#mashima for allowing this trope to be a thing
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Ranking Fairy Tail Death Fakeouts
I'm not posting frequently enough to make joke posts.
We've had quite many death fakeouts in this series.
That statement alone is an indictment on Hiro Mashima, who has gone on record to say that he enjoys writing characters in situations where it seems they died but survived.
I figured I'd rank as many fakeouts as I remember from best to worst.
I tried to limit myself to situations where it was clear that we should think the situation led to death. However, things got out of hand. (You'll see.) Bear in mind that some involve groups of people who we thought died.
While this is my ranking, I tried to stick to these criteria in ranking them.
Should they have died otherwise?
Does their return make sense?
Is the series better for their return?
We're starting with the best version of this trope.
Fairy Sphere was the best death fakeout, and I'm not sure people would expect it to fit these criteria.
Everyone on the island thought they would die. They accepted their fate in Toy Story 3 style when the Black Dragon came and blasted Tenrou Island, leaving only a crater.
That's good games, folks.
However, the return makes sense. Those members were at a sacred spot for their guild. While we know Mavis' body isn't on the island now, we've seen her powers at work earlier in the arc. Mavis using one of the guild's most powerful spells is reasonable. It activated because of their shared spirit, leading to the Grand Magic Games.
I've criticized Mashima's handling of training in series, especially in the Grand Magic Games. Their return was a genius idea. Time skips happen often in anime and manga, but few function as this did. The heroes have to play catch-up with the rest of the world. The execution wasn't the best, but this was one of Mashima's best ideas in the series.
Speaking of Mavis, I think her death fakeout was the best individual example. This might be because we didn't get enough reason to believe there was anything past her death. If you could make a phantom image of yourself, wouldn't you put yourself in your prime? We had no reason to believe she died at the age we saw her.
I'm not the most supportive of Zervis, but I like this as a death situation. The good news is that she didn't die from the curse of contradiction. While it's a bit sketchy, I do like that there are attempts to keep her alive as soon as possible.
Her continued existence as Lumen Histoire (I prefer this name to Fairy Heart) was foreshadowed amazingly. It was a situation that affected all the major arcs from its mention to the end of the main series. Of course, after escaping Lumen Histoire, she continues to impact the series for the better. The Larcade/August situation is a mess, but I don't think it hurts Mavis' return.
Speaking of which, Lisanna's fakeout was also really good. (Shocking, I know.) Let me start by admitting that this one is hurt by her lack of importance in the series. She hasn't taken out any major villains or caused dramatic character changes (unless you read my stories). It doesn't matter since we never really were led to think she would become a super relevant character.
As for the other aspects, she passes with flying colors in my book. She should have died on the mission based on everything we know about the situation. No one in the guild operates under the assumption otherwise, and it is taken for granted for two in-series years.
However, we never see her die in the manga. We hear about the events and get flashes of what happened. However, Mashima never shows us that she died, even after the series was extended past Phantom Lord. While the anime shows more of what happened, the director admitted he never planned to treat Lisanna as dead. Edolas as an escape for Lisanna makes more sense than people give it credit for.
Next up is Irene, whose situation is interesting. I should be madder about how that was handled. There didn't seem to be a reason for her to kill herself, especially given the justification of actually loving Erza. While Acnologia brutalizing her body was too much, that felt like the nail in the coffin. If she wasn't dead before, she was dead then.
However, the return itself isn't nonsensical. Irene was impressed by Wendy's enchanting skills during their battle. No wonder she would want to tag along with her temporarily. I do prefer this justification for Irene. She still wants to find a body of her own to host. I'm glad she's selfish about it.
This aspect was one of my favorite things about the sequel. It was great to see how Wendy and Irene interacted with each other. Often, it would be Wendy accounting for Irene in situations or Irene intervening in places where Wendy needed help. I wasn't a big fan of the resolution, but I did appreciate that it tied into the Knightwalker situation.
The last of the good returns is Gajeel. His death was another situation that was treated as a given. He was being taken to 'hell' at the end of his fight. This was almost a tragic end to the best ship in the Big 4. We recognize their mutual feelings only to be ripped out of their hands just as soon.
The genius of this moment comes in the timing of events. It's hard to explain this, but the events of the arc all overlap in weird ways. This fight happens as Natsu and Lucy hope Brandish can negotiate peace with August and Irene's meeting with Acnologia. While the portal closes, Irene is casting Universe One. The spell changes the continent's shape-up, so it's not out of the realm of possibility this brings Gajeel back into commission.
Honestly, Gajeel doesn't do a whole lot past his return. He certainly puts work in, especially in the sequel. However, he's not impacting the series like several other characters mentioned before, along with others to come. Though, even at this point in the series, he's nowhere near the focus of the series. Not to mention, he's always been a secondary character, so no meaningful change there.
Other people wouldn't count this, but I'm putting Silver next. I say I'm not sure because this is a rare example of a fakeout of a death fakeout. Silver was killed by Deliora all those years ago. However, he was brought back to life thanks to Keyes, who used him as a puppet and experimental rat. This makes sense as a reason for him to return.
However, the lead-up to this revelation is pretty messy. We're led to believe he's Deliora for some time, among other things. (We'll get to him soon enough.) His most meaningful impact is giving Gray Demon Slaying magic. His role involved setting plot points before their fight, like freezing Sun Village and capturing Natsu.
I'm not a fan of Jellal's return. This could be a higher ranking. The circumstances surrounding his supposed death are reasonable enough to think he died. We'd probably assume he was gone forever if it weren't for Mystogan showing up during Fantasia. Nirvana justifies his return. He's arguably made the most impact of anyone on this list.
So what gives?
Petty as it sounds, this version of Jellal bores me. Look at how Jellal acts before Nirvana and how he acts after it. Of course, this is because of what happened in the Tower of Heaven arc. However, I wish there was a way we could keep Jellal's snarky attitude while also being a heroic figure. Thank goodness Crimson Starbird wrote Kidnapping Erza. Speaking of which, his ranking is saved pending his joining Fairy Tail. It's a cliche ending to his arc, but a welcome cliche for a fan favorite.
Moving down the rankings, God Serena is up next. This is another situation like Silver, where he died but was brought back to life. I don't like him or his return. I plan to talk about this later, but his death is made worse by the final battle of the main series. We're supposed to believe the power of eight dragons couldn't beat Acnologia. Yet the power of seven fire dragons can get the job done? No dice.
His importance in the sequel is to be noted. It certainly was a shock to see him come back. However, I don't think anyone was clamoring for this former member of the Spriggan Twelve to come back into the series. Brandish and DiMaria were more popular characters. I'd take my chances with the Dragneels coming back again. (You can tell this is a personal list.)
We have another fakeout in this list of death fakeouts because we have Igneel, Metallicana, Grandeeny, Skidarum, and Weisslogia. That's right, I'm putting all the dragons on this spot. This is another spot that feels like cheating because they did die all those years ago. All we saw was their last spurt of energy. That was enough to go toe to toe with Acnologia and destroy all the Face statues.
I want to like this one more. This was one of the best moments in the series. Still, I can't say that it makes sense for them to be back. I appreciate that this was hinted at, but the hints were cryptic. I'm glad the dragons destroyed the Dragon Seeds and Natsu's dreams. I can't put them any higher in good conscience.
I wish this next one was at the bottom, but I can't lie. I hate what happened to Ultear. I've talked about that much already. Last Ages might be the only thing I hate more than Nalu in Fairy Tail. That said, I can't act like it makes no sense to exist or that the results are shocking.
I can say that I'm annoyed by the future implications of this moment. I'd rather Ultear not be an active character in the series than see what's happened. Whenever I see Ultear do something, I can't tell if Mashima regrets his decision or is doubling down on it. This isn't anywhere frequent enough to piss me off more.
I'm going to throw Deliora next on this list. I'm not sure who counts for this list anymore. Let's start with the positives. His death was very well explained. The plot to revive him was interesting.
However, this arc is among my least favorite in the series because of what happens when the ice melts. Outside of a version-dependent last roar, Deliora was always dead. While Moon Drip and Deliora's legacy matters moving forward, the real Deliora doesn't.
We're in the bottom three now. Fitting that the only man to be guild master three times is up next. Makarov's situation is a bit too weird. He only survived based on the technicality of Tenrou Island joining the continent when he went out. You probably didn't know that was a part of the deal. That's right. The only reason this can be justified isn't even common knowledge.
Honestly, there wasn't enough reason for Makarov to come back. The benefit to his return is that Erza can go on the Century Quest without worrying about being the guild master. I know that the Ghost Dragon Slayer was part of the guild, but that's not enough reason for him to not have passed leadership to the next generation.
This is another shocking addition to this list, but our second to last person is Kageyama. Technically, he was the first instance of this happening in Fairy Tail. During the Lullaby mission, he was about to free them from Erigor's trap, but he was stabbed before he could do anything. I could see this argued as not truly being a death fakeout. However, I'm counting it because it wouldn't make sense to interpret his absence as not being a death. Then again, we are talking about him here.
You could also argue that his situation isn't as bad as other characters we've mentioned. However, he earns this spot because, by coming back, he causes more problems for the Strongest Team. Let's get this out of the way. Natsu should have left him in the trap, regardless of his feelings. But by being brought along, he betrays the group's tenuous trust in him and endangered guild masters from all over the land. If he threatened them, I'd bump him higher on this list. He served as a glorified delivery boy. Erigor could have been in the same place as him, fought Natsu, and lost. Nothing serious would have been lost.
But he's not the worst. The undisputed worst death fakeout was only ever going to one person. You know her. You love her, but nowhere near as much as she loves Gray. That's right, Juvia's death fakeout is the worst. (I can hear the Gruvians coming for me from a mile away.)
