Weeeell, I accidentally lied to you and finished the whole book today, @pyororon. Honestly, as much fun as it is to zoom through to drive into it all, thereās a lot that went on that I want to discuss with you; itās just more fun to have someone to talk to and theorize with in the heat of the moment imo. So Iāll definitely be taking a short break until you catch up with v. 14 (no lies this time, promise).
Some thoughts/mysteries after finishing the book:
How could Ward and his men have known Geoffrey and Kaitoās plans to go to the Hoe? That information shouldāve been known to only them and Lily and Sam (since he had to go plant the flag). I find it hard to believe any of them would have leaked any information.
What happened to Kazuya? Kaito saw him step through the portal, but he never appeared. Did he go to another world, a different one? Or, more interestinglyā¦ Weāve been assuming that Kaitoās visions/dreams of him are true and accurate, but weāve never actually seen any proof of that. Maybe Kazuya is just chilling back in the 21st century and is going to get the surprise of his life when a near-death Kaito shows up.
They didnāt really go into detail as to why Geoffrey couldnāt accompany Kaito; his being unfamiliar with 21st century life is true, and his sudden appearance would cause untold complications probably, but it didnāt feel like there was enough page space to justify the decision. Like, I understand why ę¾å²”å ē wants to keep the main narrative in the 16th century, but raising such a tantalizing possibility and then waving it awayā¦ Thatās rough.
I just need to give up, I know, but Iām pretty sad Nigel was in no way involved in the events of the last chapters: Kaitoās origins confession + the last stand on the Hoe. Like, I can accept Kaito and Geoffrey are endgame, but Nigelās such an important part of the cast, imo. :\ And it does make sense why he needs to keep up the facade of āeverything is normalā for Walsingham, but still, it stings. Especially since his big scene in this book was literally kidnapping Kaito because he couldnāt bear to do nothing. :\
Still harping on Nigel: thinking about it, absolutely nothing was resolved with his character in this volume, which feels weird given his big incident. Iām not sure what to think about this. ę¾å²”å ē didnāt like Nigel? She wanted to write more but was limited to a page count? Sheās cleverly building tension and will definitely bring it home in a future book? All I can hope for is the third option.
As always, I get the feeling that ę¾å²”å ēās books are simply not thick enough for the amount of detail and space that I want to read about; I feel like the majority of F&B books could be twice as thick, no lie, and still have plenty to talk about.
I know/assume from being an omniscient reader (i.e. seeing the covers of later books) that Geoffreyās likely going to be fine, but I wonder how this is all going to play out. Itās super unreasonable and has a 0% charge of happening, but I would love for Vicente to take the stage again and rescue Geoffrey.
Kaito said heās be back soon; I donāt have the book in front of me at the moment, but it seems like he said itād be a few months? But unless I misunderstood his and Lilyās conclusions in an earlier chapter, wouldnāt the next tunnel opening be in summer? So heās got a good 6 months to go, assuming he doesnāt miss that opening.
I didnāt think about it at the time, but during chapter 9, when Kaitoās laying out his āIām from the futureā proof, heās laying down a ridiculous amount of cash in front of Geoffrey. He shows him a 5 pound and 10 pound note, very roughly equivalent to Ā£1,023 and Ā£2,046 for Geoffrey according to this website. Granted, Kaitoās money wouldnāt have been seen as legal tender in the 1580s, so it would have been worthless, but I thought it was still interesting in hindsight. I wonder if Geoffrey will look back at some point and ponder just how rich Kaito actually is, haha.
Thatās all Iāve got for now; Iāll have to ponder events while I cook supper, and will add on more thoughts as they come to me.
So fast At this rate by the end of the series youāll be able to do a volume a day.
The unspoilered parts of your posts have really tempted me so I think Iāll jump into this volume later tonight. It shouldnāt take me too long to catch up but if you ever get the urge to start the next volume no pressure to wait for me!
I could see it. Iām still having to look up a bunch of words (Iām at cough approximately 7500 flash cards created, though Iām not studying them all concurrently), but once you get used enough to an authorās writing style it helps quite a bit. Plus F&B tends to be on the faster-paced side as well, so there are comparatively fewer slow parts. Granted, I would need a full day with nothing else in it, too, and those are rare days indeedā¦
Excellent, mission accomplished.
Much appreciated! I will wait for just a bit, partly because Iām really curious your take on stuff that happened this volume, and partly because I put off a lot of stuff today to keep reading the book, so I need to take some measure of responsibility. Volume 15 should be really good, though!
Wasnāt expecting to start off from Janās perspective, it took me a bit to understand what was going on. We find out heās on his way to meet up with Raul who has successfully escaped to the Netherlands. It also seems like heās been working on a plan to finally rid himself of him.
Raul, like usual is plotting something. Turns out he is petty enough to keep going after Kaito even though he knows heās dying. His plan this time is to leak false information to implicate Kaito as a Spanish agent to Walsingham. Through this he can get revenge on Geoffrey as well since he knows heāll try and defend Kaito. I wonder what it is that Raul has on Jan, that ćęćåŗććäøęå¾ć®å ±ććåććć®ćÆčŖ°ć ļ¼ćseems like it could be referring to another person maybe?
