which they took in response to Yana’s tweet about the Midfords:
If you look at the actual wigs that were created [for the musical], you can clearly see that Frances and Lizzy have matching bangs and that’s so cute!^^ For Lizzy, her mother is strict, but also the woman she looks up to, that’s why she imitates her mother’s hair style a bit. (I think I once wrote about this in the Character Guide). – Toboso
Lizzie imitates her mother’s hair style confirmed ❤
Hey, you know, I have been headcanoning about it for years because of what Yana once said (quoted below)…
There’s that old saying “One’s foster parents have more influence on the child than one’s real parents.”: Ciel became an extreme sadist due to Sebastian’s education in the last three years and it seems like the evil blood in him [*the evil side of his personality] was completely awakened [by Sebastian].
But if we consider the possibility that Vincent might have been brought up by Tanaka-san, that old guy must be quite…… oh I’d rather stop here. [x]
…but I think I am just realizing that, besides her words, it was foreshadowed quite obviously several times before that Tanaka definitely is the one who stepped up as the “parental figure” after Claudia died.
but it also means that no matter who Claudia’s husband/Vincent & Frances’ father was (Cedric K. Ros or whatever), he wasn’t around when Claudia died (most likely dead, probably even before Claudia).
which means Tanaka witnessed the same situation happening for the last two generations: a young Watchdog succeeding to his predecessor who died rather abruptly and having almost no one left to rely on at first.
Of course, there are a few differences (Seb is in charge for Ciel when Tanaka was for Vincent, andVincent still had his sister after their parents were gone while Ciel has the Midfords) but overall same situation really, which emphasizes the notion that the Phantomhive family is cursed.
Imagine how Tanaka must feel now that the twin is back and not really okay in the head… gosh I really fear for his survival during the current arc. ;_;
BONUS: okay, I actually wrote what’s above, like, 2 months ago (yes I do plan and save Kuro content for when my dash doesn’t provide any), but I still feel this so much because…
Tanaka is such an amazing character, servant, parental figure, caretaker in Kuroverse that I can’t believe anyone would vouch that he might be ready to (or already did) betray this family!
This is a post relevant to the whole manga so far, but even more particularly to the current arc, seeing as it is one of the major reasons it’s very hard to be sure of anything when it comes to future developments.
Anyway, I love Lizzie but she’s hella complex and in my opinion, Yana is totally playing on that, which is obviously not helpful. xD An example, before I explain:
Before the Campania arc, we didn’t know “the real Lizzie” because we had no hint that Lizzie even had the slightest idea what the Watchdog duty was. We didn’t have the slightest idea either that she was as badass as she is. Literally the first hint we got that something was up with her was when she reacted midly surprised to Ciel holding a gun to her face, more shocked that he’d point it at her than of the fact he was holding a gun in the first place.
This is what I mean by Lizzie’s ambivalence: her character can always be read in two completely opposite ways
and the reason for that is
because she was presented as having two radically different sides rather “late” in the story, compared to when she was first introduced.
The contrast between her naturally extremely cheerful personality (her love of cute things)…
and what she was taught by her mother (her badass side) was never foreshadowed until the Campania arc, but retrospectively, now that we know about it, it changes things. For example:
you can wonder if the attack on the manor during the circus arc really had Lizzie being clueless about the situation and not even wondering why a part of the manor had exploded during the night.
you could even use this contrast to explain why her parents let her go alone to any party, especially to one held by Druitt, a rather popular womanizer (and also human trafficker, not that her parents had to know).
This leads to one of the major differences between Ciel and Lizzie, narratively speaking: Ciel initially hardly knew anything about the Watchdog duty because Vincent died before he could teach him anything…
so he had to learn on his own, which is probably why everyone always notices when he fails to be a completely obedient doggy (even if what UT said about him being relatively different from his predecessors is probably another big reason).
Meanwhile Lizzie had her mom by her side from the beginning, her mom who trained her to be as strong as the Watchdog’s wife needed to be in order to survive. And Frances factors heavily in this difference with Ciel because she herself used to be a Phantomhive. In other words…
these are what makes Lizzie the badass girl she is and, more precisely, her mother’s lessons are creating the ambivalence of her character, because without Frances’ teachings, the Lizzie we know would simply be the girl we saw until the Campania arc.
So the fact there was another side of her from the beginning and that Yana kept it completely hidden for a while (no foreshadowing at all when we know Sensei loves foreshadowing) could be a narrative choice made to be completely relevant to Lizzie’s role in the story.
