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

He's lookin' kinda concerned about it, is the thing.

Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe Moina Mathers is more powerful than h...

Pfft, sorry. Couldn't finish that sentence.

Is Aiwass, if that's even Aiwass, not doing what Aleister's expecting? Is Aiwass no longer under Aleister's control? The next pic might be related? Who even knows in this crazy story.

Also, just in general... why a cat girl? Why is Moina Mathers a catgirl? Who even knows.

I don't think Aiwass has ever been under Aleister's control. He didn't create Aiwass, as I understand it, just... "built" Aiwass a quasi-physical body in which to manifest.

Aleister has, at minimum, at least some kind of influence over Aiwass. Accelerator's encounter with Aiwass showed that, at least (Aiwass couldn't just let Accelerator destroy his body because of something Aleister had done).

What does that mean about the level of control Aleister actually has? Well, who knows? We've been told essentially nothing about Aleister for... jesus ~40 novels.

Daily reminder that this 13-year-old series has its events take place over six months in-universe

So I read the two chapters, and so it seems that Aleister is deliberately leading them to him, using magic he knows can circumvent Imagine Breaker. As expected, the Windowless Building is weird inside, with its endless, non-Euclidean ceiling giving the impression of connecting with another dimension, and Touma is experiencing flashbacks to Aleister's childhood (and the translator not capitalizing when characters are talking about the Christian God triggers me).

Meanwhile, Mikoto and Misaki are engaging in their weird friendly ennemies antics, with some yuri teasing for some reason.

Ha, Choronzon is finally name dropped twice after having been speculated about for years in the fandom.

"he gave his first daughter a name so long it was difficult to write out even in text". I thought it was a joke, but she was indeed named Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley. Sheesh.

edited 14th May '17 5:46:20 PM by allfictions

Are you reading this somewhere other than BT?

No? This is all from BT.

Well I certainly don't know what's going on, because I'm not seeing any of that. It's now decided to only show me the preview as translated again. Guess there's something up with how I'm getting served the content? Whatever.

EDIT: ooookay managed to screw around with the edit histories to see the current versions. No idea why it's not giving me the current versions just with the main pages. Whatever.

Still mad that Touma didn't just tell Mikoto what the deal with the A.A.A. was and how using it's only going to kill her faster when he had the opportunity at the end of the last novel. Index and Othinus - the two biggest experts on magic he knows - were right there as well and could have explained so much to Mikoto right there. That's some real Idiot Ball nonsense right there, and if this plot thread keeps going where I suspect it's going I'm not going to be too happy. Which is a shame. I used to like the whole A.A.A. development.

edited 14th May '17 8:46:09 PM by clockworkBabbage

Mina Mathers is a fun character.

While the flashbacks to Crowley's past are going on, Mikoto and Misaki are having a somewhat cool team up.

Yeah, it's nice seeing actual interaction between them instead of it degenerating into cattiness about Touma.

By the way I got the same problem as you, for some reason the updated Chapter 3 wouldn't show up.

Not just me then? I did notice this a bit with the last novel, but it wasn't this bad.

The workaround is put &action=history after the URL of the chapter, and from there you can access the most current version from the edit history.

Thanks!

Part 6&7: If I understood the Golden Dawn's goals correctly, Mathers wanted for magicians to not be restricted by the Idol Theory, if his example of using the Bible to devise spells being limited in used is anything to go by. And thus, he wanted people to do with magic without all that fancy associating colors and things symbolically.

In the series, Magic has always seemed more versatile than esper powers, but the truth is that it did have clearly defined talents and weaknesses. Notably:

So instead of that, the Golden Dawn (or maybe just Mathers) wanted "to materialize any idea you have in whatever form you desire", in short making magic ridiculously infinite.

And I think this is legitimately the first time Mikoto said Touma's name, instead of "you" or "idiot". Truly the end is near

Seems like it. I will say, all this magic technobabble is a hell of a lot more interesting when it's not just a one-off paragraph giving a contrived explanation how the magician of the week does their thing. Having something of substance to speculate about is fun.

Also, if we're to assume that espers are further development on Aleister's methods from the past, then this (as well as other things we've seen in this whole franchise) essentially confirms it for me: esper powers are demonic, and that time at the Daihaseisai with Mikoto was something trying to break through.

I'll put significance on that when she says it to his face.

Nah, if anyone is possessed, it's Touma.

Also, doesn't the work kit sounds a lot like, well, a less randomized, more barebone Power Curriculum Program? A way to gain powers not linked to legends and myths or other traditional magics relying on symbolism, but largely rely on the user's own thoughts? Of course, in the PPC, it's not the user (here the students) who gets to choose their power and the esper powers are (usually) ruled by scientific principles and laws of physics in lieu of the Idol Theory. But it sounds definitely similar, at least to me.

Part 9: after pointless antics, we get into another juicy meat of a flashback. Terms we had heard before like Aiwass and Anna Sprengel pops up, and we see how Lilith's death was Aleister's Start of Darkness.

Aleister Crowley as a huge perverted dork is the rare time we see To Aru Aleister being historically accurate

edited 17th May '17 4:05:59 AM by allfictions

No, I wasn't saying anyone got possessed. I'm saying I'm thinking the source of someone's esper powers is an actual entity other than the kid who's using them, and in certain situations it can break through and/or take over.

