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[Comadrin]

I thought it was definitely time to come up with one of these pages, as we seem to have been giving nearly the entire plot away on the main page comments.  This manga has rapidly become one of my favourites in the time I've been reading it.  Speaking as one who was once an Anglophile, I've noticed that the mangaka really understands British (especially Celtic) mythology extremely well.  At the same time, the archetypal characters (Titania and Oberon, mainly) are not two dimensional archetypes, but quite understandable and relatable characters who retain their "otherworldliness" and yet still definitely have their own quirky personalities (especially our "M" Oberon).  

 

As to the latest chapter, per the topic title, it raises a lot of questions.  

 

     1.  Did the dragon whelp cause the explosion, as one poster said?  It could be so, and the last frame on the penultimate page may point that out.  Of course, the dragon could have merely noticed that someone initiated something in the auction hall, as well.

 

     2.  Why does Elias' disguise (supposedly not a glamour, which could be detected) look so much like our boy Lindel, badass warden of the dragons, including height.  It looked liked no one of the party, including Chise, thought he was anyone other than Elias, but he certainly didn't act like Elias in his in his somewhat frictional dealings with Renfred.  It also seems that this Elias knows a fair bit about Renfred's past.

 

     3.  Why does Tory not only have the abundant and flowing hair shared with Oberon, but also the over-the-top exuberance and loud-mouthed indiscretion that characterize Oberon?  If you look closely, they are the only two characters that have been punished for blabbermouthedness during the manga so far.  As seen thus far, their personalities are pretty close.

 

Earlier on in the manga, I noticed a couple of things.

 

     1.  When Chise and Alice go shopping, they both eat like college athletes under a 24/7 training regimen.  The only time I ate that much food was when I was in the Marine Corps infantry, visited the gym daily and ran about sixty miles a week on my own time.

 

     2.  Why in the world would Ashen Eyes help Cartaphilus target a ten year old girl?  I'm waiting impatiently to find out what's up with that.  

 

If anyone has theories (no spoilers from raws, please), I'd love it if they were posted.  

[blackluna]

I agree whole heartedly with the sentiments in your first paragraph. Although I was somewhat disappointed with the Yuletide-Christmas arc (there's absolutely no mention of the relationship of religious Christmas and the Celtic festivals that once surrounded it). I also find the characters and their relationships wonderful, and the artwork (though the colour is a bit flat and flattening). I normally wait to see how things play out before theorizing much, however, your questions make me want to answer, so I will to the best of my ability.

 

At present, I am fifty-fifty on the explosion, and I want to wait until chapter thirty-five is out before I comment. As for your second point, I did not find Elias' disguise to particularly resemble Lindel, so I did not find the lack of comment at all strange (I even compared the two directly, Lindel is taller and has a different face among other things). I also did not find his handling of Renfred that atypical of him, it was more direct because Renfred was being more direct. Though I think that Elias suspects something of Renfred's past, there is no indication that he actually knows anything solid. Tory and Oberon do seem to have some similarities, but Tory is more of a so-called-S for one, and the similarities you pointed out could well be coincidence or a quirk of the author.

 

As for the amount Chise and Alice eat on their excursion, please note that using magic drains you of energy (they say this a lot), and whilst Chise usually sleeps to regain this, eating happens to be the other basic way to regain energy. With regard to Ashen Eyes helping Joseph (Cartaphilus), Ashen Eyes addresses, or rather dismisses Joseph himself questioning this; it's honestly difficult to guess at just what Ashen Eyes is after, but it's not unlikely that Ashen Eyes wants to enjoy seeing Chise shaken to her core and so is doing so by helping Joseph.

 

I have a few quick queries of my own:

1. Whenever Elias disguises himself, he never looks like any other character, but who are these three (thus far) individuals? They could be people he ate, or a human "component" of some kind (Elias normally appears to be physically made of several creatures, like a chimera).

2. Is Joseph Cartaphilus? Is Cartaphilus the name of the "IT" he dug up?

 

These don't really have any answers yet so I just plan to wait and see, but if anyone has any conclusions, feel free to post them.

Edited by blackluna, 09 December 2016 - 09:09 PM.