Gray and Juvia Need Independence

This one is going to be more rant than my other discussions, but I rally wanted to talk about this. 

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR 100 YEAR QUEST I want to get this across first before I start. I really do love this couple and the bits of screentime they have together. They were my favorite couple for a long period of time and they were both my favorite set of characters, until Gajeel and Levy took their place in my heart. However over the years something has become very obvious and that is the fact that these two *need* each other in every scene they are in. I must sound like a hypocrite when I stated that I enjoy Gajeel and Levy much more now, but there is one key difference. Gajeel is basically a secondary character while Levy was always meant to be a background side character, with basically no backstory. On Gray and Juvia’s end it is completely different. Gray is a center character in the series and Juvia is a secondary character introduced early on.  There are very few scenes where one is not distracted by the other, even less later on in the show. It makes sense to some extent why Juvia would all be for Gray, but she needs more to live for. One of my favorite scenes is her in the Tower of Heaven with Lucy and their showdown against Vidaldus. It shows her truly wanting to be a member of Fairy Tail and her care for Lucy even if she saw her as a rival. When it comes to Gray, the last fight that I can think of that was truly his was him against Rufus. It had nothing to do with Juvia, had nothing to do with Natsu. Just him fighting against a man who embarrassed him. Even Gray’s fight with his own father was interjected by Juvia. Though, this one is one that I can forgive as it gave a really powerful moment for both characters. However, even up till now in 100 years quest Juvia or another character has gotten in every one of Gray’s fights.  Juvia needs Gray and it seems the opposite goes as well, but it is shown in every scene thrown at us. Juvia cannot be without Gray and recent Gray scenes now do not seem to give him the individuality that he needs. His character has run out of arc and so all that Mashima can give him is a romantic lover when there is so much potential and so much to explore. I would love to know how you all feel though. Maybe its just me who thinks these things. As stated, I still do enjoy this couple just not nearly as much as before.

I’ll see you all in the Deep End!!

juvia Wasn't Needed

by: @perfectlyimperfectcharacterfan

"juvia really wasn't needed plot wise. Some would argue she help[ed] the team enter the Tower of Heaven but I'm pretty sure they would have found a way without her. Same for Battle of Fairy tail. she literally accomplished nothing there. she was absent from Edolas and Oracion Seis.

I'd ignore the filler arcs because they are trash, but in the Daphnee arc she didn't do anything either, besides blindly defending Gray even though he was 100% in the wrong (and I say this asa massive Gray fan). In Tenrou she arguably dragged the whole fight down with her obsession with Gray. she only saved Meredy because she was about to kill Gray. And it was entirely JUVIA'S fault. If she could actually put her feelings for Gray aside in a very dangerous fight, Gray would never have been so close to die to begin with.

In GMG, she didn't care about her own guild's reputation, only to be with Gray. I'll never get over her LOSING A BATTLE IN WATER. she could have changed in water and force everyone out, but got distracted by Gray, again. her winning would have prevented Minerva from torturing Lucy. she was absent from Sun village. Only in Tartaros did she do something remotely useful by killing Keith. But that was only because he was a threat to Gray.

Also the whole fight against Invel in Alvarez was forced af. It's not indicative of juvia's usefuleness. Invel would have used anyone around."

My Two Cents

Huge thank you to @perfectlyimperfectcharacterfan (I'll refer to them as "Perfectly" for ease now in this post), a delightful regular on my blog who always comments insightful thoughts about juvia and gr///via on my posts, who sent this to me in a dm and allowed me to make a post about it!

They did an amazing job parsing through the arcs, and I really don't need to add anything, but I'll just slide in my two cents at the end here.

About the BOFT arc, one could say that juvia did manage to free her and Cana from Freid's spell, but as I've said before, that was just her earning brownie points, and she kept none of the alleged "character growth" from that. Plus in the end, it was Mirajane who had to defeat Freid anyway, so her "sacrifice" really was useless.

I love what Perfectly said about the Daphne arc. I completely and totally agree with them (and I actually have an old post about this exact topic here if y'all want to read it). I couldn't have said it better myself, that juvia blindly defended Gray despite his wrongdoings, showing how she really only "cared" about Gray and not the rest of the guildmates that got horribly hurt by his stupid mistakes. That's not trust, that's insane obsession that keeps her believing Gray is infallible and perfect no matter what he does, which is so toxic towards Gray and her and everyone around them.

