#ch176

okkotsu yuuta

You know, for a world where people don’t have internal magic, I find it weird that they have shackles and bindings that are perfect for restraining people that do have internal magic. Like, who were they using it for before Mystogan came back with the X-balls?

...

"If that was me, I wouldn't have fallen for that."

@plague-of-insomnia and I have been chatting in the comments for this pre-translation post about ch176, and it’s very interesting how the licensed English translation softened Bard’s insult to Sebastian.

Instead of “pale, skinny dude”, it should read more like “pretty boy” (or the particularly offensive prison slang that popped up around 1904 — “Nancy boy”). Bard is calling Sebastian effeminate, not pale and skinny. It’s meant to bring his masculinity and even his sexuality into question. And it helps makes sense why Sebastian would resort to physical violence when he’s had more than enough of Bard’s shitty attitude.

What’s going to get through to what we’d now call a toxically masculine dude better than Sebastian showing he’s more “formidable” than children waving sticks around? Someone who finds Sebastian to be too stuck up, professional... and weak?

Besides, this greatly contrasts with their worded exchange in ch170, showing just how much they have both changed towards each other. I mean, even by the murders arc, Bard is crying along with Finny and Mey-Rin over Sebastian’s supposed death. But a single panel in ch170 gives us a complete 180° turn, an about face (military reference intended):

There are two major things going on here. Sebastian asserts that neither of them looks like a woman. Bard could have snapped back that Sebastian does. The “old” Bard would have refused to wear the headbands with fascinators and would have used this opportunity to further insult Sebastian. But, instead, Bard humorously negates this statement about his own masculine appearance, calling himself a “cutie”.

Then you’ve got Sebastian calling him “Baldo”, when he’d previously said he would not call “Mister Baldroy” by an abbreviated name/nickname or first name.

Sebastian had to “speak” to Bard in a language he understood. And they had to form boundaries before they could tear them back down.

Chapter 176 spoiler!