So I was thinking about this and its possible repercussions in the current arc, i.e what Lizzie may still do before the arc ends.
I know this might not please everyone, since she’s often targeted by criticism, but she’s still a huge part of the arc (and of our!Ciel’s life) and Sensei dedicated an entire chapter recently to how she’s feeling, so you can bet it’s going to matter. 😀
Anyway, when you look at Lizzie in ch58, what she’s describing regarding the twins are two opposite dynamics:
when it comes to real!Ciel, she expresses passivity => she’s the one being protected
and when it comes to our!Ciel, she expresses activity => she’s the one who protects
Granted that this shouldn’t be taken too literally because she indirectly protected real!Ciel by fighting against Seb in ch117, just like our!Ciel protected her in ch14 for example, but this may still be interesting to consider the next developments.
After all, even though she did fight against Seb to stop him from investigating the labs, otherwise she’s been rather powerless when it comes to real!Ciel’s situation…
…or to what he (and UT) did in the current arc, which fits the passive dynamic.
Similarly, where real!Ciel telling her that he found strong women scary (when they were kids) is what led her to think she should be protected by him, the Campania arc happening 3 years after she decided that she would protect our!Ciel gave her the opportunity to reveal her true self to him…
…which is something that he accepted and he didn’t think any less of her after that (even when she almost kicked him in the face in ch107 xD).
So back to the current arc, where is this difference of dynamics supposed to lead Lizzie? Especially now that she’s freed from real!Ciel and the blue sect (who most likely didn’t give her a single chance to figure out why our!Ciel would even lie in the first place)?
Most importantly, if the current arc so far had Lizzie being passive because she was by real!Ciel’s side, now that she’s left him, can we expect that she takes on a more active role, especially considering how she’s not even pissed at our!Ciel but just super confused and blaming herself?
In any case, I think a little detour by home is a great thing because her family always supported her and also taught her how to be strong. And, I don’t know if Frances’ current absence so far is supposed to play a role in helping Lizzie realize on which side she wants to be, but it might (especially if Frances already knows about our!Ciel lying and since Sensei said that Lizzie took her mom as a role model).
My personal opinion is that if Lizzie eventually decides that her place is by our!Ciel’s side (which I think is likely to happen for many reasons), then I bet you that she’ll most likely become very active again in striving to protect him, even from her original fiancé (aka taking up the sword again and fight like a badass).
EDIT: forgot to mention but there is still that random info that Sieglinde now understands how blood transfusions work + that Wolfram has got the same blood type as Liz => could be a hint that she might get hurt because she’s going to choose our!Ciel.
I just love
the way Sensei in ch144 is kinda deconstructing everything that she slowly revealed about Lizzie in ch58.
It doesn’t mean that Lizzie is in need of a clear-cut change, she already had that change during the Campania arc when our!Ciel acknowledged that “what she’s made of” was nothing shameful…
So that basis of her character is still going strong, because it took such a long time for her to fully be proud of it and there is indeed nothing wrong with it. That’s also why it makes sense that later in the arc she goes back to this state of mind, in my opinion.
In fact, it’s the passivity and powerlessness that she showed towards the twin that proves to be in clear contradiction with “what she’s made of”.
In any case, she has been wearing the low-heeled shoes throughout the arc (there is even a clear emphasis on them when she shows up in ch142), so where we are right now, maybe she needs another of her mother’s lessons (in case Frances did know about everything from the beginning) before she will decide to take up her swords again, with which to protect our!Ciel. 🙂
So I was thinking about this and its possible repercussions in the current arc, i.e what Lizzie may still do before the arc ends.
I know this might not please everyone, since she’s often targeted by criticism, but she’s still a huge part of the arc (and of our!Ciel’s life) and Sensei dedicated an entire chapter recently to how she’s feeling, so you can bet it’s going to matter. 😀
Anyway, when you look at Lizzie in ch58, what she’s describing regarding the twins are two opposite dynamics:
when it comes to real!Ciel, she expresses passivity => she’s the one being protected
and when it comes to our!Ciel, she expresses activity => she’s the one who protects
Granted that this shouldn’t be taken too literally because she indirectly protected real!Ciel by fighting against Seb in ch117, just like our!Ciel protected her in ch14 for example, but this may still be interesting to consider the next developments.
