#undertaker theory

[midnight-in-town]

About Kuro 2024 episode 6 : Ed's genius ability

(Companion post to this one)

I was looking forward to this episode and I'm so glad they kept Edward's pivotal moment...

...totally uncut. It's especially striking when a few other manga scenes didn't make it into the episode.

I know fans like to joke that Ed is too much of a good guy (and also gay), which is how he managed to reproduce Cheslock's cricket move, but that's not it :

Like Liz, Ed is a genius, even if he doesn't realize it yet. And I'm glad that Editor K commented on this anime bit with this :

"There's one person in all boys' manga who has the ability to copy. This special skill is explained in the cricket episode, but in other words, Edward has the potential to become super strong in battle"

(by google translate)

According to Yana, Ed takes after Frances who takes after her dad, Cedric K. Ros--, so this means Ed takes after Cedric as well.

But according to several fans, including me, there is a good probability that Cedric K. Ros-- is one of the Undertaker's many identities over his existence and he's currently the strongest character of the series, who put even Seb in difficulty twice.

According to Editor K above, Ed's ability makes him likely to become super strong in battle (by the way, it's also an ability that allowed him to put on a flawless leader of a boys' band act, just like UT acted perfectly as Weston's principal, just saying).

I think we don't need more to put 2 and 2 together : Ed is going to be a very important ally on our!Ciel's side against real!Ciel's.

[abybweisse]

Do you think UT would truly allow any harm to come to Our!Ciel? And do you think he cares for him at all? He appears to be actively working against him in the story currently alongside Real!Ciel, and Our!Ciel is working to shut down his bizarre doll operations. But, at the end of the day he is still a member of the Phantomhive family, and Vincent’s son, no less. The contrast between his dedication to the Phantomhive family and his constant conflict with Our!Ciel makes me question what his real end goal here is. What do you think it is?

Undertaker's feelings and plans

1. He might allow it. Depending on how you define "harm"... he might even plan on doing some, though I don't think he would see it as harm.

2. Yes, I do think he cares about our earl. It's just that his methods for trying to save the remaining Phantomhives are highly questionable. Undertaker seems to be losing touch with reality, in some ways, probably due to some interruption or halt in his grieving process... which is rather ironic, given his choice of profession as an undertaker.

3. There are many ways this could go, but the way he sees the twins as essentially the same -- it doesn't matter too much to him which is which -- he might think it's perfectly reasonable to combine them and make them "one", as if he's putting two halves together to make a whole. Our earl has a soul, but his body is sort of weak from recurring bouts of asthma. Real Ciel would have a strong body (once Undertaker perfects his reanimating techniques), but he no longer has a soul. Combining our earl's soul with real Ciel's body might strike him as some sort of perfection. The Ultimate Bizarre Doll -- or Ultimate Doll -- if you will. This would, in his mind, have the added bonus of removing our earl's soul from a body that's marked with a demon contract. He might think that doing this would make the contract null and void. I don't think it would work as well as he would hope....

[princessbutler1316]

First: HOLY SHIT! MOTHERFUCKERS!

Second

Do you guys noticed that on BOC OP...they are fighting in CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME????

I have proof

The gargoyles that Beast destroyed with her whip

The outside

And the last, the Stained glass

THEY HAVE THE SAME PATTERN OF ROSACEA

If you noticed this, great, I feel kind of stupid for not noticing it sooner. BUT WAIT THAT'S MORE...

This whole thing IS A FUCKING DAMN ASS FORESHADOW

Keep in mind that BOC was realease in July of 2014 and chapter 105 is from May of 2015

And where is Notre Dame?

EXACTLY FRANCE...

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE

Notice the bottom part of one of the stained glass windows of Notre Dame

SEEMS FAMILIAR?

