Hello, people. So after a discussion on Rai's latest review blog, I decided to write my first blog in over a year. This blog is a list of the ten characters in Fairy Tail which disappointed me or let me down more than any other. I encourage you all to read it and post your thoughts below. Before I start though, let's go through something:
What this blog is not:
- A rant. For the most part, at least. I was keen to avoid using bad language or caps to make my point or feelings look stronger, despite often having angry feelings.
- A hate list. While I may dislike some of the characters on this list, the purpose of this blog is to state which ones disappointed me the most. While I may dislike some, I do like others in some ways. The purpose of this blog is not to allow me to hate on anyone.
- An attack. Nobody's favorites are being attacked so don't get your panties in a bunch. You know who you are. Even if I mention you by name, it's not personal.
- Definitive. Things change. Fairy Tail is an ongoing series. Some of these characters could potentially be removed from this list, some can increase or decrease in rank and others can be added entirely.
- Fact. This blog is my opinion. My opinion is subjective and based on what I like. Nobody's opinion on anything is "fact". End of story.
Now on with it:
Most Disappointing Characters[]
Yeah, he's crying >_>
Zeref. Those of you who listen to our podcast will know that Hungry calls Zeref the character who disappointed him the most. While I can certainly understand his reasoning, I myself having imagined Zeref to look, sound and act far more threatening than he does, I rank him much lower than #1 simply because I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. True, with his turn to the darkness in chapter 340, or rather, a more significant step towards it than before, I see Zeref as the ultimate or penultimate bad guy of the series and with the Dragon arc that should be coming up soon. On the other hand, yeah, Zeref is just a kid and I initially imagined him looking far more intimidating like Starjun of Toriko, for example. However, with I have a feeling we'll see more of him and he'll reveal a real badass side of himself that we would not expect. Unfortunately, we are going to have to sting to him with the way we have seen him, us having seen him as a sullen teenager for over 150 chapters now. For the supposed ultimate evil, this is rather a disappointing way to get to know him. Would you expect him to be a badass who makes entire countries shake or some brooding youth whom we could probably find at the local bus stop? As such, Zeref, although disappointing, has a lot of potential he just isn't showing. It's not like other cases which will be mentioned where he showed it and then stopped, but here, he simply never started showing his potential and given all we have heard, we know it is a lot.
The Fodder Knights
The Garou Knights. Yeah, they're 5 of them and I don't care in the least about that. They all share the spotlight here because they were all introduced at the same time, for the same purpose, beaten at the same time and ended up with the same conclusion. Now I think we all know that the Garou Knights, while not necessarily fodder like the Fiore army men were, were not going to be taken seriously by most cause there was simply no reason to have them in the story other than to slow down Natsu and co. during their rescue. Let me add that the huge dude and Uosuke both look weird as hell, the other dude looks pretty stereotypical, The girls are alright I guess, but nothing particularly special. Kamika totally ripped her look off Eclair, but I'm not gonna dwell on that. Anyways, even though we all knew there wasn't gonna be anything significant about these guys, Mashima still hyped them up by talking about how they were powerful executors and nobody ever survived them. Uosuke in particular was said to (in the translation I had read) only leave the bones of his victims behind. So even if we weren't gonna really care about them, we could have at least been proven wrong by these guys using some amazing Magic worthy of making them the kingdom's executors but rather, not one of them has a Magic I found interesting, the leader has not shown any Magic at all and as a whole, they get dealt with far too easily to really be believable as real threats. Not only did they get beaten in fights with the rescue team, but they got pulled into Future Rogue's shadow and disappeared for almost 15 chapters before somehow having returned. I'll reiterate that while I had no real expectations for them initially, the simple fact that Mashima still hyped them up and then failed to deliver at all just disappoints me. He could have easily proven me wrong by making these guys credible threats and subverting our expectations but it's pretty clear even he didn't care for them, which begs the question of whether or not he could have just created a better obstacle for the gang when they were rescuing Lucy. I'd also like to add that even now, we do not know the names of their leader and that big guy who uses acid. I guess Mashima was too busy disappointing us to care.