I guess regardless it wouldnāt be good since the conflict in information would create some suspicion on them
Thatās what Iām thinking, too. I donāt remember if it was mentioned in the main books, but the first short story in Flesh&Bloodå¤ä¼ 儳ēéäøć®ęµ·č³ćć” | L33 does tell us that Janās married, so itās possible Raulās got his wife and/or children (no clue if he managed to have any kids before being taken prisoner by Spain, granted).
Very true; Walsingham, like Raul, would be petty/suspicious enough to use every little bit of info as potential leverage.
A bit off topic, but to answer why I personally like Raul and Jan in particular:
I just love this sort of intrigue where weāre left guessing and making up ideas about the whyās and whenās or imagining what might happen next. This is the reason for me liking the Kylo Ren and Armitage/General Hux setting, because they were so obviously not working together, while on the āsame sideā, but as people vie for power over the other, it just gives story-writing about it a huge boost of energy. Like, you can take this wherever you want. Too a good place or not or somewhere in-between. You wonāt know before you read.
Itās lovely to see the pull and play between Kaito and Jeoffrey, but, itās different. But, yeah, these scenes are also voiced acted later onā¦just as a side noteā¦
So many great insights, but, this one just wowed me!
Short reply: I never even for a moment considered it that Joe was male. I canāt say exactly how it turned into Joan for me, but now that it has been the case over multiple yearsā¦iām probably as bad as shaking that notion of Joe being a Joe not a Joan, as how to spell Geoffreyās name right. Perhaps, though, that oneās more up in air, well nominally, but really not, but it at least has some basis in canon. XD
In the end, Iām gonna just sayćøć§ć¼ and if Iām not in a position to say type kana, then donāt be surprised by some random gender swap. But, I just canāt get my initial visual for this character out of my head. ^^ā
No worries! I always know what you mean, Joe/Joan or Jeoffrey/Geoffrey, so spell it all however you want! I just wanted to give you a heads up in case you legitimately didnāt know, especially since itās been a while since you visited the books.
That one was mangled by some earlier official work officially spelling it Jeoffrey before the typo was caught iirc, haha (or I misread it as such?). Canāt remember what it was now; I double-check the illustration in the first volume and see Geoffrey, so I donāt remember where I originally saw that spelling myself.
Totally agree. While I donāt like them as a couple per se, them acting as a couple definitely brings a fair bit of tension and second-guessing to the party, I think. Kaito and Geoffrey are nice, like you mentioned, but I agree with them being different. Theyāre almost a bit too boring imo when youāve got that assurance of ātrue love foreverā or whatever. (I hope Iām phrasing that right?) Jan and Raul, howeverā¦ Both of them are loose cannons, imo, which at least for me is why itās so exciting to see what theyāre up to, even if itās just a single chapter that doesnāt impact the rest of the book.
I think thereās a side story that features both (?) of them that I havenāt read yet; I really need to get around to itā¦
For me, the anniversary character books is when I truly read his name and tried to read something about the character. It just stuck with me a that point with that super-hot and different vibe the new illustrator brought to the series. I just didnāt vibe much with the first illustrations, that I just saw for 3 BLCD releases, before they changed it. But for the book series, it was a bit different. Clearly, I just only experienced that later. ^^
you might experience the side story in the main series? I still donāt know the side stories as such, but I do wonder if theyāre not just chapters incorporated into the main story.
There are multiple reasons for why that could be, but Iām to exhausted to explain but rather say - itās a light novel series which means the final volumes are actually compilations of what has previously been published in a serialized format in magazines. So, what is a single chapter or part of the main story is fluent.
As far as Iāve read of them, theyāre a combination of smaller pagecount bits of fluff and longer pagecounts of stuff you could actually include in the main F&B volumes and no one would notice. I mentioned up in an earlier post in this thread that sometimes I have to wonder if ę¾å²”å ē has a hard limit by her publisher on the number of pages theyāll print per book. Thereās quite a bit more she could include, and based on the sheer number of side stories sheās released, sheās well aware of it.
Some of them were actually published in doujinshi she published herself, which is pretty cool!
I mean, there as the bad example of Ai no Kusabi - Wikipedia when there was little or not editor holding the author back clearly. Because, there is only digressions into side-tracks, then there is world building, and more world building, a bit of the main story, more side-tracks and somehow an even more comprehensive world-building that goes deeper, and then some story bits.
Itās a light-novel series that screams for a capable editor that makes the story become a better work, because, YES, the editor is very much what makes or breaks an author. Itās not a one-wo/man show, but rather a team effort and always has been. James Joyce is perhaps the most famous example of it, but most authors have a need to sort out the bad for the crap and the good from the excuisite ideas here. Thatās what a good editor does.
