#fairy tail tower of heaven arc

[sunbloomdew]

My thoughts on Juvia Lockser in the Tower of Heaven Arc

Disclaimer: This is an anti-Juvia post! If you like her that’s cool, I'm happy you do. I don’t and I have the right to express that. I will not change my mind about this character, so please don’t try to “prove me wrong”. It will just end up in both of us getting frustrated. I sincerely hope you have a nice day and continue to enjoy what you like.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I have been rewatching Fairy Tail! I finished the Tower of Heaven arc, which I found really enjoyable, except for a few things, notably J//via’s presence in this part of the story. I have a strong dislike for her, but putting my feelings aside for a second, I think it makes no sense that she of all people is in this arc. If she must i think it would have been better if she reappeared in the story in the next arc, the Battle of Fairy Tail (or if she didn’t return at all), and here’s why:

She has no meaningful connection to any of the characters involved. She is not friends with anyone from team Natsu, she is a former enemy, who they see for the first time since defeating Phantom Lord. Moreover, the reason she was in the Akane Resort in the first place was to stalk Gray. Her intentions aren’t pure or honourable, she doesn't care about Erza and Happy getting kidnapped, nor does she care about Erza’s backstory. She has no reason to care about any of this because they are not friends! And it makes her being there look weird. In most of the scenes she doesn’t even talk, aside from acting insanely possessive over a man with whom she doesn’t have a relationship, nor his consent to behave this way. J//via doesn’t feel any genuine care for members of team Natsu, and i say any because i don’t consider her obsession with Gray to be that. She is just physically attracted to him, and I guess he made the rain stop because he was pretty?? And saved her from falling, which any decent person would do.

There is literally no good reason why she should be allowed to learn about Erza’s very traumatic past. This bothers me a lot, as it affects Erza’s character as well. I find it hard to believe that Erza, who is closed off and has a hard time being vulnerable, even with people she grew up with, just told the story of her childhood to a stranger. When Gray, Lucy, Natsu and J//via arrive at the tower, she doesn’t even acknowledge J//via’s presence once. She acts like she is not even there! She doesn’t know who she is, judging by her words in episode 41, when she asks Gray something along the lines of “Where is that girl?”. And in the funeral scene, Juvia isn’t there either. She has no connection to the emotional core of this arc, which leads me to her scene with Lucy.

Her meaningful moments hold little weight and could have been better executed. Without the context J//via’s little monologue about Fairy Tail during her and Lucy’s fight against the hair assassin is kinda sweet. I can sympathise with the feeling of bringing sadness and misery everywhere you go and I can admit that J//via’s backstory is sad and she didn’t deserve the treatment she got. What ruins this scene for me and ultimately renders it kinda useless are a few things. First, prior to this moment she never expressed a desire to join Fairy Tail for reasons NOT related to Gray. Never during her stalking does she think about Fairy Tail as a guild, all her thoughts centre around Gray. During her monologue we get flashbacks to the moments when she was stalking Gray, which undermine her declaration even more. How can you say you love Fairy Tail, when you hadn’t experienced the sense of community yourself? When all you have been doing is violating someone’s privacy? What’s even worse about J//via’s moment with Lucy is that after the fight, the next time they talk J//via is back to her possessive self! Even when she was moved by Lucy being kind to her, even when Lucy constantly says that she is not her “love rival” she keeps antagonising her (and that is just the beginning). Her other moments are just her protecting Gray, which would have been nice and all if she was better written. IF her feelings for him grew over time and were explored, IF she wasn’t a freakin creep and respected his boundaries, IF she had a character outside of him- only then i would be able to look at her protection as something genuine and sweet, not as a way for her to make Gray look at her more favourably. As such, everything she does feels like manipulation, to get what she desires.

