Happens a lot with Ciel, especially due to his extremely different personalities in the two canons (manga Ciel and anime Ciel have a lot of differences). This also happens with a few other characters, but to a lesser degree.
Some people think he actually cares about others, and other people think he does not care at all about others or even hates them.
Some argue just how much of Ciel's darker tendencies are truly his own and how much they are a result of Sebastian's looming influence and his position as the Queen's Watchdog. On the one hand it's no secret that Sebastian is doing his best to "season" Ciel's soul and on two instances tried to kill Ciel when he appeared to give up on his revenge or be too sick to go on and the position continuously exposes Ciel to the worst of human nature which leads to him making morally reprehensible decisions himself, especially when it triggers his PTSD. On the other, Word of Godhas stated multiple times that Ciel is in fact naturally twisted, a trait that he picked up from his father Vincent, and Sebastian has alluded to Ciel's soul having certain properties that he rarely finds in others.
Going from the above one particular line from Claude has him note in the lines of how Ciel has traversed through much darkness yet his soul remained uncorrupted. Is Ciel simply a very resilient individual, or was his soul already a shade of black to begin with?
Some people consider Ciel to be asexual, but other fans think he is gay or bisexual.
Just how much is manga Sebastian truly a Born Lucky godlike Invincible Hero? He is definitely Nigh-Invulnerable and can curb-stomp most humans with flair, but Agni can duel him to a standstill with no supernatural help when Sebastian was ordered to defeat him. Not helping is that only time he's been able to easily trounce a supernatural opponent was with Ronald Knox on the Campania, Grell being able to seriously injure him (leading to him using a clever trick to win the fight) and Undertaker nearly killing him. Sebastian also occasionally struggles to fulfill Ciel's orders due to obstacles that even he can't breeze past, like in the aforementioned fight with Grell and later on when investigating the circus.
It could also be questioned how much Sebastian might be holding back in order to maintain the façade, as many moments do hint that he has powers that he can utilize but chooses not to (causing hallucinations and entering dreams being a couple examples). The Campania arc and the Blue Memory flashbacks establish that Ciel has ordered Sebastian not to use the full extent of his powers. To make things even more complicated, in the Jack the Ripper arc Sebastian states that when Ciel orders him to do something then the contract will ensure that he succeeds. Given that there are several times throughout the manga where Sebastian does explicitly fail at fulfilling Ciel's orders and that Sebastian has tried to eat Ciel twice before the terms of the contract were fulfilled, it calls into question just how powerful the contract is and whether or not it genuinely limits Sebastian's behavior.
Snake. Does he only repeat what his snake friends say, or can he speak for himself and just chooses not toout of shyness? It's worth noting that he has spoken for himself a handful of times in the manga, the first time being this◊ panel in an early chapter.
The Hellhound. Is he sapient, or does he only have the mind of a dog?
Grell's motivations for becoming Jack the Ripper. She tells Angelina that it's because she can relate to and sympathize with Angelina's desire and inability to have children, but aside from a comment to Sebastian she never brings this up again and tends to be at best dismissive of the child characters she interacts with. So was she telling the truth, or was she lying to gain Angelina's trust so that she'd let Grell join her? If she was telling the truth, did she change her mind after the Jack the Ripper arc, or is she simply keeping her desire for motherhood closer to her chest? If she was lying, then did she approach Angelina out of boredom, simple desire to kill women (or anyone for the matter), or was she interested in Angelina herself?
Finny's backstory includes him being locked in a stone room and experimented on for an undetermined amount of time. The amount of times he complains about this? ZERO. This may be because he has come to terms with the fact that it's all in the past now, and can't hurt him any longer. Why do you think he fights so hard to be the very best gardener he can be for the Phantomhive family? He will do anything to keep experiencing the glorious outdoors he was denied for so many years.
Every character with a Dark and Troubled Past is subjected to this except for Ciel. Ciel's other servants are a mild example, as well as Madam Red were it not for the fact that her past drove her to become a serial killer and the circus kids.
Grell as well, to some. She's transgender - MtF - and everyone is rude towards her (including using male pronouns constantly in the official English translations of the anime and manga). She doesn't seem to care at all, though. Though you have to wonder if she'll ever give up on her "true love" Sebastian (who repeatedly and often violently turns down her affections...although part of the reason she likes him so much is because of how brutal he is towards her).
Actually, given the reveal that all the Shinigami were humans that were driven to suicide and are being punished by constantly being exposed to and working with death, every Shinigami could now fall into this.
Arc Fatigue: The manga's arcs just seem to get longer as the time goes on, with the two initial arcs of Jack the Ripper and the Book of Circus ranging from short to decently long without getting annoying. The problem began later on:
The Campagnia Ship Arc was long, it but revealed some twists, important characters and their development, and began a potential long-running background plot so the length could be excused.
The Weston College Arc was the beginning of a downfall. The arc was long and took place in a school, bringing a lot of boring chores that generally were not found in the manga before, and involved a sub-plot to reveal a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing which could've been cut without impacting the main plot. The kicker came when the mission was stalled to involve a Tournament Arc in the middle of it; it was necessary to advance the plot, but it prolonged the arc to the point of the reader getting exhausted.
The Emerald Witch Arc in Germany was a mixture. While the arc brought forth some interesting aspects, the slow pacing made it feel like nobody really got closer to anything. The fact it lasted about twenty chapters (and is currently the second longest arc) does not help.
