[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by MechR

Not necessarily. GH could've just left the island after collecting Zeref. Hades did say he was feeling a bit sentimental, so that's an easy plot excuse for him to spare them. At worst only Makarov might die, since he had raised a bunch of death flags already.

We still had Zancrow walking around, and Bluenote was fighting Gildartz. And they were still looking for Zeref. Remember also, that Acnologia would eventually show up. A weakened FT (that couldn't even move!) would have been wiped out. And if Acnologia had shown up on the island and started killing FT people off, Mashima would have had to whip out an even bigger asspull to save them, causing even more people to complain about it.

Remember, the tree being up meant FT couldn't actually die on the island (except for Erza, whom Azuma had still allowed the tree to link to her. That was all that was keeping Makarov and some of the other injured people alive, too, and they were put in danger when it went down. The link had to be restored, Azuma defeated, in order for several people to survive.

I like Erza, but am often frustrated with Mashima.

Oh, there are things about FT I don't like, or wish had been done differently, too. But that's merely personal taste, and not really issues with FT itself. I also realize no series will completely please me, since no series is specifically written for me.

I would argue she's basically never lost a "fair" fight outside of filler (Dan Straight ). She was low on gas against Jose and Gerard, and outnumbered against the Oracion Seis.

She was arguably low on gas vs. Aria, too, but took him out relatively quickly.

I thought I knew better when Kagura came around. I was actually looking forward to Erza's comeback so we could have a spectacular fight ending in her victory, but then it ended in one slash! Not only did it make no sense after Kagura's Round 1 showing, it was a complete anticlimax! Every time I lower my standards, Mashima finds a new low!

Eh, Erza was already shown to be quite strong *before* the time skip and power up. And she defeated a horde of monsters, including one that a wizard Saint should have had trouble against. So, in a sense, Kagura was going up against a wizard saint+. Outcome was predictable, the only unknown factor was whether Erza would let her feelings of guilt get in the way, or whether she'd "play dead" to get Minvera to show back up. Kagura's only showing was vs. a Celestial Spirit Mage, and those have never been shown as being very strong.

I actually think Mashima did a great job here, building up Kagura as a strong threat, or at least hinting that way to throw the readers off the trail. That built us up enough to think she'd be on par with Erza, but when you look at it realistically, we were hoodwinked. Her "strength" was simply mostly talk. I even bet Natsu or Gray could have taken her out easily enough.

I hate to be "that guy", but Oda killed off Ace, and his manga is Japan's bestseller, moving nearly as many volumes as #2-5 combined. At #3 on the list, Naruto has also failed majorly at least once, when Sasuke left Konoha. That's two shounen with significant defeats that outsell Fairy Tail (and everything else). What's the monetary incentive for pulling punches, again?

I can't speak to Ace, as I only watched a little of One Piece. But it's not unheard of for secondaries to die. I think even DBZ had some secondaries die(for real and not get wished back, though I could be wrong. So many people died there, heh). As far as Sasuke goes, there wasn't enough on the line. I actually felt the buildup to that being a bit of a crap, since it wasn't like Sasuke was dying; he was just leaving. Things being on the line, meaning if the "bad guy" wins, main characters die, or something horrible happens. By putting much less on the line (Sasuke leaving), you can open the door for main characters to be defeated. Bringing back "Dead" people is also something shonen does. I wouldn't be too surprised if Ace came back (Lisanna did).

One corollary to this, is that you can start allowing people to die in the final story (since you won't need them anymore). Both Naruto and Bleach are doing this. But a secondary or tertiary character death can serve to propel a main character forward.

[quote[That reminds me, Madoka's still in my backlog Unless you mean a different Madoka.[/quote]

Nope, same Madoka. I won't go into it here, because it's not a Madoka thread and will make fanboys rage. But if you want to know the "cheap" tactics (imo), I can tell you in a pm or something.

Speaking of Luxus, Erza's eye didn't see through Master Ivan's illusion either. And she had plenty of time to stare disbelievingly at that one. I had forgotten about this until today's episode.

Back when the manga reached this point, I was looking forward to how Erza would respond, since the chapter (286) actually avoided showing her reaction the entire time, and she was still hurt from Pandemonium. But it never came up, and then Luxus wiped RT out in seconds, along with all their hard-earned villain potential. If they couldn't do jack after SEVEN YEARS of prep, I'm not sure how they'll ever be a credible threat again

Yeah, in the manga, the illusion didn't last that long, so it was conceivable that Erza didn't get enough time to wonder about it and focus on it. The anime tends to drag things out, though, so the anime director probably didn't realize what he was doing by dragging the Laxus fight out. He could have easily contained the entire Laxus fight to the most recent episode, making it quick enough that Erza's eye wouldn't have become a factor.