Just to point out that nothing was explained about the current arc with the newest chapter, which is once again reinforcing (for me) the idea that this arc might not just be about UT’s shenanigans.
Ch141 tells us that real!Ciel went through all of UT’s experiments that concluded in the Campania
and Weston arcs
for other bizarre dolls besides him.
The question now is how we went from UT’s coffin and the Weston arc to…
real!Ciel becoming “Lord Sirius”/”the blue star”. This is something that UT didn’t explain, without mentioning that, if bringing back the twin was the first goal of the bizarre doll project, then who the hell mass produced the idea (?) through the blue sect?
UT may not have had the time nor the need to make it a business as I pointed out before, especially since he was apparently
really focusing on the twin, which also seems to be logical when we listen to Othello said in ch119/125:
Any thoughts/ideas? At first I thought it was a mistake and Yana simply forgot to draw them like how she forgets to draw the contract in OC’s eye sometimes but within every panel of current RC the stitches are gone. Feel free to tell me what you guys think if you have any theories!
EDIT: @asthmaticastre actually I don’t think it’s a mistake!
It must be related to the blood transfusions somehow, just like the whole deal with his visibly damaged arms in ch115.
Ch 140 review: a theory of the timeline of RC’s appearance
I’ve been thinking a lot about answers to these questions:
1. Why did Real Ciel try to kill Prince Soma?
2. Why did Real Ciel leave the “candy in my tummy” threat on Our Ciel’s bedroom wall?
3. Why is Real Ciel acting so supportive of Our Ciel? How can that be the same person who left that threat?
My theory, the short version:
1. Real Ciel’s body and mind are extremely fragile, and he tried to kill Soma because Soma tried to touch him.
2. The message was meant to get Our Ciel to follow Real Ciel to the manor.
3. Real Ciel is trying to manipulate Our Ciel into supporting him with blood.
The long version:
Remember, “Lord Sirius,” whom we can safely assume is Real Ciel, appeared emaciated in front of Violet. He required so much blood that Blavat ran out of his blood type from regular intake and required contributions from Violet.
(Chapter 115 pg 23)
It’s no coincidence that Blavat killed off the last of his followers in Bath directly before Real Ciel started appearing in London. With that last boost in supplies, Real Ciel has enough blood to appear normal for a while.
What does a kid who needs compatible blood do to get more?
He goes looking for his identical twin.
He starts with the townhouse in London, but Our Ciel isn’t there (he’s still investigating the murders in Bath). Instead, he finds Prince Soma.
Prince Soma opens the door and welcomes him inside, thinking he’s Our Ciel. This tells Real Ciel and co that Our Ciel is not home, and he has leeway to set up shop and wait for Our Ciel to come home for a confrontation (as does eventually happen at the manor).
But Prince Soma, unlike the manor servants, notices something is weird and tries to touch Real Ciel.
(Chapter 126 pg 24)
Real Ciel is extremely sensitive to being touched, for two good reasons:
1. His body is physically fragile.
2. His mind is fragile. He endured the same abuse Our Ciel did at the hands of the cultists. Our Ciel lashes out at unwelcome touches, so it makes sense that Real Ciel would too.
So Real Ciel loses it and lashes out at Prince Soma.
I don’t think this is a premeditated murder attempt at all. I think this is a moment of rage for Real Ciel. He can’t stand to be touched and he shoots Prince Soma to make it stop.
At this point Agni has to protect his prince from Real Ciel, and Real Ciel’s guardian has to protect him from Agni.
Now Agni is dead, Soma is out of reach, and Real Ciel still needs blood. He needs to do something to make sure that Our Ciel can seek him out, but the police cannot (because there’s a dead body full of knives in the hall, after all).
So he leaves the message, “Who took the candy from my tummy?”, a message that only Our Ciel would understand, on the wall to make sure Our Ciel will go to the next place he might expect his brother to be: the manor house.
Of course, he’s still enraged, so the message ends up brutally carved into the wallpaper.
Fast-forward to Real Ciel’s arrival at the manor. Just as he did in the townhouse, Real Ciel walks in like he owns the place. This time he’s not discovered (Tanaka notwithstanding), and the servants do not try to touch him (they know better), so he sets up shop to wait for his blood supply to come home.
