Étiquette : madam red

I admire Ann for being a lady that stood up against the idea of how a Victorian woman should but that ‘s it .I pretty much disliked the woman . I mean it’s one thing when you have a child like Lizzy favoring a twin over the other but for a grown up to play favorite between her nephews and our poor baby was aware of it .It’s just awful, I’m hoping that Frances will do better .

Hello Anon. And honestly? S a m e! Except that I don’t dislike Red, I’m really just neutral.

I do agree that she was an amazing example as a Lady in appearance: being able to stand up for her dream of becoming a doctor, for not being stereotypical as a Victorian woman (just like the whole female cast of Kuroshitsuji though), etc. Otherwise though, she was pretty pitiful because full of issues she never managed to solve, way before the twins were even born. ://

I know Ann really tried to be better and happier and it’s a series of unfortunate events in such a short period of time that eventually made her crazy, but still:

  • her everlasting crush obsession with Vincent?  
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  • Misunderstanding what her sister (who she claimed she loved and I don’t doubt that) was about and why Vincent chose her, which ultimately led to a lot jealousy? 
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  • Playing favorite between her nephews, most likely because real!Ciel acted more similar to Vincent than our!Ciel did back then?
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  • Giving Lizzie a controversial advice?
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[EDIT: I believe it’s the effect of Ann’s “advice” mixed with real!Ciel’s comment about being scared of strong women that gave Lizzie her self-confidence issues. However Ann, just like real!Ciel, obviously didn’t mean for their words to have such an impact. 

So I don’t blame either of them but I think it was foolish of Ann to believe in such concepts when it didn’t apply to her, Lizzie, Frances or Rachel. This scene is Ann trying to justify why Vincent chose Rachel over her (more demure, perfect, lady-like Rachel or so she thinks), but she’s completely getting the wrong idea.

Vincent didn’t love Rachel because she was delicate and lovely: he was raised by a woman who was the Queen’s Watchdog before him and his sister is one of the strongest aristocrats in the country. The man himself told Ann that being different was a good thing. It’s Ann who misunderstood with such concepts in mind, eventually becoming jealous of Rachel.]

  • And finally, trying to kill her nephew and making him feel guilty about all that happened with her when he already had a lot to deal with? 
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Yeah, I can’t forgive her for all that stuff, even if she had terrible circumstances. The horrible circumstances is why I pity rather than dislike her (and also because our!Ciel still loves her, in spite of everything), but unfortunately, as an adult she had no right to take it out on her already traumatized nephew. 

In that, I have 0 doubt that Frances already did better plenty of times (and will hopefully keep that up in the future, even if we can’t be 100% sure).

In fact, as I pointed out before, personally I think the timing of her introduction (right after Ann’s funerals and on Ciel’s birthday, taking him out hunting so that he’ll have fun) is no coincidence, in order to show how different the two women might turn out to be, where our!Ciel is concerned.

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And while Ann mostly used to get involved with Ciel’s work as the Watchdog, Frances rather does simple little things to show her support: 

  • like the hunting game for his birthday, 
  • agreeing that he should come in vacations with them and take time off work during the Campania arc, 
  • probably allowing Lizzie to visit him whenever so that he won’t be alone,
  • not saying anything about the Blue Miracle even if she knew it was all fake from the start, 
  • maybe keeping the secret of him lying about his identity if she indeed knew, etc.

She would probably do more, but my theory is that she understands that he went through something horrible 4 years ago + that, mostly, she’s probably wary of Seb. And there is Tanaka keeping an eye on him anyway, possibly out of devotion for Claudia’s family (as he implied recently), so it works out. 

And hey, speaking of which, Frances’ mom was very probably murdered when she was like 12 years old…

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…we don’t know what happened to Cedric K. Ros– (her father) but I doubt it was more joyful, her older brother was murdered too and only one of her nephews came back after being abducted, but we never saw her taking it out on our!Ciel and making him more miserable.

So Red truly had 0 excuse. Maybe if she hadn’t been so very alone (or misled by Grell, because let’s be honest, that also played a part), she wouldn’t have fallen so low, but the JTR arc still happened and now she will never have a way to make amends for it. ://

These are the two main differences between her and Lizzie: kids are selfish and don’t know better, so yes, ten year old Lizzie half-unknowingly having a preference for real!Ciel is not to be put on the same level as an actual adult making a difference between her two nephews (with her favorite coincidentally being the one who acted more like the man she was obsessed with). 

