#layla kuroshitsuji

[juxl25]

Kuroshitsuji theory (spoilers)

Is there a spy in the reapers who works for the undertaker?

I think there might be! (Let me cook plz)

Today I was thinking about Dolls death and the events at the end of book of circus and realised, how tf did the undertaker get dolls body and cinematic records?! Because William and Ronald were at the mansion collecting the records of all the dead children and the count, and I honestly don’t think William would let some random guy with a death sythe show up and take the records.

Unless William is the spy.

Now let’s think about this. William is the only repeating Reaper that we don’t know much about other than the stuff from the OVA and as well as that he was at the circus during the times of the kidnappings. And I know we’ve had reapers show up to the places of major events such as Ronald and Grell with book of Atlantis, but that’s most because they wouldn’t of been able to get to the cinematic records if not. But if so why was William at the circus? No major deaths happened there, all deaths happened away from the circus. Unless he was there to spy on o!ciel and Sebastian.

Second off William’s appearance at the end of book of Atlantis. I know he was there to get Ronald and Grell but I think it’s kinda weird how he just showed up out of the blue and didn’t bother to help with all the bizarre dolls. We know that Grell and Ronald were completely out of it when William showed up, so what if he helped undertaker and r!ciel back to land?

Third of all, how did the undertaker get Dollys body when he was taking care of r!ciel? Knowing how loyal the undertaker is I don’t think he would have left r!ciel alone in that moment and I don’t think he could of come back for the body and the records because, people would of shown up to fight the fire and because of the grim reapers that were there. So maybe William brought him Dolly body as he (William) thought she could be a good candidate for a bizarre doll due to her history with o!ciel and Sebastian.

And my final point for why William might be a spy is how he always shows up at the end of all major event involving the bizarre dolls and blood transfusion. He always shows up when things start to go wrong, as show is Bards arc. I theories that the events in the hospital where Bards is happened first out of the 3 mini arcs due to the amount of time show to have past in each arc. Hence why he hasn’t shown up in the other mini arcs.

I would also like to say why I don’t think Ronald Knox is the traitor.

Firstly he was only called as back up in book of circus and had no way of knowing about what was actually going on inside the mansion. Secondly in book of Atlantis Ronald is shocked to find out about undertakers true identity as a reaper as well as the state he was left in after the fight with undertaker. And finally the events in Bards mini arc, Ronald is shown to be actively searching for the Bizzare Doll and if he was a spy why would he do that? Bear in mind William only showed up after the Layla was found.

But what do yall think? If I’ve made an error or missed something important let me know! And thanks for reading my ramblings:)

[evangelifloss]

@beembugs made one so I figured I would as well!

Explanations under the cut, some manga spoilers

So for Sign, not many characters have definitive birthdays so I went with the Blavat Sky's fortune telling which is actually a blood type test! Since I'm 0+, I'm under the classification of Vega and while it's yet to be revealed, I'm of the opinion Layla is one of the four lords, namely, Vega!

For age, I used the time period of the most recent manga update where Mey-Rin is 24.

Hair color was a surprising problem as Kuro has alot of the brown haired characters, but they don't have the right shade. Luckily I remembered Gawain/Flower Vendor from the Book of Circus anime.

There was a similar problem regarding eye color as I could've picked Ciel, but his blue eyes are too dark. Alois Trancy has the closest lighter shade to my own.

Along with birthdays, character heights are unknown save for some of the characters whom are measured in "Sebastian". Love that for you Yana but please give me proper answers. Anyways, the only character closest to 4'11 is Sieglinde!

For Attitude, Nina Hopkins ended up winning out for multiple reasons, mainly her direct brashness about gender equality and wanting for society to loosen up. Given the time period and context, her passion for women to wear pants is very much a shunned and rebellious act. She just like me fr

[nonolullaby]

[chasiufan]

tpn who?!

