September 25, 2014

Fairy Tail -- ep 198

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It's been a hell of a day, but the excitement is all over now because the good guys won, so Lucy gives into an impulse and hugs Natsu. Who doesn't seem to mind.

I've always thought the relationship between Natsu and Lucy was noteworthy because it was so atypical. Lucy is in love with Natsu and everyone in the guild knows it except Juvia and Natsu himself. I don't quite understand Natsu's reaction to it all. It's not like Lucy is throwing herself at him the way Juvia does Gray, of course, but he knows he's special to her, and she's special to him. Even so sometimes it seems like she's in his friend zone.

Or maybe it's just that he doesn't know what to do, or he's got other things on his mind. Or maybe it's residual left over from when Lisanna died.

In one of the OVA's, a lot of the women from the guild were down on the beach and had a "who loves whom" contest, or something like that, and one of them brought up Lucy and someone else said, "That's Natsu, right?" and they all nodded. It isn't any secret how she feels about him.

I guess she's patient. Assuming neither of them dies violently (which is a real possibility considering some of the jobs they've been on) there's time. She's supposedly only 17. I don't think we know how old Natsu is; I'm not even sure he knows. But it's about that same age, within a couple of years.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 09:31 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 261 words, total size 2 kb.

1 "I guess she's patient."  

In Hollywood, the Hero will get the Girl before the credits roll. Western storytelling used to do the "I'll be waiting for you" ending, but it's pretty uncommon now (unless someone's retelling an old chivalric-love-era story.)

But Japan still does it.  Quite often.  Makoto Shinkai has made a career out of it.

Posted by: Mikeski at September 25, 2014 10:53 PM (luDkn)

2 From early on Lucy seemed to become the focal point of the show. I assume it is because . It is a wonderful choice because she isn't the one who saves the day. She always helps, but she gets saved as often as she (helps with) saves. This places her in a better position as the observer.

Natsu is the central hero. As ensemble as the show is, especially with the five (six if you count Gajeel) plus three characters always in the story, Natsu is the one who rises to the occasion and takes out the final bad guy.

Put those two together and it is a Lucy/Natsu show. I realy wished that Lisanna . I think that Natsu doesn't think of either Lisanna (past) or Lucy (present) as romantic interests. I just don't think his brain worked at that level.

When his brain shifts to the other reason girls are great, we might hear the reaction all the way over hear. I hope they never do that.

Posted by: topmaker at September 27, 2014 06:38 PM (2yZsg)

3

Lucy has always been the audience-viewpoint character, and the show has always been about Natsu, although not exclusively so. The central seven-member team is of course the focal point of the show, which works well in part because they're well conceived characters with well-conceived powers.

I would have very much not liked it if Lucy has constantly been damsel-in-distress. That does happen, several times in the canon, but there are also cases where Lucy saves the day.

It actually made sense that Lucy should be included with Gray, Happy, Natsu, and Erza. Certainly Lucy is far less powerful than anyone except Happy, but she contributes something different to the group, on a social level. Erza intends to make it so that Gray and Natsu are not at each other's throats constantly, and when Lucy is around, Gray and Natsu are not as aggressive towards each other. By the time of the Grand Magic Games they aren't really antagonistic at all.

Initially, Gray and Natsu seem to hate one another and they're both scared shitless of Erza, but everyone likes Lucy and she helps keep the team together. I think Erza knows it, and it's the main reason Erza wants Lucy to stay in the team. (There's also what Lisanna said, that Natsu is stronger when he's fighting for someone he cares about.)

Besides which, Lucy isn't useless. She goes where the others go, and doesn't complain (much) and she fights as hard as she can, and against some kinds of opponents she does really well. She's good against swarms of mundanes (like non-magical soldiers) in particular, what with having room-clearers like Virgo and Scorpio available as needed.

In the Battle of Fairy Tail, up against the Raijinshi (SP?) Erza defeated Evergray, which wasn't much of a surprise. Mirajane defeated Fried, which also wasn't a surprise since she did her first Demon-takeover since Lisanna died. And Lucy defeated Bixlo, which was astounding. Gajeel was totally blown away by it.

You may say, "No, it was Loke who defated Bixlo." So what? Loke is her spirit, and she fights by summoning spirits. It was her magic that did it, and it's a legitimate victory for her.

As you say, it's nice that Lucy isn't incompent but also isn't a Mary Sue. She does well, but no one (including her) thinks of her as being in the top rank of the guild. I like that.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 27, 2014 07:51 PM (+rSRq)

4

Another thing that's nice is that Lucy is not just another pretty face (and body).

She is a pretty face (and body!) but that's not all there is to her. And since she's the audience viewpoint character it means she's on camera a lot, so we do get to look at her.

(Although there are an amazing number of gorgeous babes in the guild. The men vary all over the place including some that are outright ugly, but all the women are young and beautiful, and stacked (except Levy, who doesn't seem to mind).)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 27, 2014 07:57 PM (+rSRq)

5 Every so often the stories hint at an amazing amount (or type?) of magic Lucy has. Some are explained away as the villain needing a celestial key magician, but other stories seem to imply she has a strength that we have not seen yet. I don't know if this is merely a plot device, and to be honest I don't want Lucy to have this great strength. I need her to be as much "like me" as they can keep her and still be a magician.

It is mentioned, for instance, that she is rare in being able to open many gates without harming herself. Originally they made a big deal out of two, but Lucy has had many more open at one time since then.

If they come out of their own volition it might not hurt her as much?

Posted by: topmaker at September 28, 2014 03:47 PM (2yZsg)

6

The type of magic isn't outrageous, or at least it didn't used to be. There used to be lots of summoners out there; Lucy even fought one (Angel).

Lucy is unusual, however, in the number of gold keys she owns. By the Grand Magic Games she has 10 of the 12, which may well be unprecedented. And there's been considerable attrition, leading Yukin to speculate that she and Lucy are the only Celestial Summoners still around.

Her ability to summon two at once isn't unprecedented, though; Angel could do that, without apparent distress. Summoning three at once (in the manga's current plot arc) may not be so common, and

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 29, 2014 10:28 AM (+rSRq)

7 And she did

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 29, 2014 10:32 AM (+rSRq)

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