I don’t like her at all! Sure she held some affection for OCiel, but that’s inconsequential considering she literally tried to murder him. And said this to him as well:
“I wish someone like you had never been born!” (CH10)
She’s horrible.
And the only reason Madam Red didn’t kill him is because OCiel reminded her of Rachel, not because she cared about him enough to stop. Plus, Lizzy says that Madam Red evidently played favourites between the twins which is… pretty hurtful. I see no reason why she deserves any respect.
So overall they didn’t have a good relationship, even if OC looks back on her fondly he shouldn’t do.
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.
To answer you, personally no I don’t feel that this is rushed at all. In fact I’d say the pace is rather slow (I mean the twin was introduced in the 26th volume) and I had expected our!Ciel to be framed for a while now.
As for what’s the point, it’s a chess game and UT & real!Ciel are the ones who initiated it from the moment they revealed themselves to Ciel. I agree they’re not the simplest characters to understand though, but I theorized about what they could be after here and here respectively! 🙂
Overall, I think the most important to keep in mind about this arc and the latest developments is that our!Ciel is supposed to be confronting all that he never did until now (in order to gain character development), which is something mainly illustrated by the return of his undead brother.
Rewinding the story
back
a little, try to remember why Ciel took on his brother’s identity in the first place and maybe it will make more sense. From the moment his bro died, our!Ciel became Vincent’s successor and the next Earl Phantomhive, so he had no real need to take his brother’s identity.
The reason he did it anyway is because…
he felt extremely guilty about not being the twin who died. It’s a condition called survivor’s guilt, because of the trauma induced by the horrible experience he lived through.
As such, he hates himself for having survived, even more after Seb made him believe that he had willingly sacrificed his brother’s soul into summoning him (which isn’t true, he never wanted any of this, it was an accident)…
and it’s all of this that led to his decision to take on his brother’s identity: because he wanted to make it as if real!Ciel was the one who had survived, both for himself and for what was left of his family (because
he saw himself as inferior to his twin brother and guilty, so he didn’t want to disappoint them).
And this, this mentality right here -that he is guilty and that Seb eating his soul will be his punishment for not having died instead of his brother- is what I believe needs to change for our!Ciel.
Hence the current arc and this face-off between brothers because, if there is any time when Ciel can reflect about his brother’s death from 4 years ago, especially when Lizzie and Soma (who are the closest to him) are also involved, it’s now with the current arc.
Basically, what I’d personally love to get from this arc is for our!Ciel to finally realize that people are happy he’s the one who came back (Lizzie, Ed), that they are happy to have met him during these 4 years (Soma, Sieglinde) and that’s he’s certainly not worthless compared to his brother.
Because, if our!Ciel gets this kind of positive development about himself, then later he may end up starting to question whether or not the terms of the contract are still something he agrees to.
And personally I’d love to see this type of conflict eventually happening between Seb and Ciel, because it’s just way more interesting narratively speaking than their highly functioning duo that exists ever since vol1, especially if Seb is truly supposed to be Kuroshitsuji’s main character (because main characters need to be challenged and to develop, be it in a good or bad way).
There you go Anon! I hope this makes sense? Honestly ever since this…
I’ve been waiting for a build up to an eventual conflict about the contract between Seb and Ciel. If it happens it will be way later though, if just because Ciel needs to get a better view of himself first if he’s to ever reflect back on the covenant he made with his butler.
That’s why Ciel having to confront what he decided 4 years ago and most of his behavior towards people who care about him is important right now. For me that’s mostly what the current arc is all about, with possibly some answers about the Phantomhive family and UT’s personal issues with them.
Sorry for rambling, as with everything it’s just my take on the subject but I hope this wasn’t too hard to understand. Thank you again for the kind words and have a lovely day ahead Anon! :3
From Victorian era through to modern times, the British police doesn’t carry guns (though afaik Northern Ireland does) because apparently they think that “no gun should be pointed at citizens”. This is awesome. Hence, in Kuroshitsuji, too, Abberline as well as the other officers don’t carry guns. On the other hand, the Watchdog who is supposed to do things that the police can’t, shoots without hesitation. –Toboso
Lately, I regret that I didn’t elaborate more on the struggles of Abberline and the police, as well as the outrageous behaviour of the Queen’s watchdog [when it comes to investigation]. The reason why Commissioner Randall despises the Phantomhives so much is that he can’t stand their arrogance, acting as though they are above the law (though it’s for the sake of the early solution of the crime). –Toboso
As was the case with JTR arc and Blue Sect arc, it must be really frustrating to the police how – while they are investigating legally and peacefully – the Phantomhives catch the criminal by using immoral methods and firing the gun like mad… –Toboso
Basically, Ciel is only called upon either when the case has already claimed a lot of victims or when there are still too many uncertainties that the police can’t start investigating. That’s why the Phantomhives aren’t welcomed [by the police]. If I was called “incompetent” by some cheater who comes late and doesn’t even follow the rules at all, I’d punch him. But unlike me, Randall and Abberline act like proper adults [when they meet OC at a crime scene]… –Toboso
Bonus: if anyone’s interested, here’s a bbc article on this issue
Hi Anon! Haha yes, I saw some funny posts about real!Ciel basically not really looking forward to seeing his aunt again and, even if it’s just supposed to be humor, personally I think this may not be so far-fetched. 🙂
We already know real!Ciel finds her scary after all…
and she did say to our!Ciel…
even if it turned out that Seb is the one who took that bear down. xD So she’s definitely not strong enough to beat a demon, but still, when it comes to more thoughtful games, I think her nephews possibly have got nothing on her.
