Episode 3 – Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc

Before we begin, I must admit something: I just spent over an hour on YouTube watching Renaissance dances, trying to figure out what the second dance in the ending theme is. One is a waltz, which fits with the Victorian setting, but the other is clearly from the time Sieglinde’s world is trapped in. While I couldn’t pinpoint it to one specific dance (and this was a rabbit hole comparable to when I couldn’t stop watching videos of fruit bats eating bananas), the closest cousin seems to be La Volta, possibly with elements of La Caccia d’Amore. Both dances are part of the galliard family, a series of athletic dances that often involve the man (or the dancer performing the man’s part) lifting the woman, as we see in both the Wolfram/Sieglinde and Sebastian/Ciel pairs. If you’ve seen any movie set in Elizabethan or earlier Tudor times, you’ve probably seen a galliard of some stripe.

My obsessive curiosity satisfied, things are getting bleak for Ciel this week. In part, this is foreshadowing for the arc that follows this one, the Blue Cult Arc, but even without knowing what’s to come, Ciel’s descent into apparent delirium is chilling. After he and Sebastian both contract the very illness they’ve been sent to investigate, he begins to show symptoms that I can’t help but equate with a formerly-Victorian disease: measles. Both blindness and altered mental states can be results of the disease, and Ciel exhibits both of those, despite Sieglinde’s efforts to cure him. The large red welts forming on his skin also help to connect the mystery illness and measles, and I trust Yana Tobasa enough to assume that she’s aware that the root of the word “measles” is likely German. Sieglinde seems to suggest that the disease is a supernaturally transmitted form of measles, one that might even transform the infected into werewolves or something similar.

The idea of it being supernatural in origin would explain why Sebastian also catches it, although perhaps his contract with Ciel is the point of transmission, since he, once cured, can easily dispense with the outward markers of illness. (It’s one of several particularly good visuals this week, alongside Sieglinde casting her spell.) But he does come down with the disease, much to his shock, as he notes that some of its symptoms shouldn’t be possible for a demon. The crying and Ciel’s later delirium indicate that there’s a psychological component, especially since whatever reality Ciel is currently living in, it seems to be in the past.

Ties to a traumatic past are a major theme in at least these three episodes, if not the entire Emerald Witch Arc. While Ciel’s steadfast belief is that he’s still stuck in a past where he was imprisoned and likely abused, and had a twin? Or is he having an out-of-body experience? – That mirrors the state of the entire village of Wolfsschlucht. The village is stuck in the Renaissance, when Germany engaged in witch hunts, whether they know it or not, and Sieglinde herself is beholden to a distant ancestress whose sacrifice has crippled her descendants. If Ciel had contracted the disease outside of Wolfsschlucht, would he have had the same regression? Or is there something about the village and the forest around it that forces people into the worst moments of their history? It can’t be a coincidence that Sieglinde’s spell calls upon Urðr, the Norn (fate) associated with the past.

It’s almost certainly significant that the only person Ciel will allow to touch him is Finny, the youngest of his staff. But equally important is Sebastian’s distress at not being able to care for his young master. Demons may not be able to feel the emotions that lead to crying, but he does seem able to feel other things, one of which is concern…or is this also a symptom of the disease? There are so many unknowns here that it’s hard to say where things are heading.

The only certainty is that Sebastian is going to get to the bottom of this. And he’ll make sure that if Sieglinde and Wolfram know anything – to say nothing of Hildr, Grete, and Anne – they’ll tell him…one way or another.

Rating:

Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.