Thanks, dearie! What do you love about it specifically, hmmm? Simply my awesomeness in the VC fandom? You don’t need to answer that, my awesome is unquestionable hehehe…

Armand/Louis: To ship or not to ship?

[by garama bc apparently I’m having a GARAMA APPRECIATION DAY]

I have alot of Armand/Louis feels. The way they view each other seems built on their first impressions of eachother:

• Louis saw Armand as the teacher/mentor (and lover??) Lestat could not have been. Armand definitely used some mental persuasion to draw Louis closer, but it seems the attraction was mutual, mostly natural chemistry.
• Armand saw Louis as someone who could help him see the world anew, through younger eyes, and someone who was very much in tune with their emotions. Armand had closed off alot of those feelings, and was not very connected to any of the vampires in the Theatre des Vampires. Also he wanted Louis as a lover, but don’t we all? Also, Armand had advised Lestat in TVL that your fledglings will never make perfect companions, what you need is someone else’s fledgling. AND, it’s possible that Armand was even more attracted to Louis after reading his mind and knowing he was Lestat’s, whom Armand had a major unrequited crush on.

So they both sort of filled a void for the other, but couldn’t be together initially, as Louis was devoted to Claudia. Armand’s responsibility for her removal is subject to interpretation, whether it was his order or not, and other things that happened to her, but it seems to me that Armand had intended for Claudia to leave with Madeleine. He admitted to forcing Louis to make Madeleine for this purpose.

After all that, you would think Louis would want nothing to do with Armand, but he chose to spend some 100 yrs with Armand before passive-aggressively ignoring him until he left Louis, disgusted and on the verge of suicide, Louis not being a good boyfriend. (vampiredevelopment!)

Your math sounds about right, but a relationship’s quality is not based on the amount of time it lasts. Louis was probably much happier when he was with Lestat and Claudia for some 65 years. Of the 100 yrs he spent with Armand, much of it seems like Louis was going through the motions, letting Armand have him as a companion in various ways, but not really engaged fully in the relationship.

Lestat does often have to go off on his own adventures and leave Louis alone. There’s a kind of mutual respect between Lestat, Armand, and Louis now, it seems all of their past transgressions to each other are mostly water under the bridge. 

TL;DR: Louis does still gravitate to Armand, maybe not as the mentor/teacher he saw him as before, but more as an ex-boyfriend that he is on good terms with, someone he cares about, and who cares about him. Extended family.