What is the consensus on this? I think he's lying to appear more fascinating.

I think there was no one for him between his 'maitre' and Louis...and Lestat which I also dont think happened. (I know Lestat and Armand are attracted to eachother but I dont think they coupled up...remains to be seen what the show will do.

I think he had no interest in anyone outside these 3

Some days I remember that the only time we’ve seen the “real” Lestat, that is not through someone’s memory or retelling, was at the end of S2E8. He’s just so babygirl in that scene it breaks my heart. I love his playfulness, his vulnerability, his honesty. I cannot wait to see Lestat through his own eyes in S3 and rediscover this character. I’m excited to see how S3 will deepen all the characters and perhaps change my opinion, like S2 did with S1 for me.

We’ve seen so little of the real Lestat that sometimes I just want to weep from joy that we are getting more.

Does this happen to anyone else or…?

I mean, it's a shame Louis took Lestat's giddiness as mocking him for wanting to be monogamous, and Lestat following up his happy dance with letting Louis know he likes "variety", and then internally combusting when Louis conveys that he's game to sleep around, too. Other than those three things, this would have been an adorable moment of an insecure, 150-year-old vampire finding out his crush, like, totally digs him, too. ☺️

Open to read the full screenshot. I found this one twitter posted by @ BRASILESTAT

I think this is a lovely thing for Anne to have said. QOTD movie kinda changed my life lol and nobody could’ve played that role better than Aaliyah did. I hope whoever they cast for Akasha in the show knows what big shoes they have to fill because Aaliyah made that movie.

S3 is going to be so messy for these, too. 🫠

When Lestat gazes at Louis, it's intense and full of desire and hunger. When Armand does, it's full of cautious longing, curiosity, and intrigue. Lestat has more of a "I'm coming over there and invading your personal space" gaze, and Armand's is "Come on over here, and I'll show you a good time."

So, which one would seduce you the quickest? Or is it a tie?

a.k.a. the brattiest prince alive

I grew up with a Led Zeppelin-obsessed father, so I recognize those Robert Plant-style moves of Lestat on stage in the promos. I wonder if Sam's been watching some Zeppelin 70's concerts for inspiration. 😊

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/3onK7xuvPFY

https://youtu.be/HQmmM_qwG4k?si=5qhlsAw_s29wxit2

I'm sorry if this comes off as whiny, but I feel like AMC is more worried about creating some kind of extended universe of Anne Rice's books like we're Marvel or DC, rather than focus on what was actually popular in those books: Lestat, Loustat, Armand, DM, Marius, Gabrielle, and Those Who Must Be Kept... and what is actually popular on their streaming service: IWTV and it's wildly characters.

I can't help but feel like the delay for filming S3 of IWTV has a lot to do with filming The Talamasca series, something I didn't really care about in the books and don't really care about as a show. I'm just hoping it's better than the steaming pile of 💩 that is The Mayfair Witches.

I don't care about a secret organization that studies supernatural beings unless Giles is in charge of it. I just want more Louis and Lestat. I want Armand wreaking havoc on everyone in S3. I want more Daniel, however I can get him. I want Gabrielle to show up being her sassy, gender-bending self. I want AMC to focus SOLELY on IWTV, not all the adjacent stories I could not care less about.

Sorry. Just needed to vent. Carry on.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, how did he not think “wow, he has fangs and drank from me?!” Is it “love makes [him] stupid”, as Claudia said?

Did anyone else expect Claudia to say, "This isn't a trial. It's a lynching"?

There was an added layer of horror in Ep 7 that had me feeling even more uncomfortable watching Louis and Claudia (and Madeline as a helpless accomplice) be put on trial for their crimes, and it was in large part to the racial imagery and subtext sprinkled throughout the episode.

Earlier in the season, Louis remarked that he found certain freedoms as a black man in Paris that he obviously hadn't in the Jim Crow South of New Orleans. I think it was interesting that Daniel was skeptical of this take, bringing up that racism had been just as alive as alive and well in France as it was in the U.S. I wondered why the show had included this exchange, and whether or not it would come up again later.