While people are happy to finally see what happened to Ciel prior to summoning Sebastian, the entire flashback lasted more than a year into the Blue Cult arc, just after some major reveals happened in the manga's present day. It got to the point where some fans are counting down the chapters until the main story comes back.
The author seems to have developed an obsession of shoving in lengthy flashbacks in the middle of an arc that puts the entire plot to a halt. Ciel and his allies are trying to cut off the possible sources from which his brother, the true Ciel, must gather bloody supply, and sends his servants to infiltrate various locations to investigate. As we follow how each servant are faring at their assignments, the story dumps 5+ chapters on how they got into the Earl's services and why they are now so loyal towards him. This has mostly nothing to do with their mission, and could be described in just a few panels, rather than spending half a year's worth of story-telling.
Audience-Alienating Era: The second season of the Black Butler anime is seen as this by nearly all of the fandom. The shotacon fanservice was cranked up to intolerably squicky levels, the new characters were poorly written and completely unlikable (and the returning ones were derailed or flanderized), and the plot was a near-complete mess that had nothing to do with the manga and had a Gainax Ending. It took years for another season to be made, and it unsurprisingly ignores everything that happened in this.
Awesome Art: How about all of it? Yana Toboso's (and her assistants') attention to detail does not go unnoticed by fans.
Maurice Cole, and his storyline in the manga. On one side it's seen as a humorous little break from the story, especially because the previous arc was action-packed. People on this side tend to believe Maurice is an interesting, good looking character that you're meant to Love to Hate, who's unique and complex in his own right. On the other hand, people view his storyline as a complete waste of time that provided absolutely nothing to an already slow plot, view the whole "unmasking the beautiful, popular student as a hideous, make-up wearing bully" as trite, overdone Wish-Fulfillment, consider the character an asshole for what seemed like the orchestration of an Attempted Rape, and would prefer to ignore his entire existence.
Episode seven of season 2 seems to have caused this for Claude. Fans are divided between those who approve of his murder of Alois, like him better for it, and feel it was perfectly in line with his character and those who feel he went past the Moral Event Horizon and either actively dislike him or can't decide how they feel.
Is Elizabeth's reveal as a badass a good character saving moment? People are either welcoming of the Character Development to downright ecstatic. However there are also SEVERAL paragraphs on how stupid/what a Flat Character Lizzie is. Lizzie herself has had flak for this from the beginning, though, with people either viewing her as a Love Interest who's annoying and has no redeeming qualities, or fans of her who think she's cute, provides refreshing comedy, and is necessary to Ciel's character. Of course, it does seem as though a lot of her detractors are Sebastian/Ciel shippers...
Sebastian and Ciel, the main characters, are also both notoriously divisive, particularly for those who are reading the manga and have gone through now 200 chapters and counting of little to no character development Explanation Sebastian and Ciel were shown to develop into who they are now through flashback chapters, but as far as moving forward in the story they have changed little from when they were introduced nor, most importantly, have they come close to the Series Goal of getting revenge on those behind the attack on the Phantomhives.
Now that Two Ciel's theory has been proven, the true Ciel Phantomhive has become a hugeBase-Breaking Character. There's roughly three major camps for him: one group hates him and wishes he didn't exist, one group dislikes the character but is very happy that he existsnote (By and large these are the people who liked that Two Ciel's theory is true, but believe that the true Ciel killed Agni and thus view him as a villain), and one group loves the character and loves that he exists.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The first ending for the first season of the anime might qualify as it is just so darn cute and innocent in comparison to the actual series and even the other endings and openings. The theme ("I'm Alive!" by Becca) is also rather upbeat for such a dark story.
Team Phantomhive and Team Trancy. The manga lovers and anime lovers.
The Public School Arc. The fanbase seems to be fractured on this arc, with many people proclaiming that it was predictable, boring, and incredibly awkward, what with the Attempted Rapethat's never spoken of again, and the unnecessaryAlpha Bitch storyline that some deemed was pulled right out of a 90's high school TV drama... Needless to say, it's unpopular with many.
The length and arc-based nature of the manga has become a problem as well. Some fans love it and want more, others find it tiresome and want the plot to develop already, etc.
The complex moral ambiguity- or lack thereof- is a little too complex for some readers, who dropped the entire series after Ciel murders a group of innocent children who he was supposed to rescue from the man who kidnapped and tortured them. Some fans think this makes the series even darker and more interesting, some fans prefer protagonists who aren't as willing to commit atrocities.
People who ship Sebastian x Ciel versus those who don't is something of an ongoing battle among fans. While there is undeniably a lot of Ship Tease between the two as seen in their section of the Ho Yay page, some fans enjoy this immensely and support them as a couple while others argue that the core of their relationship is merely of mutually using one another and they are Vitriolic Best Buds at best and outright hate each other at worst. The fact that the ship is rumored to be canon and Yana herself is a rumored supporter of it (she previously wrote yaoi manga which does feature many attributes that would later appear in Sebastian and Ciel) does not help matters, although detractors often point out that there is a lack of evidence from Word of God to support this. Merely mentioning one's opinion of the ship can often lead to name-calling and insults from both sides and is a pretty good way to ignite entire sections of the fandom into flames.
