Relationship In Vampire Knight (Main Trio) : Yume Part

Relationship in Vampire Knight (Main trio) : Yume Part

I’m soooo going to tread on thin ice. Such a sensible subject. I’ve had a rough time deciding if I was posting this or not. But here it is. Before beginning, I’m clearing a few things up. I don’t want hate answers or anything. Don’t care if you’re a Zeki or Yume fans. If you don’t agree, please, keep it for yourself. For my part, I’ll try to make this as un-biased as possible.

What would be Vampire Knight without Yuuki’s dilemna over the two men she cherishes, deep inside her heart ? Quite dull, to be honest. The whole fandom has been in war, since Hino didn’t clear up one question, for all the series and now VKM. Who does Yuuki love ? Pretty simple. She loved both Kaname and Zero. With different kinds of love, that’s it. For the whole story, Hino made a beautiful evolution of Yuuki’s feelings towards the two men. I’ll begin with the relationship of Kaname and Yuuki, since it will help me to make myself clear when it will come to Zero. Thus, Zeki will come in another post. Kaname has always been here for Yuuki, no one can deny it. For he, when Yuuki was born, made the promise to keep her safe. The reason of that ? Guilt. Rido did revive him with the life of Haruka’s and Juuri’s first born. However, the royal couple did not accuse him for the murder of their beloved child. He will always be grateful towards them for this. Kaname’s “obsession” for Yuuki developped when she was a pureblood child. He puts himself into a deep slumber, hoping to never wake again, because he was tired. Tired of this world. Seeing the innocent, always happy Yuuki give him a new hope. He decides to cherish her innocence as much as Yuuki adored him in her young years. And here came the biggest traumatic event, which caused all the story to happen, is when, to protect Yuuki, Juuri turned her dear daughter into a human. Then the accident in the snow, with an Yuuki with amnesia. Kaname, as it is his duty as a “guardian angel”, saves her from the level E, and took her to Headmaster Cross. As for now, Yuuki saw Kaname as a savior, and thinks she owns him her life, and Kaname saw Yuuki as the last memory of the Kuran couple who adopted him and as the innocent child he grew with.

Relationship In Vampire Knight (Main Trio) : Yume Part

Time skip to the Cross Academic arc. Yuuki is now a happy, joyful 16 years old girl. She has a deep crush on Kaname, thanks partially for the “savior complex”. Moreover, he took care of her as much as he could over those 10 years. She owns him greatly, and would do anything for him. (hence she doesn’t say directly no when Aido or Kaname himself suggest the pureblood owns her blood, as well as your life. She even aggreed to spend eternity with him ! Fortunately, he doesn’t turn her. Because he learnt to appreciate the sweet, human girl Yuuki is. She is weak, fleeting, fragile. He wants her to depend of him, and this is the perfect opportunity for that. And at the same time, this difference of races between them will always restrict them. Yuuki was something he couldn’t be near of all the time, and had to let Zero, his “pawn” protect her. And the two of them desired one another, because… well, we always want what we can’t get.

This could have been perfect if Yuuki could trust Kaname at all, from the very beginning. In this arc, what is highlighted is Kaname keep to himself his plans, including killing all the purebloods ( I believed he decided to put an end to the lineage of pureblood after Rido revived him). Of course he tried to make up for this, of course this was for her safety. You will tell me that she wasn’t particularly involved in this plan,back then. But she was involved. He made all of this plan to protect her, but in the end, keeping her in the shadows, to protect her innocence, made her unhappy. Being suddenly protected by the night class without knowing why hurt her emotionnally. Being turned a Pureblood, apparently the last thing Kaname wanted to happen, was certainly a trauma, she had to questioning herself about her past, her relationships, her nature, all over again. However, she didn’t dispute the validity of her love for Kaname, and she left Cross Academy with him. Three reasons for this: –> She just discovered that she belongs to a complete unknown society she will have to enter now, and Kaname is the only reference she had. –> She is always grateful to him for protecting her for such a long time, and still thinks that he is the brother she will have to marry. And she does have feelings for him. –> And third, the other boy she loves loathes her kind.

