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bemused-writer · 4 years

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VNC Chapter 46 Analysis

Mochizuki's ability to pack so much into a singular chapter is truly a gift. In this chapter we get a lot of Dominique's POV, which was awesome, but pretty dreary. However, I don't think any of us can blame her; she once told Noé she worried about him blaming himself for what happened to Louis, but she never mentioned how much she is still bearing a great burden from the very same incident.

There's a lot to unpack in this sentence alone, but it reveals a lot about Dominique's mindset. In past chapters, we've already seen that she harbors a great deal of self-doubt; she isn't living up to her family's expectations and she's convinced the man she loves would prefer a different kind of woman, i.e. someone more like Jeanne. However, we see here that her self-doubt is actually better characterized as self-loathing. She doesn't consider herself suitable for Noé whatsoever. So, what is it that she thinks Louis has that she doesn't? She's gone to a lot of trouble to imitate him, after all. I think we can break her perceived failings into the following: 1) She can't be with Noé 24/7. I think a large part of why she thinks Louis would have been a better partner for Noé than herself is because they already lived together. He could have traveled with Noé to Paris, lived with him there, helped him handle Vanitas, Murr, and even Teacher. Basically, she assumes Louis would be ever present at Noé's side in a way she cannot. 2) An outgoing nature/ease of communication. Dominique believes that Noé had an easier time talking to Louis than he does with her. She saw Louis as smart and capable rather than meek and timid. What she doesn't realize is that Noé and Louis actually had a ton of communication problems and that Louis was incredibly withdrawn. I suppose that's the kind of misconstrued takeaway one has when dealing with someone they idolize and another they're crushing on. She doesn't have the clearest sense of their flaws. (Side note: I think it's kind of amusing that she just assumes Louis would be shorter than Noé. I mean, he was taller than him at the time...) So, even before Louis's death Dominique was dealing with some pretty heavy self-esteem issues, but we really see just how far they've developed over the years. The days following his death seem to really have taken a final toll:

Now, this is something I've wondered about for a while, but it's sad to have it confirmed. As I mentioned, Dominique was worried Noé blamed himself, but the truth of it is Dominique blames herself for Louis's death. The reason she's worried about Noé is because she sincerely believes that the only person worthy of this blame is herself. She thinks that if she had simply kept quiet, Louis would still be alive. Judging by how timid Dominique still is at home, I think this philosophy has followed her for her whole life: stay quiet and out of the way and things will be fine. It's completely different from how she is around Noé, but that's because she is trying to put on a persona she thinks Noé would prefer over her actual personality, i.e. Louis's personality. Of course, Noé cares about Dominique because she's one of his best friends; she doesn't need to do this to herself, but she doesn't realize that. She's fixated on this idea of adjusting herself until Noé sees her in the right light and her family accepts her. Unfortunately, we're dealing with a trio whose communication skills are epically bad. Louis asks Dominique to give Noé the chest "when the time is right." How is she supposed to know when that is? And how could he actually expect Noé to put those stakes to use? But the thing is that none of these characters are thinking clearly. Louis was a young person stuck on the idea that he was cursed and going to die. He refused to talk about it to his friends because, well, what could they do about it? Dominique is ridden with insecurities and couldn't be expected to handle the responsibility Louis gave her, and Noé cared far too much about Louis to fulfill his wish. The only person who could have stepped in and sorted any of this out was Teacher, but he's the one who allowed all of it to happen in the first place. So, Dominique does the only thing she can think to do at the time: stay at Noé's side.

Dominique is terrified here; I really think this might be the first time she's ever stood up to Veronica and it's only because of how urgent things are. We've seen in the present that Veronica has absolutely no qualms going toe-to-toe with her own sister or with publicly shaming her in front of the entire vampiric court. This is not a kind woman. And we see that she was no better in the past. Dominique is frightened of her, and then Veronica gives all of her fears and anxieties the final push they need to plague her for the rest of her life. She takes malignant glee at how her sister has been left in the dark (as if this is Dominique's fault; maybe her family should actually try telling her things...), mocks her, and then reveals her birth itself was a shame on the family.

Cruel though this is, it does remind me of a question I've had for a little while now: how do vampires procreate exactly? Apparently, they have to give birth on a full moon, which is already pretty different from their human counterparts. Now we hear that twins are unlucky because they "steal more life." What, exactly, does that mean? I suspect it doesn't simply imply that it makes the pregnancy more strenuous. Could it be that vampires have to very literally give up some of their lifespan to create offspring? Do they have to perform some kind of sacrifice? But it can't be wholly different from humans; otherwise we wouldn't have dhampirs. Well, we'll undoubtedly learn more about that at some point, but it is an interesting concept. Anyway, Dominique asks Veronica why her parents chose her over Louis. I mean, it's a valid question and it's a moment Veronica could have used to compliment her sister, or possibly console her in some way, so naturally she does the opposite. She basically says it was a whim of their father's. Now, I'm not totally sure I believe that. I had believed Louis was taken away because he was a curse bearer, but Veronica is making it sound like the problem was simply that he was a twin. If what Veronica says is true, that means Louis became a curse bearer after the fact and I think I have a sneaking suspicion of how. Teacher said it would be a waste to simply kill one of the babies and let's not kid ourselves by thinking he had purely good intentions here. He told Louis he wanted to see what choices he made. Well, for an experiment to work, you have to actually have some variable you're testing. I think Teacher (who probably has some connection to Charlatan) cursed Louis himself, perhaps to see how long he would last under those kinds of conditions and how he would try to change his fate. Also, I think it's important to point out that Veronica said "If news that your mother had given birth to twins had gotten out, it would have tarnished the name of de Sade." That pretty heavily implies that Veronica and Dominique do not have the same mother, which would make sense. It also raises yet another question of how vampiric society handles things like marriage. To me, it sounds like their father is the head of de Sade second only to Teacher. Does he have multiple wives? Concubines? If women have to give some of their life to have children, it might make sense not to have too many children with one woman, and if the aristocracy is determined to expand the family name, the easiest way of doing that would be by having several children. The de Sades are clearly concerned with preserving the family name and with having enough heirs to handle... I'm not sure. Antoine seems to be in charge of diplomacy, Veronica is a Beastia, and Dominique... What is it that she's supposed to be doing? What is it that they think she's failing at so badly? After Veronica's big reveal, Dominique wonders if Louis knew the truth and to be honest, I don't know if he was ever told, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was. Teacher wasn't exactly gentle with him and I'm sure he would be curious to see how he handled the knowledge that Dominique was very literally chosen over him. She is his twin sister and she can never know. By all accounts, Louis would have been justified in being cruel to her, but he never was; he was always kind and patient, and I think that says more about Louis than anything else ever will. If he hadn't undergone the horrors Teacher chose for him, he probably would have been a much more carefree person.

