I’m actually very curious about this part in the latest chapter.
Everyone knows how much Elizabeth loves Ciel. So when Sebastian grins at Ciel while talking about how impossible it is for even God (or someone with the power of a God) to “shackle someone’s heart”, it seems like a hint that the only person who can help her out of this “trance” she’s in is Ciel because of the typical “True love breaks the spell” cliché.
Maybe it’s just me who’s being too much of a hopeless romantic, but it’s not impossible.
But other than that, my favorite part of the chapter has to be;
Badass Lizzy. Her skills are truly amazing. So amazing that even Sebastian – a demon – complimented her for it. She’s simply one hell of a human.
I have to clarify that I think there are two separate Gardens. The one that is well-known among the investigators, and that only teaches human children the ‘advanced program’, which I’ll call the human part; and the one that was developed earlier, the one that has been experimenting with breeders – the ghoul part. I believe they are kept separately with possible crossover later, mostly because it’s frankly inconceivable to me that they could coexist and no one just… batted an eyelash for the last oh, few decades.
While it is certainly possible that Nico could realistically be from the ghoul part of the garden – they raised Kaiko, who’s at least middle-aged but possibly older, – I don’t really think he’s from the Garden. Ditto about Roma.
I do have my theories about Uta, though. Let’s say, yes, I think him and Itori could be from the ghoul part of the Garden. I’m also interested in why you think that, if you want to go off anon and let me know, I won’t post it.
As for Itori, you know what interests me in regards to the Garden? There was one page in TG where she was drawn with Uta and Renji in a sort of funeral attire with a black, blank frame. Did she lose someone? Did she lose a child? Was she a breeder? I have questions.
But to answer your actual question, I think the reason why we don’t know anything about them is similar to the reason we have little to no info about Hide. The Clowns are supposed to be one of the final mysteries of TG, so Ishida has to hold back for now.
People don’t like or dislike a fictional character because they’re “good” or “bad”.
Fiction is about identification. Not with you, necessarily, because you don’t need to have anything in common with them. It’s understanding who they are in the world they live in.
You either understand a character or you don’t. It doesn’t matter if they’re likeable or unlikeable.
So let’s stop telling people how to feel about them and respect their opinions. And let’s stop justifying a character because people dislike them.
They don’t have to be “good” for you to love them. They don’t have to be “bad” for others to hate them. And sometimes, they’re neither and that’s fine too.
I love fiction because it’s so complex and you can find so many different, amazing, flawed, human characters. Let’s not ruin it by polarising it or making it about real-world morality.
So me and my friend are talking about our respective Black Butler fan fictions and I’m on google looking at various pictures of Edward Midford. We have come to the conclusion that he is the cinnamon roll of the series despite his stern demeanor.
Did I say stern? He’s adorable and there needs to be more attention on him.
Well, I loved Sigma yelling at Phi. You’ll have to
refresh my memory regarding any yelling at Diana, because I’m not
remembering anything like that off the top of my head – though I could be wrong.
In any event, it’s not like I liked it ‘because I don’t like Phi’, or anything
like that – allow me to explain.
I was really concerned for Sigma’s characterization before
this footage dropped. His arc is one of the most interesting in ZE, if not the most interesting, at least to me.
VLR shows us Sigma as a classic hero
character – heroic, brave, repeatedly self-sacrificing. He’s far from flawless –
I’m not inclined to sweep his fuckboi tendencies under the rug – but he’s
repeatedly established as a martyr figure. Dying for Quark, for Phi, staying
behind for Luna twice, never even considering saving himself before Phi or Kyle, etc. “Others before self” is kind of his gimmick.
In and of itself, that’s not especially interesting. Hero
characters are a dime a dozen – but we rarely see interesting consequences for
that sort of behavioral pattern. What is interesting, then, is his development
into Doctor Klim – Zero Senior. It’s brilliant continuity… we see someone with
the exact same set of virtues applying them to an exponentially broader scale. He
keeps up his established pattern of sacrificing himself, and his happiness, for
other people. And it doesn’t come cheap, or easily, or without consequences.