Anyway, this probably means that we are going to France again (like season 1 ENDING but hopefully with much less drama and unnecessary history), but MOTHER YANA IS HITTING SOMETHING....and I'm afraid

[amethystroselily]

You know what, if Undertaker is Vincent’s father, Tanaka knows, and Undertaker knows he knows. But also Tanaka minds his own business and Undertaker is strangely defensive about personal information for someone who keeps monologuing, so perhaps they will never have an actual conversation about it.

In that case I hope Tanaka was also sleeping with Claudia. I think it would really add an edge to whatever the fuck is going on between Tanaka and Undertaker. And it would be really funny. To me. I hope Tanaka gets his “you are not the father” moment. But he’s the one who ends up raising the kids anyway bc of his position as a servant, and Undertaker is jealous.

[zetsubo-bani]

If yana held another vote someday, which character would you vote as your favourite? I might try to draw the new "potential devil 6"

This is all I could fit

[dqrkncss666]

Black Butler Season 4 opening analysis (bear with me)

So, as we all know Otoha (we love Otoha) has made the new opening for Black Butler S4. This in case you missed it 0-o

A wonderful opening. SADLY WITH A LOT OF EASTER EGGS. ON TODAY'S EPISODE OF DORA ON CRACK WE WILL DISCUSS THE EASTER EGGS I FOUND.

TRUST ME. THIS IS WORTH READING.

So starting from the beginning and also linking the translated ENGLISH LYRICS of this song from this video:

We will start the analysis (Photos will be provided at the BIG EASTER EGGS while time stamps in both.)

SPOILER WARNING FROM MANGA DO NOT APPROACH IF NOT READ !!!!!!!!!!

So at time stamp 0:17 in the official intro, we have Bizzare doll bandages (Oh wow I am so smart).

At time stamp 0:25 in the official intro, near the shattered glass of Bluewer we see Claudia's P. locket AGAIN.

At 0:28 in the Of. In. we have Sebastian covering Ciel with his cape resembling the darkness that 'ate him' (haha ya get it) when he made the contract

At 0:33 we have a very old and dry 'Tree of Life' ew XD

At 0:36 for people that didn't notice behind Ciel, it's the Headmaster/ Undertaker.

NOW. at the time stamp 0:41 till 0:43 IF YOU PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE GLASS REFLECTION BEHIND THE OBVIOUS PEOPLE YOU CAN SEE REAL CIEL HOLDING IT. I KNOW THIS IS SHOCKING BUT ONCE YOU SEE IT'S AMAZING.

At time stamp 1:03, Black butler became Attack on Titan XD

NOW. At time stamp 1:06 we see this

This is followed by the lyrics from the video I linked:

This is Undertaker speaking and the silhouette we see is Claudia P. I came to this conclusion because of the scene in Book of Circus that Undertaker holds her locket THIS SCENE

And has a monologue of the warnings he has given. HERE COMES THE LYRICS OF THE INTRO: ' EVEN THE FEELINGS OF CURSING SOMEONE ARE TAKEN IN LIKE AN OFFERING' It fits perfectly.

9. At time stamp 1:11 we see Ciel... OR IS IT. That is in fact REAL CIEL.

This is based again on the lyrics of the video I linked which are these:

It speaks for itself. ITS THE REAL CIEL AND NEXT TO HIM IS NOT SEBASTIAN BUT UNDERTAKER IN HIS CLOAK.

10. At time stamp 1:12 we see the lockets again (Undertaker)

11. At time stamp 1:24 we see the witch arc forest and the dead bodies that were thrown in there.

Possibly speed run to a Season 5 and 6 0-0???????? Green Witch arc and Blue Star??

I will finish this one here but I am not done with the full song of Otoha that I will probably reblog here tomorrow as it has more Easter eggs concerning some characters.

Bye-bye for nowwww XXXXXX

[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:)

[gojossugarcandy]

I don't know why I get the feeling that undertaker is one of the Phantomhive's descendent.

Like, there is some relationship between Claudia Phantomhive, Ciel's (and his unnamed twin brother who plays the protagonist all along) grandmother, and undertaker which is like marriage or like undertaker is a member of Phantomhive family or something?

