- #42
Aeterna said:
I liked various aspects of this chapter, but the whole Purebloods v.s. Power-hungry nobles part annoyed me just a bit. It almost felt like Hino-sensei wanted to play the sympathy card, to get us to like Kaname and Yuuki because they appear to be the ultimate victims in the drama that is Vampire Knight. Don't get me wrong - they are victims, but as ah_18 pointed out, don't the Kurans have dark pasts, as well? The whole "the nobles are out to get us" bit seemed to be an attempt to justify Kaname's actions in the past (e.g. massacring the Genrouin). Moreover, if there are vampires who are as loyal to Kaname as Aidou, Ruka, and Kain, it seems a bit weird to see just those vampires who are the opposite, almost as if it's just "black and white" with no in-between shades of grey.
lol, I'm not really sure how you can possibly say that things are black and white in VK morally speaking because all I see are shades of gray. I can sort of understand how you could say that this chapter has been unfairly biased against the noble vampires but Kaname's night class noble vampires weren't evil so obviously Kaname is making a generalization so Yuki will keep her guard up. Your also forgeting that the first vampire that wanted to drain Yuki was Rido who was a pureblood and he also drained other vampires as well. The only reason Yuki and Kaname don't want to drink the vampire nobles blood is because they would rather have each others blood. Yagari even mentioned that even the humans wanted to drink the night classes blood so they could would get their longevity.
What I could see is you mistaking the two different sides as being good and evil. But of course there are vampires of all levels and even vampire hunters on both the royalist and genrounist sides too so you can't divide them that way. The royalists can't even claim the moral high ground because Kaname is so manipulative and generally has to use a lot of underhanded tactics to gain pawns to use in his game. He also severely sets back the chairmans attempt to get peace between humans and vampires. Not to mention that it is also pointed out several times that by destroying the council he has unleashed all the vampires it previously had kept in check on the humans. Really the two sides are much more of a them vs us than a good vs evil.
Actually, I wasn't even thinking about "black and white" in terms of "good and evil" or morality xD I was speaking more along the lines of "them v.s. us" that ah_18 mentioned. I'm sorry if I made that unclear - I was running on very little sleep when I wrote up that post (and still sleep-deprived, but I'll try clear up what I said earlier).
The way I saw it in this chapter was that Hino-sensei was simplifying the way the nobles are in respect to the Purebloods. On the one hand, you have the small minority that are truly Kaname's friends and the ones he can trust, but on the other hand, you have the nobles we saw in this chapter, the ones who are out to use Purebloods for their own benefits. I highly doubt, in my own imagination, that the vampire society is divided that simply, but I still feel that this is the way Hino-sensei chose to portray it and I think it irked me a bit because it is simple. Where are the vampires who may be "sitting on the fence" and don't know which side to choose, for example? Maybe there's a vampire who Kaname thinks is loyal but who may betray him given the right incentives (like Judas Iscariot, if you'll allow me to make a Biblical comparison)? Like I said, I hope Hino-sensei develops this society further, because if she leaves it like this, I will be very disappointed.
Still, I was only pointing out the "this chapter justifies Kaname's actions" bit because of that seemingly strict division between the "them v.s. us". That whole, big group of nobles who have no good intentions for Kaname and Yuuki make it seem like we should like them due to sympathy. I don't exactly find this to be the greatest method of trying to get people to like certain characters. Sure, it can help their cause, but in the end, I'd rather see good character development and such. For example, I don't like the way in which Yuuki's character has developed since the end of the Ridou arc, and playing up my sympathy doesn't change that view that I have of her and, actually, only served to annoy me (hence, the reason why this aspect of the chapter I felt was poorly done).
