In Defense of the Vampire Armand

In a story full of problematic characters, I’ve noticed that Armand from AMC’s Interview with the Vampire seems to get an unfair amount of hate. In truth, he’s no worse than any of the other characters on this show, and yet, while many of their flaws get swept under the rug, Armand’s are constantly dragged into the light so he can be regarded as the ultimate villain of this show.

First of all, Armand was not the ultimate villain. It seems convenient to put the blame on him, but in truth, it was Santiago who was the real villain of season two. Santiago usurped Armand as coven master and then used his newfound power to threaten Armand. He told him if he did not direct the play that would end in the execution of Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine, that Armand would be executed with them. Armand chose to save himself over the lives of people who he’d only known for a short period of time. Anyone who is familiar with the character from the books knows he is a survivor who has continued to live even when he has longed for death, because Armand believes vampires are damned, and that if he should die, he would end up in Hell.

There are many accusations that Armand should have been able to stop the coven considering he is an extremely powerful vampire, but those accusations fail to understand that despite being powerful, Armad is not invulnerable. Throughout the course of The Vampire Chronicles, there are many times where extremely powerful vampires are destroyed or at least almost killed by vampires who are much younger and weaker than them. In The Vampire Armand, Armand’s maker, Marius de Romanus, was set on fire by the Children of Darkness’s Roman coven. This left Armand believing his maker, who was fifteen hundred years old, was murdered by this coven. Why would Armand, several decades shy of five hundred at the time he is usurped by his coven, believe he would be stronger than his maker was? This is not the only incident of powerful vampires being killed or at the very least defeated by vampires who are not as strong as them. In The Vampire Lestat, Lestat and Armand get into a physical altercation which ends with Armand being beaten bloody. Lestat was a fledgling when this happened. It’s debatable how much Armand was fighting back at this point, but had Lestat not taken pity on Armand, (and loved him deeply in spite of everything), he likely would have killed him there. Then there’s the matter that in Interview with the Vampire, Lestat is tricked and almost murdered by Claudia. In the TV show, it was Claudia and Louis together, and had Louis burned Lestat as Claudia wanted to, he would have been dead for good. In Queen of the Damned, the characters even manage to kill Akasha, the first ever vampire, who was much more powerful than any of them. The point is, Armand being a powerful vampire does not mean he is capable of taking on an entire coven who has turned against him and is ready for him. This same accusation that Armand should have defeated the coven is not flung at Lestat’s character, even though Lestat acted in the play that ended in Claudia and Madeleine’s deaths. Lestat is a powerful vampire turned from the undiluted blood of Magnus, a three-hundred-year-old vampire, and has drunk the blood of a Child of the Millennia – Marius de Romanus – as well as the blood of Akasha herself. Arguably, Lestat is just as powerful if not more powerful than Armand because of this, but he did not destroy the coven to save Claudia and Madeleine either. In the books, Lestat is still weak from Claudia’s attempt on his life, but that is not the case in the television series. He appears to be back at full strength when we see him toward the end of season two. If one is to argue that Armand should have overpowered the coven and stopped them, then one must argue Lestat should have done the same. Only no one seems to argue that in the case of Lestat. Armand is clearly being held to a different standard, even though it’s unfair to think either one of them could overpower an entire coven with ease and definitely not get killed in the process. Some people might protest that in The Vampire Lestat, Armand did kill many members of his own coven after Lestat showed them that the ways of the Children of Darkness were foolish, destroying their way of life. However, Armand’s attack took his coven of much weaker vampires by surprise. The way vampires were turned by the Children of Darkness was so they specifically would not be stronger than their coven master, and they would be unable to overpower them. Several members of that coven still escaped Armand, though. The vampires of the Paris coven in the television series were not turned to specifically be weaker than their coven master. Santiago was even powerful enough to have the cloud gift. This is a different situation, and it does not sound like Armand even killed his coven with the Children of Darkness on the show like he did in the books. Unless he is lying about what happened, Armand’s coven became filled with despair and many of them killed themselves after Lestat’s revelations on the show.

