#chapter 216

[butlerology]

YOUR HONOUR PLEASE LET THEM YAOI

[cedric-k-rossignol]

[bezierballad]

[manga-meow]

[ceoandslutler]

Prospero & Ariel vs Ciel & Sebastian | Part 2 (Romance Edition)

What did the comparison in Chapter 216 really mean?

Please read Part 1 before this and Part 3 after.

What I love here is that Ciel does not deny he and Sebastian are akin to Prospero and Ariel but rather he expresses the fact he is troubled by the fact Sebastian has had a prior relationship with Modri Vladis (if that is true). He instead calls back to the end of the previous chapter where he had straight up said he is cleaning up after Sebastian's past affair. He's sort of rubbing the fact that he is doing something for Sebastian's sake in his face. Anyway, the relationship between Prospero and Ariel is not explicitly* romantic or parental. But it is fascinating.

*Well... I'll get to that.

In the final act, Prospero regards letting go of Ariel as setting them free but also calls them very fondly. He does so multiple times in this scene.

Kuroshitsuji calls The Tempest a romance. The main plot of this Shakespearean story is not romance. In fact, it is more of a tragicomedy than anything. The side plot however is a romance. Miranda, Prospero's daughter, and Ferdinand, Prince of Naples, develop a romance and end up together. But these two characters are quite obviously foils for Prospero and Ariel whose relationship is trapped in the mould of master and servant; while Miranda, despite ending up at Ferdinand's wife, says she is willing to be his servant if he does not take her as his wife.

Miranda, unlike the inherently tragic relationship between Ariel and Prospero that remains secret and ends with separation, ends up marrying her love Ferdinand, rather than ending up his servant. But, despite this, she still treats Ferdinand as a master even as they play chess and she accuses him of cheating, calling him 'Sweet Lord' (Ariel also calls Prospero 'my lord') and claiming she does not care if he cheats and takes over the world. Sebastian is also shown as Miranda in the chapter cover.

Her attitude of servitude in their game of chess is rather familiar. It echoes the way Sebastian and Ciel engage in chess, Ciel breaks the rules and cheats while Sebastian supports him wholeheartedly. In Prospero and Ariel's case, Prospero too is cheating against his enemies using Ariel.

Not much more to say. I'll leave you all with this.

Very cute of a comparison, considering these two were... romantically charged. To say the least.

"Do you love me, master, no?" (Act 3, Scene 1) / Ariel claims Prospero is tender, causing him to forgive his brother (Act 5, Scene 1) / Ariel dresses Prospero and after being given an order, says he will return before Prospero's heart beats twice (Act 5, Scene 1)

Highly recommend reading this and how Ariel's one-sided love changed Prospero.

It is Ariel's very love that makes possible Prospero's forgiveness, his return to the fullness of his humanity. In her love for him, for his humanity that she alone can fully perceive, Ariel becomes the protagonist of forgiveness. Prospero, through this love that comes as total gift, completes Ariel's lines. Ariel's love converts, opening up Prospero to the value of "virtue" above vengeance. The ease through which Prospero forgives is not itself the result of magic. It is instead the power of Ariel's love, which was forming Prospero throughout the play, that makes possible a return gift of love upon the part of Prospero. In this sense, perhaps The Tempest is actually Shakespeare's greatest love story. It reveals a love, which cannot be consummated (for a spirit cannot unite with body), that nonetheless makes possible the "comedy" of The Tempest. It is a love that opens up Prospero to a world of values, which only slowly (throughout the play) become his own. Such love ironically is offered by a non-human character, who nonetheless humanizes the protagonist. The genius of Shakespeare's comedies (and The Tempest is at least kind of one of these) for the Christian is that it opens us up to the manner in which love humanizes the world. It manifests to us in dramatic form what happens when a kind of "divine" love leads to conversion. — Timothy P. O’Malley, August 30, 2016

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

S comparing himself to the sprite Ariel—who has been performed by male and female actors onstage depending on the uses (temperament/dramatic tone) of the theatre creative team, and whose gender is not defined, though Shakespeare wrote the male pronouns two times on the play (perhaps due to women were not allowed to perform onstage in the 16th century)—is very interesting to me. Yana T is up to something. Once again using literary and cinematic pairs to tell us what is on her mind concerning her two protagonists.

