Setsuna vs. Al -- Where's the difference in Pactios?

[eyesotope]

have i forgotten any possable reasons?

nah.. I think you got all the options that make sense..

hopefully it won't turn out to be a wacky reason like positions of stars, moon phase, or difference with sea level

[Bastard King]

* Personallity of Ministra

* Place and/or maker of magic circle

These two. Negi got arguably the most powerful pactio in the series from Theodora, whom he was not particularly intimate with. Since he formed pactios with nothing but girls up until this point, gender couldn't be a reason. Negi's also already formed a pactio with both a mage (Konoka) and not (anyone else really), and his being a mage means this covers both regular mage/warrior pactios and mage on mage action (hawt).

Since permenant pactios haven't been shown yet, I think we can presume that those are more powerful cards that are waiting for th final power-up arc of the series, but as it stands it seems like one of the two quoted choices being the determinant for temporary pactios.

Well, those, or the positions of stars, moon phases, or a difference with the sea level.

[Devilen]

while theo/negi pactio was strong, it was nothing more than a plot coupon for Akamatsu to get back out of the fight between Negi and Rakan without to much trouble ... which as far as we know vanishes right after the match ... (futhermore ... while theo/negi wasn't that intimate from negis hand it could be that from Theo's side of things since she know more than him and his mother and ...)

The reason i'm writing gender as a possable reason is that while all negis pactios have been with girls and Konokas with Setsuna's is also with a girl theres a big difference, which could be 3 or 4 different ways depending on your way of counting ... male/woman (all negis, short of Theo's), woman/male (Theo's with Negi) male/male (Al's with Nagi) woman/woman (Konoka with Setsuna) ... for all we know there could be difference between those different types of pairings

[renrutal]

well ... to sum up the possable reasons

* Gender of Minister/Ministra and Magister/Magistra

* Magisters way of casting spells (weather he have chosen a subclass yet or which subclass ... and remember ... there's likely more than 'wizard' and 'magic swordsman' ... Eva said that it was those two she found most likely to fit Negi, thereby implying that there're at least a couple of others, including prehaps 'Healer' )

* Intimacy

* Personallity of Ministra

* Place and/or maker of magic circle

* Weather its a Permanent or Temporary Pactio (not an issue in this case ... a reason why Al's pactios were similar could be that they were all permanent and its in the nature of temporary pactios to be different so you have the chance both as magister and minister to team up with who you fit with)

have i forgotten any possable reasons?

* Because Akamatsu-sensei forgot about that detail or he wanted to reset what he wrote before about pactios having the same cards everytime.

I'm sure he will come with a reason for that either way.
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I wonder if you make a pactio again with the same person, you get a different card/powers or maybe a better card.

Another reason to put in the list:

* It's a more powerful pactio than the previous one. Both magistra and ministra magi are much more adept of magic than back then, when they made the original pactios.

Being a shonen manga, I think it's a very plausible to have the other current cards also get upgrades, which means more kissing.

BTW, minor correction, it's "possible" not "possable".

[ninjapet]

I wonder if you make a pactio again with the same person, you get a different card/powers or maybe a better card.

I thought if that happened you get a Neo card?
Then again thats only been shown in the spin off manga (and they never say what the heck it does)

[Kuranzyan]

I think it's the fact Al only had one pactio with one person at a time. Even though it's kept rather vague whether or not his pactios were "singular" as opposed to Setsuna's "Dual" pactio, it could be a factor, if not the sole reason her second card is different.

[eyesotope]

that also makes sense, if you make a pactio with mage1 you get artifact_A, if mage1 one dies and you make a pactio with mage2 you get artifact_A again, but if mage1 is still alive and you make a pactio with mage2, you get artifact_B..

sounds logical like the possibilities Devilen suggested, but in the end KA could have the reason turn out something else entirely..

[Igdrassil]

Al mentioned that he is much older than he looks. Then he could make another pactio after his prevoius partner died. He didnt have more than one active at any given time.

[gatitcz]

It's probably just a plot device, but another possible reason: Kotaro said that Konoka's healing was an eastern-type spell when Negi cured his fever early in the MW arc (which really surprised me, those fans came from a western-style pactio, and she's been casting western-style spells since she learned about magic), so maybe it's different because she has eastern magic.

[Rehwyn]

All of the things mentioned seem like possibilities, but the ones that seem most likely to me from a lore/story perspective are:

1) Al's look the same because they are all 'dead' pactios from previous Ministra Magi.
2) Setsuna's is different because of a development in her personality/character since she got her previous one.

Still, the "copy/paste due to laziness" and "it's a plot device" are very convincing non-lore reasons as well.