Quite frankly, it makes sense for Armand to choose self-preservation over Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine no matter how much the audience may not like it. Armand has no connection to Madeleine and Claudia, and also believes that because Claudia was turned when she was only fourteen, she is destined to end up throwing herself into a fire anyway due to having a turbulent chemistry. He only has a connection with Louis, but their relationship has been brief and fraught with contention. At the point of the trial, Armand had only known Louis for about two years. They had begun a romantic relationship, but there were many times when Louis’s actions clearly made Armand question whether or not he actually loved him. Louis denied their companionship, compared him to Lestat when angry with him despite claiming to despise Lestat at that point, and mocked him in his head constantly whenever he tried to be romantic. Even when Madeleine confirms to Armand that Louis actually loves him, because she can feel it as his fledgling, Louis says that Armand knowing he loves him will give him a “big head.” Armand is a creature who has only ever craved love, but due to his own background being sold into sexual slavery and groomed, he does not know how to navigate romantic love in a healthy way. He is also someone who will choose what feels safe and reliable over what does not. Armand told Louis that he could not count on his love lasting as long as his relationship with his coven of two hundred years, which is one of the main reasons why he does as commanded and directs the play when Santiago takes over as coven master.

There is also the matter that it was never Armand’s actions that resulted in the trial taking place. It was the actions of Louis and Claudia. When Louis and Claudia meet the coven, they lie to them about their history. Rather than run when they discover the coven knew Lestat and have his picture on their walls, Louis and Claudia stay in town because Claudia wants to join the coven no matter how foolish that may be. Louis also offends the coven on numerous occasions, especially Santiago. Armand tries to tell him how his actions are offensive and are creating discord within the coven he has to manage, but Louis does not care. It seems as though Louis starts to use his relationship with Armand as a means to do whatever he wants. So long as Armand is there to placate the coven and clean up Louis’s mess, Louis can break as many of the laws as he pleases and offend the coven as he disrespects their traditions time and again. Louis kills and leaves the bodies in plain sight, threatening exposure. This makes the coven want Armand to kill him, but Armand does not out of love for Louis. This is the first moment where Santiago was probably able to start persuading members of the coven to come to his side instead of Armand’s, because Armand is no longer acting in their best interests due to his relationship with Louis. But Louis does not care how this affects Armand. Armand tells him that the coven is turning against him and that Louis should get out of town early on in the season, but Louis does not listen to him. Instead, Louis continues to offend the coven, trample over the laws, and make Armand look weak. Louis came to the theatre and told Armand, who was trying to go over the pages for one of their new plays, to take off his clothes, get face down in his coffin, and read the pages to him while he fucks him. The whole coven can hear it when this happens. This scene makes Armand look weak in front of the people he is supposed to be in charge of, but Louis has no regard for this. Then, there was the matter of turning Madeleine. Armand grudgingly gives his consent, but would it have mattered had he said no? I highly doubt it. More than likely, Louis and Claudia would have turned Madeleine into a vampire anyway because it's what they wanted. It is Louis and Claudia’s own violations of the Great Laws that result in the coven being able to put them on trial, it is Louis’s continued offending of Santiago and the coven that make them want to put them on trial, and it is Louis’s continued disregard for their laws and traditions that allows Santiago the platform he needs to persuade the coven to come to his side and usurp Armand. This whole situation put Armand in danger as well, and he chose his own life over Louis’s.

 That does not mean Armand liked what happened. This is not the face of someone who is enjoying what is happening:

This, on the other hand, is:

How have so many people forgotten that it was Santiago who orchestrated the trial? That it was Santiago who forced Armand to direct the play and Lestat to act in it? That it was Santiago who made all of this happen. Armand was just a pawn in his game, and Armand admits in the Dubai interview that he feels he failed Louis in Paris, and that he was a coward for not taking a stand against the coven. He clearly regrets his actions, or rather inaction, which should show the audience that he is a deeply flawed character but that he is not past saving. Anyone who is capable of guilt is capable of growth. Unless they provide evidence in season three that this was a ruse, and that Armand was not actually usurped, we should be operating under the assumption that Santiago is the one who orchestrated the entire trial and Armand only directed the play under duress, just as many fans believe that Lestat only acted in it under duress.