I've also discussed this situation too much for any person's sanity to be intact. But let's review what we've gone through in this list. Some character's death (fake or otherwise) makes sense, but not the return. For others, the return is pretty sensible, but not the death. Many characters are saved by their relevance after the fact. Whatever the case, some aspect of their situation has reasonable logic. The best characters make sense on all accounts.
Juvia's in a league all her own. Juvia's death was under ridiculous circumstances that strained believability. Her return was arguably just as bad, if not worse. I've heard plenty of people talk smack about Lisanna's comeback. You can't tell me with a straight face that this is better. At least people didn't expect Lisanna to return at all, least of all the chapter after she was revealed to have died. That would be enough to earn this spot on its own.
What cements it for me is that Mashima decided to shoehorn her into nearly every arc of the sequel. I won't go so far as to say I wish Juvia was dead so the ship wouldn't happen. But is Juvia living to fuel one of Mashima's sloppiest ships ever to head towards being canon that good a tradeoff? By the way, this whole situation shaped Gruvia's current trajectory. Considering that happens to be one of the worst things about the sequel, I feel comfortable putting this return at the bottom of this list.
Let me know what you think. If I left anyone on this list, I'd be shocked to find out.
#fairy tail#not a joke post#the only jokes are me and mashima#me for posting this later than i wanted#mashima for allowing this trope to be a thing#no way I'm tagging everyone in this
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Hiro Mashima’s deplorable shtick
Topic of today: Wendy Marvell and Rule 34
As we know Wendy is a main cast member in fairy tail. She is frequently posted with Team Natsu and treated as an icon, which in itself is not a problem. The main issue arises from the publicity that comes with the trope of being an older character while still having the appearance of an underage child.
Wendy canonically speaking is 400 years old, which is why artist including Mashima and Ueda get away with fetishizing her character. This gives other artists the ok to draw her under rule 34 soliciting her in a sexual nature. Mavis vermilion is in a similar predicament of age dysmorphia, the difference being that Mavis does not age but is treated like the much older wiser person that she is even as an apparition. Wendy however does age, but still has a youthful appearance because of the time bubble. She just doesn’t get treated the same way Mavis does because it isn’t clear that Wendy is from a relative time period and isn’t a spirit like Mavis.
In the beginning Wendy was posted as being only twelve years old and was treated as such, from her appearance to other characters treating her as if she were the younger naive sister. Comments are thrown around about her growing into her clothes, or protecting her sight and hearing from mature situations such as; loke talking about sex, nudity of numerous characters, and even just talking about being in the same bed. They allow her to drink alcohol after all the fuss of protecting her “innocence”, but when things start to pick up in battle she is treated as a full fledged adult again . She deals with healing the heavily injured or fending off enemies that are triple in size compared to her physically small stature. Which in continuously being mocked and pointed out.
Speaking of her stature, one of Mashimas infamous gags is to write about her chest size. It does nothing to drive the plot and even if it is a joke it comes off as creepy and derogatory. In one instillation of this moment about her being young and small during the Tartaros arc, pedophilic implications of Mest Gryder ( come on even his name feels like an arbitrary choice) being interested in young women appears as the main cast is shrunken down from a spell that was cast on Erza. He is blushing and appears during the statement of Jellal saying he is ‘not interested in little girls.’ This moment is also backed up by Mest being flustered again (during the Alvarez arc) while he sees Wendy and Carla helping children find there parents. He refers to her as an “angel”. It’s not set evidence of him enacting on any of his strange behavior but it is clear that Mashima used these moments as some nasty satire to make light on a serious topic like pedophilia, only for him to cover it up as if Mest and Wendy have a friendly close relationship, when really Mests subplot relied on him gaining his memories back after being inclined to erase them. Wendy being the one to help him get accepted back into the guild. It pushes the line between friendly admiration and uncomfortable attraction.
It is conclusive that Mashima should have the resources to help him write better story plots, he has bitten off more than he can chew coming up with Edenz zero, Ft100yq, illustrating characters for a game, as well as the recently released manga Dead Rock. Fairy tail is probably his most well known work and what boosted his career after Rave master. It deserves a better conclusion and more care and consideration put into the characters he created. It would not only lessen his workload, it would also help refresh the characters that we would like to see elaborated on considering they are important to his story.
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Gray died for Juvia, Juvia almost died twice "for Gray" and was self harming herself to be able to chase Zeref.
When even death, self harm, self neglect, harassment does not count as "unhealthy behaviour".... What does count as such anti anti gruvians?
I would be interested in which kind of imaginary world you are living where these actions are not unhealthy. Should I be concerned? What kind of abuse have you experienced which you had to normalize in order to survive? Are there also little unicorns jumping around in this world you created for yourself? Can I visit it?
No wonder you protec fictional characters and relationships with all means crossing every decent boundary a human being should otherwise possess since they (Juvia/Gruvia) are more important and real to you than "real" people since you are denying reality and their definitions and usages. That you attack real people instead and do not protect or show the least amount of urge to understand them or show compassion to them (but to fictional characters) is proof enough. You seem not to have experienced such behavious in the real world from real persons addressed to you. I have no other explination why you would think it would be otherwise ok, to call anti gruvians mentally sick, not respecting them as living concious beings with emotions and treating them accordingly with respect just because they "hurt" your feelings for a fictional ship.
Also tagging this insult for the whole internet to see in the anti gruvia tag, means that you cannot even follow normal decent social rules. Seem you have not be sozialiced correctly and have not learnt manners either. Properly, since you grew up isolated, neglected like Juvia did. Therefore, you identifying with her, wishing her happiness since you are "living through her", and normalizing her behaviours and protecting her right to become happy, as means to escape your own emotional reality.
I just want to assure you, what you experienced is not healthy and since you are a living being you can heal and live a life in happiness you create in the real world. Juvia as non living being cannot and will always be used as comedy relief tool by Mashima. Do not attach to a bad representation of lonliness and act out and hurt people to ease your pain. Find real happiness in the real world. Juvia is not a good rolemodel for you, chose another one.
"Love" is not a list of trope actions, which have to be fulffilled.
Love is healthy, love empowers, love is no win lose situation, love is no sacrifice, Love allows personal growth, happiness, other friendships, respects the individuals and is creating a home, meaning where both feel safe, protected to be their authentic selves and be able to grow and were they help each other.
Love is not an assimilation, owning, stalking, copying, ideolizing, mimicking.
Love starts with self love and healthy individuals.
Therefore, yes when a healthy couple and a couple of unhealthy individuals are doing or saying the exact same thing.... It will be a sign of love for the first couple and simoultanously a sign of unhealthy attachment for the other, since not the action nor words can embody love, but the context, the requirements and the measurable consequences for the individuals. And these are set and therefore already predictable.
Love darkcitrin
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Hi Phoenix I was wondering do you have any advice when it comes to writing a story ? I’ve been planning /writing a story awhile now but I feel like I’m basically copying fairy tail , the way the hero and heroine meet is like how Natsu and Lucy meet , the team I’m planning putting them in pretty much team Natsu all cause I put a girl who magic is like Erza but it’s hard to make unique magic that fits into a fantasy world.I feel like I’m gonna have a mental break down with all this stress, sorry
Ok so first of all my comrade anon. Breathe. Slow your brain a bit, cant do anything if your stressed tf out lol.
Now that we got our heads screwed on straight let's get talking.
You feel like your copying FT but guess what? This is still the first pass of your story! There's time to fix and change and snip away things to make it it's own thing so stressing out over it while its a wip is moot! I get that is natural to hold your head while your still in progress (trust me i've been there) but you've got time! No deadlines! All the chances to keep fixing until the story comes into it's own until you get it right!
And plus there's also the fact that no story/character is truly original in the sense that tropes, character traits, story beats, powers, etc often find themselves repeating.
Lets give some examples!
If we stick close to home Fairy Tail, Eden's Zero and Rave Master all had their main duo have 'meetings by chance' where the male protag is given the chance to showcase his unique abilities by defeating a large group of minor antagonists and being the instigator for the story's major events.
Then going along further we meet a male character who's abilites lie in creation acting as a rival to our male MC and a another female character who is incredibly strong. Things repeat!
And outside of the mashima circle it still holds true.
Superman and Omniman from Invincible essentially are the same at their roots (and yes i know omniman was deliberately crafted to be a superman like figure but regardless) of being a nigh invincible super powered aliens.
Pinkie Pie from MLP, Spongebob and Mabel from Gravity Falls all fill the same niche of the super happy go lucky character.
Natsu and Luffy are often lumped together with bearing similar traits of being the positive male protag. Heck even in Naruto the character role of the hardworking loser is filled by both Naruto and Rock Lee in the same series!
The key thing that makes all these characters their own despite having similar traits? Their execution! How they're used in story and the traits the creator chooses to showcase the most!
Superman is a hero and uses his powers for good, Omniman is a colonizer seeking to take earth for his empire. Pinkie Pie's cheerfulness is used for gags and breaking that universe's logic, Spongebob's endless positivity being slapped onto such a normal thing ( just a dude working at burger king) is where half those jokes came from and Mabel's quirkiness is used both to balance out her brother but also is used as a flaw and insight into her character.
And you're worried about powers being similar but extends to powers too.
Powers especially! Truly unique powers are hard to come by in this day n age!
Luffy and Mrs.Incredible have the same powers of elasticity but both focus on different aspects to the elasticity and how they use em. Mrs.Incredible is a logical character and uses strategy hand in hand with her powers to cleanly incapacitate her opponents whereas Luffy is written to be hardhitting and is literally made of rubber instead of just being stretchy alone which allows deeper uses of his powers.
Elemental powers are a staple in fantasy media but! That doesn't stop em from being used does it? Avatar is a good example of this where yes it does use common powers, but those common powers were written with a tightly structured power system that made it stand out.
So at the end of the day, you should worry less about things seeming similar and focus more on the execution of your ideas.
Your protags have a meeting by chance, however where is it? Who ran into who? Did they start off on a good foot or as enemies?
