VNC Chapter 53 Analysis
So, this chapter has quickly become one of my favorite chapters of the series because it really has everything I could have hoped for. Mochizuki you've done it again. It might be harder waiting for the next chapter than it was waiting for this one, though. XD I guess that's the cost of being in the middle of a particularly interesting arc! Let's take a look at what's happened.
The very first thing I want to remark on is that Dominique lives! This was my initial impression of this arc, but I began to have doubts. I'm very glad she has survived because I truly believe this would not have been a good arc for her to die. I know some of our main characters will likely die by the end of the series, but this ending for Dominique would have had a bad flow in my opinion. She wouldn't have gotten a chance to resolve things or even come out with the anger and trauma she's been living with ever since Louis's death.
Needless to say, I was very glad to see Jeanne swoop in and save the day. Before I get to Jeanne though, I want to talk about Dominique's inner angel and devil, so to speak. We see younger Dominique again, but we also see another representative.
My first guess was that this was Louis, but their hand placement is tactically positioned to hide where his mole would be, making it unclear whether this is Louis giving her advice or another representation of herself. Does it make any difference? A little bit. Louis is often seen dishing out harsh truths to Noé and Dominique (although mostly Noé). Things like "you can't save anyone" for example. Noé often reflects on this. It would make sense for Dominique to have a similar view of her brother: harsh, but accurate about the situation.
Louis (I'm just going to call this representation "Louis" for the moment) is also positioned very similarly to our ram head from Charlatan.
I'm still 90% positive we're going to learn that fellow is some version of Louis. He also gives out harsh opinions even as he tries to "help."
But where is this "representation" of Louis coming from? Is it Dominique's own projection of what she thinks her brother would say or is it some outside force? Granted, I'm not sure what the outside force would be. Maybe just an innate connection to Louis himself. I'm unsure.
But if it's a manifestation of Dominique instead we instead see that the "feminine" version of her is the one that encapsulates all her insecurities and anger while the "masculine" form is more honest and blunt. It would show that she's still dividing different aspects of her personality within herself.
There is also the possibility that the feminine form of Dominique is Misha's manipulation. It's a safe bet that Misha has done something to her true name, so the odd behavior coming from her younger self might not be an accurate reflection of how she feels about anything but a projection of what Misha wants her to feel. And yet, it showed independent thought. I don't know, I think we may need info before we can say what these different Dominiques represent.
As for Jeanne, the second thing I noticed right after her saving Dominique is that she assessed the situation very quickly. It makes sense that Jeanne would be able to maneuver herself in a battlefield; she's been a bourreau for nearly her whole life and took part in the war as well. So, while she has no idea why Noé and Vanitas are fighting, she does know it's not her priority and she leaves them to it. There's also the matter that Luca asked her to find Dominique.
My guess is that Luca connected the dots regarding Dominique's disappearance, her weird behavior, and the vampire incidents that have been happening, and he wants Jeanne to intervene before anyone else figures it out. Therefore, Jeanne was sent specifically to find Dominique and put an end to the incidents somehow. I imagine Noé and Vanitas being there was quite the surprise.
But since she's familiar both with battle and with Vanitas's moods, she reminds Noé to watch him.
In another context, this would really sound like she and Vanitas broke up and she now wishes Noé to take good care of him. (^^)" But the reality is that she can probably tell Noé isn't paying as much attention as he thinks he is and the key to ending the battle is him noticing what's happening with Vanitas.
Also, Jeanne is only peripherally aware that these two spend a lot of time together. She doesn't know that they live together or how they met or even how many cases they've worked on. I imagine for someone who once said "Y-You're here, too?! Well... since Vanitas is here, it's only natural... I suppose...?" seeing them suddenly trying to kill each other is especially bizarre. She doesn't know any of their backstory or how chaotic things with them can actually be. 8D
I do still feel like Vanitas has gone out of his way to keep these two largely separate, but I wonder how much longer that can last with how things are going?
