Dear @fwippysays and @kuroi-neko,
As promised, I would respond to you in another post, so here it is ^^
Does R!Ciel in O!Ciel’s delirium blame him?
A very good question! Yes indeed, R!Ciel in our twin’s delirium indeed uses active verbs too. In the manga R!Ciel says:
僕を犠牲に手に入れた力で
お前があんな選択をしたせいで
Boku wo gisei ni te ni ireta chikara de
Omae ga anna sentaku wo shita sei de
Using the power you bought by (actively) with me as a sacrifice
It is the fault of you having (actively) made a choice like that.
As you can see, here R!Ciel makes no single attempt to soften any implication of his twin’s responsibility in his death. “Ireta” (入れた) from “te ni ireta” (手に入れた) is the verb for actively putting something in somewhere, and “te” (手) means “hand“, meaning: “actively putting something in the hand”. As in this sentence it is combined with “with me as sacrifice”, the full sentence carries to meaning of “buying power by paying with a sacrifice.”
The second part of the sentence is also very explicit. As mentioned in the original post above, O!Ciel did not choose for any of the tragedy to happen; he even actively hoped deep down at the time they had grabbed him instead of his “better” counterpart. In this bubble of the panel, R!Ciel however explicitly uses the word “choice” (sentaku・選択), actively accusing O!Ciel of “making the decision of killing him”.
There is room for interpretation of course, but very personally think it might be the opposite.
In this post and this post I discussed that it seems Sebas has no say in whether he gets summoned or not, and that he certainly had no say in unsummoning himself. And in this post I reasoned Sebas is probably usually not too enthusiastic about being summoned, in part because he assumed time needed to be killed, suggesting he is used to boredom in contracts to lead to this assumption.
Another factor that makes me think so is the way he is always fighting for autonomy, meaning he has a long history of lack of autonomy as explained in this post. If your experience of being summoned is a state of boredom while your autonomy gets disrespected, I wouldn’t be too pumped either at the idea of being summoned!
As such, I think Sebas actively lied to O!Ciel to drown him in guilt so that he would think himself too awful to deserve asking for anything. Sebas has seen all human weaknesses I presume, and that O!Ciel had an inferiority complex must have been too easy to read (even for us). People who have such an awful inferiority complex TEND to not dare ask for anything. Had Sebas succeeded in making O!Ciel be overcome with guilt and simply give up on asking, he would have been able to go home and just be left to his peace.
I am not saying I think Sebas finds being summoned the worst that can happen though! I am merely saying that he probably has an attitude of “….if I must I will I guess… will make the best of it, but it’s not my hobby.”
Obviously Sebas did not manage to dissuade O!Ciel from forming a contract, and interestingly, the very first thing Sebas says when the boy had made his decision is paraphrased: “you have chosen to do something so stupid and chosen literal Hell…?” It is a phrase as though to give O!Ciel one single last chance to rethink his decision.
Something I must point out is that the official English translation has a glaring mistake; a deliberate one, if I may be so bold to say.
In English it is implied that Sebas was actually happy about the boy’s decision to form a contract with him no matter how stupid it was. In the original Japanese though, Sebas simply says: “fine” (ii deshou・良いでしょう). And we all know what it means when you respond with “fine” to a task you are given…
Don’t get me wrong, Sebas did not seem disappointed to me or anything. Perhaps so because being summoned by a “weak, guilt-crippled, powerless child” really is very refreshing. And if there’s anything Sebas loves, it’s being refreshed.
So in short, I think Sebas lied because 1. he’s Trash™ and wants the boy who just lost everything to feel even worse, and 2. because he hoped to go home and be left at peace.
Ah, a small misunderstanding which I caused that I should clear up! My apologies! I forgot that if you say in English “it’s a lie”, it actually does mean: “you speak an untruth”. (^罒^ ‘’)づ My bad.
In Japanese we say “it’s a lie” not necessarily because we accuse somebody of lying, but because we can’t believe something ourselves. The best translation would actually be: “no way”. When somebody for example says: “I’m pregnant” and the recipient is surprised, they can also say: “it’s a lie” in Japanese. Obviously no accusation of lying is happening; it’s just an expression of disbelief/surprise.
So, O!Ciel didn’t call Sebas out on a lie yet; he was simply rejecting the information Sebas gave him. I might be too nit-picky… but I am also wondering why this translator likes adding stuff that’s not there in the original so much.
In the English version there is an extra exclamation mark, and O!Ciel yells “y-your lying!” In the Japanese however, he simply says “n-no way”.
It’s JUST one exclamation mark, yes, but in this one bubble it matters quite a bit. By adding an exclamation mark it seems to me O!Ciel had SOME semblance of confidence (faked or not) in accusing Sebas of lying. In the original, the text is small and there is not a single punctuation mark to be seen, meaning the boy spoke a lot softer. The tone would be quite different, adding emphasis to how little confidence O!Ciel had in his words. In Japanese I get a much stronger sense that O!Ciel is eating himself.
So yes… O!Ciel would be eaten anyway, whether by himself or his demon…
I hope this has been interesting and helped (*´▽`*)ノ⁾⁾⁾
What is Evil in Kuroshitsuji? - Kuroshitsuji’s philosophy
What kind of ending of Kuroshitsuji do I want to see?
Character analysis Sebastian - Autonomy and Curiousity