It's one of the most important anime in western media. Not only is it one of the most viewed outside of the shounen genre but it's also one that best demonstrates exactly why anime is good in the first place. It's goofy and over the top but all contextualised inside a relatable environment with relatable characters.

It's honestly a very good series, even if the second season pulled a really weird move on the fans. Still, it was an artistic choice and an admirable one at that so, yeah.

It's a little worse than just Lucy because that VA also happens to be the voice of Otaku Icon Haruhi Suzumiya, arguably one of the most important characters in the fandom.

Yeah, the VA got really pissed off at how creepy the Otaku fandom in Japan really is so she up and left for hollywood.

And I don't know much more about things than other people (or at least I try not to think that way) I just know how to apply what I know better than most, hence why I can both completely deconstruct a series and stab at attack it's weak points for massive damage whilst still finding enough good in it to seriously enjoy it.

It's this kind of analysis that makes the creative media really satisfying to me and also so infuriating as so many opt to just 'like' things and let the myriad failings just dribble past them. (Which is largely why Michael Bay films and the Twilight films garnered such a large following despite them being terrible in quite a lot of ways.)

But what you said there is pretty much the reason I like FT still. "They could have done more." It's always a good thing when you want more of something because it shows that you clearly like it enough to wish there were more of it! FT is full of that. If it were better written arcs like the Edolas Arc could have stretched out for ages, winding their way from place to place, meeting alternate versions of characters and overcoming numerous odds in the process (kind of like how One Piece works which is also why One Piece is one of the better shounen out right now).

FT has so much substance in it that was never let loose. Never explored. Because of that it is a fanboy's wet dream. There's so much in the universe that you can play around with in your imagination leading to very high-quality fan-fiction. (Granted, most fan-fiction is pretty worthless but, much like the numerous versions of Sherlock Holmes, the original author isn't the only one who can bring greatness from a story.)

Wait, so Lucy's Voice Actress left because the Otaku fandom in Japan was insane?
That's hilarious, but also disappointing considering she was really good at voice acting as Lucy.
Also, speaking of Haruhi Suzumiya, I heard about that anime a lot.
Is it any good?

It's one of the most important anime in western media. Not only is it one of the most viewed outside of the shounen genre but it's also one that best demonstrates exactly why anime is good in the first place. It's goofy and over the top but all contextualised inside a relatable environment with relatable characters.

It's honestly a very good series, even if the second season pulled a really weird move on the fans. Still, it was an artistic choice and an admirable one at that so, yeah.

Ah... in which case I've unloaded a fuckton of spoilers on you. I figured you read the manga since the Anime's been cancelled. The voice of Lucy left voice-acting altogether and the anime is too close to the manga so it's either cancelled or on hold for an indeterminate period of time.

My favourite arc is the filler arc with the clock. Whilst I used to really love the Edolas arc it soured quickly on me given how little there really was in it and how shat-on Lisanna's character has become.

Unlike the rest of the show that filler arc was full of clever writing. It split up the two canon arcs that came one after the other Tenrou Island and the tournament, planting a much-needed arc between the two. But it also did a lot to set-up what would be happening in the coming arc, set-up that didn't happen in the manga.

That's a very common thing in FT, the manga is written horribly but the Animé writers know their shit and try their best to compensate and fill in the gaping plotholes left by the manga. It wasn't even explained in the manga as to why nobody wondered why Lisanna's body just disappeared. In the anime Mira actually sees her fragment appart and get carried away from her, in the manga she's just there on moment and then Mira runs off to calm Elfman, of course thinking her sister was dead and not bothering to check if she was maybe unconscious and with a pulse... just leaves her there...

The Tower of Heaven arc I'd like more if there were more interesting characters but as it stands I don't give a fuck about Erza's old friends and the fights with the rocket-owl, death-metal guy and samurai woman were all sub-par. Nirvana is my favourite arc that was in the manga since the concepts and characters introduced there return throughout the series (which is why I like the filler arc so much. It remembers the series' history.)

