Erza Scarlet

Erza Scarlet is a S-class mage of the Fairy Tail Guild, the strongest still active female, and one of the main female protagonists in Team Natsu.

Appearance
Erza, is a tall, beautiful girl with long red hair, and brown eyes. She is almost always wearing an armored suit, made by Heart Kreuz. However, thanks to her requip magic, she can wear many magic armors, and can even requip swim suits, and clothes for recreational purposes. Her member stamp is on her left shoulder.

Personality
Erza is a very strict person, often criticizing the bad behavior and habits of the other guild members, causing most them to apologize for fear that they might invoke her wrath. She is also impatient, liking people who answer her questions quickly as seen when she promptly knocks out anyone who doesn't answer her questions (despite them not knowing anything). Also, Erza has a problem where she apparently sees everyone as guild members (best seen when she asks civilians to take things places during a mission). However, she has a great sense of justice. Despite being a very strict person, she seems to have a klutzy side to her as seen during the Galuna arc when she fell into a pit hole.

Like most Fairy Tail members, she shows great loyalty and dedication to Makarov and the guild. She pushed herself past her limit in the war against the Phantom Lord Guild, fighting against it's many powerful members. She also became the temporary leader when Makarov had to be treated when his magic was scattered.

Although it hasn't been fully explored, it is implied that Natsu Dragneel, Erza, and Gray Fullbuster are all very close to each other. While staying over at Lucy's house, Erza revealed that the three of them used to take showers together. It is later revealed that Erza, Natsu, and Gray have all been part of Fairy Tail ever since they were children. Erza seems to be an "older sister" to Natsu and Gray.

History
Erza used to be a child slave where she was forced to help build a tower called the R-system. Over time Erza made friends with other slaves, among them was Gérard. When she and the other slaves tried to rebel, the evil magicians overwhelmed the slaves, but it was then when Erza's magic awakens and kills them all, setting them free from slavery. She went to find Gérard Fernandes one of her closest friends at that time who had been taken to the punishment house, but only to find that he has been strongly influenced by a spirit named Zeref and became evil and is no longer the Gérard that he once was. He later sends an unconcious Erza away across the ocean and took back all the other slaves to built the R-system once again.

After Erza escapes from the island of slaves, she tries to find Fairy Tail. She had heard about Fairy Tail from an old man named Rob, another slave that was forced to work on the R-system, he also cared for her like a grandpa. When she finally found Fairy Tail she was taken in as a member, and immediately developed a habit to wear armour, as it made her feel safe. It was around that time when Makarov took her to Porlyusica to get a artificial eye to replace her right eye that had became blind because of an injury.

Lullaby arc
Erza returns to the guild, only to force Natsu and Gray to help her stop the Eisenwald Guild whose leader, "Shinigami" Erigor, was planning to use the Lullaby, the "Magic of Death", to murder all the guild masters.

While on the train, prompting Natsu's motion sickness, Erza quickly knocks him out to "ease his pain". However, Erza leaves Natsu on the train and she promtly beats Natsu for not knowing anything despite she knocking out beforehand. Erza, Natsu and Gray, along with Lucy Heartfilia and Happy, arrive to the Oshibana train station, she send Natsu and Gray to catch Erigor, meanwhile, she fights with a lot of subordinates of the "Shinigami".

After this, Erigor locks them inside the train station with his wind spell and escapes to complete his plan, but Erza finds that Kageyama can dispel magic so she and Gray go to find him. However, Kageyama is stabbed in the back by his own team to protect the plan and Erza rushes to save him. However, Erza learns of Lucy's Virgo key and with it, they escape. Erza drives a magic four wheeler to find Natsu stop Erigor near of his destination and he had already defeated him. Erza then leads everyone to find as he makes off with Lullaby to kill the Guild Masters. But she arrives with the others as Makarov convinces Kageyama to end his desperate game. She becomes quite pleased with Makarov after this but she becomes freaked when she finds that Lullaby moves on its own.

Erza quickly springs into action with Natsu and Gray and together the three make quick work of the demon flute in a destructive fashion. However, Erza and the other destroyed the Guild House during the battle prompting Makarov to tell them to run for it.

