“How can so much beauty hide such a bruised and steely heart, and why must I love him, why must I lean in my weariness upon his irresistible yet indomitable strength? Is he not the wizend funeral spirit of a dead man in a child’s clothes?” ― Anne Rice, The Vampire Armand
MOSTLY tho, surprisingly, their innate curiosity and respect for each other outweighs all the horrible shit they’ve put each other through. Which has been ALOT. Lestat destroyed Armand’s coven dictatorship by being his usual ray of obnoxious sunshine The New and Improved Parisian Vampire 2.0; Armand did help orchestrate the death of one of Lestat’s fledglings and maybe tortured her, too??? before manipulating another of his fledglings into a 100 yr relationship… there’s more than that, but those are big ones.
They seem to be over it all, they’ve made a kind of peace, but they have that contentious kind of rivalry and competition that brothers have.
AR was doing this Fan Questions for Lestat thing awhile back, and Lestat spoke directly about his feelings towards Armand, and I think “he” put it very well:
“Armand’s thoughts are almost impossible for me to penetrate, and his boyish countenance often reveals nothing of his true calculations and feelings. I love him and I respect him — and I know that he loves me — but I never for a moment imagine I’m entirely safe with him.” [X]
And: “I love Armand deeply. My view of Armand has evolved over time. The less I fear him, the more I love him. And the more I suffer, the more I come to understand Armand’s suffering. I have never doubted Armand’s love for me. We are kith and kin, Armand and me.” [X]
I think you have to consider how Armand feels towards Lestat, too.
“I hate him only because I cannot imagine my soul without him.” – Armand about Lestat, The Vampire Armand, [X]
^Footage of Lestat and Armand, they go from smooches to claws in 0.3 seconds. [X]
What’s also kind of beautiful about this little moment (and part of why we love Lestat) is that we can see Lestat’s internal self-deprecation juxtaposed so starkly w/ his external display. Just a few lines after he reveals how “the sheer excitement was excruciating, and the love I felt for him was positively humiliating”, he has to immediately take a stab at Louis, somehow, and it’s almost stuttered out in these teensy bite-sized sentences:
“One thing, Louis,” “Those clothes. Impossible.”
He wants to make sure Louis is suffering as much as he is, w/o really injuring him, and if he has to stoop so low as to criticize his fashion sense, HE’LL DO IT, DAMN YOU. The Lestat we see in IWTV is an even crueler sassy bastard, much of it being self-defense for how much he was hurting during that time period, too ;A;
Louis is, fortunately, more durable than he appears to be, and clever enough to have figured this out, which is why they’ve survived each other been able to stay together so long ;]
“Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he’s got… lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah… “ – Quint, JAWS
In canon, Louis doesn’t speak a lot in French (sometimes the narrative will indicate the characters have switched to another language but the writing will continue in English for the benefit of the reader). He does throw in a mon dieu! (my god!) here and there. He says it when Lestat first picks him up to show him he has the Cloud Gift in QOTD.
It’s fanon that Louis and Lestat still speak to each other in French, an older version of it that mortals usually aren’t all that familiar with. Lestat still remembers a few old French songs from his childhood.
Louis is actually French, his family moved to New Orleans from France before he took over the plantation from his father: “You see, we lived far better [in Louisiana] than we could have ever lived in France.” – IWTV. So French was most likely his native language.
He gives the interview in English because that’s the language Daniel speaks, and Louis must have learned it at some point, probably in his travels with Armand. But the languages he probably spoke in New Orleans during his ~70 years there were French and Creole, and then when he goes to Paris, he would have spoken the more classic French and he probably had a noticeably Americanized accent, yet another reason for them to dislike him bc TOURISTS.
You are in luck if you want Amel talking, bc he DOES.