There is this trope in manga, that Sensei even referred to in the past, which is about how children are influenced both by their blood as well as by who raised them: so the reason the twins are twisted boys is because Vincent was also like that + because, in our!Ciel’s case, Seb also took on his education.
It doesn’t mean that they don’t have any good sides (our!Ciel was mentioned to be kinder than most of his family several times), it’s just one way to explain why they can also act terribly and drastically.
As siblings, Vincent and Frances were brought up together (Tanaka, according to Sensei in that same post,
probably
being the one who looked after them after Claudia’s death), so since Vincent had a few twisted and evil parts, it’s easy to bet that Frances might have inherited/developed some too (especially since she possibly used to be her brother’s spare). xD
And marrying Alexis wouldn’t have erased that, at least I don’t think so [x][x]. In fact, Sensei might have even hinted at this before…
because Frances thinking she’s getting old in ch14 (chill bae tho’, you’re in your mid 30s) isn’t really about not aiming properly. Rather it’s because the thought of her daughter in danger made her way more emotional/hesitating than her younger self used to be.
My interpretation of this line might be wrong of course, but anyway being a Phantomhive is not about being physically strong like Frances is, that’s just bonus, rather this is about being cunning and ruthless. And Vincent was, the twins are, Claudia probably was too, additionally even Tanaka and UT are, so Frances must be as well.
No way marrying into the Midford family would have erased the whole education and way of thinking she had half of her life, at least I hope not, because I am a big fan of Sensei’s characterizations and I wouldn’t want to change my mind on this. xD
Sorry for rambling Anon, it’s just to say that Frances’ absence is indeed weird and I would understand real!Ciel (or even UT) being suspicious/worried about Frances being eventually bad news, just like our!Ciel himself.
I hope this makes sense, thanks for passing by and have a nice weekend! ^3^
Hi Anon! And well, if I have to be honest, the Hamlet ova is the only thing that’s still making me think that UT and Liz could have some interesting interactions because UT might in fact care about her. Not that he makes it that evident.
I discussed this with several of my friends actually, but UT is just… bad at caring in general. After all, he threw Ciel from a staircase during the Campania arc because he wanted to lure Seb in and, mostly, he bet that Seb would still catch him even after being stabbed by his death scythe.
And all that happened with me personally believing that UT does care about our!Ciel: it’s just that he’s extreme when it comes to his plans.
So the same could be said of Lizzie and this arc: the lack of interactions could be Sensei not wanting to reveal too much, as explained by @bone-shaped-cookie, and UT could just be focusing about his goal and not caring to do anything about Lizzie’s distress because it’s not a priority of his…
…despite holding her in the same regard as the twins.
It’s definitely a strong subject of debate (whether he cares about Lizzie, or the Midfords in general, or not) and there is no way to be sure for now.
Back to the Hamlet ova, the thing is, while it can be seen that Sensei was consulted about some narrative choices in s1 (UT being a shinigami for example, or Ciel going to prison), I’m not sure the same can be said with it.
If anything, maybe the reason UT ended up wanting to wear a dress and chattered about it with Lizzie simply was because they needed someone with long hair to play the Queen and Grell was already Ophelia. That’s why, as much as I’d love to see it as a guarantee that UT and Liz will one day have friendly/funny interactions in the manga, I can’t really count on it.
So I just… don’t know about the Hamlet ova and when it comes to the topic of how involved Sensei was with s1, @frederickabberline is more reliable than me.
Still, thanks for sharing Anon! ^_^ And please have a nice weekend! :3
When Our Ciel was trying to decide whether to take Sebastian’s offer of a contract, part of the reason he made the decision he did was because he dreaded telling the truth to his family.
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
Just a thought that came to me just now: If our Ciel really gets arrested now he’ll literally be inside a cage again.
After all that happened now with his identity being revealed, his dead brother returning and being blamed for crimes he didn’t commit, taking his freedom and imprisoning him again might trigger bad memories.
midnight-in-town 