Another thing about Jeanne I noticed this chapter is that she looks a lot like Misha and I saw some of you commenting on that as well. I know their color scheme is a little different, but the fact of the matter is they have almost the same hairstyle, similar eye shape, and they're both fair in skin tone and hair color.
I wouldn't think much of it except Vanitas has already compared the two earlier in the series.
As if their visual similarity wasn't enough, Vanitas also views them similarly on an emotional level as well. He made a promise to Misha that he couldn't keep. He fears the promise he made Jeanne may be difficult to keep as well. The problem here is we don't know what promise he made to Misha or how similar it is to the one he made to Jeanne, in other words, to kill them/save them. Vanitas definitely believed Misha was dead and it looks like whatever grievously injured Misha happened on the same day Vanitas killed Luna.
So, did Luna try to kill Misha? Perhaps their name was corrupted? This would suggest that the promise he made Misha was to "save" him, but not necessarily to kill him, which would juxtapose somewhat with the promise he's made Jeanne. On the flip side, it's technically possible Vanitas killed both Luna and tried to kill Misha for whatever reason, but at the moment that seems less likely to me.
Regardless, the point stands that he's equating these two promises and people. We could go so far as to say that while Misha is very literally trying to recreate his family by bringing back Luna and capturing Vanitas, Vanitas has sort of done the same thing (although on a subconscious level, I expect). Jeanne bears some similarity to Misha and Noé looks somewhat similar to Luna. Whether this theory holds up or not will depend a lot on how things continue to develop between all three and I do want to emphasize it's a very base similarity. Jeanne and Noé both have far more differences from Misha and Luna than similarities, but there could be a thin thread that initially drew Vanitas to them.
And yes, I realize this sort of puts an odd twist on Vanitas/Jeanne (and possibly Noé/Vanitas as well), but I don't think that's wholly surprising considering they've already developed quite the unconventional relationship.
Regardless, Jeanne is now battling Dominique who is arguing with herself over whether or not she even wants to fight Jeanne. She harbors a lot of anger towards her because she believes Noé is in love with her. This particular interpretation still bewilders me because Noé has not given very strong indications of romantic love towards Jeanne, certainly nothing that should make Dominique have such powerful feelings about it. Her negative feelings are being amplified, but I think there might be a secondary explanation here. Dominique loves Noé and therefore expects him to have good taste. Dominique likes Jeanne and is probably attracted to her (the subtext for Dominique being bisexual is pretty strong at this point), so she's conflating the two. She's mistaking her own attraction towards Jeanne as evidence that Noé must be attracted to her as well. Furthermore, she sees herself as worthless, so why would Noé like her anyway?
But even more importantly, Dominique can't stand Vanitas, doesn't understand why Jeanne likes him, and she likely couldn't fathom Noé liking him as well. She thinks Noé is just curious about him and at first she was right, but I think at this point it's safe to say things have gotten a little more serious (however you want to interpret "serious").
And now a few things about Misha: he's very visibly getting worn out as the fight continues, and I do think that's because of how much energy he's using to keep Dominique under his control (along with weather and losing blood and such). He's using his mark far more than Vanitas has and we know it's crawled up his arm. Perhaps the mark is expanding the longer he prolongs this battle? I really think Misha is going to have to retreat sooner rather than later if only to preserve his own life.
Also, how's he going to take the fact that not only did Noé fail to get Vanitas's memories, Vanitas can't bring himself to kill Noé? And Dominique was rescued? Like I predicted, his whole plan fell apart. XD Because it really wasn't that good of a plan! He knows nothing about any of these people! Even Vanitas has changed dramatically since he last saw him. But before Misha retreats, I think we'll get a chapter or two at least of Jeanne and Dominique battling things out, sort of like how Noé and Vanitas did. It's an arc where people let loose some of their frustrations, I guess.
Moving on to Vanitas and Noé, these two really have experienced the full range of emotions this arc. What started out with worry and fear turned into betrayal, which turned into rage, which has now turned into a ceasefire that is definitely going to transform their interactions from this point onwards.
