The Power Players Begin To Move! Edens Zero Chapter 185 BREAKDOWN

……………. This one was actually pretty difficult to title. There’s not really anything that gets a particular focus this week; this is very much a “Set Up” chapter- just there to show what’s going to be happening over the next few weeks. The reason I titled it the way I did is because it has one of my favorite aspects of a war arc: The Characters Involved.

I always love it when arc arcs show off all the characters that are involved in them- bringing some major characters back into play and having them move for both the sake of the world and their own ambitions- clashing against each other in an environment of Pure Chaos!! And you’ll see what I mean with this chapter. Edens Zero Chapter 185: “Corroded Arena.” Let’s begin.

REVIEW

Picking up where the last chapter left off: Elsie had somewhat abandoned Shiki’s plan in favor of destroying Ziggy herself. But this results in Ziggy taking advantage of her emotions and stabbing her in the gut with her own sword. He yanks it out, and starts beat down on the Pirate Princess with a flurry of Gravity powered attacks- planning to finish it with a “Gravity Comet.” But believe it or not: “Help” comes in the form of Justice, who wisps her out of their before Ziggy can finish the battle.

I say “Help” in quotations because Justice did not save her; he simply wants to be the one that ends Elsie with his own 2 hands. He’s LYING to himself, but I’ll let him have it because he saved our dear Pirate Princess.

Unfazed and undeterred by the interruption; Ziggy simply passes on the job of ending Elsie and Justice to Acnoella. She complies to his “request,” but warns him that any form of “betrayal” will result in her Dragons devouring every single Machine on this planet. And as Ziggy embeds that message into his mind; we cut over to see the Edens Zero- Hermit, Sister, Kris, Laguna, Connor, Kleene, Holy(and Mosco)- on their way to face the Titanic Deadend Crow. The closer the get- the bigger Crow seems. While everyone else is thoroughly sh!tting themselves- Holy seems pretty darn excited to finally meet the monster that took something from her. And Crow looks about ready for Lunch.

We cut over to Shiki’s group, where he and Homura request to be in their regular clothes. Weisz reluctantly returns them to their regular looks- while putting Rebecca in a Bondage Suit. Having this lighthearted fan service moment gets Rebecca’s mind off of her role in all the Chronophage attacks, as she demands to be put back in the Battle suit(or just anything not scantly clad). Shiki puts her in a Super Sheer Maid Uniform, and then they give her her regular clothes back.

They start making their way to the core, noticing that the machines around them look to have “natural” quality to them; as if they were “growing” like plants. Weisz speculates that it is due to the machines here “eating away” at the planet all this time. Rebecca puts a positive spin on Operation Planet Eater: “The Chronophage Ate Its Time, Revealing The Beautiful Kingdom That Once Stood Here.” They begin to make their way to the core, but end up coming face to face with the Dark Stars in a Medieval Arena.

The Dark Star’s tell the crew to prepare themselves, while this meeting tell the crew 1 thing: They’re getting closer to the core. They prepare to battle as Edens Zero Chapter 185 comes to an END!!! I didn’t have an adjective this time.

Analysis

Like I said: One of my favorite aspects of any War arc is the Characters– the chaos a war can throw them into, and when unexpected characters(such as Justice) get involved. It’s a way for all the Villains to get defeated without hurting the power scaling, and provides us with cool moments and really- it’s just a way to “shake” up the story with new character motivations and reaffirmation of character arcs. It’s just so much fun to watch these action figures clash. But with all of that said: What am I gonna talk about in this section? The implications of Justice arriving on Lendard? Acnoella’s Power? More Ziggy/Shiki parallels? Or will I simply discuss the potential battles between the crew and the Dark Stars? I really want to do the last one- so I will.

