I agree with Diabolik Lovers, a friend of mine asked me to watch it and I did. It was meh I couldn't get over how badly they treated female protagonist. Also I love your VK analysis your thorough/brutal but honest, it's very refreshing. Could you do a analysis on Zero please? I've read loads on Kaname, and i've tried to feel sympathy for him but I can't after reading the manga and novels knowing he manipulated Zero at every turn while acting God like all I can think is that he is a hypocrite.
I’m with you there on Diabolik Lovers. Everything I heard about it made me want to stay as far away as I could. ;) I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed my analyses! I hope you’ll continue to enjoy them in the future too! =)
You’d like analysis on Zero, though, huh? Well, who can resist an analysis on Zero!
Meditations on Kiryuu Zero
Short answer: Zero is perfect.
Long answer: Zero is probably the most pivotal character in Vampire Knight. He is the source of its conflict, the source of it’s messages, and is likely going to be the source of its resolution as well by the time Vampire Knight Memories is through with him. He serves two key roles in the story:
He is the story’s moral compass, by which the heroine and the readers should judge the characters.
He is the story’s guiding light, by which salvation is granted to the characters.
Zero is what I consider the “moral compass” of Vampire Knight. His values of right and wrong are the rubric by which all the other characters’ actions are judged. Yuuki, as heroine, has no moral code of her own but she guides herself by Zero’s moral code. If Zero had no moral code, Yuuki wouldn’t either.
This isn’t as evident in arc 1, because arc 1 spends a lot of time challenging Zero’s moral code. Are vampires truly “evil”? Is he right to hate them? Zero’s morality is put to the test in arc 1, and he is tempered by the forge of opposition. In arc 1, he is framed for a murder Kaname committed, is forced to face his own vampiric nature head on when he attacks Yuuki, must devour his own brother in the most vampiric of ways, fails to achieve his desired revenge for his family, and loses to his inner hatred of Purebloods when Yuuki is turned.
It’s important to note that, as a moral compass in arc 1, Zero fails. Literally everything he believes is right and true is stripped from him. The narrative denounces his perspective and runs him through the wringer for it.
However, something very key happens in arc 2.
Arc 2 validates Zero’s hatred through Yuuki and Kaname. Both of them spend the majority of arc 2 trapped within Zero’s old views against Purebloods. The same prejudices Zero had in arc 1, Yuuki and Kaname have in arc 2. Kaname’s are his own prejudices which he hypocritically judged Zero on during arc 1. Yuuki’s are a direct result of her understanding of Zero. Yuuki flipflops multiple times in an attempt to fulfill Zero’s ideals in the story–first she goes around offering to murder Purebloods who want to die, then she reforms the Night Class to stop children from being hurt because it upsets Zero, then she works with Aidou to make the tablets to keep the vampires under control as repayment to Zero for his blood. Yuuki lives her life in arc 2 by Zero’s creed–or what she understands as Zero’s creed. Yuuki even refers to Zero’s devotion to duty in arc 2, something she clearly admires.
However, in arc 2, Zero, after being reforged in the crucible of arc 1, begins to move down a different path of morality–the morality of tolerance and acceptance. As arc 2 moves forward, Zero begins guiding Yuuki, Aidou, the Night Class vampires, and the hunters toward a new direction–that of tolerance for vampires, and for Purebloods in particular. Although Zero still mouths off the platitudes he spouted in arc 1, his actions tell a different story–he encourages Aidou to support Yuuki’s bid to restart the Night Class, he supports Yuuki’s pills, he takes Sara’s blood to stop Kaname but not kill him, he refuses to hunt vampires unless they’re already on the list. The Zero of arc 2 is a reformed man in denial; it is not until he loses his memories in Night 88 and regains in them in Night 92 that he is able to accept his new morality.
Because it takes Zero so long to accept his new position, he fails to guide Yuuki and Kaname out of their own flawed morality. His attempts to reach them both in Night 92 fail, and he’s only capable of giving one of them–Yuuki–hope. Kaname is too far gone by this point for Zero to reach him.
Vampire Knight Memories takes Zero’s moral compass role further–how he feels about the world directly affects the Hunters under his care. Where before they would have turned on him for his acceptance of Yuuki and Ai, now they just chide him but continue supporting him. The violence against Purebloods is now at an end; Zero continues to support justice for innocent humans, and to support Aidou’s research in helping Purebloods and other vampires escape their fates of eternity. Ideally, he will reprise his moral compass role in some capacity for Kaname when Kaname regains his memories, redeeming himself from his initial failure in the original series to correct the course Kaname was taking.
