“The Quiet Mission to Reduce Noelle’s Importance”
I’ve reread the manga from the Spade Invasion up to the present, and I’ll say it bluntly: Tabata has written the last 20–25 chapters in an incredibly rushed way, and it shows massively. The core ideas are fine, some are even really good, but the execution… is awful. Everything happens so fast that it feels artificial and inorganic. There’s no natural development of events; it just feels like a rapid succession of scenes with empty or extremely superficial dialogue in between. There are moments that work, sure, but they’re the exception, not the rule.
And with that said about the overall state of the final stretch, which already says a lot about how this last arc was handled, I want to talk specifically about the massive injustice done to Noelle from the previous arc all the way to the end of the series.
I don’t care what people say: the publisher, the editors, or Tabata himself, I don’t know exactly who made the decision, somewhere along the way, Noelle was deliberately stripped of narrative weight and on-screen relevance. And honestly, it shows.
In the Spade arc, we got arguably Noelle’s best combat sequence in the entire manga. Her Spirit Dive is, objectively, one of Tabata’s best designs: the detail is immaculate, perfectly blending Noelle’s aggressive, ferocious fighting style with the almost dance-like elegance that has always defined her movement. And it wasn’t just visual spectacle. Narratively, everything worked.
We had her revenge for her mother, the accumulated hatred and humiliation toward Vanica, the resolution of the Silva family conflict, some genuinely interesting dialogues with Megicula about humanity, Noelle finally accepting her feelings for Asta… literally everything was heading in the right direction for her character. Her development was peaking.
And on top of that, at that point in the manga, Noelle was literally on par with Asta and Yuno. She was one of the strongest characters in the entire series. Everything pointed to Tabata building her as the true third pillar of the “Light Triad.”
But then the popularity polls arrived. (I curse the day Noelle won them…)
Noelle wins twice in a row by an absurd margin, especially the second time, even taking into account that the second poll was practically sabotaged by the publisher reducing the weight of overseas votes. And conveniently, right after that, her character completely starts declining in relevance within the story. That’s where the real problem begins.
The Lucifero battle is the perfect example.
I believe it takes place before the second poll, but honestly it doesn’t matter. While Tabata was writing those chapters, he gave an interview where he literally said he didn’t understand Noelle’s popularity among fans. And after that, conveniently, the supposed third pillar of the main trio suddenly stops doing anything relevant in the most important battle up to that point.
And no, I don’t buy the “she had nothing to do there” excuse. People should reread that arc. We’re talking about a Noelle who, alongside Undine, completely speed-blitzed 100% Vanica with virtually no effort. It made no sense for her to suddenly disappear from the conflict while everyone else participated.
And that’s where another huge issue begins: the absolute waste of her growth.
In neither that arc nor the final arc do we ever see her ultimate magic. So why even introduce the idea that she trained it? What was the point of setting that up if it was never going to be used? The same goes for Mana Zone. Noelle’s progression was clearly heading in that direction: mastering mana control and reaching that level. It would have been a logical, coherent, and deserved power-up—but nothing.
And then we reach the final arc, which I honestly don’t even know where to start with.
First: she was never properly credited for her fight against Vanica and Megicula, even though she did the majority of the work. But fine, that could arguably be overlooked.
The real issue is how her final battles are written and the purpose she serves in them.
After Asta’s “death,” we hear almost nothing about Noelle until the battle itself. We only know she’s sad. And there was so much wasted potential there. Her emotional state could have been developed further, showing conversations with Nero or Mimosa, exploring how Asta’s loss affects her, giving her real emotional depth… but no. It’s reduced to a few quick scenes.
Then comes the fight against Paladin Acier.
And I want to be clear: the idea is brilliant. Noelle having to face her own mother, a woman identical to her, the figure whose death shaped her entire childhood and for which she was constantly blamed… conceptually, it’s one of the best ideas in the entire final arc. And the dialogue between the siblings actually quite well. You can feel the pain, the regret, the shock of what’s happening.
But once again, the execution falls apart.
Because then Leviathan appears.
