I think most of the cast who didn’t know OCiel before he became ‘Ciel Phantomhive’ will stand up for him! And luckily, that is the vast majority of Kuro’s character-list. The only reason the 2CT worked is because most MCs are not OCiel’s past friends or family.
So you can basically say everyone in that room who saw him got arrested? They are less likely to side with OCiel… at first. But everyone outside of it? Well that’s basically the people who have reason to side with him. They didn’t know RC, it means way less to them.
Excluding:
Frances (because she’s complex and Yana’s obviously withholding her for reasons rn)
Lau (does Lau even know what’s going on ever, does he even know OCiel’s name isn’t ‘Earl’)
But yeah that is a generalization, I’m sure there will be a mixed-bag of reactions.
frances has been realistic about the twins’ situation from day one, and maybe that makes her come across as harsh, but it’d be counter-productive to pretend ociel wasn’t the second in line, wasn’t sickly, wasn’t going to struggle to fill his brother’s shoes if he needed to (without the aid of a magical demon butler).
I was proud of her for realizing that her love was an illusion she used to comfort herself, but I also feel it was only a partial revelation and another one will be coming, and I’m excited for it. Lizzie is a Good Female Character, I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.
See, illusions have always been a calling card for Lizzie’s character, in that she’s lied about who she is as well to get Ciel to like her by pretending to be weak. I hope she realizes that the situations are basically inverses of each other soon, because she needs to. R!Ciel is an illusion himself right now, probably not actually alive (I think?), and also his persona is most likely an illusion itself. The only thing that’s real about him is his name.
I am also glad she does not see the twins as interchangeable (thank God) and also realizes that she doesn’t really love or know R!Ciel. I think that will be vital as well, because R!Ciel is still dead somehow and also is currently acting truly awful and quite possibly was manipulated into having his family attacked. She didn’t know O!Ciel’s true identity, of course, but I do think she knew quite a bit more of him than she ever knew of R!Ciel. Yes, there are things he keeps from her, quite a bit of them, and that’s wrong, but I don’t feel like everything is a lie. It’s up to her to decide whether or not that matters. I hope it will.
The illusions idea ties into the theme of conforming to expectations vs being yourself, which has been a persistent theme in Black Butler with Sieglinde, O!Ciel, Lizzie, etc. They all have roles they see themselves as needing to fill, but these roles are really prisons that limit them from truly realizing their own power and how close they can become with other people. Soma ties into this as well, but he’s done a far better job of escaping from it currently, which is why I really hope he has A Talk with Sieglinde and Lizzie when he realizes R!Ciel killed Agni and not O!Ciel. But the manga is also fairly sympathetic to the idea of expectations because you don’t really have a choice about the role you’re born into, but it’s not really responsible to just shrug it off either. So there’s a tension there and I think Lizzie is starting to explore just that.
So…after reading the chapter, I haven’t come away with so many emotions in while. And I just need to address that I love Toboso-sensei so much for this Lizzie centered chapter because it really showcased how complex she is.
Lizzie coming to terms with her feelings and realizing she may not have real love for RCiel was something I was not expecting. I think she’s grown from that childhood obsession to burgeoning adulthood. She can begin to separate truth and lies. And though she’s “shattered,” as it was put, I think sometimes people need that harsh realization before they can mend themselves and grow from it.
Believing she’s a terrible person for hoping RCiel would come back addressed that question that OCiel had in the beginning: Would people be disappointed it’s me? Apparently yes. But at least Lizzie owns up to it and doesn’t want to feel that way. She wants to grow so much and be a better person.
In parallel, her growth reminded me how Madam Red never realized her feelings for Vincent were a childhood obsession – not real love. Madam also wished Vincent had come back instead of Ciel. She never got over that part of her life and became part of what led to her downfall. But Lizzie’s capacity to understand what’s in front of her could save her and encourage that keen sense of her mother.
(Also, Edward addressing God about putting Lizzie through this gave me flashbacks to the manga’s beginning.)
All in all. I teared up at the end.
Predictions: Lizzie’s a badass and will be more so in later chapters. I hope she realizes she has feelings for OCiel and helps him – whether its romantic, or friendship. (I’m hoping familial friendship. I don’t want Lizzie going through more pain).
Additional thoughts on Kuroshitsuji chapter 144
As the character who has been most explicit in showing romantic affection, it must equally be the most shameful to her, that ironically she showed this very affection to the wrong person.
The main
theme to Lizzie as a person is her doubt regarding the truthfulness of her
love.
The parallel drawn between Lizzie and Madam Red was something that was particularly interesting to me, because where this current arc regarding Lizzie is headed towards shows the good
potential to a complex story about human relationships that most teenager-centred stories fail to. (How many are about star-crossed lovers, or initial dislike until suddenly hit by a hormone-lightning? Ugh…)
As stated by Yana-sensei herself in her old blog, as Vincent is a post-mortem character, she draws him differently depending on in whose memories he is being retold.
Speaking of papa, Ciel’s papa has made a brief appearance in the latest volume [Volume 9], and I have been trying my best to draw him differently depending on from whose memory he is being recollected. (Whether I succeeded or not I don’t know)
Madam → The kind-hearted man she wants to forget Ciel
→
The kind-hearted father Baron Kelvin
→
An evil man with deceptive gentle looks Tanaka
→
The Evil Nobleman Earl Phantomhive
So going back to Madam Red, we do indeed see in chapter 10, how she did not really remember Vincent for who he was, but rather who she wanted him to be in relation to herself.
