Dance in the Vampire Bund

[ninemil]

Originally Posted by old hat

Mina is more complicated than that. She is a contradictory character. She is the shy, lonely, moe girl and the Queen of the Damned at the same time. I think a lot of her character revolves around her contradictory attributes. She isn't either a kind, gentle girl or a ruler that makes hard, cold decisions. She's both at once.

Oh no, you misunderstand me - I agree totally, which is why I'd want Akira to do it for her. She is all those darker things as well as the lost little girl, but my desires are more based around a wish to not see her have to be as such. Along with Akira's desire to protect her. I love his character for that, in the sense that in being as such, he isn't just another bland hero figure. He is complicated, is realistically tarred, and is very much at odds with himself as well, without being two dimensional and predictable at the same time. The Saga arc was brilliant.

At the end of the day, he's a nice guy at heart, and I love the pairing when despite everything else, he gets to show himself as such.

[old hat]

If she were merely one or the other, she would be a much weaker, less interesting character. It's her contradictions and complexity that make her interesting. I almost dropped it entirely early on. It was the complexity of Mina's character and her relationship with Akira that kept me reading. Without that, it would have followed He Is My master into the Goodwill collection bin. Akira started out a bit flat and one note but the Saga arc fleshed out his character. He still isn't as well developed as she is imo. I think his character and his relationship with Mina will get some important development in the coming arc.

I think they will wind up together in the end but there will be much hardship and dramatic conflict before that happens. I have thought that since volume 1.

[Jatz]

Originally Posted by ninemil

They have semi-naked teenage girls splattered across the K-ON CD singles - other than the obviously questionable undertone of watching hour upon hour of stupid little girls, behaving like stupid little girls, I don't actually remember K-ON being a lolita show either... Lesson to be taken from this? The covers, OPs and EDs generally mean absolutely nothing.

But Bund did have, at one point, loli nudity in it. So it is indicative of the content, to a certain point.

Originally Posted by old hat

A scene doesn't have to lack story significance to be controversial. I don't agree that scene is entirely desexualized and sterile either. There is a definitely a sexual element to the scene. That's a fetish too. I don't find it titillating but some do.

Her treatment does serve a story purpose and it's important to her development. She doesn't have to be shown like that for the scene to work though. It's a shocking scene and highly charged. There are sexual undertones there. There are a lot of things going on in that scene and some would not be apparent if it were taken in isolation but the imagery is what it is.

I didn't think it was sexual at all.

[ninemil]

Originally Posted by old hat

I think they will wind up together in the end but there will be much hardship and dramatic conflict before that happens. I have thought that since volume 1.

I tend to agree, but do wonder what it will spell for the vampires as a race. It'll be a tricky one for Nozomu to handle without coming up with something overly convenient and fantastical, or too harsh to maintain suspension of disbelief. Akira raising someone else's child I can see, but Akira playing father to a vampire as a werewolf? No, not so much. I suppose there’s always Aunty Vera, lol :p Some time in her past history with Lucretia would be appreciated before the story closes. She seems like such a rich character in her own right; you have to wonder where her time with Lucretia ended, and her time with Francesca began, or if it even happened in that order?

Hmm… what else… Lost vampire Prince does the good deed, but steps aside in the face of true love? meh, not appealing, and too damaging to the core pairing in its implications. This will be a hard one for Nozomu to tie up, to be sure, unless he leaves them tragically enduring the status quo.

And there's the not so small issue of Yuki too... Poor ***** :/

[old hat]

I'm guessing it will be some sort of technological solution. They have advanced biotech and nanotech in the setting. She could be fertilized with her own genetic material at least in theory. With their nanotech, it should be possible. She will raise her own child. Well maybe not but it's possible.

Vera could be developed a great deal more but I wonder if there will be space for that. A great deal about her past has been hinted at. More complicated backstories have been hinted at for several of the supporting characters. One of the major things yet to be really revealed is exactly what happened when her mother died.

