Just imagine seeing vanoe as unilateral by Noé only because he's the one who demonstrates most with words when Vanitas does ALL of this man's wishes (complaining, but he does). Noé never saw paris? Vanitas becomes a tour guide. Noé doesn't want to use a woman in kidnapping? Vanitas becomes a hostage. Noé wants to taste the blood of Vanitas even though he is an archivist? Vanitas' bloodstained clothes turn into lollipops. Noé only sleeps hugging? Vanitas turns pillow. Noé doesn't want to set him free? Vanitas don't stay alone. Does Noé like tarte tatin? Vanitas becomes a confectioner. Noé wants to know about kissing? Vanitas becomes a teacher. The man can already stop introducing himself by saying "I will do what I want, no matter what the vampires want" since he is NOT going to do what he wants because it DOES matter what a specific vampire wants. To me, Noé's love language is words of affirmation and he uses the most intense ones with Vanitas and Vanitas' is acts of service and he saves the most extreme ones for Noé.
So while I've seen a thousand jokes about this scene and Noé slapping a snapchat filter over the rat bastard in his memories, I do think it's worth analyzing what goes on here, because it's just a really well-executed example of how memories change with time and fondness.
Most of the posts I've seen have contrasted this shot of Vanitas to this one from chapter 1:
and that makes sense! They're both similar shots of him standing at the top of the steps in front of the windows, and they're also the faces that make for the biggest contrast between the two versions of the scene.
However! If you look at the actual dialogue, this super-romanticized shot of Vani isn't entirely from Noé's memory of Vanitas's speech on the podium. It's more complicated than that. Just like what often happens with real memories, when Noé recollects Vanitas's request to use his strength, he blends it with other memories of the same scene.
In the original version of this conversation, the "lend me your strength" line comes while Vanitas and Noé are still standing on the same level. This is the moment that the dialogue from the romanticized memory comes from,
and you can see immediately before and after this moment that Noé and Vanitas are still together on the lower church floor.
Vanitas only heads up the stairs to the windows/podium once he's well into his final "I will save you whether you like it or not" speech, which is what he's saying in that especially manic/bloody panel that I posted above.
When this moment flashes through Noé's mind at the start of chapter 52, he blurs the whole thing together rather than pulling any accurate memory. He puts Vanitas on top of the stairs by the window, the most dramatic and memorable staging from that scene, and has him say his "be my shield" line, the part where he's reaching out to Noé personally. Beyond the romanticized snapchat filter aesthetic of the memory, the very basics of the words and staging of the scene betray how Noé misremembers that moment.
In chapter 1, Noé reacts to "lend me your strength" with flat disinterest and "I will save you without fail" with borderline horror. In 52, however, memory Noé reacts to the blended mix of those two moments with tender admiration, showing how he's now come to view Vanitas.
Every single thing about those two pages of flashback works to show how Noé's view of Vanitas has changed. (And also to provide a contrast to the violence that immediately follows it, lol).
It's just a really well-executed example of how romanticized memories actually work in people's heads. Everything blurs together until only the best and grandest parts of the moment are left, and only then does it get the fluffy beautiful filter. And this treatment tells us so much about Noé's feelings on Vanitas at the time.
Ougjh yeah?? "I cannot reject the story we lived together" huh? What story? Gay romance ? You cannot reject all the homosexual feelings the two of you had??? Yea that's what I thought
I am constantly thinking about the idea that once we get a Vanoé blood-sucking scene, Noé will be able to see through Vanitas' memory what his original name was before he got taken in by the chasseurs, and it will lead to a very emotional moment where Noé tells Vanitas his "true name" in the exact same way Vanitas does it when he cures cursed vampires.
