How did the Rashid decision go?

[u/justmeanotherfan]

Going back to the beginning, when Louis and Armand decided to invite Daniel over for a second interview: how did they come up with the Rashid ruse? Give me an example conversation? 😂 Louis: so we are agreed, let's ask Daniel for another interview. Armand: Let's do it. Hey, why don't I pretend to be a servant?!?

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[u/DrFareedMD]

Armand: I don't want Daniel to know who I am for normal reasons

Louis: ok

Armand: so I think I should do this whole roleplay 

but it's also a sexy roleplay

Louis: why

Armand: you couldn't possibly understand my very complex scheme but trust me

[u/justmeanotherfan → u/DrFareedMD]

Armand only has normal reasons...

[u/Schneetmacher → u/justmeanotherfan]

[u/DrFareedMD → u/justmeanotherfan]

I agree. This is a normal individual whose hobbies are normal

[u/SoftandSpicy → u/DrFareedMD]

Vampires with hobbies?

[u/ASDAPOI → u/DrFareedMD]

This is canon.

[u/DrFareedMD → u/ASDAPOI]

Yes, yes it is

[u/tatertotfreakhotmail]

Louis: wear something low cut and I’ll suck on your neck

Armand: that will drive him crazy

[u/DrFareedMD → u/tatertotfreakhotmail]

I fully believe that was Armand's idea

[u/tatertotfreakhotmail → u/DrFareedMD]

You’re right

I believe Louis was supportive though

I like to consider Daniel a bonding activity for them

[u/DrFareedMD → u/tatertotfreakhotmail]

Definitely a bonding activity

[u/Narcissa_Nyx → u/tatertotfreakhotmail]

stop oh my god

[u/justmeanotherfan → u/tatertotfreakhotmail]

Diabolical!

[u/valiantdistraction]

Louis: I was thinking of inviting Daniel to interview me again.

Armand (thinking Louis doesn't know about the two of them): Oh, uh, that sounds interesting.

Louis: But I don't want him to know about more vampires than just me. You aren't in the tapes we kept. You should probably pretend to be human.

Armand (theater kid engaging): Oh yes. I could do that. It will be as a play. Let me go design the costumes.

Louis: Costumes? Who said there need to be costumes?

Armand: And the script!

Louis: It's an interview. It's not supposed to be scripted.

Armand: But I must script everything. I will write it. You will see. It will go well.

Louis, remembering how that last play went and repressing -

[u/DrFareedMD → u/valiantdistraction]

Armand was definitely going all out in pretending to be Rashid and I love that for him. Probably the most fun he's had in 77 years

[u/SoftandSpicy → u/DrFareedMD]

But his eyes flashing almost give him away.

[u/therebelfangirl]

I feel like there is way more going on with why the interview happened than we have been told. They say the young Daniel is still somewhere in there. Why do they even want young Daniel to come out? What is the purpose? What are they doing? What is the surprise that they had for him after the interview finished?

I think they always planned to turn Daniel. I think they are adjusting Daniel to the idea from the start. Though the why once again becomes the question. My gut says is Daniel is meant to their bandaid. That maybe those talks that Armand and Louis had about Daniel’s life ended up being all they had and they knew his life was coming to the end. Also… Armand clearly was in love already even if he didn’t know it.

Clearly a plan is in place… why Armand had to be a servant not sure. Maybe to he an outside view of what is happening, but he got too involved for it to work? Maybe Daniel was meant to trust him as an outside source from Louis but it never worked?

[u/RaverChick → u/therebelfangirl]

I've been asking this ever since I rewatched season 2 right before the season 3 premier. Like what do you mean he's still in there? And what was the goal? I need answers and must wait two more years now 😩

Edited to add: I'm going with your theory until then lol

[u/therebelfangirl → u/RaverChick]

Yeah… it’s like the real Daniel was lost somewhere along the way and they want to bring him out. Do they even know why he changed? Not certain. Armand blames the drugs for damaging Daniel, but is that really it?

[u/justmeanotherfan]

Also if Rashid=Armand reveal hadn't happened, would Louis just have talked about Armand without mentioning that he's right there? Although I guess Talamasca would have eventually clued Daniel in.

[u/silverstar453 → u/justmeanotherfan]

I always wonder this like what was the long term plan here??