To get back on the initial subject and to explain what I meant regarding the current arc, when you see Frances (who’s the one who taught Lizzie everything), do you think she’d even buy Bravat’s fortune-telling?
Personally I don’t think she would.
Now, when it comes to Lizzie, what do you think? Because there is a difference between enjoying a little vibe of mystery (who doesn’t like a deviner trying to guess stuff) and completely buying the words of a total stranger, especially when they seem to know about your fiancé who coincidentally happens to be the Queen’s Watchdog and an important target of the Underworld.
And this is but one example of why the ambivalence of Lizzie’s character is such. a. pain. when it comes to the current arc, because you could argue that Lizzie’s reaction to Bravat’s “prediction” was genuine…
we know she’s been worrying about Ciel hiding something big ever since the Easter chapter, which was in April and Liz met with Bravat in August
she’s young and that’s the main difference with her mother who’s a grown adult and who experienced much more than her
…just like you could argue that Bravat’s words possibly frightened her because they were too accurate and, while Ed was yelling, she was busy wondering if Bravat was a possibly dangerous enemy (and in that case, the reason she went back to see him is because she wanted to evaluate just how much he knew about Ciel until, well, Bravat revealed something much more unexpected).
Another example would be:
Lizzie’s words to a sleeping real!Ciel in ch113. It’s something I remembered last week and that I shared with @thedarkestcrow because to this day we still can’t explain her words: What did she mean by “I can’t save you”? Why does she think that?? And save real!Ciel from whom or what???
There again, Yana making her character ambivalent is leading me to imagine two radically different possibilities:
she feels guilty about not being able to give him her blood to save his “radiance” => I’ve personally always found that idea so very stupid (and thus not like Lizzie) considering that she was born with her blood type and that it can’t be helped, buuut I guess the situation could be confusing and painful enough for her to be manipulated into thinking that she’s useless.
she’s actually implying that she wanted to save real!Ciel from the sect, but it’s proving to be much harder than she expected (hence why she cries) and so she stays by his side, watching the sect killing people while she can only imagine why they brought back the twin and what they intend to make him do once he’ll be “ready”. In that case, it’s also no wonder Paula said she’s been constantly crying.
See what I mean? Lizzie’s ambivalent character is proving to be a major pain for the current arc, because we know she was raised by a woman who wouldn’t have taken two shits coming from the blue sect, but Lizzie is not her mother as she’s younger and more inexperienced than Frances.
So what we saw of Lizzie’s actions so far in the arc gives us two big interpretations as to what her role is supposed to be:
was she manipulated by the blue sect to be an hostage to use against our!Ciel?
it is the most popular take on her role for this arc: the sect baited her with the twin and she’s choosing his side over our!Ciel’s for the moment because she’s confused and pained by the truth facing her.
hence Bravat’s words in ch123, taunting Ciel with Lizzie’s choosing the twin over him.
or was she trying to double-cross them from the beginning (both for real!Ciel’s and our!Ciel’s sakes)?
this part actually belongs to a bigger crack theory I discussed with @thedarkestcrow (with at least UT and Tanaka being involved in the same plan) but I’ll spare you otherwise this post will never end. xD
simply it would imply that, from the moment she learnt about the twin, no matter how confused and pained she was, she didn’t choose him over our!Ciel, it’s just that she wants to save him from the sect and has to pretend to be on their side in order to do so.
TL;DR ¯_(ツ)_/¯ we can thank Yana for creating such an ambivalent character because she’s extremely interesting that way and also it’s making things extra hard for us when trying to understand what’s going on in the current arc. xDD
I know this subject can lead to controversy because some readers might want to argue that I’m reading too much into things (which is definitely a possibility) or that Yana is not good enough to imply so much through only Liz’s character though, so I’m ready to discuss the subject if anyone wants to share their thoughts. :))
omg.. You put into words something that has been bothering me as well. Elizabeth seems to be perceptive and insightful enough to at least sense the gazillion fishy things such as Ciel’s return after the cult incident, or the textbook sketchiness of Bravat.
But why does it seem like she’s a powerless hostage now?
