#vnc 54.5

[grelleswife]

If you watch closely, you can see the precise second when Jeanne falls in love. 💙

[digital-dhampirs]

a somewhat coherent breakdown of VnC 54.5

VnC 54.5 is out and I’m losing my mind over it. My thoughts are an absolute mess and I’m losing it and screaming and rolling on the floor. So! In order to try and get my thoughts in order (and, hopefully, figure out a tiny bit about what’s going on), let’s break down this chapter, my thoughts on it, and what it means for the world of VnC.

As much as I want to immediately jump into what I’ve dubbed the “Oh Shit Oh God Oh Fuck” part of the chapter, let’s start with something a little bit less horrifying but just as emotionally impactful..!

Dominique (and also Luca)

Throughout the Exposition Universalle Arc, we’ve been learning about Domi’s massive amounts of guilt and self hatred brought on by her family’s abuse and Louis’s death. We’ve realized that Domi’s confident, flirtatious persona throughout earlier chapters was just her attempting to be what she thought Noé wanted her to be/ what Louis would’ve been like had he lived. All this comes to a head when Mikhail uses Domi’s guilt and self hatred to hijack her mind.

But once Dominique realizes that her death would make Noé upset, she starts to take back control of herself. In 54.5 she finally faces the part of herself that she’s always averted her eyes from, and fully takes control. Her strength in this chapter doesn’t come from a facade or her trying to be someone she’s not— she’s finally looking herself in the eye, and she’s fuckin breathtaking this chapter thanks to it.

Dominique uses her formula revision powers to save Noé and Vanitas and trap Mikhail, along with all of the civilians he’s controlling. Domi is so strong and pretty and I love her—

We learn from Luca that all of the living de Sade siblings have ice powers, meaning that certain vampiric powers seem to run in families in the world of VnC. As a brief detour, I have to wonder if these abilities are inherited through blood or taught from generation to generation— I feel like the simplest answer would be inherited through blood, but the fact that Ruthven uses flames despite not being biologically an Oriflamme (along with the Teacher teaching Noé how to rewrite gravity) makes me kinda think it might be an inherited secret technique type thing. It follows to wonder…. are Archiviste abilities inherited through blood, or are they taught/ passed from generation to generation in some other way?

We also get another little piece of lore from Luca during this part of the chapter— there’s something called the formula dance that vampires can perform. We see a small panel of Luca (and Ruthven) watching Domi do this dance, likely during some sort of event. Luca specifically tells Jeanne that Domi was performing “as entertainment”, implying this dance can also be used for other purposes? I want to know more.

I mentioned this in my slightly more incoherent live review of 54.5, but Luca is even more mature and insightful than I thought he was. He acts like an innocent kid at times, especially when it comes to romance, but it seems like he’s great at understanding the people around him, even when those people have massive walls up and put on acts like Dominique. This makes his situation as a political pawn/ figurehead even more depressing, because there’s absolutely no way in hell he doesn’t know what the people around him think of him. This also makes me kinda want to rethink Luca’s relationship with Ruthven…

Going back to Domi!! She protecc Noé and Vanitas, she attacc Mikhail, she make my heart go doki doki, and she’s finally bacc. This chapter really feels like the climactic moment of Dominique’s journey throughout the manga so far. She’s incredibly strong, and that strength is finally not built over years of self- hatred and insecurity. Dominique and the two parts of her mind she’s been arguing with the whole time; the side that wants to emulate Louis and be like him, and the side that hates herself and harbors all of her darkest thoughts; are finally fighting together as one.

And,,, deep sigh,,, not to get all pessimistic on y’all but this climactic moment, as fantastic as it is, makes me about 13% more certain that Dominique’s gonna die (13% because this is mochijun lmao). Maybe not in the immediate future, because I still think she needs to work some things out about her family and Noé and all that, but at some point in the future… yeah I do think she’s probably gonna die. This really feels like the climax of her character arc, and mochijun has a talent for giving characters fantastic complete character arcs and then killing them.

So yeah, I am slightly concerned for Domi’s chances of survival. Now let’s turn from concern to screaming in horror with….

The Teacher

Oh boy.

The moment I’ve been waiting for for years has finally arrived— the Teacher has showed up in the main storyline (this reveal does pretty much confirm that the Teacher was indeed the person Noé was talking to during his dream in chapter 11, but it wasn’t confirmed at the time so it doesn’t really count). I don’t quite know how Mochijun was able to make him look so absolutely horrifying in just a few panels of gloves and a single page, but he is legitimately terrifying. I am fucking scared. I am screaming. I am crying over the fact that there’ll be at least another month till chapter 55.

Let’s try to think about this rationally.

SO.

It seems like everything that’s gone down in the Exposition Universalle arc was another one of the Teacher’s experiments. It’s still possible that Mikhail’s benefactor was someone else, but judging from how he’s holding Mikhail’s head, it seems quite likely that the Teacher is the one who saved Mikhail’s life and told him he could bring Luna back from the dead. And, thinking about it a bit, Mikhail’s ability to manipulate Dominique’s insecurities would make a lot more sense if the Teacher’s been the one pulling the strings from behind the scenes all along.

