Fairy Tail II: Second Generation Thread Slayers

[Kato]

...huh, I hadn't realized that.

Huh... yeah, me neither. Couldn't you have pointed that out earlier, Soras? It would have saved some confusion

True. Such a shame, really.

Well, they are still "rare" what with there being no more dragons...
But I don't think there was ever a claim to DS being particularly powerful, was there? Just that you can't just become one by random...
Though, this brings me again to the matter that we never learn how mages pick their powers or whether they are born with them or whatever... Or how you make a God Slayer.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Meh, Slayers aren't that impressive any more. They used to be really rare, rare enough that experiments were performed to create fake ones. Now there's a load of Dragon Slayers and God Slayers and nobody seems any stronger than ordinary Mages, with the only time actually being a Dragon Slayer mattered was when all those dragons showed up.

Well the Dragon Slayers I'll give a pass since there's evidence that's all going somewhere.

The others now... yeah its rather past the point of diminishing returns.

Huh... yeah, me neither. Couldn't you have pointed that out earlier, Soras? It would have saved some confusion

I thought you all knew...

[Kato]

I thought you all knew...

Nah. I - and I think at least Zodiac as well - were quite a bit confused and no one corrected us

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Well... I'm not going to say its evidence but I feel the new chapter hints quite strongly at time travel. For better or worse

Erza gets more tortured, Elfman is mind controlled into blowing up FT... Lisanna and Natsu try not to make out... and Zero kills Jellal. Now that last one actually kind of blows my mind. Unless someone has a good idea how he'll get out of that...

[LaZodiac]

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Silver's comment MIGHT not mean he's Future Grey, he might just know who Natsu is.

Zero totally just killed Jelal with the Special Beam Cannon

Also, it goes without saying, but Erza's scene is REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE.

[Kato]

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Okay but who leaves this us with? Zero at least sounds like it's more than "it's that dragon slayer from the tournament" and more like "it's someone I know" though part of that might be my imagination...

Huh? Wasn't that spiral-y? But yeah, the whole in the chest is very reminiscent... but he can still talk. With half a lung...

At least it was much shorter than the others

[lord_khaine]

Well.. this chapter is really starting to shape up now, Natsu seems tied up for the moment, perhaps even going to need a resque, while Elfman has been turned into a suicide bomb.

The tension is beginning to come back a bit, and it is beginning to look a bit more like Silver might be a timetraveler.

[chainer1216]

wow, that really WAS the special beam cannon.

[LaZodiac]

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Okay but who leaves this us with? Zero at least sounds like it's more than "it's that dragon slayer from the tournament" and more like "it's someone I know" though part of that might be my imagination...

Huh? Wasn't that spiral-y? But yeah, the whole in the chest is very reminiscent... but he can still talk. With half a lung...

At least it was much shorter than the others

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If we assume Silver is Grey's father, we can assume he'd be following his exploits in the news and stuff, and see how Natsu constantly shows him up at every opportunity. He could just also hate him in general.

It is spiraly. Look at Zero's blast, it's nigh identical. Zero's just hugs the main beam more.

It's an anime, and it's Jelal or all people, talking without his lungs isn't the most surprising thing.

[Cen]

New chapter

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first half - I honestly have no idea how Jelal survived and what was his trick.
second half - ex chairman was an idiot...

[LaZodiac]

**** this manga so hard.

[Kato]

**** this manga so hard.

Yeah.... Or maybe rather: Eff Hiro... With tentacles and pain increasing magic

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What, that was like... the cheapest trick he could pull. Admittedly, no, I didn't see it coming. Doesn't mean it wasn't bad. For goodness sake...

Also, as Cen said: Ex-chairman is an idiot. Wait, "was".

And now please kill all the fairies and be done with it.

[Cen]

soo... what exactly was his trick? I'm reading it fifth time and I still don't get it...

[Kato]

soo... what exactly was his trick? I'm reading it fifth time and I still don't get it...

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It wasn't precisely his trick... But Midnight's magic causes illusions/nightmares and what we saw actually was Midnight's illusion, not reality. Jellal realized that and gouged his eyes out ( ) because Midnight's magic is vision based and thus he could free himself. When he put up his attack magic... meh. Superamazingmagicspeed?