The "Two Ciels Theory," which speculates that the manga's protagonist preformed a Twin Switch after his brother, the actual Ciel, was sacrificed, has become increasingly controversial as the manga drops more and more hints towards it. Proponents believe that the foreshadowing has been there for years and is too strong to be a Red Herring, while opponents say that the twist would be far too obvious and cliche to work. The Blue Cult Arc served to heat up the debate between the two sides by dropping some of the most taunting hints yet and suggesting that the Evil Twin trope is at play. The "Two Ciels Theory" seems to have been confirmed in Chapters 129 and 130.
The live action movie. It split fans who wanted it to be about Ciel and Sebastian in Victorian times and fans who were fine with being introduced to Ciel and Elizabeth's relative in the future.
The ending of chapter 135 has sparked this reaction in two ways. First you have the fans who already guessed the twist vs those who thought it came out of left field. Then, there's the fans who think it was completely unnecessary and hate the entire thing, versus those who applaud YT because they view the horror conveyed in the chapter as a testament to her skills as a writer.
Complete Monster: Dark and twisted as the world Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaelis inhabit may be, some inhabitants can manage to disgust even a demon.
From the manga:
Baron Kelvin, once a kindly philanthropist, became obsessed with young Ciel Phantomhive and steadily went deeper into darkness. Founding his own circus known as the Noah's Ark, Kelvin would recruit children from orphanages to serve as performers, with many killed performing dangerous stunts, to Kelvin's amusement. Those injured or killed were sacrificed for the experiments of "The Doctor," Kelvin's right-hand man. Worse still, Kelvin used the performers of the Noah's Ark Circus as his personal army and kidnappers by threatening the safety of the children from the work houses they came from. After meeting Ciel, Kelvin revealed he had constructed a replica of the day Ciel was sacrificed, with multiple children tortured into empty shells of their former selves. It was soon revealed that Kelvin had long since broken his word to his subordinates: the work house they came from was long since burnt and abandoned, with the children having been dead for years.
The Doctor, Kelvin's number two, is a man who only cares for his experiments in prosthetic limbs. Fashioning new limbs from the bones of children, the Doctor takes those who are injured or killed by the circus and harvests them for "spare parts," with Ciel surmising that he had long ago killed the work house children. After Ciel kills Kelvin, the Doctor seems entirely unconcerned with anything but continuing his work and attempts to sacrifice a child on the makeshift altar to prove to Ciel why Ciel should hire him.
From the anime:
Angela Blanc/Ash Landers are a dual-gendered, shapeshifting Fallen Angel who are disgusted with what they see as mankind's "uncleanliness". Ostensibly loyal to the Queen of England, the angel killed Ciel's parents are part of their plan to "purify" the world and regain favor in God's eyes. The angel horrifically turns multiple girls into dolls, using their bodies as an army of puppets. During a curry contest, the angel gives a spice to a contestant which causes those who eat it to go into a berserk rage. When Ciel goes to investigate their cult, the angel fuses the bodies of both of his parents together to torment him. When the Queen fails to live up to the angel's standard of "purity" by refusing to lose a part of her late husband which had been implanted into her, the angel leaves her to die before using a demon dog it had corrupted to burn London as part of its insane mission. Not even holding itself to the demands it puts on humans, the angel's devotion to purity is a hypocritical one, as the female personality, Angela, is a sadist who shows arousal when torturing Sebastian.
Lord Trancy, the former head of House Trancy, has a creepy taste for little boys. He refers to his boys as "dolls" and subjects them to beatings and abuse while holding them as sex slaves for his pleasure. We see Lord Trancy have multiple boys brought to him at one point, his intention to pick the "best" out so he can sexually abuse them. In the first episode of Season 2, we see Alois Trancy, his adopted son, naked near Lord Trancy sleeping in bed, with a cold, vacant look in his eyes.
Damsel Scrappy: To many fans, Elizabeth only exists for Ciel to save. The reveal that she was doing this on purpose to protect Ciel, has caused some different reactions at best.
Die for Our Ship: When it comes to pairing up Ciel, you either go with Sebastian or Elizabeth.
Sebastian and Ciel's darker aspects are at times toned down in fan works, notably due to Sebastian being quite the charmer and Ciel's tragic backstory garnering them much admiration and sympathy. Alternatively, the two are sometimes downright glorified in fanon for their more heinous deeds.
We can also add Undertaker and Claude to the list too.
Most people also seem to have forgotten the crap that Druitt pulled upon his first appearance (though it's probably because he's become nothing much more than comic relief by this point). That said, his attempted crimes now include taking over the world with Bizarre Dolls.
Madame Red often goes through this treatment. While she has a rather sad backstory, most fans tend to ignore her brutal murders as Jack the Ripper and view her in an oddly positive light.
Grell. Many people seem to forget and forgive that she was one half of Jack the Ripper, and that she murdered Madam Red when she refused to kill Ciel.
Grell. Her popularity is hugely disproportionate to her screentime in the manga.
Ronald Knox can now be this.
Undertaker as well.
The seaweed in the Hamlet OAV is an in-universe example.
Cosplaying as Madame Red can catch a ton of eyes in public, so it's very off-putting when one watches the anime to see that the humorous, cheerful, strong-willed, attractive and motherly aunt is revealed to be one of the (tragic) villains and dies within that same episode very early.
Drocell Keinz, the living puppet from the anime.
Snake was welcomed into fan's hearts the same time Ciel welcomed him into his service.
Ciel's late DILF of a father Vincent Phantomhive, who, despite appearing exclusively in scarce flashbacks, came 5th in a popularity poll.
