can i just say that the whole “who else knew about Ciel lying about his identity from the start” is totally the same situation as the blue miracle bullshit from the weston arc? Look, be it for Vincent
or Ciel
Tanaka, Frances and Seb (and UT but not present in the scenes) are never fooled 😀
Sensei you did it on purpose for the current arc, didn’t you? xD
Yeah, Undertaker’s views on how to ‘help’ someone seem kinda twisted. And right now it’s hard to see how any of what he’s doing right now is going to do any good to our Ciel. However, I still think that Undertaker’s goal is to actually help our Ciel to survive.
The biggest threat to our Ciel’s life in the long run is definitely Sebastian. The contract bounds our Ciel to him and as soon as it’s completed Sebastian will eat his soul. Even if our Ciel gives up on his revenge that would end his life as we’ve learnt in the Green Witch arc. Sebastian surely won’t give up on his price willingly. And it never really seemed like our Ciel regretted the choice he made back then. He accepts that he’ll die by Sebastian’s hands and he’s okay with that after he achieved his revenge. Maybe he even thinks that’s what he deserves after being the survivor while his brother had to die. He clearly feels very guilty (which I think is the main reason why he even took his brother’s identity). And he accepted that Sebastian would take his soul quite quickly.
So it’s already quite difficult to save our Ciel from Sebastian because of Sebastian. But our Ciel doesn’t even want to be saved so that makes things even more complicated.
Now this is the situation Undertaker is confronted with. He knew at least two generations of Phantomhives before the twins. And from what we’ve seen about him carrying Claudia’s mourning locket and him crying over Vincent’s death it’s obvious that he’s quite close to them. He cares about them even to a point of obsession. And that includes the twins – both twins.
Undertaker lost Claudia, he failed to protect Vincent and then both twins were abducted and tortured – one of them died and the other one sold his soul to a demon. I suppose UT blamed himself much for all of that. So he may now try to do anything in his power to save who he can still save. However, in order to save our Ciel from Sebastian he has to make our Ciel actually want to be saved. And maybe that’s the big plan behind all his actions. Our Ciel needs to confront his lies and his guilt in order for him to process all of it. Only if he sees that he deserves to live, that he doesn’t need to blame himself for what happened and that others still love him for who he is he may allow himself to live on. And then he might actually accept help in order to get free from Sebastian.
So maybe letting our Ciel face his guilt in the form of his dead brother and exposing his lies to everyone is UT’s way of starting that process of acceptance for our Ciel. It’s a very drastic and painful way but maybe UT sees no other way.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s horrible what our Ciel has to go through right now but I think it might lead to important character development for him which could be the start of a change in the contract with Sebastian. And maybe that’s what Undertaker is aiming at. I’m quite certain that in UT’s weird and obsessive way he actually really wants to save our Ciel in order to keep the Phantomhives alive (maybe in order to uphold a promise he once made to Claudia or even to himself to protect her descendants and to make up for earlier failures).
There aren’t two ways to go about it: UT doesn’t want to lose more Phantomhives (ch140), he’s even ready to go as far as to bring some of them back from the dead. So, indeed, being confronted to a young boy who went through so much that he thinks he actually deserves to die and have his soul eaten by a demon…
…what is he supposed to do? If he doesn’t up his game (both towards Seb and Victoria, imo), Ciel is lost.
I agree with you @thedarkestcrow, it doesn’t mean he chose the best way to do this (especially not with what the twin did to Soma and Agni, when Soma was slowly getting closer to Ciel, or even how sad the whole arc made Lizzie), and this decision of his may be the result of having lost many Phantomhives, but then again, who has a better idea to offer?
Clearly not Tanaka, despite being another character who’s probably well aware of the past of the P family and even possibly of Ciel’s contract to Seb (and maybe that’s even why he’s still at the P manor in ch145, because he’s the same as UT when it comes to wanting to save what’s left of this family).
The only possible alternative I can see to UT’s rather drastic ideas is Frances (who’s also someone who knows about Claudia and who has a way imo to know about Seb and the contract), mostly because she’s been conveniently absent lately and there are reasons to vouch for her being eventually the one to foil UT on this (I swear I won’t do this on your post tho), but nothing is certain rn.
Thank you for writing this, friend ❤ It was amazing! And sorry that I ended up slightly rambling. The point is we can call UT out for a lot of his bullshit, I love doing that personally, but thinking that saving our!Ciel is not a part of his goals is probably missing the point of most of his character throughout the story.
