Me: *Realizing that Layla and Al (possibly short for Alyal) might be Lord Vega... and being totally ok that they are Vega (instead of Layla being Canopus by herself)... as long as it means our mirror twins really might also have anagram names, like I've been saying since December 2015.*

Come on, Ciel and Elic....

@tehgreatboo "Yana.... So help me, I swear.... Don't even think about it, Yana.... 😑"

@tiff-taf-touf Oh... shit. I hope not.... 🫣 Alex B. died so long ago that Undertaker didn't have nearly this much technique back then. Recall that he says his techniques weren't even up to snuff when he collected real Ciel's body from the ritual location. Imagine the horrible physical condition of Alex B's body... just waiting decades to be fixed up like real Ciel and the other lords of the stars. I don't think this one could be presentable in public....

@enchantingllamathing That's an interesting tactic. However, she continues to call out his name as she's running outside.

This suggests she was really hoping Al would show up back there and rescue her.

Maybe Ronald isn't in ch188 because he's too busy out of frame... dealing with Al?!?

Here's my recent post about the meaning of Layla.

And above ⬆️ is a post I did about Al.

Then today I saw this post by @xxcelephais about Al. Well, sure enough, Alyal, which I ignored but shouldn't have, really does have a meaning pretty much like Layla. The backwards spelling has essentially the same meaning, maybe even a stronger version of the same thing. "Very dark long (night)". Damn.

If Yana-san gives us Alyal, then two things:

if anyone has any weird/crack/bespoke/realistic theories about the ending of kuroshitsuji then please tell me about it

Mostly, I theorize all of this for the end:

This is all based on Mother3 theory, in turn based on the packaging for "Mouse3" by "Ninkyodo" -- shown quite dramatically in ch1, briefly vague-mentioned in ch2 as "the game", briefly vague-mentioned in ch3 as the "drugs" and "evidence", and shown again in two panels of ch4. The game packaging was used to smuggle the drugs into England from Italy.

Ch1:

Ch2:

Ch3:

Ch4:

How do you like this ending?

About my prediction that something should get through to him....

Pinocchio and Claus/Masked Man have something very important in common: Pinocchio eventually kills himself, and Claus (once he's reminded how he used to be human) sacrifices himself to let his younger mirror twin, Lucas, win their final battle. Similarly, I'm expecting real Ciel to eventually give up and let our earl "win".

I'm just waiting to see why and how real Ciel finally gives up. 👀

A new leitmotif approach

I asked @georgemandom (through FB) to compose a new short piece for Undertaker's leitmotif, and he's agreed to give it a try.

Now I'm taking...

...and reading the last initials from right to left, as Yana-san probably would have intended, taking Japanese reading order into account. Then taking the starting E, the existence of an F#, and all the others being natural to suggest it's in the key of E minor.

So, the new composition challenge is:

Let's see what we get!

Anyone else who wants to accept the challenge is welcome.

Since I posted about this on FB, my mom popped up to say how much my dad would have loved to discuss stuff like this. Then she suggested using "dissonant harmonies", and now that's got me looking at F# Locrian scale, which changes a couple notes, making them all natural except for F#. Locrian has the tritone (a dissonant sound referred to as "the devil's interval"), and one aspect of Undertaker parallels well with Fassad/Locria in Mother3 theory. So.... 🤔

One possible interpretation of Undertaker’s locket melody….

I can’t explain how all the music stuff works, so here is the message that @georgemandom sent me. And here is that link https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N9P0vP3HjH4

It’s very cool and I like the dissonance. It works for Undertaker :)

Attention, musically-inclined tumblrs! Feel free to play around with this:

Undertaker’s lockets give us a series of musical notes for his melody/leitmotif. It is: CABFGDE or possibly CABF#GDE. I arrived at his from:

Emile C Oliver A Alex B Cloudia/Claudia P(hantomhive), so F or F# Mally/Molly G Gilbert D Harry E

Let me know what you come up with! :D

I’d really like to hear that order of notes turned into a rondo or fugue….