Galuna Island arc
After Natsu, Lucy and Gray went to Galuna Island, Erza goes after them to stop them and return them to Fairy Tail. She was sent after them because they went on an S-Class mission which was too much for those three (plus Happy) to handle. Erza arrives and saves Lucy from Sherry and she detains Lucy and Happy for their crimes against the guild. She shows her stern side as she states to Gray that she doesn't care what happens on the island. However, much to her and Lucy's surprise, Gray berates her honor and sense of justice which she doesn't take too kindly to as she puts a sword to his throat telling him he won't break the rules without getting punished. Surprisingly, Gray slices his hand on her sword telling her this is the path he chooses and she can kill him if she wants.

Shocked that someone actually stood up to her, Erza has a slight change of heart and she decides to punish them after they finish of the mission. She tries to stop the revival ritual of Deliora, but doesn't make it in time, however, Deliora was already dead.

She is the one to figured out the secret of the villagers, and uses the Giant's Armor to throw the Evil Crushing Spear to the moon with the help of Natsu. With this, they destroy a layer created by the Moon Drip, revealing that all the villagers, were originally monsters. She then leads the team off the island reminding them that despite finishing the mission (and refuseing payment except for a key) she happily reminds them that their all going to get punished.

Phantom Lord arc
Erza and the others, returns from Galuna Island only to find that the guild had been attacked by Phantom Lord. After the assault of Fairy Tail to Phantom Lord, and the sucker punch defeat of Makarov by Aria, Erza takes the role of leader of the guild alongside Mirajane and Cana Alberona while feeling responsible for what happened to the master.

When the walking guild of Phantom Lord attacks Fairy Tail with its magical cannon "Jupiter", she stops the first shot with her Adamantine Armor, but loses consciousness and doesn't take part in the first battles against the Element 4, but later, she easily defeats Aria, the last of this group, when Natsu was being beaten by him. As she collapses, she orders Natsu to go forth as his power is far greater than her's and he can beat either Jose Porla and Gajeel Redfox.

After she rests a minute she fights with Jose, the master of Phantom Lord, alongside Gray and Elfman but they are soundly defeated. After Natsu beats Gajeel, she reminds Jose that he lost the war because he didn't calculate Natsu's destructivness into his plans. Erza then berates Jose's reasons for attacking Fairy Tail and reveals the truth about Lucy to him. He then angrily defeats her, not before earning some praise, and is saved by a recovered Makarov whom finally finished Jose with his Fairy Law.

As she helped rebuild the guild, it appeared that after Gray's rebation of her she lightened up and declared to the guild that Team Natsu was offical earning the most powerful team a round of appaulse.

Loke arc
Erza was sent to help a theater in trouble, it is here she revealed her love for theater. She signs the others up in a play to help the owner where she spent a long time and effort practicing. During the play, it is revealed she also gets stage fright and that she gets too deep into her character as she cut Lucy's clothes up on stage.

Tower of Paradise arc
Erza was one of the members invited by Lucy to go with her to an expensive resort. While at the hotel, she finds herself kidnapped by her old comrades, Simon, Shou, Wally Buchanen and Miriana. She is then taken to the Tower of Paradise by Gérard's orders. Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Happy and Juvia Loxar go to the Tower to get her back and they find her unharmed. However, they learn that they can't escape because they need to defeat Gérard and the assassination Skull Order Guild's Trinity Raven before Gérard activates the tower that will cause the Council to release the Aetherion that will kill many people.

They have a limited amount of time to defeat Trinity Raven before the Aetherion would be released and though they managed to defeat the Trinity Raven, Erza could not defeat Gérard. As she is about to be killed, one of her old comrades, Simon protects her and dies in the process. Inspired by Simon's words and actions, Natsu decides to fight Gérard for Erza. Natsu manages to defeat Gérard by consuming pure Aetherion from the R-Tower itself, but passed out shortly afterwards, but the Aetherion has already been activated. To prevent it from exploding, Erza decides to sacrifice herself to stop everyone else from dying, but she then has a vision of how even if she sacrifices herself, it won't make anyone happy, and that she has to live for sake of having a happier future with everyone. She then wakes up far away from the tower being carried by Natsu. It is later brought up that Gérard could have allowed Erza and Natsu to escape because he cared about Erza and didn't want her to die and that he was the one that stopped the Aetherion. After that Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Erza throw a farewell bash, wishing Shou, Miriana, and Wally well as they departed finally free and living their own lives.