[Olinser]

This 'plot twist' of sudden death surprises no one.

[Anteros]

So I have a question. I stopped reading during the recent tournament arc, because it seemed like the quality had dropped and no one could ever challenge the protagonists. I also got tired of protagonists winning every single fight because of the "power of emotion".

I was thinking about picking the manga up again and wanted to know if you guys think the quality has gone back up since then or if the same problems persist.

[Kato]

So I have a question. I stopped reading during the recent tournament arc, because it seemed like the quality had dropped and no one could ever challenge the protagonists. I also got tired of protagonists winning every single fight because of the "power of emotion".

I was thinking about picking the manga up again and wanted to know if you guys think the quality has gone back up since then or if the same problems persist.

...
Well, the timing is kind of bad... The last chapter was pretty horrible, apparently there's quite a consensus on that.
In general... yeah, there have been a few situations where the Fairies were in a tight spot. But I think you will have to realize this is a Shounen, they will always come out on top and yes, most of the time it will be by power of emotion power boost. That's just the rule of their universe.

So, while I'm not quite sure what would get you back interested... I'm still entertained but there really isn't much change to the general tone, except for some rather dark stuff recently.

[Fiery Diamond]

So I have a question. I stopped reading during the recent tournament arc, because it seemed like the quality had dropped and no one could ever challenge the protagonists. I also got tired of protagonists winning every single fight because of the "power of emotion".

I was thinking about picking the manga up again and wanted to know if you guys think the quality has gone back up since then or if the same problems persist.

The quality has plummeted. It has ... different ... problems now. (this is not a hentai, Mr. Writer)

Apart from some badass moments in the tournament + dragons arc, I really think the series stopped being the excellent quality that made it my favorite after the Island arc finished.

[lord_khaine]

Well.. actually i think it has somewhat begun to shape up again in the last arc, the faries has actually suffered some meaningfull setbacks, and Natsu has gotten smacked around a bit.

[Areswargod139]

Well.. actually i think it has somewhat begun to shape up again in the last arc, the faries has actually suffered some meaningfull setbacks, and Natsu has gotten smacked around a bit.

I'll agree with you and add a bit more as well--I think we're beginning to see the real pecking order form. We've got mages, next up demons, dragons, agnologia or whatever it was, and finally Zeref. Natsu is weaker than the guild ace Gildartz, who was defeated by a dragon. Natsu did pretty well against some dragons thanks to having dragon slaying magic. It was super-effective!

He tries to fight against a demon of whom he has no special advantage, so he's fighting at that just below an guild ace level of expertise (he did get a bit of a boost before the tourney but still...) of course he gets curbstomped. And I'm happy the author's did it that way. Like his artistic counterpart Luffy, his friends were beginning to rely on him too much. I hope this arc will be a chance for others in the guild to try and level up a bit fighting some major baddies and let Natsu and Erza play on the sidelines for once. We haven't seen the rank and file guild members fight since waaaay back with Juan.

[lord_khaine]

Well.. things are maybe not that clear cut in the power ranking, because we have Laxus who casually stomped a demon like it were a mook, and Silver who apperently frozen an entire village and its dragon.

[Infernally Clay]

Well.. actually i think it has somewhat begun to shape up again in the last arc, the faries has actually suffered some meaningfull setbacks, and Natsu has gotten smacked around a bit.

Don't worry, nakama power will balance the scales.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I'm curious where all the complainers here are under the impression that FT was ever terribly good?

Tenrou Island and....?

Not to mention that particular arc ended with dueling deus ex machina class plot devices and the most contrived timeskip I've yet seen. Among other things.

[LaZodiac]

I'm curious where all the complainers here are under the impression that FT was ever terribly good?

Tenrou Island and....?

Not to mention that particular arc ended with dueling deus ex machina class plot devices and the most contrived timeskip I've yet seen. Among other things.

For that one/two chapters where Natsu tried to fight Gildartz and got his ass handed to him on a silver platter. That's when Fairy Tail was good.

