sandyfrassino - Tumblr blog

sandyfrassino · 5 months

Text

Kuroshitsuji: Kishuku Gakkou-hen E01

3K notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 5 months

Text

▸Kuroshitsuji:Kishuku Gakkou Hen✦ EP03✦Sebastian Michaelis

255 notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 5 months

Text

Inside cover of volume 34

471 notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 5 months

Text

His Butler, In Disguise

7K notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 1 year

Photo

Happy Birthday Freddie Mercury // September 5, 1946.

2K notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 1 year

Text

🌿 🌹 🌱 🥬 ✨ // nasturtiums // gouache on hot press paper

17K notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 1 year

Photo

1K notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 3 years

Photo

While my husband and I were on a walk the other evening, a little gray kitty came up to me and demanded I pet her…so I painted her wearing the outfit I was wearing at the time (a pyne and smith dress and a handmade sweater). Wishing you a lovely and restful day.

2K notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 3 years

Photo

Edwardian London as seen through the eyes of a Russian tourist, 1909. See more photos here…

1K notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 3 years

Text

Human development is destructive, but cities are more biodiverse than a lot of people realize. Here’s a shoutout to the resilient, adaptive creatures that thrive on the periphery of human-dominated habitats. Please be kind to them - they are our neighbors.

18K notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 3 years

Note

I saw your post answering an anon about kuroshitsuji, and I think about it a lot post for me kuroshitsuji is not about just two sides of the coin but about several sides: nobody is right or wrong because if we think about the characters and their ideology, everyone does what they believe and think they are right about even if it is completely distorted, a good character does not mean that he is a good person.

【Response to: Anon-senpai-sama who saved my immortal soul!】

Dear Moony-moonlight,

Indeed, the narrative that only a good person is a good character and vice versa is literal centuries outdated. I myself have a very strong preference for thoroughly flawed characters, but I guess that makes me an amoral person according to Anon-senpai-sama then ^^

Rather than teaching morality, I think Kuroshitsuji is a disclosure of the inherent human potential of being evil. Us humans are very prone to calling an evil person or act ‘inhumane’ or ‘monster’, but is that not just a way to distance oneself from the idea that as a fellow human they share the same potential of being evil?

I am still me, so I can’t be short (≽▽≼) So my apologies for hijacking your ask here. Please allow me a moment to discuss the following: “How does Kuroshitsuji discuss ‘Evil’?”

Kuroshitsuji’s Philosphy

Sebastian

The quickest answer to what ‘evil’ is in Kuroshitsuji is to point at the demon. For forever demons have been regarded as the personification of evil. However, in Sebastian’s function in relation to O!Ciel, the series proposes that a demon is only as evil as the human (master) makes him be. Almost all the atrocities Sebas has committed in the manga so far were under his master’s instructions. Otherwise his evil is limited to 1. a fight for his own autonomy, and 2. his toxic manipulation towards O!Ciel. And yet in both these instances Sebas’ position proposes the question: “is “evil” committed for the sake of your basic life necessities still evil?”

Besides, if we go along with the idea that “a demon is only as evil as the human makes it be”, it is worthwhile to ask whether Sebas would have been around in the first place were it not for human actions - the cult’s summoning and O!Ciel’s decision to keep him. As discussed in this post, it seems like Sebas had no say in whether he gets summoned or not, and that he certainly had no say in unsummoning himself. The fact that Sebas presented the option of just disappearing to O!Ciel is noteworthy. We know too well that Sebas would gladly withhold information from the boy if the information can disadvantage him. If he strongly did not want to be dismissed, he would have hidden this option. As it is however, it seems fair to say that Sebas probably had rather gone home instead.

This idea is strengthened by Sebas’ mention of the ‘ferry fee’; Sebas said that he ‘cannot’ physically appear if the fee is not paid using R!Ciel’s soul. Can we assume this payment is enough for a round trip ticket though? I don’t think we should.

Kuroshitsuji is pretty clear about a fate worse than going to Hell awaiting one who summons a demon. It is not inconceivable that Sebas' would need O!Ciel’s raw soul as the payment for his return ticket (and that the “seasoned” soul would be the payment for Sebas’ actual service on top). “You can just dismiss me, but then I’ll eat your soul without you getting my servitude in return” however, is not a very appealing advertising strategy, so it is understandable why Sebas wouldn’t mention any consequences to O!Ciel.

Regardless of whether O!Ciel’s raw soul would have been consumed or not, the fact is that the boy didn’t know there might have been awful consequences for dismissing the demon. For all he knew he could just send the scary demon away and that’s it. Though it had been an incredibly hard choice, O!Ciel did still make the choice to not dismiss the demon and make active use of it. He could just have made the demon help him escape, but instead he immediately decided he would turn it into a weapon for his own bloody revenge.

It wasn’t until O!Ciel had agreed to enter a contract with Sebas that he actively started to kill the cult members. Beforehand Sebas was merely trying to find his summoner. Sure, some people might have been killed in the process, but as discussed in this post, none of that was cruelty, but indifference. But then we’d have to ask whether ‘indifference’ is evil too. Is not watching out for ants as we walk evil?

In short, if a demon is supposed to stand for evil, then evil is the product of human actions. A demon like Sebas is no more than a tool to execute humankind’s depraved ideas, and therefore merely a scapegoat of human evil.

Our Ciel

Now let us talk about our little Evil Nobleman. Ironically I would say the human child that is O!Ciel is ambiguously more evil than a literal demon.

So... instead of only using Sebastian to escape his current situation, O!Ciel decided to employ a demon to execute his revenge. What is chilling here is that nobody - including the boy - knows just how much blood this revenge might demand, nobody has any grasp over the scale of this mission.

