That's exactly why I find them unsympathetic. "Just following orders" has never been a good excuse.
IDK, its just a lot of people seem to hold Brandish and Irene as sympathetic characters... and while I can understand that their backstories are sad (outright tragic in the case of Irene), they are very rarely criticised for the fact that they were going along with the genocide of Ishgar - something completely unnecessary.
Fair point on JerZa but something still rubs me wrong about it.
Ehhhh....
I mean they got less actual build-up but think of it this way - we are told they are the strongest guild in Fiore, but their record is awful:
- Yukino and her 13th Key getting stomped hard by a sheathed Archenemy
- Orga getting instantly one-shotted by Jura and never getting an actual fight outside of one-shotting a fodder (one-shotting fodder isn't impressive)
- Sting and Rogue get wrecked in Base, still don't really do much in Drives and got stomped by Base Natsu despite them being in Dragon Force and the fight being a 2 vs 1... that is some next level BS
Rufus and Minerva are the only two in GMG that didn't outright suck. And Rufus is basically a background character after GMG finishes, so I'm not sure if he's an exception because he got screwed over hard in the long run.
I hate to say it but that last part is what I'm struggling with - I don't want to dislike a character due to battle forums but god damn.
Tbh I also just find her personality bland.
I definitely agree in wanting him to pull out his old Magics because they were fucking awesome. Like, I love Heavenly Body Magic but the guy is a supposed Magical genius, would be nice to see other techniques more often. 100YQ has me optimistic with the return of Bind Snake but I'm not holding my breath. A return of TOH Jellal would be cool too, though it would need to be handled perfectly (would also prefer it to be unrelated to JerZa if possible).
Disagree on him being bland and boring though. That said, I will admit that he seems almost out of place in a manga like Fairy Tail - everyone else (including villains + former villains) are usually characters that bring some liveliness to the story whereas Jellal changes the atmosphere to be more (at least IMO)... introspective? I think it says a lot that in 100YQ everyone has seemingly moved on except him, though evidently that's a good thing for Ishgar as a whole since there are still threats out there. If only Mashima would let him succeed in dealing with them...
Personally that's what I like about Jellal though, Fairy Tail is full of vibrant and joyous characters which sometimes grates on my mood, but Jellal's a character that's very toned down in comparison. Plus this Jellal gave us the "I'm going to commit one last sin" moment vs Neinhart... and then Hiro ruined it by having him survive. A guy wearing plate armour survived bloodlusted Jellal's Grand Chariot and somehow didn't drown... Thinking about it that may have been one of the first moments where Alvarez arc started dip in quality.
2. Yeah, it' baffling that Brandish is considered as 'sympathetic' . She just betrayed her empire, that raised her when she was an orphan, taught her magic and gave her a high standing; cause Lucy's mother was her mother's friend; and Layla didn't kill her mother (I've no idea how retarded you have to be, to believe that story lmao). Jut another pathetic traitor.
As much as I hate Eileen, I can understand how people consider her sympathetic. Her mind was fucked by 400 years of being a dragon lol.
3. Jerza is the best 'canon' ship in the series for me (unpopular opinion right here lmao). Because Erza stuck by her man even through all his low points, and gave him a second chance when she found out he's really trying to redeem himself. She probably has some guilt as well, because she knows the reason he got possessed was because he took her place in the torture chamber.
4. Agree lol. I still think Spriggans were fucked over more, because the 'regular' Spriggans were all hyped up to God Serena who's hyped to be Gildarts level (depends on if you buy it or not lol), but they were being taken down like flies by our 'good guys' after training for JUST ONE YEAR.
By hype fail, it's Spriggans > 9 Demon Gates > Sabertooth for me. the rest of the villains lived upto their hype.
5. It just happens lol
7. That's all fine and dandy if his character kinda evolved over time, and we were shown him trying to make up for his sins. Point: the guy barely gets any screentime, and the time he gets he is brooding, boring and uses freaking grand chariot (again!) The guy and his guild
didn't even get to MEET Zeref in the end, after all that talk. Instead he met Acnologia lmfao
For me. Alverez went down the moment God Serena was taken down, after all that hype, after all that anticipation since the beginning of the series (WIZARD SAINT NUMBAA ONE). He IS the most wasted character in the entire damn series, along with GOI 2-3. Everything since then was just trash.
-Jellal one shotting Neinhart was underwhelming, the guy didn't even put up a fight. wtf? He just got one shotted.
-Bradman's kill was fucked over by whoreleen.
-God Serena 2.0 was nerfed, so we couldn't get a Serena vs Gildarts greatness.
-Invel's ice lock failure (wOnT bReAk UnTiL oNe Of YoU
DiE)
- END vs Gray being stopped by friendship bullshit
-Human Eileen being overwhelmed by injured Erza solo, after all that hype. Dragon Eileen one shot by Erza with broken bones
-Larcade defeated by Sabertooth after hyping him to be ultimate weapon against Acno!
-August being retarded and committing suicide.
I probably missed something lol
