#yana judge

[nikkigameslore]

Stories From Miraland - Love Nikki: Ghost Gathering [Part 3/3] Ghost City [Part 3/4]

Note: Minor suits Yama Judge, Soul Guide, and Flower Mirror. Sorry its taken 5 thousand years for this i have been very busy qwq.

Warnings: minor mentions of murder for Flower Mirror.

Part 1 | Part 2

Yama Judge

Life Judge In the first 300 years I walked through mortal world In the last 300 years I get tired of immortal life Now I have to find the girl To beg for eternal sleep To ask her for mercy To reach my last verdict

Story: The suit tells the story of the daughter of Yama. (a Hindu and Buddhist deity who both serve similar functions in their respective religions of punishing sinners and ruling over death.) She sneaks out one day with her fathers scroll and comes across a man who she had met previously and granted immortality to due to his sinful nature. He begged her to change his fate and let him die having grown tired of immortal life in the past 300 years. The girl is filled with doubts and is confused on why he wouldn't thank her for granting him immortality, but in the end she decided to ignore her questions and continue on. It is a story of a rebellious daughter using her fathers work for fun.

Soul Guide

Soul Lamp: Before I realized I was at the center of mist Someone whispered to ears But when I turned around Only saw light shimmers In the vast mist

Story: This suit tells the story of Soul Guide whose job is to guard the city gate and guide ghosts where they should go deep inside the mist. Because KEEP AWAY is written so big on her skirt the travelers avoid her, so she messes around and fools with them to see the faces they make. Her job is very boring as she only patrols the city and makes sure ghosts are obedient. Although she has thought of quitting, it is only with her lantern that anyone can see through the ghost mist.

Flower Mirror

Lotus Image: Who cries so sadly Beside the lake Through the clouds the Sun shines I walk into the lotuses Starting the birds Stirring the waves

Story: This suit tells the story of a lotus pond and a mirror that is said to gain form from people's desires. Because the lotus pond is so clear and deep it also called Mirror Pond. One night a traveler stops there and finds that his reflection isn't in the pond but instead that of a beautiful maiden. She appears to be sad and when he looks closer he finds her crying. She tells him that after falling into the pond she was locked there by the City Lord and asked him to drag her out. He reaches out to help her but instead she drags him into the pond.

[bibyshitsuji24k]

I’m excited that you answered my question. (Actually really happy because i always read your blog! XD) in case of glamis castle it’s more likely to search ‘glamis castle top view’ ^^; i thought that’s Yana’s big inspiration! I’ve read that there’s a different between her full name in anime Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Midford, but according to the official Character Guide it’s Elizabeth Margaret Lyon Midford. I’m not sure too which one is canon rn (because you know that Yana doesn’t think deeply about any details even with her birthday 🥲) but like you said she truly is a bug fan of royal family XD

Well you made me so happy, I'm glad to know that there are people out there who actually read my blog and like my drawings //sobs//

Oh yeah, I searched the first pic but you can tell it is the same right anyway right? 0: It looks like a beautiful old aesthetic castle to live in ToT

Sadly I don't have the character guide, but i believe you, the coincidences match perfectly. Maybe she changed it later (?) the character guide was from 2012 right? 0: anyway if they stayed together as a couple, I HOPE THAT HAPPENS IN THE MANGA AS WELL #praying

[sovamurka]

Black Hound 🤝 Balor

🤝- teaching their women witchcraft and then realizing in horror what kind of monsters they created

[stardustizuku]

Unfortunately I came across a very strange and misinformed video about Black Butler.

It’s not good. Don’t watch it. Unless you wanna ruin your day, in which case have fun.

Despite it all, I watched it. What left me wondering, however, was how off the mark the person who made the video was on, well, everything.

From their insistence that the Book of Circus Arc theme or point is non existent, to reading Ciel’s character so badly they genuinely thought the Green Witch Arc did nothing for his character development.

While baffled, it also made me think on how someone could read Black Butler so badly.

Sure, you can say that there’s no real way to read or interpret something “in the wrong way” but interpreting The Hunger Games as a pure battle-royale action story would make you believe it’s bad.

“Why are we focusing so much on how the capitol preps them?” Or “Why isn’t Katniss winning everything?” Or “I wanna know more about the rebellion” All questions that miss the actual point of the story - which is criticizing (not solving or ignoring) the way that media distracts us from violence via spectacle.

The same thing applies here. While there is no “right” way to consume media, there’s things that the author makes clear they wanna focus when creating a story. Things that, if you understand, make the story you’re reading actually make sense.

And in Black Butler there’s three things that you have to understand to properly get what Yana is saying.

Sebastian is the protagonist

Ciel and Sebastian’s relationship IS the story.

And that relationship is, fundamentally, a positive one.

A quicker version of it would be:

Black Butler is a love story from the POV of Sebastian, and you have to ship it to get it

- but that’s not entirely true.

You can still look at it as a complex but ultimately positive rship and get in broad strokes of what it’s conveying. It doesn’t have to be romantic. Although, it helps much more than a platonic framing.

(That said, interpreting their rship as father and son, still isn’t the best way to go about it. Mostly because by its very nature of “soul consuming” their relationship is extremely sexually charged. And hey, if you’re into that I don’t judge. However, if you’re desperately trying to interpret their rship as NOT romantic to the point you fall back on heteronormative patriarchal ideals of nuclear familiar as framing device, I don’t think this interpretation bodes with you)

Now, having all that ground work:

Why do I say these are the key components to understand BB?

Okay so, first,

1. Sebastian is the Main Character. The protagonist.

There’s a lot of people who wanna argue against it, claiming he’s either the villain or the antagonist. Both wrong.

He does not function as an antagonist. Even if, and an emphasis on if, you consider Ciel to the protagonist, Sebastian isn’t a narrative antagonist.

If you wanna go back to Creative Writing 101, be my guest. An antagonist is directly defined by the protagonist. It’s the opposing force. If the protagonist wants A, the antagonist wants to stop them from getting A.

Sebastian’s catchphrase is “Yes, my Lord”. He never opposes Ciel, in fact quite the contrary. By the mere fact they’ve created contract, it means that they’ve both agreed in the inevitable outcome.

People want to frame Sebastian as the villain, because Ciel having his soul taken by a demon, would be a BAD END in the context of their moral compass. They see Ciel as a frail victim of abuse, who’s being tricked by Sebastian, who wants Ciel’s soul.

Which is an. Interpretation. A bad one. But still one.

The narrative (and whether the narrative fits your personal moral compass and lack of critical thinking is irrelevant) treats Ciel as an agent in his own destiny. The abuse he suffered was the moment in which he had no control. It’s only after he meets Sebastian that he can rid of both his guilt and his despair, and do what he wants.

In this case though, it’s revenge.

The famous “Asthma” scene shows this. If Ciel is taken back to his past, he becomes helpless. Swarmed with pain and memories that make it so that he can’t even react. Sebastian is his saving grace. If Ciel didn’t have him, and the power he wields to rebuilt what’s broken, he would crumble once more.

If Ciel has a panic attack, because of all the pain he has, Sebastian picks him up and says “you are not a helpless child anymore, you are not a victim anymore, you have the power to do anything. So, what do you wanna do?”

Ciel’s answer is to kill them.

A proper analogy would be to say that, if Sebastian offers a gun, Ciel pulls the trigger. They are both at fault. Sebastian, strictly speaking, is not here to directly cause Ciel’s downfall, but as a tool Ciel uses to plunge into the abyss.

If, again if, you were to frame Ciel as a protagonist, Sebastian falls closer to the “Voice of reason” character. Not a literal voice of reason, but a literary one. If you have a protagonist and an antagonist exchanging ideals, the Voice of Reason serves to engage with the protagonist on their own ideals.

That said, Ciel isn’t the protagonist. The story quickly falls apart if you interpret it as such.

Things such as Ciel’s character arc being…shall I say odd?

It’s not that his character arc isn’t there, but it’s never lineal. His goals stay the same, the only thing that happens is that we start to peel back the “why”s of his goals. Throughout the series it’s never about Ciel understanding himself better, he knows who he is, he knows what he wants, he knows why he wants it. He doesn’t ever need to uncover these, but simply remember them. Because it’s always about the audience understanding Ciel.

He knows he wants revenge.

In the Circus Arc: He knows that he needs Sebastian because without him, the pain of the abuse he suffered would be too much to bear. But WE are introduced to it.

