#he really doesn't have an agenda and that's the most terrifying thing about him tbh

[mittensmorgul]

Hello. This might be a stupid one but; why didn't Michael showed himself to humanity? (Meaning mass revelation biblical style). He doesn't want an apocalyptic earth he already had that. So why take it by force? If he is not afraid of a god intervention, most of the people want peace not freedom and he is a bridge between 3 major monotheist beliefs.(did I missed something?) Thank you

Hi there! First of all, sorry this took so long to answer. And I’m gonna take a line here to apologize to everyone who’s asked me stuff that I haven’t replied to. Sometimes I just don’t know how to reply, sometimes I hold on to stuff to see it in my inbox (like nice things people say), and sometimes I save stuff for when I have the brain power to reply and then maybe never do actually come by that brain power… whoopsie… I am doing my best. :P

That said, let’s tackle Michael.

*waits for someone to take him out with a strong hit*

*still waiting*

Well fine. I’ll do this.

I think you may be misunderstanding exactly what Michael wants here. Michael doesn’t give a flying heck about people. If he wanted to be worshiped like a god, he probably could’ve had the whole planet on their knees in a matter of days, you know? Pull a Godstiel, but with a lot less murder and mayhem, perform a few miracles on international television, and bam. He could’ve had the whole population bowing to him.

But I reiterate, he does not care about PEOPLE.

I mean, we got the best look into Michael’s point of view in his conversation with Jack in 14.09:

Alternate Michael: Oh, but, Jack, we’re family. You know, in fact, we’re the only kin each other has left in this world.Jack: My uncle’s in the Cage. And you – you’re not family.Alternate Michael: Well, not literally, no. Our connection, our relation is more a matter of scale of power. Haven’t you learned yet? In this reality, monsters, humans, even angels – they are insects, atoms compared to us. But you [chuckles] – you’re just a child, a mere infant. For you, the past two years – the entirety of your existence – feel like eons. You don’t even know what time is. But you will. Real time, the time that makes mountains, that wipes out species. You’ll see it all with me.Jack: No.Alternate Michael: Year by year, century by century, and as your power returns and grows, we’ll only become more alike. Oh, I know. Your loyalty to Castiel, the Winchesters, the rest of humanity? It will fade. And so will the minor differences – angel armies versus monster armies, this Kansas City or that Kansas City, one world from another – they’ll fade, too. 

He doesn’t even consider other ANGELS as anything significant or noteworthy, you know? He’s essentially been driven demented by just having existed for so long, and watched so many other things rise and fall, evolve and go extinct. Everything else holds no real meaning to him. Things are born, things exist for a while, and then they disappear forever. Why bother forming any sort of attachment to anything?

It’s a horrific prospect, honestly. Jack is horrified by it. *WE* are supposed to be horrified by it.

Immortality… is not a gift… it’s a curse. And Michael proves that. He loves nothing but himself, because everything else will die.

His goal is not to amass a hoard of loving, devoted followers. His goal is to wreak as much havoc as possible in the process of reforming the world to whatever he thinks would be most interesting to him right now. We have no idea what that would look like, because I don’t even think Michael knows. He’s like a scientist just throwing random stuff into a vat to see what happens. Oh, that combination of things exploded! This other combination made poison gas! Moving on to the next thing… just leave those other experiments there smoldering in ruin. It just breaks up the boredom for him, and then he’s on to the next thing. Because nothing at all really matters to him.

So the question for Michael is… why not take it by force? He’d done it once with angels, and this go-around he’s decided to try the same thing with monsters. But they’re all monsters who are explicitly under his control via his grace making them essentially his puppets. They’re not even operating of their own free will, technically. They’re just extensions of Michael’s will at this point. He’s not looking to make them all into his devotees, or remaking the world for them to enjoy. Because again, they’re only temporary fixtures in the universe, from Michael’s perspective. He doesn’t care about them or what they want, despite that having been his question to everyone at the beginning of the season.

