The series has teams upon teams of magic knights with different concentrations and abilities. The Black Bulls squad has a very odd assortment of magic abilities, but Vanessa’s mysterious ability referred to as the “Red Thread of Fate” easily stands out and warrants a second look.
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Who is the Drunk Frenzy Witch?
Vanessa Enoteca is one of the Black Bulls’ oldest members, having joined the squad after the captain of the Black Bulls, Yami Sukehiro, accidentally broke into her prison many years before the story began. Vanessa was born in the Witches’ forest and her latent ability to control destiny caught the attention of the Queen of Witches, who kept Vanessa prisoner in a cage for much of her childhood waiting for her ability to manifest.
Once she became a member of the Black Bulls, Vanessa relished in her newfound freedom and accepted them as a makeshift family. Each of the Black Bulls has a particular quirk that makes up a huge part of their character, at least at first. For Vanessa, she was first introduced to viewers as a heavy drinker with a love for alcohol and a generally lazy demeanor.
Vanessa’s form of magic is a pretty unique one when compared to other magic knights in the series. She uses a form of magic called thread magic, which allows a user to produce and manipulate practically invisible threads. This magic has many uses, as it can be employed on the battlefield to assist allies, trap enemies, seal open wounds, mend cloth items, and more.
While the magic is widely applicable, on a base level it’s not especially strong in its own right and pales in comparison to other stronger magic forms in the series like spirit magic or anti-magic. Hold on, don’t count her magic out yet. There is one special ability that makes her magic much stronger, maybe even overpowered: The Red Thread of Fate.
The Red Thread of Fate Appears
Even before escaping from the Witches’ forest, Vanessa never believed in herself or her potential. She also failed to truly push herself to her limits and explore the full extent of her abilities. It was because of this lack of confidence and curiosity that she didn’t manifest her most powerful ability, the red thread of fate, until a chill-inducing moment in episode 64 of the anime.
While battling the Queen of Witches in an attempt to save her friends, Vanessa uses the power of heart-wrenching flashbacks to fuel her resolve and summon this ability for the first time. She then uses it to save herself and her friends.
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What is the Red Thread of Fate Ability?
To start, it sounds like one of the most powerful abilities that could exist in a story, as it allows the user to alter destiny. In other words, it allows the user to change events as they occur. Although, the ability isn’t actually as strong as it sounds, and it’s more similar to extreme luckiness.
The ability portrays itself visually in the form of one of the cutest cats to appear in anime. Vanessa names the cat “Rouge” since it’s a red cat and that term is French for “red”. The cat is made of thread magic, which makes it practically impossible to damage with physical attacks, and just one touch from it or one of its threads can influence the world around it. This can result in an enemy’s physical attack missing only slightly or something keeping the enemy from actually attacking, like tripping over nothing. In its strongest example, it has completely dissipated an enemy’s active spells and incapacitated them for a moment. In another instance, it tossed out a magical thread that pulled Asta from some indeterminate spot on the battlefield to the exact spot he needed to be in to save an ally from an enemy attack.
Since the ability belongs to Vanessa, and she cares more about her Black Bull family than anything else, the ability protects everyone that she cares about. Make no mistake, this ability is still very powerful as the anime has shown the red thread of fate to protect Vanessa and her friends from some especially powerful enemies like the magic knight captain of the Coral Peacock squad. It’s more threatening than it sounds.
The Real Legend of the Red Thread of Fate
The red thread of fate ability in Black Clover shares some common elements with the real-world Chinese legend of the same name. In Chinese legend, the red thread of fate is a metaphorical string linking fated lovers to one another by their fingers. This same idea can be found in both Korean and Japanese legends as well, although there are key differences in the idea, like where the string is tied or how thick it is.
This wouldn’t be the first time that anime has referenced or directly included this idea, as evidenced by its reference in Toradora!, Bleach, and many other series. It’s actually very common for anime to reference different facets of Asian culture, Japanese culture especially. Still, there are no direct similarities between the magic ability in Black Clover or the legend in reality other than the name and the idea of fate being tied to a red thread.
No Way to Go But Up
With how many magic abilities the Black Clover anime series depicts, it would be far too easy for many of them to be cookie-cutter copies of one another or ones from other series. Of course, some abilities are lacking in originality, but many of the abilities viewers get to see in full force are built off of interesting concepts or showcased in unusual ways. Every time the show presents a new aspect to a major character’s magic abilities for the first time, it’s a treat to behold. Vanessa’s red thread of fate ability is impressive on its own, but the way it further deepened her character is even more so. Who knows how her abilities will develop from here?
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