Saikanjai's Fairy Tail review Ch82! *spoilers!*

[saikanjai]

Hey guys, this is my first review of Fairy Tail and I did it mainly because:
a) it’s a great series, b)nobody else seems to be doing one c) I have a ton of work to do and cant help procrastinating.
I’m not currently planning to do this as a regular thing, but hopefully, I don’t do too bad a job and inspire others to pick it up as well. There’s like, loads of takes on the protagonist’s name, but since “Gerard” – which Franky House have gone with – doesn’t seem very evil, I’ve gone with Jeral instead. All the pics from the review are from Franky House Scanlations, and the title pic from HenkiAngel over at DeviantArt. Naturally, any comments and suggestions are very much welcome and appreciated!


Saikanjai Fairy Tail Review
Ch82: Howl at the Moon

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/tongiev/Fairy_Tail_by_HenkiAngel.jpg


The chapter begins with Erza kicking ass with Jeral’s former torturers – the last peons of the R(evive)-system designed to revive the evil mage Zeref. As she frees Jeral of his bonds, he tells him that Shimon, the little guy who was about to confess to Erza is still alive (despite getting hit in the face by magic – he’s pretty tough.). Is this the same Simon who later joins Jeral, and is able to use Dark Lineage magic? We are also treated to a sweet reunion between Jeral and Erza.…but then the mood is sadly interrupted as we see that Jeral’s not the same kid anymore. Instead, the conversation with Zeref has completely changed his mind – and we see his eyes of evil.


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/tongiev/Fairy_Tail_082_06.png
Run Erza, Run!

Meanwhile, the rebellion survivors have managed to get hold of a ship, and are preparing to sail off waiting for Erza and Jeral. There don’t seem to be many of them, and they are blissfully unaware of the confrontation beginning between Erza and Jeral, and enjoy finding out about movies. However, as the character on screen says: “Your destiny was came to an end…the moment you met me.”, the little girl watching gets a strange sense of foreboding, as she wonders why Erza still hasn’t come back.


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/tongiev/Fairy_Tail_ch82_08.png
Is still the same chapter?

We then get to see that Jeral’s totally changed. He has now “realized” that they were merely aiming for mere fleeting freedom, whereas true freedom would be reviving Zeref! Where this logic came from nobody knows, but one can only assume that this is the conclusion he came to while at the end of his physical and mental limit, filled with hate and sudden brainwashing from Zeref’s incorporeal self. In case anyone was in any doubt that he’s changed for the worse, he declares that he will now be the one to complete the R-system; crushes an injured guy’s head under his bare feet; and kills the others with his new-found telekinetic magic powers.


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/tongiev/Fairy_Tail_082_11.png
Transition to crazy evil bastard: complete.


While Erza’s in total shock at Jeral’s sudden acquisition of magic and struggles to come to terms with her best friend seemingly turning completely evil, he tries to convince her to join her. She turns him down of course, and he ruthlessly beats her with his powers and tells her to leave the island as he wishes, as he has no more use for her. He also warns her never to talk to anyone about the place, which once again raises the question of Sieglein’ link to Jeral, or the R-system for that matter. Jeral and Sieglein look nearly exactly the same, they have identical markings under their right eye, and the last time Erza met him he also warned her to “never tell the geezers about that” and she says that he is “evil”. But then why does he tell the council that they must use the Satellite’s Square’s Etherion to destroy it? Urtear and him, as well as possibly the small mage on the council who kept quiet during the argument definitely know a lot more than they’re letting on.


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/tongiev/sieglein.jpg

Sieglein, the “evil” guy who looks exactly like the Jeral the “probably call him evil” guy (Erza’s descriptions), but prepared to launch an insane space-time nuke magic weapon to stop his look-alike’s nefarious plot to start evil plan which revives evil mage Zeref. Eh?:blink


At the end of the chapter, he tells Erza that he’ll take all the other survivors for the purposes of completing the R-system – or Tower of Paradise as it’ll soon be called. He threatens Erza to never threaten, or he’ll kill everyone else left – starting with Shuou – the guy currently with the magic to trap people in cards.
As Erza washes up on a distant beach, all alone now, she screams a cry of despair at the cruel twist of fate.


[http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/tongiev/Fairy_Tail_082_19.png
Poor poor Erza…:(

Back to the present, Erza’s painful retelling of her past has left her in tears, but determined to fight Jeral to put an end to her sad story.

Overall
When I read the title I was like uh? (Bleach 140: Bite at the Moon anyone?), but I thought this was a really insightful chapter, and puts a very sad and poignant end to the retelling of Erza’s past. We get to see a vulnerable side to the character, and get to –in a way- see the huge change in Jeral’s, and we find get a glimpse of his powers as well. I predict at least 5/6 chapters of Natsu and Co fighting the minions, and Erza facing off with Jeral – who will die but not before turning good – all while they’re unaware of an imminent Etherion attack that destroys everything in sight! All in all, I’m quite glad to see an end to flashbacks and up for some action!