Because he protected Ciel from burning and is like ruining the whole world's dead people and killing living people just to find a way to make the real Ciel live.

Another reason is because it was once said that Shinigami-s were also humans, but they committed a suicide and as a punishment had to collect others souls and witness death until the punishment was over.

Also, in one of the side stories, he cries while seeing Vincent Phantomhive's photo, Ciel and the protagonist's father.

And, please clear this doubt of mine

Is the Blue Revenge Arc, the final arc of black butler?

Because the series is going on since 2006, and it is already like 18 years.

[liusia-piu]

[crystaliskandar]

As an anime only I'm calling it here and now...

The headmaster is, in fact, The Undertaker.

[midnight-in-town]

Frances Midford : The Mentor, a summary

To follow with my post about fighting against misinformation, here’s a first topic. 

Ciel’s remaining aunt is often viewed by the fandom as a mean lady who doesn’t care, because of a) all the mysteries around the family that Ciel doesn’t know about and b) the use of comic relief in Kuroshitsuji often used to hide some relevant clues, as previously demonstrated in this post. This is actually far from what her character really is about and I intend to demonstrate it now with a (long) recap post. 

I have talked about Frances a lot in the past, about her caring about our!Ciel and about her possibly knowing, like Tanaka, that he was lying about his identity. While the former is undeniably true, the latter is still up for debate. [X][X][X][X] However, with the upcoming adaptation of the Weston arc (probably) in 2024, I don’t want the old discourse to come back, so without further ado...

What Yana has said about Frances’ character

Besides our!Ciel, Frances is the last remaining Phantomhive (not counting real!Ciel as a BD). She’s Vincent’s younger sister, they both have the same parents (that is to say Claudia P and Cedric K. Ros) and she married out of the family (implying that maybe the Phantomhives have distant relatives still alive), becoming Lady Midford. 

According to Yana, Frances takes after their dad while Vincent takes after their mom and the same is true for her kids, meaning Ed takes after her (thus takes after his maternal grandfather) while Liz takes after Alexis. 

As far as her relationship with our!Ciel is concerned, here’s what Yana said in the guidebook : “Frances' strength of character is why Sebastian chose her as a role model Ciel should follow”. Since her relationship with Lizzie is sometimes also viewed negatively, I’d like to add that both in the guidebook and on twitter, Yana said that “Liz thinks her mom is kind and strong so she looks up to her mom as a role model she aspires to become”, hence the similar hair style.

TL;DR Yana’s overall description of Frances is that a) she’s kind and strong which is why b) she’s Lizzie’s role model, as well as the role model Sebastian thinks our!Ciel should follow.

Now that this is established, here’s what the canon story gives us, to illustrate Yana’s words. Spoilers for the entire manga series and long read below the cut.

Frances’ introduction

Frances is introduced in ch14 and, boy, what a generally misunderstood chapter by some parts of the fandom. xDD

Contextually, ch14 is Ciel’s birthday, meaning it is also the anniversary of the massacre of the previous household and Madam Red just died, after trying to kill him. For those who might wonder, the guidebook confirmed that our!Ciel was quite saddened by Ann’s death (obviously), so really, what a fun 13th birthday in perspective. Cue Liz and Frances. 

The comments on her strength aside, Frances’ introduction is otherwise often misread as her nagging being inappropriate but I beg to differ. As mentioned by @akumadeenglish​ and @chibimyumi​, Yana is Japanese author who likes to explore writing tropes in depth. Though it’s also important to remember that, before the curry arc, Yana didn’t know how long the series would run so everything had less intent, because the story was initially supposed to end quickly.

In other words, Frances’ introduction really is initially to be read as the severe mother-in-law (based on Japanese comical stereotypes) coming to check on how he handles his household, which is why Seb is so stressed out when everything goes bonkers. But that’s only the surface. 

Most importantly though, Frances showed up because it is Ciel’s birthday and, as said above, there’s a lot of negative and dreadful memories associated with this day. So...

...let’s change his mind, shall we? 