And secondly, Lizzie never tried to murder our!Ciel and that kinda accounts for a lot. Besides, Lizzie feels horrible about realizing that her younger self was very selfish and that’s actually huge character development when she’s only 15.

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TL;DR I think Ann was a very interesting character but the story presented her as a despicable person who will never be able to make amends for what she did (and I doubt that there will ever be more than that to her, unfortunately). 

That’s just a fact: it doesn’t mean we readers or our!Ciel should hate her, but when it comes to him having at least one outstanding adult figure in his life, well, that never was her. ://

However, I agree with you that this person could be Frances. If anything, in ch14 even Seb seemed to think that this idea could work out, but I guess we’ll have to see if that is what Sensei planned for her character. 

Sorry for rambling, I kinda love the subject! ^^” Thanks for sharing your thoughts Anon, I hope you’ll have a nice week ahead! 

akumadeenglish:

The more I think about OC’s low self-esteem, the more it makes me sad :/

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We know from Lizzy’s words in ch14 that Madam Red’s favourite was RC.

And in ch13, when Sebastian asks OC why he didn’t shoot Madam Red, he answers…

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“I felt Madam Red would not be able to kill Ciel, her kin.”

YenPress translated the line as “she would not be able to kill me”, but in the original Japanese version, OC says “she would not be able to kill Ciel” and refers to “Ciel” in third person. Clearly, he is not referring to himself, but to RC in this scene. 

OC knew that RC was Madam Red’s favourite. Therefore, he believes that the only reason why she hesitated to kill him is that she believed he was “Ciel”, the nephew she loved best. And this is incredibly sad because it sounds as if OC is saying:

“Madam Red couldn’t kill me because she believed I’m “Ciel”, her favourite. Had she known that I am not “Ciel” but the twin, she might have killed me”.

Someone give this poor baby a big hug…! ; _ ;

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Bonus:

The truly sad thing about all this is that the real reason why Madam Red couldn’t kill her nephew was that he reminded her too much of Rachel. She had a  love/hate relationship to her sister and at the very crucial moment her love for her sister outweighed the hatred for her, and that’s why she hesitated.

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So OC’s assumption that she hesitated only because it’s her “favourite” nephew is wrong. 

But yeah, of course, there’s no one to clear up the misunderstanding and OC continues to have an extremely low self-esteem… *sobs*

((( We don’t know for sure whether Madam Red knew OC’s true identity – I strongly believe she didn’t – but either way, the problem is that OC himself believed that Madam Red believed he was RC. )))

Chapter 144 Thoughts

chibimyumi:

captainaceofspades:

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!

Sorry if this has been mentioned before. Don’t you find it strange that Madam Red apparently kept the Phantomhive signet ring even though Frances is the actual bloodline descendant?☕🐸

her-majestys-watchdog:

stole it bc her dick was hard 4 vincent and we all know it. lol but in reality no clue man, honestly i think it’s bc frances 100% knows OC is a faker and it’s why we ‘aren’t allowed’ to see her in the flashbacks. she’d give the 2CT game away (hence why she’s been testy with OC @ Lizzy all these years)

midnight-in-town:

Am I the only one thinking that whenever Seb says something like that, it’s because he’s aware that Tanaka’s physical condition isn’t the best ever since 4 years ago? So basically he’s never asking Tanaka anything because Tanaka needs to conserve his strength for when it could be necessary? 

I mean, there is no doubt that Tanaka is freakishly strong and skilled, but I can’t help but think that it was even more the case before 4 years ago. 
After all, he received at least two injuries back then (one to his right side, one deep in the back), he possibly was caught in the fire that destroyed the manor too and when Ciel sees him again, he’s…

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in a wheelchair and we know he doesn’t come back to the manor until after the ceremony making Ciel the official Earl Phantomhive in mid-March 1886 (which means that he needed a real recovery). 

So while we still don’t know how he survived through the attack of December 14th

when no one else did

or how he got to the hospital in time, the fact he’s still capable of…

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…being an absolute badass after everything that happened to him makes me think it’s only possible because he doesn’t do anything the rest of the time. 

