Fairy Tail – Chapter 258
Okay seriously, who comes up with these names?
Here’s a recurring scenario in shonen: the main hero has a special power which, at first, seems to be unique to him, but we soon discover dozens of other characters like him. Like in One Piece, where there were only three Devil Fruit users in the first hundred or so chapters, but now they’re everywhere. When you think of it like that, it’s actually very intriguing that we haven’t seen many Dragon Slayers in Fairy Tail. In over 250 chapters, we’ve only come across 5 of them, and I think Laxus and Cobra are supposed to be some bizarre new version of them.
It’s even more interesting when you consider that Hiro Mashima openly admits he sucks at planning long term. Aside from a few characters and one or two plot points, there isn’t very much that carries over between story arcs. But the Dragon Slayers are different somehow. They’re one of the only things that existed in Fairy Tail from the very beginning, and we’ve seen enough specific details to know that there’s a plan for them.
Now we’re finally getting a story arc with a pair of them as enemies, and they not only have their own cats, but they’re somehow connected to Natsu and Gajeel. With this coming on the heels of the recent timeskip – which I still maintain had to have SOME higher purpose – it’s looking like this next story arc will get more involved with how the hell Dragon Slayer magic actually works. If nothing else, I’m curious as to how these characters met, and if it has anything to do with the overall mythology.
I generally liked the various story arcs in Fairy Tail, but there was always a problem in that they never felt connected. One minute you could be hunting down a powerful dark guild, the next you’re in an alternate universe. This current arc likely won’t have any direct connections to the others, but with any luck, we’ll be dealing with some questions that have been around since the beginning. It does feel like the story is accelerating, if only a little, so maybe this is where the real action begins to take shape.
Posted on November 11, 2011, in Chapter Discussions, Fairy Tail, Series and tagged dragon slayer, Fairy Tail, manga, shonen, story arc. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
Shades of Grey 
Apart from never felt connected, I feel like none of the characters in Fairy Tail grow in terms of strength. At least, not that I realize. We see perhaps new keys for Lucy or new armors for Erza and that’s just it. Their magic skills never developed into something much more powerful.
On the other hand, I’ll be waiting to see if these two Dragon Slayers will be using the same skills (just different element) as the genuine three.
I think the idea is that the series generally avoids training arcs, so the enemies don’t have to be that much more powerful. The thing is that the enemies HAVE been getting more powerful, and it starts to stretch belief that the characters are capable of beating some of these stronger foes. Especially with the sudden power-ups Natsu keeps getting at the end.
If Wendy’s magic is different from the others, it’s always possible for either of these two to be a bit different, but I’m not holding my breath.
I will always hate that time skip so much, and i do hope that Hiro can explain why it was important to put the main and supporting cast to sleep for 7 years with no training, while the bad guys were probably getting stronger all that time. And to be brutally honest, i love how this series has to pull out Deus Ex Machina’s every 10 chapters just to explain something. Seriously, i dare you to count all the Deus Ex Machina’s just in the last arc alone. Even if you only count the ones that make sense, its still in the double digits. Fairy Tail is perhaps one of the most hilarious manga in Jump right now, and i only wish it was meant to be like that, like Yu Yu Hakusho was meant to be a parody.
I have to disagree about it coming off as funny, but I think that’s because I never really got all that invested in it. Stuff in this series just sort of happens, and it wasn’t until recently that I payed any real attention to it.