Lucius does the unthinkable to Asta..

The Story’s Unique Twists

One of the biggest questions regarding this last Black Clover arc is “what’s going to be especially different from the previous Black Clover arcs?” Taking a page out of the previous arc of kidnapping major characters like Captain Yami and Captain Vangeance, Lucius turns Asta’s love crush into one of his divine “Paladins” to uphold the peace in the world and then uses her to inflict a “killing” blow to Asta, ending humanity’s last “flaw.”

Kidnapping your loved one isn’t something new to what bad guys do, however using them to then seemingly kill the story’s main protagonist is something I did not see coming.

These two occurrences brings forth the peak crescendo of arcs with the worst of the worst happening to the story’s main protagonist, rather than to other major characters. Chapter 335 completes the plot twist by attacking every motivation of Asta’s since the beginning of his journey—his love for Sister Lily, his love & admiration for the Wizard King to become the Wizard King and calls into question his own powerlessness.

We all know that Asta can’t be actually dead. He’s likely to be transported somewhere where his anti-magic abilities are useless. It really begs the question of how will Asta be able to come back from where ever he’s gone to?

7 Days Until “Judgement Day”

Welp. Looks like another giant battle royale arc.. Having Lucius outright say, “this will be humanity’s last holy war” sets the audience up with a familiar scenario to the story. However, seeing that this current plot has used almost every important plot element of the entire series, we can assume there’s more than just another epic giant battle; especially without the main protagonist Asta, having blinked out of existence using Sister Lily’s spacial magic.

Fun Speculation

Is this going to be an arc where Asta has to rely on everyone else like how Captain Yami and Captain Vangeance had to rely on the others to save them in the previous arc? There’s a lot of opportunity for the story to take some unique turns. At this point early in the arc, every character not named Lucius and Asta are really bunched together to have the same motivations. It’s either some combination of somehow saving Asta, find out what happened to Julius and/or finding out how the world is going to end up fighting against Lucius in seven days.

Hoping for Meaningful Answers

I’m hoping to see something meaningful come from this clash of “Lucius’s ideal peace” vs “Asta’s imperfection.” Even within Lucius, there lives Julius’s soul. Maybe Julius finds a way to be in another body like Patolli did? With everything this arc has presented so far, the story is really bringing in all the elements from all the previous arcs into this one, so it would perfect sense if Julius really did end up in another body. What if Julius really does somewhat agree with Lucius? Although unlikely, the story would be forced to answer the question of how all of these characters would react to wanting to become something that actually ended up being this evil? Nevertheless, this setup for the arc is really good and there should be multiple defining moments for all of these characters coming up!

The Start of How Characters are Reacting to Lucius/Julius

This might be one of my most anticipated reactions for the entire arc. As show in an earlier chapter Julius and Lucius are 2 souls that share the same body. However, the terms of their relationship and control have yet to be elaborated. In terms of the Clover kingdom, the rest of the world and Julius’ subordinates, how will they portray the characters’ reactions. Will they feel betrayed? Will close friends and devout followers of Julius clash with those that feel betrayed?

Again, coming off the last arc and bringing in all the elements of the previous arcs full circle, where society damned and blamed Asta for all of these devilish occurrences from the elf reincarnation. It’s not far-fetched that ordinary people will riot over the reveal of Julius’s real identity. That alone should cause societal chaos.

Similar Plots & Situations in Other Stories

I hate to use a “Civil War” reference like in Marvel, but there should be some split decisions over how the characters are going to handle Lucius. Would the captains be up to the task of killing Lucius, killing Julius? Or will they try to save him? This can lead characters to act alone or in small groups. Add in the public outcry over Julius, then this is even more a likely scenario.

Other current stories like in Attack on Titan, you have characters facing the dilemma over killing or trying to save the story’s main character. In Black Clover’s case, you have everyone having to face the head honcho in Julius Novachrono. A character that never displayed any real flaw for the entire series until now. It’s like if Goku ever became a bad guy, which is why Dragon Ball Super created “Goku Black.” Julius Novachrono & Lucius Zogratis could be Black Clover’s version of that kind of story.

Worse Case Scenarios for the Story

If all the characters and the world of Black Clover decides to forgive and come together to save Julius, then I’d be truly disappointed because real society is always split over major controversial events like this one. It’s like if we found out the president was actually actually a spy for another country. That’s assuming that the undercover spy president was actually a good president like how Julius is looked at as a good Wizard King.

The worst thing that can happen in this arc is that they all just end up fighting again with the good guys winning at the very end like in the previous arc. Characters need to die and ideologies need to be confronted! I hate to say it that way, but evil is evil because they take some of the good with them.

Continuing the Legacy of the “Best Kind of Bad Guy”

I love this route for Lucius because it’s my personal favorite archetype for “good guys that become bad guys for peace through forceful control.” You’ll find similar archetypes in other stories like in Chainsaw Man. Also, there is a lot of real world connection here like governments across the world. The whole purpose and goal of a government entity is to create rules of control over your lives. This is the kind of character that Lucius is, but the imperialist world domination kind. Having compliance and control through the use of Lucius’s powers he gained from controlling all the supreme devils of the underworld is the perfect analogy for world control. It’s kind of like if Genghis Khan did end up conquering the world.

Through all these killings, manipulation, warped ideologies and terrible sins, every good bad guy has some justification for all of this. When it comes to people committing “necessary evils” it’s the most grey area justification for any kind of justice in the world. In order to protect and defend your country, you have to kill someone in defense, right? It presents great cliche quotes like “does the ends justify the means?”

Some may say the clash of conflicting ideologies between a person’s morals and ethics is what’s torturing the world today. Everyone wants peace and love except everyone’s idea of peace and love can be warped. Every major problem in society can be boiled down to this dillema. That’s what makes Lucius the perfect bad guy to represent this ideology. For the audience, we know that he is in the wrong because he is the antagonist. But why though? Your answers to that question is what makes me love this kind of bad guy.

Last Thoughts

Regardless of what happens from these chapters onward, the arc’s premise and setup for the last set of events is thought provokingly intriguing. Chapter 335 wraps up a unique scenario where Asta may not be featured and will have to find his own path alone with Liebe from wherever location Lucius & Sister Lily took him to. This leaves the focus back onto Captain Yami and all the other major supporting characters. How will Asta’s best bud Yuno react? How are all of these characters going to conjure up a plan that makes sense against a character they barely know? There are so many questions that’s going to be fascinating to see how it unfolds. With these many questions that readers want to be answered, that’s how you know you have something good on the horizon.