Why did the Black Butler Reapers commit suicide?

Why did the reapers commit suicide ?
Part 1
Hi guys, its Shadowreaper1997 here! After a lot of college work and boredom I decided to do a theory on everyones fav black butler characters, the reapers! I do some fan fiction from time to time but I have never done a fan theory before, however I have found the opportunity to do one


First of all before you reader this;


This is not meant to be insulting in anyway, obviously I will be talking about suicide in this theory so I’m sorry if that upsets anyone, if it does I suggest you click the back button.
This is purely cannon, this is just a theory that I came up with and is in no way true or has been mentioned in the black butler series whether it be, the anime or the manga.
Thanks for the support guys I appreciate it and feel free to comment and ask me any questions, no hate please tho, this is purely for fun x
I’m gonna do a part 1 and part 2 for this, the first part will be about Grell, William and Ronald


Okay so if you’re reading this I’m guessing you’re a fan of Black Butler right? Good your gonna enjoy this. For me, the Grim reapers were my favourite characters of the series, for a good number of reasons, 1. They are f**king bad ass, 2. They have chainsaws and lawnmowers and death scythes and 3. they’re sexy .

If you watched the anime or read the manga (if you haven't i suggest you do) you know that Grim reapers are people that have committed suicide. After they have killed themselves they are punished by god to be Grim reapers until they are forgiven for what they have done, or so the Japanese Legend goes.


Okay so we know that much, but why did they commit suicide? People commit suicide for many reasons, whether is money problems or bereavement. However it's never really explained in the anime or even the manga. As a fan I would very much like to know why I think it would make for a great spin off series or maybe just so it gives them more of a back story. Hopefully if Yanna Tosobo (the author) is reading this, she might do one for us .

Anyway I’m going to give you my theories for each grim reaper in the series, yes this includes Alan and Eric .



Grell Sutcliff

Okay I have a pretty good theory for why Grell killed himself. Now before I get loads of people arguing in the comments I’d like to smooth out whether Grell is gay or Transgender. First of all, everyone has the right to your own opinion and to be honest it doesn’t matter what you think of grell, he’s still him at the end of day. Many people think Grell is gay for obvious reasons, and that in some aspects is true, he does like men afterall *cough* sebby.
However after watching the anime, reading the manga and doing my research I have come to the conclusion that Grell is Transgender, and I will explain why in my theory.

Coming out as gay or trans can be hard and it’s only just become acceptable in recent years. And it certainly wasn’t acceptable 200-300 years ago. Even in the 50’s you were still criticised for being gay so it’s no surprise people are only just coming out. In the OVA ‘The Story of Will the Reaper’ it gives us an insight to Grell’s and Will’s past. I can’t remember the date exactly but it was somewhere in the 1700’s, nearly 90 years before Sebastian or Ciel appeared anyway.

We see Grell and Will entering their final exam to become reapers, the fact they are doing exams and by how old they look they at least had to be 16 years of age, maybe 18 at a push. Throughout the episodes we see that grell has a strong distaste for William, and all Grell does is complain that ‘There isn’t any decent men around here’. However we start to see a one sided relationship blossom between the two. Grell flirts with will, and Will being Will, just brushes it off.

After Grell’s flirting becomes a bit too much we hear Will say ‘I would never expect to hear such things from a man’. This could have swayed grell to to become trans, simply because if will doesn’t want to hear stuff like that from a guy, he rather hear it from a girl. Much later we see them getting in fight with each other, which kinda sounds a bit like a hentai scene, from what Grell is saying. We see grell fantasizing about William, Grell being in a dress and heels while Will in in a suit. If Grell was just gay, why would he be in a dress?

A lot of other examples point towards that Grell is trans rather than gay, both in the Anime and the Manga, when he speaks to madam Red/ Sebastian, he's says he would like to bare children, most likely sebastian's. When he meets madam red in the manga he teams up with her because he feels sorry for her because they share the same problem..not being able to have a baby, also there is the fact she went on a killing spree which Grell was interested in anyway.

