PLAYER Name: Allison-Marie Personal Journal: CrowWitch E-mail: VictorianBeauty at gmail dot com AIM/MSN/etc: TheDerelictAngel (AIM) CrowWitch (plurk) CHARACTER Name: Grell Sutcliff Canon: Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) Timeline: At which point of the canon were they taken from? Season 1 episode 6. Grell has been defeated by the demon Sebastian, and has had his fellow reaper and boss, William, take him away to be punished for dereliction of his duty as a reaper. Note: Grell will likely assumeRuby City is his “Punishment” for a little while. If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: I’m not playing another character from this canon.
Personality: First and foremost, Grell puts on an amazing act of being insane. His default personality is amiable, cheerful and flirtatious. However, he scrolls through emotions rapidly, and is quick to intense and frightening fits of rage, violence, lust, sorrow, and affection. He relishes and revels in the life-and-death drama of human tragedy. He is contemptuous of human life, finding it dull and dirty. But the drama of death is something that excites and fascinates him. Shinigami live a very long time. While they can die and there are ways to kill them, this is rare. It’s a very dull life, set in a never-ending bureaucracy. Due to the nature of this existence, Grell decides to pack as much of the drama he disparages human lives for not having into his own life. Grell fancies himself an actress. His emotions are not something he feels, as much as they are something that he uses to create his own personal melodrama with himself as the beautiful leading lady. Since to Grell, drama is better than the real life cinematic records, Grell prefers acting out dramatic emotions to experiencing real ones. There are many reasons why Grell greatly prefers theatrics over his real life emotions. He’d much rather emotions be like they are on the stage. Besides, stage emotions are fun, but real ones are painful. When faced with emotions that Grell can’t turn into melodrama and play-acting, ones that he has to actually feel, Grell can suddenly seem very fragile. So, Grell’s objects of affection tend to be people who are either aloof (William) or who want nothing but to kill him (Sebastian.) That way, he can enjoy acting out a passionate drama without any danger of the real, dirty, boring, undramatic emotions form the less-exciting cinematic records. In addition to this, Grell knows the reality of love would not compare to the drama of imaginary love. For that reason, Grell tends to love men who will spurn and respond to his advances with violence. He likes to act as though his feelings are returned. Part of this is because since he is a masochist, he does genuinely get off being fought off and generally abused. The other part is because acting as though the fight is a love affair, Grell encourages further attention and abuse. Grell is a masochist by nature. He likes being treated roughly. And, as reapers go, he holds one of the only AAA scores on technical skill with a shinigami death-scythe, and he loves to show off. He’s very proud of his ability. So, both fighting and being beaten and dominated are things that excite him. Most of the targets for his wild romantic attentions are men, but he's flexible in the matter and can harbor romantic and sexual feelings for women. This, however, is rare. Most women he treats with jealousy and disdain. When he does, it’s usually because he’s enjoying playing out some drama he’s concocted, and the woman is a part of the drama and has less to do with her personally. Grell feeds on attention, and will stop at nothing to get it. He wants to be an actress, so he will always force those around to be his audience to his performances. To him, attention is good no matter how negative a form it takes. He dearly loves to frighten people and make them uncomfortable. The main reason for this is because it’s the best way to make himself the center of attention. Another dimension to this is the fact that Grell is a very powerful individual, even by shinigami standards. There is a duality to this, in that he enjoys both wielding his power over others in the form of intimidation, and meeting the rare person who can match him and wield power over him, dominating him. It’s the same duality that exists in children, where they constantly both push boundaries and look for them to be enforced that the same time. Grell’s opinion of himself is very high. He’s powerful and beautiful and he is very aware of this. Even as a young shinigami, he feels like his skill entitles him to preferred treatment, even though he didn’t do exceptionally well on the written exams. Grell also feels very entitled to the kind of dramatic life he craves. This causes a degree of cognitive dissonance, or sometimes just plain anger when he