A weapon that supposedly does not allow the demon to regenerate, a weapon that the demon says is 'nothing divine about', and even more interestingly, the demon says "two-on-one" is foolish odds, with the two-on-one in bold.
While he could simply be referring to Modri and the exorcist, I cannot say that would be the case, Modri wasn't even that much against him. Was he referring to a possible shinigami on his way there? Or could he have been referring to the very weapon itself?
Also. is this one of those weapons? The one that Modri was using in his flashbacks?
I think the weapons are what interests me the most out of this whole story. I wish there was more about the exorcists, I hope there will be more, but other than the death scythes, so far we haven't had a real weapon that could be used against Sebastian, have we? Oh but these certainly can, I want to know more about them.
Also from this whole weapon situation and his story, I do not really see Modri as Polaris right now.
While Polaris could make an appearance in the final battle of this arc, and well, Modri could of course still turn out to be Polaris, at the moment it doesn't feel like he's Polaris to me.
Enough time has passed to try to be normal about this panel. Difficult.
It feels like this should be a considerable hint towards Undertaker's story.
It is now clear that it wasn't Vincent, the twins, or even Claudia that ignited his obsession with bringing the death back to life. And he was telling the truth when he said the experiments began long ago.
I've always thought he got the scars when he deserted, or that the scars are because of his escape attempt in some way. I do not think there is another entity (one alone) that he could have fought to get the scars, I doubt this. The scars looks like he either was restrained (considering the scar that goes along his eye especially) or they were inflicted because of some experiments either by the organization or by himself. But Othello doesn't seem like he got to put his hands on him yet.
This whole thing with Modri couldn't have been from when he was obediently collecting the souls as he should have, back from when his hair was up in a ponytail and all.
But further than this, the suit messes with me severely. Did he continue wearing a suit for some time after he managed to escape? Or did this happen in the ambiguous 20 years timeline after the attempt to escape from 70 years ago and before the time when he says he was last called a grim reaper, 50 years ago? Maybe in those 20 years he continued to act somewhat more like a reaper. Or maybe he was detained in some way and this is soon after he managed to escape that.
Ooor, stepping into crack theory territory, they did take his death scythe when he first attempted to escape, and he went back for it 20 years later, and that's how he got the cuts and why he was dressed like that.
Now how did he find Modri is also a good question, we shall leave that aside for now, but it is clear why Modri was an excellent project because of his strong will to live.
Overall, yeah, the suit just messes with me, but it does feel like it should be a hint. I don't think this is from 70 years ago or prior to that, it should be either from 50 years ago, or within that 20 years time, and it could be a hint of what he was doing in that 20 years time before no one called him a reaper anymore.
A weapon that supposedly does not allow the demon to regenerate, a weapon that the demon says is 'nothing divine about', and even more interestingly, the demon says "two-on-one" is foolish odds, with the two-on-one in bold.
While he could simply be referring to Modri and the exorcist, I cannot say that would be the case, Modri wasn't even that much against him. Was he referring to a possible shinigami on his way there? Or could he have been referring to the very weapon itself?
Also. is this one of those weapons? The one that Modri was using in his flashbacks?
I think the weapons are what interests me the most out of this whole story. I wish there was more about the exorcists, I hope there will be more, but other than the death scythes, so far we haven't had a real weapon that could be used against Sebastian, have we? Oh but these certainly can, I want to know more about them.
Also from this whole weapon situation and his story, I do not really see Modri as Polaris right now.
While Polaris could make an appearance in the final battle of this arc, and well, Modri could of course still turn out to be Polaris, at the moment it doesn't feel like he's Polaris to me.
Finally Yana introduces exorcists after 226 chapters and I’ll bet u anything that Ciel’s ancestors (aka the whole deal with the Phantomhive lineage) are heavily linked to demon hunters aka exorcists
Love how mad some people in the tags are about Yana introducing some more lore and possible demon hunters/exorcists when
Ciel’s weird lineage power was introduced in ch103
Bravat sucks at reading futures, despite coming from a family of deviners or something, but he can see through Seb’s disguise
Frances was hinted to see or sense through Seb’s disguise as well
In general the bond between Seb and Ciel and living for revenge are presented as wrong bc leading to Ciel’s downfall, implying Ciel will face a possible way out of the contract at some point
What did y’all think Modri’s flashback was leading to ? More personal info about Seb ? Maybe, but come on, more demon lore too and since we already saw how contracts are created (ch138), it makes sense Yana was going a completely different way which would tie to Modri coming back from the dead and wanting revenge against a demon
Is Yana’s timing perfect ? nope, but it’s wrong to say she didn’t hint there were some humans besides Shinigamis who could fight against demons (especially since Shinigamis don’t exactly do that). She did, as usual it just took 15 years to come out in the open.
