More manga blogging, I know.
► - In a link picked up from mklutz: The 5 Most Disturbing X-Men Love Affairs is pure gold.
Mostly just to show how wonderful the cracked out world of comics is, but also for the Scott/Madelyn Pryor thing. YES. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED AND A WHOLE LOT OF WHY I HATE SCOTT SO MUCH. Not that he's a flawed character, because I actually like that. BUT BECAUSE NO ONE CALLS HIM ON HIS SHIT UNLESS THEY ARE IMPLIED TO BE "WRONG" ABOUT IT. Despite that what he did to Madelyn and Nathan was really kind of shitty.
P.S. The listing of Chuck Austen's hook-ups during his run? Cracked me up so hard. SO MANY HILARIOUS MEMORIES. (It's either laugh hysterically or start crying again.)
►- So, I'm clicking through weeklyjump (to figure out how long until issue #14, only two weeks from now at least, whew!) and figured, what the hell, I'll read some of the comments. I got sucked into a thread that was bitching about Katekyou Hitman REBORN! and how god-awful it was. Then I got to this defense of KHR and it is seriously the greatest thing I read all day. Basically, the defense of KHR boils down to: AMANO IS A GENIUS AT WRITING A MANGA THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, SO YOU DON'T EXPECT IT TO MAKE SENSE ANYWAY.
in defense of reborn, while the plot is totally nonsensical, i think amano has done a great job setting up a very lenient context within reborn that allows for the sort of illogical plot lines and explaantions that readers normally wouldnt accept in other mangas.
I was crying, crying with laughter at that. BECAUSE IT'S SO COMPLETELY TRUE. (I love KHR and I actually will defend it, but I know damn well it's a retarded shounen manga with a bunch of cool attacks and prettyboy characters. That is why I like it.)
(P.S. The Togashi comment on this thread was gold.)
(P.P.S. Good on Bakuman for being way the hell down on that list. DIAF, BAKUMAN! :D)
►- No, seriously, I am eating up the anti-Shizuo/Izaya butthurt on fandomsecrets like the delicious candy it is. I do love the commentor who was like, "Yeah, no, it's time to stop giving a shit about about what other people like or choose to ship." BLESS YOU, ANON.
►- These commercials (the ones with the seven different colored boxes where Arashi choose one based on their color) are TOTALLY ADORABLE. Worth it just to hear Jun say "Oh my god" and for there to beTHREE OHNOS. I freaking LOVE their AU commercials (they are seriously the greatest things ever) and then I love the Himitsu parody of it. Never stop being adorable, Arashi. ♥
► - Okay, so. Going through the SA forums and picking out the comments that caught my attention! o/ This will contain ONE PIECE SPOILERS as always.
» (re: talking about the total number in Blackbeard's crew after he gained a bunch of new ones from Impel Down)
Also by that number, it would seem if that 'another character' is the final member of BB's pirate crew, that implies that Luffy's crew is one short in terms of character matchups...
That's something I've been wondering about as well. There are 9 Strawhats right now, which is a pretty big cast, but Oda has shown that he's a master at even more crowded scenes if he wants them. For awhile now, Luffy's pretty much just been, "...and then all we need is a musician! :D" which was sort of a hilarious running gag. But I can't think what else they need on their team that's not just wishful thinking.
(LIKE A LOGIA TYPE AND OH HEY ONE THAT USES FIRE WOULD BE AWESOME SO COULD YOU KINDLY PLEASE BRING ACE BACK AND STICK HIM WITH THE STRAWHATS, PLZ? THANKS!)
Right now, Luffy and the plot have other shit going on, they don't have time to think about adding new nakama to the team and there really aren't any good candidates right now. But I'd be surprised if we didn't get a new one at some point, especially if Blackbeard's crew is 10 total members. .... *checks wiki* Hm, actually, if you include Blackbeard himself, it seems like there are 11? So we may get two new Strawhats at some point? Well, unless Stronger and Doc Q count as one? Which they may very well.
