#rcmt

Hey Anon ! Do you mean this scene ?

Well, I have an explanation, but I doubt it's what you're expecting. ;)

In my opinion, this scene is actually maybe more understandable if you consider the Munchausen by proxy theory [x][x], on top of the RCMT.

Basically, both theories emphasize that 1) real!Ciel was pathologically obsessed with our!Ciel and wanted him to "stay by his side forever", leading to 2) real!Ciel trying to control our!Ciel, maybe even going as far as to more or less poison him, so that our!Ciel would have to let his twin take care of him, becoming very thankful to him, thus furthering their bond (in real!Ciel's mind).

Want a proof that this theory is likely ? In ch138, Ciel realized, after that one month of abduction and torture, that he didn't get sick at all, despite living in terribly harsh conditions (cold, lack of food, physical and emotional abuse, etc).

And the one big element missing from that awful month compared to their peaceful days at home ? It's real!Ciel "taking care" of him, bringing him tea and food for his health.

Don't get me wrong, with the circus arc, we know that our!Ciel definitely had a weaker constitution that he inherited from Rachel. However, he was also probably chronically poisoned by his older brother on the side, which is why he definitely got better from the moment real!Ciel was not able to bring him food and beverages anymore.

Let's rewind back about that scene you were asking about from ch131, now : Rachel and our!Ciel were sick, so Vincent and real!Ciel, with Diedrich, cooked food for them.

Then later during the night, our!Ciel was couching, so real!Ciel brought him milk.

The following day, our!Ciel's fever was not that bad but his cough was terrible so Rachel forbade him to go boating -> how s w e e t ! more time and occasion for real!Ciel to "take care of his little brother", nurturing that special bond between them, because they're made to be "together forever". Except...

our!Ciel acted selflessly, as it is a great quality of his [x] [x] [x], and insisted the family went to enjoy a day outside, since Rachel was doing okay, while he spent the day with Tanaka.

TL;DR In this scene, I think real!Ciel expected Rachel to say our!Ciel wouldn't be able to go boating, since he's the one who triggered the coughing, leading him to spend the day taking care of his little brother yet again (in other words, controlling him), except that he didn't consider our!Ciel would strongly insist for the family to go without him.

I told you it might not be what you expected as an answer. :) I, for one, am quite convinced that real!Ciel had a pathological behavior since childhood, that is ten times amplified now that he's a bizarre doll.

RCMT nonsense?

Yeah, it really doesn't make much sense. Of course, there are different versions of the theory, but they usually include some type of secret deal being made between real Ciel and the queen or her servants, and -- to me -- it also makes no sense for a ten year old to be making deals like that, especially managing to keep all of it secret from his family. How would Vincent know something's up and plan for his own demise but not know his own child was involved? How would Tanaka not know way in advance? And let's not forget that the twins were mostly raised by Rachel and Aunt An until the attack. These kids were doted on, not neglected or left alone to their own devices. If anything, our earl is the one who seems to have any alone time. Regardless of why the queen and/or her servants would target the Phantomhives, why on Earth would they involve the ten year old heir of their target and actually entrust him with any of this knowledge?

Ambition is one of the major motives mentioned by individuals who support some version of this theory, but this is a child who clearly acts like a child, despite whatever evil streak he possesses. I see no reason for the queen to be interested in including real Ciel in any plans she might have to make him the next watchdog sooner than later, plus he was obviously not ready for the responsibility yet. I should think if he approached any of her staff about wanting to become watchdog sooner, they'd laugh it off. There's also no evidence yet that real Ciel has ever met the queen herself. And if he hoped to avoid becoming watchdog altogether, this definitely isn't the way to go about it. He'd be better off running away or flat-out refusing to take the post.

