Nicolas could not contain what was occurring within him, and often his deterioration became destructive and difficult to conceal from mortals. Despite the fact that I did not directly claim leadership in an official capacity, I had a position to maintain and I had already protected him on numerous occasions, whether he realised such or not, as had Eleni. I had to prove that the threats that I made were not just threats if someone stepped out of line, or be seen as ineffective and suffer further challenges. I could not exclude Nicolas from that.
On the occasion where I took his hands, it was take his hands or take his life; based on the transgressions involved, it could have seriously compromised our position in Paris had it not been corrected swiftly. He was so far gone that others began to talk of precisely that, and I could not allow it. Taking his hands limited him in a way that imprisonment could not possibly have achieved; he had escaped imprisonment before when it was imposed upon him. Imprisonment meant nothing to him because the true oubliette existed in his mind, and that was inescapable. It gave me control over him enough that he could not possibly leave and potentially worsen the situation. It also proved that I was willing to back up my threats and that I would not respond with inaction if I was questioned.
The choice that I made meant that he lived. It does not necessarily follow that it was a choice I made gladly, regardless.
Tag Archives: the vampire armand
Why does most of the fandom like Armand? (I’m on Memnoch The Devil, and I know what the next book is) He cut off Nicolas’s hands, killed Claudia, and kills suicidal people. (I’m not trying to shame anyone, I just want to understand why.)
It seems like you have sort of made up your mind about him, Anon, listing those crimes 😦 If you don’t like him for those reasons, or any reasons, you are under no obligation to change your mind, but I appreciate that you want to understand why ppl do like him.
If you’re on Memnoch then you know most of Armand’s story, and you know that Armand’s book follows MtD. His book goes into his story more deeply, and from his own perspective, and I think that’s part of what ppl like about him. His narration is different than Lestat’s (most of the books are Lestat’s POV or his recording of what others tell him), and I think some Armand fans are just glad to get out of Lestat’s head!! lol.
[^X Bjorn Andresen, a fan fave as Armand]
In TVA, you get more detail and scenes from Armand’s mortal life and fledgling life, and some of what follows. You get how he feels about seeing Lestat in MtD and a moment of intimacy between these two alpha personalities who have had a simmering competition between them since they met.
Some ppl find that Anne Rice has done Armand a disservice in his own book by having him claim any amount of agency in what happened between him and Marius. That’s up to the individual reader to decide, what they think of that relationship, regardless of what the author’s agenda was when she wrote it.
I do think some of the things Armand says in TVA are
somewhat
exaggerated because he is telling the story to David, who was flirting at him really hard in the beginning of that book, and I think Armand wanted to remind David that he’s not the cute bb 17 year old he appears to be, and not to mistake him as such. So the scene describing Claudia, I’m not sure I trust Armand that he really did anything to her other than do nothing when the other vampires of the theatre put her in that sun-well-thingie.
I wouldn’t say that most of the fandom likes Armand. I think that certain characters have waves of popularity, and some are talked about more than others at any given time… there was a period about two years ago, I think, that ppl were all over Nicolas, discussing him, theorizing that he might have survived, etc.
Tom Hiddleston is talking about Loki here, I think, but the concept is captivating, and it applies to Nicki and Armand:
[ Tom Hiddleston quotes Josephine Hart, gifs from here X]
Nicki seemed to be one of the only canon characters that explicitly had a mental illness, and that was during a time on tumblr that ppl were being more open about having mental illness and identifying with fictional characters who also had mental illness.
We are drawn to characters who have traits like ourselves, and/or those that survive, and overcome obstacles when they are faced with challenges like our own.
I think Nicki also represented some of the disillusionment ppl were feeling about the world at large at the time.
It might be that Armand has taken on more of that role, some fans also headcanon that Armand has mental illness(es) and he can also represent fans who feel disillusioned about the world at large, since the world has been so cruel to him.
More on all that later*, so I can address the other part of your statement now.
He (1) cut off Nicolas’s hands, (2) killed Claudia, and (3) kills suicidal people. (I’m not trying to shame anyone, I just want to understand why.)