I don’t know if this can be possible as well, but I noticed that two of the lockets had the initials or name starting with ‘a’ (Oliver. a and alex. B) and it’s not capitalized like the other names. When I looked it up, people who know music usually note small letters as minor notes and capital letters as major notes. So the ‘a’ in Oliver can actually be an ‘a’ minor? 

Back to the leitmotif!

Interesting idea, and I guess you mean from this image?

The “A” for Oliver’s last initial does seem smaller than the “A” for Alex, making Oliver’s last initial seem like a lower-case letter “a”.

However, the A natural minor scale (which is in the same key as C major scale) doesn’t have any flats or sharps, so that would make that “P” become nonsense… unless we take the “Ph” of Phantomhive to be F (no flat or sharp). But I find that terribly weird. “P” really should be an F# (or an Fb, which is the same as E in the C major scale). Chances are, the “P” is F#, so we aren’t talking about a hint to playing all the notes with the A minor scale. Besides, if we were talking A minor scale, wouldn’t either the first note be A… or the notes would at least resolve on A?

Well, we only get 7 notes, so there’s not exactly resolving on any note.

What we could be seeing, though, is the lower case “a” could denote this is supposed to be a chord instead of a single note. An A minor triad consists of the notes A (root), C (minor third), and E (fifth).

I’m not a musician, and I’ve gathered my info very quickly from looking up stuff about the key of A minor and the A minor chord. I also looked up what scale has an F# and no other sharps or flats, and that’s G major. And this website has this to say about G major: “The key of G-Major is rustic and idyllic. It evokes feelings of tenderness and friendship.” Sounds kind of fitting in regards to mourning lockets, doesn’t it? “Feelings of tenderness and friendship”….

I also looked up C major, since this starts on C. If we accept the P(h) to be F (no sharp, no flat), then we could have the key of C major here. However, that same website says this about C major: “Since there are no sharps or flats in C-Major, it is considered to have a ‘pure’ character. It conveys a sense of innocence and simplicity.” And I have a harder time believing “innocence and simplicity” over “tenderness and friendship”.

Of course, it’s also possible that, English not being Yana-san’s first language (and the Roman alphabet being less familiar to her than kanji, etc.), she could have simply drawn Oliver’s last initial a bit smaller than intended. To us, it looks like “a”, but she might have intended it to be “A”. Hard to tell when the “A” in Alex has the same shape, only larger. Keep in mind that this style of “A” just being a larger version of “a” is common in cursive writing! So, I’m pretty sure that’s “Alex”, not “alex”.

Any musician want to weigh in on this, just in case the last initial “A” is intentionally lower-case “a”?

Then, in fairness, I looked to see if any other key also has F# but no other sharps or flats. That would be the key of E minor.

This website explains keys used to express certain emotions.

C major (natural F):

A minor (natural F):

G major (with F#):

E minor (with F#):

So… if I have to choose a key? G major or E minor. E minor might be best, considering the emotions of it. Also, if we read the lockets’ last initials from right to left, since Japanese is read right to left, then Yana-san could be telling us it’s really: E D G F# B A C… in the key of E minor!

Happy 16th anniversary to Mother3!

133rd anniversary of the rescue ship showing up to pick up the survivors from the Campania, too….

So. I reread the Black Butler manga from the beginning after binge reading from where I left off pre-pandemic, and I have Questions and a theory. Spoiler warning: I will be talking about a lot of things from the later half of the manga, post Campania arc, as evidence.

Runaway Technology

Oh, it’s definitely on purpose. Even when our earl has things that shouldn’t be available yet, Othello validates them by the mere presence of a demon in the kid’s life. Ch125 has Othello explaining that human lives might be extended past their expected death dates, due to the intervention of beings with “knowledge beyond the purview of man”. And this changes those lives. Then he says that demons can fill this role.