From this...
Orga Nanagear. I guess the thing that really sets him up here for me that who he was meant to interact with: Laxus. When you have a character like Laxus who is nothing short of a certified badass, you need to give him a good rival when you plan to give him one at all. Orga initially fit the bill in the way he took out Warcry with ease. Yes, Quatro Puppy was basically fodder with only Bacchus being something of an exception but still, taking out a guy in one shot does show something of an impressive skill level. Laxus even took notice of his skill when he did this and again in the MPF event when he scored 10x higher than Millianna. The two were finally set to go up against one another on the 5th day of the GMG when Orga finally revealed what we all were waiting for: he was the Lightning God Slayer. By all means, this should've been a more epic battle than any previous God Slayer vs. Dragon Slayer battle and while we know Laxus would've won due to being a Fairy Tail Mage, this still could've been considered the hardest battle he'd ever fought to win.
...to this...
But what happened!? Jura Neekis has to stick his bald head into their business and ask to join their fight! Not only is this complete bs on the ground that he if wanted to win, he should have just attacked them by surprise when they were focused on one another, but Orga actually decides that he wants to take him on alone even though the dude scored almost 3x as much as him in the MPF. So what happens? The one-shotter gets one-shotted! Seriously, was it so hard for Mashima to let the two Lightning users go at it? Surely it'd have been more epic than what actually happened, with Laxus and Orga being on par yet Jura can one-shot Orga but lose to Laxus. Frankly, Orga's loss is his own fault and while he deserves it, I still wish Laxus had a good rival.
No caption necessary
Yukino. This one is a funky one cause I actually like Yukino. It's probably just me liking her appearance and using her personality to try and justify it but I'm digressing and I'll start on why I was disappointed in her. Yukino was first introduced as a Sabertooth Mage and we thought she was one of the 5 who supposedly helped the guild become #1. Now this was shortly revealed to not be the case after she lost her first and only real battle in the series against Kagura, which is pretty much why she's on this list. Now she's a Celestial Spirit Mage and we've been told right from the start of the series that those of the 12 Zodiac Keys are the most powerful of them all. So imagine what exactly we would have expected when we saw that Yukino had two of them. Obviously, I was expecting her to be highly competent with them but not only that, since she was in Sabertooth which was hyped up to be the strongest guild in Fiore. Thus, I personally was expecting her to show something amazing with her spirits and demonstrate usage of them that even Lucy could not compare to. Suffice it to say that I was very disappointed (to say the least) in how both Pisces and Libra were summarily beaten by Kagura who demonstrated little to no interest in the battle, having seemingly defeated them without much effort. The anime takes this up to 11, where Kagura's Gravity Magic overpowers Libra, whose only known Magic is shown to be Gravity Magic.
This was not nearly as cool as it looks
But even worse than Yukino's Gold Key Spirits losing is what happens next. Now some time back, a thirteenth sign was added to the Zodiac, Ophiuchus, also known as Serpentarius, the Serpent Holder. Now how official it is is debatable and that's not the real reason I'm bringing it up. As it turns out, the Fairy Tail world supposedly recognizes this sign as a 13th one which was hidden away from the others and is supposed to surpass them in power. So naturally, I expect this thing to be powerful as balls and carry over the fight into the next chapter, where Kagura should ideally have more trouble with it. Oh how wrong was I? After making this eerie-ass entrance to the battlefield, Ophiuchus is sliced by Kagura like sushi and Yukino utterly fails.
Would it have really harmed anything to let Yukino show some power? How exactly does one contract with two Gold Spirits and not actually have any demonstrable power? Let alone the 13th zodiac spirit which is supposed to be above all of them but gets taken out faster than Roger Clemens at a baseball game. If Yukino had later had a chance to show her power than she could have easily been redeemed and probably spared from this list entirely but that would depend on A) That actually happening and B) Kagura actually being all that she was cracked up to be, which I'll get to later. Sorry Yukino, but at least you're sympathetic and cute.
