Thinking about how the Campbell mansion is described as the place where Allen will cease to exist to this latest chapter where we learn the Bookman who is at the mansion is actually Lavi. Is this the place Lavi will also cease to exist T-T
Can these boys stop paralleling each other, it's not good for my heart.
MAN YOURE RIGHT YOURE RIGHT!!!!!!!
They never stop foiling each other im feeling so ill. Both of them have to let go of an identity that defined them for so long because of a brutal change due to their place in this tragic play.
What do you expect what will currentLavi's state of mind be? When we'll see him again. I remember sensei once posted a drawing of him with a glare, could that be a hint, you think? And on a side note, what caused him the more harm, being kept in the dark or the torture from Noah? Also, should his relation grow stronger with Allen after the revelation or discovery of their connection?
I was certain current and past Lavi are one in a way, I mean that's what I assumed, but it seems he's his guide, is all. PastLavi appeared in front of him because of his position in the clan. Please, tell me what you think!
hey there nonny <333
Honestly i don't know for sure but
In A Way i could imagine them still having their Present Timeline Dynamic, but more pronounced. I've argued for decades that Lavi was overprotective over Allen and that Allen was letting down a lot of his walls around Lavi (not really his vulnerable ones but he acts more childish with him, less concerned about bigger things. tho it's also not neglectable that Lavi Was There when Allen and Cross talked about Mana in the way back, so it adds to it).
I think, in a way, they would really be able to go back to that while still thinking about who they are to their present selves first, but with also more... meaning behind it? if it makes sense?
That said there is two major elements that will impact their relationship the most: that Allen knows this much about Past!Lavi now and the fact Lavi has been heavily tortured for months in the manga-time.
And Lavi knows his torture has to do with the Past Apprentice, with a secret even Bookman Senior is hiding something from him, that it's something to do with Nea and his relationship to Allen.
But it also depends on how much Lavi has learnt about what's happening in the outside world: the timing of the kidnapping meaning he may not know the details about Allen being taken over by Nea more and more, or the details about Allen running away from the Order. This lack of knowledge can impact how receptive Lavi would be to the truth coming to light.
But, I expect, on some level, for Lavi to be fucked up mentally speaking and either reinforcing his identity as the New Bookman, or being even more conflicted on Allen's involvement in their clan to start with, all mixed with what would be a reasonable trauma to have in his situation.
(aside note: for decades i've been imagining, not as something i would like to see but something i always thought as "would that be fucked up or what" of finding Lavi post torture with white hair to denote his trauma. Now that i'm looking at the latest chapter, I'm looking back at this with another eye. I'm not saying it will happen, but if it does.... you'd have heard of it here first.)
AND we have to consider how much this knowledge about Past!Lavi will impact how Allen sees Current!Lavi: will he be able to see them as two separate individuals or will he mix them up together in his guilt of being the downfall of Two Bookman Apprentices?
But then again WHY did Past!Lavi appear to Current!Lavi if they don't have a sort of connection to start with? and therefore, will that mix up be a misunderstanding or actually a deeper understanding of who they are to each other?
I think Allen would be the type to get caught up in his guilt, especially since by all account he still doesn't know what happened to Lavi. Lavi and Bookman were marked as having disappeared and/or dead for months, it's likely Allen has barely had the time to think about them as a coping mechanism like he was shown avoiding with Link when he thought he was dead as well, bc let's not forget, "if i mourn, the Earl will catch me". The idea that the Bookmen are being tortured because of their relation to Allen was already a tension, but now knowing Bookman lost his previous apprentice specifically because P!Lavi wanted to protect Allen, this will bring a whole other tension and guilt between those two parties.
And this is a tension that exists even without C!Lavi and P!Lavi being connected.
In fact i could imagine that Allen himself will not think there is a direct connection between P!Lavi and C!Lavi at first, because P!Lavi lives on inside of him, and he has no reason to believe P!Lavi's soul would have interreacted with C!Lavi. HOWEVER we know from chap 153.5 that C!Lavi DOES have vision of P!Lavi, in a scene that seemed to imply P!Lavi is making sure to protect C!Lavi for reason and because "they'll meet again one day", cutting to Lavi meeting Allen and being reminded of this apparition.
TO ME i would theorize that a part of P!Lavi soul is at least trying to connect C!Lavi with Allen, in the hope he can protect the two of them in the future and/or to have C!Lavi carry on where P!Lavi can't be. And that would be at the minimum. On the other swing, I think P!Lavi lives on with C!Lavi as well.
