#Like it makes complete and total sense from everything about Jeanne that she is a character who just...

[panvani]

Person writing 2 paragraphs about how the way people treat Jeanne VnC is insaneeellyyyy misogynistic but somehow choose the 1 complaint that seems that it could be totally sincerely delivered in good faith

[aurorauau]

the tale of how these Rose Guns Days end...

here we have it. I have many thoughts but for the sake of not making a thousand posts of my same surface level analysis, I'll just talk about individual characters and my impressions of their endings...

Rose is one of my favourite protagonists of the whole 07th/wtc lot (if it has a Miyoko Tanashi it might as well be wtc) despite her writing being very frustrating at times. the complex got her good... her ending being a bittersweet one in which she's at her lowest point mentally that we've seen her ever since the Caleb arc makes sense when she was locked up for a year and in her own personal hell, being totally unable to do anything and even speak in her own voice to her friends. similarly to what I said in my Meijiu and Wang post, the vagueness of the 1950 ending, Rose choosing how she's going to be seen, all serves to give Rose control of her narrative... I think the part with Julie doesn't land as well, it didn't reveal too much so I think it still worked

Leo has frustrated me from beginning to end which I've laid out in real time. I think I can deal with many problems with him by just looking at Jeanne's authorship. everyone helped but Leo in this domino sense is the person who started it all and helped turn Jeanne's life around. so of course he's portrayed as super competent as he is. as for him always joking and flirting, it's the impression she got from their time together! imagine Battler from the first two episodes of Umineko... still I'm disappointed that he didn't grow on me and only became more disliked (because of thing with Zel)

Richard is just legendary. I need to put him next because as a counterpart to Rose he's genuinely one of the best antagonists to me. the way he's constructed gradually, getting to know him and seeing the cracks in his nice facade and then the complete unraveling of him after losing his whole family. I love his dynamic with Rose, Stella, Keith, Meijiu, and of course Cyrus his bff who I will add on here because I don't have much to say about him... I like how Cyrus deconstructed every role that he was put in and always felt like a person

Meijiu felt like the deuteragonist to me because his relationship with Rose and Richard, his arc in the second and third season were so strong that everything I could say won't measure up... I'm so happy with his ending since first off he didn't die and whatever I wanted to happen could happen next at this point. I could say I wanted him to do more but I love that he gets an ending where he plays the support role he always wanted to play

Gabriel is great! I think he was a bit overhyped to me but he managed to pull through. his duel with Richard and Butler coming in as I've said was just terrific and a much better ending than Primavera group storming in and defeating him but with his death very few things actually change which imo works for the bittersweet ending. we saw how he was disliked in the ghq, which doesn't make ghq benevolent and not full of other people who will terrorise the city in more subtle ways that aren't mired in trauma-driven revenge but just disdain. Butler was the perfect character to illustrate this with his jovial image, lack of principles and all, in the end he's in a very good position to return to his old ways but inside he's just not the same...

I want to say Alan and Keith invented love but they invented some more complicated things... again maybe I come off as super positive about everything but I love their ending! Alan shielding Keith's head as they fall, Keith's realisation and of course cutting off just at that moment was cruel in the best way... Xiaolan seeing that Alan might be dead was harrowing though... my parentified child's turn to feel Alan-style guilt for something she couldn't directly control but she got involved so I guess it's on her. I think this moment was the best part of the ending because it could really be anything. the next moment, Alan could moan in pain still alive, Keith could shoot at Xiaolan if he has anything to shoot with and run away, etc...

Zel, Nina and Charles had a sweet, heroic ending just for something different... but keeping in that bittersweet tone. imo these kids had some of the most solid writing in the whole story and it's very satisfying to see it wrapped up this way. the next is truly up to them... I think the part with Oliver's grave was a bit on the nose but I'm here for that. they made me wish for an epilogue just to see if they're still hanging out together as adults but I think having the space to imagine it is perfect...

Zilong almost gets away with not doing anything but detectiveing in the background and talking to other mafia bosses since he was introduced later than most, but I'm really glad we actually got to meet him, and not just a shadowy figure on the phone, specifically that Rose got to meet him... the "Rose's group meets with the gds" part was kind of sloppy to me considering all the buildup, but it's good enough. the gds as a group are my favourites here (isn't it obvious) so good for him

some disappointments: I think I understand the point of everything with Stella and Meixue but I still can't get over how they were chewed up by the narrative, especially Stella who had some of the best potential as a character, at least play a more key role in the second arc rather than just delivering a letter. in the process of the story of the mythmaking around these dead women not unlike Rose... the story has to lose two standout women characters so I'm happy I was spoiled on Stella being marked for death early on. I think in killing them off undoubtedly and not characters like Alfred the point is obviously that death isn't narrative punishment for those who deserved it but a tragedy to be treated with gravity... sigh...

Claudia and Meryl's diminishing roles didn't help much. I love them both to bits and Meryl at least got her double bookkeeping moment, solidifying her as a core member of the group, where I felt a lot of the original gang besides Rose and Richard were kind of flattened. what is Wayne's role even. kidding... Wayne grew on me and I think he had a very interesting arc... which we don't see most of. old Wayne is terrific, I always liked his comments

Caleb and Miguel coming back and fighting with Rose was fun, I was always kind of confused by their redemption but I guess it's very telling of Rose. Rose needs to love herself more. Amanda too... I really don't know why she's still with these guys, I assume she has nowhere else to go. there was a real affection between Amanda and Caleb but he was and still is not a good partner to her... she's got one of the most negative endings to me but like I always say it's vague enough. maybe she gets a chance to turn her life around like Jeanne?

Jeanne. Jeanne is a liar sometimes. I'm still very fond of her almost as much as I like pinning any problems I had with the narrative on her. I think on a reread it'd be key to read it all with the full context of who Jeanne was in mind. handing off her seat to Julie because of her grandma... after Jeanne got it partially because of her grandpa was a bit comical. I don't know what to think of that whole born leader thing. Jeanne still came through with her personality and force of will developed through her life and hardships - it's that her noble heritage was a plus to make her more palatable to the people of the city than a former sex worker with a bad reputation... well that's what I think. I really liked having a story framed by a narrator from the beginning as a contrast to the Umineko framing for example

Julie is fun, idk what to say about her but since I'm near the end of my words I should just to say something wild. I was convinced that Meijiu was her grandpa since the second arc. put the two of them together and Rose and look at their design elements. I don't know if this was intended at all, probably not, but it amused me and has a leg to stand unlike Claudianne (rip Claudia's relevance)

if I forgot anyone it's because they're worthless and must be ashamed to even be on the screen. kidding... I've talked about Butler so for the end I will say I also liked the mystery of Ange. love that we don't know what happened to her or who did what. maybe on a reread I will find myself more frustrated with the 1950 ending but it's good. I have less to say about the modern one, it's ok. there are some mixed messages in the overall narrative... but unraveling them is part of the experience so I'll be doing it in the meantime

[brw]

The first time Sasquatch and Aurora have sex is set during Machine Man #18 I believe, when Sasquatch did not know about Aurora's D.I.D. and later found out Alpha Flight #4 which I shared above. And yes, Jeanne Marie and Aurora do not seem to communicate much at all, but this is not totally uncommon in comic book portrayals of D.I.D.; the Moon Knight system has only started communicating with each other regularly fairly recently, and the Hulk system rarely does either.

But I'll be completely blunt, claiming this as sexual assault of Jeanne Marie feels completely ridiculous. I don't think it's a nice feeling for Jeanne Marie to go through, and I'm sympathetic to her character, but like, is Marlo Chandler sexually abusing Bruce Banner by sleeping with Joe Fixit? Is Marlene from Moon Knight sexually abusing the other members of his system by having continued sexual relations with Marc? I don't think so! I think this framing is disingenuous and quite honestly feels kind of misogynistic. Why are Bruce and Hulk free to explore relationships independent of one another but Aurora and Jeanne Marie aren't?

As for, again, erasing the X Gene, again I do not think it's a moment of glory or anything but like I just do not think this is a big deal in the grand scheme of comics, but I'll admit to being desensitised. Like, I didn't have a problem with it either when Reed Richards did it to Franklin, and again, this plotline was forgotten for about 40 years of comic history immediately after as if it was an afterthought so it's kind of whatever for me. Like I don't think it's a good moment but I think drawing so much attention and focus to this thing which nobody has actually mentioned until a comic 40 years after the fact is again, kind of disingenuous to the reality of their relationship and how they consider each other in canon.

And the age gap stuff is, kind of bluntly, bullshit. Like I know in Handbook to the Marvel Universe stuff they say that she's nineteen at the time of Alpha Flight, but those aren't really hard canon and I do not think should be taken in gospel, particularly because Jeanne Marie is a teacher and you legally cannot be a teacher without a degree in Canada. You have to at least have a Bachelor's, so she at minimum has to be 22. Additionally, I just don't understand how Northstar was an Olympian at the 1980 Olympics (the closest Olympics to Alpha Flight V1 in 1983), and also a terrorist for the Front de Liberation du Quebec, a terrorist organisation most active in the 60s and 70s, and is meant to be 19 by Alpha Flight. Like was he making bombs at age 8??? Like, I know that on paper, they were 19 in Alpha Flight, but that makes absolutely zero sense with everything else we know about them. Plus, it also just is not something that I'd hold against these characters even if it was hard canon, because yeah, it's John Byrne. It's not exactly a flaw unique to them. And if I had to start anywhere with age gaps in Alpha Flight I'd start with Namor and Marrina, who is called a child even in the panels where she's having a relationship with Namor.

Okay, I've finished every Alpha Flight volume, all the limited series' and the one-shot, and most of the cameo appearances, and can I just say, I have truly no idea what the fuck people are on about when they say that Aurora and Sasquatch's relationship is uniquely awful, or abusive, or incredibly toxic, and I can't tell if it's because I have a uniquely high tolerance for weird and toxic relationship dynamics in comics (I have fun reading a lot of Ant-Man and Wasp comics, I love Vision and the Scarlet Witch, I'm a ReedSue warrior, etc), or if everyone else had Alpha Flight be their first 80s comics, because Sasquatch hasn't done like, anything! And I know she's my favourite, so I'm naturally inclined to be more gentle than most people, but even with that context, I feel like I'm usually pretty good at recognising when my faves do something messed up. I'm a Hank McCoy fan, I know how to criticise a blorbo for war crimes. but Sasquatch doesn't even do that very much until the last 20 issues of the series, and it wasn't Aurora. Because, okay, here are Sasquatch's crimes in Alpha Flight;

Attempted to calm Jeanne Marie down by explaining the relationship between Langkowski and Aurora. In this, the narratior dialogue literally says that Jeanne Marie does not feel the disgust she would expect of herself for learning of her altar's sexual activities, and that's what makes her react like that. It has nothing to do with Sasquatch's actions, and everything to do with Jeanne Marie's complex and negative feelings about her own sexuality, of which Sasquatch was kept in the dark about by Mac until this issue. Alpha Flight V1 #4

I've seen people say that Sasquatch persuing a relationship with Aurora after this fact was wrong, and I can see where they're coming from, but it does feel deeply infantilising, frankly. Would you say that about Betty Ross and her relationship with Bruce and Hulk? What about Marlo and Joe Fixit? Aurora clearly was interested in Sasquatch and was determined in pursuing that relationship, and I don't think Sasquatch is a bad person for returning those feelings and that desire any more than I think like, Janet van Dyne is a bad person for loving Hank still when he was Yellowjacket. This isn't an uncommon dynamic in cape comics, especially in the 80s. I don't know what to tell you. Acting like someone continuing to pursue someone with dissociative identity disorder is an awful person is just a really odd take to me, particularly again with the context that this is not an uncommon plotline in the remit of 80s comics. Is everyone who ever dated Moon Knight getting cancelled now, too? Or is it only women with D.I.D. who are too mentally ill to be capable of relationships and of consent? I'm not denying that the way this was written was ableist, and misogynistic, but acting like Sasquatch is awful for being romantically involved with a woman with D.I.D. while not being incredibly informed on D.I.D. is bizarre to me because you can say that about SO many comic book characters with dissociative identity disorder!

Camouflaged Aurora's x-gene when she asked Sasquatch to change her powers to be no longer reliant on Northstar. I've seen some people act like this entire situation was non-consensual, but no, Aurora went out of her way to ask to be changed to not rely on Northstar's powers with her light ability. Alpha Flight V1 #17

I don't think like, nonconsensual body experimentation is a good thing, but again, this is small potatoes to me. I'd understand it if it was Sasquatch changing Aurora's powers without permission, but the only thing she did was mask the X-gene, and I'd like to remind everyone this is the universe where they canonically have giant genocidal murder robots. Like I'm sorry but I just simply do not think this is the worst thing someone has ever done to their partner in comics! And granted, when Reed did the same thing to Franklin in the most recent FF vs X-Men, I also didn't care and I was on his side, so I might just be built different, but some of you people would not survive reading 70s Avengers comics. Is it a great moment? Of course not, but I think it's an understandable action in the universe where mutant genocides come monthly, and I do not think this holds water as proof Sasquatch is an awful abusive person, particularly when the reason for Aurora wanting to no longer be connected with Northstar came after multiple instances of Northstar assaulting Aurora, purposefully endangering her, slut-shaming her, being very controlling towards her regarding her relationship with Sasquatch as if that was not a choice she was making, and even after when Sasquatch was dead, continuted to be incredibly ableist to both her and the disabled man she was involved with, Roger Bochs. Like, I appreciate and I KNOW that their relationship has grown and has gotten much better, but at this point in time, frankly, Aurora was right to want to be separated from him, I think, because he was not a good brother to her.

