User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 453: A Father's Job, Review and Commentary/@comment-26822192-20150919183230/@comment-4449950-20150926011200

The problem imo with the Gray/Juvia relationship is how it's been handled after Tenrou Island.

I mean, yeah, Juvia is an intense character - she's always kind of been shown this way. BUT, when this started being taken to levels that made it no longer realistic and healthy in my mind, that's when the ship stopped appealing to me (and quite a few others from what I've seen).

I could write an entire rant blog on how awful the ship became in my mind, but to be quick here:

Before Tenrou the relationship was odd, but not damaging to either character imo. Juvia loved Gray and wanted to be with him, but there's two important things here: Because of this, I liked the ship. I just thought the combination of Gray's more tsundere actions and Juvia's intensity was making the ship the way it was.
 * 1) She was shown interacting on a deep level (so, not just silly/normal conversations) with characters outside of Gray - see Lucy in ToH, Cana in FF, and Meredy in Tenrou + preGMG arcs.
 * 2) Gray had never rejected her or pushed her away in an obvious manner. He just kind of weaselled his way out of any conversation that involved her feelings.

However, cue GMG, and many things happened.
 * Juvia's plot lines stopped involving other characters (outside of rivals she interacted with due to Gray - see Chelia, see Briar, see Keith) and all of her actions became typically about doing something for or because of Gray.
 * Gray started to make himself more obvious with his feelings. However, he also then refused to let Juvia potentially move on in any way. Whenever Lyon went to interact with her he was right there to tell him to shove off. Y'know what Gray, I blame you the least in this mess, but if you want Juvia to back off, LET HER INTERACT WITH OTHER GUYS! ESPECIALLY ONE THAT LIKES HER A LOT AND MIGHT BE ABLE TO GIVE HER A TASTE OF HER OWN MEDICINE! (too bad Lyon is an actual gentleman [and the not-scary version of Juvia] and backed off after 1 arc when he saw that he was being too pushy)
 * Gray told Juvia that he didn't like her in that way and Juvia went 2.0 and tried harder. Gray, rather than continuing to reiterate the point, just let her, which imo is not what was needed.
 * Gray since hasn't tried to tell her to back off, but keeps accepting (in his own way) what she does.

That part at the end of the GMG when Gray told Juvia to back off and she didn't is when I abandoned the ship. Imo both need to grow up and mature for it to work. Gray needs to learn to voice opinions and Juvia needs to learn to listen to them. Add in everything Nick said above and I find the ship to be unhealthy and unrealistic. However, let's all watch as it becomes canon (because it's been obvious from the start that it will be canon) with neither changing these issues about themselves.

Yeah, just my two cents. Say what you want, but I think relationships need to be based on more than a girl pushing herself on a guy at every second, only thinking about him and not listening to his attempts to tell her to back off, and the guy eventually giving up after seeing some nicer sides of the girl and going "ah well".