» (re: why Blackbeard wanted to become a Shichibukai)
Not a single quote but a lot of talk about Blackbeard's motivations in this whole arc has basically come down to: I think he's going to gently caress up the Marines big-time now. He was probably waiting for this chance to weaken both the Marines and Whitebeard. Now he's going to head off towards the One Piece.
I still think there may be more to his plans, beyond just jacking up the Marines and Whitebeard's crew, but I imagine that's the main bulk of it. Blackbeard seems to want to find the one piece/become the pirate king, he's fine with using underhanded methods to get it, and with this whole situation, he's orchestrated a perfect set-up for himself. Originally, he was going to offer Luffy up instead of Ace, which makes me wonder, because Whitebeard wouldn't have come to rescue Luffy, but maybe he figured Ace would and then Whitebeard would come to backup Ace? I dunno.
But, by pitting Whitebeard and the Marines against each other, it severely weakens both sides and leaves everything in choas. The Shichibukai aren't going to give a shit about coming after him, the World Government's forces are going to be devestated, and Whitebeard's era will be over. There are three other Yonkou, but two of them are already fighting each other. Everything is going to be splintered all to hell, through this one fell swoop of his.
» Now that we know mythical Zoan fruits exist with Marco's Phoenix, I would be astounded if Dragon did NOT have the Mythical Dragon fruit. Oriental Dragons were believed to be rulers of weather and water, which fits with his appearance in Loguetown. This would make him exceptionally dangerous for a seafaring society, to say the least.
I thought that was a really interesting theory that I wanted to c&p for future reference, whenever Dragon shows up again. I actually don't really subscribe to this theory, because I imagine it's more likely that it's simply a namesake/inspired Dragon's name, rather than gives a clue to his (possible) devil's fruit ability, but also because... well, when we saw him in Loguetown, he didn't actually transform as we saw the winds kicking up, like we've seen Marco transform when he goes into phoenix mode.
Btw, Oda, it is EXCEEDINGLY CRUEL to have a Phoenix-inspired Zoan user in Whitebeard's crew and in the area and a nakama of Ace, when you kill him. IT IS JUST MEAN, because I really want to theorize about how Marco could save him, except I know that's not the damn point.
» (context: the SA forum has been going on and on and on and onnnnnn about whether or not Blackbeard is evil or just "neutral chaotic" and I really haven't given a shit. It's interesting to point out that it's like Blackbeard is the anti-Luffy. How they've taken similar journeys, they have similar dreams, but their methods and morals are in opposite directions.)
"When you combine Luffy and Blackbeard you get Gol D. Roger."
And.... huh. Like, I don't know that I'd lay money on it being deliberate by Oda, but... I wouldn't necessarily lay money against it being deliberate, either. It would certainly be an awesome as hell thematic element if it were deliberate, though!
....mostly, they're discussing Blackbeard's crew and whether or not Blackbeard is evil and, yeah, I have to admit, I seriously started skimming by the end there. Blackbeard is interesting, but not THAT interesting. _o_
► - I finally read the text translation from the usual OP translator because I wanted to see if a few things were clearer there. (Well, actually, I read the FH scanslated version, since they use his translation.) SPOILERS FOR ONE PIECE 575, of course.
The first thing I skipped ahead to check on was Whitebeard's "Son of a bitch..." line and it looks like cnet128 translated it simply as "You..." which makes me think it was less of "oh shit I'm fucked" comment and more of a "Teach, you son of a bitch" comment.
Another thing I had a thought about was actually while I was reading the SA forums and there was talk about Blackbeard possibly have been the one to open the gate (glad to see I'm not the only one thinking along those lines!) and it wasn't any specific comment, just that I was thinking about it and I had a sudden moment of clarity.
In the previous post, I spent all this time trying to theorize why Blackbeard would have opened the gate for Luffy, why he would have gone to that trouble, why it was so necessary for him to be a Shichibukai. And then I realized. HEY, GENIUS, MAYBE HE JUST WANTED TO BE THERE TO WATCH THE FIGHT. You know, LIKE HE SAID in this chapter.
