User blog comment:Ash9876/Power Scaling in the FTverse/@comment-5914413-20150604221308/@comment-217.41.45.32-20150609110613

‘Minticus-Maximus here. On a different computer so I’m not logged in’

I understand what you are saying Dazzling, but I think the people on the Fanon have some good reasons to be so negative of Fairy Tail.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the negativity is a little high at times too. I even wrote a blog post a while back asking why people read/watch Fairy Tail despite constantly belittling the story or the characters etc. I got a variety of responses, but generally speaking, the reason I think people don’t enjoy Fairy Tail at its current point is because Fairy Tail is average, when it used to be really good.

I might be one of the few people who actually found some enjoyment in the most recent arc I watched (Grand Magic Games), but I defiantly see why people would be disappointed in the arc compared to the earlier, arguably better arcs in the series like Tower of Heaven or Fighting Festival.

Those arcs, unlike the current arcs, had something that has been sorely missing from current arcs. Character Development, Interesting Characters, a real reason to dislike the main villain (Jellal turned everyone Erza held dear against her, and Laxus was going to turn the guild from a place of family to a place where only the strong survive). These things, while still present in more recent arcs, are nowhere near as common or as important. Oh and most importantly, power levels actually made sense.

Let’s compare the old arcs to the more recent ones (I am ignoring the Key of the Starry Heaven arc because, seriously, fuck that arc).

ToH always holds a special place for me. I did not like Erza before that arc. I felt she used fear to get her way in the guild. But after this arc I found a real appreciation of the character. Like the fact she always wears her armour because she is terrified of being left vulnerable again, of being betrayed again. And when she finally stops wearing her armour when she goes head to head with Jellal, her fears come true. She stops because she thinks Jellal has been freed, and Jellal uses that moment to chain her and betray her again. She has been betrayed again. But when Nastu comes in, he shows her that she doesn’t need to wear her armour because her Guild, her family, will always be there for her. Natsu risks everything by eating ethieron(? Was it called that), to get enough power to beat Jellal and save someone he cares for. Oh and let’s not forget Juvia (poor, poor Juvia, always one step away from having no character apart from “I fucking love Grey”). She throws Lucy out of the way of that weird as fuck succubus attack. She would rather risk herself then a member of the guild. Same in the fighting festival arc. She throws herself at the lightning mine so that (god damn it I forgot her name) can fight Freed(?) and prove she loves the guild.

GMG has… a lot less of this stuff. While some characters get a lot of love (Laxus), most of the guild is reduced to jokes or being useless (apparently after 7 years the guild became way more powerful since max could go toe to toe with Natsu, and far weaker since they are now the ‘weakest’ guild around). Juvia’s one trait is still “I fucking love Grey”, Milianna(?) is useless as a character, and there was literally no reason to bring her back from the dead, only to ruin a really good bit of character development. The characters we grew to love are being ruined.

And let’s not get started on the Fighting. Grey’s hide and seek match may have been the worst piece of anime I have seen in a long time (Key of the Starry heaven not withstanding). Like seriously, did he forget he was a wizard? Hiro tried to write Raven Tail and Sabertooth as a threat, but only succeeded in making Fairy Tail look retared. I could go on, I really could go on forever, but I’ll stop myself.

Sabertooth I do want to talk about, as it seems that’s where some of the good writing went. Sting has a dream, a promise between him and Lector to prove to everyone that they are the best. And there is only one way they can do this; Beating Natsu, the strongest of the dragon slayers. They beat him, and nobody is going to treat Lector like shit anymore, and Sting will have proven that everything he worked for was worth it. But in the end, they were humiliated (I’ll get back to that), their dream crushed, and they knew that when they failed, they might be kicked out the guild, their home. It’s a good story arc.

But let’s get back to the meat of this, how power levels make no sense in Fairy Tail. The Fight between Natsu and Gajeel vs Sting and… I’m fucking terrible with names… Sorry Shadow Dragon Slayer, you cared about your guild, so I liked you.

Anyhow the fight started good because it of how it set off. Sting and Other were so cocky, so sure they would win this fight with a landslide. But it wasn’t at all like that. Not only were Natsu and Gajeel a match, but a points better, using their experience and skill to match Sabertooths teamwork and power. In the end, they were forced to use Dragon Force to be strong enough to beat them, and even then Natsu and Gajeel did not go down easy. But they finally beat them, smashing them through the earth, proving once and for all that they were the best of the best…

…and then Natsu got up, said “lol jk” and kicked the shit out of them…

WHAT?

The most power wizards of the most powerful guild in Fiore can’t beat a guy that has struggled throughout the entire Grand Magic Game?!?! What?!?!?

This is not the only case of power level fuck up-ery. Grey is equal in strength to Natsu right? So how could he not beat a purple midget whose power is spikes? Not shooting spikes or summoning spikes mind you. No just… spikes.

<p class="MsoNormal">And then Laxus beats up all of Raven Tail in a few hits? If this guy is that strong, how the hell did Natsu and Gajeel beat him in Fighting Festival? WHAT IS GOING ON!?!?

<p class="MsoNormal">This is my point. The arcs have got worse and worse as time goes on. Power levels flicker greatly, people gain character development and then lose it, what should be brilliant fights end up sucking, Natsu’s plot armour is indestructible, and he never has any character apart from idiot, angry, and occasionally fighting to defend his friends, which I actually really like.

<p class="MsoNormal">I know I sound negative. I know we all sound negative, but please understand, most of us want so much for the series to be good again, like it used to be. We are negative because we hope for change, a change that Hiro gets his head out his arse and starts writing good, thought provoking stories again.

<p class="MsoNormal">So yes, maybe he should lose to Zancrow and Hades, so yes, maybe Natsu shouldn’t lose to Sting, but it shouldn’t have been so easy for him. We want challenge for Fairy Tail, we want loss, sorrow, joy and family. We want it to be good again…

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<p class="MsoNormal">…Rogue! That was his name! God I am awful with names…

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<p class="MsoNormal">Oh and because I am, a massive One Piece nerd, I wish to answer what you said earlier.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Luffy-Lucci fight wasn’t as cake walk as you made it out to be. Luffy only barely won that fight. It was only because most of Lucci’s moves don’t work on Luffy, plus Luffy had to keep using second, gear, which as Lucci pointed out, is slowly killing him whenever he uses it. And Lucci was tough, twice surviving Luffy’s third gear, when some main villains can’t take one. And even at the end, it’s almost all for nothing because he can’t even move to escape. He was willing to die for his crew.

<p class="MsoNormal">With Crocodile, water reacts differently with different devil fruits. It’s always a weakness, but there is variation. Most devil fruit users can survive some water, otherwise rain would be lethal, but for crocodile, water clumped his sand together, as it would normal sand, so it wouldn’t break up when his, so he could hit crocodile. A little farfetched, I’ll admit, but it fits with the canon.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Lastly, he beat Bellamy in one hit because Bellamy was at no point a threat. He was a pirate with no dream, the main plot point of the story. He had nothing to strive for, nothing to sacrifice. He was nothing compared to a pirate like Luffy, who was willing to do what it takes for a dream, and therefore was Luffy was far stronger. Bellamy was an east-blue pirate at best, but Luffy is a new world pirate.

<p class="MsoNormal"> As for the pacifista, I don’t think I’ve seen that part yet, unless you mean bart-something something (bad with names), but Luffy was unconscious.