Alois Trancy fans wish he could appear in the manga, this time as Ciel’s ally with Hannah as his battle maid.
Yana seems to be aware of Alois' popularity as she included him many times in the drawings she used to release and will give him a shout out on his birthday, November 5th.
Epileptic Trees: In some of the flashbacks, especially in Baron Kelvin's meeting with Ciel, there appears to what looks like two Ciel's (Ciel originally looked nervous when Baron Kelvin approached him and Vincent). Also, when Ciel was reliving some of the memories of his torture before meeting Sebastian there appears to be a happier looking Ciel attempting to comfort him, not to mention it appears that one Ciel is being sacrificed while another is still in the cage accepting the contract. This is also furthered with the fact that Sebastian called Ciel a liar when Ciel declared himself heir, and when Ciel simply took Elizabeth's easter egg without saying much, not knowing that the easter egg she gave him is the first that she had made. Implying that the Ciel Elizabeth remembered can possibly be a different one, and gives theories of the possibility that Ciel is born a twin. This theory was proven correct as the 'true' Ciel Phantonhive appears, with the protagonist turning out to be his younger twin brother.
Escapist Character: Ciel is an incredibly rich Teen Genius that nearly everyone loves and respects who has an almighty BishōnenBattle Butler that can grant his every wish and can be extremelyclose to him at times. The few characters who don't seem to like him in any regard are portrayed as villainous and look ugly. Plus his Dark and Troubled Past (which he was 'rescued from' by the aforementioned butler), Even the Guys Want Him, he works for the queen, not to mention him owning one of the largest toy companies in Britain.
Evil Is Cool: Sebastian may be an amoral demon, but he is extremely badass and the stunts he pulls off to demonstrate this is awesome.
Fandom Rivalry: Some of the Black Butler fans had beef with Twisted Wonderland fans and the game, as Toboso working on the game led to the short chapters since the game's launch and the Arc Fatigue of the recent chapters, causing these fans to blame the game and the fandom for the scarcity of Black Butler's story.
How some fans are treating Black Butler II due to its writing problems.
Back in the day, many fans, particularly those who were big on yaoi and pairings, treated Grell as though she were a bisexual cisgender male, although this is possibly more due to the fact that Grell's status as a trans woman is not properly mentioned or even really alluded to in-story, especially in the official English translation/dub, and only confirmed by Word of God via extra sources. Said Word of God became more widely recognized and accepted over time with the rise of trans acceptance, but this persists with some fans due to the Values Dissonance of having her voiced by a cisgender man in both Japanese and English.
Additionally, some have found Grell's behavior to be so over the top and at times stereotypical or offensive to the point of viewing her more as a drag queen or a cross dresser rather than as a woman. Again, it seems in time this has died down.
Other fans consider the entire anime to be discontinuity, due to it differing so much from the manga.
Boxchan,note A play on the words "box" and "bocchan," the latter of which is Japanese for "young master" and the title Sebastian and the servants use to address Cielfor any time in season II that Ciel is in a box.
After the introduction of what seemed to be the real Ciel, some fans tried to avoid confusion by calling the boy the manga follows "Astre." It came from "Astre" being a Development Gag to a potential name for Ciel and how it would pair with "Ciel" for StellarTheme Twin Naming. An alternative to "Astre" has been to simply refer to the boy the manga follows as "our Ciel" and the twin as "real Ciel"
On the Latin American fandom, the twin the manga follows is nicknamed "Panchito", a nickname for people named Francisco, for no reason aside from Rule of Funny.
Also with Soul Eater, mostly due to both hitting it big in America around the same time.
With Loveless, due to both of them having similar relationship dynamics and tragedies, and including plenty of Ho Yay.
With Hellsing, presumably because of their similar premise. Both series follow a young, wealthy English aristocrat (Ciel Phantomhive in Black Butler; Integra Hellsing in Hellsing)—who is the head of a secret organisation crucial to maintaining at least some semblance of normalcy in the British Isles (the Aristocrats of Evil/Villainous Nobles/Evil Noblemen in Black Butler; the Hellsing Organisation in Hellsing) and who answers directly to the reigning monarch (Queen Victoria in Black Butler; Queen Elizabeth II in Hellsing)—and their supernatural servant (Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler; Alucard in Hellsing) in a dark, dog-eat-dog world infested with paranormal beings. Said aristocrat also has at least one other kickass servant (Baldroy, Finnian, Mei-Ling/Mey-Rin, Tanaka, and later Snake in Black Butler; Walter C. Dornez and Seras Victoria in Hellsing) and a rival organisation who interferes with their operations (the cops in Black Butler; Iscariot in Hellsing).
With Moriarty the Patriot, for the edgy Victorian England Ho Yay aesthetic...plus, Mycroft Holmes and Sebastian share J. Michael Tatum for an English voice actor, which doesn't hurt the crossover appeal. That said, some compare one or the other unfavorably to the other, too.
With Twisted Wonderland as well, no doubt since both works were created by Toboso with many of her themes and overall aesthetic present in the game. With that said, overlaps with Fandom Rivalry above.
In the Werewolf/Green Witch arc there are multiple references to the early history of chemical warfare. The "beloved" of the village crone has a very close resemblance to Fritz Haber, the Father of Chemical Warfare and co-creator of the Haber-Bosch reaction [1]. Compare: [2] and [3]◊. Furthermore, Ciel's remark to Sullivan that she can "create magic medicine" that could feed thousands of lives summarizes Haber's two most notable contributions: his Nobel Prize for coming up with a way to mass-produce fertilizer cheaply, thus maximizing crop yields, and his suggestion to deploy caustic chlorine gas in warfare, adding an additional dimension of horror to warfare.
