I knew there was something about Othello mentioning Will by name that really struck me, and the more I think about it, the less I think it’s just to do with reconfirming Will’s position as collecting all the info on Undertaker. In fact, I’d like to ask… Why did Othello specify Will in the way that he did when it was Undertaker he was speaking to?
What I mean is, there was no need to identify Will by name. He could simply have said “one of the managers”. And what really gets me… Is that Othello doesn’t even explain who Will is. Now, four of the people in the room are acquainted with Will (and Snake is aware of him under the pseudonym “Suit”, but I don’t think it likely he knows Will’s real name), but it isn’t these four that Othello is speaking to. He doesn’t say “the London manager, dear Will”, “one of my associates, dear Will”, he just says “dear Will”. Perhaps it’s just the way Othello is, he doesn’t tend to explain things properly when he doesn’t feel an urgent need to, and I could be overthinking things here, but even taking that into account…
I can come to two possible conclusions:
One, that it is important for us the readers to be aware it was William who told Othello about UT, and/or…….
Two, that Othello expects UT to know who Will isalready
So about this “anonymous report”, I’m wondering if Abberline might not be talking about Violet, because…
…he did tell a policeman in Bath about who the true blue star is in ch129 (something like “Earl Ciel Phantomhive” I guess) and so they could have showed up at Earl Phantomhive’s manor as a result.
The thing is though, Violet knew Bravat was in London, but nothing says he knew Bravat would be hiding at Ciel’s manor (but Scotland Yard could have thought of this by themselves, I guess).
In that case, more than anonymous, it would just mean they don’t want Bravat and his allies to know who sold them out, out of protection for Violet’s sake.
Otherwise it could be Paula…
but, rather than Scotland Yard, that should be the explanation as to why Alexis and Edward are here.
Some fans also mentioned Soma, but then again, Soma didn’t really involve himself with this case and would have no way to know that Bravat could be hiding in Ciel’s manor, so I also doubt it’s him.
In case Abberline means that they really got an anonymous tip however, then the third option is that Bravat was sold out by someone who’s already at the manor and that’s when it becomes trickier to guess, because the only ones who’d have a possible reason to sell Bravat out are:
Lizzie? friendly reminder we still can’t be sure of what she meant by “saving the twin” in ch113. It’s looking more and more likely that this was about not having the same blood type, but she could have meant rescuing him from the sect too, especially since she’s actually crying as she’s exposing our!Ciel as a liar. So we’ll need to see the next chapter to check just how far she’s likely to have been manipulated.
Tanaka? he already knew about real!Ciel coming back it seems and his attitude clearly shows that he’s not at ease with the situation, so who knows what he did or didn’t do at the moment?
Undertaker? that’s mostly if the idea that there are two sides being involved behind the blue sect is correct. If that’s the case, UT could want Bravat out of real!Ciel’s sight and leading Scotland Yard to him could be the easiest way to do this.
(The other servants hardly even noticed that real!Ciel =/= their young master so I don’t think it’s them either and there shouldn’t be anyone else besides the star lords left on Bravat’s side)
Don’t hesitate to share if you’ve got other ideas for that “anonymous report”!
Hey so maybe I’m reading too much into this, but…
look at UT’s face upon Scotland Yard’s arrival, compared to everyone else who is 100% surprised, he’s just… smiling.
So maybe he’s really the one who gave that anonymous report then? And in that case, either it’s because he wants to get rid of Bravat or because he wants a lot of witnesses to something that will happen???
Wait guys,
now that it’s confirmed Othello and UT really did know each other, that means…
that Will had forewarned Othello about UT most likely being the culprit behind this case if the dead was being brought back. And that means…
that UT was the one Othello was talking about in ch119???
I know I’ve been annoying with this theory, but I really think that overall this means there is possibly another party (besides just UT) involved behind the blue sect. [x][x]
And in that case if Bravat and UT aren’t on the same side, that could explain UT possibly leading Scotland Yard right to Bravat, to get rid of him?