Now I want to address something else I find rather important. Blaming Armand for the trial happening when it was actually Santiago’s fault is ludicrous, but one can blame him for lying to Louis about saving him at the sentencing for the next seventy years when it was actually Lestat who controlled the minds of the audience. You can absolutely hold Armand accountable for lying, though do remember two things: 1. Armand did save him later from the coffin and if he hadn’t, Louis would still be dead, and 2. If you are to hate Armand for being a liar, you must hate every character on this show. Not a single one of the main cast is not a liar. Louis and Claudia lied to Armand and the coven the moment they met them about their background and having tried to murder Lestat, someone Armand loved. Even when Armand called Louis out for lying, Louis continued to try to keep up the charade until he no longer could. Lestat lied to Claudia and Louis about having killed Antionette in order to be welcomed back into their household. Even Daniel lied to Louis and Armand about working with the Talamasca and having been given information by them. Not a single one of these characters hasn’t told a “seismic lie.” Perhaps Armand’s is worse because he built a relationship on it for decades, but then again, had Armand not seen through Louis’s lies about knowing Lestat and having made an attempt on his life, would their relationship not have also been built on a seismic lie for years because of Louis’s actions? No one on this show is an innocent person, no one on this show isn’t a liar. Armand should not be held to different standards than Louis, Claudia, Lestat, Daniel, or anyone else.

I also want to address the matter of people referring to Armand as abusive toward Louis. While Armand is certainly not the perfect partner, has many toxic traits, and hurt Louis with his lies, Louis was not innocent in this relationship either. Louis used his relationship with Armand as a “get out of jail free card” with the coven, and it blew up in his face, which put Armand in danger as well. Louis disrespected Armand’s boundaries and became offended when Armand refused to turn Madeleine himself, even though he gave Louis permission as the Paris coven master to make Madeleine a vampire. He just said he would not personally do it, because it went against his moral compass to, in his mind, damn someone. Louis started a Master/Slave dynamic with Armand shortly after Armand confided in him that he was sold into sexual slavery, and then was purchased by his maker, who raped and groomed him and called it love. One can easily argue that Louis took advantage of Armand’s trauma because he wanted to feel powerful and in control at a time where he was not feeling in control of his own life after the death of Lestat. Louis also cheated on Armand with one-hundred-twenty-eight different men. He would take these vulnerable, queer men, get them high, fuck them, and then kill them. While arguing with Armand in 2x05, Armand makes a comment that sheds an interesting light on their relationship: “here come the drugs.” Louis is verbally abusing Armand in this scene, telling him how boring he is and how much he hates being with him. Armand eventually lashes back out at Louis, finally snapping after who knows how many times he was emotionally abused by him in one of these moments. Not to mention the comments about how Louis makes the messes and Armand cleans them up. In their relationship in Dubai, Armand pretends to be Louis’s servant, but even after the guise is dropped, it is clear he is Louis’s caretaker, catering to all of his needs and desires. So, by all means, hold Armand accountable for his abusive and toxic behavior, but then you must hold Louis accountable for his own, too. If Louis truly hated Armand so much after the trial, then he should have left him. Instead, he stayed with him to spite Lestat, and he knew Armand would agree to it because Armand was desperate to not be alone. Armand is a deeply damaged individual, and thanks to Louis’s past as a pimp, he knows just how to exploit his specific brand of trauma perfectly to get what he wants.

