#ch143

[officialtokyosan]

mental illness

[officialtokyosan]

tenma getting physical when distressed

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After Jun Wu listened to Hua Cheng’s suggestion, he considered it seriously. If Xie Lian was to go alone, it certainly wouldn’t be as adequate as if he went himself. But if it was Xie Lian with a demon king who had once journeyed through Mount Tong’lu himself, then this combination would certainly have more odds in their favour.

Of course, Hua Cheng wouldn’t be going for nothing. Jun Wu agreed to his terms: until the next time Mount Tong’lu reopened, all of heaven must detour around the Ghost City. Also, the entire court must announce the heroic deeds of Crimson Rain Sought Flower, and sing songs of praise for an entire year…Xie Lian tried to imagine it, and it was probably something to the effect of “you bunch of foolish heavenly officials! Do you know who saved you?!” This was practically tormenting the heavenly officials who were already wary of Hua Cheng and bore complicated feelings towards him, and stepping on their faces.

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He kept feeling that Hua Cheng only volunteered to come because he knew what Xie Lian was thinking. After all, Xie Lian really felt like, rather than managing the heavens and doing what he wasn’t good at, it would be much more gratifying to get locked up in a Kiln and kill to his heart’s content.

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Hua Cheng was holding Xie Lian’s hand and spoke up: “Gege, the next time you see Jun Wu, don’t talk to him; turn around and run away.”

Xie Lian was puzzled. “Why?”

“I just know that every time he comes looking for you, it’s never for anything good.” Hua Cheng said.

Xie Lian laughed. “What do you mean? The work he originally assigned me wasn’t this.”

However, Hua Cheng said, “It’s the same thing. Whether it’s going to Mount Tong’lu or helping him manage the heavens, neither are good assignments. The Upper Court is in complete shambles now, might as well let it break up. Throwing that pile of mud on your lap, what’s up with that? It’s no different than choosing between a sword and a knife to commit suicide.”

[nagirambles]

Rambling about Fairies - Manga Chapter 143+144

I’ve seen people give Aquarius flak for just abandoning Lucy like this, and honestly, I agree. But rather than looking at Aquarius as a terrible woman, you have to look at her as a narrative device, as she is in this situation.

This arc’s theme of duality honestly peaks here, with this CSM vs CSM battle of compatibilities. Scorpio and Aquarius are meant to parallel Aries and Leo. 

S+A don’t have a single moment of even trying to think about fighting each other. The moment Angel took out the key Aquarius gives up, and Scorpio doesn’t even think about fighting, casually greeting Lucy! They planned to leave the moment they realized they were pitted against each other, because nothing, not even contractual obligations, will pit them against each other. That’s their love.

Then we come to Leo and Aries. 

With A+L, there is hesitation-- but they both come to the same conclusion. Aries actually sighs when she sees who she’s up against, instead of looking scared or meek like in the anime. She is resigned, and Leo is angry. Why? Because they both know who will be winning this fight. You don’t put the sheep against the lion and expect anything other than the lion to win. 

I like it when there are indicators to a relationship between spirits outside of the human world. I really, really wish we saw more to this.

Aries doesn’t have a raw, resolved expression like this ever again, but I love this moment of characterisation. They clearly love each other, just like Aquarius and Scorpio, but they are willing to put it aside for duty. They don’t let their relationship get in the way of their contractual obligations, which is what spirits have to do. 

This is a direct parallel to Scorpio and Aquarius. 

One more thing-- the emphasis on pride. Aquarius didn’t give half a shit about looking like a dumb woman. Her beloved Scorpio is here and if Lucy makes her look bad, she is going to throw hands. She threw aside her pride to fawn at her boyfriend, because that’s who she is. 

Aries and Leo though, they put it before everything else. Loke goes all in immediately, because right now, he is neither a womanizing playboy or someone who treasures Aries personally-- he is just Leo, a combat spirit, and Aries is just the enemy he’s been pitted against. And Aries dives right in despite being a meek and defensive fighter, to respect that will. 

[nagirambles]

Rambling about Fairies - Manga Chapter 143

Honestly, I really love Gemini because they’re so smart. And that makes sense-- Gemini’s entire powers bank on copying and gaining knowledge. If anyone in the spirits would be using intelligence and wit as a weapon, it would be Gemini. 

Here, after learning Lucy is a Celestial Wizard, they immediately 1. Discard the Gray disguise for Lucy, 2. Make a distraction, and 3. Figure out what spirits she has and how to use or win against all of them. This is a level of quick thinking that we haven’t had on a villain in a while. It’s closer to Lucy’s style of fighting, except Lucy tends to get stalled by comedic moments or exposition. 

BUT. It’s a shame, because Gemini’s own smarts never come into play after this. All the spirits kind of lose independence after a while because there are too many of them. Gemini turns into a comedy character after this, with all their smart moments attributed to Lucy instead of themselves. 

Also, this power of controlling someone else’s spirits and even summoning them is too overpowered, just like the other aspects of Gemini’s powers other than the imitation. If Lucy and Yukino ever fought, it wouldn’t even be a battle because of this. We never see any more CSM, but honestly, I believe this was the real roadblock for any future battles with Celestial Spirits ever again. 

This is the one power of Gemini’s that I feel should have been removed. it’s never used other than with Sagittarius (Taurus was taken out with sexy attack), so really, we didn’t need this. Sure it gives us trouble for the ending where they summoned Taurus for her, but I’m sure we could have worked around that. Copy Ichiya instead, or Gray, anyone else. I like that Gemini can’t copy any of the other spirits (I think?), but that’s just a paltry attempt at balancing this overpowered ability. 

[nagirambles]

Rambling about Fairies - Manga Chapter 143

There’s a bit of a-- I won’t call it an inconsistency, it’s more like we don’t get it explained well enough-- about Gemini’s powers. Here we see them already know Natsu’s weakness, enough to set up a bait and trap and lie in wait. 

But these following scenes imply that Gemini only attains information about people other than the one he’s copying when they’re looking at them. He knows enough about Gray, but for what Gray knows about other people, they won’t be able to gather information until they interact with each other. I feel that’s a very good balance to have with this ability. 

But, which is it? They know about everything (Natsu’s weaknesses), or they don’t know until they interact? Or did they just know about Natsu’s weaknesses because their rivalry is intertwined deeply with Gray’s own information?

It seems to come on and off, and we don’t use this part of Gemini’s powers often because it’s just too OP for no reason. If we always knew the entire plan of everyone, then Eclipse wouldn’t have happened because Lucy could have copied Future Lucy and found out everything immediately instead. (Heck, why didn’t Future Lucy do that herself?) Unfortunately that also means we would never have a mystery in this story ever again. 

I honestly feel Gemini’s powers should have been just a doppleganger maker and magic power imitator, but then the first Ichiya imitation plot twist wouldn’t work out, so eh.