In the GMG, like Perfectly touched on, juvia didn't care about the guild's reputation. she didn't care that for 7 years, Fairy Tail struggled, was bullied, was mocked, was actually oppressed by the other guilds into paying absurd taxes, because they lost their most powerful members to Tenrou Island. Not only that, but they mourned for years because their friends and family had disappeared, and they didn't know if they were dead or alive. All of this hurt and trauma FT went through couldn't matter less to juvia lockser.

True FT member my butt; she doesn't love any of them, not even Gray. she didn't care enough to actually try in the GMG, and she actually wished for her FT guildmates to get hurt so badly that they had to drop out so she could participate with Gray. The wickedness of her heart is astounding. And yeah, she totally whiffed what should've been the easiest match up for her in the water battle, leading to Lucy being abused just as Perfectly said, and she also threw the Hide and Seek match by being a "love" obsessed idiot as she always is.

And let's not forget that after the GMG during the dragon battle, juvia literally gets Gray killed because she's not paying attention to anything except for Gray as always, even in the midst of a life-and-death situation, and makes it so that Gray has to save her butt for her. I mean, how much worse could this ship get, when it literally causes one of them (the victim, even) to die needlessly???

On the whole note of juvia's uselessness, one could even go as far to say that juvia is an active hinderance and blight on the lives of the people around her. she really constantly oozes toxicity and sucks the life out of everyone she comes into contact with, most of all Gray through her manipulation and abuse, but also all the women in Gray's life, as well as her fellow FT members. she is a weak link, a liability, an impediment, a stone dragging down and drowning everyone, including herself. she will never notice or care about that fact because she gets what she wants in the end, what she thinks is good: Gray's brow-beaten, brainwashed "affection".

No one wins when they rely on her. she is a parasite.

Anyway, gigantic shoutout to Perfectly again for taking the time to think so deeply about all these things, for sharing their thoughts with me, and for allowing me to share them with all of you! juvia really is a useless character, and the Fairy Tail story and her guildmates would've been infinitely better off without her.

im not into n/s/f/w as a rule of thumb, but i think even so i was set up to fail by having gratsu as my favourite ship, or gray as my favourite character, cuz where i can look at ships like weisz x [insert character here] and be like yeah, makes sense, i look at gratsu and i just....... no.... no.... it doesn't work for them

Thoughts on Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest So Far... (w/BlueStarSaber)

Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest is a sequel series to the most beloved and popular series by Hiro Mashima the creator of Rave Master, and his currently ongoing series Edens Zero. There have been a number of revelations that have occurred within the series since the end of the original Fairy Tail manga with Natsu,  Lucy, Happy, Wendy, Carla,Gray, Erza, taking on the 100 Year Quest as was teased in the events of the last episode/chapter of the original manga.  Joining me on this discussion is a good friend from the Ani-Manga crew @bluestarsaber.

Just a heads up this was recorded around the time chapter 114/115 came out, but nonetheless I wanted to share this because of how much Fairy Tail’s meant to me over the years especially in recent time. 

I love how Natsu would do anything if it was just to make Lucy happy and the way when she talks he might seem uninterested but he’s actually attentive and thinks about how to give her that happiness

Summer Rose Is Sleeping Beauty Theory.

So obviously there's many theories out there on where Summer is or what happened to her and so I'm not sure if this one has been done or talked about yet.

Recently I got my friend into RWBY and she's a mega fan of all things fairytale. As we were watching and I was explaining different character backgrounds/who they're based on, we got onto Summer. She stated how Sleeping Beauty's real name is Briar Rose. Obviously the last names matched but the more we talked about it the more I can see RT doing something similar to Summer.

My theory is that somehow Salem cursed Summer and put her into an eternal sleep that can only be broken by some form of true love. As we've seen in the show, the silver eyes power is based similarly, it activates when you think about your loved ones, happy memories, and the desire to protect. At some point we'll find out that Salem is using Summer to make the hounds while she's in her coma, and Ruby will use "True Love" or her Silver Eyes to wake Summer up. Alternatively, RT can change it from "True Love" to a "Daughter's Love" and bounce off of what they set up in V.9, "A Mother's Promise" -> "A Daughter's Love."

