#and this one person kept INSISTING my main ship (one that was very controversial and no one else liked)

[curiouschaosstarlight]

Does anyone else get into a mood where their brain is stuck on a past experience and then they can't really process anything else

[natsubeatsrock]

The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Part 16 (Lisanna)

Why keep Lisanna? 

I’ll be honest. Lisanna is a bit of a weird character to start the discussion of characters outside the Strongest Team with. It would make more sense in the minds of many to talk about other characters who have more of a direct impact on the series like Gajeel or Jellal. Maybe even start a discussion about Zeref as a character and antagonist. Not to mention her siblings who both get much more time in the spotlight than her. Heck, I haven't even talked about the Exceeds on the strongest team. So, technically, I really haven't finished discussing the Strongest Team. 

However, I want to start with a discussion of arguably the most controversial character in the series. About the only other character to draw as much ire from as many fans and haters of the series is Juvia, yet another character someone I'm sure was expected to talk about first. Believe me when I say that Juvia has far more fans and defenders than Lisanna. I can count on one hand the number of people who have actually defended Lisanna's return and/or existence besides myself and most of the people I'm thinking of also ship Nali. (Not that it necessarily matters.) 

The most important thing to note about the question at hand is that it isn't a matter of if Lisanna should or shouldn't return, as normally is the case. The issue I'm addressing is why Lisanna should be kept. In other words, the series was written and the decision was made to have Lisanna not remain dead. Why am I continuing to keep her return, which is a major problem for people who have gotten into Fairy Tail, as an element of the series? After all, I've argued for making major changes to other elements of the series seen as less problematic by fans and critics alike.

Thank goodness that keeping Lisanna isn't a terribly spontaneous choice for me to make. After all, one of the many things I am known for is defending both Lisanna and Nali from fandom criticism at large. If everything works properly, this will be posted on the three year anniversary of my giant post about Lisanna. I was bound to make this argument in some way, shape, or form. In fact, I started making the first draft of this post even before deciding to rewrite Fairy Tail. 

All that said, how bad was Lisanna's return? 

Now I know that many people who are even slightly familiar with my views on Nali may think I'm going to spend the rest of this post arguing that this was totally fine. But that's not really the case. I actually do think there are problems with Lisanna's return. 

The obvious problem with this moment is that this is the return of a character who was established as dead. If you haven't read my post regarding my thoughts on Lisanna, I said that this is one of the things about Mashima's writing that I'm not a fan of - him presenting characters as dead only to bring them back later on. I say his writing because this has happened in every long series that I've read from him and he's outright said this is something he enjoys doing. 

I feel like I need to make an important correction. I said that the upshot of doing this is that you can cause greater pain when you actually kill people off. After over a year of watching fake death after fake death, I feel like I should add in that this can only work if you're actually willing to kill people. If you don’t, it feels more like cheap emotional manipulation. Weird enough, since my post in 2016, he doubled down on his insistence that he didn’t want characters to die Fairy Tail.

Another big problem I have with the actual moment that no one seems to have brought up involving this moment involves the way this moment was explained. When we get to the chapter "Lisanna", we learn that Lisanna disappeared in front of Mirajane. We don't actually learn that until this specific moment. The fact that Mirajane and Elfman are even going to a tomb for Lisanna makes it weird to find out that she wasn't actually with them in the first place. 

But, of the times that a character has been presented as dead only to be brought back, I think this is one of, if not, the best versions of this trope within the series. Before Edolas, we were presented with the idea that there are two of the same people through Jellal and Mystogan. The arc begins by showing that things can be brought from Earthland to Edolas through Anima. In the anime, it's specifically stated that Lisanna's body wasn't left behind when we see actually her for the first time in Edolas. 

So enough elements were in place that the explanation that we got for Lisanna's death was possible. At the very least, there was enough in the series for the anime's director, Shinji Ishihara, to have originally planned to act as if she never died. That’s always been a weird element of that interview we always bring up when discussing whether or not Lisanna was forced back to life. Even if that was just his personal wish, that such an idea was seen as possible by the anime director leads me to believe her return isn’t as terrible as it’s often made to be.

“Okay, but what about the negative impact on character growth?  Isn't this a bad lesson for these guys?”

Only kind of. 

