Crosses, Demons and the Holy War: The D.Gray-Man Thread!

So. Someone mentioned they wanted a DGM thread. And since serialization resumed this month (!!!) and we are back to getting new contend, I thought, hey, I can make a thread!
I also need a place to ramble semi-coherently about trinities and religious symbolism (and my love for attractive mass murderers) at.
pinging @whimsicalobservant for starters <>

Have Y'all read the newest chapter? Because, wow, that sure was a chapter.

 

Paging @Bel Capricorn , who was asking about a thread.
NO, I have not read the newest chapter and FUCK I NEED TO. Because I'm an idiot, I checked the tumblr tag, realized there was a new chapter, and noped out before I got spoiled.

 

Ohmigosh please do! it's mindblowing to say the least Hoshino really came back with a bang.

 

I have to go grocery shopping, and make dinner. And then I will curl up with tea and curry and just read.

 

I'm really not caught up because my library only had the first few volumes and I'm not a fan of reading manga online, but I'm willing to suffer for this one. I'm off to find a site to read it on, please don't spoil anything until I figure out where I left off at least.

Road Kamelot is my favorite character, but everyone else is cool too.

 

mangareader.net has decent scans.
@Bel Capricorn, I advise you, read from the beginning. Read carefully. Maybe take notes. I'm rereading atm and jegus fuck the foreshadowing.

Spoiler: despair all ye who venture beyond this point. current chapter spoilers ahoy

I discussed most of this with @IvyLB already, our skype chats are sort of a spoiler, speculation, and blatant headcanon stew. it's great.

So, all of those times Allen perfectly polite greeted Akuma or Noah or the fucking Earl with "Good Evening" and it's variations across the time of day, those got a fuckton more sinister.
I mean, Allen's not sinister, but the phrase is the same the Noah clan throws about.
Also Allen's Innocence sword being a negative image of the Earl's sword suddenly makes a lot more dark sense.

The Nea-Mana-Cross-Allen clusterfuck is near incomprehensible for me atm, simply because if Nea and Mana are two halves of the Earl, and Mana was present when the Earl killed Nea, who was piloting the Earl.
Like, wtf.

The Earl could've awoken when Mana died and was buried when Allen was 10, about 30-ish years after Nea died (also wtf Hoshino, what's with your blatant disregard of the progression of fashion. I mean, yes, victorian stuff is sexy af, but... it's kinda anachronistic at points).

But wth is up with Nea ending up in 15 yr old Allen's body 35 yrs after he died? There's a host or two missing in between there. (I vaguely remember an Allen in their time and about their age in memories, who will henceforth be referred to as Allen senior, while our 15 yr old protagonist is Allen junior. Yes, one of my theories is that they're actually father and son, and that Allen senior hasn't been de-aged and memorywiped, but that Nea is currently possessing his son.)

Also wtf Cross, what is your deal. (Nea, Cross, and Allen senior were in cahoots, I'm sure of it oo00) (cahoots I tell you) (CAHOOTS)
(Which puts Cross at at least 50, if not 55. Damn that guy aged well.)

Kinda.... did the possession just carry over from individual to individual near Mana who called the new host "Allen", because he held onto the thing that "Allen" is important, maybe even after he forgot that "Allen" was supposed to ressurrect to Nea?

Also, what's the deal with the split. Why does Nea want to kill the Earl/Mana and take is place. Wouldn't it make more sense to just merge into the same being again.
Was it a split along the lines of Human - Noah/Earl that went sideways because you can't separate a human from their potential to awaken into a Noah? But who was the Noah half and who was the Human half? (Or was it a more even split?)
No but seriously why does Nea want to kill his own twin brother
It's bad enough he managed to fry everyone in his family next to the Earl and Road, how ridiculously OP is that kid even.
(Can we use that place that the Earl referred to as the birthplace of the Noah to just make Nea a new body so Allen junior can get his back and we can circumvent the drama)

I kinda think the Innocence is not what we were told it is, but rather a powerful tool appropriated repurposed by the catholic church. And that the original term for that thing could also have meant "purity". You need to be pure in some way to keep with it. Allen is pure love. Lenalee is pure hatred. Suman fucked up. Etc.

