To Aru Majutsu no Index LN - New Testament Volume 20 Discussion / Poll

[dniv]

The best line was definitely that Sphinx line from touma lmao.

[zibi88]

All Othinus-Touma interreactions were golden, Othinus jelly moments. Still sad that this volume did not use Nepthys or Niang in any way besides having them as translators... would like for them to appear in front of Touma to add some more stress onto him (and give him a chance to thank our mummy girl for saving Patricia)

The volume was kinda slow and not hat much interesting, the real fight starts at the very end of the volume with the trio united vs golden wizards. Still I wonder if Accel made that contract with that demon... well it would be kinda funny to have Accel have a demon inside... kinda like how Touma might be, IB outside but inside a evil beign.

[alex_drian]

This was a great volume. I wonder if all the Golden magicians are stronger that the modern ones.

I would only wish that the Gurren Lagann moment of "who the hell do you think we are?" with Touma and Accelerator was an illustration instead of the Mikoto and Misaki one.

[mark1246]

Originally Posted by alex_drian

This was a great volume. I wonder if all the Golden magicians are stronger that the modern ones.

I would only wish that the Gurren Lagann moment of "who the hell do you think we are?" with Touma and Accelerator was an illustration instead of the Mikoto and Misaki one.

There is a fan art of that scene in the To arc universe facebook page and it lit!

[WiliamZ0]

I wonder why no one take this scene in Epilogue part seriously...

xxx

“But, hm. So it was a magical transformer using the differently-shaped coils created from the discrepancies between people. Coronzon put some thought into that one…but does she have no fear at all? It was certainly an excellent Crowley killer, but to think she tried to connect to your inner side.”

“?”

“Have you forgotten what happened to Rensa, the esper cyborg who readily hijacked the #3 or the #5’s powers when ordered to by Yakumi Hisako as part of the Agitate Halation Project? She was destroyed the instant she tried to read you. A similar self-destruction could have happened here.”

“…If you’re not actually going to explain, I’m just going to put this off until later, you damn intellectual.”

[Requiem-x]

Originally Posted by WiliamZ0

I wonder why no one take this scene in Epilogue part seriously...

xxx

“But, hm. So it was a magical transformer using the differently-shaped coils created from the discrepancies between people. Coronzon put some thought into that one…but does she have no fear at all? It was certainly an excellent Crowley killer, but to think she tried to connect to your inner side.”

“?”

“Have you forgotten what happened to Rensa, the esper cyborg who readily hijacked the #3 or the #5’s powers when ordered to by Yakumi Hisako as part of the Agitate Halation Project? She was destroyed the instant she tried to read you. A similar self-destruction could have happened here.”

“…If you’re not actually going to explain, I’m just going to put this off until later, you damn intellectual.”

Give it time, I'm sure the next volume will give some craziness in that regard, considerig the actors and the stage involved.

[Chosen_Hero]

Originally Posted by WiliamZ0

I wonder why no one take this scene in Epilogue part seriously...

xxx

“But, hm. So it was a magical transformer using the differently-shaped coils created from the discrepancies between people. Coronzon put some thought into that one…but does she have no fear at all? It was certainly an excellent Crowley killer, but to think she tried to connect to your inner side.”

“?”

“Have you forgotten what happened to Rensa, the esper cyborg who readily hijacked the #3 or the #5’s powers when ordered to by Yakumi Hisako as part of the Agitate Halation Project? She was destroyed the instant she tried to read you. A similar self-destruction could have happened here.”

“…If you’re not actually going to explain, I’m just going to put this off until later, you damn intellectual.”

No one has mentioned it because at this point we have learned not to follow the rabbit, especially when there are so damn many. Just leave it alone and it will come to you when it is ready.

[alex_drian]

Originally Posted by mark1246

There is a fan art of that scene in the To arc universe facebook page and it lit!

Oh yeah, I found it

Spoiler:

[LazyHunter]

Othinus, Touma and Aleister were awesome in this volume. Surprisingly, I also enjoyed Agnese and Orsola's scenes a lot more than I thought I would.

