User blog:LastationLover5000/Fairy Tail 364 - In Which We're Finally Back To Epic (Tartaros Arc, Part 1: Sins and Sinners)

"Beg? When a human begs something of a demon, that is when he offers the demon his soul. Are you prepared to sell your soul to me?"

- Sayla to Elfman



Welcome to the Chapter Review Corner



The chapter has been released, and that means it's time to blog. To those new to my blog, welcome. To my continued readership, all I have to say is, thanks. SARA, how's it looking?



It took a minute, but we have achieved 100% asskicking.

....I am surprised, Hiro. Given your track record with the chapters previous (especially the Happy incident), I expected to be unable to take this arc seriously. In fact, that's why I didn't review the last chapter; I figured, after Happy, I couldn't take this entire arc seriously anymore.



I'm actually surprised, this chapter managed to carry a pretty decent tone throughout that at least enabled me to buy into the situation going on here. Hiro really piled it on in this chapter; I'm not sure if he got a metric crap ton of hate mail the week after the Happy incident and realized "Wow, I need to step my game up", but whatever happened, I think this is the chapter that's setting the tone for the arc. Now, let's get right into it!

We start off where I think the last chapter left off, Erza and Mira are discussing Jellal, who Erza says can protect himself without her. Yes, yes he can. You, however, are more than happy to paint a target over all your vitals when Jellal is around. We're introduced to Crawford Seam, the former Chairman of the Magic Council here, where he treats Erza and Mira to a spot of tea. I myself have had quite enough tea for the month. Sore throat = four cups a day until it goes away. We cut to the chase (after a flashback of Natsu's...hilarious attempt...to rescue Erza from way early on in the series) and it turns on Crawford knows diddly squat about face (almost to the point that it seems he's being deliberately unhelpful). Before we can get into any more of this, however: STEEEEEEEAAAAAAAALTH!

The duo proceed to kick ass, remarking it's their first time fighting with each other and not against each other. Meanwhile, Elfman is still strangling Lisanna, and he's way past the point of crying and begging. That part in particular attracts the attention of Sayla, who says to request something from a demon requires the payment of the requester's soul. She then drops the question: Is Elfman willing to sell his soul to Sayla in exchange for saving Lisanna?

....I think I just found my second favorite character.

I'm not joking; I fucking love this woman. So, Doranbolt, after hearing what Tartaros is after, decides to go after Tartaros himself, but seems to have agreed to free the entirety of the Oracion Seis...and Cobra wastes no time in utterly wasting Brain, making Midnight the head of the Guild I suppose. This makes sense; when he last heard Brain's thoughts, it was some evil shit. And, because Hiro isn't done piling enough epic things on us, JELLAL ARRIVES! Jellal Fernandes. Because however epic your chapter is - IT CAN ALWAYS BE MORE EPIC.

Obviously not trusting the Oracion Seis, Doranbolt left Jellal and Meredy in charge of the Oracion Seis, to monitor them apparently. During all of this, Natsu wakes up, and apparently has an epiphany as he takes off on The-Cat-Who-Should-Be-Dead. We then cut back to Erza and Mira handling their opponents with ease, fitting as they were all simple soldiers. They begin to get suspicious, as sending a simple squadron after such an important target as the former Chairman makes no sense at all. Even Natsu starts suspecting something is wrong, wondering why the Tartaros Guild knew things not even Ex-Councilmembers knew, from the existence of Face to the location of several Ex-Councilmembers. As he's mulling over this, Erza and Mira fall unconcious as Natsu realizes Tartaros had an informant.

Somehow, I cannot help but be infinitely jealous of this old man

And WHAM!

Speculation Corner


This will be brief, more so because it's probably everyone's guess. My guess here is that Crawford is gonna take Erza and Mira back to the Tartaros base, where they will receive the same conditioning that Minerva also received, to transform them into Demons that will fight Fairy Tail.



Yeah, didn't think I'd go looking for that image? Probably the only panel I like having Minerva in. Sadly, Hiro won't do this, we all know Erza and Mira will be rescued by Natsu next chapter.

Now, let's score this thing.

Score
Fairy Tail always has good art, 10/10. The story....oh boy, so much shit happened, 37 pages of utter awesome. The Seis are back, Elfman may sell his soul, Natsu is smart, ERZA AND MIRA HAVE BEEN CAPTURED! I cannot stress that last one enough — the strongest of Fairy Tail behind Gildarts, Makarov, and Laxus have been captured. And what's worse, the former Chairman is on the side of Tartaros, and probably has been this entire time, ever seen the pre-timeskip. Well done Hiro, 8/10. The fight was 2/10 since it was just some mooks. Overall, this was a Very Good chapter, and a welcome sight after the Happy debacle.



Fairy Tail is all done for today, but it'll be back next week with Fairy Tail 365- Fairy in the Jail. Just looking at that chapter seems like a rescue to me. I look forward to all of your comments, but try to behave, we don't want to have to play mediator. See you all next week.