Fairy Tail - Chapter 517 Review by DoughboyPart 1 - Irene's motives behind possessing WendyThe chapter starts off where 516 left off, with Irene approaching Erza again in possession of Wendy's body after she enchanted her being inside of her. Let's reflect: Irene is a Dragon Slayer who fully underwent the Dragonification process, becoming a dragon. After Zeref used his enchantments to give her the appearance of her old self she later found out she couldn't taste food or sleep which really broke her psyche. When seeing this part of her, I thought back to Larcade saying humans have 3 desires: sex, food, sleep. Those really shouldn't be underestimated, which just adds to the totality of her character. Moving on, Irene still pregnant with Erza, she felt like she could enchant her being inside of her daughter but Erza, even though she's related to her, isn't compatible to do it, leading Irene to dump her off in Rosemary and for her to later follow Zeref and become a Spriggan 12. Irene's nice persona became cruel and evil but it was all cause she truly desired to be human, not a fake impostor of her former self. Her taking over Wendy's body is completely in tune with everything she explained to Erza and Wendy of her backstory. She's not mentally insane but when pressure turns into desire you cannot fault anyone doing whatever they can to acquire their happiness. She was broken and fragile. Irene's motives have been thorough, which gives her a dynamic of not an ordinary villain whose only purpose is to guard Zeref's life. This solidified Irene as a great antagonist.
Part 2 - Relationship with ErzaIrene begins to examine her new body, checking out the wound on her left femur (the location where Chronos-Dimaria pierced her) and other bruises and scratches from just the war in general. We have a funny moment where she checks out her breast size cause obviously Irene had a huge chest and it got downgraded to a smaller one. All of this is occurring with Erza being frightened that she lost Wendy. Irene's old body falls to the ground which Irene mentions is just basically a corpse. Erza asks where Wendy is, Irene says they've become one (although Wendy is currently trying to control Irene's body after she inhabited it). This leads Erza to charge for out of blind rage which Irene easily dusts her aside. Irene continues to make mother-daughter related quotes, such as calling her a "brainless little girl" and saying "mommy took up her Wendy's body without her permission"... this all showcases how devilish she is but at the same time she's making use of taking her only chance at making these comments. Irene had a contradictory belief last chapter: she told her backstory to Erza in wonderment that she would feel something about her daughter again. It's too late for all that, that ship has sailed. Irene if she wanted to do as so, maybe would of sought out Erza but at the same time who knows what missions she was on or assigned to. She mentioned to Brandish she hasn't seen her since she was small which means she wasn't in Alvarez for some years. It's no wonder the Spriggan 12 are barely together. Irene's personality traits all on display even if it's subtle, but cracks have shown in them.
Part 3 - Wendy's potential Wendy continues to destroy Erza with her Explosion enchantment, blowing up on all the spaces on the land while continuously mocking her as an evil mother would do. She then reveals something very interesting. In 516 after she took over Wendy's body she mentioned that her MP was lower, which is obvious cause Wendy's is an above-average S-Class tier mage now while Irene the strongest character in the series behind Acnologia, Zeref, August, Igneel etc. But after using some enchantments, she notices that Wendy's MP isn't as low as she thought, even mentioning that her potential is great. I found this the best part of the chapter cause it basically confirms that Wendy, who has been built up as a support mage all series long, could really be powerful if she was more geared to being a "power" character. Similar to a Gohan, she has all this untapped potential but in truth this was coming from a long ways. Wendy is a 400 year old dragon slayer, enchanter, had her Second Origin unlocked, plus with timeskip training so it's all coming together for her. Continuing, Irene taps into her new Sky Dragon Slayer Magic, which now confirms that even Wendy could use her powers of a Sky Dragon Slayer or Enchanter to fly if she wanted to. Erza wants Wendy to snap out of it but Irene just simply says it's too late, then donning her new name of "Wendy Belserion". This line was cheesy but the image itself was looked cool. Erza attacks her again but Irene (smartly) uses what we all would use if we took over the enemy's friend's body: using her love for Wendy against her. Irene says to Erza will she truly harm her comrade which induces Erza to think back to all of their moments together from Erza bringing Wendy to FT, that stage play that Rabian wanted them to do, Caracole Island to lastly when Wendy told Erza she would protect her in 453. This brought to light how great, but lowkey their sister bond is like. It's not something really talked about or really shown much but I like how Hiro properly placed this in. It doesn't matter to Irene anyway, she uses Explosion again on her Erza's armor which blows her up in a a huge radius.
