I don't think I included the quotes when invoking things, but I may have messed up a copy/paste.
The end result is that the python code doesn't actually forward the parameter to the database process.
Do you mean this:
--dbdir="G:\armory_data/database_dir --debug --satoshi-port=8500" The quote marks for
--dbdir aren't closed, so you end up with
"G:\armory_data/database_dir --debug --satoshi-port=8500" as the entire argument for the --dbdir parameter
Edit: sorry, that's clearly exactly what you meant.