The Reality Of Living In A Workhouse In The Victorian Era

A lineup of some of my favourite Black Butler characters! Some which I’ve never drawn before too :O

The Promised Neverland is based on an old and rather popular trope. It would be like saying Squid Game is the blueprint of survival genre.

any thought about the parallel that exists between the promised never land and on going subarc of black butler?

Hey Anon!

None, because I never read or watched TPN and I don't intend to any time soon, if ever. :))

Additionally, I'm relatively against drawing parallels between series, when TPN seems at best an inspiration for Yana-sensei (like Sherlock Holmes was for the Murders at Manor arc), who's a writer known to explore widely and in depth the tropes she uses for settings (Ducky or chibi once translated a few twitter posts about this, but I can't find it right now).

Also, please remember that, aside from TPN and as I explained here, this orphanage arc mostly seems to act as a parallel and a continuation of what was introduced in the circus arc and I'd like to remind everyone that TPN was written way after Kuro's circus arc.

Lastly, I have war flashbacks of fans drawing comparisons from one series to explain or theorize about another (the whole Femtoneki horror trip from back when TG:Re was still on going and some examples in Kuro fandom as well), as if writers can't use similar tropes without this meaning they copy each other (a concept I find extremely snooty of fans). So while other fans are free to do as they please, I'd rather just read Yana's work as Yana's work, no offense!

My opinion though! As always, other people are free to do entirely as they want! :))

Have a nice day, Anon!

What about Ciel ordering Sebastian to kill the surviving children at Kelvin's manor ? I assume Snake (and the servants) are going to hear about it one way or another. If Undertaker wants to cut Ciel off from his support, this is something he would reveal.

I suppose a thin silver lining to the iron-gray cloud of this chapter is that Snake has now witnessed F.O.L. Orphanage’s atrocities against children firsthand. If, during the inevitable confrontation with Doll, he realizes that his former troupe-mate is actively complicit in those horrors, that might give him another reason to stand with Finnian and the rest of the Phantomfam against Undertaker’s faction.

A compilation of art for my Dadbastian fanfic Coattails that I commissioned from the incredibly talented @tomoyoo! They went above and beyond with the details... Each picture feels as cozy and warm as a storybook, right? I'm so delighted with how they turned out!! Thank you for making each one so beautiful! 🥹🥹🥹

Ciel going for a midnight snack

I actually think the best way for Soma to "avenge" on RCiel is for him to find out the twins' issues, realising RCiel is just like past him to Mina, and actually forgiving him: like I want to see Soma telling R!Ciel off right into his face that he's just an immature and insecure child who struggles and failed to control his beloved brother and has no worth to be avenged on, then return to Bengal after claiming he'll always be his little brother's friend no matter how pissed off RC might be...

Hey Anon! Nah, nah, as much as I want Soma to become our!Ciel’s Agni, I really hope he helps taking real!Ciel’s operation down and won’t forgive him.

To explain: I definitely agree with you that, even though the main theme of this series is revenge, it is slowly demonstrated to be a painful and dangerous path that won’t bring any good, even less comfort or solace. 

Therefore, our!Ciel, Soma… following the revenge path will only bring them more pain, in a similar fashion to UT who won’t be able to move on and heal by focusing on the past (bringing back dead loved ones) rather than on the present/future (saving our!Ciel from Seb and protecting the rest of them++). 

That’s why I agree with you that it’s not good development for Soma to be the one killing the twin out of revenge for Agni, simply because he indeed will gain much more solace by helping our!Ciel (”becoming his Agni”) with realizing that he belongs with his family and friends as who he is. 

In other words, we don’t know what Soma understands about the current situation yet. However, because revenge brings nothing good, trying to achieve it would lead him into a dark abyss that he probably won’t come back from. 

That doesn’t mean that Soma has to forgive real!Ciel though. Agni’s death was unnecessary, unfair and extremely violent. Besides, real!Ciel is an antagonist who, because he’s dead, is far beyond redemption. Therefore, the narrative won’t benefit from anyone forgiving him. 