What if. Walk with me on this one, what if. I've mentioned for years that i think it's uncanny that Allen and Lavi are both people with a secret in their eyes that links them to the secrets of their family. Allen's left eye linked him directly to Mana, to his connection to his Noah's side, and Lavi's was always something that "made it possible for him to be a Bookman.". But, especially now after chapter 255 seeing Past!Lavi reach out and gives a part of his soul, of his blessing, onto Allen when Mana attacked him, and the way it weirdly doesn't show the eye until Allen realizes the extend of Past!Lavi's protection, there's an ominous connection of Past!Lavi on Allen's eye.
BUT POINT IS if the Eye of the Bookman is something that is born in a generation only if the previous Owner Of The Eye dies, could Past!Lavi be connected to Current!Lavi because of the power of the eye being passed over? In which case this would also connect together the fact Allen's and Lavi's "weird eye" was always a connected foil, both of their eyes connecting them to a loved one watching over them, and even more so, to Past!Lavi's blessing and protection on both of them.
So my point is, as a way to carry on the similitudes between Allen and Lavi, i could totally imagine a part of Past!Lavi passing down into the eye Lavi was born with for instance, if a part of him wasn't downright reincarnated with Lavi at this point as well.
The relationship and dynamic between Past!Lavi and Current!Lavi will change a lot to how this relationship will work out exactly.
I feel like a Lavi who has very little knowledge about Past!Lavi, very little connection to him, could be more delicate to welcome Allen back into his life about the torture. but a Lavi who would have a true connection to Past!Lavi, would have more reasons to want to carry on what his predecessor started.
FOR NOW we can expect Lavi to not know anything because if he learns anything, it means the Noah know about it as well and that would be really tricky. I think Allen is probably in a situation where, if he doesn't mix the two Lavi together in his mind, he still would hold himself responsible for what happened to the Bookmen, and to both Past!Lavi and Current!Lavi on different fronts.
Allen will try to go back to Lavi and find him, he needs the answers from the Campbell Mansion yes, but i can't imagine him learning about all of this connection with the Bookmen and not do something about it.
Forever ago, Hoshino posted a page on Instagram that she then quickly deleted showing Allen and Lavi, seemingly of Allen going to find Lavi again. Their reunion will be a big plot point and have been teased for years for sure at least.
I'll also remind that in the chapters where the Noah are hunting Allen down, Fiddler draws some sketches of Lavi with his heart broken into it. I think it implies Lavi is in a very bad situation emotionally, mentally and psychologically speaking. We also of course all remember the whole imagery of "A Bookman has no need for a Heart" that has been following Lavi specifically over his overprotectiveness over Allen and how he holds on to him.
This, to me, indicate that on Lavi's side, he might be in such a bad place after all the torture that it would strengthen his resolve to put distance to become the perfect Bookman Heir -- which would therefore build up to something the more Lavi learns about the Past Apprentice.
I think i remember an interview though (or did i hallucinate it?) where Hoshino teased that Lavi might not be in a position to be a Bookman anymore (or was it just theories because of Lucia's introduction? That we now know was about Past!Lavi not Current!Lavi?). If so this will also challenge Lavi's dynamic with Allen.
If anything i think there will be conflict over the state we will find Lavi in post-Torture, probably by putting into question his place as the Bookman Heir (Bookman Senior being on the verge of death for example would create a direct succession conflict that Lavi will have to figure out his place into. For years when i believed Past!Apprentice=Past!Allen, i believed it possible to have a Bookman centric arc with a succession crisis that involves Lavi and Allen. Perhaps something similar can be played on with those reveals.) but it's learning about Past!Lavi that will put things into perspective to him and open up again to Allen from a different angle.
As for Allen it really depeeeeends so much on how he manages to separate the Lavi AND on how much they are actually separate.
Also like I discussed with Noro (who so nicely has done the translation for chapter 254 and 255 after i mopped about them), this also gives us another potential person to be calling "Dear Gray Man", as we know, the actual title of the manga. If it refers to Past!Lavi for example, i think Lavi's connection to this arc would be to strong not to mention.
SO YEAH.