^Ok, I’m going to address each of these things, since you want to understand. I’ll take it at face value that you’re not trying to shame anyone for liking a fictional character who does those things.
Whether you want to agree with my explanations is entirely up to you. If you judge him by human, real-world standards, yes, each of these things is maniacal and horrible. So my explanations are for FICTION.
NO CUTS WE LONGPOST LIKE MEN.
^I have to stop doing that I’m going to get in trouble.
First off, I would like to point out that I don’t think canon indicates that he takes pleasure in any of those things individually, except for the normal pleasure of that last one, vampires love feeding, there’s no getting around that 😉
(1) He cut off Nicolas’s hands,
This seems like fairly standard vampire punishment from a coven master. @damnitarmand, an Armand RPer, responded very well to this question, I’ll reblog it momentarily.
Armand may have been trying to help Nicki in the ways he knew how. Armand had been a coven master for hundreds of years, dealt with madness from many ages of vampires, maybe this was something that helped in other cases. It could be seen as cruel from our mortal standards, but maybe that was considered a reasonable form of treatment for vampires.
Eleni writes to Lestat in TVL:
“[Nicolas] must be watched constantly so that he does not enlarge our ranks. His dining habits are extremely sloppy. And on occasion he says most shocking things to strangers, which fortunately they are too sensible to believe.“ In other words, he tried to make other vampires. And he didn’t hunt in stealth. “In the main it is Our Oldest Friend [Armand, obviously] who is relied upon to restrain him. And that he does with the most caustic threats. But I must say that these do not have an enduring effect upon our Violinist.”
“…I tell you these things not to haunt you but to let you know that we do our utmost to protect this child who should never have been Born to Darkness. He is overwhelmed by his powers, dazzled and maddened by his vision. We have seen it all and its sorry finish before.”
^So clearly, Armand does everything he can before punishing him so viscerally, and Nicolas really was getting out of control. Eleni even notes that Nicolas is not taking to vampirism very well and would never have been turned by the coven, they’ve had hundreds of years to learn about who can handle it and who can’t, and they have their own system of psychological care, such as it is.
When Armand does take his hands, yes, it’s bc
Armand
has been pushed to being “maddened by the excesses” of Nicki! Not maddened for nothing. There is no indication that Armand takes pleasure in it. Further proof that it’s a standard punishment is when Eleni explains to Lestat that it’s temporary:
“It has come to the worst, as I feared. Our Oldest Friend, maddened by the excesses of Our Violinist, finally imprisoned him in your old residence. And though his violin was given him in his cell, his hands were taken away. But understand that with us, such appendages can always be restored.”
^So for all of the above, I don’t consider Armand’s cutting off of Nicki’s hands as a crime but as a merciful thing that’s standard procedure, albeit probably a last resort, for restoring vampire sanity.
(2) killed Claudia,
^Armand tried to get Claudia a new adult vampire companion when he pressured Louis into turning Madeleine. Armand even admits to Louis that he himself takes the responsibility for Madeleine:
“ `But if it’s any consolation to you … surely you realize I had a
hand in it.’
” [Armand said]`That I did it to be free of Claudia, to be free to come to you …
yes, I realize that. But the ultimate responsibility lies with me!’ [Louis] said.“`No. I mean, directly. I made you do it! I was near you the night you did it. I exerted my strongest power to persuade you to do it. Didn’t you know this?’ Woe.
I bowed my head.
‘I would have made this woman a vampire,’ [Armand] said softly. `But I thought it best you have a hand in it. Otherwise you would not give Claudia up. You must know you wanted it…
“ `I loathe what I did!’ I said.
” `Then loathe me, not yourself.’
^To me, Armand’s plan was to have Madeleine take Claudia off of Louis’ hands, so that Louis could still communicate with Claudia but not be responsible for her anymore.
