Diva

Diva (ディーヴァ Dīva), is Saya's younger twin sister and the main series antagonist. She is the greatest sworn enemy of the Red Shield. Like Saya, she is a pure-blood chiropteran queen born from the chiropteran mummy.

Appearance
Small and lithe, Diva is about 5'2" (157 cm) and 89 lbs (40.4 kg), having the appearance of a teenage girl of average height. Diva has similar features to Saya only she's a little fairer and more beautiful than her sister. The distinguishing feature is her glowing blue eyes rather than the blood red of her sister's. Ted A. Adams, the farmer near zoo both acclaims that she's the most beautiful and dangerous woman. She keeps her hair long most of the anime. Only during shape shifting to match Riku's appearance, she shortens her hair.

After killing Riku, Diva transforms herself to resemble him - ironically, this results in an uncanny similarity between herself and the appearance of Saya at the start of the series. Before she begins fighting Saya at the opera house, she reverts to her original appearance. She also has glossy looking lips which is identical to Saya.

Attire
The main antagonist, Diva, having five wealthy chevaliers at her disposal, showcases several attires throughout the series:
 * White long dress with blue ribbon across the waist
 * Midnight blue gown with grey ribbon across waistline
 * White taffeta dress with frills and blue bordered fringes
 * White top and blue scarf with a blue rose; black shorts and shoes.
 * Dark blue dress with black bat-wings and a collar with blue rose and white ribbons.

Personality
Diva is essentially a child, with a psychopathic streak of selfishness. Although she and Saya are twins, Diva is often referred as the younger sister due to her immature nature. Diva, being locked in a tower and tested on, while Saya was sent to live with the humans to be observed. Diva began to hate humans, while Saya loved to live with humans. At the end of the series it was shown that all Diva wanted was to live with her loved ones, her family.

Unlike Saya, Diva is sadistic, killing for pleasure rather than duty. Due to her upbringing, Diva has a ruthless nature wrapped in an often child-like demeanor. She giggles after killing people, shows little reaction to the death of her own chevaliers, and tends to destroy things when bored. Diva seems to enjoy tormenting Saya and frequently says she wants to kill her.

Her personality is the combined result of neglect and being raised by Amshel. Prior to being released from the tower she inhabited for 50 years, Diva could not speak, instead communicating telepathically with her sister. Just before Saya opens the door Diva mentions that she is scared, despite being asked to be let outside. This is the only sign of fear she ever mentions throughout the series. Despite this she remains expressionless - showing no surprise when Saya opens the door and no joy when killing the people at the Zoo.

As for all of her powers and abilities, Diva was shown to be incredibly fearless, even at the thought of Saya killing her, she never showed any cowardice. The only sign of her being afraid during the series was about going outside alone; possibly because of her imprisoned life in her early years. Diva was shown to actually engage in playful threats on her enemies as in saying she could eat David alive, or in Kai's case extend an offer of becoming a Chevalier so he could be with Saya.

Like Saya, Diva's personality changed somewhat once she learned to love someone.

Saya
Her relation with her elder sister is complicated. She addresses Saya as "big sister". It is never showed if she actually hated her despite the cat and mouse game between them. Diva envies Saya having a family of her own; something that she never had. She likes to torment Saya and wishes to kill her. Even after getting several occasion where she could pretty much finish off her sister, she simply leaves under the pretense of being bored. On the final duel, she had the intention for both of them to die. But tragically her blood had no effect on Saya as it had long lost its power. Even after everything she had done, Saya still holds Diva in her arms and cries for her as she dies.



Joel I
Diva hates Joel I for locking her up all those years and experimenting on her mercilessly. So, the moment she realizes that Saya has freed her, she lets out all her vicious emotions and causes the bloody massacre. She rejoices in draining Joel's blood and Saya catches a glimpse while she was doing so.

Amshel
While locked up in the tower, Amshel was her only company. She listens to Amshel among all her chevaliers. To her, he is sort of a father figure although all Amshel ever wants of Diva is to be his experimental subject.

Nathan
Diva gets all the opportunities to perform on stage via Nathan. She isn't shown to be much interactive with him. Once she drank his blood despite his vain efforts to stop her.

Solomon
Out of all her chevaliers, Diva favored Solomon. She liked to cling on to him and stayed at his place for quite a long time after her awakening. After he betrayed her to join Saya, she disowned him and ironically suggested him to mate with Saya. When he came back to attack her children, she beat him up leaving him badly wounded.

