[VK/M] What's In A Kaname?
Before I dive into my thoughts concerning some recent happenings in the horror show that is VK/M, I figured I'd set the stage with a preliminary dive into the skeletal structure of Kaname's narrative arc from the original VK. If this is triggering to anyone, well, take it up with Hino.
I don't know why I've never done a deep dive into the skeletal structure of Kaname's narrative arc before, but I think it's because we were always waiting for the "big reveal" of his "great plans" that never came. Instead of sitting in that mode of thinking, I've changed perspectives for this exercise--I'm now looking only at what is ACTUALLY there once you strip away the dumb things that don't matter (like the vampiric politicking that never goes anywhere with Hino because this is a love story at its heart). Going into this without preconceived notions or expectations for "narrative twists" made it easier to parse what is actually in Hino's story. And once I did that, I found a very straight-forward, simple arc for Kaname. It'll take a minute to detail first, but I'll lay it out simply at the end.
We'll start post-time skip because the first part of the story is mostly Kaname working in the background without much narrative thrust.
Night 49: Kaname obtains what he's wanted--Yuuki is now a vampire, is in a relationship with him, and is estranged from Zero. Kaname thinks that he and Yuuki will be in loving bliss from now on.
Night 49-50: Things don't go as Kaname planned. Yuuki struggles with using her fangs on him, even though he wants her to and encourages her. Initially he thinks this is due to her humanity interfering with her vampiric side (6 months into the time skip). Their relationship stagnates while she starves herself. No progress. He's stuck in the "bro zone." As far as any super plans, he has none at this time outside of Yuuki.
Night 51-52: Kaname discovers Yuuki has attempted to not only bite herself, but also take blood tablets from Aidou. This shouldn't even be a thing when Kaname is a willing blood source for her--not only does he love her, but he's a Pureblood. She shouldn't be able to resist either of those two things, not when she loves him. Whelp, unfortunately for him, she confesses her heart is still attached to that Zero guy. But that's ok because she loves Kaname too, right? Whelp, about that...Yuuki won't admit she loves Kaname either and instead acts sorry while beating around the bush about it. Their interaction ends with Kaname placing a restriction on her eating--she'll have to take blood from him and no one else.
Night 52-54: Now that Yuuki is drinking blood from him and has confessed to having feelings for Zero, Kaname needs to test the depth of those feelings. He's reassessing where their relationship stands in light of this new information. He takes Yuuki to a ball with Zero, making sure to give her ample time to interact with him. Zero fails to drive home the estrangement, and Yuuki emerges from the ball more determined than ever to help Zero.
A sub-point here is this is when Kaname's Plan A begins. This plan is never detailed explicitly in the story, but I believe his Plan A was to gather all the Pureblood bloodline strains into Zero and then transform Zero into the cure (likely by killing him).
Night 56-59: Yuuki leaves the house (with Kaname's knowledge) for the first time in order to go and do what she can to help Zero. She runs into Touma and is injured. Zero appears. Kaname watches from a distance via remote-viewing from his familiars, keeping tabs on things but letting them play out because he's still testing Yuuki's feelings for Zero.
Night 60: While injured, Yuuki nearly bites Zero. She only stops because she a.) wants to savor him and b.) snaps out of her stupor to realize that she's in the arms of the man who supposedly wants to kill her. None of her motivations are Kaname-related, but she does run back to Kaname.
Night 61: Kaname is furious with Yuuki because she basically betrayed him entirely and revealed that her feelings for Zero are stronger than her feelings for him. His recourse now is to try to force her feelings to shift toward him. The best way to do that is to break down her image of him as her brother so that she'll see him as a man.
Night 62-64: Kaname drains Yuuki to the point where she has no choice but to drink from him and then sends her down memory lane. His plan backfires, though. Rather than seeing him as a man, she sees her own feelings for Zero in his feelings for the Hooded Woman and she also sees the utter darkness in his heart.
Night 65-66: Yuuki awakens and Kaname tests her feelings to see if she has changed her mind about him. He tries to see if she was jealous about the Hooded Woman, but gets a neutral response from Yuuki. He then asks how Yuuki sees him now. The best that Yuuki can offer him is that she adored him as her brother and senpai, but that she doesn't know who he is as the ancestor, and that she'd like to start over fresh with him. This is NOT what Kaname wanted. He wanted her to see him as a man and realize she loved him romantically. The answer here becomes obvious--he needs to accelerate Plan A (Zero cure) and get rid of the "interference" in his relationship with Yuuki. But the only way he can do this is of course if Yuuki doesn't know what's going on. So he gives her one last test--stay home and wait for his return. Yuuki fails the test.
Night 67-82ish: Kaname dumps Yuuki back onto Zero after he kills Aidou's father (and yes, I do believe Aidou's father is dead--we've never seen him in VK/M, not even for Aidou's wedding, and Ruka did not seem like she was creating an illusion for Kaname at this time), and then begins to initiate Plan A. This mostly involves him letting Sara run around, drinking and attacking Purebloods, and Kaname wandering around after her cleaning up the mess. Sara is then driven into Zero's vicinity, and Kaname allows Zero to drink from her. At this time Kaname has no plans for Yuuki outside of perhaps planning to turn her human again if she doesn't take well to the Zero-dying thing.