I’m starting to think her absence is not an accident…
Same and, I hope you don’t mind @the–dark–crow–smiles, but I’ve been thinking and right now I see a few reasons why Sensei might leave her out on purpose:
she already knew about our!Ciel’s lie so there is no need for her to be here:
Discussed previously here [x][x][x] and especially possible in case the recent chapters are A Gathering of Characters Who Had to Find Out about the 2ct.
It’s confirmed Tanaka knew (even if we don’t know what gave our!Ciel away, either the Funtom corporation or a consequence of the RCMT?) but who says he was the only one? And he could have simply told her since they are really close and she’s Ciel’s aunt, in case she initially didn’t figure it out on her own.
she can’t be here, because her presence would solve a part of the arc too easily:
Includes the first idea. Specifically I’m referring to Lizzie being obviously hurt about our!Ciel’s lie in the cliffhanger of the newest chapter.
It’s kinda similar to why the Midford parents were not getting involved when Ciel was trying to understand why Lizzie had run away and how to get her back.
For some parts of the narrative the characters have to manage by themselves in order to reach more developments: so just like Ciel had to try and bring Lizzie back by himself to end up where we are currently, she has to try and reach out to him by herself to find out why he lied in the first place.
And the thing is, Sensei confirmed that Frances was Lizzie’s role model, so if Frances knew about our!Ciel’s lie, were to show up and say “I knew but didn’t say anything because I thought he must have had his own valid reasons” (just like Tanaka), it may influence Lizzie into giving our!Ciel a chance more easily than the way it is going now, with the sect obviously having an influence on her way of thinking.
We know Sensei likes to expand on drama: having Frances possibly knowing about our!Ciel’s lie for a while would make Lizzie consider why even her mother kept quiet on the subject and she might be more willing to listen to Ciel’s explanation as a result. So that could be why Frances can’t show up.
she can’t be here because she’s elsewhere doing something that will end up being plot relevant later?
I mean, unless the whole point of her not being here is because “it’s not proper of a noble lady to show up alongside Scotland Yard to your nephew’s house without sending a letter to forewarn him”, I’d say if she’s not there and didn’t know about our!Ciel’s lie, then it’s because she is busy elsewhere, relating to another part or a future arc or something similar.
she didn’t want to show up because she figured out/Tanaka told her (?) that UT was behind the current arc and she and UT don’t get along
This also ties to the UT = Cedric theory in my opinion, because with usual comic relief being always treated the same way, it isn’t that far-fetched to consider that Frances’ strong dislike of bangs and unsightly men might originally root from UT. So she might have something personal against him and wouldn’t want to meet him if that were the case.
However, nothing makes this theory more likely than its counterpart about UT not being Cedric and we’re far away from the truth on this part of the plot anyway, so this might be reaching a little too much right now.
(I’ll consider it more seriously in case we’re never given an explanation as to what Frances was up to)
she’ll show up later (along with other characters like Diedrich, Klaus, Pitt, etc)?
just a last idea in case all the others turn out to be wrong but I’d rather she doesn’t show up at this point: it’s way more interesting like that if that was really done on purpose. x)
Anyway, listen: actually, I don’t really care whether readers like Lizzie or not. 🙂
There is no character that everyone has to love and she’s no exception, so I’m not blaming anyone for not being her fan. What I can’t stand however is people criticizing her for something a male character wouldn’t or, more accurately, wasn’t criticized about, because that’s misogyny and honestly? As a girl myself, I’m allowed to think that it sucks.
As @hitsugikuro explained here, Soma thought our!Ciel was the reason Agni died and he even punched him before swearing revenge on him and like… where is the criticism then, especially when our!Ciel has nothing to do with it?