And in any case, the mutant gene thing, the actual issue and the actual symbol of non consensual body modification, almost immediately gets forgotten. Writers have since talked about and discuss the way her powers were altered; none of them in the main Alpha Flight series have ever acknowledged her X-Gene being masked, so outside of this one issue, it literally does not come up and is never framed as an issue. I think you could, and I'd be interested if they did, but I do not think altering Aurora's powers WHEN ASKED to distance her from her brother, who at this time, was a distinctly controlling, cruel figure in her life, was a bad thing to do. The sense of ownership over her, the justifiying mutant bigotry, sure, that's messed up, but I've read every single fucking issue after that, and it does not come up again, so you're going to have to try harder to convince me.

And after this, that's sort of it? Like, I'm trying to think of anything else that happens in any of these runs, and nothing's really coming to me. They don't get back together after Sasquatch comes back, and don't get back together for the rest of the run.

I guess there's the bit where Sasquatch helps instituionalise Aurora in that random issue of Wolverine (#173), but like, I'm really sorry, you'll have to forgive me if a random issue of a Frank Tieri comic that only happened to set up Frank Tieri's Weapon X series which is universally hated by Alpha Flight/Aurora fans isn't something I'm gonna sit here and call core characterisation. It happened because Tieri wanted Aurora in that series so she could get sexualised and abused, and to my knowledge he has never written Sasquatch or Aurora before or since his Weapon X series, so again, you'll have to forgive me if this, to me, feels like the equivalent of pulling out Bendis' Avengers Disassembled as a core piece of Wanda Maximoff characterisation. Like, no. That is ridiculous. What are you talking about.

Look, alright, look. I'm aware, as I've repeated, that I have an unnaturally high tolerance for comic book nonsense. I like 60s comics a lot. I read all of Force Works, and Silver Sable and the Wild Pack recently. You think Byrne was weird in Alpha Flight? Try reading his West Coast Avengers. So it makes sense that some people would read these moments, and see them as unforgivable, because they aren't deep in the weeds of what nonsense comic books can be. They haven't sat down and read Avengers #200, one of the most infamously awful comics ever. They haven't followed the trajectory of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne's relationship up to it's divorce, and afterwards, and seen how misogyny, ableism and saneism all combined in a very odd 15 years of comics. They haven't read fucking Force Works. Or Silver Sable and the Wild Pack. Or Super Soldiers. Or any of the other obsucre, awful comics from the 90s I've been reading. Fine!

But what I don't understand is the volume of people who have read all of Alpha Flight who think these are completely unforgivable, awful actions, when they barely rank a D tier to me in the grand scheme of comic book crimes. Like, okay. In issues #59 and #60 of Marvel Team-Up, Spider-Man teams up with Yellowjacket and Wasp, and over the course of those issues, we learned Hank injected Janet with like, extra Wasp DNA to make her powers stronger while she was sleeping as a surprise anniversay present. And when Janet finds out, she's like, "😊 You're so thoughtful", and you're telling me the worst thing you've ever read is someone agreeing to change someone's powers very slightly to not be reliant on the twin brother she has an incredibly fraught relationship with, a twin brother who purposefully tried to force you into a wild bloodlust to scare his sister so he could be the sole person she trusted??? That's the worst thing you've ever read????And I was under the impression that only weird people who read a lot of comics and are naturally used to this sort of thing read Alpha Flight, but I guess not??

Whatever. I guess I just expected a lot more and a lot worse in the grand scheme of comic books from the way people were talking about them and this relationship, but while I don't like, think these two are good for each other, or should stay together, their relationship at most just seems like regular John Byrne shenanigans, and I've read too many John Byrne comics for that to phase me. Did you guys go from reading slice of life webcomics to Alpha Flight with no in between? Sasquatch doesn't even leave Aurora to die in the Antarctic like Rogue did with Gambit (Uncanny X-Men #350)....

[bemused-writer]

VNC Chapter 47 Analysis

They're labeling this as "chapter 48" on official sites, but the last chapter was chapter 46.5, so I'm just going to call this 47 and hope for the best. XD Anyway, let's get right into it.

We start out with Jeanne at Carbunculus Castle, the place Noé and Vanitas were infamously kicked out of back in chapter 13. We see that Jeanne has an interest in books (and that Luca has given her permission to read his) and goes straight for the fairy tales.

Now, I suspect as a bourreau, she wasn't granted a whole lot of time to read, so the fact that Luca let's her read his books is probably considered a luxury. She looks awfully excited to be reaching for a book. Once again, we see how much Luca cares about her and how much has been withheld from Jeanne for so long.

Because of this, I'm guessing she's unfamiliar with a lot of the stories we take for granted, such as Sleeping Beauty. Regardless, Jeanne enjoys the story about the princess and inserts herself in it, only as the prince rather than the princess. It's interesting that, despite her history with Vanitas where he's been the one helping her (when he wasn't mocking her), she sees herself as the hero of the piece and Vanitas as the person who she can save. This fits in with the more domineering personality she's been demonstrating lately. And frankly, Vanitas is probably going to need her help at some point, so she's probably not completely wrong, even if it seems unlikely that Vanitas would ever accept such a simple romance.

Here's the thing, Jeanne's view on romance is pretty simplistic. That's not bad, but it means she and Vanitas are once again coming at things with a very different perspective. She's envisioning a relationship where she protects him, he welcomes this behavior, and then they go off to enjoy romantic bliss. But the thing is, we know Vanitas doesn't feel this way at all. He's terrified of genuine emotion because he can't believe anyone would think well of him, so unsurprisingly he hates himself, and he doubly hates it when people try to save him or protect him at their own expense (see his reaction to Noé doing just that in chapter 11). So, everything Jeanne wants out of a relationship right now is not going to work for Vanitas. Because, well, all Vanitas wanted out of a relationship was someone who would hate him while also being fun to mess with.

...His standards are pretty low. He is clearly not ready for a relationship of any kind. And, well, Jeanne isn't either, really, because her standards are too... unrealistic, especially considering who we're talking about here.

Anyway, Luca shows up and the two chat a bit before they're interrupted with the news that Dominique is missing.

Now this here is very interesting for a lot of reasons. 1) Apparently the de Sades are not considered reliable. She's been gone for three days and they're only now looking into it? This family is supposed to be politically savvy, yet somehow they get away with ridiculous behavior. Hmmm... 2) We finally know what Dominique's duty is: she's a royal guard. This is big. For one, it means she's been wearing an actual uniform this whole time and it's not just her sense of style. For another, she and Jeanne have kind of similar professions. They're both protecting the royal family. And yet, despite having this important job, Dominique's family treats her like a failure. Why? Is it her meek personality? Or do they not consider the duty of a royal guard all that important?

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if "royal guard" translates to "de Sade spy" because I have a hard time believing this crafty of an aristocratic family would allow their daughter to simply be on guard duty all day. If so, no wonder Dominique is always so stressed.

The guard continue to tell Luca something, but we don't get to hear the whole exchange because we shift to Jeanne's perspective. Still, the guard is saying that something is happening in the humans' Paris, and I think it's safe to assume it's the "vampiric incidents" Noé referenced in chapter 45.

Considering how things are turning out, I think we can also assume the curse bearer is Dominique and these incidents were instigated by Misha. Why would he do this? To get Noé's and Vanitas's attention. His plans haven't really been subtle so far, but he likely knows what they've been up to: saving vampires.

Still, this theory doesn't totally hold up because Misha's plan rested on Dominique luring Noé to him. If we assume he corrupted her name, it's possible she went on a rampage without his instruction and this wasn't part of the plan whatsoever, though, and is therefore still possible.

Luca asks Jeanne to do him a favor, but at this point we cut back to Noé, so we don't know what it's going to be. I'm not sure what role Jeanne and Luca are going to play in this arc. They're unlikely to come in time to save Dominique; they have no idea where she is and even if Vanitas stopped to ask for help, it would be too late. What's more likely is they'll get involved after Vanitas has "rescued" Noé or intervened in some fashion.

Speaking of Noé, he really had a lousy time of it this chapter, didn't he? I'm beginning to see a shift in dynamics. In the first two arcs (Bal Masqué and Catacombs) Noé was the one who did the bulk of the protecting in his partnership with Vanitas. He saved him from Ruthven and he saved him from Moreau. With Gévaudan and now this arc, it seems Vanitas is having to step in to protect Noé.

Having said that, Noé still seems to be the target for a lot more of the malicious acts in this series than Vanitas is, and I'll talk a bit more about that momentarily.

Misha says he wants Noé to drink Vanitas's blood so he'll finally know why Vanitas killed their "Father." Noé admits he has no idea what this kid is even talking about, which surprises Misha.

That all by itself already raises some questions. Everything we've seen of Vanitas makes it pretty obvious he wouldn't talk about his past so easily, but Misha assumed Noé must know a great deal about Vanitas.

Misha: "Well, well. I was overthinking it, huh? You've been together all this time, and yet... You don't know a thing about my brother, do you Noé?"

Was Vanitas more open before he killed Vanitas of the Blue Moon? Or did Misha simply assume that for Vanitas to spend any length of time with someone suggested it must be someone he'd talk to about everything? I mean, in fairness, Vanitas has confided more in Noé than anyone else, but they haven't known each other that long, so his entire backstory would be a bit much right now. Also, how long as Misha been keeping an eye on them? He seems to have some idea of how things are going between them. Either that, or he's making a lot of assumptions.

I find this darkly amusing. Misha has some awareness of how insane his request sounds, but he figures it's simply because Noé doesn't have all the facts and not because, you know, he kidnapped his best friend and is threatening to kill her.

Anyway, Misha rightly assumes that explaining things will probably take a lot of time and Noé frankly has no reason to believe him anyway, so he reaches a conclusion: he'll just have Noé drink his own blood, give him the facts, and then toss Noé at Vanitas to finally get the answer he seeks.

This is such a fascinating mix of good and bad logic colliding here. On one hand, information is good! You definitely want people to have that if you're hoping to get them to help you. On the other hand, forcing the guy you're holding hostage to engage in an intimate act with you to learn those facts probably isn't going to endear him to you in any shape or form. 8D Misha simply assumes that once Noé sees how Vanitas killed his father, he will sympathize with him and want to help him. He's completely forgetting that he is hurting Noé and the person he cares about, Dominique, and that that isn't something he's about to forget anytime soon. He's also not taking into account that Noé has, you know, morals. Forcing himself on Vanitas isn't something he's going to readily do even if he does think killing Vanitas of the Blue Moon was messed up.

Noé doesn't want to drink Misha's blood. He is horrified by his behavior, his actions, and what is basically sexual harassment at this point. But despite all that, Noé drinks his blood anyway, and the reasoning is simple.

She means everything to him and he's worried about her. I've wondered for a while now if Noé is aware of how traumatized Dominique actually is from what happened to Louis. This section makes me think that the answer is "yes."

I can't find the panel right now, but I seem to remember at some point Vanitas made a comment about Dominique being forward or something like that and Noé said "She wasn't always like that." But he said it so simply I figured he thought Dominique underwent a transition just because. But the above panel shows that her transformation was really painful for Noé, too. He had to witness her physically change herself, emotionally change herself, all in an effort to become another person, whom they both cared about and missed. That's psychologically taxing for everyone involved and I think that both Noé and Dominique assigned themselves the duty of protecting the other. Dominique spends all her time trying to make sure Noé is safe as well as trying to become someone she thinks Noé will love, and now we see that Noé was so frightened by her attempt to become Louis he knew he had to do everything he could to protect her.

Also, for ages now I've thought that Noé was projecting Louis onto Dominique or that certain moments with Dominique made him think of Louis, but I need to retract some of that. Since Dominique spent so much time dressed as Louis, those time he "thought of Louis" were probably times he was thinking of Dominique in her "Louis phase." Which is definitely hard to keep track of, but for now I think we should just assume all the times he drank "Louis's blood," or danced with "Louis" he really did do those things with Dominique.

Which means another thing: these two have a much higher chance of being a couple than I originally thought. There's even more history and backstory together than I'd realized, and we're really seeing how much Noé cares for Dominique now. The real hindrance in this relationship is Noé's obliviousness and Dominique's self-hatred.

But let's get to Misha's backstory, which we get to see as Noé views his memories.