Another motive mentioned in versions of the theory is to get rid of their parents so that real Ciel can make his brother stay with him forever. For one thing, I cannot envision any way for that to not backfire, even if the whole thing had gone exactly as planned. One can argue that he's ten and just doesn't see that clearly, but I'd just say "Yeah, he's ten... and if he can't see that plans like that won't achieve his goal, he's also not likely to be able to even plan stuff like that, let alone try to carry it out". There's also the fact that we've seen Rachel show real Ciel how he can still be close to his brother and help him out. Rachel even suggests that our earl would be largely dependent upon the help of his older brother, the one who will be titled and will hold the key to the family coffers. So, all real Ciel would need to do is enjoy the remaining time with his family and, when he's earl, make it so that his brother spends as much time with him as possible... even if it means holding funding over his head to keep him around. Both boys likely would have been sent to Weston, too, since some other students there are second (and possibly third) sons. At such a young age (when they turn 13 and go to Weston), he wouldn't be ready to go off on his own to London, or whatever, so our earl would be happy to attend school with his older brother... and learn whatever he could that might help him later set up and run his toy business.

And when people talk about the fire, like who might have started it, I have to remind them that our earl doesn't even know about the fire until he returns to the manor and sees the burnt ruins for himself. Chances are, that fire wasn't started at all until after the boys were crated up and carted off.

Does anyone else feel like Undertaker seems to act more distant towards to R!Ciel, like Tanaka? 

By R!Ciel’s side, and in doing his duty by him as butler, Tanaka appears cold, as if he is just going through the motions, whereas he was a far more animated individual in O!Ciel’s service, often going above and beyond the call of duty and clearly doing what he did for O!Ciel out of care and respect as well as duty.

With R!Ciel, he appears to have checked out, and while he does his duty, there is none of the feeling. 

I think that Undertaker, to an extent, shares this disconnect. In Chapter 151, R!Ciel asks him for assistance with his Earl duties twice, but is flatly rejected both times. 

This struck me as a little odd. Whenever O!Ciel asked Undertaker to do something, though Undertaker was never willing to give his assistance without proper ‘payment’ (laughter), he at least offered O!Ciel the opportunity to get what he wanted (and O!Ciel did). Even when his true identity was revealed!

With R!Ciel, Undertaker completely snuffs the possibility of even trying to help. 

Yes, he really might not have a single clue about how to do what R!Ciel is asking of him, and I might be thinking too much into it. He would probably be a crap butler, but so was Sebastian when he started out. Undertaker knows this. Besides, wouldn’t Undertaker just find it hilarious, especially the reaction of his disgusted master when he shows him how terrible of a job he made of... well, everything!

I’d imagine Undertaker would much rather have that than sit in one place and read a book for two hours.

For Undertaker to make excuses, however true they might be, seems weird. He is speaking to ‘Earl Phantomhive’, whose predecessors he has assisted and cared for for at least two generations.

I wonder if this may tie in to the RCMT - Real Ciel Mastermind Theory, in which R!Ciel had involvement in or outright planned the Phantomhive massacre.

Undertaker would know this (as he rescued the boy and his ‘episodes’ from the fire... at least he claims to have anyway). If true, then Undertaker would have more than enough reason to only assist the boy insofar as it benefited his goal, but nothing more.

R!Ciel appears to respond in kind, by being curt and rude towards him, in spite of the fact that he owes Undertaker his ‘life’. 

Undertaker is literally the reason he is able to sit at a desk and look at paperwork. Hardly a ‘useless arse’. Then again, with his attitude towards Sebastian, R!Ciel is quite a different master than O!Ciel, so his attitude towards UT could be a product of that.

Alternatively, Undertaker’s response to R!Ciel’s requests may have to do with both his and Tanaka’s (seemingly) shared dislike of R!Ciel’s readiness to get stuck into his role as Earl (and, more importantly, Watchdog).

Very glum faces, both. I’m very interested to see their dynamic and relationship going forward, how much their shared long history as people close to the Phantomhive family informs their actions and connection.

Anyway, it seems clear that neither man is thrilled to see R!Ciel jump into O!Ciel’s shoes, most likely because they know what the role entails, possibly because of what it means for O!Ciel, or a mix of both. Maybe they fear what R!Ciel will do, what his newfound power could cause, for himself and O!Ciel.

