You were given a backstory that answered a lot of questions. You should read it. I know anything Erza centric has become boring but you should give Irene the chance. You better do before she gets wrecked next week...
It seems my original theory, that I posted when Irene first was introduced, was half and half correct.
- Irene is Erza's mother
- The scar on her abdomen was the result of someone attempting to cut Erza out of Irene
- That someone was her father
- Irene disposed of Erza
Though my hypothesis was that Irene for some reason decided to get rid of Erza when she was born and hence her father cut her out of Irene just before that to save his daughter. He however did it because he wanted to kill Erza/didn't believe she existed. In the end though Irene discarded Erza either way.
I like Irene's twisted nature, but I'm disappointed in the father. He's just a random, shallow mediocre looking and prejudiced character.
We don't even know yet what it does. I admit that the armor of Nakagami was kinda cheap (though that could have easily been solved if Hiro elaborated on it more; I always considered it to be some kind of anti-magic armor and anti-magic is something that got introduced early on in the series), but for most of her other weapons and armors there really is nothing cheap or illogical about them. Erza has got probably the most basic and mainstream type of magic in the entire FTverse. The only thing it does is storing and retracting wearable stuff in and from an alternate dimension. The amount of stuff that can be stored and how fast can be changed between them, depends on the magic power of the user. Inherently though it's not even a combat-based type of magic. If a combat mage would only use it to change between casual cloths, he would be pathetically weak. But if that mage is a model, it would be perfect.
With other words it's a simple, but highly versatile type of magic. The majority of her combat prowess is derived from the fact that she can adapt to a multitude of situations and opponents, that's where the potential of her magic lies. So that people these days complain immediately just because she uses a new armor, is complete BS as she has one of the most reasonable magical powers seen after FT standards.
The only thing you can actually complain about is that it's never explained where exactly she got all their armors. However most of her arsenal have standard abilities. One increased your defensive power, another your offensive power, another is efficient against fire magic, another against water etc. This is a magical world where magical tools are common, so you probably can just buy stuff like this somewhere. Levi even had a book with a list of magical armors. Hiro once made a short series called Monster Hunter Orage where the main characters hunted down monsters to turn their corpses into magical tools & weaponry and I always imagined that this is also something that happens in FT. Dragon lachrima are here a prime example of.
Again for an armor with the caliber of Nakagami it should not pop up out of nowhere, but that doesn't take away her overall seen there is nothing wrong with her summoning new armors.
Axel xXx, who is one of the biggest FT supporters, has listed flaws that no one else saw in this chapter and how illogical and inconsistent Irene's backstory is.
Axel xXx Posted 12 hours ago
Just going to list out her flaws, anyone is open to debunk but Irene fanboys will probably just ignore it and say "you're just salty"
1. "I am you, you are me." That was a weak explanation. She tried to merge with erza and failed. Which means they're not the same. Why did she say it? False hype. And don't even say "well erza was inside her" do I tell me my mom were the same because I was inside her?
2. She went from "do whatever you want to me but don't harm my baby" to "****ing aborting this little piece of trash", what a gal. This happened through forced story telling. She blamed her kid for her own problems, isn't that charming? Blaming an innocent baby for your problems?
3. It took 400 years for her to give birth? Why?
4. Got tricked by Mavis even when she was staring right at her and feeling her magical power.
5. Told neinhart to go kill erza even tho she's not killing erza currently and was even kind enough to tell her about her past.
6. Hates erza's guts when she was a baby, wanted the baby dead, LEFT ERZA ALIVE IN A VILLAGE
7. Past incredibly forced, zero foreshadowing or reasoning
8. She's a dragon slayer and has dragon still within her. Acnologia didn't sniff her out because hiro came up with with concept a month ago
9. She couldn't give birth to erza because... "magic", what the hell does that even mean?
10. And used Universe One the biggest asspull in the series
That's 10 flaws in one arc alone, that's bad writing authors can only dream of.
Don't hype yourselves up. Did y'all forget about Larcade?
It seems my original theory, that I posted when Irene first was introduced, was half and half correct.
- Irene is Erza's mother
- The scar on her abdomen was the result of someone attempting to cut Erza out of Irene
- That someone was her father
- Irene disposed of Erza
Though my hypothesis was that Irene for some reason decided to get rid of Erza when she was born and hence her father cut her out of Irene just before that to save his daughter. He however did it because he wanted to kill Erza/didn't believe she existed. In the end though Irene discarded Erza either way.
I like Irene's twisted nature, but I'm disappointed in the father. He's just a random, shallow mediocre looking and prejudiced character.
