#vampires were always in the story it just wasn't relevant here yet

[heartlessmonsterlover]

heather did not expect to spend her maternity leave killing vampires but here we are

+ bonus sketch below. was my first drawing but i didn't like it as much so i restarted

[rev3rb]

Hey again. Just read the latest chapter, and umm idk how to feel. It was nice to get some more insight into Ferid and see how even as a teen he was always just ~ like that™️. But, I’m a bit taken aback by the implication that Crowley might be Ferid’s reincarnated brother?? Bc to me it read like that was either the 440th person he killed or 440th time he killed his big bro. And knowing Ferid, 440 does not seem like a high enough body count. But idk maybe the brother flashback isn’t related to Crowley at all and is just used to establish a pattern? Regardless, rip to Crowley, Chess, and Horn.

Plot relevant things aside young prince Ferid with his classic ponytail bow was adorable, still unhinged, but also pretty adorable.

I get that. Personally I'm kinda angry about it.

You're right in that it was nice to get some insight into Ferid, but I don't know if that was worth the trade off of what we got. What the HELL do you mean that named characters that were prominent at one point (even if it wasn't THAT prominent) got killed OFF SCREEN with no indication that this was the case up until now. I would probably be fine about it if we'd had ANY foreshadowing about it, but no. Instead they disappeared without explanation and then are just declared dead. Their disappearance didn't even ring as that weird since Ferid, and therefore Crowley since he's following him around, are up to things that aren't popular with the majority of the vampire population. I remember mentioning that they hadn't shown up in a long time semi recently in one of these, but the reason I hadn't harped on it as much as someone like Narumi is bc they disappeared at a natural point instead of in the middle of the arc. I'm getting side tracked though. Ultimately, this felt INCREDIBLY dumb and a bit like Kagami just wanted to kill them off since he had no further purpose for them. If you're going to do that, at least HINT that the fact that they haven't shown up in a bit is weird. I just. oooough. I'm talking in circles. But yeah. Imagine if this happened to Rene and Lacus too :) (likely won't since Lacus has that whole thing with Yoichi).

I also find it annoying that Crowley was killed with so little fanfare. I get that it's because of the whole vampires have no feelings thing, but still. It's just insane to kill a character who has been around for so much of the story like that. It really makes Crowley come off as a plot device for Ferid's story rather than anything of real importance outside of that. Without the added context from the Mikaela light novel spin off (which reminder, still hasn't been finished) he feels like there's just so little going on with him other than his relationship with Ferid. Don't get me wrong. I think Crowley is a fun character, which is why I think this is just doing him so dirty. Was I asking for some drawn out fight between him and Ferid before he was killed? No, not really. I just find the situation of Ferid killing him off at all kinda dumb. idk. I have no suggestions about what I'd like to see. It just... wasn't that. Maybe I'll feel better about it later if his death is revealed to be more plot relevant.

ANYWAYS! I better move on before I'm here all night. ...Okay but last thing. YET A FUCKING GAIN we're jumping from one subject to another JUST to draw out some reveals and give us more questions. I'm going to pull my hair out lol. I really shouldn't be surprised that the second Shinoa starts diving into The First's memories we flip to this scene. I have a bit of a feeling that it's because she's going to learn what the audience already knows, but I just don't get why that wasn't lumped into the previous chapter. Would have felt much better if we'd just started this chapter with Ferid and Crowley. I guess page count could have factored in but... just feels like maybe you could have cut down some of the last chapter to make space for this. Ah... but maybe I'm just being a hater at this point. Anywho...

I too was wondering if that was the implication, but yeah, the number tripped me up. That DOES seem too frequent to be his brother, so I'm also wondering if that's the number of people he's killed. Yes, it seems a little low, but maybe that's people he's killed with a specific purpose in mind. Ones that tie into that rebirth mentality he has going on here. I'm sure we'll find out eventually. It does seem like we need more context to figure out what it is exactly Ferid is doing. Maybe he IS just killing people because he feels like it's time for them to go, but you'd think that he wouldn't bother to count them. Who knows.

Okay, maybe I'm just imagining it but I SWEAR we'd seen a younger Ferid design before at SOME point, but for the life of me, I can't remember where. Something about him talking about how he was a Mikaela candidate too or something like that? I bring it up to say that I swear we've seen a Ferid design somewhat similar to this before, but regardless, you're right. It is nice to see that design and that he really doesn't seem to have changed much over the years. Vampirisim apparently didn't change him.