It makes sense to me that he actually didn't open the gate for Luffy's sake, that it was just Luffy's weirdly inhuman good luck that presented the right timing. But that Blackbeard opened the gates for himself, because he had to get in there to go watch Whitebeard die somehow. (Whether by the Marines or by his own hand, I'm not sure Blackbeard cares? I dunno yet.)
I'm also back to wondering why Blackbeard wanted to be a Shichibukai (given the discussion I've given to how he's more powerful than that, he's more on Yonkou level, which I'm pretty sure is stronger than a Shichibukai) and my basic theory is that he wanted it for access to Impel Down, but... why did he need to be a Shichibukai for that? Maybe it got him to the building more easily, rather than trying to steamroll his way through the seas there? But Whitebeard got into Marineford by coating their ships, I think Blackbeard could easily have done the same for Impel Down. And he was kind of just busting down the doors once he got there, so it's not like being a Shichibukai allowed him to waltz in there. (Though, it's kind of a red herring to use Hancock to sneak Luffy in because he couldn't get in without the help of a Shichibukai.)
So, is there some other reason? I assume he's basically thrown the title away at this point, if he was hiding from the fight until now. And, hell, it's not like the Marines are going to go, oh, well, you can still keep being a Shichibukai even though you just broke out four of our level 6 prisoners! Have fun with that! Even if he takes out Whitebeard, they can't really let that stand.
It must be something else. I'm assuming he needed access to someplace only a Shichibukai would be allowed to enter, maybe something in Mariejois? He was shown having dinner there with the other Shichibukai, I think? Since that's where the Tenryuubito live and I'm pretty sure that whatever the "one piece" is, it's tied up with the Tenryuubito as much as it is the Void Century.
I mean, I'm not married to any particular theory (as Siobhan points out, Laffite got pretty far into Mariejois when he was sneaking in to campaign for Blackbeard being a Shichibukai, what could Blackbeard get in Mariejois that he couldn't?), but I think there must be something he's after.
We also both wonder where Blackbeard is getting his information from (when discussing the question of how Blackbeard would know if there was something in Mariejois in the first place or how he knew certain people were in Impel Down) and... I don't really have any concrete theories, but my current guess is that he got hold of some sort of information along the lines of the Ohara's research. Maybe not THAT specifically, but something along those lines.
Also, I finally picked up Fairy Tail again. (Side rant: OH, MY GOD, YOU GUYS, IT IS FAIRY TAIL, LIKE THE THING ANIMALS HAVE ATTACHED TO THEIR ASSES, NOT LIKE A TALE YOU TELL. TAIL. NO, I DON'T KNOW WHY THAT IS BUT CHRIST ALMIGHTY WHY DOES NO ONE HAVE ANY READING COMPREHENSION!?) I still haven't touched the anime yet (but I will someday!) but I wanted to pick up where I left off with the manga, like, a year ago or whatever.
Spoilers for Fairy Tail up through about chapter 60 or so.
This was actually only about 10 chapters or so that I read, just enough to really launch them into the fight with Phantom, but it was enough to really remind of why I love this manga so much. It's so hysterically funny, but it also has awesome as hell hardcore awesome moments.
I knew I loved this manga all over again when they showed up to fight Phantom and had an epic two-page spread to show off their badassery.
But it was also the story with Lucy that made me love this manga again. At first I was sort of "...." about Lucy being the daughter of this giant corporation's head and being this all-important person that Phantom had to go retrieve... but, when I stopped and thought about how I'd react to this story if she were male, it gets a lot easier to go, hey, yeah, it is awesome that it's the girl who's so super-important.
It's more than just that, too.
When Jose (the Phantom leader) is like, ohohoho, I see through your pathetic excuse of needing to use the bathroom just to escape! Here! You can go in a bucket! So, Lucy keeps wiggling painfully and starts moving over it.
Jose is like OMGWTF YOU'RE ACTUALLY GONNA DO IT!? and turns away because he can't watch the shamelessness. She grins and then PUNTS HIS GROIN BACK UP INTO HIS BODY while his back is turned. I loved her.
