[Krono]

Originally Posted by MechR

Even in Round 1, not many enemies can wreck Erza that badly. But again, my main complaint was how quickly Round 2 ended. I loved Erza one-shotting Aria since they hadn't fought before and she was still building her rep at the time, but her Kagura comeback really needed another chapter or so to deliver on the fight buildup, preferably with Erza pushing her limits to close the physical gap.

Round 1 was when Kagura and Erza were fighting before Minerva showed up. They were dead even. Round 2 started with Kagura pissed at Erza for calling Millianna a friend while sheltering Jellal. As such she stomped Erza, with Erza likely not being helped by worrying about Millianna, wondering what was up with Kagura and Jellal, and dividing her power between defense and offense. Erza clearing her mind, and switching to offense only was Round 3.

Re: Natsu soloing DF Sting and Rogue, that was sooo weird, and a big part of the post-timeskip powerlevel mess. Considering pre-powerup Natsu was struggling with Max, it would mean Second Origin was a frickin' huge powerup. That's unfortunate, since Second Origin was a really lame plot device that they basically got for free. The other problem is Erza got the same powerup, but Kagura still mopped the floor with her. (Unless Gray was right about Erza already having Second Origin, which would make her the only one who got double-screwed by the double-timeskip... But that's not a confirmed thing.)

Erza getting the power up but being even with Kagura isn't really a problem. The easy answer is that Kagura was simply that much more powerful than Sting and Rogue.

Originally Posted by mtgowns

The Second Origin thing was really poorly done, it's essentially an excuse to make up for an unintentional practical joke (Virgo taking the crew to the Celestial World). I think it would've been a lot better if they did some really unconventional training to justify their power increase.

If they hadn't gotten Second Origin, they wouldn't have gotten some unconventional training. Mashima would have just avoided the time in the Celestial Spirit world being that long, and they just would have gotten three months of the boring conventional training we saw them starting on.

Originally Posted by Kaijo

Then again, people have complained about standard shonen trappings. Training and getting much, much stronger is very shonen. Mashima made us all think that's what he was going to do, and then totally subverted it with an instant power-up.

Yeah, that's the funny thing about Second Origin. All it really does is replaced a training montage ending with the words "three months later" with a different but equal power up that lets Mashima poke some fun at Dragonball's Room of Space and Time (aka Hyperbolic Time Chamber) in the process of setting up the need for Second Origin. Second Origin also pretty much explains why some Wizards are far more powerful than others at the same age - through circumstance or genetics, they've already awakened the additional container. Yet despite replacing one boring means of power up, with an equal one that at least explained why some Wizards were powerhouses at a young age, people complain incessantly about it because it wasn't "training".