Fairy Tail, Chapter 500: Fire and Ice
A premier example of why Fairy Tail can't handle action scenes well. Every single problem I've listed in my multiple-chapter rants comes to full blow here. Useless, unoriginal speech that invariably end with "FAIRY TAIL AWUSM" like five-year olds arguing in the playground? Check. Juvia immediately surviving after her 'death' chapter? Check. The Spriggan 12 being touted as 'oh my god so strongkt' before being defeated without really putting up much of a fight? Check. PUNCHING REALLY HARD to defeat the enemies, regardless of power level? Check. Ignoring logic? Check. Uninteresting fights? Check.
Man, even when other fighting mangas are bad, at least the actions scenes are cool to watch. Here Invel just summons an ice armour that he bullshits is like the super-duper ice armour from hell, but Gray just punches really really hard to break it. Neindhardt shows up with some weird aura given to him by Eileen, no real explanations there, but Natsu punches really really hard and floors him. Man, the Spriggan are shit.
The only real good part is Brandish deciding to go ahead and continue to slaughter Natsu and Lucy's allies. She's raised as an Alvarezian all her life, she's got all this loyalty thing going on for her, and the only people she's really befriended is Lucy. So yeah. But, of course, Neinhardt and Di Maria all 'you're talking to them so you're a traitor' because no one in this manga has an IQ of more than 10, so undoubtedly next chapter Di Maria will fight Brandish and then Brandish will defect to her 'true friends', the Fairy Tail, who she's only really met for a couple of days.
Yeah this manga is shit. I'll wait until 510 or 520 before I do a mass review again. Reading this week to week will devolve my brain.
Yeah this manga is shit. I'll wait until 510 or 520 before I do a mass review again. Reading this week to week will devolve my brain.
Well, to start... let me talk about what wasn't mentioned here for obvious reasons - reasons I must talk about if only because it hit a new level of suck for me; Juvia.
ReplyDeleteNow I think it's hinted that the reason Gajeel survived was because Mavis' release conceded with Elieen's use of Universe One, the two magics mixing basically allowing Mavis' latent ties with all who have the Fairy Tail Guild Mark to draw off Elieen's reshaping of Fiore to pull Gajeel back from his limbo as well as temporarily incarnate Zeria. Now why do I bring this up? Because even though it was nine kinds of bullshit, there WAS some kind of explanation bothered to be laid out for how Gajeel returned. But here, they don't even TRY to act like there's any chance Juvia's death wouldn't (easily) reversible or even that there was any danger at all - just "Wendy heals her." Despite being dependent on a ludicrously-convenient coincidence and making no goddamn sense, Gajeel surviving was explainable. Here, it's the most straightforward and unfulfilling anticlimax possible, out of a situation where an anticlimax was already expected - that might just very well be a brand new low for this series.
Not surprised about the fights either, especially considering that half the Spriggans had already been beaten earlier. But it still hurts because you'd expect people who'd lost already to do the smart thing and TEAM UP the way the guilds are - would they be having this much trouble if they weren't insistent on soloing whole groups of mages at once? Plus, doesn't Neinhardt getting taken out make their position worse since his powers were animating the three Spriggans that died? Why the hell did Eileen send him out there with that kind of risk - is it supposed to illustrate her being arrogant and overconfident? Because I've seen that from just about every other female villain in this series so far and it's getting old - maybe if the other members of the Spriggans were more competent I could accept it as Eileen being the token spoilt brat with too much power and too used to getting her way in the group, but that's not the case. My opinion of Eileen was already pretty low as it was; I didn't need any help disliking her by learning she sucks at tactics just as much as most of the series' villains do.
Speaking of tactics, let's get to Invel - he's supposed to be like the chief strategist of the Spriggans and the one keeping Fairy Tail's strongest member, Mavis Vermillion, chained down... so why in fuck's name is he fighting? Even if you're that confident in your power, it's basic tactics to wait it out until everyone's exhausted and vulnerable - I could even understand this being done by August or the like because he's closer to the power-mage, but Invel's been hinted to be a TACTICIAN, and they hang back and coordinate to weaken the enemy before they get pressed into battle.
