Discussion The Official Relationship/Pairing/Shipping Thread

[yutu]

He regained all his memories by the time they met again before the GMG.

I mean, losing his memory led to the loss of the control ofultear and regaining his memory, he became the old jellal

 

[jetblackwings]

We saw what Jellal was like after Ultear's manipulation stopped. He's basically as nice as you can get. Either Fairy Tail's prison system is absurdly good at reforming criminals, or Ultear's influence was pretty huge.

Not to mention that personality is perfectly in line with his childhood, pre-possession personality. Everything points towards Jellal having no free will and nothing points to the contrary. Ppl are just so stubborn.

 

[Jko]

Reread the manga. She literally threatened to kill an amnesiac Jellal if he didn't remember what he had done. He tried to kill himself and she still kept yelling about how he needs to pay for his crimes... What else do you expect her to do? It's not in Erza's character to keep attacking someone who is overwhelmed with guilt and wants to make things right.

Jellal and Erza had almost no contact for the seven years Jellal was building the tower. He had no way of ""tormenting"" her, she lived a normal life away from him.

He did not have free will. He switched sides because Ultear released him from her control. The woman already admitted she controlled him 3 times, and even Azuma said it was Ultear's doing. It really says a lot you have to deny these basic facts because you know you're just blindly hating on Jellal.

Yeah, which is why she totally didn't want him not to kill himself or was crying at the end that he was going to prison lol. No, Erza easily forgave him for multiple years of torture. That is only something that can be undone in cartoons lol.

Erza was constantly worried about the safety of her friends that he kept enslaved for those years. You keep saying reread the manga, yet the only one who needs to reread is you. Jellal held her friends hostage so Erza could not save them. That is emotional abuse.

He had free will. Ultear never released any control of him. If he was her actual puppet than he would have been under her control even when he got amnesia. She also would have easily controlled anyone in the series bcs of the lack mental resistance. He got duped and followed that lifestyle until Natsu beat him up. Yeah, it was her doing that he went down that path, but she only showed him it as he went down it of his own free will. Ultear has ZERO mind control abilities. She created an illusion that Jellal followed. She did not control him, just manipulated him through the illusion. Nah, you're just a Jelly fan. Anyone can clearly see he was had his free will to make every decision he made in FT since Ultear has zero mind control abilities lol.

We saw what Jellal was like after Ultear's manipulation stopped. He's basically as nice as you can get. Either Fairy Tail's prison system is absurdly good at reforming criminals, or Ultear's influence was pretty huge.

So basically like every reformed villain in FT...

 

[jetblackwings]

Yeah, which is why she totally didn't want him not to kill himself or was crying at the end that he was going to prison lol. No, Erza easily forgave him for multiple years of torture. That is only something that can be undone in cartoons lol.

Erza was constantly worried about the safety of her friends that he kept enslaved for those years. You keep saying reread the manga, yet the only one who needs to reread is you. Jellal held her friends hostage so Erza could not save them. That is emotional abuse.

He had free will. Ultear never released any control of him. If he was her actual puppet than he would have been under her control even when he got amnesia. She also would have easily controlled anyone in the series bcs of the lack mental resistance. He got duped and followed that lifestyle until Natsu beat him up. Yeah, it was her doing that he went down that path, but she only showed him it as he went down it of his own free will. Ultear has ZERO mind control abilities. She created an illusion that Jellal followed. She did not control him, just manipulated him through the illusion. Nah, you're just a Jelly fan. Anyone can clearly see he was had his free will to make every decision he made in FT since Ultear has zero mind control abilities lol.

I never said she didn't forgive him, just that she didn't do it easily like you claim. Yes of course she didn't want to see him kill himself right in front of her, that doesn't take away from what she's saying.

You sure about that? Cause their friends stayed there by their own free will. If Erza being worried about them is emotional abuse, then all her former friends are at fault.

No. Why would Ultear still need Jellal after he already played his part? She could control him cause he was in a vulnerable state, a non-mage and a child. She probably can't do it to just anyone, that would be too OP. Just because she didn't do it anymore doesn't mean she can't. That's like saying Jellal can't make clones cause he used it only once (sequel aside). Anyone? You are the minority here, even most Jellal haters know he was brainwashed.

 

[Axiomus]

Oh yeah, Nalu day was earlier this week.

 

[Raven]

Oh yeah, Nalu day was earlier this week.

Did Aximous forgot about Nalus day...

 

[Axiomus]

Did Aximous forgot about Nalus day...

Maybe, but it's been a busy week for me in general.

 

[grey matter]

There is a "nalu" week? Why lol

 

[Axiomus]

There is a "nalu" week? Why lol

There's a Nalu day. It's July 26, because 72 is pronounced Nanatsu and 6 is pronounced Lu in Japanese. Every year Mashima posts drawings on Twitter.

