Despite Ciel sleeping this chapter, I think it gave big hints to how it may soon be time for him to “wake up.”
I’m writing this as a response to @midnight-in-town’s post here. Y’all should check it out! I’m just doing this separately because these additions are long and would be a little tangent-y.
Anyway, I wanted to add some comments to the last section with Undertaker and chapter 108! I’ve already talked about most of this with @midnight-in-town, but I’ll put the thoughts out there publicly so everyone can see. So if anybody else notices another a connection, please say!
As M-I-T had pointed out to me, in the room Lizzy is shown in with Ciel, there are cogs on the left:
Look at my lovely arrow from Paint, guys.
Now, there are two connections with this and they reflect perfectly with each other:
1. I connected cogs to the insides of clock. Now picture an old grandfather clock. There’s always a pendulum. Where else have we seen a big window, cogs, and pendulum?
That’s right, at Weston.
2. M-I-T connected it with cinematic records. As she pointed out, we’ve seen cogs before in chapter 60:
What do clocks and cinematic have in common? Time. Time is a human invention and it only stops at death. The cinematic records see what a person did with their time on earth.
And let’s not forget that in both of these scenes with the cogs, Undertaker was directly involved. Undertaker experiments with Bizarre Dolls to give them more time “alive.”
As I saw, in 108, Undertaker makes a reference to time:
Or rather, how it’s too early in time for Ciel to wake up. Though I swear some translations just say “it’s not time for you to wake up.” What is he waiting for? What time do we need?
As m-i-t saw, in 113, we see a picture of the changing moon when Lizzy is crying over Ciel.
Moons – as the sky in general – can be used to tell time. People use the position of the sun to tell the time of day, and people use the moon to tell the time of month. It’s all about cycles.
With meetings being held in Sphere Music Hall at specific times such as the 4th Saturday of the month, maybe it’s in accordance with the moon.
Perhaps Ciel cannot “wake up” until it’s a certain time in the cycle, such as the “New Moon” where he could make a “new version” of himself. Rebirth seems to be an aim for the cult, anyway.
I just noticed a rather worrying part of the P4′s song that further cements the idea that the cult has not given them the true redemption they sought, if that is truly what they sought in the first place, but rather an escape, a means to erase their past.
Specifically, this part.
Perhaps this idea even goes so far as erasing physical reminders of the past, which may explain why Greenhill lacks the scar he should have from the terrible bite Derrick Arden gave him back in the Weston arc. It may also explain the absence of Cheslock’s facial scar, too.
In this way, drunk on the notion of a trouble and worry-free utopia, the P4 and their loyal audience can forget the past and pretend as if it never existed.
It’s interesting, with all that said, that Lizzie is barefoot the last time we see her in Chap. 112. She isn’t simply wearing high-heeled shoes, as she longed to, as girls her age would be. She isn’t wearing anything at all on her feet.
As we all know, Lizzie’s low-heeled shoes are a symbol of her vow to be who she thinks Ciel wants her to be, and her desire to make Ciel happy above all else, especially herself.
Could her relinquishing her shoes be a sign that she has relinquished her vow in a bid to escape the troubles she endures alone? Has Bravat convinced her to put herself first for the first time in years, and find the true happiness she secretly, perhaps, longs for? Would this mean forgetting her vow to Ciel, rather than forgetting Ciel himself?
It’s interesting, too, that she appears to be wearing a dress one would wear for one’s christening ceremony. It could be a sign of both her being initiated into the cult, and also, as the ceremony suggests, ‘purified’? Does this purification mean forgetting? Forgetting her entire childhood spent in turmoil about how she should act, how she should be, if she wants to be with Ciel? The lack of the symbol of that resolve suggests it might.
UPDATE: Another song from our P4 (or S4, as they’re known now… doesn’t sound as good does it?), and yet more revealing lyrics for us to ponder over.
Take these two lines, for instance.
(Chapter 113, pg. 17)
Not only are they encouraging the casting off of what we can assume are bad thoughts, feelings or even memories, but they are holding forgetting up as a better, easier alternative to dealing with them. This, I think, is the central philosophy for the cult, and the reason the P4 fell in with it. The P4 could no longer deal with the torment of having been expelled from their beloved Weston, although there may have been some guilt involved, they took the option of forgetting their troubles and bathing in false light rather than facing their troubles head on.
I wonder, is it possible for the P4 to be redeemed when this is their response to having their guilt exposed? Do they deserve redemption, after yet again falling in with a cult that practises murder? It’s pretty clear their victims are killed in the rooms (such as the one Ciel was in), via chloroform, most likely. The P4 are present at some point before their victims to sing and make a speech. There is no way, surely, that they can use ignorance as a defence. Have they dug their own graves?
(This post is based on a conversation I had with @midnight-in-town.)
As @glacierspirit has noticed, Violet is wearing an accessory on his outfit that looks very similar to Undertaker’s mourning lockets.
Assuming that these are mourning lockets as well, it raises the question to whom they refer to. It looks like there are six lockets, so has Violet already lost six dear people in his young life?
