User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Chapter 317: Frog, Review/@comment-4047931-20130204193938

Well another chapter out of the way and honestly it wasn't anything too special in my opinion for the most part but it is slightly improving but it was basically on the same level as last week (Fanboyism aside because I loved the part before the conclusion being a fan of Gajeel and Rogue). The whole future business is just becoming more convoluted as more is actually being revealed and the ending was a little odd. Anyway let’s just move to the big portion.

I must admit the covers were very nice with the brief look at all the members of Team Fairy Tail and looking at what happened at the end I guess the order of who we are going to see in action will be from bottom to top starting with Gajeel. One thing though was the text to the left which said "A Fierce Unpredictable Battle!" Yeah if you want to make it unpredictable make Fairy Tail lose some of these battles. I just saying it would be a surprise or be enjoyable if Fairy Tail lost some of their battles in the GMG or none of this plot armor crap, make it logical if they are going to defeat their opponents and that would be unpredictable. Now the double paged cover looked very nice as well but I wouldn't say "Always Bringing Big Satisfaction" because that is just a blatant lie especially in this arc. Anyway after finally getting to the start of the chapter after raging over a few words I got rather unpleasant sight of the time travelling plot of this arc. So future Lucy had just explained to her friends about whole dragon attack while everyone else is shocked as you would be if you heard that 10,000 giant winged dinosaurs were coming to kill, oh wait actually I would more along the lines of dragging that person to a psychiatrist because 10,000 dragons are just ridiculous. On another note I love how Datong refers to the dragons as a murder like group of crows as they are related to death. I'm also glad to see that the Princess does actually consider it dumb that there are 10,000 dragons. Anyway what went on really was a little humor from Natsu, a couple of NaLu moments for the rather insane fans, Yukino blaming herself for bad luck, Arcadios begins to question the truth behind Future Lucy’s words and Lucy also explains that she doesn't know hope to stop the “Dragons”. I don't feel much to anything during this moment as they were giving all this thought about the dragons attacking them only tell us that they could be ulterior motives around the whole business. It just feels confusing that with all this being thrown around. I do enjoy that there is some mystery to it all but now what we just learned about the dragons seems irrelevant now. I did enjoy Arcadios discussing that he knew that the Future Lucy was lying through the past and even though it probably isn’t the best idea to keep it to himself but it does seem like a smart idea looking how Natsu would jump at the chance to help Lucy if Arcadios tried confronting her. Anyway this scene did make me think about what was going to happen with these guys but they could have held onto the mystery of Lucy possibly telling lies for later as it removes any shock about the dragons from last chapter. It’s just feels rushed as it would have been used to greater effect if we found out later. Maybe Arcadios could have still been unconscious and unable to mention that Lucy was lying for later. I just consider this a little bit of bad writing.

Now we got a glimpse of Jellal and the gang talking about Future Lucy’s words much like Arcadios. Jellal talks about there being two likely possibilities to Future Lucy with her telling lies or that she is an impostor. I liked how they were taking most of the big factors into account revealed into this arc. It does seem more likely that this Lucy is an impostor rather than telling lies to her friends as knowing Fairy Tail she wouldn't do that sort of thing unless something disastrous is pressuring her into this. There are a few theories that come to mind like Lucy being forced be Zeref or another villain to meddle with the past seeing how due to intervention by some good mages foiled that villain’s plans and ended in the deaths of Lucy’s friends some the villain made her go back in time to change the past with the promise of saving her friends. I hope there is some interesting reason for Lucy coming back and acting like this to her friends as it does feel like something good could be done with this.

Now this is the main part of the chapter that I was looking forward to the most the best. Now although we didn't as much of a fight as I wanted, seeing Rogue and Gajeel here was still good. Now begin with Gajeel beating Rogue even further after “poking the bear” and then we get I look into Rogue’s past. What we were told was a little basic but it was still really enjoyable to hear that Rogue used to be this kid that admired a guild he thought to be great, much like Yukino and Sabertooth, and that he is actually able to understand guy Gajeel was able to be so easily accepted by Fairy Tail seeing how Iron Man was able make some bonds there. Also we got to see more of what Rogue thinks of Sabertooth bringing in that contrast between the guilds and part of the reason why I like him so much. Then we saw him question being in Sabertooth altogether as him admits his guild follows down the path of just gaining power and dominance over the other guilds leaving little satisfaction with victory to people like Rogue and it actually makes sense to how we saw him at the start of this arc being unhappy with his guild. Also it’s the most emotion we've seen from Rogue ever really. Anyway Rogue tells Gajeel that he wouldn't be able to beat Gajeel with nothing meaningful to fight for unlike his opponents yet talks how Minerva’s strength is enough for her to hold up against her enemies, who I think people have been underestimating her power, and talks about Stings drive to save Lector would be able to carry himself to victory and I felt it was quite interesting to see Rogue in this crisis over his guild. Then Gajeel informs him that he has a friend in Frosch in a guild and after a nice bit of comedy Rogue tells Gajeel that Frosch is indeed his friend. It was actually and very happy moment as his enemy tells him to get out of the dumps and itkind of showed the free-heartedness of the competition I wanted to see and Frosch was being cute and what Rogue said at the end could be interpreted towards both Frosch and himself and I like to think it was himself showing he had the resolve to fight back against Gajeel. Then things got a little... well odd. Rogue then began to hear a dark voice telling him to commit the horrible deed of murder against Gajeel revealing that that voice comes from his shadow telling him that he will lend him the power to do so and then it ends. Well... that was unexpected. I feel a bit torn between this moment as on one hand we have a kind of ridiculous introduction with this shadow being coming out of nowhere considering what happened a few pages before with Gajeel and Rogue having a rather friendly moment. On the other had is very intriguing to see this force behind Rogue and it looks like a way to bring an awesome battle. Few things come to mind about over this; it could be I side effect to the Lacrima in his body, it could Minerva intervening, a dark force like Zeref or even Raven Tail using Rogue to get at Gajeel or maybe a side of Rogue we are unaware of which could be related to his feeling to Sabertooth being unleashed or even Gajeel as he did look up to him and considering how he is aware of Gajeel being in Phantom Lord and saw him one day on a mission and saw his exploits and cruelty when he was still bad guy under Jose and these are just those feeling of hate and disgusting mixing into his magic? It feels like it is some sort of split personality I could consider that last idea as a person’s shadow could be considered the darker side of themselves. I do feel that this could be forgotten about after this battle but I wish this fight to be carried on for two more chapters so we can get some action and hopefully a good conclusion.

Overall an enjoyable chapter with some mystery to it get it demolished any surprise over the dragons, even though I wasn't too thrilled over it in the first place, and it raises more questions than answers now. As for Rogue I really enjoyed seeing the two dragon slayers and Rogue expressing what he feels about his guild openly to someone and this conflict of considering why he even fights for Sabertooth when he has different views of what’s import to his guild. The moment Gajeel makes Rogue open his eyes to how he does have a friend in his guild was corny yet heart-warming, yet I wonder why Sting isn't openly stated as his friend seeing how they were able to use Unison Raid together. Then the Rogue’s Shadow came along to add more questions to the mix yet I hope it will be used well like maybe taking over Rogue as I wouldn't think he would try to kill freely Gajeel. I will just be glad if we good fight over anything and I am anxious to find out about this Shadow and its motives.