Anyways that's just my theory! Hope you all enjoy!

I've been rewatching Fairy Tail the anime for a few months, and I noticed the tierlist I made in september 2023 is OUTRAGEOUS.

So, I decided to keep a new updated tierlist as the episodes go by. Here's how's it going:

(Episode 39/I have no idea)

Some characters are there already because I'm pretty sure about them still. (Just so you know, I watched FT last time in 2020)

If it's so long now I can't imagine what it will be like in the future 💀

Farwell and see ya soon!

Ok I'm going to put this here. I have a hard time believing Acno can actually speak modern Fioren.

Like he wasn't even from Fiore, he's from some secret island that the name comes from Spanish. Sure he might have picked up ancient Fioren when he was at war depending where he was and what language those around him spoke but we don't know the exact location of the fighting since the placement of countries wouldn't have been the exact same 400 years in the past.

But he Def doesn't know modern Fioren. Like he's been a dragon for 400 years and did fuck all after there weren't any dragons he could find to kill to the point he was considered a legend until he showed up in Tenrou. As far as we know, his encounter with Gildarts could have been his first interaction with a human in years and he very clearly was not friendly. The best he can do is probably like a few specific words he's heard from the few times he shows up.

Plot twist that's why he doesn't speak in Tenrou cause he doesn't know how to lol.

Which also they never explained why Acno just suddenly was in Zonia for a bit or why Gildarts was there if the quest he took was in another country altogether.

Like I have my own idea that he was drawn to the sudden spike in dragon slayer signatures since we don't know how long he'd been in Fiore just that it had to have at least been 6 weeks prior to Gildarts return for him to have prosthetic limbs and since Gildarts comes back somewhere between late October to end of November (since the S-class trials are early December) then it's realistic for him to possibly have shown up after the phantom fight which was probably around July to August time, if not earlier.

Plus if you had at least Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus and Cobra actively using their magic all within a concentrated area then it would be a bit of a beacon.

Plus that idea also links up with the three times Acno does show up. Tenrou, Zeref mentions that the fighting had lured Acno but that would be kinda weird since there's been way worse fights in Fairy tail's history so why does this one specifically stand out. Because there are four dragon slayers who all used their magic in at least one fight, three all within the same tiny radius at one point.

Same with Tartarous, Mard Geer says he's there for END but why would Acno be scared of END unless he knows it's Natsu. Zeref is canonically afraid of Acno, it's why he helped create the plan for his destruction. END is supposed to kill Zeref but killing Zeref isn't the same thing as killing a very invulnerable dragon. Regular magic can barely hurt the dragons from the GMG arc and Acno killed half the dragons there. So unless Acno knew END was a dragon slayer, why would he assume he could kill him.

But at that point, 6 of the seven dragon slayers were present in the same area and their dragons did pop out (after Acno arrived but they appeared)

Then he shows up in Alvarez with the goal of killing all the slayers which lines up with his dragon killing goal cause slayers become dragons and he doesn't know about the dragon soul technique so why not just get rid of the future dragons before they change and become a harder kill. (Plus he clearly didn't care Irene was dead since he just pounded her corpse into nothing upon finding her so eh)

Yukino’s Star Dress (Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest Spoiler - Chapter 134)

Calling Yukino’s Star Dress an invalidation to Lucy’s power is crazy. I was surprised she didn’t have it to begin with and now she does, here comes all the boohooers. We get it y’all love Lucy but why can’t they both be strong?? Calling Yukino’s Star Dress poor writing because it was thrown in there random as if Lucy’s Star Dress wasn’t ALSO random asf (minus Aquarius form). Yukino has always been a more skilled celestial than Lucy and that is a fact (coming from a Lucy lover) because she’s been a mage longer. Just say you don’t like someone stealing the spotlight from Lucy. Again they are BOTH strong and BOTH have an amazing and powerful magic power up, so let it go. Let’s just appreciate two badass Celestials slaying instead of putting one down just to praise another 🙄

It’s so hard being on the Fairy Tail subreddit… it’s nothing but incels and pervs who always sexualize the girls and just post weird shit in general. It’s all just shallow talk about them which sucks because there’s so much more to the story and to the characters than just fan service.

