I actually wonder if the bad condition of RC’s body, i.e. the severe damages in his intestines caused by OC’s struggle of getting the ring, has something to do with the fact that RC (aka Lord Sirius) was dependent on blood transfusion…?
The way our Ciel is getting the Phantomhive ring is really tragic. I mean, it’s already terrible that the ring must be taken out of real Ciel’s dead body. But what makes it even more painful is that our Ciel wants to do that himself because he believes it’s his duty…
…but then he fails to do it!
And that must be really hard on him. The thought of taking the ring out of his brother’s body himself is surely a horrible one. Our Ciel is trembling when taking the knife and of course that’s totally understandable.
But he doesn’t want anyone to touch his twin again and as his brother (and as the one who wants to take over as Earl Phantomhive) he’s determined that he must be the one to do that terrible act himself.
So he’s going through that, as well, but in the end he can’t do it himself and Sebastian must retrieve the ring for him.
Our Ciel must feel even worse here.
However, it’s also a lesson for him and he seems to understand that.
gosh I just noticed that he also closed his twin’s eyes…
which is a significant gesture imo since the twin passed away + maybe Ciel didn’t want his twin to be a (dead) witness to what he was about to do. ;_;
this, though. This is so important, because it’s so true. I don’t know exactly how long our!Ciel managed to “remain” his twin and live this life allegedly only for his sake, but it’s been a while now that “Earl Ciel Phantomhive” became way more about him than his brother.
The proof is:
the difference between ch137
and ch95, which is almost 4 years after real!Ciel’s death.
That’s why I still think that we will never learn his real identity because…
he really did become Ciel Phantomhive overtime and it’s not even just a throwback to survivor’s guilt that started it all. After all, it’s impossible to make your real self disappear and pretend to be someone you’re not, so, that’s why the current “Earl Ciel Phantomhive” stopped being about his brother to become about him instead.
…This flashback is really setting up a confrontation between the two brothers, isn’t it?
It’s a way to show us that the Ciel of 4 years ago who agreed to the contract after thinking his older brother sacrificed himself for him did become a different person after 4 years (when the twin most likely didn’t).
Reblogging ‘cause I got a few questions and so I just want to precise that personally I really think that Ciel didn’t become his brother. He definitely tried since it was a decision motivated by survivor’s guilt, which is what he was telling Seb in the new chapter, but where we are four years later it’s obvious that it didn’t happen in my opinion.
That doesn’t mean he solved any part of his trauma that triggered his decision to become “Ciel Phantomhive” (like survivor’s guilt), not when you see the GW arc for example, but rather that unconsciously he didn’t succeed in erasing himself to become his brother.
You can see that it’s hinted in his change of speech in ch95 as I pointed out above, but also on small details like…
since it was implied more than once that our!Ciel was possibly more selfless/kinder than his brother (in ch132, and you have other examples here). The Funtom corporation, his asthma, or the fact chocolate cake still is his favorite are other little hints in my opinion.
So…
the fact the twins were presented to mirror each other, despite being different otherwise, is particularly interesting in this particular case of symbolism, because right now, we’ve got two “Ciel Phantomhive”s:
the real/original one (the twin) who died 4 years ago,
and the fake one (our!Ciel) who tried to become his brother but failed and thus made “Earl Ciel Phantomhive” according to his own image => “the lie eventually became the truth” (or will, if our!Ciel reaffirms once more that it is his one and only identity).
That’s why I really think that a confrontation is coming: all that happened to our!Ciel until now made him grow into his own person, who’s neither the brother real!Ciel possibly expects nor the boy our!Ciel himself tried to impersonate.
this, though. This is so important, because it’s so true. I don’t know exactly how long our!Ciel managed to “remain” his twin and live this life allegedly only for his sake, but it’s been a while now that “Earl Ciel Phantomhive” became way more about him than his brother.
The proof is:
the difference between ch137
and ch95, which is almost 4 years after real!Ciel’s death.
That’s why I still think that we will never learn his real identity because…
he really did become Ciel Phantomhive overtime and it’s not even just a throwback to survivor’s guilt that started it all. After all, it’s impossible to make your real self disappear and pretend to be someone you’re not, so, that’s why the current “Earl Ciel Phantomhive” stopped being about his brother to become about him instead.
…This flashback is really setting up a confrontation between the two brothers, isn’t it?
It’s a way to show us that the Ciel of 4 years ago who agreed to the contract after thinking his older brother sacrificed himself for him did become a different person after 4 years (when the twin most likely didn’t).
demon: *presents facts about human metabolism*
Ciel: No, I Believe™
He Still Has It
demon: u got a point
From Ann’s cinematic record vs ch131: I actually love Ann’s memory more because you can read about Vincent literally saying he wanted to play with the kids (leaving the rest of his work to Tanaka lmao xDD poor Tanaka, something tells me this happened often) and you can even see Lizzie on the left panel holding her arms up and asking Vincent for a hug.
AND THIS IS SO CUTE OKAY.
Seriously I just love that Vincent was depicted to be a good dad, because tbh Ciel’s daddy issues could have given us the wrong idea sometimes. So yeah, I just love how Vincent wanted to play with his kiddos, how he kept Ciel’s tiny hand in his that one time they all went out (and met Kelvin), hardly ever letting go because Ciel was afraid of all the unknown crowd:
Even bigger kudos to Vincent for not being ashamed to convey concepts such as this (despite his job being to kill for the Queen), because that 100% suits the rather peculiar environment he was raised in…
his mother, a noble lady, who was the Queen’s Watchdog and possibly head of the family before him
the house butler, whom he most likely knew ever since his childhood and who became his and his sister’s parental figure after his mom died, probably was a Japanese ex-samurai/mercenary/warrior
…which means he never was ashamed of his family being different from what was supposedly typical of/normal for the time era and that’s amazing. And frankly, I know he has daddy issues but…
I’m really glad Ciel agrees and shares this concept too.
