#Anti Nalu

[terriluvss]

anti nalu shipper: I don’t see it I think their sibling coded

Nalu shipper: eRm WeLl aCtuAllY *pulls out not canon fanarts, and random times where Lucy accidentally fell on him in a weird way.* s-See thIs is pRoOf thEir nOt siBling coded

Yeah because nonconsenual groping is so romantic (sarcasm)

[riexlu]

so i’m just getting back into the FT fandom. i was a HUGE fan circa 2018 but faded out after a couple years. i didn’t know there was a divide between nalu/anti-nalu shippers?? is it new?

[natsubeatsrock]

Lisanna Makes Me Hate My Fandom More

Is Lisanna overrated by her fans?

No.

I can't believe that I even have to argue this.

And yet here we are.

I even debated the necessity of this post. Do we need another post saying fandom doesn't value Lisanna? Do we really need ANOTHER one?

Well, I need to get back into this writing on this blog somehow.

I reblogged a post about how fans worship characters you dislike some time ago. Someone reblogged my post all but saying they don't like how Lisanna's elevated over others because of filler moments by her fans. I know the person is a Nalu shipper, but I want to keep this about Lisanna. I have to imagine they think fans of Lisanna elevate her over Lucy. I'm not really interested in talking about that. All I care about is that argument about Lisanna's importance.

Part of me agrees with this. Much of the noise made about Lisanna comes from overestimating her relevance before coming back. This post wouldn't exist if I didn't like her, at the very least. However, as I've mentioned, she wasn't built up like multiple other characters or elements in the series.

Do I think we're on the same wavelength about this idea? Almost certainly not. If you think otherwise, remember that they ship Nalu.

But why make a post about this?

Honestly, this post has been on the back burner for years. I've posted it now as a prelude to another post I've been working on. Despite talking about Lisanna almost too much, I don't think I've emphasized something enough.

I've been talking about how fans handle Lisanna, given canon. I happen to be more generous than others are. Though, I have the opposite view of the situation. I don't think fandom does enough with Lisanna. Especially considering everything we've gotten from her.

I've done this a few times, but entertain me. Put Natsu & the Dragon Egg and everything the anime added to the side for a moment. (I need to talk about that special one of these days.) What has Fairy Tail actually told us about Lisanna?

Lisanna is the younger sister of two fan-favorite characters, Mirajane and Elfman. She'd had a close relationship with the series protagonist before the series started. (Yes, I'm considering Natsu as the protagonist for now.) About two years before Lucy met Natsu, she was presumed dead after a mission didn't go well. However, she was actually transported to another dimension. She spent two years working with an alternate version of Fairy Tail, pretending to be their version of Lisanna.

I know that's only a paragraph's worth of information. Admittedly, canon doesn't show a lot of this information. You're not getting the same focus on Lisanna as you would any member of the Strongest Team. Heck, you're not getting the same focus on her as people like Juvia or Cana at nearly any point of Fairy Tail. We've seen more of Mira and Elfman individually after Lisanna returned than just Lisanna over the entire series.

But let's break down each sentence of that paragraph.

Are fans doing a whole lot with Lisanna's relationship with her siblings? Are people writing about the Strauss kids as siblings? What do they think of each other? How has their relationship been affected by their experiences before and since joining Fairy Tail?

Are fans doing a whole lot with Lisanna's relationship with Natsu? I know most people dismiss their past relationships as currently irrelevant. However, it doesn't seem as though Mashima's forgotten about it. What about their past relationship affects their current relationship? What would a partnership between them look like at this point in the series? (I say this knowing this isn't very likely with the sequel's current events.) Is it possible that they could become closer than they are now in canon?

Are fans doing a lot with the mission that supposedly killed Lisanna? How does this affect those close to Lisanna? How do they treat her once she's back? How does the rest of the guild think of the situation?

Are fans doing a lot with Lisanna's time with Edolas? She spent two years with alternate versions of nearly every character in Fairy Tail. How does this affect her views of characters she didn't know before going to Edolas? How does she feel about Edolas and Edolas Fairy Tail? Does she resent being away from Earthland for so long or miss being in Edolas?

As far as I can tell, most people don't address these questions. People don't seem really interested in trying to read into Lisanna's relationships with her siblings or Natsu beyond potential shipping drama. People aren't interested in how Lisanna being in Edolas impacts anyone or anything in the series.

