She’s back =D – colour by DEOHVI
Among the three developments which excited me about these chapters, the one which excited me most is the one which has the potential of being able to link back to Ultear and reveal a remedy around the after-effects of Last Ages.
Yes I haven’t given up hope on Ultear and her story, I just feel from my gut that this isn’t the end for her, there is a much bigger role her character can serve in the story of Fairy Tail, especially after the circumstances she has been through and the total relevance of her character in relation to the themes and emotion of the Fairy Tail manga. Also it is just as Ultear said near the end of chapter 339 when she was looking up at the sky, the world she is living in is one with an infinite amount of possibilities, so a possibility for her lost ‘time’ returning could very well exist.
Ultear possesses one of the highest magic powers we’ve seen in the Fairy Tail manga, which is why the Bureau of Magical Development pretty much abducted her and lied to her mother, they wanted to research and carry out test on this girl with an abnormally high amount of magic power. To think that someone with such an incredible amount of magic power only managed to rewind time by one minute, if an average or above average mage carried out the spell, how little time would their magic power cause to rewind. It has me incredibly puzzled why someone created such a spell if it only has such a minimal effect when cast. For only one minute you lose most of your ‘time’, even for a taboo spell, the side-effects seem so extreme. I can understand if a few days or a week caused the loss of 50 or so years of a person, but for one minute to cause such a drastic lose? Something just doesn’t seem right.
Both the flame of the eternal flame and the ice freezing the village go beyond their very nature, a flame is meant to go out and ice is supposed to freeze the very life of that which it encapsulates, but here the flame is said to be everlasting and the ice is revealed by Warred Cken to not kill the people it freezes. The everlasting/eternal flame represents endless life, or in Ultear’s case, endless ‘time’. The ice that froze the Taiyou Village including the everlasting flame represents the ability to freeze ‘time’.
My theory about how not all of Ultear’s ‘time’ taken from her while performing the Last Ages spell was used up in the spell fits quite nicely within the set-up of the frozen flame story. It seems quite interesting that Taiyou Village froze at this point in time when decades or centuries before no such occurrence had taken place and we can conclude that this was a recent event as treasure hunters and treasure hunter guilds have had their eye on Taiyou Village and its Eternal Flame for quite some time and since Sylph Labyrinth only just got to the village, the news about the condition of Taiyou Village must still be fresh. What I am getting at is what if Ultears ‘time’, her life, the essence of her magic, which is represented by ice magic due to her being Ur’s daughter, ended up finding its way to Taiyou Village (drawn by the Eternal Flame) and consequently without a mage to control the magic, froze the whole village and the everlasting flame. The fact that all of the villagers are still alive in the ice is another very interesting element, it could be that the everlasting flame is the reason why they are still alive or it could be entirely something else. The magic could have followed Ultear’s inherit intention – to stop people from dying, and effectively kept the people inside its embrace alive when frozen.
Uh oh…
The revelation that the treasure hunters had a liquid form of Moon Drip adds a nice twist into the story that could potentially embody a consequence more serious than its current apparent implications. If the ice is indeed the magic of Ultear, her ‘time’ or more accurately, her life, then the use of the Moon Drip liquid could very well threaten this chance they have of helping return the stolen ‘time’ of Ultear.
It may not be made dramatically apparent but you can tell Gray is obviously feeling some sort of guilt and pain when thinking about Ultear and what happened. It’s nothing new that Gray and Natsu fight with each other but the way they fought in the previous mission seems more serious than before – fighting for three days straight and evening being oblivious of Erza and punching her. Gray is normally the more calmer one when put alongside the passionate and fiery Natsu, so to see Gray behave so much on edge, there definitely is something up with him, well both Natsu and him. Natsu could be feeling some sort of frustration of not being able to take down a Dragon and ended up reacting more emotionally to Gray’s comments then usual. The feelings Gray has of not being able to save Ultear, the daughter of his mentor and savior, all that anxiety, guilt and hatred towards his weaknesses probably stirred up past pains and became just too much for him to keep in resulting in him behaving more negative than usual i.e. continuing to fight and argue with Natsu.
He really wanted to save Ultear, Gray…
The problems afflicting Gray and causing him deep suffering is more complicated than what has been made apparent. Whenever Gray reflects back on what happened to Ur and Ultear, his face gets a distant and pained sort of expression and currently the situation concerning Ultear really is causing him serious grief and guilt. More than anyone, Gray wants to do something to help Ultear. If the story does develop in a way similar to my theory, then Gray will have his opportunity and there is going to be nothing to stop him from saving Ultear.
