#superiors

I have a crack theory that might not be too cracky.

Previously, I'd thought the fire at Phantomhive Manor was started by either the attackers (and/or John Brown) or by Tanaka (on Vincent's standing orders, in case something like this happened to him).

Well, I'd be surprised if Tanaka somehow managed to do that, considering he'd fallen from that stab wound to the back. Either John Brown or the other attackers on his/the queen's orders is still a good possibility. Particularly since I expect that John and the queen already know by then that Undertaker is a reaper.

But there's another possibility I'd never really talked about before: the reapers who came to collect all those souls. I was thinking of this during discussions about ch209, because this new reaper states there're no additional comments to make about Snake's death, even though he's in a space underground where there are body parts stored, blood transfusion equipment, and a bizarre doll who is actually Snake's killer.

You'd think he'd at least mention the odd circumstances of Snake's death, especially when there's a hunt for Undertaker and his latest bizarre dolls. I don't think this reaper is completely oblivious to what's going on; it seems to me he might be trying to actively cover up what's happening, so he's not including such details in the official documentation. It could be for selfish reasons (to avoid overtime), or it could be based on special orders he's been given.

I say that because for a long time, the reapers weren't talking about Undertaker, and Grelle didn't even know about Undertaker's past as 136649. Othello knows because he was there and he was trained with 136649. But if he's a "fugitive of legend", why aren't reapers like Grelle and Ronald aware of his history? William has been at least somewhat aware of him for a while... but he's in management. The "superiors" are finally getting reapers in collections involved with this ongoing case against Undertaker, and I suspect it's only out of necessity. If they could, they would keep the vast majority of the reapers in the dark about this deserter.

Because they consider him to be that much of a threat to their organization. For quite some time, I've thought he knows something (bad) about the organization itself, and if he spread that knowledge around to the reaper masses, there could be an uprising. We've seen it with the maids turning against Heathfield, Ada and the patients turning against the Aurora Society, and now with the top students against the orphanage. When people realize they are being controlled and harmed for someone else's benefit, they tend to rise up, and I think that's what could happen if enough of the reapers learn whatever Undertaker knows.

The "superiors" finally got serious about it, according to Othello, when they sent him from his lab to the human realm. They seem to have hoped he could make this problem go away by talking to the deserter, destroying him, or capturing him. But once Othello realized it really was him, of all reapers, he knew he couldn't handle the situation on his own... and that he and Grelle wouldn't be enough, either. That's why he sent the dove for backup.

But I think someone else in the reaper organization already knew Undertaker was involved and tried to stop him without properly documenting anything -- they tried to cover up his activities. The night of the attack, one or two reapers were sent to collect souls from the dying, as per usual. While looking through their cinematic records, the reapers saw occasional instances of Undertaker showing up in them, but the most instances would have been in Vincent's records.

Vincent's records would have had extensive chunks of memories involving Undertaker, and the information in those records (things they said to each other) could have been damning somehow. To the organization, at least. What if Undertaker admitted to being Vincent's father? What if he told Vincent secrets he knew about the reaper organization? What if he mentioned the experiments he'd already been conducting on cinematic records and corpses?

Any reaper reviewing such records might think the best thing to do is destroy all this evidence, which might hopefully destroy the information, too. Why would a reaper destroy evidence about the organization's activities, if that information could help spawn a revolution? Too much of a hassle? Doesn't understand the full implications? On someone else's orders? Perhaps the reapers sent to collect these souls were specifically told to burn Vincent's body and the manor, and those reapers did as they were told, regardless of the circumstances. I wonder what happened to any reaper who saw whatever they saw in those cinematic records.... 🤔

Whoever ordered the fire to be started, or whoever decided to start it... they did so to destroy evidence.

As well as to keep Undertaker from collecting Vincent's body and cinematic records. Because whoever this person is, they know Undertaker would have found those things useful. And they didn't want him to have access.

I needed a major stress reliever from work. Couldn’t decide on which of my mains to draw so included them all for practice. This is still quite messy because holy fuck I’m too tired to keep working on this lol

Reaper management

Hiya, Rui. The website might be a fandom wiki, right? We don't have an organizational chart for the reaper organization, and I suspect that there isn't simply a "management division". William is the manager of the London branch of the collection division, but this would be a low-level management position. I seriously doubt that William is considered one of the "superiors" or "higher ups" that are so often vague-mentioned. Those are likely to not even be reapers, because there must be a cut-off point where something truly superior to a reaper wouldn't be a reaper. If they were allowed to completely manage themselves, they would probably start to slack off and help push each other through the "forgiveness" process. As I've said before, that would be like assigning a prisoner to be the warden. Sure, perhaps a warden can be bribed or "bought", and maybe so can these superiors, but it would be harder to do... and get away with it. Any "management division" probably doesn't include William and other reapers who fill low level management posts.

So, William has to go retrieve Grelle from the human realm, but then he just presents Grelle to the superiors who determine the adequate punishment. And the level of punishment would determine who has to administer it. I think Grelle was presented to some council that decided. Idk if they are reapers or something else, like angels.

We won't know until we see John Brown without his glasses, but I strongly suspect he's not a reaper. His actions (and the queen's reactions) suggest he's got a contract with the queen. I don't think reapers can do that. Looks more like something a demon might do... or perhaps angels can make contracts, too. It might not be a secret division so much as a more "divine" one. Like I say, the "superiors" might be angels. If that's the case, it would be a matter of "divine intervention" in human affairs.

It's never been shown that humans have to be beneficial to get a shinigami pass, more like their contribution (good or bad) needs to be deemed significant. I've read some of the theories about Queen Victoria getting a pass and having a reaper as a guard, to make sure she lives long enough to fulfill her expected role. But, again, I don't think John Brown is a reaper. And, even if he were, I kind of doubt one would be assigned to each human that had been temporarily spared. She would just need to be reassessed whenever she came up on a death list again. Did she serve her expected purpose? If not, does it look like she's still on track to be important later? That sort of thing. Also, I can't forget about the Albert puppet. That looks so much like the offer Sebastian made to our earl regarding his dead twin that I cannot accept the idea a reaper would do that. If John Brown is a reaper, then the Prince Albert puppet thing makes no sense.

Keeping her reputation high might decrease the attempts on her life, but otherwise it shouldn't matter too much. The only reason I could see keeping her alive and killing the Phantomhives would be to give her time to fulfill her prophesied (essentially) accomplishments while getting rid of a family that has been a hinderance to those goals. But the only thing I can think of that the Phantomhives might have seriously hindered was the Tower Bridge construction project, which was dedicated to Prince Albert. But that's really not such a big deal. It eventually would have been built, once the plans were put into place, even if the queen didn't live to see its completion. And I doubt she is being kept alive just to make sure a bridge gets built. Honestly, what did she do that's particularly significant for humanity late in her reign? It was a symbolic monarchy by the time she even ascended to the throne. She was a trend-setter, no doubt, but most of that she has already done by now. And how important is that, anyway? You could easily argue that none of that is beneficial to humanity. She changed wedding traditions, funeral and mourning traditions, and Christmas traditions for much of the western world. Does any of that actually matter? Are we still waiting for something to happen regarding colonialism...? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I feel like most of the people theorizing the queen needs to keep living right now aren't thinking too clearly about the requirements for a shinigami pass....