I am in favor of your double-cross theory tbh ahjdkfdkd That this is all part of a very calculated move. That she is as ‘politically’ savvy as she is a genius with swords. hahahah but a lot of this is wishful thinking from my side asdjfsj save me
@rheaaasss I MEAN, I’M SO GLAD SOMEONE ELSE AGREES WITH THE POINT I’M TRYING TO MAKE! 😀 Thank you so much for reading ❤
You know, the other thing I noticed when you look at the arc overall is that it has been about nothing but deception until now:
initially, many readers thought the boy in ch108 and ch113 was our!Ciel but nope, turns out it was zombie!real!Ciel
then many readers and Ciel & Seb thought that the blue sect was all about researching about blood transfusion but nope, from what we saw and what Sieglinde said, they’re already way past that stage
everyone thought that UT was the mastermind for a long time because the dead is being brought back + he was shown in ch108 and ch120, while in fact there are several hints that might indicate that it’s not him this time.
everyone think that Liz’s role is apparently to be a confused damsel in distress but, well, that’s what my post above is about xD
Finally, Tanaka not being particularly surprised by real!Ciel’s return raised an alarm in most readers’ mind.
The common point between UT, Lizzie and Tanaka? They would never choose between the twins as long as they can avoid it, because both twins matter to them.
Back to Lizzie herself, as you said, she’s indeed very perceptive and she was skilled enough to hide ahugepart of her true self from both Ciel and Seb for years (Ciel being clueless is one thing, but Seb is a demon and he too was completely surprised)…
so her double-crossing the blue sect would be something she could pull off.
Last point for now but, since Frances taught Lizzie so much, I have to admit her attitude about her daughter’s disappearance in the current arc is bothering me because it feels off. I know that many readers (me included) decided to say it was plot’s convenience, but a part of me still isn’t ready to accept it.
The reason for that is simple: when you look at Frances during the Campania arc, as she was fighting against undead corpses while the ship was thinking, all she did was confirmed with Seb that he knew where Lizzie was and afterwards she just said…
which meant, to quote @akumadeenglish‘s explanation, that Frances was not worried in the slightest but rather extremely proud, because she knew Lizzie would protect Ciel at all costs.
So I have some troubles acknowledging if Frances really is clueless about her daughter’s whereabouts in the current arc, because Frances showed before that she completely trusted in her girl’s abilities and judgement. In other words, in the event that Lizzie is involved in what is “a very calculated move” (with Tanaka and UT?), to use your expression, then…
either Frances is aware of the whole thing because Lizzie consulted with her mother before “running away” (since her mom is the one who taught her everything and Lizzie’s ultimate model in life)
or Lizzie decided not to involve her family, but Frances knows her daughter enough to realize that she must have a good reason to be on her own like that.
Anyway, sorry for rambling, it’s just that a lot seems to rests on the ambivalence of Lizzie. On the one hand, what we saw of her character so far wouldn’t make the idea of Lizzie double-crossing the blue sect so hard to believe, especially if she’s not the only one who’s trying to do so (UT, possibly). On the other hand though, the fact that she’s young and that the situation with the twin is really confusing and painful vouch for the opposite idea that she could really be completely helpless for now.
I guess we need to go back to present time before we can get any additional hint for either idea, but nonetheless, it’s been bothering me so I’m using this opportunity to let it all out. xD
Thanks again for reading and leaving your thoughts, I’m glad I’m not the only one who considered this possibility. :))
Oh, I really like this theory, and it wasn’t something I had really thought about. I was worried a bit about Frances’s (non)reaction, but this makes sense. It really does change the reading of this arc. While Lizzie is still this really sweet character, she has more awareness then we think about at times.
@shinigami-mistress Thank you for reading. 😀 I remember, we did talk about Frances’ absence of reaction but to be honest, even if it’s never going to be implied in the text, the Campania arc proved for me that Frances has no doubt about the girl she raised and couldn’t be a prouder mother.
It doesn’t mean that Lizzie is not above making the wrong decision but that she’s not frail or weak enough to be unable to take care of herself, otherwise Frances wouldn’t think so highly of her.
Finally, Lizzie is a very sweet girl, I cannot agree more, but this is precisely the trick Yana might be using to make us forget just how intelligent she also is, in addition to her strength, which in the end can make her a dangerous person. I mean, if Frances trusts her girl, it’s not just because Lizzie can hammer people with her swords. It takes a brain to be able to survive as the Watchdog’s associate and maybe that’s what this arc will show us if she’s somehow involved in a plan with UT and/or Tanaka about double-crossing the blue sect. :))
Hi Anon! Ah, well, no matter if Frances knew about our!Ciel lying about his identity or not, personally I think that Lizzie…
…always was to be “the Watchdog’s wife” and it didn’t have anything to do with who Vincent’s heir was going to be, yes.