You have a magical swordswoman, are you having her summon weapons? Why not change how she summons them? Maybe she has tattoos of the weapons she uses on her body to summon them, or she made contracts with deities who gifted her tools she can summon at will. Or she has prosthetic limbs that she transmutes into weapons to use at will.
Common ideas, but different ways how they can be used.
At the end of the day an interesting spin on an old trope or concept is what writing sorta is, so stressin about things that seem similar's gonna do ya more harm than good.
You have time to think and go over this more than once, look at your characters, really sit and look at then and figure out what traits they have that you want to exploit and how it can be used to build em as their own character. Dont worry too much on the powers, i can assure you that similarity is not the end of the world. As long as it isnt literally copy and paste then you are fine.
Breathe. Take a step back. Look all over at other series, books, even irl for inspiration.
You got this comrade.
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Opinion on NaLu and BBRae
OOOOOOO hohoooooo and 2 of the big ones tooo
NaLu:
I am a sucker for slow burn since i am an avid opposer of the "love at first sight" trope. They work as a fun team better than they would if they were your average lovey-dovey couple and i completely understand Mashima's reluctance to make them as open as he did it in Rave Master with Haru and Elie. BUUUUUUUUT he kinda slipped to the other side of the horse and is dragging it out so much i really don't care anymore. I mean if you were to tell me they had a canon kiss scene, i'd give a round of applause and that's it.
Natsu can thank his character development in a biiiig % to Lucy, because otherwise all he'd get is crazy powerups (which.... he still gets, but with Lucy he was pushed to be more than just another DBZ reference) <- i know i am being harsh on the guy but i kinda left the Fairy Tail media (and anime and manga in general) thanks to Machima and his one-trick-pony attitude. It's kinda derailing but i MUST say this because i AM angry with Machima i just don't talk about it.
Back to track tho, Lucy is one of those unconventionally strong characters that i love. If you know me, you know i'm not impressed by OP characters as much since i find strenght in different aspects than muscle. Lucy is a character that is tremendously strong and thanks to Natsu her outer strenght could match her inner strenght.
When characters offer so much and more to each other, i find that appealing because it's literally the found family trope.
And while Natsu was always focused on Igneel (therefore parental love) his outer strenght got matched by his inner strenght in this scene (IMO)
Let's not forget, according to the guild itself, Natsu never teamed up with anyone till Lucy came around and while at first he was just using her, she quickly taught Natsu that he is allowed to lean on others.
And i really don't need to show pictures to remind anyone that seen Fairy Tail that Lucy got inspired by Natsu's power.
Slowly but surely they got attached by the hips, particularily inseparable and we always love a face that just lost someone irreplacable to him:
This is the face that just got told to SUFFER!
(although where was his super hearing in this scene? my man you stupid)
Have a lot more to say but there is another big name here isn't there!!!
BBRAE!!!!!
weareignoringTTGthatshowdeservesnomoreattentionfrommethanfamilyguydoeswhichisnearnothingexceptforsomeselectfewjokes
So as many other people i started with the 2003 animated series adaptation of Teen Titans.
I wasn't as aware as a wee' monkey that i was ace, but i very much so was already even back then i just wasn't aware it was a thing that i was. This is an important context.
You see as a kid i was already aware of tropes (even if i didn't know that's what they were called, in my mind i called them repetitions) and my kiddo brain caught on that Beast Boy and Raven were written as an "old married couple".
And you know what? There are scenes that are like "if you squint this probably hints at that". Like in "Fear Itself" Beast Boy being the first to get captured suggesting Raven fears losing him the most or RAVEN!!!! being the first person in the team to laugh at one of Beast Boy's jokes (episode: "Go!" chronologically the first episode) or how even in an unconscious, feral state Beast Boy registered Raven as someone to protect and ever so gently placing her down to face the rest of the team (AMONG THEM CYBORG IS VERY BEST FRIEND) and not registering them as allies in "The beast within". And let's not leave the infamous hug without mention
Did you know that among the hugs that Raven initiated this was the first?
And i also have a soft spot for "look twice" tropes, because at first glance Beast Boy and Raven couldn't be more different. Except... they share a lot of qualities.
Both of them have a sense of humor that's on others' expense, even if they are mostly harmless jokes.
Both of them are rather secretive, it was a plot point in Season 5 that none of the Titans knew Beast Boy already is part of a superhero team.
Both of them fancy hiding from reality in fiction (it's just the nature of fiction they like is different).
Both of them is emotionally stunted, it just took a different form. While Raven tries to be the invisible one, Beast Boy wants your attention where he points it at. (It's a form of "invisibility" too. To guide your attention to where he wishes.) So while Raven just avoids attention all together, Beast Boy draws your attention right to his "mask" and you are non the wiser.
When i later on learned they are a thing in the comics, i really was like "that's natural". Of COURSE they are. (were u_u)
And here's the kicker: even when they are not romantically involved, the two characters are somehow always tied together. Even if it's just a strong platonic bond. They are never neutral with each other!!
I also find it rather funny, when the one to fall first for the other, is the one you don't expect to :'D IIRC Raven fell in love with Beast Boy first, and he reciprocated later. It's so hilarious for some reason... i expect BB to fall for Raven and work on convincing her, but it's the other way around?! Irony GOLD!
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Rambling about Fairies - Manga Chapter 97
*Warning rant about sexism and stuff*
Honestly the Wizard Saint rankings is the most inconsistent thing in the show. Especially since Erza herself, who is supposed to be on the level of Laxus, is in all effect the damsel in distress in this final battle. Mashima tries hard to give Natsu time to shine... by shafting Erza’s chances to fight.
Yeah sure, Erza is devastated in this scene. But if Natsu’s going to win by sheer force of anger anyways, why couldn’t we give that moment to Erza so she could have a shounen anger powerup instead? Is that not the trope? How dare you kill my friend! Then emotional power boost. That’s the thesis of the power of love in this show, and somehow, it’s the man that gets the powerup instead of the woman that’s been tormented this entire arc, who has all the right in the world to finally fucking get angry. I get that Natsu showed us Dragon Force and all, but is Erza not allowed to go feral or something? Sure, Erza loves Jellal, but this is the moment it should have changed. There’s a limit to the ‘stupid woman in love’ trope and this is past that point!
Yes, sexism. This is sexism. That is the point I’m trying to make.
And every time Erza fights, there’s always the case of ‘if Natsu tried hard enough, he could do something Erza can!’ even as early on as Lullaby arc. No one ever doubts that Natsu can save the day, not even Makarov. And Mashima always finds some reason to shaft Erza artificially-- in Lullaby, she’s magic exhausted. In BOFT, she’s taken too many rebounds from the thunder lacrima. In Phantom Lord, she tanked Jupiter. Every single time she has to stop fighting because of injuries and not because she fought for those injuries like Lucy, it’s because she does something reckless. If she’s the strongest, then give her a fucking fight to prove that she is the strongest fighter instead of coming up with roadblocks to take her out of the battles she’s supposed to excel in!
I find it really hard to even put Erza in Laxus’ level because of this. Sure we can be told that Erza is as strong, but until that scene in 100yq, they have never even gotten close to comparing their strengths.
Honestly, Erza probably where the power scaling problems first started.
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Quick Notes: Chapters 137 & 138
I’m so glad I made this change a while back. Let’s go!
Chapter 137
It’s always fun to see Xiaomei back narrating the series.
This week on lines that aren’t making it into the anime: “I understand that we are blessed with two chapters this week.“ (cries in Netflix Jail)
I’ll never understand the trope of “don’t worry, you’re going to die“ whenever it happens.
Honestly, it’s going to be fun watching all these attacks animated. The animators are going to have a field day with this. At least I hope.
“You’ll never hit anything like that, duckies!!!“ Hey, she said the thing again.
We know the Imperial Army are villains because, despite everything they’ve done up to this point, they employ kids that like to beat women to drive armored cars for them.
Real talk though, this kid looks like the kid from MHA that pointed out Endeavor at the end of last season. I’m honestly not sure how much I’m allowed to spoil one of the biggest recent anime.
“I trained... or actually, I got an update, so now I can use it without affecting my allies!“ Convenient power-up is convenient.
It’s cool to see a planet that’s glad to see their resistance army. It also makes me worry for the future. I know how this works.
I appreciate that at least one of the Oceans... 5. now really is questioning Nero’s logic.
Chapter 138
Why does Labilla get to be on this cover? Also, I’ve recently noticed that I’ve referred to her as Labilla and Lavilla in this series.
I’m not as much of a fan of Mashima’s war arcs as I am his ensemble fights. It’s always fun to see people work off each other like this.
I’ll never get over the fact that it took over 130 chapters, several arcs, and a move through an entire cosmos to find someone who likes Rebecca’s videos.
I’d enjoy Sister kicking a man while he’s down if Crunchyroll didn’t split its double pages. Again.
Honestly, it‘s not shocking that the news of Drakken Joe getting beaten moved to them. What’s really shocking is that they didn’t mention this or the EZ at any moment before this.
“I can beat the rebel army all by myself!“ Small Child is Unable to Beat the Rebel Army By Himself.
I appreciate this handling of war. At the same time, we’re not going to sit here and act like what Shura is doing isn’t a bad thing.
I’ll never get tired of Shiki and Homura’s dynamic. It’s honestly my favorite of the EZ Crew.
I wouldn’t put it past Ziggy to go to the Temple instead of Planet 66.
I don’t know if I should be looking forward to the ensuing battle between Eraser and Shura. I will say that I wouldn’t be shocked by a battle between Shura’s assistant and Rebecca. Don’t know why though...
I wanted to keep this at the end, but I like these covers. It’s rare we get two color covers for double chapters. The anime’s going to start airing soon, but we’re still going to be talking about the series here.
See you next week!