Fighting Festival arc
Erza came back to the Guild to see it rebuilt and in great condition; but her happiness was interrupted when she found that Gajeel Redfox had joined Fairy Tail. She voiced her concerns with Makarov but as he gave her his confidence, she petitioned to have Gajeel watched.

Later, when a reporter came to Fairy Tail to interview members, she wore a new version of her Heart Kreuz Armor. She suprised everyone when she wanted to be interviewed, but after she was done she went to Heart Kreuz to voice her concerns about her new armor.

During the festival, Erza competed for the title of "Miss Fairy Tail", exquiping into a beautiful dress in front of everyone and stated that victory was hers. But she was turned to stone along with all the other Miss Fairy Tail contestants by Evergreen. Later, Natsu and Gajeel tried to turn her back to normal with Natsu using his flame, thinking that it will release her from the stone. However she does get revived, because her artificial eye halves the effect of Evergreen's magic and she promptly beats the two of them. She soon realizes that even Mystogan has arrived to fight Laxus Dreyar to help save the Guild. She then goes to town to find Laxus but encounters Evergreen instead. She threatens Evergreen to release the other girls, but Evergreen is more interested in claiming the title of "Titania" for herself instead. As Erza pins her against a wall, Evergreen reveals her she'll kill the girls if Erza doesn't strip to degrade herself. However, Erza counters that by exquiping into her "Heavens Wheel Armor" and threatens to kill her Evergreen herself if she doesn't revive the girls and thus Evergreen concedes and the girls are released.

After her fight with Evergreen, both Erza and Natsu finds Laxus and Mystogan already fighting in the Cathedral, and she has a shock when she witnesses the true face of Mystogan whichis exactly like Gérard's face. She recovers from the surprise though and prepares to attack Laxus with her Lightning Emperor Armor, but later decides to trust Natsu to stop Laxus and goes to destroy the Hall of Thunder instead to protect everyone in town. With the help of Warren Rackow she communicates with all her comrades, and they help her to destroy the Hall of Thunder's spheres. In the end, she manages take out 200 spheres which are the majority of them.

As the festival continues after the whole incident, Erza is seen performing with her swords during the Fantasia Parade while Mystogan watches her.

Oración Seis arc
Erza begins trying to find out about Mystogan, however, she realized Makarov knows nothing about him. Stumped, Erza wondered about Mystogan's relationship to Gérard and why they both had the same exact face.

Later, Erza and her team begin to go a mission to hunt a mage hunter but she becomes surprised when she hears Lucy is going to fight a Dark Guild. They meet up with the Blue Pegasus Guild delegates and (much to the girls' charing) are met with the delegates' effeminacy and come ons. As all the delegates get together, Erza follows Natsu and Gray as they run to find the Oración Seis.

As the Oración Seis find them, Erza battles Cobra in a new armor, however she is bitten by his snake and she suffers from the extreme poison. As Lucy gives her her belt to strap on her arm, she begs Reitei Lyon to cut her poisoned arm off. However, Charle explains to her that Wendy Marvell can help her, as her magic allows her to heal the injured. As the others leave to rescue Wendy, Lucy and Hibiki Laytis stay behind to take care of her. After Natsu arrives with Wendy, she treats Erza and removes the poison. When the others notice the pillar of black light in the sky, Natsu says Gérard is there and rushes forward. In the ensuing confusion, Erza slips away, intending to head towards the pillar too.

Because the others are impeded in fights against the Oración Seis, Erza manages to reach Gérard first, although she is unsure of how to act towards him. To her surprise, she discovers that he has become amnesiac, and is only able to remember her name. As Erza explains who he is and what he did to his comrades, Gérard broke down in tears upon learning what kind of person he is. Suddenly, Cobra appears and attempts to take Nirvana but Gérard reveals that he put a self destruction magic around Nirvana to destroy it. However, apparently he also put the spell on himself so he could end his life and free Erza from the pain he has caused her and her comrades. She doesn't take this too kindly running up to him, grabbing him and demanding that he cancel the spell and live. Moments later, Brain appears revealing that he taught Gérard the self-destruction magic himself and easily cancels it before activating the second stage of Nirvana. Erza and Gérard are caught in Nirvana's eruption skywards, Erza barely hanging onto an edge in one hand and Gérard in the other. She pulls them up, saying that he should live on to see the future as Fairy Tail do with their connection of "hope". However, she takes time out of her speech to question Lucy, alongside Gray, why she and Natsu are wearing matching clothes.