Karl
Diva gave the least attention to Karl which is why he always seeked a way to gain favor. He even kept her mad requirements and took her to the headquarters of Red Shield. Lastly Karl became obsessed with killing Saya. When he died in the process, the news of his death was given little importance by Diva.

James
Diva called James 'my child' and he called her 'mother'. James remained loyal to his mother Diva and she cared for him too. But after his body parts were replaced with that of schiffs, Diva approved of him no more.



Riku
Since the time Diva first met Riku at the zoo, she felt a maddening attraction towards him. She referred to him continuously as 'the boy'. When she reached the Red Shield HQ, she listened to his heartbeats and followed them to find him. There she rapes him (her way of playing) and gives him her blood (thanksgiving gift!).

Her Daughters
Diva cared most about her babies. Like a good mother, she kept them from all harms. In her dream, it is shown that she's with her babies in a green field where she is singing to them as they are playing. But her dream never comes true as she dies caressing the unborn cocoons.

Kai
After Riku's death, Diva wanted to make Kai her chevalier. She places his hand on her abdomen where the babies are – her and Riku’s babies. She dedicates her performance to Kai. She tries to show reasons why he should be with her: protecting her and Riku's babies and even making children with Saya once he becomes her chevalier. Kai pulls out and points his gun at Diva. She puts her hand on it and tells him that by squeezing the trigger and drinking her blood, he can be together with her. She makes her final plea in Riku’s voice but Kai's better judgement takes control.



Skills
Singing: Diva was a born singer and in fact she was named after this talent by Saya who heard her sing and henceforth called her 'the singing Diva'. In Diva's first concert, many claim her to be "the Diva of the century". When heard live, her song is able to increase the chance of humans turning into chiropterans who had ingested Cinq Flèches products infected with the Delta-67 agent from 3% to 100% likelihood. Only Nathan wanted Diva to continue performing and become a star while Amshel wished to use the skill to create more chiropteran.

Sword-fighting: Although she has not received training to fence like Saya, she has shown quite flexible movements wielding longsword during the final battle.

Exceptional Abilities
Strength: Diva has enhanced strength due to her being a chiropteran queen. Even a chevalier is likely to face mortal wounds if she strikes any. It is affirmed by Nathan when he sees Diva beat up Solomon for daring to try hurt herself and her children. In fact, she may well be the most physically powerful character in Blood+ as the only chiropteran queen who feeds freely on blood. At one point she throws Saya through the wall of the Zoo tower while holding Riku, with enough brute strength that the impact upon Saya's subsequent landing causes the ground to cave in beneath her.

Speed: Diva shows to be highly agile. Her speed stirs up fear as shown when she attacked Red Shield HQ. Diva is fast to the point that it is nearly instantaneous and her movements (when perceived) are depicted as a blur: after knocking Saya through the wall of the tower, she appears seemingly out of nowhere next to Lewis. She is also able to evade Hagi's attack when he throws his cello case at her as she prepares to kill Saya, and reappears moments later next to Solomon.

Flight: Diva can perform long distance jump similar to flight if considered the way Saya jumps. She rarely uses it since she likes to rely on her chevaliers to take her wherever she wants.

Telepathy: Diva shows this ability communicating with chevaliers if necessary. But mostly she uses it to find Riku on Red Shield ship. She listens to his heartbeat and follows it. Diva possibly possesses a telepathic connection to Saya and vice-versa as she is shown capable of verbally communicating with Saya without knowing how to speak, and could have utilized this to match Saya in swordplay at the opera house, as she did not appear to have much experience beforehand.

Telekinesis: Diva is implied to be telekinetic; she once shatters a window with no apparent movement other than smiling.

Voice: Her mesmerizing voice was not only a sheer talent but also a power that controls, awakens and attracts chiropterans. Her voice also intrigues Saya and drives her to frenzy, awakening her to chiropteran mode.

Physical Transformation: Diva's impersonation of Riku in the latter half of the series demonstrates that she can alter her physical features, though this ability seems limited in comparison to other chiropterans' transformation abilities. She then resumes her default appearance before her duel with Saya at the Metropolitan Opera House, even regaining her long hair. Most likely, Diva also used this power to impersonate the Grand Duchess Anastasia in 1918.

