♱ fear no plague ♱

The tableau of that (actual frame)... we've seen Sebastian poised like that - a bridegroom, a predator, a saviour - with Ciel before - now they both share that role for Sieglinde. They reject taking advantage of her exuberance when she proposes a ménage á trois, here there is a visual sense of collusion as they induct her into a world they characterise as vicious and violent, requiring a consciousness of moral responsibility necessary to manipulate it for the self's success, thus charging the self with and acknowledging it's failings, as well as it's attempts towards kindness in an otherwise uphill struggle of existence. It's a different sort of rite of passage, sexual exploitation discarded for existential sensuality. And whilst this instance isn't manipulation, this is as much condemning as it is saving, given the view Ciel and Sebastian have of the world. I also think Ciel might have really killed Sieglinde had she not snapped out of her panic - it's a reenactment of the circus children, as a reenactment of his own past. 'They would not have survived on their own mettle, without a demon' (paraphrasing and surmising the meaning I interpret) - Ciel survives because of his demon, he mercy kills the children using that demon, now he takes the place of that demon to encourage Sieglinde towards survival.

The visual framing rings especially poignantly given the latest developments in Modhri's story (though I'm not entirely caught up, not of fully formed opinion), but suffice to say - now Ciel is sharing in the role Sebastian performed for him; they perform it together, in a partnership, and with Sebastian as the subsidiary role. Ciel has become one with the demon, in a sense - this is how the demon is able to persevere in existence.

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.