Whereas Lizzie gets called out for being hurt and confused, because he really lied and because she actually loves our!Ciel so damn much that the blue sect went as far as to use the truth against her in order to eventually hurt him:
So don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish for Soma to be attacked for what he did or said either, but it feels unfair for Lizzie to face this is at all, just because she’s considered to be an annoying little girl when she’s so much more than that.
So there is misogyny and then there are readers calling her out because they’re doubting that Lizzie will obviously side again with our!Ciel’s eventually. And that I can’t understand because, as I was trying to explain above, that’s just ignoring 27 volumes of Sensei’s writing and honestly? Well, that sucks too.
At this point people gotta realize that, if both Soma and Lizzie are hurt and confused about what’s going on, it’s all because Ciel needs to realize that unfortunately…
…as much as he may pretend to wish he were, he’s not alone in this and there are consequences to acknowledge regarding most of the decisions he took so far.
Again though, I’m definitely not hoping that a wave of criticism ever hits Ciel: the poor boy went through so much and has a lot to cope with, but this arc is about confrontation, so it’s time to get the skeletons out of the closet (literally, @ thanks UT).
Additionally about Lizzie, to get back on a few things you were saying (and because some readers seem to still misunderstand her character, which is for shame), her whole character revolving around her fiancé can indeed be seen as a flaw because it’s slightly extreme, but in that case again, context is needed:
Because training in order to be as strong as possible and survive as the Watchdog’s wife is literallyher whole life. So like it or dislike it, again I don’t mind either way, but that’s the whole 15 years of her life and so that can’t be ignored when it comes to how one reads her character.
BTW, for the few who may read this and misunderstand, blaming Frances for this won’t do either, because Frances just wants her daughter not to end like her own brother and mother and for that I believe she’s extremely commendable.
I don’t think that most readers realize how much Frances must have loved her brother’s family to accept that Lizzie would marry and become a Phantomhive, having already lived through her mother’s probable murder and still going with the engagement for our!Ciel’s sake even after Vincent, too, was murdered.
So I spoke of that many times before, it’s one reason I’m so damn fond of these characters and why I can’t stop rambling, but the Phantomhive family has special circumstances whether you like or not.
I’m not saying we’re not
supposed
to see character flaws or dysfunctioning dynamics where they exist, on the contrary, but they have their own standards and they would probably do things differently if they weren’t constantly targeted by the burden of the Watchdog duty.
I mean, why do you guys think that UT went bat shit crazy on the subject?
It’s no coincidence.
Final point but “Lizzie needing to please her fiancé” used to be a thing that Ciel managed to undo with the Campania arc in my opinion, because what he told her allowed her to realize that she could defintiely be her true self with the person she loved the most and he wouldn’t push her away.
And that’s a main point as to why she’s definitely going back to him without a doubt. :))
Sorry for rambling, I think you unknowingly addressed a subject I’m fond of. xD But yeah, context matters.
me: “i SWEAR UT is such an IDIOT for not mourning properly! LOOK at how SELFISH he is, look at the trauma for the children, how can he even NOT REALIZE that he’s really on the wrong road?! He needs to wake up RIGHT NOW otherwise he just has to DIE because he’s SO USELESS”
Our Ciel: Let’s assess… Government officials and many civilians are dead from illegal blood transfusions, Blavat is still at large, Violet is in the hospital, the rest of the Starlight Four are on the run, a butler is dead, Soma probably wants to kill me, I just had to relive the worst trauma of my life, my dead twin brother whose identify I stole has been brought back to life by a rogue reaper, 2 more reapers have shown up, Scotland Yard has shown up, the Midfords have shown up, Lizzie is against me, my brother is being super creepy, everyone and their dog is in my entrance hall, and my window is broken. What’s next? Undertaker’s going to tell me he’s my grandpa?
As proposed on Friday, here’s a recap post about my take on it, for the few who wanted it and in hope that it might help some others with the few misunderstandings I’ve seen going around. Let me know if anything is not clear!
