#also gruvia doesn't exist

[cheesydelphox]

sometimes i get reminded of how much i hate the fairy tail canon and then remind myself "wait i can make shit up and ignore that"

[itzgruvia]

Gruvia Week 2024

Day 2: Perserverance.

type: soft/fluff/attempt of Humor, comfort.

characters: Gray Fullbuster/Juvia Lockser, Natsu Dragneel, Lucy Heartfilia, Erza Scarlet, Cana Alberona, Gajeel Redfox, and Jason.

This fanfic is also available in AO3.

"Juvia! Hurry or we'll watch it without you!" Lucy's voice rang through Gray and Juvia's house as she called for her "friend. And Juvia really wished she ceased to exist in this moment.

Her interview with Jason was released today in the Lacirama TV and it's going to be viewed worldwide, that itself was stressful for Juvia, it doesn't make it any better that Jason did not mention that her footage will be released all across Fiore.

That liar.

"i am coming!" she sighed, her heart accelerating with anxiety.

she brought the tray of food with her, they were just simple snacks she made for Natsu since she knows he'll ask about them in the middle of their watching session, and she doesn't want him to eat everything that's in her fridge.

Once Juvia came in to the living room everyone was hooked into the screen, except for Gray (and Natsu because he sniffed the snacks) who was leaning by the side of their navy blue coach, he was probably worried that she might not be comfortable.

It eased Juvia's heart a bit.

"Cheer up, it's just an interview" He said, as she bent down to put the tray on their small wooden table.

"Right, it is just an interview witnessed by the whole population of Fiore" she replied, anxiously rubbing her hands over each other. she felt Gray's hand rubbing her arm in comfort and leaned closer to her ear.

"do you want me to tell them to leave?" He suggested.

it's ideal to accept his offer since Gray isn't ashamed of calling out people, or to deny anyone's request if it doesn't sit well with her, it made her stomach flutter with awe.But she couldn't just kick her friends out, it doesn't feel right, especially since they are here for the sake of supporting her.

they don't exactly know why Juvia is avoiding the interview. Just thinking about that answer makes her fume with embarrassment, she hopes she'll melt by then.

Juvia looked at him warmly, and shook her head "Thank you Darling, Juvia appreciates it" she gave a tight grab to his hand and he smiled back, although he is unsure about her response.

Cana waved over for her to sit next in between her and Erza :" come over here star girl" she called her over with a smirk in her face, the nickname makes Juvia cringe internally.

"please don't call me that Cana" she sat down, Cana wrapped her arm over her shoulders.

"why do you feel embarrassed anyways? we are you friends, we won't judge you" her red-haired friend said while she drank tea. Juvia knows she is right but this is about Juvia's hidden guilty pleasure and she doesn't want to be laughed at or brought up to the guild.

Juvia just hummed in acknowledgment.

" besides, you've done enough embarrassing things in your life, this is nothing against it" Gajeel added, Juvia was unimpressed with his teasing and wanted to wipe off that smirk from his face.

Natsu only chuckled at that with his mouth full of blue berry biscuits she baked this morning.

"Maybe shut up and let us hear the interview? it's about to start" and comes her lover to the rescue as usual, even though she did not find the joke bothersome, it is nice to know that Gray is protective of her feelings, he doesn't show it most of the time but when he does, it's subtle, and it always catches Juvia off guard.

"Hello everyone! and welcome back to our show of Q and A with our famous mages!!" Natsu groaned as the rowdy voice disturbed his highly sensitive ears.

"why does he have to do that all the time?" he complained, while rubbing his ears gently.

"Someone has to break the news to him" Lucy added from her seat on the love chair, a frown of irritation was visible on her face.

everyone couldn't agree more, he is a good interviewer but too enthusiastic.

"today we are ready to show you our special guest! she is classy , calm like the water! gentle as the sea but also scary as the turbulence of the ocean! She was a former enemy of FairyTail!" everyone complained about the comment he made, it was completely unnecessary to bring up past disputes and mistakes, but for Juvia it wasn't that bad, even if she wants to wipe away her crimes from her past, that was still something part of her.

" an S-class mage who summons the rain around her, everyone, make some noise for....JUVIA LOCKSER OF THE SEA!!!" there was an added footage of clapping heard from the TV, and flashing lights to make her entrance exciting, it is evident that he put a lot of efforts to make it 'cool' like he usually says.

Juvia's face finally appeared on the screen.

"Here's our girl!" Cana commented, her smile brightening up, Juvia blushed slightly from the attention.

the first questions were all introductory, how Juvia was feeling today, what she ate in the morning and what she is wearing ect, then comes the part of Fans Questions that Jason usually calls FanQs, they are letters sent to the Lacirama device using an app that connects socially to everyone in the world, they get to choose the most interesting questions.

"So Juvia, how come you weren't so tired of pursuing Gray Fullbuster? wasn't he avoiding every affection?" Gray cleared his throat awkwardly, although he is trying to play it  nonchalant but Juvia can feel that he was guilty about it.

"oh, well Juvia did feel tired sometimes but she didn't fell out of love just because Gray-sama didn't love me the way I l oved him, Juvia was happy just seeing him by my side"

"ohhh what an answer!" Cana said.

"Ugh"

"That's adorable!"

"if I were you, I'd leave him" Natsu claimed, that earned him a slap behind his head from Gray.

"Cool!cool! so cool!" Jason exclaimed, making the camera shake with him:" another question from the fans, how do you keep on loving someone without feeling a burnout?"

Juvia took a moment to reply to the question, she hummed in contemplation :" Juvia thinks is because of Perseverance, Juvia didn't expect Gray-sama to fall in love with me, she just focused on being there with him every moment, if he needed help Juvia will be there, and if he needed space she will give him that"

" you would huh" Gray teased, and Juvia looked away shyly, it wasn't completely a lie but she remembered how persistent she was back then, a simple no from him wouldn't make her leave immediately.

"Cool, cool! and very romantically cool!" Juvia just smiled, averting her eyes from the camera in shyness.

"is this why you were acting embarrassed all day?" Erza asked, her cup of tea already empty.

"no, Juvia will never shy away from showing her love towards Gray-sama" she replied confidently.

And then she remembered the unsettling sensation in her stomach, soon they will realize her hidden hobby that would make the world laugh at her. She clinched her teeth.

"then why do you look like Jason is going to reveal some top secret of yours?" Erza's questions were making Juvia feel more nervous than before, especially when her brown eyes are regrading her as if she is hiding something.

"Um..." she couldn't master up any words to cover up her anxious demeanor.

"And now to the last question from the lovely fans! what is Juvia Lockser's guilty pleasure! I am sure every famous mage has some hidden hobby that makes them feel cool! so cool!"

Juvia's smile froze awkwardly on the screen, as if she was caught red-handed.

