Sunday, May 28, 2017

Fairy Tail Chapter 537 Review (For Real This Time) - The Power of Life

Written by Shiggins

When one thing ruins perfection...

I'm serious. I freaking adored this chapter until that came up! That one moment completely broke it apart and while it isn't enough to erase all the goodwill built up by this breathtaking chapter, it really did for a lot of other people. If you want to hear absolutely zero praise for this one, don't click today. I'm going to be talking about both beauty and piss this week.

Goodnight, sweet couple. And flights of fairies sing thee to thy rest.
Zeref lies on the floor, defeated by Natsu and with Mavis walking over to him. She begins her talk, saying how he has hurt her friends and cannot be forgiven for all his sins. We then talk more about the Black Magic of Death which, as we know very well, is powered by contradiction. The love from Zeref is what killed Mavis, literally.

However, Mavis had been unable to take Zeref's life because deep down, Mavis had not been able to love him. Mavis tells him how he helped her begin Fairy Tail, learn magic and much more, but everything he did means she can't truly love him. However, that itself is conflict because she is the only one who understands him and of course she loves him.

I'm going to miss this adorable dork.
Mavis was hoping that her love would cause the curse to kill him, but she doesn't want him to die because of her love.., She's stuck in a tragic loop of contradiction that is now causing her to break down in tears. Mavis yells in tears, telling him she hates him and he needs to die, before finally calming down and her speech goes against her thoughts.

Mavis kisses Zeref, and Zeref sheds tears himself as he is overcome with joy. Zeref and Mavis are covered in a bright light, the dark villain finally about to get some rest. Zeref wishes he could have patched things up with Natsu. And the curse takes them both. And as they disappear into the light, the power of love giving them the release they need... Makarov is woken up.

http://otakunuts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/fairy-tail-chapter-537-review-power-of.html
Opinion: So damn close!

Resurrection is like death, to me, when used in a story. It should only serve the plot and never just be used for an emotional reaction. Great uses of death and resurrection include Gandalf, Goku, The Doctor (technically), Jean Grey and many more. This sadly, much like almost every fakeout from One Piece, is one of the worst. (Seriously, why don't more people give One Piece crap for doing the exact same goddamn thing? They pull this shit more than Game of Thrones pulls off a girl's blouse!)

If this had happened far earlier, maybe it could have worked. In an arc that hadn't already been filled with half-hearted fakeouts, this scene would have had a chance to tug at my heartstrings. Sadly, this resurrection will fulfil no true purpose in the plot other than making everyone happy, and that just undermines all the emotions and tragedy that Laxus and the others have gone through since Makarov's worthy sacrifice.

Judging by her level of sadness, I'd say she's either about to lose Zeref, saw the Emoji Movie trailer or... Stepped on Lego!
That being said, holy shit was the conversation between Mavis and Zeref great! This was almost one of my all-time favourite chapters before that ending. The contradiction of the curse was utilised in full and it worked perfectly, providing Zeref an ending he truly deserved. The romance between Zeref and Mavis could have been made so simple, so obvious and so corny but the balance was just right. In one chapter, we felt the anger and betrayal Mavis felt, and yet how her own heart couldn't deny the truth. It's an understandable contradiction. Love is a contradiction, and I refuse to ignore how great this all was just because of one resurrection. I utterly refuse!

So... a mixed bag this week. And with no sign of Acnologia yet, I really am starting to question if this truly is the ending of the series. Much like Akira Toriyama, Hiro Mashima clearly loves to write on the edge of his seat and focus more on the present than the future, but ending it now would leave quite a few open roads. Franmalth, Orba, Ivan, Yuriy's death, Flare's return (not a priority but... I'd like it), the remaining Wizard Saints... Seriously, are we really about to end this?

Manga Rating: 2.5/5

Character of the Week: Mavis for her dialogue to Zeref and finally giving him a finale he deserved...

Best Part: Mavis and Zeref depart.

Worst Part: Makarov returns.

Man, what a pointless arc in the long run... Loads of fun though and I really do miss Mystog... LUCY! CLOSE YOUR LEGS!
Shiggins:[Admin]   .
Born under the stars of the Dark Gods, Shiggins owns the power of the Great Eye and is utterly magnificent in his omniscience. If you dare to discover more about someone as great as him, then go ahead. And to all my friends and family members, YOU are wrong and I should be disappointed! Not the other way round!,. You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/

12 comments:

  1. I love how despite being the centerpiece of the war, Fairy Tail(the guild) suffered no casualties except for the character who was technically already dead. Convo was nice though. If you ignore the atrociousfight it was a pretty good ending for them.