I suppose I should address that here, for the purposes of understanding how I’ve been looking at him. Yes, his question was “what do you want?” But he didn’t really care what anyone wanted, beyond attempting to discover which group (humans, demons, angels, monsters) was both honest about what they wanted, and simplistic in their desires. Because strangely enough, that’s what Michael needed in the group he chose for his army. He needed a group with simple goals that he could use for his own purposes.

Humans are too messy and complicated. Even ensnaring the entire population in a Divine Revelation sort of way wouldn’t guarantee complete submission, you know? Not to mention the fact that Michael and Lucifer both (and even Raphael) have never, ever, thought that humans deserved that place of love God had ordered the angels revere humanity with. I think Michael resents humanity just as much as Lucifer and Raphael ever did.

There just weren’t enough angels to make a functional army for him, and Heaven is in shambles. He’d already failed to eradicate humanity and wrest control of the world with a full angel army in his own universe, so he wasn’t even really interested in trying to recruit the few angels who are left here.

We know he approached demons, and talked to at least Kip from 14.01. But as we know of demons, they have their own wants. They’re conniving, cunning, and tricksy. I mean, look at Kip’s answer to Michael from 14.01:

Kip: You see, recently, I had a revelation. You know, somebody asked me what it was that I wanted. And I realized that after 600 years as a demon walking the planet, destroying, drinking, defiling – you know, the Three D’s – I didn’t know. So, I sat back, and I gave it a good think, and I realized exactly what I wanted.Castiel: And what is it?Kip: Everything.

So he wanted EVERYTHING? Well, funny enough, that’s kinda the opposite of what Michael wanted in an army, you know? Michael wanted mindless, ravenous soldiers he could control completely. Whose desires were uncomplicated enough that he wouldn’t have to care about keeping them content beyond the very basic.

That left him with monsters. And yes, not all monsters are mindless killing machines.

I mean, think of the vampires from Michael’s AU. They WERE reduced to animalistic eating machines, nearly starving to death because there just weren’t any more people to feed on, and they were beneath Michael’s notice, just like mosquitoes or mud. I mean, why would he care what they wanted?

Because what they wanted was to be able to feed without persecution. Also from 14.01:

Michael: Now, you – you know exactly what you want. You don’t pretend to want to help people… or save the world. Your want is pure and simple… and clean. And that’s why you are worth saving. That’s why we are going to work so well together. Because you – you just want to eat.

Not because Michael admired this quality, or thought it was “worth saving” in its own right, but because it made them useful to him for his purposes. He’s essentially using them to hoover up all the other intelligent life on the planet. What would happen, theoretically, when all the people were gone? When all their food dried up? Michael said he intended to have all the monsters turn all the humans in Kansas City. Well, what THEN? What would all those monsters eat once the entire population of the world were monsters?

It would be chaos, is what. It would likely provide a few years or even decades of entertainment for Michael to watch unfold before he’d have to find something else to amuse himself with. But again, he just does not care. Which makes him possibly the most dangerous villain the show has ever seen.

Even Amara cared about something, you know? Even the Leviathan intended to just take over the planet and create a never-ending perfect human food supply for themselves.

But this is even worse than Raphael restarting the Apocalypse out of ennui. Michael’s a nihilist. He doesn’t want to be loved or worshiped. He doesn’t want to convert the world to bow to him. He does not care.

[measuringbliss]

Here's a queer reading of Resident Evil Village chock-full of spoilers. TL;DR: They're all queer.

POV: Two gays (+ Mother Miranda but who cares about her) looking at you, another gay.

So horror is inherently queer right, like horror is about fearing the Other, and you're meant to identify with the vanilla, average Winters family (1 dude, 1 woman, 1 baby aka the perfect developing family) with Ethan in particular acting as the courageous papa bear who'll do anything to protect his kid, and Mia being the nice stay-at-home woman who cooks dinner and reads stories to Rose.

And then the gay agenda Mother Miranda kidnaps Rose.

So let's take a look at her family, shall we?

