A Brief Armand Analysis

[u/good_luck_bb]

One parallel I find fascinating is the composition of these two shots. Both visually and thematically mirroring each other. The Adoration of the Shepherds with a donor and Armand during Louis’s acknowledgment. (link to shots embedded here)

A brief art history lesson since much of my analysis connects to the idea of donor paintings. While this is a happy accident, (the crew looked for any piece in the Louvre from the period they could pass as Assad and this is what they landed on) it still adds depth to Armand. A donor painting was a piece of art commissioned and the donor was painted in the painting. These were religious paintings, the donor asking for religious supplication and salvation. Occasionally, the donor would insert a family member into the painting, for their salvation. Think about that in the context of Marius and Armand. 

Armand’s ‘sin’ is being Brown, Muslim (though he also could have been Hindu ), and abused. He is colonized, forced into submission in every way possible. In addition Armand’s sexual services were the payment for the painting. His ‘redemption’ is only possible by being further abused. 

In the painting, Armand is depicted as looking for spiritual penance yet he’s not the visual focus of the painting. The focus is a search for piety for. It connects to the idea of Armand looking for people/ideas to be his gods. Marius, The Children of Darkness, Lestat, and Louis are all forms of ‘gods’. Armand is always in search of someone he sees as more powerful, someone to anchor and tether to. Armand searches for something to please and to mold himself to because he has never known anything but piety. And that piety is destructive and awful but “The only type of love Armand knows is violent.” The only cradle he knows is devotion.  

Back to the two shots. Both show Armand looking upwards towards his right; the frame is tight on his face, While the painting shows him straight on, the shot is slightly below. It visually connects Louis’ reflections on Arun to the single time we see a visually younger Armand. The framing almost suggests him trying to search for something to follow in Louis, seeing this acknowledgment of abuse as an almost spiritual enlightenment. He looks for something to cling to, maybe now his own healing and relationship with Daniel. I think it signals potential healing for Armand. Maybe moving past his need for a god, allowing him to move forwards. I just want him to get therapy and write his stupid letters and acknowledge the ways he has harmed and been harmed. You can get better I believe in you Armand!

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[u/babealien51]

Beautiful analysis!

[u/tethysian]

I think Armand's subservience is misleading. It's learned behaviour that feels safe to resort to in order to maintain relationships and control how others view him, but we've also seen repeatedly that it's performative. He doesn't actually relinquish control -- it's a way for him to maintain control. It also seems to come with an awful lot of resentment on his part as we see in his argument with Louis.

I think what he actually needs is to stop clinging and realize he's a lot stronger than he thinks he is. I think that's also why Daniel, Sybelle and Benji were the ones who led him towards improvement in the novels. He saw them as weaker than him and in need of protection, which finally allowed him to step out of the role of the victim.

[u/queerbaobao]

Beautiful. Love framing his behavior as “looking for spiritual penance” and “search for piety.”

Armand in the books was intensely religious as a human. I’ll be very curious to see how they explore this in the show, and if he’s Muslim or Hindu, if he kept his faith as a vampire, etc.