Part 4 - Irene Marvell Suddenly though Deus Corona was cast on Erza which surprised both Irene and Erza, revealing it to be Wendy who has taken possession of Irene's body just like Irene did hers. Another comedy moment that was the same as earlier, Wendy finally comes to understand what a big chest can do and cannot for you. Analyzing this further this was a great move by Wendy but it questions why didn't she immediately take possession of Erza? Irene is a High Enchanter while Wendy is a regular enchanter, was it because of Irene's mastery over enchantments that allowed her being to be immediately in Wendy's body and Wendy's adept, but nowhere close, use of enchantments that made hers take a little more time? This will never be explained but this is something where a hole can be poked in the whole "transferring your being through enchantment process". Anyway, Irene and Erza are shocked at Wendy's prowess in taking over Irene's body, leading Wendy to form an enchantment to attack Irene with, telling Erza to get out of the way. Wendy also realizes her magic power is now immensely stronger cause she's inhabiting Irene's body. The attack Wendy sent Irene blocks it but while blocking it Wendy uses a Separation enchantment (the same type of enchantment Zeref ordered Irene to use on Mavis to extract Fairy Heart's magic from her body). Good battle tactic by Wendy to get her distracted so can remove her being. Wendy and Irene begin trying to overpower each other but Irene does something dastardly: she begins violently harming Wendy's body in order to give Wendy a second opinion that she will never want this body back now that's in her possession. This should be noted that Irene is truly a dedicated character to her motives that she even went as far to injure her new body in order to possess it forever. This showed a rash, uncalculated side of Irene we haven't seen, which like some of her words from earlier to Erza, contradicts everything she's built herself up to be. If Wendy was not successful in the Separation enchantment, Irene would have an injured, weakened body that would force her to retreat. It more dumb than logical on Irene's part. Wendy says no matter what injuries occur to her are simply prove that she's a FT mage. Her Separation enchantment eventually works, returning both bodies to their owners and leads Wendy to collapse as she asks Erza to finish the job for her, which Erza in her Clear Heart Clothing armos says she will.
Rating: 7/10This chapter showed exactly why Wendy is a great character who has received the consequential development any main character in shonens should gradually receive. There was no power of feelings, no illogical nonsense. It was all through Wendy's grit and smarts that caused her to regain her body. Erza was useless in this chapter but that fit her role cause Irene continuously berated her with her enchantments. Irene had a few miscalculations and contradictions but nothing to supremely damage her character unlike how 516 did. This chapter had great action in general and properly placed flashbacks. Issues with the chapter contained the pacing, which if you realized, the chapter basically ended where it started so in a way you can say nothing really happened in the chapter. Wendy's late control of Irene's body needed to be more clearly defined and lastly the biggest disappointment was simply Wendy Belserion did not last long but obvious circumstances caused this issue. Not a total bounce back chapter from 516, but overall easily better and more enjoyable.
Future Thoughts...This fight has been not great in my opinion even though Irene's feats when it comes to enchantments are amazing but too much disrespect to her status after she challenged an non-serious Acnologia and now is in rebuff when fighting Erza and Wendy. It's fair to say she was remorseful towards Erza but still doesn't matter when you have the status of a 12. 518 will most likely be the end to this fight which means Erza will mostly succeed. This seems destined to be bad and undo from what good what was in this chapter and in Irene in general. I don't see a very logical scenario for Erza by herself to win Irene, who really is barely injured despite her injured head and stomach area. If Irene does succeed next chapter, I'm curious if she'll take Wendy's body for herself to later enchant her being again in it, this is literally her only opportunity to do so she will never find another Dragon Slayer/Enchanter again. Irene vs. Erza will be the focus of next week. Natsu's heart could be featured after conclusion.
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