It’s so funny to be writing this, because in back in arc 1 this would sound preposterous. That Zero is the narrative’s guiding light, and not Yuuki who has been promoted ad nauseum as shining like the sun, still makes me chuckle.
But the light he is. First he is Yuuki’s light–when he leaves her life, she enters “the Deep Dark Forest” and loses her spunk, her smile, and her joy. It’s interesting that Yuuki had virtually no interest in outside politics until she saw Zero distressed over the hunter Sara killed at the ball. Then suddenly she couldn’t just sit at home (which she’d been doing for a year)–she just had to do something to help Zero. This is the same girl who, without Zero to shine the light on the things that matter, was perfectly content to just sit at home and wait for Kaname. If Yuuki is a “light,” she is but a reflective one–a moon to another’s sun.
Zero actually guides Aidou out of depression when Aidou loses his father–he’s the one who listens to Aidou’s pain, even though Aidou’s hurling accusations at him, and who encourages Aidou to support Yuuki anyway. It’s not Yuuki who supports Aidou and gives him a way out–it is Zero.
After Kaname abandons Yuuki, she at first remains depressed. But as soon as she finds ways to help Zero, she comes to life again. And once Zero offers her his blood, she is eager to repay him by living up to his expectations. She reflects Zero’s light all the way up until Night 88, where she makes the decision that takes the light literally out of the story for the next three chapters–she removes Zero’s memories.
It’s important to note that Zero without memories is still a light. His core traits of acceptance, tolerance, and kindness still exist even without Yuuki in his life. This is Hino’s way of telling us that Zero is a light by himself and would have been even without Yuuki in his life. We see this play out further while he is mind wiped when he gently chides Kaname for making Yuuki uncomfortable during the tea party in Night 90.
I’ve said this before, of course, in my other posts on Zero, but once Zero regains his memories he actually almost saves Kaname and does actually save Yuuki. His reminder to her about what Ichiru asked of him gives her the strength to try to save Kaname one last time. His appeal to Kaname to defend the academy and not make Yuuki sad nearly stops Kaname’s plan.
Zero-as-the-light is even more apparent in the sequel series. Ai literally learns the difference between “koi” and “ai” from Zero, not from her mother. Yuuki admits Zero saved her when he told her to live on for Ai in VKM 1. Zero saves Yuuki a second time in VKM 1 when he tells her to find happiness in the time she has left before she turns Kaname. When he dies, it’s very apparent Yuuki’s and the kids’ lives are no longer bright. Yuuki follows him in death soon after, and Ren and Ai are subdued and emotionally detached. His hunters clearly are following his example and have relaxed a lot of their angry, anti-vampire rhetoric.
I fully expect that Zero-as-the-light will be very pivotal as VKM moves forward. I expect him to save not only Yuuki but also Kaname by the end of VKM, thus restoring his Vampire Knight title to him in full.
I just want to point out that Zero’s the only character in Vampire Knight who actually has a positive trajectory of character development. He grows from an angry, hurt young man who wants revenge against vampires into a tolerant, patient, forgiving adult who accepts the good and the bad of vampires and humans alike.
Unfortunately, Kaname had no growth at all (he remained a stagnant character, as befitting an antagonist), and Yuuki had a negative character trajectory–she actually regressed as a character. These two will have to grow in VKM in order to earn their happy endings.
As I was writing this, I realized why Zero can’t have his happy ending yet, in spite of his character growth.
Zero is the eponymous Vampire Knight. But although he learned his lessons during the course of the original series, he wasn’t able to implement what he’d learned and affect the world around him. He wasn’t able to touch anyone’s heart with what he’d learned. He figured the truth out “too late.”
This is why he hasn’t earned his happy ending in the narrative sense, although he certainly has in a character development sense. Until he actually applies the lessons he learned in the original series to the new series, he won’t be able to find happiness.
The lessons he learned were to be true to himself and to not hold on to hatred. The problem is, in VKM, he’s not being true to himself. He’s holding back certain emotions from Yuuki in order to spare her feelings. He needs to hold her accountable for her end of the relationship before they can move forward.
He also needs to guide Kaname out of the darkness, which was the task set before him in the original series and is the task he failed. Until he is honest with Yuuki and acts as Kaname’s guide, he won’t have earned his happy ending narratively.
I might be wrong of course, but this is just my hunch on the unfinished business Zero still has in this story.
Phew that was long. I’m sorry I made you wait so long for this, and I hope this was along the lines of what you were looking to read. =) Thanks for making this request!
