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 small and lithe, standing at least 5'2" 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.

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.

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.

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 kill 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.

Chiropteran
Strength: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.

Telekinesis:She may possibly possess telekinesis, as she shattered the window with no apparent movement other than a small but menacing smile.

Telepathy: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. 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).

Blood:As a queen, her blood is toxic to anything Saya creates, as Riku died shortly after being fed her blood and crystallizing and the effect is possible on Hagi as well.

Speed: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.

Shape shifting: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).

Singing Diva
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.

Weaponry
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.

Manga Version
In the manga, Diva is somewhat different than in the anime, although she still keeps her position as the main antagonist of the story. She does not rape Riku, nor does she show interest in him. But it shows her more cruel, sadistic, and playful side. It also shows that Diva and Saya didn't meet by chance. Saya knew of her before, whether cause of their species or a bond as twins, the girls felt connected and communicated with one another even though Diva was still confined to her tower prison.

Unlike her anime version, Diva had no desire to be a mother. But she is reluctantly persuaded by Solomon to try and mate with Riku. That plan goes doesn't go well since Riku believed her at first to be Saya and the two began to childishly argue. With the exception of Amshel, Diva has been shown that she doesn't have much feelings for her chevaliers as she nearly killed Nathan without twitching, at one point even telling Nathan that Amshel and Charles were the only chevalier she ever really wanted.

Another difference is her death, while Saya's blood did kill her, Saya didn't wish to kill her sister. During their final battle, Diva finally broke down and revealed all she wanted was her sister's love. As the sister finally appear to put the past behind and reconcile, Nathan betrays her. Though it was due to something he heard from Hagi, it was also most likely out of anger of what she did to him on the Red Shield boat.

Nathan uses Saya's sword, stabbing it through her and Diva and kills Diva. Though Saya wanted to die along with Diva, Diva crushes her sword before she could try mix her blood with Diva's. With her final words, she smiled at her sister and asked her to live. Saya was completely struck by her sister's death.

In general, when compared to the anime, Diva is shown to be much more childish and disturbingly innocent. She did not believe Saya truly wished to hurt her when they first battled, believing they were playing a game of battle instead of being in a serious situation, teasing her sister while they fought and encouraging she goes berserk so the 'game' can be more fun and tells Saya she looked 'so tough' with an excited and happy look on her face. When Saya tells her she intends to kill Diva and then herself, Diva freezes in shock and must be saved from death from Amshel, before declaring that she believed they could live 'happily ever after' in a Chiropteran only world while crying. Unlike the anime self who was willing to kill her sister to create a world where she could be happy, in the manga Diva truly desired her sister's love rather than raising a family. Most notably during their final battle, Diva cannot bring herself to kill Saya even when she is totally helpless, showing just how much she loved her sister, even after their turbulent past.

This was most likely due to the fact in the manga, unlike the anime, Saya and Diva had their aforemented relationship with one another, with Saya often visiting Diva in her tower and forming a strong friendship with one another (Saya at one points claimed that Diva was the only one that understood her). She also didn't appear to mind being imprisoned in the tower, saying that she was happy that Saya and Amshel always came there.

Blood Plus: Adagio
In Adagio, it was shown that at some point her or Amshel chose Grigori Rasputin to be her new chevalier. And at some unknown point, she took the place of the Princess Anastasia; what became of the real one is unknown. However, Diva begins to bond with the sickly Prince Alexei and decides after "breaking" him to make him her new chevalier. She also disguarded Grigori after she became tired of his plans and probably of him in general.

Its during this, we see a much softer side of Diva. Since Alexei was no longer bound to humanly illnesses, he was free to roam about in the palace and feel the breeze. Its seeing him happy that Diva realizes Alexei is just like her, remembering how she had been forced in solitude in her tower by Joel. But she does not get to enjoy her new companion for long.

When Saya comes trying to fight them, she and Amshel are forced to flee. And Alexei stays behind to protect her, despite her pleas. She's shown to be sorrowful when she realizes Saya probably killed Alexei.