As I was thinking about VnC Chapter 46 for the 150th time today, a thought crossed my mind that I can’t get rid of:
Why is Misha controlling Dominique instead of Noé?
He’s only using Dominique to get Noé to do something, right? Why couldn’t he just brainwash Noé, cutting out the middlewoman and force him to drink Vanitas’s blood? There are a few options for why Misha might be controlling Dominique in order to make Noé do something, rather than just control Noé himself.
Here are some potential options....
1. Misha isn’t powerful enough to control Noé. Maybe he can’t brainwash Archivistes or vampires who are already under a curse placed by another (@@@/Ruthven). This seems like a straightforward reason to control Domi rather than Noé. In addition Misha might only be able to issue simple, non- abstract commands (“stand here and do not move. if anyone physically hurts me, jump forwards”). Maybe he’s unable to give people complex commands like “drink Vanitas’s blood, search his memory for when he kills Father, then come back and verbally tell me everything you saw”. Noé might not be able to use his Archiviste abilities while under a non- Archiviste’s control either.
2. Misha fears retaliation from Teacher if he tries to brainwash Noé. We know that Noé is the Teacher’s favorite experiment... if he learns his experiment is suddenly being controlled by a creepy rando he’s likely to either snap Noé out of it instantly or kill the person doing it. Misha likely knows that Noé has ties to Teacher, and most of the vampires in universe believe that Teacher has a bad temper... he might not want to risk Teacher learning that Misha’s been tampering with his student.
3. Misha needs Noé to drink Vanitas’s blood while fully in control of his actions and conscious. This is my favorite solution, because it makes the most sense— if Noé is being controlled he may not be able to use his Archiviste powers and at the very least will actively resist looking through Vanitas’s memories like Misha wants him to. We know that Noé can be forced into seeing memories (Jean-Jacques) but if he’s looking for something specific he’ll often have to consciously seek out a memory (Amelia) in order to find it. An unconscious, brainwashed Noé may not be able to do this.
We’ve already seen that when Misha tries to force someone under his control to do something that’s completely against their moral code, they become incapable of fulfilling his request and end up acting out his command upon others. If Misha were to attempt to force Noé to drink Vanitas’s blood, the action would likely be so completely against Noé’s morals and “”””dislike”””””” for Vanitas that the Archiviste might even try to drink the blood of other humans, which would alert Vanitas to the fact that something’s off about Noé. Vanitas would no doubt cure Noé and would be alerted to the fact that his Lil’ Bro is in Paris.
Personally, I think that the reason why Misha is using Domi to control Noé rather than directly controlling Noé himself is a mixture of #1 and #3. Noé would likely fail to drink Vanitas’s blood if commanded to by Misha, and even if he tried he would probably be unable to use his powers as an Archiviste, either at all or to some extent.
