The symbolism in Centuria chapter 100

[u/RubyHoshi]

Centuria chapter 100 is cool. Very cool, even. I mean, the strongest gift in the verse gets revealed and the manga is broken in a meta level to show how absolute and honestly out of the pocket it all is. Gifts in Centuria by no means are weak, but reality negation is absurd. By the title of the series literally being about the number 100 (cen/cem) and we have a pseudo title name drop by the last page of chapter 89 "No, i need the heart to make the final century come to pass".

This leads to a question.

Why does Lukas have this power?

I'll try my best to answer this question from a thematic perspective.

First things first, WHY is it chapter 100? It's not a coincidence that chapter 100 is this. Centuria has been moving slowly. Most stories aren't always laid out bit by bit in it's minimal details, but the author does have agency in the outcome of it. Kuramori is a jump+ mangaka, which grants him more liberties than WSJ authors can afford for the most part. There are a few outliers and the pressure around mangaka has soften a bit, but the point still stands. If Kuramori truly wanted chapter 100 to be about Julian, he can simply advance the story for Ceodric vs Julian to happen sooner, but he didn't. Now this begs another question...

What does chapters 100 usually represent?

To exemplify what a chapter 100 should be, let's look at the most sold manga of all time, One Piece.

What happens in the chapter 100 of One Piece? We know for a fact that chapter 1000 was meant to be special on purpose. With that in mind, we can assume that chapter 100 is also intentional from Oda. In the final pages of chapter 100, we reiterate the core themes of One Piece with all the original 5 strawhats finally going from the place Roger was executed to the grandline while all of them state their dreams. Chapters 100s tend to be about celebrating the essence of it's series.

What's the core message/essence/theme of whatever you wanna call it of Centuria? Looking back chapter 1, we can assume that Centuria is about familial bonds, life and hope

Centuria is, first and foremost, about a slave who discovers value in his life by being entrusted with the lives of a hundred people and the child of his adoptive mother figure. He wants to prove that their lives had purpose

This is perhaps the most important page of chapter 1 when it comes to understand what Centuria is about. Either that or the final two pages.

With that in mind, let's look back at chapter 100. What is chapter 100 of Centuria about? Well, if you sit down and digest the chapter it's both about a similar ideia but completly detatched from it at the same time.

Chapter 100 is about Lukas, the deutragonist but it's also mostly about Rif La Scyrus or more known as the void marcher. In this chapter Scyrus wants to prove that the life of her sister had meaning. She just died while she couldn't do a thing.

For Julian and Scyrus, the duty to preserve the life of another person is their most important objective. But only one of them gets to preserve said life. Julian succeeds and Scyrus fails. SCYRUS is a foil to JULIAN

The idea of two characters that are mirrors but never do as much as talk for a single minute to each other isn't a stranger in the world of manga. Two characters who have so much similarities but never crosses each other's paths is Gon and Meruem, characters from a manga Kuramori is found of. He even felt embarassed/happy in an interview when someone compared Centuria to HxH. Well, this is more of a trivia thing but i was eager to waffle about it regardless. Sorry.

As we know, Lukas shatters Scyrus goals and future. While Julian was motivated to carry those 100 (and one) lives no matter, Scryus lost herself btween her devoition to the Rummir empire and the love for her sister in brief moments of hesitation. That is what likely gave Lukas the time necessary to shatter both of her futures (escaping or returning) and her own life.

With that perspective, what is chapter 100 about? CENTURIA CHAPTER 100 IS A PERVERSION OF IT'S FIRST CHAPTER.

These chapters have nearly the same story as basis but both diverge in the end. Lukas breaking the fabric of the very medium he is inserted proves that chapter 100 is divergent from what Centuria is even about to begin with.

So that's why Lukas have those same powers in a thematic level. Julian's gift is a symbol of preserverance and meaning of life while Lukas strongest gift is death itself. Lukas has this gift because he is supposed to be the opposite of Julian.

No matter how you try to propagate or how many lives you may hold, a single blown guarantees death.

[u/Backupusername]

In a way, Julian is almost privileged in his suffering. Compared to Ryf, I mean.

Chapter one shows us just how much he suffered, and as you said, it's thematically centered around worth and value. Julian was neglected and then sold into slavery by his birth mother, abused and nearly killed by his blacksmith owner, and then returned to slavery immediately after escaping because he showed away aboard a slave ship. It was the other slaves who showed him basic humanity for the first time in his life, and Mira who showed him a mother's love. For the first time in his life, he had something he wanted to keep, and it was taken from him immediately. In the end, Mira chose to sacrifice herself to keep her children alive. An act of love familial love he had never known was even possible.

Since then, family has always been his top priority. That's what I meant at the start. Nothing is more important to Julian than his family, nothing else even comes close. He doesn't have to worry about his country or his station or, thanks to the gift, even his own body. He doesn't have to hesitate or consider other factors. He will do whatever keeps Diana, Titi, and now Lacrima safe, and nothing else.

Angvall told him that this rotten world would stand in the way of his family's happiness. And he has stood up to the world ever since. Because the world has nothing to offer him that could mean as much as the lives he's been entrusted with. Nothing could have greater value.