r/DevilsMinion

My mind has been blown. This video is so incredible, I can’t stop watching it.

Does anybody know any fanfics where Daniel is already a vampire when he goes to Dubai? I know this is a very specific ask, and probably doesn’t exist lol. I just had the mental image of Louis being very confused and thought it was funny.

Or alternatively, any good fanfics where Daniel remembers DM era / never forgot?

I know this is a real specific, anything is appreciated lol. Merci :):):)

Trust in the new queen of the damned show we are getting like at least a dedicated devils minion episode?

Guys, I'm going to be honest with ya'll. I feel deeply unsatisfied with the DM content we got this season. I'm not sure if other people feel the same way, but that's just me. I think it's especially disappointing considering the way the showrunners and the interviewers were hyping it up--I honestly thought we were going to get some crazy raunchy scenes with the way Eric and Assad were giggling about it in interviews. But damn, not even a kiss? Not even holding hands?? I really thought they were gonna reveal something crazy like AliceArmand theory (where are my AliceArmand truthers??) or that like Armand was the student Daniel had an affair with in his car.

Obviously, I don't blame the actors--Eric and Assad don't dictate the content of the show, but I do wish we got more than the like 10 minutes of air time that they gave us. Idk, what do y'all think? What are you looking for next season?

Okay, I'm working on a few fic ideas, and I need help with history/backstory. I'm more familiar with Andrei's backstory than Arun's, now obviously this is probably because Arun's story hasn't fully unfolded yet. I'm willing to be wrong or alternative when later seasons come, that's fine. I just want to know what we know up to this point.

Arun was from Delhi, either the city or Sultanate. He was kidnapped. Imprisoned. Trafficked. Eventually found by Marius. Things obviously get fuzzy here, but we know Marius "died" and Arun, now Amedeo, now Armand is left with the coven for 400 years.

Now, I know this is probably A Bit Too Deep for most fics, but I have a few ideas, and like to be introspective and fairly historically accurate if I can in my writing. Blame my 5 year degree in the damn subject, lol. I'm also willingly open to discussion re: both book and show, and willing to blur/blend/merge as needed.

Things we know/I know for sure thanks to the show so far about Armand but are mysterious to me and would love to chat on/get links to/help with

• Armand knows Muslim prayers; this makes sense for Arun's birth and growth in the area of SE Asia and the Mughal/Timurid influences post Khanates.
  • However, Daniel clocks in in season 1 as not praying in Arabic, something more Central Asian (Kazakh, Crimean).
    • Through a bit of google-fu I learned that from 1468-1472 there was a Russian Expedition through Persia and the Ottomans that established contact especially through the Russian port city of Astrakhan (which was visited by Ibn Battuta in the 1320s) and was later conquered by Ivan the Terrible in 1556 and then in 1569 there was the Russo-Turkic wars with the Ottomans

Why does that matter to me/my idea the fic?

Well, technically a person from Delhi would speak either Hindi (if it's modernly placed Dehli), or Bengali (if it's the Sultanate). Where would Arun learn something more Slavic? Especially prayers?

Well, if he was sold into shipboard slavery by his parents, merchantile business, shipping, etc would have been routed through either the Bay of Bengal or routed North on foot through Afghan/Hindu Kush territory, Persian territory, and the Eurasian/Khanate Steppes toward the Caspian Sea.

Which puts us smack in the pirating routes of the Crimean-Nogai slave trade. The Crimean Horde broke in 1502. Arun was born in 1508. At 15 he's purchased by Marius De Romanus, which puts us in 1523. We know from the end of season 3 that his first... ahem, trafficking experience, is at 12, which would be 1520.

What lies right comfortably in all of this mess, aside from my insanity and my red string board of late nights smoking blunts and going on deep dives?

Turkey. The Ottomans.

Which is to say into a Turkic speaking, Crimean Tatar involved, linguistic mess.

Here's the map from wikipedia:

Locations of 2,511 slave raids in Eastern Europe between 1453 and 1774

The sea right smack in the middle is the Black Sea, but to the right, below the legend, that's the Caspian.

from geology.com

The above is a modern map of the region today, including more of SE Asia and Arabia.

Exactly like Daniel called out. Kazakh. Crimean, maybe.

Link to Armand praying and Daniel watching in season one.

Obviously Dubai!Armand doesn't have as strong a Kazakh accent as he does French, but it actually does still sound decently Kazakh - here's a link to a natural Kazakh speaker in English. Or maybe it's me?

Now, obviously Armand's questions of religious practice are left to interpretation, and Armand himself. But I think it says something that after 500 years, Armand still prays in the language of his captors. And circles back to Daniel's questions.

