My apologies for the @ when we don't know each other but @silencedrowns Behold

I've been playing Fashion Dreamer lately and made a little Sully-inspired look ^^

Taking the discussion in the notes one step further, I’m beginning to wonder if the class heads’ attempts to save the younger children from fledging is an intentional part of the “soul-shaping” process:

I’d been puzzled over FOL’s curriculum since chapter 194, since while I agreed that the parallels with the Lords of the Stars was intentional and that both blood and souls were its likely “products”, the results seemed oddly superficial to me. Like, a soul in this series isn’t just accumulated knowledge or skills, right?  Learning how to be a butler won’t make you violently protective like Polaris, and being a well-read boy who’s good at board games does not a Ciel Phantomhive make, etc.  It seemed to me at first that FOL was being managed by someone who had an “incorrect” understanding of souls, a fool like Baron Heathfield.

But now I realize I was being too premature- I should’ve given Yana the benefit of the doubt.

Different though all the Lords of the Stars may be from each other, they all share some kind of “protective” fixation: R!Ciel is obsessed with his brother, Polaris is fanatically devoted to Lord Sirius, Al exists to “take Layla’s pain away” and Layla in turn depends on Al, and Doll would do anything- even things she finds morally reprehensible- for her siblings.  And this is a trait we also see in the FOL class heads: while we haven’t yet met the head Corgi, Theo, Artie, and Oliver are all doing everything they can to subtly guide their younger siblings away from being fledged.

Whether they’ve been explicitly told what fledging really is or have figured it out on their own, I’m beginning to think that the four class heads aren’t actually fighting the system by trying to prevent it from happening to their siblings- they’re unwittingly achieving exactly what FOL was designed to do.  If Undertaker wanted to (1) secure a consistent source of blood, (2) find out more about how souls develop as part of his ongoing rebellion against death, and (3) make viable soul substitutes for R!Ciel and the other Lords, then the exact sequence of events we’re seeing play out behind the scenes at FOL would allow him to do just that.

This would also mean that the curriculum at FOL isn’t actually the thing that shapes any of these kids’ souls at all, and being the epitome of one of the four classes’ aptitudes doesn’t automatically make a given child a potential soul donor.  Instead, what actually causes the “cream to rise to the top” wrt the class heads is setting up a situation that inculcates their strong desire (could one even say something like “their strong episodes”??) to protect the other children. 

(As an aside, this whole arrangement would also fit neatly into how I think this manga defines souls as a concept, which I’ve written about here.  It would make this sub-arc not just a much-needed pendant piece with the circus arc but an excellent encapsulation of some of the longest-running themes of the entire series.)

TL;DR: It’s not that FOL is making soul substitutes and the class heads are going against it by trying to stop the younger kids from fledging; FOL is making soul substitutes and the class heads are causing it to happen by trying to stop the younger kids from fledging.

What are y’all’s thoughts on this possibility?

A tragic parallel between the F.O.L orphanage and Baron Kelvin’s workhouse

I wanted to point out that it’s interesting “the oldest siblings” of each group actually aren’t the ones getting their “fledging day” first. 

In fact, as we could see with this chapter, little Ginny who was scared of horses, something unbefitting of her aptitude as a Corgi, is the one who got a sudden “fledging day”. 

Thanks to this chapter, it’s also pretty obvious that “the oldest siblings” know where the other kids are sent, as indicated by Oliver’s and Artie’s scared reactions in this chapter.

The “oldest siblings” being aware of what’s going on also explains why Oliver sort of “protected” Daniel, when he conveyed to the adults that he didn’t fit in the Collie group. 

In other words, when the operation needs a kid (for blood or some other reason), it’s those who don’t fit in who get taken first so, Ginny aside, we should also definitely worry about Daniel but also Nick from the Pomeranian group.

Focusing a little bit on Artie, a Mastiff, who brought Daniel, a Collie, to his class and Oliver who interrupted Daniel talking about “fledging day”, it seems the “oldest siblings” are trying as hard as they can to protect the other kids from meeting a terrible fate. This also explains Theo’s helpful attitude with Ginny in the last chapter: 

However, despite Theo’s best efforts, the adults noticed that Ginny was not living up to her aptitudes as a Corgi and she’s now about to reach “fledging day”. ://

The “oldest siblings” also definitely know that Doll is probably the one who’s watching over the whole orphanage operation, as indicated by their reactions when Snake introduced himself as Doll’s acquaintance…

…And it’s very interesting, because I think it creates a parallel with Doll’s own situation, back when she was alive. 

After all, as a kid from Kelvin’s workhouse, when she joined Noah’s Ark, Doll began abducting kids with Joker and co to satisfy Kelvin’s madness but also to protect their younger siblings back at the orphanage. However, this was all for naught, as Kelvin had already killed those kids for his mad project, something our!Ciel discovered at the end of the arc.

At F.O.L orphanage, the “oldest siblings” act similarly: they were probably told the sad truth behind this orphanage and they have no other way but to go along with it in order to survive, which makes them accomplices, while still trying as hard as they can to protect many of their fellow “siblings” so that they won’t get to their “fledging day” too quickly. 

It’s tragic really and, since they think Snake and Finny are Doll’s friends, they probably won’t trust them to help. :/ 

The single silver ray of hope I have is that Theo reminds Finny of someone: could be either twins or it could be a kid from Finny’s own tragic past from that scientific lab in Germany and, in that case, if Theo can eventually trust Finny, then maybe Finny and Snake will learn the truth and help save all these kids.

It would also make a beautiful parallel with Theo reading Fenian cycle… 

…since our Finny is indeed stronger than many others and could definitely help saving them. 

TL;DR Doll probably pushed the “oldest siblings” into the same situation that she experienced when she was alive: become accomplices in order to survive but also to protect innocent children, which is exactly how she lost herself and died. Here’s to hoping that Snake (who wasn’t a part of Noah’s Ark abduction ring) and Finny (who’s very strong) will be able to realize the truth in time, in order to help these children. 

Reblogging my own post to add that I just made a big long post about what souls could be in this series, which includes a totally different reading on what might be going on at the orphanage (although that post is over 2k words long and kinda-sorta rambling, so be forewarned).

Ready-made meals?

I’m @-ing @abybweisse on this since we’ve spoken on this topic before:

Latest chapter makes it really apparent that FOL isn’t just selecting advanced class students who are “like” O!C, they’re putting them through a replica of his life. He’s an orphan, they’re orphans. He desperately wanted to go outside to play, now so do they. He suddenly found himself alone at age 10, so do they, etc. (Which also puts R!C wondering if he’s feeling what his brother felt in ch149 in an entirely different light- is he trying to condition himself to be more like O!C for some reason??)

This whole time we’ve been approaching this from the angle that this is for R!C, to make him more stable. But I’m now thinking these boys’ souls aren’t being shaped like O!C’s to shove in R!C’s body….but instead to shove down Sebastian’s throat.