When we first learn his name in QOTD, he’s already talking to Maharet and Mekare about how they might need his help:
“Except that several nights later, an evil spirit came to us, one which we called Amel. Enormous, powerful, and full of rancor, this thing danced about the clearing before our cave trying to get Mekare and me to take notice of him, and telling us that we might soon need his help…”
“This Amel, in particular, was maddened by our ‘neglect’ of him, as he called it. And he declared over and over again that he was ‘Amel, the powerful,’ and ‘Amel, the invincible,’ and we should show him some respect. For we might have great need of him in the future. We might need him more than we could imagine, for trouble was coming our way.” – Maharet, Queen of the Damned
We actually hear quite alot from him in that book! He is a major catalyst in the origin of the vampire species.
Tiny Prince Lestat spoiler ahead
And then we hear alot from him in Prince Lestat, too, in which he is AGAIN a catalyst in the next chapter for the
Will a doge twinkie appease you a little? As a peace offering! I offer it in all seriousness, no sarcasm at all. He’s much twinkier than Armand, and delishus, too ❤
I thought I answered very thoughtfully here, and I guess I’m having trouble reconciling your statements here in yellow, (my own comments in blue):
I totally managed to misunderstand you, and then I got exactly what you meant? Are you concerned bc I put those opinions in blue under the cut? I do that to keep the post from going on too long, as ppl have told me that my responses can clutter their dash, so it’s more respectful, but for this post, I’ll just let it all hang out and go long, ok?
TL;DR: Hopefully we can agree that text sometimes sounds more or less emotional than it was intended when written, I certainly did not intend to be at all offensive or act like my opinion is any way the definitive authority on the matter, nor was I trying to be rude in the slightest, and I’m sorry that it came across that way, if it did.
Does it really suck for Armand to be in a position of being treated like a sex object? Yes, I bet it does. But he is aware, he is a student of sexuality, he’s interested in it and uses ppl’s perceptions to his advantage.
However, I recognize that this is a hot-button kind of topic in our fandom, so, okay, it’s worth delving into it a little deeper! Re: Armand being a “twink,” Part 2:
Yes, it must suck to be forever seen as a sex object and having ppl throw themselves at you. And yet! There are all kinds of genders and ages of ppl who experience that on a daily or weekly basis.
Look at this recent story, just a few months ago (sorry I picked what appears to be a “pretty” cishet white girl, it’s just the most recent example I could think of and find an article for):
“A young woman is hitting back at the idea that women ‘invite’ catcalling by showing how it ‘doesn’t matter’ what you are wearing, it still happens.” [Source]
There are so many of these stories on a daily basis, all over the world, right in your face. It’s very disheartening. Sometimes it goes a lot farther than it did w/ Ms. Brandt. No matter how the victim is dressed. No matter what the victim looks like or acts like.
How does this apply to Armand tho??
I went over this with a fandom friend who preferred not to be credited, and they said some very smart things, which I’ll include below.
First, tho, I want to mention the obvious: our canon has a lot of sexuality in it. ALOT. Whether you believe the vampires are asexual or fully sexual in terms of penetrative sexual intercourse? That’s up to each reader to decide. We know AR’s stance on it, that they express sensuality differently than penetrative sexual intercourse. I have no need to convince anyone of what my own headcanon is re: this set of fictional characters’ sex lives.
Secondly, a lot of VC RP and fandom discussion often brings up sex as it pertains to this set of fictional characters. I would guess that’s because humans in general are intrigued by sex for so many reasons, not the least of which is the younger fandom ppl coming in who are curious about the role that sex plays in a relationship. Is it the real glue that binds a ship together? Can a ship sail on sex alone? SEX!
How does this apply to Armand tho????
Okay! Now we can address this. Fandom Friend says:
“I think you do actually agree with each other, though [Anon’s] message is confusing in that they start off sounding like they are simplifying [Armand] (he’s ‘just’ a twink) but end up defending his own pov, [which you also pointed out in your response], that he is well-aware of how he is perceived and that he mocks that tendency, to reduce him to a beautiful, sexually attractive youth/boy.”