And if it isn’t that, it’s always negative criticism of the anime/manga, which is totally okay to do with any series, but when it’s so constant and 24/7 in a place where we are supposed to come together and talk about how much we love the series (most of the time of course, again criticism is okay and valid in all genres of media) it just becomes such a negative environment you know?

Despite this though there have been some pretty cool people I’ve had the pleasure of talking to on there, but unfortunately they are overshadowed by the rest of the toxic sub. Sometimes I wonder if I should leave, but it lowkey feels like betrayal to FT if I do (T ^ T)

Lucy Heartfilia and Compassion

So while casually thinking about my favorite anime, Fairy Tail, I realized something. This isn’t abnormal as I tend to notice things every once in a while whether or not they are intentional. This time around I noticed that, considering what she goes through in every single arc (this girl cannot catch a single break), Lucy Heartfilia still retains her compassion and kindness for strangers and enemies.

You could chalk this up to bad writing on Mashima’s part, which I would not complain about. I do adore Mashima’s writing but it isn’t perfect. However, I would like to suggest that it fits well with the themes of Fairy Tail. The importance of friendship and family weigh heavily through the series with the main focus being the Guild Hall and the bond of the people within the guild.

The extent of this theme goes even to the villains, where we see countless times either they care for each other, are neutral but are after a similar objective, or they actively do not work well and are injuring each other. Of course the first and last work the best when in a story such as this but I am getting ahead of myself. To get back on track... Through the entire anime we learn the backstory to each of the main characters and some others a part of Fairy Tail. If we focus on the main five; Natsu Dragneel, Lucy Heartfilia, Erza Scarlet, Gray Fullbuster, and Wendy Marvell (sorry Happy and Carla) we can see that each have had personal obstacles that range in emotional impact on their character. Apart from Natsu and Wendy, who have tame back stories (that they remember) compared to the rest, Lucy is definitely the more tame. She was never against some giant demon and was never a slave, both of which ended up hurting and killing others by their actions. Lucy ended up having a peaceful beginning and was a high class girl with a big future ahead of her if all had gone according to plan. Since this is Fairy Tail, and a Shonen manga, nothing comes easy. Her mother died young and thus Lucy was left with an abusive father who and no care for her after her mother’s passing. She had no friends other than the spirits that her mother passed to her when she was on her deathbed. When Lucy was finally able to escape at roughly sixteen, she was able to find Fairy Tail who became her replacement family. In the meantime, Lucy also had been abused in some way in each arc (whether its fighting someone she cares about, sexual harassment and public humiliation, or quite literally being tortured), lost her father that she finally started to build a relationship to once again, lost her doll that was another connection to her mother, lost Aquarius, and even her guild. Yet the biggest thing that sticks with Lucy through all of this is her compassion, the main topic of this post that took oh so long to get to the point of. Lucy still has compassion for enemies and those that hurt her the most. She never has grudges that last long, apart from her father with understandable reasons. However, she even began building that bond again in her last moments and seemed to still have a heart for him. This is shown, of course, when he makes her way to Love & Lucky to protect her father when she believes he is a victim in a hostage situation. This isn’t the case and he is safe, but she still had the heart to put aside her feelings and do what was right. Minerva, who tortured Lucy and put her through immense humiliation and almost killed her if it wasn’t for Chelia and Wendy, was also forgiven by her actions. Lucy passes it as water under a bridge and they were trying to do right for their guild, but this is still a big moment to show Lucy’s kindness. Lucy is shown on more than one occasion to protect the guild, even from the very start, and how big her heart truly is. She could have absorbed it all and became a person similar to her counter in Edolas, but even more cold hearted. She had every right to be angry at Natsu for abandoning her and hardly put any pressure when it was shown she was genuinely upset. She never even let anyone know that Aquarius was gone. In my eyes, Lucy Heartfilia is one of the best characters in Fairy Tail. Once a character seen as purely for sexualization, which still is the case in a few instances, Lucy showcases some of the most important themes of Fairy Tail in her actions and how she continues forward. She is one of the most deserving of the Fairy Tail guild mark. Oh boy that was a long post but I hope I got my point across. As I said in the beginning, I think of these concepts all the time and I am really interested to make more posts about Fair Tail and why it is so great in many aspects. Let me know your opinions and go ahead and post any suggestions for me to cover in the future!

