I am still pissed that alvarez arc totally ruined his character. Not only that I would like to add one more thing his relation with natsu was the best foreshadowed relations than all other foreshadowing. We were left guessing for about 230 chapters what there relations were.
Voted Laxus. One of the best characters imo. His development was great to watch, from a selfish, power hungry "Villain" to a strong, reliable leader and potential future guild master.
Although some may disagree, I think he is one of the few characters with depth. Not to mention, his backstory really adds to his overall purpose and progression. Laxus is similar in that he has character progression but his backstory is almost non-existent, thereby making him less complex. And while we know the most about Zeref, I didn't feel as connected with his character (maybe because his backstory incorporated too much fantasy in it).
I think the characters which were getting more screentime were getting more lamer in the last arc (natsu, erza,wendy). I guess we can thank that laxus got less screentime and was hence spared.
Although some may disagree, I think he is one of the few characters with depth. Not to mention, his backstory really adds to his overall purpose and progression. Laxus is similar in that he has character progression but his backstory is almost non-existent, thereby making him less complex. And while we know the most about Zeref, I didn't feel as connected with his character (maybe because his backstory incorporated too much fantasy in it).
If backstory was everything then people like natsu and zeref have far better and mysterious backstory than gray ever was. Point is laxus was more well developed character than gray was.
If backstory was everything then people like natsu and zeref have far better and mysterious backstory than gray ever was. Point is laxus was more well developed character than gray was.
Well, that really is up to interpretation. For me, the best character is one that not only has depth, but is also relatable. Gray had a much more tragic past than Laxus. That obviously gives him something to fight for or achieve in life. Although I acknowledge that Laxus has progression, he doesn't have any background information to reinforce it.
This is hands down the most difficult choice to make so far.
Personally, my favourite character out of the three is Laxus. Is he the best character though, maybe, maybe not. Gray is a great character as well, an awesome backstory (by awesome i dont mean that what happened to him was awesome huh, dont get me wrong there dont kill me please), and the same could be said about Zeref, a very complex and conflicted character with great depth, although i dislike him as a villain.
Tough decision.
I'll put my bias aside and admit that Gray and Zeref both deserve the spot more than Laxus. More complexity, more depth, better backstories.
I'd like to say that i'm voting Gray because Zeref disappointed me too much as a villain. Can i blame him though? Can Zeref, character wise, can be blamed for losing against the personnification of bullshit that Natsu turned into? I'll be honest, i said more than once after that chapter which must not be named, that Zeref is utter garbage. As a final villain. In terms of character though, he's one of the best imo.
On the other side, Gray has been an amazing character from the very begining, BUT... That all changed in the last arc. His decision to fight END to blindly follow some words from his father, hence trying to murder his closest friend (need i remind you that Fairy Tail is all about friendship, trusting the ones you love, all that kind of stuff), disappointed me a lot. A LOT.
Even the fact that even a year after that he still didnt give a correct answer to Juvia (despite what he promised her), like come on dude what are you doing.
But hey, this last arc has been atrocious for a lot of reasons, unfortunately Gray got into the mix... Should i really think less of him due to that one stain on his otherwise amazing character?
As usual pepole overrate gray to much. Sure his past was sad but so were zeref, irene and jellal who had even more dificult life.Besides his backstory didn't reveal anything important to the storyline like irene's backstory or natsu's memories of his pat life revealed or even aquarius did in chappter 467. Not to mention he was totally worthless in the last arc and ended up being an air conditioner and a ship maker. Apart from the small galuna and tartaros, gray has been among the least contributor among the major characters. even gajeel and laxus contributed more than him in gmg, tenrou and edolas arc.
On the other hand laxus was a well developed character who changed from a 'I don't give a crap about you' to 'tis is my family' guy. In zeref's case he has far more depth than any character in FT, a story of a child who became immortal against his own will just to revive his younger brother which actually led to FT creation in the first place and gray's sad backstory. That is called as importance to the plot. Gray for not a single bit of panel looked like he is moving the plot forward like zeref did.
This is the reason why zeref and laxus are among my all time favourite males along with jellal and natsu.
As usual pepole overrate gray to much. Sure his past was sad but so were zeref, irene and jellal who had even more dificult life.Besides his backstory didn't reveal anything important to the storyline like irene's backstory or natsu's memories of his pat life revealed or even aquarius did in chappter 467. Not to mention he was totally worthless in the last arc and ended up being an air conditioner and a ship maker. Apart from the small galuna and tartaros, gray has been among the least contributor among the major characters. even gajeel and laxus contributed more than him in gmg, tenrou and edolas arc.