As soon as Jeanne gives Noé the advice to watch Vanitas he can't help but wryly think he doesn't need to be told that. The flashbacks we get are kind of cut off, but we can see that some are from this arc when Vanitas takes the chasseur drug and raises his gun, but others are from further back in the story, such as the blue moon when they fell and the scene where they danced together (it's a little hard to identify the panels since they're very small snippets). The takeaway is that Noé has always been watching Vanitas as we know. He's always been trying to figure him out and understand him.
However, what happened as soon as Vanitas rejected Noé's plea to help Dominique is that he stopped analyzing Vanitas. He's watching his movements, but he's not interpreting the man himself, so Jeanne's advice is still on point. This is hardly easy advice to follow, however. Vanitas did threaten Dominique and he did refuse to do anything to help her (as far as Noé can tell) and Vanitas himself was the one who told him to "base what he does on what he can't concede." Well, he can't concede Dominique, so it's no surprise that the only thing that gets Noé to calm down is when he realizes the transformation he himself has undergone.
It shocks him so much that he's instantly forced back into his usual demeanor: if he looks like this, how must Vanitas have felt? And so he considers it and realizes Vanitas was terrified of him.
At the end of the day, this is another thing Noé can't concede and while it took a great shock to remind him of it, it's true all the same: he can't concede taking someone's blood without their permission and he can't concede their friendship (which is part of why he was so angry with Vanitas in the first place; it seemed as though Vanitas was giving it up).
Honestly, analyzing Vanitas is a full-time job, so I can't blame Noé for taking some temporary leave in favor of trying to solve a more immediate problem, but it's only when he reflects on Vanitas's cruel words and puts them within the context of how Vanitas has always behaved that he finally pieces it together: Vanitas sees freedom as solitude. The threat to kill Dominique, while appalling, also reveals his own poor state of mind. It was only after he killed Luna that he himself felt free. He may have hated having to do it, but he views isolation as the only way to remain as himself.
Well, Noé isn't going to have it. For one, he refuses to become the villain Vanitas views all vampires as, but he also refuses to allow Vanitas to be right about freedom equaling solitude. Noé once said he'd decided he was staying with Vanitas and he reiterates that in this chapter once again with even more conviction.
It's a very powerful statement and Vanitas seems to understand what he means because these two are developing their own language, but imagine what Jeanne and Dominique must be thinking right now. Noé won't allow Vanitas to be free? What does that mean? What are they even arguing about right now? Why are they trying to kill each other? And so on and so forth. I seriously doubt Jeanne is going to be given an adequate explanation of this entire event although I'm sure she's going to look for one. If she manages to speak with Noé she might have some luck, but both Vanitas and Dominique have done their best to keep those two separate, though for very different reasons.
Dominique has some idea of why this battle began in the first place (it was over her), but I'm sure the resolution is just as mystifying because, again, she has had no idea how much these two have bonded. The whole thing is going to be quite a shock for both of them and Misha as well. I'm personally looking forward to seeing Misha's massive frustration with how things have turned out. Regardless, at some point, I think Dominique is going to learn that no, Noé is not in love with Jeanne. He admires her, likely finds her beautiful, and all of that, but they haven't had a proper conversation for the entirety of this series. I don't really know how Dominique is going to take that. It means she was completely wrong and it means she doesn't have anyone to direct her jealousy and rage at (unless she decides to aim it at Vanitas). She'll have to confront her relationship with Noé as it stands between them for what it is and Noé is going to have to do so as well. I'm not really sure where those two will wind up at the end of this arc, but they're going to have some difficult moments.
