I admire Ann for being a lady that stood up against the idea of how a Victorian woman should but that ‘s it .I pretty much disliked the woman . I mean it’s one thing when you have a child like Lizzy favoring a twin over the other but for a grown up to play favorite between her nephews and our poor baby was aware of it .It’s just awful, I’m hoping that Frances will do better .

Hello Anon. And honestly? S a m e! Except that I don’t dislike Red, I’m really just neutral.

I do agree that she was an amazing example as a Lady in appearance: being able to stand up for her dream of becoming a doctor, for not being stereotypical as a Victorian woman (just like the whole female cast of Kuroshitsuji though), etc. Otherwise though, she was pretty pitiful because full of issues she never managed to solve, way before the twins were even born. ://

I know Ann really tried to be better and happier and it’s a series of unfortunate events in such a short period of time that eventually made her crazy, but still:

her everlasting ~~crush~~ obsession with Vincent?

Misunderstanding what her sister (who she claimed she loved and I don’t doubt that) was about and why Vincent chose her, which ultimately led to a lot jealousy?

Playing favorite between her nephews, most likely because real!Ciel acted more similar to Vincent than our!Ciel did back then?

Giving Lizzie a controversial advice?

[EDIT: I believe it’s the effect of Ann’s “advice” mixed with real!Ciel’s comment about being scared of strong women that gave Lizzie her self-confidence issues. However Ann, just like real!Ciel, obviously didn’t mean for their words to have such an impact.

So I don’t blame either of them but I think it was foolish of Ann to believe in such concepts when it didn’t apply to her, Lizzie, Frances or Rachel. This scene is Ann trying to justify why Vincent chose Rachel over her (more demure, perfect, lady-like Rachel or so she thinks), but she’s completely getting the wrong idea.

Vincent didn’t love Rachel because she was delicate and lovely: he was raised by a woman who was the Queen’s Watchdog before him and his sister is one of the strongest aristocrats in the country. The man himself told Ann that being different was a good thing. It’s Ann who misunderstood with such concepts in mind, eventually becoming jealous of Rachel.]

And finally, trying to kill her nephew and making him feel guilty about all that happened with her when he already had a lot to deal with?

Yeah, I can’t forgive her for all that stuff, even if she had terrible circumstances. The horrible circumstances is why I pity rather than dislike her (and also because our!Ciel still loves her, in spite of everything), but unfortunately, as an adult she had no right to take it out on her already traumatized nephew.

In that, I have 0 doubt that Frances already did better plenty of times (and will hopefully keep that up in the future, even if we can’t be 100% sure).

In fact, as I pointed out before, personally I think the timing of her introduction (right after Ann’s funerals and on Ciel’s birthday, taking him out hunting so that he’ll have fun) is no coincidence, in order to show how different the two women might turn out to be, where our!Ciel is concerned.

And while Ann mostly used to get involved with Ciel’s work as the Watchdog, Frances rather does simple little things to show her support:

like the hunting game for his birthday,
agreeing that he should come in vacations with them and take time off work during the Campania arc,
probably allowing Lizzie to visit him whenever so that he won’t be alone,
not saying anything about the Blue Miracle even if she knew it was all fake from the start,
maybe keeping the secret of him lying about his identity if she indeed knew, etc.

She would probably do more, but my theory is that she understands that he went through something horrible 4 years ago + that, mostly, she’s probably wary of Seb. And there is Tanaka keeping an eye on him anyway, possibly out of devotion for Claudia’s family (as he implied recently), so it works out.

And hey, speaking of which, Frances’ mom was very probably murdered when she was like 12 years old…

…we don’t know what happened to Cedric K. Ros– (her father) but I doubt it was more joyful, her older brother was murdered too and only one of her nephews came back after being abducted, but we never saw her taking it out on our!Ciel and making him more miserable.

So Red truly had 0 excuse. Maybe if she hadn’t been so very alone (or misled by Grell, because let’s be honest, that also played a part), she wouldn’t have fallen so low, but the JTR arc still happened and now she will never have a way to make amends for it. ://

These are the two main differences between her and Lizzie: kids are selfish and don’t know better, so yes, ten year old Lizzie half-unknowingly having a preference for real!Ciel is not to be put on the same level as an actual adult making a difference between her two nephews (with her favorite coincidentally being the one who acted more like the man she was obsessed with).

And secondly, Lizzie never tried to murder our!Ciel and that kinda accounts for a lot. Besides, Lizzie feels horrible about realizing that her younger self was very selfish and that’s actually huge character development when she’s only 15.

TL;DR I think Ann was a very interesting character but the story presented her as a despicable person who will never be able to make amends for what she did (and I doubt that there will ever be more than that to her, unfortunately).

