User blog comment:GotMilk5101520/Top ten best/favorite fight in the Tartarus Arc/@comment-25111584-20150111110143

Hmmm, don't really have many favourite battles. Not because I disliked them, but more because didn't like them enough to call them 'favourite'. Guess favourites would be (only the first one would be a real favourite though):
 * 1) Wendy vs. Ezel: 'Cause Wendy! Topic closed! \(^_^)/
 * 2) Rogue & Sting vs. Jiemma: Jiemma has finally been dealt with. And I have a soft spot for the Twin Dragons 'cause (supposedly) ultimate teamwork, beautifully shown in Rough Silk. Good closure.
 * 3) Juvia vs. Keith: Well, didn't get to see much of Keith, but that's 'cause his arrogance allowed him to get tricked. No real fault in the battle. Also ... Juvia! \(^_^)/
 * 4) Gray & Natsu vs. Mard: Only reason this isn't higher is because I found it a bit anticlimatic. Other than that, the only battle in the arc with even a semblance to a real battle where neither side holds the upper hand, though they have obvious advantages on both sides (IDSM for Gray & Natsu, incredible agility for Mard), a battle where each move that the participants make seem to have inferences which the opponent seems to realize and use to try and win. And finally a battle with no inner monologue or chat which explains each and every move as if the readers are complete idiots. \(^_^)/ Now I just hope that the anime team doesn't screw up this fight by adding stupid filler which could take away the brilliance of this fight.
 * 5) Rogue & Sting & Natsu vs. Mard: :P

Not many that I'd call 'hated' either. Again, only the third one actually qualifies:
 * 1) Wendy & Natsu & Lucy vs. Jackal: Nope, not because of Happy. Had no problem with Natsu himself either, nor with the minor BS (though it pretty much defined the whole fight) that Natsu somehow 'ate' the explosions. The fact that Wendy and Lucy were portrayed as almost completely useless just because Natsu was there was what I hated.
 * 2) Gray vs. Silver: The fight ... was pretty good. The logic was twisted, but fits. Nothing unbelievable. ... On the other hand, dat dashing of dreams, that extermination of expectations. T_T Silver's Gray's father?! Damn it! The last thing I expected! The one thing I was hoping it would be! ... Riiiight. >.>
 * 3) Cobra & Midnight & Racer & Angel vs. Jellal: Lords, so many reasons to hate this BS fight:
 * Hmmm, I'll start of with a personal frustration. This point is not completely relevant though and I've got much better ones. The illusion. Remember Midnight vs. Erza? The explanation Midnight gave for his illusions, how they are an ability of his Reflector? Bending of light, etc.? We also know that he warps a complete area rather than just specific objects (proof? He blocked all of Erza's swords at once), so it's not a huge jump to make sense of how his illusions work. The air around the victim(s) is warped to fool sound and also touch (think something like Spiral Pain for the tactile part), light is warped to fool sight. Smell and taste are almost irrelevant here. How is Midnight such an expert? ... Magic. I think that should work here. :P How did Erza break free? When she closes her real eye, the artificial eye somehow deciphers the 'magic-tainted' light beams and reverts them to their original form (sounds hax? It is, but w/e), allowing Erza to see what is really happening. Nobody says that her aural and tactile senses are still not being tricked, but her sight is back to normal, so it doesn't matter. ... At least that's how I thought it worked. Then came this fight. Jellal crushes his eyes and loses his sight and somehow the illusion is broken. Okay, many people said that he just weakened his sight. W/e. Doesn't matter, it still doesn't fit in the above theory. Erza had something which allowed her to negate the illusion, Jellal just crushed his eyes. Also, if he could break the illusion by harming his eyes ... how exactly would it have been different from closing his eyes? And then we also have this scene which is highly reminiscent of Erza vs. Kyouka: Rematch. And this leaves me frustrated 'cause now I can't make sense of Midnight's illusions. >.< Still, just a personal frustration, so not that relevant here.