With how Invel lost... honestly, that was slightly more bearable if only for the fact that Invel specified that Gray had apparently absorbed his own Ice-power and was using it against him. After all, Devil-Slayers can absorb power made from their corresponding element, the same as Dragon-Slayers and God-Slayers. Granted, that's normally done by eating said element and I never saw Gray eat any of Invel's ice - so this is a case of show and never tell; it could have all been made just SLIGHTLY less painful if we maybe saw Gray take a bite out of Invel's armor or ice the way Natsu ate the Etherion crystals all those years ago in the Tower of Heaven arc with an established means of gaining a big power-up. Granted, it wouldn't erase the inconsistency of why, if he knows about Devil-Slayer Magic, did Invel (again, a STRATEGIST) not anticipate Gray could eat his ice an claim his power to use back on him, but it would still be more bearable then what we got here with Gray just having Invel's same "Underworld-Purity Ice" all of a sudden.
With Gajeel, they pretended to have him die by having his 'death' be the cliffhanger for one chapter, then spending the next chapter be all nooo Gajeel is dying dramatic speech which is actually a great, touching moment... if it wasn't undone in the next chapter. With this, and the Mirajane-gets-shot-in-the-gut a while back, they aren't even trying.
DeleteI honestly cannot think of a single bad guy in Fairy Tail in the current arc that isn't 100% dumb, other than maybe August, Zeref and Acnologia. I absolutely loathe every other villain out there at the moment, and with Zeref and Acnologia it's more of them being built up and not with them being any decent at all, honestly.
The Spriggans are bigger jokes than Tartaros ever was... with Tartaros, the only real 'joke' member was Franmalth, plus Jackal as the arrogant twat who's absolutely ineffective. Here? Jacob's shit, Neinhardt's shit, God Serena's shit, Eileen's the definition of a Mary Sue character, Invel tries to sound smart but is a moron, Random Eisenwald Dude from chapter 5 has more personality than Braddman, Ajeel's a Jackal clone, Dimaria's a Meredy clone, Brandish is the token traitor big-boobed fanservice girl... yeah.
Invel would be great if he, y'know, was actually effective in battle. Yeah, ice of hell and everything would be actually cool if Gray didn't break it apart by going I CAN MOLD ICE in like two panels.
The thing with Devil (or God) Slayer Magic? None of it was ever explained. With Dragon Slayer Magic we at least learn, back when Fairy Tail was at around chapter 100-ish and was actually still good, that there's some logic to the thing. You can eat things similar to your element, like fire dragon Natsu eating Etherion. With Devil Slaying Magic? What the FUCK does it even mean, other than it deals super-effective damage against demons? We see Gray going Zeroth Long Sword all the time, but what's different between that and the ice swords he makes? Absolutely jack shit, if you ask me.
Yeah, I'm of the opinion the author doesn’t actually care about there being any suspense in his story, but it was never quite so outright blatant until the scenes with Mirajane and Juvia. And the worst part is that barring Mirajane's, the death” scenes so far have actually been done quite touchingly if you look at them stand-alone - but with how much of an inability Hiro Mashima has shown in being able to kill off a single one of his fantasy characters or even change the status que in a way that ever is permanently detrimental to the heroes, these scenes get ruined by how you know they’ll never be a lasting effect.
DeleteWell, we saw Silver eating Gray's ice and we saw God-Slayers eating their respective magic attributes (Zancrow eating Natsu's fire at Trenou Island), so I think it's hinted that all "Slayer" magics work on the same principle of "eat your element or something similar to your element, gain power or power-up". But the failure in this chapter was that we never saw Gray actually eat Invel's ice or do anything to explain why, all of a sudden, Gray can mold ice of hell too (Invel actually, literally states in shock that Gray's using his same kind of ice now all of a sudden, because of course he can).