Armand is one of the characters in canon that we tend to tease about sex often (more in fandom spaces than in canon), bc he had a rich sexual history in his mortal life (first against his will, and then as part of his education and completing the experiences of a Full Life). In vampirism he maintained the appearance that drew so many to him sexually.
Fandom Friend continues:
“it’s true that [Armand] is wanted by everyone, there’s a very nice quote somewhere in QotD about it, but the sexual component in Armand’s character is such an integral part of his amazing mental manipulations, that it really has nothing to do with sex in the end.”
Here’s the quote, where we can see Armand “paying forward” his own education on Daniel:
“Men and women fell in love with Armand, of course, “so innocent, so passionate, so brilliant!” You don’t say. In fact, Armand’s power to seduce was almost beyond his control. And it was Daniel who must bed these unfortunates, if Armand could possibly arrange it, while he watched from a chair nearby, a dark-eyed Cupid with a tender approving smile. Hot, nerve-searing, this witnessed passion, Daniel working the other body with ever greater abandon, aroused by the dual purpose of every intimate gesture. Yet he lay empty afterwards, staring at Armand, resentful, cold.“ – Queen of the Damned
“This is not Armand being sexual, it’s him being manipulative and Danny knows, which is why he is so pissed off!”
Armand is just as interested in sex as we are! He’s interested in the physical mechanics, he’s interested in the emotional connections that can be forged, he’s interested in the mystery of the act performed in a multitude of ways.
He’s interested in it from the perspective of deriving dominance through the act. Marking one’s property. So many other things that I haven’t discovered myself yet about what sex is!
So what’s my point with all this? Like I said before, in general I don’t like to categorize characters as one thing, they’re multi-dimensional, and they evolve and change through canon, despite their physical appearances staying the same.
Anyway I don’t want to argue the point any further, #your headcanon may vary!
I can’t agree with you, bc I’m not sure if you’re being silly, in more of a Tumblrland Hyperbole™ way, but I’m feeling like defending him a little.
In general I don’t like to categorize characters as one thing, they’re multi-dimensional, and they evolve and change through canon, despite their physical appearances staying the same.
[textmeme by armandromanus, who deactivated so I can’t link to it] ^This is really perfect for this conversation, bc you can tell by the expression @armandromanus chose in that pic that Armand does know that others often perceive him purely based on his looks, and how very wrong they are to do so.
It’s kind of sad to see such a rich and layered character so often reduced to a sex object. There’s a lot more to him than that. He struggles with the concept of intimacy bc it’s not just about sex.
I don’t think Armand thinks of himself as just some sextoy regardless of how many ppl offer him sex even now; he’s actually very selective about those he allows to get close to him physically and emotionally, when he has the independence to choose.
There are a number of times in Armand’s life in which he has been ravaged, totally against his will, just because of how he looks or acts.
Any Armand RPers are invited and welcome to add onto this.
A few thoughts on the quote you selected, hit the jump.
You might also be misreading that quote, it doesn’t seem like he’s admitting that he deserves to be treated like a sex object, more that he seems to be calling ppl out on their assumptions about young boys deserving to be treated like sex objects, and not requiring as much respect as an adult. He takes issue with the fact that since someone calls him “a guilty cunning child,” he deserves to be “ravaged”.
“Everyone would have a laughing boy who knows his way around the block […]”
^This sounds more like he’s saying, “People want a lover who’s easy to please and/or will happily serve skilled sex…” Basically, a prostitute, for free.
“but young boys? They’re not like men, are they?”
^This sounds more like he means, “young boys don’t need to be treated with the same respect you would treat an adult.”
What is next for me is another novel with Lestat, as he probes deeper into the origins of the vampires and the origins of human beings, another novel about his never ending quest for meaning, and his deep acknowledgment that he will always be an outsider know matter how much he is loved. Lestat has always been obsessed with goodness, and evil, and that will continue in my next book, of course.
I-want-my-IWTV 