User blog:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 409: Wedges of Black and White, Review and Commentary

The cover is about Ichiya encouraging the reader to color his fugly face and sky. It's funny and sickening at the same time so let us move on quickly ( ._.)

We now have another "Strongest Team", which is Gray and Natsu. I don't get it, because those two + Lucy, Erza and Happy are supposed to be strongest team. Why not name them strongest duo or something? >_> Anyway... Mard Geer's Demon Form still attacks with thorns, which kind of disappoints me, I don't even know why.

Also, Natsu can now apparently burn the thorns of Mard's DF despite not being able to do shit against his HF. Wat??? Anyway, Mard grabs Gray and Natsu from their heads, and I thought we'd have another NOW KISS moment like we did in the previous chapter but alas, Mard just scrapes them against some narrow walls. Not very creative, huh?

Back to something more interesting(at least I thought it'd be), which is Sting & Rogue vs. Jiemma. We get some questions answered, i.e. that Jiemma helped Kyouka locate Minerva and add her to Tartarus. Then he proceeds to call her useless.

https://33.media.tumblr.com/3eee40e59c9dbb9eec13a45b96760a56/tumblr_ms7i8ib5B41se9fcoo1_500.gif

...You were one-shot by Sting, could u be a faker bitch?

He has a point, however, she is kind of useless, since she has all this power and never even uses it... but I blame Mashima for that >_> The fight then is kind of like

https://33.media.tumblr.com/e0ede9869c740d30cc085719d2f63ce3/tumblr_n479clnY8F1r1c7rlo4_250.gif https://31.media.tumblr.com/cc910a113c26bba0ed9295647ad7dd65/tumblr_n479clnY8F1r1c7rlo6_250.gif

yeah, those gifs sum it up pretty nicely. Meanwhile Rogue makes some epic faces when he says that they're bringing ST to its true glory while Jiemma says he'll get it back. Sting and Rogue make some more epic faces(Mashima is REALLY good at drawing those) and say that they used to be weak but now they're strong and they have to make him go away.

They then have a debate of Strong Guild vs. Strong Individual, and I say, why not both? Oh, also, SPLATTER! They then have a nakama speech much like Fairy Tail, which they respect now(no shit!) and Jiemma seriously needs to calm his tits because he can't calm the fuck down. Sting and Rogue then fix Jiemma by brutally assassinating him by penetrating him with their "needles". Alrighty then!

The Good

 * Sting and Rogue not being fodder!
 * Minerva being mentioned, and also explaining how Tartarus took her.
 * Natsu & Gray facing difficulties against MG, although we all know how that will turn out next chapter.
 * Dat art!

The Bad
https://33.media.tumblr.com/d96ad39d1d24730fcf70634922485ecb/tumblr_n8l51kXnDC1suzvtso4_250.gif
 * The dialogue. Oh God, I can't describe how much I hated it. We get it, Jiemma is the archetype of a lonely power-hungry guy, like a monk turned-evil, or more or less anyone obsessed with power, while Sting and Rogue are the exact opposite. I know we had it coming from last week, but I don't have to like it, right? ( ._.)
 * Getting rid of Jiemma so fast. This is actually my biggest complaint. He is supposed to be stronger than the 9DG, and all it takes is an attack from Sting and Rogue to rip him up. Franmalth, Kyouka, even Sayla and Jackal were MUCH better than that and I'm pretty sure that at least the first two would knock the fuck out of the Twin Dragons. Now, if we're talking about brute strength this MAY indeed be a fact, but the result is the same; Jiemma got too much hype to be defeated in a single chapter. Well, at least that's out of the way.

Yeah sorry, rant over!

Final Verdict
I am a major fan of Sting and a minor fan of Rogue but this just was not satisfying for me. I got the impression that Mashima just wanted to quickly deal with them and them push them aside to let Natsu and Gray have the main event. I didn't feel like they got much respect in this fight. Then again, Minerva didn't either, but they're not Fairy Tail so I guess that was to be expected.

Next chapter is called "Memento Mori" and I have no idea what it is. If anyone does, please let me know in the comments. Usually I get pumped when I hear unknown words, so I'm pretty excited for it!

Sting or Rogue? Sting Rogue Both! Both suck.

What's your favorite manga genre? Action/Shounen Romance/Shoujo Ecchi *wink wink* Other (Sports, High School life e.t.c.) I don't read other manga)

''So, this week Bleach was ok but nothing to get excited about, just the old man showing how strong he is. I'm pretty interested in the Kyouraku/Ukitake plot though. One Piece was awesome! I feel like the next chapter's gonna be when the flashback ends. Rock Lee's SOY was funny as hell, as usual. The Wendy spinoff was okay, nothing too good but still better than Ice Trail! What do you think of this week's mangas? Let me know in the comments!