neversetyoufree

[neversetyoufree]

I started vnc way back when there was only one volume, stopped, and only restarted it last week 🙈 since then, I have reread it twice and will again, once I'm done with exams, as it has turned me insane. And since no one I know reads it, I just wanted to ask what your thoughts are on my theory that the reason not 'didn't reach out to vanitas' thus leading to his death is because of Ruthven compulsion on him? Cuzco after the 'ill never set you free'thing, I just can't see noel not reaching out tonight purpose. Your blog is a joy to read through, and I love your meta!

Hello!! Thank you so much! It's always great to see another person having fun with my favorite manga :D.

My thoughts on Vanitas's eventual death are. complicated. If we keep going down the path we're on now, I honestly suspect Vanitas's death is going to be more assisted suicide than murder. IE, Vanitas asks for Noé to kill him because it's preferable to the alternative.

Per Ruthven's compulsion, I definitely think it's going to come up, and I do like the idea of Ruthven trying to force Noé to hurt or kill Vanitas, but I don't think it's going to be how Vanitas dies. In a way, I think that would feel somewhat cheap.

Noé killing Vanitas because of his oath to Ruthven would make sense on a plot level. It's a nice, logical explanation for why Noé would kill someone he so clearly adores. I can see why it's a lot of people's theory! However, that explanation wouldn't really deliver on an emotional level. It's just not interesting for Noé's characterization.

For one thing, making Noé kill Vanitas when he's not in control of himself would strip away all of Noé's agency. With VnC's opening chapter, Mochijun sets us up so that the entire time we're reading, we're asking ourselves "but why will Noé kill him?" It's a big source of intrigue and suspense. And to me, finally resolving that suspense with "It's not his fault! He was artificially forced to!" feels like a major letdown. It adds nothing to Noé's character. It's answering that all-important "why" with "There is no reason why. He didn't actually want to." I think that would be a cop-out.

Through that denial of agency, I think this ending would also risk losing out on a lot of potential character development for Noé. The core of Noé and Louis's tragedy is that Noé desperately wanted to save Louis, but the only kind of salvation Louis wanted from him was death, and Noé couldn't give him that.

Now Noé has another person close to him that is also seeking salvation through death. If Noé kills Vanitas, but he's not in control of himself when he does, that misses out on a big opportunity. Has Noé come to understand salvation through death? Has his worldview changed since Louis made that request of him? Does he have it in him to kill a loved one if that's what they ask? If Vanitas's death is forced by Ruthven, then we're much less likely to get answers to those questions.

Personally, my favorite hope/theory for how Ruthven's order will play out is the idea that Ruthven will order Noé to hurt/stop/kill Vanitas, but Vanitas will manage to snap Noé out of it in the same way Noé broke Vanitas's self-hypnosis in the amusement park. There's nothing I love more than a gay little parallel.

I can see a scenario where Ruthven's oath is what pushes Vanitas close to death? Maybe Noé will be ordered to try to kill Vanitas, and that will set off whatever horrible chain of events pushes Vanitas to ask for death that final time. But even if Ruthven does order Noé to hurt Vanitas (which is a big if), I don't think it will be what causes the killing blow.

#I think I remember posting some of these thoughts before years ago #but I'm having trouble finding any relevant posts. so here's this instead. #anyway I always feel a little bad when people send me their theories and I end up arguing against them #thank you for the ask genuinely! #it's an interesting theory and I do see why people like it. even if I don't want it to happen for the listed reasons #vnc #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #ask #anon #theory #the vanoé agenda #<<this isn't a ship post but that's my tag for everything about their relationship lol

[neversetyoufree]

Longest yeah boi ever my copy of the volume 11 special edition and artbook are supposed to arrive tomorrow

#I did something rare and shelled out for the expensive shipping since it's an international order #and I would've been antsy about a long wait period with no tracking #getting it so soon is just a bonus :) #I'm not gonna post too much from the artbook but if I see some extra exciting stuff I might share #about andie

[neversetyoufree]

Just recently found your blog and i love it!!! do have any theories for vanitas' original name? My guess is Abraham, for all it doesn't really fit him, after Abraham van hellsing, who is both a doctor and vampire expert, which I think matches mochijuns naming conventions. Doesn't hurt that it matches with Noe (noah) religiously.

