#ch141

More progress folks!!! Musashi's hair really fucked me up tho goddamn

Okay so. I wish Lucy did something. 

I know, I get it, there’s a lot of characters, but Lucy is the main heroine. She can’t spend the entire first half of the arc sitting in one space expositing. At least in Fantasia she had a reason, she was a stone statue. Hell, she and Hibiki sitting around there as the two ‘weakest’ of the team + the injured Erza? It’s just asking for an enemy coming to attack them, but it just never happened. What was the point? 

This whole early part of the arc is, well, slow, until we get to Nirvana awakening and that messing some things up. But I honestly don’t think the Nirvana’s influence is necessary for Hibiki to get mad at Angel (it only added tension to it), so I feel the Angel fight should have been brought up to before Erza got healed. 

“I’m going to protect you until Natsu gets back,” she says, but it never comes into play, so what was the point of that scene? To show her resolve? This is an action manga, please prove it, Mashima. Empty words aren’t enough. 

It also feels really weird that they were just hiding there when we know that 1. Hibiki mentions so many times that Cobra can know their location and 2. What on earth did we kidnap Ichiya for it it weren’t to impersonate him and trick Hibiki into giving their location? 

ITADORI JUST HAD A MILISECOND TO NOTICE A KNIFE ! AND HE TOOK IT !! (Gojo, you idiot! You should had still taught him how to manipulate his cursed energy with weapons.)

ALSO A HOLLOW JUST CAME OUT! (I know, it’s Rika, geez)

I really like this sequence of panels, especially the little one of Chopper noticing Hiliruk’s gun. Hiliruk has no idea how much being called a ‘monster’ or his firearm are what is triggering Chopper’s reaction here. As far as he knows this random animal just attacked him for no reason. 

Which makes Hiliruk’s decision to strip buck naked in the middle of a snowstorm all the more notable. Dr. Hiliruk will steal, but will never take money from his patients. He’ll commit arson, but only to further his research. He’ll do anything in his power to treat the sick and the injured, even if it means causing more harm than good, because the corrupt government has taken away access to healthcare and someone’s got to treat them. 

He’s the sort of guy who’s willing to hurt, maim, or even kill soldiers with a bomb to escape arrest, but would put his life on the line to save any one person who needs his help. Or monster, as the case may be. 

This sort of tragic idealism pops up a lot in One Piece, especially in flashbacks: Bellemere couldn’t pretend not to be a mother, Olvia chose to die on Ohara rather than help Robin escape, Oden danced to the scorn of his entire country even as he tried to save it. Yet they all failed in one way or another. Nami and Nojiko still suffered terribly under Arlong’s reign, after two decades of merciless persecution Robin got to the point where she just wanted to die, and without it’s greatest protector Wano fell into the hands of Orochi. But that unwavering idealism is also what inspires the next generation. Despite their flaws as people their dreams do live on, usually by people who are able to surpass them in some way.