We don't even know yet what it does. I admit that the armor of Nakagami was kinda cheap (though that could have easily been solved if Hiro elaborated on it more; I always considered it to be some kind of anti-magic armor and anti-magic is something that got introduced early on in the series), but for most of her other weapons and armors there really is nothing cheap or illogical about them. Erza has got probably the most basic and mainstream type of magic in the entire FTverse. The only thing it does is storing and retracting wearable stuff in and from an alternate dimension. The amount of stuff that can be stored and how fast can be changed between them, depends on the magic power of the user. Inherently though it's not even a combat-based type of magic. If a combat mage would only use it to change between casual cloths, he would be pathetically weak. But if that mage is a model, it would be perfect.
With other words it's a simple, but highly versatile type of magic. The majority of her combat prowess is derived from the fact that she can adapt to a multitude of situations and opponents, that's where the potential of her magic lies. So that people these days complain immediately just because she uses a new armor, is complete BS as she has one of the most reasonable magical powers seen after FT standards.
The only thing you can actually complain about is that it's never explained where exactly she got all their armors. However most of her arsenal have standard abilities. One increased your defensive power, another your offensive power, another is efficient against fire magic, another against water etc. This is a magical world where magical tools are common, so you probably can just buy stuff like this somewhere. Levi even had a book with a list of magical armors. Hiro once made a short series called Monster Hunter Orage where the main characters hunted down monsters to turn their corpses into magical tools & weaponry and I always imagined that this is also something that happens in FT. Dragon lachrima are here a prime example of.
Again for an armor with the caliber of Nakagami it should not pop up out of nowhere, but that doesn't take away her overall seen there is nothing wrong with her summoning new armors.
I completely agree with your synopsis of Erza's magic. It was also rumored she had 100 different armors but she possibly can't access them all without going into Origin states like 2nd Origin. So I can get passed the dawning of new armors.
As for the chapter itself. I give it a 5/5. I rarely give a perfect 5 but they answered a good number of questions for me with a decent emotional tie in so I was thoroughly satisfied with this chapter.
Axel xXx, who is one of the biggest FT supporters, has listed flaws that no one else saw in this chapter and how illogical and inconsistent Irene's backstory is.
Axel xXx Posted 12 hours ago
Just going to list out her flaws, anyone is open to debunk but Irene fanboys will probably just ignore it and say "you're just salty"
1. "I am you, you are me." That was a weak explanation. She tried to merge with erza and failed. Which means they're not the same. Why did she say it? False hype. And don't even say "well erza was inside her" do I tell me my mom were the same because I was inside her?
2. She went from "do whatever you want to me but don't harm my baby" to "****ing aborting this little piece of trash", what a gal. This happened through forced story telling. She blamed her kid for her own problems, isn't that charming? Blaming an innocent baby for your problems?
3. It took 400 years for her to give birth? Why?
4. Got tricked by Mavis even when she was staring right at her and feeling her magical power.
5. Told neinhart to go kill erza even tho she's not killing erza currently and was even kind enough to tell her about her past.
6. Hates erza's guts when she was a baby, wanted the baby dead, LEFT ERZA ALIVE IN A VILLAGE
7. Past incredibly forced, zero foreshadowing or reasoning
8. She's a dragon slayer and has dragon still within her. Acnologia didn't sniff her out because hiro came up with with concept a month ago
9. She couldn't give birth to erza because... "magic", what the hell does that even mean?
10. And used Universe One the biggest asspull in the series
That's 10 flaws in one arc alone, that's bad writing authors can only dream of.
Don't hype yourselves up. Did y'all forget about Larcade?
Everything he said was sooooo damn true
So that means her and logia are similar.. But to become a perfect dragon he needs to kill all DS but yet never pinpointed her? Lol FT is officially worst than bleach. 400yrs to concieve? Boyyyyyy.. Tell this guy to stop. We all know erza gonnq kill irene. Lmaoooo bro where is Gajeel
this is the worst arc i've read in a manga. first the villains where hyped badly only to be fodderised by FT. it just doesn't make any sense that the FT mages get injured but healed fast enough to rejoin the battle without any progress made by both sides. just bad writing.
Everything he said was sooooo damn true
So that means her and logia are similar.. But to become a perfect dragon he needs to kill all DS but yet never pinpointed her? Lol FT is officially worst than bleach. 400yrs to concieve? Boyyyyyy.. Tell this guy to stop. We all know erza gonnq kill irene. Lmaoooo bro where is Gajeel
Axel xXx, who is one of the biggest FT supporters, has listed flaws that no one else saw in this chapter and how illogical and inconsistent Irene's backstory is.
