User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 281: Malice is Concealed by the Curtain of Night, Review./@comment-4449950-20120505132932

Okay... here goes nothing... prepare for something long... I have no idea how much space I'm going to need to say this.

Firstly, I do not believe that Mashima put the stripping scene in for fan-service. There was nothing "sexy" or "hot" or "cute" about the scene at all, and I don't believe it was intended to be that way.

Now, there have been quite a few scene popping up like this one in the manga recently, and I believe they are done for an over-all purpose. The one before this was the beating of Flare. Now, the most normal reaction this would invoke in a reader would be the typical question of "What kind of low-life would do such a thing?" with the typical answer being "Someone truly evil/mean/low/immoral". However, though this could be considered to some the correct answer, it cannot be denied that this sort of thing happens all over the world. There are people (both female and male -and I am not going to get into the whole "females being considered lower than males" issue at this point in time) all over the world who experience abuse/degradation, and it is the people who choose to believe that everything is alright and that these "evil people" do not exist who are naive.

Now, with that being said, the stripping of Yukino did not surprise me. I knew something was coming from the moment Yukino lost her battle. But the thing here -to me at least- was not what was being done, but rather how it was being done. The Sabertooth guild has been shown as one that considers itself the best in Fiore. The guild master seems determined to uphold that title and will do anything to keep his members in line. He could have easily excommunicated Yukino privately, but he did not. Instead, he chose to gather the entire guild and show them what was happening. This is a power play. He wanted them all to witness exactly what would happen if they were weak. That is one part. The second is the stripping itself. The master could have easily made Yukino remove her guild mark without the removal of her clothes, however, this would have appeared to the others as saying "Look, if you are weak, I'll make you remove your mark and leave." It is not frightening, it is not intimidating. However, he could have easily physically beaten Yukino in-front of the other members. It would have been very good in showing his own power. He did not do this though. He chose to give Yukino her words and her own way, he asked her to do everything herself. By making Yukino remove her own clothes -he could have done it himself- he was showing that he is the authority, the master, but still maintaining the idea that she was doing everything herself, which makes him come across as less of a bad guy. Any one of the ST members probably would have stepped forward and said something against his actions if he had done something to her physically, and the master knows it. So then you get this line in-between, the place where the master can look tough and ruthless and the guild can still feel no need to step forward. And so the members do nothing but stand by and watch. It was not a situation for them to interfere into. It was between Yukino and the master, that is all. She could have refused, but she would have appeared weaker. In fact, in my opinion, what she did was very strong. Not only did she do as he said, she also thanked him for the time she was in the guild and held her emotions. It was a psychological battle between the two, and though Yukino was going to lose from the start, she lost as powerfully as she could.

The scene was done (in my opinion) to show the forcefulness of the master, but also to draw contrast to the Raven Tail guild and their "evil actions". If the beating of Flare was "bad", shouldn't this be as well? Shouldn't RT and ST now be in the same boat? The point is, they aren't. ST is considered a marvellous guild of strong Mages, whist RT is viewed as an evil guild full of evil people. I believe Mashima did this scene for this point. He wanted to draw upon this idea. Just because someone is labelled as "good" or "evil" does not mean that they do not possess any traits of the opposite. Rogue pointed this out too. He questioned the actions of the guild and labelled it as such (This is a "guild"?). He was highlighting (imo) the point I am trying to make. Though they are a guild, a place thought to be accepting, kind and open, they acted the opposite.

In conclusion (what is this, a freakin' essay >.<") I therefore do not think this scene was not required. I do not believe is was kind or morally correct, but I believe it brought up a very important, philosophical and subjective idea.

...*sighs* and that is my opinion. Feel free to comment, but it has taken me around half an hour to type this and it'll probably take me just as long to form my words to reply to anything you have to say. I respect all of your opinions and this is mine.

Fire away... and sorry for the length... I've just realised how long this is -____-"