This panel right here explains Misha's behavior pretty well actually, which is handy because Misha's behavior is decidedly unsettling. There's no denying the sexual way Misha handled himself when he offered his blood to Noé and it seemed to me like a very learned behavior. We see here that's the case. The phrase "turn tricks" means to engage in sex, so what the guards are telling us is that Misha's mother had him perform sexual acts with her customers. So, that's unbelievably messed up, but Misha's behavior makes a lot more sense now. He was taught to do this, is used to doing this, and knows it's a method to get what he wants. Well, he wants Noé to do something for him, and, well, drinking blood is often a seduction method for vampires, so I guess by that logic he should get exactly what he wants.

Except Noé isn't a customer, he's not interested in Misha, and he's essentially having a panic attack. Not an ideal way of getting someone to do what you want. Like I said, Misha's logic is a fascinating mix of good and bad and that is really being highlighted right now.

Also, going back to Misha making assumptions about Noé and Vanitas's relationship, I think it's likely that, given his background, he was probably convinced those two were sleeping with each other, which is probably why he also figured Noé knew more about Vanitas than he does.

One thing that surprised me about this chapter was that we got to see Roland! Out of all the things I expected, I really didn't expect to learn that he and Misha met at some point. XD But this is an interesting connection, one that I feel like has to come up again at some point. We see that Roland is very good with children with a good sense of humor and a kind nature. We also see he was pretty heavily injured when Misha first met him.

I really have to wonder what happened to put Roland in such a sorry state....

Regardless, he assures Misha he will have a new home with lots of friends. But then Misha asks an odd question: Why did the chasseurs kill the vampire that killed his mother?

Roland is understandably confused and then horrified as Misha explains the vampire saved his mother.

And here we are, back to the question of "What is salvation?"

Misha says his mother became cruel to him and that she was always angry, but the vampire restored her smile and she seemed kind again. In other words, she died, but she was also restored, however briefly, to the mother Misha had missed for so long.

So, Vanitas and Misha both had their families killed by vampires. Vanitas's reaction is more what we might expect from that trauma: he distrusts vampires, maybe hates them, but he's also seen how awful humans are and has decided everyone is awful. We can assume that the death of Vanitas's family didn't restore any faith in vampires, that's for sure.

But for Misha, that wasn't the case. This vampire was clearly a cruel, horrible man, but Misha was already used to being around cruel, horrible people. That probably didn't register as all that different from the norm. But his mother's smile did, and so he views vampires fondly.

Basically, we're seeing two different reactions to somewhat similar trauma (the death of one's family) and different ways of treating vampires based off of it. Vanitas wants them to stay away from him unless he's the one with all the power and because he wants to maintain a sense of autonomy, he especially doesn't want an Archiviste drinking his blood. He threatened Noé with death if he ever attempted it. He keeps his secrets close and people far away.

Misha was raised in an environment where he was hardly keeping people away. He's used to being an open book--or at least pretending to be one--and so he embraces vampires and wants his past to be known because that's how he establishes power: by drawing people in. Misha sees an Archiviste's abilities as "useful" not "bad."

Anyway, Roland makes a comment about the vampires leading Misha's heart astray. I wonder if this is how Astolfo feels about Roland now? Hmm...

We briefly see Olivier as well, and he's just as beat up as Roland. Just what were these two doing? Also, someone says "my Lord," which I think was aimed at Olivier, and if so, that confirms my suspicions that he's of the aristocracy.

Misha is whisked away the second Roland's back is turned and he's given to Moreau who then places him in Vanitas's care. My guess is the next several chapters are going to be Misha's flashbacks before we return to the present day, which means it's going to be a bit before we hear from Vanitas and Jeanne.

My biggest question is, of course, how Vanitas will react to this scene. I can see it going a few ways. He could be appalled at what Misha has done and direct his anger at him. Or he might wonder if Noé was so eager to know his past he agreed to drink Misha's blood for that alone.

But in this case, it really has nothing to do with Vanitas; Noé is simply willing to do whatever it takes to save Dominique. Learning about Vanitas wasn't something he was remotely interested in in this scenario. Quite different from the norm!

Also, can Noé even trust the memories he sees from Misha? Are these memories "accurate" or are they distorted by Misha's own impressions? Furthermore, what will happen to Noé after being immersed in someone else's memories for so long? He can't fully remember Jean-Jacques's memories because it was all smashed together, but this is a very clear reading, possibly the deepest he's ever done. I don't know if he'll recover readily from this.

And when Vanitas gets there, how is he going to save Noé and Dominique? Will he freeze when he sees Misha? How powerful is this kid?

And then there's the mark on Misha's arm. It's on the opposite arm to Vanitas's, which makes me think the mark shows up wherever a vampire bites as opposed to having a set location. Another interesting thing about this mark is that he's missing part of his arm. In the flashback, Misha has both hands, so did he lose one because of Moreau? Or is this a result of being rewritten from using the book too much? There's a lot to consider there.

I'm very eager to see the next chapter. This is quite a clever way of giving us some backstory without having Noé betray Vanitas's trust. I'm curious to see how things continue and just how awful Moreau was. b>Edit: So, I completely forgot to make a couple of points. XD I'll just add them to the bottom.

I wanted to talk about Noé and how he's been bearing the brunt of the trauma of late and why that might be. I think at least some of it is to go against our expectations. Noé is a vampire, and generally speaking, vampires have the advantage in any story about them. They're stronger, practically immortal, and knowledgeable on account of their age. Noé is physically stronger than Vanitas, but he isn't immortal, and he's actually somewhat naive. This is already different from our expectation. But what's also different is Noé undergoing so much trauma.

Of course, I don't think Mochizuki is doing this just to mess with our expectations. I also think it's because Noé tends to be trusting and he tends to go into situations without proper warning from Vanitas. On several occasions now, Noé has criticized Vanitas for not stating things clearly (the Catacombs arc) and for not telling him vital information (the Gévaudan arc). And whenever Vanitas doesn't tell him something, Noé suffers for it. A few other examples: If Noé had known how little Vanitas trusts Ruthven, maybe he would have been more careful about going out to coffee with him. If he'd known Vanitas even had a brother and that he was dangerous, maybe he could have asked Vanitas for help first. If he'd known there was a second book he would have been radically more prepared for what faces him now.

I'm not trying to say all of this is Vanitas's fault because it isn't. Noé could be more careful in general and less trusting as well. But it definitely wouldn't have hurt for Vanitas to speak up sooner.

Another thing I wanted to touch on briefly is something I've talked about before, and that's how one of the themes of this series is consent and what that actually looks like. We have Vanitas and Jeanne where I think consent was dubious in their relationship, but then it transformed and is maybe more consensual now (their relationship is currently in flux). Then we see how Noé has had a lot of unwanted attention thrust on him from people like Ruthven, Chloé, and now Misha. I think that suggests that at some point, we're going to have to see him in a more stable, consensual relationship. Noé tends to brush things off; he let go of Chloé's treatment easily. But with this constant barrage, I feel like we're either going to see him snap or we're going to see him be more firm in his boundaries.

And then about his drinking Misha's blood: Will this finally heal his hand? I know I've been fixated on his chopped off hand for a while now, but it really drives me crazy. 8D

Okay, I think I've covered everything I meant to now. There was a lot to think about with this chapter.

[the-golden-ghost]

Fandoms: IADWW and the Jules Verne Literary Universe?

IADWW:

character i first fell in love with; Considering I read the book entirely for the sake of Charles... Charles.

ultimate favorite character; I mean, probably Charles. Dunois is pretty rad too though.

favorite female character; VALENTINE MOTHERFUCKING VISCONTI, WHO DESERVED BETTER AND FOR WHOM I WOULD DIE

favorite male character: We just covered this

least favorite female character; I mean I know this book did her slightly dirty but Isabeau

least favorite male character; Jean the Dickweed of Burgundy comes to mind. Not a huge fan of Louis d’Orléans either cause he didn’t appreciate Valentine enough but he also got murdered so RIP

ultimate OTP; Charles x Marie, actually. I know Charles x Bonne is like the kinda obvious romantic one but like... they were barely together for their entire marriage? 

favorite m/m ship; I don’t know that I have one for this? I mean I know in the Shakespeare canon there’s the ever-popular Charles/Constable but that’s Shakespeare canon, it doesn’t work as well with this.

favorite f/f ship; N/A 

favorite m/f ship; See above

BROTP(s); All the Orléans siblings together. Also Dunois and Jeanne d’Arc. Also Valentine and Charles VI.

NOTP; Louis x Isabeau was a hecking nightmare

most aesthetically pleasing character; Valentine, obviously. Canon would suggest Louis but canon is WRONG. 

character you’d totally hug; Charles, for one. Also Valentine.

character you’d totally date; Valentine and I’d treat her right this time. Except she’s in love with Louis so alas. Also Dunois. Also possibly Jeanne d’Arc cause... well, you know.

overall opinion of the show/game/book/etc; Quality! Especially for being a lengthy, historically-dense novel about an obscure historical figure who most people barely remember except for a minor part in Shakespeare’s Henry V and also maybe for his Valentine’s Day poem. It takes some time to get into just cause it starts from so early on, before Charles is even born, but boy is it worth every page! And the fact that it ends so happily after all the bad stuff that goes on in it...

JVLU:

(Okay disclaimer, I’ve only actually read two books from it. I really need to read more. Nonetheless, here’s what I got!)

character i first fell in love with; That would be Nemo, when I was like 7 or so.

ultimate favorite character; Probably Aronnax

favorite female character; Martha! I mean she was only in the book for a total of probably nine seconds but she was a good soul and honestly shouldn’t have had to put up with that nonsense, either.

favorite male character: See above?

least favorite female character; There’s only been like two...? I mean, provided the ray that stung Conseil in that one scene was female, than That Ray. Curse you, ray. 

least favorite male character; Probably Lidenbrock because he has zero redeeming qualities and spends the entire book acting like a dick. And he also learns nothing from this behavior and does not change, so RIP

ultimate OTP; That would be Nemo/Aronnax

favorite m/m ship; see above. I’m also a fan of most of the TKLUTS ships, though. When it comes to that book I like the dynamics between everyone so I’m not picky. I’m quite fond of Aronnax/Ned especially.

favorite f/f ship; N/A due to having not read enough books with actual women in them, and Verne not writing enough actual women

favorite m/f ship; Probably Axel/Graüben. I mean we see exactly none of it but what else?

BROTP(s); Again, all of the TKLUTS squad. They all rock.

NOTP; I don’t really have one? I mean there aren’t many ships for these books anyway. I guess shipping anyone from JTTCOTE would be super weird cause the main group consists of a guy and his uncle and their Icelandic guide who doesn’t speak more than one word at a time and therefore lacks much obvious personality? 

most aesthetically pleasing character; I mean, if we’re to trust Aronnax, it’s Nemo. The most admirable specimen of human ever to be seen. 

character you’d totally hug; Aronnax, he seems like the type to give excellent hugs.

character you’d totally date; I dunno. I guess Conseil. I’d date Conseil, I think that would be entertaining.

overall opinion of the show/game/book/etc; The JVLU is a really wild ride. I mean it’s got all this Real Science(tm) in there but then also a lot of Stuff Verne Just Completely Got Wrong or Stuff Verne Muddled The Timeline For To Fit His Story Better so dates and everything are a huge mess, names make no earthly sense, (the fact that he couldn’t come up with a realistic-sounding French surname despite being French kills me) and yet there’s all this real world accurate knowledge of fish and how tides work. Plus, you know. Epic Adventures. People can simply Do More in this timeline, such as ride volcanoes, and battle squids hand-to-hand. It’s a lot to take in. But it’s fun, and I appreciate it. 

[lovataz]

My Thoughts on Virgin Soul’s Ending

Found this in my draft which I wrote in 2017 (Ha!). It’s quite a long post so... decided to post it.

_________

So Virgin Soul has finally come to end, and I feel like sharing some of my thoughts here. In brief: I have to say I’m a bit disappointed about how it ends; everything is so rush and there is so many things unexplained. So the rant begins:

First, I have mixed feelings about this show; in general I would say I love it, I enjoy watching Virgin Soul and it did give me such a good time. I adore the characters, the beautiful art style and epic music score, both of the openings and endings are refreshing and catching. But it is also because that I love it and have high expectation in it that, seeing how it ends in such an irresponsible way, comes with great disappointment and discontent. The first half of this season is so interesting; each episode makes me thrill and hunger for the next episode. There is a classical RPG and old-schooled fantasy vibe that really caught my eye. The characters are vivid and distinctive, and the tension between Gods-human-Demons and our naïve dragon girl Nina is nicely portrayed.

But the latter half is not so much. In my opinion, I would say it’s the false time distribution (aka bad tempo) and loss of point in writing that muddles the whole plot and even the show itself.

I’ll mainly talk about my thought on ChariNina here. I still love this pairing. Their last dancing scene is just above beautiful, within the soft piano theme playing in the background, the angst and the bitter sweet feeling is remarkable and heartrending. The lovers finally ended up together, but with a thread of bitterness: he couldn’t see while she couldn’t speak. Thus the couple could only “feel” each other, through touching and their hearts. The blind/mute arrangement is painfully beautiful... the lovers didn’t need to rely on sight nor voice to understand each other; they communicated with their heart and soul. They are both incomplete, but together they become complete. So personally I’m okay with their ending, but not okay with the whole plot.