SHE WASN'T DONE BEING AWESOME YET, EITHER. Because then? She's in their sky prison, which means that she steps out onto a ledge WAY UP IN THE SKY that leads NOWHERE. She's trapped. Jose gets up and is like fufufufu I'm going to make you pay for that now and what does Lucy do? She looks down at the long, long drop and thinks of her horrible father trying to get at her and then makes a determined face. And then drops herself off the ledge.
Yeah, I love her.
Sure, sometimes she's really fanservicey and needs to be rescued (Natsu had to be there to catch her, but I loved her for trusting her instincts because she heard his voice) a lot, but she also pitches in and tries to fight where she can.
After that, there's the fight between Natsu and the guy who controls flame (which had me laughing so hard, omg) and then Gray versus Juvia was just. It was beautiful. Of course they send the ice mage to deal with the rain queen, where he gets to be like NOBODY HURTS MY NAKAMA *SERIOUS FACE* while she's all "....omg, BLUSH, I have lost this fight, goodbye!" and then he breaks her water rock attack but he's wounded so he has to TAKE HIS SHIRT OFF and she blushes and starts shaking and her heart is pounding so fiercely--!!
And I love that there's always an excuse for Gray to take his clothes off and get all drenched by the rain.
THEN ONE OF MY OTHER FAVORITE THINGS EVER:
So, Gray's trying to fight against Juvia, who has a crush on him that Gray is COMPLETELY MISSING, he's like "Her jealousy is boiling?? WTF DOES THAT MEAN??" and having a hell of a time freezing anything around him. AND THEN THESE TWO PAGES:
http://www.onemanga.com/Fairy_Tail/57/07/
http://www.onemanga.com/Fairy_Tail/57/08/
Crying.
AND GRAY'S REACTION. He backs the hell off and releases her from the ice. "D... DO OVER!!" he shrieks. Oh, god, Gray. He is my favorite, too.
I seriously cannot choose between Erza, Natsu, and Gray for my favorite. This is why they are my OT3, too. THEY USED TO SHOWER TOGETHER. ERZA THREATENS TO MAKE THEM DO IT AGAIN IF THE SMELLY BOYS DON'T DO IT ON THEIR OWN. THEIR TERRIFIED FACES, LOL.
Mostly just to show how wonderful the cracked out world of comics is, but also for the Scott/Madelyn Pryor thing. YES. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED AND A WHOLE LOT OF WHY I HATE SCOTT SO MUCH. Not that he's a flawed character, because I actually like that. BUT BECAUSE NO ONE CALLS HIM ON HIS SHIT UNLESS THEY ARE IMPLIED TO BE "WRONG" ABOUT IT. Despite that what he did to Madelyn and Nathan was really kind of shitty.
P.S. The listing of Chuck Austen's hook-ups during his run? Cracked me up so hard. SO MANY HILARIOUS MEMORIES. (It's either laugh hysterically or start crying again.)
►- So, I'm clicking through weeklyjump (to figure out how long until issue #14, only two weeks from now at least, whew!) and figured, what the hell, I'll read some of the comments. I got sucked into a thread that was bitching about Katekyou Hitman REBORN! and how god-awful it was. Then I got to this defense of KHR and it is seriously the greatest thing I read all day. Basically, the defense of KHR boils down to: AMANO IS A GENIUS AT WRITING A MANGA THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, SO YOU DON'T EXPECT IT TO MAKE SENSE ANYWAY.
in defense of reborn, while the plot is totally nonsensical, i think amano has done a great job setting up a very lenient context within reborn that allows for the sort of illogical plot lines and explaantions that readers normally wouldnt accept in other mangas.
I was crying, crying with laughter at that. BECAUSE IT'S SO COMPLETELY TRUE. (I love KHR and I actually will defend it, but I know damn well it's a retarded shounen manga with a bunch of cool attacks and prettyboy characters. That is why I like it.)
(P.S. The Togashi comment on this thread was gold.)
(P.P.S. Good on Bakuman for being way the hell down on that list. DIAF, BAKUMAN! :D)
►- No, seriously, I am eating up the anti-Shizuo/Izaya butthurt on fandomsecrets like the delicious candy it is. I do love the commentor who was like, "Yeah, no, it's time to stop giving a shit about about what other people like or choose to ship." BLESS YOU, ANON.
