Fairy Tail is pretty cool

[Dracos]

Yeah.  And admittingly the reveal picture kind of makes it a little more understandable.  That was like 30-40 people in that shot.

[thepanda]

Damn. Nice to see there'll be some consequences to missing seven years. Tough luck for Lucy, though.

[Merc]

Celestial spirits party hard.

[Dracos]

The only weird part in the skip is not that there are awesome chars or that everyone else leveled up, but that the level they were at (Nearly S-Rank mages) is considered 'kinda just barely adequate'.  Really?  Not that they don't got reason for a training arc.  New badasses and the fact that they were nearly all killed in their last big fight, but they did kinda also win that fight.  You'd think at least several of them would still be at 'I'm a badass' level.  Instead of 'I'm kind of middle of the road' level.

[Merc]

Magic advances like computer technology! A 7 year gap is like going from floppy disks to blue-ray!

[thepanda]

Except the last arc was 'crazy ancient magic > you'.

[Merc]

...Magic also has an uncanny valley effect? >_>

[Merc]

Erza is a badass.

[Dracos]

Indeed.

The last 2-3 chapters was awesome Fairy Tail.

[Merc]

For all that awesomeness of recent chapters, the last chapter turned it right back to "Blegh".

Must Lucy always get used as "We must avenge/save her!" bait in this series?

First fight: Raven Tail cheats! Must avenge her! *Everyone gets angry, until Laxus defeats all of Raven Tail*
Second fight: Sabertooth is cruel! Must avenge her! *Everyone gets angry, probably Natsu will be the one avenging her*
Soon in the future: Lucy is kidnapped! Must save her!

Oh and her dad died right before all this (okay, sure, he was an ass, but still).

Man, poor Lucy. =/

[Dracos]

Haven't seen the latest chapter, but I can agree with the sentiment.  It'd be nice for Lucy to come into her own.

The little girl character really would've been quite acceptable as the vulnerable cast member for a bit.

[thepanda]

One minute. . .

[Dracos]

Well, that's sort of been the theme of the current story?

Retcons within retcons?

"Oh noes, everybody died."
"No wait, I'm going back to when they were all alive and I'm gonna tell them so they don't die!"

[thepanda]

Wasn't a criticism. I actually liked the chapter.

Spoiler: ShowHide

As dark as the last chapters were getting, Ultear's 'My life was only worth one minute?' felt like a gut punch, only to be shown just have much one minute changed things.

[Merc]

Still a gut punch considering...

Spoiler: ShowHide

....she dies without realizing how much of a difference she apparently makes, not just for Fairy Tail but humanity as a whole.

Also, dammit, why are so many writers bad at making their principal heroine not be such a load/damsel in distress? Considering that Lucy owns so many of the zodiac celestial keys, which is SUPPOSED to be a freaking huge deal, why does she keep needing to be rescued?