I do think that the theatre vampires, led by Santiago, had other plans in mind, and that Armand had to cut his losses and let them kill Claudia since they were bloodthirsty for it. It’s exciting to kill vampires, as Santiago has said. Armand probably knew also, as a coven master, that it was a crime to turn a child anyway, and that she would have died at some point anyway (she might have even taken her own life).
(3) and kills suicidal people.
^In canon, yes, it’s described as Armand calling to those who wanted to die. Whether they could have been saved by actual medical care, or psychological therapy, I don’t think that’s addressed in canon. So here you might have an actual crime, of him killing innocent ppl who are consenting to death but not really capable of consenting to death.
This is his approach to the dilemma of being a vampire and needing to kill ppl on a regular basis, there’s a few options for doing it in canon:
- Take lots of Little Drinks, if you’re capable of that, and not kill anyone,
but spend like 3x the amount of time every night having to find that many more ppl to feed from. For awhile, it seemed like Louis wasn’t capable of this, since he gets so caught up in the swoon that he can’t stop. He might be able to now, tho. - Kill evildoers – bc “they deserve it anyway!” and you’re “protecting the innocents!”, but you still have to struggle to find the ones that deserve the death penalty, do drug dealers deserve to die for selling pot? In TOBT, Lestat kills someone who’s a serial elderly rapist/murderer, one would think that evildoer is evil enough to deserve the death penalty, but everyone is entitled to a defense attorney under U.S. law.
- Kill indiscriminately, anyone who crosses your path, and don’t judge, bc they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time – Louis’ method bc he won’t judge evilness, lacking the Mind Gift but also, he doesn’t think he should be making that choice.
- Kill innocent ppl – not very nice but some vampires do that. Claudia did.
- Kill ppl who want to die as a form of assisted suicide; they are consenting to death – Armand is doing this, at least mentioning it in TVL and again in TVA. Medically assisted suicide is a very controversial thing but it is legal in some countries, and it reduces the prolonged suffering of terminally ill ppl. From wiki: “The three most frequently mentioned end‐of‐life concerns reported by Oregon residents who took advantage of the Death With Dignity Act in 2015 were: decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (96.2%), loss of autonomy (92.4%), and loss of dignity (75.4%).”
Armand’s killing method described in TVL:
[Armand] had perfected the act of
killing beyond the abilities of all the Children of Darkness that he knew. He
had learned to summon those who truly wished to die. He had but to stand near
the dwellings of mortals and call silently to see his victim appear. Old,
young, wretched, diseased, the ugly or the beautiful, it did not matter because
he did not choose. Dazzling visions he gave, if they should want to receive,
but he did not move towards them nor even close his arms around them.
Drawn inexorably towards him, it was they who embraced him. And when their warm
living flesh touched him, when he opened his lips and felt the blood spill, he
knew the only surcease from misery that he could know. It seemed to him in the
best of these moments that his way was profoundly spiritual, uncontaminated by
the appetites and confusions that made up the world, despite the carnal rapture
of the kill. In that act the spiritual and the carnal came together, and it was
the spiritual, he was convinced, that survived. Holy Communion it seemed to
him, the Blood of the Children of Christ serving only to bring the essence of life
itself into his understanding for the split second in which death occurred.
I think Armand’s assisted-suicides were mostly emotionally-driven, I don’t think canon goes into much further detail about it. I would think that Armand is killing ppl who are truly beyond saving, and the time period in which he’s doing it is not one that handled mental healthcare the way we do now. So at that time, that was probably not considered a crime, but a mercy killing.
Currently, his decision to kill “those who wish to die” (and possibly, he influences that on them), yes, he might be killing innocent ppl who might have had a chance at living otherwise.
Armand in TVA, more modern-era, is now killing an evildoer/drug addict:
Now I had to have blood. There was no time for the old game, the game of drawing out those who wanted to die, those who truly craved my embrace, those in love already with the far country of death of which they knew nothing.
…The next [victim] was a common desperate youth, full of festering sores, who had killed twice before for the heroin he needed so badly as I needed the doomed blood inside him.”