"well! Juvia is feeling tired, I should probably take a nap-" as she abruptly got up from the couch startling her friends in the process, two big hands caught her shoulders and pushed her gently and firmly down to her seat.

"sit down" Gajeel demanded, still looking at the TV.

Juvia starting to feel the heat temperature rise up.

"is there any chance Juvia could avoid this question?" she asked with shyness, and a bit guilty, she doesn't like to disappoint her fans.

"No sorry Miss Lockser, it's against the rules of FanService" he responded bluntly, Juvia knew that there was no way out to deny a journalist who has a great amount of zeal and curiosity as Jason's, and she can not make up a lie in front her fans, it makes her feel superficial.

she took a breather and sighed.

"alright, if that's what the fans want" she looked at the camera head on "In Juvia's free time, I make puppet shows alone in my apartment, I have my own puppets that I knitted and ... yes... Juvia enjoys it "

"this won't be aired all over Fiore, right?" she whispered to him and he eagerly shook his head as a yes.

"of course Miss Lockser! rest assured it is just a test for our new show!"

she should have denied agreeing with him that day.

There was silence in Juvia and Gray's salon except for the cool chanting of Jason's as he ended the show, Juvia had her face hidden behind her hands, she couldn't face her friends after her revelation, actually, she doesn't think she could face anyone in Fiore.

" That's what got you anxious the whole day?" Gray asked with a hint of amusement; she looked up at her lover who was smiling at her, and not in a teasing way but actually in wonder.

her friends were all looking at her exceptionally, as if they were waiting for her to mention something.

"what?" she asked dumbly. "Juvia you make puppet shows! that's amazing!" Lucy started, and walked excitedly towards her friend.

"yeah, puppet shows are so fun, I remember watching one when I was so little, I died laughing" Cana added with the same range of enthusiasm.

"wait so.. you don't find this embarrassing?" She asked, her friends complained loudly.

"what's there to be embarrassed about? they are just puppets" Gajeel replied, his gaze

held a little bit of softness as he looked down at her.

"well, they are puppets talking to each other and ...making voices?" she tried to find a reason to make her hobby sound unusual to her friends, but they don't seem to find it that way except for fun and creative.

"Not to mention, they are very hard to make, and it costs a lot for the material" Erza added, her eyes held a sense of pride, it made Juvia feel comforted compared to before.

"I definitely want a puppet show every time I get back from a mission" Natsu claimed. The cookie plate was all empty and no crumbs were seen.

"so why not make us one tomorrow?" He suggested, he tried to grab another cookie and found nothing but air, he grunted in disappointment.

After their friends left their house, it was filled with a good quiet ambiance, the coffee odor was filling it instead, Gray was making two cups and setting a muffin plate (that he kept hidden from Natsu because he ate too much) for their table.

"that was ... completely unexpected! Juvia's puppet show is not ridiculous?" announced the blue-haired mage as she paced around the living room back and forth, to connect the events that happened.

Gray just hummed, she knows that she kept on bringing it up, and even if her lover advised her to sit down while he started making the brunch, she couldn't help the buzzing excitement and the overwhelming sensation.

" Juvia has to make the best puppet show tomorrow! because imagine if she disappoints them?" she turned around to her Gray as he came by with the muffin plate and the two cups of coffee.

"how about you sit down first and then we'll worry about it?"

She finally sat down with the bitter taste of coffee in her mouth, drinking it slowly as she looked at the Lacirama Television showing Juvia's magazine with "PERSEVERANCE" as the headline title.

the magazine opened straight to Juvia's page, showing the passage of her interview that she had with Jason.

"Perseverance was something Juvia held to so she can keep on going, and not only to win Gray-sama's heart but it is also to find true self and to grow into someone I w ant, it wasn't easy of course, but if you obtain this as a trait, Trust me you'll accomplish anything you set your mind to, Juvia promises you that"

comments of fans were displayed under the passage, they were all showing their support and gratitude to what she said. it was heartwarming.

she felt Gray's lips on her cheek, she felt her heart about to explode.

" I'm v er y proud of you" he said softly, looking at her with amazement and love, and all Juvia could do was scream inside a pillow.

her perseverance was worth it.

[butchlesbianjellal]

Its funny how much u can love but HATE smth and also be critical of it

I hate when ppl act like they cant be critical of the things they enjoy

Like i love fairytail but i also wont pretend the insane amt of racism and pedophilia and torture porn doesn't exist

Those are rhings that need to be recognized and called out as inappropriate

I love the general idea of the show and its characters but i am incredibly critical and hateful of some of its content

I love a lot of the ships, but i also despise some of their canon interpretation

Like i love gruvia but its true that some of the stuff juvia has done is a bit too far ans borsering on sexual harassment

Same with natsu and lucy there is a lot of bad questionable things natsu has done

Gajevy ruined levy's entire characterization

Like dont get me wrong i LOVE those ships but lets be real Mashima cannot handle women and is incredibly misogynistic and thats going to impact all ships, and all characters whether boy or girl bcuz hes unable to not insert misogyny, sexual assault, lesbophobia, pedophilia, and racism as little gags

[liquorisce]

What are some of your favorite fics? It doesn't have to be aot or something you've written

omg tysm for this question I love talking about my fav fics ESP BC SO MANY OF THEM ARE NON AOT 🙈🙈 I had to go to my ffn favs for this hihi

so this is list is home to the fics that I have truly idolised, read repeatedly and tried to emulate in some way or another in my own writing journey:

1. Heartbeat by letmeannoyyoutoday. U must have heard me screaming about this fic before. It is god tier, the angstiest, the most painful Sasusaku you can imagine. There isn’t even smut in it but still I’m rendered a sobbing mess everytime I read this story. And I read it every fortnight or so, I swear. canonverse. sasusaku get married.

2. The most dangerous things by Childoftheashes. Man this fic is the tastiest thing in the ichihime fandom istg. Ichigo is unapologetically horny and bossy and slutty and I love everything about it. Orihime is absolutely clueless and drives him up a wall and it’s literally completely smut! This author is one of my smut senseis. I also really love "chasing paper tigers like dreams" by her.

3. Sometimes I think the stupidest things by starsinew. Ok I’m sorry for putting this here bc this user doesn’t have this fic up anymore (I managed to find the epub and thank fuck for that) but I had to talk about it bc this fic changed me on a fundamental level. I fell in love with it so much, even to this day I look back at it with an education lens as to how to write smut. God tier. I hope this author is well and living their best life.

4. Friends with Benefits by confused panda bear. Syaosaku, card captor Sakura. Again a story that doesn’t exist anymore online but I still remember some of the dialogues bc they were so iconic. Definitely a primer on smut writing for me. I invite you to check out their other stories tho they’re literally the harugou mother, birthing the most insane crackship in the free! fandom and getting everyone else drunk on it thanks to their god tier writing.

