I’m Melissa and I’ll post literally anything from Fanarts over Headcanons to Fanfictions and just random thoughts here!
Links
Fandoms:
Black Clover
Jujutsu Kaisen
Haikyuu
I might add more fandoms later on
I mainly post about Black Clover but I will throw in a post about the other fandoms as well every now and then. And of course feel free to request something if you want to see more content of those fandoms!
Requesting rules!
Requests are: OPEN!
What I will do:
Headcanons
Scenarios
Moodboards
Any character x character or character x reader ships, romantic (as long as they are legal of course!!!) and platonic
Any character for now
What I won’t do:
Nsfw
pedophilia
Characters being homophobic, racist, etc.
Romantic shipping of characters that I ship platonically or familiarly that still would be legal (like Marx x Julius)
Moodboard specific rules:
You can request character, oc, character x character (only legal ships!!!), character x yourself and oc x character moodboards
If you want a Moodboard with a oc then please give a short description of them like for example: What are they interests? Any noticeable features? Unusual hobbys? Just anything that could help me to make the moodboard more specific for the oc
Laura I can’t believe that it already has been three years! It’s so incredibly how quick time goes by. <3
For your event may I ask for your opinion on Marx friendships for the under appreciated favorites option? I mean we already talked a bit about his friendship with Julius but what do you think about his friendship with the other former grey deer members like Yami, William and Morgan? 💕
Hiya Melissa!
Yeah I know T^T <3 ! It's incredible how time has really flown by!
Ooo! Marx! He really doesn't get enough credit. So let's see...
It's true that Marx's friendship with Julius is emphasized because it's his closest one, and the one that is most easily portrayed due to the working circumstances. But I do think that he ought to be quite good friends, or at least get well along with the others due to them being of similar age, and been around the Grey Deers at the same time. Julius is old enough to have "moved on" and have had his own circles in the squad by the time the others came around. But also Julius has been shown to be a mentor/father figure to Yami and William, so I don't really see why he wouldn't have been a mentor of a kind to Marx as well back in the day. But nowadays their relationship has become more of a friendship than a mentorship.
We really don't know much about Marx's past, other than him being a noble, but I do wonder if he was, at least a bit, of an outcast. I mean, someone with Memory Communication magic, which could translate in the minds of people into him being able to read your mind at will just like that, could be shunned because... do we really want people to read our minds? Not really.
Granted that I don't think that any shunning that Marx might have experienced to be as ... severe as Yami's or William's. However, I do think that because of this, Yami, William and Marx could have had their little group in the Grey Deer.
Marx and Morgen might have had most similar personalities. Soft, formal, calm and collected, while William was the shy one and Yami was the rambunctious one. Which makes me think that Marx and Morgen probably spent some evenings, just drinking tea and talking about life, noble circles, things that they both could relate to.
William, as nobility himself, probably provided some insight as to how shallow the noble circles can really be, which probably resulted into a lot of good conversation between the three, and Yami was the one to keep their feet on the ground, ironically, since him I see as the most rascal out of them all.
Do I see Yami and Marx going out for tea? Not really, but are theu good enough friends to be able to reach out to each other if the situation calls for it? Absolutely. They're just different in terms of personalities, which I think makes it more difficult for them to connect on such a level that they'd enjoy spending a lot of their (scarce) free time together. Maybe once a year, but not a lot more. But it doesn't mean that they'd have hard feelings about it either. You just click better with some people than others.
Morgen would probably have been Marx's first choice as a friend though, but... life had other plans.
And William? Will I think had his own plans and a course of action, which "separated" him from Marx even more. But also, I think that Will put on a kind of a front, an emotional mask if you will, from ever since he was little, which makes it difficult for people to connect with you. So, I think that Marx, too, found it little difficult to really connect with him.
I do see all of them as palls. People who spent time together while in the Grey Deer, and they did have good laughs and stories to tell about what they did as a group, but it's similar to old school friends.
But I could see Marx and Yami having a drink at a bar, just reminiscing the "good old times". Share a few laughs again and just... be. Catching up.
I just had a discussion with my friend about fanfiction and how we tend to assume that women are the writers without any actual proof. Then I said, hey, I know fanfiction written by gay and trans dudes. But then I remembered, wait, I think I know one writer who just must be cis het based on his work. Anyway, all writers, be honest, who are you?
Please reblog if you're interested in the results.
If you have ever written any fanfiction, tell me your identity, pls
We are here to celebrate a 3 year anniversary of being here. Let us make the very best out of it! Though the anniversary date itself is on August 6th, we welcome you to send in your thoughts and requests as late as August 10th.
However, you know how missions sometimes take away from our ability to complete paper work, and thus the replies might take longer. Nevertheless, we promise to reply to your messages.
