#it doesn't matter to daniel how much armand does to grant his wishes. he's a human who will be a blip to armand. meaningless.

[nativehueofresolution]

the other part of this is that daniel calls armand his "merciless and all-loving demonic god", and this is a perception armand both encourages and discourages. i think on the conscious level he is actively trying to discourage it. armand repeatedly expresses frustration with daniel assuming armand can track him down anywhere when he runs away from night island, scolding daniel for putting himself in danger where armand might not be able to help. he makes sarcastic and exasperated remarks anytime daniel says something to the effect of armand is strong enough to take on other vampires or ward off any danger. he seems to really want daniel to understand he has limits. and daniel even recognizes this is how armand feels. he mentally cries out for armand, saying "you know i want to come home", and he imagines armand responding by saying "but i don't know... i'm not god, daniel". he knows armand wouldn't like the idea of daniel thinking of him like that.

but the reason daniel feels this way is armand literally spent years cultivating an image of himself as an omnipresent and inescapable predator. he builds a life for daniel where he's completely dependent on armand - to the point of having his clothes picked out and not even doing his own grooming - and has literally no other people in his life. he tells daniel "there's nothing for you now, daniel, except me. you know that. madness waits out there."

it's the same type of isolation and dependency marius created in venice, where he told him "you are for me". but armand is presenting himself in a subservient way. it doesn't change the reality of the power dynamic, but he's trying to give daniel the illusion of control, of freedom, of being the master of himself. he grants his every wish. he lets daniel come and go as he pleases even though he's doing everything he can to get daniel to stay, to want for nothing. he only comes to get daniel when he calls, but he also knows he's essentially letting his domesticated pet out into the wild. he isn't built for that anymore, and it was armand who made it that way. he's echoing the way he experienced "love" as a mortal, but trying to change just enough so that daniel still has control of himself (because he recognizes that was wrong? because he feels he's most appealing in a servile role? because he's trying to treat daniel like frog in slowly heating water instead of going to a straight boil?). still, i don't think he wants to be a god to daniel. he's giving daniel the blood as marius did with him, but he resents how much daniel craves it. he engineers daniel's dependency but also can't truly believe daniel loves him because of it - now he thinks daniel's just obsessed with the blood. armand wants things to be different, to be better with daniel, but has no playbook after so much isolation. and he falls back to his time as a human with a vampire and no matter the surface trappings he alters, he can't change the fundamental power imbalance built into the relationship he's echoing.

#devil's minion #iwtv #kaitlin speaks #like they both want there to be equality in the relationship. daniel wants to be a vampire who can stand alongside armand #armand goes out of his way to try and give daniel the illusion of control even when he really has none #but they both find the other's envisioned version of an equal relationship to be hollow #it doesn't matter to daniel how much armand does to grant his wishes. he's a human who will be a blip to armand. meaningless. #only as an immortal could they be true lovers #while armand takes that as a rejection of his feelings. daniel's only with him as a means to an end #and if he actually got what he wanted they'd never be together #aaaaaagh