So, all the innovative toys that Funtom has produced (like video game consoles and controllers 🎮) and even the TV 📺 that’s at Phantomhive Manor might exist purely because Sebastian is there. Our earl is able to develop the toys with Sebastian’s help, and perhaps the demon simply made the TV exist.

In the case of the blood transfusion/dialysis machines, this is most likely the combination of Undertaker and someone with medical knowledge… like Aleister Chambers, the Viscount of Druitt, which would help explain why Undertaker makes sure to keep the guy alive. Of course, Druitt didn’t build the contraption that supposedly controls the bizarre dolls on the Campania, but that’s because it’s a useless heap of metal just meant to look impressive. Truth is, Druitt might be able to, with the help of a being like Undertaker, design and build all sorts of useful medical equipment. Othello might even be wrong about what knowledge Undertaker has or doesn’t have, regarding medical technology and related subjects.

With Sieglinde, it’s entirely possible she wasn’t even meant to be born, but here she is, and she’s a brilliant inventor. In her case, she doesn’t need a divine being to help her invent stuff. Thanks to our earl and Sebastian, she’s still alive (Sascha and Ludger had expected to collect her and Wolfram’s souls), and so she’s coming up with all sorts of things, most of which we still haven’t seen. Which is a bit scary. When she had the Phantom Five to focus on, she made innovations in acoustics, portable/possibly battery-operated equipment, hydraulics, use of fluorescence, and who knows what else; most of what she’s done she’s never fully explained. But she also made things for herself, like the Spider Legs. Now that Phantom Five is no more, she’s probably focused on the queen’s wishes, and that’s what’s got me worried. When we see her again, we might find that she’s returned to developing weapons.

And we know, in-universe, that Germany is developing its military technology way ahead of schedule. Even as early as the murders arc, we have Charles Grey saying that Germany is ten years ahead of where they should be, and it’s quite possible that, by the time we get to the green witch arc, Germany has pulled a few more decades ahead. Which suggests they either have a few remarkable humans like Sieglinde… or they have at least one divine being assisting human inventors with innovations. I’m quite sure that Grey is human, but this means he most likely overheard this from someone in the queen’s staff who isn’t human. I’m looking 👀 at John Brown, who I think is either a demon or an angel. He could be like a superior with the reaper organization, and I don’t think the superiors are reapers; they should be truly superior to reapers. Anyway, the technologies that the German military has in the Kuroverse are so advanced that even characters are saying it’s too advanced for the era.

That’s part of the problem, and the royal houses have a lot to do with it, particularly Queen Victoria. And it fits Mother3 theory, since King Porky forces the villagers to obey him and use modern technologies they had never seen before (or even thought they needed). It becomes a situation of runaway technology. Or at least an interpretation of the concept. Some things won’t work as intended or might not be as high quality as expected. At some point, they might not even be able to control what they’ve created.

Mother3 theory; Easter special

Hummingbird Egg

In Mother3, Lucas, Duster, and others are at Osohe Castle looking for the Hummingbird Egg or Egg of Light. Some of the people searching for it are antagonists. Duster loses his memories when he finds and touches the egg. He hides the egg somewhere. He then wanders around (forgetting about Lucas and the others because his memories are gone) and joins a band called DCMC (Desperado Crush Mambo Combo), but having forgotten his name, he gets renamed Lucky. There are now five members: OJ, Magic, Baccio, Lucky, and Shimmy Zmizz. They play at a music hall called Club Titiboo. After Lucas wins a game (rock/paper/scissors) against the other four members of DCMC, Lucky/Duster is released from DCMC and rejoins Lucas’s team, but his memories haven’t returned, so he asks Lucas (and his team) to help him find the egg again. When they finally find the egg again, it’s inside a Clay Golem that seems broken, but it springs back to “life” and runs away. They have to chase it, and when they finally catch up with it again, it’s truly broken down in a trash heap. Reclaiming the egg, Duster’s memories are restored. Which isn’t all good, since that meant all the bad memories, too.

