Of course, this isn’t a full comparison since Zeke clearly has had strong daddy issues for a while when real!Ciel’s motive might be tied more directly to his brother, but I found the slight resemblance interesting.
About zombie!real!Ciel though, yes I agree and it’s something I and several others have mentioned before. When you look at bizarre dolls in general, even if we don’t know whether real!Ciel was brought back by UT or not, well…
they always had violence and obsessionas common points.
It might be because UT said that BDs tended to seek what they lacked, or it might simply be his method of using the “episodes”
within the cinematic records
(yearning for the future: in real!Ciel’s case => “staying with my little brother”, making real!Ciel a more perfect version of Derrick and Agares), but my personal opinion is that the whole process of bringing the dead back to “life” is so unnatural anyway that it’s bound to never work perfectly.
The other explanation where real!Ciel is concerned could be that…
his time with the cult 4 years ago and him being sacrificed were such traumatizing events that he became crazy while on the brink of death and it’s something that stayed even when he was brought back (because let’s be honest here, our!Ciel fares much better than he did 4 years ago thanks to going back to a life where he had caring servants, loving family and friends, even if he tried to push all that away).
Also about the twin, again I agree that if the RCMT is correct, then…
the massacre of the entire household was unplanned. However, it’s just my opinion but considering his weird reaction in this scene…
…I know it’s absolutely horrible (though @dorkshadows will surely like it), but my current take on the RCMT is that
maybe Vincent and Rachel were the only targets in real!Ciel’s initial plan,
(hence why I find there might be a resemblance with Zeke Jaeger in the first place)
or maybe real!Ciel took his “ally”’s words for it that they had a solution to his problem and when he found their parents dead, he realized a little too late what that solution was (which is similar to your idea that he went with the flow and took the ring).
Maybe that’s why there is such a strong focus on real!Ciel taking the ring with barely a reaction about their parents’ death and the ring representing his wish to “start over together”. Maybe for the year and a half after this scene…
…he couldn’t hide how bitter he was to have to become Earl Phantomhive when our!Ciel would become a toymaker and leave for London, which is what the mastermind used against him.
So, when December 14th came and if the RCMT is correct, real!Ciel at least muzzled the dog because he knew someone was coming to do something. The question now is, did he count on the plan leading to his parents’ death or did he just realize too late what the “plan” to help his wish was? At this point it’s hard to say, even if @thedarkestcrow rightfully pointed out to me that the first option is maybe too extreme since real!Ciel didn’t hate his family.
Sorry for the long post, it’s just one possibility and my opinion, so it could be 100% off.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Anon and have a lovely day too! ❤
Hi Anon! Ah, well, in my opinion, the thing to keep in mind about the RCMT is not to make shortcuts so, in real!Ciel’s case, making a bad decision + being manipulated =/= not loving your family.
As I explained before, I don’t know yet if we’re supposed to think that real!Ciel had a rather pathological attachment & love towards his little brother…
but I think it’s not a mistake to consider the idea and, even in that case, it wouldn’t mean that real!Ciel hated his family, just that he loved his brother way more than anyone else and couldn’t stand the idea of them being separated.
Also, just saying but…
as @akumadeenglish explained here, this scene is another weird hint to add to this theory because of how real!Ciel emphasized the idea of them together as possibly “just the two of us”, meaning there is no inclusion of Lizzie or anyone else from their remaining family.
Again, the idea of real!Ciel being slightly obsessed with his little brother doesn’t necessarily mean that he wanted everyone else to die (if anything, remember the side story where he was very worried about Rachel’s health and spent quality time cooking with his dad). However, it’s possibly what allowed the mastermind behind 4 years ago to manipulate him and what led to the annihilation of the Phantomhive household.
I once compared the Phantomhive twins to the Liebert twins from Urasawa Naoki’s Monster, not that I want to expand on this, but just to give you another example that the trope of one twin going obsessed with their sibling exists and might be where Sensei is going with the attack on December 14th.
Finally, please keep in mind that…
one and a half year passed between the moment real!Ciel cried in front of his parents about our!Ciel wanting to become a toymaker in London and the attack on December 14th. So, despite smiling and saying “fine”, we don’t know for sure how the twin dealt with the bitterness that “he had to become Vincent’s successor” while our!Ciel was free to leave for London:
Did he gradually become more pissed at his parents for not taking his side or not stopping our!Ciel? Impossible to say, but an idea to keep in mind just in case.