I want to hold off on talking about how Mirajane and Elfman were impacted by losing and gaining Lisanna in another post. This is an issue I hear a lot and it deserves more attention than a few sentences in a post here. The big issue that I can see is how it affects Natsu's character. Some people argue that real lost opportunity with this is that Natsu wasn't allowed to properly and completely mourn the loss of someone important to him.  

As someone whose favorite character is Natsu, likes Nali because of its impact on him and made an entire post about how bad Natsu is with handling loss, I can empathize with this argument. I can imagine what it would be like if Natsu actually did lose Lisanna forever but actually learned to let go of the pain it caused him and lived not to see other people die. This might be one of the best reasons I've heard not to like Lisanna's return. 

However, I think that this is just a symptom of Mashima not allowing Natsu to actually mourn throughout the series. This is a great example of that, but it's not the only example. The handling of Natsu's search for Igneel was bad. I don't discredit Natsu's feelings when he finally sees him in Tartarus arc or when he watches him die in. Again, this is why I’m making some of the changes that I’m making involving him. 

But, to be honest, I don’t think you fix this issue by keeping Lisanna dead. It’s not a bad or particularly unreasonable way to fix that issue. However, if Natsu has to learn that lesson, I’d personally have him learn that with Igneel. In a sense, I’ve personally always thought of this as a bit of a misdirect for Natsu. He thinks that since he found Lisanna, he can find Igneel. It makes the fact that he gets separated from him that much more painful. 

"But wait! Isn't it bad that they built Lisanna up, brought her back and did nothing with her?" 

Yeah... but no...? 

Yes, it's bad and disappointing that we know so much about Lisanna and she hasn't done a whole lot since her return. Just as we know a lot about other characters like Levy and the members of Crime Sorciere who have been castigated to the background. I would have loved to see Lisanna do a whole lot more than she has. I wrote a whole thing about wanting to see more of Lisanna and how fans perceive her because we don’t get as much about her as her siblings.

But was Lisanna really built up that much? 

In the manga, she almost exclusively shows up in flashbacks and is mentioned by characters up until we actually see her in “Fairy Hunting”, which is chapter 170. And the only people that seem to care about her before Levy tells Lucy about Lisanna in chapter 168 are her siblings, Natsu, Happy and Gildarts - people who, for the most part, would be most hurt by her death. No offense to the Strauss kids, but they're not the most important characters in the series anyways. 

In the anime, before Natsu and crew go to Edolas, she's only mentioned in like 5 or 6 episodes. She's an important character with her own actions in only 2 of them, both of which are episodes before the current events of Fairy Tail. One is based off a special chapter and another was mostly original content added to one chapter. Keep in mind that over the span of 79 episodes.

Again, that's not to say that we don't learn a whole lot from the few moments about what Lisanna could have been. At the very least, we know that she had an important bond with Natsu, which is reason enough to be disappointed at how little they interact throughout the series, even if you don't ship them. It would be cool to have Lisanna do more than just stick around the background a few times.

But I don’t think we were supposed to expect her to be some kind of hidden weapon for Fairy Tail. As if Mashima was holding back on developing a great character that would fundamentally change the series. Heck, in that exact same time span, Mystogan was built up to be a much more interesting character with more relevance to him and I don’t plan on doing much more with him than what we got in canon.

How I think a more relevant Lisanna looks...

...is something I’ll get to that when I talk about the Strauss siblings. (I still haven’t finished the first draft of that post.)

For now, though, I hope my mindset in handling characters outside of the main members of the Strongest Team is clear. I don’t intend to make Lisanna a character who is as important to the series as, say, Wendy or Gajeel. I want her to interact with other characters and have more moments to shine as a character. I want her to have an impact on characters like Juvia and especially Natsu, in light of what we know in canon. But I don’t think she should take much more of an elevated spot in canon than she already has because of those interactions.

I don’t think that the solution to making characters who were disappointing is either making them be infinitely more important than they were or cut them from the series. After all, the only way a character can be disappointing is if we had expectations for them to begin with. What I want to do is play with the expectations we may have had for characters in ways that make sense within the series universe. This shouldn't come with the addition of unnecessary importance or outright removal of their character.

While this is true for a number of other characters, I’m most terrified of how this affects my handling of Lisanna. Considering my obvious stakes in this, I could easily have planned to make her take up the same place Lucy took in the original for Natsu as a partner the instant she comes back. I don’t think that’s the right way to go about reworking their relationship considering what I want to do with the rewrite in general. I want to make that clear now in hopes that my intentions for this rewrite are clear to those who will inevitably disagree with my choices in changes.

Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15

[midgetmeredith]

your nicely and reasonably done pro fraxus anti miraxus posts made my day as I found them. even now after the final chapter of fairy tail I see miraxus shouting about their ship's canonness and this has always been a part of this ship fandom that annoyed me the most. ship your ship, be happy with your ship but it's low key aggravating and even rude to 'oversee'/put down the moments fraxus clearly has while miraxus has barely even interactions and, on top of that, got canonly cancelled now

[continuation of ask] they should be happy mashima acknowledges their really pushy fandom at all, like with the twitter drawing he made. but even then he refused to actually draw them together in person and it’s clear that, after the ending, it’s only pandering. throughout the entire manga there hasn’t been a single hint of mashima planning to build up miraxus while he at least kept highlighting the importance of freed and laxus’ relationship

Yes! 🙌🏼 You’ve perfectly summed it up, anon! I tend not to think about Mir/axus all too much until I come across their more rabid shippers on Twitter (and sometimes on here, despite my attempts to avoid such 🙄). The level of harassment Mashima receives (predominantly from Mir/axus, Na/Li and surprisingly/disappointingly Jer/za “fans”) is shocking, pathetic and frankly bratty; it’s ridiculously disrespectful and childish. To think that romantic pairings – and a crack one, at that – are all some people care for in shonen series’ is baffling. I mean, to this degree as well? Yikes. Mashima owes us nothing and provides us with the luxury of his fan-art out of sheer kindness and as his form of gratitude to his supporters. He shouldn’t be hounded and pressured into supplying content to people whose morals are so fucked up that they violently badger him to validate their ship and themselves.

I’m so happy that you enjoy my posts too, anon! I freakin’ adore when people do, especially when they’re in any way “controversial”. It’s a topic that hits close to home for me as well (in regards to Fraxus) and particularly because I study and devote a lot of my time at university to researching & advocating this very issue of heteronormativity in media and the representation of [homo]sexuality. I don’t think people realise how, like you said, “aggravating and even rude” it is to display (typically) inadvertent [through no necessary or deliberate fault of their own] homophobia in overseeing/dismissing present & substantial gay relationships and arrogantly insisting that a male and female, who severely lack in mere interaction alone, are the epitome of romantic affection… 😬 But when a pairing – particularly one involving secondary characters – gains popularity in a fandom, despite having desperately limited and insufficient evidence in the source material, unfortunately the mass following of blind and unquestioned belief will ensue.

Like, for example, Neji/Ten in Naruto. [Disclaimer: I actually quite like the pair and have nothing at all against them personally, they just kind of prove my point. 😅] They’re supporting characters who are each other’s main (and pretty much only/most commonly accepted) romantic partner in the unnecessary universal fandom act of desperately pairing up every single character [with a partner of the opposite sex]. Yet they actually have very little proof in the manga and no substantial perceptible interest from the male party. Their arguably biggest moment was semiotically altered and is technically anime-only. 😥

[kpopularships]

Idol Life Ship

Hi, lovely! Could I please request a private idol life ship with Got7/iKON? 

My name is Melody! I’m very sensitive and a huge softie. I adore kids and animals. I have a strong nurturing side as I love taking care of other people. I can be quite emotional as I’m very in-tune with my own feelings, and I wear my heart on my sleeve. I tend to take things personally, but I don’t often express when I’m hurt as not to worry others. Even though I worry a lot in general and easily feel guilty. I’m pretty quiet around people I don’t know that well, but I’m very bubbly and talkative/rambly once I’m close to someone. I’m quite polite and smiley to everyone I meet though. I try my best to smile often, and it’s actually really easy to make me laugh. I’m very physically affectionate with my close friends and my significant other (but I don’t like doing that much PDA when I’m in a relationship). I’m a romantic and I’m quite sentimental. I like to bake things for other people. I love both singing and dancing, and acting as well. Despite my dancing background I can be very clumsy. Some of my other hobbies include: writing, reading, sewing, swimming, watching Disney movies, and playing video games.

Hi darling, you’re so pretty! I can’t tell if you sent in 2 or 3 selcas because only 2 would load so I privated those but I’m really sorry if there’s a third that wouldn’t private. 