5. Clarity by randomteenager — angsty but silly gruvia. i love it so much.

6. Seeking Ginny by Casca. Harry/Ginny fic with heavy emphasis on Ginny's personal growth.

7. How to Coexist by Spoilerarlert and also washed up and rundown, I haven't finished it yet but fuck its amazing so far. Both are modern AU stories, one in NYC and the other in Chicago. I can't recommend this author enough, they have a very original and compelling style of writing.

8. Little Beast by herblacktights. This is my fav modern au, high school eremika. If you haven't heard me raving me about this fic already then ur obviously new here. ITS AWESOME! go read it now

9. Dog by Ackermom. floch x eren at it's unhealthiest best. canonverse. This author is one my favs actually, I devour ALL of her work, no exception. I also really enjoyed her reibert fics.

10. Icarus & I by bluinary. Armin-centric. Modern AU. I read this many years ago but I think of it often. I loved Armin's journey in this fic.

11. Three Days by Lotos-Eater. Canonverse. An angsty smutty Shikatema fic where Shikamaru thinks he's lost her.

12. For everything there is a season by SouthSideStory. If y'all are sasusaku stans then you know SouthSideStory already. She's phenomenal. This one is angsty sequel which delves into Sakura's feelings post miscarriage. I highly recommend the prequel as well.

13. Fool for you by Hand of Destiny. Syaosaku. Card Captor Sakura. Syaoran is a business mogul from a very traditional Chinese family. Sakura is an innocent girl who decides to try giving the escort profession a go. God tier, I swear. It also has a sequel!

14. lost girl & found boy. eremika. lost girls-verse. mikasa wants to know how babies are made, etc. cw: teen pregnancy.

15. all you want by senlinyu. i just binged this yesterday. holy shit. it's the big daddy of m/f omegaverse fics, I swear. dramione. canonverse + omegaverse. really really good!!!

ty for the question <3

[lucy-and-rebecca]

Queerplatonic NaLu

Before I get into this I need to define what queerplatonic means.

It is a relationship which is more intense and intimate than is considered common or normal for a "friendship", but doesn't fit the traditional sexual-romantic couple model. It is characterized by a strong bond, love, and emotional commitment, yet is not perceived by those involved as "romantic".

In other words something that is between friendship and romance.

Do you remember that chapter/episode where Mira convinces Lucy that Natsu has a crush on her? Lucy doesn't believe her at first but slowly she started seeing everything Natsu says and does as evidence of him having feelings for her. She then freaks out and has mixed feelings about being in a romantic relationship with Natsu. However eventually she becomes more comfortable with that idea. In the end she is embarassed and disappointed but this incidents does affect their relationship in any way. In that chapter Lucy went from seeing their relationship as platonic to seeing it as romantic and back to viewing it as platonic in a matter of hours.

This is what Mashima wrote about that chapter.

A lot of anti NaLu arguments claim that Mashima has already intended NaLu to be platonic. That's however not what Mashima actually said. He said he didn't intend their relationship to be romantic. I think that's important to note.

Now this is quite old and given that Mashima is from a different culture and speaks a different language, him knowing this specific term that a lot of english speakers don't know is unlikely. So it's entirety possible that he intended NaLu to be a queerplatonic relationship without knowing the specific term for that kind of relationship.

Mashima states he has been written NaLu as more than just friends but less than lovers. Something in between friendship and romance. In other words queerplatonic.

A lot of the good faith anti NaLu arguments claim that Nalu isn't a bad relationship but a platonic one. While to NaLu shippers their relationship is very obviously romantic. Both sides are convinced that their interpretation is canon. I think this happens because their relationship exists in the area between friendship and romance. It's neither or both depends on your perspective. It's friends with benefits but the benefit is that they live together and cuddle a lot.

A relationship with a strong bond, emotional commitment and love where people in the relationship don't think of their relationship as romantic does very much perfectly describe NaLu. I think Lucy has feeling for him but she doesn't necessarily view their relationship as romantic.

While not exclusive queerplatonic relationships are more common amoung aro/ace people. A lot of people including myself have speculated about Natsu being on the ace spectrum. He shows little to no sexual attraction and what little attention he does show is directed towards Lucy. Which to me feels very much like grey/demi sexual. It's something to consider.

From the begining it felt like there was something more present in their relationship. A sort of ease and tenderness that isn't typically depicted in romantic relationships

That being said I don't think their relationship was romantically coded the way Gruvia or Jelsa were.

I do think Mashima has changed his views on NaLu and is writing them to be more romantic and that's perfectly fine. As things stands now their relationship feels more on the romantic side rather than platonic and I would very much like to see them actually get together. I just don't think that was his original intention.

But regardless of intentions fairy tail is fiction and so your interpretation of NaLu be it romantic or platonic is perfectly valid. Similarly even if I'm wrong my interpretation of them being queerplatonic is also valid.

I think viewing NaLu as a queerplatonic relationship is interesting and it's something we should consider while discussing whether NaLu is platonic or romantic.

[jemmahazelnut]

Juvia for the character bingo?

I adore Juvia, I’m the only one who can speak about her and I know her better than anyone, even Mashima himself.

No, ok, of course I'm kidding, but premise: if you are a Juvia-and-Gruvia stan, this post is not for you, because I don't care about the version of a perfect and adorable Juvia who deserves the world because she's pretty and never done nothing wrong in life etc. Likewise, if you're a Juvia-and-Gruvia hater, this is no place for you, because I literally don't care if you think she's a horrible canon person who deserves to die and disappear off the face of the earth.

If you are Juvia stan and Gruvia hater (I know you exist somewhere), this is the place for you (or if you are indifferent to Gruvia, or if you like it but you are not avid shippers proclaiming Juvia as the ideal girl. Actually, idfc what you think about the ship, I just know that shippers and antis generally think in compartments and don't want to question anything, so if you belong to one or the other category, go on and see other posts).

So, now let's make two things clear before starting the discussion.

Juvia is not a lovely girl, nor is she a good person. Juvia is a fucking messed up person who has good intentions, but having not lived in a good place most of her life she has unhealthy relationships with many people, highly questionable behavior, and a very bad relationship with herself. She is also a strong and cruel woman who can kill, she will and she has already done. And despite all that, she deserves the love, but more importantly, she deserves a fucking painstakingly detailed development arc (and no, if you tell me there's no forgiveness for her, Ill get pissed, everyone have had a development arc, Jellal, Laxus, Gajeel, Cobra, Sting, etc. but Juvia doesn't deserve it? Don't even talk to me).