Was he just manipulated because someone whispered empty promises to him and he believed them because he was barely ten years old? Could be that too, but again, impossible to know for sure.
I hope it makes a little more sense. 🙂 Just watch out for shortcuts Anon: at this point we just don’t know if the RCMT implies that real!Ciel was obsessed about staying with his brother or if it was more innocent than that. In any case, even if the RCMT is true, we at least can guess that the whole household wasn’t supposed to be annihilated as I explained in the previous post.
I personally think that real!Ciel could have had a disturbing attachment to his brother and that he possibly changed during that one year and a half, which is why Sensei precisely didn’t expand on it, but anyway everything remains to be confirmed so take it all with a grain of salt.
Of course, this isn’t a full comparison since Zeke clearly has had strong daddy issues for a while when real!Ciel’s motive might be tied more directly to his brother, but I found the slight resemblance interesting.
About zombie!real!Ciel though, yes I agree and it’s something I and several others have mentioned before. When you look at bizarre dolls in general, even if we don’t know whether real!Ciel was brought back by UT or not, well…
they always had violence and obsessionas common points.
It might be because UT said that BDs tended to seek what they lacked, or it might simply be his method of using the “episodes”
within the cinematic records
(yearning for the future: in real!Ciel’s case => “staying with my little brother”, making real!Ciel a more perfect version of Derrick and Agares), but my personal opinion is that the whole process of bringing the dead back to “life” is so unnatural anyway that it’s bound to never work perfectly.
The other explanation where real!Ciel is concerned could be that…
his time with the cult 4 years ago and him being sacrificed were such traumatizing events that he became crazy while on the brink of death and it’s something that stayed even when he was brought back (because let’s be honest here, our!Ciel fares much better than he did 4 years ago thanks to going back to a life where he had caring servants, loving family and friends, even if he tried to push all that away).
Also about the twin, again I agree that if the RCMT is correct, then…
the massacre of the entire household was unplanned. However, it’s just my opinion but considering his weird reaction in this scene…
…I know it’s absolutely horrible (though @dorkshadows will surely like it), but my current take on the RCMT is that
maybe Vincent and Rachel were the only targets in real!Ciel’s initial plan,
(hence why I find there might be a resemblance with Zeke Jaeger in the first place)
or maybe real!Ciel took his “ally”’s words for it that they had a solution to his problem and when he found their parents dead, he realized a little too late what that solution was (which is similar to your idea that he went with the flow and took the ring).
Maybe that’s why there is such a strong focus on real!Ciel taking the ring with barely a reaction about their parents’ death and the ring representing his wish to “start over together”. Maybe for the year and a half after this scene…
…he couldn’t hide how bitter he was to have to become Earl Phantomhive when our!Ciel would become a toymaker and leave for London, which is what the mastermind used against him.
So, when December 14th came and if the RCMT is correct, real!Ciel at least muzzled the dog because he knew someone was coming to do something. The question now is, did he count on the plan leading to his parents’ death or did he just realize too late what the “plan” to help his wish was? At this point it’s hard to say, even if @thedarkestcrow rightfully pointed out to me that the first option is maybe too extreme since real!Ciel didn’t hate his family.
Sorry for the long post, it’s just one possibility and my opinion, so it could be 100% off.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Anon and have a lovely day too! ❤
Hi Anon! Well, I definitely agree that he most likely didn’t kill his parents himself and was manipulated by the one(s) who wanted Vincent dead, but still, if he was mostly motivated by his ideal to “stay with his lil brother forever” then a part of me can’t be sure that his brotherly love wasn’t pathological on some level.
Or if it wasn’t in the past, it now is anyway, so the result is kinda the same.
@akumadeenglish‘s post explains it way better than I, but if there is a real emphasis on the notion of “just the two of us” (disregarding even their still living family), then frankly I wonder how far he was ready to go in the first place. I mean, we can’t know what was the initial deal if this theory is correct:
was it just a promise that there was a way for both twins to stay together?
or was it a more precise demand, like maybe making Vincent and Rachel disappear in an accident, so that the twins would rule the Phantomhive household together?
