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lesbiansanemi · 2 years

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Honestly, that kagerza kiss felt like blatant queer bait to me, so I could never honestly enjoy that moment. Kagerza could have been such a wonderful ship, but that moment was just so bizarre and enforced of a 'reason' to kiss her that my mind instantly went to the conclusion that Mashima added that scene to give us another of his barely disguised fetishes again.

I can't believe there are people that could take "Kagura kissed Erza because Kagura kissed Jellal, so it's an apology" seriously. OR as an enforcement of Jerza in any way.

Mashima made them kiss because Mashima thought it'd be funny to see two girls kiss for barely comprehensible reasons. That's so upsettingly all there is to any semblance of queer representation in this show, sigh.

Oh I completely agree. I joke about that kiss a lot, but I genuinely hate that is exists in canon, because it exists like that. I think I remember actually flinching the first time I watched it because of how awful the build up/explanation was.

Like... Kagura's crush could have been left as subtext, and I would have been fine with that, and it would have made her pretty much the only genuinely good queer coded character within the series, but then that kiss happened, and she was tainted with the same queer-baity, fetishizing mockery that the rest of the queer coded characters within the series got.

Mashima doesn't even try and hide that he fetishizes wlw actions. It's blatant with the way he wrote Dimaria and Brandish's relationship (the whole thing is so gross and fetishizing, not to mention how it enforces the creepy, controlling lesbian stereotype that a lot of cishet ppl have with the way he wrote Dimaria specifically). We also see it with the way that Cana gropes other women a lot, and the way she flirts with them (it's almost always purely sexual flirting). Like the bastard actually gave us four canon wlw characters with Kagura, Cana, Dimaria, and Brandish, but queer folks either hate them because of how fetishizing and uncomfortable they are (completely understandable), or feel bad for liking them because of the awful way they're handled and it feels like accepting the worst scraps imaginable.

It's also made even more apparent that he fetishizes wlw and sees the queer community as a whole as a joke with the way he wrote Freed, another character that is queer-coded to the point of it basically being explicitly canon now. He's the only male character I can think of that's actually queer-coded in the series, and it is constantly used as a joke. It's never really fetishized or sexualized the same way the wlw are. It's proof that Mashima sees gay men as jokes, and lesbians as a sexual fantasy. It's disgusting.

And then the fact that so many cishet fans really will use these queer-coded characters as ways to "support" their m/f ships, or they buy Mashima's shitty explanations and excuses for them that he presents in canon is infuriating. Especially because so many of them are quick to say the characters aren't really queer or Mashima isn't using queer actions as props to m/f ships, Kagura really did just kiss Erza for Jellal, or Laxus always just ignores Freed's advances because he likes Mirajane, or Cana doesn't actually like women, she's just flirty with everyone, or or or— Like whether queer folks are talking about the blatant queer actions/subtext in the series because they're criticizing the way Mashima included it, or because they're choosing to engage with it in a more positive light for whatever reason, can you shut up about your m/f ships for more than two seconds? There's a time and a place, and when queer folks are discussing things like this, that ain't it. It's distasteful, and annoying, and downright awful. Like sure, whatever, you can choose to interpret it as Laxus ignores Freed because of Mirajane, or for some god forsaken reason buy the stupid Jellal excuse, but when queer folks are discussing it and they don't agree or are criticizing Mashima's writing of queer characters and calling it out for how awful and problematic it is, don't fucking start with that shit. That makes you part of the problem. Now you're using queer actions/characters as props to m/f romance in the same way, and when that's all you use them for, yeah, it's not fucking great.

But yeah... definitely completely understand why you would hate that kiss (because I do to), and why you wouldn't be able to enjoy Kagerza as a ship because of the way it was handled in canon. I joke a lot about how gay the series actually is, but I definitely acknowledge that it's in the shittiest way imaginable and there is no way in hell I'm considering any of these characters actual queer rep, because they only exist as jokes and fetish content.

#fairy tail #kagura mikazuchi #dimaria yesta #brandish myu #cana alberona #freed justine #asks #kaz rambles

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xhusu · 4 years

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Shitty jelmon hc’s that are canon in my head

Okay so since I am the only one who ships it in the whole fandom, there we go! Jelmon hc’s! (Jellal/Simon, platonic here) | Warning: my english still sucks

· The first time they met was when Simon and Erza arrived in the Tower. They were 9. The two of them were the last ones of the group to get here. First was Jellal, then Millianna, then Wolly and then Sho

· Jellal did the first step, offering his hand with a smile. Erza loved it, Simon hated it.

· He really hated the smile, he always thought of it as “that stupid smile of his”. They’re slaves for God’s sake, why is he smiling after all

· At first he didn’t really liked Jellal: he was stupid and reckless, smiling for nothing, talking like everything was alright and offering them his food almost every time he saw someone tired. Simon saw him like this kind of kids trying to impress everyone

· So, he hated when Jellal asked if he needed a hand during the day. He was totally capable of working on his own

· Which isn’t true when your nine and a slave

· But Simon was a shy and silent kid who lived alone with his sister: why wouldn’t he be alright?

· When he understood that Erza had a crush on Jellal, he went on feral mode and hated him

· He was the first to know her after all, HE was the one who should be with her

· So he became distant and sometimes mean to Jellal

· And Jellal’s smile didn’t helped it

· “Are you stupid? I said leave me alone!” “But you’re doing it wrong, you’ll hurt yourself” “I won’t!”

· He did

· Boom, first real injury

· Jellal was always talking, this fucking kid couldn’t stay silent

· Even during work

· And at night

· Like, he would let people sleep, OF COURSE, they need it

· But if you do a nightmare: bae’s here

· Let’s talk!

· He didn’t sleep a lot, even as a child. He preferred dreaming about freedom, watching his friends sleeping safe and sounds or watching the stars

· Simon hated that too because “dude stop watching us, you’re creepy”

· Simon hated a lot about him. Jellal wasn’t mean or anything, it was just his attitude, in a place like the R-System

· Then one day an accident happened: a kid and an adult died after something fell on them. The kid pushed Jellal out of the way, he saved him

· Simon saw the whole scene

· It was the first time he saw Jellal with horror in his eyes, tears starting to appear and being really shocked by what happened

· But he had to go back to work

· On their “lunch break” (the reality is that only the guards were eating, the slaves could if they saved their bread but if not, then they’s just wait), Jellal was nowhere to be find. Erza and friends were worried. Simon told them (mostly Erza because he was so sweet and kind with her and I love him for that) that he’ll find the other kid

· He did

· But Jellal was crying, the kid who died was one of his old friends

· It was the first time Simon ever saw him crying and comforted him as he could, giving him a shoulder to cry on. And as strange as it may seems, he was a little relieved by Jellal’s reaction

· Because for once, the boy was a being a boy, a child crying after the loss of a beloved one; and not a kid trying to be strong when he’s in pain

· Because they’re slaves do I have to remind you. Jellal may be strong and brave, he’s a kid

· After that they became closer because Jellal would stop smiling when he was unhappy, sad or tired

· Even tho he’d still do it for Erza because his girl deserves happiness

· Jellal always was like that, you can’t convince me otherwise

· Simon and Jellal would talk all night long and sleep like two hours

· They understood each other more every night

· Sometimes Erza would join them

· It was awkward because of the little love triangle but they’re pure and would just smile and tell each other bad jokes that Jellal wouldn’t always get (he’s sometimes stupid but it’s cute)

· They invented stories too, always about children discovering the world

· (Even today jerza remember them and it pains them more than it should)

· So there you go, they’re happy and all

· Then they try to escape, they get caught, Erza is taken

· Jelmon are the ones who think about delivering her

· But Simon is scared

· Jellal is angry

· He even said to Simon “we’ll have to fight”

· Simon thought he was joking but then Jellal disappeared

· And Erza came back

· And he understood

· But the revolt started so he couldn’t think about how braver Jellal was compared to him

· And he fought as much as he could

· Simon knew that Erza didn’t betrayed them

· He knew Erza, the only one who got the chance to know her better than him is Jellal

· Bad Jelly appears because of bad Ultear (I love you sweetie, but I love Jellal too and let’s be honest you fucked up)

· I hc the brainwash/possession as super painful too, because, hell, someone’s entering in your head without consent, it’s a mind rape. Pretty sure Jellal’s still scared of this moment because in both manga and anime it was crazy (skeleton/deformed purple thing entering in his eye) and he was 11. So yeah, trauma

· But, important point for me:

· Simon knew it wasn’t Jellal

· How?