Throughout the series we see Grell flirting with Sebastian and Will, even Pluto at one point. During the episode where lizzy visits the mansion and dresses everyone up in cute outfits, Grell can be seen wearing a dress and heels (he wears heels normally), but he dislikes it simply because it’s not his favourite colour, he also wishes it to be more frilly and have a bow.

In the some published editions of the manga, Grell is spelt Grelle, suggesting that Grell has changed his name to sound mone feminine.

While these points might not be enough to confirm Grell is trans, just by the way he dresses. Yana Tosobo has had many fans ask her through fanmail ‘Is grell gay or trans? WE HAVE TO KNOW!’ Yana responded by simply saying ‘Grell is Transgender, I thought everyone knew already?’. So there you have it, as far as we know Grell is Trans, so now I will continue with my theory.

Personally I think Grell committed suicide because of the way he was, back in the 1700’s if you were gay or lesbian or trans, you were hanged. I mainly think is because people were much more more religious back then, and if you were gay you were supposed to be possessed by ‘gay demons’ or whatever and get sent to hell. I think Grell suffered a lot because of this. Why wouldn’t he? He was properly bullied and ridiculed for being who he was. He was mostly likely was disowned by his father, let alone both parents.

There are clues in the anime that he was going to be hanged or was going to hang himself before someone else could. In the episode where Madam Red asks Sebastian to train Grell to be a better butler, you can see Grell making a lot of mistakes and then trying to hang himself everytime he does something wrong, while this may have been just an act it definitely gives us some hints into Grell’s Past. Personally I think Grell hanged himself who being who he was but not being able to be accepted by anyone, not even his parents, I mean that sounds like a fair reason, right?



Will

Okay so time for the next reaper, Will. I love Will, be may not be my fav but he has definitely owned brownie points, mostly for smacking Grell on the head with his scythe . Again like Grell, I have a pretty easy theory for will. Will gives a lot away just by his personality. Will, is strict, uptight, emotionless and proper and he certainly doesn’t take any nonsense from anyone (maybe he just needs to get laid ). We can see throughout the series that will has an extremely good work ethic and never takes a break (most likely due to overtime). He is also part of the management division so he is pretty high up in the ranks and is often going on at Grell and Ronald to get their work done. But the question is, was he always like this?

Firstly I do, I think when will was alive he was an extremely hard working student but it was never good enough. I suspect Will’s parents where very high up in some sort of business or maybe even the government, and they were constantly pushing their son to do better, never giving him a break. They were big success stories and wanted their son to be just like them. While there is no proof of this beforehand there is proof of this is the Anime and manga.

During the OVA ‘The story of Will the reaper’, Grell and Will are put together as a pair for the final exam. Will got triple B’s in everything, while Grell got an A,b and c. Although it seems Will did better he only got a B overall, while Grell got an A. His face does not falter when he is given the results but we know Will isn’t one for emotions anyway. But it is shown he does care about his grade; when Grell threatens to challenge Will to a fight, he declines saying ‘I don’t want to injure you my grade might suffer’. He also gets insulted when Grell repeatedly calls him ‘ Mr B average’.

When we see him in the anime he is constantly working hard, much harder than the others anyway. And we can see that just by his position in the division, Grell may have had better grades but he’s just a normal reaper in the retrieval division. While Will ‘Mr B average’ has managed to snag himself a cosy manager's position, and you don’t get that position acting like Grell.

I think Will was disappointed with his final grade as a reaper and wanted to work harder, just to prove to everyone that he could get there. Will often pushes Ronald and Grell to their limits, urging them to work harder and be better at their jobs, but I don’t think he does this just to be an A***hole. I think he’s pushing them to achieve their best simply because he doesn’t want them to end up like him, and he secretly proud of them on the inside. Will doesn’t show a lot of emotion, I think he has trouble showing it. If you parents made you mad or upset because your work wasn’t good enough, you certainly wouldn’t show your feelings to them would you? You properly hide them away from everyone, afraid of getting insulted more.

Will killed himself because he was never good enough for them, and never thought he would be, it was the only way out. I’m not sure how he killed himself exactly, but we know Will is very clever, he most likely managed to get hold of some drugs from a drug chemist/dealer or a household cleaning chemical such as Chloroform (if that was even around back then) and took them to end his own life quickly and pain free.

