Elizabeth had absolutely no reason to hold back.
No reason at all, it is simple
Sure, but this idea contradicts the whole character of Elizabeth.
She's had assassins, holy knights, and other people purposefully try to hurt her and other people close to her, YET she generally holds herself back if it means she has to hurt people.
Look at Hendrickson, she had more concern about protecting the other people around her (even after Hawk ''died'') than outright eliminating Hendrickson, who was the enemy.
With Derriere, she was more concerned about protecting Zaratras than outright eliminating the ten commandments, and even pleaded for them to stop taking lives and questioned their morality.
Even with memories, she ignored Ludoshel's request and decided to risk her own life for the enemy in a literal war, who had become dangerous beasts that could easily kill her if not controlled properly.
Against Melascula? Purify her form rather than outright kill her.
Against Chandler? Heal the party rather than fire ark at him or do literally anything else.
Against Meliodas? Sure, she slapped him and had the intent to hurt him, but its not like she used her strongest attack against him, and it was only after trying to speak to Meliodas and realising she had no chance at convincing him to stop.
Against Estarossa? She had the intention to protect Derriere. And even when he tried to kill her, she never expressed the desire to hurt him and even asked him to join her in stopping Meliodas from becoming Demon King.
Saying Elizabeth had ''absolutely no reason to hold back'' is correct from a logical standpoint. But this statement directly ignores Elizabeth's character as a whole and how consistently she has been to her values of peace and routes of least conflict. Heck, she even said to the fodder human who disrespected her (can't remember his name lol) that she understands how naive her thinking is, but if possible, she would like to reduce the amount of death/pain that happens in the war, which is supported by the fact that at every turn, she's trying to minimise conflict (e.g Tell Fodder Demons to stop pointless conflict, trying to help Estarossa etc)
In the very thread about this chapter, FKS made it clear that they were praising Estarossa for resisting it, that the Japanese language wasn't implying that she was holding back in any way.
Sure, the translation was correct about what the Archangels were saying. But it doesn't mean its correct if you actually look at the evidence behind such a statement. Plus, I'm sure we can both agree that actions will triumph statements in every case, as in previous examples the fandom has been let-down when trusting statements.
As I've already proven the consistency of Elizabeth's character (with or without memories) when it comes to her pacifism and routes of least conflict. It isn't ridiculous to say that the ark Elizabeth used was ''non-lethal'' or of a weaker offensive nature. After all, she has already demonstrated the ability to use an ark blast of a full offensive nature against Meliodas. And even used a miniature ark bubble on Derriere's hand and damaged her by compressing it/making it explode, and this was without her memories. But yet, against Estarossa she used an
ark of a weaker offensive nature. She never directly compressed or attempted to make the ark bubble ''explode'' in any way. She simply displaced Estarossa, and let him be in it. And we know she has the ability to do that because Nerobasta (an inferior Goddess) attempted to do it against Derriere, and Elizabeth did it in a weaker mind-set.
So since we've acknowledged that Elizabeth's ark usage was of a weaker offensive nature, and even ''non-lethal'' to a degree. Let's look at her intention, to see whether or not she was truly intending to hurt him or not. Looking at the chapter. we once again see Elizabeth behave in a protective manner in front of Derriere and only speak about stopping Estarossa from completing his so told objective of ''collecting the commandments''. So when she used ark, her intention was to stop Estarossa, and protect Derriere simultaneously, and that's supported by the fact that she displaced Estarossa away from the commandment that he needs to make Meliodas Demon King. (Elizabeth believed that was his intention at the time).
Even at a later date, when Estarossa tries to kill Elizabeth and is over-taken by the darkness of the commandments, she shows concern and morality for the so called ''murderer'' - proving to a degree that her intention during the ark bubble moment wasn't to hurt him at all. There was 0 intention to hurt him.
If you disagree, that's fine, but please show me the page or speech Elizabeth did that shows she had the intention of hurting him or even killing him.