As for what's different between the normal ice and Devil-Slayer ice, I'm guessing it's overall stronger and more durable/powerful, like Natsu's flames were stronger then normal ones - but at the same time, you'd expect there's be differences since the magic is supposedly specified to different entities; Gods, Dragons and Demons respectively. I mean, we never did learn why God-Slayer's attacks had a black tint to them, right? Also, I think it was hinted that this kind of magic can be corrosive to the user - Igneel and the other dragons claimed that, if they hadn't taken up residence in the Dragon-Slayer's bodies, overuse of the Dragon-Slayer magic would have corrupted Natsu and the others into dragons like Acnologia had been, and Invel said that each use of Devil-Slayer Magic was slowly corrupting Gray into a demon himself - but I've never seen effects or drawbacks like that be hinted to exist for God-Slayers, or that the effects couldn't be reversed like Acnologia apparently found a way to since he can resume human form again. I wish there was a little consistency with this stuff :P
And of course, I forgot to mention that final kick in the gut we got at the chap’s end - Invel telling Gray that Natsu is E.N.D. ... I literally can't bring myself to feel any suspense about how that's going to turn out. After all the times it happened in the series already, I don't expect this to make Gray turn on Natsu in any irreparable way - and even if he did, Juvia not being dead will stop him anyway with "Nakama Power!" Hell, at this point I'm actually expecting the worst-cornball scenario of Brandish convincing Dimaria (is it Dimaria or Di Maria? Eh, doesn't matter) to defect upon fighting her, or maybe go the full nine yards and have Dimaria's will break before it even gets to a fight and she just gives up crying to Brandish.
What really makes it stick even more isn't that this is the typical Fairy Tail BS - it’s that they use the typical BS for their 500th chapter. If you can’t even bother to TRY for your most recent milestone, what chance do we have of it ever getting better, provided that hope even existed in the first place? As of this point, there is absolutely nothing out there that could convince me whatever turn the story takes won't be either boring, confusing, disappointing, aggravating or outright insulting to my intelligence.
So yeah... to make a long story short; Fuck. This. Series.
The thing is, the absence of permanent deaths is not detrimental to a story. Of course eliminating them entirely kind of blows away all suspense of fight scenes, but the fact is you can have a manga with minimal people dying because consequences will happen as a result of their actions. And likewise, injecting death in every chapter sometimes is detrimental to a story's worth. I can point out a lot of comics (Infinite/Final Crisis from DC, and Ultimate Marvel's later stories are a great example) where people die all the time 'to be edgy' and it's shit, but man, at least it's not this regurgitated crap.
ReplyDeleteThat really grates me, honestly, where characters just have power ups just because. If it's Natsu it's actually somewhat believable, he's got dragon/demon stuff going on inside him that allows him to pull power-ups and shrug of powerful attacks just because. It's like how Naruto and Sasuke can get random power ups out of the author's ass, because the fact that they have the whole 'vessel of a powerful demon fox', 'most powerful brother-tragedy magic eyeball powers that is constantly evolving' and 'reincarnations of two powerful sages' thing going on, so them getting constantly (and stupidly) increasing power ups actually is somewhat sensible, if not entertaining. Here? It's neither entertaining nor does it makes sense.
Does anyone really think that the corruption from the Slayer magic will actually corrupt anyone? Gray will go "I will kill Natsu because I'm a demon now" for one or two chapters, and then the next chapter he will break free because of course, he's a main character. Sneak in a we-are-fairy-tail line that takes up two pages, a long friendship speech copy-pasted from one of the earlier ones, and Lucy crying in a couple of panels, and we have a month's worth of chapters. Consistency? Suspense? Bah, it's clear that the author's pandering to five-year-olds that are entertained by intelligence-insulting reruns.