Of course, Noé and Vanitas are going to have some wildly awkward, difficult, and likely painful moments more immediately. The two have completely pummeled each other and, in my opinion, are probably down for the count for the rest of this battle's duration. Noé had to cancel his abilities to win over Vanitas's trust once more and stop his own self-hypnosis, but here's the thing: if he actually cancelled all his abilities, his spine should be fractured at the very least. If he just cancelled his battle-oriented abilities (and his eyes are still glowing red, basically), then his spine being intact makes more sense. I guess vampires can take a beating, but that was a major fall and Vanitas placed all of his weight directly on Noé's stomach when they landed as you can see here:
Likely this is the only reason Vanitas's knees didn't snap. But what's more, that's where Vanitas slashed Noé, so he's got to be in some massive pain right now. As for Vanitas, the chasseur drug has likely worn off again and he's no longer under his own hypnosis. Furthermore, we've seen him slumping to his knees throughout the battle ever since Noé slammed a steel beam right into his ribs. Noé once told Vanitas he made sure not to break his arms when he had to strike him:
But did he remember not to do that this time around? 8D If he did, they're probably still bruised or possibly even fractured, but the short version of this is that I really don't think Vanitas is moving from his current position without a lot of help. The only thing that kept him going during this battle was the drug and his own drive to kill "that vampire" only he's completely lost the drive to kill "that vampire" since "that vampire" is now Noé once more.
This here is getting to the crux of a problem I'm not sure Vanitas even knew he had. I think he's been telling himself over and over that if things went poorly with Noé they would just go their separate ways and, if need be, he would kill him. I'm sure it comforted him and allowed himself to remain convinced they weren't as close as they are. But now there's no way he can continue lying to himself on this front. When push came to shove, he couldn't kill Noé. He couldn't even bring himself to hurt him. I know a lot of people think Vanitas was punching Noé's chest in his rage, but to me it looked a lot more like he was striking the ground next to Noé, which means he can't even punch him now.
Honestly, if we thought Vanitas realizing he loves Jeanne was awkward and hard on him, I can only imagine that this particular revelation is going to cause him to snap. He very well might try to pretend the whole thing never happened, but I don't think he's going to get away with that. I originally thought these two were going to take a little break from each other at the end of this arc, but the way things are looking now it seems they're far more likely to continue onwards as a duo just like always and can you imagine how awkward that's going to be? XD They'll absolutely have to say something eventually because no one can sweep this under the rug. I mean, think of all the people around them who are going to try to bring it up if nothing else! Jeanne, Dominique, all of the dhampirs, Amelia, etc. etc. It's a complete mess. And Vanitas won't have accomplished any of the things he set out to do when he realized Misha was there. I really can't wait to see the fallout of all this. It's going to be nuts. :D
But the regrets they're both feeling right now must be powerful. Vanitas is crying and I think there are a lot of reasons for that. The most obvious is that they're tears of frustration. He can't bring himself to kill Noé and I'm sure he's wondering why not. He killed Luna, someone he also cared about. He may have even tried to kill Misha. He's willing to kill plenty of other people (and has done so such as during the Bal Masqué) and has even promised Jeanne he'll kill her if need be. But not Noé.
But I think the tears also stem from undergoing the entire battle, the fact that somehow he does have someone who will stay with him no matter what, and that's just not the kind of thing Vanitas can cope with. He is well and truly stuck with Noé and he's going to have to figure out how he feels about that.
As for Noé, seeing such open emotion on Vanitas's face moves him to tears as well (not to mention the sheer stress and madness of the whole situation) and he apologizes profusely. I'm not sure whether Vanitas will ever bring himself to apologize directly with words, but I wouldn't be surprised if he does something to show remorse down the road. Not entirely sure how that will show itself; maybe he'll just heal Dominique without any further fuss, but my guess is that however his remorse shows itself will happen when they're back at Hotel Chou Chou. But I do think Vanitas needs to show some kind of acknowledgment of how his own behavior played into this mess, not just Noé's.
Of course, they're probably going to have to get to a hospital before they go back to the hotel. Maybe Jeanne or the dhampirs will help them get there. Kind of unsure how that will turn out.
The last thing I wanted to point out isn't at all relevant to the plot, but I did want to point out that Vanitas using a grappling hook was such a Batman moment I kind of laughed. XD I mean, he has enough angst to be one of the Robins; he even has something akin to a circus background! I mean, if he's Nightwing, Noé would do pretty well as Starfire, I guess. So there's that.