does not get what he feels he is entitled to. When this happens, he cycles back to his extreme behavior to get more attention on himself, or express more of his dramatic outrage. But, while his dramatic personality does get him the attention he craves, it does not really leave him emotionally fulfilled. He can be left lonely and frustrated by only receiving negative attention. However, these emotions channel right back into his resorting to extreme behavior. Grell’s aware of the fact that he behaves badly. Therefore, he can sometimes become confused when he receives positive attention when he thinks it's sincere, and not done to manipulate him. He does have moments of lucidity, and he can be quite cunning and intelligent when he wants to be. He just doesn’t want to be. Generally, he’s not so mentally broken that he cannot function; he’s just broken enough so that he doesn’t care to. He’s a bit like the child who drops the plate and breaks it so he doesn’t have to do the dishes anymore. The shinigami life is long and tedious, and Grell’s nature is to make it as dramatic and exciting as possible. That also means getting out of work as much as possible, and avoiding paperwork as much as he can. Grell likes children, but they also make him uncomfortable. One reason for this could be because, as his job is a reaper in a time period when infant mortality and child deaths were common, the task of reaping children would be a common and distressing one. This discomfort combined with his short temper and tendency toward wild outbursts make him particularly bad with them. Loyalty isn't something Grell is overly concerned with. He'll look out for number one. However, as vain as he is, and is susceptible to flattery and tokens of affection, no matter how minor or insincere. He lives his life in a way that provokes negative reactions, for the reasons stated above. Even though he enjoys it, it can leave him unsatisfied. Therefore, even the smallest sign of approval will delight him, as long as it doesn't come too close to a real emotion. He seems to have no real qualms with letting himself be manipulated quite readily. Once motivated, Grell can be easily be made into a powerful, but ultimately unreliable ally. Given Grell's job and his feelings towards human lives, Grell’s relationship with death is fairly skewed. For Grell, to kill a human would only be to reap them early. It wouldn't have much significance. He sees human life as dirty and boring anyway, so he has no real respect for it. His other interests include playing games, acting, theater, music, and the arts. He also enjoys photography. Grell does have an incredibly short attention span. So, his interests and hobbies tend to be passionate, but short lived. Grell's gender identity is a source of debate among Kuroshitsuji fans. Some people play Grell as a transwoman, and some don't. While there is legitimate canon evidence for the transwoman interpretation, I personally don't see him that way. I play him as a gay male with a cross dressing fetish and a female persona that he indulges in. This is how I enjoy playing him, and while I don't believe that playing him as a transwoman is wrong, I believe there is equal evidence to support the other interpretation. Grell speaks in "Onee kotoba" which is a common affectation common among "flaming" gay men and drag queens during peformances, which translates to female pronouns when translated to English. It is an innuendo-laced dirty parody of how little girls speak. While it would be common for drag queens, it would not be used by Japanese women. Yana Toboso has mentioned the issue in supplementary materials, and in one she does say Grell wants a sex change operation. This is, however, a common stereotype in Japan, the myth that all gay men really just want to be women. She typically describes him as "okama" (cross dressing gay man) in other materials. He’s very vain, and shows no outward discontent with his male body. While he adores his long hair, makeup, and the occasional dressing up, Grell really makes no serious effort to pass as female. In fact, demanding people call him a woman and throwing tantrums when he's identified as a man seems to be something he enjoys. He uses it to his advantage to provoke negative attention, and to make people uncomfortable regularly throughout the series. This is most apparent in his interactions with Sebastian. Ironically, his view of "womanhood" and femininity is surprisingly misogynistic. To him, being a woman involves wearing dresses, makeup, looking pretty and receiving sexual attention from handsome men. When Madame Red will no longer do his bidding, he kills her declaring he has no use for her if she's "just another woman. Therefore, while I don't think there's anything wrong with playing Grell as a transwoman, I also think this interpretation is valid.