►- These commercials (the ones with the seven different colored boxes where Arashi choose one based on their color) are TOTALLY ADORABLE. Worth it just to hear Jun say "Oh my god" and for there to beTHREE OHNOS. I freaking LOVE their AU commercials (they are seriously the greatest things ever) and then I love the Himitsu parody of it. Never stop being adorable, Arashi. ♥
► - Okay, so. Going through the SA forums and picking out the comments that caught my attention! o/ This will contain ONE PIECE SPOILERS as always.
» (re: talking about the total number in Blackbeard's crew after he gained a bunch of new ones from Impel Down)
Also by that number, it would seem if that 'another character' is the final member of BB's pirate crew, that implies that Luffy's crew is one short in terms of character matchups...
That's something I've been wondering about as well. There are 9 Strawhats right now, which is a pretty big cast, but Oda has shown that he's a master at even more crowded scenes if he wants them. For awhile now, Luffy's pretty much just been, "...and then all we need is a musician! :D" which was sort of a hilarious running gag. But I can't think what else they need on their team that's not just wishful thinking.
(LIKE A LOGIA TYPE AND OH HEY ONE THAT USES FIRE WOULD BE AWESOME SO COULD YOU KINDLY PLEASE BRING ACE BACK AND STICK HIM WITH THE STRAWHATS, PLZ? THANKS!)
Right now, Luffy and the plot have other shit going on, they don't have time to think about adding new nakama to the team and there really aren't any good candidates right now. But I'd be surprised if we didn't get a new one at some point, especially if Blackbeard's crew is 10 total members. .... *checks wiki* Hm, actually, if you include Blackbeard himself, it seems like there are 11? So we may get two new Strawhats at some point? Well, unless Stronger and Doc Q count as one? Which they may very well.
» (re: why Blackbeard wanted to become a Shichibukai)
Not a single quote but a lot of talk about Blackbeard's motivations in this whole arc has basically come down to: I think he's going to gently caress up the Marines big-time now. He was probably waiting for this chance to weaken both the Marines and Whitebeard. Now he's going to head off towards the One Piece.
I still think there may be more to his plans, beyond just jacking up the Marines and Whitebeard's crew, but I imagine that's the main bulk of it. Blackbeard seems to want to find the one piece/become the pirate king, he's fine with using underhanded methods to get it, and with this whole situation, he's orchestrated a perfect set-up for himself. Originally, he was going to offer Luffy up instead of Ace, which makes me wonder, because Whitebeard wouldn't have come to rescue Luffy, but maybe he figured Ace would and then Whitebeard would come to backup Ace? I dunno.
But, by pitting Whitebeard and the Marines against each other, it severely weakens both sides and leaves everything in choas. The Shichibukai aren't going to give a shit about coming after him, the World Government's forces are going to be devestated, and Whitebeard's era will be over. There are three other Yonkou, but two of them are already fighting each other. Everything is going to be splintered all to hell, through this one fell swoop of his.
» Now that we know mythical Zoan fruits exist with Marco's Phoenix, I would be astounded if Dragon did NOT have the Mythical Dragon fruit. Oriental Dragons were believed to be rulers of weather and water, which fits with his appearance in Loguetown. This would make him exceptionally dangerous for a seafaring society, to say the least.
I thought that was a really interesting theory that I wanted to c&p for future reference, whenever Dragon shows up again. I actually don't really subscribe to this theory, because I imagine it's more likely that it's simply a namesake/inspired Dragon's name, rather than gives a clue to his (possible) devil's fruit ability, but also because... well, when we saw him in Loguetown, he didn't actually transform as we saw the winds kicking up, like we've seen Marco transform when he goes into phoenix mode.
Btw, Oda, it is EXCEEDINGLY CRUEL to have a Phoenix-inspired Zoan user in Whitebeard's crew and in the area and a nakama of Ace, when you kill him. IT IS JUST MEAN, because I really want to theorize about how Marco could save him, except I know that's not the damn point.