In the Book of Atlantis: He knows that with this new lease he does not want happiness and peace, he wants revenge. The one being told this is the audience.

In Green Witch Arc: He knows that their revenge isn’t for his family, the real Ciel or guilt. It’s because he wants it. He’s angry, he’s upset, and this is entirely for him. The one being told this is the audience.

Except. Not really. The one either discovering or remembering these key moments - is always Sebastian.

Sebastian is the one who reassures him that he now holds the power of a demon to override the pain. Sebastian is the one who remembers that to override that pain, Ciel wants revenge. And Sebastian is the one who discovers that that revenge isn’t built out of grief or guilt, but for himself.

We are witnessing it all, through the eyes of Sebastian.

This is why we have an extremely vague idea of who Ciel is, Sebastian does not have the whole picture.

If you haven’t been reading this manga with your eyes closed, you’ll realize we have a better grasp at Sebastian’s character than that of Ciel. We get a lot of insight on how he thinks and what he values through light hearted dialogue he has with the servants. You even see the character development in these little interactions.

Think about how when he first arrived to the mansion he magically created food with no regards to taste, but when he meets Bard he states that food is created to see whoever will eat it, smile.

That is character development, more than you will be able to see from Ciel.

Because Ciel’s character, while not static, doesn’t go from point A to point B. Mostly, cause it doesn’t need to. He went through that when he lost the real Ciel and got Sebastian. Everything we are watching is the falling out.

Now, given the fact that I’ve told you that it makes more sense for Sebastian to be the protagonist/main character, and that he 100% isn’t either a villain or antagonist in ANY of the interpretations you can get:

Do you believe me?

If you don’t, you’ll probably believe Yana herself.

This is from the first Volume, where Yana herself describes the process of making Black Butler. The primary idea behind the creation of BB was a butler as a “hero”.

If you go back to the introductory chapter, you notice that Ciel is barely mentioned. He’s simply the one to give Sebastian impossible tasks and standards that Sebastian must find how to overcome.

Ciel is properly introduced until the NEXT chapter. The second chapter has this formula too, introducing Lizzie as a problem to overcome. Although, to Sebastian the best way to “get rid of the problem” is simply to indulge her.

The issue here being that the problem isn’t as simple as a business meeting but something directly tied to Ciel and Ciel’s past. Each time that Sebastian has to solve a problem, it chips away at Ciel. While with Lizzie he shows a persona, once he’s alone with Sebastian he acknowledges the toll it took on him. It serves to build Ciel as Sebastian’s master, and how some problems aren’t as simple as discarding a tablecloth.

The third and the fourth, are a unified narrative, with a similar premise to the first chapter. Ciel gets kidnapped and Sebastian must find a way to retrieve him without raising suspicions.

If the first chapter is to set up what Sebastian must do as a butler, the third and the fourth serve to set up what he must do as a demon.

The entirety of the volume, and up to Book of Circus Arc, is about how Sebastian tries to follow the increasingly absurd orders that Ciel has - it is not about Ciel trying to solve them.

That’s how they work, we follow Sebastian for the most part, because he’s the one having to come up with the solutions.

If anything, in early Kuro, where the emphasis was more on a slice of life conflict, Ciel is the antagonist. He’s the one creating problems for Sebastian to solve.

What’s more, in the second volume, the very first chapter is one from Sebastian’s POV. So far, we hadn’t gotten an entire chapter from Ciel’s POV. In fact, I would find it hard to point to a single chapter where Ciel is the POV throughout. The reveal of real Ciel and the flashback is the closest contender.

But once we move past early Kuro, and into Book of Circus, this set up changes.

It’s fairly easy to assume that Ciel is the main character, because from this point on the conflict of the plot sorta surrounded him. We spend a lot of time with him and with his story. The enemies start being people directly tied to Ciel and Ciel’s trauma. Rarely, if at all, we get to see Sebastian before he met Ciel.The framing device for the story, is Ciel.

This is where point 2 gets intertwined.

2.- Sebastian and Ciel’s relationship IS the story.

The story begins at the point where Sebastian and Ciel met. Who Ciel was before he met Sebastian, informs why he’s the way he is when he does. You have to know all he went through to understand why he’s a brat, why he lashes out. However Sebastian’s past doesn’t matter…because Sebastian himself doesn’t care much for who he was, before he was “Sebastian”. That’s also part of the narrative.

Unlike Ciel, he doesn’t seem opposed to revealing information from before the contract. He talks about how pets from where he is from are gross, he talks about how he knows how to dance because of other places he’s been to, and alludes to the life he's lived before.

Just that, to him, they're footnotes.

He makes allusions to a very bland, uninteresting life, up to the point he meets Ciel.

That’s why we don’t know more about his past.

As for why we focus on Ciel’s story…okay maybe we need Creative Writing lessons 102

I studied Dramaturgy for about 3 to 4 years. And something you notice is how play-writing is the quintessential story telling. It’s making it work with the bare bones of a story.

Some other mediums have more finesse, more depth, or more spectacle - all amazing things that work for whatever they’re created for. But understanding a play, how and why it works, helps understand the fundamentals of any derivative story telling medium.

Particularly, conflict.

Conflict is dialogue and dialogue can take many forms. A story, in its essence, is a dialogue between two opposing ideas.

Take Batman, for example, who embodies the ideas of justice and order. On his own, he’s not a well rounded character.

If you ONLY present him, in a vaccum with nothing else, you don’t have a character. You have a list of characteristics that you’re supposed to know.

You only know who he is when you have dialogue with another character.

I say Dialogue, but it doesn’t necessarily mean spoken language at one another. Dialogue can mean fist fighting, playing tabletop games, talking to other people about the other, or even just a competition. The idea is to simply to compare and contrast both ideas.

If you want an example on how tabletop games serve as dialogue, watch the video “Well, Someone Had to Explain the Liar’s Dice Scene” by Lord Ravecraft

Another example, were we to retake Batman, you have him fight Joker. Who’s the embodiment of chaos and randomness.

In the following picture, you get far more information than the one previously shown. While the Joke fights with daggers and fake guns, Batman only uses his fists. He doesn’t use the tricks that Joker does. His serious demeanor, contrasted with Joker’s glee at the dangerous situation. The fact that Batman has a deathly grip on Joker’s shirt, while the Joker doesn’t, which shows a desperation to catch him.

You are being shown, through a dialogue, who Batman is.

It’s so much easier and much more effective to explore a character through another character.

This is the reason why Shonen has a tendency to make incredibly good gay ships. If you want to explore Naruto’s personality, and his feelings of inferiority, you HAVE to have him interact with Sasuke.

If you wanna understand Hinata’s passion for volleyball, you have him enjoy himself the most with the only other crazy motherfucker who’s as obsessed with volleyball - Kageyama.

And I think that originally, Yana had this problem.

Sebastian was the protagonist, but she had little room to develop him as a character in the confines of the manor, dealing with random enemies.

She likely tried to create Grell as someone of the same stature as Sebastian. Someone who could be this other person to engage dialogue with and show or allude to his past a bit more.

The problem being that Sebastian didn’t care for his past. Or really, engaging with anyone. He sees everyone as below him, but when confronted with Grell who isn’t below him, he doesn’t wanna talk to her.

So you’re stuck in conundrum.

How do you have dialogue with a character, that as a character trait, doesn’t really wanna have dialogue?

Well, Grell also solves the problem. Because only the moment she gets him to start any semblance of a dialogue - is questioning why he’s serving Ciel.

And this is the moment when it’s perfectly cemented that the focus of the story is their relationship.

Why is Sebastian here? Why does he stay? What did he see in Ciel that made him want this extremely convoluted contract?

THATS the dialogue.

THATS the conversation we’re having in Black Butler.

We need to know Ciel because understanding who he is, let’s us know WHY /Sebastian/ is here.

Then slowly, with the introduction with the Undertaker, we find out Sebastian’s conflict.

Which is…

He’s scared of losing Ciel. It becomes apparent with the constant imagery of the Undertaker taking away Ciel and at some point even obtaining r!Ciel’s body, that he’s worried it might happen.

But he can only be worried that Ciel might be taken away if he wants to stay near Ciel.

And that’s his character arc.

Realizing that he actually likes Ciel, cares for him and the role he plays a butler that he doesn’t want this to end.

In the first chapters, he doesn’t feel a need to protect Ciel anymore than what’s strictly necessary. Just don’t die, that’s about as deep as his involvement in chapter 4 gets.

