The character sheet for The Vampair.
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The Vampair
The protagonists of the series, a pair of vampires that hate and want to destroy each other.
- Color Motif:
- Duke's lines are primarily red, as is his outfit while in the Underworld. His outfit in "The Showdown" also sports red as the primary colour. This fits his Fatal Flaws of Lust and Pride, and his status as an evil vampire, in conjunction with black.
- Even before her magical makeover, Missi's lines are purple. After it, she gains a purple dress and hair. This is both to allude at her supernatural and powerful status, but also her Sanity Slippage and resulting manic tendencies.
- Combat Stilettos: Both of them wear high heels during their confrontation in "The Showdown", and keep them when things go sideways.
- Evil Is Angular: Both of them are drawn with sharp angles. This is very noticeable in the case of Missi, who barely had any angles in her design before being turned into a vampire.
- Evil Versus Evil: They're both evil vampires, and the main focus of the series is their conflict.
- Evil Wears Black: Black is a prominent part of their outfits.
- Foil: Since they're Arch Enemies, this is a given.
- Missi is a small teenager whose predominant colour is purple, a cool colour, and the Duke is a tall old vampire whose colour motif is red, a warm colour.
- Missi is a recently turned vampire who needs the cane to stay transformed and have her powers, with her evilness being a side effect of the possession of the cane. Meanwhile, the Duke shows himself to keep his personality and vampire nature without the cane, and seems to be a much older, complete vampire, turned into this state by the classic way : the bite of another vampire.
- The Duke is almost always confident and polite when in a position of power, and is the more vile of the two. He never wavers in his behaviour, no matter the circumstances. Missi, in contrast, is a huge Mood-Swinger whose internal conflict between her human side and her vampiric side tears her apart in "The Silent". She's also never been seen doing anything evil except her revenges on the Duke. This symbolised by their songs: All of Duke's songs are sung by Voltaire, and are usually classic Villain Songs, or at least more light-hearted, while Missi changes to other artists at every new episode, and has focus songs much darker and angrier in tone.
- There’s also a noticeable difference in how they reacted to their first vampire encounter. When Missi meets vampire Duke in the first episode she’s clearly terrified while a flashback shows Duke the human walking into a whole nest of vampires and reacting with obvious delight.
- Informed Attribute: Word of God claims that they are both bisexual but we have yet to see any solid evidence of this. This is justified due to the Minimalist Cast of the series. Missi has never been shown interacting with another woman yet, and the same goes for Duke, as the only potential male characters he's met were all monsters.
- However, Missi is sometimes represented in dates with male or female partners, or fantasizing about a female version of Duke, on extra material. Though, those drawings, even made by Daria Cohen herself, are not canonical.
- Similarly, Duke is shown groping a male demon's butt in a suggestive position during the non-canonical When You're Evil episode. Though he is shown blushing at Artemis in Season 2 Episode 4, which finally subverts this.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Despite the fact that Duke behaves and lives by the same rules as a classic vampire, Missi isn't an undead, won't die in the sunlight, doesn't have to sleep in a coffin, and can turn back into a human if she's separated from the cane. It's implied it's because they have been turned into vampires under different conditions.
- Pointy Ears: They've got elf-like ears as vampires.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: They have red eyes and they're both villains in their own rights. Their eyes have been shown glowing when they're particularly pissed off, or notice something unusual.
- Relationship Upgrade: If Season 2 Episode 2 is any indication, they became a genuinely happy couple, if still in a Slap-Slap-Kiss sense.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Their relationship is a rocky one, initially stemming from The Duke trying to kill Missi before she killed him, then revived him just to get some catharsis from punishing him, culminating in the two mutilating each other before deciding to live together while annoying one another out of pettiness. By the Season 1 finale however, the two have begun to genuinely fall in love and take comfort in each other's company.
- Super-Strength: In episode 2 season 2, Duke, in his human youth, flees his hometown partly because he wouldn't fight alone against three bullies equipped with baseball bats; but later in the same episode, as vampire, he effortlessly throws an overweight man across a city with only one kick. It is hinted by the season 1 that both characters got the super strength, because in the first episode Duke is clearly stronger than the still human Missi, but after the later also turns into a vampire, Duke isn't able to physically overpower her anymore.
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Both of them are pretty attractive.