» (context: the SA forum has been going on and on and on and onnnnnn about whether or not Blackbeard is evil or just "neutral chaotic" and I really haven't given a shit. It's interesting to point out that it's like Blackbeard is the anti-Luffy. How they've taken similar journeys, they have similar dreams, but their methods and morals are in opposite directions.)
"When you combine Luffy and Blackbeard you get Gol D. Roger."
And.... huh. Like, I don't know that I'd lay money on it being deliberate by Oda, but... I wouldn't necessarily lay money against it being deliberate, either. It would certainly be an awesome as hell thematic element if it were deliberate, though!
....mostly, they're discussing Blackbeard's crew and whether or not Blackbeard is evil and, yeah, I have to admit, I seriously started skimming by the end there. Blackbeard is interesting, but not THAT interesting. _o_
► - I finally read the text translation from the usual OP translator because I wanted to see if a few things were clearer there. (Well, actually, I read the FH scanslated version, since they use his translation.) SPOILERS FOR ONE PIECE 575, of course.
The first thing I skipped ahead to check on was Whitebeard's "Son of a bitch..." line and it looks like cnet128 translated it simply as "You..." which makes me think it was less of "oh shit I'm fucked" comment and more of a "Teach, you son of a bitch" comment.
Another thing I had a thought about was actually while I was reading the SA forums and there was talk about Blackbeard possibly have been the one to open the gate (glad to see I'm not the only one thinking along those lines!) and it wasn't any specific comment, just that I was thinking about it and I had a sudden moment of clarity.
In the previous post, I spent all this time trying to theorize why Blackbeard would have opened the gate for Luffy, why he would have gone to that trouble, why it was so necessary for him to be a Shichibukai. And then I realized. HEY, GENIUS, MAYBE HE JUST WANTED TO BE THERE TO WATCH THE FIGHT. You know, LIKE HE SAID in this chapter.
It makes sense to me that he actually didn't open the gate for Luffy's sake, that it was just Luffy's weirdly inhuman good luck that presented the right timing. But that Blackbeard opened the gates for himself, because he had to get in there to go watch Whitebeard die somehow. (Whether by the Marines or by his own hand, I'm not sure Blackbeard cares? I dunno yet.)
I'm also back to wondering why Blackbeard wanted to be a Shichibukai (given the discussion I've given to how he's more powerful than that, he's more on Yonkou level, which I'm pretty sure is stronger than a Shichibukai) and my basic theory is that he wanted it for access to Impel Down, but... why did he need to be a Shichibukai for that? Maybe it got him to the building more easily, rather than trying to steamroll his way through the seas there? But Whitebeard got into Marineford by coating their ships, I think Blackbeard could easily have done the same for Impel Down. And he was kind of just busting down the doors once he got there, so it's not like being a Shichibukai allowed him to waltz in there. (Though, it's kind of a red herring to use Hancock to sneak Luffy in because he couldn't get in without the help of a Shichibukai.)
So, is there some other reason? I assume he's basically thrown the title away at this point, if he was hiding from the fight until now. And, hell, it's not like the Marines are going to go, oh, well, you can still keep being a Shichibukai even though you just broke out four of our level 6 prisoners! Have fun with that! Even if he takes out Whitebeard, they can't really let that stand.
It must be something else. I'm assuming he needed access to someplace only a Shichibukai would be allowed to enter, maybe something in Mariejois? He was shown having dinner there with the other Shichibukai, I think? Since that's where the Tenryuubito live and I'm pretty sure that whatever the "one piece" is, it's tied up with the Tenryuubito as much as it is the Void Century.
I mean, I'm not married to any particular theory (as Siobhan points out, Laffite got pretty far into Mariejois when he was sneaking in to campaign for Blackbeard being a Shichibukai, what could Blackbeard get in Mariejois that he couldn't?), but I think there must be something he's after.
We also both wonder where Blackbeard is getting his information from (when discussing the question of how Blackbeard would know if there was something in Mariejois in the first place or how he knew certain people were in Impel Down) and... I don't really have any concrete theories, but my current guess is that he got hold of some sort of information along the lines of the Ohara's research. Maybe not THAT specifically, but something along those lines.