We don’t have as much information on whether he’s more of a “kill the suicidal” or “kill the evildoer” in current canon. In the TVA example above, the victim has killed “for the heroin,” so he’s an evildoer anyway.
*SO WHY DO PPL LIKE ARMAND??? O____O
Why do ppl like peanut butter? Or not like it? Some ppl are allergic to peanut butter. There are so many reasons to like a character!
We’re drawn to characters for any number of reasons!
I think this current crop of tumblr VC fans is talking about Armand more bc he is also a victim of CSA, has undergone an enormous amount of trauma in canon, and survived it, even becoming a coven master in the cult that brainwashed him for centuries. It’s inspiring to see a character carry the weight of all that damage and seem to overcome it and, even, become strong and confident, and even happy, at least sometimes. There’s no denying there’s a lot of sass in Armand.
Maybe fandom wants to embrace him and comfort him and give him all the happiness they would want themselves to have. It’s easier to project it onto a fictional character, and see it reflected back when you imagine him, in fanart or fanfic.
Imagining Armand enjoying himself, exploring technology with Daniel or playing videogames and elbowing Lestat to try to mess him up on coven game night, all of his past is still inside him but he’s trying to make the best of things, trying to have a family, such as it is, trying to find his purpose in life. Isn’t that what we’re all looking for? A home. And I think we like to see characters like ourselves find home and feel wanted, at least some of the time.
My friend had a dream where someone stole Armand’s blender. He killed the person who did so.
I almost didn’t answer this bc it looks very much like bait. I was tempted to respond humorously, and that might have upset ppl who adore Armand, bc even joking about it, it makes him look like evil incarnate, you know? To kill someone over stealing a blender? I believe in making fun of fictional characters and these are serial killers, let’s not forget that, and I don’t shy away from discussing dark fiction but this was not a setup for being playful.
…I mean, you’re saying this was a dream and we’re getting it secondhand from you, Anon, so we shouldn’t take it so seriously, but I think that was out of character even for Armand, that thief must have done something else than just steal a piece of kitchenware to deserve the death penalty :(((
My ask is always open but this kind of message struck me as a little on the borderline of trolling, there are ppl out there who love Armand as a character. Please don’t send me messages like this.
If you wanted to phrase this a little more tastefully, add another sentence to invite discussion:
My friend had a dream where someone stole Armand’s blender. He killed the person who did so. Do you think Armand would kill someone over an offense this small?
or
My friend had a dream where someone stole Armand’s blender. He killed the person who did so. Since dreams may expose something but ourselves, do you think dreaming about a fictional character killing someone, for any reason, means anything? Should I be worried about my friend?
See the difference? Rather than just dropping a potential bomb into my inbox that I have to worry about answering in a humorous way for fear of hurting someone’s feelings, like cutting the right wire to dismantle a bomb… and sometimes it’s not so obvious which wire should be cut 😛
…you can provide food for an intellectually stimulating discussion, making both our lives better!
Wire cutting gif under the cut, cut for explosion, death trigger warning.
I’ve dubbed this piece, “Louis Clearly Hasn’t Yet Read Armand’s Théâtre des Vampires Chapters.” I was so surprised and overwhelmed by all the love the wip for this piece received here that I dug out my ruined sketbook and used what was left to finish it properly. I’m fairly certain you all have helped to revive my art muse and for that I thank you!
Since this one is NSFW I’ve posted it here on my fandom blog, but my art blog is @kmcgeijyutsuka I also have a DeviantArt.
Hello, I was wondering if you know of any fanart that might have been done on Louis’ brother. I know he wasn’t a major character but I would really love to be able to visualize him. Also, I know there is a fanart somewhere of Armand ranting that Marius is not Lestat’s sire. So would he also rant that Lestat is not Daniel’s sire? Since I know people tend to confuse the movies Queen of the Damned and Interview with a Vampire since they state completely different sires from the books.
Ok well… hmmm…. YOU CHALLENGE MY MEMORY AND COLLECTION and I am in a MOOD TO MEET SUCH. Let’s see what we can do….