I can’t say that I know the twin enough to make a difference between pathological brotherly love or just a simple strong affection between children, but…
for now at least, I think it could easily be either possibilities.
…Forgive me for the slight digression Anon, but do you read/watch Shingeki no kyojin? I apologize in advance if it’s boring, but the other day the idea struck me that real!Ciel could have a huge parallel with a character from SnK: a dude who, as a kid of 6 years old, sold his own parents to the enemy side, because…
His past aside, to this day there is something still wrong with this dude anyway. We don’t exactly know which side he is on, but trusting him fully would be a bad idea.
So back to the main topic, in my opinion, something similar could have happened with real!Ciel. It’s not that he hated his family but…
…being forced to become Vincent’s heir because he was the first born, while his little brother had more than one way to move on from a life with him because he wasn’t, might have triggered something within him.
In other words, if the RCMT is correct, then what happened on December 14th…
might have been a huge miscalculation on his part because all he wanted was simply a way for him and our!Ciel to stay together
might have gone slightly according to his plan (even though he was still manipulated), if he decided that whatever would happen to his parents was a necessary damage in order for him and his brother to stay together forever: maybe he even thought that his parents were the problem in the first place, because they didn’t allow him not to be Earl and didn’t stop our!Ciel from leaving him.
It’s just that currently, we don’t have enough info to dismiss either idea in my opinion.
Where I agree though is that Seb killing real!Ciel won’t mean that the contract is fulfilled, since real!Ciel isn’t the mastermind but a pawn who got thrown away when it was done being useful:
It’s not a funny topic, I know :// Besides, it’s just my personal opinion, you don’t have to agree with any of it.
Have a nice weekend Anon. :3
OMG Anon, nah don’t worry, I was just wondering about stuff, it actually doesn’t make that much sense and in fact my thoughts about the mastermind behind the current arc didn’t particulaly change. ^^”
There are two suspects for now as to who brought back the twin, for me: UT and the Queen/Brown, but I explained before why I was (and still am) meh about UT.
My tags of above were regarding a slight possible issue if the RCMT is correct, so it’s entirely theoretical and I was just thinking: 4 years ago, who did real!Ciel make a deal with? Did he see/meet with the mastermind behind December 14th at least once? Did he know exactly who betrayed him, which led to what happened with the cult?
Because if the answer is “yes”, then initially I thought that if Brown/the Queen were behind it all, then it wouldn’t make a lot of sense of them to bring back the twin when he might know just who betrayed him 4 years ago.
However, since there is literally no guarantee that real!Ciel would know just who discarded him like a pawn 4 years ago (since I think the mastermind of 4 years ago is someone very clever), then that’s why for now it’s not really useful or interesting to consider that idea.
Besides, completely opposite issue, but if the RCMT is correct and real!Ciel is partially responsible for Vincent’s death, then I don’t know how UT would handle that fact as a possible suspect for the mastermind behind the blue sect. Would he still want to bring back the twin, once he’d see his cinematic record? Or would he put the blame on the person who manipulated the twin?
At this point it probably depends on what real!Ciel’s plan was in the first place (did he just want a way for him and his bro to stay together, or did he consider his parents to be a “problem” getting in the way of that?).
So as you can see, maybe the RCMT being accurate change a few things regarding who the mastermind behind the current arc is, but:
if we say the mastermind is Brown/the Queen, then that means that if they’re also the ones behind 4 years ago, real!Ciel really was manipulated with no idea as to whom destroyed his plan, his family and himself.
if we say the mastermind is UT, then would UT even want to bring back the person who’s partially responsible for Vincent’s death (again, depending on what real!Ciel’s plan was in the first place)?
That’s why I said it was a little confusing. ^^” For now, it’s best to act as if you didn’t see my tags. xD UT and Brown/the Queen are still the two main suspects and, to this day, I still think UT makes less sense considering what we saw of the arc so far, even if I could be totally wrong.