DiMaria has boobs, so of course she'll defect. Hiro Mashima loves drawing balloon boobs for his big colourful splash pages. Practically every single female character other than Ikaruga and Kyouka have defected to the side of good, with Minerva being the shittiest excuse of a faction change ever found in any form of fiction.
Well, I never said they were detrimental to a story - just that they are if, like you said, the consequences near-instantly get annulled as if the whole thing were nothing. I can't recall the last time there was a death, false/revoked or otherwise, that had any meaningful emotional or plot-relevant impact since Jellal at the Tower of Heaven (Koyuka's death doesn't count because the dragons blow Face up anyway, so in my opinion the whole fight with her was pointless either way).
ReplyDeleteWell, like I said, the times it worked was when Natsu's "eat elements" mechanic was actually used - eating Etherion to beat Jellal, eating Laxus' lightning to fight Hades, stuff like that. They could have done that with Gray - at least then, like you said, they'd be adhering to a general mechanic established in the series' lore - and it makes it painful because I think it could have been fixed pretty damn easily. But it's like they don't even bother to keep continuity like that in check, or that they just don't care.
IDK - I'd think even little kids would get board or desensitized if you show them absolutely nothing new. I honestly don't know how this series lasted 500 chapters on nothing but shameless fanservice and people who are too loyal to what it started as - and I refuse to believe it's because of the story. And after that retarded caveman omake, I think it's more that the author just wants to draw pinup-books and has dialouge only because he has to pretend this is still a story with a plot.
Not saying that you said it... it's just one of the things that Fairy Tail fanatics quickly like to immediately jump to "ohhh you guys just want stories that are filled with death blood gore and rape" which, no, that's not what automatically makes a story mature or good. So many other shonens out there tell perfectly good, tense stories while limiting the death toll to just the Old Mentor or the odd villain that gets sucked into a vortex or whatever without a graphic death. Dragon Ball, One Piece, My Hero Academia, pre-Shippuden Naruto, hell, even early Fairy Tail are great examples of mangas that tell great stories while keeping the death toll basically nonexistent.
ReplyDeleteJellal's death was emotional? Sorry, I really felt more about Simon during the Tower of Heaven arc. Jellal was a huuuuge ass in the Tower of Heaven arc and I was rooting for him to die. But that was definitely plot-relevant. As for Kyouka... none of the Tartaros demons (all of them technically died, right, other than little mushroom Franmalth) really felt like their death was permanent. And while they were a ton more interesting than the Spriggan 12, as far as being actual characters... they were pretty bland and one-note. Silver, I guess? But that whole thing reeks of disappointment because I wanted a 'Deliora-wearing-Silver's-body' fight that was teased instead of the sappy "DADDY NOOO" "GRAY NOOO" "JUVIA MUST MAKE GREAT SACRIFICE TO KILL THE NECROMANCER" fight that we got... which, by the way, was still miles and miles better than the Invel bullshit we just got.
Igneel's death? That was the most anticlimactic way that you could've handled the mystery of the dragons, and the fact that Igneel himself has honestly been more of a plot device, the mysterious dragon daddy, and not an actual character that we would actually feel sad if he died (like, say, Makarov)... yeah. That was another one I didn't really care about, especially since the only real impact that should've been done, having it impact Natsu in some way, make him more mature, more determined, less of a 'blow shit up and damn the consequences' moron... doesn't stick and he goes back to being a brainless buffoon in the very next chatper.
I think a good chunk of Fairy Tail's success lies with the anime, really, which was handled quite well and is still around the Tartaros arc or whatever. And apparently they changed a fair amount of stuff, adding in a Gajeel flashback story with one of the dead councilpeople -- which was AWESOME, by the way -- and giving Laxus an actual dramatic fight scene with Tempesta where he's battling his illness instead of going 'by the way Tempesta just gets one-shot while Gray makes his way to the main cast' which is dumb. So Fairy Tail is a manga that's lived long past its prime, supported with a dedicated anime staff that knows how to spice things up to make things feel less dumb by changing the source material.