But by the Green Witch Arc, he feels a need to protect Ciel from ANY harm.

This is why I also said

3.- Their relationship is fundamentally a positive one.

In broad strokes, Sebastian to Ciel is the person who allows him to survive. He’s not worried about giving up his soul since he’s already dead. While Ciel to Sebastian, is someone who’s making him have fun. He’s slowly becoming more and more attached to Ciel and the life he has with Ciel.

Their relationship is not that of just a predator and prey, but also of master and pet.

In the terms that Black Butler itself would call: Sebastian is a wild wolf acting like a collared dog.

Ciel is aware that the wild beast will eat him at the end of the day, but if he clings hard to leash for now, he might just be able to have Sebastian maul his abusers.

Sebastian as a dog, currently finds that he enjoys being a chained dog.

(This is demonstrated in the Green Witch arc where he quite literally says, he doesn’t wanna be a wild beast and prefers to be a butler)

And much like the actual DOG Sebastian, Ciel constantly interprets his attempts to get close and protect him, as an act of aggression.

This push and pull of Ciel’s perception of Sebastian and Sebastian’s true motives is what feeds the story.

And the briefs interludes were that isn’t the case (what other people call the “plot”, but I would refer to as the connective tissue) such as Sullivan and Wolfram, the other servant’s past, the grim reapers and the like, serve as a parallel to Ciel and Sebastian relationship. Either to signify how they care for each other, highlight their weaknesses or fears, or explore how they feel.

It’s no surprise that Sullivan and Wolfram are parallels to Ciel and Sebastian. A sheltered sickly child who seeks the protection of a cold hearted machine that only knew how to kill, but who eventually found he cared for her genuinely.

Undertaker and Claudia’s relationship being heavily paralleled with them, even though we aren’t 109% sure what they had but heavily implied it was a romantic attraction from the undead supernatural creature and a Phantomhive.

Everything is a parallel.

That’s why, like the approach of the terrible original video, is flawed.

Trying to interpret Black Butler as action scene after action scene, with mystery after mystery with the only connective tissue being the mystery of who burned down the mansion - is missing the trees for the forest.

That’s not the point.

And if you’re too much of a prude to engage with gothic horror in its gothic horror game, I see little point as to why you even bother to engage with it at all.

A lot of people, including the person who create the video, simply refuse to acknowledge Black Butler IS the story of Sebastian and Ciel as a close and positive relationship, romantically and sexually charged. The reason for it being that they’re “put off” by it.

Part of me wonders how much that is genuinely true, and how much is just performative outrage. It’s like ignoring the fact that Cersei and Jami are in an incestous relationship and try to frame it as “platonic love”, because the idea of it is THAT off putting.

But regardless of that, if you don’t like the fact that it’s as canon as canon can get, I would reccomend you don’t engage with the story at all.

As I’ve explained, the entirety of the series is about them. If you refuse to see Sebastian and Ciel as, at the very least, a duo that cares deeply for the other - you aren’t reading Black Butler.

I have no idea what you’re reading.Perhaps your own biases and subconscious stigma with British aesthetic. At that point, watch the fucking British Royalty Gossip Magazine. You’d find more substance there.

Just don’t be like the person in the video, please? Don’t play dumb. Don’t ignore the fact that Yana is a Shotacon, don’t ignore the fact Sebastian is a hero, don’t ignore the fact that the entirety of the story is based on Sebastian and Ciel’s dynamic.

Because if you do, you are ashamed. You are ashamed of what this story is about. You don’t wanna engage with the text, you want to engage with yourself. You wanna project into Ciel whatever traumas and experiences you have, for the sake a vanity project, where you come out as the morally superior.

You don’t wanna talk about Black Butler, you wanna talk about how good YOU are. How you “don’t sin” by watching it “without all the gross unholy stuff”.

Which is the exact opposite of what BB is about.

So, if you don’t want to, save us all the humiliation fetish and leave.

[tokkimins]

Oh man. I cannot get over how much this chapter has fuelled my interest in the manga again.

We’ve gotten dual reaction panels before but this just takes the cake. For the first time ever (I think), Sebastian is finally the one on the receiving end. HE’S the one in the splash zone, and Ciel is the one on the sidelines going “Damnnnn that shit sucksss.”

The only other time I can think of where Sebastian has been specifically targeted was during Noah’s ark with William. But even that just amounted to putting a slight limit on Sebastian’s autonomy. There was no question as to why Will hates Sebastian or vice-versa. (It’s not even like Sebastian had a track record of eating souls in William’s area specifically lol).

THIS, on the other hand, is possibly the most human problem Sebastian has ever had to deal with.

Someone is angry at him for something he did*. I can’t believe I’m saying this but… bro is finally facing the consequences of his actions... and we’re ACTUALLY gonna see him face them, RIGHT? (hopefully, probably. I’m begging you Yana please do something with this).

*If I were to vaguely speculate about what it is he did: “dragged me into the depths of hell” makes me think that Sebastian somehow got this person turned into a demon or something. Or at least, something non-human. I’m not very good “theorizing” so I’m just gonna leave it at that and let myself be wrong LOL.

Either way though, I’m so glad other ppl are picking up on how emotive Sebastian was in this chapter. I think this is the biggest range of reactive emotions we’ve seen from him in a single chapter. It also feels like this is the first time we’ve seen Sebastian lose composure in a way that doesn’t suit him.

He looks weary which is such a rare emotion to see worn on him. I’d even go so far as to say he looks slightly frightened in this particular panel. We don’t even change art styles here. This is genuine confusion on his face. And what a treat that is to see.

Judging by his reaction, I think we can safely say this is probably one of the strangest encounters Sebastian has ever had. Which to be fair, considering he’s probably killed or eaten almost all of his problems, it makes sense that this would come as a surprise.

With how confused he is, I’m honestly even considering memory loss as a sort of explanation.

What really hooked me though is the fact that Sebastian isn’t eager to kill this guy instantly.

When I read this part I initially thought this was completely OOC for him. I mean… “settle things peacefully”?? Who are you right now? Bro was literally just asking if he could kill everyone in the hotel like ???

It’s so unnatural for us to see Sebastian get concerned and actually reflect upon himself. The only time he ever mentions his own memories of his own volition is when he’s boasting to Ciel about having attended some major event in the 900 BC or some shit.

Overall, it’s just nice to see Sebastian be put under some pressure for once. He hasn’t had a personal conflict beyond “someone’s taking my dinner away” for a while so this is very refreshing to see.

After all, we’ve seen Sebastian look a bit weary or surprised before (ex. the twin reveal) but even in those moments, his reactions have never lasted beyond a panel or two. He’s always been able to jump back to his normal suave-butler attitude on a dime, so I really like that we end the chapter on him staying weary.

I truly hope this leads to something substantial… and that revealing some part of this “past memory” will actually affect the present (maybe even affect his relationship with Ciel or how Ciel views him).

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

Thoughts on Chapter 215

Forgive me, Yana T, I didn’t count on you giving us S’ past like what you did with the Phantomhive servants because you stopped at Bard. I wonder if you would in the future give us some background about Tanaka-san. I am sure that he has had an interesting vita for us to read. How did the past watchdogs acquire him and so on and so forth.

What’s in a name?

Modri Vladis. If it is really his given name, that’s some Eastern European, stretching from Lithuanian to Slovakian to Croatian. If the man who is accusing S is from that region, the demon’s exploits certainly are all Europeans. He knows the Habsburgs, different dialects in the German-speaking world, and if we accept season 1 as part of the canon, S admitted that he used to frequent the balls held in Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, once the seat of the powerful Habsburg Dynasty. Judging from the clothing of S’ victim, the collar of his uniform reminds me of the Hussars’ style gala outfit like the ones I’ve seen at the Military Museum in Vienna. Something like what Archduke Stephen from Hungary is wearing below.

Was Vladis a former soldier? Was he an Orthodox/Catholic priest (bc of the cassock)? Can he really remember S? Or this is just a ploy by the opponents?

S claims that his current persona is unique and that’s impossible that his former contractors would remember him. But if he only changed his clothing during the forming of the contract with the same face then it would be easy to recognise his face as he’s become enamoured to it.

Modri said that he and S had a “dalliance.” That’s a suggestive description. He and the demon had a sexual relationship. That goes to show that S’ sexuality can be as fluid as he can be depending on the person he has an interaction with. I love it!!! Go S!

This arc can go both ways.

