Crowned Clown

Forever stuck in DGM hell. Multiship the life out of this series. Sucker for the holy trinity of angst, fluff and smut. NSFW at times.

[candy-crackpot]

Ya'll remember this extremely cursed yaoi baiting poster? I fixed it. And by 'I fixed it' I mean I made it worse.

[candy-crackpot]

HOSHINO EXCUSE YOU I CAN'T BELIEVE ALLEN PICKING UP THE HABIT OF STRETCHING TIM'S CHEEKS IS NEA'S INFLUENCE JUST KILL ME

[candy-crackpot]

I demand Arms of Baptism wielding Exorcist!Anita and her girlfriend Mahoja in exchange for him and those other 2 who survived, rip all of you but you won't be missed

[candy-crackpot]

[liketolaugh-writes]

suddenly obsessed with the idea of both allen and neah feeling like they've been replaced by the other

allen is obvious, of course - he's neah's vessel and he's always been neah's vessel and he is haunted by the fact that mana and cross (the two men that raised him) never wanted him. they wanted neah. even if it means he has to die. (they want him to die.)

but then there's neah

and i can't help but think of him replacing allen. and feeling that look that cross gives him. and maybe even mana, if mana regains his memories at the end. and they both look at him with that look. and he knows it's because he's wearing allen's face. he killed their son and stole his face and he knows that's all they see when they look at him.

they don't want neah anymore.

they just want allen back.

(none of these things are true but the thought hurts anyway.)

[candy-crackpot]

[candy-crackpot]

when the next wave of the pandemic is coming and you need to cough

[candy-crackpot]

Allen really is the saving grace of the Order who kept smacking his comrade's hands away from the easier but morally questionable acts, if not for him:

- Kanda would have taken Lala's heart before Guzol passed away

- Fou would have been left to die

- Miranda would have been killed by the combined power of three Generals to make sure the Egg was destroyed

- asked his fellow Exorcists to kill him if he became a Noah and was judged to be a threat to spare Komui from giving that order

- then told them it wouldn't be necessary because he would stop the Fourteenth by which he probably alludes to killing himself to spare his friends from that

- Alma and Tokusa would have definitely gotten killed and this feels the most hurtful because it wasn't even for "a greater good" just the Order wanting to bury the truth after betraying Alma MULTIPLE TIMES LIKE THAT to save face and the blame the entire thing on Allen

My boy singlehandedly held the moral fabric of the Order together and all he got in exchange was disrespect.

[candy-crackpot]

Hoshino making cutesy art of Tui and Edgar, going off about how Zhu couldn’t bring himself to tell Bak what he did because he loved Bak soooo much, then casually let it slip that they used orphaned babies for the Second Exorcist Project

[candy-crackpot]

Ok the hype down down so I'll grumble a bit about chapter 258 and other things in retrospect, cw for negativity

I have very mixed feelings about last chapter. We got important story beats like (a very lukewarm) Lavi-Allen reunion, Joe&Allen grieving Bookman and Cross&Road return but the execution of them feels weirdly paced and clumsy.

I can let go of not seeing Allen enter the Campbell mansion, of seeing him grapple with hallucinations of the past in the previous chapter. See Nea’s childhood home where this mess began, see Mana and Nea while they were still together. I looked forward to seeing something like that but even without it, the chapter was extremely satisfactory with centering Lavi after his one and half decade of absence from the story.

Seeing Lavi and Allen's reunion be so much less emotional than Link and Allen stung a bit, I've been looking forward to it for 15 years but with both Lavi and Allen being in different circumstances I can get behind the standoffishness. Allen recovered memories of his former self and is actively getting eroded by Nea, Lavi meanwhile inherited the role of Bookman and saw Gramps die to protect him, they can't go back to who they were even if they wanted to.

