#fascinating chimera

The contract seal might have the most power when visible, but it definitely works without being uncovered. I think a lot of this eyepatch removal when giving some orders is mostly for dramatic effect. So far, it has only happened when it doesn’t matter who sees it; those witnesses are about to die anyway, right? With one notable exception!

But it’s possible that, at some point, the eyepatch will be off in front of people who didn’t know about the contract... and might live to tell tales about it later... when it no longer matters who knows. Perhaps our earl or another character will make some huge reveal (to other characters) about the nature of the contract between our earl and his butler. I would expect Sebastian to reveal the seal on his left hand, too.

Until then, we will only see Sebastian’s seal when he’s also not needing to hide it. Just like with the eyepatch, the only major exception has been Sieglinde; she’s seen both seals. William has seen Sebastian’s seal, too, but he’s a reaper and fully aware of what Sebastian is, so he hardly even counts. Seeing the seal on the back of Sebastian’s hand is probably the only thing that keeps William from trying to kill him right away; he knows the demon is “collared”.

I think real Ciel will praise his younger mirror twin for such a bold move, like they are playing chess. It reminds me of how King Porky in Mother3 called the Masked Man (the Fascinating Chimera of Claus) nothing but a “robot”... and he wanted Lucas to play. Recall that Claus is the dead and reanimated older mirror twin brother of Lucas. At one point, King Porky even attacks with robotic copies of himself. Except here, I’m not sure if real Ciel is also playing the part (now) of King Porky. If so, what about Queen Victoria and John Brown? And Prince Soma?

Perhaps real Ciel and Undertaker will stay put at Phantomhive Manor... and our earl and Sebastian will confront the queen and John Brown at the resort in Brighton.... Then they might return to Phantomhive Manor for the final confrontation with real Ciel and Undertaker.

I’m still wondering when and where Soma and Sieglinde will show up... as well as the Viscount of Druitt. Oh! And Gregory Violet! And other reapers, of course.

Oof 😓 There is so much to get to before the end... and not much time left, if my understanding of the timeline is right.

Just like Dr. Andonuts loses control of his Ultimate Chimera (a type of Fascinating Chimera) in Mother3, Undertaker could lose control of real Ciel... his most advanced Bizarre Doll. Idk if I would classify it as betrayal against Undertaker... unless Undertaker actually combines our earl’s soul with real Ciel’s body. If that happens, all of Undertaker’s plans fly out the window, since that combination would likely be completely uncontrollable. But real Ciel might follow his own goals that end up clashing with Undertaker’s goals. With this fight between brothers, that clash of goals might have already started.

Honestly, the only tag you should need for that is #mother3. Or check out @abybweissekuromother3.

But, if you want to look for stuff about specific aspects of Mother3, check out these tags.

If for no other reason (though I think he has a few reasons, like the fact that real Ciel is a walking corpse), Tanaka isn’t loyal to real Ciel because real Ciel is (now, at least) heartless to his servants. From ch141:

While Tanaka has pointed out how nice our earl is. From ch131:

In fact, during the murders arc, Tanaka even tells our earl he’s showing a bit too much concern for them... when our earl throws a fit over the “death” of Sebastian.

We know our earl was putting on a show, since the death was faked, but he must have also been reminded of his father’s death. So, even though the extreme reaction was staged, he could pull from previous experience and make it very convincing.

Anyway, yeah. Tanaka should choose the living “Young Master” and his kind heart... over the heartless, reanimated corpse of “Lord Ciel”.

Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that Undertaker hopes to combine the soul of our earl with the body of real Ciel. And let’s even say he accomplishes this.

That’s when lies become truth.

Why?

Our earl has been calling himself “Ciel Phantomhive” for almost four years now, and the demon likes to tease him over this constant lie. However, we know our earl doesn’t actually like lying about his identity. He says he’s ok with paying the demon (a servant) his soul (wages) for fulfilling the contract (his services). He even comes to like the idea of his soul being devoured, never to be judged, and is happy to end this life (borrowed time) of “being Ciel”.

Now, Undertaker’s possible motives for combining the two are hard to explain, in full, but basically he might wish to create one Phantomhive with the physical strength and some aspects of the mind of real Ciel... and the good (let’s face it, he’s actually good, despite the things he’s done) soul of our earl. This could be the parallel to the Ultimate Chimera of Mother3. We can call this combination the “Ultimate Doll”. But, in the game, Dr. Andonuts loses control of the Ultimate Chimera, and it goes on a killing spree.

Ok, so I should hope that the combination of the Phantomhive twins, the “Ultimate Doll”, wouldn’t do that, but he/it has a good chance of defying Undertaker, since our earl doesn’t want to be Ciel forever. Being combined like that could be maddening, and he/it might want nothing more than for it to all end.

And the demon has said he’ll be around until lies become truth. Unknown to everyone, probably even unknown to Undertaker, the twins might actually need to be combined for this contract to conclude.

In Mother3, it was all about a race to fulfill a prophecy, and everything fell into place for that to happen. Same thing in Harry Potter, really. But, instead of a prophecy in Black Butler, it’s all about attempting to fulfill a contract, and everything will fall into place for that to happen.

How do you talk sense into a reanimated corpse that is essentially powered by its old goals and obsessions? That will be the big question, and it’ll probably have to be answered at some point.

I think real Ciel sees Lizzie as something that belongs to him, as the rightful Earl Phantomhive. No, he doesn’t want to marry his brother. 😆 But he would prefer to be around his brother more than with Lizzie. And he might still have no interest in “scary women” like his Aunt Frances, since he *might* be stuck in his ten year old mindset, so I expect he might tell Lizzie she isn’t very “lady-like” or a “proper wife for an earl”, etc. Lizzie knows our earl respects her for who she is, so she should eventually back away from real Ciel and rejoin our earl’s side. Particularly once she realizes real Ciel is a bizarre doll (if she doesn’t already know).