Along with confirming his presence in Chapter 11 and (likely) his identity as Mikhail’s benefactor, Teacher’s arrival in 54.5 also all but confirms another theory about his experiment with Louis— the Teacher was watching the whole crisis go down from nearby (and was likely the one who orchestrated the whole incident from the start), and only stepped in when he deemed the experiment to be over/ to stop Louis from killing Noé.

I am incredibly curious about what the Teacher was trying to achieve through this new experiment…. as well as why he interrupted it and revealed himself to the gang. Was he genuinely just interested in seeing what these people would end up doing if put into this specific situation? Or did he have another motive for pulling the strings?

The Teacher says two things about the experiment to Domi and Noé— firstly, he considered stopping them sooner; and secondly, “you’ve shown me something excellent”. Maybe we can figure out something about the experiment if we figure out these two things? Unfortunately I have no feckin clue what either of these things could be. My best guess for the former would be that he considered stopping the experiment when Noé surrendered to Vanitas and did the whole “I will never set you free” love confession speech, since Noé’s life was very much in danger, and the Teacher couldn’t have predicted whether Vanitas would stop or kill Noé. As for the latter… it could really be anything. Dominique’s internal transformation? Mikhail getting rewritten/ “eaten” by the book of Vanitas? Some sort of other information the Teacher can squirrel away for a future experiment? I really hope we’ll learn more in the next chapter..!

As for why the Teacher stopped the experiment and revealed himself… hmm… that’s another thing I think we’ll find out more about in chapter 55. Occam’s razor suggests that the Teacher wanted to prevent Mikhail from dying due to his injuries/ book induced madness and use whatever crazy alchemy magic he used to save Mikhail’s life the first time around again, but it’s also possible that something else is going on.

If ya couldn’t already tell, am insanely insanely hyped for the next chapter. I’m extreeeemely curious about what everyone’s reactions to him are gonna be. We don’t actually know much about Noé’s current relationship with the Teacher, just that the tone of his letters seem to indicate it’s a positive one… so what in the world is Noé going to do in this sort of insane scenario? We know very little about Domi’s relationship with her dear ole grandpa, what’s she going to do? What about Jeanne and Vanitas (although I don’t think Vanitas is actually in any state to be able to have a reaction at this moment, more on that later)?

And of course, there’s also the big question… can the Teacher actually bring Luna back to life?

Noé, Vanitas, and Mikhail

Moving on from the insanity of the Teacher, let’s head over to his two students and their mutual obsession.

Wait, that was supposed to be a joke, but it’s actually kind of weird. Assuming the Teacher is Mikhail’s benefactor… it seems very very strange that both of the kids he’s taken under his wing have both ended up revolving around Vanitas. Did the Teacher purposefully take Mikhail in due to his connection to Vanitas of the Blue Moon? Did he purposefully send Noé to Vanitas because he knew Noé would become increasingly intertwined with Vanitas? Did the Teacher specifically send an Archiviste to Vanitas because he knew that Noé might be able to see Vanitas’s memories and learn some sort of crucial information about the Blue Moon—

Ok let’s get back on track.

VnC 54.5 shows Vanitas and Noé continuing to be themselves and constantly throw their lives on the line to protect each other, and then getting mad over the other person trying to protect them. Noé’s first reaction upon seeing the Ferris wheel falling was to try and protect Vanitas as much as he possibly could and that hurts me.

Mikhail, meanwhile, has completely deviated from the calm and composed demeanor he had at the start of the Exposition Universalle Arc. His deteriorating mental state has completely fallen apart and, aided by whatever the hell the book did to him, he becomes dead set on one goal and one goal only— killing everyone in the park, but specifically Vanitas.

If I had to make a wild guess, I don’t think Mikhail is just fully having an “if I can’t have him no one can” tantrum here— I think he’s still quite aware of what’s going on and believes if he brings Vanitas to the brink of death (or even kills him), the Teacher can come and do whatever he did to Mikhail to bring Vanitas back. Mikhail is coherent enough to put on a desperate act and manipulate Vanitas’s kindness in one last ditch effort to kill him.

And when Vanitas falls for the trick, Noé saves him once more. Noé, Jeanne, and Dominique all rush in to try and protect Vanitas, but Noé’s the one who gets to him first. I initially thought Noé was just closer to Vani than Domi and Jeanne, but then I realized that if that were the case, Domi still likely would’ve been able to cast a formula revision before Noé reached Vanitas. Noé realized what was about to happen before the other two.

Noé slashes Mikhail’s face in a way that reminds me of… something, but my brain is too jumbled to piece together what it is at the moment. Mikhail starts screaming and Vanitas collapses to the ground, caught up in what appear to be his memories of what happened on “that day”. And then the teacher shows up.

the end (for now)

VnC 54.5 was delightful. The gang’s night out at the fair seems to be winding to a close, but I’m more hyped than ever for the next chapter. I’m super pumped to see what the teacher has to say, and how the characters all deal with the aftermath of this insanity. I didn’t talk about Jeanne much in this breakdown, but I think she’ll play a bigger role in the next few chapters as she’s the only main character who hasn’t had massive amounts of trauma dredged up this evening (…..yet).

