Black Butler is Cruel.
Okay, before I start on my tirade I must emphasize something. I grew up on horror. I grew up on a steady diet of Stephen King, Freddy Kruger, Jason Vorhees and Pinhead. I grew up loving R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike and Fear Street. I grew up loving horror like it was my grandma. I love dark themes a lot. So when I say that this series is just plain Cruel that should give you a good perspective on the gravity of this statement.
Alex has been mildly obsessed with this series for a while, though mainly just Sebastian the demon butler. I learned most of the stuff I know about it from her. So I decided I'd take a look at the Noah's Ark story arc, which had some interesting characters in it that I wanted to see in context...... and a really hot scene of Sebastian with Beast, but that's beside the point. (I started this off looking at later chapters out of curiosity, but then found what I was looking for. Elizabeth is Adorable.) So to get some context for anyone who has no idea what I'm babbling about, Ciel Phantomhive is this English Earl and he loses his entire family due to some occulist bastards who then try to use him as a sacrifice, but he makes a pact with a demon, Sebastian, who takes the form of Ciel's late father and then receives the kid's dog's name. The demon's pact is that he gets the kid's soul when the kid has achieved his revenge for the death of his entire family. Fair enough. Sounds interesting. We also get couple of bouncy Indians that are fun, Lady Elizabeth who is Ciel's betrothed and some reapers who use garden tools to reap souls.... and one of them looks like Alfred, which I am consistently amused by. (America from Hetalia.)
So in this arc there are a bunch of children who have gone missing and we have Earl Phantomhive going off to find out who's doing it for the Queen. He and Sebastian join the circus as Black and Smile and Smile is befriended by a kid who calls himself Freckles. And then it turns out she's a girl and she's called Doll by her brothers and sisters. Many of the people in the circus are disfigured in some manner, each wearing prosthetics made of fine bone-china, or what feels like it. These prosthetics move on their own--somehow--and they have full control over them--somehow--in Victorian England. We have the general manager Joker, who is a nice guy with a bone hand prosthetic for stage appeal. We have the lion tamer Beast, who is busty and wears a full leg prosthetic. We have Doll who is a highwire act. We have two people who look like children, but they're adults. We have a strong man in Jumbo. We've got a snake charmer in the snake man... who for some reason speaks for his snakes like Salad Fingers. Each of them is pretty unique and they're a tight knit bunch, so it's really hard to get into their inner circle. They all came from the same place, too. They grew up together.
Well, it turns out they report to their caretaker Father who is Baron Kelvin, a creeptastic madman who wants to be a beautiful doll despite being an overweight, old man. This guy picked up the people of the circus troupe when they were younger and living on the street and in a workhouse. He took them in, clothed and fed them, helped their disfigured bodies and then a doctor gave them prosthetics to use. They then did as he bade them to protect the ones in the workhouse they came from since Baron Kelvin said he would continue helping them if they did whatever he told them to. What did he ask them to do? Kidnap and Murder. They did it. They're not proud of it, but they do it and they're proud of their skills. He has them kidnap children from towns their circus visits and then kill the witnesses to cover their tracks. Afterward they have no idea what happens. They just get the children.
Well, it turns out Mr. Crazy McNutfuck likes to have these children perform circus acts with only one member of the troupe present to play ringmaster: Joker. The kids have no training, they just do as they're told and Die. Meanwhile, Crazy McNutfuck starts howling so badly his bandages start bursting a bit. Howling in Laughter. He wants to be a beautiful doll so that he can touch Ciel, because he's been in love with the aristocracy since he saw the pretty faces of these folk and Ciel's child smile since he saw them. He feels ugly and dirty to be around them so he constantly goes through surgeries to look more beautiful, but he's only constantly disfiguring himself. And what happens to these children when they die? Well, the doctor that's been giving the troupe their prosthetics is the doctor that's been doing the surgeries on Crazy McNutfuck. We'll call him Dr. Frankencreeper. Dr. Frankencreeper goes about taking these dead children or just kills the children outright to grind their bones and make them into the bone china he needs for the prosthetics because human bones are much better than cow bones.
