This chapter is everything I had been waiting for and more, seriously. There are a couple of things that stood out to me while reading the raw and I want to note them down before I forget (and to compare once the official English version is released)! Just in case, here’s my rudimentary translation of their scenes in case anyone’s a bit lost with my commentary.
(Spoiler images inside! Don’t read if you don’t want to spoil yourself!)
Look say what you want about Lizzie in the latest chapter but if I was 15 years old and had just found out that the last four years of my life was founded entirely on lies I’d be pretty fucking upset too.
She’s coming to terms with terrible flaws in her own character that she never thought she’d have to address. She knows that she would have been happier had r!Ciel returned instead of o!Ciel. Now we as the omnipotent readers know there was more to o!Ciel’s decision than just her relationship with the twins, but she doesn’t. She sees herself as part of the problem. All she knows is that o!Ciel pretended to be r!Ciel and that she knows she would have been happier with r!C’s return. That’s what’s tearing her apart. She recognises that was selfish and horrible and that o!Ciel deserved better than that, whereas all the while she was just focused on her own happiness. She thought it was love, but she never thought of him.
But above all else she thinks everything the cult did was her fault. She didn’t want r!Ciel to die again, so she ignored the terrible things they did. Had o!Ciel never pretended to be his brother then none of it would have happened. And in her grief, in her guilt, she knows that if she’d cherished o!Ciel like he deserved none of this would have happened.
Yes, she was selfish. Yes, she ignored mass murder. And yes, she was fixated on love when there was so much more going on.
But that’s why she’s upset.
Everything was a lie. And the truth was her fault. That’s a lot for a fifteen year old to handle.
So let Lizzie cry. Her redemption arc is coming.
@kuro-von-shitsuji I hope you don’t mind me just adding one thing OP. 🙂 I pretty much agree with everything you say, from her not knowing why our!Ciel took his brother’s identity to considering that she’s the problem in the whole situation.
The full chapter is not out yet, so did Lizzie actually think as an 11 year old kid that she wanted one twin back over the other, or is she considering that she might have (had she known the truth) and the possibility is bothering her (because that would make her ‘cruel’ in her own words), we can’t be sure.
Whichever it is though, she’s crying because she’s blaming herself, which shows that she’s regretting how unfair/selfish she was or could have been towards our!Ciel. Which shows she doesn’t not care about him or his current situation, no matter how conflicted she is between the two boys.
Which implies reflection and redemption, as you said OP! 🙂
Lizzie is 15 years old and growing up is about realizing that your past self was immature and selfish on a lot of points and that you should strive to do better. No one should hold you responsible of things you did or thought when you were a little kid and didn’t know better, unless you show no reassessment, because no one is perfect.
Lizzie is growing up, so if anyone as a reader didn’t like her before (which is your right and all), you should be happy that she is learning and eventually willing to do better. 🙂
Stressed, Depressed, and Story Obsessed 