As always… thank you very much for reading this chapter breakdown/ analysis/ insane rambling post thing! Please take everything I’ve said here with a grain of salt, as a lot of the conclusions I’ve come to are probably wrong. I apologize for this blog’s inactivity and miiiight try to do a few more analysis meta thingys based on this chapter if the stars align and I’m not instantly distracted by ooh shiny

Thanks again for reading!!

Fun Fact

We haven’t seen Murr in a while, have we? :)

[neversetyoufree]

I see teacher has continued to practice his favorite hobby of tormenting children

[poorlydrawnvnc]

memoire 54.5

[lightgirlification]

About Vanitas...

Just...

Someone hug this man (Preferably Noe BUT ANYWAY)

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Look at his face

Even though Mikhail is a little shit, he and Vanitas went through the same thing, the same pain.

And despite what happened, despite what he pulled:

Vanitas still CARES. He never wanted this for Mikhail, he never wanted anyone he cared about to go through so much pain. Even more so because of him. When he reaches out to him and my heart was gone.  Vanitas claims to not care, but it’s the other way around. He cares too much. It hurts to care, to love, scary even, so he despises it. But I think that’s natural, makes us human. Love and caring for a person IS scary, and if you have such self hatred that you think your own being is filthy, it is extremely hard to even think about the possibility of doing either, much less someone ELSE giving you both in return. 

I think that’s why his relationship with Noe frightens him the most. Noe legitimately cares about him, is willing to give all he has to protect and work with him to not only be his partner, but his friend (And probably even more come one the subtext is there >:T)  Vanitas doesn’t understand why Noe, someone who is so willing to stick by him, would be this way towards him, much less care about him. He doesn’t think he deserves it, and it’s so heartbreaking.

Vanitas is only one person. He is broken, but he deserves to be cared for and loved. For someone to look at those pieces and view them as something beautiful even though he doesn’t. No one deserves to go through what he has and be alone.

But he sadly should’ve known that wasn’t the best idea, because Mikhail is so far gone now...

Noe has no choice but to protect Vanitas from Mikhail

And the screams Mikhail lets out is enough to send Vanitas into a mental breakdown. It’s not fair. Not to Vanitas or even Mikhail. They didn’t deserve the fate that was dealt to them. 

For Vanitas to shoulder all of this himself, to never let anyone in, bottle it all up, and let the memories eat him alive is so sad and unfortunately, very real. He doesn’t think he deserves any form of comfort or sympathy, when in actuality he deserves it more then anyone else.

God if this man breaks down crying in the next chapter I swear to God I will too <|...T JUST GET THIS MAN SOME TEA AND A WARM BLANKET QAQ

And finally.

This Motherfucker was always so untrustworthy and I am NOT looking forward to what he has in store. BEGONE THOT

[echothagram]

“When Dominique creates ice by rewriting the formula, it isn’t the violent sort that Veronica and Antoine make. It’s quite delicate, but powerful. Much like Dominique herself.” — Luca Oriflamme

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve colored anything VNC (๑╹ω╹๑ )

[mer-birdman]

So one thing I haven’t seen anyone freak out about re: 54.5 with regards to Domi is smth about this panel that struck me immediately

The way she’s drawn, it looks like she has Louis’s short hair on one side and her own long hair on the other.

Which, after seeing her psyche divided into those different aspects… I love the visual language here of her beginning to heal that division.

Edit: so it sounds like this already came up when the Gangan Joker cover first appeared, whoops! That’s memory for ya. Anyways, still cool to see it in-story!

[asogikazumas]

ALSO can we talk about when misha tried to kill vanitas in a “if i go down i’ll at least take you with me” way (after vani reached out to him BECAUSE HE STILL CARES FOR HIM) noé, jeanne AND domi all moved to protect him? despite what he thinks he’s really not alone anymore ;w;

[serenato2]

Hi guys! Is there a full raw for chapter 54.5 somewhere, or just snippets? Maybe I'm blind, but I couldn't find it...

[tetitous]

I'm losing my M I N D

[lesbianbishounen]

noe holding vanitas to his chest mochijun wants to torment me specifically

[grelleswife]

I think we as a society need to talk more about this specific Dominique de Sade from Mémoire 54 part 2.

[digital-dhampirs]

Oh.

Noé finally got his hands dirty.

[neversetyoufree]

Anyway here’s the obligatory post where I lose my mind a li’l bit about how close Noé’s holding him and how protective he is

[vann0e]

i think one of my favourite things about vannoé is that noé is the Big Precious Angelic Pure Blessed-By-The-Sun-Itself Baby™ of the relationship and vanitas the Tiny Emotionally Constipated Gremlin Mysterious-Yet-Sexy Compulsive Liar Manchild™ and yet noé is somehow older,, like i feel like the whole big baby trope is usually used when the taller person is younger and that's why they're childish but noé is literally just childish for the sake of being childish. honestly, it's probably why he's one of my favourite characters of all time.

[vanoesupremacy]

Dominique De Sade❄️