I keep thinking about what constitutes as forgiveness for the reapers. Being a grim reaper is supposed to be a punishment. They took their lives, and they didnāt see the value in life, so now they are forced to witness death every day.
This makes me think that this punishment canāt be about the time they spend as grim reapers or how much they rise in the organization. If there is a way out, a salvation, it has to be related to whether or not they learn that lesson; the value of life.
We see a glimpse of this in āThe Story of Will the Grim Reaperā when William gets attacked by Thomasā memories. William may regret his choice to kill himself for all we know, but until that moment we donāt see him really understand what it means to have this āwill to surviveā.
Maybe itās supposed to happen gradually, they are supposed to see the value of life in the memories of the mortals they reap but maybe feeling those memories might be another way towards their salvation as well.
Certainly William is afraid. Even after he spends possibly years in the field, he keeps repeating to himself that he shouldnāt feel, that succumbing to emotions isnāt a part of a grim reaperās job. But maybe he does so, because he isnāt ready to face the truth, because he isnāt ready to face what he felt with Thomasā memories.
And I really love that the musicalĀ āThe Most Beautiful Deathā makes a similar point. Alan catches āThe Thorns of Deathā which happens when a soul destined to die becomes vengeful and fights against the reaper (sounds familiar?)Ā
The disease affects Alanās heart, the thorns suffocating him, and it will eventually end his life as a reaper. Of course we donāt actually see Alanās death by this disease, but we know how others see him: weak, faint hearted. Alan comes of as soft, thoughtful, full of compassion and filled with love.
āWhen collecting souls, when I face the deadā¦I have always been thinkingā¦āIf only I could share their pain.ā But it was only when I became like this that I understood that sharing the pain of the death is nothing but slander!ā
Hence, catching āThe Thorns of Deathā makes the perfect anology for the end of a reapersā punishment. The moment they allow themselves to feel, to understand the will to survive, the value in a mortalās life, they can finally and truly die, relieved of their duties.
@professionalspears – Iāve had a theory quite like this since chapter 105 came out! I was going to make my own post, but then I saw yours and decided that I would instead add my thoughts here! So:
The Thorns of Death is a manner of redemption. By contracting it, a reaper has proven that they are empathetic, caring, that they know the pain of dying and know the importance of living. But, the reaper population does not know this. To them, the Thorns is merely a horrifically painful terminal illness, contracted by being, as you say, tooĀ āsoft.ā
Now, where my thoughts had gone was to the supposed cure. Why is collecting one thousand pure souls aĀ ācureā for the Thorns of Death? How would that help? But if we view the Thorns as what redemption from the life of a reaper is, it makes sense!
If one gets the Thorns from understanding death, then slaughtering pure, happy people would be the opposite. TheyĀ donāt understand life and death; thus, they are cured of the disease.
Their chance at moving on is taken away again, for they were improperly marked for redemption – and that mark of redemption is the Thorns of Death.
If all this theorizing is true, then it would make the story of Eric and Alan even more tragic than it already is, would it not?
A post made by @redladydeath the other day about Grell and William showing emotions made me really think about all the Shinigami and their emotions. When I started considering the matter, the Shinigami we see the most often do seem to have some issues.
Grell:
Grell is easily the most emotional of the Shinigami. In fact, itās rare to see her calm and quiet. Even when sheās alone, sheās complaining or displaying a talent for innuendos. Even after killing Madam Red, she took the time to lecture the corpse.
But itās not always clear about how genuine Grellās emotions are most of the time. Everything is so over the top. It seems as if most of what we see is an act or at least an exaggeration.
William:
On the surface, William seems like Grellās exact opposite. Heās not overly emotional at all. In fact, he almost acts as if he doesnāt feel. The only emotions heās really displayed much is the occasional annoyance or anger.
This isnāt to say he doesnāt feel. He makes a speech about how itās pointless to bring emotions to their work, but itās seems odd to say such a thing unless you do feel.
I think he does feel, but he tries to hide the fact he has these emotions. In fact, heās more like Grell then he first appears. Both are hiding deeper emotions but doing it in exactly opposite ways. Grell exaggerates every little thing in order to hide what sheās truly feeling, while William pretends to feel very little.
Ronald:
On the surface, Ronald seems the most easy going of the three. He likes to have fun and flirt. His emotions donāt seem exaggerated nor is he hiding the fact he feels. At the same time, he can casually flirt with a woman he knows is about to die.
I donāt think Ronaldās actually cold-hearted, but that does seem a bit crude. This leads me to another possibility. Ronaldās smile and easy nature could be his method of hiding his deeper emotions. He might be doing the exact thing as Grell and William but in his own way.
It seems possible that this is a common problem for Shinigami. They were human and still have some of the same emotions. However, feeling too much when your job is collecting souls and watching people die could drive you insane. Many Shinigami would have to come up with defense mechanisms, which is what is happening with Grell, William, and Ronald.
Undertaker was a Shinigami for what we assume was a long time. The way heās always searching for laughter could have actually been the method that he learned to cope. Also, like the others, his actual emotions can be hard to read.
Whatās interesting to me, however, is that the only Shinigami we know that has deserted, is the only one weāve seen openly cry.
Thoughts?
So slightly jacking this post to add thoughts:
Okay I know a lot of people would argue using musical canon is iffy but Yana has adhered to literally every other bit of musical canon as far as theĀ ārulesā of shinigami apply. Theres a line in Shinigami Haken that actually somewhat addresses this. As They are going through their rules this line comes up-
Number 5! We work coldly without even a smile.