I hope I managed to explain properly. Thanks for passing by and have a nice day. :))

twins

todays animations have been nice :))

My instinct was that Finny was reminded of our Ciel, since he did his signature look 

I do like your theory though

Ch 196: Threats on All Sides

This chapter introduces a few new potentially significant things.

The first one is Theodore, aka Theo, a member of the Pomeranian class you may remember from a few chapters back:

He helps one of the girls, named Jenny, who is afraid of the horses, and explains that they can sense your fear, and that you wouldn’t want to play with someone who is afraid of you, would you? And then teaches her to bribe him with a carrot.

Sounds a little like what’s happening here at the FOL Orphanage, doesn’t it? Give the kids sweets and make them trust?? 🤔

I doubt that Yana would have included this scene just because, so I expect it’s intended to have a double meaning. Maybe even have a reference to the expression “the carrot and the stick.”

Then, we find out that Theo is “the oldest,” because “Ronnie” “left the nest,” and it’s the “duty of the older brother to look after the younger ones.”

Doesn’t sound a eerily familiar, if not ominous???

But it gets worse. Shortly after Snake and Finny introduce themselves to Theo, the class bell rings so he needs to go. But before he does, he says something cryptic to Finny:

綺麗な

上流階級英語

ですね

Which is a bit tricky to translate.

In literal English, he’s saying:

It’s beautiful,

The Upper-class English language,

Isn’t it?

I am not entirely sure if Theo is commenting on how Finny speaks from his brief introduction, or if it’s meant to emphasize “English” is pretty in general, which is maybe a code of sorts for Finny. So it could be he’s saying:

That’s beautiful

Queen’s English (you’re speaking),

Huh?

OR, more generally, he could be saying in less literal English:

The Queen’s English is beautiful, is it not?

Either seems an odd thing to say out of the blue to someone you just met.

So either he’s noticing that Finny speaks differently than the others (remember that Doll remarks about how Ciel speaks in the circus arc?), or it’s some veiled remark about English in general.

If my theory that Finny is from a program that UT may have been involved with somehow, then perhaps Theo is from the same program as Finny, which remember was not in England, but Germany.

Recall that Finny speaks German? Perhaps this is Theo’s way of saying he knows who Finny is without alerting anyone else who may be listening (and speaking German may have done just that). As far as we know, Finny was the only survivor. Could Theo be a bizarre doll with all the power that Finny has, plus higher intelligence??

Finny definitely recognizes him, though he doesn’t say how or from where as his words trail off. It’s not entirely clear if he recognizes Theo specifically, or if Theo reminds him of someone he knows.

Finny doesn’t have too long to ponder this, though, because Doll collapses not long after.

Snake tries to help but Doll yells at him to stay away, insisting that they’re fine, just a little dizzy. Doll orders the maid (Susan) to take Snake and Finny to the Collie classroom, and staggers off to the stable out of sight.

At first, it seems like maybe Doll doesn’t want to have Snake see them like that, or is worried about hurting him, but once we are alone with Doll, it gets more ominous.

Doll speaks to “everyone,” asking them to “wait for them,” as if talking to the dead circus members, then proclaims their plan for vengeance, saying:

必ずあいつらを

地獄*に送るから

Or, in English:

Without fail, I will send them all to hell*!

Now first, when Doll says “hell,” the spelling tells us they’re saying “there,” so it could be a way of not “swearing,” or it could be a more emphatic way of saying that Doll will send them where they belong.

Or, since we don’t know who the “they” Doll is talking about is, it could mean not Finny and Snake but Sebastian and Ciel. Furtheremore, now that we know Doll is indeed a Bizarre doll and didn’t somehow escape alive, it’s likely Doll knows Sebastian’s true nature. So the phrasing here could a way of saying Doll will send him back to where he came from.

This could mean Doll isn’t a threat to Snake and Finny, and may even help them if Theo becomes a threat to them. But at the same time, Doll (since they are a BD) may not be able to be persuaded against attempting to kill Ciel and Sebastian, which ofc Snake and Finny wouldn’t allow.

It’s messy indeed, and I’m very interested in what happens next.

As always, please remember I’m human and make mistakes so I apologize in advance for any errors.

Please respect my work and do not use my translations or screenshots without credit. Thank you.