#we've seen Grell and Ronald

[elizaxspears]

UGH WHAT HE DOES TO THAT BRIEFCASE

I apologised already for the being I'd be come, so let me be. The third gif in particular...

It's the most mundane things that I love watching most about him.

Also I just really love his hands.

[crocthello]

DID WE GET ANY MORE INFO THROUGH THE LOREDROP ADAPTATION? (+ me being salty)  

I saw @marmalade-chainsaw's reblog and got inspired. Also I have many thoughts on the new episode (and they aren't all great).

(Obviously massive trigger warning for self-harm and suicide)

  Huge disclaimer: This entire post is written under the assumption that Yana Toboso has no explicit involvement in the Emerald Witch arc anime adaptation. She is listed on the official Cloverworks site as the original author only, and in no other source is it stated or implied that she has had any part in the adaptation itself (unlike Book of Circus for example, where she was very heavily involved). This means that any changes to the source material were decided on by the animation team and do not necessarily make their way into manga canon.

Which different people respect on different levels. For me personally the manga is gospel unless it disagrees with something from the anime i like (definitely not the story of Will the Reaper OVA) in which case I'll try and twist both to fit my vision! I am being very impartial and unbiased!

.

  I already stated that the short story is; we do not have any new information, and won't be getting any unless Yana blesses us with more lore drops or background on specific characters. But I want to go into detail and explain exactly why:

Yana as a mangaka is usually very deliberate about details. She loves her Easter eggs and foreshadowing (see: all of the twin ciel theory hints throughout the series). If she's put it there, it's probably there for a reason.

I joined the fandom right when ch. 105 came out, and the whole "who died how" debate was always going strong. I love reading everyone's unique theories on which frame corresponds to which shinigami.

What I remember being very popular was:

Sascha is the reaper who died by hanging, since it clearly has their frame and hair pictured. I think everyone can agree on this.

The one drowning was always a tie between the Undertaker and Grell. Someone in a post's replies (I'll find you) said that it can't be UT, since his hair was short during his trainee days. Which fair, but this is meant to show their deaths from when they were all still human. All trainee reapers we've seen so far had short hair, regardless of their human or fully-fledged shinigami hair, so this isn't a clear indicator of who it is. Maybe they do a military crop on new recruits or something???

The bottom right picture was always said to be Grell (although less popular, I have also seen an interesting theory of it being Ronald), but in my opinion it is often believed for the wrong reason. It would make sense if it was a means of showing us Grell's obsession with blood and red predating her afterlife (something which I completely agree with). However, I never thought that the nail colour is necessarily lacquer. It could be a stylistic choice, which would fit the way b/w contrast is used across the frame, so we can make out the hand, fingers and nails.

(btw at this stage I am going to kindly ask everyone to share their human shinigami headcanons with me. Who were they before. Why did they do It.)

So how did this change in the anime? Generally, we've all noticed this season's weird pacing (5 MINUTE RECAP?!?), and this entire episode has felt especially rushed because obviously they are running out of time. This didn't stop the animation team from taking several liberties in these past episodes, for example

Changing Cedric's death date in the previous episode

2. Making this scene really awkward and clunky (also isn't the unnecessary presentation of Grell as universally annoying kinda old and tired and dropped by Yana in all of Grell's recent manga chapters?)

Like why's he looking like that. This entire segment was awkwarddd

Couldn't have given her a bit of a frame?

No reason to change his lines like that

Also unnecessary. The anime is obsessed with putting that man's name in her mouth.

They took your beauty away babygirl

I think I am very biased so feel free to tell me I'm making a big deal out of nothing but the subtext and framing kind of changes the entire scene. I could write an ESSAY.

3. The seceder bit

Again, seemingly small changes change the characterisation and dynamic of the scene. "What makes them want to run" vs "Do they think they can escape" is a massive difference in how the Association is viewed by its employees and the way it operates. Workplace vs Prison/Cult. Clinical vs oppressive. Especially since resentment for the Association plays a role in the main antagonist's entire arc, I think that line was sort of important. But who knows? Perhaps it is all just a mistranslation?

And of course,

4. The infamous suicide loredrop panel

We can still make out that it's Sascha hanging themselves. The art in the anime is a little more three-dimensional, and there's no pesky text bubbles obscuring the scenes. But the nails? A very deliberate choice of the animators. Especially after that little bit of dialogue both in the manga and the anime where Grell once again is being very vocal about her love of red. However, knowing that the initial manga panel did not make that explicit in any way, and also being aware of the fact that Grell was most likely not out and/or even aware of her own identity up until the OVA, I doubt she was getting her nails done as a human. Don't ask me my thoughts on that unless you want me crying and spiralling.

