User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 402: Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon, Review./@comment-4449950-20140929145706/@comment-25111584-20140929191816

Post-timeskip? Quite a few people hated the fight against Azuma too, and that was pre-timeskip.

Don't really care about Lucy, but I find it hard to believe that someone would have a good reason to, forget hate, even dislike her. For those who say she's useless, just look at the most recent of her battles. (And the fact that Natsu, Macao or both would have been dead but for her, if you'll bother reading chapter 03. Yup, she was useful in small ways from that early on, too bad the anime cut that scene out.)