Black Butler: Public School Arc

Episode 3

It's time to talk about the elephant on campus. No, not Prince Soma's elephant, although he's also a good boy for providing Soma the perfect opportunity to see what Maurice is up to. I'm instead talking about one word of choice that stands out to some viewer-readers of this arc: changing "f*g” to "drudge." The switch was almost certainly made because the word can be a derogatory term for a gay man in American English, with its first recorded use as such in 1925. I do think that Crunchyroll made the right choice to change the word, even though according to my favorite dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary, it's "School slang. Esp. in certain British independent boarding schools for boys: a junior pupil who is expected to carry out tasks or chores for a senior pupil or pupils. " Its first recorded use dates to 1788 and it was used in this sense during the Victorian era. But there are things that we can't take out of their modern usages, and I think that this word is one of them, no matter how nitpicky I am otherwise. Language is a living thing, and that means acknowledging that words change meaning over time; it's not as simple as choosing to whip cream by hand instead of with an electric mixer, and sometimes we just have to accept that the most historically accurate word isn't going to remain the correct one. Besides, one of the authors I most respect, K. J. Charles, recently used "drudge" in the same setting in one of her novels. That's good enough for me.

That aside, isn't it nice to have Prince Soma attending Weston? Sure, he glibly overlooks Ciel's directive to pretend not to know him, but he brings a little welcome lightness to the Maurice storyline. Maurice can handle many things, but two that he can't are Soma and Ciel playing this particular game much longer and better than he has. As far as Soma is concerned, Maurice isn't used to such puppyish attempts at friendship – and lick a puppy; Soma is content to barge in on Maurice no matter where he is or what he's doing. (Nice historically accurate toilet, by the way!) He can't smarm his way out of Soma's attention, which seems to be the first time such a thing has happened to him. Does it put him off-balance enough that he falls into Ciel's trap? Maybe he would not have been up to his usual evil standards if he hadn't noticed Soma sneaking behind him. But the bigger issue seems to be that he's grossly underestimated young Phantomhive, and it's not just because he doesn't know about the demon butler.

Maurice's fall from grace does highlight the difference between him and Ciel. Both are pulling a similar con: pretending that butter wouldn't melt in their mouths while scheming behind their smiles. One of the main differences is that Maurice is doing it for selfish reasons, while Ciel is currently working in the service of Queen and Country. Ciel wants to be a drudge because it will grant him access to information he needs to figure out what happened to Derrick and the other missing boys. Maurice wants the prestige of the position and hopes to become a prefect one day. Given the highly divided nature of 19th-century society, it's hard to blame Maurice for trying to lift himself to a higher tier; pick up any sensation or sentimental novels of the time, and you'll find scads of young men and women doing the same thing. However, in those books, the would-be social climbers are outwitted by the sweetness and goodness of the hero and heroine. Maurice is simply outdone by someone more skilled than he is…and who doesn't need the social currency anyway because he's already titled. Still, we do have to wonder how much is Ciel and how much is Sebastian – the scene of Ciel saying "we" had to work so hard when he was just sipping tea while Sebastian labored once again doesn't make him look much better than Maurice in his methods.

Still, the first hurdle has been cleared. Ciel is now Bluewer's drudge, Soma is at school to keep things from getting too dark, and Sebastian is overcoming the technological issues of early photography with his demonic powers. What challenges await Ciel next week? It feels fitting that the serialization of anime storytelling mimics those same sensations and sentimental novels in that we'll have to wait until the next "issue" is published to find out.

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Black Butler: Public School Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.