I won't explain all my ideas about her in this post, otherwise it would get very long because trust me, I have an Odyssey in mind, but basically:

Juvia is a girl in love with the idea of love. She has lived her whole life alone and desperately wants to make friends and find her life partner, so as soon as she meets someone who is even a little bit nice to her, she becomes morbidly attached, as indeed she did with Gray. But she doesn't just do it with him, she also does it with her friends, so Lucy, Cana, Erza, and other people in the guild. As soon as someone extends a finger of hers, she takes the whole arm and craves that affection that she always sees in others. At the same time, she's not good at showing affection in the normal way, so she does weird things, and usually she's overly pushy and willing to literally go out of her way to get anyone to accept her. She sacrificed herself for Cana, so yeah, she would literally do anything, and she doesn't understand the limits of people, so as long as someone gives her something, she takes, takes and takes. She is also very insecure of herself, so it doesn't take much, a miserable 'no' and she risks going back to being the lonely rain woman and that she annoys everyone with the weather she brings with her. When this happens, she leaves the guild because she is afraid to annoy her guildmates and return alone (Lucy and Natsu always join her and stand by her in those moments).

She has a complex relationship with Gajeel, but he's also probably the only real friend she has, at least in the beginning, because she doesn't feel this need to continually affirm her affection for him. She's not even afraid of him leaving, because Gajeel has already seen the worst of her in Phantom Lord, and he's stayed, and she knows that he will stay by her side because he's one of the few people who understands her. (Then Cana will also become friends with her in a similar way).

She is an unnervingly strong sorceress, let's not forget that she was an S-class level in Phantom Lord. She was cruel too, she killed people with the Water Lock, and she wouldn't hesitate to do it if she saw something that reminded her of her childhood.

Speaking of her childhood, she was awful. From an early age she was considered a cursed child because she brought rain everywhere, for this reason her parents put her in an orphanage. She had no idea, and after spending her early years in an orphanage with everyone staying away from her and bad-mouthing her, she went looking for her parents. She hoped to reunite with them but when she found them, they did not recognize her, and badly kicked her out of the house saying never to be seen again. She moved to a village and tried to live alone, but still everyone annoyed her and told her to leave. One day someone annoyed her so much that she seriously injured him by trapping him in a water bubble and suffocating him. Since then, she has escaped from there.

She tried to remove the magic herself, with dangerous methods that put her life at risk, but it was unsuccessful (I have a whole arc in mind on this omg). She even pushed herself too hard with her magic that she nearly died. Probably in a very dark period of her life she also thought about ending it. This until she entered Phantom Lord. There, for the first time, she found a place that accepted her, and she immediately understood that the stronger she was, the more she was accepted. That's why she trained hard and became ambitious, she wanted to surpass all wizards, she thought that as she got stronger, she would have more friends. And more or less, that's how Phantom Lord worked. She was also able to use her power to its fullest, because nobody cared to use good methods, she could kill and she did it without hesitation, especially when she saw cruel people who reminded her of her parents or the people who they bullied. She felt somehow at home.

She then entered Fairy Tail, and for the first time she saw the sun thanks to Gray, which is why she thought that Gray was her life partner and so she became attached to him.

From here my version completely changes from the canon, or rather, initially it's similar with her becoming obsessed with Gray (but not only with him, also with Lucy and Cana and the other guildmates), then as she goes on making mistakes, understands how to actually build a true and healthy friendship. She learns to love herself and to understand what she really wants other than 'not to be alone', and discovers that she is actually very ambitious, she wants to be strong, she likes to be strong, not just because she likes admiration, but precisely because she likes to be able to protect her loved ones. She's always fucking creepy when someone touches her loved ones, like, you know the scene on Tenrou where she's fucking creepy when Meredy talks about killing Gray? Well, yes, Juvia is like that, only not just with Gray, but with everyone in the guild, touch someone dear to her and she will kill you, absolutely and without remorse.

She also remains a romantic, a person who adores small gestures of affection, a clumsy, she loves children but never knows how to behave with them, she is a very manual girl, she knows how to paint, but above all she knows sewing clothes or building accessories, girls always come to her and she is always happy to give them gifts. She is also a mega emotional and sensitive girl, when she feels an emotion, she feels it to the nth degree. When she's happy she gets loud, and infects everyone with her happiness showing it to the world, when she's sad no one can cheer her up, when she's angry you better run.

She understands that her relationship with Gray is complicated and one-sided, and she tries to act better and walk away from him when he tells her he's not comfortable with her. When she does that, Juvia discovers that in reality she is happy even without him. Like, she's a friend of Gray, a close friend, but she understands that her love was in her head. Then they cultivate a beautiful friendship, which if you want can also become true love (or not, you decide, but there must be that passage of self-understanding first. Actually, I'm a bit indifferent to the ship but whatever).

And then I'll stop here, even if I have things to say about the relationships she could have with other people, primarily with the Thunder Legion (in my opinion she gets along very well with all of them and also with Laxus), with Gajeel (their friendship is complex and that's okay), with Lucy (they are bestie fight me), with Erza (Juvia admires her), with Lisanna (Juvia listens to what the Edo version of Juvia was like and thinks about herself), with Cana (a bestie much more sincere than Lucy, she doesn't mince words when she has to make it clear when Juvia acts like a bitch), with Mira (these two girls are actually more similar than it seems), and that's it, now I stop.

It would have been faster to write a fanfiction.

(However I don't think this version is very far from the canon.)

[natsubeatsrock]

I'm Still Thinking About Juvia After All These Years

[EIGHT] years.

It's been [EIGHT] years since I've posted My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on Juvia. This series was the start of me growing more out of my shell in blogging and helping me develop as a writer.

I decided it would be fun to go through the subjects of each post and talk about them, especially in relation to my past post. And what a one to start with.

Over the years, I have changed my opinion over a number of characters and subjects. You'd think that Juvia wouldn't be one of those characters. For all I've said about Juvia and Gruvia especially in recent years, you'd think I'd have similar views on both to when I started making these posts.

And that's not too far off.

Yeah, crazy to think that I'm probably more against the ship than when I wrote the original post. When I wrote that post, I was just on the verge of disliking the ship. Now, I'm absolutely not in favor of the ship.

About the only thing that makes this not as hard for me as it probably should be is the obvious. Gruvia is an inevitability at this point. With every chapter in the sequel, this truth becomes more and more clear to all of us.

Though, as I've said before, this is one of my least favorite things about the sequel. This isn't just about the inevitability of the ship. It feels like Mashima is inventing ways to put Juvia in the story where she doesn't belong. Like we're in the middle of an arc where Sabertooth is here even though they don't belong there... after an arc where Gajeel and Laxus were part of the story even though they didn't belong there. And I feel like we've seen too much of Juvia in this sequel.

If anything has changed in the recent years regarding Juvia, I have a bit of an appreciation of her as a character. Working on two different posts helped in this regard.