See you later in the Deep End!

It's practically canon that Juvia raped Gray, it perfectly aligns with her character!

TW: r*pe

juva is a r*pist

It really devastating to think about, but, unfortunately for Gray, you're absolutely right, my friend. juvia really did try to r*pe him.

It is one of the most despicable things juvia has ever done, and yet it is written off as a joke, as is almost everything that juvia does. This one is on a whole other level of evil, though, that is completely inexcusable no matter how you look at it. I hope the Pros would at the very least agree with me on this, but I feel some are in denial about it.

For those who don't remember what we're talking about, it was during the short Avatar arc after the disbanding of Fairy Tail. juvia, who got her own useless behind sick by moping about when Gray disappeared, proudly stated to Lucy and Wendy that she had tried on multiple occasions to sleep with Gray. It's not really specified whether she meant literal sleeping or sleeping with him as in actual sex, but from Lucy's and Wendy's flustered reactions of trying to get her to stop elaborating, I think it's pretty clear she meant sex. (And really, juvia has no shame. she's literally talking about this in front of a small child, a minor, Wendy. she really doesn't care about anyone but herself).

[And even if she just meant sleeping, that is still such an invasion of privacy and personal space. Your bed is a vulnerable place, one where you are in your most vulnerable state of unconsciousness, and yet juvia wanted to intrude on that despite Gray's protests. No doubt juvia would touch him without his consent as well; can you really imagine juvia sleeping in the same bed as Gray and not glomping onto him and touching him all over? (We've already seen that juvia is completely fine with touching Gray any time she pleases, whether it's her acting as his chair without his knowledge or her refusing to let go of his hand after their Unison Raid, so this assumption is no leap in logic.) That non-consensual "cuddling" would definitely be sexual harassment at the very least.]

Anyway, juvia told them that she was unable to because Gray kicked her out of his bed multiple times, and that means she tried multiple times to have her way with him without his consent. It just shows how insane she is to think that this behavior is one, acceptable, and two, actually going to win over her beloved's heart. This is one of the best examples of juvia's wickedness as well.

A disgruntled Pro might say, "Well, it's not like she followed through with sleeping with him! she says so herself that she was rejected, so she's not r*pey and she does care about consent!"

To that, I say this: Is continually trying to sleep with someone who said no already really showing that you care about consent, and that the only reason why you haven't slept with them yet is because that victim is strong enough to physically refuse you?

No.

You do not care about consent if you do that, and therefore, you are a r*pist. Even if you fail to r*pe someone, if you attempted to, you are just as bad as someone who was able to.

And how many times should Gray have to lay down boundaries and say no? Once. But juvia shows she does not care about him or his feelings. she just wants him to herself even if he doesn't consent.

Gray even tells Makao that he didn't even want to live with juvia in the first place, that she barged in and refused to leave. How does anyone excuse that behavior?? Clearly, no matter what it is, juvia could not care less about Gray's consent or agreement.

Edit: I didn't even notice but a chunk of the post was deleted when I posted this sooo thanks tumblr. I guess I'll paraphrase.

I just said how juvia is always given a free pass just because she's a "cute girl", and so no one actually cares when she acts like a r*pist. Thing is, just switch the situation around, where a man intrudes on a woman's home and refuses to leave and tries several times to sleep with her, and no one would stand for it. But it's okay for Gray to be abused because juvia is a woman?? I don't believe that for one moment. We have got to get rid of this double standard, guys. Abuse is abuse.

Anyway, even though it's a very disheartening and disgusting topic to think about, thank you @arielfan1956 for bringing it up (and thank you for your patience) because it's important to talk about these things. Beyond just a nasty, toxic ship, gr///via helps to harm people and society in real life by normalizing, fetishizing, and praising juvia's absolutely horrendous behavior, and no one needs r*pe and sexual harassment normalized.

Spriggan 12 headcannons

Okay, so favorite Fairy Tail song. Could be opening theme or ost, your pick.

Wooh this is a tough one... All the openings and OST are absolute 🔥. But if I had to pick a favorite? Probably Natsu vs Future Rogue OST

How about you?

mira deserved better

okay disappointment in our favourite obsession and all aside, i kinda like reading all these posts under the fairy tail tag