So, for anyone that hasn’t read it as of yet, Mashima did a recent interview where he was asked if ‘fans expectations for certain pairings ever influenced the storys development’, to this hiro replied, ‘what’s most captivating isn’t usually the state where two people are already together, but rather that period when they love each other yet haven’t officially established a relationship. That’s the most heart-fluttering stage. As for whether they’ll actually end up together in the end… well, that depends on my mood’.
Unfortunately for any of us nalu shippers i fear this tells us everything we’re ever going to need to know about where nalu’s relationship will end up. This isn’t the first time hiro has stated he enjoys the idea of certain couples living within the ‘more than friends less than lovers’ mentality and i believe this is him just slowly trying to get the fandom to a place where they are comfortable with nalu never ending up as a canon couple.
I truly don’t know how to feel about this, on one hand I do believe nalu’s relationship is alot more deep and complicated to simply be defined by lovers or friends. I think mashima has done a really amazing job at having nalu show their love for eachother through actions over words, and having them both be comfortable enough with their relationship to never feel the need to put a one dimensional label on it.
On the other hand, I truly think if mashima decided to make every single ship canon excluding nalu it would truly be a huge disservice to the connection nalu have. I think hiro is truly struggling to find a way around making nalu canon because even he is aware that he couldn’t get away with giving them a kiss scene or even a confession scene as it would be so ooc for both natsu and lucy.
However, I really do hope mashima takes the time to think of a solid way to make them canon, nalu has always been the ship at the forefront of the show considering their insane amount of screentime, there are even people that don’t interact with this show or fandom anymore but still take the time to check back in to see if nalu is finally canon or not. Not only would it seem like mashima really did just bait his mcs(I know technically the entire guild is the mc but you know what I mean)ending up as a couple to boost his engagement with his most popular show, but it would also just mean hiro wasted the time of his entire audience by using so much of the shows screentime to develop their relationship just to never end up taking it anywhere.
I truly don’t know how I will feel if ft finally ends with every ship canon excluding nalu.