This scene is just sad on so many levels. Veronica didn't have to plant the seed of doubt in Dominique's mind that Louis would have been a better heir than her. She didn't have to make her wonder if Louis was simply a better candidate for everything she's ever wanted: better at being a de Sade, better for Noé, better for everyone. And poor Noé has no idea he accidentally fed into this. He was just as traumatized as Dominique and, well, she does look a lot like Louis. Who could blame him for mistaking them when he has a raging fever and is in mourning? But the damage is done. Dominique is convinced that Noé would have preferred Louis over her, and this has no doubt fed into her misery over her unrequited love for him as well. Perhaps, on some level, she believes that if she had been Louis, Noé would love her already. Also, this means that Vanitas's jab in volume two is all the more hurtful:

This always read to me as Vanitas saying Dominique was just a stand in for what Noé really wants and while it is true that Noé has thought of Louis on occasion when he's with Dominique, I don't think it's fair to say he wishes she were him. They're twins and they were both Noé's childhood friends. It would be normal for him to miss Louis in such a scenario. But Vanitas is very good at hitting where it hurts and he did so very well with Dominique. If there's one good thing that could come of this arc, I hope it's that Dominique realizes how much Noé cares about her. He goes to her rescue immediately:

We only see Noé get this serious when it has to do with Dominique or Louis. These are the two people he cares for most; he's not messing around when it comes to her rescue. Also, I really like that he doesn't bother with negotiating or any of that. He goes straight to the fighting and it's great; negotiation isn't going to work with this kid. With anyone else, this would be a great tactic, but Misha has a book and is willing to fight dirty. I really feel like this is going to turn into one of those: "If you'd just told me this in advance things could have been different!" moments that Noé and Vanitas have had in the past.

The text bubble really makes it look like Vanitas is just shouting this in the middle of the restaurant. I find that amusing, but wouldn't it make more sense to be thinking this...? XD But! Everyone is piecing things together way faster this arc and that is kind of a relief. Vanitas isn't going to be taken off guard by Noé acting strangely; he knows exactly what kind of damage Misha can do. Furthermore, Noé swiftly puts it together that Misha has done something to Dominique's name. If nothing else, at least everyone is in the know on how bad things are. 8D At any rate, Noé's attacks swiftly come to a halt when Misha uses the book on him. The technique is the same that Vanitas used on him during the Bal Masqué. It seems to primarily function as a stun, but it looks like Misha's was designed to pack a heavier punch because Noé can't move at all while he was able to somewhat when Vanitas used it. Of course, the main difference is that Vanitas didn't want to do permanent damage to Noé; he just needed to prevent him from hindering his job. Misha on the other hand has no qualms about killing a woman, so he definitely wouldn't be opposed to wreaking more havoc still on yet another individual. It's interesting that last chapter we got to see Noé tell Vanitas he's glad he's the person he is now because he's now getting a very fast intro into just how awful Vanitas could have been if he'd been inclined to. These books have the power to seal a vampire's fate, for better or worse. Misha has chosen for the worse.

"Only this book." I suppose that means he didn't inherit the name "Vanitas." (Did Vanitas really inherit it or did he just steal it?) It could also be a way of emphasizing he wasn't given Vanitas's book; just this one.

Amazing how at the end of their introductions, Vanitas is the one who looks decidedly mad, but it's Misha who is infinitely crazier. I guess first impressions aren't everything. 8D

Okay, he says he's kidding, but the only thing he could possibly be joking about is that he's an "average human being," which, let's be honest, sounded a lot like a lie when Vanitas said it, too. I don't think either of them are "average" human beings. Something about being kin to the blue moon changed them and I think we're eventually going to learn more about what and how.

Okay, so here's the thing. Misha may be "evil" but he's not an evil genius. There have been flaws in his plan from the get go, notably that he thought he could fully control Dominique to do anything that would put Noé in danger because I'm pretty sure his original plan went something like this: Dominique asks Noé to follow her. She leads him to Misha. Noé and Misha sit down for a chat. Noé agrees to drink Vanitas's blood and comes back with info. Only, that isn't how it went and it's unlikely this backup plan will work either. Misha is making a lot of assumptions here: 1) Noé has no qualms about drinking Vanitas's blood (as, perhaps, most vampires wouldn't), 2) Threatening Dominique won't lead to massive repercussions, 3) Vanitas himself won't be involved to mess this plan up, 4) Noé is actually capable enough as an Archiviste to locate specific information. Well, none of that is true. Noé has massive reservations about drinking Vanitas's blood, he absolutely will not forgive this kid for threatening Dominique, Vanitas is probably already on his way, and Noé is more likely to lose himself in Vanitas's memories and wind up traumatized than come back with any useful information. 8D I mean, maybe Noé does drink Vanitas's blood because I do believe he'd do just about anything to save Dominique, but I think it's more likely that Vanitas himself will show up and put a wrench in this entire affair. I guess we're going to find out the answer to that pretty swiftly with the next chapter. Anyway, I'm going to toss in a few predictions for this arc and see if any of them stick: Noé and Vanitas actually have to tell each other some of their dark backstories (in other words, Vanitas has to explain who "Father" is and Noé has to explain Louis), Noé doesn't drink Vanitas's blood, Dominique is lost to Noé, but not because she dies. Rather, I think it's more likely these two are going to have a whole lot of revelations about each other and the sheer awkward factor/shame will cause them to need time apart.