Lady Dimitrescu is a huge, terrifying monster with claws who hates men and has a bit of a temper. Or, she's a beautiful and incredibly charming lady with lesbian tendencies who's annoyed that a non-queer person invades her safe space and you'd be glad if she stomped on you. Repeatedly.

Heisenberg meanwhile is a sly, shady man awkwardly dressed as a cowboy. Or, he's a leather daddy who finds Ethan's body ~interesting~ and tries to strike an alliance with him and GOD you wish you could accept his offer so that he'd break your bones when he inevitably betrays you. As an aside and I'm sure this doesn't amount to anything (😏) but do you know who became cowboys? Queer people, among others. Getting away from society? Not a very cishet thing to do, nuh-huh. Also, his love of theatrics? His fruity demeanor? Werewolves???? Nah, the dude is queer, no question.

Donna is a creepy woman who loves terrifying dolls. Or, she's a talented dollmaker with niche interests. I'm sorry, tbh I don't care much about her character but I'm sure there's meta out there or something.

Moreau's a big fish man whose behavior is generally grotesque. Or, he's a just pathetic dude who seeks his mother's affection and really, don't we all ?

Anyway so in RE7, the Baker estate is quite respectable in size but not in aspect, and the Baker family mostly behaves like caricatures of rednecks (the voice acting, the father being the authority, the overall crassness of everything, complete with the troublemaker son). Contrasting to this, both the Winters and Miranda's family show nobility.

Ethan, Mia and Rose live in a very nice house and they exude softness in their beginning scene.

Dimitrescu's nobility is more extravagant and imposing, just like herself. She's got that beautiful castle from the Middle Age, her cruelty retains self-control as opposed to her daughters (until the very end where she becomes a very angry dragon, understandably so) whom she very much loves. She's noble, but she's still *queer*. She's still the enemy, the Other.

Heisenberg's nobility doesn't come from a fancy castle, but from a more traditionally masculine aspect: power. He commands the werewolves, his factory is the biggest level of the game–especially if you count the stronghold before that–, like clearly Heisenberg's constantly trying to show he has the biggest, and Dimitrescu is more than happy to challenge his manhood by questioning his authority.

And then, oops... Turns out that Ethan has been queer for a while. He's actually been a fungus for most of the duology. He's been The Other, unconsciously masquerading as The Normal. Eveline (= his subconscious) knew, of course, and she calls him out. Then Ethan returns to "life", makes sure his daughter is safe and grows up to become a BSAA agent, goddamnit Chris!!! and lets the Mold (queerness) take him.

Of course Capcom didn't expect for people to latch onto Dimitrescu (and to a lesser extent, Heisenberg), it's been pretty clear that they didn't expect people to feel anything other than your usual anxiety and maybe fear around her.

The thing is, Dimitrescu's having fun. While Ethan, symbol of normalcy and cishetism, has a hard time getting through the game, she's been absolutely thriving for centuries and doesn't see Ethan as much of a threat for a while. She loves this aura she gives off, she loves her little family (her daughters), she loves scaring "normal people" and generally revels in luxury. Good for her!

Heisenberg is also clearly having fun. He's not a queer man with a tragic backstory who hates himself, nah, he orchestrates his own fun (game night with his werewolf mates with a special guest: Ethan!), he puts on a show and clearly enjoys his theatrics... Look, he's gay. He's a thriving gay, even more than Dimitrescu actually because there's still a certain unease in her, with her strained relationship with Mother Miranda, and the way she has to duck to go through doors in her own castle... Meanwhile Heisenberg is just happy to stir shit up. Gosh, what an icon.

So yeah Resident Evil Village is essentially about how non-queer people feel threatened by queer people, and how the latter have a lot of fun. I don't find the Four Lords creepy at all. They go from pitiful (Moreau) to mysterious (Donna) to absolute bliss to see on screen (Dimitrescu and Heisenberg).

You could also probably make some parallels between Heisenberg's Gay Pack of Gay Werewolves and Chris's Gay Pack of Gay Soldiers that's literally called "Hound Wolf".

The Queers are thriving, folks.