Thank you!! Welcome to the party ;D

Traditionally, I've always said I don't have any strong theories on Vanitas's name—at least none that I actually expect to come true. I think(?) I've talked about this before, but that's not really the kind of theorizing I do? Since right now any name theory is wild guessing and speculation, not elaborating from the text.

That said, I do now have one pet theory that I'm partial to (one I didn't have the last time someone asked me this). I don't actually think this is going to be the case in canon, but for now, I really enjoy the concept of Vanitas's real name being Byron. This is mostly because I think it would be funny, but there are some actual connections too.

Long context short, Lord Byron wrote an unfinished draft of what would have been the first modern vampire story, and then his personal doctor (John William Polidori) took the same idea and fleshed it out into The Vampyre—the actual generally recognized first modern vampire story. But! Polidori's version of the vampire (the version that established a lot of our vampire tropes) was partly inspired by Byron himself. So Byron is sort of this almost-but-not-quite vampire author, writing but also inspiring the tropes of vampirism, which reflects interestingly on Vanitas's relationship to actual vampirism. He's not a vampire, but he's much closer to one than any other human, and in demeanor, he acts more stereotypically vampiric than Noé and many other vampire characters.

Also, Byron is the namesake of the Byronic hero, which Vanitas is a perfect example of. He's brooding, cynical, arrogant, and intelligent, but despite his gloom and self-destructiveness, he has a sort of lonely magnetism about him. Once again, the concept of the Byronic hero is inspired by/named after both Byron himself and the characters he wrote.

As I said, I don't think I'm going to be right about this, as there's a million other theories that could fit just as well, but in the meantime, the concept does tickle me. Polidori's Byron-based vampire even has an especially strong connection to the moon :D.

Anyway, I really like your theory as well. I've noted before that it's interesting that there's no Van Hellsing reference in VnC (or any direct Dracula references at all, save poor dead Mina). It's almost surprising given Dracula is the iconic vampire story. I never even considered that there could be a Dracula reference hidden right there in Vani and waiting to be discovered, but it does make sense. The doctor/vampire expert connection is really fun and fitting! Though I'm afraid I don't know enough about the biblical Abraham to say anything interesting about that aspect beyond what you pointed out there.

#look mom I finally have my very own Vanitas name theory! I'm finally a real theorist! #(lmao) #thanks for the ask! #ask #anon #vnc #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #theory #comparison #vanitas my beloved

[neversetyoufree]

“His hand and heart hesitantly reach out…”

#MAN this is gorgeous #the background!! #the softness of the light!! #waugh #art #rebagel #the vanoé agenda

[neversetyoufree]

Obviously I'm very glad that Domi has stepped in to help protect Dante and Johann, and it's great that she's calling Dante by his name. However, I'm vaguely concerned that a member of the de Sade family directly confronting chasseurs (and particularly hateful chasseurs!) could lead to very bad things down the line.

Back at the start of the catacombs arc, Johann pointed out that relations between the church and the vampire establishment are still extremely tense, so it would be prohibitively dangerous for Orlock and his people to get involved in a conflict with them. If you take Johann at his word, it could take as little as one false step to set off the beginnings of another war. And the situation has only gotten worse since the catacombs.

Dominique isn't as politically important as Count Orlock, but she's still a member of a key family of aristocrats. If Gano and Ogier escalate the current situation to violence and Domi has to fight them, there's a chance things could spiral out of control in a big way.

There's also a chance Domi, Dante, and Johann will still be able to calm things down without a fight, of course, but if it does come to blows, I'm afraid an excuse to hurt or be hurt by a vampire aristocrat is the perfect opportunity for Gano. We know the extremists want an opportunity to go to war again, after all. I don't know if Gano shares that desire, since he's working with Ruthven on the side, but he's hateful enough that I sure wouldn't rule it out.