On the other hand laxus was a well developed character who changed from a 'I don't give a crap about you' to 'tis is my family' guy. In zeref's case he has far more depth than any character in FT, a story of a child who became immortal against his own will just to revive his younger brother which actually led to FT creation in the first place and gray's sad backstory. That is called as importance to the plot. Gray for not a single bit of panel looked like he is moving the plot forward like zeref did.
This is the reason why zeref and laxus are among my all time favourite males along with jellal and natsu.
Well dude so was gray both in character, battles, and stupid trump card ( iced shell) honestly I think natsu have to fit a secret camera near gray every time so that he doesn't use it again. Well like I said earlier the more panel time they get the worse they got.
The difference between Gray and Zeref is that Gray's character wasn't reduced to shit, but more as in he was acting OOC in some scenes, with a disappointing trump card. Big difference. Not to mention, Mashima practically forced Gray to use Iced Shell just to glorify Natsu and make him look like a hero in pathetic fashion, so clearly Mashima changed his mind because Gray in the beginning of the arc promised Juvia an answer, and he smiled. Someone wouldn't do ice shell if he had the beginning mindset because that wouldn't make sense.. The onus is on Mashima for changing Gray's situation, not Gray.
What would've been much better is if Mashima had Gray protect Natsu killing himself with an END form against Zeref from the change to Galuna.
As usual pepole overrate gray to much. Sure his past was sad but so were zeref, irene and jellal who had even more dificult life.Besides his backstory didn't reveal anything important to the storyline like irene's backstory or natsu's memories of his pat life revealed or even aquarius did in chappter 467. Not to mention he was totally worthless in the last arc and ended up being an air conditioner and a ship maker. Apart from the small galuna and tartaros, gray has been among the least contributor among the major characters. even gajeel and laxus contributed more than him in gmg, tenrou and edolas arc.
On the other hand laxus was a well developed character who changed from a 'I don't give a crap about you' to 'tis is my family' guy. In zeref's case he has far more depth than any character in FT, a story of a child who became immortal against his own will just to revive his younger brother which actually led to FT creation in the first place and gray's sad backstory. That is called as importance to the plot. Gray for not a single bit of panel looked like he is moving the plot forward like zeref did.
This is the reason why zeref and laxus are among my all time favourite males along with jellal and natsu.
I have been noticing lately at your hatred bias against Gray.
Every single time someone even praises Gray a bit, and your jimmies get rustled.
The bold is bullshit, Gray has been a great deal of contributor amongst the major characters, and did a lot more than Gajeel and Laxus has in several portion of arcs. Gray was more involved and contributed more than Laxus and Gajeel in Tenrou actually.
Edolas arc, Laxus wasn't even included in it. Did you even read the manga properly?
Gray has been more involved in the last arc than Gajeel and Laxus has overall, as well as major arcs like Oracion Seis arc, and Tartaros arc ofc. He's also played a pivotal role in a mini arc of Sun village arc (an important arc that prequels Tartaros) than Gajeel and Laxus, and actually has 3 focused chapter compared to most major characters in the manga beating two bosses something that only Natsu was able to do.
It's funny when you're actually arguing Gajeel having a draw with a fodder chicken and goat is more contributive than Gray defeating Ultear (strongest of the 7 kin) and playing a role in the final boss against Hades is less contributory than Gajeel's role. I can't take you seriously when you make such comments.
Gray's past and backstory in the manga is one of the best, arguably better than Zeref, and easily better than Natsu's. It's ironic you throw dirt at Gray, when your favourite is Natsu of all people who is a terrible written character. You can't simply state Zeref, Irene and Jellal had a more difficult life than Gray because you can't convey the emotions and calculate them for what these characters experienced, so drop that bullshit.
If Gray was worthless in the last arc? Then what about Gajeel, Laxus and the rest of the DS minus Natsu? They were all scapegoats and fodders to make Natsu look OP enough to solo Acnologia. Gray in the last arc took down Zeref's right hand man, had the MP to freeze Zeref while being heavily injured and went toe to toe with END despite being exhausted.
Gray's backstory is one of the saddest in the manga, considering he watched his friends, family AS A KID die while he was helpless. Then once again, as a kid he watched his mother figure UR die again. Then he had to rewitness all of this tragedy again by almost being forced to kill his father (especially when he saw him dead for the second time)
Irene is hot and all, but her backstory was made up on the spot, and heavily forced. That's not good writing.
