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Kieran Valentine is a 2012-introduced antagonist. He is the son of emotional vampires with immense powers. He initially seems to be a narcissistic, cruel person who enjoys playing a game of seducing girls, sometimes by hypnotism, and intentionally breaking their hearts to add to his "collection" to gain power. The only one to escape his influence, if only by coincidence, is Draculaura. A second attempt to obtain her heart resulted in him losing his entire collection and with it, all his powers. His appearance is notably handsome, and he speaks with a fake Southern accent, in times of great distress, has an adolescent sounding voice with no discernible accent. A lot of his initial personality is discussed in his diary as also being a put on, claiming he acted how he believed emotional vampires are supposed to.
Portrayers[]
Kieran is voiced by Jonathan Lipow in English.
Character[]
Background[]
According to series writer, Kieran was never given a full backstory, but on his Instagram, he revealed that the vampire is from Ireland as the name Kieran means "Little Dark One" in Irish Gaelic. He also confirmed that Lord Stoker may have been the one to have turned Kieran and his mother into vampires around 427 A.D. when Kieran was 17 years old.
Kieran learned how to harness his emotional vampire powers by doing what he thought he was best to fill his need of love, by stealing it from his precedents. Continuously breaking the hearts of any girl he would charm, his powers would grow stronger and stronger. This method never made him entirely comfortable noting in his diary that it "never felt quite right", but due to the belief that if he continued to do it, it would eventually feel right. He didn't realize that he could seek out genuine love.
Eventually (400 years prior to the events of "Why Do Ghouls Fall In Love"), Valentine came across Dracula's daughter, Draculaura, with the biggest heart he had ever known, perfect to complete the love he thought he needed to acquire more of his love powers. Almost filling her entire heart, prepared to break it, Draculaura had to flee due to a misunderstanding with the local humans.
Centuries later, days before Draculaura's 1600th birthday, he received a call from Toralei Stripe, under the guise of claiming to be Draculaura, asking him to make a visit to her at Monster High. He eventually joins Toralei in her plan to make Draculaura and her boyfriend Clawd Wolf break up, which would benefit him by rising his ego again, giving him another chance to harvest Draculaura's heart full of love. Due to the difficulty of this task, he resorted to hypnosis, a method which ultimately failed due to the strength of Draculaura's and Clawd's love. Valentine is devastated when he is knocked into the Pit of Eternal Body Odor in the catacombs of Monster High during Draculaura's birthday party, which weakens his emotional vampire powers, due to the lack of love he receives as a consequence to his pungent smell. [Source]
Lonely, angry, humiliated, and devastated, Valentine lived in solitude in the guest room above his mother's garage. Embarrassed and excluded by everyone, even his own mother refused to deal with his son's stench. One day, a woman who called herself Mrs. Goblin came to his home, claiming to be a friend of his mother, and requested help in her unwanted animal shelter. "With nothing to lose", he followed her and assisted her with cleaning, feeding and daily upkeep of her animals. For a year, he cleaned and took care of the animals, giving love to them and eventually becoming aware love isn't something that can be forced, but instead is something that requires work, like the love he received from the animals after treating them. With this his stench finally gone, and the lesson he'd learned, this allowed him to try to make up for person he had previously been and sought out to help others with their love issues. However, as Valentine had built up quite a negative reputation, the only other student who wanted anything to do with him was Spelldon Cauldronello, able to give him a chance due to not knowing this reputation.
Not long after, Valentine came across a magical ancient lamp, which revealed a genie stored inside it, the infamous Whisp, who just like him, had once been a burden to other monsters, with her evil plans, but since a terrible defeat, has been trying to be good. She offers him three wishes, as well as her genie loyalty, which, despite Valentine's kind intentions in wishing to change his past and by helping the students of Monster High has much as possible, didn't end well, due to the complicated nature of the genie's wishes. However, he still got what he most wanted, a friend, as he was able to find a friend in Whisp, and the two still communicate through an app on his iCoffin.
