Mad Ramblings of an English/History Student

One of the things I've always found really interesting about Armand's role in the interview is how objectively against the interview he is (constant reminders for Daniel and Louis), yet how much he's willing to be negotiated into it.

So much of the Loumand relationship as we see it is about negotiation. The BDSM, the power-dynamics, the past guilt and flaws, and especially the interview.

Armand haunting the background as fake Rashid was and is one of the craziest things they've done, but it was probably the only way Louis could talk Armand into allowing the interview. (And the fact that we seem to be witnessing an intense 24/7 roleplay scene to help 'Armand keep character' also reinforces this. Louis can order him around, and Armand can have a role to model). Yet he reveals himself as Louis is confronted with the reality that... maybe he did still love Lestat so that he could be a more physical and intentional reminder that Louis loves HIM and not Lestat.

Because the interview is working through the past misconceptions, lies, trauma, and other things that Louis has used to peice together the story that upkeeps his current reality, of course Armand is going to be fearful that poking holes in that narrative will make Louis fall out of love with him.

Louis, even after covering and recalling the trial, of his anger at Armand, throwing a bowl at Armand's head, is still willing to keep pushing forward. Louis, as uncertain about everything that he is, truly believes that Armand has his best intentions at heart. Flaws (and child murder) aside, Armand tries to do things for HIM.

Even Armand can see this interview had been healing for Louis, and so now Armand can introduce a new peice to Louis's puzzle that won't throw off their relationship. Louis no longer seems to be here out of spite. This can be a new beginning.

Now that Louis has laid his grievances out on the table again, he is prepared to move forward.

Because, and I think a lot of people miss this, while Armand may be abusive, he wants the best for Louis. And he knows Louis has not been doing well. So the negotiation of the interview, something he feared would break what little of Louis he had left, has instead strengthened their bond.

At least, until Louis finds out that Armand was willing to let Louis die at the trial.

Because that's the biggest part of the betrayal, right? That's what Armand has been trying to cover up. That he was more involved with the trail than he pretended to be, and he did nothing to save Louis' life as it happened. Armand only saved Louis afterwards (which I feel a lot of antis also forget. Like Armand did save Louis, it was just a little late).

Loumand as each other's preferred victim types 🙏

In life we see Louis collects and engages with women who have few options in and amongst brothels to line his pockets,¹ both socially and economically, which means he's attentive to vulnerability. However, he is not drawn to them except by their availability, and he chooses to pursue the prettiest man in the room. Lestat took him hunting on his first night and he immediately eyes the loudest and prettiest boy in the room. The most powerful man in the room, too; he eyes the circles of power with desire and thirst, especially if they try to put him down.

Louis loves his youths and the ones who linger in parks looking for something more. Sex and sexuality to him are inseperable from his vampirism. He's a smile, a promise, and a kiss of bliss on a night they'll never recover from.

And what is Armand but the prettiest man in the room desperate to be loved, and desperate for the promise of a never-ending embrace? Meeting Louis in that park was a calculated move on Armand's part, and you can't help but see that Armand wanted to make the best of Louis's hunting grounds 😏 He's both vulnerable and the most powerful entity in Paris, and Louis just wants to wiggle into that empty space the contradition brings and BITE.

Armand hunts thrill seekers and the passively suicidal. He peers into their innermost thoughts and draws their insecurities to the surface. He tests the metal of their will to live with a patient hand, and watches them melt under the heat.

And Louis loves a good thrill and a test. Anything less than that is boring boring boring. He wants his innermost thoughts to be listened to and challenged, which is why he loves philosophical debate. The suicidality of Louis is also undeniable, and Armand loves to keep the impending emptiness of death in his peripheral.

This use of ideal prey makes their love so 🤌 because they keep feeding on the parts that make them weakest. It makes the feedback loop more stable, as neither of them are seeking transformation from the other, just reinforcing their preferred trait of what the other already is.

But the key to why they juggle dominance and submission? Armand likes his victims dead despite being able to control how he feeds, while Louis struggles to stop from killing, and prefers to avoid feeding on humans entirely. And then that shifts after the trial, where Louis stops caring and starts feeding and feeding and feeding, and then again in Dubai, where Louis has reached a management of his desire for blood. Meanwhile Armand slowly brings those insecurities to the surface because he plays a long game.

¹ I bring this up in the sense that sex work and brothel work are neutral entities and NOT as a way to cast Louis as a predatory brothel madam/pimp stereotype. He -as a man of color with limited options for investment in the Jim Crow era- hired women of color and disabled women as a boss hires employees, and the predatory nature of this is reflected in his PERSONAL morals meeting the realities of sexwork, and the limited options that women had for work in the early 1900s. There was more safety and reliability in a brothel house, which was why women chose to work there. The pimp/former sex worker is a part of Loumand that shouldn't be steered away from, and adds thematic and character layers to the way they view/play their roles that reinforces the victim-type I'm presenting here.