You might be wondering why intention matters, or why I'm even bringing it up. There have been multiple instances where ark usage against demons has not harmed them but even healed them based on the caster's intentions. Elizabeth used one giant ark on the entirety of Liones, and healed all of the citizens and even a demon like Meliodas (who was right next to her) but happened to hurt Demon-Hendrickson with the very same ark rather than healing him. Showing that intention is very important when it comes to the caster of ark. If the caster doesn't have the intention to harm somebody, then there abilities aren't going to, sounds logical right?
Since we've established that Elizabeth's usage of a weaker ark + no intention to harm Estarossa and we can both agree that actions speak louder than words in every situation, Sariel's comment truly means nothing to me, especially when you consider that he wasn't inside the dome of darkness with Derriere and Elizabeth. Sariel never saw her intention or what she was trying to achieve, and didn't see the entirety of the ark usage, but only when he exited it at the end.
So to me, Sariel's comment completely contradicts the logic and usage of Elizabeth's ark. She used an ark of a weaker offensive nature and never had the intention to hurt him, yet Sariel was surprised that Estarossa wasn't hurt by it? That doesn't make any sense regardless of how you try to argue it. Plus, Sariel has a little bit of bias for Elizabeth, considering he respects her princess title, so he probably has a high expectation of her power and would expect damage regardless of the context.
If you want a comparison, its like saying Merlin is stronger than a 142k demon since she was able to neutralise Meliodas at one point... without completely acknowledging the context of such a feat.
Feel free to disagree, but where does Elizabeth show intention of harming him? Why does she use an ark bubble rather than a blast or anything else that would immediately hurt him? Well because she wants to protect Derriere and stop Estarossa from collecting the commandments, which is supported by her displacing him only.
TL.DR Elizabeth's ark was of a weaker nature + no intention to harm = Estarossa taking no damage = AA's comment is worthless.
The difference is power used.
Okay.
If Ludoshel used 60 decent power in one attack for example and Elizabeth used basically 100 percent of her energy, odds are one attack will be superior to the other. It's the same principle as King's spear. The form that draws out the most magic/energy does the most damage. Ludoshel taking hits is just to show that he didn't deplete all his energy into the indura like Elizabeth did.
Regardless of which phase they struggled in, it doesn't change the fact that Ludoshel did not pour out majority of his magic into an attack. So why compare the two.
Because he was going all out with his ark? He continuously used his ark against Derriere, and even acknowledged how much of a monster she was and how it was ''impossible'' for the Four Archangels to lose. Yet, you're implying he was holding back and not using 100% of his magic power?
That's ridiculous, just because he wasn't sweating like Elizabeth, doesn't mean he wasn't going all out with his ark. He just wasn't sweating because there was no struggle. Elizabeth only used one spell and continuously kept it active, and because there was a resistance on the Indura's
You're comparing Elizabeth's maximum output to Ludoshel's non maximum. That in and of itself is a skewed test. Plus in reality virtually no one would compare a test that wasn't even.
Where did you get the idea that Ludoshel wasn't at his maximum ark usage?
He wasn't holding back, as shown by his behaviour during the fight. He was neurotic, anxious and shocked at what the Indura were doing, and he even demonstrated disbelief. If he was holding back his true power (ark), he would've never shown such disbelief as he would still have a ''ace'' or strategy up his sleeve. And before you bring up the ''well he said he was going all out'' situation, that could be anything, and since Ludoshel has a power independent from his own (Flash), that's an entirely different discussion and not a fair comparison to Elizabeth. Plus, for all we know Ludoshel was about to do the Goddess version for Indura.
Ludoshel was going all out with his ark, he just wasn't sweating because he wasn't in a tug of war with the Indura. If Elizabeth's attack failed right away like Ludoshel's then she wouldn't have ''sweated''.
Plus Elizabeth powered up her attack from the start before launch, ludo just launched basic attacks
Powered up?
And I hardly call them basic. He was going all out and was using large scale ark's.