User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 499: Gray and Juvia, Review./@comment-25111584-20160829172031

Ha! A Gray-centric where our opinions differ despite the fact that you're praising the Chapter? A contradiction with a touch of normalcy. /o/

Before diving into analysis of the Chapter, let's score it. I'll just copy-paste the formula from B214's review. Score: (Juvia's Death * 10) out of 10, where (Juvia's Death == 1) if she is permanently dead, and (Juvia's Death == ) if she is ever resurrected. The likelihood of the latter is higher by far, so I guess the actual score is evident...

Let's get the BS out of the way:
 * Invel wants Gray to kill Juvia in as no-holds-barred fight as possible and they are effectively his puppets, so the whole double suicide thing should never have been possible.
 * lol, Blood Transfusion Magic? Gray is a Mage who can close up external (and presumably internal) wounds with ice. If he can't pack his wounds, blood transfusion isn't going to help. The only scenario left in which Gray can't close his wounds is if he is overwhelmed or voluntarily loses blood. If it's the initial case, bt is still not going to help. Which would mean a sacrifice. And if the sacrifice is for a great number of people or Gray himself has to make the sacrifice, Juvia's bt would just worsen the situation. So the sacrifice would have to be one where only a life needs to be lost rather than Gray specifically losing his life. That... is an extremely specific situation... and Juvia prepared herself to save Gray (rather than anybody, which is somewhat annoying) from such a predicament? You get where I'm going with this?

Can't say I got even a bit emotional in the entire Chapter. I couldn't care less about Gray, even less about Juvia and even less than that about Gruvia. Juvia saving Cana was far better and a moment which I liked a lot. This was just tedious and a waste of pages as I couldn't be bothered to give a damn about Gruvia feels, especially considering Mashima doesn't have the guts to actually kill a major character (so he'll kill Makarov, Gildarts or Mest) and she'll be returning to Farce Fail at some point... I miss Rave Masterpiece. D:

Juvia should remain dead. The move has zero cons and only pros. It's like excising a tumour which has been plaguing FT since Tenrou Island arc:
 * We finally get a much-needed FT death which is not a parent figure or hated character.
 * In one fell swoop, Mashima destroys his worst character and ship and gets the excuse to have sent them away in a suitable fashion.
 * We finally get a chance for proper character development and interactions from Gray instead of having him shackled to Juvia.

Forebodings: Invel is going to get OHKO, which is absolutely ridiculous. Gray couldn't do jack to him before and suddenly rage mode allows him to defeat him? Heck, rage mode is normally considered a disadvantage, but FT seems to consider it a power-up for some inexplicable reason. I'm hoping Invel simply uses more Ice Slave Magic to complete Gray's descent into darkness, drops the E.N.D. bombshell and simply withdraws to watch the results of his handiwork. Would be bloody awesome. Not gonna happen, just like bloody Juvia is never going to stay down like she should, but one can be optimistic, yeah?