
© Hiro Mashima, Atsushi Ueda, Kodansha/FT100YQ Production Committee, TV TOKYO
Let’s talk about this week fairy tail Dropping a huge bombshell would be an understatement, but first, it’s time to talk about something completely different! For some reason, the episode starts with a short story involving Lucy trying to meet an editor’s deadline (thankfully I never had to worry about that because my totally justified, and I’m not just saying that because She’s probably reading this) Meanwhile, she’s trying to figure out how to finish her fantasy novel. Natsu and Happy offer to take her on a mission since it involves fighting a giant anteater, and Lucy is so busy taking notes that she doesn’t realize she’s close to being their next meal Only seconds left. It’s cute on its own – I guess they wanted to throw in a Sauce Chapter or something they skipped – but it’s a little weird that they put this at the beginning of the episode. Still, I imagine it’s going to cause some serious tonal whiplash considering how the episode actually ends, so I think it’s the lesser of two evils.
Anyway, let’s move on to the actual plot, which is certainly a lot. When Natsu and the gang start fighting Mercphobia, Natsu prepares to kill him. But since Mephibia is a water dragon, Natsu’s flames are not powerful enough to have any impact on him. Just when things are at their most critical, the battle is interrupted by a mysterious fire dragon named Ignia, who has a keen interest in Natsu’s full potential. It’s no surprise that he soon reveals himself to be Vulcan Dragon. But shockingly, he also claimed to be Igneel’s biological son – even though Natsu, as the person he raised, had never heard of Igneel having another child. We learn that this is because male dragons don’t typically raise young or start families, so Ignia has never actually met his father and doesn’t have any particularly strong feelings for him. The real reason he’s interested in Natsu, though, is that Ignia and the other Dragon Gods were the only dragons to escape Acnologia’s wrath 400 years ago, and spent a lot of time training to surpass him – just for Natsu. Here comes a surprise attack and completes the mission. Ignia wasn’t too happy about this (especially since he felt like Natsu was cheating a bit by winning with the power of friendship), so once Natsu got stronger, he dueled Natsu one on one and offered to let Natsu consumes his fire in exchange for not burning down the town or killing all of Natsu’s friends.
It’s certainly a lot to take in, but I’m here for it because it addresses some of my previous complaints about this sequel. While I’m still not a big fan of having multiple dragons on Acnologia’s levels, learning that they basically spend all their time grinding while Natsu and the other dragon slayers are outside doing all the actual fighting makes it a little more fun. I’m more receptive. Interestingly, it also makes them seem less majestic, because while Ignia shows off his power well here, he mostly acts like he’s bitter about not getting a chance to show it off – that’s a certain level of hatred Energy I can get behind. Speaking of the man of the hour, I also love the impact his presence could have on the story. Even though I talked about Zeref and Acnologia in terms of their power range, I do feel like their biggest weakness as opponents is that neither of them feel like they have much of a direct connection to Natsu (especially since Zeref It doesn’t appear until more) than half of the original story). It feels like he ends up fighting them just out of plot necessity rather than anything else. Ignia is both Igneel’s son and has a twisted interest in Natsu’s growth, making him a much greater direct threat to Natsu than either of them. He’s a man who values the power of solitude, unlike Natsu, who finds strength in working with friends, which already creates some strong similarities between the two. Heck, we even get to see some of this come into play in the rest of the battle against Mercphobia, and while Natsu does decide to use Ignia’s flames for himself, he also admits that he’s not strong enough to defeat Mercphobia on his own, and chooses to rely on others People ask for help. It was also useful because Ignia’s power eventually grew beyond Natsu’s control. When he nearly flies into a rage himself, Lucy manages to calm him down before the situation gets worse.
In one fell swoop, I went from being apathetic about this sequel to actually being excited about what’s to come. This is easily the strongest the show has been since the start of the season, and we even got some pretty good fight animations during the fight against Mercphobia – so it’s a strong showing in every way. I’ll admit that a lot of my excitement here is primarily about what Ignia can bring to the story, and considering Majima has probably been inconsistent as a writer, it’s hard to know if that excitement will ultimately be misplaced. But hey, it’s nice to have something potentially cool to grab. As the rest of the story unfolds, I can already see how Ignia could become a powerful nemesis for Natsu, so I’m choosing to stay optimistic for now. If it lives up to at least a fraction of that potential, then I think I’ll be able to actually get involved with this sequel.
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Fairy Tail: The 100 Year Quest Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.