In the first half, their story is intrigued that I ship them immediately since they first met. After that, each episode is like a cliff hanger, I just want to know more about them and how the story will pull them together or even separated. Till episode 13 is the climax of the show, also of Charinina’s love story to me.

But it would be so much better if MAPPA gives them more time to develop their feelings toward each other. Maybe it’s just because that I’m not a love-at-first-sight kind of person, but I really can’t see a strong reason for Nina’s deep love toward Chris. She likes the man, yes, but since when did she fall so deeply in love with him? We just don’t know. All we know is that Chris is the only man whose presence makes her feel at ease and safe. But this could only be viewed as the reason why Nina likes him. To me, there’s a lack of writing focus on Nina’s feeling toward Chirs progress from “like” to “love”. Especially for their kissing scene in ep17, it should be a pinnacle of Charinina fandom, but I just couldn’t feel the same excitement like their interaction in ep13. Their proclamation of love in the cave scene, seems that they are deeply in love with each other, but before that all they did is:

An arm wrestling game: first met

Chris saved Nina from thugs; Nina invited Chris to come to the celebration.

Chris and Nina’s almost-first-date: a lovely night of dancing and having fun.

Met during the demon’s rebellion: Charioce recognized Nina one sided.

The trial: Nina lashed out against Charioce’s ruling and savage act; still didn’t recognize Chris.

Charioce’s visit in the prison – finally exposed both their true identity: the red dragon and the tyrant (judging from Nina’s accusation).

Reunion during the war: exchanged small chat, dragon Nina accepted Charioce, Charioce didn’t hurt the red dragon. It’s a good proof that they both cared for each other.

And that’s all, not quite much is it? And the next time they met in ep17, it seems that they had been through so much together. Plus, I always think Chris acted a bit out of character in this episode. Maybe there aren’t enough plots for us to understand his character…… but the confession is abrupt and even rather cheesy.

But this doesn’t mean I dislike episode 17. In fact, the scene Chris shed tears on dragon Nina; the lover flied through the night sky of Anatae is truly stunning and moving. It’s the first time we could see Chris reveal his true self, that there is a human heart under the stony king’s mask. And he prayed for freedom and happiness, but he also had to fulfill his duty as the king, he could not betray those people who have faith in him. It should be a big breakthrough in Charioce’s character and ChariNina’s story, but it didn’t turn out as well as it should be. It’s just lack of development, the writer failed at handling the time scale. So it lessens the affection when they finally confessed their love for each other. Lovely still, but not quite enchanting.

So… to sum up my thoughts: If you want to tell an adventurous fantasy with romance side story, then you should stick to it till the end -- the war between Gods, Demons and Human, the final boss Bahamut, the king’s plan and his backstory and purpose, all these factors should be carefully treated.

In contrast, if it’s supposed to be a romance story happened in a fantasy background, which is about love conquers all, then you should give the main characters enough screen time to develop their relationship and to understand mutually, so their love story will be much convincing and touching.

Sadly, Bahasoul just happened to be placed in between.

Not to mention other unexplained/unreasonable things such as:

Favaro’s captured plot and the arena thing: one word - WHY?

Charioce held back his true intention: If his plan is to kill off Bahamut once and for all, than he should at least try to negotiate with other races about the plan, since what he intended to do is based on legitimacy.

Kaisar’s death: totally unnecessary, just to make him a zombie to match with Rita? Nah.

El’s death: I won’t say it’s unnecessary, because it plays a trigger of the war between Gods, Demons and Human. But in the end it doesn’t even matter anymore, because after Bahamut’s appearance, the three races seemed to automatically reach a peace agreement, and -voila- lived happily ever after.

Nina literally stopped transform into dragon as soon as she could control it. Nina, as much as I adore you, I have to ask: Why didn’t you transform during the final war as soon as possible, instead of riding in Bacchus’s wagon? You could easily interrupt Jeanne and Azazel’s attack against Charioce, you even reached there earlier than Kaisar!

Nina’s clothes during the transformation (lol… okay this one could be a gag, but I’m still confused.)

The hint of Bahamut is still alive… to me, this is the worse. This means what Charioce has tried to achieve, and all the sacrifices of people/demons/Gods just turn out to be in vain. Because in the end, Bahamut is still alive, so why did everyone have to suffer so much? The story became meaningless. I know it’s a foreshadowing for season three to come, but couldn’t they just think about something else than Bahamut to deal with? Nope, because this show is called “Shingeki no Bahamut”.

Compared with the prices of the Onyx task force soldiers, what Nina and Chris had paid is a bit… small. It’s not like I want them to suffer (I ship them, so of course I want them to be happy), but seeing the Onyx task force captain being consumed by the green stone, while Chris used it to activate Dromos plus even fired shots TWICE and just lose an eye each time… Hmm. Kinda unproportioned I would say.

What is Dromos? We just don’t know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A tale of love and ruin, I hate to say that but this catchphrase is so true: not for the story but also appeal to the audience: it makes you love the show and the characters, and then it ruined them in one episode. So…… to put in one line: I love Virgin Soul and Charinina, but for its finale, the sense of disaffection and hollow emptiness is beyond description.

Nevertheless, I’m still thankful for this show, since it accompanied me through the important time of my life and did actually create a good memory. It’s entertained and fun to watch, but once you are into this show, the ending will bring you down. Such a pity, it could be so much better.

[mikanrulz]

snb:vs ep17 aka where do I even begin with this

WARNING: nothing but salt in here, so if you think this ep is good and it makes you happy, do yourself a favor and scroll past please.

This ep post is divided into four parts:

the good part

the salt is real for azazel part

charioce the fragile baby bird part

tl;dr part

now

1. ON THE GOOD PART

first of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BOTHERING TO CARE ABOUT AZAZEL, KAISAR

currently you (and the grandpa demon chief from ep15) seem to be the only one to do so.

haha…ha… /cries

I guess I should just be thankful that kaisar at least mentioned his name, considering in ep10, 11, 12, 13, 14 not only he doesn’t get to appear, none seems to remember his name or his existence at all.

(bacchus and hamsa too seem to be forgotten, while we’re at it)

Also dang favaro looks so hot this ep? And considerably older. Something about him is just cool all over, but cool in that fun uncle whom you like to play with way, not cool cold way.

You have no idea how happy it makes me to see his armpit hair is still there hoho

Also favaro says that azazel’s not there since morning… meaning Azazel’s actually an early morning person???

That’s… unexpected lmao

I kinda thought with his being demon and also his vampire complexion, he’d have a vampire habit of sleeping in the day and be awake in the night.

But then again, he does have a job as an undertaker in the stadium, so uh, sorry for doubting your dedication azazel! Just because you’re a demon who seems used to being spoiled and egoist, doesn’t mean you’re lazy!

…why does he have to disappear just after he agrees to work together with kaisar in ep before? Doesn’t it look like he goes back on his words??? Show why you keep doing this to him yo

Well

Rita is actually good with make up and costumes. Color me surprised, bcs her doctor outfit is so…. baggy. But I guess attending patients are easier in such outfits compared to her casual ones lol

Meanwhile on heaven, a new ship is officially born

Sofiel really just says that, while fully knowing bacchus fell from grace bcs he chased after a human girl.

El officially has two moms now, aren’t you happy El >/////<

Speaking of El, nobody calls him El on earth, so probably even if azazel’s here, he would still not know that El is mugaro’s real name.

I was kinda hoping mugaro and nina are still in each other’s clothes by the time they meet azazel just to see his reaction to it and confirm what his reaction in ep7 actually was, but alas, since azazel’s not even shown at all, might as well have them back in their own clothes.

/bitter

Kaisar formally introducing himself to mugaro is weird bcs well, haven’t they met before? Countless times? Maybe not at night while azazel’s doing his rag demon routine, but during azazel’s job at the stadium? And during ep8?

But then maybe mugaro being jeanne’s kid makes a difference?

This part makes me a bit confused bcs all this time, I thought Kaisar’s actually aware of azazel being in Anatea (from the start maybe, bcs rita, so at least two years?), he just doesn’t realize until ep1 that the rag demon is azazel. And if he’s known azazel in the city for two years at least, he should’ve noticed mugaro’s existence, since mugaro hardly ever leaves azazel’s side, be it night or day.

Also, how long azazel’s been in anatea anyway? It should be more than two years, but none mentions it so far right? Even grandpa demon chief from ep15 just says azazel going away alone without any time modifier.

And yes, hamsa in that vest is cute <3

…now on to the hard part:

2. THE SALT IS REAL FOR AZAZEL

First of all, let me make it clear: I don’t care who ends up with who in the show; that’s what fics and fanworks are for.

and I know I keep repeating this, but from the start, I actually already expected nina and chari to end up together, so them ending up together, now, does not surprise me.

What surprised me is the way they (the writers) go to achieve it: which is by consistently undermining a “love rival” or another character (azazel) in order to make chari (the true love interest) looks good in comparison.

And this is… just so very painful for me as azazel’s fan.

I already wrote a bit about how azanina scenes in those early eps were actually foreshadowing for charinina plot, and it happens again in this ep.

Just compare the difference in the way the anime shows azanina and charinina interaction; same street, same place, but chari is a charming playful gentleman who ends up taking nina in a ‘romantic’ gateaway while azazel is a pushy jerkass who ends up on his ass in a comical position courtesy of rita’s punch.

Also pls compare these lines:

Those two lines technically commenting the same thing: meeting and reacting to each other.

And while Azazel’s line is more matter of fact and had a sense of inevitability to it, like “what happened happened and let’s just accept it and move on to do something about it”,

Chari’s line is unnecessarily more dramatic, and also more romantic, bcs wow how he makes nina sound so special and like she’s the only one, like he’s blaming fate or whatever, while at the same time confirming why yes fate is the one who makes us meet; if only fate isn’t so cruel blah blah blah

Sorry if I sound so skeptic bcs honestly I’m just… skeptic.

Like, wtf dude who are you? Who is this emo ooc parading around in charioce’s shoes? I don’t know him.

He has never showed sign of being emo even once during the whole 16 eps and then suddenly this??? yeah right.

But back to that line, I won’t blame nina if she falls for chari’s words hook, line and sinker bcs she always seems to be drunk in love in her own separate world and at first glance chari’s words is totally romantic – if you like your man dramatic.

So… to sum it up, from nina’s perspective (and what the show wants you to see it as) Azazel: matter of fact pushy jerkass with no romantic bone whatsoever to his body Charioce: romantic charming guy with romantic confession and is kind to kids.

Haha ha…. /bitter

AZAZEL DESERVES BETTER THAN TO BE A FODDER FOR CHARININA PLOTLINE

/phew

There I said it.

Just, you know, it seems everything azanina did is eventually going to be done also by charinina, except in a way that’s much cooler and romantic; and this is not bcs of chari or azazel’s characterization itself, but bcs the *show* needs and intends for chari to look better compared to azazel.

It’s in *the way* they show it, and not the act itself that actually really matters.

Personally, I hate how, bcs of Nina’s romantic and obvious shoujo manga view of her world, in the show Azazel’s treated like a persistent former boyfriend once ep6 rolls around and chari appears for real; like he’s suddenly being broken up by nina even tho 1) they’re not lovers in the first place, 2) he never shows romantic interest in her.

And honestly, I could understand azanina shippers’s frustration with the show’s current progress, bcs up to ep4, they have the most interaction and nina’s reactions to him is so very… leading, to say the least. Add to it the show’s marketing and main visual w/ nina surrounded by four guys, it seems at least azazel and chari had the same chance with her. (fava already has Amira and kai has rita, so they’re just not available to nina)

But then by ep5, it seems the whole 4eps doesn’t happen and azazel’s just mugaro’s boyfriend/brother/guardian aka *just* nina’s acquaintance, nothing more.

Add again to it the fact that nina doesn’t even seem to remember azazel exists ever since ep10 until now ep17. Not once does she ever wonder about how he’s doing, despite how she feels guilty over him in ep8.

Even taking the shipping issue aside, it’s just not good overall for nina’s characterization to forget about him and her guilt so easily, bcs that means once the ‘problem’ is no longer in front of her, she instantly forgets about it. That makes her so… flighty, easily distracted, and just…unreliable, to say the least. And seems unsympathetic toward others.

I’m not saying what happened to azazel is her fault; it’s completely his and his fault only.

I’m saying it’s important to follow up on her guilt and explore it a little perhaps, and not just act like it never happens, bcs she *did* say she feels sorry for what happened in ep8.

I *did* like azanina’s interaction more than charinina’s even though I didn’t ship them romantically.