Anyway, I loved this chapter and waiting for the next is going to be tough. I need to know what happens with Jeanne and Dominique and I need to know whether Noé and Vanitas are stuck there, trying to find some way of voicing what happened while getting soaked in the rain. They're going to catch a cold on top of everything else, I can sense it. I look forward to seeing how it continues!
The very first thing I want to remark on is that Dominique lives! This was my initial impression of this arc, but I began to have doubts. I'm very glad she has survived because I truly believe this would not have been a good arc for her to die. I know some of our main characters will likely die by the end of the series, but this ending for Dominique would have had a bad flow in my opinion. She wouldn't have gotten a chance to resolve things or even come out with the anger and trauma she's been living with ever since Louis's death.
Needless to say, I was very glad to see Jeanne swoop in and save the day. Before I get to Jeanne though, I want to talk about Dominique's inner angel and devil, so to speak. We see younger Dominique again, but we also see another representative.
My first guess was that this was Louis, but their hand placement is tactically positioned to hide where his mole would be, making it unclear whether this is Louis giving her advice or another representation of herself. Does it make any difference? A little bit. Louis is often seen dishing out harsh truths to Noé and Dominique (although mostly Noé). Things like "you can't save anyone" for example. Noé often reflects on this. It would make sense for Dominique to have a similar view of her brother: harsh, but accurate about the situation.
Louis (I'm just going to call this representation "Louis" for the moment) is also positioned very similarly to our ram head from Charlatan.
I'm still 90% positive we're going to learn that fellow is some version of Louis. He also gives out harsh opinions even as he tries to "help."
But where is this "representation" of Louis coming from? Is it Dominique's own projection of what she thinks her brother would say or is it some outside force? Granted, I'm not sure what the outside force would be. Maybe just an innate connection to Louis himself. I'm unsure.
But if it's a manifestation of Dominique instead we instead see that the "feminine" version of her is the one that encapsulates all her insecurities and anger while the "masculine" form is more honest and blunt. It would show that she's still dividing different aspects of her personality within herself.
There is also the possibility that the feminine form of Dominique is Misha's manipulation. It's a safe bet that Misha has done something to her true name, so the odd behavior coming from her younger self might not be an accurate reflection of how she feels about anything but a projection of what Misha wants her to feel. And yet, it showed independent thought. I don't know, I think we may need info before we can say what these different Dominiques represent.
As for Jeanne, the second thing I noticed right after her saving Dominique is that she assessed the situation very quickly. It makes sense that Jeanne would be able to maneuver herself in a battlefield; she's been a bourreau for nearly her whole life and took part in the war as well. So, while she has no idea why Noé and Vanitas are fighting, she does know it's not her priority and she leaves them to it. There's also the matter that Luca asked her to find Dominique.
My guess is that Luca connected the dots regarding Dominique's disappearance, her weird behavior, and the vampire incidents that have been happening, and he wants Jeanne to intervene before anyone else figures it out. Therefore, Jeanne was sent specifically to find Dominique and put an end to the incidents somehow. I imagine Noé and Vanitas being there was quite the surprise.
But since she's familiar both with battle and with Vanitas's moods, she reminds Noé to watch him.
In another context, this would really sound like she and Vanitas broke up and she now wishes Noé to take good care of him. (^^)" But the reality is that she can probably tell Noé isn't paying as much attention as he thinks he is and the key to ending the battle is him noticing what's happening with Vanitas.
Also, Jeanne is only peripherally aware that these two spend a lot of time together. She doesn't know that they live together or how they met or even how many cases they've worked on. I imagine for someone who once said "Y-You're here, too?! Well... since Vanitas is here, it's only natural... I suppose...?" seeing them suddenly trying to kill each other is especially bizarre. She doesn't know any of their backstory or how chaotic things with them can actually be. 8D
I do still feel like Vanitas has gone out of his way to keep these two largely separate, but I wonder how much longer that can last with how things are going?
Another thing about Jeanne I noticed this chapter is that she looks a lot like Misha and I saw some of you commenting on that as well. I know their color scheme is a little different, but the fact of the matter is they have almost the same hairstyle, similar eye shape, and they're both fair in skin tone and hair color.