The demon’s said that he’s invested too much into cultivating his prey to give up on devouring his delicious soul. UT has on more than one occasion said that Sebastian’s gotta go, as has R!C. If the demon won’t go down without a fight, why not offer him a deal: Leave O!C’s one tasty soul alone, and in exchange get dozens of souls pre-seasoned to taste just like it. I don’t necessarily think that plan would work, because if Nick is any indication the Poms aren’t really all that much like O!C as a person*, but I can see it being a plausible failsafe if UT can’t kill Sebastian outright. (also since these conditioning similarities seem pretty surface-level, petition for us all to refer to this class as “the SuperfiCiels”)

As for the ones who “foster out,” maybe their souls just don’t taste right so they’re bled out. (Since the other classes appear to only (””) be going through intensive skill training, I’m wondering if their primary purpose is being indoctrinated to be perfectly loyal covert “private soldiers” like the Phantomhive servants, perhaps for their Aurora funders?  And UT may or may not also be trying to soul-match them to the other star lords for testing purposes)

What are your thoughts? Edited to add: It might also be both options: The most O!C-like soul of them all goes to R!C, maybe???, and the rest are offered to Sebastian.

*With how this assignment is already shaping up, I really, Really need to actually make that long-overdue post on what I think a soul might be in this series.  It even ties in to the Mother 3 theory!

What is a soul, anyway?

So, frustratingly enough for a series about selling your soul for revenge, we still haven’t gotten any clear definition of what a soul actually is in this series.  All we really know for sure is that:

Having a soul makes you alive, not having one makes you dead

They can be “cultivated”/seasoned/shaped (this part is really important), but this isn’t an objective measurement, and Yana once compared the taste of a soul to the subjectivity of how food tastes

Per UT, you can’t make another person’s soul your own (as of the Campania arc, at least)

Grim reapers can’t directly perceive or detect them as a demon can, but they can apparently handle them during collection

Basic BDs are drawn to them somehow (unknown at present if advanced BDs like R!C and Layla/Al are as well, but if Layla thought Bard was dead after being stabbed when he actually wasn’t, I’m gonna err on the side of “no”)

Demons eat them and can sense them, but that’s harder to do when the target is unconscious

For a while it also seemed like the Reapers’ superiors were in charge of souls, but the most recent interplay with Ronald and William (as of the end of the Athena sub-arc) would instead seem to indicate that while the “brass” are observing and collecting souls for some reason, they may not be the ones making them.

Critically, we also know that, in the absence of a soul, advanced BDs are able to approximate life (thinking and moving on their own) because of their episodes, i.e. their yearnings and desires for the future.  This would indicate that a concatenation of “wants” is a good enough approximation of a soul, but not quite the same thing as one.  So, what’s something that can be molded and that impacts your life, and that’s similar to a bunch of individual desires?

I think the only viable answer is “Willpower” or “Resolve”.

(Warning that this is a Long post of fwippy doing what fwippy does best: argue a really, really fine-and-probably-inconsequential point for several thousand words)

“Willpower is what Powers a living person,” really?  Is that some kind of crappy pun??

Hear me out here.  It’s not just that the “power” in willpower is like the “force” in life-force or some other English-language wordplay that doesn’t make sense in a Japanese series; I do think there’s observable evidence in the manga that supports this reading.  Before getting any further, let me reiterate that I’m only using the manga here- the anime and musicals are totally separate texts, and I’m not going to deal with souls being stored in rings or anything like that.

We know Sebastian abhors nothing more than a quitter- we see it in the Emerald Witch arc, we even see it in his disdainful glances at the people using opium at Lau’s den (ftr I’m Really not a fan of Yana demonizing substance use, but that’s totally outside the scope of this post).  He isn’t interested in poor-quality souls, like those that would try to find an easy way out of a bad situation.  In fact, whenever he seems most pleasantly surprised with his master’s development, it’s in moments like Chapter 36, Chapter 63, or Chapter 147 where O!C declares his intent to keep pushing forward with his stated goals, regardless of any temptation to give up and settle down, regardless of despair or setbacks.  Indeed, at the end of the Circus arc, Sebastian muses to himself that what fascinates him about humans if that, even though we drag each other down, we still keep trying to find some way to “get over the horizon”, e.g. to keep moving on despite all the self-inflicted despair around us.  I think this indicates that, to this demon, a strong will makes for a tasty soul.  And as Yana described in her aforementioned post on how souls taste, Sebastian is free to pursue different ways of seasoning a soul, i.e. various ways of shaping his master’s will. 

I first want to go back to the Emerald Witch arc a little bit, because I think it provides the strongest support against conflating the soul with the personality or emotions or anything like that.  First, let’s remember Sebastian’s thoughts at the end of Chapter 63- that O!C’s despair-soaked vengeance will make his soul delicious.  It’s tempting to think that this means Sebastian simply wants O!C to be as sad as possible (and there are certainly a lot of funny shitposts to that extent), or for his personality to be gloomy and dour, or even for his emotions to sway towards misery.  After all, UT does say that Sebastian “only brings misery to the Earl.”  But if that were the case, wouldn’t you think the demon would be overjoyed at O!C’s mental breakdown in the Emerald Castle, since that’s the zenith of his master’s despair and misery?  Instead, he’s furious. 

We know that O!C’s hysterics in that arc aren’t the result of a change in his personality or emotions, as later flashbacks reveal that this has always been how he’s felt, that he’s always believed himself to not be worth protecting compared with his brother- it’s just that normally he doesn’t let those feelings get in the way of his goals.  Instead, O!C has broken his contractual terms by abandoning his desire for revenge, which is ruining the quality of his soul.  O!C’s iron will was temporarily broken due to exposure to the miasma, and that’s what made Sebastian about ready to give up on him.  And in turn, it’s O!C’s declaration that he’s pursuing revenge for his own sake that stills the demon’s hand. 

I’d also argue that strength of will can be a double-edged sword.  UT likes reminding O!C that he only has one soul, and that he needs to take good care of it.  Sure, O!C’s laser focus on avenging himself has kept him going up until this point, but the more he lets Sebastian shape his soul for him (and lbr, Sebastian has absolutely had an indelible influence here), the more he’s eschewed opportunities to broaden his horizons by connecting with other people.  No wonder UT seems pleased whenever he sees O!C pursuing non-vengeance-based actions like saving Harcourt during the Weston arc, since it’s likely that Vincent and Claudia’s resolves were also forcibly narrowed or put into turmoil by the burden of being the Watchdog.  Is it a really fine distinction? Yeah.  But I’d argue it’s an important one for the themes of the series, which Yana has referred to as “a paean to humans”.  I’d almost say that UT isn’t just talking about O!C, in a way he’s speaking to humanity as a whole- a kind of “if you’re too stubborn and close-minded you’ll ruin your life” message.