Fangirling personified
Juvia Lockser. Juvia was once a character who had a lot of promise. She was a top Mage in Phantom Lord and did a lot of helpful things like work with Lucy to beat Vidaldus and sacrifice herself for Cana back in the Fighting Festival arc. But frankly, Juvia's last significant moment was back on Tenrou Island when she beat Meredy with the power of "love" in a display that I will admit I found less annoying than most others. However, after that she becomes pretty much nothing more than Mashima's gag toy who exists only to be either fanservice or ship-tease for Gray since all she could pretty much do from then on was say "Gray-sama, touch spank my butt" or something to that effect. Since she lost pretty much any or all of her importance, over the course of the last several arcs, she's just been reduced to a giggling girl who serves no purpose other than to hit on an Gray and be fanservice. The whole "Juvia has a crush on Gray" thing is getting tiresome at this point. Scratch that. It's been tiresome long before this point. While I don't say I hate her like I hate Happy, I really couldn't care less for her at this point. I'd be fine with her dying to be honest as long as something good could come out of it. Of course, that's not gonna happen. We all know in the end she'll marry Gray. Why? Cause it's Mashima writing this thing. When Gray died trying to protect her, Mashima had to revive him so he could ship tease them more, probably pissing off a lot of the shippers later on when Gray more or less rejected her at the ball in chapter 338 even if other people think that if he doesn't want her, he should be allowed to say so and she should just get over it cause Fiore has a ton of hot men and it's a small country with so much more out there. I guess here, the statement is that I am disappointed in Juvia because while she can do a lot of things, her more prominent traits and only order of business seem to be fangirling and comedy rather than actually being productive or being able to get her head out of the clouds, something she can't seem to do even in the most serious of situations. At this point, all I can hope for personally is for her to finally do that which she has been capable of and stop being comic relief cause frankly, we don't need it from her and even when we get it, it's rarely funny.
Beware the paper cuts
Ivan Dreyar. Ivan was the guild master of Raven Tail, which was supposedly the only Dark Guild not affiliated with the Balam Alliance and yet it was considered to be on par with those three guilds in the map Mirajane drew. You would think that the guild master of such a guild would have to be super-strong but apparently not. You would think that Ivan would have to be super strong since his father was one of the 10 Wizard Saints and his son became super strong as a teenager, and yet this is apparently not the case. I'll just start with a theory that the reason Gildarts doesn't like Ivan is cause they used to be partners but Ivan put Gildarts' life in danger but Gildarts survived and for his behavior, Makarov excommunicated Ivan. Alright, I know that's a theory and Ivan didn't necessarily have to be on par with Gildarts (he ain't) but it's still a reasonable expectation that he'd be very powerful. After all, he created an illusion nobody could see through, not even Makarov or Mavis or Erza with her artificial eye. Despite this, Laxus had absolutely no problem taking out him and his elite members. Beating Flare could only be expected since Lucy nearly beat her and I think Lucy has nothing on Laxus. Nullpudding would've only been a minor annoyance at best since his best weapon seemed to be trickery in Hidden and without it, he could be taken out fairly easily. Kurohebi still should have been someone hard for Laxus to take out since he had Copy Magic but being beaten in the end would have still been expected. I can even let it go that Laxus beat Obra by speed-blitzing him before he could drain his Magic, since I guess such a technique would require set-up time. But Ivan being beaten by his son was what I would call bullshit. Ivan should easily have been the winner of the fight between those two and yet the only Magic he apparently knows is Shikigami Magic. Even after commenting that Laxus should know his strength, Ivan gets taken out in one shot by him in the next chapter and gets sent flying. Not only is this victory on Laxus' part enormous bullshit but it begs the question as to how the hell did Raven Tail remain independent of the Ballam Alliance if a single Mage can beat all of them so easily when he was not even one shown to be considered particularly powerful in the long run at that given time. If I had personally done this fight, Laxus would have lost after taking out most of them, but the deception would have been revealed, thus the guild would have been disqualified and Fairy Tail B would have gotten their 10 points. Not only am I disappointed with Ivan's Magic but I'm disappointed with him losing to his son but even more than that, I'm pissed that he actually begged for Laxus not to hurt him by claiming that they were "family". I mean, really? He's your family and yet you only viewed him as an investment up to this point seeing as you put Dragon Slayer Lacrima inside him? It's obvious that he was bullshitting about thinking of Laxus as family and while it's nice that Laxus didn't fall for it, it's freakin' stupid to see this guy beg his son not to hurt him when he has, up till now, been shown as more of a calculating man than some kind of cheap coward. And let's face it, even if he were going to beg for Laxus not to attack him, shouldn't he have been able to come up with a better line than some crap about family? Even in Fairy Tail, that was just out of place for a guy like him.