I wouldn't think much of it except Vanitas has already compared the two earlier in the series.
As if their visual similarity wasn't enough, Vanitas also views them similarly on an emotional level as well. He made a promise to Misha that he couldn't keep. He fears the promise he made Jeanne may be difficult to keep as well. The problem here is we don't know what promise he made to Misha or how similar it is to the one he made to Jeanne, in other words, to kill them/save them. Vanitas definitely believed Misha was dead and it looks like whatever grievously injured Misha happened on the same day Vanitas killed Luna.
So, did Luna try to kill Misha? Perhaps their name was corrupted? This would suggest that the promise he made Misha was to "save" him, but not necessarily to kill him, which would juxtapose somewhat with the promise he's made Jeanne. On the flip side, it's technically possible Vanitas killed both Luna and tried to kill Misha for whatever reason, but at the moment that seems less likely to me.
Regardless, the point stands that he's equating these two promises and people. We could go so far as to say that while Misha is very literally trying to recreate his family by bringing back Luna and capturing Vanitas, Vanitas has sort of done the same thing (although on a subconscious level, I expect). Jeanne bears some similarity to Misha and Noé looks somewhat similar to Luna. Whether this theory holds up or not will depend a lot on how things continue to develop between all three and I do want to emphasize it's a very base similarity. Jeanne and Noé both have far more differences from Misha and Luna than similarities, but there could be a thin thread that initially drew Vanitas to them.
And yes, I realize this sort of puts an odd twist on Vanitas/Jeanne (and possibly Noé/Vanitas as well), but I don't think that's wholly surprising considering they've already developed quite the unconventional relationship.
Regardless, Jeanne is now battling Dominique who is arguing with herself over whether or not she even wants to fight Jeanne. She harbors a lot of anger towards her because she believes Noé is in love with her. This particular interpretation still bewilders me because Noé has not given very strong indications of romantic love towards Jeanne, certainly nothing that should make Dominique have such powerful feelings about it. Her negative feelings are being amplified, but I think there might be a secondary explanation here. Dominique loves Noé and therefore expects him to have good taste. Dominique likes Jeanne and is probably attracted to her (the subtext for Dominique being bisexual is pretty strong at this point), so she's conflating the two. She's mistaking her own attraction towards Jeanne as evidence that Noé must be attracted to her as well. Furthermore, she sees herself as worthless, so why would Noé like her anyway?
But even more importantly, Dominique can't stand Vanitas, doesn't understand why Jeanne likes him, and she likely couldn't fathom Noé liking him as well. She thinks Noé is just curious about him and at first she was right, but I think at this point it's safe to say things have gotten a little more serious (however you want to interpret "serious").
And now a few things about Misha: he's very visibly getting worn out as the fight continues, and I do think that's because of how much energy he's using to keep Dominique under his control (along with weather and losing blood and such). He's using his mark far more than Vanitas has and we know it's crawled up his arm. Perhaps the mark is expanding the longer he prolongs this battle? I really think Misha is going to have to retreat sooner rather than later if only to preserve his own life.
Also, how's he going to take the fact that not only did Noé fail to get Vanitas's memories, Vanitas can't bring himself to kill Noé? And Dominique was rescued? Like I predicted, his whole plan fell apart. XD Because it really wasn't that good of a plan! He knows nothing about any of these people! Even Vanitas has changed dramatically since he last saw him. But before Misha retreats, I think we'll get a chapter or two at least of Jeanne and Dominique battling things out, sort of like how Noé and Vanitas did. It's an arc where people let loose some of their frustrations, I guess.
Moving on to Vanitas and Noé, these two really have experienced the full range of emotions this arc. What started out with worry and fear turned into betrayal, which turned into rage, which has now turned into a ceasefire that is definitely going to transform their interactions from this point onwards.
As soon as Jeanne gives Noé the advice to watch Vanitas he can't help but wryly think he doesn't need to be told that. The flashbacks we get are kind of cut off, but we can see that some are from this arc when Vanitas takes the chasseur drug and raises his gun, but others are from further back in the story, such as the blue moon when they fell and the scene where they danced together (it's a little hard to identify the panels since they're very small snippets). The takeaway is that Noé has always been watching Vanitas as we know. He's always been trying to figure him out and understand him.