- Villain Protagonist: Downplayed. They share the title of protagonist of the series, and both of them could reasonably be described as "evil", but by Season 2 they've largely settled more for just being "amoral", content with doing what they like and only hurting people if they don't leave them alone. "Raised By Bats" in particular shows this, the two enjoying a night on the town, visiting a library, drinking, and dancing, and The Duke only assaulting a guy after he tries mocking them for their attire.
The Duke of Vaults
- Voiced by: Aurelio Voltaire, Sophia Anne Caruso (young)
- Affably Evil: He acts charmingly and politely, mostly toying with people as they come like he did with Missi in "The Night", but he is still a vampire who's very casual with the murders of innocent people and general violence.
- All Men Are Perverts: But mostly him.
- Attention Whore: He loves to show off. In "Raised by Bats", he even go publicly into a human clothes shop just to show off his suit to clients – which they barely remark because they were concentrated on the 2-meters tall vampire wearing it.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: He sports a well-made red and black suit to his dance-off with Missi, and shows himself to be quite strong when push comes to shove later on.
- Bad Boss: He makes his zombie skeletons carry him across a river of lava and serve as a staircase, and they don't seem very happy about it, in contrast with the other servants of the Duke, who look content doing their job.
- The Casanova: Even homeless and without his magic cane, he still manages to get himself covered in ladies.
. This is Subverted however as he is stripped naked by Aries' deck and left with nothing but a towel and crying (while Missi is laughing at his humiliation). - Characterization Marches On: Initially depicted as a more a flat out monster, having attempted to torment Missi with the vibes of trying to rape and kill her. As the series continues however, he's shown to be a lot more charming and sympathetic, with his behavior towards Missi being explained by Daria to be him misreading the situation and thinking Missi was entirely consenting, and his character more firmly established as being less "evil" and more an amoral hedonist. Season 2 in particular works to establish that he's just as human as Missi, and showing a lot more of his vulnerabilities, juxtaposed with him and Missi maintaining a much healthier, if still tense, relationship with one another.
- Depraved Bisexual: Word of Gay claims that the Duke is attracted to both sexes, but in different ways.Daria: Women are for fucking, men are for sucking.
- Defector from Decadence: The flashback in "A Good Song Never Dies" shows that after turning into a vampire, he walked away from vampire society and his sire Artemis, recognizing that their war with the werewolves was no different than his father's war against them, and he wanted no part in it. They don't seem to have taken this well.
- Ephebophile: If Missi's missing poster is any indication, she's only 17, which technically makes the Duke this. It's unclear as to where the story takes place, however. In some American states, the legal age of consent is eighteen whereas in Britain, it's sixteen. It's also not clear whether or not the Duke was aware of her age.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- He's an evil vampire who delights in tormenting people, but he would never force himself on anyone. He only attempted to have sex with Missi after she seemed to seduce and invite him for it.
- In "A Good Song Never Dies", Duke shows open disgust at his sire Artemis and his murderous crusade against the werewolves, and finds him to be no different than his own vampire hunter father.
- Evil All Along: Played with. While the end of the first video implies that he was similarly corrupted by the cane, later chapters are quick to stress that it was not solely why he was a irrepressibly evil vampire. The entire "Raised by Bats" episode is centered around him expressing how he always wanted to be a vampire, and that now he is one he can behave like one. That being said, "Unbury A Friend" suggests that even then, the cane did have a hand in influencing him to an extent, a Freeze-Frame Bonus of a letter the Duke's father left him suggest the cane acts as The Corrupter towards those who wield it, which falls in line with what it did to Missi, meaning the Duke wasn't always evil, he was just never the nicest guy.And so: They fall under its spell... — all who hear it be —- like a virus
- Evil Is Not a Toy: "Unbury A Friend" reveals the circumstances behind the Duke finding the cane to be a result of this. After claiming his father's mansion back following his passing, the Duke was drawn to what is heavily implied to be his father's grave by a mysterious energy, digging it up revealing the cane in a much more damaged state. Initially believing it to just be a crappy cane, he was all set to ignore it until an eye appeared on it, the Duke now tempted to fix it up as if in a trance. Upon repairing it, it demonstrated it's powers, and the Duke reveled in it. Just like with Missy in the future however, the Duke slowly began being changed by the cane, as while it brought the color back into his world, his behavior became more twisted, his shadow reflecting the same glowing red eyes as the cane, and the description of the video stating this is where he finally became a Villain. What's worse is that the situation could have been stopped, as his father had left him a letter that he simply threw into fire without reading, a Freeze-Frame Bonus suggesting it was a warning about the cane, and what is heavily implied to be his father's spirit tried to stop him after he unburied the cane, but the Duke paid it no mind.
