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midnight-in-town · 1 month ago

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A future Shinigami revolt to destroy an unfair System ?

Part of my "let's explore Kuroshitsuji's main plot threads" masterposts ; the others can be found below :

Is the Phantomhive lineage the reason behind the Watchdog duty ?

Is the Undertaker "Cedric K. Ros--", aka the twins' paternal grandfather ?

The Fenian Brotherhood theory : Vincent was killed for being a political enemy of Queen Victoria

the RCMT : real!Ciel is an antagonist, partly to blame for what happened 4 years ago

Frances Midford is most likely the atypical "Mentor" character of this Shonen series

Let's dive right into this one (warning : long post ahead !) : in Kuroshitsuji, we have many examples of unfair situations. Case in point with the premise, our!Ciel had to choose between dying at the hands of a demonic cult, like his brother, or sell his soul to a demon he summoned to get his revenge.

Amidst that terrible event, Ciel even lost in faith in a higher deity like God, only for Seb upon his summoning to mock his lack of faith :

1) Premise : a system full of lies

The Shinigami organization is another unfair system based, in my opinion, on "punishing sinners who turned their back on God" when they gave up on life and chose death.

However, whereas Seb was rather honest and claimed Ciel's soul as the price for helping him get his revenge from the beginning, the Shinigami Organization is probably anything but.

In ch105, Sascha explains that Shinigamis are basically slaves who are overworked until "they're forgiven", but we've gotten no proof so far in the story about a Shinigami knowing an old coworker who managed to be forgiven (and we have met many Shinigamis).

However, currently working Shinigamis have all heard about deserters.

The most famous deserter, both to us readers but also to some older Shinigamis like Othello, is "the Undertaker" or former Shinigami #136649 :

While the timeline is currently unclear (because Othello mentions the destruction of HQ approximately 70 years ago whereas UT himself during the Campania arc said he was last called a shinigami since "at least half a century"), what's particularly interesting is that Shinigami #136649 was described by Othello as "the Epitome of a Grim Reaper", so exactly the kind of Shinigami you'd expect to "be forgiven".

So why would someone, who would quickly reach the end of his slavery days, turn against the Organization ? Probably because there's no forgiveness, just like there was no other choice for our!Ciel, who "spat upon God", to sell his soul or immediately die.

In Shinigamis' case, the people to blame for upkeeping this unfair system are probably none other than their higher ups, who were described by Othello to "oversee the human world".

Because, to oversee the human world and to gather the souls when humans die, they kind of need a workforce. Hence the overworked Shinigamis, who are supposed to earn their redemption for sinning.

How and why UT found out about the truth of no forgiveness is still unclear, but since he was so talented, it's possible that he was offered to become a higher up and the realization that he was lied to for many decades or centuries made him go rogue. That and the pursuit of freedom being significant to UT's character (see above), which would simply make him hate the notion of a "fated end" for all humans, after his own suicide.

After all, ch105 confirmed Shinigamis were once humans before they chose to die, so it would make sense to imagine that the Shinigamis' higher ups were once Shinigamis too (at the very least we know they're not demons, considering how Seb speaks of them with so much despite).

2) Most deserters are actually rebels, fighting against the system

First, I'd like to point out that, while older Shinigamis like Othello have heard about "the fugitive of legend" because they used to work with him, it's actually interesting that younger Shinigamis, such as Grell, haven't.

After all, if UT was just "tired of this job", like Sascha and Rudgar were guessing in ch105, why wouldn't they warn younger Shinigamis that some of their coworkers may go insane and leave ?

The answer is simple, the higher ups wouldn't want younger Shinigamis to investigate what could have led a brilliant Shinigami like UT to destroy half of HQ, aka "the truth".

So the events of 70 years ago were covered up : they weren't mentioned to younger Shinigamis like Grell or Ronald, and older Shinigamis like Othello were more or less forbidden from interacting with the human world about 50 years ago...

...until the higher ups "started to get serious" about the threat of the Bizarre Doll project and sent Othello on his old coworker's trail.

Secondly, while UT is the most famous deserter to us readers, we know that he's not the only existing one, despite being the only one we've actually met so far. So where are the others and what are they doing ? Well, I can't speak for all deserters, but repeatedly I've theorized that UT is actually not the only deserter working on the Bizarre Doll project.

Let's be clear, UT can have several motives behind the BD project : the most important one to him clearly is also a personal one, which is the revival of the Phantomhive family, as we know thanks to ch140.