The first, incidentally, was yet another attempt to talk about Juvia in the rewrite. (Don't ask, I'll get back on it.) I really struggled to figure out how to write about Juvia without giving a lot of focus on Juvia. Though, in the process, I think I came up with a good way to think of Juvia's arc: coming to better understand love during her time in the guild.

The second might not be one you'd expect. About a year after that post, I made a post defending Izuocha from the claim of being one-sided. In thinking through that post, I said that I wouldn't consider Ochako to be considerably worse than Juvia over Deku. Though, I also said that my view on Juvia became better over the years.

Overall, I appreciate that Juvia's development being centered around Gray isn't technically unique. I've made a number of comparisons in this respect over the years. My favorite character in this series is Natsu and my favorite thing about him is his connection to Igneel. Surely, I can appreciate that aspect in Juvia.

I like a lot of other things about Juvia. Water is one of my favorite magic elements. Juvia's ability to use it is hilariously impressive and probably the best I know. If you took Juvia and plopped her into a different series, where Gray doesn't exist, she'd probably be my favorite character in that series.

You might remember that Navia (the ship with her and Juvia) is my third favorite ship with Natsu in it. Of that trio of top Natsu ships, that's probably the ship that I like both characters the most. I just barely put Nali above it, considering how much I've done with Lisanna over the years. (Can't wait to do revisit that one.)

One last thing to talk about: the death. I can't help myself. (read: I'm literally drafting a post in Tumblr the day I plan to post it for the first time in years just to keep this trend going.)

For those who don't know, the original post came out on August 31st. I made (techincally, I repeated) a prediction then that Juvia was going to die. At the time, it was based on a faulty understanding of Rave and an awkwardly prophetic reading of the chapter the week before. That was chapter 453, which was where Juvia and Gray talk about the future after Lucy mentions death flags.

One year to the day, I made a number of reactions to chapter 499. The chapter where Juvia died. Overall, I was pissed that Gruvia fans compared it to Reina and Musica. In preparing for another post, I'm glad to report that fans have made the case against doing this. But, having actually read Rave in the year, I couldn't believe fans argued this.

And, every year for the next five years, I made a post talking about Juvia dying in one way or another. Not every post was absolutely about the events of Juvia dying. However, I mentioned Juvia dying in a post on August 31st every year of this blog.

Up to last year. To be honest, I don't know why I didn't have an idea for a post that year. That year was a mess, noted by my overall lack of posts. This year is only kind of better. Here's hoping.

In Conclusion:

Mashima's content to not make me like Juvia. I wish that weren't the case.

[absolutezerotolerance]

Gruvians: It's just fiction! stop taking it so seriously! Also Gruvians: writes long metas on why the ship is brilliant, stalks accounts they were blocked by to bitch about said account not liking their ship, stalks posts they disagree with & vehemently reading the tags within each reblog of said posts & treats head canons such as a Gray liking Lucy & Erza first before Juvia as some sort of personal attack against them.

A large part of the GrUvia fanbase seems to be built on insecurity, and I think that for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

The GrUvia ship has come under a lot more scrutiny than most other ships in Fairy Tail, and I think it's resulted in them being completely unwilling to think about their ship in any kind of nuance.

One of our friends once mentioned that they don't support the ship in one of the most innocent ways possible, and it led to several days worth of battling with GrUvia fans and explaining her stance and why she was justified in her opinion. It got to the extent that she had to explicitly state that she would not be responding to any more asks because she didn't want her blog to become known for being anti-GrUvia. Just for stating an opinion. That is how quick the ship's fanbase are to anger.

You're either supportive and unequivocally good, or you're not and you must be attacked.

We've seen evidence that this has even extended over their ability to think critically about each other. We've received asks about how there is a psychologist in the GrUvia fanbase who thinks that the ship is healthy, and one of our admins was in the fandom when the whole GrUvia University thing went down. If I was a GrUvia fan, I would be disgusted by how they're treating people.

They cannot handle the idea that there is a space that exists in the Fairy Tail fandom that doesn't welcome them. Whenever we post things with the tagline "GRUVIA FANS: DO NOT INTERACT" we'd get at least 1 ask from a butt-hurt fan who could not find it in themselves to take our advise to block us and move on, and instead had tantrums after tantrums in our ask box.

(Hi, one of the other admins here popping in for just a second! Quick tw for a mention of stalking. I’ve been doxxed twice, I still get sent death threats, harrassed online, harassed in real life, and my stalker used this ship as an example of why I had to fall in love with him if he just kept trying. I personally am convinced that they’re too stupid to realize how hypocritical they are when they say don’t apply it to real life. Fiction always affects reality, even when it’s not blatantly obvious, and people really need to be more conscious of that and the fact that there are levels to it. A character’s favorite color may not have a big impact in real life, but normalizing abusive relationships has a massive negative impact, as seen by all the victims sharing their stories on this blog and those who share their stories elsewhere, because let’s face it, this nasty ship is not the only time an abusive relationship has been romantisized.

That being said, this does not mean all GrUvia shippers are stalkers/abusers. Fiction does affect reality, but that doesn't mean it controls reality. People have moral compasses, and sometimes they like to explore weird/amoral/dark things in fiction, and it's better to do that in ficiton than in real life. The problem lies within the fact that the vast majority of them that I have personally interacted with (<- reread the bold part and use your reading comprehension skills please) have been willing to doxx, harass, or abuse others. Pro-Juvia and Pro-grUvia shippers are notorious for these things, but some anti-Juvia and Anti-GrUvia people are too. The problem lies within the attitude of the shippers even more so than the ship itself. If we could both have conversations about it, with respect that neither side is going to change the other's thoughts and opinions, then the fandom would be a much happier and safer place.

Personally, I would love if we could just coexist and enjoy Fairy Tail together. Alas, it is not meant to be, hence the creation and necessity of this vent space)

On some level, I do feel bad for the GrUvia fanbase that they have to exist with so much scrutiny. But then I remember the content of the ship itself, and I genuinely think that they've only ever made it worse for themselves by being aggressive.

If the fandom was able to have discussions like this, to talk about ships through a critical lens and have an actual conversation about this, the ship would still be awful. But the fandom, itself, wouldn't be viewed as this group of people with the mental complexity of toddlers.

[xanvasofxords]

Rant about people, who validate ships by their canon status (bc y'all make me mad😊)

Disclaimer : This is from a hardcore Nalu stan, who ships neither Graylu or Gruvia. I think Gruvia is forced, and I stick to that claim, well-aware that the ship is widely loved and accepted by the fandom and is unfortunately canon.

Whether or not Gruvia is canon, does NOT matter. People are free to ship whatever they want. Just cuz Gruvia is one of the big four does NOT automatically mean it has to be shipped by everyone else. Learn to accept that first.