With Mikoto's Daihaseisai arc, we had pretty clear evidence there was something not under her control, and it was more than the mental suggestions that one girl was putting her under. Everything after Exterior got destroyed and Mikoto went back to normal made it clear that it was her power out of control, and it was definitely not just some electrical storm. What the hell were those hand things anyway (chapter 69 pg 4 for reference so you don't have to go searching)? And I forget where, but I'm pretty sure it was stated somewhere that the reason Accelerator could stay in control while getting up to Level 6-ish levels of power was because his ego was strong enough to not get overwhelmed (which makes sense seeing as esper powers are at their root reality-warping based on their own idea of what reality should be, and since he's the strongest his own personality would be stronger).

We've had espers and magic described as two conflicting sides of the same coin, and the way Aleister's new methods got described, it sure sounded like exactly that. Aleister created Academy City, and again I wouldn't be surprised if the esper development program came out of his earlier work.

EDIT: Can see up to 9 now.

“Normies are the worst.” OK that has to be a joke on the part of the translator. There's no way.

EDIT: Well the translator's sure been... busy. oh boy Oh Boy OH BOY. That sure was almost worth waiting, again, ~40 novels for. Imagine Breaker was originally a relic of a saint(wish Kamachi had said which, I'm kinda curious. Probably an important biblical one), the Blasting Rod is decidedly the most OP shit we've seen in this entire series - which is saying something - and Mikoto and Misaki make one hell of a team.

edited 18th May '17 12:30:29 AM by clockworkBabbage

“…Lilith may have died before she could learn to speak, but I doubt it was this look on your face that she loved.”

How brutal, Kamijou.

And yeah, Aleister using the Blasting Rod to blow Fiamma's right arm and bypassing its automatic defense already told us it was a crazy weapon, just not how crazy it was.

So we now more or less completely understand Aleister's objective: not only eliminate all magic, but also destroy all the Phases and turning back the world into a "pure" state. I think the only things remaining about it is how he wants to do that, and how Imagine Breaker, Aiwass, and Accelerator fit into this.

The Magic Gods were said to have something to do with Lilith's death, but, if I understand right, Phases do the same thing as Magic Gods, that is their power unwittingly change fate/destiny and create coincidences, including tragic ones.

And yisss, Imagine Breaker's origin was partly revealed! Not much to go on right now, but that's more than we got in 10+ years.

And the Aleister-Touma first meeting was as great as I expected, with Aleister channeling The Flash 2014's Eobard Thawne by going "oh yeah, I pretty much created this entire city for you and manipulated you your entire life". And, now that Kamijou has seen his past, they more or less know each other on an almost intimate level.

And yeah, Misaka and Misaki is best duo. They team up in Railgun and they team up in Index, I couldn't be happier.

edited 18th May '17 7:41:48 AM by allfictions

Well, that's that.

And now for something I almost never say about the novels: that kind of supremely owned a little bit. I don't know if it's that this one finally tied together a bunch of seemingly unconnected nonsense that's happened so far, but that was immensely satisfying. It was incredibly nice seeing Touma finally, actually feel like he's returned to his old self (him giving one of his good ol' speeches at the end to boot helped out with that).

Also, Laura Stewart (or Lola - is that how it's officially translated nowadays? That's gonna take some getting used to for me) was literally Satan the whole time. I can't. I just can't. I'm, surprisingly, not even mad at one of the copies of Aleister being on Touma's side and a girl now. It's so incredibly dumb, but I can't bring myself to care.

That was probably the most fun I've had reading one of these things.

edited 19th May '17 1:07:48 AM by clockworkBabbage

What a ride.

While this volume was more The Reveal: The Novel, it was still a pretty good one that managed to keep me hooked. It wasn't worth the long, *long* wait, but it was well done, Kamachi.

Mina Mathers' true nature makes sense when you consider all she could do, implying that she was more than just an illusion. I had forgotten a bit about Reading Thoth, but A.I.s(-grimoire hybrid) are cool.

I honestly wasn't expecting Laura Stuart to be linked to Aleister. I knew she was mysterious and shit and probably more than she appeared to be, but Aleister's own daughter Lola Zaza (well, demonically possessed corpse of his daughter)? Reminds me of those theories that Index was Aleister and Laura's daughter. And I always thought Choronzon would be Inside Touma's arm, sealed by Imagine Breaker (when we learned it was an exorcising tool, I thought it would vindicate me). Also, Aleister can apparently make up 1/7 of the human population, lol.

Next, the much rumored Return to England Arc! And the post-afterword section confirms we are going to get Hamazura and Accelerator to tag along, yeeeees.

Also, @clockworkBabbage, I'm not sure if it's official or if the change in spelling was to highlight the reveal.

edited 19th May '17 5:49:13 AM by allfictions

What volume number is this?

New Testament 18

So apparently there was a short story released (and now translated) at the same time as NT 18, named "Using Final Bosses to Determine a Sociological Threat". It's mostly nonsense, with Uiharu and Kuroko discussing Final Boss in videogames and that they reflect society to better resonate with players, and some games' Big Bad might even accidentally predict/reflect a real world issue.

Anyway, here are the final lines, which I particularly liked:

edited 23rd May '17 5:56:06 PM by allfictions

What is this "fourth wall" you speak of?

https://frogkun.com/2017/05/06/a-last-testament-from-cole-brown-funimation-voice-actor/#more-11897

I remember listening to this commentary a few years ago on Cole Brown as Heaven Canceller.