Gray is amonst the most consistent characters in development, and has well added depth in the manga. I'd put him ahead of Laxus in development, but it's close. Laxus's development just reminds me too much of Gajeel's tho.
Perhaps, instead of downplaying and massively underrating Gray for juvenile reasons and lack of understanding of the manga itself,, try being objective and re-read the manga.
The difference between Gray and Zeref is that Gray's character wasn't reduced to shit, but more as in he was acting OOC in some scenes, with a disappointing trump card. Big difference. Not to mention, Mashima practically forced Gray to use Iced Shell just to glorify Natsu and make him look like a hero in pathetic fashion, so clearly Mashima changed his mind because Gray in the beginning of the arc promised Juvia an answer, and he smiled. Someone wouldn't do ice shell if he had the beginning mindset because that wouldn't make sense.. The onus is on Mashima for changing Gray's situation, not Gray.
What would've been much better is if Mashima had Gray protect Natsu killing himself with an END form against Zeref from the change to Galuna.
I have been noticing lately at your hatred bias against Gray.
Every single time someone even praises Gray a bit, and your jimmies get rustled.
The bold is bullshit, Gray has been a great deal of contributor amongst the major characters, and did a lot more than Gajeel and Laxus has in several portion of arcs. Gray was more involved and contributed more than Laxus and Gajeel in Tenrou actually.
Edolas arc, Laxus wasn't even included in it. Did you even read the manga properly?
Gray has been more involved in the last arc than Gajeel and Laxus has overall, as well as major arcs like Oracion Seis arc, and Tartaros arc ofc. He's also played a pivotal role in a mini arc of Sun village arc (an important arc that prequels Tartaros) than Gajeel and Laxus, and actually has 3 focused chapter compared to most major characters in the manga beating two bosses something that only Natsu was able to do.
It's funny when you're actually arguing Gajeel having a draw with a fodder chicken and goat is more contributive than Gray defeating Ultear (strongest of the 7 kin) and playing a role in the final boss against Hades is less contributory than Gajeel's role. I can't take you seriously when you make such comments.
Gray's past and backstory in the manga is one of the best, arguably better than Zeref, and easily better than Natsu's. It's ironic you throw dirt at Gray, when your favourite is Natsu of all people who is a terrible written character. You can't simply state Zeref, Irene and Jellal had a more difficult life than Gray because you can't convey the emotions and calculate them for what these characters experienced, so drop that bullshit.
If Gray was worthless in the last arc? Then what about Gajeel, Laxus and the rest of the DS minus Natsu? They were all scapegoats and fodders to make Natsu look OP enough to solo Acnologia. Gray in the last arc took down Zeref's right hand man, had the MP to freeze Zeref while being heavily injured and went toe to toe with END despite being exhausted.
Gray's backstory is one of the saddest in the manga, considering he watched his friends, family AS A KID die while he was helpless. Then once again, as a kid he watched his mother figure UR die again. Then he had to rewitness all of this tragedy again by almost being forced to kill his father (especially when he saw him dead for the second time)
Irene is hot and all, but her backstory was made up on the spot, and heavily forced. That's not good writing.
Gray is amonst the most consistent characters in development, and has well added depth in the manga. I'd put him ahead of Laxus in development, but it's close. Laxus's development just reminds me too much of Gajeel's tho.
Perhaps, instead of downplaying and massively underrating Gray for juvenile reasons and lack of understanding of the manga itself,, try being objective and re-read the manga.
This is hands down the most difficult choice to make so far.
Personally, my favourite character out of the three is Laxus. Is he the best character though, maybe, maybe not. Gray is a great character as well, an awesome backstory (by awesome i dont mean that what happened to him was awesome huh, dont get me wrong there dont kill me please), and the same could be said about Zeref, a very complex and conflicted character with great depth, although i dislike him as a villain.
Tough decision.
I'll put my bias aside and admit that Gray and Zeref both deserve the spot more than Laxus. More complexity, more depth, better backstories.
I'd like to say that i'm voting Gray because Zeref disappointed me too much as a villain. Can i blame him though? Can Zeref, character wise, can be blamed for losing against the personnification of bullshit that Natsu turned into? I'll be honest, i said more than once after that chapter which must not be named, that Zeref is utter garbage. As a final villain. In terms of character though, he's one of the best imo.
