After wrapping up Battle of Fairy Tail in a series rewatch, I honestly feel i could quit right now and leave decently satisfied. These first 4 arcs make a well rounded show in 48 chapters. Everyone in the main team gets an arc to themselves, and the battles are decently sprayed without someone hogging all the spotlight. It comes to a close with a threat born from within the Guild, and is defeated by making it understand what being an FT member is about. Lucy gets a closure by proving she understands this by knocking sense into everyone. And that final bit with Makarov and Laxus is just good stuff. Sure, there are some stuff left hanging mostly the stuff with Mystogan and Ultear, but eh, can be easily ignored. There's a lot of shitposting about how the story ends with Phantom Lord, but the parade at the end really feels like a send off to this early instance of the series, the fact that characters from previous arcs are spectators helps for this feeling. Anyway, anons, what do you think of this 'initial run' of the story? Is it worth to keep going? Where do you think Mashima went full retard?
And here's my dumb ranking of the arcs that nobody asked for.Mashima is by far at it's best when he isn't writing serious stuff. The bodyswap episode and the play one where amonst my favorites by far.Galuna was neat, has some strong moments but it unmakes all its stakes by end. Had the heroes failed, nothing would really have happened.Phantom Lord is very good, i can see why people praise it as the peak of the story. Fun frantic action. All combats are good, and the wrap up with fairy law was cool. A neat dichotomy between FT and PL. And it even ends in a pseudo pyrrhic victory, since even though they won, the building was still destroyed.Lastly, Tower of Heaven is similar to Phantom Lord, but has a stronger emotional charge and the payoff at the end brought some tears to my eyes. FT > Snow Fairy >>>>>>>> RPG >>>>>> Sense of Wonder.
>>287675207>Where do you think Mashima went full retard?same place they all go full retard [THE TOURNAMENT ARC]
>>287675207It's often been said the anime was meant to stop at this arc, and going by how it made the following changes from the manga, I wouldn't doubt it:>Moving the scenes with Igneel and Ultear to this arc instead of the Tower of Heaven>Giving Lucy that conclusive-sounding speech that wasn't in the manga>Scrubbing every mention of Gildarts, who hadn't shown up in the manga at the time the anime entered production or even started airing>Ending with that "end-of-show" gag between Lucy and Happy>Turning the finger-to-the-sky moment into a series-wide guild gesture building up to this precise finale scene, instead of just having it exist for this scene
>>287676291That's something i wasn't aware of.Would have been neat if that was case.I guess the direction for this wasn't as mediocre as i thought it was.
>>287676862To this day, I've never found a confirmation for that in writing. It's just generally accepted to be the case.Also, those Igneel and Ultear scenes had even more overt setup for future plot points:>The first mention of Wendy and foreshadowing that she, Natsu, and Gajeel all knew each other as kids>The first mention of the Dragon King Festival, building it up as the day Igneel and the other dragons returned (this didn't pan out)>The reveal that Zeref was still alive, just "sleeping" (Tenrou Island would later expand on the whole "sleeping" business, and then retcon it all at the end)
>>287675356The bodyswap episode was anime-only filler, and I hate how it disrupted the manga's smooth transition from Deliora to Phantom Lord. Plus it ruined Erza's image too early and literally contributed to her getting fewer doujins.>>287676291Scrubbing all Gildartz foreshadowing was retarded even if they weren't sure there'd be more seasons. For all the times FT may asspull stuff, Gildartz was something the manga actually set up in advance, and then the anime had to asspull him instead.
>>287677533It's not just Gildarts, Mashima sets plenty of things up in advance, more than people realize. It's just that apart from the setup about Natsu being raised by a dragon who went missing, every one of those ideas came to him after he started writing. Some came years in advance before he wrote them (like the truth behind Igneel and the Dragon Slayers), some happened that exact week (like the existence of Trinity Raven), and some were one of several alternate paths he'd decide to take (like what was up with Jellal after he came back). It all depended on the flow of the story, the page limits he had to work with, and all kinds of other factors he continues to deal with to this day.
>>287677533>The bodyswap episode
>>287675207Since not everybody got a chance to share their full, honest opinion(s) last time . . .
So, what are our thoughts on the REAL Natsu finally emerging in the latest chapter?
>>287680229Doesn't sound random enough. 100YQ hinges on this form of writing:>Step 1: Throw the most random and outlandish stuff at the wall, or make a reference to a past event>Step 2: Repeat step 1
>>287680229It's BULLSHIT is what it is! Sting fell in love with Natsu as a BOY!
>>287677533>her getting fewer doujins.Doesn't change that Tamagoro is still a faggot.
>>287679616>Erza's the MC as it should be
>>287680592Boy?
>>287680472Where's Wendy?
>>287681034OMG was this more of Mashima's foreshadowing?
>>287681105I don't know.
>>287681075"Hey, guys! What'd I miss?"
>>287679616I'll raise ya
>>287681711>9the guy who made this is a faggot
>>287681790Or maybe he acknowledges the phrase "Too much of a good thing"
They're both centuries old, so it's fine. If anything, pairing Natsu with any other girl is pedophilia.
>>287681711I'll play devil's advocate and say that juvia works in small doses. I liked the role she played in both Tower of Heaven and Battle of fairy tail. Her giving up so that cana could go on just to prove she is loyal were good. And hey, gray didn't outright reject her and even had an amicable relationship with her without becoming an eternal game of cat and mouse without commiting.
>>287681711All of the except #2 are shit. >>287675207>Where do you think Mashima went full retard?When he started Edens Zero.
>>287679616Reminder as of the last poll Erza is LESS popular than Lucy, Juvia and Selene.
>>287682528
>>287675207It's obvious because of the whole 7 year skip but for me part 1 of Fairy Tail is from the start to the finale of Tenrou Island. Crazy that was all only six months in universe. But that was them against at the time the strongest guild in the Balam Alliance, and from that point no guild was going to prove a legitimate threat to Fairy Tail at its full power. Also Tenrou is the first time we're introduced to both the final antagonists Zeref and Acnologia, and that's when it feels like it shifts from inter-Guild conflict to genuine apocalyptic threats, thus starts part 2.First half of GMG is just fun tournament stuff, FT reclaiming its rightful place as #1 etc, but the dragon invasion drops Acno lore, his threat level, and proves a gathering of all the strongest guilds can't even kill a regular dragon at this point. Tartaros is the Zeref arc, and Alvarez is the finale where everything converges. That's how i break it up anyway. In my breakdown anyway I think I prefer 'part 1', yet GMG and Tartaros are my two favourite arcs and they are 'part 2', so work that out. 100YQ is part 3 'super secret final boss' because Mashima plays JRPGs. Anyway enough rambling by me but I really love Fairy Tail.
>>287682843>Erza is LESS popular than Juvia
>>287675207>Is it worth to keep going?I'd say no, but it all depends on how much you really love FT. Love can distract you from the big flaws.>Where do you think Mashima went full retard?If I had to compare it to an illness; he started showing symptoms with the Edolas arc, had a fever on Tenrou Island, and then spent the rest of the series in full blown retard mode
>>287675207>Is it worth to keep going?Three best arcs are in no particular order: Tenrou Island, Grand Magic Games and Tartaros. Tartaros finishes at like chapter 415-ish. Stopping before you've even hit the best arc is retardation of a very high level, on a similar level to the PL-retard.
This is not erza
>>287681711
Time to admit that Mashima's ideas for rewrites are more schizo and hilarious than any anons in these threads.
>>287686017Ah, great minds think alike >>287679616
#PrayForGray