Maybe it’s just me reading too much into this, but the way this is written/translated is giving me the feeling that, unlike the fake memories from the Campania arc, UT possibly isn’t the one who extracted those “episodes” (even if he’s the one who added them to the records)…
…If it’s true though, then this could further solidify the idea that he’s possibly not the only supernatural being involved with bringing back the dead…
Might I hop in with a bit of anime comparison? Because I think this is an excellent point, and not reading too much at all!
I hadn’t even considered that he might not be the one who extracted the episodes, but it would fit perfectly with the idea of another supernatural (especially an angel,)
being involved! Since in season 1 we saw Undertaker able to pause and then edit people’s records with his bookmark and pen (a sort of precursor to what we saw in the manga with his cutting false records into place), it also holds that we might see in the manga a parallel to Ash and Angela’s ability to alter a human’s heart and change their records in a way we never saw Undertaker as capable of doing.
In the Dispatch Library episode (ep 18) we see Angela try to alter Ciel’s perspective of his memories through editing his cinematic record, a power that William says is unique to angels. Not even god can change the past (which means Undertaker can’t rewrite previous sections of a record, only add more to the end), but angels can give a false sense of peace. (Interestingly, if this process is interrupted, it can create an incomplete human being). During the final episode we see Ash harness the power of human hearts in order to complete that bridge, which Undertaker says comprise of the soul’s emotions. Craving for the future is a sort of emotional state, no? And we’ve seen RC come back quite changed from who he was, as if all his emotions have been amplified, re-evaluated, just as Angela tried to do to Ciel (although she tried to erase his hatred while RC seems more violent).
And the best thing about it being hearts specifically? That’s exactly what Blavat and OC were on about winning from each other when OC stole part of Blavat’s audience to force more deaths, which lends itself well to foreshadowing hearts and emotions being a tangible substance to be manipulated by supernatural beings. Also, I think it’s worth noting how central hearts are in that image accompaniment to Undertaker’s explanation. (in the Campania arc too, he makes a heart shape with his hands…)
Hi! I haven’t read 138 so everything I tell you is based on what I read in passing from other blogs haha.
That’s an interesting theory you have! It’d make sense if the cloaked figure (a demon, shinigami, etc.) reached the body in time and vored consumed it to prevent farther damage. I personally don’t think that’s the case because RC would already be dead at that point- all the person could do was prevent more decay and they could do that by freezing him, etc.
But I like your theory and would be pleasantly surprised if it was the case 🙂
Are you perhaps asking about what Sensei said here? Because if so, what she literally said was:
It’s not a generality regarding her drawing style, it’s just for these 4, which means that the same doesn’t go for the twins. In other words:
Lizzie => takes after Alexis
Edward
=> takes after Frances who takes after Cedric K. Ros
EDIT: the twins => were described to be a mix of their parents in canon but I do think they appear to take more after Vincent than Rachel (Vincent who takes after Claudia)
Aaaaaand actually maybe the twins taking after Vincent (and thus Claudia) is why Othello said…
because the last time he was in the human world (“50 years ago”), Claudia was still alive. :3
While talking to @shinigami-mistress about the current chapter we were wondering about how the negotiation over the contract between Ciel and Sebastian would have went if the twins’ roles would have been reversed – if our Ciel had died on the altar and real Ciel had survived.
While both twins are quite clever I’m not sure if the result would have been the same as with our Ciel.
When our Ciel asked Sebastian whether it’s possible for him to revive a dead person Sebastian offers this:
Our Ciel realizes that Sebastian can only make him believe that his twin is still alive and doesn’t want that.
But would real Ciel have rejected that, too? We know that real Ciel was quite clingy to our Ciel. Just think of his reaction when our Ciel told him about his wish to open a toy shop and therefore not planning to always stay at his twin’s side.
If the prospect of not being together all the time already made real Ciel so sad how bad would it have been if our Ciel had really died? So maybe if real Ciel had been the one to survive and had been offered by Sebastian to live a lie believing his dead brother to still be alive, he may have accepted that and taken that chance to still be with our Ciel, even if it’s only in his head.
The contract would have been quite different then and to Sebastian it may have just been another (boring) contract. Just look at his reaction to our Ciel asking him whether he’s able to bring someone back to life (left) in comparison to when our Ciel proves to have realized the truth (right). I think that’s when Sebastian’s interest in our Ciel is attracted.
Real!Ciel might have preferred just to live in a fantasy where he had his brother where our!Ciel recognized the truth.
What’s interesting to me, is I think that Sebastian initially lumped our!Ciel in with the cult members to a degree (I brought this up here), and he probably assumed they had similar wants. The cultists wanted things like wealth, power, health, etc. All boring wants for a demon…but our!Ciel was very different.
Then you have the moment that @thedarkestcrow pointed out. It was at that moment that Sebastian realized just how different our!Ciel truly was. He’s just gone through horrible trauma, yet he’s able to think and act rationally. Besides, our!Ciel isn’t interested in illusions or appearances.
midnight-in-town 