[icantbelieveitsnotbutler]

The Purpose of the F.O.L. Orphanage

Manga spoilers under the cut.

While the primary purpose of the music hall and the manor and sanatorium infiltrated by Mey-Rin and Bard seem to be blood-collection, the F.O.L. Orphanage was established for experimentation. I believe the goals of those experiments could be involved in the resolution the current arc and the fate of both Ciels.

R!Ciel, along with the other 'stars', is the culmination of Undertaker's work in reanimation: he is indistinguishable from a living human, apart from his dependence on blood transfusions. The existence of the F.O.L. orphanage implies that Undertaker thinks there's room for improvement. Reducing or even eliminating his dolls' reliance on blood would allow them to be more independent and protect them from consequences of having their supply cut off.

The orphanage doesn't accept all orphans, only those whose personalities and other attributes match the star whose blood type they share. They are cared for and educated in a manner that causes them to mimick the lifestyles lived by their 'star' counterparts: r!Ciel the child earl, Doll the athletic circus performer, Polaris the butler, and Layla (Vega), who we meet as a nurse, but who is trained in martial arts and housework.

But why should the lifestyle of a blood donor matter, as long as they're healthy? The blood is either compatible or not. Perhaps if the donor is more like the bizarre doll, the the time between transfusions could be extended, or organs could be transplanted that eliminate the need for transfusions altogether. But these experiments are not testing the physical compatibility of the children with their corresponding 'stars.'

Undertaker is trying to find donors with appropriate "radiances." But what is radiance? The above translation is misleading; more accurately, it would say "The closer the body and mind (of the children) get to (those of) the 'stars,' the more appropriate the radiance will become."

The factor the orphanage is trying to control, 心身, is the combined body and mind. They are hoping this will affect the きらめき, the radiance, of the children and make them more "appropriate." This radiance is in fact the soul.

In the end, I believe there is no way to make the bizarre dolls as perfect as living humans, and Undertaker has learned this through his experiments. The bodies cannot sustain themselves. However, if another person's soul is similar enough, or could be shaped to be, perhaps the cinematic record of the deceased person could replace or be spliced together with the record of the living donor.

The children who reach their 'fledgling day' and whose bodies Finny and co. discovered in jars might be failed transfers/splices. Layla, who acts like an adult despite appearing as a child and whose body seems to be inhabited by two souls (Layla and Al), might be a successful splice.

I believe that Undertaker's ultimate goal is to find an appropriate host for r!Ciel. Conveniently, he has a twin who is so similar to him that people are unable to tell them apart. If these theories are correct, Undertaker could be planning to splice them while o!Ciel is still alive, or put r!Ciel's soul/cinematic record in o!Ciel's body after Sebastian takes his soul.

[midnight-in-town]

Recap of highlights from the servants' investigations

Rereading the investigation mini arcs before the first chapter post hiatus is released in April. Here are the points of interest to keep in mind :

Mey Rin & Ran Mao

A summary : impeccable investigation, flawless duo, 10/10 cooperation and efficiency 👌

The conclusion : A full success, the operation was 100% dismantled and rendered useless, thanks to Ran Mao's monstrous strength.

The explanation : Baron Heathfield agreed to help the Aurora Society and to hold a blood collect in his basement, because he was "searching for a bride", namely one who would have a soul with a similar shape as his deceased wife's.

We don't know yet what this concept means, but surely it is relevant to a part of the current evolution of the BD project (most likely with the experiments at F.O.L orphanage).

Side note of importance : the introduction of Jane's character, a maid who was hired as security guard at the manor. Jane is not a part of the Aurora society and is probably not one of the Star Lords either. I personally think Jane is John Brown, a demon, investigating the BD project for the Queen's sake, but we'll have to meet her again to get an answer or more hints.

Bard & Lau

A summary : a rather tough investigation, with Ronald on Shinigami surveillance, super creepy Layla/Al kid who seems to be Star Lord Vega and several backstabbing threats from Lau to Bard.