Like what Sherlock Holmes says, “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

Ariel is longing for his freedom. And when Prospero granted it, he lauded his master for honoring it.

I wonder if Yana T is using “The Tempest” as a hint on how she’ll proceed with her narrative.

[lizziela]

They are so sassy... I love them!!!

[sebadztian]

Okay, now that I've read chapter 216, I'm ready to share my thoughts.

Spoilers for Kuroshitsuji chapter 216.

Chapter 216: That Butler, Quarreling

We have 23 pages altogether (24 with the amazing cover).

First, let's talk about Vladis. There's no new information about him, except that he probably is not a Bizarre Doll. There was no sign of blood tranfusion equipment in his room, except for that IV stand. But I don't think that's a blood bag. Very difficult to guess in B&W.

What caught my attention was what the bellboy said, that Vladis shouldn't show any violence in the presence of 'ordinary guests'. Who could he mean by that? The passerbys? Or Sebastian & Ciel? I'm guessing the former because they clearly have expected Ciel to show up and he wasn't an ordinary guess. But more importantly, what made Vladis so special?

I think something very important really happened between Vladis and Sebastian, or at least, that's what he thinks.

There have been instances where a past lover would make a scene in public, but that doesn't usually happen with one night stand (unless the guy stole your stuff or sth).

The confrontation in the laat chapter and his apparent frustration in this chapter seem kind of overboard for a one night stand, imo. In fact, I don't think they had sex at all. It seems to be so much more important than just a hookup... but, until we'll find out what really happened, there's no way to tell. But I'm willing to bet that it has something to do with blood. Everything about this entire arc is blood-related.

We then go back to Ciel, and oh my god, Sebastian Michaelis! Don't you have any shame?! A group of people have just witnessed you having what must've been assumed to be a 'lovers quarrel' and Ciel even called you out on it.

And not five minutes later, you went to look for the ladies??

As pointed out by @lisyonokk Sebastian was suggesting for Ciel to have a listen to the ladies. I was too hasty to judge Sebastian. I'm sorry, sir.

And in the end, Ciel didn't get to drink his tea, though I suppose he did get some information from the ladies.

But Ciel is still so done...

Sebastian then went to have another lovers quarrel at the beach. Sir, I think you need to calm down...

I don't know why, but they both look hilarious in this panel...

(Ciel is SO DONE)

So they watched a performance and left halfway and Sebastian, of course, dug a deeper hole for himself by suggesting that Ciel go on the carousel. He must know that his boyfriend master was already annoyed, and yet, in his typical Sebastian fashion, he kept pushing and pushing...

(Another one of Ciel is SO DONE)

They finally left the area, but hold on... Someone's watching them!

And they look like those killers in Detective Conan manga!

Another mysterious figure... Could this be another one of Sebastian's past 'dalliances'?

If so, Sebastian is in a very, very big trouble. Forget the doghouse, the guy is in a 30 feet deep shithole. This is like, a guy's worst nightmare. Three lovers (2 past, 1 current) all in one place, all wanting to confront him.

Ciel is so done and Sebaatian is so dead.

[funtomrabbitt]

i hate them

[morteisshipping]

"In spite of your generosity, I have one more favor to ask of you." "Do speak." "Please stay the way you are. Don't change or disappear. Just be as you are now." 'Until I can stand with my own two feet' - the words halted on my tongue. I wasn't confident enough to say it out loud yet. Even if I'd been alone in this cruise ship, I'd still find it hard to gather my courage still. "If possible, don't die either." "Of course not." His response was casual, as if we're making plans for dinner.