First, we know that Undertaker saw S’ cinematic record. He clearly had an idea what kind of people S interacted with. What he did with his contractors in the past.

I wonder if Undertaker has gathered those humans (or former ones) in the hotel to rattle S and plant a seed of mistrust between him and Ciel. It seems Undertaker is moving two steps forward while the duo plans on taking them one at a time.

Lastly, this particular manga cap is like foreshadowing. It feels like the moment S would lose his composure is the only time he’d commit mistakes. It surely shook S for sure. He’s always been so composed though he gets antsy in front of Nina Hopkins and surely anxious (his PTSD resurfaces) when it comes to facing Undertaker. And now Miss Hoffman graciously reminds him not to lose his cool.

Nevertheless, Ciel is intrigued but not happy with the developments. He’s between curious and annoyed that he has to deal with this.

Also, the fact that S thinks eight people could have a grudge with him made Ciel shake his head. (Take note: I love S’ face in the middle where his face crunches as he begins to count them in his fingers and probably recalls the deeds he did to them.) Ciel must know that he has employed a demon and along comes a lot of baggage.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you have any headcanons or thoughts on what Sebek's family might be like? I'm so curious on their dynamic, particularly his siblings and how they had navigated being half-fae, half-human in Briar Valley.

I also wonder which parent they look like (Mr or Mrs Zigvolt), and how that could potentially affect their relationship with their grandfather, if Baul even is the type to favor his grandkids based on how 'fae-like' they look (I hope not lol). I'm also curious to know if those of half-fae and half-human descent always have the eyes of the fae parent and ears of the human parent, or if it is randomised like other appearance traits

If not an hometown event, I do hope Yana releases concept art/sketches of the other Zigvolts's character appearances + their dynamics >.<

I have a compilation of the Zigvolt family lore here, in case you’d like to reference what is actually canon.

I’ve been under the impression that the Zigvolts are a boisterous and loving family (well, if you exclude Baur not accepting his son-in-law and some awkwardness from Sebek towards his father). Sebek always seems to speak so fondly of the times he spends with his family, how much he admires his mother, how he’s proud of his grandpa’s accomplishments (and how hurt he is when Baur rejects him in Lilia’s dream), how he fishes and goes to events with his siblings… Sebek even seems to have a soft spot for his human father, whom he claims to not understand (yet he likens Trey to his dad and seems to find comfort and security in that).

Regarding the Zigvolt siblings, I always thought of them as taking after their mother. After all, Sebek’s older brother is a NRC graduate. I feel like someone with Mrs. Zigvolt’s stubbornness or a fae’s arrogance is better suited for NRC than someone more mild-mannered. like Mr. Zigvolt. Sebek also laments that he is a slow bloomer in magic, so I wonder if part of that worry comes from seeing magic come so much sooner to his brother and sister, as well as to Silver.

I feel like even though Baur is stubborn and anti-human, he doesn’t hold it against his grandchildren and seems to genuinely care for them (even if he claims not to). Maybe he had issues accepting it or made comparisons of their physical looks at first (like he did in the past, judging whether or not they have scales on their face or pointed ears). But Baur definitely seems to have come around by the time of Sebek’s birth? Baur was paying close attention to his interests and favorites, which led to him personally asking Lilia to train Sebek (since Sebek had expressed wanting to learn martial arts), as well as stocking all of his grandson’s preferred drinks and snacks in preparation for his visits.

Traits like eye and ear characteristics are varied in real life. I’d imagine that this same variation is observer based on how the genes are combined in a human-fae couple. Maybe Sebek’s siblings do have scales or pointed ears?? 🤔 And maybe being around them makes him feel like he’s not as much of a fae as they are, which only feeds into his insecurities…

One issue I take with hometown events is that they come out at such a slow rate (I’m starved for family content here) 💀 and for characters with relatively big families, we totally miss out on meeting the other members… It makes me wonder when, if ever, those other members will be shown to us??? There’s so far been no precedent of Twst art books or extended materials showing character designs for “missing” family members (like all the relatives Epel lives with, Trey’s siblings) or even granting “full” faces to the figures associated with the OB boys’s trauma (Viper parents, Mrs. Rosehearts, etc.) so 💦 it feels like there’s so much untapped potential. It’d be weird to shoehorn so much important lore like what our main casts’ family members look and act like to supplementary material and not… make integrate it into the game’s content.

Anyway, here are a frw personal headcanons I have for the Zigvolt family:

Zigvolt nii and nee-san always baby Sebek. To them, he will always be their baby brother, their cute little Sebek-chan. (Sebek loudly insists to them that he is a MAN, actually 😤)

The Zigvolt siblings stuck with one another in their childhoods, as the other kids would ostracize them for being half human. This occasionally led to shouting matches or even shooting magic at each other if things escalated.

There was a brief stint in which Silver crushed on Zigvolt onee-san. He got over it quickly, but for a second there Sebek was ranting and raving about how this means Silver would become his second brother “for real”.

Zigvolt nee-san is a skilled seamstress and spinner. Her family jokes that she can spin even straw into gold.

… Sometimes she chases Sebek around and wrestles him into clothes she has made.

The Zigvolt siblings are very competitive. They try so hard to prove they are “the best” and make everything into a game. For example, they frequently have competitions to see who can eat the most vegetables or who can make the loudest crunch when biting down on a bone. They also compete for their dear grandpa’s attention.

The kids are generally very formal with their parents, referring to them as “mother and father”. I’d like to think that the two older siblings are s little kinder and more accepting of their father than Sebek is.

Sebek was very upset to see his older brother go off to NRC (though he didn’t outright admit this was because he would miss him). To cheer Sebek up, Zigvolt nii-san told him to work hard so that he can one day be in the same place he is.

Mrs. Zigvolt lives for family gatherings. She and all her children are big eaters so she prepares tons of food. Of course, she invites Baur to these events (and sometimes Silver and Lilia).

Mrs. Zigvolt is very lovey-dovey with her husband. Calls him “honey”, “dear”, “beloved”, etc. and has a tendency to hug him or to hold onto his arm or hand. This causes Sebek great embarrassment.

Mr. and Mrs. Zigvolt would read to their children before bedtime. They’d take turns reading and alternate doing the characters’ voices.

Despite being a dentist, Mr. Zigvolt offers his children candy when they’re cranky, believing the sugar will help soothe them.

Mr. Zigvolt collects and preserves his children’s baby teeth, treating them like how some parents treat a scrapbook of all their kids’ “firsts” (first step, first word, first solid food, etc.). He keeps his collection in a special drawer and out the sight of any guests.

BAUR IS A GIRLDAD 💀 He interrogates Mr. Zigvolt at every gathering like he’s grilling a suspect in a high level murder case. Not accepting criticism/j

Baur makes it a point to grip Mr. Zigvolt’s hand super hard when they’re shaking in order to assert dominance.

THAT SHREK 2 DINNER SCENE EXCEPT IT’S THE ZIGVOL t fAmILY 🤡

[scliffe]

Debated whether to talk about this or not but some time ago I read this post regarding the Real Ciel Mastermind Theory/RCMT; [thank you to the person who sent me the link!] and as much as I appreciate the details to the theory I have to say that… I hope it’s not true;;; mainly because it doesn’t appeal to me emotionally.

Personally, I think it would be more interesting if our Ciel is forced to battle the twin brother that he loved—and still loves even now—instead of a yandere twin brother who had betrayed him from the start. The one he’s fighting with currently seems no better than an unfeeling zombie—a lifeless thing wearing the same face and having the same memories and maybe some desires but not the same feelings—but I wish to see perhaps some emotional turmoil for our Ciel to go through with re-killing his brother; I think it would be interesting!

Of course; not that our Ciel ever has any real choice since the start—R!Ciel requires the sacrifices of countless lives in order to sustain his; he is dead, he will eventually die again and there is no point in delaying the inevitable—Ciel knows what he must do as the Queen’s watchdog and as a Phantomhive, but I want it to be somewhat—at least a little—difficult and melancholic for him to pull the trigger anyway.

R!Ciel being the mastermind of the Phantomhive massacre would of course carry a different kind of pain and anguish for our Ciel, but the dilemma it presents would only be a repetition of the Red Butler arc—Ciel having to kill or bring to justice an evil family member. Instead, it removes the moral greyness of Ciel stealing his brother’s identity—because his brother had already betrayed him first and never deserved the title of the heir anyway. It also feels a little cliche to me—the underdog youngest son turns out to be the better heir while the star eldest child turns out to be a disappointment.