Accelerator seems to be being set up for something, so I don't mind that he did very little in terms of action in this volume (though the trashing he gave Holegres was a perfect replacement for the IB punch I thought he was going to get). However, Hamazura and Takitsubo were kind of worthless, and seemed only there to give Niang-Niang and Nepththys someone to talk to. The nun van was great, I just wished he had done something else.

The volume is just the first part of the conflict, so hopefully Kamachi lets Accelerator and Hamazura do more stuff in the next one.

[Ksaraf23]

I honestly believe this is the best LN I have ever read.

Most LNs I know are hard to get into, and even harder to funderstand nish. But we’re two series and 40+ novels in, and I can’t seem to put down my tablet/smartphone when reading this series! NT21 was no exception, and I was NOT expecting the Golden Cabal to come back and bring this story back full circle!

And (it’s about damn time) we finally get the battle between magic and science we were promised since he first novel came out! WWIII was a huge disappointment in that respect, cause I was expecting the actual students of AC to fight the Roman Catholic Church when I first got into this series! But the Golden Cabal against the Board Chairman and her two favorite students is even cooler!

Also, Kamijou is right - why do all those female gods/deities have no clothes?! 😂😂😂

[KiharaRonin]

Originally Posted by Ksaraf23

And (it’s about damn time) we finally get the battle between magic and science we were promised since he first novel came out! WWIII was a huge disappointment in that respect, cause I was expecting the actual students of AC to fight the Roman Catholic Church when I first got into this series!

I highly doubt AC would let their students fight a war. For multiple reasons, putting them in danger on a public scale and risking the Espers getting captured and their powers being studied on a mass scale. Plus, Aleister/the Anglican Church and (on a larger note) Kamachi wouldn't want the truth about magic to leak out to those who shouldn't know (aka the majority of the world's population and it'd be harder to cover it up in the students' mind should they be exposed head on like that.

[Kuroageha]

Espers are fodder to organised groups except for some exceptions.

AC main force was the cutting edge technologies which they showed during ww3.

[Doe, John]

Another great volume.

I liked the way how the returning England characters were used in the novel. Despite there being a lot of them, they all got some screentime and didn't feel unimportant.

I definitely was not expecting the Golden cabal to return, even though they had a lot of focus in NT18.

With regards to the truth about Touma, I can't help but shake the feeling that even Aleister doesn't know the truth. Yes, she is portrayed as extremely knowledgeable, but she's not omniscient (she didn't know about Coronzon or the Golden cabal) and she's not the first person to have claimed to know the truth about Imagine Breaker. Terra, Fiamma, Ollerus, Othinus and the other Magic Gods have all made that claim and (at least in Fiamma's case) were proven wrong. I see no reason why Aleister would be any different. Moreover, nobody except Touma himself seems to suspect that there is more than one entity in him (NT15 Prologue).

[KiharaRonin]

^I actually agree with this.

Aleister was also unaware of World Rejector. For me, I think Aleister knew everything about IB and Touma, that was important to his/her plan. but is unaware of the full truth. After all, he attempted to execute his plan and then learned from Aiwass, "sorry man, its still incomplete", which he would've been aware of had he known the full truth.

[dniv]

Originally Posted by Doe, John

With regards to the truth about Touma, I can't help but shake the feeling that even Aleister doesn't know the truth. Yes, she is portrayed as extremely knowledgeable, but she's not omniscient (she didn't know about Coronzon or the Golden cabal) and she's not the first person to have claimed to know the truth about Imagine Breaker. Terra, Fiamma, Ollerus, Othinus and the other Magic Gods have all made that claim and (at least in Fiamma's case) were proven wrong. I see no reason why Aleister would be any different. Moreover, nobody except Touma himself seems to suspect that there is more than one entity in him (NT15 Prologue).

This is a really great point to be honest. Now that Aleister has properly been established as a fallible character this would really make a lot of sense. It's honestly sorta disconcerting and pretty surprising to see just how much our impressions of Aleister could change after a few volumes of character development.

[Ravagerblade]

So are we on the side of Fem Aleister being an actual girl.... I don't think it's been discussed or not?