But, yeah, light novels are sold by the chapter printed in magazines monthly, weekly or bimontly etc. And as such, this series has indeed been under pressure to produce content at times, Iām sure and times when the author wanted to expand ideas, while the editor and magazine just was not up for it - thus room for extras and what not.
Still, itās unclear to me whatās what here. What is ācanonā and whatās extra-canon, lol. Itās all canon really if itās by the author, but still, could exist outside of the main-story frankly, like several of the One Piece movies. Extras, but still real somehow.
This suggests itās really outside of the scope of the canon-proper though. She has clearly endorsed it, but itās not part of published canon really.
Because, doujinshi are all self-publishing formats. ^^
Sheās not the first to do this. If youāve encountered the BL-series Gravitation -thereās some truly explicit doujinshi, the mangaka has drawn that the publisher was not interested in publishing under their name a least. ^^ā
Canonās such a sticky question. I havenāt seen any comment of hers mentioning what is or is not āofficialā (besides the school AU doujin she wrote, haha. Pretty sure thatās not official to the main canon), so Iāve just been considering everything canon. Nothing Iāve read contradicts with anything else, which helps.
of course, itās by the main author. And so, it probs fits well into the āverseā as it were. But, still, not knowing about these extras are not important to getting on with the main story is a give-away.
Theyāre extras. Very enjoyable, but, ultimately not what carries the main story and plot - I think is fair to say.
Iāll have to think more about this for sure, but those are my thoughts for now.
Back to the main crew and itās clear Kaitoās condition is starting to steadily decline. This means heās pretty much stuck on bed rest, which gives him a lot of time to chat with Lily. His conversation with Lily really drives home how far back in the past this was. Itās hard to imagine a time where you couldnāt get a lot of the vegetables that we eat constantly now.
Chapter 3
We get to see how Geoffrey is faring, heās understandably torn up about the possibility of losing Kaito and unsuccessfully trying to distract himself with drinking. He then hears Lily call for help and thereās a close call where Kaito is choking on blood and they canāt get it dislodged, but due to Geoffreyās quick thinking of using a feather as a straw they manage to get it out.
Despite the hopelessness of the situation it seems like Geoffrey is managing to keep a level head, in direct contrast to Nigel who seems to be losing his cool. He still doesnāt trust Lily and is desperately trying to find any method that could possibly treat Kaito. Hearing about a possible treatment that a doctor in London is working on, he wants to bring Kaito there or possibly call the doctor to them, even with the risks of being found out by Walsingham. There seems to be a bit of a role reversal here, with Geoffrey being the one explaining how reckless that plan is when itās usually the opposite.
That part at the end . Geoffrey and Kit have realized that thereās something up with Lily and Geoffrey plans to have a talk with her about it soon. I canāt wait to see how thatās going to turn out.
I thought that was so clever, that double meaning would be way harder to pull off in English. It was funny he just thought Kaitoās āweirdā way of talking was rubbing off on her lol
Ikr it seems like theyāre getting so close to figuring things out!
I like how well the two complement each other; some situations one excels, and others the other friend does. They make a good pair. Ever since Nigel confessed to Geoffrey about kissing Kaito on the Hoe (right before Vicente got there), Iāve wondered how their relationship would change.
Canāt wait to see what you think of the next chapter.
This made me really curious so I got right to it and oh no
Chapter 4
Well thatās not good . The conversation from the last chapter was making me a little worried about just Nigel and Kaito being in the house alone and that turned out to be for good reason. I didnāt expect him to go that far though. Nigelās decision here is probably going to have some repercussions from now on, they were able to work through the love triangle situation for the most part but Iām not sure Geoffrey is gonna be able to forgive this one easily.
Thatās definitely gonna hurt to read but it also feels long overdue at this point
He shows him a 5 pound and 10 pound note, very roughly equivalent to Ā£1,023 and Ā£2,046 for Geoffrey according to this website. Granted, Kaitoās money wouldnāt have been seen as legal tender in the 1580s, so it would have been worthless, but I thought it was still interesting in hindsight. I wonder if Geoffrey will look back at some point and ponder just how rich Kaito actually is, haha.
At this rate by the end of the series youāll be able to do a volume a day.
Iām still having to look up a bunch of words (Iām at cough approximately 7500 flash cards created, though Iām not studying them all concurrently), but once you get used enough to an authorās writing style it helps quite a bit. Plus F&B tends to be on the faster-paced side as well, so there are comparatively fewer slow parts. Granted, I would need a full day with nothing else in it, too, and those are rare days indeedā¦
But, I just canāt get my initial visual for this character out of my head. ^^ā
Nothing Iāve read contradicts with anything else, which helps.
. The conversation from the last chapter was making me a little worried about just Nigel and Kaito being in the house alone and that turned out to be for good reason. I didnāt expect him to go that far though. Nigelās decision here is probably going to have some repercussions from now on, they were able to work through the love triangle situation for the most part but Iām not sure Geoffrey is gonna be able to forgive this one easily.