Fairy Tail Chapter 508 – The Innocence Of Experience

November 5, 2016 by Syphin 3 Comments

What an unexpected surprise, looking forward to this battle

Well this chapter sure developed in an unexpected way. Why does Larcade even have the ability to unleash a wave of pleasure onto those who have experienced it before? Sure it made for one ‘interesting’ chapter but what an awkward turn of events. Larcade did return the favour (to an extent) to Fairy Law as several characters are now incapacitated due to the embrace of pleasure. With the pure mermaid, Kagura, now having entered the fray, Larcade may have met a being of more purity to challenge him.

Erza faces off against Irene in order to get some answers surrounding the comment Irene made – “I am you, and you are me.” Wendy, aware that there is some connection between the two, stays to assist Erza. In a battle against a master enchanter, Wendy’s ability to cancel and utilise the same magic as Irene, will definitely become an advantage in this fight. While we are aware of what Irene is capable of, it should be exciting to see how Erza and Wendy can work together to defeat Irene or at least get some answers from her. Individually neither may be able to defeat Irene, but together they do stand a chance.

This should be exciting

Irene and Erza’s exact relationship has been left hanging for a while now. Are they the same person just in two different forms? Are they clones? Are they siblings? Parent and child? Blood-related? Alternate dimension versions of Erza? Linked via magic? Different time-related Erza’s? Given the stark difference in personalities between the two and how Irene represents despair while Erza has continually shown herself throughout the series to hang onto hope, I have begun to wonder whether Erza and Irene are aspects of the same existence, just differing aspects. It would explain the similarities and differences. But why does Irene know about Erza and Erza not know about Irene? Did Irene separate a part of herself and enchant that portion of herself into a living existence. We know Irene is capable of enchanting objects into living beings, but how far does that ability stretch?

Certain aspects about Irene leave me incredibly curious; the scar on her stomach, her epithet as the Scarlet Despair, her enchantment magic, how she reacted to Erza’s presence when she was in Fiore Castle. That reaction from Irene conveys a deep connection and at the time I rationalized that moment as a mother’s intuition reacting to the presence of her daughter. But with Irene now out to kill Erza, or at least doing a damn fine job of convincing the reader (and Zeref) that she is out to kill Erza, it begs the question, are Irene and Erza really mother and daughter? Given the coverage of Lucy and her parents, Cana and her father, Gray and his father, Natsu and his ‘father’, Minerva and her father, Happy and his parents, Carla and her mother, Brandish and her mother, I find the possibility of Mashima-sensei covering one of Erza’s parents quite likely, which is why I find myself reluctant to give up on the possibility that Irene and Erza are mother and daughter. They both have scarlet hair, they both look similar, they are both obscenely strong, for simplicity’s sake they appear [on face value] to be very much like mother and daughter. On top of that Irene is reacting to Larcade’s pleasure wave, if she is Erza’s mother, it would make sense for her to have a reaction. I am open to the other possibilities but with magic, memory manipulation, time travel and alternate world’s present, the possibilities seem extensive. Just who are you Irene?

So this is the secret weapon of Zeref, the mage with the potential to “defeat” Aconologia

Jellal, was he affected by Larcade’s pleasure wave or was he simply knocked down beforehand. With the rest of Crime Sorcière down for the count, who is going to step in to challenge August? If Jellal wasn’t affected by the pleasure wave and merely temporarily knocked down, chances of him getting back up seem likely. We haven’t seen much from Jellal in a while battle wise and if anyone can challenge August, Jellal can. We may get a third-party (Sting) arriving to aid Jellal, but whatever the case, whoever is facing August will need to find the weakness with his magic. Once the weakness is located, they can exploit it to create an opportunity to take down August. August is not invincible, he certainly has a weakness and/or limit. Earlier in the arc, I had expected Gildarts to be the one to take down August, so I am curious to see if that outcome will still come about.

Rogue and Minerva, as expected they defeated their opponents but their reactions once affected by the pleasure wave, how uncharacteristically hilarious of them. Their reactions caught me off-guard, but it did create one curious outcome. To have such an intimate moment shared between the two, by chance is Mashima-sensei starting to develop a relationship between the two? Very interested to see what Mashima-sensei has planned.

Would have loved to see their fight, we don’t get much opportunity to see how other non-Fairy Tail mages have developed over time

I am surprised to see Kagura getting a fight to feature in after the majority of the arc has been dedicated to featuring Fairy Tail in action. To have such a major opponent to be matched up against, it definitely will be exciting to see Kagura at her finest and deadliest especially now that she has liberated herself from her past hatred crippling her. I wonder if Mashima-sensei will utilise Sting in the fight given his Light Dragon Slayer magic. Will be interesting to find out if Larcade is really Zeref’s “son” and whether he was born naturally or created by Zeref. Looking forward to the next chapter.