As for Yuki, I think she has long since realized that it isn't in the cards for her and Akira. I think she will get a happy ending though. She's too sympathetic not to get one.

[ninemil]

Originally Posted by old hat

I'm guessing it will be some sort of technological solution. They have advanced biotech and nanotech in the setting. She could be fertilized with her own genetic material at least in theory. With their nanotech, it should be possible. She will raise her own child. Well maybe not but it's possible.

I was trying to avoid being too obvious with the end of nine, combined with the end of the anime, but since you've gone there...

show spoiler

We already know that that's what is going to happen, I meant more in terms of the social acceptance of it. By taking Akira as her mate, even if she doesn't need him as a biological father, he's immediately raising a werewolf from the level of servant, to the level of lover and spouse. That's a pretty ****ed up move to make, given the current status quo between vampire's and werewolves.

Or, alternatively, they feign the 'lost vampire prince' to explain her self-fertilized pregnancy, and hope everyone takes the bait. One thing we certainly can't have, however, is the existence of her clone/twin and the process that created her, and any offspring Mina eventually has becoming public, or everyone will know a pure blood no longer needs a mate, and the blood lines will immediately mean nothing at all. Chaos and anarchy would reduce the Bund to ash.

I dunno about you, but I'm presuming Tatianna will be the route out of the current mess? I struggle to believe she's Telomere, and she's the only 'good guy' left unaccounted for in the deception arc. It's also a very tired scenario to run, so I'm presuming the infiltration by Mina's sister/clone is a bid to secure the technology by which she and her sister/clone were made? I mean, Alphonse is almost certainly old enough to have been involved in that, surely? Thoughts? I mean, Rozenmann almost certainly knows about the clone/sister, or he'd be asking all kinds of questions when offered the one thing he's always wanted in return for staying out of the attack on the Bund, surely?

And is it me, or is Seji a potential trump to Tatianna coming to save the day? He's deffo a double-cross waiting to happen, just the same as the character who replaced him in the anime...

Anyway, better if we keep anything else following in spoiler tags from here on in methinks.

[DarkNataku]

Originally Posted by ninemil

I was trying to avoid being too obvious with the end of nine, combined with the end of the anime, but since you've gone there...

show spoiler

We already know that that's what is going to happen, I meant more in terms of the social acceptance of it. By taking Akira as her mate, even if she doesn't need him as a biological father, he's immediately raising a werewolf from the level of servant, to the level of lover and spouse. That's a pretty ****ed up move to make, given the current status quo between vampire's and werewolves.

Or, alternatively, they feign the 'lost vampire prince' to explain her self-fertilized pregnancy, and hope everyone takes the bait. One thing we certainly can't have, however, is the existence of her clone/twin and the process that created her, and any offspring Mina eventually has becoming public, or everyone will know a pure blood no longer needs a mate, and the blood lines will immediately mean nothing at all. Chaos and anarchy would reduce the Bund to ash.

I dunno about you, but I'm presuming Tatianna will be the route out of the current mess? I struggle to believe she's Telomere, and she's the only 'good guy' left unaccounted for in the deception arc. It's also a very tired scenario to run, so I'm presuming the infiltration by Mina's sister/clone is a bid to secure the technology by which she and her sister/clone were made? I mean, Alphonse is almost certainly old enough to have been involved in that, surely? Thoughts? I mean, Rozenmann almost certainly knows about the clone/sister, or he'd be asking all kinds of questions when offered the one thing he's always wanted in return for staying out of the attack on the Bund, surely?

And is it me, or is Seji a potential trump to Tatianna coming to save the day? He's deffo a double-cross waiting to happen, just the same as the character who replaced him in the anime...

Anyway, better if we keep anything else following in spoiler tags from here on in methinks.

As long as someone is not controlled by another lord or the piper, Mina can order them to do anything so it won't be all chaos.