Undertaker, as we know, hates the Queen, the Watchdog duty she places on the young Phantomhive heir, and now R!Ciel has returned, to see him willingly take that burden and that tragic fate on his shoulders must rankle Undertaker as much as it did with O!Ciel.

It’s difficult to know what Tanaka is thinking. Perhaps he is concerned for O!Ciel, or wary of R!Ciel’s intent, or perhaps he shares Undertaker’s desire for the boys to free themselves of their duty and heritage and find happiness.

Um... Oh dear. Yeah, well, yes, it’s a popular theory in the fandom, the Real Ciel Mastermind Theory. There’s the original RCMT, which theorizes that he is the actual mastermind behind the attack on the Phantomhive mansion (hence, the name, lol), but there are also several... diluted xD versions as well. I think I know like 3 or 4 versions like that.

What you are suggesting sounds more like the actual RCMT. However, there is one big argument against that: if Real Ciel planned everything himself, and hired the killers as well, and killed whoever himself, how did it get from that to this? I personally think this makes things messy.

How did the twins end up there if he was the one pulling all the strings, all by himself? There are very few ways I could explain this, and they would have to be some very, very cruel ways. And it would still not explain how he even got himself killed! So no from me.

The fact that they were left alive after the attack, and then got sold/given to those people means to me that either Real!Ciel didn’t plan the attack all by himself, he was instead working with someone else and got betrayed by them (which, by the way, is what most people think happened), or he just wasn’t involved in the attack at all.

I could see both being just as possible. To me, the biggest argument in favor of Real Ciel helping in the attack is the way he got introduced to us, the fact that he caused Agni’s death.  You don’t just introduce  a character by having them cause the death of an incredibly loved one for no reason. Plus, as you said, all the ‘yandere vibes’ as well.

However... that doesn’t make me think, ‘Oh, he definitely had something to do with the attack!’ In fact, I think it’s very difficult to make the whole think absolutely believable. I think it works just fine in theory, and it is very attractive, as a theory, but that’s about it. In reality, it would be quite difficult to accomplish.

But then again, this is a manga where a 10 years old child becomes the Watchdog of the Queen and dead bodies move again with the help of some transfusions (aka some things happen just for the sake of happening).

So yeah... I totally understand where you and many others are coming from, and I think it’s possible, I would probably just prefer it if we didn’t go the evil-twin route. It’s probably just a matter of personal preference, as it is with many other theories and characters as well~ ^.^

Note: (The asker contacted me and told me this ask is the full intended message despite the (½))

Dear Anon,

My New Year was good, thank you (^ω^) I hope yours too. And again another thanks for your masterful proposal of the name ‘Sebastyun’. I originally thought it would be very hard to unlearn the habit of using ‘Yunbastian’, but once I started it actually went fairly smoothly! I already employed your wondrous proposal in the post “Sebastyun vs Furutod” (^^)

You’re quite an attentive reader. Indeed, as I have mentioned in multiple posts like this one how Japanese is a null-subject language, I shall not explain what it means here.

Language Trope

Tanaka’s phrase in chapters 19 and and 134 are identical, so I shall not treat them differently in this post. Instead, let us look at what gimmicks might or might not be hidden in the language of this phrase.

お逃げください   シエル様は…貴方様には酷すぎ…ッ

Onige kudasai  Ciel-sama wa… anata-sama ni wa kokusugi…-

Please run   Master Ciel [is]… to you this is too crue…-

The key to understanding this phrase is to connect the two parts that I encircled in the images above.

This phrase is something of a cheap trick to play with the readers made possible because of an old Japanese language trope. In Japanese, it is a very commonly used trope in fiction to relay information to the reader; so commonly used readers don’t really even think about it anymore. I don’t know if this has a name, but for now, I shall call this a “Built-in-exposition”.

