One thing that really struck me in Chapter 140 is the
juxtaposition between Sebastian’s arrogance at the start of the contract and
his anxiety in the present. Look at this:
He’s so sure of himself here. He thinks this contract will be nothing
– that he’ll bow to the whims of a child for awhile before going home again having had
a good meal and a bit of a laugh. This is a game for him. What could possibly go wrong?
But here:
Here his cockiness has all but vanished. A soul he’d long since consumed has come back to life, his friend(?) is dead, and now he has to face the reaper he’s already lost to twice. Then of course there’s his physical appearance: he’s soaking wet and his hair is dishevelled – not at all the immaculate Sebastian from the past.
By this point in the series Sebastian has already tasted failure a number of times and almost lost his master on several occasions more. There’s been signs of Sebastian’s confidence wavering for awhile now, but never has it been as clear as in this chapter. He’s on high alert, he’s anxious, and I’m going to make a bold claim here: Sebastian Michaelis is frightened.
Sebastian’s character has been developing extraordinarily slowly for a main character, but when you look at chapters like this one you can see just how much he’s changed. He’s still overly arrogant and is the literal embodiment of secondhand embarrassment, but he’s clearly learning that he can’t throw cutlery at every problem that arises and expect certain victory.
midnight-in-town 