User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Chapter 419: The Message of Fire, Review/@comment-24367018-20150207190222

Well, can't say I was overtly enamoured by this chapter. Pleasantly surprised by it being out today? Yes. Liked it? Not so much. Of course that doesn't make it a bad chapter, on the contrary, if anything it was a fairly decent one.

Good stuff: Lucy putting Natsu in his place after being such a hypocrite. I can't imagine I was the only one hoping that something like this would happen. The sort of NaLu moment, if you can call it that, when Natsu saw Lucy's stalker map was rather sweet. And finally the throw back to the first few chapters running away from the (incompetent) army was definitely a nice touch.

Ok stuff: Lucy tear-jerking on the second to last page. Hmmmmm.... Good if you look at it from Lucy's angle, she did say she'd been in a deep depression so to be going out with her partner to go bring the guild back together is obviously going to be emotional. But, for someone who's not seen what it can be like for people in that situation, they aren't necessarily going to be able to understand it.

Indifferent stuff: Natsu having a hair cut. Big deal.

Why I didn't like it. Lucy apologising to Natsu after telling him off. I can actually understand why she did it for two reasons, first off she didn't want an argument, simple enough. Second reason: Natsu did lose his dad just a week before going off with Happy, yes he's dense (as was demonstrated) but he's not emotionally invalid. However, Lucy, as has already been said, was in a deep depression after all that. Yes a year passed, but you don't necessarily learn how to control/manipulate/reign in your own emotions in such a short time. Second thing I wasn't a fan of; His Majesty being so bloody lenient... (One could probably assume that the magic council hasn't been reinstated if it was the Crown dealing with Natsu's idiocy). Toma, it's by doing this sort of shit that rebellions occur. Third thing; the pacing. The Tartarus arc kicked off with a literal bang and was fairly quick paced from the get go. Ok, Mashima can't exactly bring every one back together in the space of 25 odd pages, but come on... this is just agonisingly dull. Then again, it isn't in my nature to enjoy going at a slow pace so it doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing. Last thing, although this is probably a gripe I have with the previous chapter as well; how Mashima's dealing with Lucy's depression. Not brilliantly. Then again, I'm majorly biased on that front.