I have always gone back and forth on who would fight who when it came to the Dark Stars, or even how these fights would go down. With this “Arena” bit; it looks like it’s going to be 4 1-on-1 matches, where the Dark Star’s say that they’ll let the crew pass, but won’t as soon as they start getting their @$$e$ kicked. My official prediction for the crew agreeing to this is Shiki saying that “Yeah- they’re lying. But we’ve got no choice- we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

If this is anything like Xiao Mei’s little “Battle Coliseum;” Shiki’s going to fight first. Then Rebecca, then Weisz, and ending off on Homura. But I don’t think that this is going in that order necessarily. If I had to say the order, I’d say: Weisz, Homura, Rebecca, and Shiki. We haven’t really seen what Weisz and Homura are capable of after the Time Skip, while we’ve been seeing what Shiki and Rebecca can do. And that certainly isn’t all they can do, but I want to learn how far Homura and Weisz have come with their own respective Overdrives. If Shiki got that new design in chapter 170, then they’d certainly look different, right? Not that I hate their designs; I’m just curious what they look like now.

Now the “Who” of the fights is interesting. Back during Ziggy’s battle against Nero and Jaguar; Brigadine and Killer showed us what their functionality is, and Wizard showed us what he can do when the Zero fought the One. The only one that hasn’t shown us his capabilities is Clown, so you don’t want to show him off just to have him lose to someone who’s already had a cool showcase like Shiki or Rebecca. But you also don’t want to overshadow characters like Homura and Weisz or the new Killer and Brigadine. It’s hard to balance these characters in a way that they all look cool without pulling something out of your @$$.

………………..I must sound like I’m making a problem out of nothing; I honestly probably am. But I don’t want to hear people sh!tting on the new Brigadine and Killer because they don’t have any wins under their belt. For Christ’s sake- They Lost To A F*cking Anthropomorphic Jaguar and DICE!! That probably already hurt their “street cred” as is. So I think they need to actually “do something” that makes them “stick” in our minds as threats if they don’t defeat Ziggy here and now(which I don’t really see happening). To this end; I have thought up the order of the fights(in no particular order):

• Shiki vs Brigadine
• Homura vs Killer
• Rebecca vs Wizard
• Weisz vs Clown

Now; I went back and forth on the last 2 because I think that Weisz and Rebecca’s interactions with those 2 would be pretty funny either way you splice it. Weisz could make a crack about remodeling Clown into something “funnier,” and his own personality would clash against the “M’Lord, Art Thou Not Pleased?” Wizard. And where as I’m sure clown has something funny to do to Rebecca; I feel like the “Harlet Who Can’t Even Keep Her Clothes On” vs an uptight Mage class would be a lot more interesting. They’re both primarily Long Range Fighters- Rebecca’s a shooter whereas Wizard is a “Spell Caster” type. But what Rebecca might have over Wizard would be her Physical Abilities.

It’s actually a funny story; as I was writing, I had decided to put Rebecca against Clown so he could make fun of her Fan Service character archetype, but as I wrote- I found more reasons for her to fight Wizard. Especially when I consider that he’s a Spell Caster; he probably doesn’t have the best physical ability to rely on. Whereas I’ve just laid out several instances of Rebecca’s physical prowess in addition to the story showing us how well she is as a marksman. Which naturally left Weisz with Clown.

But I put Killer up against Homura for a similar reason: I think Killer’s faster than her. Like Ziggy said in chapter 161: “Killer’s power is Assassination.” And Assassins don’t have to be strong fighters; they just need to be Fast. Like; he sneaks her over and over, and then she goes Overdrive and she starts keeping up with him- and then takes him out. that’d be cool. And I just want to see Shiki fight someone taller than him. Though I’m curious if Brigadine- likely being the heaviest of the Dark Stars- has some way to counter Shiki’s gravity. Could he have an Ether Gear in addition to an Optimizer like the Shining Stars have? We’ve seen that Machines can learn Ether Gear like Xenolith, and I doubt Ziggy wouldn’t have given these guys the Shining Star’s Optimizers in case they’re restrained. Maybe they all have both?

Conclusion

………….. “Old Habits Die Hard” they say. What a very true expression. I slipped into my old “chatty” self there, and that ended up making this take longer than I ever intended it to be. Then again; my job called me in early Thursday, so it’s not ALL my fault. But in any case, guys; let me know your own thoughts in the comments. That’s all I got for the lot of ya, today, my dear duckies. Til next time; have a Magically Fantabulous Rest Of Your Day!!