きっと姉さん…あんたの母さんも […]

Kitto neesan… anta no kaasan mo […]

Surely my elder sister… your mother too […]

In chapter 8 for example, we see this being used by Madam red to give the readers the information that: Madam Red is the ‘maternal’ aunt, and the ‘younger’ sister in the relation.

If a reader comes across Tanaka’s phrase back in chapter 9 without knowledge of R!Ciel’s existence, then the phrase will not strike anyone as ‘odd’. “Oh, it’s just another built-in exposition of how Tanaka addresses his young master.”

Language Analysis

It isn’t until later when the existence of R!Ciel is confirmed that we know that Tanaka did something very abnormal: switching subject in a null-subject language. This “haha-fooled-ya!!” trick heavily banks on the Japanese reader’s natural understanding of their own language that normally you can’t just swap subject.

Let us look at how this phrase spoken by Tanaka should be translated if done faithfully in cases where you 1. DON’T know of R!Ciel’s existence, vs 2. if you DO.

WITHOUT Knowledge of R!Ciel

Because Japanese manga hardly ever use commas or full-stops, it robs its readers from further indication of whether a subject is changed. In English however, we can’t just yeet the punctuations out of the window, so the translator is forced to choose between using a comma or a full-stop. A comma or a full-stop makes a world of difference.

“Please run, Master Ciel… to you this is too crue…-” would be the translation that is the most faithful to the original grammar if you DON’T know of R!Ciel, because:

the readers assume one cannot just change the subject in Japanese, we assume that the two subjects indicated by “wa” are the same subject.

“is” in “Master Ciel [is]” is untranslatable, and “Master Ciel” is (mis)understood to be in vocative case. As such, “Master Ciel [is]” can be entirely omitted, and the sentence would still be the same.

The natural assumption of the message’s meaning would be: “Hey Ciel, run, because this is too cruel for you.”

Schematically, this sentence looks like this:

WITH Knowledge of R!Ciel

If you DO know of R!Ciel’s existence, and we study this phrase with impeccable grammatical precision, we get the following:

We know that the person Tanaka is talking to is O!Ciel, so we now finally learn that ‘Master Ciel’ is NOT in vocative case, but the subject of sentence 2.

The “wa” then also becomes translatable, and it becomes “is”. We also learn that the two “wa’s” in the sentences each have their own separate purpose.

and we understand that the noun “you” (anata-sama) is not the repeated subject of sentence 2, but the newly introduced subject of sentence 3.

So this gives us three sentences:

“Please run.”

“Master Ciel is [verb (active or passive) omitted]”

“To you this is too crue…-”

Indication of the RCMT?

Long answer short: NO IDEA.

Yana frequently employs tricks like the above to send her readers into confusion, leaving herself flexibility for A PLOT TWIST🔀 later on. I personally find it a relatively cheap trick that borderlines ret-conning almost… but that’s just me. Regardless, Yana’s understanding of the Japanese language is breathtaking; in an AU she should be a Japanese linguist.

Because of Yana’s almost-ret-con-tendencies, I would say that the only thing we are certain of is that Yana used chapter 134 to make very clear that Tanaka’s text in chapter 19 was NOT a plot hole. Whether this is an indication of R!Ciel having plotted the Phantomhive murder however, is up to the readers.

For future potential askers:

I know the RCMT is quite popular, but I myself have not given it any thought. I don’t mind anybody sharing their opinion with me through asks or something, but please do keep in mind that I will have NOTHING interesting to say, so don’t expect anything from me XD

Theory!

What do you expect from the next chapter? R!Ciel, his smug face, his bossy manners, I miss him so much. I would very much like him to become a permanent character, but it is obvious that at the end of the arc he will be killed again, or rather destroyed, since he is a bizarre doll. But I would like to talk about something, his memories are an important piece of the puzzle, fundamental I would say, whether the RCMT theory turns out to be exact, or not. I don’t think he is the mastermind, but he has certainly seen something important. R!Ciel first came out of the room, leaving his brother in a place he thought was safe, but O!Ciel follows him soon after.

when at a certain point O!Ciel hears the noise of swords colliding, meets Tanaka, and screams for help, Tanaka is stuck , between the boy and what is in front of him, tells the young master to run away because it is a scene too harsh for him, and appoints R!Ciel.