The team could have easily handled things without her. Her power wasn’t essential in getting into the tower, since Lucy has Aquarius, who could without any trouble do the same. It would be even better if that happened, since it would give Lucy some moments to shine! I have already been rewriting it in my head. Aquarius could have helped them camouflage the boat and find the underwater entrance, as well as helping them get through it. It would provide development in Lucy’s relationship with Aquarius, which we don’t get enough of in the series in my opinion. We could have Lucy summon Aquarius, and her being pissed at the beginning but quickly realising what sort of situation they are in and helping them (still with her harsh exterior of course, because if anybody is a tsundere in Fairy Tail, it’s Aquarius lmao). It would also show that spirits are reliable and can do their jobs without being rendered useless by their gags. In my opinion, the overused jokes with the spirits make Lucy look incompetent and make the spirits look like flat characters too. They can crack jokes, sure, but that shouldn’t get in the way of what they have been summoned for. Lucy could have her moment of defeating one of the assassins, and if that would be out of character for her to be able to take down this opponent on her own this early in the story, then she could have teamed up with Milliana and Wally to do that. I think it would be a cute little moment, just like Natsu, Gray and Happy sorta teamed up with Simon to take down the owl (i say sorta because Simon does get knocked out right at the beginning - it was a missed opportunity, it would have been so cool if he joined them in the fight).

So now that I went over the reasons why I think reintroducing J//via into the story in this arc was bad timing, I'm going to list off a few other problems I had with her that I wasn't sure where to put.

Starting off with:

She literally tries to drown Lucy. This is such an idiotic moment that I'm not even sure what to say. Why? All it does is make J//via look even more deranged and uncaring. And for it to happen in such a serious situation too! The team is trying to rescue Erza and Happy, two members they care for very much, and all J//via can think about is that there is another girl near Gray. Not to mention, that Juvia did make Lucy lose consciousness before, when she captured her for Phantom. Realistically, having Lucy be forced to relay on her kidnapper to get to their destination would have made her at least a bit anxious. Especially since she is yet to hear a true apology for that.

This could go in the “no meaningful bonds” argument sorta. When the team is heading to the tower on a boat, J//via makes a comment about not expecting Erza to get defeated so easily and Gray gets upset at her comment. I totally understand his reaction. If a stranger/former enemy said something like “i never thought that they would be beaten so easily” about my beloved friend, i would be mad as well! This exchange just further proves that J//via doesn’t know anything about the people she decided to join.

Another thing I was wondering about was why did she choose to approach Gray at the resort, and not earlier or later. I thought of a couple of answers. First, this isn’t the guild, where she would have to confront a group of people who were attacked by Phantom. Second, the team split to do their own things at the casino, which means she can approach Gray when he is alone and again, doesn’t have to confront others, for example Lucy. And third, this is a vacation resort, which means that Gray will be more relaxed and possibly more likely to talk with her. To me it just reads as very manipulative, to try to target the object of her “affections” in such a way.

I think what i dislike about J//via the most is that when you take away her love for Gray, there is nothing about her except for a good design (i like blue AND dead fish eyes lmao) and cool powers i guess. And well, that is not enough for a character to be compelling. 

She never reflects on her actions as a Phantom Lord member, she doesn’t express any guilt for kidnapping Lucy and taking part in the attack on Fairy Tail. She doesn’t have any values or beliefs that are her own. She is such a frustrating case to me, because she could have been such a powerful lesson in self-worth and learning to love yourself. Imagine if she went through a character arc where she realised that she doesn’t have to base her whole identity on romantic love. That she has value outside of being someone’s love interest and can find people who accept her with her ability to bring rain. Instead she is awful.

Phew that was quite a rant. There are many other things unrelated to this character that i want to talk about, but i will leave them for separate posts. It feels refreshing to be able to express your opinion online, since it's not something i have done a lot before - i've always been more of a silent enthusiast.

If you've read this post i'm interested in hearing your thoughts! Let's all remember to be respectful when starting a discussion.

Peace out (❁´◡`❁)

[discocandles]

ultear's timeline is so jam-packed it stresses me out. she's a side character technically, but her lore is insane.

Like, Ultear as a child is tested on for at least a year before escaping, finding her mom, vowing vengeance on her mother for replacing her. Then she goes back, gets experimented for a little bit longer, and destroys the place, all before age 10. Then hades finds her, she joins grimoire heart, and she masters time magic. But around that time, she also possesses a 7-year-old jellal under the guise of being Zeref at like 13.