· Because Jellal had a “that stupid smile”

· And that stupid smile disappeared

· Since he didn’t know Ultear atm, he couldn’t know that it was her

· He tried to understand, went in the cells where jerza got tortured, he couldn’t believe that Erza betrayed them… and thinking that Jellal really was a manipulative asshole couldn’t be an option neither. He even tried to talk to him, but Jellal just smiled and repeated the words he’d say to everybody

· So for now he only could comfort the little ones (Milli and Sho)

· He once saw Jellal with this strange girl he never saw. It was Ultear. He was sure she had something to do with it

· He desperately tried to talk to her, asking her who she is, why is she here, that he never saw here

· She smiled and played the innocent

· But he continued

· It was enough

· And she threatened him, something like “You shouldn’t worry this much, Simon. Would be a shame if Kagura-chan got in troubles”

· Because since he tried to understand what was happening, tried to talk to Jellal, she understood that he was a threat. But making him go away would just be dangerous because Erza being broken alone? She can’t do anything. But the two of them trying to get help, to stop what was happening? Too dangerous

· So she decided to keep him but for that she needed to know his biggest weakness which was Kagura. And since she’s in Jellal’s mind, she knows everything he does. And Simon’s life is a part of it

· And so my poor son had to stay here, trying to find a way to save his friends

· And he couldn’t start a revolt because people believed more in Jellal than him, since Jellal got in the tower before him (and tbh who wouldn’t notice a blue haired boy with a strange tattoo on his face? Who can blame them)

· He was stuck

· Until they went to get Erza

· Now, it’s in the canon you know what he did next, what he tried

· But just to be clear, when he said to Natsu that Erza wanted to save Jellal, even after everything

· Well, I think you can read it with two visions. 1) he’s just talking about Erza and 2) he was talking for both of them, but just gave up, and it was hurting him way too much

· Following the event, he took the blast and died saving Erza

· ANOTHER POINT YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER

· Jellal/Ultear wanted to kill Natsu. Then Erza came. Jellal stopped but then laughed and continued. Then he threw the blast. And Simon showed

· AFTER THE BLAST

· Do you understand that? Even in canon Jellal/Ultear NEVER had the intention of killing Simon

· So, I continue my hc’s

· In the death scene, Jellal stopped everything and stared at them, then laughed, saying about how pitiful the whole thing was

· During the whole fight, Jellal was fighting the intruder in his mind, things didn’t seem right. Every time he stopped in the scene (when Erza goes in front of Natsu and when Simon is shown after the blast) is when he was dominating his mind, but he couldn’t totally escape and Ultear would always take control

· The moment where he took total control and was back, the moment where he was winning his real fight, his mind, is when he finally felt the pain from the injury he got from Erza

· And then, Natsu does the whole speech about not being able to be free if following a ghost, that he needed to free himself

· And there he is, Jellal is back at this moment

· But still takes a huge fucking punch and end up unconscious

· Natsu defeated the corpse, but Jellal defeated the spirit

· This fight is for me composed of two. And maybe that’s why it’s one of my favorite from the manga

· When my son wakes up, he’s hurts, he can’t feel his body, everything hurts

· He stands up but feel so heavy and then see his reflection in the Etherion/Lacryma that became the tower

· And then: shock

· He’s an adult

· He’s beaten up

· His stomach is bleeding, his face too

· And the only thing he remember clearly is a voice calling itself God

· He walks and find Simon’s corpse

· He strangely recognises him, runs to him, saying “I’m back!”

· But the other is cold

· And he understands

· And he remembers

· And he screams

· And he cries

· And finally, he gets up and goes to like save Erza like always

· He takes her out of the lacryma; and without knowing why, knows what he has to do

· He fucked up anyway, so his death wouldn’t be a problem

· While trying to fuse with the Etherion, he looks at Erza, cheeks wet and swollen eyes

· “You became really strong, Erza…”

· And then he does it

· He disappears in the Etherion

· And Natsu, on the ground, looking at the scene forces himself to get up and flee with Erza

· Without understanding what happened, why..

· All he knows is that Erza is now safe

· And while the two of them flee

· The two little boys who were once slaves are finally free

#jellal fernandes #simon mikazuchi #erza scarlet #ultear milkovich #(i guess??)#fairy tail #i'm hurt #jelmon #jerza #LET THIS SHIP HAPPEN PLEASE #sorry for my bad english

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weeeeeeeeee3 · 4 years

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Dont stan jerza

Ok so I ship Nalu and gruvia and im indifferent about gajevy. However... jerza and miraxus are bad for my health and heres why: Okay let's be honest here. We all know jellal “likes” Erza, but here's the thing… ITS TOXIC ASF. first of all, the ship is hyped up too much and like Mashima forced the ship it didn't have enough time to grow and shit like that. SECOND, Erza deserves BETTER than jellal. He killed her best friend (tbh Kagura should have killed him but she was a pussy and didn't). Damn straight that asshole should “atone for his sins” yeah he tried to kill Erza and use her to take over the world, killed her best friend, and she STILL “has feelings for him” BULLSHIT. He’s like “Oh, i'Ve cHaNgEd”! Bitch no you haven't, you're still a thick headed bastard. Oh ho ho! And then, when Erza needs you most you go “I hAvE a FiAncE” like TF ain't nobody need yo toxic ass. jellal should have crumbled with the tower of heaven let's be honest. “bUt He’S a DaDdY” Bro, first thats incest to call someone a “daddy” and second, yes he’s good looking but he doesnt have a good personality! He’s also over hyped and selfish. Now Grayza and Natza i get that kinda cute. I ship 2 of the main four ships I ship Nalu and Gruvia those are cute and Mashima even made fan art for that proving its actually canon in his mind. But he didn't make a jerza kid now did he? NO HE DIDN’T HA! Honestly tho I’m indifferent with Gajevy even though its canon. ANYways back to jerza, Erza deserves better and that's the tea. And you know what i find is weird all the most shipped ships are FUCKING straight thats right there aint NO gay ships that are main shipped in fairytail. Cuz most of dem reader ship the straight couples cuz they're the “cutest”

#anti jerza #anti jellal

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cc-fairytail-s-class-men · 4 years

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@stellcrblossom said: Ship Bias does not matter

Send ‘Ship Bias’ and I will share up to 5 Ships I have a bias for for my muse!

(mun) Kenta: Well if it does not matter, then Jellal it is

(cc) Jellal: Wait, what-

1.Jellal x Erza | Jerza

I am such a sucker for this ship that even my other ships (like KaiVi) ship this ship lmao. They love each other, even though it seems forbidden (especially to Jellal), so it’s nice to expand on canon and build this ship up to where it deserves to be gdi! It is a love story that does deserve it’s happy ending.

2. Jellal x Ultear | Jeltear

It’s thanks to @projectionoftime, that this ship be born. Never knew how shippable they were until we talked about it lmao, they’ve been together and been through similar crap for the longest time. So it is fitting that they end up together, especially with the build up of being good guild mates, to friends with benefits, then more (after a certain New Year’s Kiss soon imeanwut).

