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Why Viviana Can't Get Laid: This Horse Is So Fucking Stupid And I Love Her
So. Viviana and Nearl. Both wonderful characters. Adore them. Sparked Nearl the Radiant Knight, saved my certs for Viviana in the shop. It is a relationship I am ultimately deeply invested in and would be all too happy to see her join the Followers. (I personally DESPERATELY want her to interact with Liz; I think Liz's pure hope and optimism in the face of Nearl and Shining's despair would ALSO be a lovely change for Viviana.)
However, at present, it's not really likely to happen. Even more her fellow yeaner Sora's desire for Texas, Viviana faces a challenge: Nearl is INCREDIBLY thick.
Nearl's introduction in Chapter 0 defines her as an ever-chivalrous knight, prone to flowery speech and with a strong sense of justice. She mentions Liz as "a friend who has lost her memories" in passing, but it's in 1-1 that we start seeing the actual areas where Nearl struggles.
Like she says, despite her love of flowery language and knight literature… she doesn't get jokes. Frankly, it was this line, and a followup in Chapter 8-
that make it really, really clear that she's prone to taking things in the most literal sense. She's obviously doing her best and is clearly apologetic about it, so it seems to be a genuine struggle for her. (I'm implying that this horse is autistic as hell.) Which rather re-contextualizes her flowery speeches - we know she loves knight novels and the stories she's heard from Kirill, but to her, there's an actual attempt at very direct communication involved. And when things BREAK from her chivalrous fantasy books, she doesn't reall know what she's doing.
Nearl's unit dialogue also shows this to some degree; we've got her acting very chivalrous, poetic, flowery in ALMOST all of her dialogue. Except her trust tap, where she nervously asks to enter the Doctor's office to see their books.
This is, frankly, the moment where I fell in love with her (as I hadn't reached chapter 8 yet and had actually missed her original struggle with jokes.) I've got her set to her English VA because they won't give us a Polish one but frankly all of the dubs are adorable, and you can hear her struggling to reassert her Proper Knightly Bearing.
Anyway, Nearl continues as an Ever Proper Knight in MOST of her appearances - 7-4 has her argue in defense of normal Ursus civillians while also stating that the failure of Kazimierz to aid Firewatch's border guerillas was a mistake that she is prepared to die to fix. 7-5 has her continue her flowery speech-
which implies that she does at least understand figuritive speech AS A CONCEPT, which again makes sense given her love of knight literature… but in combination iwth 1-1 and and END8-1 implies that she just seems to never jump to parse OTHER people's statements in a figuritive sense.
Funnily enough, if you're reading ALL the content in release order, you did see two other appearances of Nearl before Chapter 8 - GT-EX-3 has Nearl writing a letter to Grani, in which she struggles to work out what tone to use, and of course, MN-8. We see the exchange between Margaret, Shining, and Liz, but they're not subtitled, so - as I am unfortunately just as thick as this beloved horse, here are my scribbles trying to parse it.
Neither Shining nor Liz normally stammer. It's PROBABLY just Nearl and Liz, but MAYBE some of these are Shining?
ANYWAY. Nearl's reunion with Maria is very touching, but she knows how to handle Maria. She's in her element here. Even Mlynar's resentment of her doesn't faze her. Pinus Sylvestris and her duel against Mlynar does have some gems here.
which I at least parsed as Mlynar and Zofia realizing that Margaret's hope has been kept alive by Shining - something consistent with both Nearl's dialogue and her module.
(This is also the point where we see a glimpse of the anger that Nearl holds, which also comes up during her EP. "Coming at you like a bull/All I see is red" indeed.)
ANYWAY. We're finally up to Viviana. The Yearner. The Girl I Was Ostensibly Writing This Post About. I think Viviana's fans know her all too well and have a pretty solid grasp on what she's like. Regardless, she cameos in NL-ST-1 where it's mentioned she's attending a banquet, but we don't see how that goes, as in her next appearance in NL-1 she's instead discussing a number of things, including the gossip published by the Rose Paper Union. (Who publish the Voice of Rosebud. And the chairman, we learn in NL-ST-4, is named Kain. It's a running joke with my friends that Citizen Kane is, as a result, a necessary part of the preamble to Zwillingsturme.) Regardless, the conversation comes to her upcoming matches. Including…
She's clearly enamoured with Margaret already at this point. One thing I missed until I reread NL for this was that McKee seems to be genuinely doing his best to help Viviana, regardless of the other stuff he's up to, and seems genuinely concerned for her mental health. Which. To be fair. I think we all are.
And it's in NL-2 where they finally meet for the first time. Viviana's been waiting there for Nearl, wanting to see how she "cuts her figure", where Viviana helps Nearl get away from the reporters. Hilariously, Nearl doesn't even know who she is, and she stumbles a bit as a result.
Viviana also takes Nearl's commentary on her as a compliment, which isn't ENTIRELY wrong, as the rest of the scene shows - but in all honesty, I have no idea WHAT Nearl means by "you're quite unlike anyone else". But contextually, I took it as a very literal one. "You are indeed distinct and aren't yelling at me! I am glad this is the case." Boy, Viviana does come on pretty strong here, huh. I think it's also interesting that despite Nearl calling her by name, Viviana continues calling her Madame Radiant Knight.
Nearl then heads over to Marcin's bar and asks Zofia what the deal with Viviana is.
However, NEARL'S impression of her…
And This Is Where We Find Viviana's First Problem. Viviana is 22 in Zwillingsturme Im Herbst. Her birthday is in July. She's only 19 at the time - three years older than Maria, and SIX years younger than Margaret.
I'm sorry, Blemiplat and Blemirock shippers, but Maria is EXTREMELY baby. Platinum was not kidding when she called Maria a kid.
