Fairy Tail - Character Discussion - Lucy

[Saint Kaiser Vivio]

The main problem for me with Lucy is that Stellar Wizard is just weaksauce its not Lucy's fault though even Yukino's Super Rare 13th spirit was nothing but cannon fodder for a Ezra level Kagura when it comes down to it Hiro Mashima's take on Summoning magic compared to other Media is just plain bad if she was a FF summoner she would be on pair with team Natsu simply because Summoning is one of the most powerful magics in that series don't help that she is constantly the character that is made to fail it feels like Lucy will never be close to being on the same level as the rest of her team and remain a weak female lead for as long as the series runs even Wendy has more chance of becoming on the same level as team Natsu simply because she's a Dragon Slayer even summoning versatility never really comes into play since she's never allowed to use the right spirits for the right job feels like Hiro should have just dropped the whole Stellar Wizard thing and made her a Celestial Dragon Slayer

[JiCi]

Can I say something that will probably generate a lot of hate from fans?

Spoiler for Personal opinion about a certain character:

Am I the only one who thinks that Lucy Heartfilia has become the 5th wheel of the group? Hear me out on this one:
- She’s always the backup wheel. She’s not as strong as Natsu, Gray, Erza or Wendy, thus never gets that involved in critical situations beside support.
- Her magic, while cool, is weak. She’s too depend on the keys, can’t borrow her spirits’ powers for herself and still didn’t get some sort of improvement over how many spirits she can summon at once. The most I’ve seen was 2 at a time. I would expect her to summon 6 spirits at the time at this point.
- She’s worthless without her keys. She doesn’t have any backup ability that would make her viable if magic is impossible to use. Her whip? Yeah… she doesn’t use it that often.
- The spirits themselves don’t seem to improve much, compared to the others’ magic.
- She gets captured WAY too many times. She’s like part backup wheel and part damsel in distress. Furthermore, Loke, who can cross the “portal” from the Celestial Realms, barely helps her in these situations.
- She doesn’t seem to even want to get stronger herself. It’s like she didn’t realize that she’s weak and needs to be better.
- I have nothing against Yukino, I really don't, but Lucy should have taken the 2 keys she was offering. She might never get a chance to see these spirits again too. Look, Lucy's respect for the spirits is admirable. However, at that point, she should have just realized that she might need all the help she could have gotten. How about simply borrowing the keys for the tournament and returning them to Yukino after?

Natsu, Grey, Erza, Wendy, Gajeel, Laxus, Juvia, Cana, Mirajane and even Elfman got their big moment of glory and power-up... Lucy? Nope, still needs a savior because she's not that good. Would it kill Mashima to bump Lucy's abilities to Natsu's level?

No offense to fans, but that's my honest opinion.

[Yorae_paladin1]

Seems Lucy suffers from character neglect. Mashima is not doing much with her other than t&a summoning is not weak form of magic fact is it should be the strongest they should give her the skill to summon without keys and many other things besides celestial spirits. Shes supposed to be the main yet is more like a supporting character

[JiCi]

Originally Posted by Yorae_paladin1

Seems Lucy suffers from character neglect. Mashima is not doing much with her other than t&a summoning is not weak form of magic fact is it should be the strongest they should give her the skill to summon without keys and many other things besides celestial spirits. Shes supposed to be the main yet is more like a supporting character

Yeah...
Yukino should have just gave her keys to Lucy for the rest of the tournament, only at the end, to tell her to keep them. Maybe that would have boosted her power to a more suitable level.

[FlareKnight]

Lucy really does suffer from character neglect at times. Even if you consider weaknesses of summoning magic, the rules themselves are ignored at times in order to make her a punching bag.

I mean what should it have mattered that Lucy's keys were taken during that beating by Minerva? When the story wants the spirits just comes out on their own to help out and when it doesn't they don't. Should have been plenty possible for Loke to show up to help her or Horologium to take her in to protect her.

Lucy's an attractive character, but not a powerhouse physically. So she's left to get beaten as a cheap sympathy move. In the anime the last few fights she's been in have mostly involved her getting painfully beaten up without really getting to turn the tables.

