The chapter is up, enjoy.
https://fny-scantrad.com/manga/fate-...ut/?style=list
The chapter is up, enjoy.
https://fny-scantrad.com/manga/fate-...ut/?style=list
Darius being Zouken without the bugs was something that was already established with the Miyu altar bondage, though.
It's somehow kinda worse/sadder than Zouken, since Zouken's attachment to Justeaze was also intertwined with wanting to end all of the evils of the world with the Third Sorcery.
Darius just wanted Pandora to get the peaceful end she wanted.
Ironically, Darius seems to have become more ambitious and megalomanical due to living as long as he has, while Zouken became obsessed with just not wanting to die.
Yeah, given what we've seen so far, Darius' behavior is not a surprise. He failed to open the Box and desperately tried to extend his life to finish his "mission".
Pandora's reaction, on the other hand, was interesting. In a mirror of how she comforted Julian after his defeat in the present, she was comforting Darius in his last moments in the past. Debbie Downer that she is, I would've expected her to lambast Darius for giving her false hope, but instead Pandora showed compassion. She said it after Julian was beaten, but Pandora stated that he was the second person to try opening the Box, which must mean that Darius (as seen here) was the first. It settles in now that not a single person in 5,000 years tried opening the Box -- not just attempted and failed, but not attempted at all. Darius was the very first person being Pandora met after five millennia not to treat her like a monster or a tool and tried to grant her wish, and she appreciated that.
A shame, then, that this moment also marks the point where Darius jumps off the deep end. The crazy train has left the station, and the brakes have been cut.
Also: the second mention of fairies. Until I see otherwise, I'm sticking to my theory that these "fairies" are justSpoiler:
e: Holy wow that mass tweet thread tagged onto the end. I appreciate you going through so much trouble, killua.
Last edited by Some Jerk; August 26th, 2021 at 06:55 AM.
A chapter that was extremely short and long at the same time.
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Thank you for your work.
shit BL says
Once and always and nevermore.
You know the expression, "the grass is always greener on the other side"? At this point, the trope of immortal wanting to be mortal is about as common as mortal wanting to be immortal. Extra hilarious in Soul Calibur where Zasalamel has done both.
I find it sad that Darius didn't even want immortality for its own sake. It was simply a means to an end, and yet in doing so, he's possibly caused Pandora more pain and suffering than he might have had he just up and died. I don't think it's strictly that immortality = immorality, cause Pandora is immortal and we're clearly supposed to sympathise with her situation, it's that immortality isn't what its cracked up to be, at least that's the trope. You either end up alone and pitiful like Pandora, or you end up a shadow of your former self ala Zouken and Darius. I do find it interesting how the various immortals function when they're not Dead Apostles or the like. Darius is basically a photocopy that gets blurrier with each passing iteration and Zouken is a bag of worms that has to keep eating his own descendants in order to live, and even then, he's kinda fugly compared to his already 300+ self from two centuries ago.
Wait, was it? I thought they just changed it so Illya's hair turned black ala Herc.
Yep, just went back and watched, definitely has Miyu's hairband. That... kind of ruins that entire fight/scene if we lose out on Illya getting to remark how gentle Berserker is.
Zouken also only lived for about 200 years, give or take. Darius has been around for over a thousand.
Agreed, much appreciated.
Zouken was 500+
And what I find more than a little amsuing (and thematically consist across all Nasuverse works) is that the most 'magi' people around tend to be the hero of justice/ stubborn fool types.
Darius is basically noted to be a third rate even by magus standards, and just for the sake of a single person, he slowly over a thousand years became the bullshit Prisma OP guy we see at the present. And tragically has forgotten why he did what did as a result.
Rin's definition of magus in the Heavens Feel route still is in effect it seems.
Wonder if this is going to go all the way to the incident at the end of the previous HGW. If not, I'd have to imagine this has only one or two chapters left. If so, probably five or six.
Maybe Darius didn't actually listen fairy's voice, that maybe Illya and Tanaka's voices while they were beyond of space-time.
And had devolved both physically and mentally to the point you could aruge that ZOLGEN was fundamentally dead, and Zouken was a corpse that reamined
Darius seems to be in a weird middle place between Zouken and Roa in terms of his immortality method.
His degradation is far more insidious I suspect.
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Darius really is a mixture of Roa and Zouken. Also, like them, he had a connection to a non human girl and falls from grace.
Let's rock this joint!
Yeah. I love how that plays out across Nasu's works too. Those who are far removed from the magi mindset are best equipped to overcome the limits of proper magi. Rather than being bound by the "common sense" cultivated from pursuing Magic in a mechanical manner, people like (Saber Route) Shirou and (Prisma) Illya have it carved into their very beings and wield Magic like a natural extension of their own bodies. Illya's development into a Kaleid Liner has been especially great to see. In Darius's case, despite having a strong emotional core, he kept the magi mindset throughout his life, continually analyzing the box straight through to his first "death." Given that his life was one removed from emotion, despite being driven by it, he couldn't accept the result or Pandora's answer. It's no surprise his human emotions overflowed and warped him into an exceptional magus, as ironic and tragic as that is. The power he displayed in the most recent battle looked to be the kind that took a long, twisted, and unnatural path to reach; unlike Illya, who followed a simple, human path.
From the beginning, magi view themselves, their descendants, Servants, and most humans as means to an end rather than something worthwhile in their own right. They have grand ambitions for the world without understanding a thing about it, which plays into why the Holy Grail War is the ultimate farce. A bunch of nobodies removed from worldly affairs become the Masters of those who actively shaped and experienced the worlds they lived in. That's why Masters who connect with their Servants the most are able to draw out the Servant's potential and their own; they confront themselves and the world rather than trying to "kill" the self.
Basically Darius is the idea of the Prisma OP joke and played straight.
Becuase in the Nasuverse the only magi that can pull the shit Darius is doing are the type who have gone far far beyond what is sane, even by magi standards.
Darius makes Zouken and Roa look tame. In both his abilties, and his fucked up nature. Which is fitting for OP Prisma.
He is definitely more tragic. While objectivley I could feel Zouken and Roa's twisted pitiful nature in their respective works, it's far more pity than sympathetic.
Here, the Darius flashback implies that he spent all his life trying to open the box while still retaining his morality /empathy until this moment where he's decides to go all in.
It's a far more tragic take, if only because unlike the other too, Darius and Pandora have a clear relationship. Pandora clearly .cares about Darius in this chaoter.
It isn't just a one way obsession or attraction unlike with Zolgen or Roa.
Makes you wonder if Pandora's wish for death is to free Darius from his obsession as well as herself from this hell.
I've always liked the idea of immortal immorality where a long-lived immortal loses their mortal perspective which causes them to stop caring for others so short-lived and makes their own end-goals more alien as the years go on due to how long they will have to pursue their goals.
In Darius's case, as others have stated, it is more like his own genuine altruistic desire to grant Pandora's wish consumed and twisted his desire to a toxic and destructive obsession that has brought more pain and suffering to those around him, especially Pandora. The Determinator trait twisted to its tragic and horrific conclusion. A horrific mix of Zouken and Roa in a way with his own original altruistic motives being twisted to its current state seemingly from the years that have passed.
It would have been better if he had just died but if he did, no story here.