All over the place because i have so many thoughts but in short i Believe that:
-When we'll find Lavi again he'll be standoffish, probably more reserved and traumatized by the tortures he's been through
-Allen will feel guilty for what he has done to the Bookmen as a whole and will try to make amends for both Past!Lavi and Current!Lavi
-That C!Lavi and P!Lavi are also connected reincarnation-ically speaking, not just out of appartitions
-That whatever connection Lavi will have to Past!Lavi will indicate how strongly the dynamic with Allen will change
-Most importantly I can see that even once they have figured shit out about their past lives what will happen is that they'll easily fall back into their regular dynamic that they have been having since the ark's arc, and that it will shock them how little is actually changing because they already had accepted each other into their lives before any past lives reveal already: that Lavi was already overprotective and that Allen was already letting his guard down around Lavi. That the most shocking in all of this is how natural the reveal is to them in the end.
... that last point is my ultimate copium LMAO
BUT YEAH. THAT4S MY THOUGHTS ON ALL OF THIS. I THINK.
I don't want to circle around the subject so I'll be straightforward.
Do you think there will be romance down the line in dgm? Especially with laven? °v° While love is a prominent theme but I'm speaking of romantic specifically. Not romance in plain sight but perhaps implications of it, or in some abstract form.
ohmy god
well honestly i'm pretty much in the unknown there
once upon a time i would have said that it's impossible, that there's no way a shounen manga would go down this road
but we had canon Yulma so maybe it's an indication anything is fair game. Hoshino doesn't shy away from romance if she thinks the romance is important.
Laven is in SUCH a weird era right now. A couple years ago i would have said there's no way, they don't have enough interraction to justify it even though i would love it thematicwise because it'd tie their stories together
but now? after the latest few chapters? what do you MEAN you keep paralleling to a canon soulmate-to-lovers dynamic by framing them similarly to Yulma? what do you MEAN they were always intertwined and meant to meet again? What do you MEAN IT WAS PLANNED FROM THE START EVEN WHEN THEY MET. WHEN LAVI CALLED HIM A BRIGHT LIGHT. WHAT.
and tying their whole relationship to their connection to the helix, to their connection with the heart?! the thing we've been seeking for as long as Lavi has been introduced in the story? A thing that already linked Mana/Nea/Allen together and now have to include Lavi into it?
I think it will all come down to how Lavi himself is handled, since Past!Lavi living on in Allen is one thing, and we know he has guided Lavi as well, but where does that leave Lavi in all of this?
Man I spent years saying "i think Lavi has reasons to be interpreted as having an unrequired romantic love on Allen" and thought it will be all, but now Allen's reaction to learning Past!Lavi was always a part of him, depending on how he will see Current!Lavi after that, it throws everything back into question!
And like. I was the dellusional Laven fan for ever. I kept thinking about how whenever she gets the opportunity, Hoshino draws them together. She always have them paring up. Remember that time Lavi and Kanda went out to buy icecream, respectively for Allen and Alma, on an instagram art? like geez having Lavi do for Allen what we see Kanda do for his significant other?! I kept thinking it was wild.
DGM is still a shounen and those tends to shy away from outright romance, let alone a queer romance. But it's DGM that already gave us canon queer ship Yulma. And apparently Lavi and Allen's dynamic were built on specifically with their souls being intertwined in mind from the very beginning. And their dynamic are framed the same way as the romantic framing around Yulma.
What am i supposed to think?!
Part of me want to believe it's real, it's possible. I mean almost all of my others reading about Lavi and Allen are coming true with those latest chapters, between them being always meant to be seen as a pair, that Lavi has always been particularly protective of Allen and that seeing him as his one light was always supposed to be important, to their dynamic being intrically linked to Bookman JR and his disappearance and how whatever happened to Bookman JR will make them closer than ever once it's uncovered because this is where they are linked, trust, to even how the Bookmen are closer to the Heart than anyone else and Past!Lavi in particular had a particular knowledge of the Helix and the Heart that puts Lavi in an interesting position innocence wise.
So if all of that happened, if i was right about reading all of this, what if i'm right about Lavi having feelings for Allen? What if i'm right that the developments after the Bookman JR reveal leads Allen to grow closer to Lavi? What if?! I haven't been drastically wrong yet.
But on the other i want to temper my own excitement here. It's still a shounen. No way they do anything too explicit right? in this economy? like, no way? Even though it's the very manga that proved it was possible with Yulma. But there's no way it will strike twice. Or will it?
I feel like if i get my hopes up i'll just be disappointed in the future. Maybe this will be another type of love Hoshino wants to explore in some way.
.... BUT MAN as someone who've seen Laven as romantic for like 16 years now what am i supposed to think when canon suddenly confirms all of my "i'm pulling at straw to justify my ship" arguments?
I don't know. I don't want to raise anyone's hope up.
but for real if any Shounen would suddenly be loud and proud and declare a mlm relationship at the core of its story like this? I'd totally believe Hoshino would be the one to do it. I totally would believe DGM could pull it off again.
