The Ancient Magus' Bride - Vol. 11 Ch. 51 - The cowl does not make the monk. II

[MangaDex]

 

[ichigoteguz]

It's been out for 10 days, I didn't see any delay or restrictions on Maigo's page, so I uploaded it.

 

[Hounder]

Hmm.... Translation error maybe, as I have never heard of black cats crossing your path being good luck, but only bad.

 

[ichigoteguz]

@Hounder It could also be cultural differences, many symbolisms repeat across history and cultures with different meanings, actually, just looked it up, it's a good sign in Britain, Ireland and Germany — as long as it crosses your path from left to right, which makes total sense since the manga's setting has them in Britain if I recall.

 

[irr]

Wasn’t expecting him to be a tragic character, how painful that was. Still written rather abruptly, however, as it was never hinted at afaik.

 

[ElBichoRaro]

Dang, poor Simon.

 

[Doopington]

While fitting for the story and its occaisionally darker themes regarding wild magic, I'm not sure I agree with the idea that "his cooking is cursed and he's killed everyone he loves by accident with it" is a satisfying character backstory.

 

[fifthtouch]

hey hey. He can be the perfect silent assassin. No trace whatsoever

 

[Kaios]

There is a mistake on page 15 no?

Anyway, good chapter, I really enjoyed it

 

[Acolytus]

I'm sorry but his backstory was extremely dumb to me. "I kill people by making sweets" already sounds really stupid (unless there is some mythological or folklore-related background I'm missing) but the fact that the guy realized his sweets were killing people and he kept making them anyway for extremely flimsy reasons paints him as a complete idiot.

The author tried to show him as some poor victim of a horrible curse who can't live with other people and chose isolation but his "curse" is really fucking stupid and easy to avoid. Like, how hard can it be to not make any sweets ever again? I'm pretty sure I only did that like 4 times in my entire life.

Seriously, why sweets? Literally anything else or even just "I kill the people I care about" would be a better option than that.

 

[BobBob]

He? Glasses Church was a guy? Also nice to see a pipe fox again, it's been how long since xXx_Holic?

Also wow, Chise meets Elias's mom. And Simon's life sucks, Jesus Christ.

 

[Redsaint]

So the nuns has vampiric abilities but doesn’t have any weaknesses for sunlight/steel.
So perhaps a day walker like blade or maybe she just really bad ass who likes to bite the preety boys

 

[Doomroar]

@Doopington it just felt pretty bland, like drama put there just for drama's sake and plot convenience (which to be fair, it is how i have been feeling about this manga for a while), as of now the characters of the church are all quite meh, Simon could have done without that background or at least with way more foreshadowing, but even then "i jinx people to death whenever they eat my sweets" is by itself just too stupid, and the fact that he keeps doing it is even worse.

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

@Doomroar @Acolytus I'm not massively thrilled with it as a backstory, but as to the "kept doing it" thing . . . sure, reading this manga about monsters and faeries and wizards it seems obvious that someone in that setting should instantly realize and believe that his cooking magically kills people. But he wasn't hanging with weird stuff at the time, he was a normal guy in the modern era. He wouldn't believe in magic, it wouldn't be something that would even register as a co-incidence on the first couple. And then he got a bit superstitious, but what sane person would think that a bunch of people who died of all different proximate causes none of which would appear to have anything to do with eating food, was killed by his cooking? It's obviously nuts, and if you spend a bunch of time with someone who often tells you it's obviously nuts, it's reasonable you'd be swayed. And so if you're particularly fond of them and they want to taste your cooking and it would clearly increase intimacy between you if you do make some for them so you really want to believe it wouldn't be a problem . . . look at all the things that are currently standard practice despite being very bad for us because it's more convenient or emotionally comfortable for us to pretend different.

 

[DeadGuyKai]

@Hounder

In Britain and some other places, a black cat crossing your path is indeed seen as good luck, not bad as it's seen in America.

 

[AlmondMagnum]

@Acolytus
Look up the RL Typhoid Mary. She infected over 50 people, and killed at least three, because she wouldn't believe she carried the disease. Or in washing hands, apparently. Or in not working as a cook. I guess she didn't have a lot of marketable skills?

Add to that that he didn't know the supernatural was a thing, and it's no surprise he couldn't believe it.

 

[Rozzak]

>feelings of some other
>implying feelings for Chise are the result of his fae-parts being attracted to slay vega
>isn't truly fae so the effects are subtle and/or diluted
I remember calling this back in chapter 7 or something on batoto
He does say "some other" though so he could've eaten a fae at some point and pulled a Koinzell or something to that affect

 

[Yautja]

Well that was an uninteresting, unexceptional and cliche background. Quite the oddity for this manga. An inarguable stupid decision.

 

[infocam]

Since when did we ever noted a perfectly plausible curse / jinx?

OTOH, Gabriella must be a subspecies of vampires or something similar...

 

[Lithe]

Feels like they glossed over jinxes a little too quickly. I'd like to think it'd be tied to some other lore, but nope. Just "circumstances surrounding your birth, you've got a jinx", and the purpose of the backstory was just to reveal the beginnings of their relationship.

It opens it up to future reveals, but it could also just be somewhat of a letdown.