Armand Is the Reason to Re-Watch Interview With the Vampire

When Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) will get whisked off to a Dubai condo in the midst of the pandemic, we already know one thing’s up. It’s solely the primary episode of Interview With the Vampire, however in case you are a Vampire Chronicles fan, there’s one thing unusual about this characterization.

After the first episode ends it turns into much more clear that this condo, which is manufactured from concrete, remoted, and filled with unimaginable artwork, feels unsuitable for Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson). That’s as a result of this isn’t Louis’ condo—it’s Armand’s. The finish of season twist/finale revealed that the fastidious and devoted manservant, Rashid (Assad Zaman), was truly the vampire Armand in disguise. If you’ve by no means learn the books this may need come out of left discipline, however should you had been on-line or a Vampire Chronicles fan, this wouldn’t have been an enormous shock. One of the very best jokes that ever occurred on IWTV Twitter was referring to Rashid as “Armand-coded.” So the reveal, whereas surprising and melodramatic in the very best of the way, had been clearly choreographed from the start, as a result of it wasn’t simply Rashid that had been Armand-coded… it’s that your complete season has been Armand-coded.

If we re-watch the collection realizing that Rashid is the vampire Armand and that he and Louis are in an intimate relationship collectively, the entire premise turns into increasingly absurd, and, in a method, terrifying. Interview With the Vampire is, primarily, Louis telling the story of his first abusive relationship to a 3rd occasion in entrance of his present boyfriend, who additionally might or might not be abusive. He remembers the worst components of his relationship to Lestat (Sam Reid), but additionally the very best components of his relationship, emphasizing time and again the vampire bond that they shared and the obsessive, narcissistic, poisonous love they’d for one another… once more, in entrance of the vampire he’s at the moment in a relationship with. The motivation to decorate the worst components and understate the very best components is actually standing within the room with him.

On high of that, we’ve got clear proof that some components of Louis’ story have been practiced, refined, and even editorialized. It occurs when Daniel replays the tapes from the ‘70s, then when Louis can’t recall whether or not or not it was raining on one significantly necessary evening, after which a 3rd time when Claudia’s (Bailey Bass) journals had been tampered with. So with regards to the truth that his highly effective, presumably psychopathic, undoubtedly magical, 500-year-old vampire boyfriend is listening in on his conversations, it’s not a stretch to say that what he’s saying is filtered by Armand’s affect.

Then, there are moments that Louis relates that start to boost some eyebrows. If you’re a fan of the books, you’ll recall that Lestat and Louis don’t have a struggle as brutal because the one depicted in episode 5. (They do struggle within the books, by the best way, it simply isn’t fairly that dangerous.) But have you learnt which vampires even have a knock-down, drag-out struggle? Louis and Armand. In explicit, Louis being dragged alongside the bottom is a really clear visible from The Vampire Lestat.  

Now, this might simply be the present’s writers taking inspiration from The Vampire Lestat whereas penning this season of Interview With the Vampire. They did take bits and piece of lore and world-building and even characterization from six of Anne Rice’s books (Interview With the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, and The Vampire Armand) so it’s not like they’ve combined and matched inspiration earlier than. Even the character “Rashid” is, for many who don’t know, a minor vampire in 2001’s Blood and Gold. So we will select to think about that the writers have been impressed by further books, or we will go deeper into this principle and say that this horrific struggle was not correct as a result of it was Armand-coded.

What might be occurring is that Armand, one other psychopathic vampire, this time with mind-control capabilities, has taken the worst components of his and Louis’ relationship and coded them onto Lestat and Louis’ relationship. Let’s say Lestat and Louis did have a brutal struggle, which is objectively true contemplating that this a part of the collection relies on Claudia’s diaries, however the specifics of the struggle have been affected by Armand. I’m not making an attempt to excuse Lestat’s actions or make him seem to be he’s not a monster; he’s very a lot an abusive jagweed and a horrible accomplice, however inside Louis’ retelling he may not be portrayed in probably the most charitable gentle due to Armand’s affect and Louis’ tendency to turn into subsumed by the needs and wishes of his companions.