Thanks for your addition, @midnight-in-town. I was actually searching for that post where Yana implied that UT wasn’t a villain but I couldn’t find it so I left it out. But that’s exactly it! UT’s ways are surely not ‘nice’. What he’s doing to our Ciel is cruel at the moment. But he may see no other chance anymore.
The point is that in those nearly four years that the contract exists nothing much has changed regarding Ciel’s view on the contract. It’s obvious that Undertaker kept an eye on him. Maybe at first he thought that reminding him of the importance of one’s soul and giving him time would change our Ciel’s view on his future and on the contract but apparently it didn’t. In the meantime our Ciel could get closer and closer to his revenge and therefore to the end of the contract. I wouldn’t even be that surprised if UT tried to prevent Ciel from getting closer to the truth about his parents’ murder (by distracting him with his Bizarre Dolls or by hiding evidence) so that the contract wouldn’t end too quickly before UT has the chance to do something about it.
Maybe somehow UT even knows what happened in Germany and fears how quickly Ciel’s life could end. That may have shown him that preventing Ciel from getting his revenge may not even be enough because Sebastian could eat his soul as soon as Ciel gives up on his revenge.
So UT may now have seen the necessity to act, however cruel the methods may seem now.
Ohh and one last thing @thedarkestcrow: I think you’re also right because we know that during the campania arc UT checked Seb’s cinematic record about how he and Ciel met and that included how the contract was made, so…
he must have seen this too (ch138).
Of course he was already going through the process of bringing the twin back ever since he had rescued his body, but still, maybe that convinced him that seeing his brother again could be one way to help save Ciel from the contract.
In fact, the more we’re seeing of UT in this arc, the more I think that he really doesn’t want to lose more Phantomhives but that bringing back the dead Phantomhives could be something he’s justifying as not being (only) for himself, but also for Ciel (Vincent and real!Ciel), Frances (Vincent and Claudia), maybe even her children (real!Ciel => Lizzie), etc.
It’s just that our!Ciel is the one with the most precarious situation at the moment, so maybe he even hurried with the twin and brought him back first for that reason (since Vincent can’t be brought back anyway).
I love how people are joking that our!Ciel is The One Who Shall Not Be Named, when in reality
Claudia
is.
Because okay sure we know her name, unlike our!Ciel’s, but damn if we ever find out about anything else when it comes to her in the plot.
She’s looming behind the truth of a big part of the main plot, or at least that’s the impression Sensei is giving me (oh yeah I’ll bet you anything that she’s very significant), but no real mention yet about anything besides her name.
sensei when
our!Ciel we know everything about and we have followed but don’t know his name.
Claudia, we know her name but almost nothing else.
There are so many other characters that I want to know more about, like Francis, Undertaker, the Shinigami’s, Meyrin and Baldo. I want to know what makes them who they are!!!
Since Mey is Chinese, I’m guessing her arc will also be related to whatever Lau & Ran Mao’s arc we’ll be getting? Just guessing though.
As for the recurring Shinigamis, like Grell and the others, there is no guarantee but I’m guessing that when we learn about how the organization works exactly (and what’s up with those superiors), we might find out about some elements of their past.
Finally, for Frances, UT, Tanaka, Claudia and even Vincent I’m guessing this will be more or less addressed through the same discussions/answer moments and since this is main plot material, it can’t be helped that Sensei is taking her time.
I mean, we have Othello who made a comment that might be implying he met Claudia when she was a little girl 50 years ago + Othello knew UT as a Shinigami, so I think he’ll be doing the honors at some point during this arc, maybe giving Ciel a few answers, which will hopefully lead him to ask for more to anyone who might be aware of what UT did after his desertion.
These people, besides UT himself (in case he may not feel like talking, as we saw in ch141), are most likely Tanaka and Frances, that is at least what seems to be making the most sense (considering they also both knew Claudia) and anyway they are fishy too, at least as far as the current narrative goes.
=> Tanaka because he joined the Phantomhive family when Claudia was the Watchdog so he is bound to know quite a lot about her death and some circumstances behind Vincent’s death too…
So it’s not like Sensei can avoid to eventually answer all of this. TBH though, I just wish the pacing wasn’t so… slow.
I mean, I get building the plot and wanting to focus each volume around certain developments but :// well, this is killing me. 3 years on this arc and we still don’t know how the blood transfusions came to be, how real!Ciel is so perfectly undead and if UT is truly alone behind the sect. Amongst other things.
