User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 297: The Face of the Girl I Saw Back Then, Review./@comment-4047931-20120901212634

First of all Dat Ass indeed. Now this was a very enjoyable chapter and it's a step further along road to making up for the crappy fights of the 4th day. I probably didn't like this chapter as much as I should have but it was nice to see the plot beginning to move. Anyway on to the chapter.

Now we got Natsu standing over and Sting and Rogue flat on their faces with everyone cheering over Fairy Tail's victory (did anyone else see Griff among Fairy Tail?) and the event for the final day was announced sounding awesome with a survival battle involving everyone from each team. Now with everyone aiming at Fairy Tail now it appears we have been given a little hint to which characters will be fighting each other in this last battle, for example it looks like Gray, Rufus and Lyon will all be battling each other but it does seem that going by this Ren will be fighting Gajeel and Ichiya, Natsu. Well with the celebrating and announcement done we got to see Sabertooth's reaction which I was rather surprised with, well apart from Lector who I could help but feel sad for. Now for the rest I expected them to be a bit more pissed off but they just appeared to shrug off their team’s loss. To me it was a way of showing that they are above Sting and Rogue in strength which I found was a good thing as the battles would be a lot more interesting this way even though I like Sting and Rogue more than the other three members of Team Sabertooth. Now looking at Jiemma it was the best reaction to the battle without a doubt. I found it hilarious just that everyone notices who they are sitting beside and then run like hell because of Jiemma's rage. He must have remembered that one point Sting lost meaning he is going to be really pissed off at his White Dragon Slayer (why is it when I begin liking him he probably ends up being kicked out of his guild?). Either way a really good start to the chapter.

Now if Sting saw that score broad he would be kicking himself in the ass and underground it was good to see Natsu's forgiving nature but did he really have to look like Chelia when doing so. He could have at least opened his eyes when asking to fight again making it a little bit different. Now one of my favorite parts of this chapter was Rogue's epiphany about his power. I like Rogue; he is one of my favorite charters but this moment made me like him even more than before. Time and time again we see characters who overestimate their own strength and then we see them get their asses kicked. Normally they still think there top bananas and refuse to believe they are below their opponent but very rarely we see those who know they weaker and realize that they have been looking through rose-colored glasses. Rogue was one of these characters and I found a lot of respect for him when he admitted this. With this said I really hope Rogue becomes stronger being able to fight on par with Natsu and Gajeel and doesn't get thrown aside and I’m probably going to be saying something similar to Sting if he gets kicked out of Sabertooth. Now on to Gajeel who finally falls out the mine cart letting us see what was hidden in the arena's underground. Now it was hinted during the battle between Sting and Rogue and Natsu and Gajeel that there was something related to dragons underground because there were pieces of dragon stonework on the ruined buildings underground so it wasn't much of a surprise that Gajeel found something to do with dragons but it will be interesting to find out WHY ARE THERE A BUNCH OF DEAD DRAGONS UNDER THE ARENA!?!?!?!

Now outside Jellal was doing his usual track down the presence thing by perusing the hooded figure and he was looking pretty cool while doing so but before we could see more of Jellal we got to see Yukino. Well Yukino, it was nice to see you with a smile on your face and after all you went through you deserved something good, but oh the irony. Being invited by Arcadios for the Eclipse Project and being owner of 2 of the 12 golden keys, Yukino cannot catch a break.

Mean while in the sick bay, Carla sees another vision of Mercurius being destroyed yet doesn't decide to tell anyone and Levy comes in to check up on Lucy to talk about how well Team Fairy Tail are doing. This little happy moment just felt it was to add more of an impact to what the next few pages had in store for us and I say that it worked. Seeing the cheer of Team FT (not including Gajeel) and the delighted faces of Lucy and Levy just made the next part so much sadder. Seeing levy scared and in tears made me feel a bit depressed, just how they were so happy a second ago then switch the page and Levy is talking about the deaths of those close to her. Also we're seeing one of the kindest and sweetest characters with scars over her face, crying uncontrollably and trembling over this event which occurred on the 7th of July. I really want to see the extent of what happened on this day but it looks to me that 6 important characters connected to Fairy Tail died on that day along with the other civilians. Still a very depressing moment which was done near perfectly to create that feeling of sadness and despair.

Well after that view of a post apocalyptic future we went back to Jellal again. Now either Jellal is the smartest vigilante or the dumbest criminal. His idea was smart to get the truth out of the hooded figure showing how easy to trust he is but knowing you're a wanted man you really don't show your face straight away like that. You don't even know if you are being watched or not. Even with this risk at least Jellal got a lot out of it. Now the woman turns around to real her face and seeing Jellal's reaction you know that he has seen this face before but before we can take a look the chapter ends with a big "To Be Continued!".... You know it would have been a lot better if the chapter ended like they usually do because that last page looked to me as a big F*CK YOU! Also this reveal may be exiting but after finding out the true identity of Tobi in Naruto I feel little about it but I hope it will give me goose bumps like Tobi did. Still pretty good seeing we’re getting somewhere with the presence of Zeref thing.

This was a really big improvement over the last four weeks (jeez four weeks with 2 bad chapters, 1 mediocre and 1 god awful chapter) with this chapter actually being a good chapter, finally moving the plot along and leaving a few nice questions waiting to be answered. Now concerning the hooded woman, probably like a lot of people I see the hooded figure being someone from the future. I honestly see it being Lucy coming back to change the past stopping all those who died on the 7th meeting their fate because of the tear down here cheek when Natsu was fighting could be out of happiness of seeing those feeling that Natsu brings in everyone or just seeing Natsu again presuming he died on the 7th. Also with Levy writing a letter to Lucy could just be a way of venting her feelings about the event being depressed with some of the members of Fairy Tail being dead and with Lucy gone to the past she has nobody who she was very close like Lucy talk to. Thinking about that it could be that Lucy wasn’t part of the Eclipse Plan in the timeline that leads to all the deaths on the 7th of July and now she plans to change that by becoming a sacrifice for it. As for the series coming to an end, well unless Hiro reveals all the other members of the ten wizard saints and brings Tartarus in to the plot this arc I don't see Fairy Tail ending for another 2-4 arcs but that's just me. Anyway this chapter has got me pumped for the next few chapters as the fights should be good with it current line up for some looking like Laxus, Orga and Jura will all be together, the same with Erza, Minerva and Kagura and finally Gray, Rufus and Lyon like I said before but still I have little idea over who would be fighting Gajeel and Natsu. The rest of the night should be fun and I can't wait to see how Jellal has found under the hood but I guess will have to wait till next week... wait TWO WEEKS!?! Oh son of a b*tch!!!!!!!!