When Our Ciel returns to the manor, Real Ciel needs to convince him that he’s on his side so that Our Ciel will willingly support him with his blood. Everything he says to Our Ciel is to manipulate him into the mindset they had when they were kids: everything is okay and Real Ciel will protect Our Ciel. Just leave everything up to him.
There is a beautiful poetic irony here: Real Ciel talks like he’s still the stronger twin, when he’s actually physically and psychologically weaker than Our Ciel.
The tables have turned completely.
When they were children, Real Ciel was outgoing and brave and Our Ciel depended on him.
Now, Our Ciel is independent and resilient and Real Ciel is counting on his bodily support just to survive.
I’m aware it’s my umpteenth recap post for this arc, but I’ve seen a lot of posts that are throwing UT’s characterization to the bushes after ch140 + I still can’t believe that this arc is as simple as it appears to be after almost 3 years of it, so here’s one more.
It’s nothing particularly new if you’ve been following my posts or reblogs on the topic for the past year, but less than the arc itself, I’m mostly going to focus on what possibly led to it. In fact if you read @frederickabberline‘s own recap post that is more recent, you will probably see where I’m going in general.
The reason I’m writing this post, despite possibly being proven wrong in a week or so, is because I’ve been into Kuroshitsuji for 6 or 7 years now, there are subplots everywhere that have been left hanging, and I refuse to stop believing that Sensei can craft a good story when she gave us arcs like the Campania or when she writes amazing characters.
Moving on, I’m just going to start with UT’s character:
‘Cause actually ch140 finally confirms that UT’s motivation in the story 100% revolves around the Phantomhive family
But that doesn’t mean that “bringing the twin back” was his only goal for the last 4 years.
Because not only would that imply UT gives 0 shit about our!Ciel selling his soul to a demon and that is so not true
but also because that’d create some inconsistencies with what we’ve seen of his character so far, since bringing back the twin or Ciel’s contract aren’t just what’s on UT’s mind.
I mean, guys, if UT’s motivation centers around the P family, wouldn’t you say that a little something might be linked to his issues with losing so many of them?
And he did express some concerns about our!Ciel too on this matter:
In other words UT most likely has at least 3 goals:
bringing back the dead Phantomhives (for now it’s just the twin though, because Vincent’s body is too damaged and we don’t know about Claudia) => something that’s for his own sake
saving Ciel’s soul from the contract => something that he put on hold despite almost killing Seb during the Campania arc, because Seb can be useful to protect our!Ciel against a more urgent matter, that is…
saving Ciel from the Watchdog duty/Victoria => because in just one year Ciel already did too many mistakes that most likely will end up costing him, like it most likely cost his predecessors.
you could also see this as UT wanting revenge against Victoria because of Vincent and Claudia, it’s the same.
It’s simple logic: if the Watchdog duty is responsible for taking the Phantomhives away from UT, then that explains why UT literally said he was no big fan of Victoria, especially if he believes she deliberately led Ciel’s predecessor(s) to their death. Thus trying to take Seb down can wait because…
…he can be useful to protect Ciel from whatever Victoria/Brown may plan as punishment (the Murders at manor arc being just a preview).
I’m aware that, currently, what’s super hard to decipher about UT’s character is how he sees what’s left of the P family, but I think that’s precisely what this arc is also supposed to establish, mainly through Othello’s introduction (so we might get more insights into UT’s character and backstory, which is always helpful) but also possibly through whatever will happen to Lizzie (since establishing if UT gives a damn about the Midfords would tell us what kind of obsession he has).
Until we get there though, what I wanted to insist on was the idea that personally I doubt that this super long arc is only supposed to focus on just one of UT’s goals (i.e bringing back the twin and why it’s a bad idea), because narratively speaking it’s weird and, for now, it seems to leave a lot of plot holes.
However, since I also think that taking Seb down is on hold for UT, because of more urgent matters, it means that perhaps this arc can also be about UT’s little grudge against Queen Victoria, even if indirectly, as a follow up to the Campania and Weston arcs on some aspects (I’ll expand on that in a minute).
What’s important to keep in mind is that the Bizarre Doll project originally comes from UT before his desertion wondering about if cinematic records could be edited.
Now we don’t know yet what the trigger was that led from curiosity about the CRs to thinking that maybe UT could bring back the dead if he experimented, but I’d bet on Claudia/Vincent/the twin’s death.
