User blog:LegerPrime/Series 3

The anime just reached the Avatar arc. And it ended. So… yeah, that happened. When watching the Tartaros arc, I noticed the anime version had a lot of scenes not present in the manga. With the positive comments I got from my blogs, "Neo Phantom Lord arc" and "No room for the Weak", I thought, "Why stop there?" There are these scenes I thought of for the anime Alvarez Empire that Neo Phantom Lord would've lead to, and scenes that I felt were missed opportunities. Afterwards, I’d like to compare Series 1 to Series 2 and give my opinion on how Series 3 should be done.

•	Flying Dragon Squad's fight with Ajeel Squad: When Natsu clashes with Bakel, the three Dragon Slayers enter their Duel-Element Modes: Lightning Flame Dragon Mode, Iron Shadow Dragon Mode, and Poison Sky Dragon Mode. Baffled, Natsu and Gajeel ask Wendy where she got hers and she answers she ate Erik's poison during their fight with one of the Neo Phantom members. She then asks Gajeel where he got his and he says he ate Ryos's shadows back at the Grand Magic Games. When Wendy asks who Ryos is, Gajeel says, "Oh yeah. Rogue's real name is Ryos." Wendy asks how he knows, he whispers in her ear with huge grin, "His shadows told me." Creeped out, Wendy sidesteps behind Natsu. The three Dragon Slayers then fight their respective opponents. Natsu attacks Bakel with Lightning Flame Dragon’s Iron Fist, Lightning Flame Dragon’s Brilliant Flame, and Lightning Flame Dragon’s Roar, Gajeel attacks Kareem and several other soldiers with Iron Shadow Dragon’s Hard Fist, Iron Shadow Dragon’s Lance: Demon Logs, and Iron Shadow Dragon’s Roar, and Wendy attacks several soldiers with Poison Sky Dragon’s Wing Attack, Poison Sky Dragon’s Claw, and Poison Sky Dragon’s Roar. They then take the rest of the army with their Dragon Slayer’s Secret Arts, Crimson Lotus: Exploding Lightning Blade, Karma Demon: Shadow God Sword, and Shattering Light: Poison Drill. The Magic Bakel uses would be revealed. •	Erza’s fight with Ajeel: When Erza requips to her Morning Star Armor, Bisca fires Jupiter and instead of hitting Ajeel, it hits the ship. Natsu, Wendy and Happy see the explosion through the Sand World and run toward it, while Gajeel, Panther Lily, and Carla stay and fight the rest of Ajeel’s remaining soldiers. Natsu runs farther ahead of Wendy and Happy, using his “Fire Dragon’s Iron Fist Boosters”, punching his way through obstacles. Erza crawls out of the wreckage in her Flame Empress Armor. She asks why the sandstorm is still brewing. Ajeel suddenly grabs her, making it clear he’s a Shield of Spriggan and God’s don’t die. Erza recalls the question Ajeel asked him before, about how many people stronger than she are at the guild, in which she answers that she hears one of them coming. Natsu comes out from the sandstorm and attacks with Fire Dragon King’s Roar. The Sand World clears and Ajeel, who drops an unaffected Erza, is badly burnt but still standing. Gasping for air, he asks Natsu the same question he asked him, “Is that all you g-?!”, but is interrupted by Natsu’s fist, which sends him flying. •	 Legion Corps (as well as Boze, Sue and the other three Element 4) would enter the fray with the other guilds helping Fairy Tail. The episode “Message of Fire” acknowledged the anime-exclusive arcs in the montage of all the previous arcs that are shown in chronological order in the outro. •	In between the chapters, “This Perfume Goes To…” and “Battlefield”: Natsu visits an unconscious Erza in the guild’s infirmary. He stands in front of her bed and before he can say anything, he’s startled by Zeref’s voice. He turns to see a thought projection of the Black Wizard. He tells his to calm himself as he just wants to talk. Zeref asks Natsu why he’s letting this happen to his friends. Natsu angrily reminds him he’s the one pulling the strings. Zeref calms the 12’s cruel nature aren’t his responsibility, he just merely organized them. Natsu asks weather mercy is a virtue, in which Zeref responds he’s doing so currently. Natsu turns fearful after Zeref told him he could activate a Law through him thought projection. He then says the reason for not doing so is to give Natsu, who asks to do what afterwards, a chance. Zeref points to Natsu’s bandaged arm, asking why he’s wasting time. Zeref expresses his carelessness in what’s under the bandages, but tells Natsu that if he can kill him, it better be soon, otherwise there won’t be any room in the infirmary left to move. Natsu looks around the room at the unconscious Thunder God Tribe. He gets startled by a conscious Erza before looking back to see Zeref’s thought projection already gone. Erza asks what’s wrong and Natsu answers, “Nothing.” The two then ask each other how the other’s doing. Erza apologies to Natsu, against his claims for her not too. Erza continues, saying she knows Gray killed Frosch in the alternate timeline. When asked how she found out, Erza tells Natsu that Erik heard his thoughts. Nervous, Natsu asks if he heard anything else and Erza says nothing he told her. Natsu points out that now they both know each other’s secrets. Erza is at first confused but Natsu reminds her that she once said he was stronger than her. She asks where he heard that and he says from the only person she said it to (referring to Jose). Erza admits it and expresses her regret in how he treated him and her anger in what Gray was capable of. Natsu tells Erza not to be angry with Gray because he didn’t do it and doesn’t know what he did. Erza acknowledges that. She then says it was really her own fault. Natsu tells her not to say that but Erza protests, saying, “You saved the world from Future Rogue’s wrath, and the only reason it’s not goanna happen again… is you.” She sits up and continues, “I haven’t been fair with you. You saved my life 8 years ago and I should never forget that. In fact, if Grimoire Heart didn’t attack Tenrou Island that same year, we’d probably be at the same rank right now. By following your own decisions, you always end up doing the right thing. From now on…” she puts his hand on his shoulder and finishes, “…you have my trust.” Natsu, in depression, looks around the room again. Concerned, Erza asks what’s wrong. Natsu expresses his shock in how many of his friends two of the Shields took out and says it’ll keep happening as long as Zeref is still standing. Erza asks what other choice there is and Natsu holds up his bandaged arm and asks if he does have her trust, in which she nods. At sunrise, Natsu and Happy prepare to leave and Erza asks what she should tell the others. Natsu tells her to tell them they’re going with Plan T. When everyone finds out about Natsu’s recklessness, they ask what he’s doing and Erza tells them what Natsu told her to say. None of them know what Plan T is, except Lucy, who smiles and remembers what it means (a flashback from the Daybreak arc, when she asked what Plan T was and Happy answers, “Take ‘em by storm!”).