3. Jellal &/x Meredy

This could work romantically (especially after Ultear leaves), but I do see them more as friends/siblings here. They’d be similar to Jeltear but with less of a history together if so haha.

4. Jellal &/x Kagura

Only from the fact that they kissed (even if it was just giving mouth to mouth), I’d rather ship them as friends than romantically, since he did kill her brother after all, and that’s weird!

5. Jellal &/x OC (Mizuki)

Mizuki is someone Jellal scounted to go undercover in a dark guild run by her own brother, and thus Jellal took sole responsibility for her safety too, to the point that he even faked his death once. This ship can go either way tbh, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens!

6. BONUS: Jellal x Lucy

Well I was running out of ship here tbh, and/or I’m getting tired lmao, didn’t notice I had 5 ships already). They just have a star theme so maybe they’d be good together? That’s all folks, thanks for reading!

#kenta scripts : muse vs muse #ccMuse : Jellal Fernandez #kenta speaks : out of ethernano

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ship-ambrosia · 6 years

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Let's start with the most recent obsession taking over my life; Fairy Tail.

So I started it in January, I own the final volume, I've watched the last episode of fairy tail Zero, but I have three more episodes of the Tartaros arc to watch. Literally the next season is gonna start this fall and I'm still not gonna have it finished lol. Now that my class is over I plan to finish it before school starts again.

Anyway, my top ship from Fairy Tail is probably pretty easy to discern; Gruvia. I love Gray and Juvia as separate characters, Juvia is definitely my favorite female character and Gray is pretty damn close with Natsu for the top spot out of the guys. I loved Gruvia even before I started the fandom. Gruvia Week was how I met a lot of friends on tumblr, and how I found a lot of blogs that I admire as well as being the first showcase for my fanfictions, so in that way even years from now Gruvia will probably always be very special to me.

Here's some Gruvia Headcanons of mine:

- Juvia is, in my opinion, drop dead gorgeous. The most beautiful girl in Fairy Tail. I imagine if she was in real life she'd have that sort of eerie beauty, that like she's so perfect she seems like a vampire or something. Like very pale, ivory skin, elegantly shaped eyes that are so crystal blue, full lips, that unfair hourglass figure. She seems so shy in her appearance that I can't help but feel like one of the things that also alienated her from people aside from her rain was just how pretty she was. She either got lots of attention from people, or she got lots of jealous glares from people.

- I think it's pretty much confirmed at this point, but Gray seems to have even first considered himself with Juvia around Edolas/Tenrou Island. I don't think he really felt strong romantic feelings for her until the Grand Magic Games, mostly I think Lyon expressing his attraction for her really made Gray think "would Lyon have a chance with her? Would Juvia consider dating him? Hey wait, I don't want that to happen. Why am I jealous of the thought of Lyon with her?" I love the talk Erza had with him. Erza seems to have really looked out for gray, and she sees Juvia as a no-strings-attached kinda girl, a girl who just wants to make gray happy. Gray is terrified of getting too close to people and losing them, and I think the fact that Juvia almost died during the fight with the dracolings scared him even more than the fact that he DID die, especially after he realized what Ultear had done. But the moments between them during Tartaros for me, solidify their relationship. And unpopular opinion, I love the "confession" scene in the final chapter. It's in character. Gray isn't able to express himself fully yet. He's still scared. He thought he had lost Juvia again to Invel. So the "you're mine/you belong to me" felt like the best he could do.

- When they finally are officially a couple (whenever that will be) I wholeheartedly believe that, despite all of her crazy fantasies, Juvia will be terribly shy with any sort of affection. Gray tries to kiss her for the first time and she whacks herself (or him) on the head because she thinks it's a fantasy. Gray puts his arms around her and she screams and falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes (something I have physically also done lolol). Even though she is perfectly willing to strip after picking up his habit, I think the romantic feelings of such a moment would make any sort of intimacy/sex with gray very difficult with her. Basically like she sees it as her mind playing tricks on her. Not in an annoying way though, I see it being very endearing and gray would probably find it all very funny, considering how all-in she appeared to be about her feelings for him.

- They are a power couple. Ain't nobody gonna be able to defeat them when they're together. They are both so extremely powerful (my girl Juvia is so underrated; she was an S-class mage in Phantom Lord! She was good enough to be nominated as one for Fairy Tail too! Alongside Gray!) by themselves, together they will destroy anyone for hurting the other. And Unison Raids for DAYS

Second favorite couple is Nalu. I know I'm basic. I'm sorry. Natsu and Lucy just have so much chemistry, I can't help shipping them. I want to add that I ship pretty much any ship... I'm just naming my favorites. But yeah, I'm all for Nali, Graylu, Julu, Gratsu, Navia, Luli... whatever. Within reason, I'm up for any ship, really. Back to Nalu

Honestly I just love Natsu so much it hurts sometimes. And Lucy is such a good, relatable character. What I want more than anything in this world is for Lucy to get some love. And jealous Natsu. The possibilities are so good for jealous Natsu. I've heard a lot of different theories for why we didn't get an "I love you" from one of them in the final chapter, and honestly I love them all, so I'm not gonna sit here and explain those.

- Personally, I think Lucy was the first to consider a relationship, maybe even have a crush on Natsu. Any time anyone in the guild suggests it, gets Lucy madly blushing. But I think Natsu fell in love first. He probably didn't even realize what it was. But mix Tenrou Island, and Future Rogue killing Future Lucy... I think he really realized she was more than his best friend there.

- The post-Tartaros timeskip is such good angst for Nalu, but one of my favorite things to consider is that Lucy didn't seem to know where Natsu and Happy were. I love to think of her, following reports on all her other friends but having no idea where Natsu was, and how heartbreaking it would be. Not to mention, that moment Natsu finds the map. And he realizes that Lucy was so scared for him, that she was tearing herself apart because she couldn't find anything about him.

- Even though they never really elaborated on the tension between Natsu and Lucy after he had left her, I do believe Natsu felt immensely guilty for what he had done. Going back to Gruvia too, I think Natsu and Gray both know they hurt and abandoned the girls who care about them most in the world, and would even sorta bond over that - like what can we do to make it up to them?

- Did I mention how much I want jealous/possessive Natsu? Not in a bad way where Lucy gets mad at him... just sulking Natsu, Natsu trying to have his arm around her/be around her at all times, yanno?

Ps, there are so many good Nalu gifs... how do I pick one...

Pss, dragon cry slayed me.

Okay last ship I'm gonna ramble about - my third favorite ship is Stingyu. A little less on the popular side, but it's certainly got more attention that I had originally thought. I love Sting, he's definitely right below Natsu and Gray for my favorite guy. And Yukino is so sweet, her friendship with Lucy makes me unbelievably happy every time it is brought into the spotlight. I love the angst of this pair, but also the sweet moments they share (Sting asking for Yukino to come back to Sabertooth, Sting punching Rogue when he accidentally groped her, their interactions during the Alvarez fight, and DONT even get me started on the Sabertooth spin off... you're telling me anyone else would react the same way Sting did?!)

- Yukino admired sting immediately from the moment she joined the guild. I'm convinced, because how would any girl not join a powerful guild, and not look up to the attractive, powerful dragon slayer at the top of it? Plus their magic together would be incredibly compatible. Sting was so certain she was going to beat Kagura, so I'm assuming he knew her strength, he thought she was strong, and he'd just be devastated that she lost. He'd be furious. But then he'd realize how awful it was when he finally realizes how terrible Jiemma treated them.

