their mothers to make their entire identity about them and they don’t ask that their very being tie their mother and father together forever. yet-
Louis victim blaming himself as a way to guilt himself over how he got into this situation is rly not romantic like he’s asking himself why he wore something that attracted Lestat to pursue him and why he couldn’t have been stronger and thus less of a victim…
I’m sorry but the show established that Louis was immediately attracted to Armand. Claudia could feel it in the theater the first night and some of you guys are out here acting like he’s physically repulsed by him or prostituting himself. It’s just weird as hell atp.
its funny every single argument lestat and santiago made on that stage is something racists in this fandom have said like when i said the writers room is very very online lol
#iwtvspoilers
"why does louis believe armand" idk maybe cause he's isolated, mentally unstable and vulnerable which makes him an easy target for manipulation? this was true in s1 when lestat cornered him in the pilot and the abuse has only further eroded his sense of self? whats not clicking.
i think people are having a hard time with loumand’s dynamic being ever changing and fluid which makes them hard to fandom-ize and yaoi-fy. mid40s loumand is different from late40s is different from 70s is different from 2022 like its 77 years how could it ever be just one thing.
i'm not at all surprise assad was worried about s2 cause when the network tells the showrunner to add more of that white man than what's natural for the story it implictly signals to the rest of the cast that they don't have faith in them to carry the show
I can’t believe they played the whole “armand was moved to the bottom of the coven food chain and forced to do bitch work” thing straight like this man once knocked out the entire coven to yell at them and beat up santiago on a public street
putting the betrayal aside even when louis was begging for his life in the sewers his compassion only extends as far as his love for him and in sf he’s so devoid of compassion for louis’s suffering in fact he wants him to suffer.
there’s an unequal power dynamic within every human relationship that can lend itself to abuse but now they’re vampires so it’s x100. children being assigned ownership to their fathers but now it’s literally a maker!!
even when recalling the most traumatic moment of his life louis is still so sympathetic to armand claiming he was just as much a victim... my sweet darling girl please i beg your heart is too soft.
#iwtvspoilers
this show could have lestat say to the camera “I’m an abusive piece of shit and my fans are fucking morons” and they would find some way to blame louis for it
i really think armand's backstory and this facade of submission did a number on louis cause he's truly woobifying armand more than even this fandom is capable of like even the armand stans aren't going this hard for their man louis
#iwtvspoilers
in order for the loustat grief session to be earned it needed to address why lestat went to paris to collude with the coven in the first place. without that information any forgiveness from louis feels hollow but bc the show hasn’t decided on the why of if they can’t say it..
loustat is edwardian marriage domestic violence within the nuclear family unit, loumand is post-second wave feminism and queer liberation insidious abuse.
I guess I’m fine with the ending cause ldpdl is happy and that’s ultimately what I care about most but the way it got there was definitely silly at times and I think Armand basically turned into a cartoon
#iwtvspoilers
remember the only thing you're allowed to criticize ldpdl about is claudia. every other character should just be grateful he hasn't blown them up with his mind.
this is how people on iwtv twt react when you try to tell them there’s info in the books that does in fact fill in the blanks for the shit they’re trying to ignore/say is inconsistent or bad writing
are we gonna talk about how neither armand nor lestat would've needed to do that audience control thing like they could've knocked out the whole coven, frozen the audience and carried louis out of there in 2 minutes like we've seen them do that before
#iwtvspoilers
claudia is the most powerful character in the whole story cause as long as she was around there was someone to remind louis of the gaslighting and manipulation and that he deserves better than these trash men!!!
#iwtvspoilers
i'm nowhere near a lestat defender but like that man would never in a million years let his wife leave with a man who was a danger to her and who cut off wife
#1
's hands!!! all he had to do was say something lol
#iwtvspoilers
that autumn chick is not very smart like a non-white interview would've known the "come to me" rehash was a racist stereotype playing to the mostly white crowd
..this is something many victims carry with them for their entire lives is why did it happen to them, what did they do wrong or what they should’ve done differently, why did they attract or fall in love with their abuser to begin with etc.
“What if I had worn a different suit that night” sounds a lot like why did you wear something so sexy if you didn’t want to be assaulted talking points
"louis was a manipulative seductress, an aggressive violent black man and also a frigid bitch who drove me to cheat" these writers stalk magalyra's blog i stg
#iwtvspoilers
even if you don’t care about awards at least fight for your actors getting recognition??? especially since jacob, delainey and assad likely won’t have this kind of material again???
armand never even apologized for letting him lie in pain for 4 days like he went straight to blaming louis for “asking” for the memory wipe jesus christ
idk who needs to hear this but the only explicit sex scene on iwtv was a 3way involving a woman (once she was out of the picture it became much more tame) like it’s very clear there’s still a double standard when it comes to gay sex on basic cable
for years i wondered how straight men could watch the sopranos, breaking bad, etc and actually worship those guys unironically and iwtv finally proves that women and gay people can be just as stupid! diversity win!
We could be talking about all the actual disturbing aspects of Armand's control over Louis and his many layers of deception but you're all too busy making up a fake show once again.
You don’t want to make comparisons to real life situations bc you want to ship without feeling guilty even though the showrunner has directly made reference to a real life abusive marriage and the writing could not be more blunt about it
All I needed for this whole thing to work is if we actually got to see Armand’s paranoia and maybe Santiago actually being an Iago and feeding him more insecurities about Louis to where this betrayal feels earned. I’m really not that bothered by the choice itself.
people have so completely misread the maitre thing like I wonder if this is their first attempt at adult prestige media lol the first time armand calls louis maitre is also the scene where the coven first calls santiago maitre..
I can’t believe they played the whole “armand was moved to the bottom of the coven food chain and forced to do bitch work” thing straight like this man once knocked out the entire coven to yell at them and beat up santiago on a public street
So after reading all of rolin’s interviews it seems it truly was Santiago who masterminded this trial and both Armand and Lestat played their parts, they both let Claudia die but Lestat just saved Louis first and therefore he wins the girl. I mean sure.
im truly so confused how people are watching this show and saying loumand has more questionable consent issues than loustat like did i hallucinate a different s1?? did we not see the church scene
I think Louis forgiving Armand was definitely spite motivated cause that's a very big ask for him to forgive such an awful act of betrayal but by the time we get to Dubai I think they had actually healed and learned to love each other again. But if its all built on a lie...
y'all can tell me if this is just Cope but i truly don't think loumand was entirely built on louis' spite towards lestat. that was a driving factor! but idk just. the way louis looked at him when they were talking about how they traveled the world together? there was love there.
if you’re seriously arguing “he may have broken every bone in her body but at least he didn’t erase any memories” you need to put the yaoi cocaine down at this point and rethink
tbh in s3 when lestat beats nicki's ass its going to be apparent to all the white viewers what role he occupies in relation to a nicki who's canonically now 10 years younger than him but when he does that to louis who's 120 years younger..
you’re not going to have the actors talk about the most widely praised and buzzy scene of the entire season the one that made everyone on the internet take notice if the show wasn’t on their radar before?????