Fairy Tail 541 Review: A Montage of Monatges

Fairy Tail, Chapter 541: Magic of Hope

God, what an inane title we have for this chapter.

Here we go with my weekly anger therapy!

Also, hey, Tartaros! An arc filled with disappointment, the last few decent villains in the series taken out in increasingly moronic ways, Because She's Erza, Happy Afro Suicide Bombs, the stupid-ass Gray-Papa fakeouts and the shittiest heel-face-turn for Minerva. Yeah, this is where the series went from 'it's dwindling' to 'shit'.

Anyway, the chapter starts off with yet another 'hey let's have a close up of every single character' page, which is a recurring bad habit of this manga. Because it needs actual content to fill up this chapter, after all. Wendy and Gajeel prove that they are one-trick ponies and do the exact same thing they have been doing since they show up -- wouldn't it kill them to go into Dragon Force and Steel Iron Shadow Dragon whatever thing that powers them up and made them cool for a single chapter? No? We're going to stick with fuckin' Iron Dragon Sword which we've seen ad nauseum? Okay. Acnologia takes out Sting, Rogue, Cobra and even Laxus in basically two panels. The first three, after all, are completely shit, ineffective morons, so hopefully they stay down so the actual characters with actual power can finish the fight. Acnologia gives absolutely inane lines like "I am the strongest dragon in the world obviously". What a stupid scene.

Also, God Serena, a.k.a. strongest mage in all of the world of the ten wizard saints with the power of six dragons in him or whatever gets defeated by Acnologia with a single poke. Some shitty-ass punk like Cobra who barely even counts as a dragon slayer survives being tossed around? Truly, this manga is the pinnacle of sensible power levels. 

We have even more inane lines that are literally repeating the same discussion from last chapter, though at least we're discussing how every single character there is useless -- they're either utter morons, or their magic will be ineffective. Also, a bit obvious that it's just going to go on yet another 'close up of every single character' thing going on, most obviously after Lucy asks her question. Did the reaction panels from Erza, Gray, Happy, Makarov and the random Z-listers that necessary? Maybe they're surprised Lucy has anything useful to contribute, but she's been running on deus ex machina powers for the past twenty or so chapters.

Lucy wants to make Acnologia have that vehicle sickness thing and tells them to get Acnologia on a boat. (Also, we just had Acnologia fight a boat and it was ridiculous as fuck) Which would be a monumentally stupid plan because why in the hell would a dragon willingly land on a boat... but then Acnologia is a moron, and Lucy is an equally stupid moron, so yeah, why not? Let's make Acnologia sea-sick. That's a lot, lot more insipid than Naruto using the Harem no Jutsu during the final battle -- that's a spur-of-the-moment thing meant to distract due to how ridiculous this is. This is Lucy legitimately thinking that it's a brilliant plan and everyone going 'aaah I see'. No wonder that dumb-shit Mavis is considered a tactician, everyone else is simply so much dumber!

Meanwhile Lucy asks Levy and Fried to go to the library to look for 'that' magic. Of course. it's the Magic of Bonds. They're going to literally weaponize friendship to defeat Acnologia. What the fuck? Stupid as shit, man. Is it foreshadowed? Kinda-sorta, doesn't make it any less stupid when you lead into the reveal that it's the 'magic of bonds' and show the flashback of them holding hands. Also, only Fairy Tail members really matter -- I'm not sure why guys like Angel and Rufus are even around for. Lucy even tells them to 'gather as many Fairy Tail members'. Not able-bodied mages, not our allies.

Did we need seven and a half pages to go "hey, Fairy Sphere was effective that one time, let's use it again"? Yeah, no. But then this isn't a good manga by any stretch.

Also, also, why did no one think of using Fairy Sphere when they fought the Spriggans? Their whole point was to protect Mavis, right? Yep, idiots. The three great magics ended up being utterly pointless, yeah? Fairy Glitter only exists to have Cana shoot it around and have it be tanked by every villain she faces off against, everyone forgot about Fairy Sphere until this chapter, and Fairy Law kills you off when you use it except when it doesn't because this manga pays no heed about consistency or continuity. 

Also, what bullshit is it that swords and magic cannot defeat a dragon? What bullcrap, Erza beat a dragon literally ten chapters ago with a broken arm and a sword. Though I guess it's Acnologia specifically? Would help me remember that he's a magic-eating dragon if, y'know, he's ever shown actually eating magic beyond the hideously ambiguous 'devoured the ravines of time' goobledeygonk we got last chapter.

Also, also, "we have to try" is such a bullshit piece of dialogue to treat as a badass end-the-conversation one-liner. Without resorting to the obvious Yoda quote, having to try just means that you have no fucking plan what to do and that you're an idiot who's trying to force something to happen because of the power of determination and that doesn't ever work in real life or in good fiction or in decent fiction. But this is Fairy Tail, where a punch when you remember that you have friends trumps ultra-powerful magic of space time and fancy butterfly wings. So.

Acnologia continues to rant about how he's going to "I WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!" "DESTRUCTION, THAT IS ALL!" and bullshit like that which makes motherfucking Kaguya or Juhabach sound eloquent in comparison -- at least their villain monologues look like they're not written by a three-year-old writing a fanfiction. 

Oh, hey, one entire-page-panel of Natsu being angry and saying some dumbass shit he says in every fight. That's even worse than Acnologia's lines or the seven and a half roundtable montage. Next chapter I bet he'll punch Acnologia really, really hard after thinking about his friends really, really hard, and it's going to be hilarious. 

Doranbolt transports Gray and Juvia where they ask Lyon and the others for a boat. Let's acknowledge that Lyon, by the way, gives absolutely no shit about what's going on and is holding a beer mug and having a picnic. Good job, Lyon! New favourite character. Also, Juvia, shut your face hole up. You've been doing the same ridiculous one-note gimmick of 'kyaaaa gray-sama' for 500-odd chapters. Jeez fuck, you have absolutely no depth to you and every single time the author tries to give you something or other you completely revert to being a one-note kyaaaaa madly in love archetype, until there's literally nothing about what made you somewhat interesting originally (sad backstory, being an actual powerhouse, etc) left beyond a single one-note joke, making the whole point of her existence is to go kyaaa gray-sama. Fuck right off, Juvia. 

We then get yet another montage of characters reacting to Acnologia, including such important characters like Lisanna (a.k.a. girl who 'came back to life' and ended up literally doing absolutely nothing afterwards), Midnight (a.k.a. dude in drag who never, ever wins a fight ever in his life) and Minerva (a.k.a. psycho bitch whose evil past no one ever acknowledges because she feels bad about it so everything bad she has ever done is forgiven instantly and anyone who disagrees gets punched by Sting), because that is so necessary. It's not like any of you minor good-aligned characters are going to die, the manga doesn't have the balls to kill a minor non-entity like Chelia, all of you are safe! 

Also a montage of the search for the tome with Fairy Sphere. Because of course you only bring five people with you, Lucy, despite all your talk about how this is of paramount importance. And Makarov, like the piece of geriartic shit that he is, does nothing but sit on a pile of books like a boss. Fuck right off too, Makarov, you're even worse than Juvia.

Yeah. This is a filler chapter, through and through. Props for remembering the Fairy Sphere plot hole exists for the anti-magic dragon. Man, if the manga isn't devoid of content anymore, we get this served-up hodgepodge of stupid-ass scenes that are either a repetition of last chapter's scenes, or a stretched-out conversation that should've taken like two panels to do. What a stupid mess this is.