- Sting 100% put Yukino's guild mark back himself

- Sting is basically the jealous Natsu I want. That moment he punches rogue is so unexpected, like it was clearly by accident, he knows rogue better than anyone. I realize Stingyu is somewhat similar to Nalu, but like hey, sorry can't help it lol

- They probably end up together before any of the Fairy Tail couples, let's be honest. I think Stingyu has a pretty high chance of actually happening

Those are my top ships for Fairy Tail. I'm gonna finish off by saying that Jerza, Gajevy, Nali, Baccana, Rogerva, Lyredy, Stingue, Luli, Miraxus, Fraxus, Mirafreed, Kinabra, Luvia all follow pretty close in about that order. I really ship anything in this show cuz I love all the characters so much. And yes my blog is based around shipping, but I love fairy tail for more than just that. The story and the magic abilities are so incredibly fascinating. For me it's get hooked by the ships, stay for the story. Now if only I could finish the anime! Lol

Sorry this post was so long, but I've been wanting to do these sort of rants for a while? I've worked on this for like an hour now. I think the other fandoms will wait for other days. Right now, for sure I'll make ship rants about Persona 5, Fire Emblem, My Hero Academia, RWBY... and then maybe I'll just make some general rants lol

#random post from bree #bree watches fairy tail #nalu #natsu x lucy #gruvia #gray x juvia #stingyu #sting x yukino #fairy tail ships #fairy tail otps #bree rambles #favorites by bree #ship talk #fairy tail #long post

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remnantoforario · 5 years

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Honest opinion on Jerza and/or Jelruga

Jerza:

Don’t care for it. It’s bad for both characters, though mostly Erza because it shows that she has an inability to move on.

Jelagura:

Also don’t care for it. Because even I didn’t view Kagura as a lesbian, which I most certainly do, I don’t see her attempting to get with Jellal. Partly because of Erza and partly because she would never get past the “You killed my brother” thing enough to date him.

Send me a ship and I'll give you my (brutally) honest opinion on it

#asks #fairy tail #jellal fernandes #erza scarlet #kagura mikazuchi #anon

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arkus-rhapsode · 6 years

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Why do some people hate Erza from FT?

Okay, wow. Loaded question right there. I’m going to assume you’ve read the entire series of FT because explaining this is kinda hard. In fact, describing how one feels about characters is difficult in the sense we all have varying reactions. Like there’s no checkbox list for good character that everyone has and abides by, but I will try and give you the general reasoning. I use a general reasoning because there is literally no way for me to send a survey to potentially millions who have read FT and ask “what is your opinion on Erza and why?”

Now to describe the reason why one might not like Erza it goes back to her introduction. Erza came in the series and was much beloved by almost every reader: she had a badass looking ability and attitude, she had a very appealing design, and in critical sense she brought something to the table of FT and that was she was conflicting to the guild. Her personality and way of doing things conflicted with the others and it made her more memorable in how she handled herself and in guild interaction. It also helped that she was a strong female because FT came out around this golden age of manga: age of One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto all running, Toriko, etc. FT was the only one to introduce a female character that seemed to be treated as on the same level as the males in a mainstream shounen series.

She then proceeded to have one of, if not the best, arc in FT, the tower of heaven arc. At this moment, Erza is at her pinnacle of character and we the audience are ready to see here it goes and it goes… Nowhere.

Yeah the first, and probably the biggest thing with Erza that people hate, and something that a lot of other characters with FT had, was she never developed post her time to shine. She has no goal, so there was journey. She doesn’t make like an endearing vow post tower of heaven. What she ends up getting is Jellal. Like in terms of character, the thing that only actually seems to change and effect her is whatever long distance relationship she had with Jellal. Another was in terms of character she just kinda stopped being consistent.

Now some would cite that they still lover her. “So what if her personality doesn’t change. I like her like that.” Well there isn’t anything wrong with a character like that, but as I said, no development (Beyond Jellel). When a character doesn’t seem to be changing then it actually causes the story to meander and causes one to question why is she even around. Eventually at the last arc Erza meets her mother and they have a big,confrontation and it result in nothing for her character. Like after the fight Erza isn’t changed on her opinion of like Dragon Slayers or Alvarez. During the fight she doesn’t say anything the is new, “You might be my biological parent, but my real family is Fairy Tail!” Yeah, no one saw that coming. And then the revelation of Wendy and Erza having a close, sisterly bond of Wendy wanting to protect Erza, not only comes out of nowhere (seriously, I think Wendy would be saying this to Natsu, but hey then we couldn’t have naked Wendy hugging naked Erza) which is referenced before the war, is not a focus until the fight with Irene, which is then dropped.

But hey, some don’t even care about the story, some just care about the Jerza ship. Fair enough, you like your ship to want more moments for it gives you an excuse to keep looking for new material. But then at the end Jellal and Erza don’t get together. That’s right, all this time spent on Erza being her most relevant thing to the plot aside from being, the strong one, which was her romance, didn’t get together. Oh I remember the day that happened. Tumblr filled with rage.

So that goes for character development. Well what about power? She’s still a badass female anime character? Wellllll… Erza came onto the scene strong with a few cool fights and even somewhat lost to Jose early on. She also probably has one of the best fights in the series when she faced Midnight. But a lot of that was early on and as more time went on people began noticing a certain pattern to how Hiro wrote not only her fights, but a lot of characters fights. Eventually I’d like to say around Tenrou (I honestly have no cool about fan reception around edolas) people notice Erza stopped winning fights because she was just that bass or she came up with a unique strategy using what skills she’s had at her disposal. No, she won by nakama power.

Now power of friendship can be a tricky thing. When done well it can convey a strong emotional bond that pushes one to push past their limits. But with Erza and Hiro, it literally became a tangible power. Her power increased and she made her way through combat situations with no actual strategy or reason, just having friends made her feel really strong inside and then plow through opponents. It didn’t help that in context that all these fights she had and extreme issue of being so thoroughly trounced that when she gave the patterned friendship speech it actually seemed like reality warpped to give her the win.

Erza vs Azuma? After he matched her blow for blow then detonates a massive tree bomb on her while she has no protection, she gets up cause she thinks of her friends and the symbolism of drawing energy from them manifest literally as now it so strong to cleave through Azuma and a massive tree root with no issue. Erza vs Minerva? First has a fight with Kagura, then proceeds to lose to a persona who has all of space at her beckoning and then new armor out of nowhere (and don’t second origin. why does she even own it in requip if she never had the strength to use it). Erza vs Kyoka? Kyoka is growing perpetually more powerful and then robs Erza of all five of her senses and increases her sense to pain. Erza wins with just her bare fists and the reason this is all possible is because, as Happy, says, “She’s Erza!”

“She’s Erza” quickly became a meme and go to phrase for an undeserving victory that seems to defy logic and only makes sense of why the character won was just because “she’s Erza” and nothing else. This would describe other anime characters to, even if they didn’t actually power of friendship their way through. I remember reading Tokyo Ghoul re and around the time Arima had fought against Sachi, a martial artist ghouls who when introduced beat the shit out of kaneki. And in their fight, Arima kills Sachi almost like its nothing.

It did help that with this friendship speech power Erza really stopped using her moveset to its fullest and uniqueness. Now, I’ve made a whole post on Erza’s powers before and I implore you to check it out. But in short, what happened was basically, Erza’s moveset involved her mixing and matching of different armors. But then eventually she just started to use the clear heart clothing or Samurai Pants more and more. And armor who’s sole purpose is to raise only attack and sacrifice all defense. I was then no surprise when it seem Erza got beaten up or wounded because for a mage whose magic was armor she seemed to completely forgo it and use a more whose whole thing is higher attack. She also seemed to use it with this cherry blossom katanna that is suppose to be more powerful the more magic a user pours into it, but there is never any indication of that. (Like nothing visually to symbolize her putting magic in it. Nothing like a glow or aura. Not even the handle starting crouch up on her arm to symbolize how it eating her magic. Nothing.)