Aleister Chamber, the Viscount of Druitt, is one of the suspects of who is Jack the Ripper. He is also named after Montague Druitt, one of the real-world Jack the Ripper suspects.
Certain types of calcite glow when exposed to specific light frequencies, which is probably how the glowsticks work (as calcite was the material used in Sullivan's wand she'd likely know about this property).
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series has quite a sizable fanbase in Italy. It doesn't nearly go to, say, Lupin III levels, but it's definitely quite popular there.
It's hard to believe it now but back in the late 00's to early 10's this was one of the poster anime for the American otaku scene.
Growing the Beard: The manga was very episodic until the circus arc, during which the story drastically improves.
In episode 9, Finny mentions the fact he accidentally killed his pet bird when he was younger. It becomes even harsher when we realise the bird was probably his only friend when he was used as a guinea-pig.
In the Japanese version of the kidnapping arc, the mafia boss has a line where he threatens to sell Ciel to a brothel. Guess what Ciel’s Dark and Troubled Past included? Being enslaved and raped. Same thing applies when the Viscount Von Druitt tries to auction off Ciel and he even mentions that some of the prospective buyers are interested in occult sacrifice.
In chapter 96, Sieglinde asks Wolfram if he thinks her mother would be proud of her for completing "the ultimate magic". It turns out that she is ... but the reason is the polar opposite of what Sieglinde had thought.
As of chapter 105, Grelle's Running Gag of hanging herself early in the anime becomes this, seeing as Grelle was Driven to Suicide before the series began.
The cute outfit that shows up in the dream-sequences of the Emerald Witch arc becomes much, much harsher when the outfit shows up again in chapter 135.
For some people, it's become harder to ship Ciel and Sebastian once it was revealed that Ciel and his twin brother were sold to slavery and raped by the cults, as a means of appeasing to Sebastian, no less! Some were further turned off when Sebastian taunted Ciel shortly after being summoned and went as far as to use his brother's corpse as a People Puppet.
The similarities between Alois Trancy and Ciel are even more pronounced given the manga's reveals. Both were brothers to dead siblings, stole their name from a dead kid, experienced sexual abuse, and had their demons kill their abusers.
In the circus arc Mamoru Miyano plays Joker. Then a few years later he plays an ally of a completely different Joker. Even better, Joker's English VA would also play an ally of the other Joker in the game's English dub, though as a different character than the one Miyano played.
The Season 1 OVA of the anime features the cast putting on a production of Hamlet, while unsubtly drawing parallels between Ciel and the titular character. With the reveal that the Ciel we've been following is really his younger brother "usurping" his title and his relationship with his fiancée, it turns out that the writers were comparing him to the wrong Hamlet character.
In chapter 131.5, Mei Rin, we find out that Sebastian doesn't own any clothes other than his butler outfit and Mei Rin imagines that he sleeps naked. According to the character guide, he does in fact sleep sometimes, meaning Mei Rin was right.
A vocal minority of fans spent much time attempting to reassure the rest of the fandom that A-1 were trolling the fanbase and that Ciel and Sebastian would return in full capacity, despite the announcement of the new master and butler. Guess what happened when episode 1 aired?
Some fans were guessing that Alois was cross-dressing to meet Ciel after a preview for episode five. They were right.
In the murder mystery arc in the manga, a lot of people speculated that Sebastian was not really dead; they were right. Some others also speculated that a snake would be used to commit one or more of the murders; they were also right.
One person on this site's WMG page predicted that if Ciel gave up on revenge, he'd be breaking the contract, and Sebastian would be free to devour his soul.
One fan theory speculated that the Shinigami were all once humans who committed suicide and now must atone for it. This is confirmed in chapter 105.
A lot of theorists speculated that Ciel had an elder twin brother who was sacrificed to summon Sebastian and that said twin was the original Ciel Phantomhive. His appearance in Chapter 129 confirmed this.
Ciel having experienced Rape as Backstory during his month-long imprisonment was speculated for a long time before chapter 135 confirmed it, though most fans who guessed it weren't exactly happy about it...
Some viewers noticed that since Undertaker was watching afar from Kelvin's mansion there might be a chance that Doll or Joker might make a reappearance. Come chapter 192, Doll has returned, although whether or not she's truly alive or has become a bizarre doll remains to be seen.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The second season, after it was revealed that Ciel and Sebastian will return. A few fans would have liked it to be independent from the original duo.
Being willing to deliberately self-inflict this is considered almost required to enjoy this series given how many of the important characters have some pretty nasty traits.
Sebastian is a demon who won't think twice about committing heinous deeds and his end goal is basically to cannibalize Ciel only even worse, and yet he's still loved by most of the fanbase.
Ciel is extremely ruthless and perfectly fine with manipulating, hurting, or outright killing anyone that he sees fit no matter if they're guilty or innocent, and yet he's just as adored by the fandom as Sebastian is.
Most fans seem to completely ignore Grell's ruthless and sadistic streak and tend to portray her as something completely different.