I mean, as we could see in the flashbacks, real!Ciel was the heir so Lizzie was betrothed to him. However, for example let’s say that somehow our!Ciel had been the heir or that real!Ciel initially was the heir but then gave the position to his brother, then I think it’s likely that Lizzie would have found herself betrothed to our!Ciel from the beginning.
That’s why, no matter if Frances caught on our!Ciel’s lies like Tanaka did or not, it wouldn’t have changed anything where Lizzie was concerned, because Frances raised and trained her to be…
the “wife of the Queen’s watchdog” and not “real/our!Ciel’s wife”.
Onto your second ask, Lizzie’s situation is precisely the reason I think that the betrothal between Vincent’s heir and Frances’ daughter (or between Ed and Vincent’s only daughter for the theoretical example you proposed, that’d have worked too) implies a strong sibling bond between Vincent and Frances.
To this day, what happened to their mother remains unknown (was she killed?). Nonetheless, there is definitely a reason Frances is so strong and trained Lizzie to be the same and it probably has to do with surviving as one of the Watchdog’s associates (i.e being Claudia’s daughter and Vincent’s sister). So, add that to Vincent and Frances being close as siblings because Frances truly supported Vincent as the Watchdog and, in my opinion, you have the reason why Frances’ daughter was betrothed to Vincent’s heir.
It’s all about surviving: Frances most likely used to help her brother with his work until she married out of the family, so it’s logical that her children would be helpful to Vincent’s heir too, be it Lizzie as the next Watchdog’s strong wife…
Or even Ed being supportive (because yeah, he might be tsundere towards Ciel regarding Lizzie, but he never criticized him about the Watchdog duty)…
…even if, as Alexis’ heir, he’s probably not supposed to really be involved with that side of his family (that is, if we don’t consider his own strong sibling bond with Lizzie).
TL;DR Lizzie being engaged first to real!Ciel and now to our!Ciel (no matter who knew about him lying about his identity) is not random at all but rather 100% logical if we’re considering that Frances herself
was
a strong ally of Vincent. Lizzie was raised to be the “wife of the Watchdog” and thus a helpful ally to the twin who’d become Vincent’s heir.
Maybe one day Sensei will address this topic though, so in the meantime this is just my take on it. I hope it answers your questions, have a nice weekend Anon!
There’s that old saying “One’s foster parents have more influence on the child than one’s real parents.”: Ciel became an extreme sadist due to Sebastian’s education in the last three years and it seems like the evil blood in him [*the evil side of his personality] was completely awakened [by Sebastian].
But if we consider the possibility that Vincent might have been brought up by Tanaka-san, that old guy must be quite…… oh I’d rather stop here.
…I’ve been thinking that Tanaka and Frances must have been close for a long time, because he’s the one who stepped up after Claudia died. I mean, looking at the timeline…
their mother died when Vincent was 15, which means Frances must have been 13 years old or younger at the time, but Vincent kept going at Weston until he graduated…
…meaning that, for the following two years after her mother died, Frances was all alone at home with Tanaka (and other servants). So, personally, I think that’s why…
they probably get along very well, if I don’t mention all the headcanons I have about how he might have trained her and how they might definitely be in cahoots, watching over how our!Ciel is doing as the Watchdog.
I’m glad if you like this idea though. 🙂 Thanks again for reading Anon and have a nice weekend!
Hello Anon! Well, considering Frances’ discussion with Vincent…
…it seems indeed that it’s best if there is a spare to the Watchdog’s heir, just in case something happens.
I wouldn’t say that it’s impossible for Frances to have been Vincent’s spare back during their childhood however, even as a woman, because…
Claudia being the Watchdog probably was a special case
in the first place, as there might have been no man to take on the title, which is why Victoria probably allowed her to take it on instead, as we debated here:
“if there were no surviving legitimate male relatives, the title would become extinct… Unless someone got a parliamentary and royal warrant to pass it on to the daughter.“
Following this logic, if Victoria had given the agreement to Claudia for the Watchdog’s duty, it doesn’t seem illogical to think that Frances was her mother’s second heir, the spare in case something happened to Vincent, the rightful heir. That’s even why she’s probably as strong as she is…
because she was trained to take on the Watchdog duty too, just in case.