- Expy: It doesn't take a hard literary analysis to tell that the Duke is an obvious allusion to Dracula. They're both aristocratic vampires dressed in fancy red and black clothes (including a fancy cape) living alone in a Haunted Castle, has a bat motif, has a litany of supernatural powers including flight, shapeshifting and Casting a Shadow, he never really stays dead for very long and the plot is him trying to turn an (ambiguously) innocent human woman into his vampire bride before she kills him. Being a "Duke" isn't that far off from being a "Count", either.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride and Lust. So far his main problem is that he consistently underestimates Missi.
- Flash Step: The first time Missi makes a run for it you can see Duke blurring past her before he reappears in front of her.
- Fingore: At the end of the Showdown, Missi cuts off the Duke's right thumb with an axe.
- Forgets to Eat: Turns out the reason he’s so skinny is that he spends too much time having fun and not enough time hunting. His picky eating habits probably don’t help. In season 2 episode 2, he even bites a man out of pure annoyance, after hearing one too many remark about his clothes, and then kicks the same person away, without seemingly drink the man's blood. note
- Fourth-Wall Observer: The Duke has given numerous Aside Glances throughout the videos, as well as addressing the audience directly in Land of the Dead, along with some of the animation tests Daria has done.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Season 2 Episode 2 reveals that his first name actually is Duke.
- He's Back!: Rare villainous example, but after a Humiliation Conga, he comes back at full power, as charmingly evil as ever, in "The Showdown".
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Inverted. He is having the time of his life as a vampire. His sire one the other hand, as shown in a shot in the second episode of season 2, is quite done with his shenanigans.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Duke's appearance was based on Voltaire in his early appearance on the album Almost Human, hence the uncanny resemblance. The Duke's backstory in "Raised By Bats" likewise parallels Voltaire's own history of running away from home when he was seventeen after suffering abuse for years.
- It's All About Me: Despite terrifying and terrorizing Missi for an entire night, possibly with the intention of ultimately draining her blood or eating her and with her seemingly afraid that he intended to rape her (though he didn't), he feels that he's the injured party when she kills him and brings him back from the dead. To be fair, Missi only brought him back from the dead to fuck with him which wasn't really necessary.
- Kick the Dog: Seduces and almost murders Missi's sister who was searching for her in the fifth chapter, and only backs off when his new zombie constitution causes the tip of his penis to get ripped off as they had sex.
- Lack of Empathy: Shown when he unconcernedly used the heads of some of his skeleton butlers as a staircase.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Daria has talked about the difference between Voltaire and Duke, explaining that they aren't supposed to be the same person and while Voltaire is a pretty nice guy, "Duke is evil". Daria and her friend Mina have also talked about how they like to imagine that The Vampair Series is a TV show and the actor playing Duke is really sweet behind the scenes while Missi's actress is a total diva.
- Missing Mom: Season 2 reveals that his mother died when he was just a child, leaving him in the care of his emotionally distant vampire hunter father.
- Never My Fault: He spends Episode 3.5 whining how he can't forgive Missi for hurting him. He seems to be forgetting a few pertinent details on why she did so.
- Noodle People: He's rail thin due to not eating enough people.
- Pet the Dog: A rather literal example. In "Land of the Dead," he is shown happily petting his lapdog, who seems extremely excited to see him. Of course, that lapdog is none other than Cerberus himself from Greek mythology.
- Picky Eater: He only ever feeds on men, preferring to play with or have sex with women.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: His favorite colors are red and black.
- Smoking Hot Sex: Did this after his encounter with Genevieve and in some of the artwork Daria has posted.
- Spell My Name with a "The": Duke's full name is The Duke of Vaults and many fans refer to him as The Duke. According to Word of God, the 'of Vaults' part was a title he came up with for himself and his original name was Duke.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: After the dance in the Showdown, Duke did this when setting up wine for Missi, only for her to kick the tray away.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Implied in Season 2, as he was shown as a child to be grieving the loss of his mother at an early age while lamenting how she made him happy, but her loss combined with his dad's emotional distance and being bullied by his peers most of his life caused him to become more irritable and negative, becoming an emo goth teen, before eventually growing sick of the torment and running away from home, eventually discovering a Vampire clan, being turned and becoming The Duke he is today.