[CANON] Grell Sutcliff || Kuroshitsuji || reserve || 1 of 2]
Name: Allison-Marie
Personal Journal: CrowWitch
E-mail: VictorianBeauty at gmail dot com
AIM/MSN/etc: TheDerelictAngel (AIM) CrowWitch (plurk)
CHARACTER
Name: Grell Sutcliff
Canon: Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler)
Timeline: At which point of the canon were they taken from? Season 1 episode 6. Grell has been defeated by the demon Sebastian, and has had his fellow reaper and boss, William, take him away to be punished for dereliction of his duty as a reaper. Note: Grell will likely assumeRuby City is his “Punishment” for a little while.
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: I’m not playing another character from this canon.
Personality: First and foremost, Grell puts on an amazing act of being insane. His default personality is amiable, cheerful and flirtatious. However, he scrolls through emotions rapidly, and is quick to intense and frightening fits of rage, violence, lust, sorrow, and affection.
He relishes and revels in the life-and-death drama of human tragedy. He is contemptuous of human life, finding it dull and dirty. But the drama of death is something that excites and fascinates him. Shinigami live a very long time. While they can die and there are ways to kill them, this is rare. It’s a very dull life, set in a never-ending bureaucracy. Due to the nature of this existence, Grell decides to pack as much of the drama he disparages human lives for not having into his own life. Grell fancies himself an actress. His emotions are not something he feels, as much as they are something that he uses to create his own personal melodrama with himself as the beautiful leading lady. Since to Grell, drama is better than the real life cinematic records, Grell prefers acting out dramatic emotions to experiencing real ones.
There are many reasons why Grell greatly prefers theatrics over his real life emotions. He’d much rather emotions be like they are on the stage. Besides, stage emotions are fun, but real ones are painful. When faced with emotions that Grell can’t turn into melodrama and play-acting, ones that he has to actually feel, Grell can suddenly seem very fragile. So, Grell’s objects of affection tend to be people who are either aloof (William) or who want nothing but to kill him (Sebastian.) That way, he can enjoy acting out a passionate drama without any danger of the real, dirty, boring, undramatic emotions form the less-exciting cinematic records. In addition to this, Grell knows the reality of love would not compare to the drama of imaginary love. For that reason, Grell tends to love men who will spurn and respond to his advances with violence. He likes to act as though his feelings are returned. Part of this is because since he is a masochist, he does genuinely get off being fought off and generally abused. The other part is because acting as though the fight is a love affair, Grell encourages further attention and abuse.
Grell is a masochist by nature. He likes being treated roughly. And, as reapers go, he holds one of the only AAA scores on technical skill with a shinigami death-scythe, and he loves to show off. He’s very proud of his ability. So, both fighting and being beaten and dominated are things that excite him.
Most of the targets for his wild romantic attentions are men, but he's flexible in the matter and can harbor romantic and sexual feelings for women. This, however, is rare. Most women he treats with jealousy and disdain. When he does, it’s usually because he’s enjoying playing out some drama he’s concocted, and the woman is a part of the drama and has less to do with her personally.
Grell feeds on attention, and will stop at nothing to get it. He wants to be an actress, so he will always force those around to be his audience to his performances. To him, attention is good no matter how negative a form it takes. He dearly loves to frighten people and make them uncomfortable. The main reason for this is because it’s the best way to make himself the center of attention.
Another dimension to this is the fact that Grell is a very powerful individual, even by shinigami standards. There is a duality to this, in that he enjoys both wielding his power over others in the form of intimidation, and meeting the rare person who can match him and wield power over him, dominating him. It’s the same duality that exists in children, where they constantly both push boundaries and look for them to be enforced that the same time.
