User blog comment:Ncduru/Top 5 Favorite Arcs/@comment-3987368-20150907073053

May as well go for it...

#1

Tower of Heaven arc: I definitely think this is Fairy Tail's best-written arc, as well as my favorite. Erza's character development is great, in addition to seeing her do things we don't often see and doing them believably, like a captive escaping their captors on their own. The fights were short, but not bad and they allowed the characters to focus on their relationships with one another to push for victory. Gray's backstory with Erza was great and even Juvia's interaction with Lucy during the battle with Vidaldus was interesting. The arc isn't perfect by any means, though. The final battle between Natsu and Jellal is visually interesting to watch but it amounts to little more than Natsu being favored for the fight by Mashima by literally being forced to eat ground and get stronger as a result. Coupled with Jellal's injury being conveniently timed in order for Natsu to attack, this makes the fight not as well-done as it could have been but still just the start of the Natsu-centered fights and not as bad as those that came later. Still a solid arc overall with a good ending as Erza's friends depart to travel.

#2

Phantom Lord arc: The beginning comes just like the surprise that it should. Great methods by Gajeel to provoke Fairy Tail into retaliating and for a while, it goes their way. There's actually a sense of despair after the master and Erza are down and the other S-Class Mages aren't there. But the arc works by showing the rest of the guild that they can still work together and take down the threat to themselves and the city. Natsu vs. Gajeel was a great fight and thankfully did not involve god-modding anyone. It was just a situation advantage that helped Natsu beat Gajeel in the end. Gray vs. Juvia wasn't too bad either and I liked the anime's take on Elfman vs. Sol. The only things I didn't really like were how short Erza's fight with Aria and Makarov's fight with Jose were. Sure, the latter looked cool but it was still way to short to get fully invested in it and it could have been far more grand than it actually was. Still that's about it. The arc had a great ending too with Lucy standing up to her father and telling him she's going to live as she wants. Not everything needs to end immediately after the climactic battle.

#3

Galuna Island: In my opinion, Gray had the best-written backstory. I loved seeing him get angry and seek revenge for the ones he lost. His disobedience when he went to fight Deliora was what sold it for me. As to the main arc, I liked Lyon as a villain, seeing him fight Gray with the same magic but in a different style was great and their final battle was really interesting. Even his battle with Natsu was fun, as well as Natsu's with Zalty, Yuka and Toby (not that Toby was a real challenge). For me, the main let-downs were the questions hanging in the air regarding the mission. How did some tiny village of demons with no discernible economy come into money such that they could pay 7m jewels. Not to mention how they obtained the Sagittarius key. Who sent the request? How was nobody aware of this island beforehand if it had any economy? The other main let-down was how easily Lyon let everything go. Sure, he saw Deliora crumble but he seemed to accept Gray a bit too easily after that. No left-over rage? No significant shock or disbelief? Nope, none, he just wanted to consider joining a guild a very short while later. He does well as an ally later on in the series, but his transition isn't very well-done.

#4

Battle of Fairy Tail arc: This used to be my favorite arc in the series, and volume 15 was the first one I ever purchased. I thought Erza's fight against Evergreen was good and Mirajane's fight against Freed was even better. Freed showing up afterwards at the Cathedral was a great touch too, since we saw his hesitation earlier on in the arc and it makes sense that he'd return. The unity of the guild shown here was great and the anime even does a 1-up by having Lucy convince everyone to hold their animosity aside in order to save the town. For why this arc fell down my list was a couple factors. For one, seeing Fairy Tail Mages fight against either was good in concept, but the problem was that the ones who could really fight an interesting fight were all inside the building while most of the intra-guild fighting was either fodder vs. fodder or Raijinshuu vs. fodder, barring Gray and Elfman, whose fights were incredibly short. As I've thought about it though, I've come to realize that what I dislike most about this arc is Laxus himself. Sure, he was foreshadowed well as an antagonist and he was strong enough to put up the physical challenge but as I've thought about it, I've come to realize that he was written wrong when it came time for him to be a villain. His entire motivation from the start had been all about power and the importance of being strong and yet his method of gaining what he wants is not to take it by force, but using underhanded tactics to get it like taking hostages and barring those who could actually challenge him (i.e Makarov) from doing so. Not to mention that he wouldn't let anyone leave the city and as opposed to actually taking out most of Fairy Tail himself (which I am relatively sure he could have done) he just sits alone in isolation. Now, of course he wanted to torture Makarov by making him see everyone fight as he could do nothing about it, but this doesn't fit into his philosophy of power because he was clearly talking about physical power and I even feel it's contradictory in a way. What would have worked better is developing his backstory more (that brief flashback about Ivan's expulsion is not nearly enough imo) and making the take-over of the guild more personal and not emphasizing strength as much as he did. It'd require changing his old actions/words from other arcs but I'm of the opinion that it'd be for the better. Finally, I'm of the opinion that he came around to seeing Fairy Tail's way of thinking far too easily. He clearly spent years developing his plan according to Makarov and yet all it took for him to change his mind was getting his ass kicked. Now sure, he never truly saw them as enemies according to Fairy Law but they were still clearly opposing him and for him to acknowledge them so quickly was just awkward for me. This is way too simple a transition away from "bad guy" for me to like it.

Unfortunately, I don't have a 5th favorite arc. Everything from the beginning to Lullaby I consider mediocre and everything from Oración Seis onwards I consider either mediocre or I just dislike it outright.