But for the life of me I don't understand the decision to have Naaga be crossdresser who copies an 8 year old girl??? That's so unneccesarily convoluted and is irresonpsible on Naaga's part, as someone of the Bookman Clan he may incur people’s greed or wrath, isn’t he afraid he'd put Lucia in danger, dressing as her carbon copy? Lucia could have been tied to the mystery around the Campbell mansion and especially Cornelia, since this was the location the Millennium Earl split 52 years prior to the plot. And if it were a location with magic, Allen could have recovered the memories of his former self *here* instead of introducing the poison as a mechanism. I understand introducing the Seed of Truth as a shortcut in the story, there is no time for Allen or the manga to have Allen retrace his former life and recall memories as he revisits those places. But having the price Allen pay be life force that Link resupplies to him and Naaga then purging it feels like a cheap way to raise stakes. As readers we could surmise the Bookmen wouldn't allow Allen to die, not only because Allen can't answer if he is dead, it goes against their Clan's entire creed - so the danger and sacrifice Allen is faced with just feels hollow because it's not truly a lasting consequence for him??? I mush rather we saw Cornelia, thet magical tree characters whisper to do some wacky thing. Have Allen prick his finger on a shard that killed Tim so he can have his symbolic death by the same object that destroyed Tim, possibly split the Earl and is closely tied to Nea.

When Naaga was introduced in chapter 251 in her after-chapter stream Hoshino said she was excited to draw a girl after so long??? Why hype us up for a new female character who was promised to play an important role and then drop "he's a crossdressing guy actually" in a manga where only two female characters are regularly recurring and get any focus??? We had so few already and it was mostly Lenalee, followed by Road and everyone else had essentially negligable focus since the series got off weekly publication. Hevlaska is as old as the Order and may even be able to help Kanda investigate Apocryphos and the Innocence, yet she was not even mentioned in the chapter 248 talk about the Cube - but won't miss the chance to randomly namedrop Lenalee - and had like 5 total appearances, despite the fact that the Order literally wouldn't exist without her. Klaud is the only living female General who has a Parasitic Innocence wielded outside her body - she spoke approximately 5 lines in total. Maria possesses a very useful Innocence ability and she is reduced to a corpse tied to Cross’s will. The Head Nurse isn’t even properly named and Mother is likely not the name of Mother. I'll be lucky if I get to catch a glimpse of the rest!

I was so excited to see a female character who could have expanded the world of D.Gray-man to beyond the Noah and the Order, let us have a female representative of the Bookman Clan, who actually seemed to have some authority but no! I wouldn't even care that Naaga crossdresses if Hoshino didn't hype us up about a new female character playing a large role. Like goddamn, girl, you heard your assisstant say Naaga posing as Lucia is so cute he'd marry her and decided to turn Naaga into a guy because people can only want Lenalee's hand in marriage apparently!

And this, right after seeing how Hoshino will talk about the Cube without ever mentioning Hevlaska, but not missing the opportunity to namedrop Lenalee again - I can’t give Hoshino the benefit of doubt anymore, there are already so many weird choices and moves on her part: going from crying that Kanda was called Katou to act mean-girl since she made him canonically queer, Sokalo the only dark screentoned Exorcist being Like That, making cutesy art about Bak's parents to rehabilitate their image then tell us they used orphaned babies for the Second Exorcist Project, having Johnny abandon everything and risk his life to run after Allen and then have Allen refuse Cross's offer because he remembers Lenalee's crying face and seemingly forgets Johnny is in mortal danger as he tries taking them away from the Earl. The writing can get so unsettlingly weird around Lenalee, sidestepping interesting plotlines like Lenalee and Link mutually disliking each other over the other's view on Leverrier, but instead we get them brewing fucking tea because Lenalee has to be this "good girl" archetype Allen pines after through his misfortunes, she can't be a person who is flawed and can't get along with everyone! Hosino please stop just namedropping Lenalee all around to be the one every guy, including men twice her age swoon over and let her be just another character who has to face and overcome her personal battles!

I still love Naaga for being so silly, but this twist feels really unneccesary and I find it very weird how it got more focus than the magically enclosed room that couldn't be opened for more than 35 years. Valuable time was dedicated to sheningans that add nothing while this mystery gets glossed over. How could Allen open this door? Did Johnny and Link who are versed in magic try open it? Did the place register Nea's Host was present and automatically unlocked? Did Allen have to rely on Nea’s Memory to use the neccessary spell to undo it? Who knows! We can't even really think because the door is open right on the next page! The story took a backseat because Hoshino had to clarify that Naaga was in fact, not a girl actually, see you 3 months later for the plot!