Psychological Overpowering: Diva has a severe psychological effect on her enemies: Hagi's chiropteran hand begins shaking at one point when he senses her presence, during the first half of the series Saya freezes up when she hears Diva's song, Riku is paralyzed with fear when she corners him on the Red Shield HQ (though the explanation in the light novels is that his own chiropteran biology rendered him immobile and unable to resist her), and she intimidates Lewis badly enough during a brief encounter that he sweats and falls down when she steps close to him.

Blood Attributes:
 * Regeneration: Diva has the usual ability to heal herself from any normal injuries almost instantly.


 * Anti-aging: Her special blood stops her growth after aging 16 years, the same as her sister Saya. That was why she maintains the appearance of a teenage girl even after originally surpassing 173+ years!


 * Producing Chevaliers: When her blood enters the bloodstream of a human who has lost most of their blood, however, it has the effect of turning them into Diva's chevalier, as demonstrated with Solomon and Karl.


 * Possible Power Drainage: However, after she turns Amshel into her first chevalier, she spends only a few years awake from periodically entering a 30-year hibernation cycle, before which she experiences a slow in her regenerative abilities and bouts of fainting spells.


 * Crystallization: When mixed with Saya's blood, Diva's blood crystallizes. This is lethal to her. In turn, her blood can crystallize Saya and her chevaliers. She didn't know that Riku was Saya's chevalier and gave him her blood as a return gift for being impregnated, thus bringing about his death.


 * Conceiving: Queens lose their blood powers when they conceive. Diva, having forcefully mated with Riku, unknowingly loses her power to kill her sister. This was known to Nathan only and he explains it to Saya when Diva dies. On her final duel with Saya, she plunges her sword loaded with her blood into Saya and simultaneously gets impaled by Saya. But only Diva begins to crystallize and dies.

Weaponry
Diva does not usually use any weapons (since she does not require any). But she is shown to wield a longsword during her final battle with Saya where something was required to cut and inject her blood into the opposing queen.

In the Anime
According to the sequence of making:
 * Amshel Goldsmith
 * Grigori
 * Martin Bormann
 * Solomon Goldsmith
 * Karl Fei-Ong
 * James Ironside

In the Manga

 * Appearing only in the manga continuity as Karl's counterpart: Charles (deceased)
 * Appearing only in Blood: Adagio as Grigori's replacement: Alexei Nikolaevich (deceased)

Birth
At The Zoo in Bordeaux, France, in 1833, Joel I and Amshel dissect a chiropteran mummy they called "Saya" and cut two cocoon-like objects from its body. The cocoons cannot be opened by force but "hatch" once they are bled upon, revealing two seemingly human infants. Intrigued, Joel and Amshel devise a social experiment: they separate the babies, Joel naming one Saya after their mummified mother and raising her as if she were a human child, while the other infant is confined to a locked room at the top of a tower.

Growing Up
The unnamed queen's living conditions for the first fifty years of her life are abysmal; she is locked in a cage and given mere rags to keep warm. In her role as a test subject, she is also experimented on to learn about chiropterans. Her primary caregiver is Amshel, who becomes her very first chevalier in the future.

In 1863, the unnamed queen meets Saya when the sound of her song draws Saya to the tower. Saya names her Diva for her amazing ability to sing and they become friends without knowing that they are sisters. Saya secretly pays visits to Diva and talks to her in the following years. Diva also tells her about her wish to get free from the cell and live freely.

Bloody Sunday
On Joel's birthday in 1883, Diva's wish to leave the tower is finally granted when Saya finds the key to unlock it and releases her. While Saya wants Diva to sing for Joel and departs to search for a birthday gift with Hagi, Diva massacres the party-goers instead and sets fire to the Zoo. She is holding Joel's body and drinking his blood by the time Saya returns; the sight of the destruction and death Diva has caused makes Saya vow to exterminate all chiropterans, including Diva and herself. It is likely that Diva turns Amshel into her chevalier after being freed from the tower.

World War I
In 1917, Diva awakens from her hibernation period, which is witnessed by Amshel and a young doctor named Solomon Goldsmith. Amshel gives her some of his blood before he stabs and kills Solomon. Afterwards, either Amshel or Diva feeds him her blood, thus transforming him into her third (known) chevalier (and, according to James, her "favorite"). Later that year, Amshel makes Solomon bring Karl Fei-Ong to meet Diva so that he may have a chevalier to experiment on for the Delta project and she agrees to make him into her chevalier. Against his will, Diva drinks the young man's blood and then transforms him.

