aroturier

[aroturier]

For my darling Gargoyle. Here is the Unny long promised and finally delivered. Fallen on any notably solid craniums of late? I think of you often and warmly and hoe your little corner of the world is quiet and trouble-free.

Yana has always told us Undertaker is the real looker in her manga--and i suppose she should know, if anyone. So I went out of my way to give him a beatful face. (Those lips seem particularly kissable, don't you think?)

This was based on a still from Book of Atlantic, just after he swiped his fringes out of the way and showed everyone his pretty eyes. I look forward to giving this the color treatment.

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Missed this one. Well done.

drew Sebastian over this stupid ass image since I havent posted in a bit (ive been busy grinding atmas in ffxiv)

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I never get tired of this. I always imagine he's doing this because Marchioness Midford has just stepped into the Phantomhive Manor foyer with no warning and he's using this schtick to make fun of her rigid attitudes and expectations right to her face. You know the old 'oh I didn't see you standing there" routine.

mombastian time

original video

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What a surprise, to find my stuff posted and getting re-posted. Hello Tyche-g-a-b!

drawn by x

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I so wish I could read this. Alas I have no talent for languages...

This is the pitiful little Sebastian in the corner of Toboso's concept art for season 2's demon Ciel. I was curious what it said and couldn't find a translation (please share a link if you have one), so I tried to translate it myself with help from google translate.

Thought bubble: ドSに育てるんじゃなかった… "I shouldn't have raised him to be such a sadist..."

Arrow pointing to Sebastian: これから永遠に保護者になるセバス。"Sebastian who will become his guardian forever from now on." (This isn't a generic word for protector. It's guardian as in the person who is legally in charge of the safety and care of a minor or other vulnerable person. This is the person who signs permission slips for school field trips and goes to parent-teacher meetings.)

Remaining text: 悪魔の先輩として狩りの方法とか教えるんだろうか…。気になりますね（笑）"I wonder if he'll teach him things like how to hunt as a senior demon... I'm curious (lol)"

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A good and sensible message.

"READ MY DNI" no. use your block button like an adult. i'm not scrolling through the many-paragraphs-long pinned posts of every blog i reblog something from. if you insist certain types of people aren't welcome in the notes of your posts then it's your responsibility to curate that. or choose a closed social media platform like facebook or instagram. or go and live in a barn away from humanity if you really don't like sharing the world with people who are different from you

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Anybody want to bet that's what's left of Claudia P. he's got wired o his death scythe?

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My impression of Yana's writing style leads me to suspect Vladis is some character we've already met or seen before, only one without a name until now. I could be wrong of course, but it just seems like the big reveal would feel less amazing if he's a brand new, previously unmet character.

His hysterical behaviour does nicely match the room of the one 'star lord' who was continually sticking knives into everything and slashing and destroying everything in that one room. So maybe we've seen his handiwork before without actually officially meeting him. The way he was dressed he looked like the character who stabbed Agni to death, if you recall when he passed Sebastian in the hotel hallway. It's my guess he's the 'star lord' who kept talking about being a butler himself.

Guess we'll learn more tomorrow.

Maybe Modri Vladis was a deserter like Undertaker? Sebastian came across him and made a deal with him then fucked him over and killed him. There are probably hundreds of disguised deserters out there.

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Devil's Spawn?

You know how we've observed in the past that events in the anime seemed to mirror (in a distorted way) what really ends up happening in canon? I think perhaps our Ciel really IS becoming a demon. By emulating and admiring Sebastian, adopting his viewpoints and attitudes etc., I can't help but notice he is making himself into a little Sebastian. Where this will lead I can't say, but damned if our Ciel isn't turning himself into a demon. Start watching for those comparative shots of Sebastian's expression quickly followed by Ciel's, like outside the violet wolf dorm as O!Ciel set it on fire, then the quick side-by-side comparisons of Ciel's and Sebastian's wicked smiles as they destroyed the Panzer as a team, each contributing to the effort. They're telling us something, the writers are.

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Two thoughts occurred to me watching the latest installment of the emerald witch arc. What O!Ciel does to Sieglind in threatening her life is exactly the same rough 'wake-up call' Sebastian gave him with his 90% serious attempt at eating his soul. The kid learns fast, huh.

The second thought is that Ciel's pronouncement that parents shouldn't use their kids as tools struck me as heavy foreshadowing so I'm thinking that before the end we ARE going to see Vincentn again and that he actually is alive and out there somewhere. Maybe even still there in Phantomhive manor, who knows?