That’s just a fact: it doesn’t mean we readers or our!Ciel should hate her, but when it comes to him having at least one outstanding adult figure in his life, well, that never was her. ://

However, I agree with you that this person could be Frances. If anything, in ch14 even Seb seemed to think that this idea could work out, but I guess we’ll have to see if that is what Sensei planned for her character.

Sorry for rambling, I kinda love the subject! ^^” Thanks for sharing your thoughts Anon, I hope you’ll have a nice week ahead!

akumadeenglish:

The more I think about OC’s low self-esteem, the more it makes me sad

We know from Lizzy’s words in ch14 that Madam Red’s favourite was RC.

And in ch13, when Sebastian asks OC why he didn’t shoot Madam Red, he answers…

“I felt Madam Red would not be able to kill Ciel, her kin.”

YenPress translated the line as “she would not be able to kill me”, but in the original Japanese version, OC says “she would not be able to kill Ciel” and refers to “Ciel” in third person. Clearly, he is not referring to himself, but to RC in this scene.

OC knew that RC was Madam Red’s favourite. Therefore, he believes that the only reason why she hesitated to kill him is that she believed he was “Ciel”, the nephew she loved best. And this is incredibly sad because it sounds as if OC is saying:

“Madam Red couldn’t kill me because she believed I’m “Ciel”, her favourite. Had she known that I am not “Ciel” but the twin, she might have killed me”.

Someone give this poor baby a big hug…! ; _ ;

Bonus:

The truly sad thing about all this is that the real reason why Madam Red couldn’t kill her nephew was that he reminded her too much of Rachel. She had a love/hate relationship to her sister and at the very crucial moment her love for her sister outweighed the hatred for her, and that’s why she hesitated.

So OC’s assumption that she hesitated only because it’s her “favourite” nephew is wrong.

But yeah, of course, there’s no one to clear up the misunderstanding and OC continues to have an extremely low self-esteem… *sobs*

((( We don’t know for sure whether Madam Red knew OC’s true identity – I strongly believe she didn’t – but either way, the problem is that OC himself believed that Madam Red believed he was RC. )))

Hello! :) Do you think it is possible that Undertaker had brought back to life not only R!Ciel but Madame Red, Joker and Doll as well? I can’t stop thinking about it after rereading the Green Witch Arc and ch.141. Thank you!

akumadeenglish:

Hi! Sorry for the late answer.

Theoretically, yes, I think it’s possible. Undertaker was the one in charge for Madame Red’s funeral so he definitely had the opportunity to experiment on her body. As for Joker and Doll, UT was at the scene when that tragedy in Kelvin’s manor happened, and we know UT can easily retrieve a body from a burning building without Seb noticing (just like the case with RC 3 years ago), so it’s possible that UT is in possession of Joker’s body.

That being said, I can’t really think of a good reason why UT would want to revive these people. I mean, his main goal is to “not lose the Phantomhives anymore” (ch140), so it remains a mystery why he would be interested in reviving Madam Red, Joker and Doll – who are not Phantomhives – in the first place. The only reason I can think of is that he just needed as many bodies as possible for his Bizarre Doll experiments (though, iirc he had collaborated with Dr. Stoker’s hospital and was provided with enough bodies to experiment on, but yeah, maybe he just needed more…).

Plot-wise though, we know that Madam Red’s, Joker’s and Doll’s deaths deeply traumatized OC as we see them in his nightmare in ch95 along with RC, Vincent and Rachel, so maybe Yana will have them reappear and thus have OC face his trauma once again, idk. (I mean, she loves to have the characters from past arcs reappear in later arcs…xD)

Conclusion: I think the plot twist is possible, but I’m not sure whether I personally like this kind of plot twist (probably bc I don’t really feel attached to Madam Red, Joker & Doll).

今年もシエルをお祝いしてくれてありがとうございます。感謝を込めて！Thank you for celebrating Ciel’s Birthday.【枢】

fyeakuroshitsuji:

^{Phantomhive household.}

(I admit I’m obsessed with this topic) why do you love bocchan?

her-majestys-watchdog:

I love OCiel because of how tragic he is, he’s a clear-cut doomed protagonist and I refuse to see Kuroshitsuji as anything other than OCiel’s downwards spiral until proven wrong. I love to think about it so much.

So leading onto that, these are the basic characteristics of a tragic hero…

Hamartia: a tragic flaw that causes the downfall of a hero.

OCiel’s tragic flaw is proving to be his own insecurity; becoming RCiel was ultimately his decision. A choice he made.

And because of that, the events of Kuroshitsuji have been as we see them.

