#ch51

I've talked about it before, when ch204 came out, but it does seem that Snake's likely death has been planned since ch51 or sooner.

In ch204, the cover art has Snake and Finny dressed for Halloween. The same characters they portrayed in ch120 -- Snake as a wizard and Finny as a vampire -- but the costumes have been greatly altered. One of Snake's snakes is on his head (around the witch hat). That seems to be a reference to a Celtic myth about sacrifice.

The crown of thorns Finny wears could be seen as a symbol of sacrifice, too, or it could be read as a symbol of burden and guilt. But his hairpins are usually arranged like || |||. On that cover, the || is gone, and the ||| has been turned into X|, an 11. Since it's how volumes are numbered, I looked through vol11 for anything that could relate, and ch51 delivered. That has the scene where Baldo asks Sebastian whether they should trust Snake. Sebastian implies he'd kill any servant who turns against their master, when he chops off that scaly fish's head.

He's not pronounced dead... yet, but I don't see who would show up in time to save him. 😔

She does! When we first met her, she was trying to seduce her way out of a bill! She then proceeded to sit lackadaisically on a bench reading a gravure magazine, and then tried to swindle her way into a guild. 

She was probably not initially planned to be a rich lady at all. 

I kind of wish we played a bit more into this idea-- we can understand that Lucy now understands currency worth because she’s been on the run for a while before she met Natsu-- but what about mannerisms? Does she have any information that someone from a high class society would know, like connections, the networking, gossip? In Everlue’s mansion, would Lucy, a noble lady, know where they usually keep important books? (the library, or their personal study?)