1) Paul de Pointe du Lac
The one fanart that is specifically Paul is this one:
X by @baladokentang
^I love this fanart, he’s got his brother’s raven hair and green eyes <3, but Paul is described in canon as “He had the smoothest skin and the largest blue eyes. He was robust, not thin as I am now and was then… but his eyes… it was as if when I looked into his eyes I was standing alone on the edge of the world… on a windswept ocean beach. ” (IWTV) Not sure whether it’s canon or fanon but Paul was supposedly blond. He was 15 when he died.
I have a few other things collected in my #Paul de Pointe du Lac tag, like this portrait I think is pretty canon compliant:
^Portrait of Raymond P. Johnson-Ferguson by Philip Alexius de László, 1923
2) Sire drama and fanart
- Also, I know there is a fanart somewhere of Armand ranting that Marius is not Lestat’s sire.
Hmmm that is a very tough one, I know I’ve seen a fanart or two like that over the years, I’ll try and dig around in my personal archives for that. I do think Armand would take more issue at that than the idea that Lestat might have been Daniel’s maker.
I mean, and I shouldn’t go here but I will, bc I think this is one of the reasons I can’t watch movie!QOTD w/o someone with me, cracking jokes at it…
Marius gets unfairly mashed together with Magnus in movie!QOTD, essentially, bc he turns Lestat w/o consent. Therefore, Marius takes on the burden of having raped Lestat into being a vampire and there is no explicit reconciliation or apology for that crime whatsoever, but he and Lestat are kicking it together in Modern Times, with Lestat seemingly bitter at him and Marius seemingly smug back? It’s ooc and uncomfortable. I think Armand would be more annoyed at Marius taking on Magnus’ actions than he would be pissed at Lestat getting to claim Marius as his own sire, since QOTD!Lestat doesn’t seem all that thrilled with that pedigree.
BUT ANYWAY if anyone out there has fanart in which Armand is ranting about Marius not being Lestat’s sire, plz send it to me, or reblog and tag me!
I have one of Lestat and Armand fighting over Marius, and @garama‘s Antonio!Armand w/ QotD!Marius which is not quiiiite what you’re asking for but might like anyway… that I’ll rebagel after this…
- So would [Armand] also rant that Lestat is not Daniel’s sire? Since I know people tend to confuse the movies Queen of the Damned and Interview with a Vampire since they state completely different sires from the books.
Ppl may blend together certain things, but I think anyone who’s seen the movies AND read the books takes the books as more true to canon, and the movies as adaptations, which is what they are. But if ppl only see movie!QOTD, I can’t really fault them for taking that info as their own canon, if they like it.
In MY opinion, since you’re asking: Armand will rant about it @ Daniel in private, but Armsy doesn’t tend to rant about anything he’s personally invested in when he’s in Lestat’s presence, preferring to keep a calm, collected, and unflappable profile as much as possible. Lestat knows this and loves to pester Armsy at any opportunity. There’s A LOT of joking around in the coven about those movies and how Daniel narrowly escaped having Lestat as his fictional maker…
Lestat: “You’d have liked that, wouldn’t you?” *makes a kissy face @ Dan*
Daniel: “Not saying I’d have liked it exactly, but it might’ve sped things up a little…”
Armand: “Are you saying I took too long, Daniel? I had my reasons…”
Lestat: “Dude I see someone I love, I turn them THAT NIGHT,” *snaps his fingers* “If I can possibly manage it, or the very next night, or at least that weekend, gotta strike when the iron is HOT!”
Armand: “Or else they might come to their senses and run as far away as they can get from you?”
Lestat: “HEY!”
Daniel: “I did run from you, Armand…”
Armand: “HEY!!”
Marius and Louis just sit back and watch all this, wishing that they had popcorn they could eat.
For cosplay reasons, I need to know who has red hair and looks the youngest in The Vampire Chronicles. (I’m a girl, and I really would like to cosplay as someone. I’m on Queen Of The Darned. And if there is someone, please describe them for me.) Thank you!
