How do you think Sebastian managed to manipulate his cinematic record in the Campania arc? Is this just supposed to be laid off as a simple plot hole due to trying to hide O!Ciel had a brother or do you think that there's more behind that flashback? I hope I don't end up wasting your time with this question. Have a nice day!
Dear @hyliaroseisnotonfire,
I donāt think anybody has the power to manipulate cinematic records except exceptional reapers (like Undertaker) in the Kuroverse, and I definitely donāt think Sebastian can. When Undertaker revealed he edited records, both Ronald and Grellās reaction was ( ĆĀ A Ć³) (ā½ā½ ā° ā¾ā¾ Š ā½ā½ ā° ā¾ā¾). But even Undertaker could not change what had already happened; he could not turn a cake eaten in the past into a sandwich, so to say.
I strongly believe RCiel was not featured in Sebastianās cinematic record back in chapters 61-63 because of Yanaās storytelling choice. This choice can be broken up into two parts: 1. Behind the scenes and 2. In story.
Because manga is a visual medium, Yana could deliberately choose how much information she is willing to give the audience at the given time, without having to explicitly deny or confirm certain information that is not due YET. This is the storytelling device that is medium-based, but in-story, the reason RCiel was not shown seems to be a simple lack of need or interest from the characters themselves. Hence, it is not a plot hole.
Let us first look at the visual storytelling device. Back in the chapters 61-63, RCielās existence was not confirmed yet. In the manga, we see the moment from Sebastian being scythed by the Undertaker immediately transitioning to the point where Sebastian and OCiel had already decided to enter the contract.
In short, in the black panel that marked the start of Sebasā cinematic record, all of chapter 137 and part of 138 had already happened. In the corner (marked in blue), we see a glimpse of the altar where RCiel was later revealed to have been sacrificed. This is evidence that Yana did have RCielās presence in the ritual planned out already by that time in the manga.
Right after OCiel seals the contract with Sebastian, Yana inserted a time-skip that was the content of chapters 138-140, and we see the duo outside of the building that Sebas had set on fire. In short, RCielās was not manipulated āout of Sebasā memoryā; he was edited out of the visuals by Yana for the purpose of the Big Revelation, albeit somewhat stale and dragged out one.
This is all consistent with Undertakerās motivation to scythe Sebastian in the first place. What Undertaker was interested in was not the procedure of the ritual. Some fans have theorised Undertaker might have been eyewitness of the whole procedure, and if this is true, then it would explain why Undertaker is uninterested in seeing what he had seen himself, again. What did interest Undertaker was Sebastianās motivation to stoop to servitude. As a butler in particular; an occupation that symbolised elegance of prestige.
By calling Sebastian āvicious beastā or āverminā (depending on the translation), we see how Undertaker too has been affected by the Reapersā educational regime of demonising (pun not intended, just for lack of a better word) demons as mere vermin. āWhy would a wild beast, a swine or a cockroach, choose to pose as the very symbol of elegance?ā Why indeed.
Focus and lack of interest
Another aspect is the fact that the cinematic record is solely Sebastianās personal point of view. When we got the first glimpses of Sebastianās personal perspective when he just manifested on earth, we see sheer indifference for anything around him, except for his summoner.
To be summed up, his reaction was (>_> Meh) (<_< Meh) (Ćā½Ć Bingo!)
In chapter 136, we see how when Sebas emerged, his black essence was effectively swallowing the entire room.
And in chapter 62, we see here how from the darkness of Sebasā dark essence, everything was enveloped, except the spot where OCiel is.The spot was not literally āspared from the essenceā, but it stood for how Sebastianās eyes sparked up with intrigue.
In chapter 137, Sebas was depicted actively searching for his summoner, picking up the cult members and dropping them again. This scene did not portray Sebastianās cruelty, it depicted his indifference.
The way Sebas looked for his summoner is akin to the way us humans look for that ONE damn sock in our drawers. As we rummage through the drawer and shove the wrong sock aside, we donāt really care whether the sock will be damaged. Sebastian never harshly smeared anybody into the floor or walls, he just dropped them without bothering to hold back on his strength. Again, sock-drawer analogy.
This too is consistent with how Sebas accidentally hurt OCiel when he attempted to bathe him at first; Sebastian consistently did not know how much strength could be applied to fragile human bodies without damaging them. And we can assume that Sebastian already tried to minimise his strength-output for bathing OCiel, because he had to care.
In the panel at the bottom, we see how Sebastian started to care for the first time when he finally found his summoner. āAahhhh, my preciousssā. This is yet another confirmation of how Sebas had his eyes set on but one thing.
RCiel was present too of course, and he is an essential part of the summoning ritual. But, he was basically the left-over bones of Sebasā summoning meal. To Sebas, the corpse held no more value than an emotion-charged tool to manipulate OCiel into entering the contact with him.
Yet again, we see how little regard Sebas has for humans who cannot give him what he wants. In this room, the only person who could give him something, was OCiel, somebody who may be a future meal. Anyone else? Meh.
After RCielās corpse had fulfilled its purpose, Sebas went back to total disinterest, and did not bat a single eye to it again until OCiel tried to retrieve the ring from his abdomen.
The only reason Sebas helped OCiel out by pointing out the position of the ring, as well as extracting the object, was because he simply lost patience and probably got rather tired of watching this 'human melodramaā.Ā āBetter get it over with quicklyā. We see confirmation of this attitude by Sebas jabbing at OCiel for being a crybaby.
In short, the explicit absence of RCiel in Sebasā cinematic record in the Campania arc was not a plot hole; it was the product of visual storytelling device, which linked perfectly with the charactersā attitude and interest, or rather, the lack hereof.
