bookdragonquotes - Tumblr blog

bookdragonquotes · 1 day

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#today's words were #dance #chirp #brother #well this got sad #louis de sade #dominique de sade #noe archiviste #noé archiviste #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #vnc #les memoires de vanitas

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bookdragonquotes · 2 days

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#today's words were #neck #hiss #dawn #yes vanitas is hissing #he seems like the type #vnc vanitas #noe archiviste #noé archiviste #vnc murr #vnc #the case study of vanitas #vanitas no carte #les memoires de vanitas

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bookdragonquotes · 3 days

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#today's words were #crimson #lead #leopard #ruthven isn't cool enough to be a lion or a fox #not that leopards aren't cool #but still #really I should call him a pesky little mosquito #lord ruthven #august ruthven #vnc jeanne #luca oriflamme #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #vnc #les memoires de vanitas

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bookdragonquotes · 4 days

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#today's words were #quarrel #know #magic #vanitas out here doing advanced organic chemistry #not sure noé should give him his book back #vnc vanitas #noe archiviste #noé archiviste #vnc dante #vnc #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #les memoires de vanitas

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bookdragonquotes · 6 days

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#today's words were #Book #brawl #hundred #vnc vanitas #noe archiviste #noé archiviste #vnc dante #dominique de sade #vnc murr #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #vnc #les memoires de vanitas

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bookdragonquotes · 8 days

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#today's words were #hand #try #deadly #it only gets worse #olivier is suffering #noé archiviste #noe archiviste #roland fortis #vnc olivier #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #vnc #les memoires de vanitas

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bookdragonquotes · 9 days

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#today's words were #Charlatan #feel #dungeon #sorry domi #vnc misha #dominique de sade #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #vnc #les memoires de vanitas

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bookdragonquotes · 10 days

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#today's words were #human #encourage #power #he absolutely regrets writing this #but we can't expect him to know better after a day or two #vnc vanitas #noe archiviste #noé archiviste #comte de saint germain #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #vnc #les memoires de vanitas

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bookdragonquotes · 11 days

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I've been thinking lately about Vanitas and Noé's first "what is salvation" fight at the bal masqué and what it means about their individual definitions of the concept, and I've realized something about Vanitas.

Noé's definition of salvation is the obvious one. It feels natural. To save someone is to keep them from dying. But in a way, his understanding of salvation is also almost selfish. Noé's foundational trauma is the constant loss of his loved ones. He is the eternal sole survivor. So of course he wants to keep people alive—he wants to "save" the people he cares about in the way that keeps them by his side this time.

It's not wrong to want that, of course. I don't mean "selfish" as a condemnation. It's just that the definition of salvation that Noé starts the series with is inarguably the one that best serves his own happiness.

And it's the same with Vanitas.

When Vanitas kills the little girl Catherine by restoring her true name, he tells Noé he doesn't know what salvation is. He might be lying there, or he might be telling the truth in that he's never put his definition of salvation into words or acknowledged it on a conscious level. Either way, though, I do think he has a definition of salvation somewhere in his mind, and it's a very personal one.

Vanitas sees salvation as the preservation or restoration of one's true self. You're saved so long as you can preserve your essential self, uncorrupted by outside forces. Even if the price of that selfness is death.

While Noé's foundational trauma that informs his worldview is the loss of his loved ones, one of Vanitas's foundational traumas is the loss of his bodily autonomy. Through Moreau's experiments and Luna's mark/bite, he has been transformed into something no longer fully human, and he hates it. From the moment Luna told him he was dying, he said he wanted to die as himself rather than live as their kin, and he has been denied that opportunity.

Nothing is more important for Vanitas than being able to dictate the destiny of his own body, and malnomen are the ultimate corruption of bodily autonomy and selfness. Altering one's true name warps not only their physical body, but their very being on a metaphysical level. The curse takes everything a vampire is and changes it, and doing that to an unwilling victim is the ultimate horror for Vanitas.

Given that context, of course Vanitas thinks that killing a child to restore her true name counts as saving her. He's restoring her essential self and un-corrupting her body and being, and even if her self is only returned for an instant before she dies, it's preferable to living on as something warped by an outside force.

Vanitas absolutely starts the series with a definition of salvation, and like Noé, it's the one that best serves his own happiness. He wants to be saved. He wants to be returned to his human self, and failing that (since he knows it's impossible), he wants to wipe out all traces of the force that changed him and then die without going any further down the path of inhumanity.

Vanitas might not be able to admit that definition out loud (or even to himself directly), but it's there, and it guides him early in the series as much as Noé's own definition of salvation guides him in turn.

#this one doesn't have prompt words #because I've been thinking about the above all day #noe archiviste #noé archiviste #vnc vanitas #vnc #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #les memoires de vanitas

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bookdragonquotes · 12 days

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