learning about your own identity and finding out what you thought was a nothing but a pitiful remnant of suffering is a precious relic. a piece of someone who came before you.
DGM theory of the day. We all know that this is Lucia!
But we also know this is also her looking like a young adult maybe 18-22?
So how can she be child at the same time as she is an adult in the present time. My theory is that the Campbell Mansion is in some kind of potential time loop or something keeping everything frozen or in stasis. Meaning people who are permitted to enter might be affected whether it be de aging or perhaps be reverted to the age that they first were when they went into the mansions time loop. Anyways thanks for listening please add on if you think of anything else!
[REVIEW] D.Gray-man Chapter 255 Review – “The Silver Light protector”
This post is a translation of my review of D.Gray-man chapter 255 in Japanese. It's more of reaction + a bit of a review. Some of you asked me to publish it in English also, so here it is! As usual, beware of spoilers.
THIS IS A VERY LONG POST, READ IT WHEN YOU ARE BORED...
D.Gray-man chapter 255 has 17 pages, and the title: “The Silver Light protector.”
I. THE TITLE
What caught my attention first was the title and the word “Silver Light."”...Who exactly is the “Silver Light” referring to? Even in Japanese, there is a lot of ambiguity in this title.
Let me explain to you why : in Japanese, the particule "の", which means "of", can be used as an objective genitive or a subjective genitive. For instance, when you say "the fear of the enemy" in English, you can either interpret it as "the enemy is afraid" or "you are afraid of the enemy," right ? Well, here it's the same thing. So, for me, there are two interpretations possible:
1) “The one who protected the silver light” → could imply the one protected is Allen.
OR
2) “The protector who radiates silver light” → could describe Past Lavi
Both interpretations seem legit to me. In recent chapters, Past Lavi has always been associated with the motif of silver, so it’s easy to associate “Silver Light” with him.
But, Allen has also been associated with silver in the past. His hair is silver, and so are his eyes. He has been protected by Past Lavi all this time, so it would make sense as well.
Personally, if I had to choose, I would interpret it as "the silver light" = Past Lavi because, well, in that context, it makes more sense.
II. THE PREVIEWS
The preview pages start with a young Allen right after he destroyed Mana. I was NOT expecting that. To be honest, I was kinda expecting the last 5 pages of volume 29 to be the previews, and even if they weren't, I was absolutely not expecting another flashback.
Past Lavi tries to calm Allen down. You can see clearly Allen's left arm glowing, like if his Innocence was activated. We know Innocence feeds itself on its accomodator's energy since chapter 252. The stronger the feelings of the accommodator, the more the Innocence receives and eats off the energy. Here, Allen is clearly on the verge of despair: he just lost Mana twice (he died, then Allen's destroyed his AKUMA), and he is full of guilty feelings.
But then, Past Lavi appears. It really hit me again just how much Past Lavi has been watching over and protecting Allen all this time. I am sure that there are many moments in D.Gray-man where we thought, “Oh, the Innocence is protecting Allen,” but maybe it was actually Past Lavi all along. Honestly, I'm not sure how to feel about this. I really love Past Lavi's design, his character, his personality, his backstory (or at least, the little we have) but I feel quite uncomfortable with the fact he might have been pulling the strings all along. I mean, Past Lavi appeared so suddenly in the story, after 20 years of publication, and in three chapters, he became the master mind of everything...Don't get me wrong, I do love him, but I feel sad to know that in everything we experienced with Allen, Past Lavi was there all along, I don’t know, it feels too "deus ex machina", and Allen becomes a sort of mix of Mana, Nea, Past Lavi, Apocryphos, and his past self, it is like his current character does not have a thing of his own.
Anyways. Just saying.
"I won’t let you break ”
OMG, I really got goosebumps when I read this.
That being said, there was one small thing that caught my attention (a Japanese problem again!) Past Lavi uses “watashi” as a first-person pronoun. Usually, he says わたし in hiragana, but here it is 私, so in kanji. There is no big difference, I must admit, but the perception is a bit different...I wonder if it is a typo...?