#quicknotes#edens zero#edens zero spoilers#edens zero 137#edens zero 138#edens zero chapter 137#edens zero chapter 138#this has been fun#hopefully new post this friday#maybe two
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OKAY so I was just thinking...
This is just a theory... but I noticed that many fans wanted Sakura to end up with Naruto, right? Sadly, that didn’t happen and Naruto ended up with Hinata instead, a person who at the very beginning adored Naruto. Same with Sasuke who had Sakura adoring him, too. Sakura and Hinata started with simple adoration that undeniably, as I am aware with Sakura, grew into pure devotion. There were roadblocks on the way but their love overcame those roadblocks.
What I’m saying is this... these men chose those women who stayed by them from Day 1. Hinata to Naruto and Sakura to Sasuke. I know you may say “but Sakura was devoted to Naruto, too”. True but Sakura already given her heart to Sasuke, even going as far as wanting to defect from the village to be with Sasuke wherever his vengeance was taking him. Good thing, Kishimoto didn’t allow that because it would really send a bad message. He was going for a “Sasuke” redemption and I am glad that Sakura was part of that.
Enough with Sasusaku. The main point of this post is to show the parallel between Sasusaku and Gruvia. DON’T GO BERATING ME LIKE ‘HOW CAN YOU EVEN COMPARE THEM’. Just sayin’, I think they are following the same trope. Rival who is actually the best friend, adoring fan girl (for a lack of a better term) turned devoted lover. Ring a bell?
I bet... if Mashima continued and expounded the Gray vs. E.N.D thing, we are going to see Gray go down the same path as Sasuke. I always thought the Gray vs. Natsu thing during the war concluded abruptly. But Mashima probably didn’t want to be compared with Naruto. So, let’s stop there. lol.
I know it’s kinda too late and too moot to keep defending Gruvia. We shouldn’t even have to defend it but it just came to mind while I was on the way to the bathroom. So...
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dear yuletide author
Thank you so much for reading this and taking part in this wonderful annual conspiracy!
First of all, I hope you have a lovely time! If any of the fandoms below pique your interest, I’m delighted already, and ready to hear all the stories you want to tell.
Fandoms: Chihayafuru, Nirvana in Fire, Thunderbolt Fantasy
As for reading preferences, I’m happy with a wide variety of tones and genres, of any rating, ranging anywhere from lighthearted antics to dramatic casefics. But the core of all the stories I love has always been character interaction and interplay of their competences.
How the characters play off each other and bring out their best/worst, how they’d react to a divergence of events, how true they’d stay to themselves in a different setting – I love fanfiction for allowing us to reconnect with our favourite stories time and again by asking these questions. And there are so many ways to do it! To name a few favourites, I’m always game for POV hijinks, a missing scene, a casefic, canon expansion, backstories and what-ifs.
You may notice that quite a few of my requests lean towards shipfic – those, too, are welcome in a variety of tones – but I also tried to include openings for gen ideas if that’s your jam. Additionally, while it is not usually my top interest, I don’t have anything against AUs if there is something that you are itching to explore: I tend to enjoy them for a new aesthetic that fleshes out the favoured character dynamics in a new light, or a fusion that redefines the playing ground to allow the characters to exhibit their core competences in new and exciting ways.
I would be very grateful if you could avoid a/b/o and similar kinktropes, played-straight soulmate fic, and character interpretation that runs contrary to their core values. If in doubt, please reach out to me on anon - the askbox is open!
CHIHAYAFURU: Mashima Taichi, Wataya Arata, Suou Hisashi
You don’t have to include all three characters, but I’d love to see a fic that explores the connections between them better. I’m up to date with all manga scanlations.
Wataya Arata/ Mashima Taichi
In the immortal words of Henjin Meijin, Arata is that person for Taichi whose opinion makes or breaks him. (His wording may have been different, but if I go rummaging into the chapter archive to find the exact quote, I’ll end up binge-rereading year three into the night again, and then where would my Yule sign-up be?) (On that note, what kind of a MASSIVE LOSER waxes poetics about Taichi’s boyfriend problems to Taichi’s MOTHER, whom he JUST met? Suou Hisashi, that’s who.) Needless to say, that paramount opinion was not always great, and neither was Taichi’s general wellbeing.
Good news is, Arata is confident in his manliness, and he has no problem acknowledging Taichi’s ridiculously pretty and not too bad at karuta these days, and he’s also moving to Tokyo. Taichi’s definitely pretty and has an apartment in Tokyo, where a country bumpkin of paramount importance may possibly stay over until things are sorted out… eventually. Hint hint.
Jokes aside, I pine for the dynamics between the two of them. I nearly lost it, reading the Meijin semifinals — and if you can show me a person who saw them bawl as they crawled into each other’s laps on Japanese national television and didn’t bawl in response, well, that person is sure not me.
I’d like to see a story that lets them build and explore that connect. I do not object to eventual OT3, but I think Chihaya is on a quest to find her own footing and pursue other goals at the moment, and I’d really like it if she was allowed to do this (join forces with Shinobu to drag karuta into a professional league, girl!). I’d like to think that in that space, different bonds and relationships can develop and strengthen, starting with Arata and Taichi.
Taichi the overanalyzer, the hardworker and the looker, the golden boy who at some point surely hit that red button, meme-style: you will be perfect at everything, you will have everything, except the one thing that you want above all. Arata appears to be his perfect foil: steady and serene where Taichi’s scrambling and flawed, adorably awkward and disarmingly sincere where Taichi’s groomed, smooth and miserable about his own deceptions. But they don’t see it like that! And they keep tripping each other up so beautifully!
I’d love to read your take on them growing closer and hopefully smooshing their faces together. Roommates in Tokyo? Long-distance friends? Figuring out how to tell your flatmate you’ve been in love with him since you were 12? Established relationship while hijinks happen? AWKWARD THIRDWHEELING WITH SUOU?!
On that note:
Suou Hisashi & (or / - wejustdon’tknow.gif) Mashima Taichi
I cannot believe that ridiculous man. Did you see a grown ass adult swoon because his unrequited disciple I mean not-friend I mean Taichi just up and went to meet his relatives??? To help reconnect them?? One can do things like this?? What next, being able to make phonecalls like an adult??
Does not compute.
I was there, Gandalf. I was there when the story first indicated that we might be getting an unlikely team-up of the world’s weirdest Meijin and Tokyo’s most miserable overachiever. But even in my wildest dreams I did not dare hope to see them sprawled on the carpet on a humid summer afternoon, Taichi comfortable in his own skin and Suou, erm, probably not very comfortable with his fascination :D He did not sign up for this. He, a grown ass man in what must be his early twenties, is too old for this youthful seishun sakura bullshit. And yet it is he who mournfully accosts Taichi’s mom to talk about how this other boy is paramount in Taichi’s universe. He who gets offended because Taichi knowing how to adult and work the social ropes is too sexy and competent. He who finds something compelling in the painful struggle of genius and skill.
Arata - Taichi - Suou
For maximum indulgence of yours truly, bring those into one place. Arata coming to Tokyo and finding Suou a fixture in Taichi’s life how?! Suou being infinitely pissy at the Fukuyi upstart and yet dragging himself to socialize with the boys regardless like a totally-not-pathetic adult with a social life of his own? Arata being mildly puzzled about the antagonism, but in there for the sweet snacks?
You tell me! I delight in my anticipation.
NIRVANA IN FIRE: Mei Changsu, Xiao Jingyan
Is this a complex, narratively inevitable historic tapestry strangling people with its treads, full of delicious politicking and identity porn? Yes, it is.
Is my burning – nay, primal – desire so simple as to smoosh two faces together and watch them kiss? Yes, it is :’)
I mean, I will obviously not say no if the kissing is giftwrapped in the said tapestry of beautiful, politicky plot, but the fever I can’t get out of my system is this: LET THEM KISS, GODDAMMIT. LET THEM BE HAPPY. I welcome canon divergences, alternative endings, fix-its, insert eps and codas where it looks like they would have kissed (erm, or at least confronted each other in a way that would inevitably end with them making out) if only Mei Changsu wasn’t so caught up in self-loathing and fluffy foxfur coats, and Jingyan didn’t talk too loudly about his so dead, so very dead beautiful ex to hear Mei Changsu weep stoically into his beautiful white furs.
I adore Prince Jing. He is 90% cheekbones and 20% heartbroken pouting over his so very dead friends, and all of it noble and awkward and stubborn and deserving of happiness. Mei Changsu is ridiculous, and capable, and twisted into pretzels of his own creation: not above gloating over his enemies while daintily dipping cookies into his tea, he gets too caught up in weaving the tapestry to notice he is a part of it. Pull him off his high horse, Jing! Render him helpless by being yourself! Do something about being hopelessly charmed with each other, through resentment, loss, bitter pining, and narrative inevitability! JUSTKISSALREADY.gif!!
THUNDERBOLT FANTASY: Rin Setsua; Sho Fukan
I LOVE THIS SELF INDULGENT WUXIA NONSENSE AND I CANNOT LIE!
Sanfan is a mixture UTTER GLEE and deep fondness for the genre staples, self-aware and masterful playthrough of all the wuxia tropes in the book, and one goddamn well-constructed story. It plays the tropes straight, calls them out with a knowing wink, walks the tightrope between the two with panache, and just as you are relaxed and enjoying this trapeze show, it grins cheekily at you, sets the discoball on fire and pulls a bunny out of a hat. It’s DELIGHTFUL and fun and lovingly crafted, just like a good passion project should be.
I want anything that capitalizes on the absolutely hilarious dynamics between Rin Setsua and Sho Fukan (and while personally I end up using the Japanese versions of their names more often, please feel free to go with the Chinese names if you prefer). Sho Fukan does not want any of those heroic quests, he’s the human equivalent of been there, done that mood, and he just wants to REST and hopefully dump a bunch of magical murderswords someplace safe. Rin Setsua is a Totally Respectable and Non-Villainous Member of Society, of which he will inform you firsthand in the most high spoken and verbose way possible, and maybe even produce paperwork that has definitely not been tampered with. He harbours no ulterior motives, ever, and does not trail behind Sho Fukan for any reason beyond the pleasure of his company, and his mission to personally victimize and cockblock every morally derelict villain in two countries, by no-one’s request.