Phantomhives love games and Frances is a Phantomhive too, the last one besides our!Ciel, so she knows her nephew and chooses an activity she knew he wouldn’t be able to resist. 

Ch14 also introduces two important facts that are still relevant as plot points, especially as far as the Blue Revenge arc is concerned. The first one is that our!Ciel protected Lizzie from that bear, so Frances said she owes him. 

Secondly, as stated by Frances herself, she knows the ropes of the “game” (aka acting as the Watchdog) better than our!Ciel (”you’ve still got a decade to go before you can even think of winning against me”). 

In fact, like our!Ciel with real!Ciel, Frances was probably raised as Vincent’s spare [X][X], but compared to our!Ciel who knew next to nothing about his father’s real job until 3 years ago (at the time of ch14), Frances is an experienced veteran...

And that’s why Seb chose her as a role model for our!Ciel.

Therefore it is my opinion that ch14, despite being written back when Sensei didn’t know how long the series would be published, is still relevant as heck when it comes to Frances’ role in the series, aka acting as a mentor for our!Ciel (and for Lizzie, as Yana also stated). Kuroshitsuji is a slow story though, with a lot of build up and it’s why some fans still fail to see how significant Frances is to the plot and to our!Ciel’s development. 

Campania arc

Liz is the one who comes to ask our!Ciel to come with her whole family (thus introducing Alexis and Edward) on a cruise, but it’s also very important to note that she conveyed that Frances thought that our!Ciel should take time off of work:

This led some of us fans to theorize that maybe Tanaka used to send updates to Frances about our!Ciel’s wellbeing and how he fared as the Watchdog: the timing of the cruise works well with Frances’ remark, considering that the Queen just sent Charles Grey as a merry punishment for Ciel’s deeds during the Circus arc. 

This arc mostly highlights Frances’ bravery and strength : she didn’t hesitate to fight for countless of passengers unrelated to her (something that UT said isn’t very typical of Phantomhives, during Weston)...

More importantly, we finally get into Lizzie’s personal motivations and we indeed have the confirmation that...

...Frances is a big key to Lizzie’s strength, confirming the role model/mentor position that she holds in Lizzie’s eyes. I’d like to also point out that Frances completely trusts in her daughter’s abilities, which highlights a very positive mother/daughter dynamic.

Lizzie’s flashback gives us this very important bit...

...a part that’s unfortunately often overlooked by the fans complaining that Frances is too severe with our!Ciel and Lizzie. This scene however makes way more sense once we find out, after the Weston arc, that Frances lost her mother Claudia (the Watchdog before Vincent) when she was probably about 12 or 13 years old (Vincent being 15 years old then). 

To me, this is a big explanation as to why Frances is as serious about training as she is:

Indeed, she lost at least her mom (and later her brother) so, since her daughter is betrothed to the future Watchdog, she wants Liz to be strong enough to survive. All I see in the former panel is a mother saddened by the burden on her child’s shoulder and desperate to imagine that she will be exposed to a lot of danger as an adult. 

Side point there, but it’s likely there’s a very relevant reason Frances’ only daughter was betrothed to Vincent’s heir when they were young kids. We’ll dive into it later, but I believe the answer is tied to the Phantomhive lineage introduced in ch103. 

Lastly, our!Ciel’s flashback also gave us another important bit to explore...

...which is that our!Ciel directly applies what Frances once told him to his current path for revenge: 

Also note the allusion again to Vincent “losing the game”, creating a parallel with Frances telling our!Ciel in ch14 that “he still has a decade to go before he can even think of winning against her”, because he has a lot to learn from her, especially since even he admits that he knows next to nothing about his own family.

The previous spare teaching the spare. How fitting. :D

Weston arc

Even if Frances only appears in this arc during the cricket game, I think there is a lot to be deduced from it. First, I’ve said it long ago and I’ll say it again: I strongly believe Frances played a part into Vincent’s victory during the first blue miracle.