First thing first, despite the name of the theory, real!Ciel isn’t exactly the mastermind or the real target of Ciel’s revenge for me, if just because he and our!Ciel wouldn’t have ended up with child traffickers and sold to the cult if there wasn’t another party involved (and wanting for them to suffer).
So someone else definitely manipulated real!Ciel and his possible wishes, in order to get to the Phantomhive household. They sent someone, very probably a supernatural being considering how they appeared right behind our!Ciel, to kill almost everyone before making sure the boys would know Hell.
For simplicity’s sake and this post, we’ll assume the true mastermind is Queen Victoria (+ John Brown) and if there is a need for more explanations, please check these posts [x][x].
Moving on, in my take of the RCMT, there were only two attackers on December 14th:
and while #1 is the supernatural being (Brown?), #2 is real!Ciel (see below).
However, I know, why would a ten year old child ever wish doom on his own family?
Well, first of all, things very probably didn’t go according to real!Ciel’s plan, way before the boys were even given to child traffickers: I’m of the opinion that initially all that real!Ciel ever wanted was for his father to die. And why? Because with Vincent dead, he was the next head of the Phantomhive family and as such…
…he might have a say into his little brother’s project to go to London and become a toymaker, leaving him behind.
But things escalated from the twin’s initial plan, very probably because of the real mastermind who used real!Ciel’s little wish to get his father out of the way to almost entirely annihilate the Phantomhive household, before getting rid of the twins in a much crueler way
(possibly because real!Ciel was an accomplice).
So overall was it a horrible, irrational and childish idea coming from real!Ciel? Well, yeah, but he was ten years old and, mostly…
he apparently had (& still has as a bizarre doll) a rather pathological attachment to his little brother
(bordering on obsession really) and that could be enough of a reason for him to truly fear the future separation.
He might have even seen his parents as being unsupportive of him and his issue on the topic, because they clearly seemed to be okay with our!Ciel’s choice in ch133. Thus getting rid of at least Vincent to replace him and have his say on the matter was a minimal price to pay for not being separated from our!Ciel.
I disagree with fans labelling real!Ciel a psychopath in the past (it’s possibly different now because of UT), however I do think something was wrong with him if his little brother was the only one who mattered above everyone else to him. And, again, I really think that’s the case because…
…Lizzie, the Midfords, Ann (before she died)? Well, he didn’t/still doesn’t seem to consider them at all. :// Our!Ciel does though…
and that’s from where I draw a comparison between what’s normal and what seems to be less so, because it’s as if Sensei wanted to insist that they’re very different on this point.
So, looking at ch133/134, what happened?
First of all, it’s very important to realize that there is a one and half year time skip between real!Ciel breaking down about our!Ciel leaving him behind (with Vincent and Rachel not taking his side) and December 14th, 1885.
And it’s important because that means that Sensei purposely hid what the twin did or even how he acted between the incident and the actual massacre, after focusing for two chapters on real!Ciel being bothered by his brother leaving him.
So “he was a sweet kid, loved his parents and he would have never done that”? Well no one can know that for sure, since it’s not like we really saw anything about him between “I have no choice but to become Earl Phantomhive” and the attack on the manor. Besides, it’s kind of very Sensei-like to do foreshadowing this way, just saying.
Moving on, I’m not going to expand on how/when/why real!Ciel could have ended up as an accomplice of the attack of December 14th because we have no clue of that yet (that’s all in that one and a half year missing from the flashback), however I think everyone pro or against RCMT realized by now that the outsider who killed almost everyone received help from inside the house.
That helper is real!Ciel for me: he’s the one who muzzled Seb the dog and locked him in, so that he wouldn’t warn anyone/attack the intruder, but also maybe so that he wouldn’t be killed.
As I said above, I doubt that real!Ciel considered that anyone besides his dad had to die for him to get what he wanted and both the dog and servants could still be useful to him as the next Earl
anyway
(in order to keep the exact same household, except for Vincent himself).
