Status Updates From The Case Study of Vanitas, ...

okay so what i’m seeing is that vanitas and noé BOTH get clingy when they’re drunk mmhmm yes this is pertinent information for fic writers everywhere

…..he’s making him tarte tatin……from scratch……as an apology and peace offering……right after a flashback showing us how vanitas used to do the cooking for mikhail and luna and used it as a way to show his love for them in a subtle, practical way cause that’s safer for him than being openly expressive. cool cool cool yeah i feel fine this is fine

oh my god it’s all completely new content from here on out and i am BUZZING
if we start getting more mikhail, vanitas, and luna memories now that the dam has broken i’m gonna lose it. of COURSE vanitas was a good brother and put multiple feves in the cake so mikhail was guaranteed to win my heart is SOARING.
and another reminder that luna knew vanitas’ real name…..i’m thinking thoughts

THE LOOKS ON THEIR FACES???? they are so in love this is basically a proposal in my eyes
and the last raindrops falling in slow motion around them bc the moment is so monumental??? noé reaching out to vanitas like he’s done time and time again, but this time, vanitas reaches back and with no barrier between their fingertips??? no gloves, no false nails, no facades. it’s a new beginning and the sun is shining

if noé was compared to the sunrise before in the bell tower scene, he’s now compared to the sun breaking through the clouds after a long and hard rain and that is. so gorgeous. he looks STUNNING and that’s exactly how vanitas sees him!!!!!! all the warmth that luna said would melt his heart???? THERE IT IS, reaching out a hand to help him up

the growth is so fantastic i can’t believe it took us 10 volumes to get here but i wouldn’t have had it any other way. every bit of the slow burn was worth it for this apology and admission right here. vanitas has officially given up on trying to push noé away
and of course noé giggles and kicks his feet in response cause DUH ME TOO

so not only is this a parallel to the bell tower scene but also the leaning on each other scene from the end of the moreau arc????? my favorite panel???????
this time, it’s noé leaning on vanitas bc he knows vanitas will shoulder the weight (even if he complains about it) AND bc he needs him to know how affected he is by what vanitas said. he needs him to literally feel the weight of it

goddamnit i really do love mikhail and hope against all odds that he has some version of a happy ending. i know he’s doomed but if he could at least die peacefully and feeling loved, i’d be happy. he’s just a traumatized kid like vanitas, but while vanitas has found people to drag him out of the depths of that pain, mikhail has only been encouraged to fall deeper. it’s so tragic

what the fuck am i supposed to say to this
vanitas has been used and abused and objectified and defiled and all of the choices about his very BEING have been made for him. the only choice he has left regarding his life is how it will end, and he chooses noé. he knows he probably won’t be in his right mind when it comes and so he trusts noé and noé alone to grant his wish. the way that noé could not with louis

“revenge” now in quotation marks and spoken so gently bc we all know for sure now that that’s not exactly what it is. he’ll never forgive luna and yet he searches for traces of the person who brought about their death (and his own). he sacrificed what was left of his humanity to make sure they didn’t become a mindless monster as part of someone’s larger scheme to create strife and chaos

oh my god here we go okay it’s happening
he DID kill them out of mercy i fucking knew it!!!!!! so the mark WAS forced on vanitas in a sense, but only bc he’s a righteous, good person to his core and is always willing to sacrifice himself to save others. just like with moreau.
who stole luna’s true name??? the same person who stole naenia’s??? was it teacher???

“JUST STAY THERE”????????? i thought it was insane enough progress for vanitas to tell noé what he’s doing and not try to get him to go back inside, but NOPE. he went the extra mile and openly told noé to stick around bc he WANTS HIM TO HEAR THIS

noé saying that he’ll leave the room so vanitas can get some sleep inside if he wants to be alone, and vanitas immediately shutting that down by honestly admitting that no, he’s not avoiding noé. he’s waiting for mikhail bc he knows he’ll come. and he makes no move to shove noé away from the brutally honest conversation that will undoubtedly accompany that meeting

i think it’s impossible not to compare this scene to the bell tower scene. a big emotional reveal was occurred, and now noé seeks vanitas out in a place he’s comfortable, always high ground. except this time, vanitas has no bravado, he doesn’t try to deny noé’s claims that he saw something REAL from him for once. he knows he’s been seen. he’s laid bare and he’s on his way to accepting that

there is so much to unpack here but the only one i have any potential theories about is jeanne saying that one of teacher’s eyes is blue, like vanitas’. that paired with his comment about luna makes me think that maybe he’s also kin of them?? and if his other eye is purple, does he maybe have archiviste kinship too?? this gives a whole other layer to the eye focus in this volume and on the cover specifically

okay no he HAS to be referring to something else bc this is way too dramatic for the “somewhere else” to be related to murr. it’s gotta be some other instance from vanitas’ past where teacher meddled…..what is his GOAL why does he want to observe noé and vanitas in particular? how long has he been planning whatever this is???