The conclusion : Okay-ish success, with Bard avoiding murder by Layla/Al, thanks to blood transfusions. The operation wasn't dismantled but basically stolen by Lau who wants to relocate them to Shanghai (still hoping for Ada to work with Sieglinde & Wolfram, but Lau has to become a villain soon I guess...). Ciel is aware it's what Lau was after though (ch212), so I guess it's okay.

Also, Layla/Al was taken away by Ronald and Will, meaning the Shinigami Organization can now learn how a bizarre doll functions more accurately.

The explanation : Nurse Ada who wanted the means to work properly in nursing care after coming back from Sudan (kudos to her) made a deal with a doctor from the Aurora society (another Shinigami deserter ?).

However, she started growing afraid of the blood collects when she realized that her business was tied to the blue sect's scandal, but without the Aurora society's funds she couldn't continue helping her patients. Her hands were tied, until Bardroy offered to help.

Side note of importance : Layla/Al fought against Will and Ronald with a death scythe, meaning this death scythe was either stolen from an active Shinigami (who died in duty ?), or given to her by another deserter besides UT working on the BD project, who also kept their scythe when they left the Organization.

Lastly, it's more or less a crack theory at this point, but there is a possibility that Layla/Al is also the undead child of Baron Heathfield. [x][x]

Finny & Snake

A summary : Good duo (the sweetest) who really tried their best, but definitely the worst place to investigate, leading to disastrous developments, because it probably wasn't the best idea to send 2 kids with big childhood trauma at the Orphanage of Horror... T_T (not that Seb & Ciel could have known...)

Also Doll returned, once more involved with child trafficking, like when Kelvin was alive. She seems to be Star Lord Canopus and wants revenge against the Phantomhive household for what happened during the Circus arc. ://

The conclusion : Unfortunate failure. Sadly, Snake died by Doll's hand and might soon be turned into a BD, meaning he will possibly fight against his previous coworkers, whom he cared about a lot </3 T_T

The facilities were not destroyed but Finny, despite being forced to leave Snake's body behind, managed to escape with the 4 elder students : Artie, Theo, Oliver and Mabel. They however lost the evidence to expose the facilities and couldn't save the other children for now. Finny is bringing the 4 kids back to Seb & Ciel.

The explanation : Unfortunately, the truth behind the operation wasn't fully discovered. The 4 groups of students at the Orphanage are apparently made to perfectly match the Star Lords' characteristics : the more a kid from each group matches with their Star Lord, the longer it seems their blood will keep the BD functioning.

When a child reaches "fledging day", they are actually brought into a secret laboratory where they are killed. Yet blood collects may not be the only thing happening in that lab, as the staff mentioned "clinical trials" and the children saw organs being harvested as well.

My personal guess is that this orphanage is trying to make the blood transfusions have a longer effect for the Star Lords, but it may also be a test to turn the BD project into a profitable business [part 1] [part 2].

Side note of importance : It seems the orphanage is run by somebody in particular whom we haven't met during the arc, but whom the 4 elder students came across before. According to them, they are a "pervert".

It should also be noted that the facilities looked "familiar" to both Snake and Finny upon arrival (architectural similarities to the Phantomhive manor ?) and we haven't found out what the acronym "F.O.L" stands for.

So we will probably figure more about these facilities once the 4 elder students meet with Seb & Ciel.

What to expect for Seb & Ciel ?

Not off to a very good start because they were instantly recognized upon arrival at the "Nectar Springs" Hotel. 100% their fault though, because they were not wearing any disguise lmao.

As for what to expect, the fandom discussed the possibility of meeting Druitt [x][x], Joker/Polaris or maybe Soma. Personally, I also hope this mini arc may finally tell us whether or not UT also brought Madam Red back from the dead.

Since we also got all of the servants' backstory, there is also somehow the possibility to find about Tanaka's backstory and arrival into the Phantomhive household (how is the question though).

