User blog:Ash9876/Ashy's Reviews --- Irene's Story

Hello, everyone! It's been a long time since your favorite (maybe? Probably not.) admin, Ash, has done a review!

To all those who are wondering, or were unaware, I am now doing reviews in a more "bulk" fashion. I am reviewing entire "mini-arcs" of related chapters as opposed to individual chapters. That way I can talk about things with the full context of them in mind and have a good overall opinion.

I won't be doing any summaries of the chapter because, let's be honest, who needs them?

Let's get down to it!

Notable Quotes
"I am human!!! I am human!!! I don't want this body!!! I want to change back into a human!!! Someone...help me..."

- Irene Belserion.

"I'm grateful to you for giving me life. And I'm grateful for you abandoning me. Because thanks to that...I could meet my real family."

- Erza Scarlet.

"I'm sympathetic to your past. But I can't forgive someone who doesn't even love their own child."

- Wendy Marvell.

"From now on I am Wendy. Wendy Belserion!"

- "Wendy" Belserion.

"The scars all throughout my body are proof I am alive! They are badges of honor I have earned for all the battles I have fought with Fairy Tail up to now! No matter how many more scars I may receive, it doesn't matter! Because in that body...the countless memories I've shared with all those who are precious to me still remain!"

- Wendy Marvell.

"In the village where you abandoned me, I was captured...and for the next several years, I was enslaved by a religious cult. But I suppose, compared to the 400 years you endured, it may not be all that tragic. And besides, it's because of everything you did back then that I am how I am now. And I was able to find people who I hold dear."

- Erza Scarlet.

"Before I realized it, I became known as Titania. To be honest...I had little interest in what the masses called me, but...if you are the Queen of Dragons, then...me being Titania, Queen of the Fairies, doesn't sound so bad either."

- Erza Scarlet.

"Why are you laughing...Why...I endured four hundred years of suffering you know. Do not make me hesitate!!!! This is undoubtedly the truth. This is my child. I always loved her. Don't laugh. Don't laugh at me!!!"

- Irene Belserion.

"How pitiful...I, the strongest woman of Alvarez...I cannot kill her...my only daughter..."

- Irene Belserion.

Overall Thoughts
My overall thoughts about this little saga is that it probably constituted the best chapters in the Alvarez Arc.

From the set up previously, we were given a sense of scale, of weight, to this eventual confrontation. And, to be perfectly honest, I wasn't disappointed. The fight did feel like something significant. Rather than just pretty fight choreography with no weight, there was a genuine clash of ideals between the enemies. I actually felt something for both sides in this war. Irene was a genuinely fleshed out antagonist and she also, inadvertently, helped Erza and Wendy gain a bit of characterization as well.

I personally believe Irene is one of the better antagonists in Fairy Tail. Her role is clearly defined as a character, and she fulfills it well. She initially appears as an overwhelming force of nature who cannot be stopped. Although subordinated to Zeref, she definitely has a voice and her own goals, something that is shown through her history. The reason she confronted Acnologia early and wanted to bring a swift end to this petty conflict was because of her vendetta. She's attempting to motivate Zeref for her own benefit, not anybody else's.

However there is a bit more depth to Irene than that. Irene is a woman who lost everything due to her wishing to participate in the war against the Dragons. Her respect, dignity and love was lost in an instant. All she had was Erza in her womb. But even she turned out to be useless, and so she dumped her, and sought a way to avenge the last individual who gave her affection...or so we initially thought. It was recently revealed that the last anchor to Irene's sanity as a human was, in fact, Erza. The smiling face of a newborn Erza had awakened Irene's human emotions once more. Even if she did not possess the body of a human, she definitely possessed a human's heart.

It was with this revelation that gave Irene a rounded character, with good closure as an antagonist. To me, personally, this development was very fitting for Fairy Tail's overall vibe. Fairy Tail isn't a negative series. To have Irene be completely barred to her path to happiness by her own daughter and a young Dragon Slayer who is a reflection of her younger self would be almost cruel for Hiro's standards. Would it have worked? Undoubtedly. Would it have worked for Fairy Tail? That much I can't be sure about. If there's anything I can praise Hiro for, however, is sticking to his roots.

With regards to Erza, I am genuinely surprised. By pushing an enemy towards Erza who she possesses a genuine vendetta against, and a connection towards, Erza felt far more motivated and "real" in this battle. She actively clashed against Irene's ideals and, ironically, brought Erza back to her roots by revealing her origins. What I thought was admirable was Hiro breaking the cliche of, "the enemy is my relative and now I cannot fight" with Erza. As opposed to Gray, who found it difficult to fight until Silver probed him on by faking his identity as Deliora, Erza needed no such motivation. Her loyalty lies to her true family, Fairy Tail. To Erza, Irene was the woman who gave birth to her, but she possesses no obligation to her. To recognize that she was in a war, and to fight against an enemy who outclassed her by leaps and bounds, to me, was quite admirable.

Wendy's development was quite stellar here, to be perfectly frank. Her abilities as an Enchantress are of no doubt nearing the highest class. But, on top of that, this fight showed how Wendy has developed as an individual. Not only is she just "the support", she is using her powers to actively protect her comrades in battle. She speaks out with her own voice, and refuses to bow down to any force. Of note is her relationship with Erza being highlighted in this fight. While we all know that Erza and Wendy had a bond, that bond was never truly elaborated on. However, here, Wendy fulfilled her single promise to protect Erza. For Hiro to address something shown back in the beginning of the Alvarez Arc, to me, was heartwarming.

The progression of the fight itself, in my opinion, was good. The fight wasn't unnecessarily long, and the fight choreography itself was quite unique for Fairy Tail. Unlike most fights, a battle between Enchanters ended up being a battle of both wit and willpower. The style in which Hiro had to draw this confrontation was interesting, and personally prompted me to look at Support and Anti-Mages in a slightly new light.

The treatment of Deus Sema, was not so good. Although it had been hyped up, it fell flat when Erza single-handedly defeated it. Of note though is the fact that Erza had gathered all of her magic power in her blade. Normally, Erza fights conservatively and the way her Requip functions means she does not exert much raw magical power in a fight. In this sense, her possessing the latent power to destroy a meteorite kind of makes sense. Although, it was nonetheless disappointing.

What struck me as surprising was Irene committing suicide. After she had gone so far and was given the opportunity to kill Erza, her ending up committing suicide probably threw a lot of people off. For me, I found it to be the most appropriate end for someone like Irene. To someone who values her own dignity, identity and ambitions above anyone else's, it was an appropriate end compared to being killed by, let's say, Acnologia. Likewise, her being incapable of killing Erza, but refusing to let the battle end by the terms of anyone else, both reinforced her pride, but also her motherly love that trickled through the end.

Was this the best thing in Fairy Tail ever? Probably not. Could it have been better? Undoubtedly, in a different sort of series. For Fairy Tail, however, this fight was quite well done. It gave sufficient time to give the combatants a level of depth without hammering us with information, and the fight choreography and interesting abilities shown truly made this an iconic battle, at least within Fairy Tail.

And that's Ash signing out. See you all in a few more chapters~