Other evidence from the BD side of things

If soul =will =life, then by the same logic, Episodes =a critical mass of desires-or-yearnings ≈approximating being alive. I think it makes sense that a bunch of discrete yearnings, or desires, or “wants” are of a similar-but-lesser nature to the essential form of a person’s expressed will.

Going off on that, does an interruption of a BD’s yearnings lead to an interruption of their ability to be life-like?  I would argue that it does.  As I see it, every time we see an advanced BD start failing, it’s because there’s something impacting their desires.  When R!C collapses at the end of Chapter 149, he mentions his frustration at his body not moving the way he wants it to, alongside wanting to run right to where his brother is- which would seem to contradict his desire to fight him. Could this be a case where conflicting desires cancel each other out, causing his body to start reverting to a corpse-like state?  Then there’s Polaris, who becomes visibly weakened in Chapter 169 while in the middle of a fit about potentially loosing his master- which as I see it, is an example of severe doubts about being able to achieve his desires stopping him from functioning.  As for Layla, she’s able to keep fighting and running around even after being shot from the heart, but only collapses when she despairs over Al abandoning her.  It’s likely that Layla wants Al to be there to protect her from pain, and if that’s no longer the case, that’s what stops her dead in her tracks (pun intended).*  All of these cases happen with totally different levels of blood, which makes me think blood transfusions are a stopgap measure to force the body to keep going, but that they can’t fix the fundamental issue of a shaken resolve. (I think if it as aspirin- it’ll fix the symptoms of a headache, but not the cause.)

(I’d also argue that the blue cult employs a lot of double-speak wrt “radiance.” Like, most signs point to it just meaning blood, but then Blavat tells O!C he has a radiance that’s being endangered by Sebastian, and we know the demon doesn’t care about O!C’s blood beyond it, y’know, keeping him alive.  So I’d say that the “shape of the soul” could also be referred to as “the radiance of the soul” as well.  e.g. the more the demon impacts what O!C wills himself to do, the further he’s driven to depravity, the more his radiance is diminished.)

This may have major implications for this new arc with the orphanage.  It seems clear that FOL’s Pomeranian class is being modeled after O!C.  I know I just wrote a post yesterday that this could be to create a bunch of substitute meals for Sebastian, but now as I’ve been writing this post a different possibility springs to mind.  It could very well be the case that these boys’ souls aren’t going anywhere, and that this whole operation is an experiment on UT’s part to see How a person’s will, or a set of desires, can be shaped by external circumstances, which in turn are recorded in the cinematic record.  If he can figure that out, the it might give him the last piece of the puzzle he needs to fix the flaws in his BDs and make them truly equivalent to living people with souls.  This might also explain why the Pom curriculum seems like only a surface-level approximation of O!C’s life- if you want to figure out what factors shape a person’s will, you have to first weed out those that don’t.  If simply going through a simulacrum of O!C’s circumstances doesn’t make the Pom’s souls shaped like his, then that could help UT narrow down the factors that do impact wills/desires.

It would also lend credence to him having tampered with Doll’s cinematic records to see if that influences her desires, as her recounting of the night the troupe died is so factually off from what actually happened that she’s either lying or cannot actually remember anything about O!C betraying them, or even being their target in the first place.  It’s like he’s trying to figure out how best to stabilize a mass of desires- do you mess with someone’s memories, do you carefully restrict their experiences, or is it something else?

(Update post-Chapter 197: nevermind that stuff about Doll; my assessment of the FOL situation has evolved, see here)

What makes you so sure a soul isn’t your personality, or your emotions, or your morals?

I know there’s been much discussion on this and other platforms about the soul being your personality, or your ability to differentiate between right and wrong, and while this is certainly the case for countless other series, I think it’s off-base here.  I do, however, think that personality, morals, as well as life experiences/memories (i.e. the cinematic record) and even the condition of one’s body all definitely color (or perhaps, “shape” or “season”) the soul, but they aren’t the same thing as a soul.  Think of it like individual ingredients in a meal- you need flour and eggs to make pancakes, but neither of those on their own is a pancake.

Plus, Sebastian hates O!C’s personality! It annoys him, he frequently grumbles to himself about his master being a shitty brat, etc.  But that doesn’t stop him from thinking his soul is going to taste great.  And then there’s Jane’s mention of “the shape of the soul” when mentioning other factors such as appearance, personality, or voice that would make someone similar to the Baroness Heathfield. So whoever it was who told Chris Heathfield about souls, they made a distinction between it and a personality.

Going back to the soulless BDs, from what we’ve seen of Doll thus far, her personality doesn’t seem different from when she was alive. I’d also strongly argue that the same holds true for R!C, since he appears to have always been....y’know, Like That™ ...even when he was very young.  So I don’t think the condition of being a soulless BD is a “came back wrong” situation where your personality is inherently warped.  That would also, I feel, be kind of a cop-out with the themes of the series, which so frequently focus on the ways in which we as people foolishly screw ourselves over.  If BDs not having a soul means they don’t have full control of themselves, then they can’t be as responsible for their actions as a living person would be, which would entirely undercut the tension of the Blue Revenge arc (plus it’s also a really,,, eugenics-y argument imo, but that’s all I’ll say on that here).

The emotion argument is the easiest to refute, imo, as we’ve seen R!C, Polaris, Layla/Al, and Doll display a wide range of emotions as BDs- even emotions like despair and frustration that it wouldn’t actually benefit them to have.  If their emotional responses come across as too magnified, or too subdued or otherwise off-kilter, I’d argue that this is more of a general trauma response to (a) being in pretty stressful circumstances and (b) suddenly finding yourself to be a rotting, quasi-vampiric ghoul with no serious prospects of getting better.  After all, it’s not like Soma or Lizzie are their normal selves at the moment either, given what they’re going through.

As for morals, given that this series is full of people (both on our protagonist’s side and his opponents) with utterly warped moralities who are still very much alive, I’d say the soul can’t really be a contributing factor to morality.  If anything, it’s the other way around, where your sense of right and wrong affect your soul, but isn’t itself the soul.  I also just....I don’t think admitted villain-lover Yana Toboso is concerned with characters “not doing the right thing,” y’know?  There’s even another blog post where she mediates on the difficulties of having an objective set of morals, so it’d be a really odd turn for her to suddenly take a black-and-white “people who do bad things are Bad” stance.

And finally, let’s not forget that, when Lizzie runs back to Sphere, Sebastian uses different language and imagery from how souls are visually portrayed in the manga when talking about the human heart being something even a demon can’t shackle. So I think we can cross out “feelings” from the list of what a soul could be as well.

So in conclusion...