Whether you go shipfic (yiss!) or canon levels teamup circus (also yiss!), don’t hold back your horses. Everything about this is Extra, and should continue to be so <3
I am okay with both expanding the canon and playing with AUs/crossovers/fusions for this one, provided they retain the character dynamics. I love the extended cast as well: any characters including the Seiyou gang (and on that note, if you want to write the Seiyou backstory for Shou’s gang that has no Rin in it, you’re welcome as well), reappearance of the familiar faces from Touri (read: Rin’s victim list, past, future and present), original characters lined up and waiting to be screwed over (guaranteed) and rescued (the administration does not bear any responsibility etc etc).
Thank you for taking the time to read the letter, and I’m greatly looking forward to reading your story — and hopefully, getting to chat about these ridiculous and wonderful characters post-reveals :)
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NaLu analysis: Context, Substance, and Chemistry
Many FT readers find, one way or another, multiple moments that showcase the strength of NaLu and highlight their chemistry.
However, not everyone is capable of perceiving how the story nourishes this relationship, not only by means of obvious moments but also by the context of several scenes.
This is one of the reasons why wankers are prone to ignore or completely disregard context to fabricate something to make implausible premises (cracks) seem as solid as a semi-canon pairing.
For example, some use the following scenario as a sign of a rising romantic relationship: the female lead slaps a character she and her partner are familiar with because he trash-talked the values the guild stood for, something that hurt her a lot.
Granted it was all an act and the guy apologized at the end, but the slap and apology are still overhyped by wankers as something as big as what NaLu may offer.
However, when this scene is put in the context of what Lucy’s character was going through, the story points in a different direction.
The scene was painful to Lucy because she was struggling against the fear of the FT guild, which she considers her family, not coming back, and having a member of that family bad-mouthing the guild only confirmed her fears... until it was revealed that was all an act. And this isn’t just speculation; right after everyone returned, Lucy expressed to Natsu, Happy, and Wendy this fear she had
But the context also offers something else. Let us ask, what gave Lucy the strength and hope she needed to, at the very least, fight this fear?
Instead of “what” we should ask “who.” The answer? Natsu, who not only provided Lucy with the hope she needed in a passive way. He also took action in response to her desire to get the guild back together and brought her to an adventure to reunite their scattered guildmates.
Again, this isn’t mere speculation. Natsu worked in the idea of getting the guild back together right after this scene:
While not explicitly romantic, these actions are far more meaningful than an overhyped slap/apology.
It’s safe to say that this element is quite unfriendly with less likely premises. Still, context not only refutes non-sensical arguments, but it also enhances NaLu moments when factoring it into the equation.
For example, the movie storyboarded by Mashima himself, Dragon Cry, features a moment previously analyzed in another post. The moment by itself looks strong, but it’s the context that further solidifies the scene as “NaLu.”
At the beginning of the story, we get Natsu asking Lucy in a curious manner “What do I look like?”. This line will be repeated at the end in the form of a "meaningful echo" as Natsu beats the bad guy with a new transformation (which made him look more like a dragon and less like a person for a while).
So, the context now gives the scene a deeper meaning as it shows how much Natsu values the perspective Lucy has of his person and how it affects his character the way she sees him.
More often than not, context allows readers to grasp the substance of a relationship and, in some cases, even individual characters.
On the other hand, there’s another underrated element many either disregard or misinterpret. It is something we already considered in an earlier post, but given how wankers try to twist this concept to downgrade NaLu, we’re going to touch this subject once again: Chemistry
As we explained before, many readers can admit NaLu has several moments throughout the author’s works, but wankers or haters still deem this bond as something lacking in “real chemistry.”
Some of you probably read my previous “rant” before and realized, one way or another, wankers promote arguments to say “implausible” premises can easily match what NaLu has. And one relatively new argument relies on the claim of certain cracks having “real chemistry” while NaLu doesn’t have any...
Does this claim hold any merits?
Short answer: No. Logic and evidence refute such arguments
First, let us consider the term “chemistry” once again. To truly understand this concept in the context of literary works we need to what true chemistry is not
True chemistry is not about commonalities. Usually playing the straight man or woman in crazy situations doesn't automatically makes you a match for someone who may do the same.
True chemistry is not about saving the girl or getting rescued by someone. A typical advice about writing chemistry indicates that it should never be implied that a character owns the other a relationship because of favors done. Saving the girl is not enough to claim a pairing has the "superior" chemistry.
Now that we cleared that up, we can answer the question: What is chemistry?
In the context of relationships, chemistry is related to mutual trust/faith; it’s a natural connection, "a bond, or common feeling between two people." In fact, "real chemistry between characters happens when they affect each other in big ways."
So, we can measure chemistry, not by commonalities, not by the characters' overall intelligence, but by how the moments they share leave an impact. When meaningful gestures and significant moments result in an emotional attachment.
But, despite all of this wankers may insist on their premises being just as solid as NaLu. What do they use as “evidence” for this claim?
The first thing many of these shippers tend to use is a “Freudian Slip” to prove a Mr. Fanservice character is seeking a romantic relationship with Lucy. The line goes something like this: “She’s kinda cute.”
Does NaLu have something better than that?
He deemed Lucy as “precious” to him as he battled the one who killed Lucy’s future self. His tears along with his actions made his words far more meaningful than a mere “Freudian Slip.”
Another moment that wankers may use involves this setting: Lucy powering through a great deal of danger and pain to save Natsu’s life with the assistance of the guy wankers promote as her would-be lover.
Does NaLu have an answer to that? Yes! All thanks to the context
The epicenter of Lucy’s emotional and physical struggle is Natsu and his potential fate after releasing him from the one thing that ties his life to Zeref’s existence.
What wankers used to justify their premises in this point of the story, turns out to be more supporting evidence of the strength of Lucy’s bond with Natsu when we factor context!
All that these shippers have left are very occasional “saved the girl” scenes and a few displays of “concern.”
We already mentioned how the reasoning “saving the girl means she owns her savior a relationship,” doesn’t match what a natural chemistry between characters should be. But, for the sake of debate let’s consider these moments anyway.
Wankers use these few showings to claim their favored character should get the 1st spot in Lucy’s heart. Because he shows “concern.” Doesn’t Natsu show a lot of concern for Lucy?
He’s pretty open about it and displays “concern” for her pretty often too, sometimes becoming hard to contain when it comes to the prospect of saving/protecting Lucy
So, if “concern” is the factor to claim a guy should be the girl’s lover/boyfriend/husband, then why wankers hype other characters over Natsu?
What about “saving the girl” scenes?
Natsu protected and saved Lucy...
...multiple times
If saving the girl = we’re a thing now, then why wankers still say their favorite option is the one who has the romantic relationship with Lucy instead of Natsu?
When all arguments are exhausted all that remains is one overhyped instance of Lucy teaming up with a cool sexy guy to parry several sand projectile attacks and claims of “wonderful friendship.”
If teamwork is a factor, then why the “most compatible team” as stated by the manga doesn’t get the same hype?
When analyzing the author’s works, we can see Natsu and Lucy displayed how well they worked together several times
When it comes to their relationship, in a previous post we also considered how their companionship and their potential to become a canon pairing can easily be described as “wonderful,” or as Lucy said: it’s always more fun when we’re together
At the end of the GMG arc, we could see how their bond, the “common feeling” between them could transcend time and space
So, why cracks are the ones deemed as “wonderful” while NaLu gets discarded?
The point is that even when several shippers claim the “saved the girl” scenes from their favored premises hold more merit, NaLu casually matches and surpasses the best they have.
This comparison is not meant to imply that saving the girl cannot be used to advance or enhance the romantic potential of a relationship. Some stories may resort to such a trope to build particular bonds, but what makes such scenes stand out is the context.
For example, one of the first NaLu moments seen in the series is when Lucy gets rescued by Natsu during the Phantom Lord arc. NaLu benefits from this scene not because Natsu was saving Lucy, but for the overall context of her situation...
...as some readers may realized by now, hearing Natsu’s voice as all that Lucy needed to jump off, taking what we could consider a “leap of faith.” This scene helps to stablish a great trust that’s growing between the characters involved.
It becomes even more meaningful when considered as part of a much bigger whole; this “whole” being the progression that created the emotional attachment that Natsu and Lucy share for one another.
Still, despite everything we’ve seen in the author’s works, even some NaLu shippers use this flawed logic to throw Lucy to the bed of a “better-looking” character or having her marry someone “cooler.” All while keeping Natsu, in the case of those who still remember he’s there, as the “other guy.”
This little exercise is meant to illustrate how, even when playing with some particular shippers’ “rules,” NaLu remains as the choice that makes the most sense and has the better chemistry. Unlike what some wankers/haters may say or think, NaLu is more than just a bunch of lovely fanarts.
Some shippers may disregard Natsu as the logical option because of his personality. He’s a good-hearted thrill-seeker; someone upbeat with a fondness for pranks and collecting mementos, as well as someone who’s prone to let out his emotions.
Several shippers don’t find such traits attractive or “worthy” of Lucy, while they favor the archetype of a stylish Mr. Fanservice character who has a cool, calm, and collected personality.
But, a potent relationship is not about what shippers consider “worthy” or “best boi.”
A potent relationship is about meaningful gestures, multiple impactful moments, consistent bonding, and a solid emotional chemistry.
One last thing to consider is this little detail: Some wankers decided to use the cover of chapter 379 not only as a sign of their crack being “semi-canon” but also as a tag for their premise.
When a hater tried to use the cover to attack rival shippers, even casual readers laughed at how delusional was claiming that cover contained anything that could support a pairing.
