Raildex verse (A Certain Magical Index, A Certain Scientific Railgun, A Certain Scientific Accelerator)

Why does Crowley float upside down?

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Why haven't Stiyl and Kanzaki tried once more to befriend Index, now that she won't have to get mind-wiped anymore?

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Is the Endymion movie non-canon?

What was in your right hand is hope; And in another hand is something else to fade.

Because reasons, because reasons, canon.

Sorry if that seems glib, but "because reasons" is honestly the best response to a lot of things in this series.

edited 22nd Jul '15 6:51:51 PM by clockworkBabbage

Because Reasons. There's probably some kind of mangled religious symbolism in it but Kamachi is so terrible at Christianity that it's probably not worth analyzing.

Because Stiyl has anime romantic graceful loser syndrome, which means he feels unworthy to be around Index, I assume. I guess Kanzaki just doesn't really care about her? She never talks about Index.

I think Endymion is canon, but I'm going to ignore it myself.

Now I get why I can barely remember anything from volume 2. It's all goddamn recap of WWIII and infodumps.

Birdway likes to talk.

Most likely reason is because it's funny.

Also Index lives in Academy City now, and Stiyl and Kanzaki can't exactly stop by to chat, they can only be there on official business.

Yeah, pretty much. Honestly first actually good volume in NT for me was 5. After that the plot connects together pretty neatly with decent pacing (except for NT 7 which is pretty awful and has no connection to literally anything else).

edited 22nd Jul '15 8:07:01 PM by RedAcer

1. For he gains a new perspective on things, lol. Honestly, I got no idea, it just doesn't seem important.

2. IIRC, it's because they have already done that so many times,bit would be painful to just do it all over again. Also, she lives in Academy City, and they in England, not exactly in walking distance.

3. Yeah, the movie is canon. The girl idol is mentioned in NT 9 and the antagonist is mentioned in NT 11 by a character apparently specialized in dealing with beings such as her. The short novella tie-in as well as the "prequel" video game also are canon by that same token.

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Even if religious symbolism had anything to do with that (and it doesn't), anything related to Aleister is not really about Christianity.

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NT 7 served as a closure to NT 1 in many ways, was a continuation of the ending of NT 6, and the two Kihara characters appearing in the epilogue were Chekovs Gunman in previous volumes. You can find the plot (which, outside of specific moments, was kind of ridiculous) and the execution poorly done, but it isn't really that disconnected.

edited 22nd Jul '15 8:34:03 PM by allfictions

7 is the other big one I'd say I didn't like. Not as bad as four, but... the biggest reason comes down to how Tsuchimikado's whole sub-plot was handled: First we've got some fridging that sets Tsuchimikado off on a rampage, but then it turned out to not even be real fridging. Because having cute girls who aren't monsters die in this series just apparently can't happen. It was incredibly contrived and just made Tsuchimikado seem insane and his actions completely unjustified. And then it was only tangentially connected to the real plot.

Saint Peter was crucified upside down. If it has any meaning, I'm guessing it's related to that. Aleister is not unconnected to Christianity, he rejected it.

I mean, that's obviously really stretching it looking for meaning but it's that or nothing.

edited 22nd Jul '15 10:28:01 PM by Arha

The translation of the novel is ended. I really don't know what to think of this volume.

The whole chase thing was at first hit-or-miss, especially when we consider the medium used (it works better on television or in movies). I knew it's not like they could do much against a Magic God, but it lost tension fast at some scenes (like Fiamma getting one shot and never mentioned again). But then comes High Priest and Touma's final conversation, and a lot of things this volume are put into perspective. I feel like I got trolled without my knowledge (especially looking at the Afterword's last sentence), but I'm not sure how.

So many things happened in the last segments I don't know where to begin. Holy shut he hijacked a jacket; was that the Invisible Thing almost showing up!?; more Aleister Crowley's backstory; details of Nephthys' ascension; Laura on the move; Mikoto to in despair, etc. I will collect my thoughts before properly addressing all that.

Thankfully, I got the Mikoto's character development I expected and wanted, even if technically she didn't reach a decisive conclusion regarding her feelings and troubles.

Fair enough, if kinda stretched. Looking back (on his first appearance in OT Volume 2), Aleister being upside down seems to be another way to amp up his creepiness and his "alien" quality.

edited 23rd Jul '15 11:50:39 AM by allfictions

I don't like Birdway. I know there's no chance of her dying or anything but does she stop being important soon or anything?

She gets less important. Volumes 2 and 3 are the only ones where she's actually centrally important.

She also gets punched in the face (off-camera, but I'll take what I can get) at the end of volume 6, I believe. So look forward to that.

Crowley floating upside down represents the hanged man in Tarot.

Part of it is because they live in London and she lives in Academy City, like the posters above mentioned, but another part of it is shame.

After all, they got manipulated by Laura and ended up hunting her down and attacking her.

"Mikoto was shocked to see Accelerator, but everyone was busy with more important things so I don't have to write about what she thinks about him being here."

She... she does get a chance to react properly at some point right?

No. No she does not. This is never mentioned again (Maybe there's hope for this happening in Railgun, but that's a ways away).

And now you know a bit about why NT 3 infuriates me.

Is the other bit about how it goes on and on and never seems to be drawing towards a conclusion?

That didn't help, but the other main bit was how we were told that Mikoto would actually be involved in things (you know, back when the villain of the week was someone she had a chance of being able to really do something against), but she didn't do much of anything.

Sure, she beats some people up off-camera, and maybe flips a tank or whatever at some point. But the vast majority of her portrayal is one of the worst kinds of stereotypes of lovestruck teenage girls.

Oh. I didn't really believe that when I first heard it anyway and I already knew she wouldn't be contributing much, so that part hasn't really bothered me. My expectations weren't high to begin with.

Sooo... when do members of Gremlin that actually matter start showing up? Odin, Thor... Don't actually know any others besides the Ragnarok sword lady.

NT 5.

Othinus and Thor really are the only two that actually matter, really. The one who turns people into furniture and tools (pretty sure that's the one you're referring to) is more of a side-plot than anything else.

edited 24th Jul '15 12:09:47 AM by clockworkBabbage

By the way, did I miss something? Why are they dragging Kuroyoru around with them?

The politics in this series is hilarious.

edited 24th Jul '15 12:52:49 AM by Arha

As always, because reasons.

Am I the only one who finds the whole dynamic between Kuroyoru and Worst to be incredibly uncomfortable?

Okay, so I didn't miss anything. She's just helping because she's an altruist.

Kind of? Honestly, everything else about the series fanservice and about half the humor kind of overshadows it for me.

And man you'd think after all this time Kamachi would have gotten better at writing.

edited 24th Jul '15 2:20:05 AM by Arha

I figured that since Misaka WORST is supposed to be a terrible human being her skits with Kuroyoru are supposed to make Kuroyoru more sympathetic.

So even Index has not sunk far enough to actually have a fighting tournament for real. And it seems the setup is like the dark side civil war from 15-16 with a bunch of fodder I don't care about duking it out for reasons that are hard to keep track of.

I mean, WORST is a sadistic abuser.

And it's being portrayed as friendship.

Wait, what? It didn't look like they were trying to make them look like friends at all.