After all, even though she did fight against Seb to stop him from investigating the labs, otherwise she’s been rather powerless when it comes to real!Ciel’s situation…
…or to what he (and UT) did in the current arc, which fits the passive dynamic.
Similarly, where real!Ciel telling her that he found strong women scary (when they were kids) is what led her to think she should be protected by him, the Campania arc happening 3 years after she decided that she would protect our!Ciel gave her the opportunity to reveal her true self to him…
…which is something that he accepted and he didn’t think any less of her after that (even when she almost kicked him in the face in ch107 xD).
So back to the current arc, where is this difference of dynamics supposed to lead Lizzie? Especially now that she’s freed from real!Ciel and the blue sect (who most likely didn’t give her a single chance to figure out why our!Ciel would even lie in the first place)?
Most importantly, if the current arc so far had Lizzie being passive because she was by real!Ciel’s side, now that she’s left him, can we expect that she takes on a more active role, especially considering how she’s not even pissed at our!Ciel but just super confused and blaming herself?
In any case, I think a little detour by home is a great thing because her family always supported her and also taught her how to be strong. And, I don’t know if Frances’ current absence so far is supposed to play a role in helping Lizzie realize on which side she wants to be, but it might (especially if Frances already knows about our!Ciel lying and since Sensei said that Lizzie took her mom as a role model).
My personal opinion is that if Lizzie eventually decides that her place is by our!Ciel’s side (which I think is likely to happen for many reasons), then I bet you that she’ll most likely become very active again in striving to protect him, even from her original fiancé (aka taking up the sword again and fight like a badass).
EDIT: forgot to mention but there is still that random info that Sieglinde now understands how blood transfusions work + that Wolfram has got the same blood type as Liz => could be a hint that she might get hurt because she’s going to choose our!Ciel.
Recently I wrote this post about Bardroy and the ‘code’ about how Bardroy asking about collecting wages is really a code between him and Sebastian. This code not only told Bardroy what he was to do next, it also calmed the moment and helped to protect the other servants.
When I was working on the post, one question that I kept wondering was how much Bardroy knew exactly about the situation. Was this code something worked up in advance or did he come up with it on the spot? If it was something that Sebastian and Bardroy had come up with previously, it brings up the question whether or not that Bardroy is privy to a bit more information than the other servants. I’m not suggesting he knows everything because I don’t think that he does, but it’s possible that he knows a bit more.
Of the three servants of Bardroy, Mey-Rin, and Finnian, we only really know much about sweet Finny. Bardoy and Mey-Rin’s backstories have been left mostly in the dark. It appears that Mey-Rin was some sort of assassin sent to kill our!Ciel at some point.
She also said later on to Agni that she hadn’t been allowed to wear dresses and skirts before becoming a maid.
Bardroy had been a soldier.
He even appeared to be the only survivor of some sort of battle, but we don’t know much more about him.
However, in times the servants have needed to act when Sebastian wasn’t around, like back in the circus arc, it was Bardroy who took charge. This could be because he’s the oldest with the most battle experience. In fact that makes sense, but there’s also a chance that Bardroy does have a bit more of an idea of what is happening.
There’s a similar situation in the manor murders arc. There are multiple times that Bardroy is seen taking a bit of a leadership role. Again, I don’t think Bardroy knew everything, but he was the one that quickly explained a wet (and supposedly dead) Sebastian as being the result of a leak.
Of course, this would be logical in this situation. At the same time, Bardroy was providing a reasonable explanation for Sebastian’s wet state without drawing any suspicion towards Sebastian.
There’s also one other thing that I find interesting. Look at these panels where the servants were ‘found.’