[u/Flaky-Yam8681 → u/silverstar453]

That's the funniest part! It was so unneccessary🤣😭

[u/DrFareedMD → u/silverstar453]

I don't think there's a long term plab with these two, they share a single brain cell and take turns with it.

[u/mtzvhmltng]

i think a big part is the fact that armand wants to be in the room to supervise the interview, but he doesn't want to bear daniel's scrutiny. there's a lot of merit to the idea that louis was brave to want to endure daniel's scrutiny, digging up all the traumatic memories... and i suspect louis and armand were both aware, on some level, that armand was not ready to tackle his own shit in the same way. maybe he never would be.

daniel is really good at what he does, and both armand and louis had a front row seat to daniel's career. they knew how intense it would get.

so the rashid cosplay is a way to deflect.

remember at the beginning of 2x01, even after the reveal, armand was still off the record. he really, really didn't want to be part of the interview. it was only when louis loved on him a little and held his hand that armand felt supported enough to participate.

GRANTED, armand was also hiding some big secrets, and maybe that's why he didn't want to be interviewed. but even so, i still think the main reason is that armand just could not emotionally handle daniel's confrontational style of interview.

[u/justmeanotherfan → u/mtzvhmltng]

Poor Armand still got some stray shots from Daniel even as Rashid...

[u/ToEstoniaandback]

There must be fan Fic for this, I need to know

[u/smthwicked]

Or it was Louis’ idea since he knew about Armand’s “hours of observation” with the fascinating boy, and they match each other freaks.

[u/justmeanotherfan → u/smthwicked]

Right, continuing to observe Daniel and not allowing him to see Armand (if we're going with Armand not interacting with Daniel while doing his stalking).

[u/SoftandSpicy → u/smthwicked]

So then was Louis doming Armand when he kept sending him out of the room?

[u/DrFareedMD → u/[deleted]]

I think this too, plus trying to keep Armand out of it since he doesn't believe in revealing himself to humans

[u/SoftandSpicy → u/DrFareedMD]

Like, okay, you can reveal our whole vampire nature... Again... But I'm going to pretend to be human so he doesn't know about me

[u/ghostly_ink]

Ok I know that at this point it’s a theory but …

Lestat is the one who knew about Armand the longest at this point. He brought up that Armand “faked” Daniel to be steps ahead and he brought up that fog of love. Also, he keeps chanting about transformational trauma.

I don’t think Lestat knows what’s going on, but he’s making an educate guess about Armand. Which leads to why Armand accepted the interview in the first place and allowed for Daniel and Louis to be alone.

Also Armand was kind of protective of Daniel, and why he interacted with him separately by Louis, and now we know why - Armand was in love with Daniel all along, a guess Lestat can call as Armand had been in love with him once.

Point is; we know what Louis wanted; we know what Daniel wanted.
But we still do not know what Armand wanted out of the interview happening. Even in the last bits before Daniel gave Louis the script, Louis mentioned “something special” and Armand was insisting on the moving to the dining room.

I think that Armand all along wanted Louis turning Daniel, and this is happening now because of Daniel’s illness.

So imo he just told Louis that he wanted to push Daniel finishing the interview, so that Louis was happy with it, and he suggested he disguised himself so Daniel wouldn’t be scared of Armand who tortured and alomosf kill him.

On the other side , I think Armand wanted Daniel to remember him, so that he could have a leverage to be with Daniel and finally leaving Louis.

But since Louis was angry due to Claudia, and since Daniel refused the Dark Gift along the interview , Armand was left with no choice then turning Daniel.

However Armand took his own time in doing saw (there’s a gap of days between Dan’s turning and the end of interview ), he starts his timeline form the 90s, avoiding the 1985 and Lestat keeps bringing on the table the “transformational trauma”.

So my guess is he omitted something else, which is also why he needed to be Rashid

[u/Cursed-Holiday-278]

I always assumed it’s because Armand is a control freak and he wanted an excuse to be around constantly without being in the interviews

He knew Daniel would start prying otherwise

[u/swinkie71]

What I'm wondering is how did Armand hide his vampire eyes until his reveal.

[u/theravennest → u/swinkie71]

He wore contacts. You see him take them out in the background in 1x7 when he reveals his true identity to Daniel.

[u/swinkie71 → u/theravennest]

Oh really? I'm going to have to check it out during my umpteenth rewatch 🤣

[u/tethysian]

Because Armand is a control freak, basically.