Sorry for the confusion, Anon! :3 You didn’t overlook anything, it was just me rambling as always. :))
Hi Anon! Well, I definitely agree that he most likely didn’t kill his parents himself and was manipulated by the one(s) who wanted Vincent dead, but still, if he was mostly motivated by his ideal to “stay with his lil brother forever” then a part of me can’t be sure that his brotherly love wasn’t pathological on some level.
Or if it wasn’t in the past, it now is anyway, so the result is kinda the same.
@akumadeenglish‘s post explains it way better than I, but if there is a real emphasis on the notion of “just the two of us” (disregarding even their still living family), then frankly I wonder how far he was ready to go in the first place. I mean, we can’t know what was the initial deal if this theory is correct:
was it just a promise that there was a way for both twins to stay together?
or was it a more precise demand, like maybe making Vincent and Rachel disappear in an accident, so that the twins would rule the Phantomhive household together?
I can’t say that I know the twin enough to make a difference between pathological brotherly love or just a simple strong affection between children, but…
for now at least, I think it could easily be either possibilities.
…Forgive me for the slight digression Anon, but do you read/watch Shingeki no kyojin? I apologize in advance if it’s boring, but the other day the idea struck me that real!Ciel could have a huge parallel with a character from SnK: a dude who, as a kid of 6 years old, sold his own parents to the enemy side, because…
His past aside, to this day there is something still wrong with this dude anyway. We don’t exactly know which side he is on, but trusting him fully would be a bad idea.
So back to the main topic, in my opinion, something similar could have happened with real!Ciel. It’s not that he hated his family but…
…being forced to become Vincent’s heir because he was the first born, while his little brother had more than one way to move on from a life with him because he wasn’t, might have triggered something within him.
In other words, if the RCMT is correct, then what happened on December 14th…
might have been a huge miscalculation on his part because all he wanted was simply a way for him and our!Ciel to stay together
might have gone slightly according to his plan (even though he was still manipulated), if he decided that whatever would happen to his parents was a necessary damage in order for him and his brother to stay together forever: maybe he even thought that his parents were the problem in the first place, because they didn’t allow him not to be Earl and didn’t stop our!Ciel from leaving him.
It’s just that currently, we don’t have enough info to dismiss either idea in my opinion.
Where I agree though is that Seb killing real!Ciel won’t mean that the contract is fulfilled, since real!Ciel isn’t the mastermind but a pawn who got thrown away when it was done being useful:
It’s not a funny topic, I know :// Besides, it’s just my personal opinion, you don’t have to agree with any of it.
Thanks!! I hope you had great holidays, too<3 (And I’m sorry for my late reply!)
As for the “RC mastermind theory” (or actually the “RC had a hand in the attack but he got betrayed by the real mastermind theory”),
I still think there’s a chance that it might turn out true! The latest chapter, especially the scene where RC was crying and apologising to OC, kinda
reinforced the theory for me xD
I interpreted these scenes as RC blaming himself for getting himself and his beloved brother into this huge trouble:
“How pathetic [of me for being deceived so easily. I should have known better.]”
“I’m so sorry [for getting you into this trouble, I fucked up big time.]”
“I’m sorry [it wasn’t supposed to be like this.]”
Idk,
maybe it’s just me but his reaction seems a bit exaggerated and out of
place if he’s just apologising for “not being a good enough eldest son
and heir” To me RC sounds more like he’s feeling terribly guilty for the things he has done and that would also explain why he looked even more devastated than OC:
Also, the fact that RC said
“We’ll start over… *(just) the two of us.”
*Note: In the original language, RC used the word 二人で (”the two of us”), instead of 一緒に (”together”). I personally think there’s a slight difference between these words.
definitely reinforced my conviction that the only person who is important to RC is OC and if RC indeed had something to do with the attack, it was most probably because he wanted to stay together with OC forever. But yeah, I’m aware that I have a bias against RC, so maybe it’s just me reading too much into what he says haha xD
Tl;dr: With the latest chapter, I’m now 70% (+10% than before) convinced of the RCMT!
Since I was already warned of the spoilers this morning I avoided Tumblr today until I’ve read the official translation tonight. I want to share some of my first thoughts about this chapter.
Of course the big topic right now is what was seen in the last few pages. I already suspected that this had happened to Ciel (or the twins) in the cult but seeing it being confirmed is still horrible.