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for the chapter in April ! :)

[tormiichu]

the sillies heheh

[bihastuff]

I just noticed that we got more female characters on the covers of the lastest volumes of black butler and we love to see it.

[hisbutleronhiatus]

It has been 149 days since the Kuroshitsuji hiatus was announced.

When Undertaker was too immersed in dusting off one of his coffins to give Layla a proper greeting after she skipped into the funeral parlor, the girl stabbed his arm in a fit of pique. However, the elderly reaper simply guffawed at this display of cheek and gave her an indulgent pat on the head. Though no longer among the ranks of the living, his bizarre dolls remain full of vim and vigor!

[evermined]

[zetsubobu]

What's a character you love but what absolutely be intimidated by if you ever met them irl?

[grelleswife]

Cover art for Kuroshitsuji Volume 33, which is scheduled for release on July 27th!

Source

[blondeaxolotl]

WHOS RONALD KNOX???

I'M GUESSING YOU MEAN IN RED BUTLER SO

Here we finally meet Ronald, who's the butler/manservant of Layla, the sapphire witch.

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

( x )

Volume 33 showcases Layla from the Athena Sanatorium. For the AU, she/they and the Phantomhive household are dressed up as Japanese firefighters with Bard as the matoi holder wearing the traditional/ceremonial attire during the Edo Period together with Mey-rin (holding a fire axe) , Finnian, and Tanaka (on the ladder). The colour code, methinks, is fuchsia.

[abybweisse]

Hey Aby ! I have a question (actually, two) for you regarding bizzare dolls that came into my mind just recently, maybe you’ve answered this question before so i apologize in advance.

Firstly, why do you think the Star Lords exist in the first place ? Like, sure, they “take care” of the blood collecting centers, but what else ? Do you think they have any purpose other than this ? Are they part of something greater ? Because as of now it seems to me they’re actually a waste of energies for Undertaker (like, you know, having to harvest blood for all of them, making sure they’re healthy and don’t lose control…)

Second and last question, why the different blood types ? I’ll explain this better, if Undertaker’s main goal is to keep R!Ciel ‘alive’ why not collecting just Sirius blood and calling it a day ?

I take this opportunity to thank you for being the literal pillar and backbone of our fandom 🫶🏻 who knows what we would be without you ! Lots of love !

⚠️ long post ⚠️

Ok, so I've sort of answered these questions before, but I'll try to be more specific and in depth about it here.

Why the Star Lords to begin with?

There are several parts to this answer, and I'll go into some more details about each one:

The star lords exist because Undertaker wants to bring back real Ciel

Even this part of the answer requires looking at a few different aspects. Real Ciel is one of the star lords, so wanting to bring him back automatically explains why he's one of them. Bringing in other individuals can serve some purposes. Such as:

So real Ciel isn't the only one; he's not alone. It gives him the added bonus of having (loyal) allies to go up against our earl and his allies (particularly Baldo, Mey-Rin, and Finny). These star lords can fight very well (though that might not be the case for real Ciel, since he's apparently only getting AB blood transfusions. More on that later. And he might naturally not be as physically inclined or well-trained). We pretty much have to assume, by now, that Polaris is the one who kills Agni. Real Ciel shooting at Soma (who mistook the shooter for our earl) and Polaris (mistaken for Sebastian, probably) killing Agni turned Soma into an enemy. Much of the star lords' existence seems to be about getting rid of our earl's support system.

The others might end up serving real Ciel in some other way, too, such as collecting blood supplies from the other facilities; we know Vega (Layla/Al) and Polaris are sent off by Undertaker to do that. At some point, real Ciel wants one of them to act as his butler, and later Polaris seems to be filling that role, even though he was away and unable to serve as one earlier. Either way, Polaris identifies as a butler "even in death".

So there's a representative for each major blood type (more on that in part two). That's about religion (or occultism), symbolism, and balance. It's also about scientific research.