    The thing with Toriyama was at times he was essentially making shit up week by week. He was good at hiding because well he was competent at writing...most of the time. Thiat is not a good way to write a series.

    Also death fake outs in One Piece is obnoxious, but I argue that it's more prevalent in Fairy Tail. How much death teasing of major characters has happened in this arc alone? How much with Makarov himself during the entire series? Good size on both accounts.

    I was wondering what happened to those plot points you mentioned too, but I think Mashima forgot them.

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    1. It just depends on what you find more important: The emotion or the battle. For me, it's emotion any day but the battle itself wasn't "atrocious". That's too harsh a word. I'd say it was... middling.

      I agree there. Toriyama was very very very lucky to avoid what could have been a disaster. The Buu Arc came close.

      I don't know... When I think of FT fakeouts, I get annoyed because most of them are obvious and half-hearted. With OP however, some deaths are actually plot points (like the giant battle), so when they become fakeouts I get physically angry. It's a thin line to be fair.

      He must have! Or Franmalth is the final villain of the last four chapters...

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  2. Hey, that arc wasn't pointless! We got Lily out of it.
    I agree with the rest of the review. Nearly perfect chapter til that resurection.

    I get the feeling that Hiro just wants to end this series already.

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    1. Touche! Epic Pantherlily and his epic dub voice!

      Maybe he does actually, but only because I can tell he's excited to start his next project. He clearly loves to keep moving constantly.

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  3. I have to say, this chapter was beautiful. It was so heartwarming and touching to see Zeref's and Mavis's story end like that. I mean, if you think about it, the whole series's point was leading to this - The One Magic, Love. As corny as it is, the series foreshadowed and led to this all the time. So it's really great to see that the end of Zeref's and Mavis's story was tied with the One Magic... It was really great. If we would get a good Zeref fight as well, then this would be the best thing fairy tail ever did. But yes, this moment is one of my favourite moments, and definetly the highlight of FT's story..
    And Makarov.... tbh I don't care enough to get mad about that. After the atrocity of the last chapter, this is nothing. I still am dissapointed that we got such a fakeout, but it's "whatever" at this point.
    Also, ikr!! Somehow people always complain about Fairy Tail's bad moments, and ignore the same bad moments in One Piece!! Like seriously, OP also has a ton of fakeouts, however it doesn't get nearly as hated as FT.

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    1. Yeah, I do love how this chapter went in regards to Mavis and Zeref. It does actually feel almost planned-out from the beginning, with how it ties everything together and the emotions it carries out.
      OP is odd. I don't think I've ever seen it openly-criticised before, except in hushed corners. For some reason, it seems impervious to a lot of the same complaints that other series get.

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  4. relationship of Natsu and Zeref more, I'm not saying I didn't love this death chapter but that was a missed opportunity. I feel bad for Makarov the man can't die and there is no curse to explain it just status quo is God. I'm not excited for how Natsu is not gonna die and how we're gonna pretend like we didn't see that coming and it will have very little emotional impact. One piece has near dragonball invinciblilty to criticism and fan rage.

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    1. Yeah, I was divided myself when it came to the Natsu aspect. On the one hand, his relationship with Mavis has been explored far more and is probably more interesting. On the other hand, Natsu is (one of) the main character so shouldn't he be the focus?

      And yes, it does. Which is odd because I can think of many problems just like with other series.

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  5. so how come mavis did not die originally from zerefs curse?

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    1. She did die. However Precht managed to save her with the ressurection lacrima that was in FT's basement.

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  6. I just realised an epic oppurtunity Mashima didn't seem to have thought of: Anti-magic-particle Gajeel against magic-eating Acnologia. Gajeel manages to expell most of or all those particles during the fight but is weakened because a lot of his cells were already affected by them. (He might even loose his right arm, those injuries just SCREAM foreshadowing)

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  7. This chapter was a lot of fun to read, suprisingly. Mavis and Zeref's sending-off is probably the most satisfying romance in this whole series right now (though StiCy *shot* I mean GaLe is riding pretty hot on its heels right now).

    And there's already more chapters left to wrap up this manga than the two that Bleach was stuck to work with, so that's a positive sign. On the other hand, I'd argue that there's almost as much character plots hanging around on a thread here as in Bleach. So hopefully Mashima was right when he said he knew how to end this properly.

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