FT 488 Coherent Thought Time
After the tears have dried and my emotions settled, it’s time for me to take a step back and reassure myself with the following thoughts about the last two chapters and my predictions for events to come.
1. Gajeel’s going to come back.
It’s not even a disputable issue at this point. If they were really going to kill of a major supporting / semi-lead character for realsies, it would be happening in front of all his friends, the entire guild, and done as some kind of self-sacrifice for the greater good. Which would actually be way more fitting for Gajeel considering the hell of a redemption arc he went through. But we only had two characters to observe his “death,” Levy and Lily, and it’s obviously for the gutpunch emotional blow of oh no he’s gone and just in time to confess his everlasting feelings of love.
Still very very much relevant to the plot.
Basic rule of comics, both American and Japanese.
He disappeared into a whirling vortex, y’all. There was even a name for the place he went: the underworld. There’s a door. Let me see if I can predict the project Levy will be working on. Finding a spell to open the door to the underworld and pulling him out.
4. MASHIMA HAS PULLED THIS SHIT BEFORE
Though to be honest, what shounen writer hasn’t? He’s done it in Fairy Tail, most notably after the Tenrou Island arc when we were supposed to believe all the main characters got zapped by Acnologia. Come on, now.
NOT TO MENTION, his previous series, Rave Master, which is another wonderful testament to how unafraid Mashima of putting romance in his stories.
Anyone else who read Rave Master remember when he killed off his main character just before the last chapter after an emotional I love you with the heroine? Because I do. And even though it was as obvious then as it is now that he would come back. That emotional gut punch, man. It still stings.
(I know it was the finale and all, but come on. He wasn’t even gone for a chapter).
5. CAN WE TAKE A SECOND AND APPRECIATE THE AMAZING UNIQUENESS OF GAJEEL’S CONFESSION!?!
Since when in any Shounen Jump comic I’ve ever read does a gruff angry tough guy character like Gajeel get a big ol’ internal monologue about his feelings for their romantic interest and even confess that they had been mentally planning out their future!?!? LIKE FUCKING NEVER. We only ever saw Levy’s reactions and blushes whereas Gajeel was always cool about it.
Honestly, I could write essays about how much I’m in love with their character and relationship development. I legitimately think it was done incredibly well, and I think it’s owed to the fact that they’re supporting character - major supporting characters, but still playing second fiddle to what will no doubt be the long, dubious, slow burn relationship of Natsu and Lucy. But because there’s no need for this slow burn that shounen manga always seem to have as a requirement for heroes and heroines, Mashima is free to explore their relationship in subtle or background moments, like when Gajeel says it’s not a crime to be in love or when he teases her about her height.
So now I guess we have two oblivious romantic figures in Natsu and Gray, and two conscious romantics in Jellal and Gajeel.
6. LEVY’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
I don’t even have the words to describe my love for this girl, the girl who was only a background character for Jet and Droy to fight over who became so popular with Gajeel that she became a major supporting character with her own romantic subplot. I just… I honestly can’t.
I have so many more feelings, but this is all I can get out and still be emotionally settled to sleep and go to work in the morning.
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