We present our most genuine thank you for having us here.
And! And, apologies, didn't mean to barge in like that.
But I would like to remind you that though the last option for this celebration event is one meant to appreciate your under appreciated favourites, they're more than welcomed in other submission types as well! That goes to say that you can send, for example, a headcanon ask about them too. It doesn't need to be only for the third option. However, the so-called fandom favourites submitted for the "unappreciated blorbo" option will, unfortunately, be declined since we don't wish the spotlight to be stolen from those who have had their time in the shadow.
And thank you for having us from me too!
Now! Let's move on to the options, and all regular rules apply during this event as well, as per usual.
Option #1. A oneshot.
"We work hard, and sometimes it's nice to just relax, which is why we ask you to join us for drinks! You may choose if you wish to kick back on your own, or with someone, as well as the type of beverage, the place and a little side order. It's all about treating ourselves a little bit!"
Option #2. Headcanons
"Choose 1 character and up to 3 headcanons per submission. However, there's no limit to submissions per person."
🤔 Are they intro, extro, or ambivert
🌹 Love language
🤫 Unpopular headcanon if any
👀 Interesting AU
🤭 Their silly little secret
😤 Their proudest moment
✨ Secret wish
😔 Secret shame
😆 Funny headcanon
🦄 Free option (any HC you can think of)
Option #3. Under appreciated favourite
"There isn't enough love to some, and we're here to change that with this section of the event. So let's talk about your favorites! What makes them great and interesting! And because sometimes a flaw can give rise to a great success stroy, there are also options to ask about their weaknesses. As said, this is to have a conversation about your fave! What makes them interesting and amazing? You may simply ask for my opinion or send in yours and I'll respond to it. "
🍁What is the most interesting about them?
🍂What is their strength as a person?
🌼What is their strength as a character?
🌻What is their weakness as a person?
🌿What is their weakness as a character?
☘️Thoughts about their magic?
🤝Their friendships? Any thoughts on those?
💎Free option! Ask/request about anything that comes to mind.
Tagging @luminouslion because Melissa is the resident Marx lover.
Memory Magic or Communication Magic? That is the question.
Now because Marx is a character that's pretty far into the background most of the time, he doesn't get many chances to appearance use his magic. Let's review what we know of Marx's Magic.
Marx can read/project the memories of others as well as force them to speak truthfully.
Marx's memory reading is infallible. (Do take the statement with a grain of salt since we've only seen this spell used to its fullest twice[-ish]. And the spell was only used on people who had their memories protected/sealed and not altered in some way.)
One of Marx's spell can erase the most recent memories of an individual (although the spell never successfully landed on the intended target [Yami] so we never actually saw it used).
Marx's magic can be used to project his visual image and his voice to others (primarily Julius!) in order to perform long distance communication without the use of a magic tool.
The image and sound projection isn't limited to one-on-one either. In episode 151 of the anime, it's called out that it's thanks to Marx's magic specifically that allows the whole kingdom to view the captains' battle. (Note: this is an anime original event and will be coming up later.)
So Marx's magic deals both with memories and communicating with others. It's been referred to as Memory and Communication (to most people's recollection from what I've gathered). But which is it exactly?
The answer?
NEITHER! It's neither Memory nor Communication Magic.
Let me explain.
The first place to look for information about Marx's magic attribute was the original manga. Luckily for me, I have both the original Japanese volumes as well as the English translations of the manga (up to volume 35 in JPN and up to 32 in ENG as of the writing of this post).
However... Looking through both the Japanese and English, I found out that while explanations and references to the powers of Marx's magic were made, there was never any instance of Marx calling out a spell name and with it his magic attribute (as is customary when a spell is written in the manga).
But then I remembered an ace I had.
Volume 16.5: Marque-page de Grimoire. It's essentially a databook for the series up to volume 16 (thus being 16.5). And in this volume we get profiles and information about various characters in Black Clover, which includes their place of origin, their likes, their ability parameters, and of course their magic attribute. And what is Marx's attribute listed as in his profile?
記憶交信。(pronounced ki-oku kou-shin)
Okay, I know most people on my blog don't understand Japanese so this means nothing to you.
記憶交信 isn't a singular word unto itself but two words put together. 記憶 means "memory, recollection, remembrance." 交信 means "telecommunication, correspondence." So essentially it's "memory correspondence" magic. And that tracks with what Marx's magic is capable of: it effects and interacts with memories as well as allows for long distance correspondence.
Or perhaps a better way to put it is that Marx's magic allows memories to be communicated. Memories are communicated when he uses the spell that reads them. So when Marx projects image and sound, it's as though he's sharing his immediate, in-the-making memories. If that makes sense...
Anyways.