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

why does jean warn up to mc so quickly? ikevamp makes it clear that jean is a pretty reserved person and doesn't open up or let people in easily but he seems to let mc in quite quickly and it confuses me quite a bit.

Oh boy, where to begin with this one.

Well, I have a lot of Feelings^TM about this, but I'll try to be concise. Essentially, I think Jeanne doesn't recover in the other routes--or the general storyline--largely because he's just a lot to unpack narratively speaking. And without some pretty direct intervention, he has a hard time healing. MC’s direct intervention was meaningful because it was focused, consistent, and adapted to Jeanne’s specific needs. She also doesn’t make light of his experiences which is key; she fully understands that she can’t fathom what he’s been through. There is a very weighty respect and acknowledgement, a seriousness with which she treats his wounds that’s important.

It’s easy to make this a “why is MC nOt LiKe ThE oThEr GiRlS” but honestly that’s just not the sense I get when I look at all the information available to us. 

That being said, I also just feel like every person's recovery from traumatic events doesn't really look the same? I mean Leonardo’s cptsd isn’t going to operate the same way Jeanne’s wartime/Inquisition cptsd is going to operate. Some people require very individualized healing, others will often require a large scale group effort to lift them up.

Typically people don't ever just get over what happened to them and never worry about it again, either. It's usually a process of coping; the hope is that with time you find healthy ways to deal with grief and move forward. Therapists aren't magicians, they just help people process painful experiences/thoughts. It's honestly up to individuals to find meaningful ways to implement these tactics. 

Tl; dr: My contention is that Jeanne doesn’t open up or choose to stay alive because MC magically heals him, rather his recovery is a convergence of many people’s efforts and hopes that he stays alive. Gilles (he insists that Jeanne must live, asks him to promise), MC (affirms and bolsters that promise), Comte (makes a second life and recovery possible)--and in no small measure Mozart and Napoleon--all make an active effort to buoy him. As people often say, it takes a village to raise a child.

While Jeanne seems to respond most powerfully to MC’s attempts, it feels more like a product of chemistry/compatibility than it does a random cop out. There is no insinuation that only romantic love can heal; after all, MC gets close to him without any romantic intentions at first. They’re just good friends? It’s more that their feelings simply moved in a different direction after a point, which doesn’t necessarily happen all the time. Jeanne is also incredibly moved by Mozart’s love for him as a friend, Comte’s love for him as a father, and even Gilles’ love as a comrade to an extent. If anything, without their input Jeanne’s capacity for romantic love would be questionable at best.

Now, because I can never for the life of me stop analyzing, I have a more large scale outline of my thoughts below. Spoilers for Jeanne’s route:

If we look at Jeanne's life history, he has pretty specific trauma. Most of the harm he endured was a direct result of human rights violations after the war itself. He didn't enjoy fighting and killing people, but he's also very much a man that sees the reality of his position: it's either kill or be killed. His entire goal was to defeat the enemy as efficiently as possible in the hopes of ending conflict, and with his enormous resolve turns the tide. He had no innate interest in inflicting harm, or lack of control when engaging. He isn't pathological about it, and doesn’t dehumanize the other side. He was more "this was an act of necessity, but those are still human beings." So as far as I can tell he has a very strong moral compass and sense of duty, he doesn't show much delusion/confusion in that regard. (Also evident in his conversations with the young orphan boy.) Furthermore, he has been shown to have a sense of humor--cracking jokes with Gilles and boosting morale for his fellow soldiers.

His childhood abandonment is significant (he left his home because he was "not an adequate farmhand and they had no ability to feed all their children") but I don't know if I would consider it a huge trauma point for him. It seems as though he deemed it an act of necessity--not spite. It was simply the way of things, and he couldn't help his wiry constitution. You'd be surprised how common that was once upon a time, tbh... While it's certainly not right or fair, it does appear that in his perception it was the choice he made and he moved on after he became a soldier. Just focusing on what he could do, rather than everything he lacked. For people in his position, they often feel it is useless to linger on what should have been. There’s no time to linger or doubt, life hangs in the balance.