Nobody asked about what you think of Graylu, or how great Gruvia is. You like Gruvia? That's okay, enjoy the ship BUT STOP ANNOYING PEOPLE who don't.

Shipping doesn't have anything to do with canon, you can ship any two characters of your choice regardless of what the mangaka depicts their relationship as.

Crossover ships? Ever heard of them, or wondered why they exist even though the characters involved in the ship don't have any kind of connection to each other? Cuz it depends on people's personal preference, canon doesn't matter.

I don't ship Graylu, but there are people who do and I absolutely do NOT think that as DUMB. Not everyone has to have the same opinion as me or you. Graylu isn't canon, Gruvia is. Okay, congrats on that? However, not all of us like Gruvia, we prefer better relationships.

And we necessarily don't have to just cuz it's canon. Get that inside your head.

There are people who find shipping Gruvia dumb, see it goes either ways. Who cares about canon lol?

Someday, if Mashima ends Ft100yq without making Nalu canon, I'll still respect his decision cuz that's his story. But them not being canon does NOT mean I have to stop shipping them.

Let people ship what they want.

Also, don't post pro gruvia stuff in the anti tag. Cross tagging is NOT nice. Tags matter on tumblr.

[bedazzfangirl]

FT100YrQuest Ch. 84: GRAY'S PICTURE OF BLISS is HAVING A FAMILY WITH JUVIA

Honestly, I don't know how to collect my thoughts.

We've been starved! We've been famished. But today, we were FED! & FED-WELL WE WERE.

Ueda & Mashima Senseis starved us for months but look what they gave us! LOOK AT ALL THE DETAILS. ONE WHOLE CHAPTER FOR THE FULLBUSTER FAM, YES MA'AM!

First of all, Ice Demon Slayer Gray? Ah. Yes, please! *fanning myself*

Look at this! Can't believe Ueda and Mashima put all of those efforts for Gruvia! To create this special illusion in a single chapter for Gruvia. If that is not "we love you Gruvia, it's so canon it hurts", I don't know what is. At this point, this IS GRUVIA CANON ISSUE should really be moot and be put to rest. Gawd it's 100 years already!

But, look at Gray's reaction. He still gets flustered about his child! He can't believe he make cute babies? One daddy Gray, please!

Then this baby boy

This baby boy with his granpa & his aunt Ultear.

Look at baby boy running to his Granpa! &, & Auntie Ultear! Look how precious she's holding our baby boy Greige! Look at it! I loooove Ultear & I looove that she's here!

Look how happy and proud Mommy Juvs is! Here too! Proud waifu.

I'm just rambling on but gosh I looove this chapter!

Then we have a bonus, Ul-Ultear mother-daughter moment. We were robbed of this cute relationship ugh!

& lastly... Juvia is so sooooft for Gray.

All in all, you guys have no idea how much screaming I made last night when I saw the spoilers and Rie translated some of the SS. I SCREAMED SO HARD OUR DOGS THOUGHT WE WERE HAVING A HOWLING PARTY. But this one is for the books, I gotta say. Everything about it is perfect because it is the perfect illusion. Imagine all the details Ueda and Mashima put in this chapter!

Also, gosh imagine how painful it is to see a glimpse of the perfect "if only" but knowing well it gotta end. I am glad Gray chose to break the spell. I am glad he consciously and deliberately chose his current life, not this perfect lie. He chose to go back to Juvia, the real and existing Juvia. His power to live. The reason he doesn't want to revert back to his guilt-ridden self who thinks he doesn't deserve the life many given up for him to live.

Gosh, Ueda and Mashima are really riding on this "Juvia is Gray's power to live".

& to those who feel sad about Gray seeing a perfect life but then having to choose to end it, I say don't worry.

It may have been very tempting. Everyone who he loves were there - alive & happy. At the very beginning he knew, he knew it wasn't real. He knew it was just a dream. He knew it was all wrong. As much as he wanted to stay there, in that perfect illusion, Gray knew he had something equally promising back at the guild. An equally promising future with Juvia. & that life with Juvia is the real one - is the real happiness.

& he'd break his heart a hundred times to have that one time, one real shot at real happiness. (But that's just me being overly dramatic. Lol)

Some may misinterpret what Gray meant about putting Juvia's happiness ahead of his but please look at it this way: Juvia's happiness is what drives Gray to keep living & that's true love. A love that inspires you to live life through its ups and downs. To keep living at its worst and at its best. The kind of love Gray Fullbuster deserves.

[rayraytail]

I only sometimes revisit the NaLu tag because I'm curious. Mind you, I haven't paid attention to the Fairy Tail fandom in ages, and while I have fond memories of reading/watching FT, I only sometimes stop in to see what's going on in 100yrsQuest.

First of all, I had no idea the Fairy Tail fandom was toxic, let alone the NaLu fandom? Is this really true??? I'm just curious why. I just don't see what they'd have to be toxic about. Maybe some need to loosen up a bit, yeah? Especially if they're attacking innocent people who don't ship NaLu and aren't actively and rudely campaigning against it.

Also, so like ... not to offend anyone but I had no idea NaLi was still a thing? Like, I thought NaLi was a ship that died out ages ago. As in, some people still like it but the gerneral consensus was that there was no way it was going to be canon. But there are NaLi shippers still around and they're also toxic???

I mean, you can definitely like NaLi, it doesn't need to be canon for you to like something, and that's coming from a rarepair shipper. But apparently NaLi shippers are trying to say NaLu doesn't exist and they're being aggressive about it. Which ... to say Natsu and Lucy see each other as just friends ... that's alittle ignorant?

Idk what to call it. All I know is that Mashima isn't complicated. He shows you and sometimes outright tells you who he himself ships together. No matter my own feelings on the ships, Gruvia, Gajevy, and Jerza are all canon ships. And I say "canon" with the understanding that Mashima purposely put them in romantic situations, sometimes without either characters admitting it. I'm pretty sure none of the mentioned ships have said they love each other, but it's obvious by the way they interact. Levy and Gajeel slept with each other, Jellal and Erza obviously cherish each other, and while Juvia has always had a creepy stalker crush on Gray, Gray has more recently accepted her and her affections, going so far as to blush around her and even return some of her affections in his own Gray-like fashion.

And like the above ships, Mashima has made it no secret how much he likes NaLu. He supports them in his social media art and he supports them in his own writing. You'd have to be willingly blind not to see that. So, I'm like super confused why NaLi shippers are aggressively denying NaLu's existence in canon.

Sorry for the long post, but in summary:

1. Why are NaLu shippers being toxic? Your ship "won" (technically, anytime the writer ships your ship you "won"). Let people ship what they want to ship it's not going to hurt anyone nor change how canon NaLu is.