At this moment, she follows Kaname because she is sure she loves him, and is finally able to really approach him after all those years when the wall of nature differences out then apart. He is her headlight in the dark, as she now has to embrace her Pureblood nature. Everything is alright for Yume romance now.

Time skip to the third Arc, the longest and honestly, the most painful to read for all vampire knight's fans. Why ? It gives us little by little that the author doesn't have any idea to put an end to her story, and the characters were severely damaged with it. I'm talking about Kaname, Yuuki, Sara, and as always, the secondary characters who just jump on of nowhere where they are needed. Back to Yume relationship, which Hino took meticulously her time to describe, in contrary to Zeki relationship. At the beginning of the third arc, 1 year went away since the Cross Academy battle. The siblings are now in the Kuran manor, which Yuuki doesn't have the right to leave. She has the company of Ruka and Aido when Kaname silently disappears to get done some vampire business.

Everything is not rainbows and unicorns in their relationships. Two arguments :

---> The sudden transformation of Yuuki into Pureblood vampire, and the responsibilities which crashed down her. Sweet Yuuki realizes more and more that the life of vampire is much darker that she expected. Especially those of the "kings and queens of the vampire kind". They are envied and feared as the same time, and now the society expect her to be the perfect heiress of the Kuran lineage. This is an universe she knows near to nothing about. She got some help from Aido and Ruka, sure, but this isn't definitely enough. Moreover, Kaname doesn't actually help in this matter. Why that ? His tendencie to overprotectiveness. He doesn’t really want her to come out the manor and take her place in the corrupted society. As he says himself, he would rather let her locked into a safer place, if it wasn’t for her. Due to that, he always seems to overwhelm her. Possibly to be respected and to be sure that Yuuki doesn’t move from the manor. But it is not right... If you don’t see what I mean by overwhelm her, see this picture. Many panels or even official pictures show Kaname having quite the superiority over Yuuki, she always seems so helpless compared to him, and her having something to restrain her, like the chains...Besides, he doesn’t let her know anything about his plan, which is... quite understandable, when we will be able to know his ultimate goal.

---> Yuuki’s bloodthirst and difficulties to assimilate her Pureblood Nature. As said many times during the arc, a vampire’s thirst can only be erased by the blood of its beloved one. At this time, Yuuki drink quite a lot Kaname’s blood, but is still hungry, because she cannot drink Zero’s blood too. Again, Kaname claimed he is happy to have her by his sides, even if he has to “share your heart with another one”. Yuuki has, moreover, difficulties to find her vampire side again: she has trouble to bare her fangs, and Kaname has to matern her by cutting himself in order to let her drink. One scene is quite revealing of her state of denial, actually: 11th Volume, in the library. Once again alone, Yuuki see quite the hallucination, with a younger self, which begin to address her as a “sister”. The young Yuuki is crying, wanting to know why she’s keeping on locking her inside. The hallucination ends on, more or less “ Don’t you understand that “you”...are “me” ? “ Yuuki unsconciously refuse to let go on her human side, and thus, she can’t embrace properly her vampire side.

Hence, the Yume can’t possibly reach a “perfect” state where the two of them would be potentially happy. But when looking up to the previous points brought here, we can already know it is not going to work. However, Kaname revealing to Yuuki that he is not her brother can potentially change things again. She is more inclined to stay with him, as she knows now how many things he had to endure.. (and the incest not being between brother and sister, but between long, faded family ties, lol) As for now, Kaname perceives Yuuki as the only thing he truly wants to protect, the only “light in his life” like he said once. Yuuki; however, finds Kaname hard to reach, him being even more distant than in Cross Academy, which is kind of ironic. Moreover, she understands now that the vampire society isn’t all classy or anything. She wants Kaname to not endure the responsabilities of king of vampires, but he doesn’t let her.

Next big turnpoint in the story is “Kaname’s mad plan”. Since the Shizuka Arc, Matsuri Hino always presents Purebloods as nearly perfect beings, having the eternity to live and more. They however, finish in only two ways: either they commit suicide, being tired of this world, either they become mad and end killed. We have too many examples for this: Lord Ori, Sara Shirabuki, Rido Kuran, Shizuka Hio... The only exceptions are Juuri and Haruka Kuran, and Yuuki, at the end of the story.

