“ | Everyone is useless! Useless, useless! I must purify them all... I MUST PURIFY! | „ |
~ Ash losing his sanity as he desperately unleashes his final attack |
Ash Landers is the main antagonist of the Black Butler anime, serving as one of the two main antagonists of Season 1 (alongside Angela Blanc) and a posthumous overarching antagonist in Season 2. The male counterpart of Angela Blanc, he is a fallen angel who served as Queen Victoria's butler and right-hand man and the boss of the reanimated Drossel Keinz, with the ultimate goal of "purifying" the world from what he perceived as "uncleanliness".
He is voiced by Satoshi Hino in the Japanese version and by Chuck Huber in the English version.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- While Ash, like Angela, claims his goals is to "purify the world" and "cleanse it off sin", it is made increasingly clear he is just a shallow hypocrite seeking to kill all those he deems beneath him out of egocentric pride.
- While he served as Queen Victoria's butler for presumably years, there is nothing to suggest that he actually cared about her. The fact that he eventually abandoned Victoria and let her die implies he was only offering his services out of pragmatism, and during his final fight against Sebastian, he expresses disgust at Victoria for being a human, proving he only saw the queen as a tool to further his own interests.
- In addition, Ash's "help" of Victoria after Prince Albert's death was what ultimately drove Victoria to develop her twisted ideology of "cleansing the old to replace it with the new", resulting in her ordering the destruction of the Phantomhive Manor, killing Ciel's parents and kickstarting the entire story's events.
- Reanimated Drossel Keinz into the body of a doll and turned him into a loyal minion who would go on to kidnap dozens of children, including Ciel's fiancée Elizabeth, and turn them into more dolls. Ash would never tell Drossel the truth of his identity, making him believe he was still serving the nobles he had worked for when he was alive.
- Due to sharing the same body, Ash was likely aware of Angela's plot to incite a mass murder at the London Curry Festival by brainwashing people into fighting each other with a special ingredient, yet he chose to do nothing and let the chaos unfold until Ciel and his allies put an end to the disorder.
- Although he appears affable to Ciel during his first few appearances, this is merely a facade to mask his true nature, especially considering he was more than willing to kill Ciel once his identity is exposed.
- Lured Ciel and Sebastian to a Catholic church being operated by a cult under the pretense of the Queen ordering an investigation, where he set up Ciel's kidnapping by Angela in an attempt to rewrite his memories. This action led to the deaths of multiple cult members when Angela destroyed the church, yet Ash makes no mention of this event after the fact, suggesting he feels no remorse for his part in their deaths.
- Masterminded the arrest of Ciel and Sebastian by framing them for Lau's opium distribution across London. Then, when Sebastian was being tortured during his imprisonment, he allowed Angela to attempt to manipulate Sebastian into switching allegiances.
- At the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he tried to murder Ciel and, later during his duel against Sebastian, completely ignored Victoria's pleas for him to stop.
- Brainwashed Pluto into helping him burn down the second Phantomhive Manor, putting the lives of the servants in grave danger, especially considering Sebastian was not around to rescue them.
- Immediately after the destruction of the Phantomhive estate for the second time, Ash went about burning down London with Pluto to begin his campaign of "purification", most likely killing thousands of innocent people in the process.
- Abandoned his duty as Queen Victoria's aide and left her to die from Albert's rotting flesh, something which Ciel would later be framed for, causing a team of the King's Guard to be wounded (or worse, killed) when Sebastian intervened.
- Despite the utter devastation developed by his actions, Ash gleefully watched as the city was razed to the ground, showing his own sadism and pure hypocrisy in his goal to cleanse the world from sin.
- During his final fight against Sebastian, Ash's dialogue subtly confirms his ultimate goal is to wipe out humanity to end their horrible nature once and for all, a mission which is not only extremely heinous, but completely ironic considering he is more than willing to commit genocide and become even worse than the evil he intended to destroy.
- While he was in shock from Pluto's death, it is very likely he was only upset due to losing a valuable asset against Ciel and his allies, rather than any genuine concern for Pluto.
- Although Ash screams out in despair during his and Angela's deaths, it is not played for sympathy and only reinforces how delusional he was in his goals.
- Despite his death, his actions would continue to haunt Ciel into Season 2 as he appears in Ciel's flashbacks.
Trivia[]
- Ash Landers is currently one of only two Black Butler villains (alongside Former Head Trancy) who are considered Pure Evil, though Angela Blanc, Baron Kelvin and The Doctor might count too.
External Links[]
- Ash Landers on the Villains Wiki
- Ash Landers on the Kuroshitsuji Wiki