Kaname's Abusive Love
I just wanted to share this with you. It is a kind of essay about how Kaname is basically the most abusive asshole ever written by me, and you can spread it if you want. Sorry it’s all convoluted and messy.
There was one point where I was a huge fan of Kaname (I even used to ship him and Yuuki, I won’t lie), but that stopped during Vampire Knight’s second arc. I didn’t quite realize the extent of Kaname’s manipulative behavior until I saw him living with Yuuki, and, frankly, I was horrified. His relationship with Yuuki displayed every sign of abuse and neglect, and Yuuki was a textbook victim. I will say right off of the bat that I don’t believe it was Yuuki being stupid or that it was even her fault for staying with Kaname, but more on that later.
First lets give some examples of Kaname’s abuse; all of which would warrant an arrest in the real world.
- Constantly referring to Yuuki as small or childish in some way. By infantilizing her and mocking her attempts to rise up to her pureblood status, he is telling her that she is insignificant and wont last without him.
- Punishing her. That puts him in a level above her, as if their relationship is a hierarchy. Also, wtf? How messed up is it that he treats her as if she is an animal that has no sense of right or wrong and needs to be domesticated (Robin Thicke mentality, anyone)? Even worse is that he punishes her for the moments she decides to display an ounce of independence.
- Not allowing her to go outside or see her friends. Abusers often isolate their victims to better control them. But even some abusers have more mercy than Kaname, since they will allow an exception for school or work.
- Threatening to withhold nourishment from Yuuki unless she uses her fangs. This falls more into the category of neglect, but you get the idea. Keeping essentials is a form of control and a sadistic way of making someone beg.
- Admitting that her feelings are split and complicating them further by having sex with her in the middle of a love triangle crisis. This was very very selfish of him, especially since he knew he was going to kill himself soon after.
- Making Yuuki rely on him to a large extent, and then suddenty abandoning her.
- Physically harming Yuuki. Remember that time Kaname bit the shit out of Yuuki and she was surrounded by her own blood? Also that he mocked her after it? Did you think that was all romantic or that Yuuki deserved it? Well then congratulations, you are one sick bastard. Yes, you can argue that she’s a pureblood and that’s in their nature and she will heal, but would you treat your loved ones like that? I surely hope not. Not to mention all of the times he’s roughly manhandled her.
- And last on this list only because it’s getting too long, giving her “treats” to make up for the shit he does. All of his sweet words, and loving gestures, and that one time he gave Yuuki Artemis and let her free must mean he’s not abusive and loves her, right? Hell to the fucking no. It’s the oldest trick in the book to lure victims into a false sense of security so that they don’t leave the relationship/situation, because they think “Oh, well they were nice that one time so they must care for me”.
Looking at all of these examples, I’d say that Kaname is much more like Rido than Haruka. I’m really surprised no one has really talked about that.
Now, a shorter explanation of why Yuuki doesn’t dump the pretentious pureblood.
Four factors play into this: Guilt, familial ties, baiting, and Stockholm Syndrome.
Guilt: Yuuki is always being guilt tripped by Kaname, so much so that she wishes she wasn’t born at one point. These feelings of guilt about not being with Kaname for those ten years, and of leaving him to be alone again make it impossible for her to leave. Yuuki is at her very core, self-sacrificing for the interest of others. Her weakness (or strength depending on how you look at it) is being monopolized so Kaname can get what he wants. That’s just a shitty thing to do.
Familial ties: Yuuki feels a duty to Kaname and her parents to carry on as a pureblood and remain with her brother/ancestor/whatever-i-dont-even-know-anymore. It falls under that stupid saying “blood is thicker than water”, and Yuuki firmly believes that. It’s why she left the people at cross academy who were her family for the majority of her life.
Baiting: I won’t say much about this, because I already mentioned it. It’s giving a treat in the middle of all the shitty stuff someone does so they will stay.
Stockholm Syndrome: I don’t believe Yuuki ever loved Kaname romantically. I believed her feelings for him devolved like this: Family love at age 6, mere infatuation throughout her amnesia filled years, and Stockholm Syndrome bordering on obsession up until the time she found out she was pregnant. Being in stasis and just waiting to die 2 months after someone “dies” (for gods sakes, he only fucking fell asleep) is not love. That just shows how far Kaname got into Yuuki’s psyche and fucked it up. You may argue that she did the same with Zero, but that was vastly different. Yuuki felt she had lived long enough by that time, and she had a happy life with him. She didn’t do it out of guilt or even to resurrect Kaname; that merely coincided with each other. She did it because she loved Kaname as a brother, as someone who made it possible for her to be with Zero.
On a final note. Kaname had one quality that makes him less of a horrible sadist in my mind. That was when he finally gave his blessing for Yuuki to find happiness with Zero.
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This.. Holy shit. This. Like I don’t even know how to respond to this.
I have 672 GIFS and it took me twenty minutes to even find a handful that could adequately convey my response.
Whoever sent this to me, like, take a freaking bow you awesome son of a gun and let me give you a medal of pure awesomeness.
Absolutely everything is perfect.
My god this is all too perfect.
And I’m sure as hell going to post it, because if I didn’t it would be like hiding Mona Lisa’s smile. Like sacrilegious.
Just.
Oh. My. God.
