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noirthf · 5 years ago

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The Emotionally Compromised Juvia Lockser

I was chatting with the ladies ( @tea-lief @kanarenee @chanting-to-u @bonneyq) in our Gruvia chat, and we went off on a Juvia love fest tangent, and began talking about how much magical potential Juvia has, not just as a water mage, but because of her emotions overpowering anything villains throw at her. But, Mashima also uses her emotions against her constantly.

Nearly every single battle Juvia has had in the manga involves her being emotionally handicapped in one way or another. So, it’s both her greatest strength, and her greatest weakness. And the reason Mashima does this to Juvia IMO, is to keep a cap on her abilities. Being emotionally compromised is a repeated excuse for why Juvia can’t and wont go all out in her battles. Because, fortunately or unfortunately, being a powerhouse is just not the point of Juvia’s character.

When Juvia was first introduced, she was an S-class/elite mage of a major guild. She was famous. Jellal, who was on the magic council at the time, knew who Juvia was. Simon knew who she was. Juvia had titles: “Juvia of the Deep” and “Juvia of the Great Sea.” Juvia had defeated dark guilds while in Phantom Lord. She was a successful career woman, basically. She was as high as one could go in her particular guild, and she was damn good at her job and had recognition. But, she had one problem, she couldn’t fully be herself, because she was missing a crucial element: love. She had given up on it after years of being ostracized by her peers, and rejected because of her rain.

But then she met Gray Fullbuster, and thus she could finally tap into her full potential, because she fell in love. However, this was a double-edged sword, because love is also what causes her so many problems in her fights, starting with Gray.

From what Juvia said, before meeting Gray, she had never been defeated (but that’s usually the case with villains in an arc lol). However, as soon as she realizes she likes Gray, she wants to walk away. She literally gives up.

Juvia tried to stop the fight multiple times throughout the battle, because she didn’t want to hurt Gray after realizing she had feelings for him. But, even with this being the case, and even being at an elemental disadvantage, her emotions still empowered her, and made her a very tough person for Gray to beat. This fight was also the only time we saw her boil her water, an ability we have never seen again.

This first battle of Juvia’s, and her hesitation to hurt someone she cared about, set a precedent in all her battles yet to come.

In her second fight, she became possessed by Vidaldus and was forced to fight Lucy. Now, Juvia and Lucy’s relationship didn’t get off on the right foot, with Juvia mistakenly thinking Lucy was a love rival. However, as she admitted during the fight, she didn’t want to hurt Lucy, as she already considered her a friend. That’s why, with tears in her eyes, we see her subconscious able to break through to Lucy, and warn her to dodge her attacks.

Again, Juvia was doubly compromised in this fight. One, by being possessed by the enemy, and two, by being made to fight someone she cared about, and didn’t want to see hurt. This open heart of hers, is what helped Juvia and Lucy connect enough to perform the very first unison raid of the series, and take down their opponent together.

However, because Juvia was compromised by being controlled, we couldn’t see her go all out against the actual villain. When she was attacking Lucy mercilessly while under control, it was clear she had the upper hand, and was dominating, using attacks in her repertoire that, again, Mashima has never let her use since (water cane and water jigsaw), but we still had yet to see Juvia actually win a fight on her own because of the circumstances she was involved in.

In her next match, she was forcibly placed against Cana during the battle of Fairy Tail, because of being caught in Freed’s runes. Again, Juvia is being put into a position of fighting someone she really did not want to fight. And this time, she truly doesn’t, and instead takes the self-sacrificial approach, rather than hurt her new friend.

Being in her water state, and touching the lightning lacryma, Juvia seriously injured herself, taking herself out entirely. She was the ONLY guild member in FT to take use this tactic, and refuse to hurt her guild mate. So, again, we are not to see Juvia truly fight.

Her next fights were in Tenroujima. She was fighting Erza during the S-class test with Lisanna as her partner. From the little we saw of the fight, they were destroyed. But, as Erza said later during Juvia’s true fight of the arc, Juvia was not fighting to her full potential against her, and that was likely because Juvia had from the start not wanted to participate in the S-class test. She had rather have been Gray’s partner. So, her motivation to win wasn’t there. That being said, during her fight with Meredy was when we truly saw her emotions work for and against her. It was also the first and only time Mashima took the cap on Juvia’s power off for a bit, as she bulldozed through Meredy.

Juvia was losing against Meredy very easily early on, as Meredy was able to cut right through Juvia’s water body defense. But the second Meredy mentioned wanting to kill Gray, Juvia went into berserk mode, and dominated that fight. Even Erza was terrified of her, noting that Juvia’s strong emotions for the person she loved were powering her. Meredy also commented on this throughout the battle, as Juvia’s emotions continued to overwhelm her.

Meredy tried to use Juvia’s own emotions against her, by linking Juvia’s senses to Gray’s, so now, if Juvia got hurt, so did Gray. However, this strategy quickly backfired, as this enraged Juvia even more. This led Meredy to take an even more desperate approach, and link all of their senses together, as she tried to commit suicide in order to take them all down together.

