Fairy Tail, Chapter 437: Magnolia
Because, really, other than the Zeref chapter which is very stand-alone, what the fuck did we get from this arc? Natsu got stronger so he can one-shot random villains that don't mean a thing and have close to no motivations? Lucy can use random equips that doesn't really make her any less of a joke? Carla can change into a human?
No one goes through any charater development, too! Natsu growing emotionally due to Igneel's death? Nope. Gray going through some character moments due to his father's death? Nope, the going-to-extremes bit is just an act. Lucy and Juvia respectively going through depression? Nope, they're respectively doing their single-joke personality routines by the next chapter. Did we get anything beyond generic 'oh look at how awesome Natsu is'? Nope. Again, Zeref chapter aside, we didn't even get backstory or any kind of worldbuilding that makes sense. We could've had this be this long arc and have some explanation behind Devil Slaying Magic or Dragon Slaying Magic or some shit like that. But no.
The big "Frosch dies in some vague dragon-related plot-relevant plot"? Totally chucked down the drain with a single panel joke of Gray going 'oh Frosch so kawaii'. Not that the manga has ever shown any sign of actually giving a fuck about following up on that plot thread until the recent Avatar chapters, but still.
Everything gets resetted into status quo. Wendy joins the guild that has her best friend, except not really. Gajeel and friends join the Council as these hunters, except not really. Gray turns evil, except not really. Gray and Juvia are living together, except not really. Hell, even physical changes -- Natsu's long hair, Sting being fat -- are all retconned out. So what was the fucking point?
No, before you argue, I don't want Fairy Tail to completely change, but what was the point of skipping a year, splitting the guild apart and then going through a long round of recruiting them all while one-shotting a bunch of filler, non-threatening villains in the way? It's filler, except instead of episodes made to fill up a season while the manga catches up to the anime, it's the manga just pumping out the most generic 'friendship is the awesome' plots to sell two extra tankobons.
And Fairy Tail wasn't always like that. Sure, friendship speeches and Natsu beating the main villain with a single powerful blow has always been a shonen thing, but usually in most arcs we get something new. We get villains that actually felt like a threat. We get backstories for some of the lesser characters -- Elfman and Mirajane being developed slowly across multiple arcs, Cana getting a surprising amount of backstory in the Tenrou Island arc, Lucy dealing with her father's death during the timeskip, Freed's little moment of guilt over brutalizing Lucy and Cana and allowing them to pass... but no.
I could go on at length about how utterly annoying the Tartaros arc was, but that at least had the feel of actually progressing something. About telling a story with villains that pose somewhat of a threat. Of some actual story being told without feeling like a goddamned waste of time. Because that's what this entire 'gather everyone' arc has been. You want to tell a story about Sabertooth or Lamia Scale or Gajeel or Gray or Juvia or Wendy? Then fucking tell a story about them, don't just do Shonen Manga Stock Plot #1 while transplanting the characters into those roles without giving them anything significant to do beyond generic friendship speeches and launching attacks. It's a goddamned waste of time.
This chapter goes through a flashback, another flashback and a ridiculous roll call of every single C-lister Fairy Tail member who isn't going to do jack shit in the manga like Nab and Alzack and Jet and Droy and whatever. And Gajeel rejoins the guild for no reason beyond status quo is god -- why would he? He's a jackass and was totally on a power trip last chapter. Add that to the list of shit that doesn't make sense.
Y'know, ever since Makarov randomly disbanded the guild for reasons. Why the fuck did everyone leave if the guild means so much to them? Why did they make such a big deal out of it? 'Everyone left', Lucy said. Why, if friendship was so precious to them? Why did they leave now, when seven years ago during the whole Tenrou Island shebang they didn't? Makes no sense. Beyond being the basis of a gigantic filler arc, I mean.
And you know what? Fairy Tail's got enough of filler arcs. It's got the anime's filler arcs, obviously -- the few I've watched having infinitely better quality than this Avatar bullshit, of course -- and it's got not one, not two, but four spin-offs. These kind of generic friendshippy stuff has already been covered ad nauseam in those spin-offs, but at least in Fairy Tail Zero or Ice Trail or Blue Mistral or whatever it's starring another character, it's telling a story of their past or some stuff like that. It's just bad storytelling and pacing all around.
Yeah I don't care anymore. So much for the Zeref-Acnologia fight. So much for Lumen Histoire or Fairy Tail's dark secrets or whatever. With this manga following up on the future Rogue prophecy (that admittedly I don't particularly care about) with a joke of a conclusion, I don't think any of them will be resolved satisfactorily. It's like, well, nothing, really, has been resolved satisfactorily.
I would say something along the lines of 'at least we got that over with', but at this point I just don't care anymore. Fairy Tail has ceased to be bad like the Tartaros arc or like Naruto's exhaustively long-winded Ten-Tails arc, or Bleach's general meandering about currently. It's bogged down to just regurgitating the same basic crap over and over again, and I don't really have faith that it's going to be any better over time.
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