And to mine; in the books Andrei is the artist. Does that mean in the show Arun is the art? What the fuck made Marius look at this likely starving teen and "save" him? It wasn't the art. It wasn't the language, much as I've harped on it. Is it the simplest answer? The predatory one? I'm fine with that being the answer, but what are everyone's thoughts?

Did the show writers put in so much thought to the language as I have, or was it a simple nod to Andrei being from Kiyv?

Have I missed things? I wouldn't be surprised. Am I completely wrong? Let me know!

Ok so this season they make it seem like Armand just stalked Daniel without him knowing anything for the entire time. Armand tells this to Daniel and when talking to Louis he said „it gave me more time for my observations of Daniel.“

So do we now think that all the „clues“ we thought we had found in season 1 & 2 were only references to him being stalked? like the weird detailed understanding of Alice‘s state of mind when she refused his marriage proposal, the purple dress & holding her hand in Paris, the repeated prodding of Daniel’s memory like the blenders and trying to show how good he is with technology (electric mail box..), the prayer scene with getting Daniel to pinpoint where fake Rashid might be from, the fact that Daniel’s apartment had the cloud gate painted on the ceiling, Daniel’s laptop background looking like the villa of mysteries etc etc I’m sure I missed some.

Rolin said they will try to bring back young Daniel in season 4, so we will just see stalking?

Please people keep your tinfoil hats on with me and find reasons why past dm happened like we dreamed it had. 😅

Edit: you guys are so amazing, thank you for all the theories and keep them coming. I’m so happy and feel a little less delusional in my hope and hat.

Book spoilers for IWTV, TVL, QOTD

So for reference, I am not far into the books (just started QOTD) and I’m aware that Daniel wasn’t nearly as prominent a character in the books, his arc mainly focused on his interview with Louis and his fever dream romance with Armand. Show!Daniel’s backstory, with his investigative journalist career and ex-wives and daughters, is an entirely new addition to the story as far as I’m concerned.

As I was reading Marius’s backstory in TVL, I couldn’t help but notice there seemed to be some pretty explicit parallels between him and show!Daniel. And I was wondering if others noticed this and find it meaningful?

As a human, Marius appears to be obsessed with observing and recording stories around him, similar to how Daniel feels compelled to interview people:

>I’d come to Massilia after a long and studious journey that had taken me through all the great cities of the Empire. To Alexandria, Pergamon, Athens I’d traveled, observing and writing about the people, and now I was making my way through the cities of Roman Gaul.
I couldn’t have been more content on this night had I been in my library at Rome. In fact, I liked the tavern better. Everywhere I went I sought out such places in which to write, setting up my candle and ink and parchment at a table close to the wall, and I did my best work early in the evening when the places were at their noisiest.

Marius then encounters someone at the tavern who appears to be watching him. The stranger then asks about Marius’s writing and his educational background. This echoes how Louis was observing Daniel at the bar and asked him, “What’s in the bag?"

>I was startled, not so much by the way he looked—though this was startling in itself—but by the realization that he had been there for some time, close to me, observing me, and I hadn’t noticed him.
…I forced a little smile at my strange and silent friend, and went back to writing. But directly he started talking. “You are an educated man, aren’t you?” he asked.

There are quite a few moments where Marius is revealed to have a somewhat sarcastic, abrasive personality, which feels very similar to Daniel’s personality. They both have a “tell it like it is” attitude.

>“Only the mortal part of you will die,” said the one who had spoken to me all along.
“Bad luck,” I said. “Since that’s about all there is to me."

>He had stopped. He was studying my reaction. The library was quiet and if others prowled behind the walls, I couldn’t hear them anymore.
“I don’t believe a word of it,” I said.

When the tavern stranger (Mael?) kidnapped Marius and brought him back to see their vampire idol, and Marius was subsequently held captive for the turning ceremony, which felt like an echo to Daniel being held captive by Armand in SF.

Marius also encounters the vampire in his charred, burnt state, who tells him his story. Granted, all vampires around this time were burnt thanks to what happened with Akasha and Enkil being left out in the sun. But I also felt like this echoes Louis talking to Daniel in his burnt state after his suicide attempt.

Maybe I’m reading too much into this! I do tend to over-analyze lol. But it can’t be a coincidence that all these details about show!Daniel, which didn’t exist in the books, seem so similar to Marius’s backstory. But I also haven’t read the more Marius or Armand centric books yet either, so I might be missing something.

I'm super curious to know how most people felt about the plot lines surrounding Daniel & Armand, because I feel really let down by how they chose to go about everything Devil's Minion related in this season. I know it's not the Devil's Minion show, but there are so many pivotal and important moments that are just stated plainly like they aren't important at all?? Everything felt weird :/ Even Daniel & Armand as characters were so off to me. I've been looking forward to these reveals for so long, and I feel like I didn't even get them by how underwhelmed I am.