The hopes I have is that once we get past the chess game between the twins, we will find out about the Phantomhive family, Claudia and UT, but until we’re there, 20 pages/a month is haaaard because it’s making the wait so much longer.
I can’t blame Yana though: since Claudia was made to be so mysterious ever since volume 8, giving answers about her is very probably giving out big big hints towards the main plot and the target of Ciel’s revenge (to us and to Ciel himself), so she gotta build it up as much as she finds it necessary.
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.
I got to thinking, how much does Undertaker know about the negotiation talk between OCiel and Sebastian? Since he asked OCiel if it made any difference if RCiel was actually alive or dead.
Viscount has long been theorized to have been part of the Satanic Cult. He’s already known to be taking part in occult activities.
And he does have an assistant who has… much of the same outfit. Especially the mask.
And we know Undertaker likes good ol’ slave auctioneer Viscount of Druitt.
(I mean they have that occupuation in common after all. Dealing in human trafficking lol Undertaker ur a real scumbag aintcha. But that’s a different topic.)
The viscount is a funny guy, and a doctor. Someone who would be able to help Undie with the science-y bits that Undertaker isn’t very good at, according to Othello
Anyway, I just thought… Does Undertaker know that Seb doesn’t take on multiple contractors? If he didn’t see the thing about “hey, necromancy is #notcool” that OCiel said, did he see the bit with Seb’s contract policy?
I don’t know about the specifics of the process of “giving Sebastian to the Viscount” but if Undertaker has promised the Viscount that he’d get a demon contract if he helped him with this Bizarre Doll Project, I wouldn’t surprised.
Basically I think that one possibility for this arc, as far as our!Ciel is concerned, is that UT (with real!Ciel) is trying to get rid of the two dangers constantly lurking around our!Ciel.
You heard the man, he doesn’t want to lose more Phantomhives
and that definitely includes our!Ciel (he even said that he made no difference between the twins, in ch131).
To protect our!Ciel tho’, he gotta eliminate the Watchdog duty that’s like a collar Ciel will hang himself with at some point:
and that’s where the dead twin (and first heir) getting his title back could be useful since he’s already dead. So even if Victoria gets to him (since personally I think she’s the big bad), no can end like Vincent and Claudia.
The second danger is Seb
and that could be why Bravat (who was most likely speaking for UT) literally said he could offer help in dealing with Seb during his fortune telling.
Maybe that’s even what the whole framing thing is supposed to lead to. Somehow.
So I don’t know for sure, but it seems UT hasn’t lost his mind and still hasn’t reached his goal, as himself told Othello
and I think that is true, just like Sensei implying that he’s actually not a villain after ch131 came out.
Obviously the whole scheme is super complex, but if UT is after besting the Queen and a hungry demon in one go for our!Ciel’s sake, then he has to have no limit, including using people like Bravat who had a sad life or the S4 and then throwing them away.
I made a separate post, but then I figured it was better to add it to the first post I did on the subject, sorry for the double post
About our!Ciel being framed
TBH, the thing that is bothering me with the “let’s frame my bro” conspiracy is that no one is wondering about why exactly our!Ciel would go as far as to kill citizens to get their blood.
Like ??? what would be his goal in doing that as Lord Sirius/the blue star/the sect’s mastermind? Especially since real!Ciel is the one who was saying “oh I was in a very bad shape until recently” in front of everyone in ch143.
So I don’t want to call this a plot hole yet, because clearly it’s not the only part that’s not holding on (as far as characters like Ed could obviously notice), but maybe the whole framing plan is mainly working out because revealing that our!Ciel was lying for the past 4 years is increasing the doubts and confusion of the witnesses.
…Actually, since it’s definitely not an accusation that’s holding out so well, maybe the true goal is not even to frame Ciel himself. For example, UT could go next with…
“oh but Queen Victoria is the one who asked her Watchdog to create such an operation, because she’s preparing for war and wanted to experiment about blood transfusions :)))))” or an equivalent.
Because that would suddenly become very bad publicity for Victoria (killing her own people o.m.g + have you seen all the many witnesses that are just in time to hear about this), whom coincidentally UT doesn’t like at all…
Add that to the murders of the Parliamentarians (ch125) that Ciel could be accused of as well and…
…it could be one more argument that she asked her Watchdog to get them out of the way because they were getting in the way of her war plans.
Besides, that’s how Abberline was introduced to the Watchdog duty (ch15):
…so even he (who seems to be believing in our!Ciel right now) could start thinking that he was played for a fool, all for the Queen’s profit, if that’s the explanation he receives.