- Villain Song: "The Night" and "Land Of The Dead" are musical numbers about his prowess and evilness. The non-canon "When You're Evil" also counts.
- Voluntary Shape Shifting: He can shapeshift into a bat. This is finally shown in “Raised By Bats”.
- We Used to Be Friends: During his time in the Vampire clan under Artemis, he was shown to made a couple friends there, in particular Estevan and Jaye, the two helping him pick out a new outfit and training him. After he walks away from their war with the werewolves and decides to leave the clan however, the two turned their backs on him. The Betrayal animatic elaborates further, as while Estevan can only look at Duke in sorrow, Jaye is tearing into Duke while fighting back tears telling him he'll die alone if he leaves, the two highlighting how they do care about Duke, but don't support his desire to leave. Duke leaves anyway though, reaffirming his decision after he catches Artemis watching from overhead and outright turning his back on Duke, severing ties with them altogether.
- Younger Than He Looks: More like younger than viewers thought. It turns out he was, prior to being turned into a vampire, a bullied emo goth kid from the modern era.
Missi Spiderwebs or Melissa Dumarias
Pre-Cane.
Post-Cane.
- Action Survivor: In the first video Missi never stops resisting Duke, manages to free herself when he strings her up like a marionette, and finally defeats him by outsmarting him.
- The Alcoholic: Has been frequently shown drinking from wine glasses filled with red liquid since her possession. Some of these might be filled with blood, but she’s also been shown with wine bottles in some of the official artwork. In season 2 episode 2, she can be briefly seen pouring a glass of wine for Duke, then immediately drinking up the rest of the bottle herself. She may have turned to this as a way to cope with her Sanity Slippage.
- Anti-Villain: The evil magic from the cane turned her into a real bitch — but since her season 1 target is Duke, not many are complaining. After she and Duke make up and become a tentative couple, she's become a bit murkier.
- Being Evil Sucks: "The Silent" shows the toll being a vampire has on her, and that her anger at Duke traps her in that deteriorating mental state.
- Better Living Through Evil: Deconstructed. Giving in to the cane's corruption wins her Duke's estate, magical powers, high levels of confidence, and a fast track to the supernatural underworld's upper crust. Unfortunately, buried deep beneath her Missi Spiderwebs persona is her still very human conscience that regrets becoming (and choosing to remain) a monster.
- Brainy Brunette: She's studious and clever and her hair is brown.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Hinted. Judging from the papers we briefly see in Episode 4, she gets A's in Literature but does poorly at all other subjects. In the Halloween/Dia de Muertos animatic CHUPANDO!, she can also be seen reading an advanced philosophy book, while Duke is struggling with Philosophy for Dummies, implying that, when she was a human student, she was gifted at literary subjects. Considering that she was able to learn necromancy alone between Episodes 2 and 3, with the books of the castle, because she was motivated by bringing Duke back from the underworld, Missi is probably a gifted student but who only makes efforts on subjects that interest her.
- Clothing Damage: Duke accidentally rips the top of her dress while fighting in "The Showdown", baring one of her breasts. She is not amused.
- Curtains Match the Window: Before all the magic starts messing with her appearance her hair and eyes were both brown.
- Cute Bookworm: As a human, she was rather adorable and was heavily into books. She even stated on her college application that she wanted to major in literature.
- Dark Magical Girl: What the cane turns her into. She might still be one after losing the cane if she remembers everything she studied in Duke's library.
- Drunk with Power: After acquiring the Duke's cane.
- Evil Costume Switch: Duke initially forcibly dressed her in the gothic lolita gown just to mess with her before he killed her, but once he's gone and she becomes corrupted by the scepter, the fashion apparently grows on her, and she dresses even skimpier after.
- Evil Is Petty: How else would you describe someone who brings their worst enemy Back from the Dead just to flaunt how much power they've gained over said enemy?
- Eye Scream: At the end of the Showdown, during their struggle, the Duke gouges out Missi's left eye.
- Fatal Flaw: Wrath. She's easily angered, and her resentment and need for revenge in regards to the Duke are what keeps her in her unhappy, mentally unstable vampire persona.
- Hiding the Handicap: Since "The Showdown", Missi has worn her hair covering her left eye to hide the now eyepatch covering her empty eye socket.