•	Laxus’ fight with Wahl Icht: Nichiya and Jenny Realight assist Laxus in the fight. After Laxus gets cured of his Magical Barrier Particles, Wahl reveals, from under feet, he built a platform from underneath the ground, in response to Laxus other weakness, one of which all Dragon Slayers have. The platform rises from underneath and starts vibrating, causing Laxus to get motion sick. Wahl prepares to kill him but Jenny comes from nowhere and intervenes. The Machina Soul Take-Over Mage in her Battle Form and the Machias in Assault Mode clash, with the latter’s back toward Laxus and overpowering Jenny. Wahl prepares to kill her, asking if she had any last words. She replies, “Yeah. Any time now, Nichiya!” Confused, Wahl looks behind him, only to be punched by Laxus carried by Nichiya. Laxus breaks the platform with Roaring Thunder and defeats Wahl with Mercury Fulminate: Red Lightning. Wahl, still alive, then gets taken over by Jenny, who gains a new spell, Machina Soul: Jenny Wahl Icht. (Not sure it’ll happen in the manga, but it should happen in the anime.) •	Boze, being a 2nd Gen Iron Dragon Slayer, dies, trying to save Gajeel, at the hands of Acnologia, to Gajeel and Sue’s dismay.

Series 2 took a different route from Series 1 in terms of animation. I like how it looks similar to the manga but Series 1’s character’s animation looked more fun and colorful. Throughout Series 2, I was worried they were ignoring the anime-exclusive stuff from Series 1. But, thank God, the “Daphne” arc and the “Key to the Starry Sky” arc were shown in the montage at the end of “Message of Fire”. For Series 3, Satelight returns to animate. They could make it fun and colorful again and also do what Bridge did, like use the character designs from the manga and less censoring of blood. They’d also be able to use clips from Series 1 (which has more episodes than Series 2) for flashback sequences. We’d also get to see the better Acnologia from Tenrou Island again.

When I found out Series 2 ended, I was so pissed that I had to wait another year for the anime to come back. But then I noticed something: a trilogy formula. In most trilogies, the third film points out things from the first that weren’t in the second, and features characters from the first that weren’t present in the second. Examples include The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit Trilogy, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and The Hangover Trilogy. The “Avatar” arc features Bluenote Stinger, who hasn’t been seen since the “Tenrou Island” arc. My “Neo Phantom Lord “arc idea, or any other filler like it, would fit perfectly as it features Jose Porla, Aria, Totomaru, Sol and Kageyama, and touches up on things from Series 1, such as the conversation between Erik and Kianna, the fight between Natsu and Aria, the three rules of leaving Fairy Tail, Kageyama worrying about his boldness, Erik referring to Igneel as “Natsu’s dragon” (“Say hi to your dragon when you get to the other side”, and “Make that asshole pay for what he did to your dragon.”). These anime original scenes I came up with would fit well as well. The Legion Corps haven’t been seen since Series 1. That was one reason I was worried, at first, Series 2 was ignoring the anime-exclusive stuff from Series 1 because they didn’t mention the events in Key to the Starry Sky weren’t mentioned, especially since the first episode of GMG concluded KTTSS. Also, Plan T is mentioned, which hasn’t been since the episode, “Super Aerial Battle: Natsu vs. Cobra”. We also see Jenny in her Battle Form again. When the manga introduced Wahl, I was hoping to see Jenny fight him, especially since her guildmate, Ichiya was involved. Sadly, that didn’t happen. At first, I thought the Red Lightning was a new Lightning Dragon Slayer move. Something I want to see in the anime or later in the manga is Laxus to combined his Mercury Fulminate: Red Lightning with his Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic to form Red Lightning Dragon Mode. Spells would include Red Lightning Dragon’s Iron Fist, Red Lightning Dragon’s Raging Bolt, Red Lightning Dragon’s Roar, and Dragon Slayer’s Secret Art: Mercury Fulminate: Red Thunder.

What do you guys think? Are the scenes bad or good? Did you notice anything else from Avatar, Alvarez Empire and my “Neo Phantom Lord arc” blog that touches up on Series 1 that I didn’t mention?