After Russian Revolution
Around 1918, Diva assumes the identity of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna in Russia; what happens to the real Anatasia in the process is not touched upon in the series, though she is presumably killed to accommodate Diva. Her second chevalier, Grigory disguises himself as a young girl named Sonya and attacks Saya and Hagi before he is killed. In the meantime, Diva flees with Amshel.

World War II
In 1945, Diva resides in Berlin, Germany. She is known to have transformed Martin Bormann, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and Adolf Hitler's private secretary, and James Ironside into her chevaliers during this time. Martin is later executed by Solomon on Amshel's orders for unspecified reasons.

During Vietnam War
During the Vietnam war, it is yet unsure if she actually appeared. But her voice was heard by Saya who followed the song and entered a village to carry on her slaughter party.

Awakening
In 2005, Diva wakes up in Vietnam where she has been hibernating inside a container within the Lycee grounds. She is taken to Paris in Solomon's mansion. By that time, she has five living chevaliers, who head up the Cinque Flèches Group.



Meeting Riku
Amshel takes Diva to the Zoo and she returns to the tower, singing once more. Her voice attracts Riku who is drawn to the place. After meeting Riku at the Zoo, she drinks most of his blood. When Saya arrives there the two sisters break into a fight. Saya is no match for Diva's savage strength but interventions from both Red Shield and Solomon as well as Diva being unwilling to play anymore draws temporary pause. As Diva goes away with Solomon, Kai pleads Saya to save Riku with her blood ; resulting in forcing Saya to turn him into a chevalier in order to save his life.

Diva becomes increasingly interested in Riku after the incident. Eventually she infiltrates the Red Shield headquarters with Karl to find him. She follows his heartbeats and finds him despite Kai's efforts to hide his brother. She takes off her clothes and rapes Riku, and gives him her blood which crystallizes him.

Pregnancy
As a result of her attack on Riku, Diva becomes pregnant. A year after this attack, when the Red Shield manages to regroup, Diva changes her physical appearance to resemble Riku and retains that appearance until her final battle with Saya. She does not give birth for over a year, when Amshel cuts the cocoons out of her body. Diva seems to treasure her babies and caring for the cocoons.

Performance
Diva becomes an opera singer in New York, sponsored by the Cinq Fleches Group. Cinq Flèches spreads the Delta 67 agent, which could turn people into chiropterans, across various populations of the world, including the United States. When heard live, Diva's voice greatly increases the effectiveness of the agent.

At the Metropolitan Opera House, Diva is set to perform a live broadcast which would cause a large portion of the world's population to turn into chiropterans. The Red Shield and Saya manage to stop the broadcast although they couldn't get to Diva in time to stop her live performance.



Final Duel and Death
Then the sisters have their final battle while Diva's chevalier Nathan watches nearby with the babies. The fight ends as Diva and Saya pierce one another with their swords, which each had coated with their own blood. Saya is unharmed by the attack due to Diva's blood having lost its power when she became pregnant. Diva begins to crystallize from the effects of Saya's blood. Her babies emerge from their cocoons and Diva reaches for them, imagining herself with her daughters and smiling at the vision before dying.

Blood+ manga
Diva's personality is similar to her anime counterpart's, though the manga version of Diva appears to be more genuinely immature and childish. Although both versions of Diva want to have a family, how they try to attain said family differs greatly between the mediums; here, her love for Saya is greater than her desire to kill her and she genuinely cared for Amshel and Charles (in the anime, she did not show any real affection for any of her chevaliers). Also, Diva herself is able to induce Saya's "berserk mode" by singing while it is triggered through alternate means in the anime (such as feeding from Hagi).

In the chapter centered on the characters' past at the Zoo, Diva is shown to have already developed her current-day personality through her friendship with Saya. Even in the tower she appeared to be better "fed" than Saya, as she is shown feeding from actual corpses whom she had apparently ripped to shreds, whereas Saya drinks blood from a chalice. She does not resent her life as a mere test subject; in fact, she later wistfully states that she would have actually preferred to remain in the tower because Saya and Amshel always came to visit her. When Saya and Hagi start getting closer, however, Diva is jealous and orders Saya to drive him off so that he won't come between them. When that fails, she and Amshel conspire to trick Saya into freeing her for the sole purpose of killing Hagi; Diva's first action after leaving the tower is to fatally wound him for being a "nuisance" after he mistakes her for Saya, which results in Saya turning him into her chevalier. When Saya and Joel confront her at the massacre at the Zoo, she appears to be extremly excited to see Saya and wishes to 'play' witih her, and is upset when Amshel intervines.