However, what happened as soon as Vanitas rejected Noé's plea to help Dominique is that he stopped analyzing Vanitas. He's watching his movements, but he's not interpreting the man himself, so Jeanne's advice is still on point. This is hardly easy advice to follow, however. Vanitas did threaten Dominique and he did refuse to do anything to help her (as far as Noé can tell) and Vanitas himself was the one who told him to "base what he does on what he can't concede." Well, he can't concede Dominique, so it's no surprise that the only thing that gets Noé to calm down is when he realizes the transformation he himself has undergone.
It shocks him so much that he's instantly forced back into his usual demeanor: if he looks like this, how must Vanitas have felt? And so he considers it and realizes Vanitas was terrified of him.
At the end of the day, this is another thing Noé can't concede and while it took a great shock to remind him of it, it's true all the same: he can't concede taking someone's blood without their permission and he can't concede their friendship (which is part of why he was so angry with Vanitas in the first place; it seemed as though Vanitas was giving it up).
Honestly, analyzing Vanitas is a full-time job, so I can't blame Noé for taking some temporary leave in favor of trying to solve a more immediate problem, but it's only when he reflects on Vanitas's cruel words and puts them within the context of how Vanitas has always behaved that he finally pieces it together: Vanitas sees freedom as solitude. The threat to kill Dominique, while appalling, also reveals his own poor state of mind. It was only after he killed Luna that he himself felt free. He may have hated having to do it, but he views isolation as the only way to remain as himself.
Well, Noé isn't going to have it. For one, he refuses to become the villain Vanitas views all vampires as, but he also refuses to allow Vanitas to be right about freedom equaling solitude. Noé once said he'd decided he was staying with Vanitas and he reiterates that in this chapter once again with even more conviction.
It's a very powerful statement and Vanitas seems to understand what he means because these two are developing their own language, but imagine what Jeanne and Dominique must be thinking right now. Noé won't allow Vanitas to be free? What does that mean? What are they even arguing about right now? Why are they trying to kill each other? And so on and so forth. I seriously doubt Jeanne is going to be given an adequate explanation of this entire event although I'm sure she's going to look for one. If she manages to speak with Noé she might have some luck, but both Vanitas and Dominique have done their best to keep those two separate, though for very different reasons.
Dominique has some idea of why this battle began in the first place (it was over her), but I'm sure the resolution is just as mystifying because, again, she has had no idea how much these two have bonded. The whole thing is going to be quite a shock for both of them and Misha as well. I'm personally looking forward to seeing Misha's massive frustration with how things have turned out. Regardless, at some point, I think Dominique is going to learn that no, Noé is not in love with Jeanne. He admires her, likely finds her beautiful, and all of that, but they haven't had a proper conversation for the entirety of this series. I don't really know how Dominique is going to take that. It means she was completely wrong and it means she doesn't have anyone to direct her jealousy and rage at (unless she decides to aim it at Vanitas). She'll have to confront her relationship with Noé as it stands between them for what it is and Noé is going to have to do so as well. I'm not really sure where those two will wind up at the end of this arc, but they're going to have some difficult moments.
Of course, Noé and Vanitas are going to have some wildly awkward, difficult, and likely painful moments more immediately. The two have completely pummeled each other and, in my opinion, are probably down for the count for the rest of this battle's duration. Noé had to cancel his abilities to win over Vanitas's trust once more and stop his own self-hypnosis, but here's the thing: if he actually cancelled all his abilities, his spine should be fractured at the very least. If he just cancelled his battle-oriented abilities (and his eyes are still glowing red, basically), then his spine being intact makes more sense. I guess vampires can take a beating, but that was a major fall and Vanitas placed all of his weight directly on Noé's stomach when they landed as you can see here:
Likely this is the only reason Vanitas's knees didn't snap. But what's more, that's where Vanitas slashed Noé, so he's got to be in some massive pain right now. As for Vanitas, the chasseur drug has likely worn off again and he's no longer under his own hypnosis. Furthermore, we've seen him slumping to his knees throughout the battle ever since Noé slammed a steel beam right into his ribs. Noé once told Vanitas he made sure not to break his arms when he had to strike him:
But did he remember not to do that this time around? 8D If he did, they're probably still bruised or possibly even fractured, but the short version of this is that I really don't think Vanitas is moving from his current position without a lot of help. The only thing that kept him going during this battle was the drug and his own drive to kill "that vampire" only he's completely lost the drive to kill "that vampire" since "that vampire" is now Noé once more.