Please notice how Vincent was never in full, clear view, or even in the centre of her memories. This tells us that the centre of Madam’s focus was her sister’s position as Vincent’s bride she had hoped to be.
In the end, even though she did not know who, Madam still blamed someone or something for her ill fate and is overcome with jealousy. The only person she did not blame, was herself.
This draws a very clear juxtaposition with Lizzie, who has primarily been blaming herself. Lizzie even loathed herself for so much as having thoughts of blaming Our!Ciel for the situation. That she is successfully deceived by Our!Ciel just meant that she failed the ‘true-love test’.
In chapter 144, Lizzie is still too overcome with self-loath to consider the situation from outside her own perspective (and given that she is 15, it is not so weird!). But once she has sorted out her own feelings, she might start to consider Our!Ciel’s side of the story.
Perhaps a stretch, but the final page of chapter 144 is already pretty good a lead-up towards Lizzie comparing herself to Our!Ciel and therewith perhaps consider his perspective too, after all.
The relation between Lizzie and Our!Ciel might end up being them sharing something ‘fake’; but sharing a secret is quite intimate and does not have to be a bad ingredient for a close bond.
In contrast to Madam Red, Lizzie has a much fuller grasp of who Our!Ciel is (despite ironically not having known who he was).
So, all in all, though it might be twisted, I really am looking forward to a
very twisted, distorted relationship (romantic or otherwise) that Lizzie and Our!Ciell will
have to rebuild.
Please! Give me this any time, please. Enough with star-crossed lovers, tsundere-relationships or obsessive abuse euphemistically called romantic jealousy!
They announced it :O (x)!!! If I understand it right there will be really a 2nd movie and these are the actors who play Touka (Maika Yamamoto instead of Fumika Shimizu), Kaneki (Masataka Kubota like in the first film) and Tsukiyama (Shota Matsuda).
I was wondering why I was having so many “ch14″ vibes with the latest chapters and I guess now I know why. Because recently aren’t we, like, exactly there?
It’s the same as with UT’s foreshadowing words in ch35, but even better because it comes from Seb and Seb is constantly by Ciel’s side.
And do you remember what Seb also said, after he conveniently predicted that Ciel would sometimes need to “carry himself with humility” because he can be overconfident leading to him tripping up?
How interesting when more and more fans agree to the idea that Frances’ absence lately, when the rest of the family showed up, could be because she’s the only one (besides Tanaka and UT) who already knew about our!Ciel lying. :)) [x][x][x][x][x]
Additional thought is additional (and theoretical) but:
Until now I thought that this advice, also very relevant to the latest development, is something that our!Ciel heard her say to real!Ciel during a fencing lesson or something, but as it turned out, the flashback never addressed it.
Of course, maybe Sensei wrote that bubble but it’s not supposed to be meaningful on the long run, except that it’s kinda Ciel’s strategy towards getting revenge for the last 3 years, so
personally
I’d call it significant…
And that’s why I can’t help but think that maybe our!Ciel is really the one Frances said that to, possibly during a very rare fencing lesson or, who knows, during a chess game?
TL;DR still vouching for Frances having a role to play in the current arc, either towards Lizzie or our!Ciel (or both), + still vouching overall for some sort of mentor dynamic between her and our!Ciel, because there are just so many parallels (probably both the spare to their elder brothers, both lost the same family members because of the Watchdog’s duty, etc).
And Seb genuinely seems to enjoy the idea, which is even more interesting.
Listen
Everytime I’m reminded that Sensei possibly didn’t forget about ch14, I’m living.
I was wondering why I was having so many “ch14″ vibes with the latest chapters and I guess now I know why. Because recently aren’t we, like, exactly there?
It’s the same as with UT’s foreshadowing words in ch35, but even better because it comes from Seb and Seb is constantly by Ciel’s side.
And do you remember what Seb also said, after he conveniently predicted that Ciel would sometimes need to “carry himself with humility” because he can be overconfident leading to him tripping up?
How interesting when more and more fans agree to the idea that Frances’ absence lately, when the rest of the family showed up, could be because she’s the only one (besides Tanaka and UT) who already knew about our!Ciel lying. :)) [x][x][x][x][x]
Additional thought is additional (and theoretical) but:
Until now I thought that this advice, also very relevant to the latest development, is something that our!Ciel heard her say to real!Ciel during a fencing lesson or something, but as it turned out, the flashback never addressed it.
Of course, maybe Sensei wrote that bubble but it’s not supposed to be meaningful on the long run, except that it’s kinda Ciel’s strategy towards getting revenge for the last 3 years, so
personally
I’d call it significant…
And that’s why I can’t help but think that maybe our!Ciel is really the one Frances said that to, possibly during a very rare fencing lesson or, who knows, during a chess game?
TL;DR still vouching for Frances having a role to play in the current arc, either towards Lizzie or our!Ciel (or both), + still vouching overall for some sort of mentor dynamic between her and our!Ciel, because there are just so many parallels (probably both the spare to their elder brothers, both lost the same family members because of the Watchdog’s duty, etc).
And Seb genuinely seems to enjoy the idea, which is even more interesting.
midnight-in-town 