2. Anyone who thinks NaLu only see each other as "friends" are somewhat blind. You can make a case that, Natsu is ignorant to romance and thus wouldn't categorize Lucy as a "lover" or girlfriend in his head, but he definitely views her differently by the last chapter of the og FT. And it's even more obvious in the spin-off sequel.

3. I only posted this because it was on my mind and I wondered what other people might think. I'm not particularly pressed or invested in the discourse, but it still sucks that it's happening apparently. Literally, I had no idea.

[cheesydelphox]

I feel like so many of mashima's characters are filled with problems that stem from him as a person

As a few examples:

- Natsu and Lucy (as was mentioned in someone's previous ask)

- Adding to this, Cana's constant groping of Lucy (and other women) which someone mentioned comes from Mashima's fetish for lesbians (I can't remember who said it though, it might have been you?)

- another point about "queer" characters is how not only Freed's sexuality obviously being portrayed as a joke to how weird it is to be gay, but also Master Bob of blue Pegasus

- Nearly every romance plot

- this one is less about Mashima's personality and more about his writing but how nearly every character that's introduced gets powered down to a laughable level, or has stagnant progression despite the fact we've been told they're getting more powerful (with a few main-character exceptions of mainly Natsu and Lucy)

Don't get me wrong I love Fairy Tail and the characters but the way it's written just tired me sometimes tbh

Sorry for the long ask btw!

I do appreciate the ask, no worries! Yes, I agree with a lot of the problems you just presented. The biggest writing flaw (imo) is the romance thing. (also i wasn't the one who said mashima has a lesbian fetish... if that's true, ew.)

Mashima just isn't good at writing romantic relationships (in the context of fairy tail! this could be totally different in edens zero, i haven't read it) and I will stand by that opinion. The only good (CANON) one is elfman and evergreen in my opinion. They're unobtrusive, didn't take a painfully long time to get together, and their relationship doesn't negatively impact their characterization. (Yes, This includes gajevy. i love them but I have problems that you might be able to extrapolate from my comments on gruvia)

Liking fairy tail for me doesn't mean "shipping characters" or "being completely okay with 100% of the canon content." Far from it. some of my FAVORITE characters got destroyed by not the narrative, but a running joke. (*COUGH* MEST *COUGH*)

But I watched this REALLY good video today that has a really good argument in it about how society has forced people's enjoyment of works of fiction to only ever line up with their moral values. I don't agree with a lot of the morality of the "queer" representation. I don't like Natsu and Juvia being a bit creepy towards the people they like. And I really don't like the dishragification of characters like Mira or the thunder legion. But saying that I don't like fairy tail because of all that shit would be wrong of me, because that would be lying!

my opinion is this: if these "problematic" aspects bother you (not you specifically, anon. i am addressing the variety of people that might possibly read this post) enough that you don't want to watch/read fairy tail, that's fine! i understand and respect that. but it's also fine to enjoy it even if you acknowledge those things exist.

this is not opening up discussion about "pro" and "anti" by the way. i think those terms are stupid as hell and don't define how i interact with fandom spaces, especially when talking about shounen anime.

[gralunaisland]

Ik you hate Juvia so maybe you won't care, but you seem like a reasonable person so, how is it possible that a person likes both Juvia (I mean her independent character from Gray which Ik seems to not exist but did exist, at least in the beginning) and Gruvia? Not only is Gruvia toxic to Gray, it also does a huge disservice to Juvia. It really seems that Juvia's whole life revolves around Gray and that there's literally nothing else. Ik there are little panels showing Juvia with Gajeel, Cana or

I just put these two asks together because I think they were by the same person and were just a continuation of each other.

Don't worry, Anon, I care about anything my askers bring up to me! Thank you for the compliment; I like to think I'm reasonable.

I am with you in your confusion on how someone likes juvia as well as her ship.

I think I've mentioned this before, or maybe in one of my drafts, but I cannot see gr///via as being beneficial for either juvia or Gray. We already know how this ship isn't beneficial to Gray, so I'll skip that for this ask and only talk about how it's bad for juvia.

Honestly, I couldn't care less what happens to juvia so long as she stays away from people because she's the criminal and not the victim here (she could end up dead in a ditch, and I wouldn't lose sleep), but for those who say they do care about her, I'd definitely question if they really do. Because, as you said, juvia is a satellite character, a person without purpose or meaning beyond what Gray gives her, or at least what she thinks he gives her, and that is detrimentally dangerous for her mental health as well as physical well-being. If Gray were to ever disappear, then she would spiral into self-destruction (as she literally does during the Avatar arc). If you like a character, why would you wish them to continue a destructive, damaging lifestyle? Why would you want them to obsessively pursue someone who doesn't want them to the point of madness?

I've heard some Pro's call it "girl power" when it's anything but. she's solely obsessed with a man who doesn't want to date her; in what way is that empowering to juvia? That's DEFINITELY not saying Gray is being a misogynist for rebuffing juvia, far from it since it's literally his right to choose whom he's with; it's just not portraying juvia as a strong woman able to stand by herself. That also doesn't mean strong women can't have love, or that they can't get outside help; it just means that if everything about you depends on this other guy, from your mental stability and ability to literally function as a human, and that he's the only thing you care about to the point of not even caring about him, then that just means you're weak and need lots of outside intervention.

I agree with you completely; it seems most gr///via shippers just like the ship and not Gray or juvia, not really.

Anyway, thank you for the ask and for your patience!

[kiliinstinct]

Glad I'm not the only one who finds it difficult to answer asks from people who have different opinions lol. Anyways, thanks for being considerate about my feelings, love you❤

I wasn't saying I love the sequel more than the og series, just that after a great arc like Tartarus, the Alvarez execution felt cheap and it saddened me to see such a huge potential getting wasted by Mashima. I was so excited for the spriggan 12 and the Zeref fight but it got boiled down to BULLSHIT fights like Erza and Wendy vs Irene, Natsu kinda oneshotting Neinhart, Elfman and Lis somehow being able to defeat Azeel when clearly it took Erza and Bisca's power to defeat him at 1st, the Gruvia development was cool but Invel was so underutilized, Natsu defeating Dimaria offscreen, God Serena having 8 ds elements and then getting one shot by Acno....the only fights that had some logic to them were Brandish vs Lucy (that was also stopped midway) and Laxus vs Wall...we didn't even get to see the Ishgar kings fight, even the Mira vs Jacob fight...and the Gildarts and Cana vs August sighhhh

I'm glad that the diabolos are getting handled better compared to that and are taking time to be defeated than just getting oneshot after 2 minutes of being introduced. But you're right about the characterization. Natsu's character feels just so different I mean it's really annoying. He seems to be made even dumber than he actually is.