If it was desired she could get plenty stronger. Not really needing the keys or learning something from Erza so she could store the keys and pull them out as needed. Could even up the amount she can use at once. Though to really bring up her power might need to boost the spirits abilities themselves.

Just feel sympathy for Lucy's character right now. She could be used a lot better than she is. Can be more than a punching bag that makes you angry at the villain of the arc. I like her personality and just hope things go better for her down the road.

[JiCi]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Just feel sympathy for Lucy's character right now. She could be used a lot better than she is. Can be more than a punching bag that makes you angry at the villain of the arc. I like her personality and just hope things go better for her down the road.

The thing is that I am getting fed up with characters who have the potential to be strong yet are always negated. It keeps happening with Lucy, it keeps happening with Nami from One Piece, it keeps happening with Orihime in Bleach, it kept happening with Meg in Burst Angel (basically, she was mostly shown with guns in pictures, posters and the intro, but was mostly relegated as damsel in distress).

I have no issues with young female characters in anime, as long as they're not seen as useless junk most of the time.

Beside, I can hate a villain for other reasons than beating someone else up. For being a powerful rival, a stealthy burglar, a zealous peon... but rarely for being a big jerk.

[CBredbeard]

If you Lucy fans are interested, Narutoforums.com is conducting it's 2nd annual beauty contest for all the female characters of the series. Lucy is down 10 votes against Kagura with less than an hour to go before the poll closes.

She won last year so it'd be a darn shame for her to be eliminated in the first round against a nobody.

[Casshern]

It's not Lucy's role to be a powerhouse. She's the main comic relief, the majority of fanservice, she's the one single character who drives the plot forward more than anyone else, she's the narrator of the story and her instincts, knowledge and research play a big part whenever decisions are made. Who is neglected?

As far as power is concerned, in the first place, Lucy's abilities are a little bit hax. Just Loke seems to be on Gray's level. Gemini can copy anyone's appearance, thoughts and abilities. All of her other spirits increase her versatility. When she fights her abilities are either dumbed down, or she fights a bad matchup, or the fight is comic relief, and with Flare she got cheated.

Apparently Mashima doesn't want her to be on Gray's level, which should be ok because there are already plenty of powerful characters and it would be monotonous if everyone just kicks ass. Not to mention that Lucy already had plenty of good fights. Just because she lost her fights in the grand magic games doesn't mean that she's neglected. Did everyone forget that in that arc she saved the world?

[Pinwheel10]

Ever since the Key of the Starry Heaven arc and the rest of the recent anime fillers, Lucy has dropped from being my favorite FT character to the most annoying one. I hate what the anime has done to her character. All the jokes that they put on her are either something where she gets harassed or something pervy. Or something that makes her look stupid (usually this has something to do with her Spirits, who are extremely stupid in the anime as well). It may have been funny for the first few repeats but it's not funny anymore. I for one think it's degrading her character big time. Her power levels are not even that astonishing, then they repeatedly put her in these degrading situations just for the sake of fan service. In the manga at least she gets to be bad ass in the latest arc, but that's a long time coming in the anime. I haven't watched the last 6 filler episodes though (episode 209-214), so I don't know if the anime gives her some justice further in the arc. At least give her a decent fight in the filler episodes, something where her Spirits be useful for once, and Lucy pulls through on her own.

[ImperialFlameGod8190]

Originally Posted by Pinwheel10

Ever since the Key of the Starry Heaven arc and the rest of the recent anime fillers, Lucy has dropped from being my favorite FT character to the most annoying one. I hate what the anime has done to her character. All the jokes that they put on her are either something where she gets harassed or something pervy. Or something that makes her look stupid (usually this has something to do with her Spirits, who are extremely stupid in the anime as well). It may have been funny for the first few repeats but it's not funny anymore. I for one think it's degrading her character big time. Her power levels are not even that astonishing, then they repeatedly put her in these degrading situations just for the sake of fan service. In the manga at least she gets to be bad ass in the latest arc, but that's a long time coming in the anime. I haven't watched the last 6 filler episodes though (episode 209-214), so I don't know if the anime gives her some justice further in the arc. At least give her a decent fight in the filler episodes, something where her Spirits be useful for once, and Lucy pulls through on her own.