I think there’s ample evidence in the manga to indicate that a soul is equivalent to a person’s will (or resolve, but I view those as the same thing in this case).  I do not think a soul is your personality, or your feelings or anything else like that, and in turn I think the fundamental flaw in the advanced BDs that needs to be fixed is an issue of their resolves, with blood transfusions being only a temporary solution to keep them up and running.  I’m hoping that this current assignment at the orphanage offers more information on this topic, although I’m also fully prepared for it to entirely prove me wrong.

*It’s also really interesting to me that, as a system, Layla and Al had (I would presume) one soul but two entirely different-yet-matching sets of desires when they were alive: Al wants to protect Layla, Layla wants to be protected by Al. They still have two distinct selves without a soul, which to me would lend further credence to a soul not being a personality.

Bonus Mother 3 Theory content!!

This one’s for @abybweisse​: So, we know the Dark Dragon in Mother 3 has to follow the will or the intentions of the person whose heart it eats, which to me reads as being Very similar to a soul being a will in this series.  I think there is some credence to that relationship in the game influencing Yana when she was coming up with how souls work in her manga- that she’s iterating on that idea and putting her own spin on it throughout the series.

Ready-made meals?

I'm @-ing @abybweisse on this since we've spoken on this topic before:

Latest chapter makes it really apparent that FOL isn't just selecting advanced class students who are "like" O!C, they're putting them through a replica of his life. He's an orphan, they're orphans. He desperately wanted to go outside to play, now so do they. He suddenly found himself alone at age 10, so do they, etc. (Which also puts R!C wondering if he's feeling what his brother felt in ch149 in an entirely different light- is he trying to condition himself to be more like O!C for some reason??)

This whole time we've been approaching this from the angle that this is for R!C, to make him more stable. But I'm now thinking these boys' souls aren't being shaped like O!C's to shove in R!C's body....but instead to shove down Sebastian's throat.

The demon's said that he's invested too much into cultivating his prey to give up on devouring his delicious soul. UT has on more than one occasion said that Sebastian's gotta go, as has R!C. If the demon won't go down without a fight, why not offer him a deal: Leave O!C’s one tasty soul alone, and in exchange get dozens of souls pre-seasoned to taste just like it. I don't necessarily think that plan would work, because if Nick is any indication the Poms aren’t really all that much like O!C as a person*, but I can see it being a plausible failsafe if UT can't kill Sebastian outright. (also since these conditioning similarities seem pretty surface-level, petition for us all to refer to this class as “the SuperfiCiels”)

As for the ones who "foster out," maybe their souls just don't taste right so they're bled out. (Since the other classes appear to only (””) be going through intensive skill training, I’m wondering if their primary purpose is being indoctrinated to be perfectly loyal covert "private soldiers" like the Phantomhive servants, perhaps for their Aurora funders?  And UT may or may not also be trying to soul-match them to the other star lords for testing purposes)

What are your thoughts? Edited to add: It might also be both options: The most O!C-like soul of them all goes to R!C, maybe???, and the rest are offered to Sebastian.

*With how this assignment is already shaping up, I really, Really need to actually make that long-overdue post on what I think a soul might be in this series.  It even ties in to the Mother 3 theory!

This is going to sound weird, but I’ve gotten a sudden influx of new followers over the last few days & I’m not sure why. I’ll preface this by saying that I am fully aware that this is a Really Odd Stance & not actually how this website is supposed to function, but I am Very old-fashioned and would prefer to only be followed by people I know irl (which are like 3 ppl on here). (I’m the same way on other social media platforms ftr, this isn’t just a tumblr thing. I don’t even really follow people on here- I just manually visit their pages each day! That’s weird, right?? It’s not how this website is supposed to work either! Yet here I am 😃)

I wouldn’t be so mean as to block anyone, bc it’s not as though I’ve ever communicated this weird position anywhere, but please be under advisement to unfollow, if you would be so kind.

(Also I’m mostly on here to be able to converse w/ ppl in the notes of their posts; I make my own posts here so rarely that you wouldn’t really be missing out on any content anyway.)

I normally reply instead of reblogging (and it certainly isn’t my intent to be confrontational here), but this is going to be way too long for replies, and the reading many people have that “the scene where R!Ciel scolds Sebastian is meant to indicate to us that he holds servants in disregard” has always really bothered me, since I really don’t think this interpretation is consistent with what we see from him in the text.  He’s absolutely a shitty little asshole, make no mistake, but I do think anon may be onto something here as to why this scene with Sebastian is significant: First off, we don’t need to speculate as to how R!Ciel might respond if one of the other servants spoke out of turn to him, because it’s happened in the manga already.  Remember, in chapter 129 Finny (a back-of-house servant who, based on etiquette of the time, shouldn’t be speaking directly to a member of the nobility at all) calls R!Ciel an impostor directly to his face, but Finny isn’t chastised for his impertinence.  Instead, R!Ciel merely uses that as an opportunity to smugly reveal himself as “the real Ciel Phantomhive.” (Plus he also just stands there and lets Tanaka waltz onto the scene and rattle off the history of the Phantomhive twins unbidden, so there’s that too.)  This is his debut chapter, so if Yana wanted to send a clear message to us readers how differently R!Ciel treats servants compared with his brother, she passed up a great opportunity to do so. Additionally, even in situations where being harsh to a servant would be warranted, Yana hasn’t written him to be as stupid as to let his personal distaste bleed into his behavior.  In chapter 169 Polaris is shrieking at R!Ciel that he has no right to be OK with the destruction of the Heathfield facility, all while violently ripping apart his bedroom and causing a scene.  Yet instead of barking at Polaris to stop acting like a lunatic or scolding him for destroying his master’s property (and lbr, he wouldn’t be entirely out of line for doing so), R!Ciel calmly deescalates the situation.  This doesn’t mean that R!Ciel is secretly “a nice person” or that he likes Polaris (he isn’t; he doesn’t), but rather this demonstrates how he’s extremely manipulative and quite good at steering the topic of a conversation to his advantage.  (And Yana has him do this consistently: remember in chapter 151 when Francis is probing him as to what O!Ciel’s motives could have been- i.e. getting too close to exposing the truth about the demonic sacrifice- he expertly redirects that line of inquiry to instead focus on him becoming the Watchdog.) Finally, there are the larger circumstances of the exchange with Sebastian.  The demon is specifically asking about why UT is so obsessed with the Phantomhive family, getting towards the likely truth of UT=Cedric.  From how R!Ciel treats UT, I don’t even think he knows the answer to that question, so it’s somewhat understandable that he’d be irritated with this interloping demon asking after sensitive private matters.  There’s also the issue that R!Ciel’s characterization of Sebastian is…not entirely incorrect.  In a case of “worst person you know just made a good point, ” it is true that throughout the series, Sebastian consistently oversteps his bounds as a butler, whether it be disobeying orders to coerce information out of Beast or accusing his master of letting his aunt get killed.  And Tanaka, as a supervisory steward who likely realizes that Sebastian isn’t all that he seems, does bear some responsibility for allowing this improper behavior to persist.  Sure, O!Ciel insults Sebastian from time to time, but it’s always an ineffectual “I’ll kill you” in private, or a childish “drink this spiked lemonade;” he never actually hits the demon where it hurts- in his pride as a butler.  I think it is intentional on Yana’s part that no one has ever spoken to Sebastian like this in front of his coworkers- but UT has said similar things to him in their prior confrontations.  Does any of this mean that R!Ciel is actually a good person?  No, absolutely not!  Let me be clear that he’s written to be a piece of shit who’s laser-focused on his brother to the detriment of everything and everyone else, that’s for certain. Ultimately, as I see it, Yana is trying to tell us that this really is A Sebastian Thing, rather than putting focus on R!Ciel’s thoughts towards servants as a whole.  After all, he also says to Sebastian during the skirmish with UT and Grelle in chapter 142 that the demon “isn’t actually been a part of the Phantomhive household,” and “will be made to leave soon”- which echoes Blavat’s offer to help remove the demon from O!Ciel’s side at the beginning of the Blue Cult arc.  I think Yana’s making it as obvious as she can what’s really going on here, and how formidable an opponent R!Ciel is to his brother, while also clearly demonstrating how he’s an indefensible dirtbag who is doing Quite Literally Everything Wrong.

