#DOMINIQUE VANITAS SOLIDARITY

[neversetyoufree]

One of the panels of all time honestly.

[holdharmonysacred]

All right, now that I’ve finished my two-day binge read of The Case Study of Vanitas and given myself time to think things over, here’s my Dank Thoughts on this series, which I’ll be putting in the tags For Once unlike the first time. Hope all of y’all in the Vanitas fandom are ready for Long Posts From A Newbie, because boy have I got one for you guys:

Noé is still an adorable dumbass and extremely good boy and I love him. I am getting a bit of a case of “Anime Ages Are Fake” from him because he looks 25 but is actually 19, what the hell. I do think he’s going to wind up having some skeletons in the closet that he has no idea even exist or are there, either because of his Teacher or because he’s the last known Archiviste, but overall he’s a very very good boy whom I love.

Also Noé reads as being really fucking gay for Vanitas but is oblivious about it. He feels like a gay ace or something who does not know what he’s feeling for Vanitas is Gayness so he just assumes it must be a really petty loathing for him. Very much an “I love you but I hate you but I love you” kind of thing.

Vanitas is still a Rat Bastard who feels super slimey and scummy, but like, I can see where a lot of his Rat-ness comes from, even if it makes me have a serious love/hate relationship with him. He reads like a super complicated protag overall, definitely a big enough asshole that it is hilarious and wonderful to see it backfire on him or watch him get dunked on, but still sympathetic. I wish he would please stop being a misogynistic creep though, it just makes me go “Hrrrrghghhhghhhhhh” at all his scenes with Jeanne, and if this has to be the direction the series goes in I hope Noé and Jeanne are able to give him the ol’ Vincent-and-Ada treatment and make him Stop Being An Ass.

Watching Vanitas get dunked on by the story is absolutely hilarious though, I’m glad the story is absolutely willing to punish and clown on him for his dickery. The hostage scene in the catacombs arc was fantastic.

Also I do not think Vanitas will actually die at the end, as much as the series wants to insist he will. Something smells fishy to me on this, there’s probably going to be some kind of twist involved wherein it is revealed that either Vanitas didn’t actually die, or he did die But Can Get Better. It just feels super suspicious that the series would tell us right off the bat in chapter 1 that Noé will kill Vanitas, it feels like a misdirection of some kind to me. I do think Noé really does think he killed Vanitas, but it feels like there’s gonna be more to this story than what Noé’s immense guilt is telling us.

What’s up with Vanitas’s gloves? Why do they take his nails into account. His nails don’t even look that sharp when his gloves are off. Does he...... Does he have fake nails on his gloves?!?!?!?!

also. his lab experiment number really had to be 69 didn’t it. it really had to be that number huh.

Jeanne is still an extremely good girl and I love her and want to hug her. She’s an absolute sweetheart and a doofus and I desperately hope she’s able to get a happy or at least bittersweet ending.

Like I said earlier, I’m still super super “hhhhhrhrgrhghjghgh” at her current relationship with Vanitas, mainly because Vanitas is such a goddamn rat and creep and i do not trust him to be in a romantic relationship with her, but as of the current arc it seems like their relationship could potentially evolve into something..... better? Vanitas seems to at least actually care for her now in an I-am-not-nice!-meme kind of way VS his behavior at the start. I’m on the fence on this one.

Also we all agree that there’s almost definitely something more to Jeanne’s parents turning traitor in the backstory right? Right. For sure. Something smells here too, I feel like the series is gearing up for a plot twist in this area at some point too.

Luca is Babie and I wish he’d get to do more in the story. For someone who’s probably supposed to be the fifth main character he sure is getting Sharon’ed a bit. His brother is almost definitely going to end up being important in a later arc though, there’s no getting around that.

I’m still very very gay for Dominique, Mochijun is targeting me and me specifically with her. She’s just peak Aesthetic no matter what outfit she’s wearing and I love her. Mochijun please let her back into the narrative when the next arc hits.

Dominique and Noé read like more like WLW and MLM solidarity than they do a pairing honestly. I want the two to eventually sit down and have tea with each other and have Dominique talk about her crush on Jeanne I desperately want her to have while Noé complains about his own crush on Vanitas. 

For the sake of people on mobile who would potentially get slam dunked by read mores on there I’m splitting this into multiple posts, part 2 with More Thoughts is coming Soon.