Sorry for being so long-winded, btw.

To be honest, when I saw the Edolas arc, I thought that I would REALLY like it, but it seems they could have done a lot more with it.
Anyway, you seem to know a lot more than me about Fairy Tail. Like, I didn't even know that Lucy's voice actress left voice acting. Damn.
She was really good in my opinion, too.
Oh well.
Hopefully they find a way to make more episodes.

It's a little worse than just Lucy because that VA also happens to be the voice of Otaku Icon Haruhi Suzumiya, arguably one of the most important characters in the fandom.

Yeah, the VA got really pissed off at how creepy the Otaku fandom in Japan really is so she up and left for hollywood.

And I don't know much more about things than other people (or at least I try not to think that way) I just know how to apply what I know better than most, hence why I can both completely deconstruct a series and stab at attack it's weak points for massive damage whilst still finding enough good in it to seriously enjoy it.

It's this kind of analysis that makes the creative media really satisfying to me and also so infuriating as so many opt to just 'like' things and let the myriad failings just dribble past them. (Which is largely why Michael Bay films and the Twilight films garnered such a large following despite them being terrible in quite a lot of ways.)

But what you said there is pretty much the reason I like FT still. "They could have done more." It's always a good thing when you want more of something because it shows that you clearly like it enough to wish there were more of it! FT is full of that. If it were better written arcs like the Edolas Arc could have stretched out for ages, winding their way from place to place, meeting alternate versions of characters and overcoming numerous odds in the process (kind of like how One Piece works which is also why One Piece is one of the better shounen out right now).

FT has so much substance in it that was never let loose. Never explored. Because of that it is a fanboy's wet dream. There's so much in the universe that you can play around with in your imagination leading to very high-quality fan-fiction. (Granted, most fan-fiction is pretty worthless but, much like the numerous versions of Sherlock Holmes, the original author isn't the only one who can bring greatness from a story.)

Wait, so Lucy's Voice Actress left because the Otaku fandom in Japan was insane?
That's hilarious, but also disappointing considering she was really good at voice acting as Lucy.
Also, speaking of Haruhi Suzumiya, I heard about that anime a lot.
Is it any good?

It's one of the most important anime in western media. Not only is it one of the most viewed outside of the shounen genre but it's also one that best demonstrates exactly why anime is good in the first place. It's goofy and over the top but all contextualised inside a relatable environment with relatable characters.

It's honestly a very good series, even if the second season pulled a really weird move on the fans. Still, it was an artistic choice and an admirable one at that so, yeah.

Also, one of the saving graces of the series was it's good fight-scenes. However the final challenge in the tournament had a lot of very short fight-scenes where long-established conflicts like Orga vs Laxus (God vs Dragon) and Grey vs Leon are ended swiftly in a few panels.

There were so many things going on at once that in order to fit all of them in and not drag on forever and ever everything needed to be drastically shortened. Which it was.

(Also... why couldn't square-nose-guard-guy have died wading into the hot-lava to save Lucy and Yukino?! That's like... the coolest death ever! He walked into hot lava in order to save the last hope for his civilisation which happened to be two smoking-hot half-naked girls! Men DREAM of dying in a manner that cool!)

Cont:

Grey gets freaking domed (which I'm all in favour of as he's bland as they come) but it gets reversed in the next chapter bringing the total count of people who have died in FT to... 1.

Even Avatar: The Last Airbender has more death in it than FT. (The count is up to 14 named characters at the moment who were either murdered/committed suicide.) The Nikelodeon Kids show has more tension than the action story about fighting dragons with super-powerful magic.

Speaking of tension. There is none. Nobody dies. Erza never loses. Natsu always gets a power-up (sometimes out of nowhere) and then goes on to beat the main villain easily (in this case he beat two of them on his own, emasculating both of them and making Gaziel look like a bitch in the process) and everybody lives happily ever after.

