I do appreciate the “Sebastian is trash” because you’re right but as readers it’s so hard not to think he’s becoming more human or experiencing emotions. I know that’s the point of him being a demon and master liar but it does hit the audience hard sometimes
【Related post: What is Evil in Kuroshitsuji? - Kuroshitsuji’s philosophy】
My apologies, but do you mean that Sebas being called trash despite being human-like hits the audience hard sometimes? Or do you mean that him being trash but also showing human-like sides hits the audience hard?
Like I said before in this post, I have always found Sebastian’s expressions of himself quite human. He experiences happiness, irritation, boredom... anything us humans do, and potentially more. Sebastian has many, many emotions and expressions, so many Yana easily pulled off the 30-faces challenge. The only emotion he has not shown so far is romantic affection, but there are plenty humans who also don’t.
I think I do kind of know what you mean though, Sebas has gotten cuter and cuter lately, and it is not something commonly associated with demons. But I think it is in part because 1. Yana’s art improved significantly so that she can draw a wider variety of expressions, and 2. because Sebas has more respect for his master now, therefore is more cooperative, and thus seemingly happier, and 3. a certain actor whom she admitted was more Sebas than her own Sebas waltzed into her life influencing her in turn.
About Sebas being Trash™ and human-likeness though. Something very important I wish to draw attention to: In my opinion ESPECIALLY because he is Trash™ it is very dangerous to distance his actions from something “human”.
As I have written in the post about evil in Kuro:
Rather than teaching morality, I think Kuroshitsuji is a disclosure of the inherent human potential of being evil. Us humans are very prone to calling an evil person or act ‘inhumane’ or ‘monster’, but is that not just a way to distance oneself from the idea that as a fellow human they share the same potential of being evil?
Perhaps this will become the absolute least popular opinion ever spoken in this fandom, but so far I have yet to see any evil carried out by Sebas in his current manifestation that humans have not yet committed or done even worse. And still we need to bear in mind that most of these evils were under his human master’s instructions.
Massacring people? Us humans have fought wars, colonised, and mass-executed fellow humans for no valid reason at all.
Burning children alive? We have had Joseph Mengele and the Imperial Japanese Unit 731 during WW2 that did unspeakable horrors to adults and children alike. (TW extreme cruelty before you click the links to Wiki!)
Manipulating people in their weakness like Beast and O!Ciel? Classic predatory human behaviour.
Eating human souls? Well... if demons can’t life off anything else, it’s basic survival. If they can survive without, then it’s the same as human meat-eaters who can also without any meat.
Mistreating a human before eating their soul? Looking right at you, meat industry!
Insert anything else we know he has done, and I dare say I can find an equal or worse example at the hands of humans!
The only difference between Sebas and evil humans is that Sebas is faster, has reach to a grander scale, and usually doesn’t need help. Humans however, have done the same, just with help and tools. What makes somebody evil however, is not their power but their intention to execute evil.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying Yana wrote a demon poorly! On the contrary. Sebas is very interesting and as I have written in this post, the way Sebas has seen everything but understands nothing is incredibly convincing that he is a creature who is ancient and just has a “different” set of moralities. This “different” set however, is strictly speaking only "different” because of his use thereof: What most humans would not dare do to a fellow human, Sebas would without scruples. Yes, that is awful. But the same things humans do not dare do, they would to an insect, likewise without scruples. And canonically, humans are all insects to Sebas. So does that make Sebas worse than humans or “inhumane”?
As I have explained in this post, the most shocking thing about Sebas is just his sheer indifference for human lives, much like most humans don’t care about stepping on ants as they walk or slapping a mosquito.
I would never question Yana’s morality for writing an evil demon with crimes hardly worse than humans’. Yana as a (probably normal) human, will probably find it hard to imagine anything worse than whatever the worst of our kind have ever come up with. I myself for one cannot, and I have a very dark taste for fantasy.
So is Sebas “inhumane”? Shockingly, “no”, only if “inhumane” means “doing something bad to only human beings specifically”.
What is evil in Kuroshitsuji - Philosophy
Character analysis - Sebastian the eternal scientist
Dynamic analysis - O!Ciel and Sebastian
Sebastian’s indifference - Humans are socks in a drawer
Sebastian grown softer towards O!Ciel?
