#ch144

Aight y’all here’s more nourishment since I’m feeling generous :) some inuryuu fluff to soothe the soulll (colouring kinda bad cuz I’m bad at it) (who give af long live inuryuu!!)

Ref under the cut AND some rant!

“And you’re a man of the world, little ghost baby??”

I really like how this, and the other big moves she uses, continues to use this casting pose. It’s so celestial, with divine connotations, especially since she’s on her knees arms spread out to receive, and the chant before it sounds like a prayer. 

Usually in religion we pray looking down, but looking up is common when worshipping. She’s not asking for help from the stars-- she is expressing reverence and adoration for the celestial beings above, and they are responding with all their grace.

Look, I don’t want to take away from Lucy’s shining moment or anything-- but I feel this conclusion should have been arrived at with Loke, and then enhanced by Lucy. Instead of never addressing the parallels at all. He should have been pulled out of the darkness from Loke’s resolve, and then when Gemini cried, he realized that was truly what Lucy’s bonds with her spirit means, then he picks himself back up. 

“Once and only once”, he says. 

This can mean a few things-- he can only do this once, or it costs too much magic, or it puts a cruel strain on the body of the person he’s transferring it to, so he can only do this to one person once. 

I like to think he says he’s only doing this once because it puts strain on Lucy’s body, so he can’t teach more than one magic of this level like this. It’s forceful and technically a ‘cheat’ way of learning magic, so this drawback makes sense. 

Honestly, I feel it’s important that this fight is not actually a fight in the manga. It didn’t go on for as long as it did and felt in the anime. This is all the battle was, one opener, two flash panels, and it ends in the next page. 

It’s quick, abrupt, and the conclusion comes out of nowhere in a tragically good way. Lucy didn’t even have time to react, unlike in the anime where dillydallying Lucy makes a comeback .The manga doesn’t censor blood, unlike the anime where they fade into glitter, so this is visceral and cruel. I like the way the wispy elements mix with blood. It makes them feel human (as is the intention) while still maintaining something inhuman about them (their mortality). 

In fact, you can see from the different reactions in Aries and Leo that one of them is considerably more used to this treatment than the other. 

I really like the framing of this set of panels. While Loke’s emotional turmoil is clear on his face, we hear Hibiki’s emotional turmoil loud and vivid, with him actually breaking down. 

There’s even a subtle flash toward Nirvana as he realizes what’s happening to him. In fact, it’s quite cool that both Hibiki and Loke come to the same conclusion despite handling their grief differently. 

They push their emotions aside and distract themselves with staying calm. 

Loke doesn’t even know about the Nirvana happening, which is the main difference. Hibiki said before this that knowing Nirvana is there makes you more susceptible to thinking in goods and bads and thus more vulnerable to the switching, but honestly, it’s both and the other way around. It’s because Loke didn’t know of it that he could focus on the situation, and it’s because Hibiki knew about it that he could consciously pull himself back long enough to hear Lucy’s speech.