If only she could have always been this badass
Kagura Mikazuchi. Yeah, Kagura started off fairly cool in her battle against Yukino. A calm and collected individual with confidence in herself and the abilities to back them up. What started off cool went sour as hell with Kagura when, even after beating Yukino with basically no effort at all and her sword sheathed, we find out that this sword of her supposedly was forged to kill Jellal (something I doubt she has the capability to do, but w/e) and that when it is unsheathed, a cataclysm will happen. Sadly, her only role in the story at this point becomes that of a revenge seeker who hates Jellal and later Fairy Tail for hiding him in Team B. This extends to the point of making her visibly sick when he's around, something that makes no sense to me to this day. Hate him, sure? Get sick? Please. Still, Kagura doesn't actually become anything disappointing until the fifth day of the GMG. Her battle against Lyon and Yuka isn't even shown in the manga but we know she held back. On the fifth day, this is where she finally shows some more of her abilities in her 3-way fight against Erza and Minerva but she shows more against Erza in their one-on-one by basically beating her senseless with her sword sheathed. Now once we start getting into the more personal aspects of her character is where it all falls apart. Fine, Simon was her brother, no issue there but the issue is when Erza takes responsibility for his death and Kagura decides to unsheathe her sword. The simple swing of it destroys what looks like a few city blocks but Erza somehow blocked it with her sword and didn't even take any damage from this attack.
Yeah, I'm sure lots of people were upset over this crap
Alright, this isn't Twilight levels of bullshit but this is too much. The simple act of this swing should've killed Erza but not only does Erza block her swing but actually requips into her pajamas and Kagura is taken out in one freakin' shot. I'm obviously upset about Kagura losing cause man, she had already proven herself to be a superior swordswoman to Erza with the blade of her sword still sheathed but for her to be taken out in one shot is bullshit of the highest level and pretty much on par with Sting one-shotting Bacchus in terms of how absurd it is. Erza was already battered to borderline death while Kagura had taken very little damage in their fight and yet Erza still somehow pulled out a victory. Even worse, we end up with an origin story that Mashima obviously made up on the fly about "Rosemary Village", a place that had never been referenced prior but is supposedly the place where Erza, Kagura and Simon were from. Hearing this complete asspull of a story is enough to make Kagura cry and me groan over the fact that this entire origin story appears out of nowhere and hundreds of chapters after the Tower of Heaven arc where we knew Erza was a slave but did not receive a single hint about her life prior to that. I guess here, the question is whether I'm more upset about Erza winning or Kagura losing. While I know Erza's a main character and I do like her, I still call bullshit on a lot of her wins and also on Kagura not living up to her hype and being taken out in such an absurd way.
