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. :))
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.
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!
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.
[…] To tell the truth, ever since the anime started, I have drawn a lot of illustrations featuring ‘Sebastian and someone’. However, this time it’s not a pair because Lau and Sebastian don’t have common ground at all! (lol)
(The series) already has 7 comic volumes and there are a couple of scenes in which both of them appeared, but I think they only had a conversation once. Hmmm. (Lau has an) amazing skill to ignore the servants. Even in the meeting with my editor, we came to the conclusion that Lau probably doesn’t even remember Sebastian’s name. That’s why the illustration of the pair ‘Sebastian and Lau’ didn’t work.
Even Yusa-san, the voice actor of Lau, said in an interview, “Lau isn’t really interested in Sebastian. If anything, he’s interested in Ciel”, and he’s right indeed. So this time (it’s not a pair but) I put our young master between them [acting as a buffer between Sebastian and Lau].
[source: Yana’s d-6th blog, February 2009]
*Yana is referring to this cover illustration:
Also, friendly reminder that I have a masterpost of all my translations so far (I sorted them by characters/topics, so it’s quite easy to find what you are looking for :)) and sometimes it’s easier and faster to briefly check that than to send an ask and wait for my reply, just saying! ^^; (You can also use the search box on my blog~)
@dorkshadows: this is why Lau is our spirit animal. xDDD
The butler died? Oh. Oh man. Boy that’s just. That’s awful. Geez dude this is so terrible oh my. Gosh. Whatever will we do. Yeah this is just so terrible. I’m really distraught. Wow. Kinda sucks huh. Man. Gosh. Golly.
Friendly reminder that Lau probably is 100% aware that supernatural beings exist and that Seb is one of them.
I actually wouldn’t be surprised if he even knows about Seb being an actual demon, although it doesn’t have to go this far. Besides, tbh this raises an even bigger question mark about who/what Ran-Mao is, since she’s fishy too. [x] [x]
Awwwwww you’re so adorable Anon ❤ ❤ ❤ thank you for the sweetest message!! ❤
Okay, okay, but to address everything you said:
Lau getting more focus
I wouldn’t say I’d scream because I just am 99% sure it will happen, unlike the other subjects I mentioned for which I have a lot of different theories/possibilities in mind and none might actually be accurate.
So I’ll be extremely excited when that Lau/Ran-Mao arc will start but since I know it’s bound to happen one way or another, I’ll just scream way less loudly in comparison. xD
I mean, look, it just has to happen because Yana has been slowly addressing all of Father Knox’s Decalogue, so rule #5 may mean something significant to the plot, especially when you associate it to…
But anyway, yeah sure I’ll be very excited and scream, just a little less loudly 😀
Matsuri & Nico
Hmmm, it’s an interesting point, but since Nico was wearing a mask during the fight against Matsuri, I am not sure that Matsuri could have noticed that they possibly had a lookalike in V…
Like Lau, Nico has to be plot-relevant on some aspects at this point, otherwise they wouldn’t have been given so many strange moments of their own (the Aogiri arc when they tried to stop Yamori, or when they slightly helped for Akira with reintroducing Ogura).
About Spooky-chan
I really like that nickname actually ^_^ And I think it suits @linkspooky just fine. Actually, when I’m comfortable enough with people, I always end up giving them or using a nickname, haha. xD
I think the reason is that, myself, I hardly am ever called by my first name IRL, because there is a handy nickname that everyone uses instead (my own little sister even thought that my nickname was my first name until she was, like, 7 because everyone constantly uses it instead of my real first name). So it’s a habit I picked.
In fact, hearing anyone say my full name in a non-professional environment is just weird to be honest. xD
Anyway, if I ever give a nickname to someone here and it displeases you, just please let me know. It’s just a thing I constantly do when I’m comfortable around people but I know it doesn’t have to be to everyone’s taste. :))
About my dog and martial arts
Actually, I don’t call my dog by her name either xDD She has a nickname that everyone in my family more or less uses because of me (unless she does something foolish) and it has, like, one letter in common with her name, haha!
Thanks though Anon, I’m obviously biased on anything related to her, so I’m glad if she seems cute to at least a few other people. xDD
As for Aikido, it’s a way to release some pressure from studying and just practice sports in general. In fact, it’s giving me bruises and an aching back more often that not, so it’s not all that cool. xDD
In all honesty, I’ve been meaning to try different styles of martial arts, but for now since I’m busy I think it’s more convenient that I stay in Aikido, since it’s giving me an opportunity to get better and I really like my teacher as well as most of the people I practice with. 🙂
Thanks again for the lovely message and sweetest words Anon ❤ ❤ I think I’ll keep the anon mode open till Monday evening and I’ll keep that pace up until March or so, so no worries, I’m not gone yet 😀
Please have a lovely weekend and thanks for passing by! ^3^
Ok but the next kuro chapter better be Lau entering the house without knocking and killing the mood like “Yo guys whats up long time no se-wait…what the fuck”.
midnight-in-town 