When Diva and her chevaliers attack the Red Shield HQ to acquire Riku as Diva's "bridegroom", she sings to bring out Saya's "berserk mode" to punish her for killing Charles (Diva's favorite chevalier) by forcing her to slaughter her friends and allies at the Red Shield. Although Amshel has commanded that she not go reunite with Saya until they have suceeded into turning all humans into chiropterans, Diva bemoans that he never spends time with her anymore and decides to disobey him and seek Saya out. This leads to a fight between sisters while Diva playfully teases and compliments Saya as they fight. She truly believes that they are simply playing a game and is deeply shocked when Saya announces her intent to kill Diva then herself, enough to stop her in her place and freeze as Saya launched what would have been a fatal blow (only to be saved by Amshel before the strike could hit). In a fit of rage, she grieveously injures and nearly kills Nathan; this, coupled with her indifference over James' death and her telling him that Amshel and Charles were the only chevaliers she had actually wanted, causes Nathan to develop a deep-seated hatred of Diva.

Solomon persuades Diva to mate with Riku, whom they had successfully captured, despite her new marked lack of interest in him or reproducing. When Riku mistakes her for Saya, however, Diva stops and they talk instead. She convinces him that he is now a chevalier by wounding him and letting him see how rapidly he heals. When she mentions that Saya killed Charles, Riku (having previously befriended him) refuses to believe it and they argue childishly. Insisting that Charles is dead and that Amshel is not a liar, Diva strangles Riku in a fit of rage. He is saved in a timely intervention by Solomon who had been monitoring the situation with Amshel via a hidden camera. During a temper tantrum, she refuses to try mating with Riku again and claws Solomon's face. This prompts his declaration that he'd had enough of her and Amshel; expressing his disgust at them both, he leaves with Riku in tow, which greatly upsets Diva.

Three months later, Diva, Amshel, and Nathan prepare to put their plans into action. She declares that she now wants to kill Saya rather than live with her (which pleases Amshel) and even transforms a number of humans into chiropterans in front of Saya to hurt her. When she fights Saya, however, Diva cannot bring herself to actually kill Saya even when she had the opportunity to do so and breaks down into tears, lamenting she wanted them to be happy together and this is not what she wanted. Just as Saya begins to comfort her and it appears that the sisters may reconcile, Nathan snaps due to a comment Hagi made and stabs through Saya and into Diva. As Diva crystallizes, she stops Saya from trying to commit suicide, smiling and telling her to live before she crumbles into pieces. In vengeance for Diva's death, a grieving Saya brutally slaughters Nathan, continuing to attack his body even after he is dead.

In all, Diva is arguably a much more sympathetic character in the Blood+ manga than she was in the anime. Unlike the anime she doesn't appear to be sadistic (such as taunting her and laughing at Saya after killing Riku), and, for the most part, genuinly doesn't appear to have a real sense of right or wrong- she wishes to create a world where she and Saya can live together happily, and often acts like an overgrown child and a mirror oppisote to Saya's serious nature. Rather than living only for herself and killing Saya and everyone else that dared opposed her, she only wished to live happily ever after with her only friend- her sister.

Blood+: Adagio
In Adagio, Diva's impersonation of the Grand Duchess Anastasia is expanded on. She begins to bond with the sickly Prince Alexei and decides after "breaking" him to make him her new chevalier to replace Grigori. She empathizes with Alexei (both having been "bound" at one point, Diva to the tower and Alexei by his illness) when she sees him happy and healthy after his transformation. Despite her pleas, Alexei confronts Saya to protect Diva while she and Amshel flee. She is depressed when she realizes that Saya most likely killed Alexei.

Reception
Opinion regarding Diva changed dramatically throughout the series. At first she was seen as an interesting and sympathetic villain, having been locked away for years while Saya was allowed to be free and raised in luxury. Following her cold-blooded rape and murder of Riku, fans were shocked and many believed her actions were unforgivable.

However, Diva's treatment of her unborn children gained back some pity for the character when she showed a motherly and loving attitude towards them she had not show to anyone else, including her own chevaliers.