I will discuss the new challenges that parsec-scale observations in the IR, when combined with comparable physical scales in radio, millimetre, optical, UV, and X-ray of the nearest AGN, are posing to us regarding the nature of the nuclear emission, the ubiquitous presence of nuclear dust filaments, and the role of these filaments as accretion drivers. The way these observations challenge the requirement of a torus and question one of its fundamental attributes, which is the collimation of the nuclear radiation, will be discussed.