#ft 545

' you are mine '

Okay guys. Here it is. After 11 years the story of Fairy Tail finally comes to a close. So let’s dive into Chapter 545 “Irreplaceable Friends”

We open  at a big fancy party thrown in Lucy’s honor for her best selling book, “The Adventure of Iris”. Honestly... Good to know Lucy gets a successful career in her ending.

and we now get the cover page...

It’s a little crowded, and I think there has been better shots of all of Fairy Tail together, but nostalgia is really kicking in.

The next few pages is just shots of FT being FT.

So Lucy begins to narrate some things that have happened in the last year. First about her book and then...

Oh god. Not you. Yes, Anna gets to live in this time period, with no consequences and not even a meaningful conversation with Lucy. To top it off, she’s now a teacher. Yeah, seeing as how all of Anna’s “intellect“ just kept making things worse and worse, I don’t think those kids are in for a good academic future.

Seems like Levy is pregnant. Cool. Not that this isn’t bad, but after the whole Bradman thing, this was kinda obvious.

We then cut to other guilds. Like Lamia scale and we find out that Chelia...

Are you fucking kidding me? I guess this war really did have no lasting consequences for our heroes!

This is the last of Sabertooth. Which I swear is just a copied image from the Avatar arc when the “Tora Tora eating festival” was introduced.

I guess Ichiya is Blue Pegasus’s master now? Well he did survive a suicide trip pushing Acnologia into a portal, guess he earned this title.

Wow this arc has done well at stripping away Kagura’s dignity. From getting striped by Dimaria, to giving Jellal CPR shirtless, to being given a magic induced orgasm, and now she’s a model. Okay there’s nothing wrong with being a model, but this is Kagura. Stoic, Badass Swordswoman,  I didn’t see becoming a magazine model as a future for her character. She doesn’t even seem to like this! Actually wait! The caption says that Mermaid Heel’s girls all became models... Wow, way to treat the female only guild.

We cut to the party where...

Oh god, Gildarts no... Also Juvia, I know you spent time with Gray and developed the striping habbit, but you usually did it in combat... I don’t get why you’re doing it now.

Gray drags off Juvia and begins to lecture her on her scar...

So they’re canon... I think? Kinda... Sorta... No well explained... Hey wait! I just realized that this whole big plot point about how Gray will give Juvia an answer and keep her from being left hanging, doesn’t end in a straight answer, but a maybe?! AKA still left hanging! Dude, grow a spine and say it!

Wait... what’s this...

I love this scene! Mashima you glorious bastard~

We then cut to see that King Toma has abdicated, making Hisui queen. Yeah... Hisui... She totally earned it... What have you even done?Well she does make peace with Alvarez. Which is most likely going through a civil war to determine who is now the ruling body given the emperor and most of his top men are dead.

But Hisui also pardons Crime Sociere...

Y’know her telling them to live, would be a bit more powerful, if she interacted with Erza and not Lucy.

Yeah now the most controversial part of the chapter...

Erza and Jellal don’t get together. In fact, they don’t even talk. Y’know I did a brief post on my thoughts about this and I still stand by, Mashima is under no obligation to get them together, but he does at least owe them a conversation. At least. Because when you tease something like that, you really can’t leave open ended. If they aren’t going to get together you should at least give them a conversation that at least leads to them making the decision not to get together.

(Also Erza’s hair was that gorgeous without brushing it?!)

And Makarov can’t walk anymore... Oh god it must hard for him to make it through each day now, old, numerous heart attacks, lost the ability to walk. At this point just mercy kill him. Wait, he’ll probably live through that too.

Oh yeah and the other controversial scene...

Yup. Mavis and Zeref have been reincarnated and are now destined to fall in love again... Oh god... Why? You concluded their story! The whole journey of them as a couple had a great ending. Granted I felt it was weighed down by the Alvarez arc really dropping the ball with the whole relationship thing, before their conclusion. So this really feels like it ruins that big curse breaking moment, because they actually don’t escape their eternal cycle. Instead of being immortal they’re just reincarnated. Also one month is a short time for these reincarnations to be born and then make it to their teenage years

We get a montage shot of FT acting like FT and...

Wow... A ship with no canon interaction gets acanon ending. Mashima, you glorious bastard...

We cut to the next day in Lucy’s home, where... (For old time’s sake)

Natsu is in her living room. Appears she passed out after getting drunk, and brought her home.

And then this scene.

I know there are some upset that Natsu and Lucy didn’t get together, but this scene is really heartfelt. Regardless of the quality of every arc in question, I genuinely feel that these are two people who’ve been through thick and thin.

So they run off on another adventure... But not just on any adventure...

A 100 year quest.

So we close out on another montage showing off FT.

Umm looks like Fairies don’t have tails...

Anyway that is the conclusion, and after 11 long years the stories of Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza, Wendy, Happy, and Carla, come to an end, but the adventure of Fairy Tail lives on...

Post Chapter Follow Up: I’m going to start with the negatives only because I want to end on a positive note.

The biggest issue with this conclusion, is a lot of the individual ends feel iffy... Weather they don’t seem to fit the character like Kagura, or give a level of finality to their story like Jellal, or even acknowledge there has been a change to get us to this point like sabertooth. It really hurts because these are the last time we’ll see these characters and leaving them off with those conclusions is bitter sweet.

Let’s also talk about the controversial stuff. The biggest is the ambiguity. The “story” has to end without the story ending, thus it doesn’t go against a never ending adventure. There are things I think you can leave ambiguous, like Natsu and Lucy going off on an adventure, or what happens to all of the guilds as a whole. But there are some stuff that really you can’t do given the time spent on it. As I said, I am fine with Mashima not making pairs canon. Afterall, he isn’t under obligation to, just because the ships have large fanbases. That said he needs to at least give a straight answer. WIth all the time spent, you need to show us how you come to the end for these pairs and why that might not get together.

Another thing that really hurts is the Zeref and Mavis thing... Why? It’s not a bad scene, but it’s bad because it really ruins their already good conclusion. Doesn’t destroy it, but does make it a lot lesser.

So with all that said... Lets get to the positives,. First of all, I really do want to give Hiro Mashima for attempting something different for his conclusion than the typical shounen ending. I do think it is muddled a bit in execution, but this could’ve very well been just a repeat of Rave’s ending. I’m glad he ended it, his own way.

Another thing is the FT hijicks. I know a lot of the cast of FT didn’t do much this final arc, but it’s so nice to see them all get to show of their personalities one more time before the curtain draws to a close.

And finally, that moment with Natsu and Lucy. I know people are upset that the two are not together as lovers, but that doesn’t take away this really is two characters that share a genuine bond. Maybe not romantic, but it really feels like a finale for these two.

So this is the last time I’m going to do this for FT...

Final Verdict: 5/10

It’s too ambiguous

It does have some head scratching edings for characters

It has very sweet moments of characterization

Reminds of the jiy these characters brought me.