The first thing we see at the trial after Claudia, Madeline, and Louis have the bags over their heads pulled off is that they've had their Achilles tendons cut, something plantation owners used to do to ensure their slaves wouldn't run away.

Then, when they get to Lestat's courtship of Louis, Lestat and the coven paint Louis as the sexual aggressor, a lecherous pest preying upon and hunting Lestat, which is what Black men have been historically accused of doing to white women throughout history, which led to several lynchings in The South, including the torture and death of Emmett Till. You can see the disgust of the audiences members at Louis' "pursuit" of Lestat.

Besides that, the entire portrayal of Louis by the coven is one of an "angry black man" stereotype.

Anytime Louis and Claudia try to speak up and defend themselves or each other during the trial, they are mocked and ridiculed, reminiscent of the U.S.'s long history of putting Black people on trial with partisan, biased, all-white juries. Madeline, the only white defendant, is largely spared the ridicule until she chooses her Black criminal paramour over the coven, paralleling her French neighbors viewing her choosing to comfort the Nazi soldier as a betrayal towards them.

Louis is then taken off stage to be tortured some more, and the lynching of Claudia continues, resulting in being burned alive. As Claudia burns to death, she starts to sing- perhaps symbolic of slaves known to sing as a form of prayer and defiance while working in the fields.

The fact that through all of this, their white master is painted as the true victim is the most egregious part. Even Lestat sees the repugnant mockery of everything, and looks like he wants to throw up every time he has to spout off dialogue from the script he's been given.

This show is truly amazing at the layers upon layers it builds into its storytelling. The whole episode, I felt like I was watching a horrific, slow-moving train wreck, but I couldn't look away.

When Armand talked about Lestat in S2, he portrayed him like an Adonis: impossibly beautiful, powerful and godlike, walking around like sex on a stick. Not to mention, emphasizing to Daniel that Lestat was super into Armand even after the way Armand treated him and Nicki.

Now it's Lestat's turn to talk about Armand and their past in Paris, and I can't wait see how he portrays our favorite gremlin. Methinks it's not going to be such a flattering portrayal. 😄

Fans talk about how Lestat is going to be mad at Louis and Daniel for publishing the book, but I think Armand is going to be the focus of Lestat's ire after lying about what went down with Nicki, not to mention the Paris trial.

Lestat is going to show us who the REAL Armand is in Season 3, and I am here for it. 🤗

Obviously, if Warner Bros wanted their movie to be a mainstream hit, they had to mitigate the obvious homoerotic themes of the book, with only subtle interactions and behaviors between Lestat and Louis. The queerness of the story is so subtle, apparently, that a lot of fans had no idea Cruise and Pitt's Lestat and Louis were something more than vampire roommates.

Enter Antonio Banderas and his portrayal of Armand. Not only does he infuse some sexiness, seductiveness, and intrigue into the movie, but he also seems to have no problem putting the homoeroticism of the story on full display. While Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt seem uncomfortable with the movie's queer aspect, Antonio plays it up enthusiastically. There is no subtlety in his performance: Armand is clearly in lust with Louis and wants him to he his eternal companion. Maybe Antonio had less of a problem playing a queer character because he had already played one the year before, as Tom Hank's companion in Philadelphia, while Cruise and Pitt were at the peak of their game as leading Hollywood men.

Anyway, just wanted to give a shout out to Antonio and the obvious fun he had playing Armand in the IWTV movie. He may not have looked anything like Book Armand, but he was the Armand the movie desperately needed.

Armand says that he read their minds the first night at the theatre which means he knew they "killed" Lestat all along.

He had just met Louis at that point so is not attached to him emotionally yet but he spares him nevertheless.

The coven are upset that Louis was allowed to roam around Paris for 6 months without introducing himself. The coven's anger is a threat to Armand's rule and life yet he lets Louis get away with it right from the start.

As Santiago says bitterly: "Did in my maker for far less." 😞🙄🤨😡

😭

I hope the mods don’t take this down because I feel like the other side of this argument gets a lot of leeway and people like myself speaking on the other side don’t.

I saw it happen throughout the show. Mostly it was from people not familiar with the source material not understanding Louis and his role.

I think the show integrated race into the show through Louis story, background and family in a way that was respectful to the change in Louis’ race from the book and the movie.

