#but !! she's been through a lot and the whole edolas mission thing really messed with her

[resolvebound]

@quiiscnt im taking the opportunity to do 3 😅 so here's #1/3

Send ⭐ for a sample of a new muse I am thinking of writing // accepting

The soft sigh she let out would have come across as exasperated to some, yet those who had come to know her well would see the touch of a smile and the warmth in her eyes. She watched Wendy fall deeper into sleep, marvelling at the way the girl could rest on the floor as she was. Even with the pile of blankets they’d amassed for their ‘movie night’, it wasn’t particularly comfortable on the floor of the lounge.

Charle suppressed a yawn and eyed the movie Lacrima that continued to play softly. Would Wendy wake up if it was turned off? Perhaps she’d wait a few minutes more, just to be sure it was safe. Wendy deserved a good rest, after all. They’d had quite a day of travelling, finally returning home after an extended mission together. Tiring as it had been, it was…nice to not be involved in some world threatening danger for a change. Did they dare get used to it? She supposed she could channel her prophetic powers if she really wanted to know…But the future was too fluid, she knew, nothing could really be certain.

What she did know for sure, was that Wendy would wake up with a stiff neck from the position she was curled in now. Really, she should be moved to her bed, or at least the couch.

Another sigh slipped from Charle as she adjusted herself to stand, paws brushing invisible dirt from her clothes out of habit. Closing her eyes, she focused her magic and allowed it to wash over her, the transformation sending a warmth through her body. Now considerably taller than she was (though her ‘human’ form was still hardly tall), she opened her eyes and peered down at her dearest friend, watching for a moment to see if she remained asleep. Reassured for the moment, Charle quietly shifted closer, glad that she had pushed herself to gain new magic so that she could be of more use. Stronger (and longer) limbs certainly made gently scooping up the young dragon slayer now a lot easier, after all.

With Wendy’s slight form in her arms, she carefully lifted her to the couch and eased her down on the plush surface. Certain the girl wouldn’t wake, Charle straightened up watched her for a moment, a fond smile playing on her lips.

She then turned and picked up one of the blankets from the floor, draping it gently across Wendy before moving to sit upon one of the nearby armchairs with her own blanket. Content for the moment, she allowed her eyes to close and peace to seep in.

And that was when the vision struck.

[natsubeatsrock]

Bye, Bye Lucy: Part 1

In my experience, you're always in for a good time once the author starts off by saying the characters will be OOC. 

Surprisingly, the actual events of some of these stories don’t even start before we run into trouble with canon. It’s common for fic writers to mistime Lisanna’s return from the end of Edolas to after the first Grand Magic Games. Often, this isn't even apparent until later on in the story and I'm honestly not sure if these guys realize they're even doing it. 

The reason as to why will be important to a point I’ll talk about later. However, if this important detail is changed for the sake of the story, I can pretty much tell already that the writer cares more about their story than working alongside the canon universe. I actually think that time is the best time for a fic like this to happen, but it's off-putting to see such an important detail messed up.

At or before the beginning of these stories, Lisanna comes back and most of the guild ignore Lucy. Her friends ignore her. Natsu starts dating Lisanna and they spend all the time together. There are only a few people that will talk to her.

I feel as though some people might expect me to rip Nali in these stories. And many people probably would if they were to talk about this. However, I’m not going to. Not just because I already made a post about them. 

Don't get me wrong, it's kinda weird that so many people are okay with writing Nali in a world with tons of canon problems, including the ones that a Nali relationship apparently entails in these stories and that are clearly worthy of its own post. Still, I want to believe in a world where Natsu and Lisanna end up together immediately after her return and this is the kind of thing I’d want to see in a fan fiction. I have no problem with this. (This isn't going to happen a lot, so don't get used to this.)

Why should I believe the guild would immediately ignore Lucy just because Lisanna came back? The story usually goes that she was just holding Lisanna’s place.

In the entire guild.

That's never implied pre-Tenrou. The closest thing we get is Levy saying that Lucy is kinda like Lisanna.

Even if it's just Team Natsu, which will be important later, it still doesn't work. Team Natsu wasn't made until Lucy joined.

With Lucy as one of the first members.

Before Lisanna was even named as a character.

See the issue?