We have *~several~* redheaded characters to choose from, anon! Age is relative tho, there’s youngest in actual years, then there’s youngest in appearance.
****Opening my overcoat to reveal the gingers****
The Vampire Armand
He’s probs your best bet, being the youngest in appearance, he was turned into a vampire when he was 17. He’s one of the main characters and pretty easily recognizable even to ppl outside VC fandom. He’s over 400 yrs old now. Other characters often compare him to the youths in Botticelli’s paintings; so pretty, he mentions that he’s mistaken for being a girl at least once in his mortal life.
[^Portrait of a Young Man 3., Botticelli, and I think the expression is very Armand, he’s pretty much the sassy teen of the series but as grumpy as an old man]
I would never be anything but the seventeen-year-old boy you see now… [but] I am not a waif and never have been. I am a strong child. – Armand, The Vampire Armand
^X @amadeo-child-of-the-renaissance found this, another Botticelli angel Armand, with a face that’s more canon-compliant IMO 😉 AR bases Armand off these Botticelli angels and they have varying straight and curly hair, usually wavy at least.
Armand’s hair is described as curly when he was mortal and when he was a fledgling, so I think that’s the natural state of it.
Armand can be dapper or grungey depending on his mood, so the crucial aspect is really his hair, and if you want extra credit, you may want to carry a blender around, that’s sort of the fandom joke about him and Daniel going nuts over blending stuff in QOTD.
Here’s some Armand cosplayers (they’re mixed into that link) you might wanna check out 😉
Other redheads in the series… bc I don’t wanna hide the rare VC ladies under a cut! NO CUTS WE LONG POST LIKE MEN
^I’m not wild about her portrayal in the QOTD movie but anyways… she’s a little over 30 when she’s turned, and it was 1985, so she is technically younger in age than Armand. He will always look younger than her, tho.
Cosplaying Jesse Reeve would involve smtg about her being a Talamascan, maybe, or carrying Claudia’s diary? She finds it in QOTD.
^The redhaired twins. You might go to @redhairedtwin, a Maharet RPer, for descriptions of the twins.
^X Maharet (left) and kid!Jesse (right) in the QOTD movie. I headcanon Maharet and Mekare as being younger in appearance than we see Maharet in the movie, but idk right now how old they were when they were turned (I don’t have my books to check either). Early 20′s, early adulthood, I think. Maharet and Mekare are technically the oldest on this list but they might look the same age or younger than Jesse.
Cosplaying one of the twins means a bloody mouth or bloody eyes.
^poor Madeleine in the the IWTV movie barely had any screentime, she got a little more in the book, but she’s rarely mentioned in later canon. Louis’ first fledgling, made to take care of Claudia so he can go bang Armand move on with his afterlife. She’s a more obscure character, but she’s A REDHEAD SO SHE COUNTS!
If you want to cosplay her, carrying a doll that looks like Claudia, or wearing a locket with a portrait of a Claudia look-alike, that’d be a good accessory 😉
I think that’s all the relevant redheads in VC, but if anyone can think of more, feel free to reblog and add!
ihad a dream last night that i went to a diner(like applebees or macados)with Armand and mystery friends of his. Whilewe were waiting for food,isaw a picture ofArmand on the wall and pointed it out to him,prompting him to leave the restaurant with his friends. Ichased after them but he was angry and wheni caught up he grabbed a random kid off the street and dumped fireants(from where?his pockets?)on him and told me to leave them alone even though i was their friend i thought. It was so weird lol
That was a wild ride from start to finish, Anon, lol.
Armand would HAAAATE being compared to some fast food restaurant picture…
Person: Hey Armsy
Person: ARMSY
Armand: Yes what
P: That poster looks like you!
A: *looks*
A: No it doesn’t
P: Yes, it does! The hair is even parted the same!
A: That’s a girl. A girl child.
P: But you look like her, don’t you?
*pause*
A: No, I do NOT.
P: I’m just saying, smile like that…
A: *storms out*
… Armand dumps fireants on a random person bc reasons.
#Fanart request #Fanfic request
I-want-my-IWTV 