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walpurga-nacht-academy · 2 years

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EVEN MORE BLACKFLAME THOUGHTS AND HOW EP6 PERSONALLY HURT ME

Ignihyde final update finally dropped and I've never been more hurt by a piece of TWST media than I have been ever since I finished reading it. In terms of execution, themes and character development Ignihyde currently stand head and shoulders among my list of favourites and I don't think anything will be able to dethrone it for a while. It's just that good, both as a piece on its own but also as a homage to the original movie and even to the myths themselves. My literary critic ass will eventually get to dissecting those concepts too soon, likely during the following week, but now I would like to yell a bit about Blackflame, EP6 and how it all pans out because these ideas have had me in a vice grip, haha.

I've yelled a bit about these ideas here and here and here before too, if you'd like to check them out (and I encourage you too because this post builds off that a lot) but for now, here are my ramblings:

IDIA, VITA AND HOW THE CHILDHOOD FRIENDS TO LOVERS TROPE WINS

As I mentioned before, Idia and Vita are childhood friends who grew up together due to the fact that they've been engaged to each other from an early age. As the Watchmen of the Underworld and facilitators of OB experiments, the Shrouds believed that having the Dies, a family who specializes in medical magic and necromancy, under their thumb would be paramount to their own work. This was easily achieved by having the heir of the Shroud family and the heiress of the Dies engaged when they were 5 and 6 years old respectively, with the expectations that the two would eventually marry and take over the research facility. It's why Vita was also given a Kerberos breed guard dog in order to ensure that it would be made clear what her betrothed's family expected out of her. And given that they were the only ones who encouraged her interest in the family lore, though for their own benefit, she devoted herself to becoming of use to them.

Much of Idia's and Vita's childhood was spent in each other's company, alongside Ortho, as they were pretty much the only children their age they interacted with. Idia and Vita started off on an awkward foot, with him finding it difficult to understand how he'll eventually marry Vita when they grow older, and Vita finding all his interests a bit incomprehensible but still trying her best to engage with them. It eventually turns out that she is quite proficient as a fast learner so while she's not exactly a fan, she can hold her own and support Idia as backup in his endeavours. That transfers to real life as well, since she encouraged him to do as he pleased before the strain of taking over the family became too much for him. As his future wife, she decided to become proficient enough in anything Idia might need in order to ease his burden, even if just a little. Hence why Vita seems very capable in current times of a number of feats, as she trained herself to be this sort of person.

Vita and Ortho's relationship was quite different as young children as well, as Vita tended to dote and spoil him quite a bit and felt closer to him than to her actual sisters. The two would sometimes also team up to encourage Idia, which he found really embarrassing growing up, but did secretly enjoy. Ortho was really taken by the idea that Vita would become his older sister, and because he had difficulty pronouncing her name at first, he ended up calling her "Vita" instead. Hence her current nickname which she introduces herself by. She thinks it describes her better than her full name. And it's the one memento that she has from him after he dies.

If Vita was set on becoming Idia's support once they grew up, this becomes even more pronounced after Ortho's death. She was devastated by it. She was not present during the incident, but was informed later, and went to see Idia once he woke up. He looked so broken that Vita felt that she had failed miserably in being a supportive partner and had to work even harder to make up for her 'mistakes'. During this time she began to close herself off emotionally, not allowing herself to properly mourn his passing, thus never properly grieving him as she should have. Much like Idia, Vita continues to have unresolved issues with Ortho's death, but while he is wrecked by guilt and overindulges in his hobbies, giving up on his future, Vita goes the opposite. She throws herself in her work, becomes overly independent and focuses almost exclusively on Idia and his well-being leading to a slightly imbalanced relationship. His focus on the interior world clashes often with hers on the exterior world, leading to the two having a number of arguments over the years as they cannot reconcile with Ortho's passing and the impact it had on their relationship. Yet, that also bonds them together as they feel like the other is the only one who properly understands how important Ortho truly was.

It eventually all comes down to their platonic love for him being so strong that they feel they cannot escape the past any longer.

Things then take a complicated turn when Idia rebuilds Ortho. His inspiration was the Dies' own tradition of reviving their dead ancestors to have them around the house as living corpses and he even tries to approach Vita with the idea at first, only for her to categorically shut him down. What the Dies do is revive the body for utility purposes, the thing that walks their halls is no longer their family but just the husk. The soul has passed on and become one with the world, returning to the source and attempting to force it back would be akin to forcing somebody to live through torturous pain. This is something Vita would never want for Ortho, who she loved dearly. It also would force her to confront her own feelings regarding his loss which she is not ready to do under any circumstances yet. Meanwhile, Idia, blinded by the desire to fix what he did, disregards her refusal and goes ahead rebuilding Ortho as a robot despite the taboo nature of the act. Vita is horrified to find this out which causes a rupture in their relationship as well, as they stop seeing each other for a while. The next time that they do is after Vita finds out that she's been accepted as a student to WNA and goes over to inform Idia. They keep in touch afterwards, with both constantly dodging any discussion that involves Ortho until Vita comes back for a visit and meets him too.

When this new Ortho called her 'Vita', the same as the real Ortho used to, she thought she would break down. All her feelings and regrets came rushing back up and trying to overwhelm her, just by then she'd managed to train her mask well enough that it would slip.

The changes that she went through during her first semester at WNA meant that while she became more physically affectionate, she also turned towards tough love as her main means of dealing with situations. She continued to support Idia the best way she could, but it usually meant making sure to remind him that while he might end up becoming the head of the Shroud family, he shouldn't let it define him either. He was still free to do as he pleased. That he continued to wallow in misery bothered her a lot since she wanted him at least to fare better than she did. When that couldn't be possible, she felt even worse about her inability to help him.

