My Hero has gone on a sudden break in addition to it’s scheduled break next week due to Horikoshi’s poor health(Hope he gets better soon) and One Piece is on break this week, so…….. this is all. Hopefully that means that I can put my best work into this one post, but……… we’ll see. Something that happened at work Thursday, February 1st, 2023(yesterday from the Friday I wrote this part from) has me a little jeered. Maybe I’ll talk about it one day; maybe some time in the near or far future. But let’s just focus on this post for now. ‘Cause Tabata has once again delivered some Greatness in just 11 Pages!! Man really knows how to make a Final Arc. And it aligned with how I and a few of other people thought that the Finale would end up, so that’s always nice!! Black Clover Chapter 350: “The Holy Woman’s Confession.” Let’s begin……….
REVIEW
Picking Up Where Last Chapter Left Off: Asta- using his Anti Magic Zetten- undid Lucius’ magic and returned Sister Lily to normal. As she falls to the ground, Asta catches her, and it begins to ring in her mind what she had been saying to Asta. In tears and exhaustion, she apologizes for saying such horrible things to him. He honestly couldn’t care less, though; he’s just happy that she’s back to normal. But she’s apologizing for something more, too. You See: Sister Lily had seen how the Noble Realm had discriminated against those with lower Magic and status than them, so she became a Nun to promote Equality and the likes.
But even within that Church, there was Classism and Discrimination. And it didn’t go away no matter how much she prayed for it to stop. So she had ran away to the Forsaken realm, which is how she ended up in Hage Village. And that is where she would stay, doing as much as she could to improve things. Ryu comes in, telling her that Asta was only able to get stronger because she sent him here, which is what allowed him to save her in return. She takes in the message, and tells Asta: “Judgement Day” Is In 3 Days. He plans to combine his siblings Magic with his own Soul Magic to attain more power. She says that he can alter people bodies and souls- even Create A Person From Scratch. “It really IS……. Godlike Magic…..“ And if “Judgement Day” goes his way- He Will Take Control of All The magic In the World- including the Land Of The Sun.
She apologizes once more to Asta for doing all of this, but Asta refuses to let anyone blame for what’s happened. She thanks him, and falls unconscius. Ryu tells him that she’s only unconscious- but she’ll remain in this coma until they defeat Lucius. He has Fumito perform Recovery Magic anyway, and Asta vows to Defeat Lucius. But first- He’ll Slay The Dragon Himself. Black Clover Chapter 350 END!! Black Clover Will Be On Break Next Week. Looks like it’ll be just “One Piece” next time.
Analysis
……………… There are like 5 “Final Arcs” that I am aware of right now. There’s this, My Hero, Edens Zero, Undead Unluck, and Mashle: Magic And Muscles. During that period when I needed new glasses, I fell off of manga altogether. But I would eventually catch back up to the series that I really, really liked. “Undead Unluck” was not one of those series. And, as a Side Note: I have recently(last few days) caught up to Kaiju No 8. But I caught up with My Hero, “Black Clover,” and Mashle, too. And I have to say- of the 4 of them- I’m liking “Black Clover’s” finale the most. One Piece doesn’t count in this because it’s not the Final “Arc,” but rather the final saga. Yeah, I’m one of those guys. If this were the Final Arc for One Piece, then I’m afraid that it would blow “Black Clover” out of the water! But refocusing; yeah, “Black Clover” is having the Best Finale so far.
My Hero’s finale has had………….. well, you know. And Mashle– while fun- kind of “drags” in places. Kind of a “slog” waiting for Mash to get back up. But then you have this series and what it’s doing; the philosophy stuff that’s going to happen with Lucius, the art, the character writing, the pacing- I’ve been enjoying all of it. Is it due to the fact that Tabata was allowed 3 months of “Prep Time” before starting this finale? I’m not gonna lie; that might be a Big Part of it. He was allowed to rest, to plan out what he would be doing, probably draw up some concepts art and such; there shouldn’t be any hiccups in the writing from start to finish. And there really hasn’t been. Even what Sister Lily said in this chapter gives us an idea of who Yrul is. And I forgot “Edens Zero” was ending soon, meaning it’s not even the radar.
See, I had been thinking that this was the Human that was reincarnated from Vetto- the one who original inhabited the body that was destroyed by Yami in chapter 72. But that might not necessarily be the case. Rather; it might be that Yrul is an Artificial Human- one of potentially many created by Lucius through the use of his siblings magic, and inserting purified Devil power in it. Now the “Soul” within it is another story. His Soul Magic can alter people’s ways of thinking as shown with the Paladins and Morris, but it hasn’t been shown thus far that he’s able to just………. Make a whole new soul. I don’t even know…….. what the H#ll someone would even DO with that power in an every day situation. But it would CERTAINLY give you a “God Complex.”