As for Rachel, well, from the way she and Vincent died, embracing each other…
…I think she tried to shield Vincent and was killed first. ;_;
However,
had his initial plan gone perfectly, I’m not sure either that real!Ciel thought it necessary for his mother to die (just like the dog and servants). Either because he imagined that, once he’d be Earl, a woman would have no way to stop his decisions (I mean, look at what he said to Lizzie, I know he was a kid but ://), or because he thought she could understand after what she said about her and Ann in ch133.
There again, real!Ciel’s plan definitely didn’t go as expected, since the real target of our!Ciel’s revenge ordered her assassin to annihilate the whole household instead (the twins awaiting another horrible fate), which…
is
what
took
place. Well, almost because someone survived.
Before I get to this part though, I have to say: I don’t think real!Ciel is the one who killed his parents. He wanted his father dead, yes, but he’s not the one who stabbed them, or Seb the dog, or even most of the household.
Just look at ch134, all the dead people our!Ciel came across had a lot of blood pooling around the bodies, a lot of blood on the walls or furnitures around too, which in my opinion signs the work of a real skilled killer (that supernatural being, attacker #1).
So I doubt the twin would have been able of that, not at ten years old, not when he didn’t have blood on his clothes and not when he seemed to suck at fencing. What he did do however is at least muzzle and lock the dog, take the Phantomhive ring from his father’s hand (the ring that proved he could inherit the position after his father)…
and possibly stab Tanaka at least once (making him attacker #2).
The reason I think the twin is the one who stabbed Tanaka is the opposite as to why I think a real pro took down everyone else: Tanaka was stabbed twice
meaning that the first time wasn’t enough to kill him, so:
either he held his own against a supernatural being because he was strong enough
or real!Ciel is the one who wasn’t skilled enough to kill him on the first try.
Also, the second time Tanaka was stabbed was precisely as he attempted to warn our!Ciel of something about real!Ciel…
And if real!Ciel was in on the plan about December 14th, frankly I doubt he’d want his little brother to know that he was an accomplice in the massacre that took place.
The last chapter even implied that servants aren’t exactly people real!Ciel tends to care about anyway…
…so who knows if even Tanaka wouldn’t become disposable from the moment he caught on about real!Ciel being an accomplice? ://
So basically, real!Ciel is the one who stabbed Tanaka in the back, just as Tanaka tried to warn our!Ciel, but then the supernatural attacker showed up and took our!Ciel away before he could see who was the one with the knife.
I know Tanaka is still considered as a suspect by some fans, but honestly I just can’t see how or why. And when it comes to how Tanaka managed to survive his wounds and the fire that destroyed the whole manor, since that’s one point making him suspicious, I discussed it a little here for those interested.
Additional hints & details for the RCMT
To tie with the more recent chapters, since UT brought back the twin, but not mandatory when it comes to understanding the theory, so under read more:
the twin’s behavior towards our!Ciel
I think it’s a hint by itself, because he still seems very obsessed with the idea to finally “be able to be together forever”.
Real!Ciel being a bizarre doll though, that means UT brought him back through editing his cinematic record with “episodes” (i.e ”yearning for the future”).
In other words, if before he died real!Ciel was strongly envisioning his future as “being together forever” with his little brother (as the flashback showed well enough), it could explain why he’s still super obsessed with the idea, because that’s literally what keeps him going as UT’s current masterpiece.
A real obsession can be dangerous: look at Ann and the JTR arc, or look at UT who can’t mourn the dead Phantomhives and instead tries to bring them back through lots of horrible and bloody experiments. So in real!Ciel’s case, it’s not that impossible that it could have led to December 14th.
the attack on Soma and Agni
Could be a hint depending on why the twin became violent and what was the purpose of the twin coming to the house in the first place.
Was it to see our!Ciel? And that’s why they wrote a creepy message on the wall? In that case, discovering Soma living there or Soma acting familiar with him triggered his violent reaction.