That leaves us with his time under the Inquisition, just before he was slated to be burned alive. I think this is the keystone trauma point for him, because there are a lot of moving parts to his powerlessness here. The first part is that his entire life's mission--ending the war so that people would no longer have to die and/or starve as a result of senseless violence--was just sabotaged. All those years of doing things he never wanted to do (wartime violence) and being forced to leave his family to ensure they didn't all starve, all of it treated like some kind of joke. Like he didn't sacrifice years of his life and sanity to protect a people who were happy to call him a monster and watch him burn alive. The second part is the overt gaslighting and rewriting of Jeanne's personal history (and overall French public perception) for the sake of the King's political agenda. To call him a treasonous danger to the country when he was once lauded a hero. The third portion is the actual physical helplessness of being arrested, starved, and continuously maimed for no reason beyond pure malice. While it's never right to do that to any human being, this was done to a man who prided himself on his stalwart moral code. To abuse and torture him for something egregious that he would never do (at the risk of death) is just another slap in the face to everything he is and believes in.

I just feel like the context clarifies why that period of time would be the tipping point. His entire moral code and life’s work is being called into question and swept aside, as well as his agency? He believes very powerfully in a sense of right vs wrong, what's fair and what isn't fair. Somebody else deciding that for him--and deciding in a way that is openly unfair/incorrect--further makes him lose himself and his sense of reality. A person in that situation begins to doubt if they are good or bad. His belief in god all the more pressing; if he was a good person, why would fate bring him so much suffering? Honorable soldier or not, his blade has drawn so much blood...

People often reference his stilted social skills (and I am of the belief that he is on the autistic spectrum) as a reason why he is so "people-adverse" but tbh? I don't agree. His memories before the onset of this trauma reveal that he was actually a very warm person, and that people were more than willing to fight under his banner. He had friends, and he had comrades--his country loved him. He was the picture of well-meaning civic duty. Just because he doesn’t integrate smoothly into larger social groups or adapt well to socially shifting circumstances, doesn’t mean he just hates people lmao. When people give him the space to exist within his comfort zone and don’t take advantage of him, he thrives. Compounded by that, we also have his actions in the present to further prove what is true and what isn't.

While he is stern with the orphan boy (I'm sorry I can't remember his name, damn it) there is no malice or cruelty in what he has to say. He doesn't punish the kid or do anything out of line. It may not be fair in terms of the adult level of discretion he asks of him, but the kid also didn't have a lot of options realistically speaking lmao. Same thing with MC, she and the orphan boy are nearly identical in how Jeanne treats them. He's a little rough, but the route reveals that his intentions are just a reflection of what he's been through. He truly believes that if a person isn't strong, they won't survive--because his entire life was a series of trying to be strong/reliable because nobody else would. There was nobody to protect him, and nobody to care for him went things went south. It was him and his sword against the world, and even his exceptional skill as a fighter did not protect him from the Inquisition's arbitrary torture. He has lived in a world where good acts can become absolutely meaningless, where following rules and helping people still gets you slaughtered. That's going to take a considerable toll on his mental health: where do you find the will to go on when the next second of your life could mean the devastation of everything that matters to you?

Spoilers: you don't. Or if you do, every minute of the day is a fight to stay alive. That is the point at which we meet Jeanne. Caught in the hellish whirlpool of wanting more, wanting better--but being terrified of the cost. The cost of hoping, only for his entire world to go up in flames again. It's not a small thing, in my view.

If you have any doubts as to whether or not that is the case, I direct you to literally every singular instance in which Jeanne's emotional sensibility goes visibly dark/south. When do these instances happen? When it rains, for one. And when Shakespeare deliberately starts pressing on his sensitivities: about the soldiers he was forced to kill, about the nation that spurned him, how he's truly "wicked" at heart and doesn't deserve to be happy--seconds before flames erupt for the festival. Does that really sound coincidental? I mean lmao. The rain is a painful reminder, but MC transforms that memory into something a little lighter with her bet. He has nothing to lose in her game, all she does is ask for time with him or offers him something if she loses. There's a playfulness there, a restoration of agency and ease that's invaluable to his recovery.