“Dear world, please bless this child.”
“May this prayer reach you.”
Aren’t those similar to the lyrics from The 14th’s melody?!?
Until now, I always assumed the lullaby was linked to Katarina and Mana/Nea. After all, Katarina was the one who sang it, and it’s described as a song for the "player", a key to controlling the Ark. It always felt deeply connected to Mana and Nea.
But now, I am starting to reconsider : this “prayer” might actually be coming from Past Lavi for Allen. In the song, there are lines like “silver eyes” in the lyrics, again, likely referring to Allen. But if that’s the case, if this song is a Bookman related song, why can it move the Ark?
Could it be that the Campbell and Bookman clans are more deeply connected than we thought? I know some people have theorized the Campbell are like a satellite of the Bookman clan, like the Zugles.
Anyway, I am starting to wonder if the song is actually linked to Past Lavi as well.
Also, in this chapter, we learnt Allen’s hair turned white as a result of being protected by Past Lavi. I wasn’t exactly surprised. It felt more like a long-awaited answer. Since the moment Past Lavi was introduced, I had a feeling this was coming. Honesty, I am a bit sad because I liked the explanation of his hair turning silver because of traumatic experience (the Marie Antoinette syndrom)
What I am still not understanding, though, is Allen’s left eye.
Is it a curse from Mana? A result of the helix and Past Lavi ? Because when you think about it, the fact he can see AKUMA's souls would make more sense if it is linked to his connexion with the helix of life rather than a curse. And moreover, you have this scene in Krory's castle, when Allen's left eye fully recovered after being stabbed by Road. There is a voice telling Allen "I am back". I am wondering if this is Past Lavi as well...
III. BACK TO THE PRESENT
First off, we have the scene where Allen wakes up. That panel looks almost the same as the extra pages added in Volume 29 (especially when Allen opens his eyes)
But something caught my attention: on page 6, Allen is lying on his back, but on page 7, he’s face-down. Right after he drank the poison in volume 29, he was face-down, so... did Johnny and Link turn him over while he was seeing that flashback? Or maybe Allen tried to move to say something to Lucia but collapsed again? It doesn't really matter, but it kinda made me laugh.
“I’m sorry, Lavi.”
That hits hard.
Maybe the poison blurred the line between Allen and the Allen from 35 years ago. Their personalities kind of merged ? Is it really goodbye to Allen Walker ?
While Allen and Link are both literally DYING , Lucia just... doesn’t move. Is she in shock? Does she feel guilty or something? Surprise? Her expression is unreadable, and honestly, her face is a bit scary...
“If the former Jr. you cherished was the one who protected Allen, then this isn't right.”
“Are you really okay with this?”
Thank you, Johnny.
When you think about it, Lucia's current actions might completely throw away what Past Lavi did to protect Allen. So yes, don’t let him die, please.
Also, can we talk about how quickly Johnny understood what was going on? No one else could see the flashback Allen witnessed, right? And yet, from that one line from Allen (“He’s been with me all along”) Johnny grasped the whole situation and understood everything??? It felt a little too convenient. Because, sorry, it is not that obvious...
But the biggest revelation of the chapter...?
“Master.”
So, Lucia is the master...is that why they said Zugles were very cautious to the point of hiding their true identity. But why are they so cautious?
If Lucia is truly the Master, then maybe even her name is not even her real name. This could explain the mystery between child Lucia appearing in chapter 222 and adult Lucia. For the reminder, it was explicitly stated that this scene was taking place at the same time as Allen was talking in the wheat field with Cross, so either they were talking in a sort of parallel space/time dimension or something, or either it was the present time.
Then Lucia starts singing.
This is not the first time in D.Gray-man a song has power. The lyrics weren’t written, so it is hard to say what it was... But more importantly: how does a song erase poison?
Hoshino-sensei, please explain! I believe in you. Don't let this be unexplained.
