User blog comment:Ncduru/Top 5 Favorite Arcs/@comment-5268982-20150906103910

Let's see:

1. Tenrou Island: Where do I even begin. The interactions between all of Fairy Tail, and finally seeing them working as a guild against an unknown threat? Hades and his Grimoire Heart, the most threatening and powerful (imo) enemies ever encountered, plus some of the most well written ones? Cana finally having her own backstory? Gildarts in action? ZEREF? The amazing fights? Mavis? ACNOLOGIA? This arc had everything. Bonus for Natsu not winning any fight by himself.

2. Tower of Heaven: One of the darkest and most epic arcs. We all knew by now that Erza must have gone through a hell of a lot to turn out the way she did, and we finally saw exactly what that was. The mystery of Siegrain/Jellal was solved. We got a really nice friendship between Lucy and Juvia and I loved Juvia's characterization in this arc not being all about Gray. Btw Gray saving Natsu's ass was nice, as was Natsu eating Etherion; one of the few times I found him epic. The reason it's not No.1 is because the villains outside of Jellal were weak both in personality and in powers, save for Ikaruga, who I really enjoyed.

3. Fighting Festival arc: It was nice that for once the enemy was someone inside Fairy Tail. Juvia's characterization is still great as we see her sacrificing herself, unwilling to fight Cana who she now thinks of as a friend. We were also introduced to the Dragon Slayer mystery, with Natsu and Gajeel unable to pass through the runes. Lucy beat Bickslow who actually beat Gray, which I also loved. AND MIRA, HOW CAN SOMEONE NOT MENTION THE AWESOMENESS MIRAJANE STRAUSS WAS IN THIS! I also liked that we saw how various guild members reacted to having to fight one another, and later how each and every one of them contributed in saving the town by destroying the Lacrimas. Natsu and Gajeel teaming up was nice. Only downside to this: Laxus. His sudden 180 turn after his defeat was... weak. He was prepared to destroy an entire city if he didn't get his way after all.

4. Oracion Seis arc: Alliance between guilds, epic fights, URANOMETRIA, Jellal returns, we're introduced to Wendy and a second Exceed. However, Master Zero sucks as a villain, but thankfully the sub-villains are better. I also think this arc drained longer that it should have.

5. Tartaros arc/Grand Magic Games arc: Those had the potential to skyrocket straight to #1. Hell, up until the end of part 1, GMG arc was my favorite. However, the turnout with the tournament itself, the way FT won their matches or even the Dragon Invasion were really weak. It was also very confusing, since it decided to involve time travel. It did have some nice fights and Ultear sacrificing herself was epic, but after Chapter 297 it slowly ruined itself. As for Tartaros, I liked Mirajane, Lucy and Wendy's part in it, but there were many disappointments, like Minerva's treatment, Erza's impenetrable plot armor, and how badly written most of the enemies were. It had a nice ending though, setting up each character arc separately for growth.