It may be that- though gaining more power by purifying Lucifero’s essence- he’s gained the ability to make a whole new soul, which is why it was so important that Asta defeat him; it’s the only way that he was going to be able to make Artificial souls for the Artificial bodies he’s going to make! Though…………….. he may have also been able to do so after taking Astaroth’s magic for himself, but not to the extent that he’s able to now. I don’t know; I feel like there was for to why he took Lucifero’s power in addition to Astaroth’s. I’m just trying to imagine Lucius as a kid and what he did with Soul Magic growing up; could he, like, animate inanimate objects? Maybe only for a short period of time? And though gaining the power of 2 Devil Kings, he’s able to actually create the souls? Something to that effect?
…………………….. Okay, I’m gonna be real with you guys; I had to stop for my computer to charge on Friday, February 3rd, 2023. And when I went back to writing this post, I, uh………….. I lost track of what I was going to say. But I know that it had something to do with Lucius’ mindset right now. Considering the fact that he can make Artificial Souls and can even use his sibling’s Magic to make a Human body from the ground up- He must be thinking “I Am GOD.” I can’t think of any other way to put it: He can MAKE a Person. And I don’t me the “beauty of nature” way; I mean the “I can give life and take it away as I see fit” Science way. And because of his ability to give life, he feels that he can take it from everyone else. He may well plan to revive everyone he kills, but……… with some “modifications.” The primary one being the command to “Revere Him.” And if he plans to give himself an undying body, then………. He would be the closing thing to a “God” in this story. Which is exactly how I felt this manga would end.
The moment we got into the Devils, I had this……. this “Gut Feeling” that this manga would end with “Asta and Friends vs The Gods Themselves.” It’s not EXACT; it’s someone with power that rivals God and thinks that makes him one, but this is the closest we’re ever going to get to that unless any potential Sequel series decides to go that far. I’m glad I ended up being Right in the end, though. We can probably all guess that they’ll end up stopping Lucius before he can “Take Control Of All Magic,” but not in time to stop him from gaining lots of it. He’s gonna power up one more time before he’s defeated. It’s something that happens with most of the enemies in this story(Vetto’s 3rd eye opening; Ladros absorbing the Flame Spirit; Zagreb and his multiple mouths; the Dark Triad gaining 100% Devil power- Zenon taking it a step further with a Devil Heart Bargain; etc).
Other than talking about Lucius’ Godhood and the mentality behind it, I don’t actually have that much to say about the chapter. It answers the air of mystery that’s always been around Sister Lily; she was of Noble Birth and left that life behind in favor of being a Nun. That’s why she always seemed crazy strong for someone in the Forsaken Realm. I also find it interesting that Classism even makes its way into Churches in this world. I imagine a lot of what was said was stuff like “Poor Child Unbeloved By Mana or God himself” or something to that effect. I don’t think that Lily ever participated in it, but she also probably didn’t stop it. And because she’s a “Nice Person,” she hates herself for not doing something about it- and even more so for running away from it. And then she looks upon her Surrogate brother Asta- the EMBODIMENT of defying that Classism- saved her from some False Deity that brainwashed her into thinking “Asta Should Not Be Alive.” And it’s all because she fought back that last time.
………! RIGHT!! Yo, I just remembered: Ryu lookin’ a little sus right now. Like; how does someone without yoryoku know that the only way to wake her up is defeat Lucius? His eye can’t tell him the future; just see everything going on in the present. So it’s not as if he knows that she’ll wake up after they defeat Lucius- he has no guarantee of that. So…….. why did he tell Asta that would happen? Somethin’………. somethin’ feels off about that. It might be part of the contract that he may have had to enter to get that right eye of his; in addition to giving up his yoryoku and yojutsu, he has to make sure that Lucius is defeated. All of this assuming he’s made a deal with Astaroth. Astaroth disappeared from the Underworld over 20 years ago- that’s when we assume Lucius started making moves. So Ryu would have to have made whatever deal before all of that…….. unless you’re trying to tell me Lucius can bestow that kind of power himself. Nah…………. Right?
In any case, assuming Ryu made a deal with Astaroth; it would have been before Astaroth disappeared, but after the Yami Clan Massacre. Because he had both eyes on that night. Yami is currently 30 years old- he was 29 at the time of the Spade Invasion, and it’s been a year and 3 months. I don’t know how old he is in the 342 flashback, but Ichika is 24 currently. They’re 6 years apart. Yeah, between 13 and 15 years old, ’cause Ichika looks around 7-9. Meaning the deal was potentially made between 18 and 21 years ago. Wait……… that puts him in Lucius territory. Hm……….. I might need to check my math a few more times.
Conclusion
Welp, I done gave myself a math headache. I don’t know why I did that to myself, but now I’ve got some thinking to do. And if you guys are anything like me, then you’ll be thinking about it, too. Sorry ’bout that. Also, just as like a “side” thing; reading this chapter and that line about Lucius made me think about the Finale Battle of Disney’s Amphibia– the Calamity Trio(Anne, Sasha, and Marcy) vs The Core. I’ll spare you the details and simply say that the last words the Core Spoke was “You Cannot Stop A GOD!!!!!” That line has just been in my mind the whole time working on this post.
Alright, now I gotta go work on that f*ckin’ math problem I gave myself. That’s some bullsh!t right there, man; WHY I GOTTA DO MATH PROBLEMS?! That’s all I got, guys. See ya later.