Now Erza was S-class, so of course she is suppose to be strong. But in this world your power comes from your magic. Like Laxus is S-Class and he isn’t going in and fighting bosses with just his bare fists, no lightning. SO watching her not utilize her powers became inheriting when more and more villains she fought had these insane gaps in magic power to her. It seemed like this shift to clear heart clothing was more of a way to retroactively make Erza come off as this swordfighter similar to Kagura, but we were both introduced to her as, and for a while I might add, her weapon was also her armor and what power extended from it. All this was then compounded in her last real fight of the series where a samurai pants Erza is swapped by Irene’s dragon paw and breaks all of the bones in her body minus her arm, then value herself in to sky while proclaiming friendship, radiating magic that who’s origin is never explained, and cutting a meteor in half with only her clear heart power. Then falling to the ground where she fought with a still completely shatter body for a bit.

Now I’ve heard the defense of many for Erza fights. A lot of Erza fans will try and justify any of her wins, with the reveal of Irene being a dragon being what is sited as why Erza is so powerful, because genetically she’s the descendant of a dragon. But we have two problems with that, the first being Irene stress that thanks to her enchantment, Erza is still in her womb as still a “human child.” The second being, Erza never shows any indication beforehand that her strength is similar to a dragon. Like she doesn’t grow like scales or something dragonic like during a fight, but we’re suppose to take her as being this powerful and just looking completely natural.

But then there’s the fan who is like, “Pfft, what do I care about fights? I read FT for the story and character. All y’all getting to hung up on the wrong thing.” Well that is a fine stance to take, I mean a lot of FT fans love the characters of the series. Well as I pointed out the issues one might have with how Erza developed. Then there’s the excuse, “Rhapsode, stop holding her to the standard of males. As a man you have no right to judge the development of a female character.” (I’m serious, someone used this argument on me) Well first off, Mashima is a man, and he created and is writing Erza. Second, for this strong female, she then got really really demeaned in fanservice.

Look, there isn’t anything wrong with fanserivce or ecchi. I’ve defended it a great number of times and can be seen as the just a necessary of the industry trying to appeal to young boys. The problem with Fanservice is when it starts to demean a character or ruin the weight of a moment. Erza became hugely fanserviced in scene like her torture scene where an emphasis was put on titillation than actual horror of the scene. But you can combine strong and sexy in a character. Like Erza’s Heaven’s Wheel against Eisenwald. Sure it was was cleave exposing a maybe not the most practical looking thing, but attention wasn’t draawn to that. Attention was drawn to how she cleaned house against the thugs. But then it became progressively less so, not just in terms of the armor’s appearance, but also how Mashima laid out panels seemed to exist more to heighten the sexy even if they didn’t actually make sense. Erza’s armor against Irene was literally a bunny girl suit and with the instances of her fighting there are scenes of her downward slashes that literally are angled so the audience can see less of the action and more Erza’s thonged behind.

Like for a female character put on the same level of males, she sure does seem to get exploited more than the males. But again, people will still not have a problem with this and will hide behind the excuse of something like “Its ecchi!”

It also doesn’t help that around the time of the GMG, many turned on FT and by extension Erza. It was then in Tartaros with the she’s Erza moments, many high followed reviewers and internet critics of anime basically blasted her and that earned her a spot on the not liked characters list. With many following that same feeling.

But as you can see, my running point is that all of the examples I give for why people might dislike Erza, there is still numerous people who will find a way to defend Erza and love her. Whether its through conjecture of her personality and feelings, whether its justifying how she wins her fights, or whether its claiming that fanservice doesn’t detract to them.

And then there are some who are like, “I know Erza’s flawed, but I still like her in other people’s head canons.” Which nothing is wrong with that. And then there are those who have opinions of her that won’t change because they are holding on to their love for the Erza at the beginning, or Erza in a way had an effect on their life. But all and all, if there is one thing to take away from this is its that Erza is flawed. Not a flawed character like Shaiapouf from Hunter x Hunter or Oedipus from Oedipus. And its because of those flaws that some do not like Erza and if we are being honest, even my enjoyment of the character became stifled thanks to a lot of the writing for it.

#erza scarlet #hiro mashima #fairy tail #jerza #jellal fernandes #tenrou island arc #gmg arc #grand magic games #tartaros #grimoire heart #azuma #wendy marvell

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mags-duranb · 7 years

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My JeRza thoughs

Okay, time to tackle this one, it has been a week already! Time flies!

But first, a big thank you and a shot out to @thefairystales for her work at translating the interview with Mashima and because we got a nice convo a couple of days ago and it was a delight to discuss with her about the ending and jerza.

This is something I have been thinking and discussing with several friends in the course of this week after the end of FT and how at first I feel very dissappointed and later on mostly bummed and then after digesting all of this and talking it out my perspective changed more. The interview translated by @thefairystales finished to settle things for me.

I was right in a couple of things and It's nice to know.

Mashima mentions in his interview that what he wanted was to leave room to his audience to imagine the rest (same as what happened with the Jerza kiss) And Lucy is an unreliable narrator.

Before anyone starts the attacks, this is not an attend to diss Lucy, far from it. Unreliable Narrator is a narrative resource (forgive the redundance) used in literature to give the audience the opportunity to make their own interpretations of a story through a character inside it, because unlike the omniscient narrator, in which the author is privy to all thoughs and knows everything, the unreliable narrator aka the character, doesn't.

Keep this in mind please.

Lucy for all purposes and here I quote Mashima, is someone who

"shares the same point of view as the reader.... is by the reader’s side. She doesn’t understand the things that the readers don’t understand, and she says it out"

Thus why the vagueness over Jellal and Erza's relationship status from her POV. Even Lucy says it herself in regards to Erza, she still can't get her, in the way she misinterprets her words and gets surprised along us when she says "it's complicated" and then next panel we along her learn that she is not talking abour her and Jellal but about the book in her hands.

The "it's complicated" was misleading and was played for laughts over Erza's apparent inhability to read a barely difficult book or write a letter.

At this point Lucy can't tell us anything about Jellal and Erza's current relationship because she does not know more than what she has told us: Jellal is free and Erza has started to act more openly as a typical woman in love who wants to impress her beloved.

What is truly going with jerza, just Erza and Jellal know.

Coming back to canon, are they canon?

First, What does mean "canon" in the romantic sense?

A ring and a wedding?, Grandiose declarations of eternal love?, An "and they lived happily ever after"? Children? Appearing side by side with knowing smiles? Mutual feelings of love? Confessions?

I think canon can be found in any of this and even more scenarios I am letting out. Jerza is mutual. Their love for each other is something that has been hinted throughout all Fairy Tail's story. It survived pain, hatred, deception, death itself and they both keep loving each other. And I don't need to mention the Beach scene and the infamous "kiss" because if you remember panel by panel, Erza initiated the action but Jellal followed suit, both consenting it and both closing distance on their own volition, making it clear that their feelings were mutual, no discussions there. That was as good as canon can be.

Soooo, are they canon?

Hell yes!

For that I think the important question is not about canon but about the status of their relationship:

Are they dating/getting to know each other? Are they taking their time? Are they going one step at a time? Are they seeing each other from time to time?

It can be lots of things, maybe they are somewhat dating and thus why Lucy has noticed the change in Erza's behavior regarding her appearance. Or just getting to know each other better without being in life or death situations. Maybe they are not doing more than take things slowly because Fiore just got trashed and there were more urgent matters this past year.

There are many things that can be going on, and If Jellal and Erza have something in common is to keep things just to themselves, specially a relationship between them.

As you see I have enough room to speculate this and not be refuted cause Mashima gave me enough to reach my own conclusions.