However, what would have happened if he didn’t become RC? Would he have been able to resist Sebastian’s attempts to trick him? Would he have become so terrified of everything that he was unable to continue and complete his contract?

It’s clear that OCiel thinks this would have happened – why else would he take RCiel’s identity. There is evidence to suggest this very well might have done. So had OCiel been more secure in himself, he would have been able to come back as the real him and avoided the current disaster that is unfolding.

Clearly, the tragic part of his character is that you cannot blame a child, born sickly and into a cruel society, for making the choices he made. Some tragic heroes (eg: like Tess from Tess of the d’Urbervilles) have less agency in their demise. External factors are to blame.

Hubris: excessive pride and disrespect for the natural order of things.

OCiel clearly has excessive pride in many respects. He treats people like objects that can be used to get him where he wants, has no belief that things ‘happen for a reason’ instead life if just full of bad people who do bad things. He even considers himself one of these bad people.

However, he also has no illusions about his own place in the game. OCiel does not consider himself to be above others, he’s full of contradictions.

Peripeteia: the reversal of fate that the hero experiences.

Going from his childhood to making a contract with Sebastian, though there was never a clear shift entirely. His childhood was happy but not perfect.

Anagnorisis: a moment in time when hero makes an important discovery in the story.

This is something that has not happened yet, but if OCiel was to ever experience a moment of anagnorisis (which I think he will) it’ll be before Sebastian kills him. It’s in the moment before he dies that he sees himself clearly, and wishes he had accepted that person into his life sooner – maybe things would have ended better for himself then.

Nemesis – a punishment that the protagonist cannot avoid, usually occurring as a result of his hubris.

In a narrative sense, as soon as OCiel chose to become RCiel it was only a matter of time until the game was finally up. His reasons for stealing his brother’s identity were (in my eyes) very selfish with little regard for what that would do to RCiel, he did it “for himself”.

Sebastian is also a clear nemesis in the narrative. But he’s also a saviour, it’s a double-edged sword that I’m not going to do justice here lol.

Catharsis: feelings of pity and fear felt by the audience, for the inevitable downfall of the protagonist.

Catharsis is the main reason why, when saying any of the above points, there were endless chances to say “yes but–” to… literally everything. OCiel is selfish, but he’s just a child. OCiel is a Machiavellian villain, but he’s being manipulated by a literal demon. OCiel disrespected his brother’s identity by stealing it, but really wasn’t it Victorian society to blame and the rules of Primogeniture that drove him to it?

Basically – he’s just a tragic villain. I’m sure you could write so many arguments in favour of him being completely irredeemable or just a victim to his narrative, and none of them are wrong. That’s why I love him!

#ociel becoming rc is an issue bc like. yes he needed rc to come back #mentally he needed it #but also – its still HIM at the end of the day

Finny carrying Bocchan because they gotta run fast and he can’t keep up ❤

I love little details like this and I can’t help but wonder if the studio was only a base or if Vincent also had some interest in photography?

Also considering that…

Ciel knew next to nothing about his father’s work or anything related to it when he came back, so who taught him about all of this?

Did Seb just make research, or did Tanaka or Frances, Alexis or one of his father’s old friends explain about the Watchdog’s duty as well as the base(s) Vincent had in London? It’s details but it’s stuff I’d personally love to know.

A chess game between brothers

midnight-in-town‌:

midnight-in-town‌:

That’s all it is: real!Ciel is using his pawns against his brother’s in a real lively chess game. I’m a bit iffy as to what the twin ultimately wants, but let’s save that for later.

It’s a chess game and our!Ciel stepped right up to it in ch129 when he came back to the manor…

and he definitely had a late start because of the shock and confusion when realizing that his older brother is back and Lord Sirius, the blue star of the blue sect, but…

I’m sure he’ll manage to recover. 🙂 Because Ciel has people he can use against his brother too.

Without already mentioning that Abberline and probably Edward will end up on his side (Ed because he already accused Ciel wrongly in the Weston arc and came to regret it + he and Ciel investigated most of the arc together), Violet, Sieglinde and even Soma have several ways to yell bullshit about our!Ciel being the mastermind behind the sect:

For Violet, it’s a question of motivation and wanting to pay Ciel back for helping him several times + saving his life in ch125.

For Soma, he’ll first need to hear about our!Ciel having a twin brother to connect the dots and realize that his friend didn’t kill Agni

and for Sieglinde, it’s just about friendship, considering all that Ciel did for her in the past and how she’s the one who analyzed the blood samples for him.

Obviously Lizzie knows on the truth on this matter too, she knows who the real Lord Sirius is, but her heart is being held hostage by real!Ciel’s side right now so she’s a major pawn to use against our!Ciel for the moment,

but it could change because her love for our!Ciel makes her a wild card.

