(L) Black Clover

[OH&S]

HUUUUUUUUGE PLOT TWIST at the end of Chapter 331:

Spoilers

Spoiler for Chapter 331 HUUUUUUGE Reveal

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This is honestly a shocking turn of events. The only question is if it makes up for how bad the Spade Kingdom Arc has been.

[SidVicious]

Damn...that's crazy.

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by OH&S

HUUUUUUUUGE PLOT TWIST at the end of Chapter 331:

Spoilers

Spoiler for Chapter 331 HUUUUUUGE Reveal

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

This is honestly a shocking turn of events. The only question is if it makes up for how bad the Spade Kingdom Arc has been.

Spoiler:

The theory is that Lucius was rewinding time over and over again, until he got to the outcome where Lucifero was killed and Adrammelech could harvest his heart.

This is why the manga made it a point to keep showing the clock tower in Spade stuck on the same time (6:36) and in the this chapter highlighted the clock starting to move again, plus the name of the chapter.

This is why there were so many miracles when people kept showing up at the right moment and people kept surviving.

[shmaster]

The first 3 siblings have magics on blood, bone, and meat.
And the big bro talked about they have the magic to reshape human beings.
So could the big bro's own magic be the last ingredient: the soul?
And this would explain how he managed to come up with a different identity, he can just rewrite himself into a different person.

[Kuroageha]

And it seems even the anime hinted at this development.

[OH&S]

So I've spent time digesting this and I've arrived at some sort of opinion I can defend. Tabata is generally very good at foreshadowing. There are numerous examples of this in the first 260 chapters. So I fully believe that Tabata has planned this very early on in the story.

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

And it seems even the anime hinted at this development.

Yeah, I've seen a couple of anime pics that can only be interpreted as hinting towards Julius being a traitor. This might change some of the negative opinions I've held over the Elf Arc's conclusion. I've hated the fact that Julius survived regardless of the explanation provided. But if it was all to set him up as the final villain, then I'm all for it. This reveal is comparable to the Aizen reveal in Bleach.

Originally Posted by Endscape

Spoiler:

The theory is that Lucius was rewinding time over and over again, until he got to the outcome where Lucifero was killed and Adrammelech could harvest his heart.

This is why the manga made it a point to keep showing the clock tower in Spade stuck on the same time (6:36) and in the this chapter highlighted the clock starting to move again, plus the name of the chapter.

This is why there were so many miracles when people kept showing up at the right moment and people kept surviving.

I'm 50-50 on that explanation. On one hand the clockface times were a bit inconsistent in the early part of the Spade Kingdom assault. There was an effort made by Tabata to highlight the 5 minute time limit of Asta's Devil Union and 30 minute cooldown period. Repeatedly showing a clockface with inconsistent times can only be an error or deliberate foreshadowing of time shenanigans.

The problem is that I really only see this influencing Asta rescuing Nacht from Lilith and Naamah. Everything else was fully believable as happening in quick succession. After Chapter 289, we don't see the clockface at all until the Lucifero battle and even then its hardly legible. Even if I accept the premise that Julius/Lucius was doing something, I believe this has been conveyed very poorly by Tabata; at least compared to previous foreshadowing.

The bigger question is, does this foreshadowing/setup for a bombshell-reveal justify how bad the arc has been? I honestly don't think so. In the end, none of the villains were interesting and we spent way too long on the Lucifero battle (literally 15 chapters). At this stage, the Elf Arc is still superior.

Comparing it to Bleach again: even without the Aizen reveal, the Soul Society arc was a great arc. Hell, I still think the Aizen reveal was better integrated into the main plot than this was.

Originally Posted by shmaster

The first 3 siblings have magics on blood, bone, and meat.
And the big bro talked about they have the magic to reshape human beings.
So could the big bro's own magic be the last ingredient: the soul?
And this would explain how he managed to come up with a different identity, he can just rewrite himself into a different person.

It could be a similar case to Patry/William: two souls in one body. Hell, depending on where Tabata goes with this, he could make Lucius/Astaroth the ultimate mastermind behind that as well. But it'll take 3 months for us to get solid answers due to the hiatus.

[shmaster]

Looking back, it seems there are other hints.

Spoiler:

Vengeance and Yami are personal recruits my Julius, and those two are the key to summon the Qliphoth.
The time rewind theory also works. There is that one scene Julius is wondering why he is already out of stock on time in the current arc. Lucius must have spent the time on the rewind.

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by shmaster

Looking back, it seems there are other hints.