Axel xXx Posted 12 hours ago
Just going to list out her flaws, anyone is open to debunk but Irene fanboys will probably just ignore it and say "you're just salty"
1. "I am you, you are me." That was a weak explanation. She tried to merge with erza and failed. Which means they're not the same. Why did she say it? False hype. And don't even say "well erza was inside her" do I tell me my mom were the same because I was inside her?
2. She went from "do whatever you want to me but don't harm my baby" to "****ing aborting this little piece of trash", what a gal. This happened through forced story telling. She blamed her kid for her own problems, isn't that charming? Blaming an innocent baby for your problems?
3. It took 400 years for her to give birth? Why?
4. Got tricked by Mavis even when she was staring right at her and feeling her magical power.
5. Told neinhart to go kill erza even tho she's not killing erza currently and was even kind enough to tell her about her past.
6. Hates erza's guts when she was a baby, wanted the baby dead, LEFT ERZA ALIVE IN A VILLAGE
7. Past incredibly forced, zero foreshadowing or reasoning
8. She's a dragon slayer and has dragon still within her. Acnologia didn't sniff her out because hiro came up with with concept a month ago
9. She couldn't give birth to erza because... "magic", what the hell does that even mean?
10. And used Universe One the biggest asspull in the series
That's 10 flaws in one arc alone, that's bad writing authors can only dream of.
Don't hype yourselves up. Did y'all forget about Larcade?
I can explain most of those. And no I'm not an Irene fanboy. I think she's an intriguing character because she's quite psychotic seen after FT standards, but nothing is duller than a perfect character, so I'm really not going to waste time in providing irrational and nonsensical gibberish for any kind of character.
1) Here I personally think he's focusing way too much on the words and less on the actual actions. I found it rather lame that Hiro builds up a horror-like vibe by implying that Irene did something messed up to Erza, but then immediately informs us she failed. However the reality that Erza affected Neinhart and that it was enough for the latter to realize Erza's origin on top of he next chapter's title (The truth about enchantment), gives rise to the possibility that something did happen to Erza and that automatically has implications for the interpretation of Irene's words. Also I agree that having a baby 9 months in you is not enough to use that cryptic description Irene gave, however it's a bit different when you have it in you for over 400 years. For the record Irene practically was 90% of her life pregnant of Erza. It's still not substantial enough to fit that description, but it's very well different than a regular pregnancy, not in the last because she was a genuine dragon in the meantime.
Either way this is one of those things that can only be described as a flaw when the arc is finished as what that guy is doing now is calling something he just learned this chapter a flaw while this storyline isn't even finished yet. I think the correct saying here is that you shouldn't place the cart before the horse?
2) This is really not a flaw. Yes I really don't think Hiro planned out Irene's character years ago and probably just added her on the spur of the moment. Still if he calls this a flaw, then by default that means he considers any kind of character development as a flaw as Irene simply underwent a personality change due to tremendous physical and emotional pressure she was under. The problem here is that because Hiro forced this into two chapters it feels hurried and superficial, but that doesn't take away that this covers almost her entire life.
Just imagine. Irene was originally a kind-loving woman that was forced to fight in a horrific war where many people/creatures she knew died in. Then when she's pregnant of the man who helped her get through all of this, she starts turning into a dragon and is consequently tortured and humiliated by him for three years. And then when he eventually tries to cut their child out of her body, she finally snaps. She transforms into a dragon, flattens him and then for nearly 400 years or so she is forced to live as a dragon while day in day out wishing to be human again. Then finally when she does get back a human body, she realizes it's too late, that she has become so used to being a dragon she can't feel human again. It's really no wonder then that by this point her mind had simply collapsed and got turned into something twisted and started blaming her "human" child.
This is really not a flaw, the issue is just that Hiro went through all of this so fast it's hard to feel empathy for Irene, but if you do take the time to let it all sink in, her reactions are understandable. Not agreeable of course, but understandable.
3) This connects with what I said in the 2nd point. Irene wanted to become human again more than anything else and her child was the only proof she still had of her humanhood. That she continuously emphasized that she had a human child, not just a child, pretty much is an indication of this. I think the matter here is not that it took her 400 years to give birth, but that she simply didn't want to give birth. You also have the practical issue here of that it's even possible for a full-sized dragon to give birth to a human child in the first place.
