NovaFortuna

I can't help but feel it's kind of cheap that Muel has access to her uber powers just like that. Having Mu be that strong in CS made sense since she was a final boss and was an omnicidal force out of control, but now doing all that with no drawbacks seems a bit too much, or at least have a harder time before controlling such power.

Remember Ragna's killing sprees were retconned in Calamity Trigger Reconstruction, now he just destroys everything and beat people up but avoids killing. My two cents about Rags...He is not an idiot at all, but his habit of tackling at things without thinking or being so easily provoked can come as being a fool. He does have his reasons to be pissed off at everything and his allies do lack communication skills, but to be honest even if their reasons are vague, if people is telling you to not do something is for a reason and you should try consider it. Ragna usually skips that part, so he does have a bit of fault in that as well. My own issue with him is that his foul mouthed, decided anti hero has become a bit tired, at least for me. There are a few times when he stops his usual speech pattern ("shut up, you bastard" "*swearing*" "I decide my fate!!") and really comes as awesome, namely his last words to Jin in his CS story and his pre battle dialogue with Mu. I think if he can develop into the guy he is in the novels it would be the best scenario, start putting the rage behind, looking up and everything a bit more. Just my thoughts, though.

This is kind of silly to ask but: There is something I never quite got about Rags and the Black Beast. At first I thought he indeed was the Black Beast reincarnated as his moveset is dark based, parts of the Black Beast appear in his attacks, etc. Then we see the Black Beast is Ragna's Azure with Nu's Azure fusing or something, and Rags is thrown Azureless to another place. Then Ragna is eaten and becomes part of the Black Beast again or something, and also his Azure alone can create a Black Beast on CS. Sooo...how does Ragna the Black Beast works again? If anyone with an Azure can become a Black Beast why is Ragna alone called Dark One? And if darkness comes from the Azure and not the Black Beast itself why only Rags has that element? Is all that related to his own Azure? Kinda seems despite being a prototype or imprefect it's the most unique one.

Kinda agree with you, but the problem with the Tsubaki thing is that once done he once again has no porpouse aside Niisan unless something else happens. From arcade we know Tsubaki will be fine before the game ends. Tsubaki got her answers as Izayoi, she pretty much doesn't need Jin anymore to be on the good side. This wouldn't be so bad if Jin was a minor character or a supporting one, but he is promoted as a main character, yet his impact in the story is one of the lesser of the cast (and no, Hakumen doesn't count, he is a character on his own) How about a heroic sacrifice to save Tsubaki? I can see him doing that Pretty much what I think as well. EDIT: Cut down obnoxiously long post

Kind goes with my point: good ideas poor execution. He had material, but every way of using Jin was screwed up big time. He is not a completely pointless character, he is a completely wasted character. And yeah, I'd be surprised it if Hakumen lives to see the games ending, he'll probably pass the torch or something.

As with all with him, there are just implications and no straight answers about it. I think it's likely Jin will get over his hatred for Noel and his niisaan, but if they actually use his character for something and stop just giving us setups that aren't mentioned again. I insist once again, Jin carries several good ideas on him that would make him a pretty interesting chracter and even relevant to the plot if were used properly, but they are poorly executed and he just comes as a sissy joke villian for Ragna and the evil step mother to Noel's cinderella. Gee, sometimes I wonder if Mori didn't make Jin to make his two main heroes look better.

That could be easily accomplished with two simple steps: 1: show openly and clearly why Jin is so hellbent on killing Ragna, so it's no longer the depraved molester's routine and has some actual weight and may even make Ragna consider his little brother enough to actually stop and try to settle things instead of rushing off . 2: make Jin actually win one of their encounter with Ragna not holding back, so whenever Jin shows up again, Ragna knows shit is about to go down (this isn't hard to pull or farfetched if they actually use the power of order given it made Jin strong enough to force Hazama to retreat and survive fine and dandy an encounter with Phantom). Now if Jin actually grows out of the nissan mode and still wants to kill Ragna but with his usual cold and rude attitude, now that would be awesome, because it would mean he has strong reasons for it and can't just blame it on Yukianesa, insanity, Hazama or whatever. But this last part is just my inner fanboy talking. I am sure (and hope) they will settle things when approaching the end of the story and no more rivalry and will team up. The yukianesa thing was kind of a "middle finger", when it was finally going to be shown what's the deal with our jerk, we get a scene cut. Another "aha! this will be answered next episode for the sake of mystery!" that just doesn't help, especially if it's taken in count that probably Ragna knows what happened now and just the players are stuck without knowing.