Chapter 225 brings us this gorgeous cover. Without a doubt one of my favorites from the series, I love it.
At first glace, it puts Sebastian's face onto the unknown demon from Modri's memories. Or rather... onto Modri's fragmented cinematic records, maybe?
Gorgeous cover, nonetheless.
There's lots of details hidden in this chapter. Such as, the demon's smile reflected in the cup... as it is lying.
And lots of religious references. But most importantly, the wish.
I have been going back and forth between this chapter and the chapters when the contract between Sebastian and o!Ciel was made, I cannot tell whether Lady Anna actually made a contract here with the demon or not.
I would say she did not, but then how come the demon was able to fulfill her wish? Or are we missing anything from the lady's memories? Again, there are only Modri's memories, which cannot be completely trusted either.
But sure enough, the next morning, the fields have ripened.
And, most importantly, the seal shines bright on the demon's neck.
We finally get to see a glimpse of another contract in the story. Now is this contract between the demon and Anna? Or it this contract between the demon and another contractor? We have yet to see.
We also see the first doubt forming in Modri's mind.
He starts to doubt.
The question stands, whether this demon from Modri's memories is Sebastian or not.
I do not think this demon is Sebastian.
This story cannot be that old, it has to be recent. If this demon was Sebastian, Modri would have had to be Sebastian's very last contractor before o!Ciel, and even that would have been a massive stretch.
If Modri was just a one night occurrence, if let's say Sebastian would have just gotten summoned that one night, then maybe he could have forgotten him. Maybe. But the way this story is being told, I do not see Sebastian randomly forgetting the entire thing. Plus, with this demon, it feels like this is what he does, all the time, completely different from Sebastian.
It also does not feel like the Sebastian who gets summoned back when he was summoned, let alone like the Sebastian we know now. Yes, he was ready to trick o!Ciel into thinking his brother was alive, but he also put on the whole elaborate show of contracts and obligations, of not entering two contracts at the same time and all that.
Then there is also the issue of... how much of this story that Modri is telling can be trusted? How much of it could have been altered?
This is the Modri Vladis who's telling the story.
He's telling a story of unknown faces. "Are you absolutely certain that butler is the one?" Because he's not. It's not just the demon he's not certain of, the lady's face is also not shown clearly, and the baron's either. So this story, in his mind, is not clear.
Modri to me still feels like a bizarre doll, and even more so still feels like Polaris. I can see Polaris in this panel. Dude was ready to throw hands.
I'm looking forward to seeing this story to the end, I can see another maybe 2 or 3 chapters on this. I think, regardless of who is the demon, it will still offer us further insight into the whole contract, summoning, seal kind of thing. I look forward to it!
Trying to make some sense of what's going on here...
We finally get... a very vague and uncertain glimpse of the actual demon in Modri's memories.
Now why is his face hidden, though?
Is it to keep the reader's mystery? But even if this demon was Sebastian, he couldn't have looked the way he looks now. So blurring this face would be useless, if you ask me.
Is it because Modri's memories have been altered to make him think this demon is Sebastian? Or his overall state of mind is so broken? Could be.
Or could it be because... we have seen this face before, somewhere?
Again, this cannot, should not be Sebastian's face, but what if it's a face we have seen before, somewhere else?
I would like this, but so far I have yet to think of someone to actually fit the part... and honestly I also feel it would complicate the story too much, if another character had been another demon this whole time.
The demon introduces himself as travelling the empire to attend to... the interests of distinguished families. Fancy way of saying looking for new and interesting prey, if you ask me.
However, some things to note from this whole meeting is that this demon already must have had a contract with someone, considering that he has a human form.
Unlike Sebastian, who seems to enjoy performing his butler duties while still in contract with o!Ciel, and still loyal to him, this demon seems to be on a hunt for more prey, if you ask me.
This meeting is also extremely interesting, considering the very first few pages of chapter 224.
Here we see the demon in his demon form, but this is after the events of these two chapters and future chapters.