But, remember the Weston arc? The (former) P4 killed Derrick, his friends and vice-principal Agares. So in total they killed six people:
Could Violet’s lockets stand for these six people? That would mean that he’s mourning their deaths and therefore, regretting his actions.
That kinda contrasts to what we’ve seen of the former P4 in the current arc. Like Greenhill has told Edward, they seem to have found their happiness again. But as analyzed it this post by @erebuscheslock or here by @midnight-in-town, Violet doesn’t seem to be that enthusiastic about this cult as his fellow comrades and Bravat’s influence doesn’t work that good on him.
So maybe these lockets are a sign that Violet still regrets what happened at Weston.
This grave that Sebastian found at the end of the chapter is probably connected to what’s happening at the meetings of this sect. So it seems like the former P4 haven’t escaped from their past but have stepped yet into another situation that involves murder. Maybe Violet wants to help the others to escape it before it’s too late.
My and others’ belief that Violet will go rogue and turn on his fellow prefects, or at least do something to thwart the cult’s objective and, perhaps, become an ally to Ciel, grows ever stronger.
As suspected, Violet is not happy with the cult and not happy being part of it. He even admits as much to Ciel’s face. Clearly he wants to find common ground with Ciel and present himself as a potential ally, or else he would have remained silent. Hell, he even tries to ingratiate himself with Ciel by giving him more gifts than necessary, and simply being more talkative and helpful than at Weston.
At Weston, Violet rebuffed Ciel’s attempt at conversation, and the two, to my knowledge, never spoke since. Quite a change. It could be that Violet regrets not having approached Ciel sooner. Who knows, perhaps if Violet had spilled the beans and allied with Ciel at Weston, things would have gotten resolved a lot faster and we may even have not gotten to where we are. The prefects may well not have gotten into yet another cult because the one member among them who can see the bs remains silent.
Finally, Violet voices his objections.
[PS: Further proves my theory that Cheslock was recruited by Violet for the purpose of his eventually going rogue. Holy hell I want to see him soon. Also Ciel and Violet teaming up… now that will be something to see!]
Black Butler Chapter 113 can be bought here for $2 here (as an e-book).
As always, only my thoughts part 1 on 2 (so I can get them out of my head) so you don’t have to read and even less to agree. 🙂 There might be a little of chemical/medical stuff
so I’ll try to stay simple, but as always feel free to ask for explanations.
Spoilers for ch113 and below is a littleTL;DR/summary in case you want to be sure you won’t waste time reading something completely uninteresting lol (nah because it turned out to be long and I don’t want to bore you with everything, so pick up your favorite subjects and read what you like):
“Too lovely corpses” -> D’aww, thanks UT!
“Please join Bravat’s blue sect! We’ll make sure to intoxicate your body with chloroform to the point you’ll never wake up.”
Violet aka the MVP of this chapter, a new candidate for the place as Ciel’s best friend
The end with a small parallel to ch108
Now that it’s been proved I am actually not funny, here’s the actual post under read more for the interested 😉
The “lovely corpses”
(Special kudos to thedarkestcrow for our great discussion on this month’s chapter)
Let’s begin by the end…
When you die, several phenomena happen within your body like rigor mortis, algor mortis and livor mortis also known as “postmortem lividity” (for more details look here). Funnily enough, postmortem lividity is nowadays one of the means used to determine the time of death in forensics, but getting back to the main point and the cause of death aside, it is really strange that the police found the corpses to be as Abberline described them.
Basically, that’s the difference between a corpse going to its funerals and a corpse found by the police (because of a murder for example): generally a corpse going to its last ceremony is made as “pretty” as possible (by morticians) so the relatives don’t have to face the gruesome reality of what’s happening to a dead body, which is not the case for a corpse found by a police (otherwise forensic doctors can’t do their job).
As always this is just speculation, but if we consider that somehow our favorite mortician is involved with Bravat’s sect, it is not impossible to think that he made sure those corpses would look lovely since it was once his job (remember Ann’s funerals? she looked pretty too, that’s the job of a mortician amongst other things), hence the general agreement that those corpses look indeed too lovely to be buried anonymously.
The question is why would the Undertaker do that though? Knowing him, it would make sense to think that he would rather experiment on them for his BD project after all. Unless he’s not making Bizarre Dolls anymore or his role inside Bravat’s sect is different? Or he found another way to do what he wanted which doesn’t involve corpses anymore?
I have nothing but speculations to offer for this part, so we shall see with future chapters but I just take this as one more hint for UT to be involved in this arc 🙂
“Lovely corpses fast asleep”… like Ciel at the private event?
(I love the cat)
Now that’s one of the most interesting parts of the chapter. ^^ About those corpses, Abberline said…
“There are no external wounds in sight and they look as if they’re fast asleep…”
If we’re to guess that those corpses are linked to Bravat’s little sect (logically lol), then it would be interesting to think about why Bravat would get rid of people and what he could use to make them look like they’re just asleep.