#vanitas no carte #vnc meta #vnc spoilers #Bemused's post #long post

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escarghosting · 6 years

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Hello hello @eli-and-fictional-sons!! Coincidentally, I was also your secret santa for the @vncsecretsanta! Here’s you’re gift; it’s sort of a college au, but there’s hardly any mention if college so *shrugs* I had fun writing it! This is my first fic for vnc so if either of them seem ooc, that’s why lol. Hope you enjoy it! Happy new years!

Title: Love Thy Neighbor

Rating: T, mostly for swearing

Word count: 1536

Summary: Vanitas really doesn’t like his neighbor. Really. No matter how attractive he may be. So why exactly does he agree let him use his shower?

Vanitas really…didn’t like his next door neighbor.

Noe was his name. Ever since the guy moved in, there was always something the other did that pissed them off. It all started when Noe started parking in Vanitas’ spot. No matter how often he yelled at him about it, Noe still managed to park in his spot at least once a week. Things just went downhill from there.

At some point in the past 5 months of living next to each other, Vanitas started going out of his way to piss Noe off; his favorite was playing loud music early in the morning, because Noe was nothing but grumpy without at least 8 hours of sleep. Yes, Vanitas was that petty.

But what really peeved Vanitas about Noe is how…perfect he was. When Vanitas wasn’t doing things to annoy him, Noe was actually pretty nice. He gave Vanitas rides sometimes when the weather was too bad to take his bike (although music in the car was another source of tension between them), and he checked up on him often to make sure he was eating and sleeping well, because “no one should look as dead as you do” (which, unsurprisingly, aggravated Vanitas to no end). He was naïve, but it was kind of endearing. Sometimes.

He was also fine as hell, not that Vanitas would ever admit it. Tall, well-built, pretty eyes, and to-the point about everything. Noe might as well be the man of Vanitas’ dreams, and he hated it.

…Okay, maybe he had a teeny tiny crush.

It didn’t matter anyway, nothing would ever come of it. Why would Noe ever like him back? All Vanitas did was purposefully annoy him. Most of their conversations consisted of pointed glares and hardly contained anger, mostly from Vanitas. Noe deserved to be with someone much better than him.

‘Maybe you guys just need to get together, let out that awkward sexual tension. I bet you that’s the reason you’re always so cranky with each other, idiot.’

Vanitas slammed the butter knife down on the counter. Screw Dante and his stupid advice! What did he know anyway? He was just some baldy with as much romance experience as a doormat. That was the last thing he needed to be thinking about right now. He stared down at his unfinished peanut butter sandwich. He couldn’t eat now, he was too bitter. Maybe I’ll just take a hot shower and lay down for the night, he thought. It wasn’t even 9:00, but there’s nothing wrong with a little extra sleep, right? In fact, Noe would probably be proud—

Ohhh, no. That thought was going to end right there. Vanitas dragged himself to the bathroom—which wasn’t very far in this tiny apartment—but before he could turn on the faucet, there was a knock at the door.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

“Who could possibly be knocking at this hour?” Vanitas muttered angrily. He was in no mood to humor anyone for anything. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Vanitas stomped over to the door and flung it open. “This had better be impor—”

Standing in the hallway was none other than Noe himself. He was holding a towel and a hair brush in one arm, dressed in his loose white pajamas. The look on his face was awkward and somewhat...pained?

Vanitas couldn’t stop himself from admiring the other man. The way strands of white hair fell into his face, or how his shirt hugged his broad shoulders...

Stooooooop!

“What do you want? This had better be important, Noe,” he spat.

Noe pursed his lips. “I need to use your shower.”

“…Why can’t you use yours?” At this Noe shuffled his feet, looking anywhere but Vanitas. Was he… embarrassed?

“You see,” he started, “I may have tripped over Murr heading to the shower, and ripped the shower head from the wall trying to catch myself.”

Vanitas just stared. Of course Noe would manage to do something like that.

Thinking it over, he supposed there was no harm in letting him in. Call it payback for all the times Noe’s helped him. It was a little annoying that he’d have to let Noe take one first, but the was no way he was waiting around Vanitas’ apartment until he was done. Besides, this way he could take as long as he wanted.

“I guess,” he sighed, stepping aside to let him in. He swore Noe had stars in his eyes when he thanked him. Weirdo.

Noe stepped in to the apartment, looking around like he’d never been in there before. “Our showers are probably the same,” he said, shutting the door behind him. “So I don’t think I have to help you—hey! Don’t touch that!”

Vanitas was an art student, but since he and Noe weren’t friends, the other had never seen anything Vanitas had made. He had been working on a minimalist human sculpture for a class earlier, and must’ve forgotten to put it away because Noe was about to pick it up good lord.

He grabbed Noe’s arm before he could touch it, glaring at him. “It’s wet! I don’t need you squishing it with your inhuman strength!”

Noe blinked at him. “Oh. Sorry. I’ve never seen someone make something like this before, I wanted to know what it felt like. You’re really good at this!”