Crack theory time (that I share with @aroturier): if our!Ciel hadn’t come back 4 years ago, we were wondering if the Queen wouldn’t have passed the Watchdog duty
on
to Frances (aka to the Midford family).
I hope it answers your question, have a nice day Anon!
Hello! Actually, I have an explanation that I’m hoping isn’t too far from the truth, so hopefully it will be what you’re looking for?
Anyway, in my opinion, there are two main reasons Ed can’t openly pretend to like Lizzie’s fiancé. The first one is almost comical and is Ed being a siscon:
He can’t help it, because it’s a part of his characterization, which means that he’ll always feel obliged to dislike any man who’d get too close to her heart or who might hurt her.
It’s part of his role as her overprotective big brother, however, this part of him is not only directed at Ciel, but at literally any man…
…who gets too close to Lizzie.
The second reason he can’t pretend to openly validate the choice of Ciel as Lizzie’s future husband is, this time, only because of Ciel himself and is linked to…
…what real!Ciel told Lizzie years ago, as I explained here. Because Lizzie hated her strength for years and because they are close siblings, Ed knew that she was afraid of being rejected by Ciel if he were to find out that she completely took after their “frightening” mother:
So Ed knew that she used to hate the strongest part of herself because of a silly and misguided discussion between children and, as a siscon and as Frances’ son, there is no way he would have ever understood real!Ciel’s immature issue with strong women. That’s why I believe a part of him held a little of resentment towards Lizzie’s fiancé until the Campania arc, because real!Ciel’s words unknowingly did a lot of damage to Lizzie’s self confidence.
However, it’s all gone and past them ever since the Campania arc and anyway, even though he used to chide Ciel every now and then for not deserving Lizzie…
He still cares for him, as a member of his family.
Finally, I think that Lizzie’s positive development in the campania arc and love for our!Ciel in general are something Edward clearly noticed and that’s why he knew he could definitely trust Ciel with getting Lizzie back in the current arc.
TL;DR because he is a siscon, Ed will probably never admit out loud that Ciel deserves Lizzie, but that doesn’t mean that deep inside he thinks like that. In fact, I doubt that Ed would leave Lizzie to anyone else but our!Ciel, however it’s just his role, as her overprotective big brother, to be threatening towards anyone who might hurt or belittle her.
Does it answer your question? I hope so! Have a nice wekeend 🙂
Um, hold your horses for a sec, Anon. While I can understand not liking the harsh words, our!Ciel’s inferiority complex is not just Frances’ fault so if you could avoid this kind of shortcuts, it’d be easier to discuss this.
I can totally understand not liking what Frances said, however it fits Frances’ character to a T so, to me, it makes sense that she of all people would address the subject in the first place.
It’s something I’ve spoken about times and times again, but Frances was born and raised as a Phantomhive, had her mom who surely was the Queen’s watchdog, so she knows the ropes of this “game”. This is Frances:
And you could say that her primary reason for being as severe as she is probably is that she lost her mother (and then her brother) because of the Watchdog’s duty.
So when she says “the burden of the watchdog’s duty is far to great for [our!Ciel]”, it’s not that she’s worried about what the Queen would think of the P family were they to fail, but rather that she doesn’t think that our!Ciel would be able to survive and she probably doesn’t want to lose more relatives simply because they took on a burden that was too heavy for them.
And isn’t she completely right though, Anon? I mean, without Sebastian, I don’t think Ciel would have been able to survive for long as the Watchdog. Not that I believe his twin brother would have done a better job at ten years old either.
Still…
…Vincent doesn’t seem to agree with her anyway, that’s why he answered pretty dismissively in the first place, so it’s not like Frances convinced her brother to get his second son out of the inheritance.
Where you’re right though is that this kind of discussion definitely played a role into the development of our!Ciel’s inferiority complex over time, even if what happened 4 years ago mattered the most in my opinion:
However, it’s not just our!Ciel, look at Edward thinking…
Obviously it would be easy to blame Vincent and Frances for this, but I’ll never agree that they seem to be awful parents, even if there certainly is miscommunication involved, because in my opinion it’s the family situation that sucks. Were the Phantomhives a normal family…
Frances wouldn’t have walked to her brother and said “because your second son is sickly I’m afraid of him dying quite early on if he’s to ever become your heir”.