I think they are in contact, there are lacrima phones and if Erza keep in contact with Jellal during the year of Fairy Tail's disbanment, she can easily do that now that Jellal and his group are not fugitives anymore.

So I am not pulling at straws here. And I believe that the 100 years quest is not gonna be a big impediment to them when Jellal has been roaming all of Fiore, so crossing paths time to time is in the realm of possibility. Even better, knowing Team Natsu are nothing more than limit testers I am sure they can finish the quest in less than 10 years at most (being pessimistic. Come on! they flattened a so called powerful kingdom in mere days, so I can say they can tackle a 100 years mission in 10 years or less).

Now I know I am avoiding a question in regards of Jellal who is at times considered an obstacle to jerza, ironic, uh?

But, what if there are things Jellal needs to do to finally settle with Erza? A friend and I (God bless her) talked about it and we reached this not very popular conclusion: His journey to freedom is still ongoing.

Hisui asked him along CS to live for the future and Jellal just uttered a word and keep pensive. And before that, Erza also in a gentler tone asked him this time to value his life. Nothing about sins, but about living. So my conclusion is that this time he is thinking long and hard about it, not about sins, but about true freedom and living on. A freedom he could not taste while he was a fugitive and less when Zeref was alive. So now that Zeref is no more and he has been freed, he needs to keep moving to get acquainted with this world, to know who he is and what he wants in order to get his fresh start.

And I think this is the way to become free of his burdens.

Yes, there was regression and some messyness for the sake of drama over his character but I believe Mashima gave him the best ending he could give at that point in such short space in the last chapter.

For me it works, for me it means Jellal is searching for himself, I can imagine him traveling as a free man to tie loose ends (searching for Wally and Sho, going to Mermaid Heel to have a long chat with Kagura and apologize properly, visiting the ruins of the Tower of Heaven, etc), to see the world and learn how to live in it before returning to Erza, That's for me a good end for him.

And you know what? Erza gets it. And it's OK because Erza is also living her life, she is moving, she is doing stuff and being hopeful, she knows (by caring for her hair) that he will come back to her soon but that does not mean she is going to just wait for him doing nothing, because Erza is not like that, she is a person with her own life to live.

I repeat, there are lacrima phones, Jellal knows where she is going, what she is doing and is okay with it because he wouldn't like to see Erza wasting away her life just waiting for him, he is not a selfish jerk.

Sooner or later, they will be together.

Of course, I am not telling anyone to not feel sad or dissappointed, it's natural, we all wanted more than what we got and I know some parts of the fandom have been quite nasty, I got my share of rudeness here on my tumblr for shipping jerza. That ppl is not worth our time, let them go, block them, we can do better with our time that let them get to us.

But if there is a thing we can't to is to be a jerk to others or force our reasoning on ppl. Take it or leave it, but don't be a jerk about it. And don't be a jerk to Mashima, insulting him is not gonna fix shit, the man did what he deemed the best, at the end of the day is his own story to tell.

Rant in your page, feel dissappointed and robbed but don't go to the page of a man who busted himself to bring us chapter after chapter week by week without fail for 11 years. That deserves our respect.

#Jellal Fernandes #jerza #fairy tail

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richtits0fshipping · 7 years

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But _____ is There Too!

Quite often this form of argumentation is used to detract from the emotional import these scenes try to convey with the assumption/interpretation/possibility of equality in the relationship depth and nature between those involved. With all due respect, it's laughable; honestly, what sort of overt material did you expect for a ship (Natza) that directly opposes both of the biggest fandoms in Fairy Tail (Nalu & Jerza)? Anyway, I'll give it a shot and remedy this. (Profanity Warning)

_________________________________________________

What happened:

"Happy, I'm here to save Natsu. You know, at this strangely convenient time. I mean, think about it. Literally, Natsu's only weakness and the only time I could possibly save him is when he's on some form of transportation. For what ever reason, not only did the First Guild Master forget about this weakness but, you, Charle, and Lily didn't think to immediately get them off the ship. That's when I made sure to show up, instead of whatever I was originally supposed to do, right when that spriggan had Natsu at his mercy. If I didn't know better isn't this scenario similar to those situations nearly exclusive to people who are 'paired' together? It's even better because we're on a ship. Whatever we can subvert this * looks at Wendy and Gajeel* Anyway, If I play my cards right, during my fight and his own, Natsu will send me a 'message' inspiring my victory, and, finally, after exhausted from my own battle I'll go into free fall where Natsu will save me in my descent. It'll really bring things 'full-circle.' *Nods and smiles, clearly self-satisfied* That'll do...That'll do... Oh, I almost forgot, Happy, Lily, Charle, get them out of here."

What could've been:

"On second thought, not you Gray. Fuck you. Good thing I saw everything and didn't arrive later into your fight where I wouldn't know the circumstances and who to side with... Dodged that bullet. Anyway, where do you get off trying to kill your best friend after he went out of his way to stop you from killing yourself 77777 times? Despite that, you go out of your way to kill Natsu for no other reason than to sate your misguided quest for revenge. And here we are with Natsu pulled into a fight to defend himself that he wanted no part in. So yeah...love you, Natsu; get fucked Gray." (Hahaha, not gonna lie, I had fun with this one).

Shoe on the other foot:

"Relax Erza, this isn't a 'shipping moment,' Wendy's here too. She's only a few feet away from you, within the blast radius, and since she's a Dragon Slayer, Acnologia will definitely try to kill her as well. I'm here to save Wendy and you. Just because we have a history together of mutual attraction doesn't mean it's all about you. Last time I've checked it's been well over a year without any progress in our 'relationship. ' Honestly, since we almost kissed, things have kinda been winding down between us. Anyway, get off your high horse. I care about both of you, equally, because I saved both of you. If anything, I owe you both for granting me a chance at redemption, Wendy revived me and you helped me settle things with Milliana and Kagura. The least I can do is return the favor when both of your lives are in danger....*shakes head in disappointment* Don't get it twisted."

_________________________________________________

Ffs people, there's a reason why we look at the totality of context that encompasses these situations. If Mashima depicted anything overtly romantic, between Natsu & Erza, quite a “few people” in the NaLu & Jerza fandoms would castrate the poor guy, and yet these same people ask, "Well, why isn't there more overt material of their relationship?" It's sad he has to keep the interactions between the two as ambiguous as possible to avoid that. If there's one thing the Fairy Tail manga excels in it's the subtlety and hints Mashima uses in context to express the nature of these relationships. Remember Kyouka x Seilah? Pepperidge Farm remembers...

#natza #anti-anti-natza #natsu dragneel #erza #fairy tail

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natsubeatsrock · 7 years

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My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Fairy Tail’s Ending

To start with, stop.

I don’t care what you think about the ending. I don’t care what you think about the series. I kind of care why you’re reading this post. (Hi.) Just stop.

Now, do me a favor and take a deep breath.

Before I start to talk about this chapter, I just want to say that this has been a crazy ride. I started Fairy Tail in October of 2014 and I never would have thought that I would be running a blog about Fairy Tail and such a relevant name in this fandom back then. I’ve had tons of fun running this blog for years and if it weren’t for Fairy Tail, I probably wouldn’t be an anime/manga fan. Even though this series is nowhere near perfect and this arc is nowhere near the best, I’m glad that I’m a Fairy Tail fan. And this ending hasn’t changed that for me.

Also, I actually did make a Quick Notes about this chapter. So if there’s something you think I missed in this post, check that one. I also talked about my thoughts on Nalu’s ending in a separate post, which goes exactly how well you’d think a post about it from me would be. This was supposed to come out the same week, but…

Life.

So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about this chapter.

