User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 322: Gloria, Review./@comment-4449950-20130308235145

Okay, I have to type a little fast cause I'm heading out today :)

To say I enjoyed this chapter would be a lie. There were definitely things that were not okay with this, and the overall set up of the Grand Magic Games. However, to say that I hated this chapter would also be a lie, because I certainly did not.

It's annoying when I'm stuck in the middle of an opinion like this because when I look at this chapter and the arc as a whole, I have enjoyed it. I know there are others who haven't, but I can't deny that this arc has gotten me intrigued and made me cheer with joy on many occasions.

As I have said before, Fairy Tail is not the type of series where I ponder over who is going to win a battle. I just look at how the battle/event was handled, and then judge. And this, unfortunately, is where this last day of the GMG really fell flat. There were so many opportunities for Mashima to do things in such a way that the fights (despite having FT as the victor) could have been much more appreciated.

Juvia/Gray V Lyon/Chelia: Meh >__> What can I say. I have to agree with Mega that it was pretty stupid that Lyon didn't leave Chelia and try to put up a defence. Chelia was... meh... can't say I didn't see it coming, but again, this whole scenario could have been handled so much better. In my mind, the smarter and less nakama/plot armour thing to do would be to use Lyon. During the battle, Chelia could have really gotten into her anger over Juvia, and, going against Lyon's words, powered up a very strong attack to take Juvia down. Seeing her do this and knowing Juvia will fall if hit, Lyon takes Chelia down, stating that she "can't hurt his beloved". Chelia out due to friendly fire, Gray uses the advantage of having Juvia supply him with water to overpower Lyon, who eventually falls too. Doing this would be more in-character and not suddenly "wtf" (like Chelia just standing there was) and would allow me to at least appreciate the plausibility.

Laxus V Jura: ...was a complete mess. Laxus taking out the Wizard Saint that climbed to number 5 over the seven years? Please >__> I don't think so... How this battle could have been handled would be to team Jura. I know that sounds a little lame, but it was stated over and over that Jura would be hard to take down, so a dodgy tactic like teaming would be okay in my eyes, as it is necessary. It would have been so much cooler if Orga and Laxus were forced to perform some kind of weird Unison Raid on Jura to take him down, and then faced each other, with Laxus (who is obviously stronger than Orga) coming out on top. That way, we don't get this impossible-like win, as Laxus actually topping Orga seems reasonable.

Gajeel V Rogue: Probably one of the only fights I think was handled well, though it should have been extended far more. I liked that Gajeel consumed the Shadow DS Magic, as it finally moved the idea away from being a freakin' Natsu-only lame power up. I can't think of many ways that this fight could be improved upon dramatically. Maybe just some little tweaks and an extension would make it great.

Erza V Minerva: *sighs* I can't say that everything up until Erza Requipped her Nakagami Armour was bad, because it wasn't. However, everything that occurred after the Requip was... not so great. I mean, suddenly it was like "Oh, hey I have invincible armour >:D" and Minerva's like "Nooooo >.<". I guess what really annoyed me here was that Minerva didn't even try to put up a defence, like Jura. She just seemed to accept defeat (like Jura lamely did) and this is against her character imo. The trivia for the Nakagami Amrour is that Nakagami is the God of fortune somewhere. So, why not make it that the armour merely increases Erza's luck? An odd concept, I agree, but if the armour allowed her to have more of a chance of a spell missing, or her attack hitting, it could have justified why Erza's power suddenly boosted and Minerva's fell. On top of that, Minerva could have continued to fight back, and suddenly Kagura gets up from the ground, grabs Archenemy (it's called that for a reason!) and gets Minerva from behind in payback, which in turn allows Erza to deliver her final blow and win, rather that that stupid one-off KO attack like she used on Kagura, which is getting really old >__>

So, that's that. Simple little tweaks that would have given the same result, but made everything bearable in my mind. Like you guys suggest, I dunno why Mashima seems to be rushing through this, but it's annoying me too. He has some serious work to do if he wants to boost this arc back to the hype I had for it when it began, but, for some reason, I am still very excited to see what is coming now.

I think it is because I love the aftermath sections of a lot of these arcs. I find the most things happen character development-wise, and usually some shit goes down. For example, I really want to see what Sabertooth does after their defeat, and what Minerva says. I want to see Jellal finally meet Kagura and see Millianna again, and read through that bound-to-be-awkward conversation. I want to see what Ooba says to Jura, and so on and so forth. Fun stuff :)

Okay... the end of the chapter with Sting. I... well, I liked it. I know many didn't, but I can imagine what I would be thinking if Sting took them all out, and it would be something along the lines of "Are you fucking serious? After everything they did?". As such, his realisation and want to not attack those who are putting up no defence was in character and necessary for his development. I think there are very few people, bad guys involved, who would willingly attack five people who are standing there like that. Plus, and just as a side note, Fairy Tail was bound to win because the money will get them the guild back :P

And then Mils appears with Lector ( .__.) Hmmm... too convenient?? Yes, yes it was. Too sweet a moment so that I didn't really care that it was too convenient?? Yes, yes it was.

However, now we get the Eclipse Cannon, which is apparently the other name of Eclipse 2. Hmmmm... Dragon Chain Cannon (or whatever it's called) FTW?? I hope this next few chapters are the real dark turn around I'm looking for, which takes GMG celebration and turns it into chaos. This shadow may be the thing that carries the arc. I seriously hope so...

Carrot out~