But now (or more precisely, ever since that hot spring scene w/ nina and Jeanne) I just want nina to stay faaaaaaar away from Azazel.

esp since even if he meets her again, he's only going to be used for yet another charinina fodder and example how he's such a jerkass loser while chari is a charming romanticist anyway

GIVE HIM A BREAK, SHOW, GDI

I understand her head is full of charioce or something but the fact she COMPLETELY forgets about azazel despite their past interaction and what happened between them and how they saved each other at least once is just… haha… ha…

You know, if this pattern continues, nina’s actually going to forget about charioce too the moment another hot looking guy pays attention to her for a bit probably haha

So yeah.

I read someone says azazel has his own story and Nina has her own story, and that they just doesn’t care about nina’s. I AGREE COMPLETELY.

Indeed azazel and nina (and chari too tbh) have their own story, but while azazel & charioce’s story happens in the same line, Nina’s story while seems to happen in the same world, just doesn’t connect to their story at all (so far anyway, yes, even tho it’s 17th ep already).

3. CHARIOCE THE FRAGILE BABY BIRD (according to nina)

First of all, boo hoo, wtf why is she still getting red-faced by kaisar? I thought she already has her true love in charioce and no other man would do, but then kaisar appears and she’s suddenly back to her old self?

(esp when azazel no longer does it for her???)

Hamsa’s line makes it clear tho: that red-faced scene is done purely for comedy and not for any consistency or plot-relevant thing. If you’re trying to be consistent, show, then try to show her character development instead, her who is no longer easily blushing anymore. I thought this is already an established plot point, but apparently not, and it irks me greatly.

And that’s actually the biggest flaw in the show: the show is mainly story-driven and not character-driven, and for the sake of advancing plot, it sacrifices many things, including any consistency in Nina’s characterization.

I won’t be commenting much on the discomfort watching Chari & Nina playing with the demon kids bcs other ppl already covered that better than me.

But I’d like to point out the discomfort of watching Nina treating Charioce like some kind of fragile baby bird.

I’m just. WHUT.

In this ep, even tho he IS the king who enslaves and kills and destroys these demons, she’s more worried about HIS well-being than the demons who have no way of fighting back if he ever tries to attack them.

GURL PLS.

She worries about HIS clothes even though the demons kids’ clothes are far from being fit.

She screams when she sees the ball is a skull but shows no reaction at all to how HE naturally plays ball with said skull like nothing amiss, like he’s used to seeing skulls.

She trusts HIM instantly even though technically she is a fugitive and he’s the king who is hunting her and her escapee friends.

She worries more about HIM being in the slum than about the danger to HER FRIENDS by bringing their hunter to their own backyard.

All she thinks about is HER, HERself, HER feelings, HER thoughts, and HIM and I just.

GURL HOW SELF-CENTERED ARE YOU.

She really doesn’t think of things outside her immediate perspective or beyond herself. She does not even *try*.

She’s kind but she lacks empathy, which is why she needs direction and to be told to care before she could actually care.

I’ve said before how, bcs charioce never directly hurts her, she can’t think of him as a bad person.

And this scene:

I just.

the "an asshole to everybody else but a sweetheart to his girl" trope is such a popular trope in all kind of media that I'm surprised nina doesn't realize it's not weird or extraordinary at all.

ahem

I don’t understand why she can’t understand this: that both are part of him, both are *real*

On the other hand, she could accept and understand that Azazel’s kind to Mugaro but a jerkass to her. Both are facets of azazel, and she has no trouble parsing that.

But then when it comes to charioce, she suddenly loses all senses? Pfft.

Also, why does it matter which one is real? Chari still did both things; even if, say, the kind him is the real him, it doesn’t erase the fact he destroys Cocytus and enslaves demons and kills both demons and angels.

Like wtf gurl.

Also, the *wording* actually *matters*, and the way she says “making the demons and gods hate you” it’s like Chari is only pranking them or something harmless like that for the purpose of making them hate him, which is not true at all.

HE TORTURED AND MASS MURDERED THEM. WOMEN AND CHILDREN ALIKE.

No, Nina, it’s not hate what they feel for Chari; hate is too light a word to describe it. They try to murder him now bcs they’re trying to survive, since if he’s not dead he’s going to kill them all eventually.

Also, way to make this all about you, gurl.

Gods and demons being slaughtered left and right but all you care about is his attitude toward you, bcs it’s the only thing that matters to you the most apparently.

Bcs his countless victims, including Jeanne, mugaro, kaisar, azazel, the gods she called cute, totally do not matter at all to her.

Empathy what empathy.

Fuck.

I’ve written about it here, but her conversation with Jeanne in ep14 still gives me chills bcs wow, she perfectly knows chari is the one who hurts Jeanne and is the cause of Jeanne hurting her own child, yet she still dares, with no shred of guilt at all while claiming herself Jeanne’s friend, saying to Jeanne’s face that she *loves* charioce.

No consideration at all of how Jeanne’s actually one of Chari’s victims, no nothing.

The fact Nina doesn’t mention Charioce is the guy she likes is totally cheating and unfair to Jeanne, bcs now Jeanne has unknowingly approved of Charioce.

Cheating…or more like betrayal toward Jeanne, I think.

I wish Nina had done it purposefully tho, omitting Chari’s name in that scene I mean, bcs at least it means she’s aware jeanne’s chari’s victim and only trying to spare her feelings by not mentioning the name, while still keeping the conversation going.

But the fact she hadn’t is just. stupid and mostly empathy what empathy indeed.

Also this scene:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

WTF

…I feel so stupid for trying to analyze her transformation at all oh my god what a waste of time and energy

What about her mother’s words about how her transformation is realted to her father trauma and bahamut???? Where’s the follow up??? Where did that plotline go omg

I JUST.

REALLY, SHOW, REALLY?

That easy? So she’s basically, to quote someone, “just a dragon in heat.”

Wow.

Just… wow.

Also to anon from way back, I take back what I said about how nina’s ignorance is not meant as shallow; full offense, I really mean this: nina’s not only ignorant, but also shallow, only thinks of herself, and has no empathy whatsoever for others unless told to.

The fact Chari never hurts her is important, bcs to her, since she never experiences his cruelty herself, countless tales of his victims is just an unreal myth to her.

Meanwhile for Charioce himself, dude, how the fuck did you go from Charioce 13th to Charioce 17th so fast in less than 5 years, like did you kill 14th-16th or what?

They sure do love abandoning subplots left and right, don’t they haha

I thought he’s interesting at the beginning but he barely has any character development and frankly I’m bored and lost interest in him and his secretiveness just makes him irritating.

I’m not a patient person; sue me for losing interest.

Also, someone commented how Charinina’s lake scene makes them seem like Romeo and Juliet, like, if only they’re not who they are, then they must be able to be happy together.

WTF ROMEO JULIET WHERE

They both are humans, none’s stopping them from being together, he and his race are not at war with her or her race; he doesn’t even know dragonfolk exists.

Azazel thinks her a demon but then again he’s wrong about a lot of things, including mugaro’s origin.

No, dragons are not demons, and nina’s also half dragonfolk half human, so she’s mostly human.

The closest Romeo/Juliet relationship in the show is probably Chari/Mugaro or Chari/Azazel or even Mugaro/Azazel.

There’s no pre-existing condition between Nina/Chari, all the drama are recent and of their own making and not something that already exists as foundation of conflict.

4. TL;DR

I do think while Azazel deserves a lot of suffering, being comic relief and charinina’s fodder is not one of them.

Also Charioce still doesn’t have embarrassing pose and never experienced being the butt of a joke like the rest of the main casts wtf let the poor guy have his own embarrassing meme show

As protags, Nina and Charioce feel so flat to me. Nothing much happens to them personally, no mountain of problems to overcome, no nothing. Well nina has her transformation problem, but that seems so insignificant considering it only involves her and her alone.

Charioce doesn’t have problems to solve bcs he actually creates problems for other characters and somehow sit all the while being cool and charismatic doing nothing. Pfft.

I think, conflict and character development wise, Kaisar and Azazel deserve to be protags more. Kaisar has the Hero’s Righteousness ™ down to the smallest detail, while Azazel has the classic Hero Journey (starting from losing everything to trying to regain everything back).

Meanwhile, Charioce starts as a villain and continues on to be villain, while Nina just lets the waves take her.

Again, this is entirely my personal opinion.

[queenofnohr]

Dantes Interlude 1 - Nightmares, or Perhaps the Call of Love and Hate

I’m finally able to do commissions again, so here’s Dantes!

[the screen is completely black]

---I can’t see anything. Only blackness. Only darkness. It’s so very dark. I get the terrible feeling I’m somewhere no one can reach me. Can I not see because nothing exists? I don’t know. Even if I open my eyes, nothing changes. Where is this place? I don’t understand. I don’t even know if I’m sitting or standing. I try to speak. My lips to not move. My tongue does not move. No sound escapes my throat. Ah, maybe my situation is worse than I thought. After all, my body is so heavy……

???: ---How unfortunate, to have fallen so deeply into this place. No. If you are here, can I really say that? Welcome, Gudako. To the place where all ruins fall and sink, stagnating deeper and deeper, forever. …...Hmph. What’s with that face? Looking up at me with puppy-dog eyes is a waste of time. Even if time is inconsequential, seeing as it doesn’t exist here. Yes, this is that kind of place.

> ……………...Are you, maybe-

???: You think you know “me”?* No. No, you really don’t. Do you understand, Master? Gudako. I come from beyond love and hate. Thus I am different from the me that is close to you. ---Now then. It is almost time for them to arrive. You must leave this place. I am the one who burns away the dregs of darkness of that which has fallen. My flames will destroy your soul and your self, and I cannot guarantee your absolute safety. Forgive me. This is not somewhere you should be.

> I won’t go > I don’t know what’s going on, but I can’t just leave you alone

???: ……I see. Then, do not lag behind my flames.

[Battle, then My Room comes into view]

Dantes: …...What are you doing there, Berserker? Nightingale: I should be asking you that. What business do you have in Master’s private room? It is already late into the night. Sleep is essential to keeping the human body healthy. Return to your own room and rest, Mister Edmond Dantes. Dantes: I am a Servant. As you are. Nightingale: That is correct. Dantes: …………. Nightingale: It’s about our Master. Our conversation hinders her going to bed. Right now, her breathing is quite peaceful. Dantes: Oho. Peaceful, is it? Nightingale: …...What is it, Good Sir.** Dantes: Oh, nothing. If she’s sleeping, then it’s fine. I was just a bit worried that some kind of influence was left on the surface of her consciousness, but--- No, it’s nothing. Forget about it. Nightingale: Mister Dantes. If I may ask a question? Dantes: Go ahead. Nightingale: This is something I’ve felt for a while - that there is an injured person in need of aid. Action must be taken before it is too late. Please leave it to me. I’ll treat the affected part. Dantes: ……She probably isn’t wounded or anything. It’s as you said, she’s resting peacefully. Nightingale: No. No, not her, Good Sir. Dantes: ---. Nightingale: It’s you. It is your spirit that is wounded. Action is required. Leave the amputation of the affected area to me. Dantes: …...What? I know you’re stern, but if you go this far for a joke, no one will laugh. Nightingale: That’s it. Right there. You may not be aware of it, but you make remarks that confuse me for another person from before. We must take immediate action. Yes, yes, indeed. You also said something cryptic in regards to Master’s sleep. Dantes: ………...Wait. Nightingale: No. I will take the appropriate measures. Dantes: You’re holding a scalpel in your left and, and a pistol in your right. At the very least, hold the scalpel in your dominant hand. No, what am I saying. This isn’t right. Why are you specifically looking at our Master’s sleeping face? It seems you’ve sensed some sort of abnormality. I don’t know if it’s your intuition or a sign of your magical power, but you come to the correct conclusion. You were able to accurately grasp the situation. Our Master’s soul is under the contract of a large number of Servants, so--- Nightingale: Don’t get carried away spouting thoughtless things. Dantes: ………...Mercedes. Nightingale: That’s another thing - my name isn’t Mercedes. You have an injured spirit. You don’t see me as a single Heroic Spirit, do you? Even though you’ve called me Berserker, you also mistakenly call me Mercedes. I am not her. I am not a woman who possesses that name. Dantes: It is only natural. Your spiritual foundation has the memory of those seven days. Nightingale: Just…… hearing that name, it’s strange…… It makes me feel like I am not within this body, but somewhere far away. But still, I am not someone who bears that name. I will take appropriate action, so. ---I will sterilize your spirit. Dantes: …………. Nightingale: Ah, it seems he’s escaped. …...How bothersome. I will definitely treat him next we meet.

[Part 2]

Mash: ---You had a dream that Nightingale was arguing with someone?