You only have to see how sad and empty she looks in the whole chapter: she’s not siding with real!Ciel out of a 100% heartfelt choice.

The servants will side with our!Ciel, who is their master, out of devotion, but they have no idea as to what’s really going on unfortunately. Except for Tanaka, who probably saw it coming (’how’ is still the question) but who’s as tied as Lizzie I’d say, seeing how sad he also looks.

So yep: chess game. Brother vs brother, Seb vs UT, Grell and Othello probably being confused af and Mama Midford hopefully still missing for a reason

(maybe Alexis telling her what happened will trigger something?). Can’t wait :))

Heyyyyy, you know who else is missing and could be considered a chess pawn for our!Ciel’s side? Lau. And Ran Mao additionally, I guess.

Not that Lau showed up in the arc so far, so the probability that he’ll play a role isn’t that high obviously, but still, Sensei said before that, even though Lau is busy running his own business while following the Watchdog’s rules, he’s mostly “interested in our!Ciel”.

Undying Seb doesn’t seem to faze or interest him so much, so he’s…

…hanging around our!Ciel mostly for his own enjoyment of things.

So I’d say he’d (knowingly) rather play the part of the pawn to our!Ciel’s side of the chess game over real!Ciel’s anyday (if real!Ciel is to become the Watchdog for a short time after our!Ciel’s arrest), because he always bets on our!Ciel to provide him with a lot of amusement.

Ran Mao will follow Lau, but she too seems to like Ciel a lot anyway…

…so that’s two more people that our!Ciel could use wisely against his brother.

In fact, friendly reminder that Lau is the most mysterious character of the whole cast as of right now (and that’s really saying something), so having our!Ciel owing him could be rather interesting for a future arc focusing more on Lau. :))

Whole post here, I cut it for the reblog to focus about Lau.

Personal opinion but I still think that Lau and Ran Mao have no reason to side with real!Ciel. Actually one way to interpret the newest cliffhanger can be as them getting in Scotland Yard’s way, waiting to see if Ciel is going to ask for their help so that they can make him owe Lau.

Because that’s actually a much more dangerous development.

From a narrative point of view, it makes a lot of sense to have our!Ciel owing Lau for helping him one way or another (for example, to help them go to France using the Kunlun company…

or wherever else they may go), since that’s how we can then get an actual build up to Lau maybe becoming a problem later.

Sensei also said in the guidebook that Lau was “probably the strongest character of the manga”, altho’ it was downplayed by her basically going “lol” afterwards, but all that to say that he remains extremely mysterious and that’s not to have him switch sides whenever it’s extremely convenient for him.

Not when he finds Ciel way more interesting than Seb dying and then coming back to life + when he represents a whole point of Father Knox’s decalogue that Sensei so far seems to enjoy deconstructing.

In my opinion, if he ever goes against Ciel (which I think is likely for a lot of reasons), it will be when the game is built to be way more interesting for him, not when Ciel is at his wit’s end. As always though no one has to agree with this!

The Importance of Frances

shinigami-mistress:

As it stands, we have real!Ciel in the manor spoiling for a real fight with his brother.

He seems so cocky here, and why shouldn’t he? Our!Ciel has been framed for the murders committed by the Blue Sect. Real!Ciel has been proven, by the word of Lizzie and Tanaka, to be the real heir. Things seem to be going his way, and he doesn’t seem to have much to fear at this moment.

Except for maybe Frances.

When he was younger, he found Frances to be scary.

In fact, she’s one of the few people that real!Ciel has ever found to be intimidating. He doesn’t even seem to find Sebastian frightening or intimidating, and there’s a good chance he knows that Sebastian is a demon.

Frances was also oddly absent when Scotland Yard along with Alexis and Edward when they entered the manor. Edward’s focus was purely on Lizzie, and Alexis was never an intimidating individual to either twin. He’s more of a loving uncle than an authority figure. The simple truth is things might have been much different has Frances had been present.

There’s also the fact that Frances undoubtedly knows more about the family history and secrets than most of the others. (Tanaka being the other one who would have this knowledge.) She might know the connection between Undertaker and the Phantomhives. After all, Frances and Undertaker have never directly interacted throughout the series. Maybe there’s a reason for this.

Either way, I think Frances is very important to the story. She’s someone that real!Ciel has shown to be intimidated of. She’s always been shown to be someone who does understand situations more than she initially lets on – like spending the day with our!Ciel on his birthday or insisting that Lizzie continue her training since she knew it would be important one day. Finally, she knows more about the Phantomhive family secrets and history than probably anyone else.

Thoughts?