Rido Kuran

Rido Kuran (玖蘭 李土 Kuran Ridō), was a vampire and one of the major antagonists of the Vampire Knight series. He was the eldest brother of Haruka and Juri Kuran, and was Shizuka Hio's fiancee. With his reappearance, it was revealed that he was the true head of the Kuran family, not Kaname. He was also the uncle of Yuki and Kaname Kuran and was the father of Senri Shiki.

Character concept
Rido Kuran has one visible child: Senri Shiki but in the family tree, it states that he had another child with an unknown woman.

Name

 * Ri means "plum", and do means "earth". Kuran means "nine orchids", with "ku" as nine, and "ran", orchid
 * Rido can also be translated from Italian to mean "I laugh" or "Ridicule"; other possibility is the English name "Reed" that means "red".

Appearance
Rido had the typical Kuran features, which resembles his younger brother Haruka Kuran and his nephew Kaname Kuran. He was a little taller than his brother and has red-brown curly hair that stop roughly at his shoulders. His most interesting characteristics are his eyes. With complete heterochromia iridium, his left eye is garnet color like the rest of the Kurans. However, his right eye is an icy blue.

Personality
Rido was a very entitled character who takes pleasure in antagonising others. He believes in indulging his desires and that to have power is to crave more and there is nothing wrong in simply taking more power. Lascivious, self-centered and cruel, Rido is powerful and not hesitant to use that for his own gain and the destruction of others. A good example of this is how unlike Kaname, he has no problems with using his Pureblood power to control lower vampires, as seen with Hanabusa Aido. One would be hard pressed to find an atrocity he wouldn’t commit.

Background
Born over 3,000 years ago, he was in love with his sister, Juri Kuran whom rejected him. Until his "death", he continued to desire her. He even drank Juri's blood at some point, but described that she cried out in pain for Haruka to save her, and he merely enjoyed it. He did however continue to have other lovers including Senri Shiki's mother, with whom he fathered Shiki, though not marrying her. He was engaged to Shizuka Hio, who did not love him.

Sometime during the past, he stole the Kuran's first child away (the orginal Kaname) and sacrificed the child's flesh and blood to awaken the ancestor Kaname intending to devour the ancestor, instead he was attacked and drained by the starved ancestor and unconscious. Following that he was held by the council, more to protect him from Juri than the other way around.

Yuki is also shown to have nightmares of Rido's eyes staring at her as if he wanted to "eat" her, suggesting that he has the ability to enter and manipulate a person's subconciousness. Ten years ago he attacked the Kuran's, attempting to take the Kuran princess and managed to kill his brother, but failed at taking Yuki. Kaname Kuran confronted him, Rido revealed that despite Kaname's desire, he was unable to kill Rido, because Rido was his master who awoke him from his slumber. Instead Kaname "obliterated" Rido's body, leaving him to slowly recover.

During the 10 years that followed, his powers to transfer his soul was retained and he managed to continue interfering in other people's lives. In order to subdue Shizuka's spirit like Shiki's mother, he was able to get her lover's name on the hunter's list and worked with Asato Ichijo.

Plot Summary
Rido was introduced to the story in the disguise of a little vampire child who lures Yuki to a back alley and then steals some of her life essence, causing her to pass out. He reappears at the Vampire party held by Aido's father, causing Yuki to follow him to the main hall. He stays in this body until Shiki returns home and Rido then transfers to his son's body.

Rido attends Cross Academy in Senri's body with Takuma Ichijo at his side, who is forced to protect Shiki. Ichiru Kiryu also reveals he is working for Rido, attempting to engineer Rido's plan of giving his blood to Yuki to awaken her memories. He confronts his distasteful nephew, Kaname and thanks him for getting rid of Shizuka for him. Rido then taunts him until Kaname runs off to Yuki's side.

Rido was not bothered by Yuki's awakening as a vampire. Rima Toya then confronts him, trying to get Shiki to take back the control of his body. Rido hurts Rima and reveals that he could now engineer Ichijo's wish to dispatch the resistance to the council. Shiki fights Rido's control and Rido retires. Kaname then uses his blood to fully revive Rido's body. The next day, Rido's body has recovered and his vampires start arriving at the school, finding victims to feed to Rido. Following his awakening, Ichiru takes his sword and tries to kill Rido as revenge for Shizuka, he knows it a weak effort and Rido counters him easily, dealing him a mortal blow.

Once Rido is fully recovered he goes to find prey, he spies Aido and commands him, Aido falls for it, but is saved from Rido's clutches by Yuki. Seeing Yuki he tries to lull her into his arms, but she is saved in turn by Aido. Yuki turns to face Rido in a fight, when he is simultaneously attacked by Zero. He reveals to Yuki that Zero has eaten his twin and calls Zero his prey. Both Yuki and Zero viciously attack Rido, Zero flings Yuki off the building and attempts to finish Rido himself. They destroy the building, as it comes down, Rido spares one last glance for his son.

Back on the ground, Yuki and Zero once again fight against Rido together, Rido expresses one last desire for Yuki, in place of her mother before he is stabbed through the chest by her scythe.

After his death, Rido appears to exist in a shadow form that exists as a part of Kaname, currently seen only by Kaname and taunting him about his precious Yuki.

In the anime, Rido is confronted by all the Night Class students, but they were unable to harm him since he is a Pureblood vampire. Rido attemtped to feed on Yuki's blood to increase his power, but the Kuran princess was able to push him back with her vampiric Artemis. When Zero interferes with Rido's thirst for Yuki, Rido witnesses Zero's Vampire Hunter power about to explode uncontrollably, but was suppressed and maintained by Yuki's Artemis. Upon controlling his unrivaled power, Zero goes to kill Rido, but the Pureblood Kuran escapes from his death. While in the woods to recover, Rido is confronted by Kaname, yet can only severely injure but not kill him. Zero arrives in late, and Kaname and Zero face off against Rido. The battle ends with Rido's death by Zero's hands, and is left to dust by his hunter's Bloody Rose gun.

Juri Kuran
Juri was Rido's younger sister. Rido was in love with Juri to the point of obsession and his hobby was his "Juri Collection" They appear to have an amical relationship until Rido kills her firstborn child, an event that Juri holds a grudge against him for. Juri has since developed a hatred for her eldest brother and desires to kill him.

Kaname Kuran
Rido became Kaname's master after Rido awakened the ancestor from his eternal slumber. Rido found he could not control the ancestor who became too strong, but the ancestor was unable to kill him.

Haruka Kuran
Haruka was Rido's younger brother. They appeared to have an amical relationship until Rido killed Haruka's first child. Rido killed Haruka ten years before the start of the story, when Rido was trying to take Yuki and Haruka tried to stop him.

Senri Shiki
Senri was Rido's illegimate son. Rido did not think of Senri like a son, but a puppet. In Vampire Knight Guilty, he possessed Senri's body without any concern or guilt. After much struggling and a lot of help from Rima, Senri ends up taking over his own body once more, but goes unconscious.

Powers
Rido posseses the Pureblood immortality and ability to heal from any wound aside from a anti-vampire weapon to the head or heart. His powers included morphing his body, using his blood as a weapon (the 'Blood Whip') and the Pureblood ability to transfer his soul into another's body (possession) , and the body will retain his eyes.

Quotes

 * "Why won't you love me, Juri? Why? What do I lack? How can I make you love me...? I... love you... so much that I want to devour you, Juri..." (To Yuki)