Do you notice anything different about Bardroy? In both the scene with Mey-Rin and Finny, our!Ciel is present and looking at them – and we know for a fact that our!Ciel chose Finny. It could have been the same for Mey-Rin, although we have no idea at this point. We do not see our!Ciel when Sebastian is looking at Bardroy. It could just be the angle. After all, we can only see Sebastian’s head meaning that if our!Ciel was beside Sebastian, he wouldn’t be tall enough to be seen. At the same time, it was a conscious decision to draw that scene from that angle. What if our!Ciel wasn’t there? Perhaps Mey-Rin and Finny were our!Ciel’s choices, but Sebastian was the one who chose Bardroy.
I recognize there’s a lot of speculation here, but I can’t help but wonder. How much does Bardroy really know?
The heart, the core, of Lizzie’s dilemma all revolves around one thing.
Love.
She believed herself to be in love with real!Ciel, yet she was fooled by our!Ciel. This leads to question the validity of her feelings and love. How could she love someone and not see he was the not the one who returned to her? That’s the question burning in her mind.
Since his return, she has grown closer to our!Ciel and loves him, yet he lied to her. She now questions all their interactions and everything he has ever said to her. She cannot trust him and thus cannot trust her feelings.
Her confusion right now really is one of the heart.
@shinigami-mistress While I agree with all of the points you made, I believe that Lizzy’s main dilemma in this arc is going to be choosing between love and duty.
Lizzy’s relationship with O!Ciel was one that was based on love. She always showered him with affection and did her best to make him happy. And she did all this not because she thought it was her duty to do so as his fiance, but because she loved him.
Her relationship with R!Ciel on the other hand, was based on duty. Lizzy was trained since she was young to protect R!Ciel, so when she learned the truth about O!Ciel she immediately sided with him. She felt like it was her duty to do so, as his fiance and because she had already failed him before.
And now Lizzy has to choose, between her love for O!Ciel that turned out to be lie, and the sense of duty she felt toward R!Ciel that lead to many deaths and O!Ciel being accused of a crime that he didn’t commit.
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 was proud of her for realizing that her love was an illusion she used to comfort herself, but I also feel it was only a partial revelation and another one will be coming, and I’m excited for it. Lizzie is a Good Female Character, I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.
See, illusions have always been a calling card for Lizzie’s character, in that she’s lied about who she is as well to get Ciel to like her by pretending to be weak. I hope she realizes that the situations are basically inverses of each other soon, because she needs to. R!Ciel is an illusion himself right now, probably not actually alive (I think?), and also his persona is most likely an illusion itself. The only thing that’s real about him is his name.
I am also glad she does not see the twins as interchangeable (thank God) and also realizes that she doesn’t really love or know R!Ciel. I think that will be vital as well, because R!Ciel is still dead somehow and also is currently acting truly awful and quite possibly was manipulated into having his family attacked. She didn’t know O!Ciel’s true identity, of course, but I do think she knew quite a bit more of him than she ever knew of R!Ciel. Yes, there are things he keeps from her, quite a bit of them, and that’s wrong, but I don’t feel like everything is a lie. It’s up to her to decide whether or not that matters. I hope it will.
The illusions idea ties into the theme of conforming to expectations vs being yourself, which has been a persistent theme in Black Butler with Sieglinde, O!Ciel, Lizzie, etc. They all have roles they see themselves as needing to fill, but these roles are really prisons that limit them from truly realizing their own power and how close they can become with other people. Soma ties into this as well, but he’s done a far better job of escaping from it currently, which is why I really hope he has A Talk with Sieglinde and Lizzie when he realizes R!Ciel killed Agni and not O!Ciel. But the manga is also fairly sympathetic to the idea of expectations because you don’t really have a choice about the role you’re born into, but it’s not really responsible to just shrug it off either. So there’s a tension there and I think Lizzie is starting to explore just that.
So…after reading the chapter, I haven’t come away with so many emotions in while. And I just need to address that I love Toboso-sensei so much for this Lizzie centered chapter because it really showcased how complex she is.
Lizzie coming to terms with her feelings and realizing she may not have real love for RCiel was something I was not expecting. I think she’s grown from that childhood obsession to burgeoning adulthood. She can begin to separate truth and lies. And though she’s “shattered,” as it was put, I think sometimes people need that harsh realization before they can mend themselves and grow from it.