Night 83-88: Kaname breaks into Hunter Headquarters, but he doesn't do so in order to "find" the forge--he just "discovers" the forge, which implies his Forge Plan is Plan B. When he enters headquarters, he's still operating under Plan A (which I assume is the Zero cure). Zero and Yuuki catch up to him here, and Yuuki cuts her hair to signal her determination. Kaname, upon seeing the forge again, decides to open up to the idea of Plan B (a.k.a. he becomes the forge in the Hooded Woman's stead). He releases the Hooded Woman and runs.
Night 89: Yuuki returns to Kaname after having taken Zero's memories and destroyed her relationship with him. At this point, Kaname is ready to abandon both Plan A and Plan B if Yuuki genuinely wants a real romantic relationship with him. He attempts to suss this out by sleeping with her. After all, she gave up Zero for him! Surely she loves him!
Night 90-92: Kaname realizes all's not well in paradise; Yuuki appears to still want to turn him human even after sleeping together and her reaction once they both wake up is to huddle in blankets and accusing both of them of not deserving to be in Zero's presence. Kaien "sends" Zero over to Kaname, but I suspect Kaname requested Zero as yet another test for Yuuki. Kaname tests the strength of Zero's memory loss and finds it solid; he then tests whether or not Zero has feelings for Yuuki even without his memories and whether Yuuki still loves Zero without his memories. Kaname finds both are still true, and he picks Plan B back up again. At this point he's intending to have Isaya turn Yuuki because Zero has no memories. This also still "removes" Yuuki from Zero. Unfortunately for him, Zero regains his memories.
Night 93: Kaname completes Plan B, placing his heart in the forge and unloading his last thoughts onto Yuuki. She can't even give him a final grand love confession--the best she can offer him is wishing she'd never been born. Kaname gives up at last at the idea that he held a major place in her heart and wishes her and Zero well.
VKM begins.
This long ramble was merely to demonstrate the justification for the following skeletal arc for Kaname:
Nights 49-68 (before Kaname leaves Yuuki):
Gets Yuuki, separates her from Zero, gets Zero positioned perfectly for devouring purebloods. -> Finds out Yuuki doesn't actually love him, but thinks he can overcome this because, well, he's her master and a Pureblood, and we know from his past history that this can overcome love. -> Tests the strength of Yuuki's love for Zero while setting up Sara to gather bloodlines for Zero for Plan A -> Realizes Yuuki's love for Zero is stronger than expected -> Gets butthurt and tries to salvage Yuuki's feelings for him via changing her perspective on him with his memories -> Fails. Decides to pursue Plan A to get Zero out of the way.
Nights 69-93 (after leaving Yuuki):
Follows Sara and stirs up events to get Sara to gather Pureblood lineages and take them to Zero. -> Discovers Forge location. -> Plan B now an option (become forge). -> Nearly discards both Plan A AND Plan B when Yuuki takes Zero's memories. -> Gives up on Yuuki entirely after he has sex with her and nothing changes and she still shows signs of preferring Zero. -> Goes full bore into Plan B because it's the easiest and he can still separate Yuuki from Zero via Isaya. -> Fails to separate Yuuki from Zero and accepts his fate while succeeding at Plan B.
In the shortest sense, we simply have: After the timeskip, Kaname thinks he's won Yuuki's heart and can sacrifice Zero for Plan A, the Zero Cure. He discovers he's wrong about both and, after first attempting to win Yuuki's heart one last time, ultimately changes his plan to Plan B, becoming the forge. The end.
There is nothing in Kaname's arc that suggests he ever once felt secure in Yuuki's romantic love for him, and this is the key reason he follows through with Plan B.
What this shows me is Kaname is a shit for beans planner. He just throws things against the wall to see if they stick. The reason he seems "mysterious" is that he's always changing his mind, not that he has a master plan. His main motivation is to get in Yuuki's pants, and when he can't get that it's either kill the guy she actually loves (Zero) or kill himself. It's obvious how toxic he is when you break down the structure of the story and remove all Hino's flowery language and artwork. There's just nothing positive here to work with--he's literally the villain of the story.
The reason I wanted to work through Kaname's narrative skeleton here is because the latest chapter has a hint that Plan A (kill Zero for Zero cure) really did exist. There's tons of evidence for "a" Plan A in the original story of course--Kaname letting Sara run free, Kaname silencing Aidou's dad for investigating, Kaname disliking letting Zero drink from Sara but saying it's "necessary" (necessary for what, certainly not the forge plan!), Kaname seeming to only realize where the forge even was AFTER he entered Hunter Headquarters, implying he was there for a different purpose before discovering the forge's location.
Yuuki in the story assumes Kaname was always trying to become the forge, and because she's the protagonist, we're meant to assume that too in the original story. But I think there's enough evidence to suggest Kaname had a Plan A that involved the Pureblood lineages and Zero. The most logical conclusion is that it's the Zero cure, which lines up both with his attempt to reverse the Hooded Woman's sacrifice in the past AND with his "surprise" at discovering Ichiru and Zero were Hunter twins. It also explains his early involvement with Shizuka, which hasn't been narratively resolved yet. It's still just hanging in the breeze, waiting for someone to fold it up and put it back in the closet.
This is a long-winded way of saying the Zero Cure is BACK ON THE MENU, BABIES! More contemporary thoughts later!