The series plays with the idea of death every now and then to tug at your heart-strings like what happened with Grey, with poor Lisanna (who was my favourite character until she was brought back to life where she proceeded to be completely ignored for the rest of the series), Makarov's numerous near-deaths at the hands of heart-attacks and dragons alike, Lecter getting "killed" by the Sabertooth Master, Mirajane sacrificing... nothing, in order to somehow absorb an explosion, Erza sacrificing herself before being saved by Natsu...

The concept of death is thrown around every now and then but it is never given any weight, hence there is no tension because nobody in the series is going to die. Nothing is at stake, no matter how hard the mangaka tries to hide that fact.

Then there's the friendship-ness of everything. Sting, when faced with 5 near-dead, barely-standing opponents and faced with either winning or losing his closest friend... kneels down and gives up. Because friendship.

The problems of FT have been there since the beginning, it's just recently they've been coming thick and fast with very little to make up for it.

It's not so much that they're getting worse as it's getting more noticeable. The problems in FT have been extant since the beginning, just recently those problems are piled one atop the other and they're easily noticeable.

E.G: Erza never loses. The one time she has ever lost in a fight was to Gerard. She managed to fight off 100 monsters at once, including one meant to be troublesome even for the top ten strongest Magi in the country and then, after bullshitting Kagura into submission by being the red-haired jesus that she is she goes and essentially breaks the established rules of the universe (so much as they even say it in the manga) in order to win, whilst being immobile and completely exhausted.

Another big problem is the emasculation factor and the Deus Ex Machina which go hand-in-hand. We see Bacchus fight Elfman in what is possibly the best fight in the arc. A visceral, bloody bout where the hero is the clear underdog who uses his abilities in new and clever ways in order to win.

Then he is completely emasculated when Ichiya, the ugly, pervy, comic-relief character one-shots Bacchus and again when Bacchus is beaten quickly in the final round.
Same with Jura. Jura is emasculated by Erza when she beats the 100 monsters and by Laxus who, despite having already had a bout of equals with Orga (who then gets one-shot by Jura) manages to go on and kick the ass of the 4th strongest wizard in the country.

Wendy is shown to have very little fighting strength and is already on the ropes by the time Chellia pulls out her big move, then after restoring Chellia's strength (essentially making her as healthy and strong as when they began) she manages to fight one-on-one equally with her, despite having been only able to hurt her with her strongest attack that did nothing.

So to attempt to recap what you said:
Fairy Tail is pretty inconsistent
The animators aren't even trying to hide the fanservice anymore
No-one like Grey (not even me)
Sometimes common sense is left out of the show
Friendship-y-ness sometimes makes no sense in the situations.
But some of the arcs have been pretty DAMN amazing and the fight scenes are pretty well made.
Also, just wondering, what's your favorite arc? I really liked the Tower of Heaven one and the Grimoire Heart one. (Also, I haven't read much of the manga. I only watch the anime at the moment.)

Ah... in which case I've unloaded a fuckton of spoilers on you. I figured you read the manga since the Anime's been cancelled. The voice of Lucy left voice-acting altogether and the anime is too close to the manga so it's either cancelled or on hold for an indeterminate period of time.

My favourite arc is the filler arc with the clock. Whilst I used to really love the Edolas arc it soured quickly on me given how little there really was in it and how shat-on Lisanna's character has become.

Unlike the rest of the show that filler arc was full of clever writing. It split up the two canon arcs that came one after the other Tenrou Island and the tournament, planting a much-needed arc between the two. But it also did a lot to set-up what would be happening in the coming arc, set-up that didn't happen in the manga.

That's a very common thing in FT, the manga is written horribly but the Animé writers know their shit and try their best to compensate and fill in the gaping plotholes left by the manga. It wasn't even explained in the manga as to why nobody wondered why Lisanna's body just disappeared. In the anime Mira actually sees her fragment appart and get carried away from her, in the manga she's just there on moment and then Mira runs off to calm Elfman, of course thinking her sister was dead and not bothering to check if she was maybe unconscious and with a pulse... just leaves her there...