in the twins' confirmation scene, when RCiel tells Sebastian to be quiet, there is a panel of servants' shocked faces, but Why do they put on those looks? Aren't they used to seeing Sebastian getting belittled? I mean, they've seen his humiliation before, right? Even being in public can't stop Frances from pulling his hair and yelling at him. RCiel did nothing compared to that. Or did he? (・_・ヾ

Hey! Nah, the scene you mention...

...mostly serves to prove that real!Ciel is overall less tolerant and kind than our!Ciel, which explains why Tanaka has a rather sad look on his face. 

Our!Ciel sometimes mocks Seb for sure (because of the contract) and he insists that his orders are followed if the servants question them, but he never talked down servants simply for being servants, like real!Ciel is doing here. 

In other words, if Finny, Mey, Bard or Snake had opened their mouths instead of Seb in that scene, they would have most likely received the exact same demeaning comment. That’s why they’re a bit shocked. 

BTW, since you mentioned Frances, she also never talked down a servant for being a servant. She harps about Seb’s haircut (which is horrendous, let’s be clear) and messes him around with him because she’s suspicious of him, but never talks him down by reminding him of his condition, so that’s a big difference with real!Ciel’s attitude here.

TL;DR real!Ciel is way harsher and less tolerant than his younger brother, but we been knew. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Have a good day Anon.

You raise a really good point about how unusual it is that Ronald has been at the Athena for a not-insignificant amount of time before whatever’s supposed to happen actually happens, and in particular one thing strikes me as odd about all these Reaper investigations: Why are they conducted as undercover operations in the first place?  All the cases you point out certainly would warrant Reaper presence, but why would they be ordered (presumably by the Superiors) to masquerade as living people as part of these jobs?  At least to me, it seems like many of these investigations would be far more efficient if the Reapers could stay incorporeal and follow anyone they need to while remaining undetected, and without having to go to the lengths of building up trust with their targets.  I get that there’s a narrative reason for the other characters to be aware of them, but even then it almost seems to go against the Dispatch’s injunctions to “impartially collect without getting involved with the living or dead.”  It seems particularly cruel to me, for these Reapers to be given a tantalizing opportunity to pretend that they’re alive again, to be able to take in the organic smells of the living world and perhaps even make friends with a living person as part of their investigation, while understanding at the same time that it’s all a short-lived farce.

What I’m wondering is if the cruel pointlessness is the point here.  That is to say, if this just a more extreme version of how Sascha describes the Reapers’ punishment: to be exposed constantly to human suffering and death until such a time as they’re supposed to be forgiven?  I’m thinking back to the Campania arc and how UT mentions “being seduced by the living world”- could it have been that one of these kinds of extended assignments was a contributing factor in his decision to break violently from headquarters?

I also can’t help but notice that there’s a kind of parallel between these assignments and what Bard’s doing- and what the Watchdogs have to do as part of their duties.  In both cases, the person in question is expected to infiltrate and rub shoulders with people they know will typically die as part of their duties, and as we see with Bard (and indeed with O!C at the circus and at Weston), it’s hard not to develop some small attachment that would cause stress when the targets invariably are killed.  In addition to what likely happened to Claudia, your post above has me wondering if another reason why UT hates the Queen is because she puts the Watchdogs through the same kind of hell the Superiors inflict on the Reapers.

isn't ronald a bit too apprehensive in this ch? collecting souls is their job, i get it, but it seems too much even for ron. what i'm trying to say is i believe there's more to it, like ron must complete a task by collecting the soul(s), maybe its something relevant to the investigation

Investigation at Athena Sanatorium

Well, I was saying earlier in posts (as well as in comments) that Ronald might not be there simply to collect souls. We’ve seen this before: a reaper sent ahead to investigate before a large number of people are killed. Examples:

William is sent to Noah’s Arc Circus before many of the performers are killed at Baron Kelvin’s manor and Phantomhive Manor. They are not killed on circus grounds, nor are the kidnapped children killed there, though many children also die at Kelvin’s manor. We don’t know why he was sent to investigate, but it could be due to the fact many of the deaths are caused by Sebastian, a demon. And William is the one who follows to Kelvin’s manor, so that’s the important part, not the deaths at Phantomhive Manor, where Grelle ends up going. These impending deaths are investigated because most of them are caused by a demon.

Ronald is sent ahead to board Campania, in preparation for ~1500 expected to die there. It’s not because of Sebastian this time but because of Undertaker. The ship is destined to hit an iceberg anyway, but Undertaker brings all those bizarre dolls, and they kill people even before the ship hits the iceberg. Specifically, Ronald says he was sent to investigate all the reanimated corpses, because the reaper organization doesn’t understand why they are walking around. Ronald has to prove that their souls had already been collected; they really are walking corpses, not paperwork goof-ups or reapers failing to do their job. These deaths have to be investigated because extra deaths are being caused by soulless bodies and a rogue reaper.

The mystery person shown in ch137 is likely a reaper sent to investigate the impending deaths at the cult’s sacrificial ritual. We know it’s not Grelle or Ronald, because they are clueless about it. It could be William… or someone we haven’t yet met. Not all of the deaths would be under investigation; the children previously killed by the cult didn’t work to summon any demons, so there’s nothing “unusual” about their deaths (they were killed by humans). This event is investigated because the majority of the deaths that day are caused by a demon answering a summons and making a contract.