When I saw that this last chapter was going to be 45 pages, I was pleasantly surprised. Consider that the end of Naruto is simply two normal length chapters that came out at once. Likewise, the last chapters of Bleach and Death Note are about as long as a normal chapter. So seeing that this chapter was going to be that long gave me the hope that more ground will be covered than in those endings. Though. Rave ended with more than 20 pages more than this and, looking back, I’m not a huge fan of some parts of that ending.

Speaking of those series, the last chapter starts with a jump to the future. This is a weird trope for me. My only real issue with the Naruto ending was that it felt like there was a huge disconnect between the Last, which I had just finished, and this chapter. However, the ending of the other series (yes, even Bleach) worked so well for me because we got to see how the world moved on after the events of the previous chapters.

I’m glad that Lucy won an award for her novel. I’m also glad that the popular fan theory that Lucy was writing the events of Fairy Tail out for a story is also proven wrong. I never liked that theory and I’m glad Lucy won by coming up with her own original story.

Even though the main character based off her.

And seeing how the guild is acting at this party makes me realize that Lucy’s friends are jerks to Lucy. I said this before, but I’m shocked that they’re even worried about other people ruining their reputation when they’re so good at making themselves look terrible. I have to believe that Erza and other members of the guild are genuinely concerned about a thief pretending to be a Fairy Tail mage. But hey, she was worried about other people in the guild at her introduction.

And Juvia is still stripping…

You know, I remember when Juvia stripped to join Gray during the anime for a thing she didn’t need to. It was messed up, but it was kind of funny.

Only kind of.

And then Gray and Juvia stripped together in the Avatar arc. Like I thought it was cool back when I shipped Gruvia. But looking back, it’s weird that Juvia developed the same habit Gray formed that after training in fewer clothes to get used to the cold and doing ice magic that even the person who had the idea to do it thought was unnatural…

Because Gruvia is a “good ship”. Like, why else did this need to be a thing? Mashima should have stuck with the water body thing because that’s awesome and only kind of comes back later on in the series.

Anna is in this timeline as a teacher which is kind of cool. I guess, since she wanted to teach the dragon slayers, she gets to teach another group of young kids. Gajeel jokes to Natsu about liking Anna and…

I’m conflicted.

See, in pretty much any other case, I’d be totally fine shipping Natsu with anyone that people joke about him liking except Lucy. But, aside from not even thinking he actually liked her the way Gajeel meant, I’m not sure I can be comfortable shipping Natsu with anyone when the age difference is much bigger than that of Jerza-

I mean Graytear.

So we learned about the other guilds. Lamia Scale has a thing called Thanksgiving Day and they dragged Wendy into performing with Chelia. I’m actually excited for this to be animated. I hope we get an actual full song from the earlier performance of these two. For those who might be wondering why, Wendy’s Japanese VA, Satomi Sato, has also been in some roles that have involved her singing.

And then there’s Mermaid Heel. (Get used to this phrase. I’ve used it a lot.)

So, out of everything that happened in this chapter, I’m shocked that this didn’t get more people angry. What even is the point of having Mermaid Heel be exclusive models for Sorcerer Weekly? That was never important to them before. Kagura even questions what the point of this was. It’s almost as if Mashima was saying, “Screw anyone who thought I was going to give the only all-girl guild a dignifying ending! This is Fairy Tail!”

Oh, but it’s okay because not many people cared about them and of course we’re going to have sexy girls in outfits so we can appeal to the target demographic of teen boys and where do I stop?

The other guilds did stuff. Like, I know that a lot of people love people outside the guild and I have my favorites from outside Fairy Tail. But, I don’t have much to say about what we learned about the other guilds.

And then we got a block of ship moments. Oh, the boys.

We started with Gajevy. And, man, I wish I had anything to say about them. I really don’t want to continue the trend of not talking about them. I have a few posts for them in the works, but for now…

I guess they had sex?

And then there’s Gruvia.

I can’t just leave it there, right? No?

So I’m not actually sure that Gruvia is actually canon. Yeah, me having a view that seems very different from most of the fandom. Shocking, right? I mean, there’s a lot of noise on both sides and it was a weird scene to include. But I didn’t see that conversation as a “Gruvia definitely is/isn’t canon” moment.

When I saw Gray say that Juvia’s body belongs to him, my mind immediately went to chapter 499, which I’ve had to look at multiple times for a post I’m going to get done on August 30th. When Juvia (somehow) revealed to Gray that she (somehow) used Water Make Magic, she told him that her life belongs to him. So Juvia’s body does belong to him.

Kinda.

So, the questions I think a reader of this should have to answer is whether Gray feels awkward about this because he likes Juvia or because even kind of owning Juvia freaks him out. As you can tell, I’m not really sure how to answer this question. Of course, this doesn’t mention that Gray might also be hesitant in making a statement Juvia may think is either offensive or romantic, as different people in the fandom have been arguing it is.

At any rate, this was the kind of ambiguity I was afraid of. I wanted to voice my fear that we’d get an ambiguous Gruvia ending. However, I was assured by the Gruvia fandom that Gray would definitely give an answer and that that answer would be yes. So, while I disagreed with the latter, I bit my tongue on the issue. It turns out, neither was the case and I was right to be worried.

Elfgreen is probably canon. I don’t think it’s a huge leap of faith to say that. (Yeah, that’s all I got.)

All the popular guy-girl Laxus ships have been de-confirmed in one go. I’m actually impressed that Mashima did that. I said this before, but I find it hilarious that Mashima made sure to empathize Miraxus as a rumor. I feel like the Laxana camp is as huge, but he had to take shots at that other ship. I’m honestly not sure what that means for Fraxus. And to be honest, I don’t really care Laxus ships.

And then there’s Jerza.

Like many people in this fandom, I’m actually shocked by Jerza in this chapter, but for a different reason. I was actually shocked that any time was given to Jerza at all in this chapter. I honestly wasn’t expecting Mashima to address this issue in any way at all. But, oh the boys, did he address it. While I understand the frustration of the Jerza fandom, I actually pretty cool with this ending. I figured he would give Jerza a non-canon ending.

This kind of situation feels reminiscent of Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye’s relationship from FMA. They’re nothing like each other, material wise. However, in both cases, it looked a lot like they liked each other. However, the series ended without them hooking up. (At least officially.) I figured this kind of thing would happen a long time ago so I’m not surprised by this.

What did surprise me was about 5 pages spent on Mashima’s Zervis AU. Or any time at all spent on any version of Zervis at all post ‘taking Nalu’s One Magic” a while ago. And I kind of liked it. It makes no sense to exist in any way shape or form, but it was kind of cute and I think this is better than real Zervis.

Somewhere in all of this, we learned that Makarov lost the ability to use his legs. Well, something had to happen because of Makarov’s return. I’d actually be disappointed if everything was fine. My big complaint about the Rave Master ending, without spoiling much, a lot of losses and sacrifices made in chapters prior were rewritten. So, in this one aspect, Fairy Tail’s ending is better than Rave Master’s ending.

But, similar to Rave Master’s ending, Chelia can use magic. This is was one of the other big things I was afraid of Mashima doing in the last chapter of the series. To be fair, it’s only to a limited ability, but it’s still pretty annoying. I hinted at this, but I didn’t say it out right because I was in a fight with someone who thought I hadn’t read Rave at the time and I wanted to be petty.

So, Lucy blanked out and wakes up in her house. And, pretty much everything about this scene up until the flashback annoys me.

After 541 chapters and almost a decade of both real world and in-universe time, Natsu still breaks into Lucy’s house. Happy decides to polish Lucy’s newly acquired trophy with his claws. And this is all played for laughs. Like I’m actually supposed to look at this and think that this is funny and not sad.

Keep in mind that people were able to get past this point and still think that Natsu was going to confess romantic feelings. Look, I think that Natsu and Lucy have an amazing bond, but it would be really bad if this was just before a romantic confession. I can understand people who were disappointed with the Jerza ending. If you thought this was going to lead into a Nalu ending, you played yourself.

