User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Sorcerer Magazine, Issue 42: June 2015/@comment-3290324-20150702004148/@comment-25111584-20150704212032


 * That was me being a tad bit caustic, Rai. I even apologized for that. ( =_=) *takes back apology* Many Natsu battles are definitely BS. But so are many Erza battles. Most of them since Tenrou Island, tbh. The argument you were using holds true for Natsu too. They both beat their opponents in the exact same way these days, unfortunately. .-.
 * Ikaruga cut through Erza's offense, defense and all every time before this though. She cut through Circle Sword, which is much more than 2 swords, and Heaven's Wheel. And Erza wasn't using the Benizakura either. I fail to see why two swords makes a difference. It was Ikaruga's speed that was the problem, her sword was already proven to be absolute. Flight Armour, I can understand. That would actually have been a good move. But ... two swords? They aren't even the Benizakura, which can be argued to be indestructible. ._.
 * There's this thing that Erza has to solo her opponent. I believe LilithArcher and Carrot had some good theories involving Mira and Minerva, yes? But Erza's problem is the same as Natsu's. They both need to hog the spotlight. That is extremely annoying. Also ... I don't really get your point here. ^_^" You're agreeing that the fights are pathetic, so ... what's the problem?
 * Just because a character is supposed to be intelligent doesn't mean they will be appreciated for it if they almost never showcase that trait. Erza's last brilliant moment was against Midnight. It's like expecting people to believe that Lisanna is a stronger than average character. Plotwise, she obviously is. But she'll hardly be credited for it. Likewise, Erza would hardly be credited for her intelligence if she never uses it. Nobody is saying that she isn't intelligent, it's more of a case of that fact being quite useless, unfortunately.


 * Hmmm, we'll most probably end up disagreeing about the Ultear fight, but I'll just put this out there. :P
 * The Gray vs. Ultear thing was being built up since GI arc. And Gray obviously lectured her. It actually made sense for him to do it, unlike Erza lecturing Kyôka. And it was hardly any holier-than-thou crap that Natsu and Erza normally spout. Lyon and Ultear had pretty much gone insane. People dear to him (even though he just met Ultear, but you know what I mean >.>) willing to slaughter people? Obviously he will try to make them regain their senses. He wasn't trying to break her mentally, but it made sense for him to try to convince his beloved mentor's daughter to stop the fight by mentioning her mother. And that was visibly agitating Ultear too. And the water thing was foreshadowed in the GI arc.
 * The blood ice was a cool trick, but it was hardly sustainable. All Ultear had to do was to wait for him to bleed out, right? But, enraged as she was by Gray's constant talk about Ur, she saw her most hated person using her most hated Magic to negate the Magic she had learned partly to render her most hated Magic useless ... well, she definitely wasn't thinking straight after that. Otherwise the battle would have been a cinch. And we had already seen that she tended to become a bit unstable when Ur is mentioned, so it's not that unbelievable either.
 * But the best part is that Ultear pretty much gave up rather than beng defeated. Gray didn't overpower her. He didn't get stronger. In Natsu and Erza's case, rather than the opponent being affected by the speeches, these two seem to get stronger and overwhelm the enemy. Minerva was positively owned by Erza's crying fist before she lost her will to fight. Ultear, on the other hand, was owning Gray before she lost her resolve. Huge difference there.