Madam Red is being investigated by Grelle… until Grelle decides to help with the murders. I’m not sure why Madam Red was actually being investigated; she’s just a human… on a killing spree. Perhaps reapers investigate serial killers, even if they are mere humans? 🤷‍♀️

So, what’s interesting enough about this situation, at Athena Sanatorium, to get the reaper organization to send someone ahead to investigate, days or even weeks before the impending deaths? Baldo works for someone who has a demon contract, but Baldo himself is human. Lau is probably just a human, too. So is Ada, and even Layla is probably a regular (though sadistic) human being. And the patients are very human.

But ch185 tells us that there will be a blood pickup the very next day, and we know (from Mey-Rin’s and Ran-Mao’s assignment) that Lord Polaris and other cloaked figures will arrive to help orchestrate that pickup, even if it’s just regular people who load up the carriages. And we know that Lord Polaris reports back to Undertaker and real Ciel after the operation at Heathfield Manor is destroyed. If Lord Polaris or another “lord of the stars” shows up the next day at the sanatorium, they could kill people when they find out the blood isn’t ready for pickup. These “lords” are advanced bizarre dolls, after all, so that would be deaths caused in unusual circumstances… and Lord Polaris is already on edge, angry at people for failing at their jobs. Considering what he says and does when he makes his previous report, he could easily “go off” and lash out against Ada or anyone else who refuses to let him take the collected blood… or when Ada tells him they stopped collecting.

But still. Why is Ronald snooping around and listening to Baldo and Ada talk? It’s possible that Ada was on the list to die right then, but Baldo listens to her, gives her an ultimatum, and she complies. So, Baldo doesn’t kill her. But that doesn’t necessarily mean she was on the list for death just yet. Could be that Baldo was never going to shoot her; I mean the reapers might have already known she wasn’t going to die right then. But “tomorrow”, when the others come to pick up the blood? If they try to kill her, Ronald will be stuck with a decision to make: should he collect her soul… or should he give her a shinigami pass?

It would be very interesting if that’s why we are privy to this particular investigation. We have yet to see a reaper choose not to collect. And he might decide that Ada living would make a large enough impact on humanity that it would be worth letting her live. That’s something I’d like to see.

Oh This is Interesting

For one reason or another I recently found myself browsing Alan Mays’ collection (linked here) of 1870s-80s acquaintance cards- essentially calling cards for flirting.  While these cards are described as an American phenomenon, the layout of the first few cards in the collection is strikingly similar to Baron Heathfield’s slip in Chapter 154- even down to the position of the “Yes” and “No” responses.  This suggests to me that Yana (and/or her history consultant, Dr. Riko Murakami) was also aware of this collection (which, ftr, predates CH154 by many years). I had no idea!

I’m tagging @abybweisse in this post, since I know you like to keep track of real-world versions of items used in the series, and thought you might get a kick out of this too.

So while I fully admit that trying to discern plot points in any given series by looking at merchandise is A Very Bad Idea...

These cartes de visite-style can badges (top left image, lower left set of 8) that Yana tweeted about today have caught my interest in a major way, to the point where I’m breaking my normal radio silence and *gasp* making my own post on tumblr dot com.

Obligatory title character Sebastian aside, everyone featured is part of the Phantomhive family by blood or marriage...and then there���s Undertaker.  And while you could certainly argue that he’s just there as a parallel to Sebastian alongside the twins, I’m not sure that’s all there is to it?? Like, much as I love Frances and Alexis, they’re a pretty deep cut for merch, y’know? Unless of course, there’s an intentional reason to include this roster of characters to the exclusion of more popular picks like Grelle or Charles Grey who are all over the rest of the anniversary goods...

What I’m trying to say is...I’m tagging @abybweisse here in case this makes you 👀👀👀 over the UT=CKR implications as much as I did. (I apologize terribly if this is bothersome ^^)

See, now this discussion is making ME think that if this happens it paradoxically will secure Bard’s loyalty and respect for Sebastian.  The demon seems to like when humans surprise him, whether it be through physical ability like Mey Rin’s eyes, or through resilience that goes against his meager-but-frequently-correct expectations of human behavior.  Perhaps if this event does happen, Bard will finally come around to being part of the Phantomhive staff not by having his spirit broken by the news, but by accepting that the past is the past...

Ch177, Harsh reality check ahead?

@fwippysays and @plague-of-insomnia have been making me think harder. 😆 (See this post and its comment notes.)

Instead of Sebastian finding Bard’s family and providing them with funds, saying it’s thanks to Bard’s new employment (or whatever), it could be that Sebastian is tasked to look for them and report back his findings… without necessarily making any contact with them.

Sebastian could return with the news that Bard’s been reported dead (KIA), his wife has already remarried (might have left a while ago, found another man, and was just waiting for that sort of news), and his son now calls someone else “dad”.

Then it would be a matter of Sebastian giving Bard/Baldo the harsh reality check that his family has moved on without him and is better off without him, so he has no reason to return to the States. If Bard demands proof, I’m sure Sebastian could supply some. Or at least “proof enough” for Bard to accept it.

This would be a bit like Sebastian telling Soma how he’s just a spoiled brat… or how “Rin” would have to run for the rest of her life, if she refused employment at Phantomhive Manor, simply because Qīng Bāng wouldn’t let her simply leave.

Instead of getting Bard’s loyalty from an assignment like this, Sebastian might just break Bard’s spirit. As far as our earl and Sebastian are concerned, that’s probably a good start. Without a family to call his own anymore, Bard would be more open to accepting a new one.

Glad to be of some amusement ^^!  Honestly, I feel as though the entire anime can be summed up with the following image:

(Sorry in advance for more an*me talk) You had mentioned a little while ago that Yana may have gotten a small dig in against the s2 anime writers when Sebastian was differentiating himself from baser demons who betray their contractees. Do you think Undertaker's line in the Campania arc about how one person can never make another's soul their own was also a subtle jab at how, er, totally nutso s2 got with regard to souls-being-put-in-inanimate-objects-and-shoved-into-other-people's-bodies?

Dear Anon,

Ahhh, I do remember referring to this brilliant post by @pudeprinsesse in a relatively recent post of myself, but I just can't find/remember which it was, hahaha. But, regardless!!

Do you mean this line? (I translated this one myself because the English scanlation I found said nonsense.)

Yana is a master at diplomatic roasting, so yeah, I indeed don’t put this line being a roast past her (;;≽▽≼;;) A series created in association with her name which SO blatantly disrespects her work deserves to be roasted.

I mean... for example, the series exists only because of the contract, and Yana made clear it is a strong, draconian, magical bond in her world. The S2 creators heard “draconian bond” and thought: “That’s the same as a pinky swear between toddlers right?”

Related posts:

Characters of Season II…. what?!?!

More angry rants about the anime seasons I and II

My ratings for the Kuroshitsuji animes

Would I support a new faithful adaptation of Kuroshitsuji?