As for Shakespeare's deliberate retraumatization...I can't even begin to explain how damaging that event was. Shakespeare is undermining Jeanne's agency in that he--not unlike the corrupt monarch of Jeanne's era--is twisting Jeanne's beliefs to work against him. He knows full well that Jeanne doesn't feel like he deserves somebody so bright and understanding (we need to remember it's not really a luxury he's had much in life, especially after the war ended). He knows Jeanne has a tendency to impose that strict moral code on himself even more than he does on others. To reaffirm his every worst fear and lurking terror only throws Jeanne into a vicious downspiral. Jeanne doesn't reject MC out of disgust or hate. He rejects her because he literally cannot handle the concept of trying to be happy again, or of burdening her with his constant struggle to move on while he’s in the middle of a bad episode. He knows he won’t be able to stop reliving the past, that every second of his life and breath will be colored by his gruesome memories. He's trying as hard as he can to keep the intrusive thoughts quiet, to move on. But I'm not going to lie to any of you, that is incredibly difficult to do alone.

The next obvious question is, well why can't the other men help him? This isn't to say that they can't--we see how much solace Jeanne finds in Napoleon and Mozart. Even Isaac is gentle with the veteran. But there are limits to how much they can do. Napoleon is struggling with his own wartime trauma, and it's not identical to Jeanne's. Plus there’s a distinct difference in their sensibilities? Napoleon is the type to habitually seek comfort in helping others when he can't help himself, he's not as in tune with answering his own personal feelings and regulating them. (I mean just look at his new ES: he knows what he wants, but it takes a nudge from Isaac for him to go through with it.) He’s very communally reliant in ways Jeanne isn’t; Jeanne is a very private person, and typically prefers one on one from what I can tell.

Mozart is the definition of repression, and if you look at their interactions it's usually Jeanne that's smoothing over Mozart's rough edges. Mozart says as much himself: that he feels like a rotten friend because he knew Jeanne was struggling with a lot of intense trauma, but he didn't know how to unravel it without hurting him in the process. Mozart calls it personal cowardice, but honestly I just feel like they both had too much going on to be able to help each other effectively. (And Jeanne expresses this sentiment too? This idea that he's not angry with Mozart? He knows they're both carrying a lot, he's just touched Mozart cares about him in return.)

Okay, briefly unrelated, but like. Am I the only one that wheezes uncontrollably when Mozart is like "?????? Idk what it is about MC...I don't want her to be scared of me..." in his own main story in the baths. And Jeanne. IS TRYING SO HARD. NOT TO SPILL THE BEANS ABOUT HIM O B V I O U S L Y BEING IN LOVE. THE HILARITY I CAN'T DO THIS. Jeanne was like "yeah....yeah that's rough buddy.......[screams internally, give your boy time Jeanne he's fragile]"

Honestly? That's the thing about Jeanne too--he has incredible self-awareness and hyperarousal-related (I mean the PTSD kind, get your head out of the gutter) awareness to the people around him. He's very, very conscious of the fact that he is surrounded by geniuses when he can't even write his own name. Just because he has the fortitude not to lash out with his insecurities, doesn't mean he never feels stupid or inferior. And it doesn't help when there are people in the mansion who call him--a fucking war veteran from 500 YEARS AGO--nAiVe. He's not naive lmao. He just doesn't know how the world works so many years later, and it's a ridiculously steep learning curve? Leonardo and Comte are nearly 500 years old, but they lived throughout every hour of that time in a linear fashion. It is a big deal to be moved from 1430 to 1890 in the span of a second asynchronously, and then be expected to function without a hitch??? Given the circumstances he adapts well.

That atmosphere--this constant impatience with what he doesn’t understand, his inability to be caught up to speed quickly--is going to hinder his recovery lmao. He feels like a burden most of the time, and agency and freedom are crucial.