Beaten by a damn smile
Bacchus. Bacchus was easily one of the top tier disappointments to me in Fairy Tail. The dude started off as someone who was supposedly on par with Erza as a Mage and had more alcohol tolerance than Cana. He took down Macao and Wakaba with ease and although that should be easy for anyone who's above average, it was still nice to see. We really got to see him live up to a bit of that hype when he won the Chariot event and Erza commented that he had seemingly grown even stronger over the 7 years Fairy Tail's main members went missing. Despite this, he loses to Elfman in his first actual fight of the series. Yes, Elfman supposedly couldn't be hit easily due to his Lizardman takeover but this begs the question of how he fought Erza physically given that she requips armor, some of which I would assume to have better defensive properties than the skin of a wild beast. Let's then look at his 2nd failure on the 4th day of the Grand Magic Games when he gets taken out in one hit by Ichiya. Yes, Ichiya was very muscular and motivated at the time but I call bullshit that he was able to take out Rocker and Bacchus just like that. If he could do that to Bacchus, just imagine how he would fight against Erza if he actually had to. Yes, Erza said he was likely Blue Pegasus' strongest Mage but does that really justify taking out someone like Bacchus in one hit? That's not even the end of Bacchus' disappointments or even the biggest one. The biggest one comes from the 5th day of the Grand Magic Games when he gets taken out in one shot by Sting. Yes, Sting. Sting came at him with surprise on his side but that doesn't excuse him taking out someone who should be, at the very least, very savvy when it comes to battle. As bad as Sting's own losses were, he at least didn't get taken out in one shot. With these three losses under his belt, Bacchus is effectively deserving of his place in the list of the most disappointing characters in Fairy Tail for me.
Penetration in 3...2...1...
Future Rogue. The Rogue Cheney of the future. Man, I had some heavy expectations for this guy. Straight out of the dark and desolate world that was the future ruled by Acnologia, and he was out to save kill the King of the Dragons and take back the world which was ruled by the beasts. This description alone sounds epic as hell but as the story came to, we found that this is a guy who's epic in theory only. His first introduction involves him sucking in the Garou Knights and the Fiore Army away from the Rescue Team so he can talk to them and lie about how he came to make sure the Eclipse Gate isn't closed so that the Dragons can be beaten. We see here that he's an extremist who isn't above murder to accomplish his goals since he tries to kill Lucy, saying she'll be the one to close the gate, only to kill her counterpart from the future instead and thus start a fight with Natsu. SO now we know he's really a bad guy and wanted the gates to be opened since the Dragons could come through them. In this first encounter, he's very powerful, and even though Natsu's going toe-to-toe with him, he still has 14 years of experience on him (well, 7 if you wanna argue that the present Rogue's +7 years mean nothing) and soon takes control. What was good here is that Natsu even activates the Lightning Flame Dragon Mode to fight him and even that isn't enough cause Future Rogue has White Shadow Dragon Mode which he got by killing Sting and soon pummels Natsu so bad that Ultear has to save him, though given that he beat Natsu, Ultear shouldn't have been an issue for him to take out. I was really liking him here but sadly, when he took control of the Dragons and Natsu came back to fight him, that's where things went down hill. Now, aside from the issue I've mentioned before about him having years of experience over Natsu, he was also from the world ruled by Dragons and one of the few surviving humans. I would think that that would make him very physically and mentally tough to have survived in such a hell for so long but apparently not. Now as he fights Natsu, he initially has no problem beating him back till Natsu gets taken away by a flying, naked Lucy and soon returns with Atlas Flame, who helps him fight Future Rogue by taking on Motherglare. Now here is where it goes to hell. Despite earlier having lost despite using the Lightning Flame Dragon Mode, Natsu here is actually able to overwhelm Future Rogue despite the latter using the White Shadow Dragon Mode and Natsu not using any power-up. Not only that, but we also find out that he became evil cause Frosch died. Yeah, his cat died so be became a guy who wanted to rule the world. Can you spell "bad motivation"? But even as bad as that is, Future Rogue is still only second on this list. Can you guess who #1 is?
Getting his ass kicked
Sting Eucliffe. And now we are finally at #1! Sting starts out as a completely unlikable ass who doesn't give a shit about anything or anyone (other than Natsu) seeing as he supposedly shows no remorse for killing the Dragon who raised him nor any sadness for Yukino being kicked out of the guild and if anything, fully approves of them both. This does make him an unlikable character but it does give him a real personality. Yet Mashima decides to squander this in two ways. The first way is squandered by his admittance that Weisslogia allowed himself to be killed so Sting could become a "real" Dragon Slayer (yeah, that worked out well). Yeah, it's nice that Weisslogia allowed it cause allowing Sting to beat a Dragon would have been huge bullshit but this absurd turn doesn't make that alright with me. Now as for him as a Mage, I'm even more disappointed. Consistently, it was stated that he was one of the 5 Mages who made Sabertooth the #1 guild in Fiore while Fairy Tail was gone. I say it's garbage that he can be beaten by Natsu, alone and with no power-up, even with Rogue helping him. Not to mention that their Unison Raid got overpowered by Natsu's attack. Yeah, the same, super-strong technique that beat Vidaldus and supposedly one can waste their whole life trying to achieve it and never actually succeed. See why this pissed me off? The two of them make a legendary effort and they still can't win!
