Oh, I just saw the theory that Frances might have known about OC being a “"fake”“ even before the reveal, and when you think about it, it…honestly makes sense? That would explain why Frances keeps telling O!C to prove himself “worthy” to be Lizzy’s husband. I mean, why would he still need to prove himself to Frances when she and Vincent themselves were the ones who betrothed them in the first place?
Idk, I’m not a theorist. I just really love this theory because it would mean Frances knew all this time, but decided to keep it a secret for O!C’s sake, possibly because she knows how O!C feels, having lost her family too. And maybe because it means she’s okay with O!C marrying her daughter.
if it turns out that Frances was indeed aware, like Tanaka, that our!Ciel was lying about his identity, then it will make me very emotional, because it will mean that Frances kept it to herself (and didn’t even tell her husband who was officially Ciel’s guardian), watching out for her nephew as she did so.
Honestly, there aren’t a lot of outstanding adults in Ciel’s life at the moment, so I damn hope that she (as a Phantomhive too) is one of them and I’m still vouching for the mentor thing to happen somehow, since it seems they were both the spare to their elder brother + they lost the exact same family members because of the Watchdog duty.
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’m currently highly confused and torn between what matters the most to real!Ciel.
Until now, I always thought it was his little brother (because of the flashback mainly), but now in the current arc, I’m wondering if all he cares about might not be the “Earl Phantomhive” title. Not for what it represents about the Watchdog duty necessarily, but more because he was Vincent’s heir and so it’s his.
If that’s the case, that means he definitely lied about not being angry or pissed off about our!Ciel’s lie.
So I reread the whole flashback to try and getter a better understanding of the twin’s rather new character (since he was technically introduced in ch129).
The fact he’s dead is not helping, but
if we’re considering that real!Ciel is still mentally ten years old, despite UT making him “grow up” to match as our!Ciel’s twin, then maybe…
that’s all what the latest chapters are about. It’s a chess game, because what real!Ciel cares about is playing again with his little brother, like they used to, since it’s “the most fun of all”.
Add UT who definitely wants Seb out of the picture because of the contract and that could lead to the current situation with calling Scotland Yard over and framing our!Ciel (and thus Seb, as his butler).
If the game in itself isn’t what’s motivating real!Ciel to go against his little brother then…
…another explanation is that, because he was supposed to be Vincent’s heir and even if he loves his brother, the title and everything that’s related to this position
(including, Lizzie, as his fiancée)
are his and he wants them back from our!Ciel.
For example, the attack on Soma & Agni could either be a sign of real!Ciel’s jealousy towards Soma and his relationship to our!Ciel, just like it could be a twisted way to punish our!Ciel for taking the ring from him (as the message on the wall specified).
The thing is, real!Ciel as a BD went through the same process as the BDs from the Campania and Weston arcs. So being obsessed with the few parts of his life he clang to until he was sacrificed (going back home, being Vincent’s heir, being with his little brother, etc) could be what’s going on.
Last possibility is that the target of UT & real!Ciel’s plan using Scotland Yard is only Sebastian…
…because clearly neither real!Ciel or UT particularly like him, while they both showed previously that they didn’t necessarily wish harm on our!Ciel.
I don’t know how framing Ciel would lead to only Seb being arrested or getting out of the way though, especially since there is no way a prison would hold Seb back, but UT at least must have something in mind?
TL;DR I can’t be sure but seeing the flashback, I think real!Ciel should (logically) still care about his little brother, just like UT seems to care about at least saving Ciel from the contract. In other words, the only enemy for real!Ciel and UT should be Seb.
So framing our!Ciel is either a way to get to Sebastian/the contract or simply a twisted game between brothers because “it’s fun” (+ UT could be fond of seeing the twins play “like they used to” since he’s lost into the idea that bringing the dead back is
Reading the chapter I had the feeling that Abberline decided to arrest Our Ciel in order to protect him somehow, because of him being the Queen’s Watchdog… I guess he’ll be OC’s ally once they have a good talk about RC and the Blue Sect. BTW RC is scary… 😱😱😱😱
Real!Ciel: I’m not going to scold you for lying 🙂 Rather, if anyone should accuse you of lying, I would never forgive them.
