#took the liberty to retranslate this well if you know the difference then see!!! how different it is

[deathberi]

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH (2024) ↳ Zack chooses to help Cloud because...?

[chibimyumi]

I didn't know that you hate Vincent . Can I ask why ? I thought Vincent was loved by the fandom Sorry I am new to the fandom

【Reaction to: My least favourite character - Maurice】

Dear @1hellofacookie​ and Anon,

Vincent Phantomhive is indeed an incredibly popular character despite his little screentime. I think the primary reason is because Vincent fits the popular trope of “the mysterious handsome dark lord with a gap-moe” like a hand in a glove. Remove his good looks, and how much is left still then?

Let us look at his behaviour. While we are at it, I shall use this post as a character analysis of Vincent Phantomhive.

【tw: Emotional manipulation】

Vincent Phantomhive

Vincent is an incredibly unscrupulous person, and that is nothing new in Kuroshitsuji. Vincent’s lack of scruples is supposedly a feat to his job as the Queen’s Watchdog. HOWEVER, we never get to see how this ‘feat’ is put to ‘good use’, how it is employed against the enemies of the crown. Instead, his lack of scruples is almost without exception portrayed as “friendly teasing”, and the people who don’t deserve it bear the brunt of it.

[Note: For this post I have re-translated whatever translation errors there are in the scanlation I found. The retranslations are marked with an arrow.]

Condescending Attitude

The most important example is how Vincent treats Deidrich. In chapter 75 we meet an incredibly angry young Deidrich, and anyone who has ever done group-projects with bad partners can understand how incredibly legit Deidrich’s frustrations are. (UGH my war flashbacks ÒAÓ)

It could be that Deidrich is just somewhat aggressive in his expressions, but it could also be that Vincent is a repeat offender. And knowing Vincent, it is probably the latter ⇊

When Deidrich calls Vincent out on his slacking, Vincent did not show the least bit of remorse. The only two ways to explain this is either that:

Vincent is too proud to admit a mistake, or

he actually believes it is alright that somebody else does his work.

Either way, neither are a good reflection of his personality or attitude in life.

Not admitting fault is one thing, but the thing Vincent proceeds to do is scoff at Deidrich’s expression of legit anger. Vincent does not see Deidrich as a fellow human with feelings; he treats Vincent’s anger the way patriarchy treats the anger of women: laughing it off. It may not seem much on the surface, but this is a very classic tactic of disempowering someone.

Another example of Vincent not taking Deidrich or his feelings serious at all is the panel below. Deidrich has serious concerns about a leader’s responsibilities, and makes clear that he does not think someone as irresponsible as Vincent is suited for the role.

Despite the seriousness of Deidrich’s terms, Vincent waves it off as: “is that all?” and even dismisses Deidrich’s selfless term as: “you have no ambition whatsoever.”

Vincent proclaims that he is going to think of something too, and later we find out he in fact intends to make Deidrich his fag. This is a power-play. He is ‘teaching’ Deidrich what ‘ambition’ is, and feels the need to one-up Deidrich, showing who is superiour.

Hypocrisy

Another serious problem of Vincent’s personality is his hypocrisy.

Vincent is portrayed as an incredibly irresponsible prefect judging from whatever screentime we have of him. The only reference we have of him is him doing nothing a prefect should, plus the assessment from Deidrich (who has obviously seen more of Vincent than we have). As the audience never gets to see anything that could prove Deidrich wrong, Deidrich’s assessment is the closest information we can go by.

Deidrich voices his very understandable concern about Vincent’s legitimacy on the prefect’s throne, and says: “if the prefect’s like this, I wonder how bad the other dorm students are.”

Though this phrase was clearly meant as an insult, Deidrich refrains from making definitive statements. He even backs this thought up with the tradition of the Weston school: “The prefect sets the example, and the house students follow”. Given this tradition, it is not weird at all that Deidrich would wonder whether the house students might also behave as irresponsibly.

Despite Deidrich’s moderated criticism WITH ground, Vincent replies as follows: “would you not talk badly of the other students of the blue house?”, and shows very clearly that he is serious. ↑

HOWEVER, this is an act of supreme hypocrisy, as at the start of this flashback ⇊, Vincent had been the one who first insulted Deidrich, Deidrich’s national identity as German, and ALL Germans in front of him.