Mind you, Tanaka basically confirmed that Vincent cheated to win (since he knew what Seb and Ciel were up to) and I could totally see Vincent asking his strong little sister to crossdress in order to destroy the Green team. xDD Besides, she certainly seems uneasy whenever the topic is brought up and she also wasn’t fooled by Ciel’s act when he won, haha!

This is silly, but this shows (imo) that Frances and Vincent had a good sibling dynamic, with Frances supporting her brother as the Watchdog as much as she could, which is heartwarming because this means Frances would have no reason not to support her brother’s sons after his death. 

Tanaka (who, according to Yana, was already in the household taking care of Vincent and Frances as children) and Frances happily dancing together at the end of the tournament also confirms this. Vincent and Frances having a strong sibling bond would also explain why, despite Claudia’s death, Frances would agree to the betrothal between Lizzie and Vincent’s heir (and would keep it that way, even after Vincent’s death).

All that to say, I’m sure the cricket game confirmed to Frances how similar our!Ciel is to Vincent on some aspects (the second blue miracle attests to that), which probably makes him somewhat predictable (and reassuring?) to her.

One thing that I also believe is important is Ed’s mini flashback during the game. On this topic, Yana has said that she couldn’t draw his backstory in detail, so she’ll probably expand on that in the future, which makes me think that there is some foreshadowing in there. 

TBH I think it’s ironic that Ed would consider himself as “ordinary”, considering the whole lineage thing introduced one arc later. xDD But also, if we consider that the tale of Vincent’s first blue miracle is supposed to hint that Vincent and Frances were close as siblings, it’s nice that Ed, who takes after his mom the most, would also have his own flashback about loving and looking up to his sister a lot, despite his small inferiority complex. Considering that Liz sees their mom as her role model though, I guess that means Ed also sees his mom as a role model (though the Campania arc already made that pretty clear). 

During the Weston arc, Frances also managed to surprise Sebastian, both by recognizing him (lol) and by stopping him despite his intent to leave, which is, according to the demon himself, no small feat: 

Like the usual nagging she does towards Seb though, it’s played for laugh, but as introduced in this post, I believe overused comic relief is a way to foreshadow some hints and we’ll dive into it with the next arc. 

Last but not least, during this arc UT commented that our!Ciel was different from his ancestors when he willingly put himself in danger to save Joanne...

...but as presented during the Campania arc, it seems it’s a trait he shares at least with his aunt, furthering the parallels between them and the fact that she would definitely make a good mentor for our!Ciel, because they’re quite alike and can probably understand each other. 

Green Witch arc

The only relevant part of this arc with Frances’ character is the introduction of a special lineage in the Phantomhive family by German Shinigamis...

...something that might explain why our!Ciel was able to notice them, when even Seb didn’t. So this begs the question: who else in his family shares this lineage? And obviously, Frances and her kids might !

My personal opinion is that the lineage thing is old and is probably why the Phantomhive family became the Watchdogs, many generations ago. But also, if our!Ciel can notice Shinigamis thanks to it, could it explain why Frances was able to detect and catch Seb during opening ceremony before the cricket game at Weston? And why she always nags him about his appearance (both hair and face)? That remains to be confirmed, but...

...at the very least Bravat in the recent arc confirmed that some gifted people like himself can “sense” that demons are different. Just like animals [x][x], apparently. Bravat is irrelevant besides being a small scale villain though, so I take it as a hint for a more plot significant character, such as Frances, whose nagging behavior towards Seb is way too overused as comic relief anyway. 

The lineage thing is yet one more family topic on which Frances probably has answers to give to our!Ciel (the only other people who might know about it being Tanaka and UT). 

Bonus : if what Vincent said below about strong-willed women in the family line (from a side story “With Father”) is a hint towards the lineage thing...

...then it’s probably why Vincent wanted Lizzie to be betrothed to his heir in the first place and why Frances agreed. 