 

[gk3389127]

I think this makes things fairly apparent that Mashima personally favors NaLu. Granted, considering how slow their development has been compared to the others, it's still weird.

 

[Raven]

I disagree, Mashima isn't treating Nalu any good, They literally give them nothing in terms of development, It's depressing when you think about it, Most likely we will get our Nalu but it will be tasteless without development. Literally pointless. It really stirs me up when i think about it.

 

[Axiomus]

The development is incredibly slow compared to the other couples, but it is what it is. They usually get a few big moments towards the end of an arc. Mashima really likes milking the fans.

 

[atlantisreturns]

The development is incredibly slow compared to the other couples, but it is what it is. They usually get a few big moments towards the end of an arc. Mashima really likes milking the fans.

Mistake on his side. I'd reckon FT is mostly carried by it's comedy and fanservice aspects as compared to the actual plot which is very lacklustre in comparison. He should ideally be focusing on the comic relief and interactions aspect than trying to build up antagonists only for the narrative to turn out to be a letdown. Building hype and delivering on it is not his forte. He doesn't know how to sort out his priorities unfortunately

 

[gk3389127]

The development is incredibly slow compared to the other couples, but it is what it is. They usually get a few big moments towards the end of an arc. Mashima really likes milking the fans.

At this point, he knows how popular NaLu is, and certainly favors them himself, which is probably the primary reason he's doing it so slow, and doing all those teasing moments; that, and it would be very out of character for Natsu to have some big love epiphany.
By contrast, Gruvia has gotten good development, and is now just a confession away from crystalizing, and maybe he wanted to finish that plot line up first, since NaLu may take a little longer to move forward.

Mistake on his side. I'd reckon FT is mostly carried by it's comedy and fanservice aspects as compared to the actual plot which is very lacklustre in comparison. He should ideally be focusing on the comic relief and interactions aspect than trying to build up antagonists only for the narrative to turn out to be a letdown. Building hype and delivering on it is not his forte. He doesn't know how to sort out his priorities unfortunately

Okay.
What does that have to do with the ships though?

 

[atlantisreturns]

Okay.
What does that have to do with the ships though?

I haven't caught up to the latest chapters , just came back here after a long time.
But from what I gathered the romantic development is still very slow and barely gets any time , just as it was before. I just put forth my thoughts on the matter that shifting the focus towards aspects that Mashima can write relatively better off would be a good idea. So in this case I was advocating for more time and more pace to be given to their dynamic.

 

[Raven]

Mistake on his side. I'd reckon FT is mostly carried by it's comedy and fanservice aspects as compared to the actual plot which is very lacklustre in comparison. He should ideally be focusing on the comic relief and interactions aspect than trying to build up antagonists only for the narrative to turn out to be a letdown. Building hype and delivering on it is not his forte. He doesn't know how to sort out his priorities unfortunately

FT is carried by it's individual characters and Ships mainly, When you look at FT fan base closely, You will find that It's very divided but they share the same mentality. For example you have Laxus fan base that only read for Laxus, Natsu fanbase that only read for Natsu, Gray fanbase than only read for Gray, etc. The same apply for ships. On the other hand, The actual fans who read for the whole thing are really few compared the rest.

Mashima actually know very little about his fanbase and know less about his FT manga than his readers, I think he only remember the fundamentals but he always forget a lot of details, and that's the main problem i see. Like there are many sub plots that are just there for no reason. It's sad because this manga could have been something else if he took it seriously.

 

[Axiomus]

I don't really have a problem with the slow development. The way I see it, they already had feelings of love for each other by the end of the original series. Natsu was probably going to tell Lucy how he felt before they went on the 100YQ, but pushed it aside because he doesn't know how to approach the subject. Lucy was definitely expecting something more from Natsu, and now she thinks he doesn't care about love at all. I'm not really expecting things to change until after the 100 years quest when Natsu finally tells Lucy what he was going to say. But who knows, maybe Mashima will surprise us. I wasn't expecting Jerza to get the development it did at the start of the Selene arc.

 

[atlantisreturns]

I don't really have a problem with the slow development. The way I see it, they already had feelings of love for each other by the end of the original series. Natsu was probably going to tell Lucy how he felt before they went on the 100YQ, but pushed it aside because he doesn't know how to approach the subject. Lucy was definitely expecting something more from Natsu, and now she thinks he doesn't care about love at all. I'm not really expecting things to change until after the 100 years quest when Natsu finally tells Lucy what he was going to say. But who knows, maybe Mashima will surprise us. I wasn't expecting Jerza to get the development it did at the start of the Selene arc.