Believing she’s a terrible person for hoping RCiel would come back addressed that question that OCiel had in the beginning: Would people be disappointed it’s me? Apparently yes. But at least Lizzie owns up to it and doesn’t want to feel that way. She wants to grow so much and be a better person.
In parallel, her growth reminded me how Madam Red never realized her feelings for Vincent were a childhood obsession – not real love. Madam also wished Vincent had come back instead of Ciel. She never got over that part of her life and became part of what led to her downfall. But Lizzie’s capacity to understand what’s in front of her could save her and encourage that keen sense of her mother.
(Also, Edward addressing God about putting Lizzie through this gave me flashbacks to the manga’s beginning.)
All in all. I teared up at the end.
Predictions: Lizzie’s a badass and will be more so in later chapters. I hope she realizes she has feelings for OCiel and helps him – whether its romantic, or friendship. (I’m hoping familial friendship. I don’t want Lizzie going through more pain).
Additional thoughts on Kuroshitsuji chapter 144
As the character who has been most explicit in showing romantic affection, it must equally be the most shameful to her, that ironically she showed this very affection to the wrong person.
The main
theme to Lizzie as a person is her doubt regarding the truthfulness of her
love.
The parallel drawn between Lizzie and Madam Red was something that was particularly interesting to me, because where this current arc regarding Lizzie is headed towards shows the good
potential to a complex story about human relationships that most teenager-centred stories fail to. (How many are about star-crossed lovers, or initial dislike until suddenly hit by a hormone-lightning? Ugh…)
As stated by Yana-sensei herself in her old blog, as Vincent is a post-mortem character, she draws him differently depending on in whose memories he is being retold.
Speaking of papa, Ciel’s papa has made a brief appearance in the latest volume [Volume 9], and I have been trying my best to draw him differently depending on from whose memory he is being recollected. (Whether I succeeded or not I don’t know)
Madam → The kind-hearted man she wants to forget Ciel
→
The kind-hearted father Baron Kelvin
→
An evil man with deceptive gentle looks Tanaka
→
The Evil Nobleman Earl Phantomhive
So going back to Madam Red, we do indeed see in chapter 10, how she did not really remember Vincent for who he was, but rather who she wanted him to be in relation to herself.
Please notice how Vincent was never in full, clear view, or even in the centre of her memories. This tells us that the centre of Madam’s focus was her sister’s position as Vincent’s bride she had hoped to be.
In the end, even though she did not know who, Madam still blamed someone or something for her ill fate and is overcome with jealousy. The only person she did not blame, was herself.
This draws a very clear juxtaposition with Lizzie, who has primarily been blaming herself. Lizzie even loathed herself for so much as having thoughts of blaming Our!Ciel for the situation. That she is successfully deceived by Our!Ciel just meant that she failed the ‘true-love test’.
In chapter 144, Lizzie is still too overcome with self-loath to consider the situation from outside her own perspective (and given that she is 15, it is not so weird!). But once she has sorted out her own feelings, she might start to consider Our!Ciel’s side of the story.
Perhaps a stretch, but the final page of chapter 144 is already pretty good a lead-up towards Lizzie comparing herself to Our!Ciel and therewith perhaps consider his perspective too, after all.
The relation between Lizzie and Our!Ciel might end up being them sharing something ‘fake’; but sharing a secret is quite intimate and does not have to be a bad ingredient for a close bond.
In contrast to Madam Red, Lizzie has a much fuller grasp of who Our!Ciel is (despite ironically not having known who he was).
So, all in all, though it might be twisted, I really am looking forward to a
very twisted, distorted relationship (romantic or otherwise) that Lizzie and Our!Ciell will
have to rebuild.
Please! Give me this any time, please. Enough with star-crossed lovers, tsundere-relationships or obsessive abuse euphemistically called romantic jealousy!
I was wondering why I was having so many “ch14″ vibes with the latest chapters and I guess now I know why. Because recently aren’t we, like, exactly there?
It’s the same as with UT’s foreshadowing words in ch35, but even better because it comes from Seb and Seb is constantly by Ciel’s side.
