I am so excited for Magi 307 Back to the present???? So does this mean That the muCH AWAITED SQUAD REUNION WILL HAPPEN ASHDDKSLLDHSKLQJDHDJA I CANNOT WAIT
OKAY MAGI 306 WAS BOTH OUTSTANDING AND HORRIFYING AT THE SAME TIME BUT I’LL TRY TO STOP SCREAMING LONG ENOUGH TO ORGANIZE MY THOUGHTS COHERENTLY:
(Under read more due to being fairly image-heavy)
- First and foremost: HAKURYUU. OH MY GOODNESS, HAKURYUU.
YOU SLY DOG, YOU GOT HER MONOLOGUING! YOU’VE GOTTEN SO SMART AND SO MATURE AND I’M SO PROUD OF YOU. MY SWEET WELL-DEVELOPED SON. :D :D :D
Arba’s reaction shot just makes it perfect:
You can just hear the one second of silence it takes for her to get what just happened, and then “HAKURYUU YOU LITTLE SHIT.” Arba got played. Fantastic.
- But I have to say, I was more worried about Hakuryuu in this fight than it turned out I had to be. I swear these panels alone nearly gave me a stroke:
I DON’T CARE IF HE CAN OUTSMART YOU NOW, DON’T FUCKING TOUCH MY SON. HE’S MINE NOW. KEEP YOUR CREEPY INCESTUOUS HANDS OFF OF HIM. OFFFFFFFF.
- Speaking of which, the Ren imperial family tree sure is throwing everyone for a loop, isn’t it?
My goodness, is there a lot to talk about in this one little panel. Let’s get the most important thing out of the way first: FUCK YOU, ARBA. FUCK YOU AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR LIVES. I’ve considered her the worst parent in all of anime, putting even the likes of Medusa Gorgon and Ragyo Kiryuin to utter shame, for a long time, for royally fucking up all seven children that she raised (her four biological ones, Solomon and Sheba, and Judal). But oh no, she just had to get worse. Not only has she actually been fucking over her children for generations, but she has been having them for the sole purpose of fucking them over once they’re old enough to possess. Holy shit. Just...HOLY SHIT. WORST. MOM. EVER.
- And apparently she’s also been literally fucking her children too. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a line showing that she was possessing Hakutoku and Koutoku’s mother, and then had Gyokuen with another man, making her their half-sister. So she married two of her other sons, and then had enough sex with one of them to produce four children in his half-sister’s body. And she’s been pulling this kind of shit in this family for who even knows how long. ARBA NEEDS TO STOP AND SHE NEEDS TO DO IT LIKE TEN GENERATIONS AGO. SHE JUST SINGLEHANDEDLY PUT ALL OF GAME OF THRONES TO SHAME.
- (And before I get sidetracked, can I just point out how it seems like all the Kou children have a little something from their mothers? Kougyoku and Kouha style their hair after their moms, Koumei has his mom’s freckles, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Kouen smirk like that at some point or another. Such a nice thing to throw in among all the general Arba-ness. Speaking of which - it looks like Gyokuen had three full siblings, too, which in turn looks to be par for the course for Arba and her children. We’ve never seen or heard of them in the story before. What did Arba do to them?)
- In hindsight, Arba needing to create compatible bodies for possession by giving birth to them certainly explains all of this:
(I have that picture saved as “when your husbands are dead but you’re not done hoeing”)
And here I thought she was just unbelievably thirsty. Also, this makes it even funnier that she never even tried to have daughters with Koutoku, because fuck Koutoku (or rather, don’t fuck Koutoku). This is the most prolific man in the empire, with more daughters than anyone else, and Arba took one look at him and went, “Ew, no, standards above survival.” I’m going to hurt myself laughing.
- But, this leads me to Hakuryuu’s one little lapse in logic, which I guess is still not his strong point:
“Arba doesn’t have any more children! So if she loses this body, she can’t revive again! Ahahaha!” :)
Uh, Hakuryuu...
UH...
SHE GAVE BIRTH TO YOU, TOO, YOU DUMB FUCK. Maybe she prefers her daughters, but beggars can’t be choosers. If she loses Hakuei, SHE’S COMING FOR YOUR COCKY ASS. AND YOU WON’T EVEN SEE IT COMING. Oh, Hakuryuu...You’re a smart boy, but common sense eludes you sometimes.
- And this leads me to my next point: he shouted out that he knows Arba’s weakness, right in front of her. This is Arba we’re talking about. She knows her enemy knows her weak point, so what’s the first thing she’s going to do? Fix it. I can almost guarantee you that the second she got back to Partevia, she went right up to Sinbad’s office, home-run whacked Ja’far out the window with Sheba’s staff, and demanded that Sinbad impregnate her.
(“SINBAD-SAN I NEED YOU TO HAVE SEX WITH ME RIGHT NOW”
“OKAY JUST LET ME GET MY MONSTER CONDOM THAT I USE FOR MY MAGNUM DONG”
“NO GODDAMNIT”)
- This flashback took place two years before the story’s present day, so it’s plausible that Arbakuei already has a baby/toddler, probably by SinDavid, or whatever the fuck he is now, and just doesn’t take it to work with her. Not likely, but plausible. Come to think of it, Alibaba coming back to find that everyone’s having kids now could actually be foreshadowing dressed up like comic relief...
- (If they do actually have a kid, I’m thinking that Ja’far might be the only one who would know, seeing as they’d have to let Hakuryuu and company think that they still have the upper hand. He’s horrified, half because “SIN WHAT THE FUCK,” and half because Arbakuei doesn’t want to let him near the baby. She can’t have anyone with morals clouding her kid’s judgment if she can help it, and Ultimate Mama Hen Ja’far would be a very bad influence in her book.)
- The best part of this chapter was definitely Hakuryuu, but for me, the most interesting part was the ending panels:
Going by the lovely @eleore‘s translation, Arbakuei is smiling but doesn’t know why. Now, we’ve seen Arba smiling because she’s proud of Hakuryuu managing to best her before:
And this doesn’t look anything like that.
(I’d also like to use that above panel to remind everybody about that one time that Hakuryuu tore part of her neck out with his teeth because that was the rawest most savage thing I have ever seen in my life)
- No, I’m reminded of someone else...
THAT’S HAKUEI’S SMILE. MY SWEET PRINCESS. <3 <3 <3
- Yes, we’ve seen Arba imitate Hakuei’s expressions perfectly before, but she never looked first shocked and then like something was forcing it onto her face at any of those times. There’s a chance that Hakuei is somehow aware of what’s happened to her, is trying to fight from inside to regain control, and is proud of Hakuryuu for scoring points against their demon mom. So until I’m disproven, I will believe that the chapter ended like this:
Arba: What the fuck? Familial love and affection? Who authorized this?!
