diasdelasombra
i want to put together some thoughts about the rashid theories i have seen, for my own sake, and to manifest my preferred outcome into existence. vague vampire chronicles spoilers or whatever, it's not like i have any clear memories of what happens in those books.
so, first of all, let me say that i don't believe in and i don't like the rashid-is-secretly-armand theory for a number of reasons:
- it's bad armand characterization. armand simply would not fake deference like that for so long. even if he's currently louis' companion, armand as louis meets him doesn't serve others, and his consideration and love for louis definitely don't extend to the way rashid behaves in the show.
- and again, it would be bad armand characterization, and shit writing on top of that. in the books, armand never partakes in body theft, and i would argue this is part of a fairly consistent personality thread —as far as anything in the vampire chronicles is ever consistent. a lot of armand's conflict has to do with his existing in a body that has suffered so much and endured such abuse. and in my opinion, having a survivor willfully partake in the theft of another person's body is a writing crime that should be punishable by death. which leads me to:
- also, tale of the body thief wasn't just shit writing, it was racist as well. while i don't expect that the show will skip it in its entirety, everything we have seen so far suggests that if they do adapt it, we can expect that at least parts of it will be drastically updated. i doubt they will have lestat literally commit rape, and i expect that they won't be stupid enough to adapt david's storyline straight from the page. while i genuinely hope that they will do away with that plot entirely, even if they do adapt it, given the show's handling of race and racism so far, i struggle to imagine that they would be to stupid as to feature a white character stealing a south asian person's body for funsies and have that shit narratively endorsed. so, working from that assumption, and since the creative team seems aware of how beloved armand is and will most likely cast him in a relatively sympathetic, likable light, i think it would be an absolutely ridiculous move for them to put armand in that role.
now, i don't think that rashid being another, non-armand immortal is impossible, but there are two key facts that give me pause:
- mainly, that louis is still fairly young. young, obviously not inclined to turn others to build himself a little army of fledglings, and squeamish about murdering humans. and while he's more powerful here than in the books, we don't have any reason to believe he's grown particularly strong. why would other vampires show him any deference? why would other vampires consider him a god? yeah, in the books everyone is always falling in live with him, but worship seems like a wild leap.
- and there are other immortals, sure, but all the ones i remember are fairly powerful beings and again, they would have no reason to a guy who's like a century old. if anything, they may respect him and show deference to him if he were companion to an older, more powerful vampire. which brings me to my theory:
that armand is running a little cult —possibly rebuilt in the decades since he left paris with louis— and rashid has spent at least a few years, and possible most of his life in it. this could also work with rashid being a vampire, though i think his being a human would be far more interesting to the themes the show has been setting up.
so, my take is that louis is either still 'with' armand —a strained and mostly distant relationship, but in name still a companionship— or that they have parted ways but remain friendly. like, he and armand probably exchange one letter every five years. obviously, louis objected to armand building a cult of humans obsessed with vampirism, but he does enjoy the perks, because he's a hypocrite.
i personally find the notion that louis is somehow being held prisoner pretty far-fetched (like he's literally just depressed. to me.) but i do like the idea that the penthouse was originally one of armand's safehouses. it feels so much more like the kind of insane shit mister 'miami night island' would buy.
i could go on and on about my theories of how the first overarching plot of the show is going to play out, but this is already way too wordy. long story short, i think daniel and armand have yet to meet for the first time, i think lestat is likely still asleep, and i have my money riding on the certainty that they're doing more or less the plot of queen of the damned. i just hope that rolin jones knows that if he pulls that racist tobt shit with armand i will send snakes to his house.
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