#Just to clarify: I've got nothing against Vincent/Medium but honestly I don't feel it

[ottosuwuen]

You know what's the funniest thing about arc 7-8 to me?

It's revealed that Vincent has never bedded a woman nor had children.

When the rumors of Vincent's illegitimate son spread, Chisha, Vincent's closest servant since their teenage years, who spent quite a lot of time with him, refuses to believe them, and acts defensive when Berstetz suggests that there may be things about Vincent that Chisha doesn't know. After all, Vincent always made sure to never even share a bedroom with a woman so that no one could create such rumors. There's no way Vincent could have had children without Chisha knowing.

Serena, who has unsuccessfully tried seducing Vincent before, explicitly mentions the possibility of his being gay to his face, even though she already knows the reason is something else. Vincent doesn't deny that (nor react to it in any way for that matter), by the way.

Only 3-4 chapters after that conversation with Serena happens, we're shown Chisha's backstory and motives. Surprise, what we thought was betrayal at first is actually part of a secret, elaborate plan to save Vincent from his prophesied death. They face each other "at a distance so close their eyelashes could touch" right before Chisha sacrifices himself while gazing one last time at his beloved liege with a "decadent smile" on his lips.

"Why?" Vincent asks the corpse more than once, well aware that it won't reply. This is Vincent, the man who'd rather keep his mouth shut if he has nothing useful to say. And what's more useless than directing a question to a corpse?

Later, Vincent, on the verge of a breakdown, asks Subaru, whom he suspects to be a Stargazer, why he let Chisha die instead of him. Vincent had accepted his death. But that's not what Chisha wanted. "He was angry that fate intended to kill you, and also angry at you for surrendering to fate." Now it's Vincent's turn to stand up to fate. That's what Chisha would've loved to see.

Then Tappei introduces an arranged marriage plot between Vincent and Medium to pretend he didn't just write the gayest thing in Re:Zero.