well, well, well...

Let him be a normal guy with good morals who just tries his best at a shitty job he's trapped into, he is so much more relatable like that.

They knew Undertaker became too close to a human family, maybe even made a kid with one if the theory of Undertaker being Vincent's dad is correct.

And a reaper having an affair/child with a human? Forbidden. Unheared of. So they killed them.

Of course they didn't plan for O!Ciel to survive and make a deal with a demon.

But this entire case is kept secret even within the Reaper Association. Only the highest of the higher ups know. They don't want to risk simple employees revolting against them is they learn the Association actually *kills* humans (the very one rule Reapers are not supposed to break).

It would have been so easy to just give him black hair, but idk it makes him more human compared to Sebastian for example. Dark brown hair is more common than pitch black hair, it gives him some dimension that Sebastian, as a demon, doesn't have.

It's like "His hair is very close to be black, but it's actually not quite black" -> He appears to be cold and emotionless but he is still human, and has humans nuances. He's *not quite* the dark and ruthless stereotype, he has more layers than that.

It's like...giving him black hair would have been the version of William Grell thinks he is: mean, cruel, cold...but he actually has dark brown hair. Normal. Not "dark ebony locks that frame his pale skin." Nope. Just regular dark brown hair for a regular office worker that is *not* a dark romance protagonist.

We don't know a lot about the Reapers' lore in Black Butler, so I wanted to write about what we know, what we can analyse and what we can theorise.

Keep in mind that I am going to take all of the information we have about the reapers, including from the musicals, the official arts from Yana Toboso, the OVA "The Tale of Will the Shinigami" the webradio, the character songs, etc.

Also: English is not my first language, so sorry for the mistakes

What we know about the Reapers

What is a Reaper ?

We know from the manga that all Reapers are humans that unalived themselves. Their role is to review humans' memories (represented by what the manga calls "Cinematic Records"), not to send their soul into some kind of good or bad after-life, but to make sure that the human HAS to die, in case they were supposed to change humanity in a good way later in life. If the Reaper considers that the human is "worth saving", then the human can be saved. But it almost never happens. The Reaper has to be impartial in his analysis.

Demons are their natural ennemy, since they eat the souls they have to protect/collect. However, according to the Kuroshitsuji Web-Radio, fighting demons is not really part of their job. William says that if there had to be a video game about Reapers, it would be a work simulator game, with points whenever the player collects a soul. Fighting demons would be more like a bonus stage.

Reapers are of course able to defeat demons if needed. They are trained to fight, but being a good fighter is not mandatory (Othello, for example, cannot fight.) According to Grell, Reapers are naturaly stronger than demons (None of the Reapers are even afraid of demons, including Ronald who is quite unexperienced.)

Since Reapers are all ex-humans, they have feelings, and have to sleep and eat to function (unlike demons). They are however way stronger and resistant than humans, and have immortality. They are not invicible, though: they can be killed by a Death Scythe, or by the Thorns of Death, an illness that Reapers can get if they let the Cinematic Records of a human penetrate them and reach their heart.

Reapers all have greenish eyes and bad eyesight which forces them to wear glasses. They may have the ability to change small details in their appearence such as hair color, but it could also be something that only Grell can do. It's also possible that they all have sharp teeth, but that most of them choose to hide it.

They can choose to appear to humans or not. Humans that are familair with death such as O!Ciel are able to see them, even when they make themseves invisible.

The Shinigami Society and how the system works

Reapers are first trained at the academy, where they learn Ethics, Practical and Theory. To become full Reapers, they have to have at least a B average and pass a final exam that consists in reaping and evaluating a human that is about to pass away. According to William, the true meaning of a Reaper is to learn the value of a human life, but it may be his own personnal opinion.

Reapers can have different functions inside the society: they can go reap souls (Grell, Ronald...), supervise a team (William), work in the science department (Othello), teach at the academy, make the glasses (Lawrence Handersen) and there are also services like Human Ressources (that William hates) and even an Optic service to evaluate eyesight. Their bosses are simply called the "Higher Ups".

Reapers can volonteer to teach young recruits on their own worktime.

The Society has different departments everywhere in the world.

The Reapers all wear a black suit, and each of them carry a Death Scythe. However, they are allowed to custumize both the suit and the scythe, as long as it stays somewhat sober and practical. Some Reapers can negociate to have better custumized scythes if they know the right person within the company (that's what Ronald did to have a lawnmowner)

The Reapers are expected to follow the rules without asking questions. According to the musical and the manga, here are a few:

They must all wear glasses

They must take care of their Death Scythe

Sundry expenses are paid at the end of the month

They must not express their feelings while working

If they see someone handsome, they must consider this encounter as their remunaration (according to Grell, so probably not a real rule)

They have to have a party after work (according to Ronald, so again, probably not a real rule)

They must not kill someone that is not on the Death List

They also have to have discipline, to always be punctual, examplerary, and have a certain etiquette. But that doesn't keep them from all having different personnalities, some more inclined to fit the "cold worker" image than others.