So naïve but so cute. Noe was practically sparkling. He didn’t say anything he didn’t mean; he really thought Vanitas’ half-assed sculpture was cool. Vanitas could feel the annoyance drain from him with every second.

“Whatever. Just go take your shower. You have 10 minutes!”

“Sure, but you’re gonna have to let go of me first, Vanitas.”

Vanitas blinked. He was still holding Noe’s arm. And when did they get so close? Vanitas (very calmly, mind you) let go and stepped back, clearing his throat. “Right.”

Noe nodded and headed to the bathroom. “And don’t touch anything you don’t need to!” Vanitas called after him.

As soon as the door shut, Vanitas was on the couch, internally screaming at himself. How could he be more awkward! All he did was grab his arm! Nothing weird about that. It was the first time he’d ever actually touched Noe though, and he was every bit as muscular as he looked, god damn. It would be a while before he’d forget about that discovery.

By the time the ten minutes were up, Vanitas had mostly gotten himself together. Enough to realize the shower was still running. He got up and banged on the bathroom door. “Noe! Come on! You better not use up all my hot water, I swear.”

The shower quickly shut off, followed by scrambled footsteps. ‘Please don’t slip, I don’t need you breaking my shower, too,’ he hoped.

A minute later, the door opened, and Vanitas thought he actually might die that night.

The first thing he noticed was Noe’s hair. He’d never seen it so curly. In hindsight, it only made sense; Noe’s hair shouldn’t have been that straight. He just couldn’t picture Noe using a straightener without severely burning himself. (Then again, no one should have white hair at 19, so could you really blame him?) It was still soaking wet, dripping down into the towel around his neck.

The next thing he noticed was that Noe Archiviste was shirtless and dripping wet in his apartment.

He just couldn’t catch a break, could he.

Vanitas had never been more grateful for his amazing poker face, because if he was, he’d probably look like a firetruck right then. “It’s about time,” he grumbled, pointedly looking away from Noe. He was dense, but there’s no way he wouldn’t notice Vanitas all but drooling over his body.

“Sorry Vanitas, guess I lost track of time.” Vanitas hummed in acknowledgement. Suddenly, his face was in Vanitas’ line of sight. He was carefully studying Vanitas’ face. “What’s wrong? You seem crankier than usual.”

Damn him and his skill for reading people. He refused to meet Noe’s eyes. “Tch. Nothing’s wrong. Can you just put your shirt on and leave so I can go back to enjoying my night?”

Noe stood back up. He could hear the shirt being pulled over his head. “By the way, your shower curtain’s a horrible color. My eyes hurt just looking at it.”

Vanitas whipped his head around to retort because it was a nice shade of blue dammit, but his words died in his throat. Noe had a soft smile on his face, and he was chuckling softly, and Vanitas felt like he might actually melt.

“Thanks for letting me use your shower,” he said as he started driying his hair. “Hey, I know this place that has amazing tarte tatin; you should come with me sometime.” All Vanitas could do was nod and give a soft “sure”. He was only half-listening; he was too focused on the fact that Noe was actually smiling at him.

Noe nodded. “Great. I guess I’ll see you around then?” he didn’t wait for a response before leaving Vanitas star-struck in his own apartment.

‘Wait a minute. Did Noe just ask me out on a date?’