P.S. Check out Hiro Mashima’s new manga: Monster Hunter Orage here: http://www.onemanga.com/Monster_Hunter_Orage/ . Aside from the humongous number of similarities you can draw with Fairy Tail (e.g. guilds, tiny Master, and obviously very similar looking characters), it looks to be the start of sth good! It's now 4.32am, and I'm in need of some sleep!!!

[Pirulito]

Nice review, dude.
Pat´s review really inspired you, huh. :tem

The bigger question in this arc is: Sieglein and Gerard, what kind of connection they have?
(I prefer Gerard because Jeral in portuguese is so odd)

I always knew that strong girl isn´t really strong inside her heart.
Poor Erza.

[Nami]

Wow saikanjai!! Good effort :ossu
I just realise there isn't any chapter reviews for Fairy Tail yet. Keep it coming!

[sahugani]

hmm. this format seems vaguely familiar :amuse

nice to see chapter reviews outside of the big 3. these are a great way to support intelligent discussion so it would be nice if we had regular reviews for every series. once we get enough here we can make a review subsection like the big 3. i know you're not planning to keep it up, but if you decide to in the end or someone else fills the role, i'd love to see it happen

while, as with the series as a whole, Fairy Tail is pretty straightforward, there are a couple issues still vague as you pointed out. one of these is Jeral's decision to keep up the R system construction. while it is obvious that this is a result of Zeraf's spirit from last chapter, the way Jeral talks in this chapter makes it clear that Zeraf is not possessing him but merely influencing him. if a person has enough hatred, Zeraf grants them magic in exchange for their soul. recall how the others said "...once HE gets a hold of you..." as an explanation for their magic while abducting Erza. Jeral instilled hatred in them somehow and thus allowed Zeraf to grant them magic the same way as him. my guess is that this hatred was obtained through use of a fabricated story of Erza betraying them, which despite Shou's words, does not seem to be the case based on this chapter. after manipulating their hatred, Zeraf is able to communicate with them as he did to Jeral in the previous chapter. he convinces them that if they had enough power, they could overcome the sources of their hatred and the best way to do that is to revive him

the other big issue is Sieglein, who is clearly a separate person from Jeral though he looks identical. there are a few conflicting aspects of his character here. the big evidence for him being evil is, as you pointed out, that he told Erza not to say anything to the council, which is likely in reference to this. all other "evil" things can be explained by Erza simply linking his face with Jeral's and considering him to be evil by association. On the other hand (and this is what i have begun to believe) there is a chance that Sieglein is not evil, but rather is a good guy who is merely taking his own path in order to assure the world's safety from Zeraf. i think of Sieglein as being the image of what Jeral would have become if he was not turned to evil (and it is likely that Sieglein may be some sort of magically created duplicate or at the very least twin brother). he knows Erza hates him for his connection to Jeral but allows this to persist because he does not want to get her involved in whatever behind-the-scenes work he is doing

[saikanjai]

@piru: ha yes he did. I think we're all wondering about the 2 of them...Sieglein and Jerl/Gerard, but I dont reckon we'll be told anything before the end of the arc.

@nami: thx for reading! :)

@sahugani: Well, you know they do say : "imitation is the greatest form of flattery." haha! :P I really liked the style of your reviews, so I hope you don't mind. Depending on time and response I might decide to do this as a regular thing - but I do have a dissertation to hand in in a few weeks' time so time will tell.

As to the group, I dont recall anyone explicitly saying there was a soul-exchange process going on, but it is quite thought-provoking on how Jeral could have managed to manipulate the survivors to let hate fester to the extent that they can communicate with Zeraf - it's more likely that they are only able to catch glimpses of Zeraf so they get their orders directly from Jeral who acts more like an oracle.
I find it strange though, that the R-system exists at all actually, considering that Zeref himself said to Jeral: "And yet...they think to "revive" me...they want me to take a bodily form..." kinda indicates there's sth totally different going on here.

As for Sieglein, I agree there hasn't been any evidence that he is indeed "evil" - since we havn't really seen him do anything tbh, but the way he acted with Erza strongly suggests that they knew each other on a personal level and she has her reasons for thinking that he's evil. The "twin brother" theory appeals - and works- to me, though I really wouldn't want him to be a magical duplicate of some sort as that wud just go into TRC universe and make for some really awkward explaining later on.

Anyhoo, back to work I was getting really tired typing last night as you can see from the many "!"'s littered allover the place. Any comments/suggestions welcome!