User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 299: A Solitary Journey, Review./@comment-4047931-20120919215015

Well there really isn't much to say about this chapter so I might as well get on with it.

I am completely indifferent when it comes to this chapter devoid of speech. It has its enjoyable moments yet the chapter overall is dull when looked over as a whole. One of the positives of this chapter has to be seeing Fairy Tail's big dog, Gildarts Clive. Even though this powerhouse was the main focus on this chapter, having these last two chapters made to fill in the space so 300 could bring in something big like the other chapters that opened a new century of chapters made me know this wouldn't be anything outstanding. One chapter isn't going to show us anything new and exciting about Gildarts. Anyway the story was the old hero appears, meets a damsel in distress and saves a village and whatnot with the whole everything goes tits up Fairy Tail ending. It wasn’t anything special. I must say it had its moments being funny at times but the story was rather boring, most of humour was quick to wear off and the ending was just lame. I know Gildarts loves his daughter but talk about embarrassing dad. The worst thing of all was that the cheering was for his daughter cheating, HAVE SOME MORALS YOU OLD GIT! Despite bad parenting by supporting his daughter to cheat there were two big things I liked about this chapter. First of the entire thing with the woman that was attacked was enjoyable and secondly the lack of speech was cool. I found the thing going with woman and Gildarts funny especially after he defeated the cave monster and the woman whispered into his ear sending Gildarts into a fit of glee (probably the reward heh heh heh), but this moment would have been as funny if it weren't for the lack of speech. This left things up to the imagination and also the little pose before the kid showed him the massive TV thing still makes me laugh a little. Another thing with this lack of speech is that I felt I could fill in that gap. Each time I read this chapter I made a script in my head letting give me give voice to these characters. I know that sounds lame but hell I enjoyed it. This chapter was unique and slightly calming for me. Still the chapter wasn't that great due to the ending but heck it was fun.

Now I have to say this big problem I have with these last two chapters. Even though they were made to fill in the space for chapter 300 to reveal something big I must say I fell like it is bad planning or writing doing this. As much as I like the arc, even if Hiro was taking time to formulate ideas, I fell that having to make two chapters to fill in this gap seems lazy. There were even plenty of things that could have been done to fill in the gaps, like the tag battle between Mermaid Heel and Lamia Scale which could have been one whole chapter and even a chapter could have been used to show Yukino joining the Eclipse Project (and I say these two because I really wanted to see these events occur). Anyway with that said I have high expectations for 300 as it needs a big reveal. The title 'Where the Dragon's Soul Rests' hinted to us that we will be following Gajeel through the Dragon Graveyard and hopefully we’ll see the hooded woman's true identity. I hope these two weeks was enough for Hiro to make a great story. Make the wait worth it.

Overall average chapter and can't wait for Friday.