SebaCiel

"You're not allowed to die... you're supposed to be with me until the very end..."

- Ciel to Sebastian, after seeing his death. SebaCiel is the slash ship between Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaelis from the Black Butler fandom.

Canon
In canon, the public relationship between Ciel and Sebastian is between an earl, the master, and his butler, the servant. In reality, Sebastian is a demon contracted to Ciel, promising to serve him for the price of Ciel's soul after their contract is complete.

After the murder of the Phantomhive estate, Ciel and his older brother were kidnapped by human traffickers, and later sold to a satanic cult as sacrificial lambs. They were kept in captivity for around a month, and Ciel's older brother was sacrificed in order to summon a demon, Sebastian. As Ciel was the only person willing to stake his soul amongst those part of the summoning, Sebastian decided to contract him at 10 years old. After freeing Ciel, and massacring the cult on his orders, the two negotiated the terms of their contract. Sebastian was to; Never lie to the contractor, obey the contractor's commands without question, and to protect the contractor without betrayal until his revenge comes to fruition. Ciel's goal was to find the people responsible for the death of his parents and get revenge, a goal in which continues into the events of the story.

Canonically, the relationship between Sebastian and Ciel is combative, both enjoy teasing the other and putting them in positions of discomfort and upset. There is a lot of physical, platonic intimacy between the two, as Sebastian bathes him, dresses him, and will often be seen carrying Ciel in a variety of ways throughout the series. The two are in a relationship that requires total trust and faith in one another, but neither, and Ciel in particular, are willing to fully surrender their trust. As typically, whenever one allows the other too much freedom in their relationship, it ends up putting that person in a situation of discomfort, due to the meanspirited nature of both characters.

Sebastian has shown growth in his capacity to genuinely care about Ciel throughout the series. Initially comparing Ciel to an insect when he was captured in the first arc, to acting panicked and incredibly apologetic in both the Emerald Witch and Blue Sect arcs, especially when a situation is beyond his understanding or control. This unordered care is also exemplified after the Blue Sect arc reveal, where Sebastian completely takes the reigns of control until Ciel recovers enough to begin giving orders once more. Whereas the Sebastian of the first few arcs, would have simply only acted when Ciel told him to, it seems like after his 'death' in Book of Atlantic, his attitude towards Ciel and his behaviour as companion has begun to shift.

Despite being the main point of view character, Ciel's true opinion on Sebastian is mostly hidden from the audience. Despite his comfort with relying on Sebastian for platonic intimacies, he was shown to be scared of Sebastian in the Emerald Witch arc, however this may simply be a part of his fear of adults and Sebastian's proximity to the death of his older brother. He does trust Sebastian enough to treat him like a personal confidant, and allow him more freedom of choice in their plans as the series progresses, but he still remains amused when Sebastian is embarrassed or humbled by others.

Outside of canon, official works portray the relationship between Ciel and Sebastian as a lot more romantic than platonic, or at least with the intention to explicitly tease that reaction out of an audience. Ciel is typically framed as Sebastian's 'prey' or 'meal,' and objectified as a proxy for food, or seen wearing fetish-wear, whereas Sebastian's appearance remains pretty in line with his in-canon design. While not canonical, there is an inherent attempt by Yana Toboso and official staff to frame the relationship between Sebastian and Ciel as somewhat erotic, or at least predatory in a way that is titillating for the target audience.

Fanon
SebaCiel is the most popular ship in the fandom, due to how close they are in the anime and manga. However, it receives some backlash and hate from fans due to being shotacon with Ciel being a 12 to 13-year-old boy and Sebastian unknown age as well as having the appearance of an adult with many fanfictions that involve Ciel as an adult and demon with Sebastien and him bonding together. Because the live-action film of Black Butler has Ciel as a girl who decided to live her life as a boy after Sebastian rescues her, fans of the film's version of the ship could have them view it as a het ship.

Their relationship could also be considered unhealthy since Sebastian plans on devouring Ciel's soul after finding and killing the boys parents killers.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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