> It was something like that……… > I don’t remember it well, but……

Mash: What a strange dream. Oh, no, I’m not familiar with dream interpretation, but if you want to, we could access Chaldea’s database? Shiva and Trismegistus aren’t really meant for this, but it should be possible. Helena: You’re talking about dream interpretation, aren’t you? Then just leave it to me! Since ancient times, humans have been interpreting all kinds of dreams. Since the age of gods, so to speak. In contemporary times, Freud is famous for dream interpretation…… My dream interpretation is a bit different. Fufu. I call it--- Edison: Exciting Direct Current Dream Interpretation! Tesla: Exciting Alternating Current Dream Interpretation! Edison: Huh---!? The moment an alternating current flows to the brain, the scanners would go haywire! Tesla: Fuhahaha, you know nothing, Lion-el! It can do anything! It can observe cranial nerve transmissions! Let’s uncover everything about what’s happening in Gudako’s brain……! Like what her favorite food is! Of if she prefers alternating current! Edison: Hmmmmm, or what kind of clothes she likes! Or if she prefers direct current! Tesla: ……Direct current……? Hmph, Edison, I feel like you said something. But what you were talking about was total gibberish. Edison: WHAT DID YOU SAY, BASTARD---! Mash: T- They’ve started fighting…… It’s amazing how both of them squabble like children! But to observe the brain like that---

> It does seem a bit interesting, doesn’t it > The invasion of privacy is a bit much

Mash: S- Senpai! It really is interesting……! Those two could learn everything about Senpai’s cranial nerves, and then…… If that happened, with the amount of information there, would it be a problem or not…… There shouldn’t be a problem with finding out Senpai’s favorite food ………But depending on what it is…… …………T- That’s a problem! That’s right! There’s a problem with this! It’s not right to look into somebody else’s head without their permission! Helena: Well said, Mash. That’s it exactly. Getting secrets like that is wrong. I didn’t like where this went after those two walked in either. I think that’s enough talk of both Lemuria style dream interpretation and Mahatma direct transmission dream interpretation for today. Yes, mm-hm, that’s right. I’m sorry. And also…… You two geniuses over there! The Gentleman and the Lion***: Y- Yes. Helena: Don’t just start quarrelling as soon as you see each other’s faces. Honestly. If you have so much energy, get into the simulator! Twenty Soul Eaters and Spriggins in a row! Go let your feelings out with that! The Gentleman and the Lion: Uhhhhhm--- Helena: Reply properly! Where are your manners! The Gentleman and the Lion: YES MA’AM!!

[we’re back in the corridor]

Mash: ……Seeing that was amazing. They really went through twenty rapidfire simulations. Both of them had such incredible spirit, didn’t they. So, what was the impression you got from their display of bravery?

> I shall christen it “The Infinite Battle of the Electric Lion’s Pride” > I shall christen it “The Infinite Battle of the Electric Gentleman’s Pride”

Mash: Infinite…… They did indeed have a lot of vigor…… Senpai. You seem to be a bit unsteady? Amakusa: Oya, Master, Mash. Good morning. Mash: Good morning, Amakusa. And to you too, ummm, Jeanne d’Arc Alter Santa Lily. Jeanne Alter Santa Lily: Good morning! Um, if it’s a bit hard to say, I don’t mind if you call me Lily or Alter. Or even Jeanne! Mash: Then, Jeanne Alter, once again, good morning. Jeanne Alter Santa Lily: Yes…… good morning! Amakusa: --- Jeanne Alter Santa Lily: Teacher, how was that? Amakusa: Your cheerful smiling was brilliant. Even the sun rising in the sky cannot compare to its warmth. Indeed, it is wonderful. I felt it deep within my heart. Jeanne Alter Santa Lily: I- Is that so? Um, did I just get praised? Amakusa: Yes, of course I praised you. …...By the way, Master, is there anything new since we’ve last seen each other?

> Nothing in particular--- > Last night I had a dream about Nightingale

Amakusa: Is that so. No, if that’s the case, it’s fine. As expected, the demon of vengeance has only grown to a certain point. I’m relieved I seem to be doing my job properly. …...Nightingale was arguing with someone in your dream? Oh, I see. I wonder if it was related to that? That person is sharp…… No, it’s nothing. Please excuse me. Mash: …...Amakusa? Amakusa: No, it’s really nothing. I’m just talking to myself. Jeanne Alter Santa Lily: …… ……? Amakusa: ---It is a dream of that story. It will be a dream passing through a year of suffering.

[the screen is completely black again]

???: ---So, you’ve come down here. Good grief, you really are a curious Master. To stay within a peaceful dream or to drift softly within a dreamless sleep are both fine choices - but there is no reason to be here. Stop. Do you understand? Being here is too dangerous. This darkness is also one of your dreams, but it is one not meant to be seen. It should not be. “I” should also seem slightly different than the me you know. I will not treat you as a guest forever. Leave, and forget this place.

> Nothing looks different about you > You aren’t smoking cigarettes are you?

???: ……Heh. You’ve made me laugh! It doesn’t matter where you are, you never change, Master! I haven’t changed, huh. I see. It’s as you say. No matter how different “I” am from me, at the heart of it, I am the same person. I am an Avenger that exists within those seven days, as I am a Servant fighting alongside you. Yes, I suppose I am indeed both. But, if I must choose…… “I” am a different person in this place after all. It is in these depths that my true potential is reached, where when I affix my eyes to your soul, it shines like hellfire. …………Ah, that’s right. I don’t have even have even a moderate fire. No - didn’t I give it to you once before? Then I entrust it to you. My black flames of love and hate would turn this rare cigar to ash. Hm---. You are a clever Master. Even in the depths of a dream, you still entertain me. …………Tonight it will end. A swarm of ever growing noise. From being tied to many Heroic Spirits, your soul has accumulated shadows and illusions, and the wreckage of dreams. The depths in which they settle in the dark. In that regard, this is a dumping ground for you. Regret for enemies you’ve violently killed. Resentment. Hope. That’s right---. Again, “I” have no choice but to say this to you. Leave--- that’s all. This is “my” job. This is something you should not see. You have accomplished much by way of dreams through the memories of the many Heroic Spirits you are bound to. If you do things that way, it is fine. There is no need to reach out to the remnant of love and hatred.

> ---

???: …………But, just in case. Gudako. Perhaps, if you wish from the bottom of your heart---

> I don’t want you to have to fight all alone > Even so, I can’t just leave you!

???: Heh--- Aha- hahahahahaha! Very well! In that case, do not lag behind my flames! Else you will be abandoned, a single drop spilled, left to rot for all time! Without feeling even anger you will simply sink, continue to stagnate--- Burn until not even ash remains! The memories of the Heroic Spirits your soul continues to watch over, the remains of illusions that fought there - that is “my” prey! Heheh--- Well, I’ll make it easy to understand! That this person is also “me”!

[He reveals himself as Dantes]

Dantes: ---Come, together now. Let us cut down those that remain. Conquer them, Master. Take them beyond this place of love and hatred!

[Fight, then it’s Chaldea again]

Nightingale: ……So, we meet again, Good Sir. Dantes: Indeed. Nightingale: The Master’s room is just up ahead; do you have business there? It is already late - making her lose sleep would be detrimental to her health. Dantes: No, I don’t. I…… I simply enjoy taking evening strolls. And what of you, Berserker? The threat the King of Magic posed is already gone. What are you wary of? Nightingale: There is nothing I am concerned about. I’m waiting for you to lower you guard so I can sterilize your spirit. You wound the spirit. Your way of being is not correct for a human being. ……It is distorted. It is damaged. It is wounded. Dantes: ………...Heh. Nightingale: Did you just laugh? Dantes: Indeed, I did laugh. Why did I laugh? My soul is already far from that of a human being! I am the Cavern King. I am a demon of vengeance! I’ve already stopped being anything human! ……But, receiving your treatment is impossible. I am me, and I exist as “myself” within the 21st century. If Master so desires it, the Cavern King will exist. So long as there is fighting, she wields that power. It is as you say. Even if you tried amputating the spiritual wound, it cannot be separated. My spirit lies at the ends of love and hate, and madness - so long as that holds true…… There isn’t anything much to do but exist. Nightingale: You aren’t making sense. Repeat yourself clearly and concisely. Dantes: Treatment is unnecessary. It’s fine, so just let it be. Mercedes - do not get close to me. Your straightforward way is similar to Gudako, and…… It’s just. A bit too dazzling for one such as me. Nightingale: …………? Dantes: Come morning, please go to see our Master. She could be quite exhausted in both mind and body. …………She’s probably having a bad dream.

*In Japanese, Dantes uses pronouns to refer to himself in both kanji and katakana. There’s no actual difference in what he’s saying, but the text makes it clear there’s a difference in meaning. Namely, he seems to use katakana (and so, in my translations, quotation marks) to refer to the self that lingers in this weird dream world. Please be aware, however, I only use quotations when he’s specifically making a comparison - I thought quotation marks might get obnoxious. **Nightingale actually refers to him as simply “Mister”, but calling someone only Mister in English is a bit weird, and the feeling it seems she’s going for is a kind of terse, formal, and distant way of address, which is why I replaced it with Good Sir at times Mister doesn’t read well. ***This is…… something I tried very hard to, but ultimately couldn’t translate into English. The words for Gentleman and Lion are pronounced the same in Japanese, and while it’s already sort of funny when both of them are talking, it feeds into the response gag since Mash wouldn’t know which you were referring to.

[chiaki-mainblog]

And Hope, Once Again is There

Category: Anime/Manga » Hetalia - Axis Powers Author: ElviaJones Language: English, Rating: Rated: T Genre: Drama/Hurt/Comfort Published: 01-07-17 Words: 2,105

Sequel for “Of Hope Beyond The Field”

He was sitting in his yard, enjoying the calm atmosphere he could not get enough after a long period of war. The war has indeed ended, and everything seemed surreal as Arthur peeked at his right wrist.

-I'll help you out-

Those four simple words, the words that supposed to bring him to his soulmate. Now those words had just become a painful reminder of his cruel fate.

It was only a year ago that the war has ended and he was finally able to go home. However, he was not in peace. He remembered it very clearly, a few months before the war ended. He stood there in the forked path, with his soulmate. Yes, his soulmate was clearly, a soldier. A soldier from the opposing side.

He was not able to say anything when he had met the soldier at that time. It was too much of a shock, too much to absorb in that kind of scenario. He could not bring himself to even mention about the words he had said to him, the exact same words printed on his right wrist. Not to mention that he was having a very bad headache due to his injury at that point of time. Only at the last minute, when the sound of gunshots and screams brought him to reality that he could finally muster up some words.

"Alfred F. Jones" he muttered absent mindedly.

That was his name. The name that he had given to him on that day. That… was the only thing he knew about his soulmate, other than the fact that he was an opposing soldier. Arthur inwardly cursed himself, how he regretted not giving him any information about himself to Alfred, not even his name.

He had wanted to search for Alfred the moment the war ended, but seeing the hostility remaining between the two factions, Arthur had no choice but to tone down his search. But even know, even after a year, he still could not find a single clue about his soulmate.

Arthur was definitely not an optimistic person. More or less, now he had accepted the fact that he might not be able to meet his soulmate again. Screw that, he did not even know if Alfred survived the war.

He sighed. Not having anything to do certainly was not the best thing to do in the meantime, especially when he had issues about his soulmate that kept hunting him. As he was about to stand, he heard a knocking from the door. Arthur paused for a while, he certainly was not expecting anyone on today.

He approached the door and opened it, revealing a familiar looking blond behind it.

"Bonjour, Arthur."

"Not nice to see you again, Francis. What kind of business requires you intruding on my house on such a broad daylight?" Arthur asked. Francis was his fellow first aider during the previous war, the war had somehow induced a bond between them so maybe you could say that they were friends.

"Well, mon ami, I have a good news... and a good news." Francis proceeded to say, his face lighting with excitement, something that Arthur did not usually see in his suave and cool upbringings.

"I certainly hope that this good news of yours is as good as you make it seems to be."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you will love to hear it. So, I met my soulmate yesterday. A young lady of the name of Jeanne. You should totally meet her, Arthur, she's such a charming and lovely lady."

"Well... that's lovely." Arthur was genuinely happy for Francis and Jeanne, but he could not help but to be jealous of them, knowing that he might not even be able to meet his own soulmate.

"I know, I would have introduced you to her, but there's one more thing."

Francis paused, as if giving a dramatic effect on his sentences.

"That soulmate of yours, I remember his name is something Jones, right?" Arthur nodded softly before Francis continued, "I told Jeanne about your story and apparently, her brother, who was a soldier during that war, was at the same troops with him."

Arthur was shocked, after so long, he finally got a clue to where his soulmate was.

"Really? So where is he?" Arthur asked back, almost too eagerly.

"Sadly, his brother never made it back. So, we don't know where that soulmate of yours is now."

Arthur's face immediately dropped, but Francis continued, handing him a piece of envelope, "But here…"

He took the envelope and opened it slowly, inside was two pieces of paper, a map and a letter? It looked like some kind of acceptance letter, but when he read the header, Arthur realised it was a letter of order.

"Jeanne pass it to me. The location of the main camp for the troop was written there, so… in case you want to look for him." In fact, Francis knew that Arthur always wanted to look for his soulmate, so he had asked for it.

"Ah… thank you."

It was true. Arthur always wanted to look for his soulmate, but now that he finally got a clue, he was scared. Would he still be alive? Jeanne's brother was dead, so what was the possibility of him to still be alive? And did Alfred even want him? His first encounter with him might not happen in the best circumstances, but Alfred did ran that day. His old worries returned, now Arthur was afraid that Alfred did not even want to meet him in the beginning.

