User blog comment:CNBA3/Fairy Tail Arc Concepts/@comment-7418318-20130915174049

Might be a bit late, but whatever:

In this arc we get the first appearance of Erza, the first time Gray does more than giving single-line comments and brawling, the first time a Dark Guild is shown, we are explained how the guilds are organized and so on. Lyon is willing to sacrifice an entire village just to show his own superiority over Ur and his "followers" are willing to do the same just so they can see Deliora die before their eyes. While Rivalry has a place in the arc, it's far from the defining theme in my opinion. Same with recollection. Here I absolutely agree with Water Dragon Slayer. Jose in his pride can't bear the thought of not being the strongest. This arc for me is all about sacrifice. Jellal & Co want to sacrifice Erza to obtain their paradise, Erza first sacrificed their wish to free her friends so that Jellal wouldn't kill them and later tries to sacrifice herself (by merging with the lacrima) to again save her friends' lifes. Simon sacrifices himself by taking the attack meant for Erza. And in the end Jellal sacrifices himself to save Erza. Sure freedom is also a strong theme, but I think sacrifice is even mroe so. Everyone has good intentions "Making Fairy Tail stronger", "Saving the petrified girls", ect. but because they take it good they end up hurting each other, even though they never inteded it in the beginning. Here I again agree with Water Dragon Slayer. We have the good guys, the bad guys and those in between. What makes a person good? What makes them evil? What can change a person from good to evil and the other way round? I think "Greed" and "Power" don't really fit because the King acts for his country, not for himself. When Erza takes him hostage he even orders his soldiers to disregard his own life and continue with the plan. What this arc is really about for me is the sanctity of life. The Imperials are sacrificing other peoples rights and very lifes for their own convenience and the Exceed are manipulating Humans for their own convenience. Both have forgotten how precious lifes and living free is in persuit of their own convenience. While they are apart or fighting for themselfs they are pushed back, but the moment they start to team up or fight for the sake of their guild mates, they start to overcome the enemy, just like Levy sais in her little speech. There is no other arc that focuses so intently on NAKAMA POWA as this one. We get a lot of material, but the actual story creeps very slowly due to all the more or less meaningless battles and events and we get loads of new characters, which makes it hard to categorize this arc in anything other than "Wast of time". "Rebirth" and "Honor and Glory" are nice, but if feels more like that's just happening happening along the way, rather than being the focus of the arc. "Despair" doesn't really cut it, since the main characters aren't really despairing all that much. It's just short moments of despair and since noone really changes "Change" just doesn't cut it for me either. Though this part does show Fairy Tail that even though they might be the strongest guild, there are still beings they are almost helpless against, which helps to keep them from going on an ego trip of getting lazy. It shows them their limits.
 * Lullaby: Introduction
 * Galuna Island: Ego and Revenge
 * Phantom: Pride
 * Tower of Heaven: Sacrifice
 * Fairy Tail Battle Festival: The danger of taking good intentions too far
 * Oracion Seis: Good and Evil
 * Edolas: The importance of life
 * Tenrou Island: Bonds or Comradship
 * Grand Magic Games: No idea on this one.
 * Eclipse: Limits of power.
 * Village of the Sun: too soon to tell.