Lizzie wouldn’t have been trained to be as invincible as possible, because marrying into this normal family wouldn’t mean risking her life.
Even Edward, who’s the heir to the Midford family, wouldn’t have belittled himself because Lizzie wouldn’t have been meant to be stronger than him in the first place.
TL;DR All Frances was asking of Vincent in that scene was for him to think of a solution so that his second son wouldn’t possibly be killed because of a burden too heavy for him and, as often, because she knows how this game is played, she was right to address the subject, since our!Ciel would have died many times already without Sebastian.
I hope it was understandable and that you won’t be too pissed at her from now on. Have a nice day Anon!
And that’s obviously because he is the second son and Yana doesn’t want to reveal our!Ciel’s birth name yet, as @akumadeenglish explained here.
Look Anon, if you want Ciel’s issues to be all Frances’ fault, be my guest, but I’ll never agree when what she meant in that scene was actually very caring.
Have a nice day.
@aroturier:Oh, that’s a very good idea actually, if just because she only appeared to spare with real!Ciel and not with our MC. Since Ciel had frequent asthma attacks, he would have indeed needed a slower training regimen than his brother, but it’s possible that Vincent never asked Frances to train with his second son in the first place, hence why she herself proposed.
I like it, even if our!Ciel’s expression makes me think that he also didn’t understand what Frances’ point was (whether she was only caring or if she was asking for Vincent’s permission to start training our!Ciel).
That being said, even if Seb later managed to train him going at our!Ciel’s own pace, our!Ciel definitely isn’t on the level of Lizzie, or even Edward, when it comes to physical abilities and I doubt he ever will, because he does have a frail constitution and that won’t change.
Obviously being the Watchdog isn’t about physical strength alone though, because otherwise Vincent would have chosen Lizzie as his heir xD Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts, it makes sense! 🙂
Um, hold your horses for a sec, Anon. While I can understand not liking the harsh words, our!Ciel’s inferiority complex is not just Frances’ fault so if you could avoid this kind of shortcuts, it’d be easier to discuss this.
I can totally understand not liking what Frances said, however it fits Frances’ character to a T so, to me, it makes sense that she of all people would address the subject in the first place.
It’s something I’ve spoken about times and times again, but Frances was born and raised as a Phantomhive, had her mom who surely was the Queen’s watchdog, so she knows the ropes of this “game”. This is Frances:
And you could say that her primary reason for being as severe as she is probably is that she lost her mother (and then her brother) because of the Watchdog’s duty.
So when she says “the burden of the watchdog’s duty is far to great for [our!Ciel]”, it’s not that she’s worried about what the Queen would think of the P family were they to fail, but rather that she doesn’t think that our!Ciel would be able to survive and she probably doesn’t want to lose more relatives simply because they took on a burden that was too heavy for them.
And isn’t she completely right though, Anon? I mean, without Sebastian, I don’t think Ciel would have been able to survive for long as the Watchdog. Not that I believe his twin brother would have done a better job at ten years old either.
Still…
…Vincent doesn’t seem to agree with her anyway, that’s why he answered pretty dismissively in the first place, so it’s not like Frances convinced her brother to get his second son out of the inheritance.
Where you’re right though is that this kind of discussion definitely played a role into the development of our!Ciel’s inferiority complex over time, even if what happened 4 years ago mattered the most in my opinion:
However, it’s not just our!Ciel, look at Edward thinking…
Obviously it would be easy to blame Vincent and Frances for this, but I’ll never agree that they seem to be awful parents, even if there certainly is miscommunication involved, because in my opinion it’s the family situation that sucks. Were the Phantomhives a normal family…
Frances wouldn’t have walked to her brother and said “because your second son is sickly I’m afraid of him dying quite early on if he’s to ever become your heir”.
Lizzie wouldn’t have been trained to be as invincible as possible, because marrying into this normal family wouldn’t mean risking her life.
Even Edward, who’s the heir to the Midford family, wouldn’t have belittled himself because Lizzie wouldn’t have been meant to be stronger than him in the first place.
TL;DR All Frances was asking of Vincent in that scene was for him to think of a solution so that his second son wouldn’t possibly be killed because of a burden too heavy for him and, as often, because she knows how this game is played, she was right to address the subject, since our!Ciel would have died many times already without Sebastian.
I hope it was understandable and that you won’t be too pissed at her from now on. Have a nice day Anon!
midnight-in-town 