Francis sensed the worries and fear in Arthur and he put a hand on his shoulder, gesturing him to go and do what he needed to do. With that, Arthur decided. He was not going to regret this.

Two days later, Arthur arranged for a trip to Costal Town, Area 55. That was what's written in the letter and following the map, Arthur ended up in a large town near the coastal area. It took Arthur another few days to finally found the main base for the soldiers. It was to no avail though, when he reached there, he immediately asked for someone under the name of Sir. Jones and it was answered with the officer shaking his head. Apparently though, after the war, the soldiers was dispatched to smaller unit in nearby town and villages and based on the information, it looked like that Arthur needed to do some more searching.

Following that information, Arthur travelled throughout the area, consistently asking for his soulmate in every soldier's base he found. Occasionally, he would go to bar or tavern to try his luck too, but luck was not really on his side. He started to lose hope, but he did not want stop halfway. He was already there and he was determined to at least try until he ran out of resources, whether it was money or clue.

It was a month into his search that he arrived at a medium-sized base near a hill. As usual, he came in, did his greetings and asked.

"Excuse me, I'm searching for someone under the name of Sir Jones, does he happened to be here?"

There was a moment of silence, but soon enough, an officer approached him, "You're looking for Sir Jones?"

Arthur nodded and the officer observed him for a while before finally saying, "Yes, Sir Jones was stationed in this base."

Arthur looked at the piece of paper on his hand. The officer had given him that piece of paper, complete with a hand drawn maps and directions scribbled on it. He followed it dutifully, until he finally arrived at his destination.

He stood there, quiet. Crafted with precision on the tombstone was the name;

'Sgt. F. Jones'

It took him awhile to register the rest of the story to his mind and without knowing it, droplets of tears starting to form in his eyes. He's here at last, he found his soulmate. Arthur found him, but he's not here...

As if knowing Arthur's feeling, the rain fell.

He did not even know anymore. Was it better for him not knowing about this? He felt a part of him broke and he could not get rid of the heavy weight on his chest anymore. He did not move and he just cried. Under that kind of weather, he should totally went home, but he could not take his eyes off the grave, he could not bring himself to leave.

And he just stood there, let the rain washed off his sorrow, which was proved to be useless.

Suddenly, he could not feel the rain droplets anymore and there seemed to be shadow looming around him.

"Hey, you'll catch a cold."

There was a person standing beside him, holding out an umbrella, now trying to prevent both of them from getting soaked, even though it was a bit too late for Arthur.

"You know my dad?" the other man asked, his voice low and filled with melancholy.

Upon receiving a weird question, Arthur was intrigued. Dad? He was clearly standing in front of Sir Jones' tombstone and that person surely refers to him when he asked that question. So he turned around and he could not believe what he just saw.

That blue eyes, blond hair, and a strange stray hair on his head.

Was his mind playing tricks on him? Yet, no matter how many times he blinked, he was there. Standing in front of him, alive and well. That blue eyes that still shined even during the war period, and now that there was no more war, they shined even brighter than Arthur could have imagined.

The man was clearly shocked and his eyes widened. They just stood still there for a few moments, before the blue eyed man threw his umbrella and pulled Arthur towards him for a hug.

"You're my soulmate, aren't you?"

"You're Alfred… Jones?" Arthur asked, still could not believe it and Alfred nodded. At last it clicked in Arthur's mind. Indeed, it was Sir Jones, the wrong Sir Jones. How silly and pessimistic he was.

Both of them remained in their position for awhile, not saying anything to each other as tears started to return on both of their eyes. It was good enough for them, knowing that their soulmates were there with them. Knowing that they had the chance to spend their life with their soulmates at last. Maybe fate was not that cruel.

The rain stopped and rainbow could be seen in the horizon. They finally pulled away from each other.

"You know, I'm glad… I'm glad to see you again." Alfred said as he wiped the tears on his eyes and Arthur could not help but to smile and chuckle a bit, guess he should have not been that worried after all.

Then Arthur remembered, something that he kept reminding himself about, for when he met his soulmate again. Extending his hand to his soulmate, now standing in front of him, he said "My name's Arthur Kirkland."

[other1kchad]

VOGUE PARIS FASHION FESTIVAL

OKAY PEOPLE THIS IS NOT A DRILL. This is the real deal. Over the November 15/16th weekend I journeyed back to my second home of Paris to attend the Vogue Paris Fashion Festival. In its fourth year, the festival brings together the best, brightest and most influiential fashion figures, icons, models, entrepreneurs, you name it. If they matter, they were there. The festival, which is more like a summit or a conference is held at the Hotel Potocki on the Avenue de Friendland right next to the Arc de Triomphe. In its fourth year, the festival has had names such as Virgil Abloh and Karl Lagerfeld come and teach the fashion friendly and creatively inclined. From all over, but mostly Paris, students, teachers, industry folk come to soak up the wisdom imparted by these fashion greats and hope to take something more home than just the free magazines and croissants.

I just want to share the juicy bits and what I took home with me back to my humble AAU community and my Vallejo abode. First, who was there? Who wasn’t there? I was pinching myself when I read only five days before the event that Edward Enniful, Kim Jones and Bella Hadid would be speaking. That was enough for me to book a flight, buy my weekend festival pass and reserve an Air BnB all within a half-hour. So, who else was at this surreal summit? The total list is as follows:

DAY ONE

Cedrick Charbit

Pieirgiorgio Del Moro

Samuel Ellis Scheinman

Nicolas Houze

Amir Nahai

Bella Hadid

Victoria Beckham

John Boumphrey

Kim Jones

Nadja Swarovski

Julien Dossena

DAY TWO

Francesca Bellettini

Emmanuelle Alt

Edward Enniful

Liya Kebede

Max Sirena

Victoire de Castellane

Jeanne Damas

Jolanta Bak

Pierre Francois Le Louet

Christopher Wylie

Rachid Ait Addi

Morgane Sezalory

Nicolas Gerlier

Sebastien Kopp

Natacha Ramsay-Levi

DAY ONE IMPRESSIONS

I awake bright eyed and as always, pinching myself that I get to experience this beautiful city and that it welcomes me so warmly despite the rain and the 42-degree weather. I had been contemplating the whole voyage about what I would wear on the days of the festival. As usual, everything I planned in my head, was T R A S H. So, I just winged it and ended up very happy with the results (below). My apartment was on the 6thfloor of the building so it took me a minute to get to le premieme etage and when went to call muy Uber, it took him 15 minutes to retrieve me so needless to say I was late but made it just in time to the Hotel Potocki before the first guest, Cedric Charbit began his piece. Cedric gave us sustainability, inclusion and gender equality all in the 45 minutes he spoke. Charbit said that Balenciaga’s F/W 2019  show was their most sustainable due to the flooring, curtains, wood was either repurposed, recycled or left a very tiny carbon footprint. It was also interesting to learn that from that same show the average model was age 28 and the oldest model was 68 years of age. Charbit’s take on model culture? “Models are not objects they are human beings and have a background.” Balenciaga’s concerned with how to use their visibility in “the right way?” I assumed he means how to use your wealth, your power in all the right places and for the right people. For beginners, the brand has expressed political support in ways that they didn’t intend to. In 2017, the logo Bernie Sanders used for his campaign was copied and replaced with the Balenciaga typeface and silently the brand had aligned themselves with the Sanders’ campaign. In efforts to join the climate change movement, Balenciaga signed the fashion pact last year with Monsieur Macron in efforts to work towards sustainability on behalf of the planet. Something sweet Charbit left the audience with? Balenciaga’s wage-gap has been corrected in 2019 meaning women and men make the same earning AND if you work at Balenciaga, you make above minimum wage and that goes for ALL employees.

Moving along swiftly, next let’s discuss Bella Hadid whom of which I am convinced is the new sweetheart of the modeling industry and potentially the whole fashion industry (sorry Gigi. Sorry Candice). Right off the bat, Bella is asked about her “politeness” and where does it come from, she explains that her politeness and sweet disposition comes from being grateful, grateful to be in this business and work with the people she gets to work with. She says she pinches herself often and can’t believe that “this is her life” (much in the same way that I was pinching myself for being at the festival and witnessing her). Bella’s humility that you see on Instagram is real; she is just as genuine as I had hoped her to be. I was internally screaming when she was asked if modeling was always “the plan.” She replied no, and that her original plan was to move to San Francisco to study photography at none other than the UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO my alma mater no less! Besides some candid explanations of her favorite covers and moments with photographers, Hadid mentioned multiple times and went into explanation about how her mental health has taken a toll for the worse over the last five years. She said that she would call her mother multiple times a day, crying because she was very unstable mentally. She said her mother was her best and biggest support as well as mentor and that she confides in her whenever she needs advice. Who is the most intimidating person in fashion you ask? Anna Wintour of course.

Victoria Beckham kicked off the afternoon segment by discussing her new beauty brand, her design process and her regrets, or lack thereof regarding her past fashion faux pas. Beckham said that she has a “code” that she generally follows each season, but that essentially, she designs pieces that she would wear herself or that she wishes she could wear or fantasizes about. IN addition to this she has to ask herself, “what does the community want (to wear)?” Her design inspiration credits are Lagerfeld and Valentino. As for her beauty brand, she had to think long and hard about creating her own. Essentially, it had to be believable and should come before a perfume. And within her beauty brand inclusivity had to be paramount and diversity unquestionable; for example, the perfect nude has to be available for everyone and every skin tone. Going into the fashion industry side of things, she knew there would be misconceptions on many fronts, meaning that she was a mother, she was married to David Beckham and was a former mega girl group member. These things never deterred her, Beckham said that her hard work and laser focus blocked all of the questions and hate out. As for all of those wild 90s Spice Girl outfit choices, she doesn’t regret them and reminded us all that the fashion choices we made at one point or another served a purpose and we should honor that.

The next speaker was a 2-for-1 treat for me. Kim Jones, the creative director of Dior Men was interviewed by one of my favorite fashion journalists ALEXANDER FURY. I didn’t even realize it right away because I was so focused on Kim but once I put it together, I was beside myself TRULY. I couldn’t decide who I was more in awe of, Kim or Alexander. The energy that you get from Kim is that he is the upper elite, which he is, but he exudes this energy. Kim spared no jokes or anecdotes about his fashion career other than his favorite show to date is Yves Saint Laurent 2008 for the “black hair and glasses vibe.” He revealed to us that he works best in a “structured environment,” so it was no surprise when he revealed he has already completed Dior Men S/S 2021. Jones said he knew he wanted to work in the fashion industry when he saw The Face magazine when he was only 14 years old. When Alexander asked Kim about what the heart of Dior is, he responded by saying, “Dior is couture tailoring and elegance.” Having designed for Louis Vuitton, Mulberry, Alexander McQueen and Uniqlo a few others, you can sense how Kim Jones runs Dior Men’s the way he wants to, like a well-oiled machine but it is still surprising to think that he has only been the men’s director for 18 months.

[alisonpoonresearch]

Christo, Trump and the Art World’s Biggest Protest Yet

The New York Times (Article)

by Randy Kennedy, January 25th 2017

Kennedy R. (25/012017) Christo, Trump and the Art World’s Biggest Protest Yet [Online] The New York Times, Available: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/arts/design/christo-protest-donald-trump-colorado-artwork.html Accessed: 27/01/2016   

A sketch of Christo’s proposed artwork “Over the River,” depicting a view from the Arkansas River. CHRISTO OVER THE RIVER, PROJECT FOR THE ARKANSAS RIVER, COLORADO. 

“With one dramatic no, a major artist has just escalated the culture world’s war against Donald J. Trump.

“For more than 20 years, the artist Christo has worked tirelessly and spent $15 million of his own money to create a vast public artwork in Colorado that would draw thousands of tourists and rival the ambition of “The Gates,” the saffron transformation of Central Park that made him and Jeanne-Claude, his collaborator and wife, two of the most talked-about artists of their generation.

“But Christo said this week that he had decided to walk away from the Colorado project — a silvery canopy suspended temporarily over 42 miles of the Arkansas River — because the terrain, federally owned, has a new landlord he refuses to have anything to do with: President Trump.

“His decision is by far the most visible — and costly — protest of the new administration from within the art world, whose dependence on ultra-wealthy and sometimes politically conservative collectors has tended to inhibit galleries, museums and artists from the kind of full-throated public disavowal of Mr. Trump expressed by some other segments of the creative world. Last week, the artist Richard Prince fired an opening salvo, returning a $36,000 payment for an artwork depicting Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, owned by her family.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude at a news conference for “Over the River” in 2009. DOMINIC FAVRE / EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

“The Christo project, titled “Over the River,” conceived with his wife, who died in 2009, has been fiercely opposed in state and federal court by a group of Coloradans who contend that it will endanger wildlife and cause other problems in Bighorn Sheep Canyon. Almost six miles of fabric panels were to be erected over the river for two weeks, at a cost that could have exceeded $50 million. Christo, who sells artwork depicting his proposed projects to pay for them completely on his own, has prevailed in every court battle and is awaiting a decision by a federal appeals court that would represent a final stand by opponents.