4) I really don't get what this is doing here unless I'm missing something or since when was Irene supposed to be 100% immune from tricks? In fact it has happened several times before that similar tricks where used to fool powerful mages. Makarov even got done in by it twice.
5) I really wouldn't call it kindness as Irene just said to Erza that her father tried to kill her while her mother ditched her like a trash bag. How is this being kind? If anything this is the exact opposite, Irene is mocking and spiting her. And it isn't weird either for Irene to tell their shared past. Her attitude towards Erza has been rather constant: she's intrigued a bit by the fact that she's alive, but in the end she doesn't seem to care about her and if she stands in their way, she has to be dealt with. Erza was not aware of Irene's existence and the latter gave Neinhart the task of eliminating her. But he's out of commission and the considering she now has do to it herself, she might as well spill the beans. I would find it illogical to not do that and till further notice Irene hasn't really had a change of heart in regards to getting rid of Erza.
6) There's a difference between hating and looking down on someone. Irene has made it clear she deems Erza to be completely worthless, however she did not show any particular hateful feelings. Also leaving a new born baby somewhere randomly behind is almost the same thing as killing it. A baby really can't survive on its own for long. What Irene did is something people in the past in real life did continuously and still do. I'm pretty sure Irene said at least once or twice she believed Erza died.
7) This is the only point of the 10 that I can completely agree on.
8) I didn't even consider it, but as I said before this is again a case of placing the cart before the horse. The arc isn't finished yet, so this is something that might be explained in future chapters. Alternatively Acnologia can change between his dragon and human form, however it was Zeref who changed Irene back. She's also an extremely powerful mage, so it's really not that hard of a stretch to believe she somehow is able to mask her smell.
9) Agreed it's a vague explanation, but in the end it's easily possible as this is a world centered around magic. Magic is used for a variety of purposes, so that there's a way to prolong pregnancies, isn't a far-fetched idea. Yes the way how Hiro handled this is shallow and weak, but that doesn't make it wrong. To be honest it wasn't even necessary as why did he add that Irene was first tortured for three years? He could have just made her turn into a dragon after a few months or so. And Ace's mother in OP prolonged her pregnancy by 11 months with shear willpower, so it has happened in other series too.
10) Why? Of all the asspulls in the series this one is your number one despite the fact that it can easily be explained? It's just a reorganization of the geography and Irene explained herself that it's rather inaccurate on such a large scale and that she solely focused on getting Zeref and Mavis together without interruption. Everyone else got scattered randomly and similar magics have been used in the past, only on a much smaller scale. This might by my personal opinion, but I think that things like Fairy Law and 3rd origin are by far bigger asspulls than Universe One ever could be.
So on this list of 10 supposed flaws there is only one that's actually true and that's that Irene's character concept was hurried and not well thought out. Outside that for the nine other points either acceptable explanations can be provided and/or there's still a reasonable chance they get explained in the near future. After all you can't really expect for a mangaka to immediately solve every inconsistency when it occurs. For example when Whal Icht was first beaten, people were complaining he was done in way too easily. Then a few chapters later it appeared that Whal Icht was fine and that they just beat one of his machine minions.
I completely agree with your synopsis of Erza's magic. It was also rumored she had 100 different armors but she possibly can't access them all without going into Origin states like 2nd Origin. So I can get passed the dawning of new armors.
As for the chapter itself. I give it a 5/5. I rarely give a perfect 5 but they answered a good number of questions for me with a decent emotional tie in so I was thoroughly satisfied with this chapter.
I forget to mention the 100 armor thingy. I was planning to write that it was mentioned very early on in the series that at that point she could exquip over 100 different sets, but it seems I forgot about it.
Nice chapter we got the back story of Eileen and next we will see Eileen vs Erza, i wonder how effective dragon slayer magic is against her since Wendy is there.
Its funny how acnologia didn't feel irene a dragon/slaying magic wizard, its shows how poor creator explains his characters powers and backstory and now one of the strongest character to whom whole FT can't compete is going to fodderize by just one member,all credits goes to nakama power.....
I'm curious as to how unbiased and accurate a retelling of history from someone as psychotic as Irene truly is. Leads me to wonder if there's something else going on in the background that Irene's either not acknowledging or erased from her memory.
These new chapters of FT have been pretty worthless. Not only is Irene's story a bunch of bullshit asspulled by Hiro, but it makes zero sense at all. I wish Hiro would stop doing Erza bullshit/wank, I'm getting tired of it. Now awaiting some bullshit Dragon power-up for her or something connected to her mother that gives her some new level of plot armour.