Yana’s opinion on the anime

SebaCiel and the anime’s populism

Would I have preferred S2 if it focused on the new characters?

My vote goes to Circus as well 🎪

In your kuromyu21 review, you mention kuromyus adding depth to the manga story. I would like to ask you about those additions. Actually, about all story additions, aberhanks included. Could you rate them? Like maybe when stage adaptation hurts story in same way, dasn’t give it justice, or when it fleshes out or portray same aspects of it better?

【Response to: Full review Kuromyu 2021】

Dear Anon,

I would be very happy to answer you, but if I really were to do so for all story additions of all (Furukawa Era) Kuromyus, the post might end up becoming a book-worth of text.

May I perhaps ask you to give me one particular musical you are most interested in for me to write about? Or perhaps we could do a democratic voting?

Anon, this is your ask so if you prefer to have the ultimate say that’s entirely fine too! Let me know what you prefer! (Nobody will accuse you of autocracy XD)

While I’m totally with you @abybweisse that “Lord Sirius” covers both twins for all the reasons you and OP describe above, I’m going to have to majorly disagree about the point of R!C’s exchange with Polaris- I think it’s a far more important and plot-critical conversation than just “keep mum for the cops.” (this is going to be Long and I apologize in advance for my inability to be brief)

While R!C did float Polaris as a potential butler candidate, given that he also asked if UT would do it, I think we can safely assume that R!C’s main butler criteria at the moment is strength and fighting ability rather than actual...butler stuff.  Polaris does have strength in spades, but as he’s also an unstable fanatic I don’t see him as the kind of guy R!C would want the Yard to even know exists, let alone testify in front of them or converse with the Midfords.*

More importantly, the conversation between R!C and Polaris in Chapter 169 doesn’t really make much sense if we view it as being about maintaining the subterfuge about O!C and Sphere Music Hall.  But if we view it from the perspective that O!C really is Lord Sirius as far as the cult’s concerned, then not only is it comprehensible, but it also lets us, the readers, in on what R!C and UT’s goals are.

Basically, I think that R!C is pointing out that Polaris has lost the script, so to speak, and that his worries about “Radiance for Lord Sirius” are misplaced.

Let’s first look at the gist of the conversation at face value (I’m using text in [brackets] to indicate my understanding of what the characters are actually talking about):

(1)Polaris: The Yorkshire blood facility has been destroyed ;_;

(2)R!C: That’s good because my brother is fighting XD

(3)Polaris: Graaahh nooo! It is Bad because we need to get the radiance for Lord Sirius! [It is Bad because we need to give blood to Lord Sirius.   Radiance for Lord Sirius means Blood for Real Ciel] I will kill them all!!

(4)R!C: Polaris, remember that I’m not Lord Sirius, that’s my brother now. You’‘re not looking well and should rest now, since you’re unstable even with a readily-available blood supply.

(5)Polaris: I’m sorry Lord Ciel, but I couldn’t stand to lose my master again, for I am a butler even in death.

__________________________________________________________

If we take line (4) to be “Remember Polaris, we need to keep our story straight for the Yard, also you should rest etc” then Polaris’ response in line (5) is a complete non-sequitur.  However, if we focus on what “Radiance” means, then a far different picture emerges.

In the beginning of the Blue Cult arc, Blavat talks about how Lord Sirius is a brilliant star with unparalleled radiance.  He also mentions to O!C in disguise that he has an incredible radiance that’s in danger of being extinguished by Sebastian.  Since Blavat knew what was really going on with O!C and Sebastian the whole time, we can safely assume that the “radiance” he was talking about wasn’t O!C’s rare blood type, but rather his soul- the same soul that’s visually depicted as a star in the “black hole Sebastian” panel, as well as in many of O!C’s birthday illustrations (where, conspicuously, it’s a blue star).  It’s an absolutely brilliant bit of doublespeak- just as “Lord Sirius” covers both twins, “radiance” covers both the blood R!C needs to live and the soul O!C needs to live.  Because O!C doesn’t realize this, he’ll keep investigating Sphere and walk right into being framed, thereby playing directly into R!C’s hands.

I’ll say right now that I put 0 stock into the RCMT, and I full believe R!C and UT’s goals align: that is to say, Sebastian has to be eliminated so O!C’s soul won’t be devoured and he won’t die.**  UT has stated this clearly in the text on more than one occasion, and R!C says to Sebastian that he’ll “be leaving soon” when he’s fighting UT and Grelle on the stairs right before the Yard bursts into the manor, so I think we can still safely assume that they want to get rid of Sebastian.  

If we look back at the arc words “All is for the blue star” to mean “Everything is for the sake of O!C’s soul,” then we can re-diagram the end of the conversation in Chapter 169 as follows:

(1)Polaris: The Yorkshire blood facility has been destroyed ;_;

(2)R!C: That’s good because my brother is fighting XD

(3)Polaris: Graaahh nooo! It is Bad because we need to get the radiance for Lord Sirius! [It is Bad because we need to give blood to Lord Sirius.   Radiance for Lord Sirius means Blood for Real Ciel] I will kill them all!!

(4)R!C: Polaris, remember that I’m not Lord Sirius, that’s my brother now [I am not the goal here, that’s my brother.  Lord Sirius is my brother, and Radiance for Lord Sirius means his soul will not be devoured.  I need blood in order to function as a means to an end so that we can save Lord Sirius, my brother, and protect his soul.  This is the intended outcome and I am happy]. You’‘re not looking well and should rest now, since you’re unstable even with a readily-available blood supply.

(5)Polaris: I’m sorry Lord Ciel, but I couldn’t stand to lose my master again for I am a butler even in death. [Even if your brother’s salvation is our ultimate goal, without blood you will still die again and I cannot stand to lose you, that is why I am crying right now]***

______________________________________________________________

To me, at least, this makes much more sense.  Now, as to whether any of this indicates that O!C’s name actually is Sirius?  I have no idea.

*This is getting a bit besides my point here, but there’s also the issue of what the purpose of Polaris and the other two (and a half?) star lords even is.  There’s been a lot of discussion here on Tumblr about the other lords being people important to O!C, but what would bringing Joker, Doll, or Madam Red back add to the narrative at this point when O!C has already steeled his resolve to fight back against his brother?   We do know Polaris and Vega are functioning as blood jockeys for R!C at the moment- this is stated plainly in Chapter 151- and if there’s anything in the text to suggest that they’re meant to be anything more than that (besides mayyybe new advanced BD prototypes, but that’s still conjecture for now), I’m not seeing it.