Instead, his characterization is believable. He’s old, he’s bitter and tired
and not painted as a perfect person. Does he tell Phi to shut up? Yes, he
does, but only in the context of trying to save her life. His interaction with her here bears some similarity
to his relationship with Kyle.
Dr. Klim is completely focused on the objective at
hand, which is (once again) trying to optimize his present circumstances to create the
best possible outcome at his own expense. He’s consequence-oriented. Is yelling
at Phi ‘nice’? No, but is it more important to be ‘nice’ than it is to intervene in her impending and hideous death by flame? What if shouting Phi down pulls Diana’s decision in favor of pulling
the trigger? Is it still the wrong decision?
Dr. Klim is once again creating a lesser evil to mitigate a larger one. Am I happy he yelled at Phi? Yes, I am – not because of
anything Phi ‘did’ or ‘deserved’, but because it’s a sign of good potential continuity
of his established character.
To Dr. Klim, being ‘good’ is more important than being ‘nice’. And, anon – I’m sorry if you find it upsetting, but I’m both inclined to agree with his philosophy and excited to see where his character arc will take us. Regardless, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
All right, folks, take a moment of your time and look and this woman right here.
This woman grew up in an extremely abusive environment being sold to become a prostitute as a child, and succeeded to become a leader of the underground city guard. With the way she was keeping things in order she and her amazon squad became so famous that a child almost pissed himself from fear after recognizing her, and a man who threatened to kill a prostitute got his fucking arm cut off.
She has basically sworn her life to protecting other people’s, and especially her older sister figure’s, welfare. She fucking cut her face as a child because she believed it would help her leave her selfishness and vanity behind and make her more devoted. She constantly fights to keep her emotions in line and tired to learn how to do it without feeling and seeming distant. And she fucking learns, because she has one of the biggest character development arcs in the entire series.
Her entire squad of female warriors is made from people who were saved by her and were given a purpose. She led that squad through the rebellion against the city tyrant, participated in the fucking seizing of the shogun’s palace (when, once again, her leading skills came in handy), saved the protagonist’s life more than once, and her generousity turned a group of aggressive jealous women into her friends and allies.
And if your biggest problem with her is that she cannot hold her liquor or that she punched the protagonist in the face for acting inappropriate or some other minor shit from the gag scenes, you seriously need to sit down and think about your behaviour.
Ahh sorry but I’m going to have to respectfully disagree about what Touka said- I personally interpreted that as showing how Touka herself has changed. The way that it was phrased definitely made us all think back to bridge scene with Kaneki. I remember a lot of people condemning her for saying that, thinking that she hadn’t learnt from back then. But in the end, of course she wasn’t going to slap Hinami. She abruptly stepped forward, raised her hand, Ishida focused on the panel of that as if making us hold our breaths to see if she would really follow through with her words and then instead, she pinched Hinami’s cheeks affectionately.
We all saw how much she anguished over her actions with Kaneki in the past so for me, it was a way of showing that even if she talks tough on the outside in her tsundere way, she really has learnt her lesson from past mistakes. For Touka, that chapter was about showing she will encourage people with hopeful words, a smile and an outstretched hand now, not use violence as a way to send a message. I think it was important to show that slapping sense into someone isn’t the right way to go about it. I would be upset if Touka ever fell back into that.
But I agree with you in that I hope Ayato is able to help Hinami in some way and get across the message that he thinks she is strong, even if she doesn’t think so herself. I think Hinami could do with some positive reinforcement! ^-^
Touka greeting Kaneki and choosing to interact with him when he’s attempting to follow through with his plans to die for someone else by smiling at him and telling him she’ll see him later is so important to me.
She’s not sacrificing herself to save him, she’s not mad at him for what he’s doing, she’s not trying to stop him. She’s telling him that people already love him, that they want to see him again, that he doesn’t need to die for them to care about him, and that they would be sad if he died.
She’s giving him hope that he will survive his seemingly impossible fight against Arima, and come back to see the people who love him again.
And it gets to him, he’s shaken by it and crying because of it. It wasn’t enough to change his path, because he’s already on it, already standing in front of Arima and already fighting. But maybe it’s enough to change the outcome, if he decides to take the hope that Touka offered him.
midnight-in-town 