Another thing that occurs to me about the mansion's arrangement is that there is a power dynamic, just as any space with people in it has some level of hierarchy (unless you live with miraculously chill people). Jeanne is acutely aware that Comte is the most powerful being in that space, and he is not only hatefully angry at him--but likely afraid too. We have to remember that the biggest betrayal he witnessed in his life was at the hands of a monarch; it was the aristocracy that turned on him and erased the truth. Comte is openly a child that resulted from both that era and that type of lineage, I don't really blame Jeanne for being wary. He intimately knows how willing rich people are to throw normal folks under the bus to suit their ambitions/whims. Comte, while not deliberately threatening, also seems to be painfully aware of this impression he gives off. His "chad persona" as I've mentioned allows him to navigate his life in secret by necessity, but it’s actively damaging to his son. He can't reveal the truth because of Vlad's betrayal, and he's openly unsettled by what it could mean to be honest. Will they wonder about Vlad and find themselves ensnared under his mind control as Charles and Shakespeare are? Will Comte himself be subjected to the mortifying ordeal of being known only to lose them?? That's a risk he isn't willing to take--and that leaves him in a double bind.

What is it that they say, the truth will set you free? This is where MC and Comte come into enormous play when it comes to Jeanne's recovery. One thing to keep in mind is that most of the people in the mansion have their own traumas they're trying to carry, and I feel like a lot of them are unsure how to approach Jeanne. Or if they do, he's very guarded. It takes a lot of consistent effort to get through to him. What does MC do when Jeanne unleashes his harsh worldview on her? She's understandably frightened, but Jeanne isn't malicious (so she chases him around). In fact, he openly avoids and runs away from her--well aware that what he's done is wrong. If anything, he did it on purpose, bringing us right back to Shakespeare's verbal undoing; why does Jeanne attack her in the first place?

LMAO. He attacks her because she essentially says "oh thanks for helping me!" "I am not nice. Watch yourself." "But you seem like a nice guy to me?" "REEEEEE" Does the pattern become a little clearer? When people think kindly of him, his instinct is to shatter that illusion with an impulsive reprehensible act. When people think poorly of him or lash out, what does he do? When that orphan boy starts yelling and screaming, Jeanne is nothing but calm. He explains the situation, and offers the kid a choice, perfectly happy to be the bearer of bad news. This operates on many levels I’m sure, but I have a feeling it has something to do with him being hailed a saint and a war hero only to be tortured and branded a monstrosity (and he probably thinks being a vampire is doubly monstrous). He’s more comfortable being hated because he feels it’s what he deserves in a lot of ways.

Jeanne has a lot of internalized self-hatred because of what he's done, and because of how much harm was inflicted on him outside of his control (he's Catholic and he was tortured, come on this writes itself). If I'm honest, I think that's actually the greater part of why he hates Comte lmao. Comte refuses the very concept of being cruel no matter how much Jeanne lashes out. Sure he lectures him and scolds him, but he never actively limits what's important to him or controls or harms him. Comte fully realizes the tragedy of how Jeanne's life was used by a nation in dire straits, and knows he needs time and acceptance to heal. No matter how dismal or unhappy, Comte doesn't stop--he fully believes Jeanne should have time in his life where he can really live for himself for once. But therein lies the issue, Jeanne doesn't know how to live for himself.

Which brings me to how MC and Comte "heal" Jeanne. I feel like they give him the space he needs to recover, and that's what results in his gentled temperament and happiness. Remember that so much of his main story is MC endlessly chasing after Jeanne. No amounts of his hissing or running or threatening stops her. Even if his refusals are empty of real dislike, they're enough to deter most people. Not MC. She's able to see through to the depths of who he is, and doesn't just use him for her own ends? She actively seeks to teach him (to read and write) to help him settle better in this era, she actively tries to ease his distaste for rain with a well-meaning bet, and she never gives up on him. (Actions mean so much more to him than words in general too, tbh...). Love is more easily defined by work and effort than it is by attraction.