For my part; I tend to think that R!Ciel is often judged way more harshly by the readers in comparison to our Ciel or even Sebastian; especially in regard to his outright hostility towards Sebastian—which I honestly think makes perfect sense since Sebastian… ate him and played doll with his corpse in front of his traumatized little twin brother?

And I understand that the Bizarre Dolls are soulless since they could be revived even after their souls were collected by a grim reaper or eaten by a demon; but I still also sort of hope that part of R!Ciel’s “feelings” for his twin brother would still remain in him after all.

I love my little twins; I am terribly excited for their confrontation and showdown—and I don’t wish for it to be quite as black-and-white as Ciel killing the “evil mastermind” who caused the death of his whole family; I hope to see Ciel kills his beloved brother; and we know that Ciel blamed himself for Sebastian taking his brother’s soul back then—but this time he will be directly responsible for R!Ciel’s second death. So I wish that Yana will instead, put emphasis on how close they used to be and how deeply they loved each other—as well as how unfair it was that their innocence were ripped apart in such a brutal way. I want neither of them to be responsible for what befell themselves.

[nataliaphantomhivesblog]

Hi there!

I have a request for a Viscount Druitt (Black Butler) analysis.

I've never seen an in depth analysis on his character before and would be curious to hear your thoughts.

Feel free to deny/ignore this ask if you aren't comfortable with it.

Hello! Just wanted to say thanks for enjoying my analysis enough to trust me with a character deep dive!

I’ll be honest, Viscount Druitt isn’t a character I can analyze in great depth, given how little canon material we have on him. However, I feel like i can make a hopefully well thought out piece with what we have of him so, i can only wish you a happy reading as we get into this!!

Also I want to point out: I do NOT endorse Viscount's character or his actions, I believe it is still valuable to analyze his character. This is done out of respect for Yana Toboso's writing, which intentionally crafts such figures to critique real-world systems and moral decay. Exploring characters like Druit can open up meaningful discussion about power, vanity, corruption, and societal rot, especially when viewed through a psychological or literary lens.

Aleister Chamber is a walking contradiction: charming yet predatory, elegant yet grotesque.

So Aleister Chamber, famously known as Viscount Druitt, is presented to us as an incredibly conceited and arrogant individual with an inflated sense of self-importance, often given to theatrical and exaggerated outbursts.

The Viscount's literal introduction to the series is as a part-time semi-antagonist for our earl and butler. He was suspected as Jack the Ripper, so o!Ciel and Sebastian go undercover to catch him.

We quickly find out the messed up part of this character, as o!Ciel had to literally "lure" Druitt by flirting with him, quickly gaining the man's attention.

May I remind you all, o!Ciel is 13 years old and even if he's crossdressing, he clearly looks like a child, Druitt finds the "girls" youthful apparence much more appealing.

At o!Ciel's insistance, Aleister guides him to a concealed room, where he releases a soporific gas that causes the kid to lose consciousness.

It is then revealed that Aleister is a host and important piece for underground auctions, he addresses the crowd, unveiling our earl bound and blindfolded, as the highly anticipated item up for bid.

He presents various disturbing options: the "girl" could be kept in a cage, toyed with, used in a ritual, or even dismembered and sold piece by piece, depending on the buyer's desires.

As we know, Viscount is proven to not being Jack the Ripper, yet his "hobby" doesn't get him off the hook, he's still a clearly horrible person. I personally think he's a personafication of the corrupt aristocracy of Victorian society.

Even after being arrested for his heinous crimes, Viscount Druit manages to buy his way out of legal consequences. This detail, while frustrating, feels intentional.

Rather than being a narrative oversight, it serves as a sharp critique of the Victorian nobility’s corruption: a class drenched in power and wealth that even the gravest crimes can be brushed aside through bribery and influence.

Anyways, Druitt is revealed to be a judge in the curry fair, he gives very theatrical and dramatic reviews. Sebastian's curry, reminds the Viscount of o!Ciel when he cross dressed to lure him (lol).

And while this bit is funny, i think the fact he's rambling about a young "girl" he literally drugged and attempted to sell is well....disturbing.

The fact that he speaks of this memory so fondly and publicly without recognizing its horror highlights how morally bankrupt and deluded he is.

Yana Toboso plays this for dark comedy, but beneath the humor is a chilling commentary on how trauma and abuse can be minimized or romanticized in elite circles.

amidst the theatricality of Viscount Druit’s judging, there's a brief, easily overlooked panel where o!Ciel visibly shudders at Druit’s offhand comment about the “beautiful girl” from a past party.

To readers familiar with the context, this moment is chilling: o!Ciel is reminded, in public and without warning, of a time when he was drugged, bound, and nearly sold into human trafficking.

While Druit reminisces with comical flair, o!Ciel’s body language signals genuine distress.

And I think it's very important that yana's writing style ties comedy with deep layers of darkness with sometimes even foreshadowing.

comedic moment that serves as a nod to foreshadowing a dark event e.g n1:

From this comedic moment of Agni’s over-the-top devotion to the prince:

To Agni genuienly risking his life for him:

Comedic moment that sets up as a dark reality e.g n2:

from this cute and silly pannel of o!Ciel finding out Santa isn't real:

Jumping to o!Ciel relating this story to him renouncing his faith in God due to the abuse him and his brother have endoured:

So back to it, Viscount's over the top and whimsicaly funny jokes come with a dark or disturbing price.

Although these exaggerated outburts are meant to be portrayed as humorous, it is important to consider the context behind them, here's an example of one of Druitt's "funny" moments:

That wierdly drawn out of pocket sexual scene of Harcourt shitting his pants, I’m still convinced to this day that Druitt was the one who saw Harcourt’s... “issue” in an erotic and overly romanticized way.

That’s why there’s that little image of him putting on his glasses to get a closer look, blushing as he comments on how “nice” this implied 13- or 14-year-old boy is.

Maybe im reaching but, it frames Harcourt’s incredibly vulnerable situation through an oddly romanticized and sexualized lens, and it makes so much sense for this to be especially from Druitt's perspective.

Aleister views people: especially women and underage individuals he finds attractive, as objects for entertainment or exploitation. I feel like this "comedic" moment captures that disturbing element.

Despite his outward charm and refinement, he is ultimately seen as a fool by the major characters in the series:

Francis, who possesses keen intuition (her dislike towards Sebastian as an example) and a strong aversion to men who cause trouble, clearly dislikes him and harbors deep distrust toward him.

Sebastian, o!Ciel, Grell, and Ronald—three of whom are supernatural beings—harbor such intense annoyance toward Viscount Druit that they openly express a desire to kill him.

What’s particularly intriguing is that Undertaker, a character known for his discerning eye, disdain for shallow aristocracy, and preference for the "beautiful" dead, actually vouches for Druit, even going so far as to physically protect him.

While characters like Sebastian, Grell, Ronald, and Ciel express open contempt and even murderous annoyance toward the viscount, Undertaker finds him amusing enough to keep alive.

But then begs the question, why would Undertaker want to keep such a grotesque, ridiculous, aristrocrat alive?

Well, he answers this question, in a way:

Undertaker might see Druit as a kind of walking joke, a grotesque caricature of the rotting nobility, and thus a living symbol of everything that’s wrong with Victorian society.

Much like someone keeping a grotesque but rare artifact, Undertaker could find Druit’s unique blend of foolishness, depravity, and theatricality too entertaining to discard.

Ultimately, this odd dynamic invites us to question how value is measured in the eyes of someone like Undertaker, and whether entertainment, unpredictability, or strategic utility can outweigh morality: even when it involves a man as loathsome as Aleister Druit.

So here he goes again, Druit goes scot-free despite deserving harm and this time, without bribes.

Yana Toboso portrays Druit not merely as comic relief or a grotesque semi-antagonist, he symbolizes the moral rot hidden behind polished high-society refinement. The ease with which he evades justice reflects the systemic protection of the elite.

His survival may not be justified within the story morally—but it is realistic in the most infuriating way. The same way he didn't face consequences for literal human trafficking.

All in all, Alister is the embodiment of everything rotten about the elite class: vain, self-obsessed, theatrically ignorant, and wildly disconnected from reality.

Through Druit, Toboso satirizes how aristocrats in Victorian England (and honestly, still today) could commit horrifying acts with impunity, so long as they maintained the appearance of class and contributed to elite social circles. He exists in a decadent bubble, where wealth and name shield him from accountability.