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@artsy-jandi Ah, I just knew someone would say this. xD 

Thanks for your input and, to be fair, I know it appears to be one possibility, however for me it doesn’t work, at least if Sensei intends to make this as realistic as possible. :3 This is what Ann saw:

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And technically if Tanaka was still inside back then, he would have had 0 way to make it out alive by himself. 

To explain extremely simply: fire leads to carbon monoxide as well as hydrogen cyanide being present in the air and as a result it becomes impossible to breathe or even move, which is how people die when trapped in a fire.

I can’t stress this enough, it is really a matter of minutes. Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin (what transports oxygen throughout the body) as well as myoglobin (similar but specific of the muscles, which is how they can move) instead of oxygen, making it impossible for the person to breathe/run away.

So that’s why Tanaka would have had no way to escape this on his own, even more so considering how he was also physically injured. And even if Ann had run inside, she would have found herself incapable of breathing/being able to run away pretty quickly, which means she would have died too. 

Firemen nowadays have these extremely useful gasmasks as well as oxygen at their disposal, which is how they make it through, but this was the case of neither Tanaka nor Ann here. :/

But hey, obviously Sensei doesn’t have to know/respect these facts since it’s fiction. So let’s say that a very wounded Tanaka

miraculously

managed to espape the burning manor, there is also the question of whether or not Ann’s carriage would have been fast enough to take him to London’s royal hospital in time (since that’s where he was in ch62) to save his life.

Remember that Tanaka was stabbed at least twice from what we’ve seen (I am not even sure he was in any shape to move tbh), so if he somehow managed to escape the burning house by idk what miracle, it would have still proved difficult for Ann to make it in time to any hospital (especially since she would have probably also wanted to make sure about the rest of the family). 

That’s why personally I don’t find the idea that Ann is the one who saved/helped Tanaka to be the most logical, sorry. :3 If Yana intends to make this as realistic as possible, then the only possibility for Tanaka’s survival (especially if he was caught in the fire) is that someone supernatural was in time to rescue and take him to the hospital. That’s just my opinion though. 🙂

From Ann’s cinematic record vs ch131: I actually love Ann’s memory more because you can read about Vincent literally saying he wanted to play with the kids (leaving the rest of his work to Tanaka lmao xDD poor Tanaka, something tells me this happened often) and you can even see Lizzie on the left panel holding her arms up and asking Vincent for a hug. 

AND THIS IS SO CUTE OKAY. 

Seriously I just love that Vincent was depicted to be a good dad, because tbh Ciel’s daddy issues could have given us the wrong idea sometimes.
So yeah, I just love how Vincent wanted to play with his kiddos, how he kept Ciel’s tiny hand in his that one time they all went out (and met Kelvin), hardly ever letting go because Ciel was afraid of all the unknown crowd:

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In fact, I once briefly discussed the rather crappy father figures in Kuro with an Anon, but I’m actually super glad that Tanaka (one of the few good examples) apparently had a positive influence (as Vincent & Frances’ parental figure after Claudia passed away) on Vincent himself. 😀

Bonus:

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Even bigger kudos to Vincent for not being ashamed to convey concepts such as this (despite his job being to kill for the Queen), because that 100% suits the rather peculiar environment he was raised in…

  • his mother, a noble lady, who was the Queen’s Watchdog and possibly head of the family before him
  • his super strong little sister, who was probably taught to fight from early on, possibly because she was supposed to be his spare
  • the house butler, whom he most likely knew ever since his childhood and who became his and his sister’s parental figure after his mom died, probably was a Japanese ex-samurai/mercenary/warrior

…which means he never was ashamed of his family being different from what was supposedly typical of/normal for the time era and that’s amazing.
And frankly, I know he has daddy issues but…

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I’m really glad Ciel agrees and shares this concept too.

helloooo,I was just wondering did rachel and madam reds parents die before or after the twins birth?

Hi Anon! I’d say they died after:

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but I’m not 100% certain. We can see their dad when he introduced the girls to Vincent but that’s basically all we have about their parents. Due to the thing I highlighted I always considered that Lord and Lady Durless died after the twins were born, but I could be wrong. 🙂 

Have a nice day!

Hi! It’s true the current flashback is certainly hard to read and hard to write as it was conveyed to us that Yana, too, had her difficulties with showing this part of her story.

It’s probably almost over though, this month’s chapter is harsh, the next two might also be, but I’m sure she’ll be able to take care of herself afterwards. ^_^

She’s doing a good job by delivering us Kuro every month and I’m sure she knows her fans support her 😀

Have a nice day!