But the BD project also threatens the natural balance of the human word between life and death, as Othello explained in ch147, which goes against everything Shinigamis stand for, since Shinigamis are "beings that (are supposed to) stand neutral between Gods and humans". In other words, the BD project threatens the natural order that the higher ups oversee.

And while UT's main motive behind the BD project is personal, other deserters enlisting their help to make it more threatening...

and gaining more sponsors, across different countries...

...are probably more motivated by making it a worldwide shattering threat to the Shinigami system directed by the higher ups.

Finally, as Queen Victoria once said :

And I'd add that the blue sect and blue revenge arcs encompass all 3: Bravat was the lead of a deranged cult for the star lords, the current BD project seems to slowly be growing to become a profitable business [x][x] and the Shinigami deserters are using all of it to wage war against the higher ups and their unfair system.

3) Who gets to decide what is the natural order ?

Another point I'll make to emphasize that the higher ups are shady is that they're also the ones who decide at what pace progress happens in the human world.

But same for life and death, actually. The list Shinigamis work with are distributed to them by the higher ups, as William explained early on:

So life, death and progress are all decided by the higher ups. I don't know about you guys, but I find it's a lot of power to have and the BD project is definitely one way to fight against all 3.

That's why I find it's so interesting that we've got many Shinigamis (Othello, Grell, Ronald, Will and another unnamed one at the orphanage) on the trail of UT and other deserters in the current arc : after all, if UT or other deserters were to spread the truth about how unfair the system is, if just for Shinigamis themselves, maybe it could lead to a Shinigami revolt in the future.

More specifically about Grell, since she's a fan favorite but also because of her actions during the JTR arc : she already went against Shinigami "law" by killing women who weren't on the list, so she'd be a perfect candidate for rebellion if she were to find out that the system she works for (and was punished by, post JTR) is actually full of lies, protected by a few ex-Shinigamis who like to play God and who want to keep the absolute control they have over the human world.

4) A Shinigami revolt against the current system would also be plot significant

And by plot, I am talking about Ciel's revenge. As a reminder, I am personally of the opinion that Queen Victoria and John Brown are the big bad our!Ciel and Seb are going to face and I also believe that JB is either a demon, like Seb is [x][x], or a deserting Shinigami.

However, what's mostly interesting is that Victoria is praised in universe for being a visionary...

...something that Brown being a supernatural creature would definitely be the explanation for, according to Othello. This is probably also the explanation behind her getting ready to launch WWI, 25 years early.

And while Ciel still has to figure out that Queen Victoria is his opponent and why, we also have UT who notoriously despises her :

The Undertaker is, for me, an interesting character because Yana said he "wasn't exactly a villain".

As explained before, UT works on the BD project for two reasons : the main one is personal and is the revival of the Phantomhive family, whose deaths he definitely holds Victoria responsible. On top of that, he also holds the Shinigami system and the higher ups accountable for arbitrarily deciding humans' "fated end" :

In other words, he holds both Victoria and the Shinigami system accountable for the deaths of Claudia, Vincent and real!Ciel.

That's why he "tolerates" Seb by our!Ciel's side, as Seb makes a perfect shield against both Victoria's own demon and the Shinigami system, until Ciel gets close to his revenge. At the same time, UT currently represents Ciel's strongest survival option, seeing as he's the only one so far who represented a threat to Seb in battle.

Don't get me wrong, bringing the dead back and killing the living to make them survive (aka the current arc) is definitely an issue that has to be countered by our!Ciel's side.

However, narratively, since the higher ups being all powerful is also bad because it creates an unfair system, for the Shinigamis enslaved by it but also for humans who have no control over their fate, I can't help but wonder : if UT and other deserters succeed in harming the higher ups' system, will it impact Victoria's war plans ? If so, how ? And what could it mean for the contract between Seb and Ciel, since it's another fated end born from an unfair situation (especially since the story thematically presents revenge as the wrong choice to make) ?

Lastly, we still haven't encountered in the story that one example Will mentioned in ch 35 of a human surviving their fated end, through a Shinigami's judgement, because "they have the potential to be beneficial for this world". So, unless Sensei is getting tired of writing this series, it's definitely something that should be useful later considering it's the only judgement that Shinigamis can make by themselves about life and death.

Hopefully it makes sense. Don't hesitate to add some insights, if you have any. :) Happy new year 2025, y'all ! :D

#kuroshitsuji #undertaker #grell sutcliff #william t. spears #othello #ronald knox #ciel phantomhive #sebastian michaelis #sascha #rudgar #queen victoria #john brown #shinigamis #kuroshitsuji theory #tw: suicide mentions #kuro149 #kuro105 #blue revenge arc #my analysis

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