Then from 14-25 she "slows down" a bit, just doing some mass destruction to find seals for Zeref and taking in a child. oh and don't forget how she joins the magic council with like 17-year-old jellal as siegrain who again, she is manipulating, and begins aiding lyon in freeing deliora from the ice that is her mother.

im pretty certain that all happens before natsu and lucy meet in hargeon.

this behavior absolutely continues in the 7 year timeskip. she rebuilds her relationship with her adopted daughter while continuing to raise her, breaks jellal out of the highest security prison in the nation, presumably helps him get his memory back(? unclear on when that happened). then with that merry trio, she founded a pseudo-dark guild, destroyed several "legitimate" dark guilds, perfects the spell to unlock the second origin or something, and keeps an eye out for Zeref-likr magic throughout an entire damn country. All while on the run from the Magic Council, and several other dark guilds.

like what the hell are you on?

[everyjuvia]

It sounds as if Juvia has never cried before, or maybe never noticed herself crying. The root of her "rain problem" must have been in suppresing her emotions.

[ravendavia]

if i have a nickel for everytime there is blue-haired character who is vaguely represent humanity one way or another and is willingly to do anything for the sake of others, i'll have two nickels.

[lisannastraussisanangel]

More ToH Children Headcanons:

For @dirtmanwalking :)

Simon used to make the group meditate once they started using magic. Claiming they needed 'a sound mind and body' but it was mostly just to get them all to chill out

Contrary to popular belief, Erza is closest to Shô out of the whole group

Erik would bring his snake around and introduce her to all the kids

Wally has mandatory movie nights. Jellal nearly cried the first time he was invited

Simon has two graves. One where the tower of heaven was and one in a cemetery by Kagura

The Oracion Seis used to play a secret game of house. Kids weren’t allowed to have fun so it had to done quietly.

Millianna owns several cats and volunteers at a nearby shelter in her free time

Shô and Wally send postcards to Fairy Tail and Mermaid Heel every time they visit a new place

Kagura is an honorary member of the toh family. She's in the group chat (because of course they have a gc lol)

[everyonehappy]

feeding Natsu fish while everyone is distracted

offering fish: 2

[just-someone-online]

Fairy Tail AUs

I did a couple of these for Transformers a while back and I figured it might be fun to do again.

Slayer Swap AU - In which the various dragon, god, and devil slayers follow slightly different paths in life and end up in each others guilds.

Dragon Swap AU - In which the Dragon Slayers are raised by each others dragons instead of their own, leading to five much different people in the present day.

Changeling AU - In which everything doesn't go back to normal after the titular body swapping episode, forcing everyone to focus up and train and get used to their new bodies as best as they can. Whether they're strong enough to endure Phantom's attack remains to be seen.

Renegade Guild AU - In which Fairy Tail is forcibly disbanded alongside Phantom Lord in the aftermath of their battle. Never one to bow to the council's wishes, Fairy Tail reforms as the newest dark guild. Luckily for the council, the illegal guild has decided to take its frustrations out on the other dark guilds instead of striking back.

Phantom Lucy AU - In which Lucy chooses to join Phantom Lord instead of Fairy Tail. Unfortunately, she quickly finds that it isn't what she had hoped it to be, especially once Jude comes knocking...

Erza in Edolas AU - In which Anima targets the Tower of Heaven while it's exploding, bringing both it and Erza to Edolas. Now, trapped in this strange new world without her magic or friends, Erza searches for a way home as she fights against the royal army alongside Lisanna and a distrusting Fairy Tail.

[vitaetmorsfilo]

this is a list of moments where natsu is smart (and then some) (episodes from 33 to 48)

(should i- should i still call it that? it fells like its more of me just yapping then anything else, lmao)

(anyway)

- when fighting wally and milliana, managed to turn his disadvantage of head being stuck in a cat helmet into an advantage using milliana's love for cats,so that she would be hesitant to attack him and would sabotage wally when he attacked (also using milliana's plush as a shield against wally's attack, good use of your environment)

- (cunty gray fullbaster)

- (also, kudos from me to ikagura, who managed to corner erza, and forced her out of her armor and to rethink her tactics, no one else have done it, you are underappreciated queen)

- (and second also, like, poor natsu? when they where on galuna, he saw how gray nearly killed himself twice, after phantom lord, was worried that lucy decided to go home, and now, simon is telling him that erza won't back down even when etherion strikes, thus killing her and jellal, his team is full of self-sacrificial people, huh?...(combine it with how zeref became cursed, just so he could bring natsu back, what is it with people around natsu-))