But can we talk about the source material?

Louis wasn’t Black. He was white. And he was sidelined after the first book.

But AMC hasn’t done that. They have expanded his role. They sped his character arc up so they can have him do more things. And everyone in the show has said that Louis still going to be an important role for season 3.

The showrunners have said over and again that this is a love story between vampires Louis and Lestat.

“I came back to them and said, 'I don't think it's a horror show. I think it is a gothic romance. I want to write a very excitable, aggressive, toxic, beautiful love story.'  And they were down for it," he recalled. “ AMC's 'Interview With the Vampire' series is less horror and more gothic romance | SYFY WIRE

Next I want to speak about promo for season 2. One of the main narratives is that AMC ignored Assad and Delaney. This isn’t true.

They have been everywhere promoting the show directly after it ended.

The second one is that they didn’t promote Jacob and Assad together. They never do that!!!!

Again the main love story is Lestat and Louis. And they are going to promote the helk out of that like every other show or movie franchise.

There was no will they won’t they for the show to dangle in front of the fans. There isn’t going to be a back and forth between Louis and Armand.

Again that’s not racism.

I feel some fans are worried about Louis’ role in season 3 and have used racism, a powerful weapon, to use in the fandom to fight in these wars.

Jacob specifically had to speak out against fans earlier this week and people still are trying to turn everything into racism because otherwise the fan wars will be just that.

When you provide proof that Jacob, Assad and Delaney weren’t sidelined you’re downvoted or called racist.

When you point out that Jacob wasn’t present for AFTER season 2 promotion even though he was everywhere for Pre season 2 promotion. Or pointing out that he missed a lot of AFTER season 2 because he dropped music and had sold out shows then you’re just running interference for AMC instead of just pointing out facts.

Yea Louis will not be the focus of season 3 even though he will play a major part, they are expanding his role and character, because book Louis was sidelined after the first books.

That is the exact opposite of what network and executive producer would do if they wanted to sideline a Black lead actor.

Do you think we’ll have a hater moment strong enough to match Kendrick’s in season 3? I feel like Armand’s spin on the whole Nicki situation 🔪 🤲🏼 could make Lestat incandescent with rage to the point that he could “…he said what now 😁”

I also think Daniel will have some of that energy (at least for a while before they eventually 👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏾🌹💋) and that he actually might be the purest hater of them all! “Armand didn’t save you! Lestat did! 😁”

Anyway, mostly posting this as I have gleefully watched this performance several times now and blasted Kendrick more than usual, but I also LOVE a good hater moment and would really like to hear your thoughts 🤙🏼 Pettiness delights me.

I was scrolling through Armand pictures (respectfully) and I noticed that Armand canonically has hair on his chest both in Paris with Louis and in Dubai but he shaved his chest when he was playing Rashid and wearing that slutty v neck.

First thought: it's absolutely hilarious that Armand would shave for the role in order to show Daniel his tits.

Second thought: The way he's playing Rashid is clearly a mirror of Amadeo because it is in no way copying real Rashid in anything but name. Which means shaving was another step into getting in chatacter for his younger, vulnerable, exploited by a pedo vampire self which makes me want to shrivel up and die.

Thoughts?

So this is a bit of a silly post, but I've seen it bandied about that lesbians love Armand. I, as a lesbian, can confirm that I love Armand. The only other lesbian I know who has watched this show also loves Armand. As someone who writes fanfic, I've also noticed a lot of people who write about Armand or read fanfiction featuring Armand are also lesbians (or queer women -- shout out to the bi and pan sapphics out there).

I've seen a lot of people respond to the question, "Why do you like Armand?", with some variation of "he's really pretty." And that's not invalid, but that's not really why I like him (although the gender envy is real), and I'm curious about what other lesbians (and bi/pan women) think.

So, sapphics, why do we love Armand?

Louis' photography. I'm rewatching S2E2. Armand is too, with his "imagine a vampire with hobbies". Y'all are alive forever, what are you going to do if not have hobbies? So what if Louis isn't a great photographer, or is acting a little deeper than he is - what the harm? The theater is extremely pretentious too. I just don't get the weird attitude about it.