I'm really hoping we still get past DM, but I'm starting to lose my trust in the writers :/ idk

I was watching an interview with Assad, Delaney, and Eric where the interviewer asked Assad what he thought about regarding his own relationship with Marius versus having just turned Daniel-- Assad goes on to mention that there are obvious similarities between Marius and Daniel's ages (insert Eric's daddy joke), but honestly it's such an interesting topic to think about I have so many opinions about it--Personally, I think Armand's trauma perfectly falls into this "missing father figure" trope-- after all, the phrase "you need a love that'll cradle you" is so specifically worded.

What do you guys think?

There's a lot of talk about whether this "Night Island" show they may or may not be developing will 1. be greenlit and 2. actually be about Armand and Daniel 3. holds any merit to adapting outside of the main show at all.

First of all, it would be extremely difficult to do this kind of show before the main show's version of the events of Queen of the Damned come to a close, in my opinion. Since Armand and Daniel (with his David characterization) are deeply entwined in those events and the events directly after. Also because most show-only, general audience viewers won't even know the name "Night Island" and what it is yet until next season.

If the spin off does get greenlit, my personal belief is that the best way to approach it would be to set it after the Queen of the Damned when most of the world's vampires are living on Night Island. They can then use these books/chapters/plots to build something cohesive and focus the show on the Teskhaman/de Romanus bloodline with Armand, Daniel, Marius, and Pandora as the focal characters:

• The Vampire Armand novel
• Blood & Gold (about Marius but features Armand and a little bit of Daniel as well)
• Pandora (another of Marius' fledgling/lovers who has her own book)
• The Devil's Minion chapter (maybe the Pandora and Marius chapters too) from The Queen of the Damned novel for additional material in modern day or for past DM romance that won't be shown in the main show
• Maybe bits of Armand's plot in Memnoch the Devil (the religious psychosis and immolation)
  • Though I think the main show will cover this tbh.
• Whatever backstory they have created for the show version of Daniel (ex-wives and children, journalism career, etc) and his relationship with the Talamasca, which overlaps nicely with the de Romanus bloodline since Teskhamen was involved in the creation of the organization

The show could easily use these books which the main show will likely scrap or skip whole sections of in order to focus on Loustat. I'm not knocking this. It makes sense to do this to trim the fat off the main show.

However, I can easily see getting 5 seasons out of this. Especially if you include other de Romanus bloodline vampires (Bianca, Flavius, Arjun, Benji, Sybelle, etc) and the antagonistic forces/characters in the books, some of whom overlap. For example Santino is an antagonist to both Armand and Marius.

The biggest challenge would be the budget to cover all the different eras/time periods/locations. It would certainly not be cheap. I think this is likely the most prohibitive part impacting AMC's willingness to invest in something like this authentically.

Another challenge will be working around whatever the main show decides to include or change from these books/plots that will impact how a spin-off like this can go.

With regards to whether the "Night Island" show would even be about Armand and Daniel... If I remember correctly the show was first conceived as a short mini-series or webisode style show about two thieves and likely was not planned to be a full blown spin off but more like bonus material. It's my personal belief that this concept spun around in production hell because they saw the fan fervor for the show to be an Armand or Devil's Minion spin-off.

They probably took it back to the drawing board when they realized how the fans would receive it if it WASN'T about them in some capacity. I think they may have realized too that they'd be shooting themselves in the foot to not center it around them. I also truly believe they pivoted between S2 and S3 to pull forward DM in S3 more for this same reason. That's why the DM of it in TVL all felt a bit clunkily handled. I don't think they were planning to tee up the romantic side this season at all originally.

What do y'all think?

PS. I really need one of these adaptations to make Armand deal or engage with the fact all three of his vampire parental figures and abusers are alive and well in modern day (Marius, Santino, and Allesandra). The untapped conflict for Armand especially with this could be so interesting.

PPS. I know this is unlikely but an extremely indulgent yet whimsical part of me would want the show to frame itself like "How I Met Your Mother" with Armand talking to Benji and Sybelle. Since TVA is meant to be dedicated to them.

PPPS. I would also indulgently enjoy a "Real Housewives of Marius de Romanus" plot given the ripe interactions you could squeeze out of Pandora, Armand, Bianca, and Daniel all living on an island together for a short time with Marius post-QOTD.

Any one else going to the panel on Friday? I’m (F/36) planning to line up Thursday afternoon for a wristband. Would love to wait together with other DM fans!

I saw u/No_Control_3205 's amazing photos from episode 7, and I need more. How come the more evil Armand is, the more ethereal and radiant he is?

Anyway, please comment your photos of Armand from EP 7, I need them