#vnc loki

[resssistance]

Oh, not Noriaki Sugiyama voicing Loki in VnC...

[what-on-earth-is-love]

predictions that came to me in a dream: if vnc is going to have another nonbinary character it's going to be loki and i assume that purely on their name because of the loki in norse mythology canon

[nasod-bird]

I was thinking more about Loki this week, and what his malnomen could be. While I initially said his true name was more likely to be Jörmungandr instead of Fenrir, I found more info on Fenir. 

Fenrir was said to fill half of the world with fire, and he killed the god Odin, who was associated with royalty, amongst other things.

Loki is a member of the Oriflamme family. The name itself indicates that they have affinity with fire, something Lucas has shown when Vanitas kissed Jeanne when they first met. It depends on what sort of powers Loki has. Does he have fire, like his younger brother? Or does he have water, or something else, and he was looked down upon for not having fire powers?

Another candidate for Loki’s true name could be Surtr, the jötunn who led others from Muspelheim to Ragnarök, and killed the god Freyr, who was associated with sacral kingship, peace, and prosperity, amongst other things.

I think Surtr being his malnomen is less likely due to a couple of reasons. The primary reason among them being that Surtr is not directly related to Loki in any way. Another reason why I think that his true name is less likely to be Surtr is that Surtr was the leader of the fire giants. Loki is a member of the Beastias, those who serve Faustina. He also doesn’t lead the Oriflamme family, as he is bound and confined.

However, the current leader of the Oriflamme family appears to be Lord Ruthven, as the other vampires mostly view Lucas as a puppet king at present. Lord Ruthven was adopted into the family. Depending on when that happened and when Loki received his malnomen, it is possible Loki was the leader of the Oriflamme family for a brief while, and his true name reflects that.

[nasod-bird]

I want to see a situation where a malnomen isn’t an entirely bad thing.

We saw Jean-Jacques give up his true name willingly to protect Chloé, and we also saw Chloé give up her true name to get revenge on Naenia for Jean-Jacques.

What I want to see was not either of those, and how our protagonists react.

What I want to see is a situation where a person hates their true name so viscerally that they thought anything would be better than it, so willingly gave it up and became a curse-bearer.

Personally, I think and hope the person that will fill my desire for this is Loki.

This was an idea that briefly touched upon in Chapter 13.

Lord Ruthven says this when Noé brings up healing Loki:

“Salvation takes many forms. Being freed from the curse does not necessarily bring happiness to the person in question.”

I wonder if that was something Lord Ruthven interpreted from Loki, if it was something Loki told Lord Ruthven but not Lucas, or a mix of both.

I think this is something Vanitas already understand on some level, but Noé does not.

When Noé tells Vanitas that Jean-Jacques was the Beast and that Chloé became a curse-bearer of his accord, he says this:

“…Well, this was a wasted trip.”

At that point, he didn’t understand why either if them became curse-bearers willingly, just that they did.

This was after he was visibly saddened after he came too late to save Catherine and had to kill her in Chapter 10.

Even though afterwards Noé shakes him and demands to know what salvation is, Vanitas states that he has no idea. I’m of the opinion he does know on some level, and is either unwilling or unable to voice it.

However he also quotes words from Chapter 1.

“No matter what you want… I will save you without fail.”

Note he doesn’t say ‘heal’. Noé just interpreted this as salvation = being healed from a curse-bearer. This almost definitely comes from seeing Louis killed in front of him by his teacher as he lost control as a curse-bearer. And based on his narration at the end of Chapter 1, it still doesn’t seem like he gets over it by the time that narration occurs.

Back to Loki. He doesn’t seem bothered by the fact he’s chained up all that much. Of course he could just be hiding it for Lucas’ sake.

In the shadows in Chapter 38, right before Naenia gets incarnated, there’s a figure that looks to be Loki. And notably, his hands are not bound. I wonder why. If we go on the theory that he was bound willingly, he might genuinely not be bothered.

And that leads to what I want to see, either from Loki or someone else: a person that became a malnomen willingly for no reason other than that they loathe their true name to the point where they’re willing to do anything to get rid of it. Even warp it into a malnomen.

I feel like Loki is a good canditate for what I want to see. His given name is Loki, which is the name of the trickster god of Norse mythology. This opens up the possibility that Loki’s true name is something along the lines of Ragnarök: the events that include a great battle and lead to a death of a number of great figures, and that will submerge the current world in water.

He already makes references to the fact that “we went to the trouble of smashing her corpse up for her,” implying he was around for her death, and may have taken part.

In that vein, I theorize that his malnomen might be something like Jörmungandr, the world serpent who heralds Ragnarök by releasing it’s tail. Malnomen are shown to be related to the true name: Millie is the theater of ice and snow, and the malnomen of Canorus, she who plays snow crystals.

Lupe Garou, wolf who hunts crimson, is the malnomen of Bucolicus, he who composes Idylls. An “idyll” is defined as:

“An extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque episode or scene, typically an idealized or unsustainable one.”

So the malnomen Lupe Garou destroys the idylls composed by Bucolicus.

And then that brings us to the first malnomen/true name pair: Eglantine, prison of briars and Florifel, she who guides spring. When one thinks of spring, they usually think of flowers. Prison of Briars can be interpreted as “the briars that strangle the spring blooms.”

They are related like Jörmungandr is to Ragnarök.

As to why I posit Jörmungandr instead of Fenrir for the malnomen? Because based on my  understanding of Norse mythology, Jörmungandr encircles Midgard, which is surrounded by water, and so large it grasps it’s own tail. When it releases its tail, Ragnarök begins, sinking Midgard into the water. It can be argued that Jörmungandr is the thing that keeps Ragnarök at bay.

Going along with this theory, if the malnomen Jörmungandr is born from Ragnarök, then “healing” the malnomen could be analogous to  “the ouroboros releasing it’s tail, and heralding the end of the world as we know it”.

This could explain why Lord Ruthven doesn’t want Loki healed.

However, this is all conjecture.

Please feel free to comment and correct me on my understanding of Vanitas no Carte ad well as Norse Mythology!

<

p>Edit: I forgot about Bucolicus and Lupe Garou. And Eglanine and Florifel. Ack.