The whole point though is that UT would have probably needed backup, while in the early stages of experimentation: to get funds if needed, to get enough corpses, a way to make counterfeit records that he would then add to the corpses’, then a way to get those episodes he used in the Weston arc, etc.
And aside from support, he probably also needed a place to “store” the twin until he could finally manage to bring him back (so the body wouldn’t rot for example), since he saved his body 4 years ago.
So overall, I think that’s the whole point of him joining/using the Aurora society
or even striking a deal with these “eccentric fellows”.
Think about it: his goal was at least bringing back the twin, but in order to achieve this, he first needed to experiment on a lot of corpses and if he received support from “eccentric fellows”, then obviously those same guys would have wanted to see results => that’s the Campania arc.
There is a common theme tied with the Campania arc though, which was introduced in the arc previous to it: the upcoming war between at least Germany and England. Yes, it escaped no one (not even dear Victoria) that UT’s bizarre dolls would make amazing war weapons.
Anyway, UT got what he wanted from the Campania arc and he gave results to “these eccentric fellows”, as well as potential clients of theirs, using what was his first prototype of Bizarre Dolls (CR edited with counterfeit memories).
Then the Weston arc happened and it’s been 6 years, but I’m still wondering about why UT felt the need to be involved in the first place. I mean, sure, because of the Aurora society he made BDs for the ones who were killed by the Prefect 4, but since he had already inserted them (or at least just Agares) back before Ciel even joined Weston, why did he feel the need to pretend being the Principal ever since the cricket match?
For the lulz? Maybe. To see how Agares would manage, since he was UT’s masterpiece at the time? Again, maybe, but he could have done that from afar.
Another explanation could also be that he knew why Ciel was sent to Weston…
…and becoming directly involved was his way to make sure that, this time, Ciel would tell the Queen about him and his second prototype of bizarre dolls (CR edited with “episodes” coming from the corpses’ longing for the future).
Weston was different from the Campania because the Campania was something Ciel decided to investigate on his own, so he had no report to make to the Queen. After Weston though, he just had no other choice but to tell the whole truth, which is
possibly
what UT was counting on…
especially if he knew about Victoria’s war plans and that she would be interested in such a technique.
Obviously, since UT most likely personally despises Victoria, I doubt he would be happy to help her with anything. However, if UT has a deal with those “eccentric fellows” and if those BDs he’s making are a business that “those eccentric fellows” intend on selling to the highest bidder for the upcoming war, then if he really wanted to thwart Victoria’s war plans, he could…
advertise these weapons to her enemies for example.
UT’s Bizarre Dolls might not even be the only weapons “those eccentric fellows” have to sell. For example, if we look at the current arc…
And Sieglinde confirmed that the Blue Sect definitely mastered the technique through probably experimenting and then “dialyzing” those old lords from the Parliament.
Obviously we don’t know yet how the blood transfusions even factor into how/when UT brought back the twin or who invented all those devices that Othello was sent to investigate (ch125), but all in all, what’s important is that…
…Victoria felt threatened when UT is definitely involved again.
As it is right now, there is a lot we don’t quite get yet about the current arc so I only want to mention that maybe there is a difference between “bringing the twin back” and “being behind the blue sect” as far as UT is concerned in this arc.
Of course, it really does seem that the twin is at the heart of the Blue Sect…
…but why/when/how did UT create a whole sect surrounding something that’s so personal to him
when he had the twin’s corpse for 4 years
and he also said
? Especially when that sect initially seemed to be about researching blood transfusions? And when he also seems involved with “eccentric fellows”, according to the Campania arc? Couldn’t we tie everything somehow?
Everything from here onward is theoretical and just my opinion, but looking at what Othello said:
…who knows if “those eccentric fellows”/the Osiris company/the blue sect aren’t a group of humans working with several supernatural beings and experimenting with very advanced technology in different fields?
So an example of explanation for the current arc could be that:
UT initially struck a deal with “these eccentric fellows” in order to be able to experiment as much as he needed in order to make a perfect bizarre doll
because ultimately he wanted to bring (at least) the twin back
but also because at the same time all the other BDs he made to experiment could be sold and used as war weapons, thus allowing “these eccentric fellows” to make money off their deal
meanwhile, another part
of “those eccentric fellows” researched about blood transfusion
(with the help of another supernatural being who helped making those advanced devices?)
which led to them making money by “dialyzing” those old lords from the Parliament
but also possibly in order to eventually sell the technique to different armies for the upcoming war.