There is a nonzero chance that poor Viviana, forced into Knighthood that she doesn't enjoy, barely an adult, unsure of how she wants to define herself outside of the literature she likes so much… looks more like a younger sister than a romantic partner to Margaret, during Near Light. This isn't an INSURMOUNTABLE problem - but it's probably for the best that they don't see each other again until some time after Zwillingsturme im Herbst. For Margaret to even consider the POSSIBILITY of her as a peer rather than a prodigy junior, enough time passing for her to view her as dramatically growing up is probably necessary.
The immediate aftermath of Zwillingsturme, presumably.
Anyway, back to Near Light. Viviana also visits McKee. She's down so bad. McKee wants her to cheat to win against Nearl, Viviana refuses, and Viviana claims that she simply wants to observe the Radiant Knight's glory. Margaret, Zofia, and Blemishine talk in the garden about Viviana and Nearl gets distracted and they talk about Margaret's initial tournament run too.
Viviana continuing to lie to herself.
At this point I think Maria and Margaret might both have ADHD.
But it's not a great sign for Viviana that Margaret's checked out here. Their NEXT interaction is, of course, their actual match. Margaret… honestly seems to be struggling a little bit with Viviana's backstory monologue here. This Is, Apparently, Not In Her Script.
It's only once the conversation (monologue) turns back to Margaret that she's able to ground herself and give answers again. At least she seems to be paying more attention now, even moving to push Viviana to be more self confident as the conversation continues. And She Calls Viviana By Name, which… Viviana is shocked by, but that kind of seems to be very normal for Nearl. Which is again a running theme on their interaction - to Viviana, Nearl is the one person who treats her as herself, while Nearl is just doing What Nearl Does For Everyone.
We then cut to a monologue that is, implicitly, Viviana's internal monologue - no-one else KNOWS this besides Ioletta and Cora, neither of which would call her "the shame of the family". The fight continues for a bit. Then we go back to Viviana's point of view for another monologue.
But she's brought back to reality by Nearl's monologue; her statement of intent about Reminding Kazimierz Of Glory. But she also brings up how important Shining and Liz are to her.
(these parts aren't directly connected but they feel relevant enough to snip out)
Viviana suggests Nearl will leave them behind, they have another sustained exchange, Viviana swallows Nearl's arts (wink?) but Nearl destroys her arts unit and wins the match, and then…
Nearl: I have absolutely no idea what to say about your tragic backstory but you're strong af!
Honestly, I don't entirely get what Viviana was hoping for here. This isn't a criticism of her writing, it's just that I'm rather in Nearl's shoes here - she answered every question Viviana asked, but Viviana was still left wanting. Which DOES track.
So, a bunch of stuff happens - I wish I could write up Toland and Mlynar's relationship with this much detail but both of them are a LOT harder for me to read - but Nearl has, after her match with Viviana, apparently gone straight to spend time with Shining and Liz. And this is my favorite scene in Near Light… but it's also got the line that makes me groan the most. Because BEFORE the dance with Liz…
Margaret Nearl has spent five years travelling with Liz and Shining. Nearl Alter's DRE-Y module, from Shining's perspective, includes the line "Fortunate or misfortunate it may be, but I am familiar with her entirety, her every part". Liz says in 10-18 that "Home is with you and Nearl." In the Chinese text of NL-ST-3, Blemishine refers to Shining and Liz as "Big Sister Shining And Big Sister Nightingale". In her mind, they're already family; they're ALREADY Margaret's wives.
But Nearl Does Not Know. Nearl is the archetypal dumbass lesbian who can't tell if she's in a relationship. And Vivivana Droste is a girl much younger than her who she's has a singular homoerotically charged fight scene with - one which, from Nearl's perspective, does not vary significantly from her later matches with Tola or Dikaiopolis. That said, they clearly remain in contact afterwards - in the third epilogue, Long Road, they talk about Viviana's future and her decision to leave for Ognisko. And we come to the fundamental difference in how they're approaching this.
Nearl likes her. Nearl is happy to have made a friend, a True Knight, a Comrade.
Viviana wants Nearl to beg for her.
I'm sorry, Viviana, but you're five years behind "maybe family". You're SO far off being begged to stay, because that's just not how Nearl apprpoaches relationships. Viviana yearns, and she craves being yearned for in turn. It's the only way she can percieve herself as having value. It's a running theme that people fail to see Viviana as herself, but it's also true that Viviana is desperate to see HERSELF in others, and every time she fails to do so, she views it as a moral failing. (Though really, she thinks of EVERYTHING she does as a moral failing. Including liking poetry.) McKee even points out that Nearl has misread her - "She might not be as strong as you think."
To Viviana, Margaret Nearl was the first person to treat her as an equal, to laud her for her ideals rather than her origin, to show her kindness without expecting anything in return. For Nearl… she's simply made another friend.
The good news for Viviana is that, when she joins Rhodes Island some time after Zwillingsturme, she does at least have the opportunity to get closer to Nearl. But Nearl… operates on scripts, for the most part. She KNOWS how to do chivalrous knightly banter. She knows how to deliver a condemnation of the wicked.
She does not have the slightest clue how to handle being shown a girl's doll collection.
I don't think this is remotely a condemnation or judgment of Viviana's hobbies, at the very least - it's just entirely out of her wheelhouse, an area where she has no idea what the Proper Response is. At the very least, it's being completley honest about your feelings, which will help get through to Nearl.
Buuuuut the thing is that in the end, Nearl is not going to reach out the way Viviana wants regardless. Which isn't to say it's HOPELESS for her. It's just that she needs someone who can actually pick up on her pain and desires, who can argue against her darkest thoughts, who can push her to take the actions that will actually make her happy.
And there's someone who's historically been quite good at that.