- (and another kudos from me to fucking jellal, you sly bastard. tricking EVERYONE around into thinking that there were two of you, and that etherion is necessary to destroy r-system, when actually it was the only way for it to gather enough magic power to do its work, ingenious, i got goose bumps from these scenes-) (or maybe its all just ultear's puppeteering, still cool tho-)

- (natsu... punching those he cares about into unconsciousness, so that they don't overexert themselves, huh... (okay, it happened only to gray and erza as of now, lucy is lucky she avoided it))

- (it is also evidence for how well nastu can mask and hide his emotions, because as he got erza, he smiled, and talked about another quest and paying lucy's rent, and started tickling erza, but the moment she passed out, his gears instantly shifted 180º, telling about how erza cried, that she gave up, and how he is going to fight for her to wake up from this nightmare, like, he was 100% putting up a brave face for erza)

- when fighting jellal, he was focusing very hard on smell, sound, and touch, to predict jellal's movement's

- when jellal said that tower can't handle more destruction, or magic will start to leak out, he immediately punched tower, that destroying is what fairy tail does best, aye! (that also means jellal can't fight in full power, while natsu has no such restrictions)

- eating etherion in substitution to his fire, and actually absorbing it, triggering his dragon force, damn, our favourite freak of nature, everyone! sure, it was a gamble, but one that paid off (what is it with you putting weird things in your mouth? first, when fighting lullaby, you talked about how would souls taste like, now etherion, and a bit later laxus' lightning, are you an animal? (don't bother answering, we know you are🥰🥰🥰))

- used falling chunks of tower to climb up to jellal and to catch up with him

- (oh, our assassins are okay, whew)

- natsu managing to find erza in that whirlpool of magic and save her (its not really about being smart, but i can't imagine that feat being easy, okay?)

- got the idea to "melt" erza from being a stone with his fire? makarov and happy kicked up a fuss, but gajeel was rather calm, even if he said that it was risky... task failed successfully, i suppose. erza is free, so that's what counts.

- (wait, i forgot that gajeel was even dealing with ivan, what the f-)

- (AND ONCE AGAIN, how the fuck lisanna is even alive? she talks about how she doesn't feel anything, and based on her reaction and how her eyes look she probably became blind. that's some spinal AND brain damage AT THE LEAST. how she managed to walk around edolas as if nothing happened-)

- correctly interpreted Laxus's impatience as worry, because his plan really was all or nothing, with all being named master, and nothing being, uh, i dunno, destroying magnolia? but now he won't have either

- (also, what in all hells, natsu? once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, but thrice is a damned pattern, stop stripping in your fights, you are not gray-)

[dionysosmadness]

Did anyone else forget about the trinity raven 💀💀💀

[rosieramblesss]

I just had an insane realization-

All Fairy Tail fans, please listen to the song “Feed The Machine” by Poor Man’s Poison

AND TRY AND TELL ME THAT IT ISNT PERFECT FOR TOWER OF HEAVEN!!!!!!

[sunbloomdew]

watching tower of heaven arc and i am just slightly peeved that j//via is there. a tiny bit angy.

i have thoughts and i am writing them down. will release them into the wild soon

[everyjuvia]

[bumblebeehug]

This is what I meant to write when I posted this:

ultear's timeline is so jam-packed it stresses me out. she's a side character technically, but her lore is insane.

Like, Ultear as a child is tested on for at least a year before escaping, finding her mom, vowing vengeance on her mother for replacing her. Then she goes back, gets experimented for a little bit longer, and destroys the place, all before age 10. Then hades finds her, she joins grimoire heart, and she masters time magic. But around that time, she also possesses a 7-year-old jellal under the guise of being Zeref at like 13.