Unfortunately Lucy has been the key to most of the jokes of the series pretty much since it began between Taurus the whole Natsu x Lucy thing in the anime the jokes about Loki the jokes about her rent she's always been the comedy she's never really been a powerhouse and the one moment u can argue she was (the battle with flare ended on an incredibly bad note)


The current filler arc is doing Lucy zero justice

[FlareKnight]

Lucy has had a rough time in the show that's for sure. Often turned into the punching bag that can be used to draw sympathy and hate towards the enemy of that arc. Even though she was often part of the comedy I could appreciate her efforts to improve and those moments when she did find a way to win. Some of those wins came down as much to the kindness in her heart as anything else, but she had those moment.

The last few arcs haven't been kind to her that's for sure. Pretty roughly knocked around against Grimoire Heart, brutally beaten twice in the tournament arc, and not having a great showing in this arc.

I'm crossing my fingers that future arcs will give her a break. There has to be other ways to make us hate the enemy other than having them beat Lucy up. Her ability to use multiple keys should be a way for her to grow, but only if they don't take the Flare route again.

[DOmus]

Originally Posted by ImperialFlameGod8190

The current filler arc is doing Lucy zero justice

At least Tartaros redeemed her...somehow

[ImperialFlameGod8190]

Originally Posted by DOmus

At least Tartaros redeemed her...somehow

how has it redeemed her cause i havent seen anything

[DOmus]

Originally Posted by ImperialFlameGod8190

how has it redeemed her cause i havent seen anything

At least she wasnt all that useless, with her calling the spirit king to let the other go out, and maybe (I hope), that with the new power of Aquarius she will be more able to fight. She did more that what she has been doing lately

[nawcelest]

First off people are being way to hard on Lucy. She has fought and won just as many if not more battles than Gray has.

Dear Krabby:Lucy defeated Duke Everdue
Gulana Island:Lucy defeated Sherry even at a huge disadvantage, and Gray defeated Lyon
PL: Gray defeated Juvia
TOH: Gray defeated Fukara, Lucy with Juvia defeated Hair Dude
FF:Lucy defeated Bicklow
OS:Lucy defeated Angel, Gray defeated Racer but Lyon was the one who really defeated him.
Edolas:Lucy defeated Byro with just a whip, Gray defeated Sugarboy
Tenrou Island:Loke defeated Zoldeo, Lucy with Natsu defeated Kain and Gray defeated Ultear.
GMG:Lucy defeated Usouke,Gray Defeated Rufus
Tartarous:Lucy defeated Jackal,Gray defeated Tempesta

Lucy has had her fair share of fights. She has fought 3 members of the Ballam alliance(Which are made up of the strongest dark Mages) already and won. Only time Lucy was used as a punching bag is during the PL arc and her fight against Minerva both times she didn't have her keys which is her magic and these were powerful opponents that even Natsu and Erza had a hard time against. When Natsu lost his magic in Edolas he was completely useless. Lucy shown in that same arc that even without her keys she could kick butt using a whip and she has done it in every arc since then. If you see Team Natsu fighting Foot soldiers you will all the other members using their respectful magics while Lucy uses her whip and she still keeps up with the rest.

Also people who say Lucy fell behind Wendy most be joking especially since Wendy didn't defeat an opponent on her own until the Second half of the GMG. Gray doesn't have any better feats than Lucy. Only people on team Natsu that have better feats than Lucy is Natsu and Erza. Only people i the guild are the S class mages(Mirajane is debatable) and Natsu. Also maybe Gajeel. All these people complaining about Lucy's strength needs to take several seats. She most be doing something right considering she was number 1 in the official popularity poll for Fairy tail. I swear this forum seems to only focus on the bad when it comes to Lucy, they don't even mention what she has accomplished.