And, considering what Ciel experienced during the exact same chapter, the answer is probably related to that…
It’s sleeping gas, very probably chloroform considering the time period.
Without going into too much details, chloroform was mostly used as an anesthetic for surgeries back at that time, but like every organic compound, it has a certain toxicity for human and animal bodies (which is why it’s not used anymore in medicine nowadays, too toxic).
Back to the chapter, Ciel fell asleep due to him inhaling chloroform and, while he turned out to be mostly okay after just this one session, it doesn’t mean that accidents can’t happen, especially for people who would come over every week. So in other words, I’m proposing that those corpses are actually people who didn’t wake up after their own private sessions at the Sphere music hall.
((Chloroform toxicity can trigger heart and/or respiratory failure which is why the corpses look like they’re asleep: they inhaled chloroform like Ciel, but at some point after being under anesthesia, the toxicity of the compound (because they’d often come to these sessions or simply because their organism couldn’t tolerate the dose they inhaled) provoked a fatal heart and/or respiratory failure and they died in their sleep.))
So these corpses would be the result of accidents because human beings don’t all react similarly to a particular organic compound. Taking the example of Ciel: he was the only “child” in the room, so obviously, while he looks to be okay, he still inhaled the same dose of the sleeping gas as the adults with him, but being younger and thinner, that means the toxicity certainly was higher for him than for the adults.
I’m not saying that Ciel will die of this of course (though imagine Kuroshitsuji ending because Ciel has a heart attack lol), but this is how accidents happen, because there are a lot of factors to consider when using products like that. 🙂
This was a one time thing for Ciel though, so despite the dizziness, the sleeping gas is probably not what we should be worried about. When it comes to the corpses though, their ‘asleep’ state due to death by chloroform toxicity would also explain why there is no external injury visible.
(I know this part can be a little complicated, so again don’t feel ashamed if you need a different explanation. Besides I might totally suck at explaining things like that since English is not my first language and finding the accurate words is more difficult than usual)
Orange gifts and Violet
I said before that chloroform toxicity could provoke a heart failure, which could be how those corpses passed away in their sleep, but when it comes to the majority of people who wake up…
…They’re apparently given orange products after every session. And, while it could be just as thanks, the fact that a compound of oranges (the ascorbic acid/C vitamin) was proven to have a preventive and protective effect against heart failure could also be why everyone gets them after a session.
Honestly, this part just depends on what kind of knowledge Yana has about all this: technically the preventive action of the C vitamin stays a very minor thing (otherwise no one would ever die of heart failure), it’s not a miraculous cure, but I guess that it might help somehow against chloroform toxicity possibly causing heart failures. (C vitamin is also effective against tiredness by the way)
Speaking of that, I have to point something out about Violet’s attitude: as @erebuscheslock pointed out here, it seems that Violet isn’t under Bravat’s influence as much as the other 3 are…
And keeping in mind what I just said about the orange gifts, it’s quite peculiar to see that…
…Violent went out of his way to give a lot of orange gifts to Ciel with the advice to “eat them all”…
…after noticing that Ciel was maybe a bit too dizzy because of the sleeping gas (again Ciel is biologically a child, so that means something when it comes to tolerating an anesthesic like chloroform the way an adult’s body would).
Basically, Violet tried to give a hidden advice to Ciel and I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t buy the whole thing about Bravat’s sect but just plays along because the other 3 are totally into it (because they want to escape the harsh reality that they’re murderers) and he might be worried for them.
So kudos to him and here’s to hoping Cheslock and Violet will have a bigger role in this arc, because they’re awesome like that. 🙂 Also for more on the subject of Violet’s character in this chapter, feel free to check out @thedarkestcrow’s post. 🙂
A link with ch108?
The last part is even more theoretical than all the others but taking a look back at ch108, when UT made Ciel drink that *something*, he also did this…
…taking his wrist, as if checking his pulse maybe?
Honestly I’m still not sure what this really means, but considering the last chapter with Ciel falling asleep, there is definitely a parallel with chapter 108, if just because UT emphasizes the sleep part (it could go deeper if UT is actually checking Ciel’s pulse as if to verify whether or not it would be okay to use chloroform on him though this would be so very inefficient/useless as a check up lol).
I’m just stating possibilities anyway, that’s what I always do, nothing is canon unless Yana says so, but these are my thoughts about most of the chapter. I intend to do a separate post for the scene between Lizzie and Ciel, because it’s a tad more complicated and open to interpretations (unless someone writes a post conveying similar thoughts before I do), but in the meantime if anything is unclear feel free to say so. 🙂
I was looking at the spoilers for chapter 113 when I noticed this image.
The moment I saw it, I noticed a similarity between this and Undertaker from chapter 108.
In both cases you have what appears to be sleeping Ciel. Another figure approaches in the darkened room to lean over Ciel. There are drops of a liquid – the fluid for Undertaker’s vial and the tears from Lizzy’s eyes.
I’m curious because in fairy tales, the tears from a love were often something that could rescue someone from under a spell. Of course, since this is just a spoiler, I might be jumping the gun a bit.
midnight-in-town 