“There’s A Million Ways To Write, But The Way I Always Used To Write Was With John And It Would Be

I've been thinking about Armand, the mind gift, and Daniel. Do we actually see Armand read Daniel's mind more than once throughout the whole Dubai interview?

It's actually Louis who looks into Daniel's mind. The Alice memory, the "what does he taste like/how much does he weigh", the flashbacks to 1973.

The Alice memory does get picked up by Armand first*, but in no particular detail. He doesn't elaborate on it at all, while Louis is the one who really digs into it. And it's the only time I can remember that Armand gives any indication he's been in Daniel's head (please correct me if I'm wrong, my memory is notoriously unreliable).

I've seen a bunch of very legit theories floating around about this. But they all revolve around some flavor of DM having happened in the past (the blood exchanges, the romantic feelings, the memory wiping). I actually think this might be one of the more compelling arguments in favor of past DM having happened. Because if it didn't, then why the fuck wouldn't Armand be in Daniel's head all the time? Because he was distracted by keeping Louis under his thumb, keeping Louis from remembering? Bullshit, Armand is incredibly powerful in the mind/spell gift, he can most certainly handle Louis and Daniel at the same time. Daniel is just a human after all. He presumably never learned any kind of shielding technique.

Throughout those two weeks in Dubai, Armand is obsessed with controlling the interview. First from the sidelines as Rashid, and then front and center. And he has seen the "damage" (from his pov) that Daniel can do to Louis, digging up repressed memories, questioning the parts that don't make sense. Why the hell wouldn't he look into Daniel's mind to check if what real Rashid was saying about them not meeting anyone at the sushi restaurant was true? Nothing about it makes sense if Daniel means nothing to Armand, if there's no history there, if his only concern was truly to "protect" Louis (again, from his pov).

But he doesn't. He lets the "reveal" at the end come as a surprise. Now we can speculate that some part of him wanted Daniel to tear it all down, just like he did with Louis (TdV coven) and Lestat (CoD coven) in the past. And I think that's probably true, it fits his MO. But it still doesn't make sense to me that he would let it be such a surprise, that he wouldn't take all the knowledge he could get to, idk, prepare himself better for it? And aside from that, Armand is in people's heads all the time, he canonically loves to use the mind gift. And he was in Daniel's head constantly in 1973.

So yeah, Assad also already hinted at this in an interview, but there has to be a deeper motivation there related to Daniel himself as to why Armand isn't in his head more often during the interview, why he didn't realize that Daniel was talking to the Talamasca. I really hope we revisit this in some way in future seasons. Or, you know, we get a past DM reveal. That'd be cool :D

*arguably, if Armand knows about Daniel's past because he stalked him, he doesn't need to be in his head to guess that thinking about Paris might trigger a memory of Alice. It could just be an educated guess. Impossible to tell at this stage.

– Jonathan Gould, Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America

ASSAD ZAMAN as Armand

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (2024) 2.03 – No Pain

I’m dead already

“Paul plays “Strawberry Fields Forever” at the piano while John sits a few feet away, hunched over his guitar, trying to act cool, pretending this moment doesn’t mean a thing to him.” — ROB SHEFFIELD

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE 2.06 "Like the Light by Which God Made the World Before He Made Light"

You know how it is when you’re a kid and you break something? And then instead of cleaning it up or apologizing or whatever you hide the evidence so you won’t get in trouble? But what actually happens is you dig yourself into an even deeper hole because it’s lies on top of lies? This is basically what happens to Armand 24/7, 365. There’s no grand master plan. He genuinely feels like he’s constantly backed into a corner he’s trying to get out of. Of course, he’s never actually backed into a corner, but that’s how it feels to him, emotionally. So he’s always digging himself deeper and then occasionally, by sheer luck, something or someone pulls him out, and he’s like, well, I suppose this is my life now. He never makes any real decisions. He lets things happen and those things carry him places.

Do think the funniest possible reaction from Louis upon finding out Daniel and Armand are a thing is schadenfreude. I mean canonically he’s not above delighting a little in Daniel’s suffering. He’s like well well how the turn tables… had to put up with all that shit from Daniel during the interview about how his boyfriend sucked and was a liar and a control freak and Louis was a fool for staying with him, etc etc but ohhhhh look who’s the fool now. Isn’t that funny, Daniel? Isn’t it funny how things work out sometimes? Right, Daniel? And meanwhile Daniel has never regretted the whole “he and Louis can now read each other’s minds” thing more

I love this so much

John was scared. We were all pretty scared. – Paul McCartney One night during that tour on a show in the South somewhere somebody let off a firecracker while we were on stage. There had been threats to shoot us, the Klan were burning Beatle records outside and a lot of the crew-cut kids were joining in with them. Somebody let off a firecracker and every one of us – I think it’s on film – look at each other, because each thought it was the other that had been shot. It was that bad.– John Lennon

Yes to all of this

When Daniel is young and erratic and crazy in love and begging to be turned even though he sees into the truth of Armand and loves him anyway, there’s still too many reasons for Armand not to accept that love. He wants so much, but he has no idea how to accept everything he’s been longing for.

But then with old Daniel it’s like. He doesn’t want to be turned. He thinks Armand is fucking weird and creepy. He’s too old and tired and sick to run anywhere. And if that Daniel (however long it takes) gets to a place where he can love Armand, then that 500 y old vampire is doomed to actual character development. Like yeah good luck still refusing to accept love bitch when you don’t even have any excuses anymore. Especially when the person who loves you is so annoyingly perceptive. He will figure you out. Like Armand totally played himself. Vampire gets dragged kicking and screaming into healing and emotional development like a toddler, more at 8.

No Words by Paul McCartney. “It’s only me. I love you”

This song was released in 1973, it’s on the brilliant Band on The Run album. What i love about this song is that it doesn’t make us think maybe it’s for John Lennon, it IS for John Lennon, no doubt. Keep in mind two main points that are obvious:

-  All You Need Is Love, lyrics by John;

- This quote:  “One of my great memories of John was when we were having some argument. I was disagreeing and we were calling each other names. We let it settle for a second, and he lowered his glasses and he said, ‘It’s only me’ and then he put his glasses back on again.  To me, that was John. Those were the moments when I actually saw him without the façade, the armour, which I loved as well, like anyone else. But it was wonderful when he let the visor down and you’d just see the John Lennon that he was frightened to reveal to the world.“  (Paul McCartney,  Come Together: Lennon & McCartney in the Seventies by Richard White, 2016). Song “No Words” Lyrics: You want to give your love away And end up giving nothing I’m not surprised, that your black eyes are gazing You say that love is everything And what we need the most of I wish you knew, that’s just how true my love was No words for my love You’re burning love, sweet burning love It’s deep inside, You mustn’t hide, your burning love Sweet burning love, your burning love You want to turn your head away And someone’s thinking of you I wish you’d see, it’s only me, I love you No words for my love By Paul Mccartney

Listen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD9BxqgkWns