Tanaka also keeps something hidden from us (and all of them) now, according to the RCMT theory, Tanaka understands that there is something obscure in R!Ciel, he sees him fight, when his brother arrives however he is stabbed in the back (maybe from R!Ciel himself) but then probably R!Ciel is betrayed by someone, and they are both kidnapped.

I believe instead R!Ciel left the room to confront the murderers because he understood first that the mansion was under attack, and found the bodies of their parents realized that it was up to him to take control of the situation and protect their home and the people inside, because he was the eldest son and the heir. He takes a sword and confronts anyone who has been in front of him, a person who surely was known by everyone, by him, by the servants and his parents, the murderers have probably entered the mansion very easily, and have exploited the surprise effect to hit, which explains why Tanaka was so upset, not for R!Ciel but because he had realized that betrayal was internal, between allies or perhaps in the family itself. Tanaka perhaps tried to say that he could not protect them both in that situation and the priority was to help R!Ciel in that moment. the situation too harsh perhaps referred to the betrayal of someone who believed friend, and when he appointed his brother, he wanted to say: he is fighting against this person, he is in grave danger? Hearing his brother's voice, R!Ciel distracts himself from the fight, giving his opponent the chance to hit him, causing him to lose his senses and stab Tanaka’s shoulders while O!Ciel eyes were covered, why? Because he did not have to see the person R!Ciel was facing. In conclusion R!Ciel and Tanaka saw someone in the mansion that night, recognizing this person, but Tanaka holds the secret to protect O!Ciel for some reason from the truth, while we still know very little about R!Ciel, and we do not know if the revenge falls even in his plans, but I hope that before do anything Sebastian and Ciel think about this particular, and ask him to tell his version of that night, or watch the cinematic records somehow.

Okay this might be a loaded answer but I’ve tried condensing it multiple times so please bear with me.

…she never addressed him as Ciel in all her letter to him, it was always “to my cute boy”, “to my adorable boy” so plainly, “boy”

The Queen’s terms of endearment that she’s always used for O!C (”my cute boy,” “my adorable boy,” etc.) I always thought were just that- terms of endearment. I never really looked at it as being that deep, although I know this is a key argument with people who believe the Queen is playing some darker role in the story (i.e. was involved with the Phantomhive murders). 

…which gives me a feeling that shes quite aware that he isnt the legitimate earl…theres something fishy about her. especially that one scene in the manga -green witch arc i guess- when she told John that ciel resembles his father, idk.

I wonder how she’d have any idea of the identity of which twin actually came back. And the offhand comment about O!C resembling Vincent could have just been a passing observation. 

The two biggest theories I see floating around are the infamous Real Ciel Mastermind Theory and the one involving the Queen. Imo both of them are so severely different and complex individually, that it’s hard to summarize the details of each. I bring this up because, while I don’t entirely agree with all the details of the RCMT, I lean towards it more than this one because of a couple reasons:

What motivation would the Queen have for killing off her most vital noble’s position?

She would have had to of known of the twins’ kidnapping, and if she wanted them dead as well, she would have made sure of it, especially after one of them came back. (Although with this I guess it could be argued that she might have known about the kidnappings and chose to do nothing about it. But we also have no way of knowing whether the Queen was actually just under the impression that they died like everyone else.)

How would the Queen know which twin was the one to survive?

If she was involved and wanted the Phantomhives gone, why hasn’t she done anything to threaten O!C’s life?

I may not be fond of the entirety of the RCMT, but it does provide more explanations as to why some events took place, the motivations R!C would have had, etc. I just feel like there’s more info to back it up- though at this point I’m not particularly against any theory. I’m sure the Queen might be revealed to have played a part in something, I’m just not sure what, but atm I’m more focused on R!C.