Rachel Phantomhive headcanons

cielizzydefencesquad:

– Rachel was born in the spring of 1856. She was 18 years old when she married Vincent Phantomhive.

– Her favorite flowers are white and pink camellias. (In Japan the camellia symbolizes the coming of spring. In Victorian England, the camellia was received by young women during courtship to symbolize the beauty and “adorableness” of the recipient. So, Vincent pretty much sent these flowers to Rachel by the carriage-full until she gave in and decided to let him formally call on her. “Persistence,” Vincent would often say, “can be the difference between marriage and a lonely life of pathetic solitude.” —> To which Rachel would respond, “I wasn’t particularly charmed by your father but I had to do something before he drove the camellia flower into extinction.”)

– Due to her asthma and frail constitution, Rachel spent a lot of her time learning and practicing the arts. She was a gifted pianist, talented landscape painter, avid art historian, as well as model and muse to many luminaries—including the portraitist Sir John Everett Millais, who wrote, in a letter to his old friend Vincent Phantomhive, “By all creation!—never have I seen a fairer face than that of Miss [Rachel] Dalles…she is exquisite in form, delightful in conversation, and possesses, without the impudence of so many young ladies of beauty, the warm affability of one whose grace and culture is genuine, [and] without the excess pretension of societal expectation.” 

– When Charles Dickens, in his old age, visited the Dalles family (his daughter, Mary, had been particularly close with the late Mrs. Dalles before she passed), took one look at a young Rachel and cried, “Have I fallen asleep, or is this a mere heavenly delight? There, standing before me—is that my Lucie Manette?”

– Yet despite these words of praise and adulation, Rachel wasn’t actually all that fond of the poetic or tranquil arts. In fact one of Rachel’s favorite things to do would be to make up raunchy, crude tales of adventure and excess with her sister, Ann. They would challenge each other: the story must be distasteful, awful, vulgar, and dumb but be disguised as a tale of epic romance and eloquence. As a result, Rachel became extremely skilled in the art of the double entendre. (Or, as Vincent would say, “My wife has a very particular gift of making me want to fall on bended knee and explore the delta of Venus until I have learned all its secrets and drunk my fill of honeyed wine.”)

– Rachel and Ann made up their own secret language when they were seven and used it to communicate with one another until Rachel’s death in the fire.

– Rachel was an amateur astronomer and Vincent, upon discovering this particular fact, commissioned a group of artisans from the University of Milan to build his young wife a telescope like none other.

– During late summer nights when the air was hot and sleep difficult to come by, Rachel would take the twins out to the garden and teach them how to stargaze. Using colored pencils (real!Ciel’s was red and our!Ciel’s was blue) they would write down their favorite constellations in a little leather-bound journal that had once belonged to Rachel’s mother. (Also why RC chose to model the Sphere Music Hall on various star types: he simply saw it as another way to taunt his younger brother. Yet OC, so deeply traumatized by the effects of the fire, blocked out these memories altogether.)

– Rachel was an avid coffee drinker and didn’t quite understand why everyone was so obsessed with boiling dead leaves.

– She and Vincent used to go sailing around the White Cliffs of Dover, with Rachel navigating. Early in their relationship, when Vincent didn’t know much about the delicate honey-blonde, Rachel offered to navigate the sailboat for him. When Vincent expressed doubt that she could do it, Rachel shoved his disbelieving ass into the water and sailed to shore by herself.

– Her beautiful appearance and sweet smile hid a strong heart and even stronger personality. Humorous, witty, clever, silly, and self-aware, Rachel was a uniquely warm exception to the porcelain-faced debutantes of Victorian society.

– Rachel never really understood why Ann was always so self-conscious. In Rachel’s eyes, her younger sister was a striking beauty with her snow-pale skin, blood red hair, full lips, and enviable bosom.

(“Come now Ann, I think this dress would suit you perfectly!”

“N-no! You’ve been reading far too much of that libertine’s novels! Just look at the neckline, Rachel—“

“You know what, you’re right? We need something to show off that magnificent chest of yours—honestly Ann, your breasts could save mankind.”)

– Rachel admired her formidable sister-in-law Frances Midford and always felt better knowing it was Frances who would be guarding her husband on his missions for the queen.