[MechR]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

You've probably realized but... Fairy Tail is shonen. That means a few things: that the main character will usually face down the big bad of each arc and win. There are exceptions, but these are exceptions to the rule. That explains Natsu. That also explains why people like Erza win when the chips are down.

Keep in mind, that if Erza had lost against Azuma, then Fairy Tail was finished. Gildartz, and all the people he was protecting, would be dead now. Many others would have died. That would have turned Fairy Tail horribly tragic, and that's not what this series is like. It's shonen.

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.

Besides, if Natsu and co. survived an extended beating from Master Zero (Mr. "You're still alive, right? I can still see your bodies!!"), there's no reason they couldn't survive a less-thorough beating from GH.

As a side note, it's rare that you'll find a strong female fighter on the good guy side (part of the main cast). Most females, if they fight at all, are more like Lucy or Sakura (Naruto) or Rukia (Bleach). There, but kinda weak and no real focus (although Lucy does get more focus than Rukia or Sakura, one of the reasons I like FT over Bleach or Naruto). Because of that, I find it refreshing to find a tough female like Erza, who not only holds her own, but can beat the crap out of the main male protagonist when she wants to. You talk about wanting to see different things, and here you have Erza in front of you. I won't deny that some of your suggestions would have made things interesting; I just don't expect them from a shonen manga/anime.

Erza is a big part of why I like Fairy Tail.

In every series I watch, I have expectations, much like everyone else. There are always things I would have done differently, or things I would have liked, and things I didn't. But Fairy Tail, like everything else, isn't written just for me. So while I can accept someone's personal dislike of Erza, they'd have to recognize that it is just that: a personal dislike. Her character as is has no real problems, ie, she's written human enough.

I like Erza, but am often frustrated with Mashima.

But the claim of her always winning is outright false, as is the claim of her being perfect. Sure, claim you(not you specifically, but in general) don't like her, but there is no need to make things up to try and justify it. Doing so just hurts the argument.

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.

Midnight is arguable since she got back up, ready for business, in the same chapter she went down. That's less than a ten-count from a dramatic standpoint And then her comeback next chapter made sense. Contrast with Azuma, where all signs pointed to a defeat arc and readers had a week to get their hopes up, only to get slapped in the face with a literal power-of-friendship comeback.

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!

Especially when, in a shonen series, a character will win if there is something great on the line. That's just how shonen works (because the creator, artist, and company all want to make money).

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 myself disliked the blatant cheap tactics Madoka used, but I can recognize they did it to make money.

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

Sieg wasn't an illusion, so much as a part of Jellal. He got quite a bit of power back when he merged with the double he created. And Erza's eye isn't absolute (can you imagine the fan outrage if it was? It would be another way she is OP!). It seems to take awhile to work, and she has to be paying attention. She had no reason to suspect the Nirvit or Sieg of being false. Midnight's "attack" would have forced her to really ask herself what was going on, and look more closely at it. Kinda the way Laxus was forced to really question Mystogan's illusion attack.

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