Indeed, if you accept that Grell committed suicide by slitting her wrists, that makes UT the only person that fits the drowning panel in any capacity. However I do believe there's a chance that Yana is playing with our heads here; the panels could be metaphorical, a red herring, picturing completely random suicies (+Sascha) or even presenting the shinigami we already know in their human skins, which might not be what we expect. Their backgrounds are unknown to us and all we're working with is their personality now, the knowledge that they all once committed suicide, and the rest is pure conjecture.

So I guess this brings me to the conclusion that we really do not have any more information than we already did, and any tweaks on the side of the animator team could easily be just arbitrary. Personally, I am not a fan of how this was handled in the anime, and I like to be surprised by the media I am consuming, so I am content in making my silly little headcanons and waiting for yana to drop another hint. I don't know if any of all this meant something to anyone but thank you for reading through it.

[lady-lilly-gray]

Undertaker v. William T. Spears

Oh surprise theory coming to you!

Of the main Reapers we've met (Grelle, Ronald, Will, Othello) Will is the only one we have yet to see interact with Undertaker in-canon.

Why could that be?

What do we know about Will? He hates field work and problems that cause him to work overtime, for starters.

This means that, despite working in the "management" division, he has experience working in collections.

So I propose: William was the reaper in charge of the Phantomhive Manor Massacre

and the reason we haven't seen him interact with Undertaker yet is to build anticipation for a future fight between them, or one in the past.

Undertaker more than likely was present for the fire. His comment to Diedrich implies that he tried to retrieve Vincent and/or Rachel's body from the fire to turn them into Bizarre Dolls, as he was already working on the project at this point:

(I believe he started the project in an attempt to revive Claudia Phantomhive)

But what does he need to do make a Bizarre Doll? A Cinematic Record! This would also explain why the Undertaker made a point of taking his death scythe when deserting the dispatch—he need it to save the cinematic records for his experiments!

(I forget if it's manga-canon that records are stored inside death-scythes, but it is anime canon per Will the Reaper, which we all know Yana-san to be a fan of, and she's already brought the "training scythes" into manga-canon, so what's stopping this from being canon too? <3)

I'd be curious to know how management is viewed in relation to field work in the Reaper Dispatch—that lack of staffing implies it's hard to get into. Could William being made a manager been a demotion for failing to collect all the records from the fire?

I love the idea of Will having a personal grudge against Undertaker, and I would love to see the two of them have a face-off in the manga!

[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.

[teatitty]

i was never super into black butler but grell always confused me bcuz what she was like in the manga and what fandom said about her was so different (and also fandom was like? violent??? about her and i couldnt understand it) but now that youve been rereading it and ive just had grell casually on my dash but talked about w respect im like relieved. thank fuck people consider her as a character and not a caricature or a boogeyman

You're incredibly welcome anon and if it helps for the most part the fandom has gotten much better with how they treat and perceive her and sure you're still gonna get people who treat her as a cisman or as if she's just horny 24/7 when really she's just naturally quite flirtatious [and very much bisexual if you examine how she is with Madam Red] but those people are much fewer and far between than how it used to be...on tumblr at least

Her AO3 tag is...look just don't go on AO3 for this series in general unless you're reading works by an author you actually know because chances are most of it's gonna be Like That™️ and the less we talk about anime twitter the better which is always a fucking mess regardless

But anyway my re-read was very fun, I enjoyed reliving the things I didn't remember as well and getting to gush about a series with somewhat heavier themes than what I usually post about, and while I have finished said re-read now [I probably could've included more of Lau's moments especially during his and Bard's duo adventure but I was trying to avoid posting too many spoilers for later arcs] I am itching to possibly write my own Grell-centric and UnderGrell fics because they're my honeys ~~~~

The important thing to remember about Grell though is that while she is quite violent and flirtatious not to mention prone to rather comical angry outbursts [usually because she's impatient or someone has slighted her] she's also quite serious about her work, dislikes being given overtime, and also refuses to be scolded or put down by anyone she doesn't actually like and from what we've seen of the reapers thus far, the only one who really doesn't "get along" with her so to speak is William but he's a stick in the mud to everyone, every other reaper we've seen her interact with has been cordial to her if not outright incredibly friendly [Ronald and Othello] so we can assume she's actually pretty well liked among the dispatch and William is just an outlier

Sorry I know you didn't ask for my 3PM Grell Thoughts but I was waiting for an excuse to clarify those points about her character so thank you for being my sounding board hehe

[randomanimeandmangablog]

^^THIS.

Mostly it's other characters who refer to her as male. Ronald calls her Mr. Sutcliffe, and Will refers to her as "he/him."