[ninemil]

Originally Posted by DarkNataku

As long as someone is not controlled by another lord or the piper, Mina can order them to do anything so it won't be all chaos.

show spoiler

And by the same token, her sister/clone can counter-command them, as can any other true-blooded clone. It would, indeed, be utter chaos.

[ninemil]

Volume 10 back-cover blurb;

show spoiler

Lord Ivanovis is dead, Akira and the members of Beowulf have averted an all-out war with the three vampire clans and prevented the Bund's nuclear reactor from going critical and raining down radioactive fall out across the entire Kantou region. The costs have been high. Friends have been lost, and the blows keep coming. In response to the repeated assassination attempts on her life, Mini Tepes' policies have taken an overly hardline approach, if not erratic and unpredictable. When the truth finally comes out - that this Mina Tepes is an imposter - there will be hell to pay.

[DarkNataku]

show spoiler

Yeah but we don't know if it's a clone or someone made to look like her.

[old hat]

show spoiler

Originally Posted by ninemil

We already know that that's what is going to happen, I meant more in terms of the social acceptance of it. By taking Akira as her mate, even if she doesn't need him as a biological father, he's immediately raising a werewolf from the level of servant, to the level of lover and spouse. That's a pretty ****ed up move to make, given the current status quo between vampire's and werewolves.

It would shake up vampire society but she has already shown a propensity to do just that. The creation of the Bund itself was a major shakeup. Her adoption of the fangless was too. She seems to want to overturn parts of the current status quo in vampire society and to have a certain love of doing so.

Originally Posted by ninemil

Or, alternatively, they feign the 'lost vampire prince' to explain her self-fertilized pregnancy, and hope everyone takes the bait. One thing we certainly can't have, however, is the existence of her clone/twin and the process that created her, and any offspring Mina eventually has becoming public, or everyone will know a pure blood no longer needs a mate, and the blood lines will immediately mean nothing at all. Chaos and anarchy would reduce the Bund to ash.

I don't think she would feign anything if that happened. She would probably just tell everyone. I think the other one is a twin since Mina said somehting like, "you" when the other one appeared. It's probably a twin sister Mina had previously thought dead maybe in the battle that killed her mother.

Originally Posted by ninemil

I dunno about you, but I'm presuming Tatianna will be the route out of the current mess? I struggle to believe she's Telomere, and she's the only 'good guy' left unaccounted for in the deception arc.

I am assuming that it will be Akira who provided the crucial bit. He will realize that the twin isn't the real thing.

Originally Posted by ninemil

And is it me, or is Seji a potential trump to Tatianna coming to save the day? He's deffo a double-cross waiting to happen, just the same as the character who replaced him in the anime...

I am guessing he will prove loyal at the last minute but that's a hunch.

Funny looking post. All that verbiage and so small...

[ninemil]

Originally Posted by DarkNataku

show spoiler

Yeah but we don't know if it's a clone or someone made to look like her.

show spoiler

End of the anime, although I can't believe he allowed Shaft to lampshade his own work. Also, as old hat says, she refers to the clone as 'you' - that's no guise, it's the other person's natural appearance, and because Mina recognizes her as a singular, it's almost certainly a twin sister. (Although I would love to see the original kanji in that frame, just to be sure.)

[ninemil]

show spoiler

Check Nozomu's pixiv page for a rather epic frame from May 2nd's magazine release. Bit of a spoiler, although we kinda knew it was on the cards given the twin's line about a 'personal deal' with Rozenmann.

[Siendra]

I'm looking at a listing for it with a Canadian retailer right now, and I know another retailer that has the manga volumes. So I can't see there being a problem.

[Arch-Defender]

Originally Posted by Siendra

I'm looking at a listing for it with a Canadian retailer right now, and I know another retailer that has the manga volumes. So I can't see there being a problem.

I know, at first I looked some canadian retailers and there was nothing but it's because I was too early, about one or two weeks ago it appeared in pre-order at a few retailers so that was the answer to my question basically.