Surprisingly, they don't have to hide their identity to humans, even when they are investigating on a case. Most of them do it because it seems to be the logical thing to do, but there is no rule about that. (William infamously never hides his identity for example while Grell disguised herself as Madam Red's butler.)

If a Reaper desobeys a rule, they can be demoted. They are given a weaker Death Scythe and have to do a desk job for a while. Physical punishment may also be a thing, but it could also just be the way William treats Grell.

They are allowed to have a "life" outside of working. Ronald goes partying basically every evening, and in the Webradio, he keeps saying how he likes to flirt with the girls with his male co-workers (implying that they are allowed to have romance at least with other Reapers.)

They can't quit, but they can desert by leaving/breaking their glasses, like Undertaker. They become outlawed in the eyes of the Society, but keep their Reaper abilities and Scythe.

Reapers earn a salary, but they often have to do unpaid overtime. It is implied that they are not paid well, despite the job being hard and demanding. The headquarters seem to be more modern than the 19th century England setting of the manga, and they also use modern tools. They use pigeons to communicate.

They seem to obey some patriarcal rules, since women are only seen working as secretaries or in the administration, never in the field or higher positions.

2- Theories and headcanons

Who are the Reapers working for ?

We know that Hell is a thing in the Black Butler Universe. If we take into account the non-canon part of the first season, Heaven also exisits. We can theorise that the Reapers are part of some kind of in-between, maybe Limbo.

Imporant detail: the Reapers are called "haken" in japanese, not "employees". "Haken" are workers that an agency sends to a company for a short-term contract. That implies that the Reapers are sent by someone, and are not actually part of the Society. The Society could be led by some entity that is NOT a Reaper, and the Reapers themselves could be sent to work there maybe by Death?

I don't think that Reapers hold a lot of power in the Society, even if they have an higher position than simple workers, like William.

Speaking of William, as a supervisor, he is the one that is trashing on the Society the most, which adds to my theory that the Society doesn't give a lot of credit to the Reapers. I think that the Society is shady as hell, and is hiding something that not even the Reapers know. That may be the reason Undertaker deserted.

The job of a Reaper is anyway pretty pointless as it is, since they are here only to make sure something that never happens (a human being saved) doesn't happen. So...why are the Reapers even here? What purpose to they serve?

Who do they collect souls for...?

Who killed the Phantomhives...?

That is my BIGGEST theory, but what if the reason we know so little about the Reapers is because it's the Society that ordered the death of the Phantomhives? Maybe Yana Toboso is keeping information from us to have a better plot twist?

I mean, it's kind of clear that Undertaker was very close to the Phantomhives. What if this proximity was seen as dangerous by the Society, and they decided to kill them?

Redemption ?

It is never clearly stated that Reapers can be redeemed if they work hard enough. They are punished because they cheated Death (in a way) for unaliving themselves, but it is not said that they can eventually rest in peace.

I think that the Society WANTS the Reapers to think they can be redeeemed to make them work hard, but that it's actually not the case (or maybe very rarely). William implies it in his character song, when he says that he will basically drown himself under work and embrace his solitude forever. (Maybe he wanted to become a supervisor to have a better chance to be redeemed only to understand that...there is no redemption.)

Reapers eyes and glasses

There is definitly something with Reapers and eyes. It's the only trait they have that seperate them from looking like regular humans. I think that their eyes are made to see the invisible (Death, souls...) and therefore, are not good at seeing the living world. As if their eyes were the proof that they don't belong to the world of the living anymore. So, in order to see "the real world" correclty, they have to wear glasses. I also think the glasses, in a way, help them hide their emotions. I know for a fact that I feel way more vulnerable when I don't have my glasses on. They may be wearing them like a mask, to stay detached.

Glasses could also be a way to protect them from always having to see demons and other dark entities, like in JJK.

Why do Reapers have to stay cold?

As I said, Reapers are expected to be cold, detached, and to not feel anything. But I wonder if it's actually part of the rules, or if it's a non-official rule that the Reapers created themselves to protect themseves from the Thorns of Death.