When he has his episode at the festival, sure she's rattled; but that's because she truly believed that he didn't want to be around her anymore. When she notices he really doesn’t want to be followed, she stops like any normal person would. It’s only when she reads his notebook and sees the truth for herself (that he’s given up despite having the same feelings for her) that her determination is rekindled. She doesn't approach him fearfully, doesn't treat him like he's made of glass either. She just wants him as he is--accepts and loves him as he is. Scarred, bloody, exhausted, abrasive, terrified. She doesn't define him by how easy he is to love. That is a huge issue with traumatized people lmao. Because of their maturity, people always just assume they don't need help, or they rely on them to an extent that isn't sustainable. The second they reveal need or that they struggle, people walk away or victim blame them because it’s easier than taking them seriously.

While MC's attempts may be a little more obvious (cherishing his lily field, wearing the hair pin he gave her, careful about his gruesome injury, really listens when he talks about the horrors of his life and accepts that he experienced a level of agony/terror she can never understand, tries to express her feelings no matter his evasion) I think it's also important to consider Comte's large scale effort. I don't say this to undermine MC, I say it because Jeanne's life was defined by a complete lack of security. He left his parents to make their lives easier, he lived in a war that meant life or death any second, and his country's leader branded him a traitor which lead to his endless torture and public execution. Jeanne does not know a life in which safety is the norm. Point blank. He does not understanding going outside and not expecting the worst anymore.

Comte not only understands that level of despair, but treats it with dignity and respect. He fully accepts being hated if it means Jeanne can use that hatred to live on and find a way to heal. And most importantly, when Jeanne begins to move forward with MC and Mozart's help, Comte never once holds it against Jeanne when the truth is revealed. He's not angry, this isn't about reprisal or reparations or revenge. It's just love.

Jeanne doesn't really have a concept of this? His entire life was mostly transactional, defined by strength and efficiency. Nobody gives a damn about your feelings. You either hurl yourself at the problem or die. Nobody is going to help you or carry you or save you. While he may have had a little more support while he was in the military from his fellow soldiers, that support system was ripped away from him during the Inquisition.

One very common sentiment regarding elongated imprisonment and torture is that survival occurs in pairs. It is an undeniable fact that people need others to survive. It is the nature of who we are. Individualism has never proven to be successful, or if it is, its dividends are astronomically minimal when compared to people working together.

What does it mean to be the most reliable, steady person in the room? Usually it just means you don't know how to ask for help when you are no longer capable of maintaining that stance. Napoleon is guilty of it. Leonardo, Comte, and Jeanne all are too. It's part of why MC and Comte's capacity to see what he needs and provide as much as they can is such a big deal. That sort of consistent support (without a constant necessity to beg for help) allows Jeanne to be able to re-integrate into his new reality and find joy. Even if his nightmares and memories never go away, they are now being actively overrun by positive experiences. That's the thing about recovery, really--it tends to be more about drowning out the negative as much as possible and coming to terms with it, than it is about forgetting or never feeling it again. It’s about softening the sharp edges of pain like sea glass.

So is MC magical and randomly got Jeanne to open up? Nah, I don't think so. I think it was a series of persistence and real acceptance of who he is that made him warm up. People really seem to underestimate how deeply affecting understanding is, but that's how damage is undone. Jeanne can't really linger on the idea of his own monstrousness, his unworthiness, a lifetime of misery, when the person in front of him actively listens and cares about him. Makes him laugh and smile and lose himself in warmth for the first time.

If I'm honest, I feel like people also just...underestimate the level of traumatic resurgence that's perpetuated and inflicted by society’s standards in general lmao. This rhetorical structure in which good and bad exist in moral extremes, this idea that people should be able to recover and never experience relapses or periods of sensitivity. The refusal to radically listen to people and their problems, and make active attempts--not matter how small--to mend/ease those hurt feelings. Granted there will always be people in the world who do not want to improve, but I feel like most people want to. It's hopelessness, silence, and stigmatization that remain the true enemies of traumatized/mentally ill people everywhere. And among that population are always war veterans...