Fairy Tail Arc Review - Alvarez Empire

Written by Shiggins

Oh hey, another FT review!

Ever since the war in Fairy Tail started, a slight uprising of requests for a final review of this arc has been increasing. It has been a very controversial arc, especially when this was revealed to be the finale all of a sudden, giving everyone a shock and worried we'd go away unhappy. After it was all said and done however, was the arc a roaring success or a dribbling pile of excrement that has tarnished Fairy Tail's name forever?

FULL SPOILERS AHEAD

Look at all you sexy bastards... Damn. It's like the war of the supermodels.

As decreed by Shakespeare who, as we all know was the first ever writer of fiction, we should start at the beginning of the story. And it has to be said that the opening to this arc is arguably the second-best of the series, right behind Tartarus' grim adventure. The Guild have only just got back together and decided to appoint Erza as the 6th Master, but where is Makarov? Oh, he's in the Alvarez Empire! An empire run by Emperor Zeref! Everyone panic! He and his followers are so damn powerful!

This feels like it was so long ago... Also, goddamn this picture is cool!

And this brings us to what is easily the best asset of the arc; Zeref's Spriggan 12. These villains are an absolute treat, all distinct and unique from each other in their own ways. From the adorable yet selectively scary Brandish to the possible-lesbian Dimaria, to the nutjob cyborg Wall Eehto and even the ultra-powerful God Serena, leader of the Wizard Saints who has betrayed his own country to join Zeref!

"I'm surrounded by idiots."

Sadly though, almost every single one of them is underused or injured by an unfortunate creative decision. God Serena is by far the best example of this, his entire arsenal of Dragon Slayer magic that he keeps shoved up his arse destroyed almost immediately and every scene he enters is brief and cut off by someone else. I enjoyed whenever he was on the page, but does that make it better or worse?

Don't. Okay? Just... Don't get me started. God Serena, the Wizard Saints... None of it. I'm not even touching that.

The Spriggan 12 make up the majority of the battles, but only about half of them are worthy of the antagonists. August, Wall, Ajeel, Invel, Neinhart, Jacob (also known as Jason Statham thanks to a wonderful commentator who ruined my life by pointing out their resemblance) and Dimaria all have good battles but Irene, Bloodman, Brandish and the previously-mentioned God Serena really don't get the spectacles they deserve. Larcade's is okay.

It should be pointed out that, for the most part, these battles aren't actually bad. (Although Erza and that meteor was definitely a load of nope...). In fact, many of them are a lot of fun. However, this is the war arc. The final battle. "Not bad" is not enough. These battles needed to be huge, chaotic and full of agony. People obviously reacted poorly, shitting on the fight scenes for lack of size. And honestly, they aren't worth shitting on. I've looked back now. I've taken a deep breath. Most of these battles are good, but again, the big question keeps popping up; Is that enough for the final arc?

Whenever the series went dark, it was a great experience. More of that, please! (Although not too much, since that would make it an unpleasant read).

The final battle against Acnologia in particular is a perfect example of the problem here; This isn't just any villain. This is the villain. Acnologia, the worst of the worst. And what we got was a subpar thrash, with nobody in the audience feeling enough excitement. We weren't tense or excited. We were getting bored. This could perhaps be the biggest sin of the entire arc.

Now, let's address what is arguably the most prominent issue; The deaths.

Now, I am actually one of the few here who will tell you that no, a series does not need to have deaths all the time. The people who think the only way you can have a good story is by killing off tons of heroes can go fuck themselves in my book... However, this is not just any arc. This is the final arc. The war arc.

The power of boobs solves every problem.

Instead of deaths, we get death fakeouts instead. Characters make the leap to sacrifice themselves for their (future) lovers or friends, which is admirable, but repeated constantly. The tension of it being a war is no longer a big deal, since nobody dies... Oh wait, that's wrong. Makarov died. And then he came back. So in the end, the death toll for the heroes was shockingly small, by which I mean non-existent.

Oh, and we can never forget one of the funniest images in Fairy Tail. Every detail on this thing is just hilarious.

Another major hurting point for the arc was the Heartfilia family, with the exception of Lucy. I've gone about this before but it deserves a mention in this review; Layla and Anna brought some true misery for me. The backstory involving Lucy and Brandish is a neat idea but the resolution for it was a mess, forced and convenient.

Thankfully, only Anna appears in this arc but her scenes are a huge black spot for this review. With almost no explanation and dozens of questions raised, Anna felt like someone who had her story cut off in the middle due to a loss of time. She appeared, brought in a horrible waste of time to try to kill Acnologia, failed, then just stuck around until the arc ended. We never even saw her talk to Lucy until the final chapter when the war was over!

Of course, we all know this isn't the only plot point that was an absolute farce. Natsu's E.N.D is debatably the worst conclusion in this war, basically resulting in Natsu not turning into a demon because... well, because he said he wasn't going to. What could have been an visually interesting representation of willpower essentially dissolves into nothing. Now that is a true shame.

That feeling in my chest as I look at this? Yeah, that's my heart breaking as I realise it is impossible to truly hate this arc.

When the arc does absolutely shine however are during the emotional moments, and you could argue that this is what truly redeems the arc. With the exception of Layla's convenient backstory that just happened to convince Brandish to turn sorta-maybe-good, every backstory or reveal or confession was done with adequate to shining results. Oh, I could go on and on for hours about how fantastic these moments are but instead, here is a list.

Mavis' discussion of how she died.

Mavis' final goodbye with Zeref.

The death of Makarov.

Gajeel admitting his love.

Irene's brutal pregnancy.

Sherria losing her magic.

Sabertooth being crucified.

Gray and Juvia sacrificing themselves for the other.

August's tragic story...

TEARS, PEOPLE! I EXPECT ALL THE TEARS!

All these moments and more make it impossible for me to hate this arc. When the series stayed focused on emotion and heart, it won. It gave us 5/5 performances, with some hiccups here or there. While you could spend hours nitpicking the logic behind these, that would only be a disservice to yourself. You read manga, so you need to know when to  I enjoyed them greatly and I hope you did.

So in the end, what was Alvarez Empire? The worst? The best? For me, it was neither. It was a good arc with some amazing moments of emotion and character, with spats of problems here and there, most of which are in the second half of the war. I would still probably rank it in my Top 5 Fairy Tail Arcs. However, this arc will be forever plagued by the question; Was it good enough for a final arc? Short answer; Probably not.

Okay, can we now please stop with the wars? Fairy Tail, Naruto, Bleach, Magi, One Piece... Enough! What's next? A Pokemon War?! WHEN DOES IT END?!

Shiggins:[Admin]
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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/