#but like. you can't talk about vani's doomed-ness without explaining the memoir angle and the vanitas painting theme

[neversetyoufree]

I am unfortunately unfamiliar with Woe.Begone, so I can't compare Vanitas and Mike the way I'd like to, but I think I can make a compelling argument that Vanitas deserves to win no matter who he's up against. It is fundamentally almost impossible to be more doomed than Death is Inevitable, the dying main character of Death is Inevitable, the manga.

Vanitas is one of two main characters in The Case Study of Vanitas (VnC), and the other main character is the one that's telling/narrating the story. This is because the entire manga is a memoir written by the narrator after Vanitas's death. VnC is the story of their whole relationship, from meeting to murder, and the very first chapter ends with the declaration that, at the end of the story, the narrator is going to kill Vanitas with his own two hands.

The Case Study of Vanitas exists as a book within its own universe. The book is being written over the course of the manga's run. And that book only exists because Vanitas dies. The narrative fundamentally would not exist if there were any chance of his survival.

Like I said, VnC at its core is the story of the main characters' relationship. Over its run, they've grown closer and closer, and the narrator has fostered a fair amount of positive growth in Vanitas. He's less wretched and miserable than he used to be. He's capable of a trusting relationship. Furthermore, the narrator is obsessed with the idea of saving him. One of the series's most central recurring images is the narrator desperately reaching out for Vanitas's hand, trying to save him from falling. And the central tragedy of the manga is that, because of that first chapter, because of narration from a future Noé in mourning, we know that it's never going to work.

In-universe, the narrative exists because Vanitas is doomed. It's a posthumous memoir. And on a meta level, regarding VnC as a manga in our real world, Vanitas's inevitable death is the thematic core of the entire series.

"Vanitas" is a latin word that means vanity, emptiness, or futility. It's a reference to a famous biblical quote that evokes the meaninglessness of all earthly life in the face of death, "Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas." And, in the same vein, it's a reference to the Vanitas art movement.

Vanitas paintings, like the quote above, are meant to remind the viewer that earthly pleasures are vain and futile in the face of death. Death is inescapable, say the paintings, and it renders all else hollow and meaningless with its inescapability.

VnC is a piece of Vanitas art. The title, "The Case Study of Vanitas," refers to a psychological study of Vanitas as a character, but it also refers to a study of a case of "Vanitas" as a theme. It's A Case Study of How Death is Inescapable and Renders All Else Meaningless. And I've already laid out exactly how.

The narrator wants to save Vanitas, and we know he can't. Vanitas heals and grows and experiences all manner of earthly pleasures, and death will come for him anyway, because none of that matters in the face of inescapable demise. That is the thematic core of VnC.

Vanitas's most iconic, ever-present accessory is an hourglass in which the sand has already run out. The cover of the first volume of the series is Vanitas sitting inside a picture frame covered in images from Vanitas paintings, posed like he himself is a living piece of Vanitas art. On all levels but physical he is already dead.

Vanitas is a walking, talking reminder of the inevitability of death. The entire point of the manga is that his death is inescapable, and there is absolutely nothing that anyone can do about it. He is the core of the narrator's memoir, written in the wake of his demise, and he is the titular dead man in a manga obsessed with his passing.

It's less that Vanitas is doomed by the narrative and more that Vanitas's doom is VnC's narrative. There's no memoir without his death. There's no case of "vanitas" to study without his death. The beating heart of the entire series is that this man is going to die, and absolutely nothing can ever change that.

@doomed-bythe-narrative <3

Doomed by the Narrative: Side B - Round 2