Lastly, wasn't this a beautiful thing to see? He really does seem to come alive when surrounded by fire, doesn't he.

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Sebastian: My son!

*pre-contract*

Sebastian Michaelis: They say if you seek revenge, you should dig two graves.

Ciel Phantomhive: That's a stupid fucking quote.

Ciel Phantomhive: I'm going to kill way more than two people.

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One hand and one knee blocking the kid's ears, the other hand doing a thumb's up to go with his hysterically approving grin.

Undertaker, while bored: 'You'll never find the body' is such a boring threat. A better threat would be; 'You'll never stop finding the body.'

Grell, also bored: Or just say, 'They'll be finding parts of you for at least four months... And you'll still be alive for three of them.'

Undertaker, laughing hysterically: Now that's a threat!

*Sebastian, covering Ciel's ears in horrified silence*

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...really like that one

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“Sebastian, what IS that awful stench?! You can smell it all the way out in the kitchen! Have you had some kind of unmentionable accident?"

[the demon, lying down in his room, turns over with a sigh to face his little contractor.]

” What’s that mess on your head?”

“Ancient Egyptian cure for migraines.”

“What, cow manure?!”

“Crocodile.”

“Where the hell does one get crocodile shit in the south of England?!”

“Semiannual Demon Farmer’s Market, of course. Where else?”

“Wait. Demons get migraines?"

“Around that lot they do.” [waves vaguely toward the kitchen]

“And if that vile mess doesn’t work?”

“I’ll see if I can get Bardroy to blow smoke up my nether region. He won't mind; helikes burning things.”

“What?!”

“Granted, it never did do much good, not even in the Stuart era, but it would be first-class entertainment. and might take my mind off the headache...”

“Wait. Is that blood coming out from under that pile of muck?! What happened to your head?”

“Trespasser accidentally shot out my eye while I was tearing his head off early this morning."

“Well no wonder you have a headache!”

“Oh well. You know what they say: 'mustn’t grumble'.”

“Jumping jackanapes, I need a holiday…”

Notes:

Just a short note to say these accurately reflect real medical practices in the attendant eras mentioned, and offering the weary observation that currently accepted medical practices will, I don't doubt, seem just as silly, barbaric and risible a couple centuries from now.

Shall we bet on it and I'll meet you there?

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I too have been noticing these similarities. Certainly too, R!Ciel's lack of a butler was brought up in a scene between Undertaker and the boy in the manor, and the lack of butler was practically the only real point of this scene.

Further Polaris' coat is an exact match to the butler's. I would be inclined to say creating a simulacrum of the butler could well have been the real point of impaling the demon since Undertaker makes it plain he could have chopped that demon into hamburger if he'd wanted to, but instead he keeps commenting on what a handy thing he is to have around for the way he protects the little false earl (actually the genuine earl since the older brother really is dead, he just won't stay down.)So... perhaps Undertaker has found a way to make some kind of clone out of the butler's blood? Blood or whatever's inside of him, whatever that is smeared all over his death scythe. The essence of the creature pretending to be Ciel's butler has a great ability to turn himself --or any part of himself-- into anything at all, even though he appears as nothing material, so who knows? Maybe the answer's yes.

He carries Sebastian's fondness for cutlery... he just tends to go for steak knives instead of butter.

And it may or may not be significant, but is probably worth pointing out that Polaris is a *double-star.*Yeah, there actually really is two of them. And given that Yana really did write out the entire story of Black Butler ahead of production of season one of the (pretty dreadful) anime, and given how many parallels we find in the story lines, especially the execrable season 2, if you'll recall that story line contained two earls and two almost identical butlers.

Have we possibly stumbled over the second and even more heinous surprise twist in Yana's story? (Maybe the reason she scuttled off to join Disney was she saw how badly the American fandom reacted to the twin reveal and figured she'd better get the hell out of Dodge before the second twin was revealed and those fans came howling for her blood. No wonder she hides her identity!)

What stops me believing Polaris could have anything meaningful to do with Sebastian is that whiney teary face he made a few chapters back. You know the one.

However I rilly-rilly like this idea. I hope it's true. Thank you for floating this where I could find it.

Polaris Identity Theory

Manga spoilers under the cut.

Because Toboso conceals his face, Polaris is probably a character who readers would recognize.

Polaris has claimed on multiple occasions to be a butler, and said that he lost his previous master. This might lead one to assume he was a butler in Vincent Phantomhive's household. However, Polaris appears to have a different chin shape compared to any of the previous butlers.