There were, however, some other aspects in this chapter that I want to mention here.
The Kidnappers
After being taken by the attacker in the manor…
…our Ciel wakes up being in that trunk. But the kidnappers seem to be different people from the attackers. From what they’re saying it seems like they found Ciel…
And from the way they look and talk I don’t think they are professional killers like the ones in the manor.
Also, they don’t even seem to know about the twins being Phantomhives (the guy who buys them corrects himself as if not wanting to reveal their true identity, probably fearing they might be more expensive then).
So the kidnappers are surely other people than the attackers but since one of the attackers grabbed our Ciel it seems like he must have given the twin to the kidnappers or at least put him somewhere so the kidnappers would find him (and the twin, I guess). So did the attackers give the twins to the kidnappers intentionally…?
The Twin
I don’t know if it’s just me but somehow the twin looks a bit suspicious in some scenes…
…as if he had a plan but something went wrong…
…and now he’s feeling guilty…
I’m really not a big fan of the ‘Real Ciel is the mastermind behind the attack’ theory. But if he was being used and had a part in the attack… Maybe that could explain some things.
There’s also the thing about the ring. He said he took it from Vincent…
…which means he must have been there after Vincent was killed but before our Ciel got there. But since the dog was killed right before our Ciel got there the attacker must have still been there, leaving not much time for the twin to take the ring without being taken by the attacker and then disappear before our Ciel could find him. Unless maybe the attacker took the twin after he had taken the ring and disappeared with him before our Ciel could reach them. In that case, did the attacker leave real Ciel with the ring intentionally…?
The Cult
Again, there are images of stars and such, strongly reminding me of the Blue Sect…
(not helping that this guy refers to the twins as the “stars” of the party (though I’m not sure if that’s the same term in the original Japanese version))
The cultist is speaking French and apparently this is the motto of a ‘religion’ that really existed:
The founder, Aleister Crowley, also was part of a sect called Golden Dawn or in Latin Aurora Aurea (*cough* Aurora Society *cough*). (see also this post for more parallels) And both sects, Aurora Aurea and the Thelema religion, draw parallels to ancient Egyptian beliefs and god (*cough* Osiris Company *cough*).
Of course these parallels could just be a coincidence but it’s still a bit suspicious…
Please note: this is only a crack theory. I can’t defend it, although I may use some aspects in a legitimate theory.
There is one thing that has been bothering about the killer(s) that killed almost everyone at the manor. First, we know that they are fast. I’ve written about it, @akumadeenglish was one of the first to point it out, etc. I’ve even noted that it’s similar to Knife Dude and the way he killed Agni. Now, since they were so darn fast…
Why was it over an hour before Tanaka was stabbed and our!Ciel was kidnapped?
It’s assumed that the killer(s) is/are the reason that Tanaka didn’t go upstairs to get the twins for their party. With this assumption, then, at the latest, the killer(s) entered at 6pm. Our!Ciel didn’t leave the upstairs room until nearly 7pm. At the time he left, we know the dog, Sebastian was still alive, and Tanaka was still alive.
So, we have killer(s) that could manage to kill a whole manor full of people without anyone having a chance to even cry out (our!Ciel didn’t hear anything like that), but they weren’t able to already have kidnapped our!Ciel and stab Tanaka in an hour’s time? Killing everyone else couldn’t have taken that long if we take into account t heir apparent speed.
Then there’s also the idea that the killer(s) are stalking our!Ciel just a bit. After our!Ciel takes off Sebastian’s muzzle, the dog stops him from going a certain way. At first, our!Ciel thinks the dog is just being mean to him but realizes the dog is actually trying to protect him. Sebastian then leads him the other way. When we see this from a different angle, there is a focus on the corner where our!Ciel would have ran and see a woman lying there dead. The blood looks fresh. What if the killer was standing right there and the dog knew? The killer had just killed this woman.
We know that dog runs ahead of our!Ciel and is heard barking in his parents’ room. By the time our!Ciel gets there, the dog is dead and he also discovers his parents. We know the killer was just in there.
So again, this is a fast killer, so why the time delay? What if there isn’t a time delay? What if the party wasn’t running late after all?