Mother3 also has Fassad (parallel to Undertaker deserting the reaper organization and his later role with the Blue Sect) selling something called Happy Boxes to villagers. The Happy Boxes make villagers obedient to King Porky, and the music of DCMC helps break that trance by creating a trance of its own… sort of.

There’re also a couple things I’d like to briefly bring up about Mother2 (aka EarthBound in the US, the second installment in the game series) here:

There are already two major parallels to the Hummingbird Egg situation in Black Butler. The first appears in the Easter egg hunt of Ch66, “Frenzy”.

Lizzy’s painted egg

In ch66, there’s a late celebration of Easter (due to the whole Campania thing), and Lizzie shows up with painted eggs for a hunt. Queen Victoria’s butlers (antagonists) show up with painted eggs, too. But the hunt begins when Lizzie hides the egg she painted herself (her father painted the rest of the ones she brought). She tests “Ciel’s” memory by suggesting that they used to do this every Easter (before the attack), and he fails by pretending he knew that. Truth is, this is the first time she’s ever painted one of the eggs, so she’s never had “Ciel” search for a particular egg before. Then the hunt begins, and the antagonists are there, as well as Edward, Soma and Agni, and of course the Phantomhive household. All competing to find and claim Lizzie’s egg first. We know what happens in ch66, so I won’t rehash all the details, but it’s important to note that, afterwards, Lizzie asks herself what has happened to “Ciel’s” memories.

The second major parallel occurs much later, in the blue sect arc.

Phantom Five

This time it’s not about actual eggs because Lizzie’s egg has now been replaced by Lizzie herself. She’s gone missing after refusing to return home from Sphere Music Hall. She’s essentially hiding herself. Edward asks our earl to help him find his sister, who is basically the whole world to him. When Sebastian is sent in to investigate the place and hopefully find Lizzie, he succeeds, but she fights him. He knocks her out and brings her back to the townhouse, but she wakes up, escapes, and runs away.

With Lizzie in hiding again and being uncooperative, it’s time for our earl to do something more drastic (and imaginative) than just sending his butler back to the music hall. But the only reason I see for it to be “start a rival band” and “put Edward in it” is because of Mother3’s DCMC and Duster/Lucky.

With the name Phantom Five, it evokes the Runaway Five from Mother2. But it’s closer in casting to the five members of DCMC in Mother3. Somewhere, I’ve got an old post where I show how the members of DCMC and Phantom Five match up. Oh, here it is, from November 2016! 😆 Anyway, Edward doesn’t change his name, but his stage persona is nothing like his regular personality. Much like when Duster becomes Lucky. And he’s doing it all because he hopes it makes Lizzie return. When Lizzy finally returns (but to Phantomhive Manor), she feels emotionally broken, much like what’s left of that Clay Golem.

I can also see the Runaway Five of Mother2 as a parallel to the Starlight Four, since our earl helps the Prefect Four deal with issues at Weston, and then he later releases them, as Starlight Four, from having to perform anymore at Sphere Music Hall (though Gregory Violet is captured, and the other three go into hiding). Also, we haven’t likely seen the last of them, so who knows what else they will need saving from… before this series is over?

So…. In Black Butler, we have the Blue Sect, instead of Mother2’s Happy Happyism. We have the Starlight Four instead of Mother3’s Happy Boxes and, to a lesser degree, Mother2’s Runaway Five. We have Phantom Five instead of Mother3’s DCMC (and to some extent Mother2’s Runaway Five). We have Edward mostly as Duster, Lizzie as an aspect of Duster but mostly as the Hummingbird Egg (and as Duster’s most powerful weapon). And, of course, we have our earl instead of Mother3’s Lucas (and to a lesser degree, Mother2’s Ness. Finny also strikes me as a parallel to Ness).

Kind of complicated and a bit convoluted, so feel free to ask questions about this in comments, etc., and I’ll try to answer in some more understandable way.

Why I theorize about Mother3 as the framework for Black Butler....