But I'd like to know about other characters as Lucy/Erza/Gray from you. Don't worry, constructive criticism of my opinions is also welcome. I'd like to hear why you feel the other characters' personalities have been made different?

Sorry for all that rambling, I hope you're not annoyed.

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that you liked it more than the series, I was just referring to the Alvarez Arc in general. Which, a lot of what you said about the Spriggan 12 is pretty much how I felt about a lot of those fights too. (Though, to be perfectly honest, I had other ideas on how the Alvarez Arc should have gone and the Spriggan 12 probably wouldn't have existed in my own version for it. lol.) I was 100% Excited for the Zeref showdown though, as well as the Acnologia fight, but the way they went down left me... seriously disappointed. It just didn't seem to have enough.. meat on it for me. If that makes sense? It felt very rushed and all surface ideas refusing to delve too deep into the narrative. (And I'm still super salty the Acnologia fight ended with Natsu getting everyone's magic and just punching him. I still think that battle would have been better if it had ended with a 7 Dragon Slayer Unison Raid but noooooo, Mashima had to go and pull a DBZ on us.) I'll be honest here, I'm not sure how to answer the rest of this, but I do want to assure you that I'm not annoyed and generally like getting asks that are discussion FT, Character Theories, Headcanons, Fanfics, etc, etc. But I was about to go to bed, and am unfortunately sick, so my answer may not be... sensical.

Also, I'm going to refrain from saying too much about Gray in regards to Alvarez as well as the sequel. As that's a hornet's nest I have beaten before and do not wish to beat again. (I'm not a fan of gru/via as a pairing so you can imagine the things I've seen in snippits of the sequel don't excite me all that much - but my past opinions on that enraged a few people, so best to avoid that.) As for the others. I feel like a lot of Lucy's development was.. sorta washed away and replaced with "look at these new stardress mixes she can do!"(As an aside, i really dont like the design choices for a lot of her stardresses, they've... made some ridiculous decisions there.) As well as still acting as if she's the damsel when really she's pretty tough and deserves better treatment and development. You were right on the money with Natsu- where it just feels like he lost 100 IQ points after the original series ended. (I refuse to believe he doesn't understand that human women don't lay eggs.) Erza also just.. feels like she is being reduced to a lot of fanservice moments. Honestly, there's a lot of pervy jokes in the sequels that I feel.. really weren't necessary. At all. That go crossing the line closer towards creepy. So it just makes me uncomfortable. Honestly this is just reminding me of why I've been slowly plotting/planning a fic that's a rewrite of the final FT season. lol. At this point, I think I've rambled on long enough, so I'll end my answer here, I guess and head to bed. Hope you have a good night/morning!

[tamibae]

Not to call you out but it is rude to post in other tags that a ship is better than other ships. That is the whole point of keeping them in sperate tags. It's fine to ship whatever you ship but it's not nice to comment in other tags "this ship would have been canon if those other two were not together" it's the same thing as antagonizing other ships just because you feel that way. Please keep it in the proper tags.

It's okay anon, I get your point. Tysm for being polite. But you do know that I didn't crosstag any ship right?

These are the tags I had used. I don't ship GrayLu as a romantic one so I didn't tag it as GrayLu. I specifically mentioned the word "brotp" in both tags.

You can literally see my post again, I said that NaLu/GrUvia are one of the most valid ships(at least in my eyes) and that's why I don't ship other ships. I didn't insult any ship tho. Idk how you thought so. I'll repeat it, the meaning of my post was that my fav brotp in the series is Gray x Lucy. I said that if Natsu and Juvia weren't there then I would've shipped GrayLu. Not that I ship them now or disregard either NaLu or GrUvia. I also didn't say that Gray and Lucy would've been canon if Natsu and Juvia weren't together with them. That thing doesn't even make sense lol. They're not together yet officially. A ship being valid doesn't depend on two people getting together.

Anyone visiting my blog knows that NaLu is my ultimate OTP and GrUvia is my 2nd fav FT ship. I'm also not a multishipper. I ship ships with potential. So any other ship with these characters are my NOTPs(Natsu/Lucy/Gray/Juvia x anyone else). That includes GrayLu also.

That post was to say that GrayLu would've been a great ship if relationship like NaLu and GrUvia didn't exist. But they do and that's why I love them.

[magicalgirlagency]

Thanks to your latest reblogging, I've been reminded of Fairy Tail. By curiosity, do you have any opinions on it?

It's an Heteronormative Hell.

In a series where magic and monsters are all around our heroes, romantic drama should be the least of your worries, right...?

Not in Fairy Tail.

If you talk shit about any of the ships in the series, the fandom will burn you at the stake like a witch.

And also, weren't friendship and bonds, like, the main staple of the series? ALMOST every character in the series had to be paired up with someone. You can't be just friends with a person of the opposite sex; you two must GET MARRIED and HAVE CHILDREN TOGETHER! Your life will be EMPTY and MEANINGLESS if you don't secure a PARTNER FOR LIFE!

Like, wow; thanks for making me, a queer woman, feel like pure shit. I'm a social pariah, because my end goal doesn't involve me securing a husband.

Don't get me wrong, I used to like it; but the fandom (as well as the story) scared me away from it. Like, every character needed to be in a romantic relationship, even if they lacked respect and boundaries, such as Gruvia.

Juvia was portrayed as a yandere-ish stalker with murderous intent towards anyone who came close to Gray, and this was all seen as comic and/or romantic.

Oh, and that's not even mentioning the MALE ANGST. Both Lucy and Juvia have ALMOST died at different points in the series.

Because women are nothing but character props to fuel the angst of their boyfriends/husbands. Imagine the shitshow that would've been if Lucy and Juvia died for real.

And speaking of dead, pretty sure the series ended with everyone dying, and Lucy is reunited with Natsu and the others in the afterlife.

For sentimental value and spite purposes, let's just say they're all in Wondaria, because I can do a much better job in writing these characters than Mashima ever could.

I might be wrong, but I don't care. I hated this series, and I'm glad it's over.

I also used to have a crush on Natsu and Gray, but I have no other choice but to keep it to myself, or else the rabid fans will call me foul names and accuse me of "stealing the guys away from Lucy and Juvia".

And the fanservice... UGH, the FANSERVICE... the series couldn't spend five minutes without a sexy predictament!

The only saving graces are that a) A great majority of the cast was of legal age, and b) At least the women of Fairy Tail are properly drawn with ribcages unlike the women of One Piece, for an example.

And I'm sure, positive and certain that Edens Zero suffers of the same disease of sexiness.

It seems that curvaceous women can't exist unless if they're being harassed and vulnerable at all times, huh.

Fairy Tail had everything to be great, but it became the bane of my existence because it relied on cheap tactics (sexy fanservice, angst and aggressive heteronormativity) to make itself popular.