This basically comes down that i can hardly believe DGM could pull it twice, but honestly it's so surprising it pulled it once already that like. Might as well you know?
I want to believe. But i have to temper my feelings. I have to.
Waking up and seeing Allen holding Lavi's hands in the new chapter was the best burst of serotonin I could get. And then I saw the page of them back to back but connected by that cloth they're holding and almost died from happiness (you just know it's supposed to be red T-T). Laven shippers are being fed so well!!
I know we're in for a shit load of angst because this is D Gray Man but I'm enjoying the soft moments in between so much because despite it all, it's these moments that share how much love and hope is in the story.
GOOD MORNING ANON <3 and welcome to Laven 2026!
God right this was just such a burst. The fact its to bring Lavi back home, to make sure he awakes, its just too much for me. These two..... And YEAH OMG the cloth holding them definitely gave me thread of fate vibes too. We are being fed SO well. Little did we know the biggest Laven shipper was Hoshino herself.
And yeah man, the chapter itself was already angsty, and there will be more angst going forward, but the little moments where the characters find whatever joy they can find have always been the highlight of dgm and it's so good to see that for them.
I hope you'll enjoy the ongoing story <333 and meanwhile we're all here thinking of Laven with u.
The clear "Daisuki", "I love you", between two soulmates lovers, who canonically were in a romantic relationship in their past lives and were sharing a last goodbye in this one,
was translated by "you are dear to me"
which to me is a coward way to avoid the romantic text.
About the lavi/Allen ship after resent development do you think it actually has a chance with how it’s looking like soulmates like do you think it can be taken as romantic now what kind of development do you see happening now do you think their relationship can grow in a good way from here I saw in past posts you think it be one sided do you still think that
oh boy HI!
Well you got me i genuinely don't know.
And i rambled again
I don't actually expect ships going canon in shounen in general, but Past!Laven really went straight into reproducing Current!Yulma and we know Yulma is canon, so this is definitely Something.
I did always say that i thought if romantic, it was fully one sided from Lavi's side. Lavi's changes around Allen are more extreme and obvious, while Allen's behavior around Lavi doesn't really sound so different from his behavior around everyone else except that, i would argue, he looked more comfortable around him to be doing childish things. Something i already thought was me pulling at straws until recent developments.
While i'm totally thrilled about the confirmation they're soulmates (in a neutral sense of the term, not every soulmates are romantic in nature, but their souls are clearly intertwined by the way Past!Allen and Past!Lavi merged and it's safe to say that it involves platonic affection at least.) i genuinely don't know where to go on from that point. I'm still on that high a little to be honest.
I don't even know if Past!Laven is really "canon" by romantic metric considering we know Past!Lavi stuck around also due to his promise to Nea, but it's clear, imo, that there's meant to be a parallel between Past!Lavi and Current!Lavi about "we started staying with Allen because of our sworn duties but our affection for him grew to the point of being torn between duty and caring for him". After all Past!Laven traveled together for a long time, as evidenced by the fact their first interaction has Allen with short hair and that Apocryphos attacks him after they've been travelling together when Allen has waaaay longer hair.
It will depend on how Allen will take the reveals imo and i can't predict the kid when it comes to unveiling his identities. I think there's potential for him to feel extremely emotional about it since one of the only things he remembered in his present life, that Apocryphos couldn't take away from him, was how Past!Lavi held him so warmly. And like. the whole reason he took the potion that would kill him so readily was specifically to "take back what was taken away from him" when he realized the only thing he remembered was this precious.
I think this could push Allen to really want to at least clear things up with Lavi, and perhaps even properly lower his walls around him.
However.
The situation IS different from Yulma. Kanda and Alma both remembered enough their past lives, AND spend a whole lot of time ALSO developing feelings because fully remembering them, to know once the reveal was out that they were meant to find each others over and over and be in love in the past and the future.
but with Laven, while Allen is learning about it, Lavi knows absolutely fuck-all.
The dynamic is going to be SO different because what Lavi feels for Allen (platonic, romantic, whatever you want to call it) is due to who Allen is now, while Allen is going to learn a lot more about Past!Lavi to influence his opinion. On top of that Lavi also is somewhat "guided" by this vision of Past!Lavi that drive him to Allen.
There's a gap in knowledge and one that i think may be too nebulous for feelings to return just on the idea that now there is more knowledge.