But even in the reaper realm he isn't going to show anyone he cares, and is always working the hardest he can as if to say to his parents ‘Are you happy now? If this good enough? Are your proud of me yet?’.



Ronald

Yay we have reached Ronald Knox! I love Ronald for many Reasons, he is my fav reaper  He and Grell make a great team, they're immature and fun. I have a pretty sad theory for ronald so it may be time for you fangirls to get our your tissues . I actually didn’t have a theory for Ronald for a long time so I started looking to his personality. We all know Ronald Knox is a massive flirt and has probably gone out with every female reaper in the division, he also loves parties, who doesn’t?! This is all the common traits of a typical teenager, or is it?

Nearly every teenager has a relationship at some point, most especially a relationship that will change them forever, and it can be for the better but it can also be for the worst. I’m sure lots of teen boys like to be players and get every girl they can to show off to their mates. Some do it just to be A***holes others do it because they have changed. We know Ronald flirts with a lot of girls and most likely doesn’t stay with them for very long. There's a lot of fanfiction out there about him having lots of girlfriends and leaving them in the morning after.

However this is only fanfiction so I’m gonna try to stay true to manga/anime. Do I think Ronald was always like this? Yes, I do, I think in life he was a massive first just like how he in the manga, but one day he eventually fell in love with a girl and abandoned his old ways. He was very happy and I think he had a long term girlfriend, a very long term girlfriend. There is no evidence of this beforehand, but I’m going to put forward my theory anyway. I think Ronald had a girlfriend and they were very happy together and were at least together for a good few years. Something obviously happened though, I’m thinking either that she died, left him or cheated on him.

This caused Ronald to go into a deep depression. There is a piece of artwork on Deviantart about How ronald killed himself, by driving his car into a tree, however we know that cars weren't around back in the 1800’s and if there were they were only just starting to be invented. I think Ronald blamed himself for his girlfriend's death/ or dumping of him and swore he would never get into a relationship again. If she did dump/cheat on him, I think he would see his Ex a lot, with a new boyfriend, and wondering ‘Why couldn’t that be me? What did I do wrong? Why was I never good enough?’. His depression worsened and he eventually killed himself. I like to think Ronald went out in a pretty violent way, either by shooting himself or jumping off a building. When Ronald was reborn as a Grim reaper he reverted back to this old ways of dating people, to avoid getting himself hurt again and to avoid serious relationships. That is if Grim reapers can remember their past lives. He decided he would make this ‘afterlife’ better and do what he never got to do.

We see that he often flirts with a girl in general affairs. But nothing ever happens as far as we are aware off. Also during the campaina Arc he is shown sitting witha group of girls who seem to take a particular intrest in him, one of them states that 'I am very jealous of your girlfriend' to which Ronald repiles 'I don't have a girlfriend'. This obviously shows Ronald doesn't have an intrest in having one. Also he doesn't explain his point why he doesn't have a girlfriend and he seems to have no intrest in having a relationship with this girl (I know she is human but he seems to do this with all girls). This shows that he is avoiding anything serious and just wants to have a ‘Good time’. He also parties a lot, and teenage parties usually involve someone getting drunk and laid. Now I’m not saying that is all that Ronald wants to do. But drinking can help you forget the past, and getting laid can help with getting over someone, especially if you want to live a new life. Maybe Ronald will settle down one day, but for now Ronald is Ronald, just the way we love him, a mischievous fun loving, party animal, 19 year old. He is ‘At that age’ after all .


So guys I hoped you like my first fan theory on the reapers, I hope I didn't upset anyone at all and I hope you enjoyed this. Let me know if you want a part 2 and feel free to comment and message me about this I love to hear your guy’s opinion as well

Just a heads up if anyone is thinking about suicide I suggest you get help from someone, you are not alone out there and someone will always love you no matter how hopeless you feel, if anyone needs someone to talk to, I am always here, I don’t care if I don’t even know you, I would stay up all night to talk someone out of suicide, I know what it’s like so I understand xx Message me if you need to

Peace out guys! Love ya!
Shadowreaper1997xx