Later, Midnight appears before her and quickly defeats Gérard revealing his reflector magic to her. She tries her best to fight him, but all her attacks are reflected and her armor became reflected to confine her. As Midnight tortures Gérard with the truth of his deeds, Erza reassures that she believes that there is still goodness in Gérard and she requips to a new armor and readies herself for round two against Midnight. She gets slashes at Midnight but her attack gets reflected. She then punches him, sending him flying. She claims he has two weaknesses. She reveals that he can't reflect someones body and he starts to strangle her with her armor. She then says that his second weakness is that he can't reflect objects in more than one area. He looks above and sees that she sends multiple swords flying down into at him, pinning him to the ground. However, Erza's armor is an elastic robe, and she is able to overcome his twisting power. Midnight says that at midnight his refracting gets to his peak as he transforms into a giant monster. He creates a giant explosion and stabs Gérard and Erza. He is then succesfully slashed and defeated by Erza as she reveals his transformation was all just an illusion.

Afterwards, she manages to get into contact with the others through Hibiki's telepathy, only to learn that Nirvana is controlled by six different Lacrima Crystals. She is then seen standing in front of the fifth Lacrima waiting for the appointed time to arrive to destroy it. After the Natsu's victory over Zero, the rest of the mages including Erza manage to destroy all six Lacrima Crystals and the Nirvana collapses. Everyone is seen rejoicing as they are reunited when the New Magic Council shows up to arrest Hot-eye and Gerard for their past criminal acts. As Gérard willingly gives himself up to the council, Rahal warns him that this will probaly be the last time he ever sees them again, for he will either be given a life or death sentence. Suddenly an angered Natsu starts to fight against the council trying to bring Gérard back for Erza's sake, and that Gérard is already "one of us". This causes every other mage to fight for Gérard as well, except for Erza who could only tremble in anger and watch the chaos. The council is then ordered to capture everyone else, when Erza decides to stop the commotion once in for all and lets the Council take Gérard away. Gérard looks back at her in relief, but not before he mentions her scarlet hair which implies that he remembers the time he chose her last name Scarlet. They say their final farewells and as Gérard is taken away, everyone can only look on sadly. Erza is later shown alone crying for the loss her friend as she remembers when she and Gérard were together as kids.

She is then seen comforting Wendy as Cait Shelter is revealed to be just a mere illusion, and invites her back to Fairy Tail.

Magic & Abilities
Erza is the strongest female member of Fairy Tail and one of the only five S-Class mages of the guild. Thanks to this strength, she had been considered for Makarov to be the next Master, but he said that Erza was too young and strict. Erza is a strong sword fighter and uses her armors to power up her weapons or to help her to get the upper hand in a fight.

Requip aka "The Knight"
Erza uses Requip, a type of magic that swaps weapons and armor at will. Her certain Requip is called, "The Knight" (ザ・ナイト Za Naito). She is noted for her ability to exquip quickly and is the only sword mage capable of exquipping armor while fighting, earning her the nickname "Erza the Titania", and is well known in the continent, not only in the city of Magnolia. Her strength is so great that even strong mages such as Natsu and Gray fear her; this fear immediately ceases their bickering in her presence. Happy said that Erza's magic is beautiful because it causes a huge amount of blood to spill from her opponents. Not only this, but she has also been stated to have potential to be amongst one of the Ten Wizard Saints.

Armor Types

 * Heart Kreuz Armor: This is Erza's normal, casual armor, which is custom made. Her sword is also made by Heart Kreuz.


 * Heavens Wheel Armor: This armor Erza uses to face multiple opponents. Erza becomes surrounded by many swords which can be thrown at her opponents. This form first appears in the Lullaby arc and one of her most seen armors when useing her requip magic. Destroyed by Midnight.
 * Tenrin Blumenblatt: While in her Heavens Wheels Armor, Erza will run up to her opponent and slice him with both of her swords, and strike the enemy with the swords hovering around her all at the same time. This was used to defeat Aria of the element 4.
 * Tenrin Circle Sword: While in her Heavens Wheels Armor, Erza puts the swords hovering around her in a circled formation and sends it spinning at the opponent. The power behind this move was never seen as the swords were quickly destroyed by Ikaruga.