This here is getting to the crux of a problem I'm not sure Vanitas even knew he had. I think he's been telling himself over and over that if things went poorly with Noé they would just go their separate ways and, if need be, he would kill him. I'm sure it comforted him and allowed himself to remain convinced they weren't as close as they are. But now there's no way he can continue lying to himself on this front. When push came to shove, he couldn't kill Noé. He couldn't even bring himself to hurt him. I know a lot of people think Vanitas was punching Noé's chest in his rage, but to me it looked a lot more like he was striking the ground next to Noé, which means he can't even punch him now.
Honestly, if we thought Vanitas realizing he loves Jeanne was awkward and hard on him, I can only imagine that this particular revelation is going to cause him to snap. He very well might try to pretend the whole thing never happened, but I don't think he's going to get away with that. I originally thought these two were going to take a little break from each other at the end of this arc, but the way things are looking now it seems they're far more likely to continue onwards as a duo just like always and can you imagine how awkward that's going to be? XD They'll absolutely have to say something eventually because no one can sweep this under the rug. I mean, think of all the people around them who are going to try to bring it up if nothing else! Jeanne, Dominique, all of the dhampirs, Amelia, etc. etc. It's a complete mess. And Vanitas won't have accomplished any of the things he set out to do when he realized Misha was there. I really can't wait to see the fallout of all this. It's going to be nuts. :D
But the regrets they're both feeling right now must be powerful. Vanitas is crying and I think there are a lot of reasons for that. The most obvious is that they're tears of frustration. He can't bring himself to kill Noé and I'm sure he's wondering why not. He killed Luna, someone he also cared about. He may have even tried to kill Misha. He's willing to kill plenty of other people (and has done so such as during the Bal Masqué) and has even promised Jeanne he'll kill her if need be. But not Noé.
But I think the tears also stem from undergoing the entire battle, the fact that somehow he does have someone who will stay with him no matter what, and that's just not the kind of thing Vanitas can cope with. He is well and truly stuck with Noé and he's going to have to figure out how he feels about that.
As for Noé, seeing such open emotion on Vanitas's face moves him to tears as well (not to mention the sheer stress and madness of the whole situation) and he apologizes profusely. I'm not sure whether Vanitas will ever bring himself to apologize directly with words, but I wouldn't be surprised if he does something to show remorse down the road. Not entirely sure how that will show itself; maybe he'll just heal Dominique without any further fuss, but my guess is that however his remorse shows itself will happen when they're back at Hotel Chou Chou. But I do think Vanitas needs to show some kind of acknowledgment of how his own behavior played into this mess, not just Noé's.
Of course, they're probably going to have to get to a hospital before they go back to the hotel. Maybe Jeanne or the dhampirs will help them get there. Kind of unsure how that will turn out.
The last thing I wanted to point out isn't at all relevant to the plot, but I did want to point out that Vanitas using a grappling hook was such a Batman moment I kind of laughed. XD I mean, he has enough angst to be one of the Robins; he even has something akin to a circus background! I mean, if he's Nightwing, Noé would do pretty well as Starfire, I guess. So there's that.
Anyway, I loved this chapter and waiting for the next is going to be tough. I need to know what happens with Jeanne and Dominique and I need to know whether Noé and Vanitas are stuck there, trying to find some way of voicing what happened while getting soaked in the rain. They're going to catch a cold on top of everything else, I can sense it. I look forward to seeing how it continues!