Madam Red is a serial killer driven by envy, but the story attempts to soften it by her sympathetic backstory, making her victimslook unsympathetic in comparison to her, her motherly love of Ciel which led to her undoing, Grell betraying and killing her in quite the brutal fashion, and the beautiful way Ciel said his goodbye to her so she still ended up well liked.
Undertaker is popular despite that among other things, some see very weird implications about his mortician job... oh, and everything in regards to the bizarre doll experiments.
Ciel can be seen as this, since he doesn't mind killing or hurting anyone who gets in the way of his plans, but at the same time, he is portrayed very sympathetically, usually because of his horrible past.
Alois. He has a horrible past, and as a result, the only person he depends on for happiness is Claude, who openly admits that he honestly does not care about Alois at all, and just stays by his side so that he can use him to obtain Ciel's soul, despite the fact that most of the horrible things Alois does to people is mainly just because he wants Claude to pay attention to and care for him. "Hey... you look like you're seeing maggots squirming in a dung heap..." God knows what he's going to do now that Claude doesn't even pretend to care about him any more. And in episode 8, Claude says "A soul such as that...is certainly unfit to sustain me," referring to the fact that Alois actually feels love for him and Claude finds that disgusting.
At the end of season II, even Sebastian can count as this this. That look on his face when he realized that he'd have to serve Ciel for all eternity and will never be able to eat his soul was absolutely disheartening for some fans. Others, however, saw it as richly deserved, because no matter how likable Sebastian is, he's evil and wanting to eat a child's soul is a jerkass thing to do.
As if a poker to the chest and a shovel to the head would actually kill Sebastian. Guess what, it didn't.
Also, did anyone actually believe Sebastian was really going to devour Ciel's soul at the end of Chapter 94? Even Sebastian said that would have been too boring of an ending.
Love to Hate: Sebastian and Ciel are a Villain Protagonist duo who are both willing to stoop to unbelievable lows during their missions, and yet that's part of the reason why fans love them so much. Being Wicked Cultured members of The Beautiful Elite portrayed quite charmingly/sympathetically with a dark yet interesting dynamic prone to Ho Yay also works in their favor.
This incarnation of Earl Ciel Phantomhive remains the steadfast young head of his house and the infamous Queen's Watchdog. Unfolding a plot that begins with drugs being placed in his company's toys, Ciel ends up infiltrating a zealous cult, brutally punishing criminals all along the way. Discovering a mad angel using the chaos to bring about the end and "purification" of London, Ciel has his demonic butler Sebastian kill it, calmly offering Sebastian his soul with their contract fulfilled. When the second season reveals Sebastian was unable to consume his soul he and Ciel join forces to dismantle the plots of the broken yet cruel Lord Alois Trancy and his own traitorous demonic butler Claude Faustas, outplaying their enemies once again before charging off after their next challenge.
The demon going by "Sebastian Michaelis" remains Ciel's near-perfect servant. Battling through the forces of the first season's evil angel and seducing or otherwise overcoming its legions of followers, Sebastian maintains his trademark snark even under the angel's sadistic torture. Unleashing his true demonic form, Sebastian horrifies and devours the angel, saving all of London in the process. After failing to consume Ciel's soul the two work together once more, with Sebastian tricking and outplaying Alois's servants and faces down and bests the wicked demon Claude, earning his spot back as the demon to own Ciel's soul once more.
This story's Lau is still Ciel's scheming ally. Though occasionally coming to blows, Lau helps the young noble in his quest for justice and provides key insights into stopping the Angel's plan. In the second season Lau remains untouchable for the villains, mocking their attempts to use a melody to zombify him with ear plugs and keeping his ever jovial tone in spite of being a brutal drug dealer and crime lord.
Black Butler II (Season 2): Hannah Annafellows was a brutal demon until she made a contract with the child Luka Macken after slaughtering his village. Promising to make him happy, Hannah helps turn Luka's brother Jim into the noble "Alois Trancy" after Luka's death and stays by Alois' side even through his horrific abuses. Manipulating the entire cast and slowly revealing her true powers, Hannah tricks Claude into fighting Sebastian after killing Alois, getting Claude himself killed for Hannah to die with him and the two demons to reunite with the brothers in the afterlife as a family.
Most cosplays of Ciel are of that pink dress he wore as "Robin".
Alois' outfit has more or less reached this status by now.
As of Chapter 129, the fandom has been making lots of Gravity Falls jokes in regards to there being Two Ciels.
Misaimed Fandom: There are a lot of people in the fandom who ship Sebastian and Ciel and want them to live Happily Ever After. This is despite how Word of God has emphasized that not only are the two "the lowest of the low" but that Sebastian is a demon who only wants to eat Ciel and Ciel does not trust him. Still, with all the Ho Yay going on between those two, it's hard to blame the fans. Some people took the infamous scene in which Ciel vomits and Sebastian lovingly cradles his head while smirking as a sign of love and affection on Sebastian's part and still rejoice in it to this day despite how utterly devastated Ciel was at that time. Because of all of the Fanservice piled onto this series, a lot of fans tend to not realize how pivotal some scenes really are simply because of the sexy factor.
A lot of fans like to portray the stereotypical, blood thirstysexual harasser Grell as a misunderstood LGBT icon and ignore how offensive and over the top the character is.
Moe: A lot of characters, in both male and female varieties.
As of episode 8 of the second season, Claude has crossed it, for many people.
A minority of fans believe that Ciel crossed it when he ordered Sebastian to burn down a building full of children, and then ordered him to kill Doll or in season 2 with his part in killing Alois Trancy.