Then again, if we play by these wankers rules, we could mention two little pieces made by Mashima himself that when put together give us a pretty obvious message:
And as that MJ song says: “Who’s bad?”
#fairy tail#fairy tail dragon cry#natsu dragneel#lucy heartfilia#natsu x lucy#nalu#otp: it's always more fun when we're together#defending nalu#chemistry#potent relationship#potent pairing#logic#analysis#recently edited
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So, I’ve been watching RWBY, and...
I think it’s really good. It’s nowhere near perfect, but I’ve enjoyed it a lot. It’s somewhere between an 8 or a 9 out of 10 for me. Unfortunately, I don’t have a whole lot to say about the series itself. I like a lot about it, but none of it is stuff that I feel I can talk about for a long enough period of time to justify making a post about it.
But if we’re talking about RWDE, then I have some things to say about them. A lot of what I’ve done on this blog has revolved around fandom. Regarding Fairy Tail, I’ve believed that, as bad as Mashima could be, fandom could be infinitely worse about things. Though, RWDE strikes me as fascinating and I want to talk about them, given my rather unique experience.
If you don’t know, RWDE makes up a group of people who watch RWBY. They’re vocal critics about nearly every possible aspect of the series. You’ll notice that I don’t say that they’re all fans of the series. While many claim to still be fans of the series, it’s hard to take that seriously in a lot of cases. Some are also involved in toxic actions like harassment of fans and creators... because of course.
Now, this post isn’t an epic takedown of a lot of the ideas espoused by people in RWDE. Frankly, I have basic issues with the conclusions many have come to regarding the series. But I’m not personally interested in going through that. It’s also not a defense of RWDE’s actions towards others involved with the series. Considering what I went through with the Nali messages earlier this year, I don’t have patience for fans who decide to go after real life people for fictional series.
What I am interested in is a defense I’ve seen of RWDE’s existence: it’s totally fine to watch and talk about a show that you don’t love everything about. I’ve seen this a few times on a couple of RWDE posts. Frankly, this isn’t a new idea. I’ve seen this used by people who were critical of Fairy Tail back in the day. However, RWDE presents an interesting challenge to that.
How much can someone dislike a series before they decide to give up on it? And how useful is criticism given from the perspective of someone who hates the object of criticism?
I’ve had a lot of time to think about these questions, especially considering what I’ve been doing regarding Fairy Tail. There was a point in time where I was more critical of Fairy Tail than positive of it. If you read a lot of my posts from mid-2016 to early 2017, I take for granted that Fairy Tail is not a well written series. It hurt, especially considering Fairy Tail was the series that got me into the anime scene in the first place.
However, something had to give. Around the time I was reaching eight thousand posts, I came to two realizations: Fairy Tail was not a well written series and likely never was, but I still enjoyed reading, watching, and talking about it more than a lot of other things. I tried to reconcile the two when I hit the milestone and came to the conclusion that, despite my issues with the series and creator, I still love the series and wasn’t planning on leaving the series.
Of course, since then, I’ve gained a much more positive view of fhe series. A lot of the posts I’ve made since then have involved talking about why the things Mashima did make sense. I’m still willing to say that there are things about Fairy Tail I don’t like and that Mashima made some stupid decisions. However, they aren’t enough to drive me away from fandom or the series.
I don’t know that the same can be said for much of RWDE. A lot of the things I’ve seen said by RWDE tells me that they don’t love RWBY in its current form. They wish that the series were fundamentally different and abhor much of what is currently happening with the series. Given that RWBY is no longer under the direction of its creator, I can understand that to a degree. However, RWDE takes it to a level past sympathy for me.
I don’t think it’s impossible to have fun watching something you don’t enjoy or that you want to criticize. I go through arguments of stuff I don’t like and have fun thinking of how I’m going to rip them apart. I had fun reading stories for the Bye, Bye Lucy series because the tropes were terrible and ubiquitous (I wouldn’t read most of them for story quality unless you paid me).
But after a certain point in time, I feel like it just gets to where it isn’t fun to go through a series. If people get burnt out talking about the things they love, I’m not convinced that talking about something you don’t like can be sustainable for long. A lot of the people I know criticized Fairy Tail have long since left the fandom and don’t care about anything Mashima’s made anymore. I don’t know how long RWDE intends to exist. Even if it remains big up to the end of the series, whenever that will be, I can’t see it lasting for too long after that.
When it comes to their criticism of the series, that I find more fascinating. I’ve held the opinion for years that fandoms should allow for spaces to share both positive and negative opinions of the series without fear of being ostracized. This opinion was forged during a time where saying anything bad about Fairy Tail at its worst earned you the label of “toxic fan”. (It was a simpler time.)
However, a lot of RWDE criticism strikes me as misinformed. Again, RWBY is far from a perfect series. However, a lot of its critics attack it for some of the craziest and nonsensical reasons. Many almost give the impression they didn’t actually watch the show attentively.
Like it’s not as if there isn’t criticism of RWBY to be leveled. I think the White Fang analogy to real life issues could have been better. I don’t love the Maiden plot line. I’m not a big fan of much of the songs in this series. (Not sure if it’s the lyrics or Casey Lee Williams’ voice.)
However, when RWDE criticizes RWBY, it’s almost as if they want something that isn’t RWBY. I’ve seen fans criticize the series and they have legitimate concerns, some of which I just mentioned. And their critiques involve the series being a better version of what it is. That’s an important difference.
If you weren’t one of the seven people who paid attention to my series talking about what our heroes should and shouldn’t do, one point I make over and over is that context should inform content. What a series is about should inform what a series does. I think that comes easier when people love the series they’re talking about than if they don’t.
Of course, it’s not as if you can’t do that if you don’t like a series. One of my favorite analytical series is Digi-nee’s “The Asterisk War Sucks” (I was going to link videoes here, but it’s not all available). That series isn’t just about why The Asterisk War is a bad light novel series that became an anime. It goes through how the series fails as an adaptation of a light novel, sci-fi series, romance story, action series, tournament arc, and even fan service show.
But to get to that, you have to be willing to work for it. Digi had to watch the series in its entirety 4 times. Even if you did like The Asterisk War, I find it hard to see Digi’s points as baseless hatred. It feels like RWDE watched the series once, maybe twice, before making their points. And honestly, it shows.
The future of any fandom is unpredictable and I can’t claim to know what will happen years from now. However, I can’t imagine RWDE being a permanent part of FNDM. Fans hate their existence as it is and many don’t agree with their arguments. If they’re anything like the most toxic parts of other fandoms, they’ll throw fits at the end of the series and move onto something else in about a year.
In Conclusion:
I think you can gain enjoyment out of something you don’t like and criticize something that you don’t love or even used to love. RWDE is the worst examples of these things, bordering on “exception to the rule”, and I will celebrate their inevitable downfall.
#not fairy tail month: crisis on infinite fandoms#rwde#i'd tag this rwby#but i feel like they'll find it#i know some people in rwde#i'm going to lose some friends#or not who knows#you'll notice i'm not talking about a certain overused point#i'm better than that#season 8 when?
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Do you think that Erza would fit in well in Bleachs Universe ? I ask because ive made a fan fiction in which Erza is part of the gotie 13 (It got a TV trope recommendation so Id like think its at least decent. XD) You seem to have a great understanding of not just Fairy tail but Hiro mashima's writing in general (Its good and its bad though we may differ on what we consider good and bad.) and a fondness for Erza's character. So I figured you could give an interesting take on this. Thanks.
God no. I like Erza but I would never want Erza in the Bleach universe. While both have their BS I consider Hiro Mashima a better writer than Tite Kubio, not just from personal opinion but just in quantity as Kubo had the substitute shinigami arc, soul society arc, and first half of the arrancar arc as good. While Hiro has all of Rave Master, The lullaby arc, the galuna arc, the tower of heaven arc, the phantom lord arc, the Loke arc, and parts of tenroujima arc. But in terms of Bullshit they’d pull. See the bullshit pulled by Hiro is more I just want her to win with no reason, Kubo’s bullshit is this power if not basic is completely complex and just seems like your pulling shit out of your ass that barely relates to your powers and perfectly counters this one guy. The thing is Mashima pulls stuff out of his ass but I feel he has at least knows and remembers some of his characters powers, but Kubo always bends the rules of his powers or retcons them.
Also there is no way Erza would fit in the Bleach universe because no woman (aside rukia) is allowed to win by herself and have it matter in that world. Erza’s wins at times are garbage, but she is able to do something and actually have wins that are legit. I’ll say Hiro has Erza on god mode a lot but at the same time when has a female character been put on that high a scale that they tie with jotaro kujo in the last 20 years in shounen.
And then there’s a difference in powers. Erza’s re-quips give her a variety of powers where as bleach it’s just one power per shikai and then a spin on that power in bankai. But lets be fair and just give Erza the cherry blossom sword, that just channels magic into it that increases it’s power. Well that’s okay of a power but let’s look at the villains of bleach, Barrigan has the power to rot anything, Askin has this ultimate poison and immunity power, Gerard just keeps getting stronger, and aarienro and his ability to become a massive blob of hollows. The only way for Erza to win with cherry blossom blade, is bullshit. It either is “I have friends” power like Hiro or “My bankai perfectly counters yours” power.
Erza I feel is a character who works really only in the FT universe. Now that universe should be a lot better written. But I can’t see her working in the bleach universe at all unless you basically aren’t adhering to the style of Kubo. SO yeah sorry to dissipoint but Erza should really not end up in the bleach universe. I bet done extremely right, like cut some bullshit, she could make it in the rurouni kenshin or maybe berserk’s universe (again if done extremely well)
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I get Erzas violence is played for comedy that being said. It doesn't make it okay. For someone who forces her views on others about friendship and doing what you want not for your guild/creator. She is a hypocrite. She tries to change her "friends" cause she doesn't like how they are. She also had Gray and Natsu so terrified they were unable to be normal. I admit I'm biased when it comes to Erza. I think she's the worst fictional character to exist, I hate her to no end. Even so shes abusive
I’m kinda surprised you like Erza, AC. Thought with the writing around her, her armors that allow Mashima to do whatever he wants whenever he wants, and pull BS at any moment and her abuse towards her friends you’d be like her towards you are Juvia XD. Sorry if I’m being annoying about this. Been really pissed at anything Erza this past week because of a friend.