The Tower of Heaven arc I'd like more if there were more interesting characters but as it stands I don't give a fuck about Erza's old friends and the fights with the rocket-owl, death-metal guy and samurai woman were all sub-par. Nirvana is my favourite arc that was in the manga since the concepts and characters introduced there return throughout the series (which is why I like the filler arc so much. It remembers the series' history.)

Sorry for being so long-winded, btw.

To be honest, when I saw the Edolas arc, I thought that I would REALLY like it, but it seems they could have done a lot more with it.
Anyway, you seem to know a lot more than me about Fairy Tail. Like, I didn't even know that Lucy's voice actress left voice acting. Damn.
She was really good in my opinion, too.
Oh well.
Hopefully they find a way to make more episodes.

It's a little worse than just Lucy because that VA also happens to be the voice of Otaku Icon Haruhi Suzumiya, arguably one of the most important characters in the fandom.

Yeah, the VA got really pissed off at how creepy the Otaku fandom in Japan really is so she up and left for hollywood.

And I don't know much more about things than other people (or at least I try not to think that way) I just know how to apply what I know better than most, hence why I can both completely deconstruct a series and stab at attack it's weak points for massive damage whilst still finding enough good in it to seriously enjoy it.

It's this kind of analysis that makes the creative media really satisfying to me and also so infuriating as so many opt to just 'like' things and let the myriad failings just dribble past them. (Which is largely why Michael Bay films and the Twilight films garnered such a large following despite them being terrible in quite a lot of ways.)

But what you said there is pretty much the reason I like FT still. "They could have done more." It's always a good thing when you want more of something because it shows that you clearly like it enough to wish there were more of it! FT is full of that. If it were better written arcs like the Edolas Arc could have stretched out for ages, winding their way from place to place, meeting alternate versions of characters and overcoming numerous odds in the process (kind of like how One Piece works which is also why One Piece is one of the better shounen out right now).

FT has so much substance in it that was never let loose. Never explored. Because of that it is a fanboy's wet dream. There's so much in the universe that you can play around with in your imagination leading to very high-quality fan-fiction. (Granted, most fan-fiction is pretty worthless but, much like the numerous versions of Sherlock Holmes, the original author isn't the only one who can bring greatness from a story.)

Wait, so Lucy's Voice Actress left because the Otaku fandom in Japan was insane?
That's hilarious, but also disappointing considering she was really good at voice acting as Lucy.
Also, speaking of Haruhi Suzumiya, I heard about that anime a lot.
Is it any good?

It's one of the most important anime in western media. Not only is it one of the most viewed outside of the shounen genre but it's also one that best demonstrates exactly why anime is good in the first place. It's goofy and over the top but all contextualised inside a relatable environment with relatable characters.

It's honestly a very good series, even if the second season pulled a really weird move on the fans. Still, it was an artistic choice and an admirable one at that so, yeah.

What amazes me is how badly it is written but how appealing it still is to me. Normally I dislike things that are written so poorly but the universe that the story itself is set in is so interesting and the art-style so immersive and, as you mentioned, draws such reactions from me that I can't help but love it.

It's an oddity, for sure, but a good one. *nod nod*

Yeah I guess you have a point. It isn't written very well, but it's still really good.
Is it just me, though, or are the fights getting a little worse? Also, it I think they're kinda putting in too much fan-service lately....

Also, one of the saving graces of the series was it's good fight-scenes. However the final challenge in the tournament had a lot of very short fight-scenes where long-established conflicts like Orga vs Laxus (God vs Dragon) and Grey vs Leon are ended swiftly in a few panels.

There were so many things going on at once that in order to fit all of them in and not drag on forever and ever everything needed to be drastically shortened. Which it was.