Now, people care about answering these questions. I've talked about these things quite a bit since Fairy Tail ended. My stories involving Lisanna in-series treat her time in Edolas as formative. And I've read several stories that provide answers to these questions from a number of perspectives.

However, most fans don't write about Lisanna thinking about these things. Has fandom moved past the kind of Lisanna that maliciously sabotages Lucy's place in the guild? Can't say. However, they're not doing a whole lot positive with her now.

"Why does it matter? Mashima obviously decided not to do a lot with Lisanna. Why would fans care about a character the series didn't do much with?"

The funny thing is that it's actually the opposite. Fans do (and should) care about Lisanna because there weren't canon answers to the questions surrounding her. Fans are interested in how these questions could be answered.

And frankly, this wouldn't be the first time. Mashima has done hilariously little with Meredy. But fans love her and create stuff for her all the time. She's one of my favorite minor characters to ship.

Heck, we got more of Levy because fans wanted to see more of her after Phantom Lord. The anime got Changeling to introduce Levy before Phantom Lord. However, there wasn't much else to her relevance to the series before and during that arc. It wasn't until the Fantasia arc that Levy became more plot-relevant and active. Mashima's gone on record to say fans are the reason why.

Fans have argued that Lisanna should have stayed dead for years. I've argued against this numerous times before. I've never understood why this matters to people. Of all the death fakeouts, why is Lisanna's such a big deal for fans? Mashima's written sloppier comebacks for characters. He's brought back characters with less importance. Why is Lisanna where fandom draws the line?

"What else do you expect from the Nalu vermin?"

Calm down, Chris. Of course, shipping has something to do with this. Nalu was always going to be popular with fans. Nalu is synonymous with the fandom. I've seen bias against Nali at work, even where it doesn't make sense.

However, you're not seeing the anti-Gruvia crowd write stories about Juvia being tortured and/or staying dead en masse. The issue with most isn't even with Juvia herself. Isolate her from Gruvia, and the problem is solved. The anti-Gruvia crowd falls into two camps: put Juvia with someone else or keep her away from Gray. Unless we're willing to argue that either is equivalent to killing Juvia, we don't have a discussion. (What day is today, again?)

The closest thing fandom's come up with for Lisanna is Bixanna. Unlike many ships, it feels like the fandom exists to give Lisanna someone to love. In fact, there's a small gap between AO3 stories with Bixanna and Nali. However, much of Bixanna's stories have the ship as a side attraction. Nali stories usually focus on Nali. That's telling on its own.

One last thing before the end. It feels irresponsible to end this post without making a suggestion to write Lisanna. Is there a good way to write Lisanna?

Incidentally, the anime gave us a solid approach. Lisanna has a tendency to tease others. We see it with Natsu at different ages in Natsu and the Dragon Egg. We see it with Elfman on Tenrou Island. If you're wondering, that crack about marrying Natsu aligns with that. That was also in the original chapter, so it's not without precedent from Mashima.

If you're writing Lisanna, you don't have to fall into many pitfalls other writers do. She doesn't have to be evil. She doesn't need to be possessive of Natsu. She doesn't have to be Mirajane's little shipping gremlin. (The fact that this is the best of these worries me.) She doesn't have to be the sacrificial lamb. At least make her a fun character to read.

In Conclusion:

Drink your respect Lisanna juice. This is not a request. This is a command.

[dailygraylu]

[anti-gruvia-blog]

I'm so tired of having to sift through Nalu and Gruvia content just to find some Graylu content on the Gray and Lucy tags. It's annoying that the entire fandom seems to revolve around these two pairings, and it feels like there's no space for other ships to be appreciated. Can't we have some diversity in the fandom?

[shinpikurage]

Couldn't include every single one I stumbled upon AO3 sorry :( so if you like any other one, even if it's a crackship or really rare, please do tell! I love Lucy ships

[rururi-chan]

@spacepolice vs me and @grayluforever

me and @grayluforever and other graylu shippers:*minding our own buiseness and enjoying graylu*

@spacepolice:you can't do that!!!!! Nalu and gruvia are canon and graylu is fanon!!!!!!

Us:and? We don't care lol!

