User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 508: Pleasure and Agony, Review./@comment-4829046-20161101064607

I've seen the "Pain and Pleasure" thing being used in this context so many times(and even wrote an article about it ffs) but while cringey and very confusing, I cannot deny how absolutely humourous it is. Can you imagine telling your 'son' creation to stop making you 'feel good'?Sounds sick alright, but that's what Mashima wrote :P

And the loss of Irene's smug face would have irked me if I had not seen her 'derp' face beforehand and given her overall bitchy attitude towards practically everyone, for once I actually did not mind seeing her look agitated as all hell. >:)

Back to the pain and pleasure thing. I read all the theories but I still call bullshit on the concept. I'm sure Mashima will explain it, but it will dumber than dumbest. In proper physiology(and borderline hentai ironically) you could easily at least trigger the senses to a minor degree. It may not get to levels that will induce asphyxiation or cardiac issues in most people, but assuming you could 'magically' do so, even if it is not fatal, there would still be people that will at least get some reaction. If you don't get any, there are medical conditions attributed to it and none of the people that are still standing are shown to have such conditions. In fact they proved as much in the previous chapter. Age also has very little to do with it, as much as some may want to reject that fact due to disgust of pedophilic connotations(which btw is definitely a thing because for all intents and purposes, Mavis is a loli). Other ecchi series(especially ones that include tentacles) have portrayed this properly, albeit similarly uncomfortably, and if there were exceptions to the rule, it was those that could control or redirect their pleasure senses or otherwise prioritize a procedure prior to actually feeling pleasure, which is surprisingly something documented IRL as well.

And Cana? Do not forget that most of her interactions with other (female) members have been on a very touchy feely level. She knew what she was doing, so we can easily infer that she has practiced plenty. Her supposed experiences with men are the biggest points of issue as everyone has mentioned, but don't forget the sexual interest she has displayed in general. As such, I hardly think sex has anything to do with it, but rather, the way the individual has experienced it. You don't just eat the forbidden fruit, you succumb to it. That's what I think maybe the case.

Only those that have succumbed or have capacity to succumb to deep pleasure of any form can be affected. By that logic, everyone still standing has heavily resisted. Erza, we know from the bullshit Kyouka fights is basically impervious by now. Lucy(despite being the object of sadistic punishment since the start of the manga) pretty much rejected the idea of giving even an ounce of sadistic satisfaction to Dilmaria. Warren is bit of a strange case and it seems to be more of a plot reason(need to have someone with telepathy) than a legit physiological one. Cana is smart, so maybe she always understood that her alcoholism and sexual encounters were not giving her any real satisfaction, as she did it to get her mind off her insecurities, and thus got numbed to the stimuli. We do see her with a bored face when drinking if she was not directly interacting with her friends. The Fairy Glitter argument doesn't work because Mavis still went down. I don't know about Yukino; maybe the whole Sabertooth ordeal steeled her or something.

The thing about it is that Mashima handles it really vaguely when it comes to this series. We know that sex just happens and without needing to have any intimacy involved, but since we get next to nothing about that side of the characters, you can write it up however you want. Hence why I always find the smut fanfics so hard to actually see as anything more than fantasy(lol). Admittedly that is a common problem, especially in action shounen, but when you bring up an ability that is basically one of my most despised types of torture(don't even get me started on it, I'll probably just copy-paste the article I wrote >_>) I expect(like Carry) for it to be handled more maturely.

Welp, there's the rant which I bet some people expected.