Ciel does work for Victoria after all and that’s something Abberline, Alexis and Edward all definitely know.
Never mind me rambling, but guys, I still can’t believe UT would simply want our!Ciel framed so that, with him out of the way, the title can go back to “the rightful heir”. That seems illogical when UT despises the Watchdog duty and said he didn’t wan’t to lose more Phantomhives.
TL;DR Ciel is not necessarily the one who’s really being framed here, if just because the accusation hardly stands if someone starts wondering about why he was after all that blood in the first place.
Meanwhile, UT has two enemies: Victoria and Seb. So maybe the whole point is to get to one of them (or both) by eventually pinning this whole case on them with our!Ciel being considered merely a pawn?
I just thought about how people (Sullivan, the prefects, the circus troupe, RCiel if RCMT is true, and probably others) sort of foreshadows how this arc’s mastermind (so to speak), Undertaker, is gonna fail miserably.
Presumably, his intentions are good. He wants to save OCiel’s soul. But boy oh boy are his actions bad.
I discussed this privately with a few friends but I actually love the idea a lot so I’m sharing with everyone. 😀
So far in this very long arc, there were a few occasions the focus drifted away from Ciel & Seb. The first major time was at the very beginning of this arc
with Ed being the reason Lizzie went to the Sphere music hall in the first place and the second major time…
led to very unfortunate circumstances. T_T
So I was saying to my friends that I’d love to get some more chapters not focusing on Ciel and Seb, especially now that they’ve been put in a rather awkward position…
and might need the help of others to clear their names if they’re really arrested. And since Soma is hurt, more Ed-centric chapters could be more likely and I’d personally love that.
First of all, it’s hard to believe that Ed won’t question if real!Ciel truly isn’t involved with the Sphere music hall considering that Lizzie is with him and that she left the house for the Sphere music hall over two months ago.
Secondly, Ed is currently the only one who was also there at Weston when UT explained about his latest BDs to Ciel
so, should he recognize UT (even if we know Ed can’t see anyone else when Lizzie is here), he might be able to suspect that something is up with real!Ciel.
As for a team up with Soma, the reasons I find this idea so cool are because Edward and Soma both are characters who are very close to our!Ciel + at the time of ch143, what they know about the current arc is complementary, meaning that if they were to assemble their information, they would both easily realize that our!Ciel was framed.
To explain: what Soma knows and believes is that…
someone who looks exactly like our!Ciel attacked him and Agni, leading to Agni’s murder. So now he’s pissed at our!Ciel because he doesn’t know about the existence of the twin (since our!Ciel never mentioned anything about it).
Meanwhile, Ed just found out that the twin is back…
and that our!Ciel is believed to be behind the blue sect arc for different reasons.
So should Ed see Soma and find out about this…
If Soma tries to argue that our!Ciel did this even if this doesn’t sound like him, then Ed will at least be able to tell Soma that “wait, he actually has a twin brother who just came back???”, which could make Soma realize that his friend is innocent and Ed that the twin is up to no good (especially if he remembers about Weston previously to finding out about the attack on Soma and Agni).
Add Sieglinde…
who heard this, who can confirm that Ciel and Seb are the ones who brought Soma to her and who researched about the blood samples Seb found in the Sphere music hall + Nina…
who helped Ciel and Seb with getting into the Sphere music hall that one time, they will barely need Violet’s confirmation to understand that “Lord Sirius” is in fact the twin (even though I think Violet’ll confirm it either way, because our!Ciel helped him and his friends).
Violet (and also Lizzie) is more likely to be necessary in order to convince the other people involved in this arc that our!Ciel is not Lord Sirius: like the Double Charles (who may end up accusing Ciel of the Parliamentarians’ murders next), Randall (because Abberline won’t be able to convince him on his own I guess) and maybe even Alexis.
TL;DR Ed investigating some more as Ciel is possibly arrested and meeting with Soma could surely be one way for the entire truth to be revealed + also for Soma to stop believing that his best friend attacked him.
I just hope Ed does realize, one way or another, that there is definitely something not right about the twins and Lizzie.
I forgot to add that this idea is also likelyas a parallel to the Weston arc (additionally to UT creating even more perfect BDs)…
…and the Maurice Cole incident.
Except that this time,it’s Soma who’s falsely accusing our!Ciel and Edward who is more likely to investigate for our!Ciel’s sake. :)))
That’s also a big part of why this idea is pleasing me so much, because I loved the Weston arc!