What's irritating me is that there's a truck of factions we know must exist, but know very, very little about, and that things are probably not as they seem. Church, Exorcists as a subsection, the Noah, some "war faction" that might actually overlap with both. Too many unknown variables, and the fucker who could've told us went and got himself headshot.
Gdi Cross.

Spoiler: Ships. Also spoilery.

Cross and Nea might've actually been an item, and after Nea went and got himself killed Cross didn't look at guys again because none of them could've even come close to Nea. And he balked when he started waking up in earnest because your ex in the body of your little student who could've been your own kid was a bit too squicky.

Also, Lenalee, Kanda, Lavi, and Allen. One poly pile. And Nea yelling ridiculous suggestions from the sidelines / inside Allen's head.

 

Oh my god I love Road. She is one of my faves.

Spoiler: Behold: more spoipers

Honestly on reconsideration I THINK Nea must have fried Road too and she basically instantly re-awoke. Either that or she resurrected right into the mana/nea battle to the death which uh seems unlikely I think?
Also mh. How do I phrase this. Do we know how long the battle between Mana and Nea took? We know it started 35 years ago (presumably. I don't trust any of these dicks with giving me reliable info tbh) But we all know how Noa are and how Nea can get. The whole deal with the additional hosts or whatever for Nea is not necessarily a thing if the battle easily took like 20 or 25 years. Which, like. Noah. It's entirely possible that they literally went at eachother whenever they met for two decades.

 

I'm using mangareader right now and it's working wellish.
Road is awesome, totally one of my favorites.
In the middle of the new chapter.
Edit: annnnnd my computer is fucking up. ugh

 

NEVER MIND I FINISHED IT AND I'M LOST REGARDING TIMELINES

 

Bad computer :O
Ahhh though I am majorly hyped up and want a new chapter STAT, becasue I am ridiculous and childish :P
Also if people are interested I might do liveblogs by volume in this thread? since I have the German translation up to volume 12 at home and plan on buying the rest anyway mostly because of certain characters. It might include some mild confusion on romanization and ramblings on how much I hate certain phrases used to denote tone of voice and stuff :P

 

Yeah, same. If you read @whimsicalobservant's skype chat summary there is a lOT of weird theories floating between us for the timeline.

 

my computer hates me. YES FREEZE ON PAGE 41 AND MAKE ME HAVE TO RELOAD EVERYTHING, WHY NOT
Time travel would be great right now XD
Yes good, liveblogs are great.

I read it. But I should reread it, cause I read it to fast, ya know?

 

@whimsicalobservant yeah I was probably going to do that anyway because the only thing I had to go on was "uh....I think there was a boat involved? or maybe I passed that.....hm."

 

In response to the second spoiler, I an obligated to shriek "But what about Alma" at literally every mention of the OT4.

#he's my baby #don't judge me

 

Ot5.
That is my solution.
OT5
(well it's more EVERYONE DATES EVERYONE, because I am terrible/indecisive.)

 

It really is the BEST solution though.

Because tbh Alma would just fit in so well if it weren't for his trauma response being... What it is. Resulting in the things happening that did happen.

Also he's a precious noodle.

 

Exactly! If you just ignore, uh, THAT. it works perfectly!
I agree. Presh noodle.

 

Okay I'm re-reading from the beginning. I'm only like two chapters in and I have to stop for the night, though.

I forgot how creepy the first Akuma scene was. Geez.

 

THE MOST PRECIOUS NOODLE I am extremely attached to Alma, not in the least because that was my first real exposure to genderweird in terms of /getting/ it.

He's my stupid eyebrowy baby and eventually I will write that postcanon AU I have planned where he's the main character. Eventually.

 

Luv that genderweird noodle. Yep, that's a good reason for attachment.
When/If you write this, I would appreciate a link.