And I get that because even if the shinigami are more progressive, the ones we've seen are from a culture and time period where trans people were not understood or accepted. It makes sense that they might not understand Grell.

However, she always refers to herself in feminine terms unless speaking specifically about her anatomy.

err yeah there’s plenty of manga evidence ☝️!! there’s much more to what i’ve listed but here’s the most obvious bits:

instances where grell refers to herself as a woman:

her transition goals!!

regrets of being born of the opposite sex:

and just says it herself

thank yewwwww! ^_^

the pictures are kind of trashy sorry! @midnights-prayer i really dont enjoy that the anime kind of portrayed her as a gay man. thats a woman.

[shinigamer-136649]

The Reapers' Backstories

I'm sure that most know that the reapers' backstories are HIGHLY anticipated (at least on here), but I've always wondered how that would come into play. And... I've had an idea, but I'm not sure how much I like it. I don't know if anyone has talked about this before (sorry if you have), but the way I think the reaper's backstories will be revealed is...

Cinematic Records.

Which obviously comes with some alarming prospects considering just how one is able to view these records (unless there is a library of them like in the anime) - by getting injured, or, to view the complete record, killed.

The reapers have already shown themselves to be heavily involved with the plot of Black Butler, whether it be the need to subdue the demon walking around with no consequences or the threat of the dispatch deserter running free and obscuring the line between life and death. There's no chance that they all get out of this unscathed with the desperate strings of the web of conflict ensnaring everyone.

Here's my drawing of part of said web in ms paint which I feel may have ruined the vibe of this post but it's fine

I'm also not sure why some of the reapers would, in the story, want / need to share their backstory. I could maybe see if Sascha were to share theirs, and Othello's and Undertaker's will likely be revealed, but why would people such as Grell, Ronald, or William share theirs? I don't think they're going to be going around sharing the details of their suicide to everyone unless the situation really demands it - or if their sharing is unwilling.

Black Butler is not light on violence, and there's not many characters unwilling to resort to it. Undertaker will do pretty much anything to protect the Phantomhives, one of whom just so happens to be a Bizarre Doll, who aren't exactly welcomed by the Shinigami. However, Sebastian also finds it his duty to fight the Undertaker and Real Ciel, making the reapers either a potential ally, or, as we've seen twice before, a nuisance.

Although they may be forced to team up (considering the only hit Undertaker has ever taken in the series was from Grell and Sebastian working together, and even that barely made contact), the reapers and Sebastian have shown a mutual distrust toward each other. Once they get rid of their prime threat, they're going to go after each other. And where does that leave us? Where we started, with reapers getting injured and records spilling, possibly even before Undertaker is defeated.

(Plus, I find it unlikely Undertaker is the main villain of the whole series. Maybe all three of these forces will have to align, or they might even need a god's power if their foe is an angel or other supernatural entity... but that's a post for another day.)

Essentially, we can safely assume that reapers are going to get injured, and since there have been some very entertaining "hooks" so to speak about their backstories (Chapter 105 Sascha my beloved)... I wouldn't be surprised if, in a few years, we're going to be in Book of Flashbacks part 2

Even the possibility of non-shinigami using death-scythes isn't out of the question - they don't seem to be only physically able to be used by reapers, since we've seen Sebastian and Layla wield them. In fact, speaking of Layla, in chapter 191, we see this:

Layla has a death-scythe, or at least something so similar to one that it shares the same properties. I wouldn't be surprised if this metal ends up more widely distributed over the course of the series - it provides a huge advantage to whoever has it.

In conclusion (listen what else am i supposed to say to finish this)

Reapers such as Will, Grell, and Ronald likely wouldn't have an in-story reason to share their backstories as this would likely be. not a good experience for them

However, we have gotten a few "hooks" dropped about them.

One way to put these into the story would be the Cinematic Records of the shinigami.

This makes sense because there is already a lot of conflict between Undertaker, Sebastian, and the reapers which will almost certainly lead to bloodshed at some point

We also know that death-scythes are becoming more widely distributed, so even if, say, the Undertaker is defeated by Sebastian and the reapers, it's not implausible that Sebastian could get his hands on a death scythe.

Not gonna lie I hope I'm wrong on this one I'm going to cry if any of the reapers end up dying.

[wingless-angel69]

To be honest, I think the Thorns of Death are related to Undertaker's scars (because let's face it, we've already seen another facial scar (azzuro vanel) and his looks nothing like Undertaker's) but I am not so sure on the Bizarre Dolls.

I kind of have a theory that his scars where marked before death, suicide attempts, to be specific. Or a tragic incident. Grell, Ronald, and/or William may have one or several hiding beneath their clothing. However, Undertaker's scars being the result of the Thorns of Death theory is more plausible.

