Rambling about Fairies - Manga Chapter 146 + 80
Gonna ramble a bit on Celestial Spirit headcanons for a bit. These dresses were definitely the prototype concept for Star Dresses, but I really like to think of the different clothing as ways to characterise the spirits themselves, too.
Virgo gives Lucy a cute, off-shoulder, backless dress that’s logically not very practical for battle, but it is light on the fabric and thus doesn’t get in the way of a nimble fighter like Virgo. Virgo herself doesn’t wear the most practical clothing, but it’s going on the whole ‘fitting, less flappyness’ sort of look that focuses on trying to look super cute while not being too obstructive, at the risk of being too sexy. Virgo doesn’t care if she flashes the crowd or gets set up for a wardrobe malfunction, that’s why it works for her. Virgo even goes as far as to do Lucy’s hair into pigtails and put her emblem as a pin on the bandages. It’s a bit unnecessary, but it definitely marks the degree of detail and care Virgo takes as a maid, always ensuring great presentation despite her rough fighting style.
In contrast to this, Cancer gives Lucy a long, flowy dress that is wildly impractical for battle but looks absolutely gorgeous, befitting of something a stylist would give a model to walk on the runway.
Once again, this isn’t practical for battle at all-- it’s in the way of everything, her hair is style and not very secured, there are so many elements to this dress, and it probably gets in the way of Lucy’s cheerleader-esque agility. But this is Cancer’s choice of clothing, and Cancer chose to make Lucy look gorgeous despite everything that’s happening around them. His priorities in the situation was Lucy’s physical appearance, rather than mobility. He didn’t care if Lucy was going tower-climbing, he’s here to make her look like a princess. And Lucy’s fine with that. And that’s also why it gets torn up very quickly for the Vidaldus fight. It’s a bit of a lesson learned for all of them.
I do wonder, if Mashima continued to focus on characterisation rather than sex appeal and fanservice, how their dresses could be today.