Then from 14-25 she "slows down" a bit, just doing some mass destruction to find seals for Zeref and taking in a child. oh and don't forget how she joins the magic council with like 17-year-old jellal as siegrain who again, she is manipulating, and begins aiding lyon in freeing deliora from the ice that is her mother.

im pretty certain that all happens before natsu and lucy meet in hargeon.

this behavior absolutely continues in the 7 year timeskip. she rebuilds her relationship with her adopted daughter while continuing to raise her, breaks jellal out of the highest security prison in the nation, presumably helps him get his memory back(? unclear on when that happened). then with that merry trio, she founded a pseudo-dark guild, destroyed several "legitimate" dark guilds, perfects the spell to unlock the second origin or something, and keeps an eye out for Zeref-likr magic throughout an entire damn country. All while on the run from the Magic Council, and several other dark guilds.

like what the hell are you on?

[everyonehappy]

[bumblebeehug]

When do u think Natsu actually realized that he fell for Lucy and i know he treats her differently but can u give moments where it's initiated from his side?

This is going to be a long post so buckle up!

Okay, first of all: the Phantom Lord arc. Though I don't think he fell in love with her at that point of time, I think it was the events that seriously solidified his partialness to her. I'd go into detail but I can already feel a long post incoming, so I'll keep it short: Lucy telling Natsu that she loves being a Fairy Tail wizard, while crying over the fact that she didn't want to leave ↓

After just trusting her life in Natsu, jumping from an insanely high tower, with a mere belief that maybe she had heard him in the distance – I think it struck a chord with Natsu. Like, it would be normal to cry after a fall like that, but Lucy wasn't concerned about that aspect. Her head and heart was all about the guild, how she didn't want to go, and that resonates with Natsu. Natsu's entire life at that point is 1) Finding Igneel, and 2) being with/protecting the guild.

Then I'd say it's a pretty gradual build in their relationship. They go on a lot of missions, hang out together, and just in general spend a lot of time connecting. There's some Natsu-saves-Lucy, some Lucy-saves-Natsu, some hand holding (tenrou arc I won't forget about that, thank you anime team for adding that scene), and then comes the next pivotal moment. GMG arc and the dragon festival that follows.

By then I'd say Natsu and Lucy are very much in this friends-with-emotional-benefit zone: much more than friends, absolutely not yet lovers. But with Lucy's near-death experiences in her battles, Natsu has to refrain himself from getting involved each time Lucy gets beaten up - he becomes helpless, and the worry that's sowed inside of him gets watered each time Lucy still puts his faith in him, still trusts him to come out a winner. That entire section when Lucy's in the infirmary and she tells Natsu that her entire being trusts that Natsu can do anything, I think that's when Natsu falls in love.

Now wait!! He still doesn't quite understand that he loves her. But he understands that his feelings for Lucy are more tender than any other feelings he's ever had. He treasures her in a new, heavier way. She's become precious to him.

Precious. Where have we heard that... oh >:) ↓

Now the Dragon Festival was LETHAL in a trillion ways, but especially for nalu fans. The whole Future Lucy plot and the forehead touches and the Future Natsu and Future Lucy fighting in a wasteland moments and the Natsu skipping the final GMG match to save Lucy. And of course. Future Lucy dying. It's not the first time we see Natsu get so heavily affected - it happened in the tower of heaven, when Erza was ready to give her life up. But it is the first time we see Natsu see a friend die. Like, a team mate, someone who he's responsible for bringing to the guild. And after the whole GMG conundrum? Had a single more bad thing happened Lucy during the dragon festival, he’d probably turn into a demon right there and then. Dare I even say: their relationship was the strongest at this point in time.

After the GMG and the Dragon Festival, we get the Sun Village arc (I don’t like the Eclipse celestial spirit arc so I’m not counting it, same with Key of the Starry Sky arc — technically some nalu moments but not exactly building imo) and then another big one: Tartaros. Ooooh brother, THE best arc of all times, wish Mashima knew how to replicate it. But alas, he doesn’t.

The Tartaros arc isn’t exactly a pivotal moment where Natsu “falls in love” but rather an important aspect to understand his later actions. Like this guy goes through some pretty grusome stuff, learns a lot of complicated, bad things about himself, and finishes off the arc with losing Igneel — his father that he's spent ages searching for. Natsu's entire life is turned upside down, so he decides that he has to become stronger: cue, he heads off for a year to train.

