User blog comment:MiraMajin/Now that FT is about to end.../@comment-4449950-20170526040317

For me it was midway through the GMG arc. I loved the Tenrou arc and I will argue that before that all of the FT arcs, even if not the most stellar of storytelling, were still entertaining and had some good ideas, flow, and fights. The thing with the GMG arc is that the start was rather exciting. We got to see the outcome of a time skip (before it was realised to be pretty pointless and just an excuse to show new guys because there were no consequences for Team Tenrou) and heaps of new characters and it was really quite fun. But then the entire conspiracy was revealed, the time travel BS started and nothing felt quite right. We got a major death fake-out with Gray, all the new characters we started to love went nowhere (Sting giving up, Bacchus being used as fodder, Kagura not doing anything, Ivan and his lot being shit and never coming back after their buildup). I won't say the entire arc was shit, but I believe GMG was where the cracks started to show: a majority of fights were won with deus ex machinas and weird power ups (compared to before where a majority at least made sense and weren't too BS), characters had unfinished narratives that fell apart, FT started getting the spotlight when they didn't deserve it, the cast grew so much that some were forgotten, and stories became so convoluted that it became apparent they weren't convoluted on purpose, but rather Mashima had no idea what he was doing/had changed his mind mid-arc too many times.

Now, if you ask me where I completely, 100% gave up thinking the series could repair itself, that'd be the Avatar arc, but looking back now, as I said, hints of the issues to come began imo in the GMG arc. However, there were just enough high points in both it and the Tartaros arc to mask this and allow the lows to be... put up with. By the time Avatar rolled in, the highs were very few and far between, if apparent at all.

Just my two cents. Everyone will be different ;)