(Also... why couldn't square-nose-guard-guy have died wading into the hot-lava to save Lucy and Yukino?! That's like... the coolest death ever! He walked into hot lava in order to save the last hope for his civilisation which happened to be two smoking-hot half-naked girls! Men DREAM of dying in a manner that cool!)

Cont:

Grey gets freaking domed (which I'm all in favour of as he's bland as they come) but it gets reversed in the next chapter bringing the total count of people who have died in FT to... 1.

Even Avatar: The Last Airbender has more death in it than FT. (The count is up to 14 named characters at the moment who were either murdered/committed suicide.) The Nikelodeon Kids show has more tension than the action story about fighting dragons with super-powerful magic.

Speaking of tension. There is none. Nobody dies. Erza never loses. Natsu always gets a power-up (sometimes out of nowhere) and then goes on to beat the main villain easily (in this case he beat two of them on his own, emasculating both of them and making Gaziel look like a bitch in the process) and everybody lives happily ever after.

The series plays with the idea of death every now and then to tug at your heart-strings like what happened with Grey, with poor Lisanna (who was my favourite character until she was brought back to life where she proceeded to be completely ignored for the rest of the series), Makarov's numerous near-deaths at the hands of heart-attacks and dragons alike, Lecter getting "killed" by the Sabertooth Master, Mirajane sacrificing... nothing, in order to somehow absorb an explosion, Erza sacrificing herself before being saved by Natsu...

The concept of death is thrown around every now and then but it is never given any weight, hence there is no tension because nobody in the series is going to die. Nothing is at stake, no matter how hard the mangaka tries to hide that fact.

Then there's the friendship-ness of everything. Sting, when faced with 5 near-dead, barely-standing opponents and faced with either winning or losing his closest friend... kneels down and gives up. Because friendship.

The problems of FT have been there since the beginning, it's just recently they've been coming thick and fast with very little to make up for it.

It's not so much that they're getting worse as it's getting more noticeable. The problems in FT have been extant since the beginning, just recently those problems are piled one atop the other and they're easily noticeable.

E.G: Erza never loses. The one time she has ever lost in a fight was to Gerard. She managed to fight off 100 monsters at once, including one meant to be troublesome even for the top ten strongest Magi in the country and then, after bullshitting Kagura into submission by being the red-haired jesus that she is she goes and essentially breaks the established rules of the universe (so much as they even say it in the manga) in order to win, whilst being immobile and completely exhausted.

Another big problem is the emasculation factor and the Deus Ex Machina which go hand-in-hand. We see Bacchus fight Elfman in what is possibly the best fight in the arc. A visceral, bloody bout where the hero is the clear underdog who uses his abilities in new and clever ways in order to win.

Then he is completely emasculated when Ichiya, the ugly, pervy, comic-relief character one-shots Bacchus and again when Bacchus is beaten quickly in the final round.
Same with Jura. Jura is emasculated by Erza when she beats the 100 monsters and by Laxus who, despite having already had a bout of equals with Orga (who then gets one-shot by Jura) manages to go on and kick the ass of the 4th strongest wizard in the country.

Wendy is shown to have very little fighting strength and is already on the ropes by the time Chellia pulls out her big move, then after restoring Chellia's strength (essentially making her as healthy and strong as when they began) she manages to fight one-on-one equally with her, despite having been only able to hurt her with her strongest attack that did nothing.

So to attempt to recap what you said:
Fairy Tail is pretty inconsistent
The animators aren't even trying to hide the fanservice anymore
No-one like Grey (not even me)
Sometimes common sense is left out of the show
Friendship-y-ness sometimes makes no sense in the situations.
But some of the arcs have been pretty DAMN amazing and the fight scenes are pretty well made.
Also, just wondering, what's your favorite arc? I really liked the Tower of Heaven one and the Grimoire Heart one. (Also, I haven't read much of the manga. I only watch the anime at the moment.)