[elizaxspears]

Hi ^^ since the William content craving is at an all time high, would you mind sharing any of your thoughts, expectations, theories or whatever comes to your mind about William? I'd be curious to know what other William fans have to say about him :3 If you feel like it, thank you in advance!

Hi! Oh the William contenet craving is very much at an all time high! You get me talking about William and I could go on for hours! As for the question itself, I've always had one theory about William having a bigger role to play near the end of the story.

I swear I'm trying not to be William bias with this but I've always felt he might, reluctantly, team up with the Phantomhive's to stop the Undertaker because part of me thinks he might be the only one who could win in a fight against him? From all we've seen so far, Undertaker is a force to be reckoned with but William also has a great advantage with his scythe being long range if he wanted it to be. Other then Season 2 (which I know, isn't canon) and a little bit of Book of Circus when he confronts Sebastian outside the tents, we've never really seem him fight. We don't know really what he's capable of.

The most recent example I can think of is his most recent appearnce when he gave a smack down to the Bizzare Doll and sort of showed off how strong he has the ability to be because really, we know nothing about William. I mean, sure, we know nothing about the other reaper's as well but we've at least seen what they're capable of. We haven't really seen that with William. He's around enough to make you remember him but he's absent enough that it's hard to get a good grasp on him too.

Part of me, for years now, always had it in my head that during the climax of Black Butler (which Yana's getting ready for, WHICH I AM NOT) that he'll play a lot bigger roll. Maybe that's just be hoping because he's my favourtie character, but I feel like he's the trump card. He's strong, he's got the reach with his scythe, he's fast, he's a combination of Sebastian, Grell and Ronald when it came to their fight with the Undertaker during Book of the Atlantic. Maybe he's not a good fighter, maybe he's the weakest of the reapers but we don't really know that because we've never seen him do much outside of Book of Circus or pop up here and there with Grell or to save Ronald (or both of them).

Anyway, before I ramble even more, my biggest theory for William is that he'll become way more important later on and be a key in assisting to defeat the Undertaker. I feel like he's got hidden strength that we've not experienced yet and he's had it up to here with the Undertaker causing such distrubances, he'll eventually step in when the time is right to join the Phantomhives just so he can finally get some work done without being bothered all the time.

HE JUST FEELS TOO IMPORTANT AND UNIMPORTANT AT THE SAME TIME and that leaves me with many questions. I know we'll probably never get the answers about who he is/was, what his past is or why he chose to do what he did but having him as part of the "heros" would make me so, SO, happy.

[abybweisse]

Why is undertaker's scythe an actual Scythe unlike the other reapers?? And do grim repaers have their scythes specially made for themselves? What is so special about him that they decided to give him an real scythe?

Undertaker's scythe, revisited

All of these questions have been discussed in my blog before, in some fashion. Perhaps try searching it for stuff like "agriculture" or "agricultural". Or "Undertaker's death scythe" or "Cedric of Rotherwood".

But, for quick answers, I'll break it down like this:

1. That's what he chose. Either that sort of scythe was new technology when he first became a reaper (Cedric of Rotherwood from Ivanhoe parallel) because he's really that old... or a death scythe that looks like an actual scythe is the regulation version that reapers usually get once they complete their training. And he either didn't modify it after turning it from sickle to scythe, or he only modified it a bit, like adding the skeletal details.

Since I think he's very old, and because he was the "epitome" of a reaper, I think this is the only design he would have wanted.

2. It's explained in the manga that once reapers complete their training, they get to modify their death scythes. Othello's sickle is a training version because he never modified it at all. He admits that to Grelle when we are first introduced to him.

Grelle's most-recent modification apparently wasn't made until working with Madam Red inspired the chain saw design. One of the reasons William arrests Grelle is because of this unauthorized modification. That means it's new. Grelle later gets the modification approved. Ronald's modification is also fairly new, probably made just before we meet him, and he had to chat up a lady from the reaper HQ's modification department (or whatever) to get it. Honestly, I think both of them have ridiculous designs for death scythes. Not only is it gruesome to hit a person with rotating blades, but any death scythe that relies on rotation is easily disrupted: we've seen Sebastian stop Grelle's with a wool coat, and we've seen Layla/Al stop Ronald's with what might be regular scissor blades. Ludger might have a similar weakness in the design of his hedge trimmer.

3. At the time, nothing about Undertaker (136649) would have seemed special at all... beyond him refusing to go by his name. I suspect that he's really that old. All the reapers long ago would have probably used death scythes that look like scythes.

What's so special about the (relatively) newer reapers -- like Grelle, Ludger, and Ronald -- that they'd be approved to use power tools as death scythes?