#it functions more like a legit faction of war where people are recruited than a trio of pals

[amipenthe]

It’s such a small thing but one narrative detail I love about d gray man is that (assuming cross and lavi aren’t the same person lol) post-Neah’s death Lavi was sent to take care of pasta and Cross was sent to take care of Mana. It’s such a calculated and interesting decision on Neah’s part. It also makes me wonder how well lavi and cross even knew each other.

We’ve been headcanoning for years the third side lads were all close, but that seems to be far from the case. Pasta was a rando, Lavi and Cross don’t seem to know each other well (Cross has only ever spoken about Mana and Neah and the host. He didn’t know who the host was and never mentions or thinks of Lavi period point blank. Their relationship seems to be, “the former bookman jr who was protecting the host is gone and now I got to find the host myself.”) Heck, currently it doesn’t seem like Lavi knows that terribly much about Mana which is so interesting since Mana is the reason the third side exists in the first place. It’s different than what we expected, but an interesting and more realistic narrative choice that the third side was likely composed of strangers with different self-interests running towards Neah’s goal.

Also, it makes the relationship dynamics of the third side way more interesting and complicated than the whole childhood friends forced into war bit.

Especially because that means everybody knows different things about what happened 35 years ago. No one, not even Nea, knows the full picture.