Baron Kelvin dismembering children's body parts for the purpose of being beautiful like Ciel and forcing the circus troupe to kidnap them for said purpose.
The line from episode 15 "This is not your fault. She is possessed by the evil spice" is impossible to take seriously even in context. The same is true for much of the episode.
Prefects in Weston college have personal butlers known as "fags." The arc is full of lines like "Everybody wants to be his fag..."
Sebastian sloppily defiling a cake alone in a dark room on Ciel's 13th birthday while everyone else is upstairs having a birthday party for Ciel. It was probably supposed to be dramatic or erotic to see Sebastian sticking his fingers into a cake and then slowly licking them as he goes on one of his "humanity is weird" tangents, but it just comes off like he's seriously lost it. He doesn't even like cake.
The main ship, Ciel and Sebastian, can be this for some fans. Sebastian seems to act a lot like a father to Ciel and some have even noticed how similarly he looks to Vincent, something that has actually been commented by Toboso herself. There is also the fact that Sebastian a demon who’s lived for hundreds of years old and takes the form of a grown man while Ciel is a still a prepubescent child. Not to mention it's been stated that the two are merely using one another and in the end Sebastian wants to eat the boy's soul, effectively killing him.
Sebastian actively lusting over devouring Ciel's soul as well as subtlety playing a role as The Corrupter in order to "enhance" its flavor can also come off quite a bit like grooming.
Ciel is 12/13. That alone is enough to make any ships involving him and an adult squiky.
Alois and Claude, for similar reasons to the above. Made worse in that their interactions imply even more romantic/sexual attraction than Ciel and Sebastian do, or at least on Alois' end.
Claude's obsession with Ciel takes the creep factor from the above two up to eleven to the point that it is universally considered No Yay within the fandom.
Lizzy and Ciel for some, considering that they are cousins in an arranged marriage. While both care about the other their feelings don’t seem to be very romantic in nature. Lizzy does find Ciel cute and has a crush on him, but even though Ciel cares about her deeply he seems to view her more as a cousin rather than a romantic partner. They are both trying their best to be a functioning engaged couple which is amazing because they are both so young, but the fact is they can’t give each other what they need. Lizzy despite being a badass just wants a normal life (and one day a happy marriage) which is something Ciel can’t give her because of his job as the queen’s watch dog. Despite Lizzy training to one day join Ciel in his work, he’d rather her not get involve because she’s the closest family member he has. Not to mention Ciel simply can't just quit his job as a watch dog, and even if he could (or even wanted to, which he doesn't) Ciel would most likely get bored living the life of a typical earl.
Baron Kelvin's pedophilia towards a young Ciel.
The sex scene between Sebastian and Beast can be this, especially due to the stilted and unfeeling nature of the scene to which some have compared to sexual harassment and even assault/abuse. This also goes (to a lesser degree) for the similar scene in the anime between Sebastian and the nun.
The sex scene between Pluto and Angela takes it up a notch since Pluto has the mind of a dog.
And the strongly implied sex scene between Alois/Jim and his "father" the Earl Trancy.
Chapter 135 of the manga has the Rape Discretion Shot in the twins' past. Let's just say it doubles as Nightmare Fuel and leave it at that.
The Problem with Licensed Games: The DS tie-in game is just a visual novel with a collection of mini-games that barely count as games.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: A lot of fans didn't like Elizabeth for being both his cousin (even though incest like this was common for nobles of the time period and isn't seen as big an issue in Japan) and an annoying Satellite Love Interest. Then it turns out that she was Little Miss Badass intentionally downplaying herself all along which resulted in her going from being a flat Scrappy to a massiveBase-Breaking Character. For example, while parts of the western fanbase still take great issue with her, both for the existing issues with her and aspects this reveal brought up, a Japanese popularity poll showed Lizzie's well liked enough to get her into 8th place.
So Bad, It's Good: What many fans think about the anime's near-complete mess of a second season.
Ciel. Overlaps with Jerkass Woobie. Despite the things he has been put through, he usually doesn't complain about them and always tries to keep moving forward. Though, there was one time in chapter 34 where he appeared to snap.
Snake. He spent most of his life in a cage as a part of some freak show, and when he thought he'd found a home in the Noah's Ark circus, they disappear. Despite all of this, he rarely expresses this, and won't even speak without his snakes.
Lord Kelvin, Grell, and Ciel's tailor aside; it should be mentioned that the writers sometimes seem to go out of their way to add as much Ho Yay as possible between Sebastian and Ciel, especially in the anime.
Speaking of Ciel's tailor Nina Hopkins, her sexual harassment of Mey-Rin and admitting that she's interested in kids under 15...
Sebastian sexually coercing Beast in the manga and Mathilda in the first season of the anime.
Shortly after her scene Mathilda made a comment about how young boys who are chosen for the choir make "beautiful sounds" in the leader's bedroom. Her blushing and smiling while she says this does not help.
A few thought Baldroy (a forty year-old) hitting on Beast (a twenty-four year-old) was this. Doesn't help that he brutally murders her and a member of her adoptive family shortly afterwards.
Alois and Claude are heavily implied to have a sexual relationship, or at least Alois has romantic feelings towards Claude. Alois /Jim has a rather squicktastic way of relating to the men in his life.
Claude kissing Ciel /Alois's foot. Even Ciel /Alois was creeped out.