At the very least I hope that next to the Cross-Allen reunion, Cross potentially noticing Allen is no longer the person he knew, a possible Nea-Allen interaction - that we get to have some attention on Road, she's another very important character who helped a lot in the background and now we may finally get to know her better.

[renieule]

Maid 🎀🐈‍⬛

[romana-colasour]

Do you think Naaga is going to learn about Laven and lament that he’s not the only gay cousin anymore?

Anyways, another commission done, you know what that means!! Shitposting time~

An absolutely incredibly dumbfuck continuation of my incredibly stupid and low effort edit. Thank you to tetitous for the manga panels ideas (cause I’m new here and wasn’t sure which ones to put) and to yourblueberrymajesty for pointing me to Requiem Rose so I could get those screenshots ^^

[darkthorne-exe]

There's this post going around on Twitter about "doomed parent and child" and boy do I have thoughts about this. I think Lavi and Bookman are a great example.

Chapter 257/258 spoilers below ↓

The whole ideaology of "Bookmen can't form attachments" is what i think makes 257 especially tragic. It's clear even from earlier chapters that both Lavi and Bookman have a close familial bond. And how could they not? Their ties to past Lavi aside, Bookman has raised current Lavi since he was a child, watching him grow up into who he is today, even if the initial reasoning was to find a new successor for Bookman. The whole rule about not making attachments had already blurred, and I think this is especially evident in Bookman's last thoughts before dying. A younger version of the boy smiling up at him, happier, before the world grew mean.

There were no final words of endearment between the two. No expression of familial love before Bookman's passing. The last words Lavi ever hears from his parental figure are "be well," which I think also have a pretty devastating impact of their own.

"Bookmen can't form attachments" is what has been hammered into Lavi's head since he was young. We've seen time and time again, however, that he was on the more emotional side for someone who was supposed to maintain that neutrality. Cracks started to show. But those cracks weren't enough for him to actually properly express any feelings of familial love to someone who was essentially his parental figure. And so, it only ends up in regret, and a large part of what he thinks about when he's essentially drowning from Noah poisoning. Regret that he never got to say everything he wanted to.

And this is why I was so disappointed that Bookman's death wasn't explored in chapter 258. Grief is a huge part of D.Gray-Man. I'd argue that it's the basis of what the series stands on. There would be no D.Gray-Man if the Millennium Earl did not prey upon the grief of vulnerable people. So I feel like it was such a missed opportunity to not explore Lavi's own.

Though, in hindsight, I do think that Lavi and Bookman were doomed from the start, at least in the audience's eyes. Lavi was an apprentice chosen to become the future Bookman. that could only ever happen if the current Bookman passed; it was inevitable. So perhaps the lack of acknowledgement could be interpreted as Lavi's acceptance of the circumstances. Especially since it's technically been months since the incident.

Either way, I do hope it's touched upon in one of the chapters in the future.

[liketolaugh-writes]

I ran into the same problem I remember encountering last time I was into DGM, which is that the number of missions exorcists are implied to go on simply doesn't match up with the number of Innocences. With only 109 Innocences in the world, and with an evidently very low success rate (they have maybe half of them after a full hundred years) how many false alarms do they get? I can't imagine it's that many. So most of what exorcists do must be going out to cull akuma. But because we don't see those missions, that just raises more questions.

How often, and under what circumstances, are exorcists sent out to cull akuma? Last time, I came up with the concept of an 'akuma nest,' which was a small town or village that had become more than 90% akuma. But I also think, now, it doesn't necessarily make sense for them to wait for it to get that bad.

Do they do a lot of akuma control in large cities, sending exorcists out to make sure places like Barcelona and London don't get too bad? Maybe Black Order supporters call for help when they notice akuma closing in, and sometimes that help reaches them in time and sometimes it doesn't.

Maybe, in addition to watching for Innocence, finders also keep watch for akuma, and contact the Order whenever they find some - after all, they're not really something you want wandering around. (But again, who knows how long it will take for an exorcist to arrive?)