I don’t really have it in me to hate a fictional character, or even really dislike them. I sort of slide on a scale of “really like - indifferent - annoyance”, and any annoyance I have gets taken out on the author anyway. I mean, I don’t even dislike Juvia (or Irene, or August, or Larcade), but I really don’t like how Mashima wrote them and I am filled with exhaustion whenever I have to deal with them. If that makes sense.
So I don’t dislike Erza - she was one of my favourites on my first run-through of the series (back in ye olde 201…1? 2012? eh), and I can get what Mashima was aiming with her enough that on a casual rewatch I usually let her worse writing slide until about halfway through the GMG (post Pandemonium specifically), at which point I totally check out. (i can even be grateful we HAVE enough women as major cast members consistently doing things every arc that i can be annoyed about their consistent mishandling in combat!)
i still like some erza scenes a lot. i even like some natsu and juvia scenes!
When it comes to guild-friendship hypocrisy, atrocious relationship handling and shitty combat management I can only hold Erza to the same standards as I hold everyone else because those are all things Mashima’s fudged for literally every other character. Erza punches her friends because Mashima didn’t think the joke through, Makarov pervs on his children because Mashima didn’t think the joke through, Gray’s written as suicidal because Mashima doesn’t know what he’s doing… etc. etc.
And while I do get annoyed about her armour, I get more annoyed that Mashima was stupid enough to write himself into a corner that he’d need to give her deus ex armour to begin with. (FUCK the nakama hakama though. FUCK IT)
I’m the way I am about Juvia primarily out of pure spite and a massive sense of disbelief that the fandom cuts her so much slack where others would eviscerate her. She’s a badly written culmination of a shitton of tropes I despise, so it was only natural I’d harp on her writing more than anyone else’s (even though my beef there is still with Mashima for fucking her up).
juvia is a sense of betrayal because i really, really tried hard to like her, and I’ve had issues with her from when i still loved the series. erza is the same slow creeping sense of disappointment i got with the rest of the cast as the plot progressed.
kinda rambling here but hopefully that all made sense
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You Can Like Nalu. I Don’t.
I should just end this post here. I mean, this is obvious enough when an idiot like me says it like this. We're all allowed to like different things.
But, I've had the idea for this post in the back of my head for a while now after seeing a post addressed to the anti-Nalu crowd, which I guess I’m a part of. I actively avoided responding to that post for the longest time. I did it for so long it ended up not showing up.
But considering the recent re-ignition of the fight between the fandom that has people who thought borderline sexual harassment advanced their ship and the guy who thinks anyone who likes Nalu at all is automatically sub-human vermin, I feel like now is as good a time as ever to post this.
Nalu is the most popular ship in the Fairy Tail fandom, by far. Nothing even comes close. You can't go anywhere where Fairy Tail fans congregate and not see someone say something about Nalu and how it's a good ship and obviously going to be canon, how dare you not think otherwise. I remember seeing a prominent YouTuber imply the only reason some people stuck with Fairy Tail, even as the manga was ending and writing quality was dropping, was to see Natsu and Lucy get together. I'm worried by the fact that he has no idea how dead-on he was then and even is now with the sequel.
The idea that anyone or anything is going to change that would normally be seen as a pipe dream. Giant shipping fandoms have been shot down by canon and still haunt waters as ghost ships. Their fans are often the ones leading the charges against the writers and/or directors of shows, proud to dance over the corpse of a failed show and equally ready to lament the success of a show despite what they see as the flawed writing behind popular series they're talking about. Much of the time, listening to these types of fans reveals that they have a lack of understanding of what the series was or did that is disturbingly low for someone who willingly calls oneself a... stan. (Another rant for another day.)
With Nalu, it's near infinitely worse.
This is a ship whose fans took a panel of Natsu climbing out of a hole behind Lucy as a ship moment.
This is a ship whose fans I've seen argue that it's somehow a good thing that Natsu groping Lucy without her permission has become such a tired act because she's seemingly used to it.
This is a ship whose fans went from arguing that Natsu and Lucy explicitly confirming a romantic relationship is uncharacteristic of them after the last chapter of the original series to arguing they're in a kinky sexual relationship after two Twitter sketches in a matter of months.
A few years ago, I joked that Natsu could stab Lucy and fans would consider it romantic. If the END situation was proof enough of that, Natsu ended up burning Lucy in a chapter in the sequel earlier last year and people were sad it didn’t advance Nalu further. Excuse me for not liking this fandom.
I'm convinced there's nothing that Mashima could do to make Nalu lose favor with the majority of the fanbase. If that's the case with the writer of the actual series, there's nothing I or anyone else is going to be able to do to convince the vast majority of fans that their ship is bad. I'd even go so far as to say that nothing I've done or said has convinced a Nalu fan that their ship is bad and they should like another ship.
But here's the thing: I don't think it's wrong to be a Nalu shipper.
I don't think that you are an inherently worse person for simply liking the idea of Natsu and Lucy becoming a romantic couple. You're not going to hell for writing Nalu fanfiction or drawing Nalu art. I don't even think it's inherently bad that "Nalu shipper" is a term that can be used to describe the vast swath of people who follow Fairy Tail to any degree. While I think the stuff I've talked about in the past, even in this post, shows the worst of the Nalu fandom and that part is greater than many would like to admit, that doesn't mean I think all people in the Nalu fandom are bad.
At the same time, I am clearly not a Nalu shipper. I have never been a Nalu shipper. I will likely never be a Nalu shipper, especially if Mashima stays his current course with the ship. To be blunt, it's one of the few things I can say I hate in anime and I've talked at length multiple times about my reasons why. I highly doubt that anyone, short of Mashima himself, can do anything to make me like the ship to any meaningful degree. Especially considering much of what I've done in the past is directly attack the arguments for liking Nalu.
The reason I've talked about Nalu in the past is that I want my position to be seen as intellectually valid. I hate that people will question why some feel the need to defend themselves over ships and then question how you don't like theirs. I came into the fandom seeing people literally say that they don’t understand how people go through Fairy Tail and not ship Nalu.
I want to show that I, and others like me, are not insane for not liking the fandom's big ship, among the myriad other things I talk about at length. I thought I was opening myself up to widespread criticism when I made my first post about why I don't like Nalu and have been beyond shocked to see the exact opposite happen over more than four years of blogging.
But after four years of blogging, I've grown numb to the discourse. This isn't because I magically like the ship now. (Apparently, I can't reblog 5 pictures of Natsu and Lucy together before I'm accused of liking Nalu.) Frankly, I don't really have anything else to add to the conversation. I've made any and all the points against Nalu I may ever need to make. I barely have it in me to comment about the stuff I see currently happening in the sequel and that's not really pushing me towards liking Nalu more or less. It just feels like we're back to business as usual.
To prove my point, I've directly about how the "friends to lovers" trope isn't the issue I have with Nalu. (The main thrust of the post I was going to reply to.) I've talked about I've already talked about some of the crazy things some Nalu fans have done. I tackled both and more complaints I had with Nalu were in a post I made well over three years ago.
Over.
Three.
Years.
Ago.
The next post in that series would be me mentioning the possibility of Donald Trump as president, about a month before his election. I remember because I made the edit the day after he was elected in case people thought I was making up. Funny enough, that one was also about letting people who don't like things to exist (provided they're not a total jerk). If that sounds familiar, that’s because I’ve ended up making a post dealing with that topic almost every year since starting this blog.
INCLUDING THIS POST!
Look, if you like Nalu and leave people alone about it, that's cool. If you happen to like most of the other stuff I do, and even think I make a few good points about Nalu every now and then, more power to you. That's better than I can say regarding my own views on the ship. If you happened to stumble on this post and disagree with me over Nalu, you have plenty of people who agree with you and are making content for the ship you love.
At the same time, I don't think I'm ever going to be convinced to ship Nalu. I have no such desire anymore. I just want to make my posts, write my stories and not be told I'm somehow reading or interpreting the series wrong for not liking them. I’m not taking anything away from the Nalu fandom by existing.
And to the people who also don’t ship Nalu but harass people who do, knock it off. I don't care how annoying [insert action(s) by [insert Nalu fan(s) here] here] is. Chances are that I agree with you that [copy/paste answers from above here] is/are annoying. I’m willing to bet I’ve complained about something similar in the past. Even still, you're near automatically more annoying than whoever or whatever you have an issue with by channeling that into harrassing others.
If you disagree with me, you can meet me in the pits. At the very least, because you're making it harder for me to do what I do by association.
In Conclusion:
A personal message to the extremists in both the Nalu fandom and the Nalu hatedom.
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The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Part 16 (Lisanna)
Why keep Lisanna?
I’ll be honest. Lisanna is a bit of a weird character to start the discussion of characters outside the Strongest Team with. It would make more sense in the minds of many to talk about other characters who have more of a direct impact on the series like Gajeel or Jellal. Maybe even start a discussion about Zeref as a character and antagonist. Not to mention her siblings who both get much more time in the spotlight than her. Heck, I haven't even talked about the Exceeds on the strongest team. So, technically, I really haven't finished discussing the Strongest Team.
However, I want to start with a discussion of arguably the most controversial character in the series. About the only other character to draw as much ire from as many fans and haters of the series is Juvia, yet another character someone I'm sure was expected to talk about first. Believe me when I say that Juvia has far more fans and defenders than Lisanna. I can count on one hand the number of people who have actually defended Lisanna's return and/or existence besides myself and most of the people I'm thinking of also ship Nali. (Not that it necessarily matters.)