His time away isn't very elaborated on — not from Natsu's viewpoint or Lucy's. But I think it's understood that he chose not to bring along Lucy because she could be put into danger too much for him to be able to concentrate on building his strength: he knew his training would be dangerous. During this time we also have the Gildarts-scene in chapter (idk i can't be bothered to look it up but y'all know the one ↓) which is kinda debated on — who was Natsu talking about here?

I'm still not certain on if it was a heart to heart on the Igneel-matter, or if it was about his guilt of leaving Lucy behind, like many theorise. I'm not even certain that it's limited to one of them — he could be talking about both. But at the very least, this entire year was one of those "distance makes the heart grow fonder" moments for him. He wanted to get back to his normal life with Lucy so bad. After all, it wasn't like him showing up at the GMG was in order to meet Lucy — had he wanted more training after that, he'd head off again, but I don't think he could physically bring himself to do it, even if it hadn't turned out that the guild had disbanded. Though that's just me speculating a bit.

And about the guild disbandment: oh jolly, he was not happy. He had finally taken the step to grow stronger to protect everyone in his beloved guild, and here Makarov went and disbanded it? Leaving Lucy completely alone? Lucy, who once jumped from a hella high tower because she was just so devoted to stay in the Fairy Tail guild? Yeah, I think that broke him a little. At this point there was just so much guilt involved around his whole relationship with Lucy, because now he had put her through so much pain only because he brought her to Fairy Tail that day in Hargeon.

The next arcs I'd say Natsu's trying to spend his time redeeming himself for the countless things he's done bad (getting the guild back together, just generally staying by Lucy's side as much as possible). And naturally he keeps getting hit by challenge after challenge (it's not easy to be a book written by his immortal brother, yk?). And it's even harder to watch Lucy die again, this time for real (he thinks bc he's stupid and also has a tumour that's nothing less than a ticking bomb) (give this guy a break lol).

Anyways: Lucy's death nr2. Natsu can't live a life without her. Now I know — he still doesn't quite understand that it's romantic love, but I think he does understand that it's pure love. No matter if kissing and reproducing was involved, all he knew was that a life without Lucy is completely unimaginable, so blinded by rage he becomes and decides to decapitate everyone in his way (sorry about that Gray).

The last couple of moments I'll go out of my way to mention as signs of love is 1. when he's won over Acnologia and falls towards Lucy, crazy relieved, saying "I'm home", 2. Gajeel pointing out Natsu's crush on Anna, Natsu basically saying "oh that's why I like Lucy so much" (I embellished it lol) and 3. "We're still gonna be together from here on out, right?" yeah that man won't ever leave her. Ever. It's just not an option.

Now since I've only talked about specific moments, here's what I have to say about his relationship with her in general:

Throughout the main plot line, we also see a shift in Natsu's behaviour. Someone here on Tumblr pointed out that Natsu always finds a way to shield Lucy if something unexpected happens, after not being able to shield her from Future Rogue. There's also the small detail of the order he calls out to people - it goes from being pretty random, to Lucy almost alwyas being on the top of the list: likely because she's always on the top of his head. And in general I'd say that Natsu initiates (i'm adding this entire paragraph bc i realised that you asked about when Natsu initiated stuff, more than when he fell in love lol) almost all of their interractions. It's Natsu who wants Lucy to join Fairy Tail, to form a team, he's the one who enters her apartment constantly, he's always searching her out - his interest in her is at a constant high so we never feel like we get "moments" that he's paying her extra attention. He has one setting, and it's "Lucy" cranked to the max. Lol.

I could also add some HYQ moments to the mix here, but they've been few and far inbetween, and also mostly played off as jokes, so I can't really consider them as moments when Natsu initiates his love. I guess his jealousy can be considered a sign? And when (spoilers from the manga) he runs around to protect her/save her from creepy-freaky-jail (the only one who made it freaky was him, with those wild fantasies lol). Maybe I need to jog my memory a bit, but so far there hasn't been any non-pervy nalu moments initiated by Natsu in the HYQ, aside from jealousy-chap. Sadly.

Hope this gave you the answer you were hoping for! Sorry it took so long, I started writing on it and realised it would be a bible so I put it in my drafts to fetch some pics to make it less wordy, and then I forgot about it, lol. But here it is!

[dionysosmadness]

THE WAY ERZA CRIED A TEAR W/ ONE EYE