Spoiler:

Vengeance and Yami are personal recruits my Julius, and those two are the key to summon the Qliphoth.
The time rewind theory also works. There is that one scene Julius is wondering why he is already out of stock on time in the current arc. Lucius must have spent the time on the rewind.

Also

Spoiler for Theory:

Julius was the one who assigned Asta and Yuno (I believe) to the dungeon mission where Asta got Demon Dweller, Yuno got Bell and Mars got his memories back. Without that, Morris would never been run out from Diamond to Spade and Licht couldn't have used Spirit Light Tree to save Clover's best magic knights. These were essential for the Lucifero situation to turn out the way it did. Comes across as rather sus now.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by shmaster

The first 3 siblings have magics on blood, bone, and meat.
And the big bro talked about they have the magic to reshape human beings.
So could the big bro's own magic be the last ingredient: the soul?
And this would explain how he managed to come up with a different identity, he can just rewrite himself into a different person.

I would say it is "Mind" (or "Nerves"), instead of Soul.
That's because, the other 3 Siblings have physical aspects of a body, while Soul is a spiritual aspect. On the other hand "Mind" or "Nerves" are the key factor in a Human body, without which it can work.
Also, if its "Mind", then its more easier to say that Lucius created a new personality in order to arrange for his future plans.

On another note, now that we know the real 3rd Devil, they do represent the dimensional concept of Space, Time & Matter (Gravity is related to the concept of Matter).

[Huh...?]

Is it possible that there is some relation between Asta & Astaroth, considering the naming similarity?

[DragonOsman]

How would Asta's mother have known of that connection when she named him, if such a connection exists?

But man, that really is a pretty shocking reveal. Really wasn't expecting Julius to be a traitor.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by DragonOsman

How would Asta's mother have known of that connection when she named him, if such a connection exists?

Well, that depends on who named Asta, aka., was it a name that Richita
- thought herself, or
- gave based on Asta's Father's suggestion, or
- was put into her mind by someone (from the looks of it, Lucius might have mind-manipulation powers, so its a possibility).

We have already learned about Yuno's Mother & Father (and incidentally his Mother is still alive, meaning he doesn't have to take the throne of <s>Shade</s> Spade immediately).

While on the other hand, we have only learned about Asta's Mother, and there is no info about his Father yet.
To me the existence of Asta's Father is more interesting, since considering Richita's innate ability to absorb magic power and life-force from people and creatures near her (if they have Mana), its kind-off surprising she was able to get pregnant in the first place.

Originally Posted by DragonOsman

But man, that really is a pretty shocking reveal. Really wasn't expecting Julius to be a traitor.

Well, i wouldn't yet call Julius a Traitor, if he wasn't in-control of the whole situation.
From the looks of it, it seems that Lucius might have the ability to create Fake Personalities (especially if we go by the theory that he has Mind/Nerve magic, similar to human body component magic his siblings have in the form of Muscle, Bone & Blood Magic).
And if Julius is just a byproduct of the a fake personality, then he isn't really a traitor, but rather a unintended victim.

[DragonOsman]

The name of the kingdom Yuno's from is Spade, not Shade. The kingdoms in this series are named after playing card suits: Clover, Diamond, Spade, and Hearts. Just keep that in mind.

Anyway, yeah, that's a good point about Asta's father and also about Julius. It does seem like the Julius we knew was a separate personality.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by DragonOsman

The name of the kingdom Yuno's from is Spade, not Shade.

Know that, but guess the auto-correct changed it somehow which i didn't notice.

[SidVicious]

Any news about the next chapter?

Edit: Preview is out. 1 year time-skip.

https://mobile.twitter.com/shonenlea...60078131793923

[tsunade666]

Asta confess to Sista!!!

[Sixth]

Spoiler for chapter 332 spoiler:

Lucius will kill Asta's harem?

[Huh...?]

Lucius is going Thanos on us.

[DragonOsman]

If he kills the harem, won't the story get a bit too dark? Maybe there's going to still be a way to bring them all back.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by DragonOsman

If he kills the harem, won't the story get a bit too dark? Maybe there's going to still be a way to bring them all back.

My guess is that, either
- he is going to frame Asta somehow, like get himself stabbed in front of the whole Kingdom by Asta, to make him a criminal for attempting to kill the Wizard King (Asta's fame is still in question in the Kingdom, because he uses Devil Magic which was also made clear at the start of the the previous chapter), while in the meantime kidnaps everyone who knows about him and seal them in Demon World (so Asta has to do a solo job of infiltrating the Demon World and save everyone).
OR
- he is successfully able to kidnap Asta and seal him in the Demon World, and the Final Arc would focus more on everyone going to Demon World to save Asta.