Blue sect & blue revenge arcs

I already mentioned that Bravat’s innate ability to recognize Seb as a demon was a hint that other characters, like Frances, might be able to guess that Seb is a demon as well, so moving on to ch151 :

This chapter confirms that UT has known Frances since she was very young (which is a hint to the UT = Cedric theory of course), which also explains why, knowing about her strength, UT went on with the whole BD massacre on the Campania despite the presence of our!Ciel and the Midfords on board. 

Also, while this chapter neither confirms nor denies if Frances knew about our!Ciel lying about his identity (like Tanaka and UT did), she didn’t show anger nor disbelief about the situation, just her incomprehension.  

More than anything, this chapter strongly hints that our!Ciel will at some point seek his aunt for a talk before the final confrontation with UT and real!Ciel, because both are seeking answers to their different questions (our!Ciel needs to find out about UT & his grandmother and the lineage thing, while Frances will want to know what’s the deal between the twins). Speaking of which, a talk between Lizzie and Frances is probably also in order, before Lizzie can choose our!Ciel’s side again.

Lastly, ch151 hinted that Frances doesn’t fully believe that real!Ciel’s return is “natural”...

...and, i mean, why would she? She faced the Bizarre Dolls on the Campania and, for all we know, Edward told her how the Weston arc ended so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ considering that UT has been involved every time, the Midfords probably aren’t far from connecting the dots about real!Ciel being already dead. 

To sum up !

Outside of the narrative, Yana said that Frances was Lizzie’s role model and that Seb also wanted her to be the model our!Ciel should follow. And, in my opinion, the entire series so far (as I tried to present in this post) is slowly building up to that because :

our!Ciel and Frances are very similar: both the spares & both survived their parents’ and brothers’ death 

both saved folks unrelated to them despite being Phantomhives, meaning that they are a bit alike and can understand each other

our!Ciel literally built his path of revenge following the advice Frances told him about how to counterattack an opponent

Again, to understand who targeted his family, our!Ciel needs to find out about his grandmother, about the lineage and about why his dad had to be killed amongst other things. The only people who can answer him are UT, Tanaka and Frances. 

I believe UT and Tanaka are more connected to Claudia, but also both are by real!Ciel’s side for now, making them less accessible for a talk. This leaves Frances for the time being and, as Vincent’s sister and Claudia’s daughter, it seems appropriate that answers would be coming from her. 

Also, in shonen series, usually the hero(es) have a mentor figure who will help them “unlock their potential” through training. Kuroshitsuji is not your usual shonen and I doubt our!Ciel can become better at fighting lmao, but Frances can certainly help him better appreciate the massive scale he’s bound to face when seeking his revenge. Especially if it all goes back to events from 3 generations ago and a worldbuilding full of supernatural elements, as well as a world war he doesn’t entirely comprehend yet. 

Frances acting as a mentor/role model for her own kids also foreshadows that they’ll follow our!Ciel on his journey and, like him, they’ll definitely need her wisdom/knowledge to be able to reach the necessary level for survival by his side.

As to when all that is going to happen, well, I’d say Frances will probably take on a more active role in the plot when, to quote Seb in ch14, "[our!Ciel] will overconfidently believe that he cannot lose and that it will be necessary for him to carry himself with humility while striving for his goal". Because by then, "an adult who will be firm with him is what he'll need". 

If that doesn’t foreshadow the current conflict between the twins, I don’t know what does. xD

Thanks for reading!! As always, let me know if I’ve forgotten anything !

[abybweisse]

The fire, revisited

I have a crack theory that might not be too cracky.

Previously, I'd thought the fire at Phantomhive Manor was started by either the attackers (and/or John Brown) or by Tanaka (on Vincent's standing orders, in case something like this happened to him).

Well, I'd be surprised if Tanaka somehow managed to do that, considering he'd fallen from that stab wound to the back. Either John Brown or the other attackers on his/the queen's orders is still a good possibility. Particularly since I expect that John and the queen already know by then that Undertaker is a reaper.