Also Real!Ciel: Hello police? My brother’s been impersonating me for the past 3 years. Here’s our address. Get that brat. Identity theft is not a joke.
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.
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. :))
And one last thing, about missing characters…
Frances Midford, irrelevant to this arc? Idon’tthinkso. 😀
Since real!Ciel is the one who started this chess game rather strongly, the odds that our!Ciel will overcome his brother at the end are even better considering what Frances taught our!Ciel (a tactic he used for the last 4 years for his revenge actually).
I’m in for this type of games, guys. It’s gonna get wilder. :))
Are we forgetting The other peices? The two Charles, John Brown and the Queen. You honestly think she’ll sit by as this is going on and screwing with her watch dog?
And one price that can help Lizzy is Paula.
And we haven’t seem the other Lords yet. Nor the killer.
@darkspellmaster I was keeping this for another post but since you added on: I agree with you this arc is far from being over.
However, I think Ciel is def going to be arrested and the Queen won’t be of any help. The Double Charles were probably told about the dead lords from the Parliament as of ch126, but are they truly supposed to believe Ciel is innocent?
After all, they know as first-hand witnesses what he’s ready to do to solve a case, with the example of the circus arc, so this doesn’t sound helpful.
I’d love to make a more detailed post on this after Monday but, basically, this arc sounds a lot like the end of “Kuro the manga Part 1” as in, our!Ciel is facing all that he ever did wrong in Kuro.
Lying about his identity? His bro is coming back.
Pushing Liz and Soma away from him? Now they’re hurt and doubting him and so he’s hurt too.
Using Ed for murder? The Weston arc had gotten them closer but now Ed may need some time to truly be sure he’s innocent.
Needing the Double Charles’ testimony? As I said, after the circus arc, he can’t count on them.
Needing the Queen’s help? Well, he already messed up 3 times in a year (curry arc, circus arc and green witch arc) so after ch108, it’s not certain the Queen would care to help, especially since she’s also very interested in Bizarre dolls.
It goes on and on and on. 🙂 Honestly, the only people truly on our!Ciel’s side at the moment are Sebastian (because of the contract) and maybe Tanaka and Frances, if they both knew about him lying about his identity beforehand. And also maybe Lau because he never knew the twin and seeks entertainment from Ciel, but like, that makes the list very small for now. xD
Everyone else is shaken by the news and the accusations about our!Ciel being the Blue Sect’s mastermind are adding to the confusion and doubts surrounding him. That’s what Seb meant by “well played”.
Anyway, since this arc is about confrontation, I think it is eventually supposed to end on our!Ciel learning to rely on the characters besides Sebastian who will accept to believe in him (I made a list in the first post). For now, the situation is confusing so he has trouble gathering his pawns for the counterattack, but ultimately most characters are bound to turn away from the twin because he’s a nutcase the ones who cared about “Ciel Phantomhive” since the start of Kuroshitsuji care about who our!Ciel truly is.
So ultimately it’s all about what UT said in ch35:
Because it’s literally what’s happening and maybe that’s actually why UT made sure the arc would unfold that way. He doesn’t want Ciel to lose his soul to Seb, that much at least seems clear, so this arc could be one way to make sure it doesn’t happen as @frederickabberline explained here, or so UT thinks.
That’s what I refer to as a possible “end of part 1” for the manga: once we’ll be done with this arc, once Ciel realizes he’s supposed to be living for himself, surrounded by people who care about the real him (and not because he assumed his bro’s identity), then we’ll move on to the whole problematic surrounding the contract and whether or not our!Ciel eventually wants to break away from it.
midnight-in-town 