That's gotta be the sole scene where they have an actually meaning relationship. I listed this rivalry as something wasted in my post not because it's by itself a poor idea, but rather a good idea poorly executed. Jin was until the end of CS a completely wasted character, Hakumen not only had all the hype to get a good conflict with Ragna but also had story relevance. Jin only had for most part chasing down Ragna and when the moment came, he was swatted aside and not mentioned again. You could completely remove Jin from Ragna's story and nothing changes. Doesn't help Mori pits their fights at the worst possible moments, when Ragna is in a rush to do something else, the abysmal difference in power that just prevents Ragna from taking Jin seriously and that most of Jin's story have been completely unexplored or just set up without paid off (Tsubaki's rescue aside, since that worked out) to possibly make Jin significant in some way to Ragna's objectives. Jin makes no difference in Ragna's story, even if his own depends on chasing down his big brother. Also, Hakumen may not become stronger per se, but he may recover more of his lost power, which works the same as becoming stronger. Ragna's side of this "rivalry" is at worst considering Jin a maggot and avoiding him because he is a pest and at best seeing his kid brother completely misguided and deluded in life so he looks to set him in the right path, but he never actually takes him as a rival or a threat. And as pointed out by BlackYakuzu94, Jin didn't progress until they touched Tsubaki, which is his first involvement with the actual plot, ironically. And at that, the antagonism he had with evil Tsubaki while it lasted, was not a rivalry, but it did make a much more interesting thing given how both did add something and were willing to fight for several reasons. That's what I think at least

I kind of agree with you. I also like the story a lot. I wouldn't say genius, and the BB story is flawed, but it has some really good material, some pretty nice ideas and how most details about the whole world in it are thought out really shows that Mori did go through a lot to put something together. I don't consider Mori brilliant, but I don't see him as a fool on the matter either. But I insist, it's the use of some of those ideas that puts the overall down at times, say how convoluted is the whole order of events, the lack of proper exposition of many plot relevant elements and the overuse of "the character knows, but he won't let the audience know", which is nice for building up mystery and all, but now it just prevents us from knowing what's going on. Though this can work on the favor of the story at times. I am pretty sure Jin was intended to be Ragna's worthy rival and Hakumen the kind of "oh shit!" kind of enemy for him, yet the way things were played Jin is little more than a Team Rocket for Ragna, but Hakumen became a full fledged rival which indeed has a rather epic conflict with him. At least it feels like that for me.

The sad part is that you can tell Mori is trying hard with the story, he is putting a lot of work and effort on it, but keeps screwing things here and there with executions and some really silly decisions. Many things are indeed good ideas, but are poorly executed.

Makoto is half beastkin?

Perhaps the mass production of some beastkins was used against the Black Beast as Terumi said. I dunno. On a side note: Just read the info on Izayoi's arcade. So Jin did save her? Was it shown how she left the Imperator and such or only implied for now?

Yeah, I read a bit after you gave me the link. True that they are not following the myth completely, but still it would be interesting if Terumi actually did something with the Susanoo that forced Amaterasu to go into the boundary and now he's looking for a way to take her out to fix his mistake before taking her outl.

So... Hakumen put the master unit there and Terumi wants to take it out by luring it out or something?

Question: Has there been any info on what is the Nemesis Horizon?

If the artificial human carries to all of them perhaps they were made with the same source material, the same project or something

Perhaps they could just use one of the two billion of setups that came in CS. One of the many: -Power of Order -His destiny as the antibody -The war of Ikaruga and what he saw there -Yukianesa and Saya -His fate from what he must be saved by Noel (according to Jubei, why he sent her chase him down again) -Kagura (Well he is from the Duodecim) -His actual backstory and the mess of events there Though I can see Mori putting him aside in all of this again. He did say in the last interview that the relationship with Saya will be important for Ragna and Noel (no mention of Jin).

I actually like Nora's theory. Can't say much for or against it but it would be pretty cool. If he was used in a more direct way from the black beast remains it would explain why only him among Azure users have darkness based attacks and parts of the Black Beast appearing among them. At first I though it was because his Azure is the one that would form the Black Beast or something, but seems any azure out of control can make one. Could be mistaken, though, that part is quite a mess. I remember though that someone (I think it was Jin or Rachel) mentioned Ragna had little Ars Magus aptitude before he got his azure. Is that correct?

That would explain why she's so mentally screwed up.

Nice to meet you, too. Apparently Amaterasu is on its own, could be mistaken though.

Nope, it takes every cliché, takes the best advantage of their charm and does something that turns pretty good.

That would be nice. Learn who are the two kids and how did they end up sharing a body with Trinity-

Well, that's also a possible outcome of that fight. Az stomping the living hell of the evil duo would be cathartic. And since Hazma is no chump he would probably be excited about fighting him

Did Kokonoe have to do with his release or were some other members? While probably only Ragna has made him get serious lately, I can't see him beating Rachel without removing the Enchant Dragunov (that' the seals name, right?)

I've been wondering about Az for a while. He just loves fighting that much, so long he gets a good fight with someone the rest doesn't matter to him. Is that why he's chasing Ragna? Is he the ultimate opponent around or something?