Diva



Diva (ディーヴァ ,Dīva?), Saya's younger twin sister and the main series antagonist, the greatest sworn enemy of the Red Shield. Like her sister she is a pure chiropteran Queen. She was raised in complete solitude inside a decaying tower, located in the ruins in the grounds of the Zoo - following her release she attacked everyone at the château where Saya lived. Red Shield was formed soon afterwards.

Appearance
Like Saya, Diva appears to be a 16-year-old girl, but is actually 174. Although she and Saya are twins, Diva possesses a more Caucasian look compared to her sister's oriental one. Diva has long, waist-length black hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. When her full debut was made she also wore a white dress and blue ballet shoes. With the result of her attack on Riku, she changes her physical appearance to resemble Riku and retains that apperance until her final battle with Saya. Also, Diva is tall and lithe, standing at least 5'8" (175cm approx) and weighs no more than 89 lbs (40.4 kg)

During one of Amshel's visits, after waking up from her hibernation, her hair reached floor-length. Diva's most unique trait is that her eye color changes from blue to an intense sapphire blue when she feeds from blood or enters into battle.

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. Unlike Saya, Diva is sadistic, killing for pleasure rather than duty. By 2005, when Blood+ begins, Diva has five living chevaliers, who head up the Cinq Flèches Group. 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.

Episode 30 - At the Zoo
In 1833, Joel Goldschmidt discovered the mummy of an unknown creature that had two cocoons that react to human blood. Diva was born in 1833 from one of these two cocoons. As an experiment, Joel separated the twin girls, raising Saya as if she were his own daughter while Diva, who was given no name, was locked in a tower and given only the basic necessities to live by Joel's assistant Amshel. Saya discovers the girl locked in the tower and names her Diva. Saya releases Diva from her tower so that she can sing at Joel's birthday party, however Diva murders Joel along with the rest of the people attending the party before fleeing the area.

Episode 32 - Riku's Death
After meeting Riku, Saya's adopted brother, she drinks most of his blood and Saya is forced to turn him into a Chevalier to save his life. After this incident, Diva becomes increasingly interested in Riku, eventually infiltrating the Red Shield headquarters with Karl to find him. She takes off her clothes and rapes Riku, which kills him by giving him her blood which crystallizes him. A year after this attack, when the Red Shield is able to regroup, Diva has changed her physical appearance to resemble Riku and retains that appearance until her final battle with Saya. Diva becomes an opera singer in New York, sponsored by the Group. Cinq Flèches has spread the Delta 67 agent, which can 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.

Pregnancy and Death


As a result of her attack on Riku, Diva becomes pregnant. She does not give birth for over a year, when Amshel cuts the cocoons out of her body. 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 are able to stop the broadcast, and 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.

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 most of her life while Saya was allowed to be free. These feelings however took a sudden turn following the rape and death of Riku. This shocked fans and decreases a little feeling towards her - many believed her actions were unforgivable.

However her reaction to her unborn children gained back equal, if not more, interests in the character. Diva showed an unknown motherly and loving attitude towards them she had not show to anyone else, including her own Chevaliers. Like Saya, her personality changed once she learned to love someone else. The viewers then began to regard her with more pity, as she had shown what lengths she would go to in order to get a family.

Abilities and Weapons
Diva has shown to be a formidable fighter against many powerful characters in the series, possessing possibly the strongest display of brute strength in the series due to her consumption of human blood. She demonstrated this when meeting Saya for the first time after a few centuries had passed, knocking her back into the wall while holding Riku with another arm as she attempted to kill her. Her strength was powerful enough to send Saya through the wall of the tower, to the ground, and shortly afterwards causing the ground under her to collapse itself, she also sent David flying back against the wall, and could have possibly broken his spine were it not for her possibly holding back. She may possibly possess telekinesis, as she shattered the window with no apparent movement other than a small but menacing smile. Diva also used telepathy to communicate with Saya when they first met during their stay at the Zoo, and she may have possibly used this to copy Saya's movements in swordplay and learned how to utilize swords. For a very brief moment, she had used the chipped off blade of Saya's katana and intended to use it to kill her, and during her final battle she used a blade that had a single groove where her blood could flow when puncturing flesh. As a queen, her blood is toxic to anything Saya creates, as Riku died shortly after being fed her blood and crystalizing and the effect is possible on Hagi as well. Her speed is nearly instantaneous, demonstrated on many occasions nearly making her invisible; After knocking Saya through the wall of the tower, she appeared seemingly out of nowhere next to Lewis. When she attempted to kill Saya with her own blade, she was able to stop herself in the act and move before Hagi had thrown his cello case at her, she appeared moments later next to Solomon. She also seems to have a high pain tolerance, as when David shot her through the chest she merely bent back and retracted herself in disturbing fashion, complaining only that her dress had been torn. Diva herself also had a severe psychological effect on her enemies, (Hagi's chiropteran hand had begun shaking when he sensed her presence, Saya during the first half of the series was frozen by her song, Riku was paralyzed when she had cornered him, Lewis had seen her for only a few seconds before she jumped in after Saya in the tunnels as she didn't find him appetizing, he was clearly sweating and fell when she stepped close to him). Among her powers, Diva could alter her shape if only slightly, (though it is not stated if it was because she had fed on Riku or if it is a natural ability for a Queen, the first seems far more likely). Diva had possessed also an incredible ability to sing, in her first concert, many had claimed her to be "The Diva of the century". Her voice when she sang her song was able to increase the chance of humans turning into chiropterans who had eaten Cinq Fleshe's "special" products. 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). 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.

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