Maybe this night wasn’t as horrible as he thought.

~~~

(A/N: the little shirtless Noe scene was supposed to be more descriptive with more freaking out from Vani, but half way through writing this, I remembered the Shirtless Kylo Ren meme and I had a hell of a time writing that part without dying of laughter i’m sorry

Also I totally threw in my headcanon that Noe has naturally somewhat-curly hair bc come on he’s black for goodness sake)

#vncsecretsanta #vanitas no carte #vnc #eli-and-fictional-sons #apparently i don't know how to keep a fic short these days it was not supposed to be this long #lol #i had so many ideas since you didn't want a specific prompt #but this was the easiest i think #but now i have ideas for MORE vnc fics so thank you #hope you like it!#by me #fic

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bemused-writer · 5 years

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Hello! First of all I gotta say I love your VNC fics and meta a whole lot and I'm very thankful for them (your Vanóes are GOOD). They're incredibly fun to read, and I love both writing and reading meta a lot. In this topic I'd like to ask your opinion about your views on Noé and Jeanne's relationship? I was rereading VNC recently and noticed that Noé blushes sometimes/stares at Jeanne a lot in the first few chapters, which I found a bit weird since their relationship doesn't get focus? Wdyt?

Thanks so much! This response has turned into a full-blown analysis of their interactions to date, so it’s a bit of a long post.

I’ll admit, the first two times I read what we currently have of VNC I didn’t notice anything between Noé and Jeanne at all. 8D So, it’s quite subtle! However, there’s definitely something going on, otherwise no attention would have been drawn to it in the first place.

The way I’ve been interpreting their interactions is that Noé respects Jeanne, which makes perfect sense. She’s a strong individual and they met on the battlefield in volume 1. I think a lot of his impressions of her stem from this first introduction. The first notable thing he thinks about her is that she’s strong, though not quite as strong as his teacher.

He continues to say, “I can do this. Even on my own…” From this, we can gather he was excited to fix things without Vanitas’s help. It’s important to remember that, at this point in time (volume 1), Noé doesn’t like Vanitas, doesn’t trust him, and would definitely like to distance himself from that bizarre individual.

However, he got ahead of himself. In thinking Jeanne wasn’t quite as strong as his teacher he got a little cocky and was surprised that she countered his attack resulting in what I will call Blush #1:

She then proceeded to send him through a wall. I think his reaction to that (seen below) is important because it tells us something about Noé that becomes more and more evident as the series goes on: he hesitates in combat against certain people.

Noé has a chivalrous side, something that drives Vanitas nuts. He doesn’t want to harm women or children (as evidenced by his first battle with Astolfo where Vanitas remarks that Noé hesitated because Astolfo reminded him of both). Noé was easily defeated by Jeanne here partially because he held himself back because she’s a woman.

He seems surprised by his own hesitation, however, and at how easily he was sent flying. Noé has led a remarkably sheltered life at this point and I think it’s also been somewhat traditional. Women are capable (he knows Dominique, so he must believe that) but they’re also not generally fighters. In short, I think Noé was impressed and had to reevaluate some things on the fly.

At any rate, he’s learned he can’t take Jeanne one-on-one in a fight, so he’s stuck going along with Vanitas’s plan after all, which is kidnapping Luca (even though he doesn’t realize he’s kidnapping Luca…). He doesn’t hear what Vanitas and Jeanne say to each other but by the end of it all, we can tell Noé isn’t exactly impressed with how things were resolved.

The next time Noé even sees Jeanne is toward the end of the Bal Masque in volume 2 after Jeanne drank Vanitas’s blood and Vanitas saved him from Charlatan. While he doesn’t directly interact with Jeanne in this volume whatsoever (all of the focus is given to three relationships this volume: Noé & Dominique, Noé & Vanitas, and Vanitas & Jeanne) we can at least draw a comparison between their personalities. Both Noé and Jeanne go out of their way to protect Luca. Jeanne has a more personal investment in this of course, but Noé befriends Luca and Luca is instantly charmed by Noé.

Speaking of blushing, Luca has done so for both Noé and Jeanne, so I would consider this further evidence of the two of them being similar in personality. Poor Luca, his type seems to be too old for him, unavailable, and with a weird background to boot. 8D

Getting back on track, volume 3 is when we finally see Noé and Jeanne interact a bit once more. They’re at a cafe in Altus Paris after the battle has been resolved. Luca has just finished thanking Noé for rescuing him (it was Vanitas but, honestly, neither him nor Jeanne really want to acknowledge that), and Jeanne chimes in:

Blush #2! For Noé at least. To be honest, I think this is the first time Jeanne has actually addressed him with words. Their only other interaction was their battle in volume 1.

At any rate, the two have very similar reactions. Jeanne is charmed by Noé because he performed the one act she considers most important: he protected Luca. Likewise, Noé is flattered because he’s just been complimented by a very capable individual. I don’t think Noé is used to receiving praise. Vanitas definitely isn’t about to dish it out in any conventional manner, Louis did the opposite of compliment him more often than not, and Teacher doesn’t strike me as affectionate. Dominique is warmer towards him, but I think there are limits there because she doesn’t want Noé to know how she really feels.

The point I’m getting at here is that I think these words, this type of declaration, is dear to him.

The conversation continues into some very awkward territory thanks to one Vanitas. Even if Noé hadn’t heard Vanitas’s declaration of love before, he definitely has now and even he has some awareness that a Mark of Possession is important. I’m kind of unclear on how in-the-know Noé actually is here, but he’s definitely shocked:

The tarte tatin is being ignored… Of course, once Jeanne and Vanitas exit through the window he pursues.

It’s a little unclear whether Noé overheard Vanitas and Jeanne’s conversation but I lean towards thinking he did and that’s why he’s so disappointed: Jeanne gets all of Vanitas’s blood to herself. It also means he knows the two of them have some kind of arrangement and that Vanitas claims to love her. We have no idea what Noé thinks about any of this outside of a general disappointment he can’t have Vanitas’s blood. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell us anything about his relationship with Jeanne outside of possibly seeing her as some kind of competition.

He next sees Jeanne at the dance where he tries to offer to dance with her except Dominique beat him to it.

There’s also a tiny, little blush here, but I think it’s aimed at Dominique. He has a lot of reasons to blush at Dominique: he literally just drank her blood a few moments ago, and he cares for her deeply.