[Fiery Diamond]

Well.. actually i think it has somewhat begun to shape up again in the last arc, the faries has actually suffered some meaningfull setbacks, and Natsu has gotten smacked around a bit.

Did you even notice my white text? You know, one of the primary reasons I think the manga quality has plummeted? Maybe I should have been more obvious and not put "(this is not a hentai, Mr. Writer)" in white text.

Seriously, we had some pretty bad fanservice before, but the current arc is just disgusting.

I'm curious where all the complainers here are under the impression that FT was ever terribly good?

Tenrou Island and....?

Not to mention that particular arc ended with dueling deus ex machina class plot devices and the most contrived timeskip I've yet seen. Among other things.

Timeskip, I'll grant you. That is, in fact, the point at which I feel the quality started to rapidly drop. Dueling DEMs is not, in fact, a bad thing, however. It's actually fairly interesting. DEM is only a bad thing when it comes out of nowhere AND invalidates the situation. The Dragon of the Apocalypse did not come out of nowhere, and has a set place in the setting. Fairy Circle didn't come out of nowhere, either: it was pretty obvious that we'd see the third Fairy magic at some point, and probably sooner rather than later. And while Cana isn't actually that great with Fairy Glitter, conceptually, both of the first two Fairy Magics were conceptually "plot device" level of power. Both Dragon and Circle ran afoul of the second aspect, but in interesting ways: Dragon was "nope, you lose" and Circle was "can't touch this." It was, in fact, unstoppable force meets immovable object. Which is not at all a "bad" thing from my perspective.

Secondly, don't hate on FT. Fairy Tail is one of the best long-running shounen manga there is, and for a long time was topping the list as my favorite manga. There are, no doubt, plenty of manga in different genres with different targeted demographics that are better done. But I like "power of emotion and FRIENDSHIP!" magic fighting stories. Plot and character-wise, FT is actually very good for that genre. Compare to Naruto, which was my introduction to anime and manga back when I was in high school (I think it was in 2005 that I discovered it). Both series have fifteen million characters, but which one actually has interesting characters with more character development than "NEW POWERS" and "ANGST"? Both series feature a primary team of a small handful of people, but which one actually has likeable female characters? Both have multiple story arcs, but which one actually has stories that make some semblance of sense instead of being convoluted out the wazoo (and no, time travel does not automatically make things convoluted - but the issues with time travel weren't introduced until after the series' downturn anyway, which helps my point about it being a downturn)? And so on.

[LaZodiac]

*comparing Fairy Tail to Naruto*

...I'll be honest. I'm not a big fan of Fairy Tail.

But you just convinced me that yeah, Fairy Tail's alright.

[Anteros]

...
Well, the timing is kind of bad... The last chapter was pretty horrible, apparently there's quite a consensus on that.
In general... yeah, there have been a few situations where the Fairies were in a tight spot. But I think you will have to realize this is a Shounen, they will always come out on top and yes, most of the time it will be by power of emotion power boost. That's just the rule of their universe.

So, while I'm not quite sure what would get you back interested... I'm still entertained but there really isn't much change to the general tone, except for some rather dark stuff recently.

I don't generally mind shounen. I enjoyed other big Shounens like Bleach or Dragon Ball, although I couldn't get into Naruto or One Piece. I used to enjoy Fairy Tail as well.

It's not the "power of emotion" power up that bothers me in itself so much as the fact that the author was using it as a crutch to have characters power up for fights they shouldn't be winning every single time, for every single character with no other explanation. The point where Gray beat Rufus was where I eventually put the manga down.

You guys have talked me out of picking it back up for now. I may be back here in a few months to ask again though.

Also, I apologize if someone made a point I didn't respond to. I'm trying to skim each post very lightly to avoid spoilers in case I do decide to ever read this again.

[Forum Explorer]

Did you even notice my white text? You know, one of the primary reasons I think the manga quality has plummeted? Maybe I should have been more obvious and not put "(this is not a hentai, Mr. Writer)" in white text.

Seriously, we had some pretty bad fanservice before, but the current arc is just disgusting.