Going again to the Dubai condo, there have been all the time a number of hints that this was Armand’s house and never Louis’: retaining human servants for meals, the remoted nature of the condo, the entire individuals sworn to secrecy upon getting into. It’s all very paying homage to Armand’s Night Island. In the books, Armand purchases Night Island in an effort to forestall his companion, Daniel Molloy (sure, the identical Daniel Molloy at the moment interviewing Louis) from abandoning him. Night Island is a vampire’s paradise, however it’s also Molloy’s cage. He usually runs away solely to be dragged again by Armand. The condo feels just like the writers have taken inspiration from Night Island. Louis is trapped right here, unable to go away, with nowhere to go, and reliant on Armand’s cash and connections to assist him survive.

(As a notice AMC, introduced through press release in April {that a} digital authentic titled The Night Island is coming. It’s “about an exclusive resort like no other, open only from sunset to sunrise, catering to an exclusive clientele of vampires and mortals, with strict rules in place that still can’t prevent each night from turning into a near disaster,” and relies on Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned)

Armand’s condo can be extremely sterile. Full of lovely artwork, however little or no of Louis on show. Really Transformation by Ron Bechet within the eating room is the one piece of artwork that I can actually see being completely Louis’ selection. The Basquiat within the dwelling space? Maybe. But Armand was bought and purchased within the 1500s too. In stark distinction to this sparseness, Louis’ home on Rue Royal was lush, textured, filled with wealthy colours and heat lighting. He by no means wore black besides to his brother’s funeral. And apart from that, maybe most significantly, he was continuously surrounded by books; in each episode he was studying or was proven with a ebook in his hand.

Remember when Daniel Molloy requested in episode six why Lestat would conceal the truth that he might fly? Louis answered that he thought it was in order that he—Louis—wouldn’t really feel inferior to him. In the Dubai condo the one books are stored on cabinets which might be actually hanging from the ceiling. They are stored out of Louis’ attain, and the one method that he would have the ability to get to any of them is by asking Armand to fly up and get them. A continuing, pointless reminder of Louis’ weak spot in comparison with Armand.

There’s even a second in episode one, as Armand is giving Daniel a tour of the condo, that he mentions that the architect was a sentimentalist whereas gesturing to a tree that has been planted contained in the condo, surrounded by sand, with a false solar shining down on it. Louis, regardless of being a vampire and actually unable to stroll beneath daylight, is however a person who is continually seen outdoors. He loves to sit down in Jackson Square, he takes his daughter for a ship experience within the bayou, however in Dubai—a child-city, one that’s was constructed up in a desert, that isn’t surrounded by inexperienced area a lot because it has fastidiously cultivated its hearty palm and baobab timber amongst hedgerows—the place would Louis go to expertise that once more?

If this condo is, like Night Island, a cage and never a paradise for Louis, it is smart {that a} sentimentalist would put a tree in the midst of the condo. It’s very seemingly that between Armand’s affect, the remoted nature of the town, and maybe even his personal concern at being found, Louis has not left this condo in a really, very very long time.

At the top of the evening, Armand is to not be trusted! It’s not simply that Rashid is Armand-coded, however your complete season is Armand-coded. Armand is a grasp manipulator, a manifestation of 500 years of traumatic, completely batshit insane cult habits, and the boy has fangs the dimensions of the Ottoman empire. Armand takes mansplain, manipulate, malewife to unprescended ranges of madness. Like, I really like him, he’s a bizarre little gremlin who performs with blenders and begins a podcast, for some motive, however he’s completely out of gourd and keen to do something to maintain all the things simply how he likes it, and that features Louis.

Who is aware of why Armand allowed—and it’s clear, looking back, that Armand has given permission for this interview to happen—Daniel Molloy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, to come back into Louis’ life and ask probing questions, however he has. On rewatch it appears clearly that Armand steps in often, to not cease Daniel, however to manage Louis. Louis has jumped from one abusive accomplice to a different, and there’s no method to inform what a part of his story is his story and what a part of it is because of Armand’s affect.

This entire season has been in regards to the monster that’s reminiscence, however once you’re 500 years previous, perhaps reminiscence makes a monster out of you. Although the indicators that Rashid was Armand had been there from the start, the indicators that your complete season has been affected by Armand are actually solely seen once you rewatch the season, which speaks to the reasonably unimaginable effort on behalf of the writers who completely knew what the fuck they had been doing with this horrible little chaos vampire. Interview With the Vampire is Armand-coded, and I’m positive that season two is barely going to disclose increasingly methods during which Armand has fucked with Louis, Lestat, and Daniel. I’m very excited to observe it occur.

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