He’s not punished by the system: he is the system.

Druit’s involvement in the human auction, where children and women are sold as commodities, is not just a plot device, it’s a bold commentary on the historical reality of how vulnerable groups are exploited by the rich.

Even more disturbing is how no one in his social circle seems surprised or outraged, and when he’s arrested, he simply bribes his way out.

The narrative reflects the painful truth that many real-world abusers and traffickers in high places face little or no consequence, especially when they wear the mask of civility.

Despite openly committing horrible crimes and being disliked by virtually every major character (many of whom are supernatural beings who could end him instantly), Druit keeps popping back up—alive, free, and more absurd than ever.

Even Undertaker, a character who sees the beauty in death and the flaws of the living, finds Druit too entertaining to kill. This isn’t mercy: it’s mockery.

It suggests that Druit is so pathetic, so far gone, that death would be too serious a punishment for him. He is the walking punchline to a cruel joke about power, survival, and the failure of justice.

In keeping Druit alive, the narrative emphasizes the horror of normalized corruption: we laugh at him, recoil at him, and yet... he persists. And that’s the point.

Viscount Druit may be ridiculous, but he is far from harmless. He is a grotesque exaggeration of very real societal failures: how power shields predators, how appearances excuse exploitation, and how the worst people often face the fewest consequences.

By satirizing him so sharply, Yana Toboso doesn’t excuse his existence: she condemns the world that allows it.

Viscount Druit is a flamboyant aristocrat whose vanity and hunger for admiration hides a hollow, dangerous core. His character critiques both the performative nature of high society and the moral rot hidden beneath its polished surface.

He is ridiculous, vile, and ultimately pitiful: a useful minor villain who reinforces the series’ darker themes through satire and shock.

Andddd that's all folks, thanks for reading! :)

[yuurei20]

Hi, I'm working on a theory for Ramshackle and MC. Have the creators said why Queen of Hearts/Scar/etc. were chosen for the Great Seven? ((Also, why did MC become the prefect of Ramshackle and not the Housewarden?))

Hello hello!! Thank you for this question, it became a rabbit hole!

Yana had this to say about the villains who were used for inspiration (from the game guide):

"The number one reason is that they are all from 'masterpieces with which everyone is familiar'. They are all legendary—you need only say the movie titles and the characters come immediately to mind.

Since they are also legends in their own right, we thought it would be good to choose stories with a long history, and that is how we settled on these seven.

There are many other movies with fascinating villains, so it was a very difficult decision."

-Twst Game Guide (2020)

She also goes into detail about the different eras during which the movies were set, which may also have influenced which were selected! More here! (Youtube)

But there may be more going on than we have been told 👀 There are theories that "death" is another theme that links the dorms together!

All members of the Great Seven were villains that either died in their movies (Scar, Ursula, Maleficent, Jafar (in the second movie), the Evil Queen), or were never alive in the human sense to begin with (Queen of Hearts, Hades).

Death has never been a subtle theme in Twst, with new students at NRC arriving via coffins.

Kalim observes that, with the ceremonial robes they wear to orientation, "it's like we're attending a funeral."

And there are also the ghosts!

While it seems possible to be born as a ghost (according to Crowley and Eliza), Lilia says that ghosts "linger here due to powerful attachments or personal motives...they aren't visible outside of magically suffused locations like Night Raven College," and that they "linger" by choice.

And this brings back to the prefect!

In the manga, all three prefects that we have seen thus far have had names connected to the afterlife:

・Heartslabyul Arc, Enma Yuuken (円満 雄剣): Enma's family name is pronounced the same (the kanji is different) as 閻魔 (Enma), the king of hell in Buddhism. From the Kyoto National Museum website: "The King of Buddhist Hell is Enma, who is also the judge of the afterlife."

・Savanaclaw Arc, Hirasaka Yuuka (比良坂 悠河): "Hirasaka" is written and pronounced the same as the hirasaka of Yomotsu-hira Saka, known as "The Entrance to the Underworld" in Shintoism, explained on Shimane Prefecture's official tourism website: "Yomotsu-hira Saka appears as the boundary between the land of the dead and the land of the living."

・Octavinelle Arc, Mito Yuuta (三途 宥太): "Mito" uses the same kanji as 三途川, the "River of Three Crossings," which is "a mythological river the souls of the deceased must cross by one of three crossing points." Credit to blogger Tansho for the discovery that "River Styx" was changed to 三途川 in the Japanese-language dub of the "Hercules" TV show.

So there is definitely a theme of the prefect filling a role between life and death!

While one theory is that the prefect ended up in Twisted Wonderland after they died (in the manga it is insinuated that all three prefects were hit by vehicles directly before waking up at NRC), another theory is that they're not quite dead yet.

If that is the case then they may be close (Grim wakes them up prematurely, and Crowley says that this is his first time having a student who opened their "gate" (coffin) on their own) and they might just be an astral projection of someone who is between life and death, appearing at the magically suffused location that is NRC.

In other words, a ghost 👀

The manga is following a theme of naming its characters something involving "Yuu" (which is always the students' nickname for them) and "Yuu" is also commonly adopted as the default-name for the game's prefect.

Another word that involves a "Yuu" sound is 幽霊 (Yuurei), which means: ghost :>

(Hence the name of this blog! It is the very chuunibyou name of a twitter account I made in 2018 to complain about my job. This potential connection to Twst was completely unintentional and makes me laugh.)

As for why the prefect was named Prefect of Ramshackle dorm instead of Housewarden: I am not sure! But it seems to have something to do with the unique situation that is the prefect's role.

They have not technically been assigned to the overseeing of the dorm as a whole, just to Grim, so maybe that is why? :>

And it is particularly interesting as that means that the role of Housewarden of Ramshackle Dorm is still open--maybe to be filled some day...? 👀

[darkspellmaster]

I have a couple questions if you don’t mind?

1. Why do you ship Lizzy n ciel?/gen. I personally don’t ship them since they’re cousins and it could be considered a proship based on that-

2. Do you believe in the r!ciel is the mastermind theory?/gen

As interesting as it is, I don’t personally believe in it. But I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

I'm gonna answer two first because I thought a lot about it.

2. I think R!Ciel is and isn't the mastermind. What I mean is that I think he was part of the reason for the death of Vincent and Rachel, and why it happened, but he's also the victim of his own hubris and his actions as a child.

I honestly believe that R!Ciel has some sort of brother complex with O!Ciel. Every line he says regarding O!Ciel has an undercurrent of something being not okay with him allowing his brother space to be his own person. He's codependent in a lot off ways. When O!Ciel said he should play with Lizzie, R!Ciel basically told him he'd rather stay in and play with him. The going to the lake, it was clear that R!Ciel wanted to stay home too and felt sad when told to go with the family to have fun. He goes out of his way to get him stuff to help his cough (though that could also be him trying to make O!Ciel sick, but I doubt that), and we've seen that he insists on taking pictures and doesn't like it when O!Ciel leaves his side. The two biggest ones though is the Chapter where Dee is making food with R!Ciel and Vincent and when Vincent mentions Weston and having house brothers, R!Ciel gets this look in his eyes that is just blackness as he says that he doesn't want fake brothers. Then there was his whole freak out when O!Ciel told him he wanted to be a toy shop owner in London and insisted that he was going to do it too. My honest to god guess is that R!Ciel was convinced somehow, probably at a party, that the best thing to do was get rid of his father so that he could be Earl and order O!Ciel to stay with him. As he told O!Ciel even if he has Lizzie there he would rather be with him. Because Sebastian, the dog, was tied up, I think it would have had to have been R!Ciel, or someone the dog trusted and clearly he was locked up so he wouldn't be hurt. This is where I think R!Ciel comes in for being the Mastermind. My guess is that after his talk with Rachel, he realized that the only way to get what he wanted was to get his father out of the picture. He probably didn't want his mother to die, but she seems to have gotten in the way of the attack. I don't think he killed the dog either. What I think is that our main big bad came up with a way to kidnap Vincent, or told R!Ciel that was the plan, or at the very least intended to harm Vincent. The deal probably was that the person would make sure he and his brother would be together forever. So R!Ciel agreed, let the persons in, after locking up the dog, and probably attacked Tanaka when Tanaka caught him and realized what was going on. The person I think behind all of this is Viscount Druitt. He's in every important arc, either in person, a part of it, or mentioned. In the Red butler arc he was a suspect, in Curry arc he's a judge, in the Campania arc he's part of the Aurora society and tries to become an emperor. In Weston he's the way that Derrek Arden is alive. In the Green Witch he's show to be a Prefect and went to school with Vincent, Dee and the mysterious Violet House Prefect. (By the way Yana tends to like to hide things behind word balloons I've noticed or covering the eyes). We haven't seen him in the Blue Revenge or Blue Memory arc yet, but he'll likely show up at some point. So my money is on him manipulating everything from behind the scenes for some reason. 1. There's a lot of reasons I ship Lizzie and Ciel. The main one being I actually like how their personalities click. Ciel respects and cares about Lizzie. He's amazed by her and probably was a bit jealous of his twin due to their relationship, though he never seemed to show it. We know Ciel can get upset and jealous when it comes to Lizzie as he broke a damn vase when he couldn't draw her into the show. He's gone back for her and protected her a number of times: The bear, and the boat are the top two in the manga. Plus standing up for her at other points too.