[ImperialFlameGod8190]

Originally Posted by nawcelest

First off people are being way to hard on Lucy. She has fought and won just as many if not more battles than Gray has.

Dear Krabby:Lucy defeated Duke Everdue
Gulana Island:Lucy defeated Sherry even at a huge disadvantage, and Gray defeated Lyon
PL: Gray defeated Juvia
TOH: Gray defeated Fukara, Lucy with Juvia defeated Hair Dude
FF:Lucy defeated Bicklow
OS:Lucy defeated Angel, Gray defeated Racer but Lyon was the one who really defeated him.
Edolas:Lucy defeated Byro with just a whip, Gray defeated Sugarboy
Tenrou Island:Loke defeated Zoldeo, Lucy with Natsu defeated Kain and Gray defeated Ultear.
GMG:Lucy defeated Usouke,Gray Defeated Rufus
Tartarous:Lucy defeated Jackal,Gray defeated Tempesta

Lucy has had her fair share of fights. She has fought 3 members of the Ballam alliance(Which are made up of the strongest dark Mages) already and won. Only time Lucy was used as a punching bag is during the PL arc and her fight against Minerva both times she didn't have her keys which is her magic and these were powerful opponents that even Natsu and Erza had a hard time against. When Natsu lost his magic in Edolas he was completely useless. Lucy shown in that same arc that even without her keys she could kick butt using a whip and she has done it in every arc since then. If you see Team Natsu fighting Foot soldiers you will all the other members using their respectful magics while Lucy uses her whip and she still keeps up with the rest.

Also people who say Lucy fell behind Wendy most be joking especially since Wendy didn't defeat an opponent on her own until the Second half of the GMG. Gray doesn't have any better feats than Lucy. Only people on team Natsu that have better feats than Lucy is Natsu and Erza. Only people i the guild are the S class mages(Mirajane is debatable) and Natsu. Also maybe Gajeel. All these people complaining about Lucy's strength needs to take several seats. She most be doing something right considering she was number 1 in the official popularity poll for Fairy tail. I swear this forum seems to only focus on the bad when it comes to Lucy, they don't even mention what she has accomplished.

People focus on the bad with lucy because to be frank almost every one of her "wins" has an asterik attached.
To give a few examples the Duke and Sherry were tough but i think every other of the Top FT members could easily beat.
Loki helped against Bickslow.
Eve going nutso gave her the power to beat Angel
Bryo was strange but he's the weakest member of that group
Kain Hikaru lets face it Lucy may have landed the finishing blow but that was all Natsu.

For the most part lucy has beaten only the bottom of the barrel and struggled rather mightily against everybody else.
It seems like every single arc lucy is getting kidnapped or been a punching bag of some sort. Being the Main girl gives her some edge but her being a constant punching bag makes her lose a lot of points.

[Ultragunner]

I think sometimesmwe forgot the roles of characters.

Arguably, Natsu IS the main protagonist of Fairy Tails; however, the story is told from the perspective of Lucy. In contrast to Natsu, who is reckless, brash and an idiot but a fighting powerhouse (a typical shounen protagonist), Lucy is a down-to-earth and (supposedly) relateable character, she gives us a sense of how a "normal" person would go through when all the people around her are just outrageous - both physically and mentally

[Ansa]

I've largely thought this from early on but the most resent manga chapters have only confirmed to me that I'm correct. Despite Lucy joining later then a majority of the characters she is truly the heart of the guild, she embodies the goodness of the guild and how its more of a family then anything else as seen in the more resent chapters.... (major spoiler alert!!)

Spoiler for Latest Manga Chapters spoilers:

When FT disbands its largely her who can't let the guild go, she doesn't join another guild despite likely being able to go to many of FT's allies, instead she finds another job and uses all of her free time to keep track of where everyone has gone seeing that huge ass board just shows how much she cares for them all and is likely the only person who just clearly needs the guild more then the guild needs her but its clearly her in the end who will bring the guild back.