**I have a long, Loooong (over 5k words!!) post going into more detail about how I’m reading R!C’s motivations on my blog, so I don’t want to go too much into that here, but suffice it to say: No, I don’t think he’s fighting with his brother with the intent of ruining his life, but rather with the intent of saving him (and he’s wrong and is a colossal dumbass for doing so, but this is what makes him compelling as a character)

***Why is R!C so chill about potentially shriveling up and dying again when he also seems to be serious about intending to live on as the Watchdog? Idk!  Perhaps he’s banking on UT finding some solution to his little blood problem before that happens?  Perhaps we’ll even get more on that front next time we see them (Is his lack of progress on that front why UT’s been so fidgety and tired-looking lately? Who knows??)

Reasons why I think o!ciel’s real name is Sirius:

Sirius is the name of the brightest star in the night sky, which also goes by the title “Dog Star”. It’s often tied to dogs in general. It’s a beautiful way to parallel the job of being the Queen’s Watchdog

r!ciel went by the name of “Lord Sirius” during the boy band arc. it would be just the right type of petty for r!ciel to parade around with o!ciel’s real name after his brother went years stealing his identity.

lmao adding to that is this fuckin line from chapter 169:

Sirius was thought of to be one star before astrologists developed strong enough telescopes and it was discovered in 1862 to actually be two stars. the parallel of this to the story is uncanny

a stretch, but Yana may have placed hints of his name as early as the Campania arc; the ship was sailing on the “Blue Star Line”; the larger star, Sirius A, is a blue-white star.

I’ll add more to this if I come up on anything else this reread

I’m tagging @abybweisse in this because of the first picture- don’t the pants on the model in the center look exactly like what UT’s wearing in the current Funtom Hotel Black Label promotion (like so)? This is apparently from around 1850, which would be around the time UT had established himself back in the living world, and when Claudia gave birth to Vincent- is Yana trying to tell us something here?

I don’t know if I can contain my “The Muppet Christmas Carol has better costume design than most Oscar-nominated period dramas” rant until after Thanksgiving you guys, I have…so many Thoughts

Thank you so much for your excellent-as-always analysis @chibimyumi!

That said, I need to apologize for the lack of clarity in my second reply in your post.  I could just blame tumblr’s character limit, but the fact of the matter was that in my carelessness I ended up making a “null object” statement, so to speak m (-__-) m

You’ve already pointed out exactly how Sebastian was lying to O!C about him being an active participant in his brother’s sacrifice, and how his predisposition for self-loathing prevented him from questioning the obvious inconsistencies between the demon’s statement and the reality of the cultists’ involvement, even though he didn’t actually go as far as accusing Sebastian of lying to him in that instance.  The part about “not believing a lie when it’s too good to be true” that I offhandedly mentioned was in reference to Sebastian’s subsequent offer to bring R!C back from the dead, which O!C of course immediately challenges him on.  From now on, I’ll definitely have to be more mindful of my wording!

You do bring up a really important point about the introduced inconsistencies in the English version, though- to the extent where I’m wondering where else this kind of misrepresentation of intent has occurred.  At this point it should be no surprise that I’m always interested in cracking open R!C’s psyche like a walnut, so in particular I’m wondering about his line early on in chapter 141- off the top of my head I recall it being translated as something along the lines of “While it’s true that I abandoned you by dying [emphasis mine], I’m so happy to see you now.”  I had been interpreting that line as having, to some degree, a parallel sense of unfounded active culpability on R!C’s part for what happened to his brother, but thinking about it now it may very well be the case that this was a far more neutral statement in the original Japanese, and I’ve just been reading too much into it due to my own biases (and because I think it would be super-fantastically tragic if both these kids hate being powerless so much that they’d rather ascribe actively malicious agency to themselves than admit that there’s no easy target to blame for the horrors that befell them).

...Although at this point I feel I’m just piling an infinite amount of gratis analysis on you, so please feel free to ignore

Hello and thank you for all your contribution to the Black Butler fandom!

Regarding chapter 137, when Sebastian enters the human world, I wanted to ask what you thought about the demon’s exaplantion for his summoning, more specifically, about when he told the remaining twin that he had sacrificed his brother for him to cross over. I am curious whether you believe that to be a lie or a misunderstanding on the demon’s part or something else? The way I see it, Sebastian wasn’t lying, but I would like to know what you or maybe part of the fandom, if you know, thought about those moments.

Dear Anon,

Aww thanks for the kind words ^^

Surely a very interesting question! I think the official English translators left some space for interpretation, and I find it no surprise people would wonder about that. In the Original Japanese however, I really would say Sebas was in fact lying. Or actually better said, “presenting an event” in a twisted way to manipulate the poor boy.

My apologies for people who have been following me for a while now, but for first-timers, Japanese is a null-subject language, meaning that a subject is not necessary to form a complete sentence. If you do add an subject, you draw special emphasis to it.

In this first bubble Sebas says:

貴方が悪魔を召喚する為に支払った代償は

Anata ga watashi wo shoukan suru tame ni shiharatta daishou wa

The price YOU paid to summon me is

Because here Sebas did add a subject, the subject [you] is emphasised.

Secondly, there is the verb “shiharatta”, meaning “paid”. In this sentence, “paid” is not the passive term, but active. Meaning that Sebas here actively means O!Ciel went through the motion of paying a price. In combination with the emphasised subject and the active verb, Sebas here specifically stresses “you actively paid for summoning me”, implying responsibility to lie with the boy.

Then as though the injury is not bad enough, Trash Demon™ adds insult to it.

肉親を生け贄にするとは随分と思い切った事を

Nikushin wo ikenie ni suru to wa zuibun to omoikitta koto wo

To turn your own blood relative into a live sacrifice, you sure made a drastic move

The first part “wo ikenie ni suru” is a very active verb, meaning that somebody actively turned somebody into a live sacrifice; that is to say that this sacrifice did not passively happen to them. Then to finish the sentence, Sebas adds another ‘wo’, which is an active verb particle. By adding this particle, Sebas lays double emphasis on O!Ciel having actively made a drastic move himself, again laying the responsibility into the boy’s hands.

う…嘘だ、ぼ…僕がシエルを生け贄にしたなんて…

u…uso da, bo…boku ga Ciel wo ikenie ni shita nante…

O!Ciel protests, saying “i…it’s a lie, that I turned Ciel into a live sacrifice…” also repeating the active verbs Sebas used. And Sebas mercilessly responded: “事実です”,  it is true.

Japanese is a very context-heavy and subtle language wherein nuances and emphases are added because they should mean something. For Sebas (or Yana) who is so incredibly eloquent and precise with vocabulary, him actively choosing these words can only mean that he deliberately wished to put the responsibility for R!Ciel’s death into O!Ciel’s hands, making him be overcome with guilt.

Obviously O!Ciel never made any choice for all this to happen, and everything happened because the cult members decided so. Hence, by saying otherwise, Sebas lied.

I hope this helped ^^ Sorry I kinda destroyed any interpretive liberty for this part…because that really would have been interesting too!