[fan-of-everythingg]

Chapter 215-216 spoilers!!

In the new chapter, we learn nothing about Modri and Sebastian's relationship- but we get a new mysterious bald character. The character is shown in all black. Many people in the fandom think that this character is a character we know, Soma as an example. Those theories make more sense than mine, but i still want to share my theory :>

The character is all black and we think that it's because Yana doesn't want us to recognize them, but what if it is their- or more like its actual form? Or what if they are a character without a true form, like Sebastian?

In the Book of Atlantic, Undertaker stabs Sebastian and we see his cinematic record. But what if Undertaker saw more than that? What if he manipulated a creature with Sebastian's memories to use it against him? Such as the creature taking the form of Modri- Sebastian's potential situationship- to gain his trust.

Sebastian first says "You are..." as if he knows Modri, but if he realized that it is not Modri and said "Who are you again?"- That would make the creature confused.

"But he can't lie to O!Ciel! He said he doesn't know him!"

Yes but O!Ciel asked who this guy was, not who Modri was. And it wouldn't be unusual for Sebastian to not know who that creature was. We see Sebastian dodging telling truth many times.

In the first pages we saw "Modri" troubled. But what if it's just the creature being troubled because the plan didn't work? And what if they changed their form to spy Sebastian and O!Ciel?

And Sebastian might be avoiding them because he doesn't want to concern O!Ciel. Or maybe he doesn't see the mysterious bald guy as a threat

In short, i think Undertaker manipulated a creature to work for him to use them against Sebastian with his memories, the creature acted like Modri because it was a person Sebastian "trusted" and Sebastian noticed that they were not Modri and decided to act like he doesn't remember Modri. The creature decided to take a different form because Sebastian "didn't recognize" Modri.

My native language isn't English and I know this doesn't make a lot of sense, I just had this idea. If you have questions please ask TvT

[cedric-k-rossignol]

[tinykuroshitsujipics]

[ceoandslutler]

Prospero & Ariel vs Ciel & Sebastian | Part 1

What did the comparison in Chapter 216 really mean?

Two things to get out of the way.

1. Unlike what it says on this page, The Tempest is not a romance, at least the only explicit romance (two characters getting together) is a side plot really and it's not between Prospero and Ariel. It's between Prospero's daughter, Miranda, and the Prince of Naples named Ferdinand.

2. Ciel uses feminine pronouns for Ariel and this is likely because at the time, female actresses played the role but the character's gender is dubious (this is intentional on Shakespeare's part, he uses various pronouns for them) and it is purposely hard to pinpoint and has changed throughout history depending on depictions. I highly recommend the paper below:

This ties Ariel in nicely with the other butler characters in the series, as shown:

Grelle is a trans woman and supernatural, Agni has the name of a God who is in a relationship with another God (Soma) and plays the receptive "feminine" role in this relationship and he is supernaturally strong...

Just in case anyone wants to read more on Agni.

..Wolfram is de-gendered by the narrative of the arc that introduced him (he was a person lacking a name/real identity and was sent to live amongst a village of women) and by Sieglinde, his master, (when Sebastian asks if he is a man, she compares him to an animal and doesn't seem to perceive him as male) and he is supernaturally strong. Sebastian is presented in both masculine and feminine ways/roles throughout the story and is a supernatural being and we do not know if he even has a sex or gender in his true form. All this to say: Ariel fits in the roster of supernatural servants with ambiguous identities / directly going against the norms of society.

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

Honestly, Modri Vladis doesn’t look so bad.

The fangs though. The fangs.

When the concierge, Rodney Hall, reprimanded him not to make a scene in front of the guests, it could only mean that what he does in the shadows is his own personal problem.

[mismatched-ideas]

Not totally sure how I feel about this week's chapter.

I'm just not a huge fan of Atari (like plot-wise. I think she's a fun, interesting character, but the luck stuff is just... I don't know.)

That said, really liked this:

This child has been through so much... Let him rest, Suzuki-sensei.