Honestly and this is just speculation on my part but I see the series ending with her becoming the eventual guild master and the ending showing how its still the embodiment of the family she always wanted but never had at home which is what makes her love the guild in the first place.

[nawcelest]

Originally Posted by ImperialFlameGod8190

People focus on the bad with lucy because to be frank almost every one of her "wins" has an asterik attached.
To give a few examples the Duke and Sherry were tough but i think every other of the Top FT members could easily beat.
Loki helped against Bickslow.
Eve going nutso gave her the power to beat Angel
Bryo was strange but he's the weakest member of that group
Kain Hikaru lets face it Lucy may have landed the finishing blow but that was all Natsu.

For the most part lucy has beaten only the bottom of the barrel and struggled rather mightily against everybody else.
It seems like every single arc lucy is getting kidnapped or been a punching bag of some sort. Being the Main girl gives her some edge but her being a constant punching bag makes her lose a lot of points.

Byro was never confirmed as the weakest of the Edolas generals. His Octupus form caused way more damage than edolas Sugarboy, heck even his bottle attacks packed a bigger punch than Edolas Sugar boy power. Only ones you can say he was weaker than was Edolas Erza in which Earthland Erza had a tough time with even with her magic, Patherlily Gajeel had a hard time with him even with his magic, and Robot dragon king fraust. Sugarboy was the weakest and had the worst feats of the generals and Maryhughes was slightly better than Byro.

When Loke summoned himself against Bicklow he was using Lucy's magical reserves and he is Lucy spirit so it was still 100% her win. Him being able to open his own gate was due to her power increase and him staying in the human world was due to Lucy's magic.

Happy and Brain helped take down Cobra. It was Brain who shot Cobra and took him down.
Gray and Lyon took down Racer without Lyon Gray wouldn't have been able to take down Racer. Even after Gray fired the arrow it didn't work and Lyon had to step in.
Yes Hikibi gave Lucy the spell but it was 100 her own magical power that cast it. At the end of the day only people who didn't need help defeating their enemy that arc was Erza and Jura. Even Natsu needed Help from Jellal to take down Zero.

If you are going to say Lucy fights has an asterik attached to them then so do Natsu's and Gray's. Most of Gray's opponents are not stronger than Lucy's. She was also only kidnapped twice once during the PL arc and once during the GMG. She was also only used as a punching bag against Minerva who Erza couldn't beat without her second origin and Kain before Natsu showed up in which Lucy didn't even use 2 of her strongest spirits. Also the time Gajeel used her as a punching bag in which she didn't have her magic and even Natsu with his magic had a hard time against Gajeel.

Lets take a look at her opponents and how she measured up to them:

Lucy>Duke Everdue. She was able to take Duke evedue out low difficulty with a whip and Cancer. The moment she got serious about taking Duke Everdue out he was out.
Lucy>Sherry: If sherry tried to use a an earth based doll Taurus was their to easily destroy it. Lucy was also physically stoner than Sherry and Smarter. The problem in this fight came with Sherry ability to use Doll play on her spirits in which she used Lucy's spirits against Lucy but Lucy quickly solved that problem. Overall power though Lucy was stronger.
Lucy>=Juvia: Yes during their first encounter Lucy didn't even summon a spirit and she had plenty of time to do it too. During their second fight during the TOH, the moment Lucy got serious and summoned Aquarius Juvia was thrown back. Aquarius also has better water feats than Juvia. Juvia has of yet match Aquarius very first feat and Aquarius feat against Sherry when it comes to controlling water. The third time they fought during the Naval battle even with Aquarius nerfed and her and Juvia being Equal Lucy could have easily summoned more spirits. Lucy was only using 1/3 of her power during the Naval battle.
Lucy>TOH Hair dude: Aquarius very first feat produced more water than Lucy and Juvia's unison raid and Cancer could have easily destroyed Dudes hair. Leo also is stronger than that dude.
Lucy>Bicklow:Loke was easily destroying Bicklow dolls, so was sagittarius and both were easily dodging his dolls attacks, until he used his ultimate move and even then Loke and Lucy still beat him.
Lucy>Angel:It was made clear by Angel herself that Leo was stronger than Aries and Aquarius was stronger than Scorpio and Taurus was stronger than Gemini transformed into Lucy holding Caleum. Lucy didn't even use her whip in this fight and the only spirit that was serious was Loke in which Angel performed a sneak attack to get rid of which was fine but Aquarius didn't attack because of a stupid reason and the same goes for Taurus he ran to Gemini with hearts in his eyes.
Lucy>Byro:She was obviously able to take down his octupus form with a whip and Virgo was easily able to deal with his human form. She also didn't use Gemini who could have easily transformed into Byro or anybody in edolas. Loke and Aquariusw asn't even used during the battle.
Lucy>Zoldeo:Loke clearly showed he could eat Zoldeo mid difficulty, only trouble he would have had is with Human raise in which he was able to counter.
Lucy>Kain: She didn't use Loke, Aquarius or Virgo during this battle which were her strongest spirits at the time. Aquarius feats outclasses Kain, so does Loke's.
Lucy>Flare:Aquarius,Leo,Capricorn,Virgo,Taurus,Can cer all these spirits outclass flare when it comes to feats.
Lucy>Usouke: Aquarius one shot him.
Lucy>Hunter dude: Lucy kick one shot him.
Lucy>=Jackal:Aquarius was able to be on equal footing with Jackal and Lucy was only using 1/3 of her power against him the other 2/3 were focused on 2 different enemies in which she was able to be on equal footing with.

It's not just abut overall strength in these fights though and I don't think that people understand that. I mean look at Sherry vs Lucy. Lucy was clearly stronger than Sherry but due to sherry's magic Lucy would be at a huge disadvantage making Sherry harder to beat. Sherry's magic restricted Lucy's magic but in brute strength head on Lucy would have thrashed Sherry. Then look at Lucy vs Bicklow his eye magic would have restricted their vision which was a plot hole considering during the Tenrou arc it was explained that Bicklow magic don't work on people who wear glasses and Loke wear glasses. In the end they still won but it was shown by brute strength Lucy's magic was way ahead of Bicklow's. Look at Lucy vs Angel Taurus and Aquarius was full of PIS they didn't even attack the enemy because they were so in love. In brute strength Lucy's spirits were stronger though. Also Lucy didn't even use her whip like she did in previous battles to fight along side her spirits. OOC for Lucy during that battle. Look at Lucy battle during the TOH arc the only spirit she summoned was Aquarius and that was after Juvia kept on attacking her. She could have summoned Cancer to either cut off dudes hair or Aquarius to deal with Juvia from the beginning but she waited until halfway into the fight. Look at Lucy during the Edolas arc I mean Gemini was enough he could have copied anybody from Edolas even Edolas Byro and Edolas knightwalker. Then you have Lucy vs Flare in which for some reason although Cancer was super effective she chose not to use him and then Flare was threatining Asuka. Then I bring you to the Tarous arc in which unlike other people Lucy had to fight 2 demons gates and Lamy at the same time when it took people like Erza, Gajeel and Natsu's full power to take down just 1 demon gate. Lucy had to divide her power up and her spirits still were able to perform well against their respectful opponents until Jackal and Torafusa switched.

My point being is that there is more to Lucy's battle that people leave out. People want to make it seem like Lucy was weaker than her opponents when most of the time that wasn't the case it was just due to certain circumstances like her spirits being controlled,PIS,CIS or her not being able to use her strongest spirits is why the battles play out the way they do. It takes Natsu his strongest power and sometimes even help to take down enemies but people complain about Lucy. People complain about Lucy's strength and role for no reason. Lucy is strong people just need to stop whinning about it.

[Krono]

Originally Posted by nawcelest

Then look at Lucy vs Bicklow his eye magic would have restricted their vision which was a plot hole considering during the Tenrou arc it was explained that Bicklow magic don't work on people who wear glasses and Loke wear glasses.

That's not a plot hole. That's a successful bluff.