 * This fight completely demeans Racer's Magic. I mean, Jellal just goes, "Haha, just one aspect of my Magic completely outstrips your entire Magic. Suck on it!" Remember Lyon's brilliance in working out how Racer's Magic worked and then tricking him? This battle completely demeans that one. I wouldn't've minded Jellal using a huge area-wide blast which Racer can't outrun (or slow down enough, w/e), but Jellal was physically faster than him?! BS. The Cobra thing is understandable. Even though he can read Jellal's moves, it doesn't mean that his reflexes are good enough to avoid them. But the Racer thing is just OP BS. Let's not even get into the fact that Racer seems to be able to have his Magic affect only certain people rather than the entire area, which would mean that his Magic isn't an Area-Effect Magic ... unless he wasn't using Slowing Magic but was actually accelerating himself.
 * Meredy. >.> Didn't like how she just waited on the sidelines. She could have come into the battle saying, "We're a team," or, "The burdens of one member are the burdens of Crime Sorciere," or any other cheesy line. Also, with people complaining how 'arrogant' Gray was when he said that he'd crush Tartarus (though the guy never said he'd do it alone, proved when he asked Natsu for help against Mard), I wonder how people never said the same about Jellal here. ... "Coz he's Jellal!" is the only one I can think of. >.> For me, neither of them was being arrogant, just showing resolve. And ... this point is off-topic because I didn't hate this part. :P
 * I didn't expect Jellal to die in that battle and was pretty certain that he would be shown as alive in the next Chapter. On the other hand ... Zero being an illusion seems to have been a last-minute change. Suppose Zero had not been an illusion and Jellal had died, what would have happened? OS would definitely have teamed up with Meredy to take him out. There we have a temporary alliance which could lead to a permanent one later on. 6 on 1? Zero could have been defeated with severe injuries to some of the members of the party. OS have beef with Jellal, which can't be resolved easily even if they realized that Ultear had a hand in it. With Jellal gone and only Meredy left ... they could make a nice Guild. Gives Meredy a chance to step up and take a more mature role as the conscience of the group, make Midnight leader and we have a great Independent Guild which would work pretty well together. Jellal and Erza? To be honest ... don't give a damn. But, well, she's already 'lost' the guy twice. His death serving the purpose to redeem 4 people and whatnot would most probably be enough for Erza to mourn him, but then move on. Maybe have Jellal still hold on and even deliver the last blow to Zero in a sneak attack, then give some last words to Meredy and OS before dying. Also increases the chances of OS believing him 'cause 'Dying men don't lie'. Then Meredy recites that last speech to Erza. Erza's shown herself to be mature enough. Instead, we've got a Guild of people who were maltreated by Jellal and have now been beaten up by him. The hell would they join? Cobra reads his mind? Brain having deceived him for so long would make him more cautious about trusting this ability. We might get an explanation as to why they'd join, but we might as well get the completely BS move of them having joined CrimeS because they 'saw the light', no questions asked. Also, I've always felt that keeping Jellal alive was a last minute change by either Mashima or the editor. Something like, "I don't want what happened to Arthur to happen to me!" Because this panel makes no sense. Right now, the implications of this battle make no sense. >.>
 * Now to the part that I hated the most in this fight. Remember the most formidable aspect of Reflector? Nothing inorganic, from Magic to shockwaves, can affect Midnight when he is not employing his magic elsewhere. For crying out loud, the guy has Reflector wrapped around him while asleep! That's the extent of his reflexes! So, he is not employing his Magic as his illusion has been broken, sees that Jellal is about to attack ... and then just tanks Grand Chariot?! Seriously, he tanks it, just look at the panel when it hits, his expression in it. And then again he just stares at Jellal as he uses Sema?! What happened, did he get emotionally unstable and forget how to use his Magic just because Jellal managed to break through his Nightmare? Maybe like Ultear after Gray started talking about Ur? ... Yeah, right. >.> Only other explanation is that he used Reflector, but it was of no use against the power of Sema ... because Jellal is just that powerful! ... Again, yeah, right. That's just another example of OP BS then. Completely demeaning Midnight's Magic and, by extension, Erza's battle against Midnight, the first part anyway. So I'll go with 'Midnight forgot how to use his Magic because his confinement has somehow addled his brain'. >.> The only way Jellal should be able to defeat Midnight is by using Telekinesis or Meteor.
 * All in all, don't think I've hated a battle as much as this one since Rogue & Sting vs. Natsu.