So, once again, Juvia was emotionally compromised. She couldn’t properly attack Meredy anymore, or Gray would get harmed, but she also needed to stop Meredy from attacking herself, or they would all die. However, there was a silver lining here, because Juvia could now also sense Meredy’s love for Ultear. This insight made Juvia encourage Meredy to live, just as Juvia also lives for the ones that she loves.

Mashima stated on twitter once that he had planned to have Juvia defeat Meredy with her water magic, but after what happened with the devastating tsunami in Japan, he didn’t want to use Juvia to drown a little girl into defeat. Instead, he wanted Juvia’s character to send a message of love and hope to those suffering.

Juvia’s empathy towards Meredy overwhelmed the angry young girl, and broke her down, so that Juvia was able to win that fight, and save all of their lives. She also made an ally of Meredy, turning her life around, as the two became close friends, who recently performed a unison raid of their own together.

Juvia’s battles during the GMG were either jokes, or mostly off-paneled/not against actual villains, but friendly rivalries instead. So, no emotional compromises here. Just lots of teamwork and love. ^_~

Tartarus, yet again, emotionally handicaps Juvia in a terrible way. Her fight against Keith was tied to the life of Silver, who happened to also be the father of the man she loves. Keith gave her the backstory, and explained that he was the necromancer who brought Silver back. Silver actually spoke to Juvia and requested she defeat Keith in order to stop Face, but Juvia already knew that would mean Silver, too, would die. Silver insisted Juvia carry on, for Gray’s sake as well.

Juvia struggled with hurting Gray in this way. She assumed it would mean Gray would hate her for taking away the father he had just reunited with. She knew she was giving up on ever having her love reciprocated by doing as Silver asked. Yet, ultimately, in probably the most brutal defeat of a villain in FT history (she went inside his body and imploded him) Juvia easily used Keith’s own underestimation of humans, and specifically her abilities, against him.

Keith was one of the most intelligent members of Tartarus, and yet Juvia outsmarted him. She let herself be absorbed, and busted him into pieces using her water body. This was a fight she clearly felt like she won and lost, because of what winning did to someone she cared about. It was also the only fight she had decidedly won on her own.

And finally, as the culmination of all of her previous battles, we come to Invel in the current Alvarez arc. Except, we don’t come to Invel at all. Juvia’s involvement in this fight was compromised right from the start yet again. Because Juvia wasn’t allowed to face Invel. Instead, she once again was put against Gray, and once again, was being controlled against her will - not just to fight- but to fight to the DEATH.

There was no winning in this fight. Juvia said from the start, she’d rather kill herself than hurt Gray. And yet she and Gray were forced to fight brutally while Gray was in devil slayer mode. He was winning, of course, but Juvia had not gone down. She considered momentarily letting Gray defeat her, but she quickly and selflessly dismissed this idea, for she realized that it would hurt Gray if she died at his hands.

So, Juvia took the only option left available to her. She attempted to kill herself, and end the fight that way. Invel was shocked, as Juvia’s emotions managed to overpower and defy his spell long enough to critically injure herself. However, in this fight Gray, too, was in the same boat, and took the same actions, because they both shared that same, overwhelming feeling of love towards each other.

Suffice it to say, Juvia did not win this fight, but she did manage to overcome Invel’s spell. Thanks to her, Gray lived, because Juvia learned an incredibly unique type of magic that was to aid, rather than attack. She can now make other things (in this case, BLOOD) with her water, because she now has water make magic. That’s amazing, and the possibilities (that we will surely and sadly never see) are endless.

But, again, as you can see, Juvia is the only character consistently put into these fights that shackle her emotionally. Her wins are almost always bittersweet because Mashima keeps pairing her against people that she doesn’t want to hurt for one reason or another. And Mashima does this because, as her magazine said, her emotions make her power limitless. As I said, her feelings are her biggest handicap, but they are also her greatest strength.

Juvia is not the badass of the guild (even though she IS a badass). She is not someone fighting to prove herself, or to get stronger. She was already strong to begin with, and had already made a name for herself. Juvia is confident in her abilities, and always has been. The only things that cause her to doubt or waver in a fight, is the idea of hurting someone she loves. And so that’s what Mashima keeps throwing at her. That’s why we will never see Juvia’s water magic utilized fully, because that’s not the point of Juvia’s character.

Juvia is a very selfless, caring, kind, and open-hearted person, who has a great empathy for those around her. She went from someone who had abandoned the very idea of love, to someone who embraces it with every fiber of her being.

So, the next time you’re feeling down about Juvia not getting more fights or better fights (as I so often feel), remember that Juvia exists to show the strength of love overcoming the odds. And love also happens to be this story’s greatest power - it’s the One Magic - and Juvia consistently uses it to protect those she cares about most. And with that power she comes out ahead every time. <3 <3 <3

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