On the other side, Gray has been an amazing character from the very begining, BUT... That all changed in the last arc. His decision to fight END to blindly follow some words from his father, hence trying to murder his closest friend (need i remind you that Fairy Tail is all about friendship, trusting the ones you love, all that kind of stuff), disappointed me a lot. A LOT.
Even the fact that even a year after that he still didnt give a correct answer to Juvia (despite what he promised her), like come on dude what are you doing.
But hey, this last arc has been atrocious for a lot of reasons, unfortunately Gray got into the mix... Should i really think less of him due to that one stain on his otherwise amazing character?
Gray has a good considerable amount of depth and development in his character that shouldn't be neglected whatsoever.
A few things, I like to say is that Gray at first didn't know of END's identity and like a good son, he was just honoring his father's wishes.
It seems like Gray started becoming corrupted with his magic after POST-INVEL, and started rambling shit that he would never say in any given situation. So I think his actions are kinda understandable, because he also lost his waifu at the time, and Natsu was also trying to kill him too, so let's not forget that. It seemed more like a shipping war than a rivalry match, since they are pissed that Juvia and Lucy are dead or something.
Tbh Mashima just forced Gray vs END way too much. I guess Mashima wanted a rivalry between Gray and Natsu so badly, maybe from fan requests? It would've been better if it was not so rushed. After the Zeref debacle, Gray started to become himself again.
Every character practically has suffered atleast one stain that you hope to forget, but they shouldn't thought of less. I mean Gray was OOC for only some scenes, not the whole arc to begin with.
Honestly the last part shouldn't be held against Gray, because Mashima screwed up the porch on all couples of the manga at the end. Feels like Gray and Juvia are dating since it's been a year now, and probably already gave her the confession, but given that Mashima didn't have much space to work with considering he had to fill in the pages, he probably didn't have enough time to have the scene of Gray answering her. Well I guess, the translations of "your body is something i care about cause ur kinda mine", which is good enough, cuz thats something Gray would say lol.
Gray's plot has always revolved around the theme of vengeance, loss and sacrifice. Therefore I did not feel he acted out of character in his fight with Natsu, while the latter was in his END form. Gray tried to avenge his family and village against Deliora, and it took Ur's life to mellow him out and kicked his plan of revenge to the curb. The lesson he learnt from that incident, were in turn used to convey the message of letting go of one's hatred to Lyon, and then Ultear.
During the GMG, Gray decided to take it upon himself to defeat Rufus in a one-on-one fight, after what he felt was a humiliating loss in one of the earlier competitions. Remembered how he punched the wall and left when Lucy asked him if he was alright? This was vengeance. The embarassment, together with discovering there was another skilled Molding mage, and Sabertooth's haughtiness led to his vendetta against Rufus. This, however, was driven more by his pride, of himself and his guild.
Loss and sacrifice were again the central themes towards the end, when he pushed Juvia aside to take all the laser beams for her. He was subsequently revived by Ultear's casting of Last Aegis. This trend never ended, and continued on to the following arcs. Silver's appearance in the story, then the fight and ultimately Silver's sacrifice and Gray succeeding his father's will, only served to jog on his vengeance. This time, for all demons. But again, it is still vengeance.
This whole plot finally peaked in the Alvarez war, when both Juvia and Gray simultaneously sacrificed their lives for each other. Though Juvia went a step further and brought him back to life with a spell. And it was all out vengeance from there onwards, first against Invel, then END. Despite being blinded by vengeance, Gray was always conscious of his actions. Otherwise he would have simply killed off Invel too. So he never actually acted out of character. Because that, is Gray's character.
And the countless number of times Gray has tried to pull off Iced Shell. The whole idea of that spell was to sacrifice the user's life. And now even the memories are going to be lost in Lost Iced Shell. Word play? No, think again. Mashima is clearly sending a message to the readers. Loss attributes sound exactly the thing someone like Gray would resort to.
Gray himself said it best, - "I am going to seal your darkness." Unfortunately, he could never quite seal his own darkness.
1) Gray's plot has always revolved around the theme of vengeance, loss and sacrifice. Therefore I did not feel he acted out of character in his fight with Natsu, while the latter was in his END form. Gray tried to avenge his family and village against Deliora, and it took Ur's life to mellow him out and kicked his plan of revenge to the curb. The lesson he learnt from that incident, were in turn used to convey the message of letting go of one's hatred to Lyon, and then Ultear.