#not that I think war's going to erupt on the streets if this escalates #we've still got to deal with the miel plot. among other things #but depending on how things go. this could push the situation in a really bad direction in the long term #or maybe not! #but in any case. this is the most interested I've been in the bigger political forces lurking in the background in vnc #suddenly it all feels very important and immediate #vnc #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #theory #vnc spoilers #vnc 63

[neversetyoufree]

My absolute delight at getting more depth and character development for Dante vs my absolute despair at the contents of that development

#I'm v much enjoying the direction we're going with him #but man. man #let my dude find some peace #let him not be discriminated against for like ten minutes #vnc spoilers #jokes #vnc 63 #liveblog #vnc #vanitas no carte

[neversetyoufree]

It's new VnC day!

Here's your regular monthly reminder that I'll be posting spoilers along with today's Japanese release, so please blacklist #vnc spoilers or #vnc 63 to avoid :D

#I'm very psyched for this one #about andie

[neversetyoufree]

Boo, I wanted to order the volume 11 special edition from Animate to get the little bonus art cards, but they won't let me register for the site with a US phone number >:[

#I'll just order from another site. not like I need the cards #but I am mildly disappointed #found a reddit thread about them being really weird and inconsistent about whether they accept us phones #and nobody in the thread found a solution #so I'm giving up on that #about andie

[neversetyoufree]

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.

#and perhaps noé will learn to see death as a form of salvation when life is corruption #and perhaps vanitas will learn to see the value of preserving (his own) life #and perhaps they'll both find a definition of salvation that is neither of these things 👀 #but that's not the point of this post #anyway this is one of those concepts that I've been orbiting around and maybe gestured toward before #but I don't think I ever quite put it in words or thought about this connection so directly #so here we are #vnc #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #vanitas #vanitas my beloved #english major hours

[neversetyoufree]

hi! i know you usually buy the japanese vnc manga chapters as they're published. would you maybe know the website for buying the special edition of volume 11? i don't really know a lot about the japanese market. completely fine if you don't know ofc:)

Hello! I usually buy new VnC chapters (via Gangan Joker) on seymour/cmoa. However, volume 11 isn't on there yet in any form. I've done some hunting around elsewhere, but navigating Japanese sites besides cmoa is also a bit out of my comfort zone, so I may have missed something.

Edit: And speaking of missing things/getting them wrong, I did do that! What follows is an edited version of this post, as I made a mistake the first time I posted this and misread several listings for the special edition with the artbook as being for only the artbook. Whoops.

Anyway, here's some places you can buy the special edition (artbook included):

Rakuten Books

Square Enix

7net

All of the above were linked by Mochijun on her twitter, so everyone say thank you to the anon that linked her tweets to me.

It's also available on Animate along with two exclusive bonus art cards:

#made a noteworthy mistake on this post originally #so I wanted to reblog it and put the edited version in front of people instead #bump

[neversetyoufree]

mochijun tweeted a few links to both special and normal edition of volume 11! i don't know if they include the extra cards though

https://twitter(.)com/jun_mdesu/status/1777199910292775031?t=PFvK4N4IkCHtlHRvRA_GtA&s=19

https://twitter(.)com/jun_mdesu/status/1777199966618071444?t=WDxvd0drluw_E9fYeT2Gsw&s=19

Oh thank you! I unfortunately can't check Mochijun's twitter easily anymore, as it's become pretty much impossible to navigate the site without an account, and I refuse to make one.

It looks like the square enix links she shared (in the second linked tweet) are the same as the ones I found earlier. I think I may have just misread those listings initially 😬. I thought what I was seeing was the artbook on its own, but they're actually for volume 11's special edition and the artbook together. Let's go ahead and blame that mistake on me trying to research for that post at 6:00 in the morning so I feel less like I can't read lol.

As for the extra cards, those are an Animate exclusive. They do bonus art cards for every volume, special edition or not. You can see them all on each volume's wiki page :).

Time to go edit that original post.