Polaris' first physical appearance is when r!Ciel comes to the townhouse. Soma opens the door, let's r!Ciel in, and offers him food because he believes him to be o!Ciel. R!Ciel shoots Soma with a small handgun, which is o!Ciel's signature weapon. When Agni tries to protect Soma, Polaris appears and stabs him with a knife, of which he has many. In this scene we see that Polaris is tall, but not as tall as Agni.

He is also incredibly strong and fast, performing maneuvers that would be impossible for a human, and as a result, impossible for a bizarre doll created from a human, as the bizarre dolls we've seen so far seem to retain the physical limitations of their human bodies.

Sebastian even remarks that killing Agni would have required more than 5 average humans.

The rest of the information we have about Polaris is very limited. In Japanese, he refers to himself using 私 (watashi) and uses uses polite sentence endings (desu and masu).

However, Polaris' most distinguishing characteristic is his devotion to his master. When confronted with the possibility of running out of blood and losing r!Ciel, he loses control, yells, stops using polite speech in Japanese, destroys his surroundings, and falls to his knees.

If Toboso were introducing a new character, she wouldn't need to hide his face. The only existing character who fits the profile of a butler, exceedingly devoted to his master, almost as tall as Angi, wielding an absurd amount of knives, and with strength and speed way beyond those of humans, is Sebastian.

When Polaris first stabs Agni in the townhouse, he seems to appear suddenly and unnoticed by Soma and Agni. The reader might assume that he came into the room or out of hiding at this moment to defend r!Ciel. However, I believe it to be more likely that he walked in with r!Ciel, unremarked-upon because if Ciel walks in, Sebastian would be expected to follow. In fact, it would be strange if the 13-year-old came in alone, without an adult, and especially without his near-constant companion.

At this point I will mention what originally made me think of this theory: Sebastian's catchphrase. I will do my best, with my extremely limited knowledge of Japanese, to explain.

The phrase Sebastian is so fond of saying is "私は[悪魔で]執事ですから." He's literally saying "For I am a devil and a butler," but doesn't blow his cover as a demon because it sounds identical to "For I am a butler to the end/persistently." (私は[飽くまで]執事ですから)

After freaking out over the possibility of losing r!Ciel, Polaris tells him and Undertaker that if r!Ciel died, "I wouldn't be able to rest, even if I died. I can't imagine where else I could be... for I am a butler, even in death."

私は[死んでも]執事ですから。

This is nearly identical to Sebastian's catchphrase, both saying "For I am a butler," with a single word (and its attached particle) swapped out:

私は(I)[ ]執事(butler)です(am)から(for)。

An obvious problem with this theory is that Polaris is loyal to r!Ciel, while Sebastian is loyal to o!Ciel. An even more obvious problem is that while Polaris is murdering Agni, Sebastian is with o!Ciel elsewhere. This is the point where my implausible theory reaches its peak of absurdity: I believe Polaris is a bizarre doll of Sebastian, specifically Sebastian the butler.

When Undertaker impaled Sebastian on the Campania, he obtained his cinematic record. Like when Grelle cut him with her death-scythe in the Red Butler Arc, Sebastian's record only shows memories of his current body and nothing before it manifested. The sole purpose of the body named Sebastian is to be the best butler and to serve his master. This could also explain the previous master Polaris lost and his insanity over losing another: the last memory of the body the cinematic record was taken from is seeing o!Ciel thrown over a railing and out of reach; Undertaker captured Sebastian's desperation in that moment and used it to create a bizarre doll.

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But there's not a lot to hohoho about just now and Tanaka's aware enough to know it.

You know that we're loosing our values when there is no "ho ho ho..." after this.

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I am relieved Clover Works is a little more comfortable and familiar with Kuroshitsuji now, and no longer going out of their way to make Sebastian look like a romantic lead, (less long lashes and floating sparklies etc..) I know it isn't the easiest anime to categorise, having a bit of everything at once but in many ways I think this is part of its charm.

Especially this comfort and familiarity seems to me to be showing up in the opening and closing sequences. Their first effort left me feeling like they'd handed the job to a person who'd never heard of the manga before and only knew there was a demon and a shinigami in it (and perhaps a couple of zombies too, staggering around but we don't talk about the zombies,) and they threw together a generic horror thing (remember everyone saying "hmm, I don't remember any flaming giant in the manga, do you? No? Oh good, I thought maybe I'd hit my head and forgot a couple chapters or something...")

This time, whoever did the job had actually troubled to read some of the story--well nearly all of it since they started making the movies based on the actual manga--and the result was truly beautiful.

I'm now very glad Clover Works is the studio doing the work. I hope it continues.