The fact that this is an actual rule not just a habit of theirs, is curious. Also looking at musical canon this is probably predominantly to avoid risk of Thorns, which is something that hasnāt been exactly touched upon in the Manga. In short The Thorns are contracted when a soul destined to die becomes vengeful and fight against the reaper and eventually will kill them, it wasnāt named but shown in the Tale of the Shinigami William OVA, and in TMBDitW Alan is stated to have been sympathetic to the souls he reaped and allowed them to attack him.Ā
That being said I highly doubt this is the ONLY reason for the rule but it could be a reason.Ā
With how much Undertaker is lingering on those amulets, with his experiments of trying to reanimate the dead, he might of cared ALOT about some people he had to reap.
Heres where things get real interesting. There is no known cure for the thorns. Theres only the rumor of collecting 1000 pure souls (collecting not reaping there is a distinctive difference). Even in TMBDitW we dont know if it would work since Eric only reached 999.Ā
Grell got reprimanded for killing a few people not on the list. Eric was going to be not just eliminated but any and all record of his existence was going to be wiped out.
Now Im not saying that Undertaker cares way too much about (some) mortal lives, developed the thorns, and went rogue trying to cure himself so he can continue trying to find a way to save those he lovedā¦ but Yana choosing the point of time to bring Eric and Alans death into manga canon seemed fishy to me and im totally saying undertakerĀ
In the Kuroverse there are a plethora of Grim Reaper characters, with at least 9 distinct Grim Reaper personalities all meddling with the human world. But why would Yana Toboso bother to include so many Grim Reapers? Surely one or two could get the single job they all do (reaping souls so you can see backstory) done? (like Scotland Yard with its 2 members)
A characteristic the Grim Reapers share is boredom (like the Undertaker, William, Ludger) or a longing for innovation in their monotonous jobs, and lives (Grell, Ronald, Sasha, Othello).
Sashaās reaction goes to show how boring and unchanging the Grim Reaper world is. The Grim Reaper institution as complained about by many, is a strict and rigid society.
And when you want to start a revolution, you need multiple people to make an impact. So the Undertaker could be helping them in a revolution to change the way their society is run, bringing attention to his work to give them a shock or bribe with the reanimated corpses that seem to be causing trouble for them, so that the world of the Grim Reapers is ultimately reformed, allowing more innovation and individuality, and better working conditions, and help for those who are sick
(A reference to the Musical āthe most beautiful death in the worldā, in which Alan and Eric leave the Grim Reaper department because Alanās rare illnesses requires a sacrifice of one thousand souls to be cured).
Why does William hate overtime so much anyways. What are the hobbies he does outside of work? Not organising a revolution group I hopeā¦
(In the official translation, the words to piss him off are āIāveĀ always been part of the anti- overtime school to begin withā) I see him as the mostly likely candidate for the leader because why act like such a goody-two-shoes, punishing everyone for breaking rules he knows off by heart, when he clearly hates his job, and doesnāt want to be there doing it for a second longer than he has too?
Basically every character introduced by Yana Toboso plays a further role somewhere down the track (and if they donāt, they die), so Iām pondering the role of the abundance of Grim Reaper characters.
We know basically NOTHING about the supernatural elements of the Kuroverse, especially the home worlds and societies of demons and Grim Reapers, so I donāt really have any hard evidence for or against this Shinigami uprising theory, itās just food for thought.
Though people were both smaller in build as well as shorter in the Victorian era, it was not as drastically different as modern times. Since the late 1800ā²s, the average height of individuals has been gradually increasing due to cleaner water, better food and medicine, etc.Ā
On average, people were about 2 inches shorter than they are today. There were still tall and short people though. It was not unheard of for a man to be nearly or at six feet tall. Keep in mind, even today, the average height for a British man is about 5ā³9. An average height range for a man at that time was between 5ā³3 and 5ā³9, though, considering Black Butler takes place towards the end of the 1800ā²s, we can assume that by this point, the average height was beginning to increase.
I make Alan out to be about 5ā³5, maybe 5ā³6. Heās fairly short and, canonly, the shortest of the London reapers. Compared to the other reapers, he would be considered small.
Grell is about 5ā³7 out of heels, about 5ā³11 with them on.
Ronald is about 5ā³9.
William is 6ā³0.
Eric, I make him a little taller at 6ā³2.
Overall, Alan is fairly petite. But the other reapers are also drawn rather lanky. We do see Grell, William, and Ronald with a bit more of their clothes off and they have muscle and arenāt exactly lean, skilly people. Just from Ericās images alone, we can see how thick his thighs are compared to the others as well as the width of his chest.
All in all to answer the question, yes.Ā
I also have a headcanon that states that Alan is half white and half Japanese but thatās more so my personal thing than any canon information.
Thank you for the elaborate answer! Grellās canon height without heels is 5ā²9, sometimes Iād like to think that his heels might not be as high as Yana claims them to be, though the reverse can also apply. Personally, I think Eric is around 6ā²1 tall, 6ā² would be the bare minimum. If the Kuromyu promo art is a reliable source, then I estimate Alan to be around 5ā²6-5ā²7.
(Now Iām inspired to write a post about Shinigamiās body types. Maybe we can learn something about their lifestyles from this.)
š„ There is beauty in destructionš„ 