While waiting for the party, the twins lie down and seemingly fall asleep. The clock in the room says it’s 6:00. In fact, the clock chiming 6pm is what seemingly wakes our!Ciel. From this point, they eagerly await Tanaka to get them.
Here’s my crack theory – what if it isn’t 6pm? The only way we know the time is that one clock in the room.
If someone had set this clock up by an our, then it’s only about 6pm when our!Ciel leaves the room. So, why would someone do that?
Going with my ‘what if’ scenario that real!Ciel could have been manipulated, let’s say that real!Ciel had convinced he was helping his family or his brother by helping the attackers. When the twin lay down, our!Ciel fell asleep – which means real!Ciel could have easily slipped from the room. He could have muzzled the dog, let someone in, and changed the clock – all before lying back down. In fact, he is lying in a different position when our!Ciel wakes up then when they first laid down.
He was lying towards his brother initially, but he is lying away from him when our!Ciel wakes up.
So why change the time? This would give real!Ciel an excuse to leave the room alone. If our!Ciel had woke up and saw it was 5pm, he would just be eager for the upcoming party. He wouldn’t have been worried enough at 5:45 to allow his brother to snoop around either.
If this little crack theory is true, then real!Ciel could have just come back to the room. The killer might just have entered the house.
This is purely crack, but I hope everyone enjoyed it.
@shinigami-mistress I like it! 😀 Because I’ve been confused about the one hour delay myself, so at least this provides a very possible explanation (if one believes in the RCMT, like @dorkshadows ^_^).
On my end, I find that something just doesn’t add up unless we’re considering your idea:
Apparently the killers managed to deal with everyone silently, so we can’t be sure that Tanaka was even aware of what was going on in the manor until the moment our!Ciel found him. However, if he didn’t know about the attack until after “7 pm”, then how come he was late to go see the twins in the first place?
On the other hand, if Tanaka really spent one hour fighting against the attackers (from 6pm to 7pm), then how come there was no commotion at all or any way to warn Vincent and Rachel, as well as the twins, so that they could run away? Unless out of the two attackers, one was constantly fast enough to reach any servant who would try to warn Vincent, Rachel or the boys?
Something is just off, for real. Maaaaan, I’m so mad that this chapter added even more mysteries than before. xDDD
Hey, but if the RCMT is accurate somehow, because real!Ciel didn’t want to be separated from his brother and Vincent’s enemies manipulated him using that, then it really reminds me of Urasawa Naoki’s Monsterand the Liebert twins:
Johan Liebert, who is an actual psychopath (when we’re still wondering if real!Ciel had sociopathic tendencies of his own, was manipulated or if he was just a normal kid) was a little obsessed with Anna (Nina), his twin sister, whom he literally saw as his double.
After everything they went through, she always was the most important person in his life and his behavior towards her as a result was… peculiar. From TV tropes:
and
The difference between real!Ciel and Johan is that the Liebert twins didn’t have such a fancy childhood, whereas Vincent and Rachel managed to create a loving environment for their sons. Also, Johan doesn’t get manipulated, ever, rather he is the one who manipulates everyone whereas real!Ciel, in the case of the RCMT or even in the current arc, probably was manipulated.
However, what’s interesting is that, in both cases, the twin who turned out “okay” is the one who wasn’t obsessing over their sibling (our!Ciel and Anna), so I might be far off my mark, but I really enjoy this possible parallel between real!Ciel and Johan when, no matter if the RCMT is accurate, we can see that real!Ciel is currently not in his right mind (Agni ;_;) but still quite serious about staying with his brother.
Hi Anon! Well, as @akumadeenglish explained here, the RCMT doesn’t have as much of a strong basis as other Kuro theories do for now, so I’m pretty sure a lot of people are on the fence in general about this theory and you’re not the only one. 🙂
The way I see it, either all the little moments about the twin that are suspicious are indeed hints that he played a role during the attack on December 14th, or these are red herrings, because Yana definitely seems aware of the big theories going around in the fandom.