Then maybe, after the Weston arc, UT had the idea to combine these two (initially unrelated) methods, or “these eccentric fellows” wanted him to try, leading to the twin becoming “the blue star” and heart of Bravat’s blue sect, despite the fact that UT wanting the twin back is 100% personal.
I guess that’s when it leads to theories about what exactly Lizzie and Tanaka know about this arc, since I still don’t think Lizzie chose the twin’s side (or was crying about not being able to give her blood to real!Ciel in ch113) or that Tanaka just randomly expected the twin to come back one day.
Same for whatever UT meant in ch108 and what that liquid was (since I also don’t buy that he was able to get the twin’s soul back from Seb or whatever).
(I mean, why would it be “too early to awaken” when UT’s been working towards this goal for 4 years?)
Finally, UT being cornered into bringing back the twin as a part of another experiment by “these eccentric fellows” (instead of just on his own terms) could also explain the lack of control that he seems to have over the twin.
Bringing back the twin is something of personal significance for UT, however if Bravat’s sect represents another party that is involved with his revival, it could be that they revere the twin (and the other star lords) to the point that…
…they let this happened (by ‘this’ I mean the violence overall that took place in the town house).
Fair enough, UT probably does not care about Soma or Agni, but would he even want the twin to go this far in order to reach his brother? Sure the twin is dead and has no soul anymore but…
in general it seems UT isn’t pro-violence where the Phantomhives are concerned? I could be reading wayyy too much into this though.
…And it could be the same for Lizzie when you think about it, since she apparently gave some of her blood (at least once in ch112?) and could have been hurt way more than she was when she fought against Seb (ch117).
If UT is the mastermind behind this, then that just screams that he doesn’t care or just that he bet Seb wouldn’t kill Lizzie because Ciel wouldn’t forgive him (even though Lizzie is related to Claudia the same way the twins are). However if the current arc is somehow divided between two parties (UT with his personal goal and Bravat’s sect) then that could explain why Lizzie ended up having some rough times despite her possible significance to UT.
TL;DR Lots of questions, lots of possible answers, lots of uncertainty, my only stance on this is that I doubt we’re just supposed to pile the current arc on top of the rest of the story without any link between the different parts (more than just the 2CT finally being confirmed I mean).
It’s a long arc, it’s a complex arc, it introduced the twin, addressed what happened 4 years ago but now it’s focusing on UT’s motivations too, so is it really just going to end like the Campania and Weston arcs when even those arcs still seem to have unanswered points?
I guess we’ll see on June 18th… Thanks for reading! Sorry it was so long. :3
Undertaker can’t bear to lose another Phantomhive.
Could he bear to lose Elizabeth? Frances or Edward Midford?
The problem with UT is that it’s hard to measure just how far he’s gone:
If bringing back the twin and wanting to bring back Vincent is generally related to him caring about the P family, because of whatever his relationship to Claudia was, then he might care about Frances and her children.
However if Vincent and the twins themselves are just a proxy for dead!Claudia to him, because he’s constantly reminded of her through them, then it’s not likely he gives a damn about them. (One possible hint of this would be his way to constantly refer to the 3 of them with the title “Earl”, which is genderless in Japanese and thus also means “Countess” I believe?)
The campania arc doesn’t help, except in assuming he only baited Seb with Ciel and didn’t mean to hurt Ciel, because “he knew Seb would protect him”, but that doesn’t mean the same goes for the Midford whose lives were in danger too.
TL;DR this arc will give us a definite answer since Lizzie is involved.
There is a possibility he might care if he really considers the entirety of Claudia’s family (even if he might have met Frances’ family less overall).
However if he’s Ann or Kelvin 3.0 then he might only see the twins as relevant (since Vincent can’t be brought back), because they’re who he clings onto, to be reminded of Claudia.
Edit: forgot to say but this is independent from all the UT = Cedric theories, because there is a bigger chance he might care about all of them if they’re actually related (even if I still think he probably wasn’t a good father figure if that’s the case).