©Yana Toboso/SQUARE ENIX, Project Black Butler

It's time to talk about the elephant on campus. No, not Prince Soma's elephant, although he was also a good boy for giving Soma the perfect opportunity to see what Maurice was up to. Instead, I am talking about a word choice that stood out to some readers viewing this piece: changing “f*g” to “drudge.” The switch was almost certainly made because the word has can be a derogatory term for homosexuals. man in American English, with the first recorded such use in 1925. I think Crunchyroll made the right choice in changing the word, though according to my favorite dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary , which is”School slang”. Special. in some independent boarding schools for boys in England: a junior student is required to perform duties or chores for one or more senior students.”First recorded use was in 1788 and it was used in this sense during the Victorian era. But there are things that we cannot eliminate from their modern usage and I think this word is one of them, no matter what. I am the opposite. 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 historically accurate word will no longer be the correct word. Additionally, one of the authors I respect most, KJ Charles, recently used the word “drudge” in the same context in one of her novels.

That aside, wouldn't it be great to have Prince Soma attend Weston? Sure, he ignores Ciel's directive to pretend not to know him, but he brings some welcome lightness to Maurice's storyline. , but there are two things he can't: Soma and Ciel play this particular game much longer and better than him. As for Soma, Maurice was not used to such childish attempts at friendship—and licking a puppy; Soma is willing to approach Maurice no matter where he is or what he is doing. (Nice, historically accurate toilet, by the way!) He couldn't escape Soma's attention, which seemed to be the first time such a thing had happened to him. Would that cause him to lose his balance enough to fall into Ciel's trap? He probably wouldn't have met his usual standards of evil if he hadn't noticed Soma sneaking up behind him. But the bigger problem seems to be that he underestimated the young Phantomhive, and not just because he didn't know about the demon butler.

Maurice's failure highlights the differences between him and Ciel. They're both pulling a similar trick: pretending that butter won't melt in their mouths while scheming behind their smiles. One of the main differences is that Maurice does it for selfish reasons, while Ciel is now working to serve Queen and Country. Ciel wants to be the drudge because it will give him access to the information he needs to find out what happened to Derrick and the other missing boys. Maurice wanted the prestige of the position and hoped to one day become prefect. Given the highly divisive nature of 19th century society, it is hard to blame Maurice for trying to elevate himself to a higher level; Pick up any sensation or romance novel of the day, and you'll find plenty of young men and women doing the same thing. However, in those books, those capable of climbing the social ladder are fooled by the sweetness and kindness of the heroes and heroines. Maurice was simply outmatched by someone more skilled than him…and he didn't need the social currency anyway since he already had the title. However, we still have to wonder how much Ciel and how much Sebastian—the scene where Ciel says “we” had to work so hard when he was just sipping tea while Sebastian labored again? Makes him look so much better. Maurice followed his method.

However, the first hurdle has been cleared. Ciel is now a slave to Bluewer, Soma is at school to keep things from getting too dark, and Sebastian is overcoming the technological problems of early photography with his demonic powers. What challenges await Ciel next week? It feels fitting to me that serialization of anime storytelling mimics similar sentiments and romance novels in that we will have to wait until the next “issue” is published to find out.

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