Ah... in which case I've unloaded a fuckton of spoilers on you. I figured you read the manga since the Anime's been cancelled. The voice of Lucy left voice-acting altogether and the anime is too close to the manga so it's either cancelled or on hold for an indeterminate period of time.

My favourite arc is the filler arc with the clock. Whilst I used to really love the Edolas arc it soured quickly on me given how little there really was in it and how shat-on Lisanna's character has become.

Unlike the rest of the show that filler arc was full of clever writing. It split up the two canon arcs that came one after the other Tenrou Island and the tournament, planting a much-needed arc between the two. But it also did a lot to set-up what would be happening in the coming arc, set-up that didn't happen in the manga.

That's a very common thing in FT, the manga is written horribly but the Animé writers know their shit and try their best to compensate and fill in the gaping plotholes left by the manga. It wasn't even explained in the manga as to why nobody wondered why Lisanna's body just disappeared. In the anime Mira actually sees her fragment appart and get carried away from her, in the manga she's just there on moment and then Mira runs off to calm Elfman, of course thinking her sister was dead and not bothering to check if she was maybe unconscious and with a pulse... just leaves her there...

The Tower of Heaven arc I'd like more if there were more interesting characters but as it stands I don't give a fuck about Erza's old friends and the fights with the rocket-owl, death-metal guy and samurai woman were all sub-par. Nirvana is my favourite arc that was in the manga since the concepts and characters introduced there return throughout the series (which is why I like the filler arc so much. It remembers the series' history.)

Sorry for being so long-winded, btw.

To be honest, when I saw the Edolas arc, I thought that I would REALLY like it, but it seems they could have done a lot more with it.
Anyway, you seem to know a lot more than me about Fairy Tail. Like, I didn't even know that Lucy's voice actress left voice acting. Damn.
She was really good in my opinion, too.
Oh well.
Hopefully they find a way to make more episodes.

It's a little worse than just Lucy because that VA also happens to be the voice of Otaku Icon Haruhi Suzumiya, arguably one of the most important characters in the fandom.

Yeah, the VA got really pissed off at how creepy the Otaku fandom in Japan really is so she up and left for hollywood.

And I don't know much more about things than other people (or at least I try not to think that way) I just know how to apply what I know better than most, hence why I can both completely deconstruct a series and stab at attack it's weak points for massive damage whilst still finding enough good in it to seriously enjoy it.

It's this kind of analysis that makes the creative media really satisfying to me and also so infuriating as so many opt to just 'like' things and let the myriad failings just dribble past them. (Which is largely why Michael Bay films and the Twilight films garnered such a large following despite them being terrible in quite a lot of ways.)

But what you said there is pretty much the reason I like FT still. "They could have done more." It's always a good thing when you want more of something because it shows that you clearly like it enough to wish there were more of it! FT is full of that. If it were better written arcs like the Edolas Arc could have stretched out for ages, winding their way from place to place, meeting alternate versions of characters and overcoming numerous odds in the process (kind of like how One Piece works which is also why One Piece is one of the better shounen out right now).

FT has so much substance in it that was never let loose. Never explored. Because of that it is a fanboy's wet dream. There's so much in the universe that you can play around with in your imagination leading to very high-quality fan-fiction. (Granted, most fan-fiction is pretty worthless but, much like the numerous versions of Sherlock Holmes, the original author isn't the only one who can bring greatness from a story.)

Wait, so Lucy's Voice Actress left because the Otaku fandom in Japan was insane?
That's hilarious, but also disappointing considering she was really good at voice acting as Lucy.
Also, speaking of Haruhi Suzumiya, I heard about that anime a lot.
Is it any good?

It's one of the most important anime in western media. Not only is it one of the most viewed outside of the shounen genre but it's also one that best demonstrates exactly why anime is good in the first place. It's goofy and over the top but all contextualised inside a relatable environment with relatable characters.

It's honestly a very good series, even if the second season pulled a really weird move on the fans. Still, it was an artistic choice and an admirable one at that so, yeah.