Grell’s opinion of himself is very high. He’s powerful and beautiful and he is very aware of this. Even as a young shinigami, he feels like his skill entitles him to preferred treatment, even though he didn’t do exceptionally well on the written exams. Grell also feels very entitled to the kind of dramatic life he craves. This causes a degree of cognitive dissonance, or sometimes just plain anger when he does not get what he feels he is entitled to. When this happens, he cycles back to his extreme behavior to get more attention on himself, or express more of his dramatic outrage. But, while his dramatic personality does get him the attention he craves, it does not really leave him emotionally fulfilled. He can be left lonely and frustrated by only receiving negative attention. However, these emotions channel right back into his resorting to extreme behavior. Grell’s aware of the fact that he behaves badly. Therefore, he can sometimes become confused when he receives positive attention when he thinks it's sincere, and not done to manipulate him.
He does have moments of lucidity, and he can be quite cunning and intelligent when he wants to be. He just doesn’t want to be. Generally, he’s not so mentally broken that he cannot function; he’s just broken enough so that he doesn’t care to. He’s a bit like the child who drops the plate and breaks it so he doesn’t have to do the dishes anymore. The shinigami life is long and tedious, and Grell’s nature is to make it as dramatic and exciting as possible. That also means getting out of work as much as possible, and avoiding paperwork as much as he can.
Grell likes children, but they also make him uncomfortable. One reason for this could be because, as his job is a reaper in a time period when infant mortality and child deaths were common, the task of reaping children would be a common and distressing one. This discomfort combined with his short temper and tendency toward wild outbursts make him particularly bad with them.
Loyalty isn't something Grell is overly concerned with. He'll look out for number one. However, as vain as he is, and is susceptible to flattery and tokens of affection, no matter how minor or insincere. He lives his life in a way that provokes negative reactions, for the reasons stated above. Even though he enjoys it, it can leave him unsatisfied. Therefore, even the smallest sign of approval will delight him, as long as it doesn't come too close to a real emotion. He seems to have no real qualms with letting himself be manipulated quite readily. Once motivated, Grell can be easily be made into a powerful, but ultimately unreliable ally.
Given Grell's job and his feelings towards human lives, Grell’s relationship with death is fairly skewed. For Grell, to kill a human would only be to reap them early. It wouldn't have much significance. He sees human life as dirty and boring anyway, so he has no real respect for it.
His other interests include playing games, acting, theater, music, and the arts. He also enjoys photography. Grell does have an incredibly short attention span. So, his interests and hobbies tend to be passionate, but short lived.
Grell's gender identity is a source of debate among Kuroshitsuji fans. Some people play Grell as a transwoman, and some don't. While there is legitimate canon evidence for the transwoman interpretation, I personally don't see him that way. I play him as a gay male with a cross dressing fetish and a female persona that he indulges in. This is how I enjoy playing him, and while I don't believe that playing him as a transwoman is wrong, I believe there is equal evidence to support the other interpretation.
Grell speaks in "Onee kotoba" which is a common affectation common among "flaming" gay men and drag queens during peformances, which translates to female pronouns when translated to English. It is an innuendo-laced dirty parody of how little girls speak. While it would be common for drag queens, it would not be used by Japanese women. Yana Toboso has mentioned the issue in supplementary materials, and in one she does say Grell wants a sex change operation. This is, however, a common stereotype in Japan, the myth that all gay men really just want to be women. She typically describes him as "okama" (cross dressing gay man) in other materials.
He’s very vain, and shows no outward discontent with his male body. While he adores his long hair, makeup, and the occasional dressing up, Grell really makes no serious effort to pass as female. In fact, demanding people call him a woman and throwing tantrums when he's identified as a man seems to be something he enjoys. He uses it to his advantage to provoke negative attention, and to make people uncomfortable regularly throughout the series. This is most apparent in his interactions with Sebastian. Ironically, his view of "womanhood" and femininity is surprisingly misogynistic. To him, being a woman involves wearing dresses, makeup, looking pretty and receiving sexual attention from handsome men. When Madame Red will no longer do his bidding, he kills her declaring he has no use for her if she's "just another woman.
Therefore, while I don't think there's anything wrong with playing Grell as a transwoman, I also think this interpretation is valid.