Fairy Tail Chapter 410 +411 Review - Momento Mori + Scratch my Back and I'll Scratch Yours

Written by Shiggins

It feels like forever since I did a review but I'm glad to be back.

Before I begin, I should probably say why I didn't review last week. Although I was slightly busy, I mostly didn't see the point in reviewing Chapter 410. Let's be honest here, you can understand why if you read it. Chapter 410 was a fighting chapter and nothing more, and I mean that almost literally.

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Chapter 410 is fun to read visually but explaining it is really difficult. When this chapter comes into the anime, it'll be an amazing episode filled with tons of action. We saw Mard Geer fly about all dramatic, he threw wooden pillars and he barely spoke which is almost always a good thing. Gray also used a breath attack like all the other Slayers of the series, so that's actually fairly awesome to see.

Am I the only one who finds Mard Geer's face really funny now?

Chapter 410 ended with Mard Geer using what is easily his most interesting attack: Momento Mori. (Which is Latin for "you have to die"). Apparently, this is what Geer planned to kill Zeref with and he has decided to use this to obliterate Natsu and Gray. After giving a talk to Natsu about how Curses were created from negative emotions and "The One Magic", he activates it and claims that this ability transcends the concept of life and death. The characters "will just vanish".

I think the Brain family should sue somebody.

Thankfully, Chapter 411 really helped and gave me more to review. As expected, Natsu and Gray survived Momento Mori and Geer is shocked. It turns out that Gray has actually "Demonised" himself and has negated the Curse. As Geer wonders if this was because of Silver, Gray collapses as he leaves everything to Natsu.

No matter who you are, you can't deny; That is fucking awesome.

To my delight, Geer is enraged and flies forward to Natsu who responds in a fucking awesome way... He activates Dragonforce through the power of will! He gets the scales again, practically going supernova and we even get a bit of symbolism when Natsu has horns made of fire on his head.

A little preview of things to come, perhaps?

Natsu then follows this up with a fairly awesome explosive attack of fire, sending Geer into the air and for many antagonists, this would be the end but Geer isn't the type and grabs Natsu as he prepares to tear him apart. Natsu then suddenly announces he believes in Gray, who is back up and launches an arrow of Devil Slayer Ice at Geer.

Thanks to me, they are now truly back-to-back.

Geer is struck and finally falls down. As he falls, we see Kyouka smiling while Erza, Minerva, the Exceeds, Mirajane and... ugh... Franmalth... look up and notice that the countdown has finally ended and Face is going to be activated!

Opinion: Let's talk about Gray first. This week, we saw him transform half of his entire body into that of a demon's and Mard Geer theorised that this was Silver's curse. Is that possible? Does this mean that Silver has actually turned his own son into a demon while transferring the power of Devil Slayer Magic? Or is this like the Devil Slayer version of Dragonforce, and Gray just ended up losing most of his power because of saving himself and Natsu from Mard Geer's attack? I can only theorise but I'm gonna spout as many theories as this series gives me.

Another thing to notice about Gray's demonic half is whether or not this counts as a "Curse" of it's own. If so, I think Gray might be getting a lot of focus soon due to Face activating. If that bomb does go off, will that make Gray the only person able to fight back against any of the surviving demons? Will he need to take the protagonist role from Natsu and Lucy, and reverse Face? Perhaps but whenever I guess something like that, I'm usually proven wrong.

Natsu can now turn into Dragonforce at will, like Goku can do with Super Saiyan form. We can't know yet if this is only because of rage or if it's like Natsu's Fire-Lightning where he won't use it all the time due to exhaustion, but it's still pretty cool. In all honesty, we should have expected this since Sting and Rogue revealed they could do it through will and this leads me to another point.

How come Natsu can now activate it at will? This series has made a huge point of telling us that Dragon Slayers cannot activate Dragonforce by will, with the only exceptions being Sting and Rogue. My theory behind this is because although they were trained by dragons, they did not have dragons hidden inside them. I believe that Gajeel and Wendy have not unlocked this ability because Metalicana and Grandeeny are locked away inside the First Generation Slayers, and the reason they need to absorb energy to activate Dragon Force is because they can only unlock Dragon Force when they have enough for both Dragon and Slayer.

Mard Geer lost it this week and I am thankful for that. There is nothing more annoying than someone who never reacts, and Geer went through a lot of crap these past two weeks. His ultimate attack was majorly flawed though. If another demon can negate the attack, did Geer honestly think Zeref could even be hurt by this? Once again, I am disappointed in you, Mardy.

My thoughts actually turned to Elfman today. We know he decided to remain behind to help fight Tartaros (almost like when Natsu, Gray and Elfman attacked Phantom Lord), but where is he? The most major battles have already been fought so does that mean another threat is still to make an appearance or is Elfman going to do something to Geer, Face or even Jiemma? My guess is Face. I love Elfman but I'm getting a bit worried that one more character death is on the way...

410 Manga Rating: 2/5

411: Manga Rating: 3.5/5

Predictions: Next week is titled "Dancing to Ishgar's theme" so I think we can expect Warrod and possibly even the other Wizard Saints to make an appearance next week. I actually hope we don't see the other Saints and only see Warrod because I've been hoping those three make their first appearances in other arcs. Tartaros has enough to stand on it's own right now. Could Warrod be about to help Makarov awaken Mavis? Or perhaps even the opposite?

Best Part of 410: Momento Mori wasn't just more thorns.

Worst Part of 410: Nothing else worth talking about.

Best Part of 411: Dragonforce!

Worst Part of 411: Where the fuck is Elfman?

I would like to say: ..."Scratch me and I'll scratch you".

Shiggins:[Admin]
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Shiggins enjoys many strange forms of communication, especially those including cosplayers or presents or videos. However, until that wonderful day comes when people care enough to give him things for being him, you can contact him on his Skype; shigginsishere. You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/.