Also I want to know more about that Female Knight! I mean what the heck! The screentime she got verses the other characters even Birdway and Lessar got less!

Aleister is a pervert huh? and Touma saw her panties I think.... lol

Was it just me or was there some les yay going on a couple times this vol? I think one was in a between the lines and then Othinus saying - Even so, Othinus could not help but speak with a fierce smile on her face.
“…You’re pretty strong. You’re my kind of woman, sister.”



This volume was great, it had an interesting plot/story, the characters used, the return of Carissa even if for a few was awesome, it had humor that I enjoyed.... etc.

Dang it! Where's is Luca!!!!!!!! I know she was on the Kamisato side at first and is but it still felt like there was some distance gained from that and all.... She just disappeared!!!

Hmm looking at Tvtropes page of To aru the characters, You guys remember Leep? No reference to her either IIRC.

Originally Posted by alex_drian

Oh yeah, I found it

Spoiler:

Now all Touma needs is white/silver or comparing hair to match.

[Doe, John]

I'm now rereading the volume, and I came across these lines:

Spoiler for spoiler:

“I will contain the recoil of my own magic. That is my way of taking responsibility, but, well, that makes this awfully convenient. Sharing the battlefield with so many versions of myself allows me to send that recoil all over the place without having to harm anyone else.”

Two people stood next to wickedly-smiling Aleister: Index in her white and gold teacup habit and Magic God Othinus sitting on the nun’s shoulder.

“…I’ve never heard of this recoil. Are you really, really sure it’s real?”

“I do approve of facing the world of magic with constant skepticism, but do not let your doubts lead you astray. You carry 103,000 grimoires…plus one more from Mina Mathers. But even the perfect database is useless if you do not know how to use the search engine. Even after gathering all that information, you have not covered all the blind spots.”

One interpretation is that Aleister is right about this, and magic really does result in this recoil. But that would be a bit too predictable, having Aleister be right again and Index not knowing anything about her actual specialty in a series named after her. Moreover, Aleister isn't omniscient, something that has only been emphasised in recent volumes. What if Aleister is wrong? What if she misinterpreted the cause of Lilith's death and thought that magic in general had this recoil? In this theory, her entire motivation would be based on a lie... which would be fitting for someone who has failed all their life.

[Kuroageha]

It wouldn't be the first time a character's way of thinking turns to have been wrong the whole time.

[KiharaRonin]

It would make Aleister's story even more emotional if he's been living his life by a lie this entire time.

[shmaster]

Originally Posted by Doe, John

I'm now rereading the volume, and I came across these lines:

Spoiler for spoiler:

“I will contain the recoil of my own magic. That is my way of taking responsibility, but, well, that makes this awfully convenient. Sharing the battlefield with so many versions of myself allows me to send that recoil all over the place without having to harm anyone else.”

Two people stood next to wickedly-smiling Aleister: Index in her white and gold teacup habit and Magic God Othinus sitting on the nun’s shoulder.

“…I’ve never heard of this recoil. Are you really, really sure it’s real?”

“I do approve of facing the world of magic with constant skepticism, but do not let your doubts lead you astray. You carry 103,000 grimoires…plus one more from Mina Mathers. But even the perfect database is useless if you do not know how to use the search engine. Even after gathering all that information, you have not covered all the blind spots.”

One interpretation is that Aleister is right about this, and magic really does result in this recoil. But that would be a bit too predictable, having Aleister be right again and Index not knowing anything about her actual specialty in a series named after her. Moreover, Aleister isn't omniscient, something that has only been emphasised in recent volumes. What if Aleister is wrong? What if she misinterpreted the cause of Lilith's death and thought that magic in general had this recoil? In this theory, her entire motivation would be based on a lie... which would be fitting for someone who has failed all their life.

The problem is, Aleister has this magic where he can direct the ripples of the phases to any direction he want, which he used when fighting Touma.
And these ripples of phases existed only because magic has recoils. If the recoil does not exist, how does Aleister arrive to that magic that controls the ripples?