#also I have more to say about the parallel of how Noé and Misha regard their pasts

[neversetyoufree]

I've been sitting here for a while trying to make sense of how differently Misha and Noé are portrayed, even when behaving similarly, and I cannot believe how long it took me to remember whose pov this whole story is shown through.

Noé and Misha both have flashbacks to them as kids wherein they describe something objectively horrific that happened to them, only to laugh it off as not a bad thing at all, but the ways these moments are presented are totally different.

And like, on one hand, there are a lot of reasons for Misha's version to seem objectively more disturbing. We know Noé's a sweet and noble person by the time we get his history, whereas Misha's flashback comes in the middle of him threatening and manipulating Domi and Noé. The reactions of other characters in the moment are also different, given that Louis and Domi are also children when Noé speaks to them, but Roland with Misha is an adult that clearly understands the horror of what he's hearing. Plus, Noé's mostly just brushing off his own pain, whereas Misha's praising the assault and death of his mother, and a lot of what he brushes off has sexual connotations. Of course it's more upsetting.

But! A lot of what I just listed has to do with the mechanics of how these moments are framed differently, not necessarily why they are in a storytelling sense. At the end of the day, I feel like it all has to go back to Noé's experiences. It's quite easy to forget sometimes (at least for me), but everything in VnC is filtered through his point of view.

Misha's casual treatment of his abuse and smiling about the death of his mother feels disturbing because Noé is disturbed by it. He's experiencing Misha's history through his own adult perception, and he can see what a nightmare it is, so that's how it comes across. Plus, he's already primed by then to find Misha creepy. With Noé's own history, though, it's clear he doesn't view himself as creepy. He's casual about the loss of his families and smiles about his own kidnapping, but he looks back on the time he spent talking with Louis and Domi as wholesome fun, so that's how it comes across. Even if he later recontextualizes how he feels about his past, the flashback we were shown remains a happy memory.

It's such an interesting reminder of how Noé can be an unreliable narrator.