Also, I know I just said Noé might consider Jeanne as competition, but I really don’t mean that in a negative way. Noé is disappointed, but he still likes her. He honestly doesn’t have any reason not to. He offers to dance with her because she was all by herself and looked troubled. Noé is all about helping troubled individuals, especially when it matches up with his general sense of chivalry.

Their interactions in this volume end there as the rest of his attention is taken up by Vanitas. He does talk about Jeanne, though, but mostly to figure out why Vanitas likes her.

“Vanitas… what do you like about Jeanne?” It’s an honest question and Noé just doesn’t get it. If we continue with the assumption he overheard Vanitas and Jeanne’s conversation, he knows they have an arrangement. He knows Vanitas claims to love her. But he isn’t seeing it himself. He likes Jeanne, but it isn’t that kind of love. Vanitas’s answer does little to explain anything to him whatsoever. He loves Jeanne because she won’t love him back. Rather than explain their relationship, he’s made it far more confusing for Noé, who is no doubt trying to figure out what it is Vanitas and Jeanne actually have. He’s never been confronted by a Mark of Possession before, never been exposed to two people loving each other before, and he’s just lost.

Noé and Jeanne next see each other when they all go to speak with Ruthven in the same volume, but they don’t interact. Noé and Jeanne also don’t interact for the entirety of volume 4, which is centered more around Vanitas & Jeanne as well as Noé & Vanitas.

They finally meet up once more in volume 5 during yet another battle:

Jeanne’s reaction is pretty amusing: “Y-you’re here, too? Well… since Vanitas is here, it’s only natural… I suppose?”

I think it’s just now dawning on her that Noé is always around Vanitas. XD In fairness, she’s actually had dealings with Vanitas on his own pretty often. I don’t think she’s used to seeing Noé by himself whatsoever.

He suggests they can save Chloé and once again he and Jeanne are confronting one another. It does give us Blush #3, though:

In fairness, I think this one is a mix of awe–she’s bested him once again–, some intimidation, and probably embarrassment seeing as a woman just wrapped her whole leg around his neck. I’d be blushing, too. Their confrontation is interrupted by Charlatan and … that’s it. They didn’t interact in volume 6 or in any of the most recent chapters (up to 39 at this point).

So! You are completely correct when you say their relationship isn’t getting a lot of focus. Personally, I think these blushes are just Noé being Noé. He blushes at just about everything. He blushes at Dominique, Jeanne, Paris, Altus Paris, things he finds interesting, and even Vanitas once in the train. Noé doesn’t try to conceal his emotions; he let’s them out. Likewise, Jeanne does the same, although she’s learned to be more reserved than is natural for her judging by her childhood.

Both Noé and Jeanne are designed to be foils to Vanitas, and that’s part of why they’re so similar. They’re both earnest, honest, loyal, kind, powerful, sincere, protective, etc.

In contrast, Vanitas is extremely guarded, tends to have a shaky relationship with the truth, his version of kindness is usually pretty harsh, he’s not strong the way vampires are, and he’s definitely not sincere. He actually is kind of protective towards Jeanne and Noé, though, but he sees this as a flaw rather than a strength. He’s also managed to be pretty loyal to both of them as well though, once again, not something he’s happy about.

I know some people think Jeanne and Noé might get together at some point in this series and I’d say it’s certainly possible. Mochizuki has surprised me with which couples get together before. I think these two would be cute on account of how similar they are. But looking at how things currently stand, I don’t think that’s where we’re headed. I think it’s more likely that we’ll see Vanitas torn between the two of them. Not necessarily in a romantic way, but as far as who he can continue to protect and maintain his reluctant loyalty towards.

I would like to see Jeanne and Noé form a friendship at least, but I think a lot of that is also dependent on Vanitas and other external forces, such as Ruthven.

Thanks for the ask! I liked getting to explore these two. ^^

#vanitas no carte #vnc #vnc meta #Bemused's post #Anonymous #long post

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bemused-writer · 5 years

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The Cain Saga Volume 3 - Kafka

Before we get into this volume I just want to let you all know that I had it all written already and then my computer crashed. Thus, this is the rewrite but hopefully it will be better than what came before. 8D

Also, typical warning for the series: it is rated “Explicit” for its themes. Please bear that in mind as you read the review. Also, there are just tons of spoilers here. For my previous reviews, you can find Volume 1 here and Volume 2 here.

The next thing I want to talk about is the glory of this volume cover:

Look at how exceptionally 90s this thing is. The baggy clothes, the overabundance of wrinkles, the broad shoulders, the poses. It’s incredible. There is the slight problem that, if I didn’t know this story took place in the 19th century, I would probably just assume it took place in the 90s or possibly even the 80s. It has a very Anne Rice vibe to it.

Speaking of Anne Rice, those streams of blood on Cain aren’t just for decoration: vampires are very much our theme this volume. As a brief analysis of the cover (outside of its 90s glory) I will point out that while Cain has been bitten by a vampire (a physical representation of corruption or lost innocence) he is also wearing a cross, indicative of an attempt at preventing this from happening on his part. Yet despite his efforts at keeping himself pure he is still brought back to his curse.

A minor thing: in The Cain Saga Cain is shows as having light brown hair for the most part, or at least light brown highlights. This changes in Godchild where he’s almost exclusively shown as having black hair. This is probably just a stylistic change but we could also interpret it as his life getting darker the further he goes.

And finally, a note on the title of the volume, “Kafka.” I haven’t talked about this at all in the previous two reviews, but each volume has a loose theme. In the first one it was “Forgotten Juliet,” a reference to Suzette who tried to win over her Romeo (and failed). The second volume’s theme is nursery rhymes, which is used primarily to demonstrate the loss of innocence and a corrupted childhood. This volume references Franz Kafka, who was known for his surrealist writings that included themes of losing one’s humanity and things of that nature.

And now into the volume itself. I talked a bit about how Riff is someone Cain trusts implicitly in the last volume and the beginning of this one goes out of its way to reiterate that once more. Upon waking up from a nightmare about his father where he’s led to freedom by someone’s hand, wondering whose it could be we see this:

The implication being it’s Riff that leads him out of darkness and back to the light. However, there’s someone to the left trying to overshadow him, and that’s something that this volume really takes a look at: What if Riff wasn’t so trustworthy? What if someone tried to take his place?

The doctor, who introduces himself as “Allen” but who we will refer to as Disraeli because that’s who he is immediately inserts himself into Cain’s life and insists he needs to go to the countryside to restore his health. I’ve always enjoyed this bit of Victorian advice. Have you been ill for weeks? You need to breathe some better air. Honestly, that was probably somewhat true all things considered; smog was a force to be reckoned with.