- Ignored Epiphany: In Episode 4 she's briefly freaked out enough by her tenuous grip on sanity that she throws away the cane, gets her stuff, and starts to leave. The sight of the Duke outside makes her angry enough to grab the cane and go right back to her vampire self.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Defeats Duke while wearing a big elaborate dress as Melissa, then straight forward kicks his ass as Missi, and battles with him to death in an elegant ballgown in "The Showdown".
- Madness Mantra: "Inside out! Inside out! They will eat you inside out!"
- That Man Is Dead: Suggested via Rule of Symbolism in "The Silent". After briefly seeming to regain her lucidity and abandoning the cane, she redoes her hair, dons her glasses and backpack, and is all set to leave the castle and the nightmare she suffered there behind. She then sees The Duke standing outside and, overcome with anger, reclaims the cane, this time destroying her hair tie and bag in the process, highlighting how she's not going back to being Melissa Dumarias, but shall remain as "Missi Spiderwebs" until she is finally satisfied making The Duke pay for what he did to her. This is reflected later on by how, even after losing an eye and being more than free to just leave and regain her old life, she continues to remain at the castle living with The Duke bickering with him, since that's all she has left now.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: When she passes a mirror in "The Silent", her human form shows instead of her vampiric form.
- Mood-Swinger: In "Resurrection", she swings many times between cocky showings of superiority and cold, intense wrath, occasionally dipping into condescending into patronising formality and sadistic glee. It's also present in the other episodes, with her going from cheerful to angry to anxious and back again in "The Silent" and from smugness to pure wrath to embarassment/regret in "The Showdown".
- Motor Mouth: In "The Silent", as her Sanity Slippage worsens, she sings faster and faster. In "The Showdown", she's almost always singing like this.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Brings Duke back to life to mess with him further due to not quite getting over the sense of utter powerlessness he made her feel, but he bounces back from losing all his possessions and the cane rather well.
- Sanity Slippage: As of Episode 4, she may be going a little nuts to say the least.
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Downplayed, but the brothel dress she wears after being a vampire is far less sensible than her original outfit in "The Night". She also wears a skimpy ballgown that shows her shapely legs in her confrontation with the Duke in "The Showdown".
- Shaking the Rump: During "Resurrection" her dancing involves a lot of the type 2 version of this. Showing she feels arrogant enough about how she can deal with Duke while dancing.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: She starts off as a pretty dowdy but good-looking student, and then the Duke uses his scepter to transform her clothes into a resplendent dress with her hair and makeup done perfectly. She maintains this appearance for the rest of the series. She gets out of bed due to having nightmares and wanders the halls of the house, going slowly mad, and her appearance is still perfectly tidy.
- Show Some Leg: She pretends to give in to Duke's advances in The Night, luring him over to the curtains. He's too distracted by the prospect of finally getting some action that he doesn't notice her reaching for the rope until it's too late.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: Despite killing The Duke in "The Night", Missi isn't satisfied after all he did to her, especially upon realizing he's living it up in the "Land of the Dead". So she brings him back from the dead and torments him before kicking him out of his castle, slowly going insane and suffering until she briefly regains her sanity and goes to leave... until she sees him standing outside, and doubles down on torturing him. Even after she loses an eye fighting him and is perfectly capable of just leaving and not looking back, she continues to live with him if only to torment him, but all this does is leave her feeling hollow and depressed. It's only when she and The Duke actually fall in love and cease tormenting each other that she starts feeling alive again.
- Winged Humanoid: She sprouts wings from her back at the height of her mental breakdown.
Artemis
- Voiced By: A.J. Jackson
- Crossover: He originates from Missmi's Threnody series, which is significantly less comedic and more tragic in tone. Duke/Missi's Cane also shows up in that series, but it originated in this one first.
- Light Is Not Good: He has blonde hair, dresses in white and bright green clothes, contrasting Duke and Missi's deliberately dark and gothic attire; he's also evil enough to make them come across as heroic by comparison.
- Mirror Character: He has a lot of the same traits as Duke's father, who ironically is a vampire hunter. They both have a single-minded determination to destroy a particular enemy, and both are disapproving parental figures to Duke's more carefree gothic lifestyle.
- "Stop Having Fun" Guy: Artemis comes across as the most serious minded character in the series so far. He doesn't seem to like that Duke mostly just wants to enjoy being a vampire, rather than partaking in their war with the werewolves, and gets annoyed at Duke's carefree antics. At least a few of the other vampires seem to welcome Duke and enjoy his company, but Artemis immediately throws him into combat training with the intention to put him on the front lines.