#my excuse for my mistake is that the descriptions of the special edition listings all talk p exclusively about the artbook #I'd have been able to tell better if I read the listing titles in addition to the item descriptions #but apparently I did not do that #thank you for helping me clear that up! #ask #anon #bonus #vnc

[neversetyoufree]

hi! i know you usually buy the japanese vnc manga chapters as they're published. would you maybe know the website for buying the special edition of volume 11? i don't really know a lot about the japanese market. completely fine if you don't know ofc:)

Hello! I usually buy new VnC chapters (via Gangan Joker) on seymour/cmoa. However, volume 11 isn't on there yet in any form. I've done some hunting around elsewhere, but navigating Japanese sites besides cmoa is also a bit out of my comfort zone, so I may have missed something.

Edit: And speaking of missing things/getting them wrong, I did do that! What follows is an edited version of this post, as I made a mistake the first time I posted this and misread several listings for the special edition with the artbook as being for only the artbook. Whoops.

Anyway, here's some places you can buy the special edition (artbook included):

Rakuten Books

Square Enix

7net

All of the above were linked by Mochijun on her twitter, so everyone say thank you to the anon that linked her tweets to me.

It's also available on Animate along with two exclusive bonus art cards:

#Apologies for the mixup and thank you again to the anon that helped me figure out what I got wrong #even if a bit inadvertently #I'm going to throw this in the main series tag just in case anyone finds it helpful #vnc #vanitas no carte #ask #anon #ID in alt text #bonus

[neversetyoufree]

The new vnc vol 11 cover is extremely pretty, but more importantly, it gives Machina a reasonable human skin tone. Thank god.

#I'm pretty sure the last color illustration we got was the mém 58 cover with that gray-ass noé #so this is much better #vnc #anyway I'm not gonna rb the art bc I know mochijun doesn't like her twitter-exclusive art reposted #and I'm not sure how smth like a volume cover preview plays into that #but it should be easy to find if y'all haven't seen it

[neversetyoufree]

hello! i’ve been trying to get more into the vnc fandom but i can hardly find active blogs or ones that main vnc(not that it’s an obligatory requirement), are there any blogs you would recommend? perhaps something with more analysis? i love your blog by the way, thank you and sorry if this is a burdensome ask

Thank you!!

The truth is that, due to various neuroses, I read other people's VnC analyses relatively rarely, so I'm not the best source for recommending other meta/analysis writers. That said, I can still shout out a few beloved mutuals.

@what-on-earth-is-love is a dedicated vnc blog that I'm quite fond of.

@aguacerotropical has a lot of really good vnc posts, including a masterlist of all the literary/historical/cultural references in the manga.

@torterrachampion isn't vnc main/exclusive, but absolutely does make wonderful vnc posts as well.

Enjoy the fandom! Best of luck finding more blogs to scratch that itch.

#ask #anon #vnc #if we've like. interacted and you're a vnc poster and I didn't put you on this list then apologies #but I am spectacularly forgetful

[neversetyoufree]

Quote from James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room

#god #genuinely one of the vnc posts of all time #comparison #rebagel #the vanoé agenda

[neversetyoufree]

Are we soulmates in another universe?

#screaming and crying forever #oh my god #this is absolutely gorgeous #video #animatic #art #the vanoé agenda #rebagel

[neversetyoufree]

The funniest thing about the Marquis Machina identity reveal is that it recontextualizes the shoes in her current outfit from "quirky Mochijun design choice" to "Francis Varney is a Japanophile."

Ye olde weeabeau.

#I mean it makes sense. there's definitely a precedent for weird old rich europeans getting obsessed with Japanese aesthetics #even setting aside the fact that this is a joke being made by a japanese author lol #I bet Francis is the reason Veronica comes to the bal masqué dressed Like That #also sorry I've been so inactive friends #I've been deep in the brainworm dimension for something else lmao #it's been so long I nearly combined franny's two names and tagged her as 'francis machina' just now lmao #vnc #vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #marquis machina #francis varney #vnc spoilers #vnc 62.5 #marquis machina my beloved #ID in alt text