Or was it because of Soma himself? It’s obvious that UT told real!Ciel about what life his brother led for the last 4 years, so he could have mentioned Soma. However, considering how real!Ciel only sees and cares about him and his little brother, Soma calling himself “Ciel’s big brother” could have made him super jealous. ://
why did the attack happen on December 14th precisely?
In case anyone else is wondering. I’ve seen three possibilities until now:
because it was easier for the twin to get everything ready (muzzling the dog, etc) while everyone else was otherwise busy preparing their birthday party. There is even a mention of real!Ciel reading till super late the night before, to the point of not getting enough sleep.
because, in the idea that real!Ciel was really missing some screws, the plan to kill his dad so that he could become Earl was supposed to be a birthday gift to both him and his little brother (since the plan was one way for them to “be together forever”) (proposed by @asthmaticastre [x])
rather than being related to the twin, the choice of the date is related to the mastermind, because Prince Albert was Queen Victoria’s love of her life and historically he died on December 14th, 1861. So if in Kuroverse the Queen thinks her Watchdog at the time (Claudia) was somehow responsible… she could hold a grudge => short version of the theory.
could someone have prevented the RCMT from happening?
Because I remember that a lot of readers used to despise Vincent and Rachel for “badly raising their son” and not paying attention, but I just don’t think it’s their fault, because I don’t think that real!Ciel behaved particularly oddly aside from that one trait.
That being said, as I explained here, I think there is a slight possibility that Vincent might have caught on about his first son’s strong (rather abnormal if the rcmt is a thing) attachment to his little brother…
Not that it saved him or Rachel, so I guess no one has to care, but we’re still missing one and a half year from the flashback and, in general, Vincent is a rather mysterious character so… in case we ever address that time skip again, it could be useful to at least consider the idea.
why would UT even bring back the twin if the RCMT is true, considering how much he cared about Vincent?
Though there is also the possibility that UT didn’t even watch this part of the twin’s cinematic record before editing his record post credits, because he was already convinced that the Queen was behind the attack on December 14th. In that case he wouldn’t even know that the twin played a role in Vincent’s death.
I’ll conclude by redirecting you to what @cielsama14 once said about the RCMT here, which I think is extremely fitting, especially considering what Sensei always said about the P family being cursed.
Long post as always with me, but I hope it was understandable!
Please keep in mind that this is my take on this theory, but there are other versions. Don’t hesitate to ask if there is anything. Thanks for reading. 🙂
It’s disturbing enough that Our Ciel didn’t realize he was sitting on top of the corpse of his brother while sitting in Undertaker’s shop.
But it bothers me more that neither Sebastian nor Grelle seemed to notice.
Sebastian and Grelle are both supernatural beings whose duties revolve around the dead. They both ought to have noticed a corpse.
I can explain it away though.
For Grelle, the explanation is fairly simple. Grelle was undercover as Madame Red’s butler, so it wouldn’t have made sense for them to have said something. Grelle also had no reason to have known Our Ciel had a dead twin, so even if they’d noticed a corpse, there was no reason suspect it might have been connected to the Phantomhives.
For Sebastian it’s a little trickier: Sebastian was intimately familiar with Real Ciel’s corpse. If anyone should have noticed, it’s Sebastian.
However, in the Weston School arc, we saw Sebastian interact with Mr. Agares several times without him directly sensing that Agares was a walking corpse.
So I suspect that Sebastian probably noticed that there was a corpse in the coffin, but he couldn’t tell that it was a bizarre doll. He must not have been able to tell that it was Real Ciel’s body either, or else he should have said something to Our Ciel.
—-
I wonder if that was the joke…
Undertaker: You want information? Give me supreme laughter!
Sebastian: I’ll handle this. Please leave the room.
…
Sebastian: The Young Master doesn’t realize he’s been sitting on top of a corpse this whole time.
midnight-in-town 