Not only that but he also helped her to come out of her shell after the Campania and be her strong self as well. He lets her hug him and Sebastian pointed out that he only sleeps well when she's around.

Lizzie has shown protection for him too. In the Campania, rooting for him during the cricket match. And in the Demon Six issue she fought with Charles Grey to stop him from going after Ciel. So we know that she cares deeply about him. She brings out the best in O!Ciel and in turn he brings out the best in her.

Another reason I'm okay with the shipping is that traditionally in nobility it was common place to marry your first cousin. Queen Victoria and her husband Albert were first cousins. Several members of the royal family have married distant cousins over the years, even the late Queen Elizabeth and her husband prince Phillip were cousins. So that isn't something that bothers me. The way I see it it's following the tradition and it makes sense for the siblings to have Lizzie be with R!Ciel since the boy doesn't seem to be able to defend himself very well . And it would make sense for Lizzie to protect O!Ciel from others due to his illness. She nearly beat Sebastian until he had to go harder on her and she held up to one of his punches well enough that she was able to speak before passing out. The Girl broke glass with her sword going through it! I think she'd be a good defender to him. Lastly, I sort of see the pairing as maybe yana's way of doing the snow Queen. In a side chapter we've already seen Lizzie as Gerta, who is looking for her best friend Kai, who was taken by the snow Queen. Kai in this case, is Ciel, and the Queen is Sebastian. If you know anything about the story then you know that part of the tale is about two friends growing up to be adults through various adventures to find one another. Or Gerta to find Kai. Also Ciel has the mark on his right eye, the same place the Queen put an ice shard in Kai's eye to make him follow her. There's also the fact that Sebastian calls her the child of the sun, and one of the aspects about her is that Lizzie melts Ciel. So that's another reason why I ship them. As for the pro vs anti shipping thing, I tend to stay out of it. I'm not a fan of Ciel x Sebastian because he's a demon that wants to eat him, and it's strange to pair them up. But I'm not going to dictate to anyone who they can and can't ship. I'm very old school in the ship and let ship mindset. If I'm not a fan of the pairing I just move on, unless the story is just that good and then I'll skip over the pairing I don't like. Simple as that. I have nothing against people that don't like the Lizzie x Ciel pairing, just as I hope others don't have issue with my liking of it. Hope that answers your questions.

[doctorofmagic]

Hiii ✨️

My bf is interested in starting to read comics with Magik but it's not easy at all to navigate through the X-men universe... do you happen to have a few suggestions for comics that feature Magik as (one of the) main character(s)? I know her only through cameos so I'm no expert on her character. Thank you 💕

Helloooo!!

Suuuure, I can always recommend some books that are easier to read and feature our beloved daughter 🖤

Origins: Magik Mini-series (1983) #1-4 New Mutants: Dead Souls (2018) #1-6 Savage Avengers (2019) #12-16 New Mutants (2019) #25-28 (labors of Magik arc) Midnight Suns (2022) #1-5 What If Magik Became Sorcerer Supreme + Doctor Strange: The End (alt reality, I know, but it's Stephen and Yana's father/daughter bond at its best so...) And lastly her newest book that just launched last month!

Then I'd recommend New Mutants v1 after the previous ones. It's a harder reading because it's considered old style, but I really love this book and how it depicts their bonds. Those are the ones I judge easier to navigate through the X-Men universe, but there are certainly way more. I'd also recommend the amazing @dailydamnation for everything Magik related in case you need guidance and more recs! Honestly the best Magik blog in this hellsite.

I hope these are good enough for a start, wishing you and your bf a wonderful new experience ✨

[bookmuseum]

[REVIEW] Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

5/5 stars (★★★★★)

"Come, I think hell's a fable." (II.i.128)

Aside from surface-level knowledge of Faustian contracts and an admittedly fervid appreciation for Yana Toboso's Black Butler manga (:3), I didn't know a lot about the myth of Faust and the history behind its many retellings, -- nor have I read the Thomas Mann version(s) or the Goethe plays -- so I did a lot of preliminary research before I actually dove right into it. The 1604 play ended up being one of the funniest things I've ever read in a long time. For that reason, this review is extremely short, unserious, and mostly just me reviewing the Broadview second edition edited by Michael Keefer that I used as a copy.

Basically, I regret reading Doctor Faustus for the first time with Broadview because, while it was informative and incredibly detailed (I'm a little concerned for Keefer's scholastic sanity), I wish I just read the play on its own with few to little annotations and context. I liked reading about Christopher Marlowe in the introduction. I had zero idea that homeboy was a spy and got murdered for it at only 29 years of age. I wish we knew more about him, I would've loved to read more about what crazy shit he got into as a political dissident in Elizabethan England. That sounds so kickass.

The story of DF itself is really short (shorter than most Shakespeare plays). Keefer's annotations and footnotes took up 70% of the space on the pages, so I'd read about 20ish lines then spend the next 5-10 minutes reading over what he had to say about them in painstaking detail. I read every annotation! Broadview prides itself on being exhaustive for the sake of maximized education, which I commend, but I think I underestimated myself when I thought I needed this much context to "understand" this classic play. If you know the basics of Greek/Roman mythology, post-Lutheran Christian doctrine, and Elizabethan English society + playwrights in general, (so essentially what they teach you about Shakespeare in high school) I'd say you're solid and don't really need the Broadview text (unless you want to really get into it).

For me, I just wanted to read the play casually so I didn't pay too much attention to the footnotes and forced myself not to go too deep down the research rabbit hole. I unfortunately forgot an important rule with literature in that a text's reputation is never as solemnly serious as it ever is in popular culture, so don't let it "scare" you into thinking you don't know anything going into it. I'm not an Elizabethan scholar nor do I really like Early Modern English literature all that much, so I thought I needed to know more than what I already did. I was wrong! I could've read DF when I was just starting to get into classic lit in Grade 9 and I still would've enjoyed it as is. It's not this impregnable, impossible to fathom text. It's so silly!

I get that this play is a tragedy and everything, but it genuinely did make me laugh out loud a handful of times. I was a graduate student too and, while I don't have my PhD in divinity, I kinda get how Faustus ended up summoning the devil in his college dorm/study one day for the fuck of it. Like yeah, what the hell, sure. When the iconic Mephistopheles shows up, Faust basically tells him he looks too ugly for his eyes so he has to change into a more palatable form -- and Mephi does it! That was so funny. I ship Faustus and Mephi, I don't care. I don't wanna go into it too much, but just know I'm not alone in my delusion and have spent a significant amount of time going back and forth between reading what people had to say about #Faustupheles on the internet and actually reading the play. I had a grand old time, I'll have you know.

Anyway, I opted out of reading Appendix C and D because they seemed boring to me so I can't judge them or their merit here. Appendix A and B, I did read though. I really enjoyed Keefer's inclusion of excerpts from The Historie of the damnable life, and deserved death of Doctor John Faustus (1592) (or The English Faust Book AKA TEFB) edited by John Henry Jones in 1994. I read it immediately after finishing the main play and was delighted the second time around looking back on the plot (although there were some changes in the TEFB that didn't hit as well).

[followthechick]

Random headcanons on the Weston boys

Okay since Weston anime is out, I’ll be sharing some headcanons I’ve collected during 10+ years of being obsessed with this saga and its characters.

I’ve been so invested into these headcanons that I consider them to be canon at this point. Anyway please don’t be mad if they don’t match your personal headcanon, it’s still my own interpretation and silly ideas about characters that don’t belong to me so anyone can disagree.