I'm...too big of a wuss
But undoubtedly, the biggest disappointment regarding Sting is how he completely gave up in the end of the Grand Magic Game and let Fairy Tail have the victory. Even though he knew Lector was being held and the only way he could save him was to contribute to victory (and I find it garbage that he somehow "got the feeling" that he couldn't meet him even if he won because he had no logical reason to believe that, regardless of Minerva being deceptive, not to mention the fact that she was actually telling the truth in this case about having him and I believe she would have let him go) and yet he gave up anyways. All five of his opponents were injured, especially Erza, and yet he still feels the need to surrender? I don't give a damn about the points, this is a fighting tournament so why did so many of the fights suck so bad!? This was easily the worst tournament victory I have ever read. Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho and so many more all had good tournaments and Fairy Tail's just eats their dust. We all know that Sting lost against Natsu's nakama power and Minerva tried to give him his own by hiding Lector and building up his feelings. He literally spent around 15 chapters just sitting in some prostitute-free corner of the city all sullen like Edward Cullen going on about how he would use his power and see Lector again and yet when he finally gets the chance to do so he just goes and gives up like that! I couldn't care less about his "development" as a character, because this was a huge load of crap to swallow and I call bullshit on it. Thus, I'm calling Sting the character in Fairy Tail who disappointed me the most.
Honorable Mention[]
Or perhaps "dishonorable mention" is a more appropriate heading? Regardless, this is a list of characters who, while they disappointed me, did not disappoint me as much as those I elected to put in my big list. As such, I'll try to keep this part shorter.
- Jet & Droy. These two guys share the position here. Ever since their introduction, all they have been are cheerleaders for Levy and competitors with one another for her affections even though she's turned down both of them previously. You'd think they'd give up and go for someone else given the large amount of women in Fiore (not that any would want a fatass like Droy, but still) but apparently not. Even after the timeskip, they hadn't given up on her. You would think seven years of absence and getting into your 20s would mature an individual away from a teenage crush but apparently not. Not only are their personalities disappointments but these guys have never once even won a battle. I don't consider them to have won against Gajeel cause frankly, he held back and could have kicked their asses if he wanted. Even after the timeskip, they don't seem to have become any stronger, seeing as a bunch of savages took them hostage and Gajeel and Pantherlily had to rescue them. Frankly, these guys are uninteresting, 1-joke characters who make the characters from Hetalia look entertaining.
- Rogue Cheney. Now Rogue Cheney for a while was in the same boat as Sting, because he was his partner and utterly failed in his battle against Gajeel and later against Natsu on the 4th day of the Grand Magic Games. True, he wasn't expected by me or (I think) by most to be on par with Erza, for example, but he certainly did not live up to his hype that day. However, I did forgive him to an extent later due to his battle against Gajeel. While he initially got his ass kicked, he then became possessed by some kind of freaky spirit that even Mavis didn't recognize. I don't really consider that much of a bs power-up as, for example, Erza's Nakagami Armor or Natsu getting Lightning Flame Dragon Mode back on Tenrou Island. This one took over his body and what was great about it is that it only left after Gajeel summarily kicked his ass.
- Jellal Fernandes. How long does one have to beat themselves up over what they did in the past, exactly? Jellal is one of the most versatile characters in Fairy Tail and he's also one of my favorites but there's a thing called too much angst.