This looks like a church, from the paintings on the walls, so it looks like this would happen at the wedding. It looks like, regardless of the ripened fields, the wedding will still occur (or, well.. some of it).
It looks like the demon is luring Modri into forming a contract with him here, which, considering his later words, seems like he might have accepted the contract at the time.
But what happened to the demon's previous contractor(s)? Are they still alive? Is this demon taking on multiple contractors?
And why did Modri think that spilling his blood here would make Sebastian (who he thinks is the demon in his memories) remember him?
To be honest, I juggled a bit with the idea of two demons in Modri's memories. For a bit, I thought, what if this demon in demon form from the beginning of the chapter is Sebastian, and the demon fulfilling Lady Anna's wish is a completely other demon? But it seems unlikely that 1, the initial demon gave up on Modri's soul, which he seemed to be particularly after, and 2, this would be a new demon, completely unfamiliar with Modri. It seems to be the same demon.
I also particularly like the perspective over this possible contract between Modri and this demon.
This possible contract, at least to Modri, feels like a complete deceit.
From a religious perspective, this would be absolutely correct. That would be a demon's biggest accomplishment, making a human completely lose their faith in God. So the demon would be actively working towards deceiving the human into renouncing their soul to them, into accepting the "seal".
It's getting long, so I'll discuss more about the seal and contracts in a new post. But, whether Modri will accept or not, I do quite like this new perspective that the entire contract between a demon and a human would be a complete deceit.
This... has taken an interesting and very confusing turn, I see.
Looks like Modri Vladis might, actually, be Polaris.
But it's definitely confusing. From the panels and the writing, I think there are 4 people slash personalities in him? I think. One of them does not know for sure if Sebastian is 'the one', while the other 3 are certain.
First of all, how and why?
Looks like the one asking the question seems to be the host, so the original owner of the body, and the butler. (?) So the person who lost the master.
I am still wondering if these other 3 are personalities caused or meshed into this guy, or they are personalities (or something else?) induced by Undertaker messing with this poor guy so damn much.
But what could these other 3 be that they'd know for sure Sebastian is an actual demon? One of them even says "What a curious taste he has.", and one that they recognize "his smell" Bruh.
So the original owner of the body, the butler, the one who lost the master, does not know for sure that it was Sebastian that did whatever it is they did, but the other 3 do. sigh.
This panel is also interesting. He calls himself a 'corrupted body and soul', but then oddly says, "I implore you to give me the sword of judgement once more."
... Trying to tie this up in a way that would make sense to me, him and his master had an encounter with Sebastian, I'm guessing Sebastian killed his master, the host/actual butler failed to protect his master and they both died. Anddd he might have even been the very reason his master died, as in Sebastian tricked him in some way.
I've even been juggling still with the idea that it could have been this guy standing here, and the master he lost was real Ciel, but the idea that he could have served Vincent or real Ciel falls because whoever those personalities are, they do not recognize our Ciel... at all. And while Sebastian did take real Ciel's soul, Sebastian causing the death of Vincent would be...
So while it could still be this guy here maybe, his master could not have been Vincent or real Ciel.
There is also the possibility that he would not be Polaris, I guess.
Polaris did not have the tattoos, if those are actual tattoos. Polaris also should not be just chilling at the hotel in the smoking room with the other guests, I guess. With all the pain in my heart, Modri Vladis looks very pretty but... is this the same guy who killed Agni? Hm.
So I guess there is the chance that this guy is just related to Polaris (twins??), but this is already going down an even more confusing path so I'll stop here lol.
Anyway, it feels like there's a key element here that either has been presented and I'm missing it, or it has yet to be presented to us... Nonetheless, I look forward to see how this whole mess will actually clear up and make sense.
Hello, it's been a while! I hope everyone is doing fine!
Honestly, this is the main reason I wanted to write this post. I found this particular panel quite interesting.
While we do know that he cannot lie to o!Ciel because of the contract, we also know that the biggest lies are most often told simply by omission.
"Every one of your former contractors has been devoured already.... Correct?"
And he answers: "I do not lie. I truly do not remember him."
So that he does not remember him is absolutely true. Note that, however, he does not directly answer o!Ciel's question! He does not specify that all his previous contractors have been devoured. Now is this a clue for this Modri Vladis guy necessarily? Maybe not. Maybe this is a subtle hint for a possible ending... of the manga?
Nonetheless, I found it suspicious interesting.