“But in an interview on Tuesday, he said that even if he won the case, he would no longer go forward with the work.

“’I came from a Communist country,’ said Christo, 81, who was born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff in Bulgaria and moved to New York with Jeanne-Claude in 1964, becoming an American citizen in 1973. “I use my own money and my own work and my own plans because I like to be totally free. And here now, the federal government is our landlord. They own the land. I can’t do a project that benefits this landlord.”

“Asked to elaborate on his views of the new president, he said only, “The decision speaks for itself.” He added, “My decision process was that, like many others, I never believed that Trump would be elected.” “

“Over the River” would drape fabric over the Arkansas River in Colorado.KEVIN MOLONEY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

“The establishment art world is slowly beginning to become more vocal about Mr. Trump, invoking the power of past protest movements, like the Art Workers Coalition, whose Moratorium of Art to End the War in Vietnam pressured museums to close for a day in October 1969, and led the next year to an Art Strike Against Racism, War and Oppression, which drew picketers to the Metropolitan Museum of Art because it declined to shut its doors.

“In late November, more than 150 prominent artists, curators and gallery workers picketed in front of the Puck Building in Downtown Manhattan, owned by the family of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband and now a senior adviser to President Trump. Under the banner of a continuing social-media and protest movement called Dear Ivanka, critics of the President have directed almost daily condemnations of his actions and policies to his daughter, a prominent art collector. And on Inauguration Day, dozens of galleries — and a few public art institutions — closed in cities across the country as a part of a movement, J20, that plans to broaden protest activities in the coming months to address issues like racism, immigration and gentrification.

“Aesthetic refusal as a form of protest does not have universal support in the art world. Some see it as ineffective, a defeatist position that denies the power of expression itself to effect change.

“I would argue that this project, on a river that traverses both red and blue states, could draw attention to the importance of federal land management and stewardship of the environment,” said Tom Eccles, the executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and former director of the Public Art Fund in New York. “If anything, Christo’s projects promote a sense of collective wonder, something we need more than ever right now.”

A public hearing over the project in Colorado in 2012.MATTHEW STAVER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the White House, said it had no comment.

“Christo, whose work usually involves monumental wrapping or draping, a kind of beautifying abstraction of architecture or landscape, is known not only for “The Gates,” but also for highly visible projects like “Wrapped Reichstag,” in Berlin, realized in 1995 after more than 20 years of planning and proposals. Last year, “The Floating Piers,” a yellow-orange walkway of fabric atop 220,000 interlocking polyethylene cubes on Lake Iseo in the Lombardy region of Italy, drew 1.2 million visitors.

“The Colorado project would have been the largest work Christo had ever attempted in America. In interviews, he spoke about how the idea came about in 1985, during a project in which he and Jeanne-Claude had wrapped the Pont Neuf in Paris. “We looked up at the fabric, and it was so beautiful, silvery and shimmering in the reflected light of the river, and we smiled at each other,” he said.

“The two inspected dozens of rivers and selected a length of the Arkansas, partly because it was a popular rafting spot, and the canopied fabric, stretched over steel wire cables anchored on the banks, would be best seen from beneath, on the water itself. The project, expected to take more than two years to construct, was to remain in place for two weeks, during an August, before, like all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects, being dismantled.

“In court, Christo argued that he had taken every step possible to prevent long-term damage to the river, land around it, or animal or plant life. The group that has opposed him, Rags Over the Arkansas River, or ROAR, has argued that the federal Bureau of Land Management, in approving the project, failed to take sufficiently into account its possible threat to bighorn sheep and the impact on traffic on U.S. Highway 50 through the canyon. On Wednesday, Joan Anzelmo, a spokeswoman for ROAR, said it was “ecstatic” to hear of the decision, no matter what the artist’s reasons. “This means local people will now be protected,” she said, “as well as wildlife, birds and fish.”

“In the interview on Tuesday, Christo said the Job-like patience required in seeking approval for his projects has always been an element of the spirit of the projects themselves. He needs to feel passion about them, in the same way that a more traditional painter or sculptor does, he added. But in this case, “that pleasure is gone” because of the nature of the new administration.

“’I am not excited about the project anymore,’ he said. ‘Why should I spend more money on something I don’t want to do?’”

“Correction: January 27, 2017

An article on Thursday about a decision by the artist Christo to abandon a planned project over the Arkansas River in Colorado as a protest against President Trump misidentified the highway that runs through Bighorn Sheep Canyon. It is U.S. Highway 50, not Interstate 50.”

Statement from Christo

January 25th, 2017, Over The River Statement

“After pursuing Over The River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, for 20 years and going through five years of legal arguments, I no longer wish to wait on the outcome.

I have decided to devote all of my energy, time and resources into the realization of The Mastaba, Project for Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which Jeanne-Claude and I conceived 40 years ago.

I have been fortunate to work with many dedicated Colorado residents as well as Federal and State agencies who have been a part of Over The River. I am grateful to everyone who was part of this journey.”

— Christo, January 25, 2017

Christo (25/01/2017) Over the River Statement. [Online] Available:  http://christojeanneclaude.net/blog-posts/over-the-river-statement-by-christo Accessed: 19/02/2017

Thoughts

I admire the courage of Christo to make the decision that this work should not be realised and that that was best for the project but I imagine that it must have been a hard and frustrating decision.

It is also a real shame that the “passion” Christo mentions has been lost because of politics. Unfortunately politics seem to be playing an increasingly important/ bigger and bigger role in art than previously. Everything can become politicised, and all meaning can be changed to a political meaning. Unfortunately Donald Trump is a huge subject, if not one of the biggest subjects in current politics. It is a shame that a work that was once filled with passion and energy has been drained due to politics.

However I agree with Christo in not realising the project if the passion is gone and the meaning has been overshadowed by Donald Trump. I would want my work to remain unpolluted by external factors that could significantly change the meaning as possible, and I imagine Christo had similar thoughts. I think what Christo has chosen to do is an important message to artists, to stay true to themselves and their work, and to make the best decision for the work, even if it is the harder decision to make.

Similar story: 

Richard Prince has disowned his Ivanka Trump work but he can’t wash his hands so easily.

The Guardian (Article)

 by Jonathan Jones, January 16th 2017

Jones, J. (16/012017) Richard Prince has disowned his Ivanka Trump work but he can’t  wash his hands so easily. [Online] The Guardian , Available: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2017/jan/16/richard-prince-has-disowned-his-ivanka-trump-work-but-he-cant-wash-his-hands-so-easily Accessed: 27/01/2016   

[bemused-writer]

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.

[bemused-writer]

VNC Chapter 35 Analysis

In many ways this was a more “straightforward” chapter but there were still some important revelations and a couple things really got me thinking.

To start with, Vanitas was reluctant to let Noé face Astolfo again but, I think as a sign of trust, he opted to go along with it. This ties in neatly with his declaration from the previous chapter: “I’m telling you I’ll act on the assumption that you’re going to convince me.” He’s giving Noé a chance to “convince” him he can really handle facing Astolfo this time around along with everything else. He’s giving Noé a chance to punch him for Vanitas as well--he really hasn’t let go of the fact he was forced into a fragile position with Jeanne yet, clearly.

We also learn that Vanitas was 100% correct in his assessment of Noé‘s poor battle form previously. He really did see Astolfo as a child and he really did want to talk things out so he held back to his own detriment.

“I thought of my opponent as a child, underestimated him, and was too sure of my own power.”

Interestingly, Noé‘s reflection brings back another one of Vanitas’s critiques of his personality from volume 3, which is that he’s too sure of his own power.

And yet, while having too much faith in his own abilities is something that infuriates Vanitas he also can’t stand pacifism. Below (volume 4) we see that Vanitas doesn’t want to see vampires holding themselves back; this is perhaps even more infuriating to him than having too much confidence in their abilities.

This doesn’t just apply to Noé either but to Jeanne as well (though Noé couldn’t know that). Vanitas goes so far as to compare the two of them  in volume 5 and how they share this weakness.

It looks like Vanitas was going to add someone else to this list, perhaps? “You ... and Noé ... w--” But whatever he was going to say is covered up by the sound affect.

To be honest, I find this trait of Vanitas’s a little strange. His parents were killed by vampires, he was trained by the chasseurs, and he hates Vanitas of the Blue Moon but his issue isn’t with the cruelty of vampires exactly but with how they, these powerful creatures, keep overestimating themselves, holding themselves back, and acting kind instead of practical. Despite that he’s really gone out of his way to forge strong ties with two people with these exact characteristics: both Jeanne and Noé.

It makes me wonder if I’ve been completely wrong about his problem with VotBM. Maybe she was also too kind and overestimated herself? That would be wildly different from what I’ve been assuming, which is that she was cruel and marked Vanitas against his will. If she was cruel then someone else must have had these traits that infuriate him so much but at this point I can’t say who. Perhaps the mysterious “Lou.”

Getting back to Noé, I would say he’s taken Vanitas’s critiques to heart and is really thinking about them. Noé has two traits that are both his strongest and weakest: chivalry and curiosity. Astolfo was on the receiving end of Noé‘s chivalry in volume 5, which is why Noé lost. Now, while he isn’t facing that so much, he’s instead facing Noé‘s curiosity, which seems to be much worse for him.

Wondering why Astolfo hates vampires so much is fair (although he really shouldn’t expect a proper response to that; they’re in the middle of battle...) and, I think, inspired by the fact that Vanitas doesn’t even though Noé thought it would make sense for him to.

Astolfo claims it’s because vampires have no right to exist in the first place but Noé, being the selectively perceptive person he is, knows that can’t possibly be the truth of it. “Is that what you think, personally? Or is it the collective will of the Church?”

So, at some point Astolfo helped a vampire around his own age. I wonder if his family was invested in the healing arts or if he helped this vampire of his own accord. Either way, it looks like this vampire betrayed him utterly by bringing him to be fed on by a group of vampires. It’s a deep trauma and Noé is correct that what Astolfo said isn’t quite what he really thinks; it’s far more personal than that.

We don’t get much more on the subject but there was an interesting revelation: the original beast was entirely created by the chasseurs during a vampire hunt. The evidence being marks of torture and beheadings. We already knew the Church wasn’t exactly great in its handling of vampires but this is much worse than had been stated previously. Apparently, massive vampire hunts were a known thing, which was implied previously by Jean-Jacques when he was saying he was a “hidden” vampire but this is far more overt.

Knowing whether someone was a human or a vampire was a crucial step in making sure you stayed alive. I’m curious to see what Astolfo’s response to Noé‘s accusation about the Church will be. To be honest, I have a feeling he won’t care; he just wants to remove vampires. Whether the Church is “honest” or not is probably not even on his radar.

Those were the most important elements of the chapter but there were some smaller things I really liked such as seeing Noé and Vanitas’s fighting skills:

For Noé to just be able to pick up a pipe, a two-handed weapon much like a staff essentially, and wield it without much difficult implies this was yet another thing his Teacher must have taught him. Usually, Noé sticks with hand-to-hand combat while reinforcing his strength with the world formula but this shows us he could wield a weapon if he so wished.

It isn’t emphasized much but Vanitas just took out two people without really trying (not to mention the wolves from the previous chapter). We don’t get to see him do a lot of fighting, he usually let’s Noé handle that and seems to prefer subterfuge and stealth more generally, but he’s clearly capable.

Another thing I really want to hear more about is this:

A pendulum is generally only used for two things: yes-and-no questions or dowsing. Both are methods of divination. I’m guessing Vanitas wasn’t trying to get an answer to a specific question but he is trying to locate The Book of Vanitas, so he must have been dowsing. Noé didn’t know what he was doing, so this implies it’s not an art form vampires employ or that this is just another gap in Noé‘s knowledge.

Regardless, this raises a lot of questions for me. Dowsing is something people do in real life, so it’s not totally strange that Vanitas was doing it but it does imply it’s something he knows will work. Is this something he can do because he’s human or is it because he has the mark of Vanitas? The pendulum was glowing, so was he manipulating the formula? Does this confirm he doesn’t need the book to do so necessarily? This one small scene has raised so many questions not least of which is: does Vanitas do any other kinds of divination?

We didn’t get much of an update with Jeanne this chapter although she appears to be holding her own very well. Still, that battle is at a standstill; neither one of them appear to be winning. Furthermore, we’re not totally sure where Vanitas has run off to. I’m assuming he’s either looking for the book or for Chloé, possibly both since he’s likely assuming Chloé has the book. I’m not sure this is entirely wise for him to do without Noé. She’s exceedingly powerful and knocked Noé out with a single slap to the face.

Regardless, I really think Noé needs to hurry that battle with Astolfo up and join up with Vanitas again because things are only going to get worse the longer they’re allowed to continue. Just look at this sky:

That looks pretty ominous. Is it stemming from the beam of light Chloé has brought forth? Is it the flames from Jeanne’s weapon? Either way, I think we’re going to see some interesting things taking place!