The star lords exist because Undertaker wants to make a point to our earl about the choices he makes (which I find very ironic).

Choosing Doll (to represent Canopus) might have something to do with wanting to make our earl feel guilty for her death... if he ever sees her or finds out about her return. We won't know what/how he finds out until we get back to him and he's receiving reports. We aren't quite sure yet who Polaris is, but I suspect he's a former Phantomhive butler, and that could make our earl feel bad about his death, too, even though there was no way for him to prevent it. (Mostly, someone like a former Phantomhive butler for Polaris would be for the fierce loyalty that could be achieved with his "episodes".)

The star lords exist because Yana-san needs to provide more adversity.

Undertaker might also see Doll as someone who could take Snake away from our earl, because of their history. And even if Undertaker doesn't have that in mind, Yana-san sure does; it makes sense from a writer's perspective to have each of our earl's helpers deal with something that exposes their emotions and/or weaknesses. With Doll, Snake feels a sense of belonging, while Finny feels guilt. Layla/Al is good to go up against Lau and Baldo because they likely wouldn't suspect a little girl (by all appearances) to be much of a threat. Polaris is so strong, fast, and flexible that Mey-Rin and Ran-Mao have no idea how lucky they are that they were gone by the time Polaris found out what had happened. Agni and Soma weren't as lucky, dealing with Polaris and real Ciel. 😢

The star lords exist because backers of Aurora Society begged and/or paid to have dead loved ones revived.

At least that's what I think in the case of Layla/Al. I suspect she might be Baron Heathfield's dead daughter. Undertaker agreeing to help restore Heathfield's family might be why Heathfield got involved with Undertaker and the Aurora Society. Not just to find the right "soul shape" for his wife... but also to somehow revive his daughter.

The star lords exist because Undertaker is still curious about humanity (life, death, souls, etc.).

He's continuing to experiment. Even though the main purpose seems to be to revive real Ciel, the effects are much wider in scope. They really are one big series of experiments. Some elements of what he's been working on (possibly with a helper, like Druitt, on the medical aspects):

Manipulating cinematic records. He started out -- probably long before real Ciel was killed -- just adding little snippets of himself to their records, much like the BDs on the ship. He says that when he started working on real Ciel his revival techniques weren't up to snuff (not nonexistent, just not strong enough), so he needed to make quick progress. The others on the ship weren't for that purpose, so they don't really count here. The murders at Weston gave him an opportunity to improve upon record manipulation. And so do the other lords of the stars. This gives him more time to cherry pick which "episodes" to use for each one.

Blood typing and transfusion technology. It is way more advanced (than it should be at this time) because of his work... or the work of whoever is helping him in the lab. It's already led to the development of dialysis machines, too, which brings in another money-making opportunity. The star lords might not have functioning hearts, bone marrow, livers, or kidneys, so the blood transfusions are an ongoing need.

Organ transplants. Experimentation continues with organ transplants, since the orphanage staff mentions something about how hard it is to match the kids up with the star lords based on aptitude. With organ transplants, matching blood type isn't always enough. The personality test doesn't guarantee any more precision, of course, either, but that's not exactly the purpose of that test. Also, transplanted organs don't last forever, even in living humans, so they probably last even less time in a BD. As a star lord wears out their transfused blood, they probably also wear out transplanted organs and other tissues.

Soul transplants. We don't have absolute proof just yet, but I do think Undertaker is also experimenting with transplanting souls into the star lords. On the ship, he says BDs can't do anything with the souls of the people they attack. And he says he can't make souls. However, he hasn't said he can't manipulate souls that already exist; definitely, he has soul manipulation abilities that the BDs lack, and I think he's testing the limits of his own abilities. He's also got Heathfield thinking that he needs to find a woman with a soul the same "shape" as his dead wife's. As I said before, I think Undertaker might be using Heathfield's dead wife as a test subject for soul transplants. I do think he wants to transplant a similar or same-shaped soul into each of the star lords. Either Layla has Al due to one of these experiments... or Undertaker chose Layla to be one of the star lords partly because she already has Al, and Undertaker wants to study this dual personality. His reasoning might go that if he could just transplant the right soul into a star lord, then that star lord would be truly revived... would be able to pump and clean the blood that's been transfused... would be able to make more blood for themselves... would be able to make better use of the organs they've received.