Yana-san wasn’t sure this manga series would ever get picked up (let alone become a huge industry), so she was tentative about writing arcs that might never see the light of day. HOWEVER, the main plot, the main characters (as well as some more minor ones), and the timeline of the series were planned from the very beginning, and Yana-san told us all about it in just TWO PANELS in CHAPTER ONE.

That first panel is a close-up of irises – Victorian flower language meaning “I have a message for you”.

The second panel is the VERY NEXT PANEL, the game packaging for “Mouse3”.

It’s a direct reference to Nintendo’s Mother3, which had been released in Japan back in April of the same year (2006).

The game revolves around mirror twin boys (with anagram names) who get separated soon after the tragic death of their mother. They are about ten years old. The older twin, Claus, dies (trying to avenge his mother’s death) a bit less than a month later. Lucas stays home for about three years before making his own journey for the same quest (revenge), but now it’s not just for the death of his mother but also for the disappearance of Claus and how all this trauma has made their father utterly useless. They don’t know Claus is dead, since they hadn’t found a body.

He sets out on his quest with his loyal DOG. They infiltrate their enemies, sometimes taking jobs with them, sometimes even dressing the dog up like a human. There’s even a scene in which the DOG is refused entry to a MUSIC HALL because he’s obviously NOT HUMAN. (Think: the two bouncers [Neckbeard and Skinhead] who refuse Boney entry look *very much* like the two thugs who toss Sebastian out of Sphere Music Hall. I’ve posted comparison pics before….) The vast majority of the game is played within a ONE YEAR TIMELINE. (Think: BB ever since chapter 14.)

He ends up with a “treasured” Courage Badge/Franklin Badge (a family heirloom) from someone with strong ties to his family. The person who hands him this “treasure” is the local (and very eccentric) grave keeper. (Think: Undertaker and his “treasured” mourning lockets.)

He gets help along the way by these weird fairy-like Magypsies, though they can be rude at times. All of them appear to be male but have magenta hair and dress as women. They are keeping a Dark Dragon asleep with magic needles. (Think: Grell Sutcliff as the main parallel but also include BB characters seen or associated with various kinds of needles, like Lau, Charles Phipps, Nina, Blavat, etc.) Lucas learns about a prophecy and that he’s able to fulfill it: if he pulls out the most needles, then he will control this Dark Dragon. (Think: having a contract with/being able to control a “Black Butler”.)

Then he finds out that someone else has the same ability to fulfill the prophesy… that this other person is heartless… and that their identities keep getting confused. (Think: the shooter in ch126.) There are even a couple scenes in which Lucas makes a TELEPATHIC CONNECTION to this Masked Man, though he has no idea how or why. (Think: the earl talking to a mirror image of himself in dreams/hallucinations. Also think: the earl thinking Undertaker is with a boy who looks like him, but then he wakes up and sees Sebastian by his bed.)

Two other people join him and become his team:

1. Duster forgets his identity and takes up a new persona in a five-piece band that “undoes” the brainwashing caused by Happy Boxes. His strongest weapons are his SHOES (which he can upgrade during the game). Much of his time is spent trying to find the missing EGG OF LIGHT, which contains his memories. (Think: the duo of Edward [joining the P5] and Lizzie Midford [with her shoes].)

2. Kumatora lives in an old castle that is haunted by the “ghost” of tradition. She always wears a hoodie, can be quite rude and distant, has psychic abilities (telepathy), and hides her true feelings. She disguises herself in a purple hoodie and changes her name to VIOLET in order to infiltrate the enemies. As Violet, she waits tables at a MUSIC HALL. At the end of the game she cries, unable to stop, and it’s apparently the first time she’s ever cried in her life. (Think: Gregory Violet, who was met at the super-traditional Weston College. Also think: Gregory Violet crying/showing emotion when the earl and Sebastian find him in Bath and save his life.)

A villager who had been silent (until he decided it was the right time) tells Lucas all about the history of Nowhere Islands… and how the people had arrived, on a big white boat, with the hopes to start over their lives. (Think: all those references to Noah’s Ark.) They even wiped their memories clean and came up with fake histories. Only this one person was left with his memories intact for the purpose of telling it to the one who will fulfill the prophecy. (I think Tanaka will ultimately fill this role.)

