🤓

Louis and Claudia, dancing in the sunlight

It Tastes Different Playing Armand

i didn't get a minor in art history for no reason, so let's talk about

The Adoration of the Shepherds with a Donor by Palma Vecchio, c. 1520-1525 (held at the Louvre under the French name L'Adoration des bergers avec une donatrice, here's its collection details)

What's fascinating about this painting (done in the very very late High Renaissance to early Mannerism) is that the identity of the commissioner of the painting is the one kneeling to the far right, who Armand in the episode says is modeled by him, is actually unknown. (So that makes it very handy for the show to claim it's Armand without actually being inaccurate or anachronistic)

What this depicts is the Christmas story (though yes, I know, it doesn't look like Christmastime in the painting) where the shepherds pay Jesus a visit after he's born. There's a lark sitting in the window on the left, which often symbolizes rebirth, and there's a dog all the way to the very right, which usually symbolizes loyalty.

Of course, within the IWTV verse, the choice of using this painting (which doesn't have much, if any literature on it by itself--maybe because for a long time it was attributed to the painter Titian by mistake instead of Vecchio) is extremely fascinating to me. There's a lot of dimensions here: most notably, as another user I saw pointed out, Armand was the model for this, and the painter (Marius de Romanus in the show, Armand's maker) whitewashes Armand. Now, Armand is immortalized in room 711 in the Louvre forever as a 20 year old, looking nothing like himself, his identity effectively completely erased, while thousands of people pass and see this painting every year.

It raises a lot of poignant questions, also: since the commissioner of real life (who is the real life model) doesn't exist in IWTV, what is the motivation for Marius to paint Armand in a Christ scene? Because obviously, Armand would not have commissioned this painting. What spurs him to do that? Since the real life artist, Vecchio, was very influenced by Titian at the point when this painting was made, was Marius also? I really do want to know the team's thought process behind choosing this painting, because it's endlessly interesting to me. It's definitely one of the lesser known works in the Louvre, even just a cursory glance over JSTOR barely has any information. I might literally email my art history professors and ask if they have any material on this or Vecchio because I'm so intrigued... anyone else wanna discuss <3?

All of her sorrow won’t fit in her chest

Armand: "I had never made one. The idea repulsed m— repulses me."

Armand when Louis leaves him alone for two seconds with Daniel:

something like that

Hot take, while I do think aging Daniel up was a good choice in that it opened up new avenues of exploration (and a potential DM amnesia plot!!!) I don’t think it actually was necessary to fix DM because maturity differences weren’t the real core of DM’s relationship problems.

Their flaws are still the same—old Daniel is still blunt and somewhat insensitive, stubborn and reckless and Armand is still controlling, condescending, melodramatic and above it all. These flaws were causing some tension but they weren’t insurmountable.

Old Daniel and B!Daniel also aren’t that different—Daniel at 20-24 is constantly scared Armand will kill him and still pushes back against him verbally with sarcasm and bite and expresses any and all frustration every chance he gets (it’s part of why he remains entertaining) just like 69 yr old Daniel.

This is only compounded once book Daniel realizes he’s not at risk of dying and has Armand just as wrapped around his finger as vice versa. Show Daniel is just a little more wrapped up in cynicism and hides his softer parts compared to B!Daniel who balances it out better imo, he’s not necessarily more mature.

They love each other’s “flaws” they acknowledge each others negative traits but mostly enjoy them. The actual core to their countless fights was the age old human wants to be vampire/vampire sees it as a curse dilemma. (Yes DM ran so Twilight could tip toe softly lol).

I think B!Daniel was absolutely 100% fair in feeling like Armand was treating him like a pet dog and would move on and not mourn that long if he died (even if this absolutely wasn’t true—we know this) and Armand wasn’t helping by belittling him when he did return home and not actually communicating that he did care that well.

However, that’s already been solved in the show—the second major problem (and break up causer) is an extension of the the initial one—Armand feels too unnecessarily guilty about the turning (and thinks Daniel hates him) and leaves—Daniel feels abandoned (and thinks Armand preferred him mortal).

I think a maturity difference issue would be more reasonable and less silly than their actual relationship problem which is weirdly banal given how weird they are everywhere else but nothing’s perfect.

they're so normal about each other, so fucking normal right now

Norman Rockwell art theft be my redemption please

Post s2 cryptids ~