One that will only be made worse by the others elements of the main plot right about now:
-Allen is going to learn that Mana's corpse isn't in its grave and its likely going to derail his feelings.. or on the contrary, amplify them realizing that even the one person who raised him and loved him didn't even die (and he carried this guilt his whole life and all the horrors that happened after that) so it could make him want to seek out this "past warmth" again. Or it will destroy him first and we'll have to deal with that.
-Lavi is still being tortured and it's been months in universe. Fiddle draws Lavi with a broken heart in a doodle he made in a recent chapter which implies Lavi' condition is pretty bad.. I think when we will find Lavi back he will be in no condition to process the whole soulmate situation
... That said he IS being tortured because the Noah want to learn about what happened to Past!JR (and i'm just realizing the fucking irony right here on Allen, being called "Mister Host" atm by the Bookman Clan, aka being held because of his condition as an Honorary Noah, being put into a deadly situation to recover information about Past!JR, while Lavi is being tortured by the Noah because they want Bookman information on Past!JR and Nea. The parallels never stop paralleling.).
So Lavi wanting to learn more about Past!JR is on the table, and i wonder what plotline could come off from realizing he spent 3 months tortured because of the very figure that saved his life when he was 7.
And actually now i'm thinking about how Allen and Lavi were separated during the Alma arc and following it, were both held captive, before being hurt by a shadow of their common past lives: the Noah on Lavi while Allen is hunted by Apocryphos. Almost as if Apo had to wait until Lavi was far away from Allen to hope to attack him in case the Bookman JR meddles with his plans again. I mean i don't think it's exactly the reason but imagine if this is true?!
So actually maybe Lavi will want to learn about JR but this will probably be more confusing for them to process. I think it will be harder for them to understand how intertwined they are.
When compared to Kanda for instance he knew he had to be looking for his soulmate his whole life, he knew he had someone he loved and wanted back at all cost, so when Alma was revealed to be just that it was just a question of "finally, my lifelong quest, finishing where it started".
but neither Lavi nor Allen were really looking for this past connection so i think it'd take them a while to really process how intertwined they are and they may return to their normal dynamic afterward.
However i do think they will behave a bit differently realizing just how much they share.
As a romantic, my favorite option would be for them to not actually let their past lives dictate how they should feel about each others, but as they are working together to unravel the past and realize they have to do it together because both are concerned, they are lowering their walls in ways they haven't around others people because it just feels right, and it's where something more natural can bloom.
As a realist, I honestly don't even believe it would take a romantic turn because usually Shounen rarely do this type of things. But Hoshino is unpredictable so maybe things could take a turn. I just can't dare to hope.
(would i even want it? I don't know. I never considered it a possibility. Again i thought it was one sided. I also always have thought "Dear Gray Man" could be because it's Lavi keeping records of Allen's life because Allen isn't going to make it but Lavi will, so the one-sided-ness added to the tragedy, but now i'm so distraught on what that could mean. Hell now i also have thoughts about how this can be also reminiscent of Past!Lavi's approach. I mean i have many different ideas on what the title is about but it is one of them yaknow.)
So i genuinely have no idea where this could possibly be taken. I didn't even think it was ever possible that my "fav ship but it's probably one sided" would ever just reveal they were soulmates all along. I don't know how to process this information and how much romance i can interpret out of it exactly.
So i do what i do best instead and look for Narrative Parallels and Foils because at least there i have content.
but as to predict the future and especially a romantic relationship in a Shounen?
I have no clue where we're going.
My only hope is that it will be the story Hoshino really wants to tell.
Noro here! As some people may remember, I used to translate interviews and side-material for dgm here on tumblr (do check it out, it still exists and it's fun information!). Anyway, the matter at hand. As Icha here knows (and people who read us at the time may remember), I was always bothered by the wording on the lore dump at the very first page of the manga. It goes like this "エクソシスト・・・それは神に魅入られた者達." The problem here? That 魅入られた there has two main meanings: "to be charmed by" (which doesn't quite make sense, as it would mean "people charmed by God") and... "to be possessed" as in demonic possession. "People (demonically) possessed by God." Let's say it all makes sense now, you're welcome.
HEY EVERYONE, @norowareshimono here in my inbox!!! (she lost access to her account but we're still in contact and she wanted to make sure those new infos fell through)
AND. YEAH. YEAH!!!!
the innocence is said to possess people (demonically) in the manga in early chapters, which made very little sense at the time, but now take a whole lot of sense in light of the latest chapters.
thank you so much for bringing it to our attention Noro! i think we'll still be insane over this because wow.