Lucas and his team have to defeat numerous enemies, including one who uses Happy Boxes (delivered by a trained and enslaved monkey) to brainwash the masses. (Think: Blavat Sky using the S4 performances to sway the masses.) Another major enemy they have to defeat is King Porky and his servants/army. (Think: Queen Victoria, Double Charles, and John Brown.)

They are sometimes helped by an eccentric inventor who is obsessed with donuts (offers them to Lucas, too) and driven in his pursuits by CURIOSITY. (Think: Undertaker, his bone-shaped biscuits/cookies, and how he’s driven by curiosity about life and death.) King Porky stole technology from him and even forced him to work on new inventions for his personal benefit. (Think: Queen Victoria wants Bizarre Dolls as “allies” and has Sieglinde Sullivan working for her now.) One of the more interesting inventions is a mobility suit that looks like SPIDER LEGS. (Think: Sieglinde Sullivan.) However, what the inventor is best known for are his FASCINATING CHIMERA. (Think: Undertaker’s Bizarre Dolls.)

After all other enemies have been defeated, the only person standing between Lucas and the last needle is the Masked Man who had previously shown up out of nowhere (from time to time) to mess stuff up and compete to pull needles. It’s the same guy that’s causing all the MISTAKEN IDENTITY issues. It’s the guy who is “HEARTLESS”. He turns out to be Claus, Lucas’ twin who had died ALMOST FOUR YEARS ago. He’s “heartless” because after death he was turned into one of those Fascinating Chimera; he’s a walking corpse programmed with a single purpose: beat Lucas in waking the Dark Dragon. (Think: the real Ciel turned into a Bizarre Doll and “programmed” with an “episode” to seek out his own revenge and to, perhaps, also reclaim his birthright.)

They fight; his friends can’t help him anymore (not even the dog). That “treasured” badge saves Lucas from an attack that would have probably killed him. Then, essentially, a miracle occurs in which the ghost of their mother forces Claus to remember who he was… and that they shouldn’t fight. Claus gives up… as his programming fails… and they reunite just before Claus “dies” a second time. (Think: the earl and real Ciel face off, but not even Sebastian can do much about it… for whatever reason. Perhaps he is busy fighting someone else? And one boy “wins”….)

Then Lucas pulls up the last needle. The Dark Dragon wakes up and causes Armageddon-level havoc before basically resetting things back the way they had been. There is the rubble of destruction everywhere, but the people are ok; the Dark Dragon’s power was even strong enough to return everyone to full health and strength. (Think: Sebastian will follow the will of whichever “Ciel” proves victorious….)

Done. The end.

——-

THIS is why I spend so much time going on about my Mother3 theory…. :)

Visit @abybweissekuromother3 for more about my theory….

Correction: the ghost of their mother finally talks Claus into giving up, THEN Claus makes the attack that rebounds and hits him.

Update: Tanaka is already (as of ch130) starting to fill in the role of Leder, the village bell-ringer who kept his memories in order to pass all he knew on to the one who should fulfill the prophecy. Now we just need to see what else he might tell the earl (and Sebastian)… particularly if it’s without real Ciel present….

I’d also like to note that the Japanese flower language meanings (there’s more than one) for irises includes the same idea of giving a message.

Also, it’s only because of Duster that Lucas starts looking for the Egg of Light (aka Hummingbird Egg). That egg is another parallel with Lizzie. Our earl only knows to look for Lizzie at Sphere Music Hall because Edward tells him she’s refused to go home and now she seems to have gone missing. That’s also why ch66: “the butler, frenzy” is so important; they are all looking for her painted EGG….

Reblogging to have higher up in my blog. Hopefully, this will help those who read my blog and don’t understand why I keep “yammering on” about some Mother3 theory. This is why. But there’s more to it than even this. Please check out the Tagging Masterpost for links to more stuff about this undying theory of mine.