Timeskip, I'll grant you. That is, in fact, the point at which I feel the quality started to rapidly drop. Dueling DEMs is not, in fact, a bad thing, however. It's actually fairly interesting. DEM is only a bad thing when it comes out of nowhere AND invalidates the situation. The Dragon of the Apocalypse did not come out of nowhere, and has a set place in the setting. Fairy Circle didn't come out of nowhere, either: it was pretty obvious that we'd see the third Fairy magic at some point, and probably sooner rather than later. And while Cana isn't actually that great with Fairy Glitter, conceptually, both of the first two Fairy Magics were conceptually "plot device" level of power. Both Dragon and Circle ran afoul of the second aspect, but in interesting ways: Dragon was "nope, you lose" and Circle was "can't touch this." It was, in fact, unstoppable force meets immovable object. Which is not at all a "bad" thing from my perspective.

Secondly, don't hate on FT. Fairy Tail is one of the best long-running shounen manga there is, and for a long time was topping the list as my favorite manga. There are, no doubt, plenty of manga in different genres with different targeted demographics that are better done. But I like "power of emotion and FRIENDSHIP!" magic fighting stories. Plot and character-wise, FT is actually very good for that genre. Compare to Naruto, which was my introduction to anime and manga back when I was in high school (I think it was in 2005 that I discovered it). Both series have fifteen million characters, but which one actually has interesting characters with more character development than "NEW POWERS" and "ANGST"? Both series feature a primary team of a small handful of people, but which one actually has likeable female characters? Both have multiple story arcs, but which one actually has stories that make some semblance of sense instead of being convoluted out the wazoo (and no, time travel does not automatically make things convoluted - but the issues with time travel weren't introduced until after the series' downturn anyway, which helps my point about it being a downturn)? And so on.

You must always suspect white text will be missed. In other words, don't put anything in white text that's important to understanding your post. Not sure if that's this situation, but it's a good general policy.



You know what I think you'd like? Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

Particularly ViVid which takes place after the end of the main series. The series on a whole has an absolute minimal amount of angst and is generally amazing.

[Fiery Diamond]

You must always suspect white text will be missed. In other words, don't put anything in white text that's important to understanding your post. Not sure if that's this situation, but it's a good general policy.

Yeah, that really was completely my fault.

You know what I think you'd like? Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

Particularly ViVid which takes place after the end of the main series. The series on a whole has an absolute minimal amount of angst and is generally amazing.

I may have to check this out.

...I'll be honest. I'm not a big fan of Fairy Tail.

But you just convinced me that yeah, Fairy Tail's alright.

Glad to be of service.

[Kato]

I'm curious where all the complainers here are under the impression that FT was ever terribly good?

While I don't hate it by now (well, except that last chapter - really, this is going to go down as one of the worst chapters in the manga's history - I quite liked it when it started. Or maybe better "liked it most when it started". While Tenryou Island was okay I can't really say it was my favorite part ever or anything.


re: FT vs Naruto: Kishi's writing really went down over time while I feel FT's stayed more... balanced. Yeah, there were bad parts but none were as bad as Naruto's worst. On the other hand, when Naruto is good, it can be really good. But... yeah, Kishimoto can't write a decent female character if his life depends on it

[lord_khaine]

Did you even notice my white text? You know, one of the primary reasons I think the manga quality has plummeted? Maybe I should have been more obvious and not put "(this is not a hentai, Mr. Writer)" in white text.

Seriously, we had some pretty bad fanservice before, but the current arc is just disgusting.

Well.. having now finally seen the hidden message then i guess i will comment on it as well..
Because as long as the fanservice is actually placed as a believeable part of the story, then i give a flying duck about it, besides commenting on that it is at least partly equal.

It's not the "power of emotion" power up that bothers me in itself so much as the fact that the author was using it as a crutch to have characters power up for fights they shouldn't be winning every single time, for every single character with no other explanation. The point where Gray beat Rufus was where I eventually put the manga down.

You guys have talked me out of picking it back up for now. I may be back here in a few months to ask again though.

The you should actually considder picking it up instead, because those certainly also were the worst points of the serie imo, but i feel the current arc have taken it into consideration and toned it down greatly.