The star lords exist because Undertaker needs a gimmick to lure in people to give blood (whether or not they know that blood is being taken) and for patrons to donate money.

And that's where the different blood types become even more important.

Why the different blood types?

I suppose Undertaker could focus all the efforts on just getting AB "Sirius" blood for real Ciel. But there are benefits to collecting all four types in the ABO blood grouping system (ignoring Rh factor).

AB is rare, and it would still require blood typing a large number of people to figure out who has AB. Hence why they opened Sphere Music Hall and made it a mixing space for all walks of life, placed ads for maids of all backgrounds for Heathfield, offered state of the art medical services for veterans at Athena Sanatorium. and provided a shelter and rare education opportunity for orphans at F. O. L. And people would feel unwelcome if most of them (or any of them, really) were turned away. Making the facilities as inclusive as possible (particularly the music hall and Heathfield's manor) increases the likelihood of getting enough AB blood for real Ciel.

And since Undertaker (and whoever) now also has all this blood for A, B, and O, he should do something with it. By then, probably anticipating the fact that he'd have blood supplies for different recipients, he'd have selected the other three star lords to match the remaining blood types. Each star lord just sort of falls into place, most likely. Real Ciel has AB. "Polaris" is A, so that works. This girl Layla is unusual, plus she's got type O; great, let's bring her on board. And Doll happens to be B; perfect, now all four types are covered.

In the case of Sphere Music Hall, there's also a major occult aspect to it, and having these four portray worshipped individuals works out well to lure people in and gives each visitor a purpose. Even the lesser "stars" that make up the multitudes are useful. Truth is, most of them didn't even know about the star lords; they were too caught up in adoration for the idol singers. Built-in idolatry. Layer upon layer to shroud the star lords in mystery.

For a while, there was so much extra A and O blood that they could also distribute it to renal failure patients who donated money to Aurora Society. Like those old guys in Bath.

There's also the fact that a major truth about the ABO blood grouping system has been, so far, either ignored or misunderstood within the story. When it comes to whole blood transfusions, AB is the universal recipient, so real Ciel doesn't have to "starve" from the scarcity of his blood type. All this time, he could have accepted any of them. It actually all could have been collected for him... from anyone (again, ignoring rh factor). All this trouble to collect AB blood for him could have been avoided, but either the researchers don't yet know this fact, or they know but still aren't making use of it. There is also the possibility that even real Ciel now knows this, but he's refusing anything but AB due to elitist bias. Keep in mind that they have created their own caste system within this "blue cult", despite saying how everyone is welcome and to be treated equally. There's obviously a premium put on Sirius and Canopus. And there've been a few times where individuals talked down to anyone who wasn't amongst the cult's elite and described the vast majority of participants as lesser or "dim" stars.

I'm still waiting for someone (maybe Sieglinde?) to point this out to Undertaker (and whoever is doing the bulk of the blood work). So, part of the reason to have a star lord for each blood type might be to lead up to the revelation that they went through a bunch of completely unnecessary lengths... and to maybe show them that -- for all the knowledge they had -- they still knew so little.

Well, I hope this sufficiently answers your questions. 😂 I feel like I'm forgetting something, but after typing this much, I can't think too clearly about what that might be. 😮‍💨 😅

And thank you so much!! 😊

[kuroshitsuji-indonesia]

Black Butler Volume 33 cover, featuring Layla will be sold on July 27th 2023!

And as usual, there will be also limited Animate Tokuten Card illustrated by Yana Toboso (Animate purchase only)!