The most important thing to note about the question at hand is that it isn't a matter of if Lisanna should or shouldn't return, as normally is the case. The issue I'm addressing is why Lisanna should be kept. In other words, the series was written and the decision was made to have Lisanna not remain dead. Why am I continuing to keep her return, which is a major problem for people who have gotten into Fairy Tail, as an element of the series? After all, I've argued for making major changes to other elements of the series seen as less problematic by fans and critics alike.
Thank goodness that keeping Lisanna isn't a terribly spontaneous choice for me to make. After all, one of the many things I am known for is defending both Lisanna and Nali from fandom criticism at large. If everything works properly, this will be posted on the three year anniversary of my giant post about Lisanna. I was bound to make this argument in some way, shape, or form. In fact, I started making the first draft of this post even before deciding to rewrite Fairy Tail.
All that said, how bad was Lisanna's return?
Now I know that many people who are even slightly familiar with my views on Nali may think I'm going to spend the rest of this post arguing that this was totally fine. But that's not really the case. I actually do think there are problems with Lisanna's return.
The obvious problem with this moment is that this is the return of a character who was established as dead. If you haven't read my post regarding my thoughts on Lisanna, I said that this is one of the things about Mashima's writing that I'm not a fan of - him presenting characters as dead only to bring them back later on. I say his writing because this has happened in every long series that I've read from him and he's outright said this is something he enjoys doing.
I feel like I need to make an important correction. I said that the upshot of doing this is that you can cause greater pain when you actually kill people off. After over a year of watching fake death after fake death, I feel like I should add in that this can only work if you're actually willing to kill people. If you don’t, it feels more like cheap emotional manipulation. Weird enough, since my post in 2016, he doubled down on his insistence that he didn’t want characters to die Fairy Tail.
Another big problem I have with the actual moment that no one seems to have brought up involving this moment involves the way this moment was explained. When we get to the chapter "Lisanna", we learn that Lisanna disappeared in front of Mirajane. We don't actually learn that until this specific moment. The fact that Mirajane and Elfman are even going to a tomb for Lisanna makes it weird to find out that she wasn't actually with them in the first place.
But, of the times that a character has been presented as dead only to be brought back, I think this is one of, if not, the best versions of this trope within the series. Before Edolas, we were presented with the idea that there are two of the same people through Jellal and Mystogan. The arc begins by showing that things can be brought from Earthland to Edolas through Anima. In the anime, it's specifically stated that Lisanna's body wasn't left behind when we see actually her for the first time in Edolas.
So enough elements were in place that the explanation that we got for Lisanna's death was possible. At the very least, there was enough in the series for the anime's director, Shinji Ishihara, to have originally planned to act as if she never died. That’s always been a weird element of that interview we always bring up when discussing whether or not Lisanna was forced back to life. Even if that was just his personal wish, that such an idea was seen as possible by the anime director leads me to believe her return isn’t as terrible as it’s often made to be.
“Okay, but what about the negative impact on character growth? Isn't this a bad lesson for these guys?”
Only kind of.
I want to hold off on talking about how Mirajane and Elfman were impacted by losing and gaining Lisanna in another post. This is an issue I hear a lot and it deserves more attention than a few sentences in a post here. The big issue that I can see is how it affects Natsu's character. Some people argue that real lost opportunity with this is that Natsu wasn't allowed to properly and completely mourn the loss of someone important to him.
As someone whose favorite character is Natsu, likes Nali because of its impact on him and made an entire post about how bad Natsu is with handling loss, I can empathize with this argument. I can imagine what it would be like if Natsu actually did lose Lisanna forever but actually learned to let go of the pain it caused him and lived not to see other people die. This might be one of the best reasons I've heard not to like Lisanna's return.
However, I think that this is just a symptom of Mashima not allowing Natsu to actually mourn throughout the series. This is a great example of that, but it's not the only example. The handling of Natsu's search for Igneel was bad. I don't discredit Natsu's feelings when he finally sees him in Tartarus arc or when he watches him die in. Again, this is why I’m making some of the changes that I’m making involving him.
But, to be honest, I don’t think you fix this issue by keeping Lisanna dead. It’s not a bad or particularly unreasonable way to fix that issue. However, if Natsu has to learn that lesson, I’d personally have him learn that with Igneel. In a sense, I’ve personally always thought of this as a bit of a misdirect for Natsu. He thinks that since he found Lisanna, he can find Igneel. It makes the fact that he gets separated from him that much more painful.
"But wait! Isn't it bad that they built Lisanna up, brought her back and did nothing with her?"
Yeah... but no...?
Yes, it's bad and disappointing that we know so much about Lisanna and she hasn't done a whole lot since her return. Just as we know a lot about other characters like Levy and the members of Crime Sorciere who have been castigated to the background. I would have loved to see Lisanna do a whole lot more than she has. I wrote a whole thing about wanting to see more of Lisanna and how fans perceive her because we don’t get as much about her as her siblings.
But was Lisanna really built up that much?
In the manga, she almost exclusively shows up in flashbacks and is mentioned by characters up until we actually see her in “Fairy Hunting”, which is chapter 170. And the only people that seem to care about her before Levy tells Lucy about Lisanna in chapter 168 are her siblings, Natsu, Happy and Gildarts - people who, for the most part, would be most hurt by her death. No offense to the Strauss kids, but they're not the most important characters in the series anyways.
In the anime, before Natsu and crew go to Edolas, she's only mentioned in like 5 or 6 episodes. She's an important character with her own actions in only 2 of them, both of which are episodes before the current events of Fairy Tail. One is based off a special chapter and another was mostly original content added to one chapter. Keep in mind that over the span of 79 episodes.
Again, that's not to say that we don't learn a whole lot from the few moments about what Lisanna could have been. At the very least, we know that she had an important bond with Natsu, which is reason enough to be disappointed at how little they interact throughout the series, even if you don't ship them. It would be cool to have Lisanna do more than just stick around the background a few times.
But I don’t think we were supposed to expect her to be some kind of hidden weapon for Fairy Tail. As if Mashima was holding back on developing a great character that would fundamentally change the series. Heck, in that exact same time span, Mystogan was built up to be a much more interesting character with more relevance to him and I don’t plan on doing much more with him than what we got in canon.
How I think a more relevant Lisanna looks...
...is something I’ll get to that when I talk about the Strauss siblings. (I still haven’t finished the first draft of that post.)
For now, though, I hope my mindset in handling characters outside of the main members of the Strongest Team is clear. I don’t intend to make Lisanna a character who is as important to the series as, say, Wendy or Gajeel. I want her to interact with other characters and have more moments to shine as a character. I want her to have an impact on characters like Juvia and especially Natsu, in light of what we know in canon. But I don’t think she should take much more of an elevated spot in canon than she already has because of those interactions.
I don’t think that the solution to making characters who were disappointing is either making them be infinitely more important than they were or cut them from the series. After all, the only way a character can be disappointing is if we had expectations for them to begin with. What I want to do is play with the expectations we may have had for characters in ways that make sense within the series universe. This shouldn't come with the addition of unnecessary importance or outright removal of their character.
While this is true for a number of other characters, I’m most terrified of how this affects my handling of Lisanna. Considering my obvious stakes in this, I could easily have planned to make her take up the same place Lucy took in the original for Natsu as a partner the instant she comes back. I don’t think that’s the right way to go about reworking their relationship considering what I want to do with the rewrite in general. I want to make that clear now in hopes that my intentions for this rewrite are clear to those who will inevitably disagree with my choices in changes.
Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
#lisanna strauss#the rewrite of fairy tail#part 16#two of these in a row#on a wednesday no less#never ask me to do this#ever. again.#anyways#i'm probably going to#do bonus posts for a while#this was a fun one to do#i started this post like two or three years ago#and when i started to rewrite fairy tail#this became a part of the series#fav
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I don't know if you've been asked this before, but what do you think about the argument that Juvia's stalking and obsession with Gray is meant to be comic relief and isn't that big of a deal?? I've seen several gruvia shippers say before that since Japan isn't America that of course their relationship wouldn't make sense to us Westerners. But personally I feel like there wasn't much of a relationship to begin with and that Mashima just shoehorns Gruvia in because of the fans. :/
Juvia’s stalking is intended to be comedy - that’s obvious in the way that it’s handled and depicted in the series, and I doubt Mashima actually intends for Juvia to be seen as a bad guy. But, just because things are meant to be funny doesn’t mean they always are.
For example, the idea that someone hooks up with their stalker isn’t really that funny, in the same way that someone that hooks up with someone that constantly beats them up might not be funny either, comic relief or no. It really depends on how much realism you want to attach to any given scenario.
Anyway, I don’t think the argument “Juvia’s a stalker” should be discounted - I mean, she is. She also sexually propositions Gray multiple times uninvited and has a room full of his face - there are always going to be people that don’t find that stuff funny, so the “it’s just a joke!” line is pretty weak. It’s a matter of perspective - you have to choose how much realism you want to subscribe to in shipping anyway.
Pinning it down as a matter of cultural difference is totally weak, though - what, do they think stalkers routinely get their guys in Japan? Anime is built up on a series of tropes and strongly coded character archetypes in the same way that American comics are - but just because something’s shown to be funny in an anime doesn’t mean it’s okay IRL. I mean, you can have a million anti-heroes that gun down criminals left and right, but just because it’s a comic trope doesn’t mean it’s okay, and you’re allowed to dislike someone for doing something you find morally wrong regardless of author intent.
I mean, Mest apparently being a lolicon is meant to be funny, but you don’t see as many people defending that as “cultural differences”.
And, re: Mashima shoehorning in Gruvia… I totally agree. There really isn’t a lot to go on, in my opinion, haha.
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