Mind sharing your thoughts about Krul and Mika’s dynamic? It’s so complicated and muddied thanks to her treatment of him, you can’t help but be intrigued. I also can’t help but notice that she’s a lot nicer to Amaya compared to everyone else but maybe that’s just cause she’s her best solider?
Overall, I think Krul has a sort of "tough love" approach to "parenting" Mika. I see her as being strict, but very supportive. In fact, I think the strictness comes from her being supportive, in that she's pushing Mika to succeed in his goals.
In the early flashbacks, Krul's treatment of him does seem questionable since she did force him to become a vampire and talks about how Mika drinking her blood instead of from humans makes him reliant on her like a "dog". But, I also see it as her offering Mika that choice while also being very upfront about the caveats. Because she could have shoved the blood down his throat like when she turned him. But for this scene, she waits until Mika bites her on his own. In a way, she let Mika have what could be considered an informed choice. She's just phrasing it in a vampire-like way.
And while in the beginning, it does seem like Krul is only helping Mika because she needs him for his Seraph gene, I do feel that Krul cares about Mika more than just conveniently using him for her goals. In fact, I think it was made really clear in chapter 96. First, there's a flashback of her training baby Mika. Which, on one hand, does look like she's just one-sidedly beating him up. But you also see that Mika isn't shown as distressed, but determined instead. So much that Krul sounds somewhat impressed at what he's willing to do to save Yuu. And then Mika says he can handle it and asks her to keep going, you get this proud Mama Krul smile.
Plus, the harsh training does make sense. Mika would have understood that he needs to be strong if he wants to save Yuu, and he knows he's not going to get that if he's coddled. Although it's rough, Krul's giving Mika what he wants here.
Same chapter, she comments about how Yuu and gang are dumb (lol) and that if she had raised them, they would have turned out smarter, like how Mika is. Another proud mama moment, in my eyes.
After recalling this, she asks Yuu to prove how serious he is about wanting to save Mika. I'll put the panel again, because it speaks for itself.
Krul is doing this because the idiocy Yuu's been showing has made her doubt his intentions and she wants to know that Mika's care for Yuu isn't one-sided, that he actually cares about Mika in return. She wants to know that Yuu was worth all the suffering Mika went through. Which is, the most blatant protective parent behavior ever. And I don't think she would have bothered with saying this if Mika was just a tool to her.
And besides this, I find that despite the harsh things Krul says to Mika (especially in the earlier chapters), she is surprisingly lenient towards him. Again, with not forcing him to drink human blood. And also with how she encourages Mika's desire to save Yuu. Which makes me think that the harsh statements early on that he "can't defy her since she's his owner" shouldn't be taken literally and actually means "be smart and think this through. I'm not your enemy". In chapter 22 where this takes place, it happened because Mika got mad at Krul for keeping her plans from him. But after saying the above, she ends up whispering it to him anyway. Which, I don't think she'd have done if she actually cared about Mika being obedient. Also I do find it mildly hilarious that Mika goes "I want to run away with Yuu-chan" and Krul's response is essentially "Yes, do it. Go run away with him. That works for me too.👍"
And sidenote. Not sure how canon we want to consider this, but I find this bit from the Shitsuji no Seraph drama cd where Krul is going full mama mode doting on Mika to be adorable.
Now getting into Krul and Amaya in comparison. I also used the "strict but supportive" idea when conceptualizing their dynamic. (Although less "mom-like" with Amaya since she wasn't as young and also already has a mom) Similar to the human blood thing with Mika, Krul is upfront with Amaya about what becoming a vampire means and let her make the decision herself. Plus, when Krul tells Amaya that she should leave after the Ashina battle, it is to protect her from experiencing the pain of being shunned as a monster by the people she wanted to protect if they found out. Of course, she does experience this anyway later on. Krul's intention here is something like "I'm telling you this for your own good, but if you need to find out the hard way then so be it." And when Krul finds Amaya afterwards, I wanted to make sure that her words of comfort didn't come off as too gentle. With how I saw her interactions with Mika, I think she's the type to give the honest truth, even if it's hard to hear and won't sugar coat things. I also find that she values independent thought (from how she's proud of Mika for being smart), which is why I had her tell Amaya to decide for herself what it means to be a vampire.
And mirroring Krul's encouragement of Mika to run away with Yuu, Krul so far has been encouraging of Amaya wanting to protect Yui. However, Krul's support of Mika was partially due to their goals aligning. And without giving too much away, this will also hold true for Amaya and Yui. For now, just know that Krul also has her goal of taking down Karlheinz since she finds him to be an annoyance, and that Amaya helping Yui is currently in line with that goal.
So while yes, Krul is nice to Amaya. And yes, it is partially because she has been a loyal and dependable soldier for about 500 years now. But the main point is that same with Mika, Krul is allowing Amaya's actions because it is also what she wants for one reason or another. As for what that reason is, you'll just have to wait and see.😉
(Low key though, Krul does totally ship it lol)