Disraeli tries to assist Cain with his clothes but he refuses and Mary Weather considers this:

We already know from the previous volume that Cain bears horrible scars on his back from his father’s beatings. This is something he does his hardest to hide from everyone, including Mary Weather. The only person he doesn’t make any attempt to shun in this regard is Riff, who already knows all about it.

Cain ultimately goes to the countryside just as Disraeli suggested and one thing I’m happy to see is how much Cain cares about his little sister, Mary Weather.

Cain has a lot of iffy moments in the series where you really question his opinions and mindset but I’m happy to report that his relationship with Mary Weather is always a source of happiness and remains untainted by all the other crazy things that go on around him (as much as that’s possible, that is).

The trip to the countryside quickly goes awry when night falls when Cain discovers a woman who can only be described as a vampire:

Even as he manages to escape her, he’s attacked by an unidentified assailant upon reaching home whom he leaves a scratch on.

And this is where we start to see why Riff’s honesty is being questioned this volume. Was he the one who attacked Cain at night? Who is the vampire?

Personally, I got a kick out of reading Kaori Yuki’s author’s notes on fan reactions to all of this. Apparently, Disraeli was not popular and she was confused as to why everyone was judging him so harshly when he hadn’t done anything wrong. (This is even more amusing when we get to the end only to discover fans were right.) Furthermore, Riff fans were apparently very unhappy with him being “replaced” with Disraeli and that Riff was being portrayed in a negative light whatsoever. It sounds like Yuki had her hands full with keeping fans content. XD

Fans were also unhappy with Cain’s “player” tendencies this volume (there were some dissatisfied readers! XD). The next morning, Cain meets a boy named Dirk who owns Witherby Castle and swiftly meets his sister, Justine, as well. Turns out, Justine looks exactly like the vampire from the other night. The only difference is that while the vampire was bloodthirsty and appeared to be something of a seductress, Justine is sweet and innocent.

I don’t think there’s a single reader who believes she’s actually innocent of the whole affair and that it’s only made more difficult when you realize she’s so delicate she can’t bear to look at mirrors or be under the sun.

...Yeah, sounds like a vampire.

Cain thought so, too, and decided to test his theory in such a way that led to the fan complaints I mentioned earlier:

She doesn’t immediately try to murder him or drink his blood. She has a very bashful reaction instead, so we can safely assume she is not a vampire (except no one is assuming that).

Cain notes she had a faint scar on her face, which doesn’t completely match the vampire from before. Half of her face had suffered extreme burn marks, so once again there is some difference between Justine and the vampire from before.

He promises to meet her again but I personally think the above panel has Cain looking a great deal more like how he’ll look in Godchild, which is the main reason I’ve included it.

At any rate, her brother is outraged at what Cain has done and immediately asks his sister whether they’ll be together forever or not with an insistence that can only be described as “odd.”

I think I’ve mentioned before in my VNC reviews somewhere that vampires are basically always used to explore something forbidden, especially when it comes to love and this story is no exception. I will point out that Yuki doesn’t really need an excuse to explore forbidden love, but having vampires involved increases the chances that she will by a lot. Needless to say, we’re about to get into some uncomfortable territory.

We see Riff behaving oddly once more by discarding Mary Weather’s hat. He rushes home, she’s fine, but he and Riff have a revealing conversation:

Now, I’m just going to let you all know that they are both, technically, acting right now. They both suspect Disraeli, but they’re going along with things and they’re putting on a performance to make it look like Cain is losing faith in Riff.

However, the amount of truth in this statement as well as the relevance of it all in Godchild is immense. I’ll get more into that when we actually reach Godchild but suffice it to say for now that Cain relies on Riff to an almost unhealthy degree and if anything truly threatened that we would see something very different from this.

Also, I just want to point out once more that you can really see some parallels between Cain and Riff with Ciel and Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji. I would genuinely be shocked if Toboso hadn’t read this series previously. There are some noteworthy differences though: Ciel and Sebastian have a far more confrontation relationship where the master/servant dynamic is largely a facade. Sebastion will win in the end, after all, so in many ways they’re equals but there’s no love lost between them, no matter how much Ciel relies on him and orders him to never lie. With Cain and Riff things are a lot softer: it’s a relationship built on genuine trust and affection but the master/servant dynamic is also a great deal more real as well. Riff is a servant and Cain is an aristocrat. It’s hard to separate them from their roles unlike with Sebastian and Ciel. Still, Cain’s need for Riff to be there and to be loyal to him is just as genuine as Ciel’s.

Getting back to the volume at hand, Justine and Mary Weather prove to be fast friends and suddenly Cain and co. are moving into the castle. Needless to say, Dirk is furious. Furthermore, the amount of people being attacked by that vampire is only increasing and paranoia is mounting.

Disraeli himself sees something strange:

Riff appears to be with a vampiric woman himself. Disraeli thinks of how terrifying her eyes are and proceeds to find Cain, telling him of what he saw. Cain refuses to believe Riff would ever betray him (understandably given he’s in on it) but the exchange he and Disraeli share is important:

The meaning behind what Disraeli is saying is extremely layered. On the first, he’s accusing Riff of being untrustworthy and of that he’s not looking after Cain out of the goodness of his heart but out of something far more malicious. On the second, Disraeli is referring to what he himself is doing: he’s getting closer and closer to Cain, Cain is “trusting” him, and doesn’t realize he’s only there to bring more pain. The third layer is by far the most nefarious and is only truly revealed in Godchild, so I won’t discuss it here just yet.

Cain goes to meet with Justine once more, gives her an earring (one that the vampire had dropped previously, I believe) and departs but her brother, Dirk, is in high dudgeon and it’s revealed that he loves Justine and is jealous of how interested she is in Cain. She refuses him and he says, “Have you really forgotten that night? I was the one who protected you from Father!” He follows up with, “It’s not fair! You forget everything in the daytime, Justine!”

We’re finally starting to sort out what is going on here. Their father has been mysteriously absent, there are rumors of a vampire who was burned at the stake, and there had been a fire earlier on.