Personality[]
Valentine is mischievous and scheming, using his quick thinking and allusive façade to his advantage. Like most vampires, he is very arrogant, aristocratic, and a suave romantic. He uses his alluring charms for his sly schemes, while hiding his true intentions to fill up his victims' heart full of love energy before "harvesting their heart" energy to strengthen his power. Over time, he formed a collection of literal broken hearts, keeping them on display in twin coffin shaped cabinets. He expressed guilt over the actions caused by this persona in his diary, stating self-hatred as a reason he refused to allow himself to be genuine.
Valentine reappeared in the comic book I Only Have Eye For You, where he appeared to have turned over a new leaf and, and attempted to help other monsters find romantic dates for the Fraidy Hawkins dance, and tried to make it up to Draculaura and Clawd Wolf by paying for their date. His efforts didn't quite succeed as he planned, but everyone ended up with a partner regardless.
Appearance[]
He has pale pink skin, shaggy black-brown hair with red stripes, and bright rosy eyes. His features are strikingly handsome, enough to make any monster girl fall in love with him. He also wears black eyeliner and gold stud earrings. His clothing is a combination of late Victorian, early Edwardian dress in reference to his crisp white cravat, winged collar dress shirt with ruffle cuffs, and his signature wide round-lapel blazer - embroidered with shimmering rose petals, a large stemmed rose on his right forearm sleeve, and a matching stemmed rose on his upper left lapel. The modern fashion pieces include his tight leather pants, gold hip chain, and black knee-high combat boots with gold heart-shaped ring boot harnesses.
Abilities[]
As a vampire Kieran Valentine holds the powers of any other vampire:
- Bat Transformation: It is assumed he has his vampire powers already, allowing him to turn into a vampire bat at will.
- Blood Drinking: Through his fangs, he can drink blood from human beings, like any other vampire.
- Immortality: Like all vampires he is immortal.
Special Abilities[]
However, due to his sub-species, an emotional vampire, he possesses a fair number of abilities that are specifically over the matters of emotions, such as:
- Hypnosis: With his rosy eyes, Valentine can force anyone, even other vampires, to believe they feel romantically attracted towards him.
- Misc. Love Spells: Kieran can do several love-related tricks, such as flashing a heart atmosphere, and summoning doves and bats out of thin air. It is possible that these powers are done through another form of hypnosis and illusion.
- Energy Leeching: All emotional vampires can feed off energy fueled by emotions.
- Love Extraction: Finally, Valentine can extract the love from any full heart, to fulfill his need for love.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Kieran lives in a mansion with his mother, who seems to be very protective of him. While Valentine likes to act like he's mature enough to act without her interference, he is not, and will look for her aid if he loses control of the situation. Additionally, it seems like the relationship is strained between the two due to his mother's indifference over her son's comfort by making him live in the garage to avoid the stink. The whereabouts of Valentine's father remain unknown. In 'I Only Have Eye for You', Kieran makes a comment about how 'my mom was right - I should stick to my strengths, like ruining love.' Implying that his mother knows of his wrongdoings and possibly encourages Kieran to keep 'seducing' girls.
Friends[]
Three Clouds are Valentine's constant companions and accomplices. They revel in the hurt Valentine causes, but aren't too bothered with laughing about their master's misery if the situation occurs.
During his time at Monster High, Valentine got along well with Toralei, who shared his propensity for cruelty, until he used her to shield himself from a splashing puddle. He is now friends with Djinni Grant, also known as Whisp.
Romance[]
400 years ago, he once dated Draculaura, discussed in the part where Draculaura told a story to the girls in "Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love?", and once dated her again in said special, at first through his own natural charms, but resorted to hypnosis when Draculaura confessed that she was truly in love with Clawd. He shows regret for this in his diary and discusses that he wished to be forgiven by her and the ghouls.
Timeline[]
- February 12, 2012: Kieran Valentine makes his 3D cartoon debut in "Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love?".
- November 05, 2014: Mattel requests the trademark for Kieran Valentine.
- July 09, 2015: Kieran Valentine's debut doll is for sale at San Diego Comic-Con International as that year's exclusive.
- May 15th, 2020: Garrett Sander discusses that Kieran Valentine was intended to come out as gay in his debut doll's diary, but can be interpreted as bisexual.
- May 20th, 2022: Mattel cancelled the trademark for Kieran Valentine.