Claude's perverse obsession with Ciel in general goes into squick territory on plenty occasion.
Every single scene involving the Earl Trancy in season 2. "Another doll broke?"
There are also way too many loving pans of Ciel's prepubescent body for some readers' comfort. Particularly in chapter 62, dearLORD... note In that particular scene, Ciel is half-starved, clearly bruised and abused and oh yeah, ten years old.
In the anime, there's one scene where Ciel is taking a bath. He stands up to read something Sebastian handed him, and the camera pans down for no reason whatsoever. The scene changes right before anything explicit can be shown, but still.
Doesn't help that Claude goes out of his way to make this as uncomfortably intimate as possible. And then Sebastian gets in on it later on.
The heavily implied "Parental Incest" Alois endured. It turns out the man really wasn't his father, but it's still extremely gross.
Angela Blanc had sexual relations with a Hell Hound and one that has the literal mind of a dog at that. The fact that it was in human form at the time does not make this any less gross. This is one of the first signs they are not the innocent, harmless person they pretend to be.
While it's mostly to show her naivete of the outside world, Sieglinde's dips into inappropriate thoughts and behavior given she's only 11.
Flashbacks to Ciel's Dark and Troubled Past are never fun, and they're clearly supposed to be horrifying. In the anime the flashbacks are worse because in them Ciel is always naked (even when making the contract with Sebastian he's only covered with a blanket). It gets worse- when one (anime-only) character who happens to be an angel calls Ciel "unclean" we get a flashback to him naked, being held by several people in a kneeling/bent over position, and then Ciel reacts to the accusation with shock and horror.
The sex between Heathfield and the maids he invites to his room due to him being an employer abusing his position as well as the maids being drugged and drained of their blood right afterward. Also worth noting is that particular scene was by far the most graphic depiction of sex in the series and caught many fans off guard.
Chapter 135 takes the cake on this trope and makes most of everything mentioned above look tame in comparison. Especially since children were explicitly involved in gang rape.
A minor one compared to the above examples, but anytime a character eats with their bare hands.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: When the second season was announced, many fans were not happy. Not to mention after seeing it for themselves. See below for more on that.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Season 2 seemed to be set up as a big battle between the two butlers and their masters. That lasted all of two episodes before Claude decided to go solo and off Alois - thereby making Claude cross the Moral Event Horizon and Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, removing the rather ambiguous Evil Versus Evil approach it first seemed to have. Especially since it descended into Claude making Sebastian jealous For the Evulz, because he now has Ciel.
Viewer Gender Confusion: Finny. Grell as well, in both butler and reaper form. Alois is also fairly common, and Ciel for some, as well.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The series has Seinen or Josei written all over it, but is published in a Shonen magazine. It includes psychological horror, violence and gore, murder, animal abuse (in the anime), child abuse, sex that ranges from abusive in some manner to full-on rape, pedophilia, and questionable dialogue. If you're looking for more lighthearted stories about them living in the mansion and solving basic mysteries, like the first part of the first season, you are in the wrong place.
Hannah could be considered this, due to Alois's treatment of her. Subverted when she is revealed to be a demon, and could easily fight back if she wanted to. It's implied she actually enjoys the attention.
Madame Red fits this trope to a T at first; her horrific deeds as Jack the Ripper kind of nullify her Woobie status. At the very least, they push her into Jerkass Woobie territory.
Soma already had a teensy bit of a status before, but he got hit with this hard in Chapter 127 when Agni sacrifices himself so that Soma could live.
The Noah's Ark Circus performers, especially Doll.
Even Lizzie to some, especially with how much hate she gets. Her current situation with the blue cult also does not help.
Whether or not Ciel truly qualifies as even a Jerkass Woobie due to his decisions and how he acts is a HUGE topic of debate...and of flame wars.
Sieglinde and (to a few) Wolfram, being that they were both used and betrayed by their country.
Grell's affectionate nickname for Sebastian (Sebas-Chan) doesn't translate to English being a pun utilizing Japanese Honorifics. It's changed to the diminutive "Bassie," which, along with Daniel Fredrick's overblown accent, manages to get the nickname across just as well even without the pun.
Grell's unique way of speaking in general is impossible to translate into English. Grell speaks Japanese, but likes to drop in English words like 'die' as a joking way of saying, for example, 'dai'-shori, or uses Death but pronounced Desu. It's... complicated to carry over, to the point that most translations (official or fan-made ones) just plain don't bother.
The entire dub counts, as it's a story set in Victorian England. The characters speaking the actual language of the setting allows for period-appropriate accents and figures of speech, as well as true-to-life distinctions between those of differing social class.
Complete Monster: Lady Hanae Wakatsuki is the Evil Aunt of Shiori "Kiyoharu" Genpō, who became an Immortality Seeker after being rejected by Shiori's father for being infertile. She ends up joining with pharmaceutical executive Shimpei Kujo to experiment on young women obtained via Human Trafficking to develop various anti-aging drugs, eventually killing Shiori's parents when they get in her way. During one of these experiments, the two discover a drug called Necrosis which agonizingly mummifies people. Hanae decides to test this drug on random people, including a nightclub full of people, her murders soon being nicknamed the Devil's Curse. After killing Kujo for outliving his usefulness, Hanae sets up a bunch of Necrosis pills to bomb a mass gathering of world leaders, intending to mummify everybody in a kilometer's radius.
◊ panel in an early chapter.