As we saw in "The Tale of Will the Reaper", the Cinematic Records can penetrate a Reaper if they show some kind of vulnerability. Then, they force the Reaper to feel for the human they are reaping, until those memories reach their heart and kill them slowly. It would make sense that the "no feelings at work" rule comes from more experienced Reapers, as an advice for younger recruits, and not as an official rule from the Higher-ups.

Reapers and aging

I think that Reapers do age, but very slowly. There is at least a notion of aging within the Society, since all of the Reapers at the academy seem to be younger than the more experienced ones. Lawrence Handersen for example is seen as an older Reaper, and he definitely aged between the time William and Grell passed their exam, and the current time of the manga. Grell and William themselves seem somewhat older from their academy years. Ronald, a young recruit, also looks way younger than Grell and William, and even points out that Grell is "old". William also seems to have aged between his first appearence in the Jack the Ripper arc and the last time we saw him (he is seen having slight expression lines) but it could just be Yana Yoboso improving her style.

I think Reapers all start as older teenagers (even if they died older, they get back to looking somewhat 17). They then age very slowly. I theorise William and Grell to look in their early 30's in the current time of the manga (they seem "mature" enough to not be considered as young adults) so we can say that they age around 15 years each century (Their exam took place around 100 years before the events of the manga).

Just like humans, some look "older' than their age (William and Grell are the same age in Reapers years but William looks older, probably dued to stress). It could also be possible that a Reaper that died older will age faster.

The reason why they all start as older teenager and not as the age they were when they died is because it is easier for the Society to evaluate the level of experience of each Reaper like that. It would be harder to track if, for example, a new Reaper looked 67 while an older one looked 25.

This aging process could imply that they can eventually die from old age, at around 500 years old. That could also mean that they can retire, which checks up with what Alan and Eric say to Grell in the musical (something like "We can't wait for you to retire").

Reapers live out of time

Reapers seem to use tools and suits from different time period. I personnaly think that the Shinigami realm is located out of time and space, in some kind of dimension where they have access to technologies from different times.

Reapers and gender identity

This headcanon is very specific because Grell exists. William and Ronald often complain about her, but they never make any kind of remark regarding her gender (or her preference for men). William is mostly annoyed by her lack of regard for the rules (and dress code), and he hates that she shows affection to Sebastian because he's a demon, not because he's a man. I personnaly think that Reapers are able to see souls. One of the thing they have to learn, is that the soul prevails the body, therefore what matters is that Grell's soul is that of a woman, regardless of her biological male body.

I can't belive I'm creating a tumblr just for that, but I love this character so much and I feel like I'm going crazy with the fandom's mischaracterization of him.

1/ William is a workaholic who always follows the rules

No. He HATES overtime. There is not a single one of his appearance in the manga or anime where he doesn't complain about that. In the Circus Arc, he makes it clear that all that matters to him is to finish on time and REST.

In "The Tale of Will the Shinigami", he tells the young recruits that they can ask him question only until 5.30pm, because he ends his shift at 6. Plus, we also see in this OVA that he is NOT an overachiever. He had B average where he had the potential to do better. He simply does the bare minium (and I suspect him also to never be at his full potential when we see him fight in the manga.)

William is dedicated. He takes his job as a reaper seriously because he canonically values human life. If he works hard, it's to protect the balance between life and death, NOT for the Shinigami company (have you seen how much he complains about HR? The man hates the Shinigami working system.)

We see in the Circus Arc that he stayed longer than needed in the circus because he didn't want to leave if Sebastian was still around. Despite having said how much he hated to work at the circus, and how much he hated having to share a space with a demon, he stayed to protect.

So why did he become a manager if he hates working more (and doesn't seem to be craving power) ?

I think there can be sereval explanations:

As soon as he passed his exam and realised the true value of a human soul, he started to work harder to be able to better help the souls

He has trauma since what happened with Thomas' memories, so he worked hard to become a manager and have a desk job. He hates having to reap souls, as he is not detached enough, unlike what he says.

He thought that becoming a manager would get him closer to redemption, only to realise that it would probably never come, which led him to hate the company.

He was simply the only one competent enough to be a manager, and did not have the choice but to accept.

Now, about his "stick to the rules" personnality:

He is strict when it comes to the rules because breaking them leads to more overtime. But when a rule is not clearly stated or if he thinks it's stupid, he won't hesitate to break it (for example, he famously never hides his Shinigami nature.). William seems to follow his own moral compass or values more than some arbitrary rules. He is actually very free-spirited.

1/ William is emotionless and cold

Ok, he acts cold. But it is clearly a facade. First of all, someone who is actually cold and uncaring would not have to remind themselves to be cold and uncaring. Grell, who is a character who actually doesn't care about others, doesn't need to remind herself to stay detached.