 * Black Wing Armor: This armor increases the destructive power in Erza's attacks. In this form, she only uses one sword and grows wings, like a bat. This form first appears when fighting the demon of the flute.


 * Flame Emperor's Armor: This flame resistant armor lowers the destructive power of flame attacks by 50%. In this form, she has no armor on her shoulders and more on her limbs, the boots closely resembles dragon feet. This form first appears during her brief duel against Natsu.


 * The Giant's Armor: In this armor, Erza is able to increase the strength of her throwing power. First shown in Galuna Island arc to send a spear flying to "destroy" the moon.


 * Adamintine Armor: This armor is the ultimate, high-level defensive stance. In this form, Erza is able to withstand the magic fired by the Phantom Lord's cannon, Jupiter.


 * Purgatory Armor: Erza most powerful armor, according to her "None has seen this armor and lived to tell the tale, witness it and despair." The full power was never seen, as it was quickly destroyed by Ikaruga.


 * Lightning Emperor Armor: This armor lowers the attack damage of all thunder attacks aimed at Erza. Laxus stated that it wasn't enough to stand his thunder magic; however, the single attack aimed at Erza did no damage to her.


 * Unnamed Armor: An unknown armor with unknown abilities that Erza used to fight Cobra. It has leopard pelts that cover her chest, a shoulder guard and a cloth from her waist down. There are also a pair of leopard ears on her head.


 * Robe of Yuen: An armor that is a beautiful kimono equipped with a bisento. This armor gives Erza a giant boost in her speed and physical strength. According to Erza it has elastic properties thus being unaffected by Midnight's Reflector magic.

Currently, the maximum number of swords she can wield simultaneously is around 200, as shown when she tried to destroy Laxus' Hall of Thunder balls.

It is unknown at this time if any of her destroyed armors have been restored.

Fake Eye
While fighting when she was a prisoner building the tower of paradise her right eye got injured and she became blind in the right eye. When she joined Fairy Tail Makarov took her to see Porlyusica and she created an artificial eye, though when she made it Erza couldn't cry out of it (after the Tower of Paradise arc she can). The artificial eye can absorb magic that effects Erza's eye. During the Fighting Festival, it absorbed Evergreen's stone eyes and broke the spell and when she closed her left eye she was able to look into Ever's eye without being effected. During the Oración Seis arc, her right eye could see that Midnight was creating an illusion.

Trivia

 * She likes using her Requip not only to equip armor but to dress herself up as well. Also, she seems to love taking huge amounts of luggage with her when she travels, though this is aparently because she is limited to how much equipment she can store with requip, and the large amount of luggage is most likely for backup equipment.
 * She is also great at gambling, which is reminiscent of Elie from Rave Master, who was also a gambling master.
 * Currently, Erza is the most popular girl in the series.
 * She was named after Mashima's short story character "Eru".
 * According to Erza's dream tombstone, she was born in the year 765
 * It is painfully obvious that Erza doesn't wear a bra, according to the "Fairy Academy" omake, she doesn't know what a bra is. Also, her fasination with lingerie is further explored as she marveled at Lucy's "sexy panties".
 * Erza makes a cameo appearance in the game Sunday VS Magazine: Shuuketsu! Choujou Daikessen!, along with Gray, Makarov, and Happy.
 * Her nickname, Titania, was said to be the Queen of the Fairies in medieval folklore. Likely owing to her status as strongest female member of Fairy Tail. Evergreen wanted this title for herself.
 * In the omake Welcome to Fairy Hills, Levy revealed that Erza likes to read novels that are a bit inappropriate.
 * Erza has stated she has over one hundred different armour suits utalised by her Requip.
 * It's been recently revealed that it was Gérard who gave Erza her last name, because of the color of her hair.
 * According to Volume 16 Limited Edition: Sorceror Interview, the best quality of Fairy Tail according to Erza is that it represents Justice. Her future dream is to make Fairy Tail infamous across the world. She has a good relationship with Natsu, Lucy, Happy, and Gray. The most difficult job that she has taken is facing 100 knights alone, nearly tiring her out.
 * During a Q&A, a reader asked who was the lead female chacter in Fairy Tail. Erza emmidately considered herself as such but Hiro Mashima said people can draw their own conclusions.