Meanwhile, Joker learns of this and vomits onto the floor as he bleeds from a wound inflicted by Sebastian. Ciel is reminded of the tragedy of his own life and vomits as well before telling Sebastian to kill them all, to which Sebastian complies. Meanwhile, the troupe are going to Phantomhive manor to get Ciel, but they run into the guards and end up getting Slaughtered. Even Beast and Daggers who were both really cool. So Ciel demands that the place be set on fire, so Sebastian sets it on fire. Doll comes running to them and asks what's going on, tries to go in to get Joker, but can't get through the fire. Ciel then tells her promptly that he's lied to her from day one, refuses to answer to Smile and tells her to get the fuck away from him. She doesn't get it, doesn't understand what's going on and Ciel promptly tells her he's been sent to eliminate them all and that he's killed her entire family. Doll properly gets upset and pulls a knife on them and it's implied she died.
We then see the lives these people had before from Joker's life story, about how relieved and happy he was to see his family living happily rather than dying in the gutter like they thought they would. Beast was in love with him, but he never reciprocated her feelings. Instead she had a one night with Sebastian because he seduced her with "sweet words". Doll was quite happy to be around and do her best. Joker tried to protect them all from the horrors he was forced to witness. Daggers was head over heels in love with Beast.
So Ciel goes to where they grew up, to the workhouse they were trying to protect and he plots to have a new donor set up for it. He then finds out that the place has been abandoned for Years and they had no idea. Does he feel the least bit remorseful? Does he feel one iota of sympathy for these poor people who did whatever they could for those they cared for? No. This kid just starts laughing. He's howling in laughter at their misfortune and how they had been duped into thinking that the place they were protecting was real and that the people inside it were alive and well. No, he keeps on laughing and saying how humans are worse than demons and that he is human after all.
I cried. I cried when Doll lost her shit and went after Ciel. I cried when Beast saw she was about to die. I cried when Daggers was dead. I cried for Joker. I cried for the twins. I cried for Jumbo. This kid... I want to kill him with my bare hands now. How sad is it that I sympathize with the villains instead of the protagonist in this? The villains had good reasons for doing the horrors they did, because they just didn't know. Joker alone knew most of what happened minus what went into their prosthetics. He tried his best to protect his family. But Ciel? The kid I felt bad for has become worse than any demon from hell and I don't attribute this to him being human. I attribute this to him being part demon, because no matter how much this kid professes to believe that Justice and Goodness are merely concepts made up by the upper class, he's Wrong.
I like dark stories, but this is just outright cruel. I'm done reading this.
Oh, and of course the yaoi fantards go out of their way to pine for action between the protagonist and his demon butler. The kid can't be more than twelve. HE'S A CHILD. There's a big difference between fantasies and being fucking creepy. But I digress.
Alex has been mildly obsessed with this series for a while, though mainly just Sebastian the demon butler. I learned most of the stuff I know about it from her. So I decided I'd take a look at the Noah's Ark story arc, which had some interesting characters in it that I wanted to see in context...... and a really hot scene of Sebastian with Beast, but that's beside the point. (I started this off looking at later chapters out of curiosity, but then found what I was looking for. Elizabeth is Adorable.) So to get some context for anyone who has no idea what I'm babbling about, Ciel Phantomhive is this English Earl and he loses his entire family due to some occulist bastards who then try to use him as a sacrifice, but he makes a pact with a demon, Sebastian, who takes the form of Ciel's late father and then receives the kid's dog's name. The demon's pact is that he gets the kid's soul when the kid has achieved his revenge for the death of his entire family. Fair enough. Sounds interesting. We also get couple of bouncy Indians that are fun, Lady Elizabeth who is Ciel's betrothed and some reapers who use garden tools to reap souls.... and one of them looks like Alfred, which I am consistently amused by. (America from Hetalia.)
So in this arc there are a bunch of children who have gone missing and we have Earl Phantomhive going off to find out who's doing it for the Queen. He and Sebastian join the circus as Black and Smile and Smile is befriended by a kid who calls himself Freckles. And then it turns out she's a girl and she's called Doll by her brothers and sisters. Many of the people in the circus are disfigured in some manner, each wearing prosthetics made of fine bone-china, or what feels like it. These prosthetics move on their own--somehow--and they have full control over them--somehow--in Victorian England. We have the general manager Joker, who is a nice guy with a bone hand prosthetic for stage appeal. We have the lion tamer Beast, who is busty and wears a full leg prosthetic. We have Doll who is a highwire act. We have two people who look like children, but they're adults. We have a strong man in Jumbo. We've got a snake charmer in the snake man... who for some reason speaks for his snakes like Salad Fingers. Each of them is pretty unique and they're a tight knit bunch, so it's really hard to get into their inner circle. They all came from the same place, too. They grew up together.