For this Modri Vladis guy, I still don't quite know where to put him. Clearly he is a bizarre doll. From the wording in this chapter, it does appear that this place could be a place where experiments are done with cinematic records in particular, or at least they are collected or something.
I tend to believe he would not be a former contractor because hopefully Sebastian at least remembers his former contractors?? At least his name maybe? Sir??
He could be someone that tried to summon Sebastian, too, but perhaps Sebastian didn't find him worthy enough and he just died of blood loss, and that would be why he didn't bother to remember him.
And btw, doing this when you constantly need blood transfusions? I would not.
There are just so many ways things could go with this guy, too many to note them all down. I am inclined towards this possibility that he's either a former contractor or someone who summoned him but didn't form a contract maybe because of the way he tried to use his blood "to make his body remember", as in, his demon lust? Also, the tattoos on his neck, and the very cover of this chapter, "Dedicating his all to his one and only." But there are just too many ways things could go with this guy, honestly.
What I would hope we get because of this guy is some more info on the link between blood and souls, perhaps, or at least on the way Sebastian can be summoned. Anything, really.
This is getting quite unnecessarily long. Thank you, if you have read everything!
The mysterious character who claims to know Sebastian is calling himself "Modri Vladis" in the new chapter.
It's been suspected that this person could know Sebastian as a demon from once having a contract with him. The tattoo on his neck might be a remnant of a contract sign. However, Sebastian denies to remember him, even to Ciel who he cannot lie to.
But does that truly exclude the possibility of Modri Vladis being one of Sebastian's former contractors?
Modri Vladis seems to remember an encounter with Sebastian for one night which could imply that there had been a very short-timed contract that ended in Sebastian taking Vladis' soul.
Vladis is first shown being connected to an infusion stand so it's likely he's one of Undertaker's more advanced Bizarre Dolls who depends on regular blood transfusions. So if Vladis' body was okay after dying or having his soul being devoured, there is a chance that he could have been made into a Bizarre Doll.
Sebastian claims he doesn't remember him but that does not necessarily mean that they've never met. Maybe with his soul missing, Sebastian truly doesn't "remember" him (like he says). Maybe a contractor is really so insignificant to a demon that they simply forget them after the contract. A human is just a meal to them, especially if that contract only lasted for one night. Who remembers what they ate years ago? Or maybe Sebastian's current form only stores the memories of his current contract. (When Undertaker cut him with his death scythe, he only saw the memories of the time from the contract with Ciel, at least to our knowledge.)
There might also be another possibility. Maybe this idea is a bit far-fetched but bear with me for a bit. ;)
Bizarre Dolls are created by extending their Cinematic Record which stores their memories. Undertaker first started by adding fake records and later added the person's yearning for the future which evolved the Dolls. What if another evolution to this process is to add memories of another person to a Doll's Cinematic Record?
The hotel's manager mentioned the smoking room as a place to share stories of the past and the future, which struck me as a curious detail.
Maybe this hotel is not just a place to gather blood but to collect the memories (i.e. Cinematic Records) for Undertaker to use for his more advanced Bizarre Dolls. In that case, Modri Vladis might have a different body with just the memories of Vladis. And maybe that's why Sebastian doesn't remember him from his looks.
The reason I've been thinking this is the way that Vladis tries to make Sebastian remember him. He cuts into his wrist and draws his own blood.
It seems like a strange way to make someone remember him. It could be that Vladis' blood was involved in once summoning Sebastian (similar to how the cultists who captured the twins tried to summon a demon by killing children). However, I couldn't help but be reminded that when a shinigami cuts someone with their death scythe, their Cinematic Record is shown. So maybe Vladis was trying to make his memories with Sebastian visible through showing his Cinematic Record?
That didn't happen, though, the knife doesn't look like a death scythe and I'm not sure if someone who isn't a shinigami could even use a death scythe in that way.
Still, whether Vladis is fake or not, Vladis himself seems quite convinced to know Sebastian. And despite Sebastian not remembering him, it seems like he's not absolutely sure that they never met.
So I think it's still possible that there is a past connection between them and I'm really curious to learn more about that.
Original art: Toboso Yana, Kuroshitsuji: Chapter 214
Okay... This one took me way too long but ultimately I finished before the next chapter so it's good enough 🤣. I missed making coloring from new chapters, it's so nostalgit to go back to this and post on tumblr again like I did for years back in... idk 2018 maybe? xD