We also have to examine the matter that it is unfair to hate Armand for not trying to stop the trial when Louis and Claudia are guilty of the exact same thing. In the first episode of season two, while in Romania, Louis and Claudia were given aid and shelter by a woman named Emilia. Later on in the episode, Emilia was bitten by a vampire, and the locals believed this meant she had been turned into one of them and must be killed. Louis and Claudia walked away as her head was chopped off by a mob, even as a man who loved her begged them for help. And the thing is, not only was Emilia not guilty of what she'd been accused of -- she had not been transformed into a vampire -- but Louis and Claudia could have saved her with ease. Not a single human in that building was a threat to them. They didn't save her because "these were human affairs," and they thought it beneath them to get involved. Never mind the kindness Emilia had done them. Meanwhile, Armand would have put himself in danger to save Louis and Claudia when they were put on trial for crimes they actually committed. The trial was unfair, and as Claudia said, it was more of a stoning, but in a way, no one coming to their aid could be seen as karmic for their own refusal to save Emilia.

Now, if you still hate Armand despite reading all of this, that’s okay. Sometimes we have characters we detest and cannot help that. Perhaps something he does is triggering to you for some reason and that’s valid. After all, some of Louis’s behavior is triggering to me, and because of it, I personally do not particularly like his character no matter how amazing a job Jacob Anderson does portraying him. However, I do need to point out that the overwhelming amount of hatred both Armand the character and Assad Zaman, the actor who plays him, get from this fandom is suspicious. While I am not the type to fling around accusations of bigotry without something blatantly bigoted being said, seeing so many people hate Armand for things they happily forgive other characters for makes me side-eye the IWTV fandom. Armand is the only South Asian main character on the show and is played by a Desi actor who was raised Muslim. Could some of the hatred directed toward him be anti-South Asian racism and Islamophobia? I certainly hope not, but it is possible. Especially considering there were accusations that Armand was the villain, and he must have been brainwashing Louis ever since Assad Zaman was revealed to be playing him at the end of season one. It seemed that a lot of people wanted Armand to be a scapegoat for Lestat, and to have Louis’s memories of Lestat have been modified by Armand so it would be revealed that Lestat was never abusive toward Louis or Claudia, even though Claudia confirms his abusive behavior in her diaries. Fortunately, the writers at least did not go this route with Armand’s character, as seen at the trial where Lestat confesses to having abused Louis and expresses guilt for his actions, though many people still jump on this headcanon because of Armand making minor modifications to Louis’s memories after what happened in San Francisco, though he said it was because Louis asked him to, which is still a plausible explanation. Otherwise, perhaps he erased what happened because he was afraid Louis would try to commit suicide again and he did not want him to die. People seem to enjoy finding something malicious in Armand even when it does not exist. There’s also the matter that apparently, Assad Zaman was passed over by AMC for the Critic's Choice Awards after season two in favor of Sam Reid, even though he did much more work on season two compared to Sam, who was barely in the season. Sam Reid is a fantastic actor who definitely deserves awards for his performance as Lestat, but Assad Zaman did an incredible job in season two, so it feels insulting to overlook him for the awards for supporting actor when he was much more involved in the season.

I also admit I find it interesting how many people sympathize with Claudia but cannot find it in their hearts to sympathize with Armand. Part of the reason why Armand and Claudia are probably my favorite characters on the show, closely followed by Lestat and Daniel, is because of the profound amount of empathy I have for them and their experiences, which are uncannily similar. Both characters were victims of sexual assault, both characters had their agency stripped from them, both characters have suffered abuse and infantilization. Yes, Armand was infantilized by Marius in The Vampire Armand. There’s even a scene where Armand yells at him, “I am a man, and you deny it.” Armand was also fetishized for his youthful appearance throughout the entire Vampire Chronicles. No one in this series has suffered more than Armand and Claudia, so I have to wonder why so many people can find it in their hearts to empathize with her, but cannot find it in them to extend Armand that same empathy. It’s not as though Armand is more monstrous than Claudia. She was a serial killer. She enjoyed killing humans, tormenting them, recording their last words in their blood, and keeping souvenirs. Armand, on the other hand, despite the horrible things he has done, exclusively kills evildoers and those who already want to die unless put into a position where he has to kill someone to prevent the knowledge of vampiric existence from getting out. So why does he not deserve the same amount of compassion from the audience as Claudia does?

This is a story about problematic characters. This is a story about villains and anti-heroes as our protagonists. Armand is no exception, but he is not worse than any of the others.