When the poison slowly starts fading, I had another question which came in mind:
Does this mean Link will be saved too?
He didn’t drink the poison himself, he is dying because he used too much power to save Allen, so would the song even affect him?
But, I feel like Link still has an important role to play. After all, he is Hoshino sensei's twin sister's favourite character, so I’m sure he’ll be okay (lol). She won't let Hoshino kill him.
By the way, one small thing that made me laugh: while both Johnny and Lucia are holding Allen, Link is just lying there completely ignored. Poor guy...no one cares...
Another detail that stood out to me: the panel where Hashim (so the master who is not actually the master) seems to be thanking the poison. It looks like he is bowing to the poison. But, I've seen some people saying he is bowing to Past Lavi inside Allen. But his expression totally looks like he’s expressing gratitude to the poison itself...
“I’m sorry, Allen.”
It feels like a direct echo of Allen’s earlier line, “I’m sorry, Lavi.” You can really feel that Past Lavi. is still protecting Allen even now.
The chapter ends here.
I am actually hoping that Allen will wake up directly at the Campbell mansion in the next chapter. After all, Hashim said : "We need to take them there.". Do you mean the Campbell mansion???? I'm sure the Zugles are able to transport one or two bodies...!
IV. RANTING TIME
Feel free to skip this part if you’d rather not read me venting.
My full ranting in English, which I posted on Twitter his here:
Avoid spoilers by using redacted characters! fusetter connects with overflowing feelings
First off: huge thanks and respect to Hoshino-sensei for all the hard work on Volume 29 and the new illustrations for the Animate fair.
That being said… these 17 pages were, honestly, pretty disappointing. Let me be precise: the issue isn’t the number of pages. It’s how those pages were used.
The content here could have been wrapped up in 5 or 6 pages. Most of it was just Allen and Link slowly agonising. But did we really need 12 pages for that?
And now, I’m honestly not sure what the point of the Volume 29 extra pages was. This chapter is an extended version of those 5 pages. So, were they really needed ? It feels redundant. Maybe if we had not had these 5 pages, my opinion on the chapter would have been different. When I first read the 5 extra pages of volume 29, I went berserk, like "OMG Allen is actually dying?????" But here, when I read the chapter, I was:"Yes. I already know, I've read it once."
And I’m truly happy as a fan to see so much new merchandise coming out. especially given the slow pace of the series, it’s probably a way to keep fans engaged.
But still… a part of me really wishes all that energy went into the main story.
I mean, I am grateful for the new art, don’t get me wrong. But the amount of work must be overwhelming.
And, well, my wallet is starting to give up too...
This was the first time in a while that I felt genuinely disappointed as a reader. The last time was because of the 7 pages chapter back in 2016 or 2017, I don't remember the date.
But despite all that, I still love Hoshino-sensei.
I still believe in her and want to keep supporting her work.
I thought that suffering about past events and past!laven stuff would slow down with the end of the poison-induced flashback. I guess it was very fucking naive of me to think so
Are we talking about Lucia this chapter? I want to talk about Lucia this chapter
She. Is. The Master of this place!! I lowkey kind of expected it because she was the one talking all along, explaining everything and stuff, plus she may be older than she seems, given she was apparently aquainted with p!Lavi
I really love how willing she was to just kill a guy who may or may not be involved with the death of a kin (already something in last chapter but I do want to reiterate because wow)
And she seemingly knows magic. Which is interesting because so far, among the few who knew it, was Cross, I think the Earl, and to some limited extent the Skulls. Either that or that song is related to the "14th Melody", which I could believe but remain sceptical about.
Anyways, I know I may be overthinking this, but I want her to be something like, Lavi's half sister or something, given that Bookman is supposed to have a lot of offspring around the world it really wouldn't be that weird.
(Saying this while I'm working on an off-the-wall fic no one will want to read because I'm just making bullshit up btw, but I'd be losing it if anything from it turned out to be canon)