Kaname Kuran is the only one we get to watch fall into his darkness. Being the last Ancester left in the world, he is the oldest vampire, and has seen many things: how the world get corrupted, what kind of atrocities Vampires and Hunters did... we know that he tried once to fall into a eternal slumber, interrupted only by Rido Kuran. He get to see once more how the world has evolved, watches Yuuki growing up, and makes a big decision after seeing Purebloods with actually good intentions, who moreover took care of him being killed. Protect the little girl who put some light in his life. After seeing how badly Shizuka and Rido turned out, and the corruption in the society, he changes his plans: he needs to make sure the Vampires won’t get anymore powerful. What does he need to do for this ? To stop the Purebloods turning the humans into servants and using their influence for no good. The best and more efficient Kaname sees ? Kill all Purebloods. Except Yuuki, of course. For the rest of the world, this plan sounds like madness. But when we take Kaname’s perspective, we might be desperate enough of this world and life to be that radical. He was once accused during the meeting with the new guild to be too straightforward in his plan. That was fair enough, since he saw no problem to let Rido Kuran, a dangerous psychopath Pureblood into a school full of humans, and having a great battle into the Academy with Levels E. Kaname doesn’t care for collateral damages, as long as he get his goal fulfilled. So, he didn’t mind at all when he put an act when killing Hanabusa Aido’s dad beofre Yuuki and Aido himself, and let himself becoming the bad guy. He took enough time to make sure Yuuki will be okay, but otherwise, he went on his bloodbath alone.

When everyone else saw Kaname as definitely mad, Yuuki had a little hope left for him. She was right to have it, after all. But she couldn’t help to doubt her feelings towards him, as Kaname perfected flawlessly his act. She knows he is dangerous. She knows he has to be stopped. But she wants to save him. She can understand what kind of things he went through, after seeing his past. But into that part of the story, we don’t talk much about Yuuki’s romantic feelings towards Kaname. Only about how determined she is to save him. If we add up the fact that she returns to Cross Academy, where she meets again with Zero, we can say that Yume ship’s fate is sealed. Kaname has gone far too much into his plan to be able to end with Yuuki happily. He might be right, to think that Purebloods are too dangerous to be left alive. Just turn to Sara Shirabuki. But everyone is against him. Even his precious Yuuki. He knows then that he will somehow fail in his plans. And he knows that he can’t be with Yuuki anymore. Which explains quite Vampire Knight Ending. In one last majestic attack, he went to the Hunter Guild, taking the role of the furnace after the Ancestress ( which was, potentially, the maternal figure or lover of Kaname. Maybe both. Feelings tend to be complicated with Purebloods). He beats Sara Shirabuki into their metaphorical chessgame, seeing her being killed by the Anti-Vampire furnace. And in his last moments, he asked to Zero and Yuuki to be together. After all, he saw them grow up and having feelings towards each other, and he knew Yuuki loves Zero as much as he loved her. Finally, he can rest in peace. Yuuki, on the other end, respected his wish, as she stayed happily with Zero. In the final chapter, we can see her give a final gift to Kaname, “whom she loves”, a human life, when he will be able to live freely in the light, far away from the darkness of vampires. The ending will have its own explanation post.

To sum up the entire relationship and respond to the main question: Yes, Kaname and Yuuki were in love. Were. Kaname is without a doubt devoted to Yuuki, as he yearns for her, and the light she only can provide him. Yuuki in the other hand, had loved him, again yes. But, the thing is Kaname is someone who is unreachable for her. Always was, always will. Before, this was because of the difference of natures, after, this was because of Kaname’s burdens, and Yuuki’s decision to go against him in his plan (for which she was right, by the way. ). This is a tragic couple Hino beautifully wrote about. But no, they definitely are not the true “endgame” of Vampire Knight.

Next time, I will explain how, in an equal way, the evolution of the Zeki Couple. As an ending note, I would like to clarify that I’ve tried to be as un-biased as possible with this post, as I will try again with the Zeki Part. That’s why, I will not say which of Zeki or Yume ship, I am a fan of. Thus, do not post hate, please :)

Relationship In Vampire Knight (Main Trio) : Yume Part

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