And let me be clear: the problem isn’t Noelle obtaining Leviathan. In fact, it makes perfect sense. Her magic has always been tied to sea dragons and aquatic deity imagery; Leviathan is foreshadowed from the underwater temple arc. It’s well set up. The problem is the ridiculous lack of time it’s given.
Are you seriously telling me your co-protagonist, from the very beginning of the manga, obtains the power of a sea god… and you only give her a four-page flashback? That’s just poor. It shows both poor planning for the arc and a lack of interest in giving Noelle the spotlight she deserved in the final stretch.
But even beyond that, there’s another absurd issue: her power ceiling and little presence against lucius
Because Leviathan isn’t a spirit. It’s a god. A literal god. Tabata could have used that to expand the world’s lore, introduce the concept of magical gods, explore Leviathan’s existence… anything. There was huge narrative potential.
And what does it end up being used for? Practically nothing.
Yes, Noelle was holding back against Acier. But my issue isn’t that fight. My issue is what comes after.
Because after defeating Acier, for a few chapters it seemed like we were finally going to get what many fans had wanted for years: Asta, Yuno, and Noelle fighting together against Lucius as the true main trio of Black Clover. Even if only briefly before Asta and Yuno take over.
And honestly, it made perfect sense.
With new Mana Zone + Leviathan + her natural talent + the possibility of combining with Asta’s anti-magic, Noelle could have easily reached that level. It was the perfect moment to show her true potential.
But no.
It all turns out to be a setup that goes nowhere. Noelle doesn’t do anything meaningful in the final battle except attack from a distance for a short time. We never truly see the potential of Leviathan or Noelle fighting at full power alongside Asta. And it hurts even more because we had never seen them properly fight side by side.
Meanwhile, Tabata somehow had time to give Yuno a five-chapter fight against Lucius. And he also had time to reuse Mimosa as a narrative tool for healing Asta for the third time before the final blow.
It just doesn’t make sense.
And the more I think about it, the more it reinforces my feeling that there was a fear of giving Noelle too much spotlight, because that would have meant she would dominate popularity polls again. Because clearly, what a crazy idea it would be for the best-developed female character, with one of the most complex growth arcs in the entire series, to also be the most popular.
Final chapter
Honestly, I don’t even want to talk about the final chapter anymore.
It has its beautiful moments, yes, I love seeing Asta as Wizard King and Yami x Charlotte, but the ending feels completely duct-taped together, as if there was a desperate need to finish the series as quickly as possible regardless of whether certain plotlines were properly resolved or not.
Because honestly, and just to be clear, I don’t mind Asta ending up alone. That’s perfectly fine.
I just want to know: why is everyone being acknowledged, everyone getting their moment, everyone getting closure… except Noelle? Why does the most important female character in the entire series, one of the best-developed characters in the whole manga, end up being reduced narratively to an absurd romantic competition with her own cousin over Asta’s affection?
And worse: what for?
Because that dynamic adds nothing to Noelle’s character. It doesn’t make her deeper, it doesn’t develop her relationship with Asta, and it isn’t even a proper romantic conclusion. All it does is diminish her. And honestly, it feels like something taken straight out of a generic ecchi or the fantasy of someone who doesn’t know how to write a woman romantically without reducing her to “the girl fighting for attention.”
And that’s exactly what makes it so frustrating.
Noelle was so much more than that. She was a character built around self-improvement, family rejection, insecurity, emotional growth, and a constant drive to prove her worth. Reducing all of that to a childish romantic competition in the final stretch feels almost disrespectful to everything her character had built over the years.
Because in the end, it feels like the manga stopped treating Noelle as one of its main pillars and started treating her only as “the girl who loves the protagonist.” And for a character as well-written as she was, that’s probably one of the worst decisions made in Black Clover’s ending.
I really hope the anime fixes this, because in that format popularity tends to matter regardless of gender.
Because I love Black Clover. I truly do. I’ve enjoyed this series immensely and I have a huge fondness for it. But precisely because of that, it hurts to see how the final stretch was handled, both for the series as a whole and for one of its most important characters.