Thanks for requesting, and being so patient! (gifs not mine)

@justlistentothemelody

Idol life ship for Melody:

Label: Cube Entertainment

Stage Name: Mel

Nicknames Given By Your Fans: Loddy (pronounced “Lotty”), Baby Heart (because of your sensitive and loving nature), Giggles

Position: Main Dancer

Sub-position: Vocalist

Unacknowledged role in group: Most popular member (your most people’s bias of the group because of your fun and sweet personality)

Group Name: NOVA

# of Members: 10

Debut Concept: Fun; bright and upbeat

Debut Album: Super Duper

Debut Title Track: Candy Heart

Fandom Name: BonBon’s

Fandom Color(s): Forest Green and Ivory

Idol Best Friends: Mark (GOT7) and Jisoo (BLACKPINK)

Significant Other: Kim Donghyuk

Popular Moment In Your Relationship: BonBon’s and iKONIC’s that ship the two of you together know just what an enticingly sweet couple the two of you make. From your bubbly and loving personalities to smiling and heartfelt nature, you’d be hard-pressed to find a fan who wouldn’t think you’re the perfect match. Knowing how you’re not a huge fan of public displays of affection, Dong would always do his absolute best to make sure you felt comfortable when the two of you are out and about together- even if the fans would often urge the two of you to be closer when out in public, because they adored seeing the two of you care for one another. That’s what made this particular moment in your relationship stand out so much to the fans, because it showed how much you meant to him. During one of your dance rehearsals in preparation for the Melon Music Awards (NOVA’s performance would be opening the entire awards show) your slight clumsiness got the best of you and you sprained your ankle. As the lead dancer for your group, a lot of the routine was heavily dependent on your skills- and your inability to dance so close to show had fans worrying your performance would be cancelled. On the day of award show, however, the rest of your group took the stage while you cheered from your seat. Fans were shocked to hear the music begin and the choreography start, and even more taken aback when they saw that your position in the dance routine had been filled by none other than the lead dancer of IKON- Donghyuk. While you sang live from your seat, Donghyuk performed your complex choreography flawlessly, as he’d insisted on learning it just a handful of days before the show so that the rest of your group could still perform. Fans couldn’t help but aww over the performance that stole the entire show- as it was Dong’s way of showing how much you meant to him, and how much the fans meant to both of you.

Biggest Dating Scandal About You: You and Donghyuk have never had much in the way of scandal or rumors when it comes to your relationship, as fans know how much the two of you care for and support one another. The biggest speculations arose when you were asked to appear as a special guest performer on the South Korean T.V. show “Hit the Stage”. You’d competed as a solo performer the previous year and won, so the show decided to bring you back as a special performer and guest judge- but what they hadn’t mentioned was that your performance would be a duet with another winner of “Hit the Stage”- Yugyeom. The two of you were, of course, good friends who knew each other fairly well as the main dancers for both of your groups- but you knew as soon as they showed you the choreography for the performance that it would cause some rumors to fly about your relationship. Being the professionals that you two are, you performed the dance perfectly (despite the choreography clearly being designed for a romantic couple) and fans were quick to react, anxiously awaiting any commentary from your iKON beau. If the dance itself hadn’t caused enough speculation and controversy, the solo v-live that iKON’s Junhoe made later that evening certainly didn’t help. The livestream was fairly random and casual, but when one of the fans asked Junhoe if he’d watched the latest episode of “Hit the Stage” which had aired on television just a few hours earlier, Junhoe laughed, replying:

“Uhh, yes. A few of us watched it together. All the competitors did really well, I think. The special performance was good too. They’re both really talented, of course. Some of our members liked it more than others.” Junhoe’s teasing remark had fans questioning if he was referring to Donghyuk, and if he was referring to his distaste for the fact that you’d danced with Yugyeom. When you and Yugyeom were interviewed later that week on your performance together, however, you were both quick to clear the air. You’d talked with Dong after the performance, and even though it wasn’t his favorite thing in the world he knew you were professionals and he trusted you both completely. In the interview, Yugyeom playfully added:

“I remember them showing us the choreography and thinking,  ‘Aisshh…Donghyuk-hyung would kill me if I did that’ and then we performed it and the whole time i just kept thinking ‘just get through it’. We did really well but I think it was more nerve-racking than my audition for JYP!” After that, fans knew that everything between you two had been cleared up, but that didn’t stop certain IGOT7′s and BonBon’s from admiring what a good pair Yugyeom and you had made on stage.

Solo Activities: International Actress and competitor/ winner of “Hit the Stage”

I hope you liked your ship! Feel free to request anytime!

~admin liese