It's very obvious that they love each other for anyone who reads the manga , so that's not the thing I'm talking about. I'm saying they could get together sooner and the rest of the chapters being given screentime about their dynamic while in the relationship. Them being ending together at the end while not being expanded upon in the earlier chapters effectively leaves us no knowledge with how their dynamic would work when in the relationship , and it doesn't hold much substance either to just show us a glimpse that they ended together in the end for such an obvious conclusion. Like , no shit sherlock. What new insights do we get by milking this ship till the end ? Answer is nothing. So it's a waste to not progress on that aspect sooner than later. Their dynamic is stagnant and going nowhere at the current moment , which is a bad thing as it completely lacks progression.

 

[gk3389127]

At the risk of potentially necromancing this thread, it's on my mind with the recent developments with Shicca in EZ.

The primary obstacle to NaLu at this point, is Natsu's own thick-headedness. Now it would certainly be out-of-character for him to have some big romantic revelation of about Lucy, so there would have to be an outside stimulus that would catalyze it. The most logical way for him to realize his feelings for her would be for someone to do something to Lucy, most likely at Ignia's hand. The fact that we've now had two instances of NaLu doppelgängers being together, and the fact that it was Lucy who calmed Natsu down, a'la Katara and Aang makes me cautiously optimistic that it's in the cards.

Mashima once said in an interview that he didn't commit to a ship because he knew fans shipped Natsu with both Lucy and Lisanna (though he also said he favored Natsu with Lucy), and didn't want to risk provoking them. However, at this point, that doesn't hold much water considering his own actions. For perspective, he KNOWS that NaLu day is a thing, and has generally not missed in the past couple years; there can be no doubt he's aware how popular that ship is, and that he himself is at least not opposed to it. That might be part of the reason he teases it to hell and back, and despite people calling him a "troll" (sometimes duly), he doesn't seem like a guy who savors tormenting his readers with stuff like this.

 

[Undina]

At the risk of potentially necromancing this thread, it's on my mind with the recent developments with Shicca in EZ.

The primary obstacle to NaLu at this point, is Natsu's own thick-headedness. Now it would certainly be out-of-character for him to have some big romantic revelation of about Lucy, so there would have to be an outside stimulus that would catalyze it. The most logical way for him to realize his feelings for her would be for someone to do something to Lucy, most likely at Ignia's hand. The fact that we've now had two instances of NaLu doppelgängers being together, and the fact that it was Lucy who calmed Natsu down, a'la Katara and Aang makes me cautiously optimistic that it's in the cards.

Mashima once said in an interview that he didn't commit to a ship because he knew fans shipped Natsu with both Lucy and Lisanna (though he also said he favored Natsu with Lucy), and didn't want to risk provoking them. However, at this point, that doesn't hold much water considering his own actions. For perspective, he KNOWS that NaLu day is a thing, and has generally not missed in the past couple years; there can be no doubt he's aware how popular that ship is, and that he himself is at least not opposed to it. That might be part of the reason he teases it to hell and back, and despite people calling him a "troll" (sometimes duly), he doesn't seem like a guy who savors tormenting his readers with stuff like this.

The problem is I've read that Mashima himself declared in an interview or somewhere that, in spite of realising all of the things you've mentioned, including his own original preference for NaLu, he'd resolved, by the end of the main story, that he'd be painting NaLu as "more than friends and less than lovers"(don't mind me if it was rehashed earlier in this thread).
I'm not yet entirely sure he's changing this decision, even if I've heard that Ueda himself prefers NaLu?! What we just got was another of those typical weird close physical contact moments they've been getting for ages now(at least the post-cauldron moment in HERO'S- or whatsitcalled- was more symbolically intimate-the kind I'd never see casually happening between straight platonic life-partners- than any silly ecchi scene as of late).
And I'm still bugged by the way their more serious moment in ch 22/23 is somewhat cast into contradiction with the fear and pain she must've felt in FT when literally having his Fire Curse in her veins, making me wonder if I can take the recent "soothing" event that seriously, with all the emotional weight it's supposed to carry.
We're getting more clues towards Natsu not being ignorant at all of attraction or rather how attractive the girls around him are, he seems to favour Lucy in each and all aspects(in spite of that confusing harem scene at Selene's temple), but all the scenes where he's supposedly acting out of presumed (romantic) jealousy are either defused in a silly way or off-page.
Yes, I agree, Ignia or Selene herself might trigger something more serious if Mashima decides to take the ship anywhere concrete, but Idk if he really means to(I know what he did with RM, Idk what he aims with EZ, since I've only watched the anime S1, but it's still hit or miss with the FT MCs). Back in FT DiMaria NOS-ed all of his changes and partial END awakening when she tried to kill Lucy, Lucy is now his de-buffer from a similar to END rampage mode, and he seems far too entitled to decide that other guys can't get physically close to her, but with off-paging some guys getting beaten up for apparently trying to hit on her, all these and some of their old married couple shenanigans feel a lot like the Mashima/Ueda duo are just giving nods to the plethora of fanfic NaLu tropes.