After the massacre of the Phantomhive family O!Ciel could very well have used everyone’s assumption of his death to live a peaceful life and start over using Sebastian’s help. I am sure that being summoned purely for great wealth is nothing new to Sebas. Perhaps O!Ciel would not want to let go of his remaining family and that would be entirely fair. But as a child so young he could easily have declined the inheritance of the Phantomhive name and duty. But he didn’t.

How did a child who dreamed of selling toys turn into... what he is now? Had it not been for the humiliation and tragedy that befell O!Ciel, then he’d never have become Earl Phantomhive, nor would he have to commit so many evils compelled by both status and trauma.

In short, if O!Ciel turned out so evil only because of what he’s been made to go through, then in resonance with Sebastian’s character, this character too indicates that evil is the product of human actions.

Conclusion

Kuroshitsuji is not trying to be pedagogical in any way, however, saying that the series does not consider morality at all might also be selling it short. Unlike a conventional pedagogical work, Kuroshitsuji does not try to present an answer to troubles. I think the series might be more similar to social criticism.

Kuroshitsuji prompts its readers to reconsider what evil is and where it comes from. The two protagonists aside, the definition of ‘evil’ is likewise interrogated using Madam Red and Grell’s story in their respective tragedies. Or in the Circus members, how they were compelled to evil because society had driven them to the utmost corners.

The very setup of a demon and its master being the protagonists who combat ‘evil’ is already a bit satirical, especially in how the Watchdog’s function is explicitly to preserve the ‘legitimacy’ of the sanctioned justice system - the Queen. It proposes that no glorious government can exist without a dirty side. But then, to what extent is ‘evil for the sake of necessities’ pardonable?

241 notes · View notes

sandyfrassino · 3 years

Note

I do appreciate the “Sebastian is trash” because you’re right but as readers it’s so hard not to think he’s becoming more human or experiencing emotions. I know that’s the point of him being a demon and master liar but it does hit the audience hard sometimes

TW: WW2 cruelty mention

【Related post: What is Evil in Kuroshitsuji? - Kuroshitsuji’s philosophy】

Dear Anon,

My apologies, but do you mean that Sebas being called trash despite being human-like hits the audience hard sometimes? Or do you mean that him being trash but also showing human-like sides hits the audience hard?

Like I said before in this post, I have always found Sebastian’s expressions of himself quite human. He experiences happiness, irritation, boredom... anything us humans do, and potentially more. Sebastian has many, many emotions and expressions, so many Yana easily pulled off the 30-faces challenge. The only emotion he has not shown so far is romantic affection, but there are plenty humans who also don’t.

I think I do kind of know what you mean though, Sebas has gotten cuter and cuter lately, and it is not something commonly associated with demons. But I think it is in part because 1. Yana’s art improved significantly so that she can draw a wider variety of expressions, and 2. because Sebas has more respect for his master now, therefore is more cooperative, and thus seemingly happier, and 3. a certain actor whom she admitted was more Sebas than her own Sebas waltzed into her life influencing her in turn.

About Sebas being Trash™ and human-likeness though. Something very important I wish to draw attention to: In my opinion ESPECIALLY because he is Trash™ it is very dangerous to distance his actions from something “human”.

As I have written in the post about evil in Kuro:

Rather than teaching morality, I think Kuroshitsuji is a disclosure of the inherent human potential of being evil. Us humans are very prone to calling an evil person or act ‘inhumane’ or ‘monster’, but is that not just a way to distance oneself from the idea that as a fellow human they share the same potential of being evil?

Perhaps this will become the absolute least popular opinion ever spoken in this fandom, but so far I have yet to see any evil carried out by Sebas in his current manifestation that humans have not yet committed or done even worse. And still we need to bear in mind that most of these evils were under his human master’s instructions.

Massacring people? Us humans have fought wars, colonised, and mass-executed fellow humans for no valid reason at all.

Burning children alive? We have had Joseph Mengele and the Imperial Japanese Unit 731 during WW2 that did unspeakable horrors to adults and children alike. (TW extreme cruelty before you click the links to Wiki!)

Manipulating people in their weakness like Beast and O!Ciel? Classic predatory human behaviour.

Eating human souls? Well... if demons can’t life off anything else, it’s basic survival. If they can survive without, then it’s the same as human meat-eaters who can also without any meat.

Mistreating a human before eating their soul? Looking right at you, meat industry!

Insert anything else we know he has done, and I dare say I can find an equal or worse example at the hands of humans!

The only difference between Sebas and evil humans is that Sebas is faster, has reach to a grander scale, and usually doesn’t need help. Humans however, have done the same, just with help and tools. What makes somebody evil however, is not their power but their intention to execute evil.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying Yana wrote a demon poorly! On the contrary. Sebas is very interesting and as I have written in this post, the way Sebas has seen everything but understands nothing is incredibly convincing that he is a creature who is ancient and just has a “different” set of moralities. This “different” set however, is strictly speaking only "different” because of his use thereof: What most humans would not dare do to a fellow human, Sebas would without scruples. Yes, that is awful. But the same things humans do not dare do, they would to an insect, likewise without scruples. And canonically, humans are all insects to Sebas. So does that make Sebas worse than humans or “inhumane”?

As I have explained in this post, the most shocking thing about Sebas is just his sheer indifference for human lives, much like most humans don’t care about stepping on ants as they walk or slapping a mosquito.

I would never question Yana’s morality for writing an evil demon with crimes hardly worse than humans’. Yana as a (probably normal) human, will probably find it hard to imagine anything worse than whatever the worst of our kind have ever come up with. I myself for one cannot, and I have a very dark taste for fantasy.

So is Sebas “inhumane”? Shockingly, “no”, only if “inhumane” means “doing something bad to only human beings specifically”.