#ch 175

Sanji vs weird banana

Bonus:

Bard’s flashback begins in the last 4 pages of the chapter, and they’re very interesting.

In the first page, we see Bard in a cave, apparently the only survivor amongst his fellow soldiers, whose bodies surround him.

We get a close up of his face— tormented, full of fear and horror, but if you look closer, notice he’s drooling!!

His hand shakes and his head swims as he holds the knife near one of the dead man’s arms.

Is he so desperate from hunger he’s ready to resort to cannibalism?

If you remember in chapter 172, Bard had his fake PTSD attack in order to keep Lau close. I hypothesized that at least some of what he says during that attack must be based on his real experiences... and it seems as if I may have been right.

For example, he says this in ch 172:

“We’ve run out of bullets and food. We’re finished.”

That certainly seems to be the situation in this flashback. If he had bullets, he could hunt for something, but without that, and no sign of any reinforcements or supplies, probably with hostile Indians in the area, Bard is left with only two choices: eat one of his fallen brothers, or starve to death.

I knew his flashback would be dark, but I wasn’t expecting it to take this direction!

Just when he’s about to slice into the arm, he suddenly notices he’s not alone in the cave after all!

That dork of a butler, setting up a goddamned picnic....!

It’s likely at this point, Bard must think Sebastian is a hallucination. He’s starving, injured, alone, probably cold and damp, and suddenly here is a whole feast being laid out before his eyes, in a completely inexplicable manner. It can’t possibly be real.

“Why, hello, It’s time for tea, is it not?”

I do find it very interesting—if Bard was indeed about to eat his fellow soldier—that Yana chose to go this route. It’s very believable as Calvary units in this time were often deep in hostile territory far away from any US settlements, and supplies were often cut off. But more than that, the main crux of this story is that Sebastian is going to eat Ciel (his soul).

This was a very conscious choice Yana made.

Recall how Mey Rin was ravenous too when they first met her, and the first job was to feed her once they decided to hire her. And if you remember the flashback during the campania arc, Ciel was also starved when they first returned to the manor after forming the contract, and Sebastian’s first job after restoring the house was to bathe and feed him (even if he did it badly, lol).

So now we have Bard, starving, about to eat someone, who will be fed by Sebastian.... Intriguing.

I’m very interested to see what happens next.