William cares about others. That's why he needs to stay as detached and emotionless as possible.

In "The Tale of Will the Shinigami", he volonteers to mentor the young recruits (unlike Grell who did it only to spend time with William.). Quick reminder: William is someone who hates having to work more than he has too. Yet he volonteered to teach the new reapers.

In the same episode, he helps Thomas to improve his writing. He actually takes the time to read his novel and give him a constructive review, while he knew he was going to die probably before being edited.

At the end of the episode, he states that a true reaper has to understand the value of a human life (which makes sense, considereing the fact that reapers are humans who unalived themselves). William cares about the souls.

The most obvious evidence that he cares is his hate towards demons. He says that he finds their way of praying on humans' weaknesses disgusting. The other reapers (Grell, Ronald...) seem to just think of demons as there natural enemies. William is the only one to hate them on a personnal level . He is also the one who states that what Sebastian did to Beast was r*pe, or at least SA, even if she did not say no. He understands consent.

Still in the Circus Arc, at least in the French version (I am French, bonjour), William agrees to share information with Sebastian and Ciel only because "evil has already been done", referring to the death/disapearence of the kids.

Now let's look at the way the other Shinigami treat him: Grell, of course, is obessessed with him. Ronald, a young reaper, acts very casual around him (he is not intimidated or scared). In the musical "The Most Beautiful Death in the World", all the Shinigami seem to act as a team, and William is not treated different because he's the manager. William is even the one who assigned Eric to take care of Alan, because he knew the two were close. In the web radio that William and Ronald hosted together, their conversations are very banter-y. No power balance, Ronald chats with William as an equal, even if William often acts sarcastic. Ronald seems to take his degrading comments as playful banter. William even says that Ronald is efficient, if only he was more dedicated to the job and less of a womanizer.

Yes, William is far from warm towards his co-workers, often calling them stupid and lazy. But let's keep in mind of how SERIOUS he is about being a reaper (either because he cares about souls or because he wishes to end his punishment). William seems to be more the "strict but fair" type of manager, sometimes sarcastic with zero patience than the cold, emotionless bastard many people in the fandom think he is.

3/ William is abusive, especially towards Grell

I will never get why the fandom likes to paint Grell as the victim that much. I have nothing against Grell, but come on.

Grell is a serial killer. Yes she had her reasons and so on, but she literally is Jack the Ripper. She killed innocent women that were not on the list for very mysoginistic reasons. Not only it is morally awful, but it's also the worse thing a Shinigami can do. And as stated earlier, William canonically cares about human life. Worse: he understood the value of human life during his exam WITH GRELL. And cherry on the top, he found Grell flirting with a demon. Of course he's going to be mad.

William always has a reason to be violent with Grell. (I'm not saying what he does is good, but it's him being defensive, not abusive). She has been borderline SA-ing him every day at work for at least a century ("The Tale of Will the Shinigami" takes place about 100 years before the current time of the manga). Plus, his violence is played in a cartoonish way, never in a serious way. The "strict, serious character" beating up the "flamboyant, stupid character" is a very common trope in mangas, always played for comic relief. Look at how the manga portrays real abuse, VS how William hitting Grell is portrayed. Plus, let's not forget Grell is a reaper. She has supernatural resistence and strenght. She won't be hurt easily, and I'd argue that William never hit her to truly, badly hurt her. Even during the Jack the Ripper arc, Grell doesn't act the same way at all when Sebastian hits her (with the goal to kill her) than when William does (with the goal to punish her).

I've even seen people saying that William is transphobic and I don't think it makes sense at all. There is not one character in the manga who refers to Grell as a woman (probably because of the time period, both in the manga and the real world when it was written). Grell herself never gets mad when someone uses he/him pronouns on her or call her "sir". I won't get into details about how Grell's gender identiy is depicted, but it's a complex matter that cannot be summed up as "any character who uses the wrong pronouns is transphobic".

Now William never gets mad at Grell for expressing her femininitiny. He sometimes states that he disaproves her clothing, but it has more to do with the Shinigami dress code than her wearing female clothes. Each time he hits her, it's either because she slacks off or because she is being inapropriate with him. Plus, William is a reaper. He deals with souls and the complexity of humanity everyday. Do you think he doesn't understand that the soul is more important than the body, and that if Grell feels like a woman, then she is a woman?

And when it comes to the way he treats others: again, he simply seems to always be defensive. He can be sarcastic, unsupportive, degrading, but it's important to look at how this behavor impacts the one that are ont the receiving's hand. William is not Severus Snape. Other reapers are NOT afraid of him. Other reapers are NOT traumatized by him. I'm not saying that his behavior is pleasant (William is not pleasant at all), but it is more nuanced than just "abusive".