One thing is for sure though: our view of real!Ciel definitely is influenced by previous chapters, hence the RCMT becoming more popular despite us not having a lot of hints, because we already got a proof of how ruthless he can be:
Also, the fact that his character remains pretty consistant between 4 years ago and the current arc is part of why it’s “easy” to suspect him…
Because there has been a huge emphasis on real!Ciel’s desire/wish/obsession to “not be separated from his brother” and, the fact they were young and immature children when the whole tragedy happened makes it hard to know if this was just a childish vision or if real!Ciel was dead serious about staying with his little brother.
So it’s just… hard to say with the content so far.
One thing that’s important though is that the best way to remain not biased about this theory certainly isn’t to start blaming Vincent and Rachel.
It’s not particularly directed at you Anon, but I don’t like shorcuts which is why I might as well insist that, from the moment the current flashback made clear that the two sons were raised similarly (same education, same parental love), I think it’s hard to blame Vincent and Rachel for anything when our!Ciel turned out okay as a child.
If the RCMT is correct, then the only thing one can be pissed at would be at nobody noticing that real!Ciel’s obsession with his little brother was not normal. However, even in that aspect, I have my doubts about “no one noticing”:
Please keep in mind that Vincent, as a character, is a pain in the ass to read through because he constantly sends off mixed signals, but…
Anyway, from the moment our!Ciel initially moved on from his disappointment of never becoming an Earl and found something else to rejoice about in his future…
…if the same thing didn’t happen with real!Ciel and led to the attack on December 14th, despite the twins being raised similarly, I personally don’t think Vincent and Rachel can be blamed.
TL;DR As far as I’m concerned, the RCMT remains more of a crack theory for now, knowing that, if the twin was indeed involved with what happened 4 years ago, I personally think that’s because he was partially manipulated by the person who sent the killer(s).
And if the trigger to his involvement was linked to his fear of being separated from his little brother…
…then it might mean that there was something pathological about that obsessive mentality of his from the beginning.
Sorry for rambling! I hope it made sense. Have a nice day Anon. 🙂
Don’t worry, I definitely understand where you are coming from! As of now the RC mastermind theory is only based on circumstancial evidence and lot of assumptions/headcanons, so it’s not as solid and comprehensive as some other theories we had in the past, like the 2CT which had hard evidence (both verbal and visual)!!
Anyway, the two possible explanations
I’ve seen often mentioned in the JP fandom
for why RC might have been involved in the attack are
1) “It’s a ritual”: killing the predecessor is obligatory to succeed the Watchdog title (→flaw: RC just turned 10 that day and that would be waaay too early to succeed a tough job like the Queen’s Watchdog)
2) “RC is a super-yandere/psychopath”: RC didn’t want to become the Earl and be separated from OC, wanted to be the only one close to his little brother and therefore tried to get rid of everyone else (→flaw: if he hated to become the Earl so much, why would he protect the Phantomhive ring by even going to the trouble of swallowing it?)
As you can see, both explanations have flaws and are not really convincing, and that’s exactly why I, too, still have doubts about the RC mastermind theory!
But then there’s this scene from Murder arc:
“I had no reason to murder him”
“Ehh, reaaally?”
“The reason for which one person murders another is typically inconceivable to other folk. People will never be able to understand another’s mind, regardless of how much research genius schollars collect on the subject.”
If this is supposed to be some sort of foreshadowing, then maybe the reason why RC might have had something to do with the incident (or killed his parents/stabbed Tanaka if you go with the psychopath theory) is something very unexpected and unconceivable
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, this theory has been long around in the JP fandom since about the same time as 2CT (i.e. since 2011), and the fact that a lot of people are still suspicious of RC even after 6 years makes me almost believe that Yana wants us readers to suspect RC. I think she’s placing the hints on purpose, but it’s just that we don’t know whether these hints are indeed leading us to the true culprit of the attack OR they are a red herring and Yana’s just misleading us into believing RC is the culprit. For now, I think both are totally possible! 😀
EDIT:
Vincent’s line in the special chapter
“Love is a wonderful thing… but it can aslo give birth to horrific disaster.”
might also be a foreshadowing on why the attack on the Phantomhives occured that day, but idk. Yana’s loves foreshadowing so every random panel or line could be interpreted as a foreshadowing of something xD
To me RC sounds more like he’s feeling terribly guilty for the things he has done and that would also explain why he looked even more devastated than OC:
midnight-in-town 