Also, I finally picked up Fairy Tail again. (Side rant: OH, MY GOD, YOU GUYS, IT IS FAIRY TAIL, LIKE THE THING ANIMALS HAVE ATTACHED TO THEIR ASSES, NOT LIKE A TALE YOU TELL. TAIL. NO, I DON'T KNOW WHY THAT IS BUT CHRIST ALMIGHTY WHY DOES NO ONE HAVE ANY READING COMPREHENSION!?) I still haven't touched the anime yet (but I will someday!) but I wanted to pick up where I left off with the manga, like, a year ago or whatever.
Spoilers for Fairy Tail up through about chapter 60 or so.
This was actually only about 10 chapters or so that I read, just enough to really launch them into the fight with Phantom, but it was enough to really remind of why I love this manga so much. It's so hysterically funny, but it also has awesome as hell hardcore awesome moments.
I knew I loved this manga all over again when they showed up to fight Phantom and had an epic two-page spread to show off their badassery.
But it was also the story with Lucy that made me love this manga again. At first I was sort of "...." about Lucy being the daughter of this giant corporation's head and being this all-important person that Phantom had to go retrieve... but, when I stopped and thought about how I'd react to this story if she were male, it gets a lot easier to go, hey, yeah, it is awesome that it's the girl who's so super-important.
It's more than just that, too.
When Jose (the Phantom leader) is like, ohohoho, I see through your pathetic excuse of needing to use the bathroom just to escape! Here! You can go in a bucket! So, Lucy keeps wiggling painfully and starts moving over it.
Jose is like OMGWTF YOU'RE ACTUALLY GONNA DO IT!? and turns away because he can't watch the shamelessness. She grins and then PUNTS HIS GROIN BACK UP INTO HIS BODY while his back is turned. I loved her.
SHE WASN'T DONE BEING AWESOME YET, EITHER. Because then? She's in their sky prison, which means that she steps out onto a ledge WAY UP IN THE SKY that leads NOWHERE. She's trapped. Jose gets up and is like fufufufu I'm going to make you pay for that now and what does Lucy do? She looks down at the long, long drop and thinks of her horrible father trying to get at her and then makes a determined face. And then drops herself off the ledge.
Yeah, I love her.
Sure, sometimes she's really fanservicey and needs to be rescued (Natsu had to be there to catch her, but I loved her for trusting her instincts because she heard his voice) a lot, but she also pitches in and tries to fight where she can.
After that, there's the fight between Natsu and the guy who controls flame (which had me laughing so hard, omg) and then Gray versus Juvia was just. It was beautiful. Of course they send the ice mage to deal with the rain queen, where he gets to be like NOBODY HURTS MY NAKAMA *SERIOUS FACE* while she's all "....omg, BLUSH, I have lost this fight, goodbye!" and then he breaks her water rock attack but he's wounded so he has to TAKE HIS SHIRT OFF and she blushes and starts shaking and her heart is pounding so fiercely--!!
And I love that there's always an excuse for Gray to take his clothes off and get all drenched by the rain.
THEN ONE OF MY OTHER FAVORITE THINGS EVER:
So, Gray's trying to fight against Juvia, who has a crush on him that Gray is COMPLETELY MISSING, he's like "Her jealousy is boiling?? WTF DOES THAT MEAN??" and having a hell of a time freezing anything around him. AND THEN THESE TWO PAGES:
http://www.onemanga.com/Fairy_Tail/57/07/
http://www.onemanga.com/Fairy_Tail/57/08/
Crying.
AND GRAY'S REACTION. He backs the hell off and releases her from the ice. "D... DO OVER!!" he shrieks. Oh, god, Gray. He is my favorite, too.
I seriously cannot choose between Erza, Natsu, and Gray for my favorite. This is why they are my OT3, too. THEY USED TO SHOWER TOGETHER. ERZA THREATENS TO MAKE THEM DO IT AGAIN IF THE SMELLY BOYS DON'T DO IT ON THEIR OWN. THEIR TERRIFIED FACES, LOL.