#ch169

Alright, so this actually surprised me when I went back to Chapter Two, but Lucy is actually on the ground when Mirajane approaches her. Which means she lifts her head to be introduced to Mirajane.

Why am I pointing this out? Of course.

Natsu and Wendy also lift their heads to be introduced to Edolas Lucy, almost like a role reversal. Edo-Lucy and Earth-Mira are even doing opposites for poses, expressions and clothes. 

And while the idea of a new girl immediately brings the Earth guild to amiable start treating her chaotically like one of them (Lucy and Wendy both), Edolas immediately sharpened their gazes to glare in hostility, even Gray who was the meek one here. 

I mean, it’s funny, and cute, but it always saddens me when I see characters being personality-shafted after openly starting a romantic relationship. Like, if romance wasn’t always used in this way, I would maybe understand amatonormativitiy better. I’m sure romance doesn’t turn people into animals, so what is going on here.

There is so much personality in Earth Alzack and Bisca, from how meek Alzack is, from how Bisca silently judges Gruvia, to them both just being way too awkward to acknowledge their feelings for each other, it’s adorable. 

But once we come to Edolas, they are both openly in love and obsessed with each other. And... well, nothing else. That’s just about it. 

So Macao and Wakaba are quite interesting. Macao has the dumb ‘I’m a straight-laced businessman’ sort of 7-3 hairstyle, so yeah. I’m guessing they’re not the sleazy old men we see on Earth. 

Also, never noticed that non-smoking sign on Wakaba’s shirt that is funny. 

I like the contrast that on Edolas, they’re comfortably, respectfully inviting her, while on Earth, they’re the typical anime pervert old men that need to be swatted by a mosquito net at least once in their life. Also, infidelity. 

I mean, on Earth we’re a little more portrayed as morally problematic, so it’s okay I guess. But it’s fun that no matter in what world we’re in Fairy Tail is never truthfully filled with the most perfect people in the world. 

I love how Cana’s drawn in ch168. But I also love the contrast to her sitting position, she’s sitting on top of the table, sitting vulgarly, drinking the whole barrel, and talking about wanting to hook up soon. 

A big contrast to ladylike Cana, who sits like a doll. Literally. 

Cana’s sitting pose is almost childish, tomboyish, and free, even though she’s dressed in skimpy clothing and holding booze. While Edolas Cana sits mature and modest, while being dressed in childish lolita-styled clothing, drinking tea. 

This parallel is very fun. 

But what I find really cool is Jet and Droy. 

Jet and Droy switched clothes! Jet’s now wearing the buckles (that used to be there to store Droy’s seed weapons), and Droy is now wearing fur (that were representative of Jet being slightly animalistic to contrast his plant partner, also his name being Sarusuke, saru meaning monkey). 

Also, I find it kind of funny Jet and Droy are the strongest in Edo-FT now, because back in the Natsu vs Erza chapter, they’re the ones to list out the strongest Fairy Tail wizards to Lucy, never even including themselves in the contending.

Then we come to Elfman. Elfman is still the meek pacifist he once was, reflected by the hair that he used to wear as a child. Up and down differences. And unlike the punk-like high collar blazer he wears on Earth, he’s wearing a tank top, kinda homey and cute. 

Strangely enough this line reminds me of Mirajane warning Lucy about S-class missions at the start of the manga when we first learn about S-class missions.

It’s a slight projection from their end. Mirajane warns Lucy, ‘you’ll never have enough lives to attempt those’, and Elfman says here ‘they botched a job!’ to scold them. 

They were both hinting toward Lisanna in those instances, despite never directly bringing her up. Except with Mira, we didn’t know about Lisanna yet. With Elfman, we know about Lisanna now. 

Similar to the beginning chapters, Gray is the first of the main cast to be introduced. But it’s a completely different vibe, with Gray being the side character to Juvia’s introduction instead. 

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like Edolas Gruvia, and it starts from right here. Despite having a similar pairing dynamic, Edo-Juvia is different from Earth Gray in that she is very curt and blatant with her rejection of Edo-Gray. Unlike Gray, who is sometimes framed as Tsundere, Edo-Juvia is completely uninterested, disgusted almost, like a bully or mean girl. She is not kind or tolerant or nice to the poor boy trying his best, which is one thing that sets her very far apart from Earth Gray. 

So I still think it doesn’t make sense that Edolas Gruvia became canon. She held absolutely no interest in Gray, and there was no buildup toward it unlike with Edolas Nalu. They were only made canon to reveal Greige, and that just takes away from what little character these Edolas counterparts had. 

Anyways, enough about that. Let’s compare this to Chapter 168. 

I think it’s really cute, the Earth version of these events. 

Gray is being so normal with her, and Juvia is normally reacting to it all without fawning over everything he does like she would do now in 100yq. Gray is being blunt and frank with her, not mean like Edo-Juvia. He’s treating her like a comfortable friend, which is already a step forward from the bar scene in TOH. Juvia is still learning the ways of being most vulgar or immodest unlike her dressing style, and Gray is walking her through it like a friend that judges all your life choices. This scene actually makes me miss how much cute potential they had.

Though, it is still really cute that Juvia actually discourages him from stripping at the end of this, in the same way Mira and Cana do for Gray when he doesn’t realize he’s stripped. It’s the same line as Edo-Juvia, but it’s such a different context and meaning. 

And unlike the Edolas version, this scene actually shows us that Earth Gray and Juvia have gotten closer than before. They’re good friends now.