Well, it turns out they report to their caretaker Father who is Baron Kelvin, a creeptastic madman who wants to be a beautiful doll despite being an overweight, old man. This guy picked up the people of the circus troupe when they were younger and living on the street and in a workhouse. He took them in, clothed and fed them, helped their disfigured bodies and then a doctor gave them prosthetics to use. They then did as he bade them to protect the ones in the workhouse they came from since Baron Kelvin said he would continue helping them if they did whatever he told them to. What did he ask them to do? Kidnap and Murder. They did it. They're not proud of it, but they do it and they're proud of their skills. He has them kidnap children from towns their circus visits and then kill the witnesses to cover their tracks. Afterward they have no idea what happens. They just get the children.
Well, it turns out Mr. Crazy McNutfuck likes to have these children perform circus acts with only one member of the troupe present to play ringmaster: Joker. The kids have no training, they just do as they're told and Die. Meanwhile, Crazy McNutfuck starts howling so badly his bandages start bursting a bit. Howling in Laughter. He wants to be a beautiful doll so that he can touch Ciel, because he's been in love with the aristocracy since he saw the pretty faces of these folk and Ciel's child smile since he saw them. He feels ugly and dirty to be around them so he constantly goes through surgeries to look more beautiful, but he's only constantly disfiguring himself. And what happens to these children when they die? Well, the doctor that's been giving the troupe their prosthetics is the doctor that's been doing the surgeries on Crazy McNutfuck. We'll call him Dr. Frankencreeper. Dr. Frankencreeper goes about taking these dead children or just kills the children outright to grind their bones and make them into the bone china he needs for the prosthetics because human bones are much better than cow bones.
Meanwhile, Joker learns of this and vomits onto the floor as he bleeds from a wound inflicted by Sebastian. Ciel is reminded of the tragedy of his own life and vomits as well before telling Sebastian to kill them all, to which Sebastian complies. Meanwhile, the troupe are going to Phantomhive manor to get Ciel, but they run into the guards and end up getting Slaughtered. Even Beast and Daggers who were both really cool. So Ciel demands that the place be set on fire, so Sebastian sets it on fire. Doll comes running to them and asks what's going on, tries to go in to get Joker, but can't get through the fire. Ciel then tells her promptly that he's lied to her from day one, refuses to answer to Smile and tells her to get the fuck away from him. She doesn't get it, doesn't understand what's going on and Ciel promptly tells her he's been sent to eliminate them all and that he's killed her entire family. Doll properly gets upset and pulls a knife on them and it's implied she died.
We then see the lives these people had before from Joker's life story, about how relieved and happy he was to see his family living happily rather than dying in the gutter like they thought they would. Beast was in love with him, but he never reciprocated her feelings. Instead she had a one night with Sebastian because he seduced her with "sweet words". Doll was quite happy to be around and do her best. Joker tried to protect them all from the horrors he was forced to witness. Daggers was head over heels in love with Beast.
So Ciel goes to where they grew up, to the workhouse they were trying to protect and he plots to have a new donor set up for it. He then finds out that the place has been abandoned for Years and they had no idea. Does he feel the least bit remorseful? Does he feel one iota of sympathy for these poor people who did whatever they could for those they cared for? No. This kid just starts laughing. He's howling in laughter at their misfortune and how they had been duped into thinking that the place they were protecting was real and that the people inside it were alive and well. No, he keeps on laughing and saying how humans are worse than demons and that he is human after all.
I cried. I cried when Doll lost her shit and went after Ciel. I cried when Beast saw she was about to die. I cried when Daggers was dead. I cried for Joker. I cried for the twins. I cried for Jumbo. This kid... I want to kill him with my bare hands now. How sad is it that I sympathize with the villains instead of the protagonist in this? The villains had good reasons for doing the horrors they did, because they just didn't know. Joker alone knew most of what happened minus what went into their prosthetics. He tried his best to protect his family. But Ciel? The kid I felt bad for has become worse than any demon from hell and I don't attribute this to him being human. I attribute this to him being part demon, because no matter how much this kid professes to believe that Justice and Goodness are merely concepts made up by the upper class, he's Wrong.
I like dark stories, but this is just outright cruel. I'm done reading this.
Oh, and of course the yaoi fantards go out of their way to pine for action between the protagonist and his demon butler. The kid can't be more than twelve. HE'S A CHILD. There's a big difference between fantasies and being fucking creepy. But I digress.