Luckily, there’s more to be annoyed with. Lucy ends up remembering the embarrassing stuff she did when she was drunk. A while ago, I made a post about being annoyed with the way things were made up. This is a great example of this.

Why did we need this? This isn’t funny and I didn’t learn anything about Lucy. I don’t like these “I’ll never get married over this” jokes in anime unless it’s over something legitimately embarrassing enough to warrant the reaction. She’s not ashamed because she was teachers yelled at her for promoting a club she was dragged into while being forced to wear a sexy red bunny outfit. (You either get this reference or you don’t) She did some stupid stuff in front of two people while she was drunk. (And apparently, she liked one of those people.)

But Natsu uses the joke to segway into a reminder that they can still work together. And Lucy remembers many of the missions they shared together. Considering recent events on my blog, it’s funny how there’s nothing from the Galuna Island, but she remembered being wrapped in towels with Edolas Lucy. At any rate, she thanks Natsu and Happy for changing her life for the better.

It’s times like this that I have to remember that Lucy’s dream was to join Fairy Tail. (A point I had to remind fic writers of.) It’s only because she met Natsu that she was able to. Recently I’ve been rereading the old arcs and it’s crazy to see how much has happened since Lucy has joined Fairy Tail specifically because Lucy has joined Fairy Tail.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: you don’t have Fairy Tail without Lucy and Natsu. They don’t meet, they don’t go on adventures. They don’t go on adventures, the world would probably cease to exist at about the time we would get to Edolas. Remember, Mystogan needed her and Gajeel to help Natsu and Wendy. If Lucy’s not in the guild, Gajeel’s not in the guild. So assuming everything else is the same, which would probably be a stretch, they’re screwed.

Anyway afterward, Natsu takes Lucy on the mission with him saying that the fact that their lives are different doesn’t matter. And yes, I think it’s a jerky thing to have done. Of course, if you thought this was going to be a lead-in to a Nalu confession, I can’t help you. But that doesn’t mean he did a good.

However, I like the reasoning. Natsu isn’t worried about the past. He’s excited for what the future is going to bring them…

…and the rest of Team Natsu…

On the Century Quest!

This is probably my favorite thing from the chapter. I actually screamed after seeing that they were going on the quest. Forget Nalu, this is probably one of the most Natsu things that Natsu would be excited for.

But I have two big problems with this.

First, if Gray’s conversation really was a confession, does that mean he left Juvia after confessing to her? Even if he told her that he was going on the mission, that’s still a pretty messed up thing to do. By the way, if you think that Gray’s scar comment was bad, this would probably make it worse.

Funny enough, I saw a comment on this. OP questioned whether or not people really believe the Century Quest would actually last 100 years. And my response is…

That’s the other problem: we don’t know how long this quest is supposed to take. Now, chapter 165 tells us that Decade Quests take at least 10 years to beat and so it should stand to reason that Century Quests will take at least 100 years to beat. However, consider everything that we’ve been told about the Spriggan 12 at the beginning of this arc and how free they ended up being. So will this take shorter than expected or will it actually take 100 years?

As a side note, is this the same Century Quest Gildarts failed or is it another Century Quest? It’s referred to as “The 100-Year Quest” and we’ve only known about one Century Quest? And why is it 100-Year Quest here instead of Century Quest?

The fic writers are going to have a field day with that.

So, overall, what did I think of the chapter? After reading the chapter a few times and thinking about the things that have happened in order to make this post, I feel good about it. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of issues left unresolved. I totally understand (some of) the reasons people don’t like this ending and I absolutely think we could and probably should get more. However, I’m fine with this being the way the series ends. And, as I’ve said before, I’d happily reread this series again.

Now comes the main reason that I want to talk about the ending in this format. Fairy Tail has officially come to an end. I feel as though there is two knee jerk “my series ended” reactions I want to address.

The first is the feelings over everything in the ending.

As I said in an earlier post, nothing is wrong with feeling sad or happy or angry over anything about everything that has happened in this series. Nothing is wrong with expressing or explaining those feelings. That’s fine.

What isn’t fine is getting mad at or blaming people for the things you don’t like about the ending, including and especially Hiro Mashima. What isn’t fine is destroying everything Fairy Tail related you own out of spite.

I’d even say that it’s not okay to feel betrayed by the ending. Mashima doesn’t owe you anything. He doesn’t owe you ships. He doesn’t owe you moments. He doesn’t have to bring characters back. He doesn’t have to kill anyone. About the only thing Mashima had to do for his fans was get the next chapters of the series out on time. Even though those chapters weren’t always necessarily good, that was about all he owed us.

The second one is a desire the series to continue on, either it should continue on as a spin off or just never end. Some of you might want him to get to working on his completely new series right away.

Not so fast.

I get the desire to want to see more of a series or writer you’ve enjoyed for however long you have. I get that you might think the series didn’t have a proper ending. I get that you may have no idea what you’re going to do now that Fairy Tail is over.

That being said, I think Mashima should take a break.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d also love more Fairy Tail, even as I’ve ragged on some of its failings. But this guy’s been writing Fairy Tail for more than a decade. It’s one thing to be an artist whose job depends on how much you’re able to create. Having to create something new in an ongoing series every week is baffling to me as a musical composer. It takes me weeks even months to get works done to a level they can be called finished.

Mashima’s work on Fairy Tail is nowhere near the best thing in the anime/manga world, but I’m not going to accuse him of not working hard. I want this guy to enjoy the break he’s getting for now before he launches head first into his next series. For now, I’d like to see what fans do now that the story is complete(-ish).

Speaking of which, many people might be wondering what I’ll be doing on this blog now that the series is over. I still have things to say about Fairy Tail as a series and I’ll definitely have some things to say about this fandom as the dust settles. I have some posts I’ve been working on specifically to show after the end of the series and, thankfully, I only have to change a few paragraphs because of this ending…

I don’t know that I’m going to start throwing my focus onto any one other series. I’ve said this before but despite any and all problems this series has, Fairy Tail is the only series I feel comfortable running a blog for. I’ve seen other series I think are better and I have things to say about them you might see on my main blog. But I don��t see myself getting so into another series that I could do everything I’ve done with Fairy Tail.

To that point, I do have series I have been reading. To give a sense of the time I’ve been planning this post for, when I started writing this post, I had over 100 chapters of Bleach left to finish. I’m sending this off having finished that series and (as I promised) started reading My Hero Academia. Incidentally, I’ve started writing posts for those series I may post to my main blog as well and I’ve had to pull myself away from reading MHA to finish this post.

I’ve also been reading Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches and, once I’m done, I’ll finally be able to catch up with Twin Star Exorcists (yes, I’ve decided to turn to the dark side). I’ve also started reading Astra: Lost in Space. I’m not sure this will be the next breakout hit in the manga world, but I’m enjoying where this series is going.

Somewhere along the way, I started reading Yona of the Dawn through the volumes and collecting Bakuman volumes which I will read all at once. And of course, I’ll still be buying the volumes for Rave Master and Fairy Tail until I’ve collected them all.

To wrap it all up, there is one more question some of my followers may be wondering that I want to address: When will I read One Piece?

Soon.

At the very least, I want to catch up with the currently running series and get all of that I’ll be following weekly and get/read all of Bakuman before getting into the beast that is One Piece. At the latest, I’ll end up following my Big 3 tradition of starting to read the series at about the time it’s starting to end. And if your fandom causes another stir over ships, I think I’m actually going to go crazy

In Conclusion:

Fairy Tail’s ending was pretty messy, but I’m fairly happy with the ending we got. But even though Fairy Tail ended, I’m still going to have fun talking about it and other things.

I’m all fired up!!!!

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