User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 457: Naked Battle, Review./@comment-24546844-20151019123830

Don't know... I've read this chapter twice already (before and after reading this review) but it doesn't look that awesome to me. Maybe the whole naked thing turned me off, or it's just that I'm not that excited to read Fairy Tail recently and should take a short break (not gonna happen). Got to admit that Lucy is adorable with those cat ears. If only it wasn't in the middle of a war. Also I almost missed the whole thing about Lucy wanting to stab Brandish the first time I read the chapter because I was just skipping the pages, but in the end it's really nice to see Lucy actually take initiative and going for the kill as she is aware that brandish is a major danger for the whole town. I doubt that she would have suceeded anyway.

About Brandish knowing Layla and seemingly hating her I've thought of an interesting theory. We don't know Brandish's age yet but if she's a bit older than she looks then acording to my theory Brandy and Layla used to live in Alvarez and be childhood friends until some major event happened (possibly related to Zeref) and Layla decided to run away abandoning Brandish to a cruel fate. I know it's a bit vague right now because I have'nt put much thought on it but there are two things that, the way I see, support this. 1. Love & Lucky, Laylas original guild, was a merchant guild, and what does a merchant do? They travel. Moving around is important if you want new merchandise and clients to negotiate so they traveled around the world including Alvarez. Layla saw in them a chance to escape her fate, whatever it was, and found a way to join them when they were returning to Ishgar. Brandish has a grudge with her because Layla didn't take her too. 2. The age thing is explained by Zeref casting a aging slower magic on all the Spriggan. That explains why most of them look so young even though they are so powerfull. Or maybe not and she just looks unaturaly young because manga logic. Also Brandish won't be revealing anything until the most crucial moment in about 10-20 chapters so I better not put much thought on it for now.

You know, I was surprised that Lucy seemingly killed Marin (he's alive for sure), but then I realised she was ready to kill Brandish before, and that's really good to be fair. No good guy BS, if this is a war to protect humanity you must be ready to kill to save your's and your friend's lives. But contrary to Jak I didn't like it. Marin was sort of a trumph card for Alvarez, he shouldn't have gone that easy. I think there should be a fight between him and someone else. Anyway I blame it on Brandish for not bringing him back to his normal size or protecting him from Lucy. Also smart of Lucy to remember what his magic does. And YAY Cana is here. Are we finally going to see her in a true fight?

And the meh part. The whole fight with the Ajeel squad was off-screened. Damn you Mashima. Also aparently Natsu can "Dragon punch your ass into the Milky Way" (do you get the reference?) now. And then here comes Erza BS her way into victory. I really don't want that to be Ajeel's end, that'd be too underwhelming. She wasn't even using the Nakama pants! But considering the amount of (what looks like) blood on that panel this may trully be the end for him. I hope not and he's just bluffing.

"Morning Star", you know what comes to my mind? LUCIFER! SATANAS! CAPIROTO! Okay, I don't really think a chapter waould be named after an armor that was already shown before. I wonder if Hiro even remembers it. It must be something new of course. Maybe something related to Lucy as her name imply light too. Anyway, this is it, hope next chapter is better.