@spacepolice:stop shipping graylu cuz nalu and gruvia are canon

Us:no

@spacepolice:WHY ARE YOU BEING SO TOXIC????!!!

Us:bruh

[yukii0nna]

💙 Fairy Tail

Nalu

Don't get me wrong, as a brotp they're pretty cool but as a romantic ship, it kinda soured for me over the years. What with the being strangled by the red string and all. The friendship is still sweet to me. In fact, I imagine them as each other's wingmen. I just have other options for them as a couple that's all.

@punkeropercyjackson @bakawitch @kousaka-ayumu

[xkeyairuh]

hello sorry for disturbing you but are you a graylu shipper? tbh gruvia and nalu are both very forced ships imo

I am a Gray//lu shipper. However, I'm not interested in putting energy in gru//via or na//lu. I let people ship what they do as long as it's not weird. My opinions on both ships are redundant and won't change the minds of those who ship it, so I don't push any narrative of mine.

I just enjoy my ships in my corner of the internet and don't interact with ships I don't like.

[freakinname]

I'LL NEVER SHIP NALU! NEVER! AND YOU CAN'T CHANGE MY MIND!

[cheesydelphox]

Heya, I got two questions:

Why do you like Mest and Lahar so much?

What are your problems with Nalu? Is it because the ship feels forced?

my feelings on mest are less of a "like" and more of a fascination. i look at him like a human looks at a bad car crash. he is disgusting and gruesome and tragic and because of that i cannot look away due to a fascination that only exists because of a human's primal urge to Understand. i want to pick apart his brain like i would pick the pips off the world's largest blackberry. anyway.

i like lahar because uh..... i actually don't know. he's not important, he's not interesting, he's not relatable, he's not ANYTHING. he's barely a character. i really can't say why i like him. he is a cop that is determined to arrest people who are determined to become better. literally everything i stand against irl is embodied in this man and yet i love him. my fondness comes not from attraction but a sympathy. nobody thinks about him. nobody cared that he died. i relate to that omnipresent knowledge that i am forgettable. maybe if he was my 5th grade teacher i would be better off than i am today. i like his hair. idk.

i think the reason i'm so obsessed with them is more of hyperfixation than actual "like" (although it's painful to admit that because they've become so important to me and helped me cope with so much bullshit in my irl life)

as to why i don't like nalu, yes it feels forced. but not only that, natsu treats lucy horribly and everyone brushes over that fact. he is constantly invading her personal space and touching her in ways she does not consent to. he makes fun of her and assaults her and it is expected for her to like him regardless of that. i can't stand it. lucy is wonderful. she does not deserve to be treated like that.

[fictionalnation]

I literally shop hibiki and lucy more than nalu, I just dont see it lol

[natsubeatsrock]

Listen, I know I criticize Nalu fans a lot. But getting mad at Mashima not drawing grafitti for Nalu Day is wild.

[dailygraylu]

On the other hand, Gray treats Lucy with great care. Who is more likely to date Lucy, Natsu or Gray? If you ask me, I would definitely say that Gray has a better chance! I can say that.

[anti-gruvia-blog]

Erza encouraged Juvia to pursue Grey, even though it seemed obvious that Gray was not interested in reciprocating her advances. This kind of support from a friend like Erza is misguided and unhelpful, as it reinforces Juvia's harmful and inappropriate actions towards Gray. Meanwhile, Natsu's admonishment of Gray for dumping Juvia's butt is inappropriate and shows a lack of understanding of the complexity of the situation. It seems to prioritize Juvia's feelings over Gray's own autonomy and boundaries, which is problematic.

Erza should respect Gray's choice and stop enabling Juvia. It's important that Erza recognizes Gray's boundaries and autonomy, and stops pushing a relationship on him that he has clearly stated he isn't interested in.

Natsu's criticism of Gray's actions towards Juvia in this instance may seem hypocritical, given that Natsu himself left Lucy without any notice, explanation, or apology for an entire year.

[fairytail-multishipper]

7, 19, 22 of the salty ask list

Salty Ask List

7. Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?

answered here!

19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

Ship wars/toxic shippers. I’m so tired of it, especially when people tell me I have to ship Gruviugh because “it’s canon” or I can’t ship Nali because “Nalu is canon.”

22. Popular character you hate?

answered here!