hello there!!! i hope you're well on this fine day. now, feel free to ignore this, i have a feeling this is just me being dumb, but i really can't understand what r!ciel's feelings are towards his brother now that he's back (not that he was ever gone). i mean, what is his aim? he says he wants to live happily with his brother again, but he's driven him away? im confused. what exactly are r!ciel's feelings towards o!ciel?
Sorry for taking so long to get to you, it was not for lack of interest! I donât think youâre dumb at all, because Real Cielâs actions are very strange indeed.
TW: This post will include discussion of emotional manipulation and abuse. If this topic is hard for you, please sit this post out.
Now with the trigger warning out of the way, let us look into what Real Ciel is doing. How can he say he loves to have his brother by his side, but also drive him away? To the best of my knowledge, this is a form of isolation abuse. Isolation abuse is a horrible method employed by abusers to isolate their victim, cut away their other support, and force the victim to stay with the abuser, to facilitate further abuse.
Key Tactic - Antagonise Others
The key to isolation abuse is to make your abuse victim believe you are the only person who will love them, the only person who they can trust. Chapter 140 is the best and most concise example of classic isolation abuse. R!Ciel proved to everyone that O!Ciel is a liar, that he did something wrong. But then he presents the revelation as a benevolent act: âunlike everyone else, big brother wonât be mean to you. I will relieve you from your pressures!â
O!Ciel understood a bit too well that he will have to suffer the consequences for impersonation crime, and R!Ciel appeals to that understandable fear. The message he is giving is: âEveryone else will treat you badly, except me. I am your safety, I will protect you from the meanies.â
Now R!Ciel has established to his little brother what the dangers are outside, and sold himself to O!Ciel as the big brother who is a true, unconditionally loving ally. Then finally, the most incredible and clever rounding off of âeveryone bad, me good. Everyone dangerous, me safeâ is in the following panel:
R!Ciel not only presented himself as a protector, he also turned what should be O!Cielâs biggest guilt into a praiseworthy feat. âIf anything, I want to applaud you...â Now, who else but kind, big brother would praise you for your crimes? By saying â...for doing your best all by yourself these past three years,â R!Ciel tells his little brother that he really doesnât blame him for impersonating him, because he âunderstandsâ O!Cielâs emergency and suffering. Who else would understand you?
By having planned to get the police storm in, and have the Midfords - O!Cielâs only other family - be on the âenemyâs sideâ, R!Ciel reemphasises how he himself is truly the only one O!Ciel can turn to.
âTrust nobody, but me.â
So, if R!Ciel wanted to establish himself as O!Cielâs only ally who could protect his little brother, then why didnât he protect O!Ciel from the police arrest? The answer is probably a combination of a practical one and a manipulative one.
The practical reason R!Ciel didnât protect O!Ciel from the police arrest is simply because R!Ciel has only just returned to reclaim the Phantomhive Earldom, so he cannot afford to publically obstruct justice. R!Ciel needs this first impression that unlike O!Ciel, he is a law abiding citizen and acknowledges the policeâs work. Upon his first return, RIGHTFUL Earl Phantomhive canât very well defy the police and âlegitimateâ claims of O!Cielâs crimes, just because he is family, right?
The manipulative reason is that in this way, R!Ciel can employ the âgood cop, bad copâ method on his brother. Being pinned with mass murder, there is no doubt the police would treat O!Ciel harshly. The police would imprison, humiliate, and perhaps even mistreat him, and thereâs nothing O!Ciel would be able to do against that on his own.
R!Ciel in this case can utilise his special right as the legitimate Earl Phantomhive, and perhaps combine it with an appeal to emotion to get O!Ciel out of prison if he puts in a good word with the Queen: âI have lost my entire family save for one. Please donât take my only family away from me.â In being a young child himself, R!Ciel would surely be judged less harshly by the public for doing family politics.
R!Ciel (and/or Undertaker) probably had confidence that R!Ciel would succeed in getting O!Ciel out of prison. Once R!Ciel would succeed, O!Ciel would be subjected to R!Cielâs mercy, and have nowhere else to go. Should O!Ciel try to leave or even take R!Ciel out, then the world would judge O!Ciel for being an ungrateful kid, a double-backstabber of his saviour. In that case O!Ciel would still be stuck where he is right now: in the spot of shame and distrust, a place incredibly hard to climb out of again.
When R!Ciel has succeeded in uprooting O!Ciel from his entire support network, he can then rest assured that if O!Ciel still wants support, heâd have no one to turn to but his only big brother in the world who loves him dearly. In this way, R!Ciel would have successfully isolated O!Ciel for himself.
This is how real life isolation abusers work too. Uproot you, and keep you to themselves only.
Soooo, even though R!Cielâs actions might seem contradictory, what he is doing is a very good and classic example of isolation abuse. In the purest essence, isolation abuse is the juxtaposition of the abuserâs own âgoodnessâ against the supposed âevilâ of everything else. Bit by bit R!Ciel chipped away the support network, the floor on which his brother was standing. Isolation abuse is the cornering of the victim, into the tiny space called âyour only safe haven, meâ.
Sebastian is a master of emotional manipulation, and coming from him, the comment âwell doneâ really couldnât ring more true. Well done.
Lending this as an opportunity I wish to add: please, if anyone recognises this type of abuse around you or your loved ones, PLEASE by all means contact professionals. Isolation abuse is horrible, because isolation abusers make it so that their victim dare not and cannot reach out for help!
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