But there's another possibility I'd never really talked about before: the reapers who came to collect all those souls. I was thinking of this during discussions about ch209, because this new reaper states there're no additional comments to make about Snake's death, even though he's in a space underground where there are body parts stored, blood transfusion equipment, and a bizarre doll who is actually Snake's killer.

You'd think he'd at least mention the odd circumstances of Snake's death, especially when there's a hunt for Undertaker and his latest bizarre dolls. I don't think this reaper is completely oblivious to what's going on; it seems to me he might be trying to actively cover up what's happening, so he's not including such details in the official documentation. It could be for selfish reasons (to avoid overtime), or it could be based on special orders he's been given.

I say that because for a long time, the reapers weren't talking about Undertaker, and Grelle didn't even know about Undertaker's past as 136649. Othello knows because he was there and he was trained with 136649. But if he's a "fugitive of legend", why aren't reapers like Grelle and Ronald aware of his history? William has been at least somewhat aware of him for a while... but he's in management. The "superiors" are finally getting reapers in collections involved with this ongoing case against Undertaker, and I suspect it's only out of necessity. If they could, they would keep the vast majority of the reapers in the dark about this deserter.

Because they consider him to be that much of a threat to their organization. For quite some time, I've thought he knows something (bad) about the organization itself, and if he spread that knowledge around to the reaper masses, there could be an uprising. We've seen it with the maids turning against Heathfield, Ada and the patients turning against the Aurora Society, and now with the top students against the orphanage. When people realize they are being controlled and harmed for someone else's benefit, they tend to rise up, and I think that's what could happen if enough of the reapers learn whatever Undertaker knows.

The "superiors" finally got serious about it, according to Othello, when they sent him from his lab to the human realm. They seem to have hoped he could make this problem go away by talking to the deserter, destroying him, or capturing him. But once Othello realized it really was him, of all reapers, he knew he couldn't handle the situation on his own... and that he and Grelle wouldn't be enough, either. That's why he sent the dove for backup.

But I think someone else in the reaper organization already knew Undertaker was involved and tried to stop him without properly documenting anything -- they tried to cover up his activities. The night of the attack, one or two reapers were sent to collect souls from the dying, as per usual. While looking through their cinematic records, the reapers saw occasional instances of Undertaker showing up in them, but the most instances would have been in Vincent's records.

Vincent's records would have had extensive chunks of memories involving Undertaker, and the information in those records (things they said to each other) could have been damning somehow. To the organization, at least. What if Undertaker admitted to being Vincent's father? What if he told Vincent secrets he knew about the reaper organization? What if he mentioned the experiments he'd already been conducting on cinematic records and corpses?

Any reaper reviewing such records might think the best thing to do is destroy all this evidence, which might hopefully destroy the information, too. Why would a reaper destroy evidence about the organization's activities, if that information could help spawn a revolution? Too much of a hassle? Doesn't understand the full implications? On someone else's orders? Perhaps the reapers sent to collect these souls were specifically told to burn Vincent's body and the manor, and those reapers did as they were told, regardless of the circumstances. I wonder what happened to any reaper who saw whatever they saw in those cinematic records.... 🤔

Whoever ordered the fire to be started, or whoever decided to start it... they did so to destroy evidence.

As well as to keep Undertaker from collecting Vincent's body and cinematic records. Because whoever this person is, they know Undertaker would have found those things useful. And they didn't want him to have access.

The end result is pretty much the same, except that now I think reapers might have actually done it, instead of attackers/John or Tanaka.

[delusinaldreamer19]

I’m tired and should really go to sleep but I can’t stop thinking about back butler.

[alexisyoko]

Analysis, theories, thoughts :

(I'll add more)

Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji) :

Black Butler Facts People Rarely Talk About

Who is Undertaker?

What happened to the shinigamis?

Grell as trans representation (a trans guy's opinion)

How Grell and William deal with their problems

Something concerning about Grell and my theory about Charles Grey

William and what his pigeons may symbolize

Does Lizzy know Sebastian is a demon? (and other Black Butler theories)

Seeing the humanity in Sebastian Michaelis

Ludger is amazing and underrated

This made me love William even more!