First I’m gonna write down the ones that involve more than one character, then I’ll be more specific and list them by character.

Brace yourselves for a pile of totally self-indulging blabbering.

Lawrence and Edgar are canonically childhood friends (Yana confirmed it), I like to think they grew up together thanks to their mothers being best friends with each other.

While Lawrence and Edgar already knew each other since birth, they met Herman and Gregory during their first year at Weston.

Because of the rivalry, friendship between students from different dorms has always been rather frowned upon, so the boys decided to put all their efforts in becoming the best students of their respective dorm to one day become Prefects and be free to meet and be friends without being judged by other students.

To freely chat and keep in contact prior to becoming P4, they secretly exchanged letters hidden among the library’s textbooks.

While we know Lawrence has 7 sisters, Edgar and Herman don’t have any sibling, while Gregory has an older brother. He’s doesn’t talk about him often as they’re not very close and don’t get along well.

Gregory met Cheslock while he was at his 3rd year (Cheslock is one year younger). They often spent their free time in their dorm’s common room, Cheslock would practice violin and Gregory would silently sit near him while drawing. One day he made a portrait of Cheslock and left it near him as a gift with the encouraging inscription “Keep playing”. The next day Cheslock asked him if he had any request for him on what to play, and that’s how they started talking to each other.

Headcanons by single character

Edgar:

His zodiacal sign is sagittarius

He has a sweet tooth and would live on sweet food alone

His maternal grandmother is french

His noble title comes from his mother, who is a Viscountess and older sister to Viscount of Druitt

He’s either pan or gay

Lawrence:

His zodiacal sign is capricorn

He’s ambidextrous (he usually writes with his right hand but is more comfortable doing other activities with his left one)

His sisters’ names are: Isabel (6 years older than him), Deborah (4 years older than him), Madelyn (2 years older than him), Adela (the only one to have a canonical name, 5 years younger than him), Rebecca (the one who has a crush on Edgar, 7 years younger than him), Rosalind and Amelia (identical twins, 9 years younger than him)

His father is a banker

Pretty sure he’s either ace or gay

Herman:

His zodiacal sign is libra (though I feel like aries might suit him better)

He took after his mother the most

He’s notoriously good at many sports, but he’s not very good at dancing (he’s not graceful enough for that kind of activity)

He’s good at cooking

He’s either a straight ally or a disaster bi

Gregory:

His zodiacal sign is cancer (mayhap also aquarius could suit him tho)

He used to wear charcoal and inks as make-up in his early years at Weston

His father is a politician

He’s kind of a picky eater and doesn’t like meat and seafood

He’s 100000% ace-spec

Cheslock:

His zodiacal sign is scorpio

His iconic “scar” is actually make-up, though beneath it he does have a smaller scar on his left eyelid, which is the result of a quarrel with his sister when they were kids

His father is a surgeon

His full name is Victor Theodore, which he hates

Pretty sure he’s bi

I might add more in the future, though I don’t have many headcanons for other characters but who knows.

Also I’m up for asks to chit chat about what I’ve shared, or for other headcanons o/

[lemon-dokuro]

Continuing to watch Black Butler and... Reapers are really funny. They're just japanese salarymen and office ladies. In the shinigami OVA (Shinigami Will no Monogatari) they show how they operate and it's through this huge bureaucratic office organisation thing. Really funny, especially consideting the setting. They also all wear glasses. Because they're all near-sighted. Because their eyes are magic or something. Their bureaucratic organisation has a whole Glasses Department. Their glasses are all custom-made by one old guy, who's been doing this for at least a hundred years. They get their custom glasses after passing their trainee exam. It's a status symbol. This is moe, in a neutral sense. They're reaping souls with gardening tools as well, no less. Utterly shamelessly anachronistic modern gardening tools in this Victorian England-set show. I dare not ask where they get them. The logic here is understandable (the traditional reaper's scythe is a gardening tool => why not give them different gardening tools to spice it up), but it's really funny. But that's not even it. Very often, they mod their gardening tools. For fun and fashion, probably? They have to get it approved with the scythe approving department (which exists), but apparently it's common to customize them. Having to get it approved first implies an imposed set of restrictions, right? What in the world are they? There's apparently this guy with a modded lawn mower which is 100% rule-compliant. But Grelle's standard regular chainsaw isn't? According to William in his first appearance, it's not. Though, judging by the phrasing (使用許可申請書を提出していない死神の鎌), maybe she just didn't do the paperwork for it and it's a bureaucratic issue.

Toboso Yana. Release the grim reaper death scythe approval criteria list. And the application form too, please. (unless she already did ages ago)

[acideathr]

‧₊˚♪𝄞࿐₊˚⊹ 𝖙𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖜𝖔𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝄞₊ ⊹ 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖌𝖚𝖊 ● 𝖜𝖊𝖑𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖛𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖎𝖓𝖘' 𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖑𝖉 ⤿ 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗼 ● 𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘆 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴

♫ .. “ ... 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 ... “ ★ . •° . －𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘳 ．．• ♡︎

˖ ݁♬⋆.˚𝄞. MIRROR CHAMBER

red headed boy: we’re done with orientation and dorm assignments?

red headed boy: alright, new students — let me be clear. at heartslabyul house, i am the law. break the rules, and it’s off with your head!

boy with lion ears: *yawn* well, that ceremony was as boring as ever.

boy with lion ears: i’m going back to the dorm. if you’re in savanaclaw house, follow me.

boy with glasses: new students! allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your achievement. 

boy with glasses: as dorm leader of octavinelle house, i am honoured to have to opportunity to support you in what i hope will be a fulfilling campus experience.

handsome boy: hey, does anyone know where the headmage went? he disappeared midway through the ceremony…

voice from tablet: some headmage he is.

boy with red eyes: maybe he had a tummyache?

crowley: i most certainly did not!

red headed boy: ah, speak of the devil.

crowley: if you must know, i was searching for the new student who’d failed to show for orientation.

crowley: you are the only one who has yet to be assigned a dorm. step up to the dark mirror, and be quick about it. i’ll watch your weasel.

grim: grrrrr!

the dark mirror: state your name.

yuu: i’m yuu…

the dark mirror: yuu…

the dark mirror: the nature of your soul is…

the dark mirror: ……

the dark mirror: …..

the dark mirror: …unclear to me.

crowley: what did you just say?

the dark mirror: i sense no magical power from this one. soundless. colourless. shapeless. utterly vacant.

the dark mirror: therefore, no dorm would be appropriate.

crowley: are you suggesting that the black carriage went to receive a person who cannot even use magic?

crowley: but that is absurd! the student selection process has not erred once in its century of existence!

crowley: how could this have happened?

grim: mmmph! nnngggh… *GASP!*

grim: ME! let ME have this student’s seat!

crowley: not so fast, you hyperactive weasel!

grim: unlike that human, i can actually use magic! so let me be a student here!

grim: look, i’ll show you! my spells’re the cat’s meow!

red headed boy: everyone, get down! 

grim: myaaahhh!

boy with red eyes: AHHHHH! HELP! i’m on fire over here!

crowley: someone catch that blasted animal before it sets the entire school ablaze!

boy with lion ears: ugh. can i go now, or…?

handsome boy: oh? i thought you fancied yourself a hunter. go and help yourself to that plump little morsel!

boy with lion ears: too much effort. do it yourself. 

boy with glasses: allow me to handle this, headmage crowley.

boy with glasses: if none of you are up to the task of catching a small animal, i will accept the responsibility. 

voice from tablet: WTG azul. rackin’ up those participation credits.

boy with red eyes: hey, um, my butt’s still on fire… could someone maybe put this out?!

crowley: i’m sorry, were my instructions unclear?!

boy with lion ears: *sigh* preeetty sure you can handle catching one mangy weasel all on your lonesome there, headmage.

grim: how many times do i gotts say it?

grim: i’m grim, spellcaster extrodinaire! i am NOT a weasel!

azul: aren’t you a spunky little fellow? riddle, would you be so kind…?

riddle: furry miscreant. i will abide no rule—breaking. you will be judged by my hand.

⭑♪⊹ ࣪ ˖ 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 ⭑♪⊹ ࣪ ˖ 𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁

©𝗖𝗢𝗣𝗬𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 ● @acideathr 2025 ⤿ my work is not yours to take; posting chapters requires significant time and effort. all credit is due to aniplex and yana toboso; show your support by downloading the twisted wonderland. this blog particularly caters to players who cannot access the en game because of their region or those who aren't willing to download the game