This might be a far reach but it's something I recently thought about: Do you think Sebastian's love for cats could be more important than just occasional comic relief/an antithesis to Ciel being a dog person? I just came back to being more into Kuro again & looking back it caught my eye since it kinda sticks out of Sebastian's character & actions. So could it be something more than a running joke? Maybe something to do with demon lore in Kuro?
Hello Anon. :) Oh, I don’t think it’s a far reach, at least not if we’re talking about symbolism!
“Do you think Sebastian's love for cats could be more important than just occasional comic relief/an antithesis to Ciel being a dog person? [...] could it be something more than a running joke?"
I definitely think it’s the case, on at least two levels.
First of all, personally I believe that, in Kuroshitsuji, there is no innocent comic relief. If there is a running joke, then it’s foreshadowing.
So, considering how much Seb loves felines and how much they don’t reciprocate (for most of them)...
...then maybe you can see this as a hint that animals in Kuroshitsuji can feel demons’ true nature/see through their disguise (just like Shinigamis can recognize them because they have different eyes than when they were humans).
In other words, Seb’s love for felines is probably unrequited; I’d cry but I don’t really have tears to spare for demons. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
More seriously though, it’s true that Seb loves felines while Ciel is always described as a hound, because he’s the Queen’s Watchdog, which (in my opinion) can indeed foreshadow some... conflicts later on, between them (assuming the old ‘cat & dog don’t get along’ is what Sensei has in mind).
In fact, while their dynamic has always been very entertaining to read about, Seb did remind us during the Green Witch arc that their duo of master & butler was nothing more than a game that actually started in ch138:
That’s why I’ve always been a fan of the idea that, revenge aside, maybe Ciel will one day think back about the contract and the price it will cost him, making Seb the last antagonist he’ll have to face (or Ciel will be Seb’s last antagonist before dinner, if we’re considering that Seb is the main character, same difference).
I previously wrote about this idea here: so far, Ciel thinks he’s the worst and therefore he doesn’t mind suffering the fate of selling his soul to Seb, but...
...should he realize that he deserves better (because he kinda does), will he try to find a way to break the contract?
My fave ending for Kuroshitsuji is Ciel dying but Seb not getting his dinner, so I’d really love a last arc about a falling out between Seb and Ciel, with the contract binding them being on the verge of being broken. I mean, we know Seb’s stance on that (see ch95), but it’s not like some humans or Shinigamis aren’t a thorn in Seb’s back from time to time. :))
And that could be the whole cat vs dog symbolism that you were wondering about. :)
My take on it, you don’t have to agree. Second fave idea is Lau stabbing Ciel in the back, but that’s already a given, so I’m just not going to ramble, haha!
I hope it answers your question, please have a nice weekend Anon!