The second development to excite me in these chapters was the appearance of Minerva Orland, hahah she’s back so soon, but I’m thankful, I rather enjoyed her in the Grand Magic Games arc.
So this guy does live under a rock? And is that a power switch on his head? I’m tempted to press it now…
So Minerva joined a new dark guild, Succubus Eye, it will be interesting to see where they stand in the underworld and if they are an upcoming power there or an already established one. A lot changed for the normal guilds within seven years, so the same should hold true for the dark guilds and the underworld. It doesn’t look like the members of this dark guild concern themselves much about the movements of the world, so I’m curious to find out what they actually concern themselves with then =/. Are there events and ongoings happening in the shadows of everyday that even those who know are too shocked and terrified to even speak about it? Also the way the other member of Succubus Eye referred to how he ‘doesn’t care about the happenings of the surface’ does indicate to me that he actually does reside underground O.o. Could something relevant to the dragons be found in the underworld, hopefully we get to find out more about the underworld this arc.
If this arc is also related to Ultear, I would love to see a Ultear vs Minerva battle =D. An Erza vs Minerva round two battle would also be really cool, but Erza is just too badass to lose to Minerva.
The third development to excite me in these chapters was Flare Corona appearing in Fairy Tail. She really isn’t so bad, she just a lot crazy and weird, which is pretty sexy to be honest. We all have those times where we feel the world is just mad and we want to behave in kind, but logic, common sense and the sheer weirdness of doing so prevents us from breaching that threshold of sanity. So it’s actually quite refreshing seeing someone embody that state so visually.
Behind those twisted and misunderstood eyes, a fragile girls lies – colour by TrafaIgarLaw
Now Flare most likely has her own tragic past and she is probably going through some pain and suffering we are oblivious to at this point, but we will eventually get to learn this pain and suffering she has been going through and find ourselves becoming more emotionally connected to her. From what I can tell, Flare has a hard time opening herself up to other and expressing herself, this could stem from a past where she was abused or tormented in, but whatever it is, now she is trying to change that and even if she looks awkward and like she is forcing herself, she is still making the effort to try and change.
The moment Flare apologised to Lucy back in the Grand Magic Games arc, it became apparent that Flare doesn’t take pleasure in abusing and tormenting others, it’s probably the way she was raised and the path she was forced to follow that caused her to behave in such wicked ways. It was amusing how Flare ended up washing Cana’s body with her hair, which is really awesome as it symbolised Flare’s desire to befriend the girls of Fairy Tail and even if we don’t realise it now, probably a step away from the past tormenting her. It’s cute how Flare blushes every time Lucy is involved, especially when Lucy stands up for her, it seems Flare has formed some emotional connection with Lucy and kind of looks up to/idolises her – the reason why Flare finds it hard to look Lucy in the eyes.
I’m happy that Raven Tail disbanded which ended up freeing Flare from their hold and that side of the magic world as I really wanted to learn more about her. I’m not bothered by Flare not wanting to join Fairy Tail as it would have been too easy and shallow for her to join right now. Flare needs to be given a situation first to prove herself to the members of Fairy Tail and to the readers before she ends up joining Fairy Tail, which seems likely as she will probably be around Lucy stalking her from now onwards =D.
Flare probably is not further involved this arc, but it would be really cool if she followed Lucy to Taiyou Village and makes her appearance when things seem dicey for the team. Flare and team Natsu forming a bond through adversity seems like something extremely exciting.
Glad we get to see another of the Ten Wizard Saints, I’ve been curious to see how the ones ranking near the top were like. So Walrod Cken, the fourth God of Ishgar, what an interesting mage, I guess long life has made him quite the joker =P, but the scene where he explained the true source of ‘strength’ was badass. That comment he made explained Fairy Tail perfectly, and it wasn’t just a shallow comment that identified Fairy Tail’s strength in a one-dimensional manner, but it pierced the very nature of life and living – imperfection is a normality of the world we live in, but where we fall down, we have those we live along side to support and pick us up.
Walrod Cken’s Green Magic is quite badass, to be able to restore forest to deserts, that’s quite the feat. Also what a shock, so he was one of the founding members of Fairy Tail, how interesting. I’m also curious to learn about that fourth unnamed mage, who is he and what role will he play in the future of Fairy Tail?
Eagerly looking forward to seeing where this arc will go, I have my fingers crossed and hopes embraced tightly with my heart.
12Dimension 