No, Grell is NOT a predator! (defending Grell)

Analyzing Grell's sexual and romantic behavior

William is one of the first people to respect Grell's identity (my headcanon)

Is Undertaker good or evil?

Outlast 2 :

Analyzing the character of Val

Fear and Huger :

Defending Enki the misanthrope

[phxntomhives]

I'm resurrecting from the dead

Did you get the joke? No? Ok

Small analysis of this pic

But I'd like to remind you I am no expert on the topic, it's just my 2 cent lol

End of S4 spoilers + manga spoilers under the cut

I am quite confident this is dedicated to the midnight tea party of the anime right now. His identity has been revealed so what better way to celebrate than such a wonderful art?

The first thing I personally noted is the pose. Our dear yandere pose (I got Yuno war fleshbacks ngl) The smile, the hands, that eye. He has the full pack. We can all agree he goes a little insane when we talk about the Phantomhive... but yandere? I wouldn't say so (at least not yet, tho he may be on the correct road to become it). I guess he is dancing on the line between sanity and insanity and this is just the result of it.

Someone already said the liquid that is falling is tea. But I am also very much reminded of blood when looking at that color (and knowing his story, it also fits). Thought it may be just me. I would also like to point out how the tea is not just spilling over from the teapots, they are breaking. And Undertaker is just staring at the scene with insanity.

I am also going insane about all the hands: there is a right hand holding the sugar bowl. Then there is another right hand, holding a teacup which is also crumbling down. But that teacup is being "filled" of tea, that is dropping from above. Then there is also a left hand on the top, holding the teapot's handle (that is now detached from the main body). And there is a fourth hand, holding the dessert. So, here is my idea: the three hands that are holding the tea set represent 3 of the prefects: if I were to take a guess from here I would say that the broken teapot could be Herman Greenhill (the most broken one since he likely feels worst about the situation since he technically started everything). Then the sugar bowl could be Lawrence Bluewer: it is just being destroyed and has no power in the situation. The broken teacup is Edgar Redmond: he tried to hold it together but in the end he still lost control over the situation. Let me first go to the dessert now, I'll go to the other hand in a second.

The dessert. Listen, I am no expert in those but I know a strawberry when I see one. And I believe that is very much R!Ciel's favourite snack a strawberry cake. So listen, if we can discuss that the hand holding the teacup could be X or Y, here I am quite confident it is just R!Ciel. Not to mention that Undertaker is technically staring at him with the yandere look so it would make sense: he would be staring a Phantomhive AND an almost perfect Bizzare Doll he has created. I would go yandere too ngl. The dessert is being "watered" by the tea, which if I am correct and it does also symbolize blood, it could represent the idea/the begin of the blood transfution to keep R!Ciel alive. AND the dessert is being held by the last hand. Who were we missing of the P4 again? Violet. And who has casually the same blood type of R!Ciel? Violet. So I think this is him.

One last thing I noticed of the hands is that three of them are "in the dark" (both at the top and left one at the bottom: Lawrence, Greenhill and Redmond), while the one in the bottom right (Violet) is a little more illuminated than the others. Does this confirm/imply that Violet does already know a little more than the others? I'll let you make a decision I feel it may be just the light and I am becoming paranoid.

I absolutely LOVE how the background is the midnight flower glowing. It gives such a nice contrast in the picture. It also helps in making undertaker look even more ominous lolol. It's so bright and maybe it stands for everything pure you can think of. But Undertaker has turned his back to that light and is just enjoying the chaos. I am trying to find more stuff about the flower and its meaning let's see if I find something eheh

That is all thanks for bearing with me lol.

On a side note: did he always had that ring "tattoo" on his pinky? I am blind ✨✨

(I may check later for grammar mistaker I am tired now)

[dqrkncss666]

Challenge for Queen Victoria.

Go up to Undertaker UNARMED and ask him to co-operate 😁.

Let's see how that goes.