And do you remember what Seb also said, after he conveniently predicted that Ciel would sometimes need to “carry himself with humility” because he can be overconfident leading to him tripping up?
How interesting when more and more fans agree to the idea that Frances’ absence lately, when the rest of the family showed up, could be because she’s the only one (besides Tanaka and UT) who already knew about our!Ciel lying. :)) [x][x][x][x][x]
Additional thought is additional (and theoretical) but:
Until now I thought that this advice, also very relevant to the latest development, is something that our!Ciel heard her say to real!Ciel during a fencing lesson or something, but as it turned out, the flashback never addressed it.
Of course, maybe Sensei wrote that bubble but it’s not supposed to be meaningful on the long run, except that it’s kinda Ciel’s strategy towards getting revenge for the last 3 years, so
personally
I’d call it significant…
And that’s why I can’t help but think that maybe our!Ciel is really the one Frances said that to, possibly during a very rare fencing lesson or, who knows, during a chess game?
TL;DR still vouching for Frances having a role to play in the current arc, either towards Lizzie or our!Ciel (or both), + still vouching overall for some sort of mentor dynamic between her and our!Ciel, because there are just so many parallels (probably both the spare to their elder brothers, both lost the same family members because of the Watchdog’s duty, etc).
And Seb genuinely seems to enjoy the idea, which is even more interesting.
When our!Ciel is arrested, we clearly see he is still wearing the Phantomhive ring.
This image is no accident, and it’s rather interesting. At one time, this ring was very important to real!Ciel. This is the ring he was told only the true earl could wear. This was the ring he took from his father’s bloody body and swallowed to keep safe. He even managed to hold it inside his body and not pass it through.
Yet now he hasn’t even mentioned it. Not one time did he say one word about the ring. He could have easily told someone to give it to him, but he has not. This leads to one question.
Why?
Personally, I think there are two possible reasons for real!Ciel not to demand to have the ring returned to him.
The Ring is no Longer as Important to Him:
As I pointed out before, the ring used to have a lot of importance to real!Ciel, but perhaps this is no longer the truth. After all, he obviously doesn’t need the ring to prove his identity since he has those (Tanaka, Lizzie, etc.) or will say that he is indeed the real Ciel. It’s actually more important to our!Ciel as it is part of his ‘disguise’ as his brother. This could even be a way to show how real!Ciel has changed since being reborn as a Bizarre Doll. When a living human, that ring was very important to him. As a Bizarre Doll, he has little to no interest in the ring.
The Ring is Part of a Bigger Plan
This is the darker of the two possibilities. We the audience know that real!Ciel took the ring, but this isn’t known by most of other characters. All they know is that Vincent used to wear that ring and now the younger twin, who has lied about his identity for nearly four years, is now wearing the ring. Because of all that’s happened, it wouldn’t be too hard for people to be led to believe or jump to the conclusion that our!Ciel had something to do with his parents’ death or had been planning to take his brother’s identity for a long time. Most people will probably believe that he is the one that took the ring since he’s the one in possession of it. Considering he’s being arrested for identity theft and on suspicions of being involved in a murderous cult, he’s not exactly being seen in the best light. Wearing the ring could only add to all this, and could be part of a plan.
Either way, I think the ring is still quite important to the story.
So, remember how in the Murder arc, when Sebastian and Ciel framed Karl Woodley, and Charles Gray hauled him off for “Scotland Yard” to handle it?
Remember how the “police wagon” that took him away was actually being driven by Charles Phipps and John Brown?
(Vol 11 pg 117)
Remember how Charles Gray killed Woodley while he was in that wagon?
So I wonder who’s driving the wagon Sebastian and Ciel are in…
(Ch 144 pg 8)
Abberline says he’ll question Our Ciel at the station, but he already knows what our young master’s involvement was. I’m sure Abberline has some alternative plan to make sure Our Ciel isn’t actually imprisoned.
But if someone else has different plans, and drives the wagon away from Scotland Yard and Abberline’s protection, things could get much more interesting.
midnight-in-town 