And isn't the implication of having a spot for Lisanna to take upon her return that they expected her to come back, to begin with? Even though she's been dead for two years?

Besides that, if I was actually supposed to think Lucy was let in as a replacement for Lisanna, I'd hope that the same people that agreed that Lucy had “the most Fairy Tail spirit” would have grown to like her as an individual by the time Edolas arc ended.

If I really try, I could understand Lucy feeling jealous about attention being diverted to Lisanna. There wasn’t as much excitement when she joined the guild as when Lisanna came back. Though, that's because, to borrow the words of the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son, Lisanna was dead and is alive again. And yes, that death was equally as literal in that story.

Anyway, let's talk about the people talking to her because they're really important. It's always a group of the same pool of people talking to her in these stories: Mirajane, Cana, Romeo, Wendy, Carla, Elfman, Levy, Jet, Droy, Gajeel, Pantherlily, Makarov, Juvia, and, on occasions, Gray, Erza, and Happy. I feel like I read one where Jellal talks to her for some reason and that's bad for obvious reasons.

Part of me finds it weird that writers do this. It's like, “No one talks to Lucy except for most of the relevant Fairy Tail guild members.” But hey, that’s an issue with grammar and syntax and not with canon relevance. At least this list makes canon sense, right?

One day, I will ask a question like this and the answer will actually be yes. Not this time.

Some of the people on the list make sense. I’m going to ignore Mira and Elfman because I want to talk about them later. Given the timing of these stories, it makes perfect sense that Cana would talk to Lucy. She actually did start hanging out with Lucy after Edolas. Makarov talking to Lucy is a given and I'd be scared if he wouldn't talk to Lucy. He doesn't usually talk to her as much as the average person would, but I'll go with it. Of course, that brings up problems later, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

There's also no problem with Levy. As Lucy's friend she'd definitely still talk to her. I find it weird that the rest of Shadow Gear goes along with it but that's not a big deal for me.

However, that doesn't mean that Gajeel or Pantherlily would talk to talk to Lucy because of their relationship with Levy. In fact, that reasoning fails because Gajevy had its big moment during the Tenrou arc. That's not to say the ship meant nothing up to that point. It just means that it's too early to associate one with the other, in a shipping sense. (Because it would be okay otherwise.)

There is no reason that anyone in Team Natsu should be talking to her in a story where they will kick her out of their team. And that's not to say that they should kick her out, to begin with. (We'll get to that.) But if you're going to go that way, don't have them do things with her before. Especially Natsu’s (other) best friend, Happy. This includes Wendy and Carla, even though they’re the newest members of Team Natsu at this point in the series. If Gray won't talk to Lucy, then I'm not sure Juvia would either. Even if that wasn't an issue, there's still the whole “love rivals” issue.

Romeo is often lumped in, but it's usually just to pair him off to Wendy. Lucy saved his dad, but that's the end of his relationship with Lucy. If anything, I could see him get crushed by his hero's actions later in the story, but that's another issue.

Stepping away from those issues, why does Lisanna coming back have to be the reason no one talks to her? This is supposed to be before the S-Class trials. Why not have everyone ignore Lucy because they’re all going out and doing missions?

You know, like what actually happened after Lisanna came back and the parties ended.

And come to think of it, Lisanna didn’t even try to get better for S-Class Trials. If anything, that would have been a great time for her to start to get back into the swing of using magic. Next time we see her after the parties, she’s talking with Carla and Wendy about Carla’s new powers. The guild isn’t anywhere close to caring about Lisanna over Lucy. If anything, they’re both being ignored.

Why can’t they talk out whatever issues they may be having out? Is this because of that stupid trope where plots are driven by miscommunication/no communication?

These issues cover what usually is the first half of the first chapter. In fact, this singular post is longer than it takes to know if Lucy is being ignored in these stories. If I’m reading a story and this is the way it starts, I'm obviously not thinking about most of these things as I go through it. Still, I’m not going into it expecting much from the rest of the story in the way of “capturing the Fairy Tail spirit”.

That doesn't mean this set up is terrible. In fact, I think this could be a set up for an interesting story. But if you can’t tell from the name of this series of posts, it doesn’t get much better from here on out.

To be continued...

Introduction |