Things come to a head with Riff and Cain dismisses him from his employ. He then finally meets the vampire once again, who claims her name is Gertrude.

She notes that his eyes mark him as someone who is just as cursed as they and she offers him eternal life. If he’s going to be cursed, why not get to live forever? And Cain is tempted by the idea. We don’t get to see what his ultimate decision would have been as Disraeli bursts in and chases her away with a cross.

Still, I can’t help but wonder. I don’t think Cain would have accepted. He despises himself for his cursed lineage and views his own existence as a sin. In order to prolong his life in the way Gertrude is suggesting he would have to kill more and more people, thus making his life even more cursed than it was before. I don’t think he could bear that, and so I think he would have refused her.

Afterwards he’s comforted by Disraeli and they have another layered conversation:

On one hand, Cain is telling the truth. He doesn’t like people seeing through him and it’s part of why he goes to such pains to conceal how much pain he endures. But he’s also not being wholly honest; he’s nearly always allowed Riff the privilege of both these things. As for Disraeli, he’s also being honest about watching Cain, but it’s hardly out of the caring concern of a doctor.

Meanwhile, Mary Weather is confronting Riff about leaving. She insists if he only asked, Cain would take him back. That is certainly true if he were actually leaving. But Riff needs to make his departure convincing and so this is what he tells Mary Weather: “Until now I’ve been everything for Lord Cain. I was his mother and his father. We’ve strengthened our bond without even using words.”

He’s laying it pretty thick here but there’s still a lot of truth to it. There would have to be in order for it to be even slightly convincing. Riff is everything to Cain as we’ve talked about before. He’s been there when no one else was. Without him, Cain would be lost.

When Cain next meets with Justine, she begs him to take her away because her brother is looking at her with evil eyes. Cain’s response is a little, uh, not helpful:

Here’s the thing, Cain is not the right person to be talking to about this. He has no idea what a normal relationship even is and as far as he’s concerned, running off with him is not freeing yourself from a cursed relationship.

It would be easy to say he’s thinking of his father and the incestuous relationship he had with his sister that led to Cain’s birth but this appears to be on a different level. Cain isn’t in the habit of defending his father’s horrendous choices in life.

After Dirk reveals the truth of Justine to her (which we’ll talk about momentarily) he and Cain discuss things and it becomes clear why Cain was so particular about what Justine said:

It turns out Suzette wasn’t simply his cousin. I’ll be honest, I completely forgot that tidbit. All I can say is that it’s been awhile since I read this...

At any rate, Cain is admitting he is in no position to be judging Dirk. However, the fact that Cain thinks he’s as bad as his father goes to show how deep his self-loathing is and how much he isn’t considering the entirety of the situation because it honestly isn’t the same. 1) Cain had no idea Suzette was his half-sister until after she’d died. Alexis knew perfectly well what he was doing. 2) Alexis forced himself on Augusta. Cain did no such thing to Suzette.

Cain’s love for Suzette is better likened to Oedipus than to Alexis: he tried really hard to avoid incest but the gods (Yuki) just wouldn’t let him live in peace.

Cain also says “It’s no use. If I’m not related by blood to the woman I’m not capable of loving her. I don’t know how to love.” He declares that he and Dirk both need salvation.

The thing is, Cain doesn’t actually know this for a fact. He’s had multiple flings but he’s never actually stayed in a relationship where he’s in love and his partner loves him in turn. He’s despairing and thinks he knows how things have to be but the fact is he doesn’t.

Honestly, the lack of Riff in this volume becomes pronounced around this point. There’s no one there to try to offer an alternative explanation to Cain or to try to get him to look at things from a different angle. He’s left to his own devices and that means he reaches the worst conclusions possible.

Anyway, going back to what Dirk revealed, it turns out their stepfather had been abusing Justine and had put her through some kind of dark ritual in an attempt to bring Gertrude to life. In other words, another personality was superimposed over her own.

What I don’t like about this is how the narrative kind of frames this as Justine’s fault. She was the one who manipulated Dirk into killing their stepfather (rather understandably, I’d say!) and she was supposedly the one who seduced Dirk. Furthermore, it’s implied she was the one in control of their stepfather as well. Dirk definitely accuses her as if it’s her fault and Cain doesn’t exactly help. Of course, Cain’s perspectives are so skewed as to be useless in this situation, so...

Regardless, it’s implied that she was never a vampire (which I suppose I could believe) but that this was her true self coming through (which I find much harder to believe).

Ultimately, she and her brother burn to death after she goes on a rampage. It’s hard not to feel bad for both of them despite the awkward way this whole thing has been framed. They were both abused by their stepfather and never given a chance to remake their lives. They were trapped from start to finish.

Cain is understandably upset but when Disraeli comes to “comfort” him it’s revealed at long last what he really is: a soul catcher from Delilah. He also reveals he was the one who set the whole thing up along with their stepfather:

Just as Disraeli goes to remove Cain’s eyes, Riff finally makes his reappearance and everything comes to light once and for all:

They “kill” Disraeli and learn a few things from him as well:

Alexis is still alive and Delilah is an organization he’s a part of. Cain tells Riff never to leave him again and we get an idea of just how hard this has been. He’s been without Riff for a long period of time now and he’s witnessed two siblings die during it.

On a lighter note, I enjoyed seeing Riff explain to Mary Weather how he was lying:

Up till now I would have assumed he had no sense of humor but clearly I was mistaken. XD He’s teasing her terribly! It’s also revealed that the vampire Riff had been with earlier had been Cain the whole time, which makes things a lot more amusing as well. Lastly, it’s revealed Disraeli survived, which isn’t all that surprising.

Anyway, that wraps the volume up, and what a volume it was! Rather than tackle multiple short stories, this one had one big story! I enjoyed that it was one story that tackled a lot of things relevant to the plot but there were a few points that could have been smoothed out, notably how harshly everyone was in judging Justine compared to Dirk. The other thing I really wish we got more of is who Suzette was as a person. She only showed up in a singular chapter, but she’s having a profound impact on Cain himself. I think we needed to learn a lot more about her.

The Kafka reference is also a little clearer: neither sibling felt human anymore and Cain hasn’t for a while now. While it’s too late for Dirk and Justine, it isn’t yet for Cain. Perhaps we will see him make some progress in the next two volumes.

#cain saga #count cain #godchild #Bemused's post #long post #manga review

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