Because they are childhood friends, they continue to understand each other quite well, and make a very strong team, but their stubbornness and inability to deal with the situation at hand means that they clash when it comes to dealing with issues. Vita needs to learn how to become more open and rely on others, while Idia needs to deal with the guilt that he feels over Ortho's death. They need to reconcile with this otherwise they can't move on and fix their own problems.

Still, their loyalty to each other is unmatched. Idia respects and loves Vita despite being too awkward to show it and does his best to support her research and make life as comfortable for her as he can, which means mostly through gifts, while Vita is his most vocal supporter, even defending him against her mother when the latter expressed disgust at the thought of Idia bringing Ortho back as a robot, despite Vita herself not being alright either with his actions. Most of their bonding moments happen through their shared hobbies and Vita doing her best to 'collect romance flags' along the way, which Idia claims it's 'normie stuff' but actually really likes.

He still feels quite insecure about how exactly someone like Vita would find attractive or interesting but also prefers to just ignore it and focus on enjoying her company instead.

All this changes post EP6 when the two open up about their inability to get over Ortho's death and find comfort in the fact that the other understands this tragedy better than anyone else could. Vita admits that she just wants to be a good wife and support Idia the best way she could, and Idia also admits that he should have appreciated her affection and support more and that he also was at fault for the whole situation. Once the OB incident is resolved, the two reconcile and come to terms with Ortho's death and the fate of the new one.

As the new Ortho is no longer the result of Idia's poor coping mechanisms that means that Vita becomes just as affectionate with him as she would be if he continued to live, finding comfort in the idea that rather than this being a fake trying to take the real's place, it just a memento of the Ortho they loved and now is its own person who will grow into a different being, this reconciling with her family's own traditions in a way. Along with Larna the four end up making for their own family unit, with Vita learning to be more reliant on others and Idia finding it in himself to become ambitious again to some degree.

EP6 AND NOTES ON BLACKFLAME

As mentioned in the other posts, as a member of S.T.Y.X. Vita is present during the events of the episode as one of the scientist and part of the "Persephone" branch that oversees the medical side of things. She checks the OB victims' statuses and is currently on not so good terms with Idia due to the fight they had during VDC. They continue to remain civil with each other despite everything and work together, though it's quite clear to the NRC boys that something is up, even though Ortho seems oblivious to it. During all this, she is accompanied by Larna, who, sensing the tension, is on high alert and quite fretful since he hates to see his parents fighting like this.

Things proceed as normal until Ortho turns off the security system and Idia seemingly disappears and chaos is instilled over the facility. Worried for him, Vita tries to find him but due to the Phantom breach, she is momentarily stopped from advancing any further into Tartarus than the second charge station. Much like some of the scientists she ends up in a sticky situation as she can't risk using too much magic for fear of OB and her UM doesn't help her either, since it is ineffective against the creatures. The only one at her side is Larna, who gets injured badly while trying to protect her, but they are eventually found and rescued by Vil's group.

This is important due to the fact that Vil and Vita share some common ground, with both being mom figures in group, keen on tough love, confident and tactical people. They have the sort of relationship where their banter tends to be quite friendly and they see each other as equals despite their differences. Thus, it's easier for her to accept help from them. And it also means that she trusts them to be capable people.

Aware that with Larna injured like that she'll have to stay behind to help the pup, Vita shoves down her pride and asks Vil for help to save Idia, telling them as much information as they need and making him promise to bring her husband back alive. Had it been any other group she wouldn't have trusted them, but because it was him she decided to take a chance. After all, both Vil and Vita's flaw is that they are emotionally closed off to others and too stubbornly independent, and thus Vil being the one to help Vita overcome this is in line with his own character development as he learns to put his trust in other people and become more emotionally open.

Thus, Vita ends up working communication and evacuation during the rest of the episode, ensuring that the groups have the support that they need to save Idia, while also tending to Larna who due to the severity of his wound loses one of his hind legs.

Once the OB fight is over, and Idia is saved and everybody escapes from S.T.Y.X. she and Idia have a discussion together, still raw from the whole situation. When he catches his first glimpse of her, he's wracked with guilt for putting her in danger and then relieved to see that she's not injured. That goes out the window when he sees Larna's state especially since the dog is overjoyed at seeing that his father is safe and doesn't bear him any ill will whatsoever. Idia promises to make it up to him any way he can and apologizes for putting them both in danger, only to be completely shocked by the sight of Vita crying.

For as long as he's known her, he's never seen Vita cry like this and it just momentarily breaks him (especially because of the moe gap of his usually stoic and playful wife suddenly bursting out crying in such an open way). He's even more stunned when she rushes to hug him and confesses how scared and worried she was about him and how sorry she is for not being able to do anything to actually help him. She was terrified of losing him just like they lost Ortho and wasn't sure what she'd have done if that was the case and that she's unbelievably happy to see him safe and sound.

They end up actually acknowledging their issues and how they haven't reconciled with the death they couldn't mourn properly, and Idia tells her about his meeting with Ortho on the other side and what he told him to do and they realize that it's time for them to move on and learn from their mistakes and both working towards fixing the situation instead of dancing around the issue. All the while Larna is yapping happily around them because his parents are reunited again and no longer fighting.

This results in Vita no longer opposing the creation of a new Ortho, and treating the new version much like how she'd treat a real little brother, and learns how to be more emotionally open with him, while Idia comes to terms with his brother's death, becomes more emotionally supportive of Vita as well, and creates a bionic leg for Larna, making him and Ortho 'match' now.

In essence, they become a proper power couple, haha.

They go from childhood friends who have romantic feelings for each other but also face a lot of issues, due to their emotional states, to lovers who learn to be more open with each other and work out their problems together. 💙

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