Vincent… Deidrich does not get to wonder whether you’ve set a bad example for the house to follow, but you do get to insult all Germans (be it in jest or not?)

Disrespect of Autonomy and Consent

The ultimate slight of Vincent is treating Deidrich as a slave.

Sure, them making a deal using cricket was something the both of them decided, and Deidrich should probably not have let Vincent walk off before they both agreed to what terms they were competing under. However, even without Deidrich’s naivety, Vincent should have shown the decency of NOT turning somebody in a lifetime slave to begin with.

We cannot victim-blame Deidrich for mistrusting Vincent to begin with. But more importantly, Vincent did not respect the most basic principle of equivalent exchange.

The term Deidrich set was for Vincent to step down: the worst that could happen to Vincent was that he’d return to being a normal student. Big deal. Vincent however, decided WITHOUT Deidrich’s consent, that he would turn him into a lifetime slave.

Vincent said “become my fag”, and if we look at the definition of fag, this should be: “a junior pupil AT A PUBLIC SCHOOL who does MINOR chores”. The moment either of them left the school SHOULD be the end of this contract.

Making somebody a fag without their prior consent is bad enough, but Vincent entirely crosses the boundaries, and states very clearly that this status as “fag” was supposed to continue INDEFINITELY. PLUS, he strips Deidrich entirely from his basic human right, as he is supposed to obey him “without question”.

That’s a slave, dear ladies, gentlemen, and gentlepersons. That’s slavery. I don’t know what to tell you, but that’s slavery.

Vincent does not even give Deidrich the proper chance to speak, and simply dismisses his legit protest with: “but I am [done talking.] Hereby stating very clearly that Vincent Phantomhive will from this point on, be the person to have the last word that matters.

Framing

How is this being framed? As a light-hearted back-and-forth bickering. Alexis’ reaction is used as a ‘tell-device’ to tell the audience that we are supposed to find this a light-hearted back-and-forth bickering between boys. However, we all know very well that this master-slave relation continued to present day, as Vincent made very clearly that this “contract” would pass on from him to his sons.

The reaction from the people who listened to Alexis’ story ranged from admiration to disbelief, but nobody there showed disgust. Or at least, not tellingly. As such we can conclude that the enslavement of Deidrich WAS supposed to be something ‘cute’.

Underhanded Emotional Manipulation

Vincent is a repeat offender of emotional manipulation, and this too is always framed as something ‘cute’.

Let us look at chapter 99.5 where Vincent uses his sick family to emotionally manipulate Deidrich into accepting that ‘a fag’s work’(which Vincent uses his absolute power to make Deidrich do) as ‘willing thoughtfulness’.

“No, I didn’t make you do this work, YOU were just so nice and kind and loving, Dei-dei ♥” was basically the psychological message he was instilling into Deidrich.

In chapter 131, Vincent makes sure that this enslavement would continue to the next generation, and uses the safety of two young children to emotionally manipulate Deidrich into continuing his servitude.

It is very damaging for children to get promises broken - especially promises that have to do with their rights and safety. Even before Deidrich consented to this indefinite servitude, Vincent took the liberty of making the promise to the children in Deidrich’s stead. Herewith he would effectively turn Deidrich into the bad-guy for saying: “sorry kids, I am NOT going to protect you should you lose your father,” even though it is Deidrich’s fundamental right to refuse.

NASTY.

Vincent also makes sure to keep ‘rewarding’ Deidrich for obedience good behaviour, and frequently dishes out compliments; the classical hot-cold treatment.

Again, just like I said before under the caption ‘framing’, this all is framed as a fluffy ‘tsundere’ back-and-forthing between two ‘friends’.

I don’t have anything against unscrupulous characters like Sebastian, or O!Ciel, R!Ciel, Joker, Baron Kelvin etc. etc. But the difference is that all these characters ARE properly portrayed to be wrongdoers.

With Vincent however, it is clearly meant as light-hearted fluff that rides the tailcoat of the ‘tsundere’ trope.

Deidrich is NOT tsundere; he is a victim to Vincent’s continued emotional abuse.

That is why I considered hating Vincent the most out of all characters in Kuroshitsuji - because his slights are never properly addressed, and only ever shown as ‘edgy’.

I hope this helps!