okay. the questions compound. what does teacher mean by saying SPECIFICALLY TO VANITAS that he hasn’t yet met him in this form? and the heterochromia matching up with murr’s heterochromia CANNOT be a coincidence. so has teacher been using murr to spy on them this whole time??? does he shift in and out of his consciousness or is he ALWAYS murr? or is he not murr at all and i’m totally off

noé protecting his man with the same claw he held back with against vanitas mmmmhmmmm
not much time to be excited about that though cause the visceral depiction of trauma on this page is. a lot to take in. what HAPPENED with luna i need to know right fucking now. did they hurt mikhail?????? after marking him????? cause it was the “it hurts brother” line that triggered vanitas…..

LETS FUCKING GO DOMI SHES SO COOL
it’s also really interesting that louis is part of her inner voice, her soul, whatever internal place this is within domi. louis is so much of her identity and he’s also intrinsically connected to all of her worst thoughts about herself unfortunately. i think she’s gotta get louis out of here if she wants to truly heal and grow as an individual

noé was fully ready to bear the brunt of a fucking FERRIS WHEEL for even the chance that it’d protect vanitas right right right
the way he’s clutching his hair i need several minutes
he was ready to DIE WITH HIM, OR AT THE VERY LEAST, FOR HIM

“if i wasn’t here, noé would be-“ and then immediate cut to louis tells us exactly how that sentence would’ve ended. noé would be happier. god my heart breaks for domi and this sequence of her embracing her inner child and refusing to let her jump is beautiful. i think now she needs to find self-worth separate from noé, which is my main reasoning for not shipping them

and noé apologizing to vanitas shows how well he understands him YET AGAIN. he KNOWS how devastating this is, how terrified he must be to be so seen and exposed. he knows that he needs to just let vanitas bang on his chest and cry

cont. from the last one cause i need more space to yap
it’s an admission that not even HYPNOSIS could force him to go back to being alone after having met noé. after being known and seen by him. it’s the ultimate vulnerability. vanitas bet that noé wouldn’t be able to kill him, and noé made that same bet with much lower odds of success. and yet. he fucking knows vanitas just as well as noé knows him

i’m always a sucker for characters crying during rainy scenes so their tears mix with the raindrops, it’s like nature itself is crying with them
also the return of “why?”: “why did brother kill father?”, “why did my father protect me?”, “why can’t i kill you?” all questions relating to vanitas and his loneliness and guilt. not being able to kill noé must be earth shattering

i have no eloquent words for how amazing this is. the build up to noé finally understanding vanitas’ unhealthy coping mechanisms and CHALLENGING THEM by screaming them outright to his face, he’s yelling “I FUCKING SEE YOU AND IM NOT GOING ANYWHERE” and he dares vanitas to kill him anyway and we see vanitas’ eyes go from black to grey to white and even with the fake out, we know. he can’t kill noé.

SO I WAS RIGHT TO INTERPRET THE “WATCHING” QUOTE FROM BEFORE THE WAY I DID OH MY GOD?????? it was building up to THIS, this gorgeous acceptance that although noé wants so badly to fully understand vanitas and all that he’s been through, he still KNOWS HIM. his kindness, his self-loathing, his insecurity, his brashness, his hatred, his love, his determination, his search for salvation, he’s seen it all

bringing this shot back from the previous volume to give us the full view FROM NOÉ’S PERSPECTIVE is an incredible way to make noé start to shift his thinking. when he sees how vicious he himself looks, he can finally SEE how utterly terrified vanitas looked before drawing first blood. how he tried to hide it with harsh words and a hand across his face. and that realization puts all the pieces together for noé

“watch him? watch vanitas? you hardly need to tell me that” okay i think this is supposed to be read more in the context of their fight and how formidable of an enemy vanitas is BUT i’m choosing to also read it more like “i’ve spent the last however many months watching no one but him” bc he HAS. we’ve had so many moments where noé observes vanitas more closely than anyone else

jeanne saying domi is hers and vanitas is noé’s……it’s getting ridiculous at this point (i’m eating it up)

is this manipulation stemming from any real feelings that domi has been harboring????? i feel like they must, right??? but why would she envy jeanne?? bc of her relationship with vanitas? and domi wishes she could experience something like that since she never has? that’s the only thing i can think of but i want more context desperately