I Love When Characters Lie To Themselves In The Complete Privacy Of Their Own Minds

Dutch is a very expressive character; it's very easy to tell whenever he's angry, upset, or using his silver tongue, just by his facial expressions and his tone.

This makes replaying the game a lot more interesting; even though he starts unravelling towards the end of the game, you can tell his distrust in Hosea and Arthur began before the game starts:

The easiest example for this is in "Who The Hell Is Leviticus Cornwall". Dutch starts by pleading to Hosea, telling him the gang needs money, but when Hosea stands his ground, Dutch's expression turns dark, and his eyes are covered by his hat, which from a cinematic stand point is used to symbolise something sinister; he already had some doubts eating away at him, and I believe Hosea saw it and chose to back down.

While we also see this in a few more instances later in the game; Dutch tells Arthur and Hosea to ride together so they reminisce about the "old Dutch", He tells Arthur in Horseshoe Overlook that Arthur looks like the type to betray him, and he constantly begs for the gang's faith in the earlier chapters, even if it's not as obvious as the latest chapters, I think it's an interesting choice from rockstar to show Dutch's distrust in his people in the very first quest with him after the tutorial.

Partners for life 🤝🏳️‍🌈

harry du bois steps up to the lectern in front of the crowd. "as a lesbian...." he pauses, looks at kim questioningly. kim shakes his head imperceptibly. harry looks back at the audience "...supporter"

Book Lestat post-QotD: So! 👏 I don’t remember meeting you before! 😁 how cute that my Armand’s got a new fledgling, how’d that come about? 😊

Book Daniel: So it all started when I looked up your house in the New Orleans public records—

Book Lestat (Internally): Yes, this one is definitely Armand’s. 😌

Shhhh their antennas are touching

Physically I am a present and functioning human being, mentally I am consumed body and soul by old man vampire yaoi

saw a post (i don't know who op is sorry!!) about how armand calls daniel a black hole while being the most black hole-coded character in existence and i can’t stop thinking about it because YES. everyone latches onto the innuendo of “not much more to you than a hole” (and sure, it’s iconic i love some devils minion), but armand being a literal black hole metaphor across the vampire chronicles is so intense and weirdly consistent that it stops being subtle and starts feeling like a cosmic joke

lestat in tvl straight up talks about armand pulling him into his orbit. like, not metaphorically—he literally describes being caught in armand’s gravitational pull, like he’s circling something ancient and destructive and beautiful and terrifying. he feels like armand wants to consume him, strip him down to nothing. that's not just magnetic energy. that's black hole behavior

then in iwtv, louis tells armand (in the most devastating breakup scene ever) that being with him drained all the life out of him. that he was interesting because he was different, but armand pulled him in and now he’s empty too. literally tells him he made him just like him. that’s the event horizon! you cross the threshold and there’s no going back!

qotd really hammers it home—daniel talks about how armand has this bizarre magnetic pull that draws people in. it’s not even intentional. he just exists and people fall into him. and by being with him, daniel starts getting drained too. again. same cycle. same gravity well. armand doesn’t even mean to destroy people—he just does, because that’s what he is

and the creepiest part is how often older men project their obsession onto him. “i don’t know what it is about you, armand, you’re just so... captivating.” like okay. maybe take a moment and examine your own weird fixation before blaming the literal 17-year-old-looking vampire. but no. it’s always framed like armand has some unnatural power when really they’re just falling into their own desire and blaming the gravity on him

oh and let’s talk about how he hunts. armand doesn’t chase. he doesn’t go looking. he just hangs out in public being beautiful and unreadable and lets people come to him. and they always do. they throw themselves at him. it’s terrifying when you realize he doesn’t need to do anything except exist and wait for people to offer themselves up

so yeah. the line is a banger. it’s brutal. it’s layered. but it’s also projection in real time. armand isn’t talking about a black hole—he is the black hole. he pulls people in, drains them dry, and leaves them hollow. the vampire chronicles don’t even try to be subtle about it. and i love that for him. horrifying little cosmic void of a man

if there is one thing i love about book Armand (and possibly show Armand but i need to see more evidence) it is that he is a petty little hater. he practices haterism as an olympic sport. Night Island was the architectural equivalent of standing by the wall at a party with your boyfriend while both of you look judgmentally over the rims of your drinks at the rest of the guests like "ew."

My ideal version of dating someone would be them threatening to murder me if I don’t run away and hide, followed by them obsessively stalking me for about four years (following me all around the world, standing over my bed while I am sleeping, appearing out of nowhere and asking me morally charged questions, etc.), while they become more and more persistent over time and force me to spend more and more time together until I eventually realize that they actually don’t want to kill me after all. And when I address this to them, they act confused and say, 'No, how could you think that? I love you,' and then they buy me an island.

Interview with the vampire sketches 🍷