2) During the GMG, Gray decided to take it upon himself to defeat Rufus in a one-on-one fight, after what he felt was a humiliating loss in one of the earlier competitions. Remembered how he punched the wall and left when Lucy asked him if he was alright? This was vengeance. The embarassment, together with discovering there was another skilled Molding mage, and Sabertooth's haughtiness led to his vendetta against Rufus. This, however, was driven more by his pride, of himself and his guild.
3) Loss and sacrifice were again the central themes towards the end, when he pushed Juvia aside to take all the laser beams for her. He was subsequently revived by Ultear's casting of Last Aegis. This trend never ended, and continued on to the following arcs. Silver's appearance in the story, then the fight and ultimately Silver's sacrifice and Gray succeeding his father's will, only served to jog on his vengeance. This time, for all demons. But again, it is still vengeance.
4) This whole plot finally peaked in the Alvarez war, when both Juvia and Gray simultaneously sacrificed their lives for each other. Though Juvia went a step further and brought him back to life with a spell. And it was all out vengeance from there onwards, first against Invel, then END. Despite being blinded by vengeance, Gray was always conscious of his actions. Otherwise he would have simply killed off Invel too. So he never actually acted out of character. Because that, is Gray's character.
5) And the countless number of times Gray has tried to pull off Iced Shell. The whole idea of that spell was to sacrifice the user's life. And now even the memories are going to be lost in Lost Iced Shell. Word play? No, think again. Mashima is clearly sending a message to the readers. Loss attributes sound exactly the thing someone like Gray would resort to.
6) Gray himself said it best, - "I am going to seal your darkness." Unfortunately, he could never quite seal his own darkness.
1)I agree totally that this is mostly his theme. This shows how complex of a character Gray is, that makes him truly interesting. However he did act out of character against Natsu. I will explain ahead.
2)True, but you can easily apply to this statement any competitve fighther in the series, and they would react accordingly. For example if Natsu or Laxus were humiliated, they would also attempt to get revenge and seek vengeance for their loss as pride of a mage. The point is your point doesn't necessarily apply to just Gray. Also Gray received humiliation from Nulpudding, but he never once tried to get vengeance from him.
3)Agreed.
4)Agreed with the first message but I don't agree with your opinion on the bold (a main reason why Im responding to you because you're sending a somewhat wrong message about his character). You can't being concious of your actions, if your blinded by your actions. The two are not mutual. Gray was concious of his actions against Invel, but he was not conscious of his actions against END. My explanation also applies that Gray was corrupted by the darkness of his des magic, that makes the user go insane every time he uses it per Invel's words. Sadly Mashima failed to protray this message against END in a form of explanation, and left it to the audience to guess. Hopefully the anime fixes this.
if Gray was concious about his actions, why he was shocked about Erza hugging him? Why did Gray try to redeem himself against Zeref if he was concious about his actions? He wasn't concious about his actions, he was blinded by his emotions, which he himself stated against Zeref.
First of all Gray would never ever try to harm his own comrades let alone kill them. When did Gray ever do that? That ISNT Gray's character. You're wrong here. All of Gray's vengeance from beginning and onwards was always directed at his enemies, never his friends.
You are sugarcoating and cherrypicking the context of the vengeance element and try to apply it here, but it's not correct in the context here.
Think again, Gray was act out of character, the majority of people are aware of that, and they are right.
5)The countless number of times Gray ever tried to pull of Iced Shell ( a total of 3 times) was always used as a last resort. Gray's message and intention to all of these was that that he rather sacrifice himself than ever see his friends being in harm. This was signified against Lyon, Silver, and Zeref. Also Gray himself stopped the process of using Iced Shell against Silver when he remembered about Ultear's sacrifice. Againt Zeref it felt forced because to me, Gray was used as a plot device for Natsu to be angered against Zeref, and to make Natsu look like a hero infront of him as I said before. clearly Mashima changed his mind because Gray in the beginning of the arc promised Juvia an answer, and he smiled. Someone wouldn't do ice shell if he had the beginning mindset because that wouldn't make sense.. The onus is on Mashima for changing Gray's situation, not Gray.
6)His darkness was already sealed after that hug from Erza.
I'll be honest here, if this is what you think about Gray's character, then I'm fine with it, but if you're doing this as a desperate attempt to give your Laxus more votes, then I will think lowly of you.
Overall, this post is also directed @Brandish, since he liked your post, so perhaps he may appreciate my thoughts.
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