User blog comment:Real Godisme/Chapter 476 Review/@comment-25111584-20160307171559/@comment-25111584-20160309083049

@Lord: Precisely. There is a scale. And, at some point, no amount of sacrifice should have as huge a payoff as absolutely overwhelming your opponent. Sherria basically went, "Hey, hoe, I got TO, so down you go in a 3HKO." That's extremely demeaning. I mean, Gray and Lyon can easily take out Zeref and Acnologia by using Iced Shell after their allies distract the two long enough (and that's quite a short time too). All that's left is to make sure that no dumbass tries melting them. But would that not be incredibly underwhelming and boring? Disappointing? Imo, definitely. At some point, the power gap should be so large that sacrifice should not be enough to guarantee a victory. Zeref and Acnologia should just shrug off Iced Shell. Like you said, a sacrifice creating a chance at victory is perfect. There still needs to be a gruelling battle, unlike what happened here. Shields have been vastly hyped. The gap here should be too vast to bridge with a simple sacrifice by Sherria. Erza making a meaningful sacrifice to solo a Shield? Sure, but even then it should be more of bringing her on her opponent's level, not actually easily overpowering her opponent.

Plus, compare Sherria's fate to that of some other characters. Ur, Rob, Simon, Ultear, etc. Ur sacrificed her life to sea Deliora. Rob got worked to a husk and then died protecting Erza. Simon resolutely worked under Jellal despite his conviction that the man is evil, all for Erza's sake. Then gave his life to save Erza. Ultear sacrificed most of her time to rewind the time by one minute. And even then it was pure luck that the minute actually mattered, otherwise it would have been an absolute waste. Sherria simply gave up her Magic and achieved a result far superior to any of these people. Sure her situation is different from people like Rob and Simon 'cuz the sacrifice was required for a Magic technique, but I still find the disparity far too degrading. Even more so when comparing to Ur and Ultear's case. And, yes, defeating Dimaria is greater than whatever Ultear did considering Dimaria can end the entire war in under a second, which is a whole 'nother thing to hate about the pathetic woman. How can Mashima disrespect his own characters like this?!

Then there's the sacrifice itself, which I don't think much of. Sherria loses her Magic and... what? How is different from a person getting diabetes? I'd argue that the latter's case is far worse considering they undergo quite a major change in their lifestyle, while all Sherria has to do is learn how to use Mystogan's staffs. She might not be a Jellal-level genius, but surely she can manage considering she's still a child? Sacrifices in a fantasy should be far worse than that in real life, not tamer, which is the case here. And then the sacrifice is exaggerated beyond belief, which just makes me roll my eyes and lose any sympathy I might feel.

So, yes, I feel the sacrifice to payoff scale is far too unbalanced in this case. And, when I compare these to sacrifices made by other characters, the favouritism shown towards Sherria is way too frustrating. People complain that Mashima is biased in favour of Erza and Natsu, but I'd say the current wanking of Sherria completely overshadows any purported favour towards the former two.

Absolutely agreed with you about Mira. I hope she gets a far better battle than her other ones, even Mira vs. Freed. However, considering her style of combat and her Magic, I guess my hopes are in vain. T_T I have high hopes for Gajeel though. \( ^_^)/ As long as Levy doesn't come anywhere near his battle. ( __)/