i am not arguing with you here man
but hades example isnt fair. technically i think laxus would have given hades a solid mid diff fight. beside laxus couldnt dodge 25 formula, markarov could block it. and markrov couldnt follow kagura and erza strike. so no huge gap even here
yep, pre skip jura, someone who was around pre skip erza
two shotting gajeel above jupiter cannon tier slash, i dont know man
bluenote didnt use magic against gildarts. i wonder who was bandaged more at the end erza or gildarts? of course we shouldnt even be having this conversation since gildarts is so far above erza. but because of plot one can make an argument (and good guys dont die, with or without magic)
no, thats plot. natsu doesnt have more durability. this is plot. this argument will eventually lead to tenrou erza stamina being above gildarts, and lucy durability being above many of natsu opponents
yes, laxus was portrayed as a monster. wasnt erza also portrayed as a monster. look mishma had clear chance to show laxus superiority above erza in ff arc. he didnt. instead we got s class test where all s class mages were to handle two non s class mages, and were told to hold back. something laxus did in ff arc. marakrov seems to think even mira would have been able handle natsu and non s class candidate.
he wasnt portrayed as a monster in tenrou arc. he lasted five seconds against hades. laxus power wasnt even shown here. only awesome thing he did was tank 25 formula, which we and erza later found out he didnt.
Then in the next arc he was likened to Gildarts by Gray as the two members of the guild so powerful that they didn't need to train to keep up with current powerlevels.
this is interesting, because erza was the mage who was actually shown to compete in this tournament without training or power up. gray would later say erza already had SO.
and minerva didnt even remember laxus when telling her team mates not to fight jura and kagura
how do you know erza wouldnt have beaten temspster like that. this is a good example of less panel but must show laxus as powerful.
He then went on to be hyped to be able to oneshot Ajeel, and then killed Wahl while dying of magic cancer, which as you said, made him look ridiculously OP
i think ajeel hype was so that we could see laxus was above likes of gajeel.
dying of cancer and beating wahl is bs. it is equivalent of erza beating koyoka without senses.
laxus portrayal can be said to be slightly above erza. not far above. but certainly ignoring erza portrayal above natsu for laxus portrayal is literally mental gymnastic.
erza vs irene and laxus vs wahl showed some people laxus>=erza
but erza vs kagura and minirva didnt show erza anywhere near laxus
(rufus was told not to fight kagura, and kagura lost to tenrou level erza. SO erza vs rufus would have been a worst stomp than even red lightening laxus vs wahl)
people see what they want to see at the end. that is why alverzec erza wasnt said to be tiers above laxus. yet gmg laxus was said to be tier above erza
Dodging is harder than blocking, at least when it comes to AoE, so I don't see what's unfair about it. Besides, like I said before, sometimes you get hit, sometimes you don't, you don't have to evade every single attack to be fast. Erza gets hit all the time, probably more than any character other than Natsu, she's still among the faster characters in the series. So no, Laxus getting hit doesn't detract from the fact that he's fast enough to blitz Hades, which puts his speed significantly above Makarovs.
Sure, preskip Jura durability sounds reasonable, I'd even say hers is higher.
It's not actually Jupiter cannon tier, Jupiter oneshot Erza through Adamantine, Kagura's slash only broke it.
Sure, but much less of a monster than Laxus, to the point where she frequently compares herself to Natsu and where people would actually bet money on Natsu winning a fight between them. She was consistently portrayed as the best of team Natsu, but not much more than that.
Sure he was, his whole entrance portrayed Laxus as the savior they needed. He reminded Hades of Prime Makarov. He briefly overwhelmed Hades in a hype moment and it was his incredible magic power that boosted Natsu to insane levels. With Natsu saying that Laxus could have actually done better with it. Laxus whole role in the Hades fight was him being portrayed as a beast.
Except at the end of the day Erza did need her SO. Minerva didn't remember Erza either, a fatal oversight on her part.
I dont, but it doesn't matter. Like you said, it was a good way to show Laxus powerful with low panel time.
What has Ajeel got to do with Gajeel other than their names rhyming lol? Gajeel hadnt even done anything at that point.
The fact that Mashima had to double nerf Laxus to make him a match for a spriggan just shows the portrayal i was talking about. As for it being BS, I suppose that depends on how debilitating you think magic cancer is. Would Ali lose to someone a couple tiers under his weight class if he was dying of cancer? I don't know.
Sure, because back then Jura was hyped as strong enough to take Erza and Mira at the same time. Laxus beating him is almost a direct statement that he is stronger than Erza. Even if you dismiss the statement as hyperbole, you can still stack that with his performance against Hades and his likening to Gildarts. Stock in Laxus' strength was through the roof at that point, especially with Mashima saying he's too OP to be convincingly be put into fights around the same time all this happened.
As for Eileen, plenty of people thought Erza was above Laxus after that, but for those who didn't it's because: 1. People still took the Ajeel fight into consideration. 2. Erza didn't solo and she didn't win. 3. Mashima being forced to nerf Laxus twice over is still ridiculous, as you yourself have stated.