What, exactly, keeps the exorcists so busy?

[candy-crackpot]

The Akuma extermination is very valid! The start of Alma Karma arc supports this, the Earl lured and trapped every Exorcist other than Alma and Kanda to different parts of the world, there was a front in Jordan (Allen-Kanda) Greece (Klaud-Lenalee-Timothy), Russia (Sokalo-Krory-Miranda) and China (Chaoji-Marie-Lavi-Bookman). If Exorcists only moved out to collect Innocence pieces they wouldn't have gone. It makes sense because Akuma multiply exponentially so if they didn’t go and cull their numbers they'd get outnumbered in an all-out battle.

It can also be that they often run into natural occurences their science cannot explain yet or other magic item sheningans, similar to the Seed of Truth! Maybe part of the deal with the Order and Bookman is that they can keep and guard damgerous magical/cursed items.

[boosify]

[bloodstarr-comms]

Back again with my favorite fandom and DAYUM I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO LIKE THIS ONE BUT I’M IN LOVE WITH IT 🥰🥰🥰

[liketolaugh-writes]

Also, no one asked, but-

While I can sympathize with the characters in-universe having a crisis about whether or not Innocence is good at all, I really, really am not buying the 'is this war truly for mankind' reading of what's going on. Like, yes, maybe Innocence is not as good or kind as they thought it was! Innocence is also cruel. (Which, notably, was something that many exorcists already felt to be true! Allen is practically unique in the genuine affection he holds for Crown Clown.)

But at the end of the day, the Noah are killing people by the millions, and the Innocence is not. While the Heart might have an evil endgame of some sort (the Resurrection is giving apocalypse vibes) the akuma still, ultimately, Need To Be Taken Care Of. And that is only achievable through Innocence, no matter what it may cost. Further, while the Black Order might have a war crime count of its own, the Black Order is not the Innocence, and the Innocence has proven it feels no obligation toward the Black Order as an institution.

Hopefully everyone will come around to that realization in the end. <3

[candy-crackpot]

100% agree and this makes me think Allen himself either knows or suspects something completely game changer.

Even when Allen didn't know that Link and Cross survived Apocryphos, that he was presented with Tim's ashes and now Past!Lavi's demise he still continued to wield Crowned Clown and refused Tyki's attempt to rip his arm off (again). He feels used and perhaps even violated by the Innocence but as such a deeply self-sacrificing person I doubt this is a dealbreaker for him. He has a lot of grievances but knows he cannot save the souls of Akuma without the Innocence purifying them.

I think what bugs Allen isn't that Innocence demands a hefty price, it's that Apocryphos running around doing who knows what, being able to bestow and take away Innocence proves that the Innocence doesn't care if humans live or die. On top of that, Exorcists can get their Accommodator status revoked at any time. The question is not will they use it or not, it's can they use it or not. A piece of Innocence could be powerful enough to vaporize a continent, if it cannot be reliably used it's curtains. If anything the war itself works in the Innocence's favour, letting the Earl make people into Akuma works for them as the suffering releases lots of energy - Innocence has a vested interest in this status quo, of builfing up to the point where the End comes in a grande finale battle.

As he began to doubt the Innocence Allen was calling Nea's motivations into question. Now we know Cross aligns with Nea because they are family, he knows Mana was so desperately chasing after Nea he nearly got ran over by a carriage, he knows that Past!Lavi had such faith in Nea being able to change the ever war-torn world he was willing to become Nea's Host. Allen has good reason to fear Nea, his impending erosion, Nea's intimidation game, Nea nearly killing Johnny and posing as potential threat to the Order - but Cross and Past!Lavi whom he deeply cares about chose to align with him and Allen trusts their intentions. They are not the type to stand by human sacrifice if they're not sure it will yield. For Allen this is probably a sign that Nea is aiming to bring about a change, if Nea replaces the Earl he can not only erase the Dark Matter from Akuma souls therefore setting them free, but prevent the cataclysmic return of the Three Days of Darkness that will no doubt destroy the world again.