The 'Variant

It is, but the Yuki-Onnas are too cute for me to forget about

Thanks for asking!

Setsura is one of my favorite characters and one I see a lot of myself in, though for a rather oblique set of reasons that require some explanation. At first glance, her most defining trait is her intense and unrequited love for Nurarihyon and possibly Rihan, leaving her in an awkward position as a fifth wheel. As someone who’s not very concerned with romance at the moment, this alone provides little for me to connect to. However, I realized there can be a lot more to this situation if you think about it enough.

It’s implied that the reason she’s considered less attractive by the Nura men is because of her personality not being considered ladylike enough, with her being passionate, brooding, and jealous, as opposed to the Nura brides who all share a cheerful and unassuming outward demeanor that belies their impressive inner strength. Setsura has this strength too, but the difference is she wears it on her sleeve.

However, she never tries to change her personality to be more appealing, and I think the reason for that is because she knows it would be fake. She wants someone to love her for who she is, and while outwardly changing her personality to be more like someone else (or to fit the mold of she “should” be) might reap certain benefits, the cost of inauthenticity wouldn’t be worth it.

The crux of Setsura’s arc, I’d say, is grappling with the struggle between her personality and her dream; she’s deadset on true love, the love of a Nura man, but they all seem to have a “type” she doesn’t fit. Even though Setsura’s life might be easier if she was an optimistic and cheerful girl, at the end of the day that simply isn’t who she is, and her path to victory has to account for that.

Adding to this, Setsura’s relationships with Youhime and Otome perfectly encapsulate the complicated reality of being an edgy self-destructive shitlord who always manages to be surrounded by kind and uplifting people. How the difference in attitudes can be frustrating but that she still loves them and should never take them for granted, and maybe a little bit of their positivity can rub off on her. But also how even through all the pain and difficulties it causes, the truth is she don’t actually want the core of her cynical, willful personality to change because it’s too authentic to get rid of, ultimately that’s who she is. And that’s okay.

Also yes, if I was in NuraMago and the opportunity arose, I would absolutely marry this woman

I have a very cyclical relationship with Fairy Tail, where I’ll forget about the series for a year or two and then jump back in with a new perspective. One of the characters I always had a niche fondness for was Kagura, Erza’s opponent in the Grand Magic Games - she looks really cool, she wields an awesome sword, it’s good stuff. While there’s plenty of speculation to be had as to where she could’ve been used more thoroughly, that’s not what we’re here to talk about. No, we’re here to talk about the conception that after the GMG, she was utterly discarded and treated like a joke for the rest of the series.

And I don’t like that, y’know, I’d rather think that such a view comes from an oversimplification of events, and that by taking a closer look we can find a different perspective. I’ll admit, when it comes to humiliation I’m a massive hypocrite: it’s all fun and games until a character I’m actually attached to is on the wrong end of it. With that in mind, I’ll try to be as fair and balanced as possible here, not exaggerating the humiliation but also not huffing copium and acting like everything was handled with perfect respect.

The first and most obvious point is the Dimaria fight, where the latter froze time and shredded Kagura’s robe, causing her to become embarrassed and retreat. This one is basically inarguable, she hated this and was still dwelling on it back at the camp. Not just being overwhelmed by Dimaria’s power, but also the aspect of people gawking at her, it bothered the hell out of her. And it was portrayed as comic relief, so I can easily see why people got bad vibes from it; once a story stops treating a character’s suffering with any sort of respect, that can often spell doom for them. Or it can just be an inconsequential gag, it really depends.

Next up is the Neinhart fight, in which people will say she did nothing, and they’re not exactly wrong there either. The main thing she did was cut down imaginary Simon in a very predictable “attacking the illusion warrior that looks like a loved one” moment, a setup I have rarely ever found engaging. At least her involvement here was less about the fight and more about advancing her relationship with Jellal, in that she’s putting her grudge aside for the sake of Erza and the broader war. Some people will go so far as to say the Jellal CPR kiss was a degrading moment for her character, and that I will never understand, it’s her being the bigger person for the sake of other things she cares about. So the Neinhart fight itself is a neutral for her.

The Larcade fight is where my opinions deviate more sharply from the rest of the, I guess, “Kagura fanbase”. It’s like everyone only remembers the scene where she got her sword blocked and forgot that she did other things before and after that. I’m going to be honest, I thought Kagura was pretty cool in this fight. Her pulling up to one of the strongest Spriggans while everyone else was collapsing, actually parrying his attacks, cutting down the holy-looking rock he’s sitting on in a way that really makes it feel like she’s fighting a god (like some sort of Godwhacker, if you will), even escaping from his Pleasure spell… maybe it’s not on the same level as the GMG, but you can start to feel the badass Kagura coming back here.

Even after succumbing to Larcade’s raw durability and getting cut down, she manages to regain consciousness alongside Rogue for Sting’s final attack, which is significant for a couple reasons. Her gravity magic - which was shown off in her first appearance and disappeared afterwards - actually comes back in a useful and cool-looking way. In terms of portrayal, she’s basically being depicted here on the same level as the Twin Dragons, the difference being that Sting has an elemental immunity to some of Larcade’s moves and therefore is doing most of fighting. And it means she contributed significantly to the defeat of a top 3 Spriggan, in fact, the ONLY top 3 Spriggan who was defeated legitimately (Irene and August both yeeted themselves). For a fight that’s only seen as being disrespectful towards her, that paints a surprisingly decent picture.

And finally, there’s the thing that inspired me to make this thread in the first place. In the last chapter of the main series, it’s stated that Mermaid Heel have all become Sorcerer Weekly models, with Kagura basically wondering “wtf am I doing here”. Taken at its utmost, this would imply that Mermaid Heel has converted into a modeling agency, meaning Kagura is no longer even a mage/swordswoman anymore and instead has to show off her body to others for a living, the very thing she felt degraded by earlier in the arc. The problem is that this interpretation is so over-the-top and frankly sadistic that it’s the type of absurdist plot I would expect to see from a doujin, not Fairy Tail; the more reasonable interpretation is that they simply do work on the side for Sorcerer Weekly for whatever reason. And sure enough, 100 Year Quest all but confirms this to be the case, with Mermaid Heel still being labeled as a mage guild. Meaning this is a non-point, it just amounted to one panel.

So, was she used to her fullest potential? No. But was she reduced purely to fanservice and disrespected at every possible opportunity? Also no. Out of everything discussed here, I do wish she and Rogue played a more active role against Larcade, that could’ve been really great to see. All we can hope for now is that she gets to do something cool in 100 Year Quest… that, or the future of this character will be dictated entirely by the writings of KaguErza shippers. Which maybe isn’t such a bad thing.

The character doesn’t even appeal to me, but still, you gotta respect the grind.