Finally, look at how Yana Toboso depicts him in official arts: she often draws him as a king, or a prince. She seems to like to give him some kind of noblety, a calm yet strong authority.

When he is not some kind of royal figure on her official arts, he is acting silly: drawing a picture of a pigeon holding his scythe, designing his own sparkling suit for for the circus...

There is also an official art from Yana where she drew William encouraging the actor who plays him in the musical, and praising him on his hard work.

So, I really don't think that Yana thinks of William as abusing or mean. More noble and/or a comic relief with a dry British humor.

4/Grelliam

Ok. I completly understand why people ship them, and there is nothing wrong with that. But I don't think they should be canon.

I know Yana Toboso said that Grell is in love with William but I personnaly think that she only loves what she projects onto him. She loves cold, mean, dark men. And William only fits the description on surface level.

In "The Tale of Will the Reaper", Grell did not care at all about William until he beat her up. She did not find him particularly attractive, and she thought he was boring and weak. She did not care at all when he showed acts of kindness towards Thomas (helping him with his novel), did not care when he was being analytical and dedicated when it came to their exam, and was overall annoyed by him being himself. She "fell in love" when he showed he was able to beat her in a fight (Mind you, he did not even get that violent, compared to how Grell attacked him earlier in the episode. And he attacked her only because she attacked him first.). She loves the idea of the cold and mean William, not the actual William. Grell hates sentimental people (she killed Madam Red as soon as she showed feelings). I am convinced that if she had to break into William's walls and discover his softer side, she would loose interest, or worse, get mad at him for being "weak".

For William, I don't think he's playing "hard to get". I think he just...dislikes Grell. She represents all that he despises: she does not value life, does not take her job as a reaper seriously, she does not respect boundaries, and she shows no care for others. Plus, if he actually secretly loved her, then yes, in this case, he would totally be abusive. But William canonically can't lie, so I don't see how he'd keep his feelings a secret.

5/The "William is a spy working for Undertaker" theory

I like this theory, I really do. But for me, the William we know values life too much to support what Undertaker is doing with the bizarre dolls. Unless William has been faking his entire personnality up to this point (which is a possibily but I hope not, it would be very lame), I could only see him not working WITH Undertaker but AGAINST the Shinigami association. As I said earlier, I think William hates the Shinigami working system, and could pair up with Undertaker to destroy it. (Maybe the Shinigami ordered the death of the Phantomhives which doesn't sit right with William at all?)

Or maybe he has another goal ("The Tale of Whill the Shinigami" could be a forshadowing? Is there a loved one he'd want to get back to life, despite his own moral?)

6/The future for William

If I have to be realistic, I don't think William will play a huge part in the future. I think he is made to just be "a normal guy" who does his job, a bit like Larry in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Yana doesn't seem to want to develop any of the Shinigami characters. I don't think he knows much about what's going on either: remember, he is just a supervisor. He doesn't hold any power in the company. Maybe he knows some bits of informations here and there and would be able to connect some dots, but that's it.

Now, I do hope there is more to him, especially if we later discover what part the Shinigami association plays or why Undertaker deserted. Maybe there will be a huge fight between Undertaker's team, O!Ciel's Team and the Shinigamis, and in this case I hope we finally see him at his full potential.

I overall think many things can be done with him, especially with O!Ciel (I would LOVE him to mentor him in some way). But I doubt it.

---

William is a complex character. It's hard to really understand him bacause we don't know a lot about how the Shinigami system works (is a redemption possible? If not, are reapers aware that they are working for "nothing"? Is the Shinigami association shady?) and we never really see him in a stress-free environement where he can be himself.

In think he is actually deeply caring about humans souls, and has to force himself to supress his feelings, which makes him prone to anger and impatience. It also leads him to put a lot of pressure or himself and others, which can make him act degrading, sarcastic and sometimes violent. But I believe he serves as a moral compass, to remind us of how dangerous and disgusting Sebastian actually is. He is a "safe space" for the readers, since he represents honesty, neutrality, and a bit of a comic relief. His goal depends on if he thinks redemption is possible or not: he either works hard to be redeemed, or try to lose himself in his work to numb his feelings.

In my opinion, the reason why many people in the fandom dislike him so much is because there are many Grell fans. Since William is mean towards Grell, they just call Will abusive and that's it. I will die on this hill: if William had been a character in any other manga, the fandom would have loved him (after all, he is just Nanami and Kunikuda in another font, and both of them are fan-favorites.)