- Ichiya. Ichiya is, to put it simply, an annoyance. He's ugly, short and what every man doesn't want to be. He hits on a girl who is way to pretty for him and (as many fans will argue) belongs to someone else. Ichiya's a funky case cause, though Erza calls him Blue Pegasus' strongest Mage his feats are.....inconsistent, to say the least. He was the only member of the Alliance back in the Nirvana arc to be captured by the enemy. Yet later on in the series, he's able to take out Bacchus in one shot, despite him supposedly being on par with Erza and having for her to a standstill many times before with no winner. Despite this victory, he was the only member of Blue Pegasus still standing on the 5th day and claimed he would bring victory. So then what happens? He gets one-shotted by Jura >_> Now Jura is strong, and he got Ichiya by surprise, but is a simple karate chop to the head really enough to take out this guy? Frankly, I call bullshit on it. In my opinion, Ichiya's best moment as a character is in the KotSS arc when he stayed on the ship to fight off Kanaloa and let everyone else escape. Sadly for him, it's anime-only.
Afterword[]
Now a lot of you reading this may be wondering why I didn't include any of the main characters on this list. It's understandable, given that I've complained about Natsu hogging the spotlight, commented on Gray being boring and mentioned many times how much I hate Happy but there's a simple reason for that. To put it simply, none of them disappointed me as much as the characters I've listed. I'll explain...
Erza is a badass swordswoman, she's loyal to her friends, a developed character and she's super hot. To put it simply, she's something that a lot of girls in animanga are not. She's not been useless for the majority, if any, of her time *cough*Sakura*cough* nor has she been overly annoying *cough*Orihime*cough* or even particularly condescending *cough*Hilda*cough* to the main character. I'm not saying I completely hate any of those characters, cause I like Hilda and even Sakura and Orihime have their good moments, but I like Erza more than all of them. Yes, she has had a lot of victories that were bullshit like beating Azuma and beating Kagura but unlike the above examples, I did not find them to diminish her worth as a character nor did they make me disappointed in her but rather, they only served to show and make me disappointed in Mashima's inability to write a good fight with one of his best characters.
Lucy gets a lot of flack for being a blonde with huge boobs and a nice ass and is ridiculed as just being "fanservice". I think the sides of supporters and opposition are about even but I side with the support of her as a character. Lucy is an intelligent girl who is well-versed in the history of her world, she usually provides the voice of reason in a group of people who can effectively be called cavemen to a large extent and she can hold her own in a fight. Yes, she relies on her Celestial Spirits but this typical of summoner-type characters. I can agree that her body being used for fanservice happens too often but it doesn't serve as a reason for me to dislike her or even be disappointed in her. She only lost to Flare because of Obra's illegal intervention, for example. Even in Naval Battle, she did her best against overwhelming odds and because Minerva had the natural advantage with her Magic, and she would have lost that regardless of whether or not she was a Celestial Spirit Mage.
Gray, to put it simply, is boring but he's not disappointing. I don't get angry at his victories nor even his losses because there are other forces at work for some such as Freed's Runes in his fight against Bickslow and the set-up of the Hidden event, especially seeing as that wasn't actually meant to be a straight-up fight and I'm not disappointed in Gray for losing that, especially seeing as how Rufus' Magic was pretty much perfect for it.
Alright, so as to Natsu, like with Erza, his bs victories make me more disappointed in Mashima than in him. I don't wanna get into more detail than that, especially given Natsu's status as the main character.
Happy. Well, as I've said before, I think he sucks but the only time I was ever actually disappointed in him was when Mega he failed to catch the weed vial of Moon Drip. That alone pissed me off but honestly not as much as things like Bacchus being one-shotted by Ichiya or Kagura losing to Erza.
I guess I would say that in the end, a lot of things disappoint me when it comes to characters such as characters who don't live up to their hype and characters who behave irrationally with no reason for doing so. In life, a lot of things are not going to live up to their hype and that's something we all have to accept. In fiction it's a different story because we control it as much as we want (not referring to Fairy Tail specifically here). If Mashima wanted to really utilize his characters to their fullest potential, he could and to be frank, he should. When you build up expectations, you are expected to pay them off. You have little to lose from it because good writing is its own reward.
Go ahead and comment, cause I would love to hear your opinions and see your lists if you have one. Just remember to be respectful.