I can further back this up with content from the anime. Specifically the movie. Remember how Conrad stole Marx's magic? Well look at what Conrad says about it.
記憶交信。
But that's in Japanese. So what's the actual English translation?
In the English subtitles, Marx's magic is referred to as Memory Exchange Magic.
See again the movie.
Or we can look to episode 38 of the anime.
As for why it's called "Memory Exchange" and not "Memory Correspondence" or "Memory Communication" Magic, it's simply a matter of some translation liberties. "Exchange" is a synonym for "conversation." You have an exchange when you talk with someone. And when you have a conversation, you communicate your thoughts with that other person. Thus the use of "exchange" rather than "correspondence/communication" in Marx's magic attribute to convey what it does.
But if it was always Memory Exchange Magic, why do people recall Marx's magic being just "Memory" or "Communication" Magic?
Is it a case of the subtitles saying "Memory Exchange" but the dub saying only "Memory"? No actually. If you listen to the dub of episode 38 and the movie, they will say "Memory Exchange" directly. (I'd share the sound clip myself but I have zero idea how to isolate a snippet of video and all that so anyone reading this will have to go see for themselves that I'm not making this up.) I think the "just Memory" recollection of the fandom is a result of the human mind making things easy on itself. Why remember two words when you could remember one and still get the same idea essentially? Thus, the fandom remembers only "Memory Magic" rather than "Memory Exchange Magic."
As for "Communication Magic"... Remember episode 151? Well within that episode, Julius refers to Marx's magic as 通信 (tsuu-shin) magic. Which is translated as "Communication Magic."
What created this discrepancy in the anime though?
The timing of releases.
Where was Marx's magic first named? In the 16.5 volume. Which was released on May 2 of 2018.
The next thing to be released was episode 38 of the anime. And when did it originally air? June 26 of 2018.
Episode 151 didn't air until November 10, 2020.
Now I don't know how far in advance Studio Piero was making episode 38 to the original air date. And since I'm not doing an in-depth research paper on this topic, I only took a cursory glance online to see that a general estimate is 2 months minimum. Could’ve been a longer period, can’t say for certain.
So... It's possible that Tabata was in the process of putting together the information for volume 16.5 while Studio Piero was in the midst of working on episode 38 and when it came to scripting the episode, they wanted to use proper names for Marx’s Magic rather than silently skipping over it like the manga. While Tabata isn't normally involved in the anime's production, the production team might've consulted him on the matter since they had nothing to go off of in the manga. And that's when Tabata could've shared the intended name for Marx's magic.
Then, later on, when episode 151 was being made, the content was an anime original. Tabata wasn't directly involved and the production team might not have consulted with Tabata during that time. Leading to the name of Marx's magic attribute being called the wrong thing.
And earlier this year, we got the Black Clover movie. And the movie does correctly call Marx's magic Memory Exchange. See, unlike the TV anime where Tabata wasn't really involved, he was the chief supervisor of the film. So while not directly in charge of the script, he likely would've been able to review it and make sure that Marx's magic was referred to by the right name.
With that, the post is over. I've officially explained the truth about Marx Francois' magic!
Sorry to make this so long and rambly. I just had a bit of fun solving this kinda sorta fandom mystery. But now we all know the truth.
First of all thank you so much for tagging me. I’m so honoured to be called the “resident Marx lover”. This literally made my day and it just started :D
But also Erika, you are a queen and I have no other words for this than I’m falling on my knees before you!
How much work you put into this research is incredible and that you went through both Japanese and English versions and even compared release dates to come to an conclusion amazes me.
You literally have my highest respect know.
No but seriously it’s so incredible how much information you found on such a minor character like Marx.
But thanks to you the fandom finally has conclusion and I will forever be thankful for this!
I vote memory magic but only because I think it sounds cooler XD
Honestly, when you are looking at the facts communication magic would make more sense.
Because he mainly uses his magic to communicate with others over a long distance. And displaying someone else’s memory could also be seen as some weird form of communication.
Also the only time it’s explicitly stated that a spell of him can alter or influence someone’s memory is when he was possessed by that elf.
So overall it’s more likely that he has communication magic but can also use memory magic in an advanced form.
But
I have another theory as well:
Since we don’t know anything about his parents what if one parent has solely communication magic and the other solely memory magic and that is why Marx can use both.
He inherited both of his parents magic which caused a new kind of magic to be formed that is a mix of both communication and memory.
So my theory is that the communication magic can only be used to communicate over long distances and memory magic can only be used to change or influence someone’s memories.
But because Marx inherited both he now can do all those things (some more some less depending on what he is training more) and also use the two magic types in combination by example displaying someone else’s memory.
Not sure if this even makes sense but this is my take on it.
