As a rival, how would you have written Gray?

[Karna]

As the thread says, how would you have written Gray as Natsu's main rival or at least made him more competent, he doesn't have to be stronger than Natsu ofc.

 

[Nespi]

1. First of all, bond between Gray and Juvia must be broken or at least changed. Juvia in 100yq is a parasyte (Relax! This is how I see it. This is not offense)
2. Gray is the best (in my opinion) FT character and obviously one of the best FT characters. He has wonderful background and storytelling. He is a type of character who moves the plot. But he don't get enough time for it. So give my boy the time.
3. Gray needs a big power up. Very big to be Natsu's real rival. May be possible alchemy helps with that.
4. Give him strong enemy. Of course not dragon god but at the same time strong.
5. Stop telling he is weaker than other characters. Especially in form which Cana said. Especially telling he is weaker than Mirajane because Gray with DeS magic must destroy her easy.

For some reasons Mashima does't like Gray who is the most interesting member of team Natsu. He is side character now.

 

[Ronin31]

1. First of all, bond between Gray and Juvia must be broken or at least changed. Juvia in 100yq is a parasyte (Relax! This is how I see it. This is not offense)
2. Gray is the best (in my opinion) FT character and obviously one of the best FT characters. He has wonderful background and storytelling. He is a type of character who moves the plot. But he don't get enough time for it. So give my boy the time.
3. Gray needs a big power up. Very big to be Natsu's real rival. May be possible alchemy helps with that.
4. Give him strong enemy. Of course not dragon god but at the same time strong.
5. Stop telling he is weaker than other characters. Especially in form which Cana said. Especially telling he is weaker than Mirajane because Gray with DeS magic must destroy her easy.

For some reasons Mashima does't like Gray who is the most interesting member of team Natsu. He is side character now.

I got pretty much the same opinion about Grey.

- The first problem concerning the rivalry between Natsu and Grey is that Natsu is more gifted : he can increase his power according to his rage, has had an evolution with the power of Laxus mixed with his flames, then has awakened the flames of Ignil, to eventually reach the Dragon Force by his own will. Grey inherited "only" the will and power of his father. What would be interesting as an evolution is that he can awaken his rage as against END and control this force by his will, like Natsu with the Dragon Force. It can be Devil Force as counterpart with Dragon Force. This power could bridge the gap with Natsu and make him a completely badass character from my point of view.

- I do not go back on his background which is very good for me. I just want him to stop being cheerleaders for these colleagues and stop being a coward. This is not how the character was originally written. He is a character who has courage, reflects and strategizes like Sanji in One Piece. His versatile fighting techniques in attack and defense and his quick wit make him a complete character, a bit like Erza and Jellal. But indeed, he needs to be subdued interesting and handicapping opponents to make him shine again, not necessarily an ice-cream opponent or a lousy soldier. In this sense, I would have preferred a return fight against Skullion, even replacing Laxus with Grey against Skullion/Madmole in a fight in extreme diff. Laxus stole his opponents for his hype while, facing the powerful Kirin, Laxus had nothing to prove since his fight against Erza on Aldo.

- We must not forget that Grey is one of the main characters. Today he is more relegated to the second role to make others foam : Erza and Laxus do not need cheerleaders, we know how far they are above the rest of the Guild with Gildarts. If this role can correspond to Gajil (as side character) who is going to be father and is not in the main team, it does not correspond at all to Grey who shone in the original Manga by being the good rival of Natsu. His fight against END or his partnership with Natsu against MG was incredible. Not to mention his charisma when he one shot Tempester, an enemy that Natsu in LFD using his Ougi failed to defeat. Honestly, this is the Grey I want back.

 

[Raven]

Find a new rival instead of Natsu. Problem solved.

Like you see here people only want him to be more than Natsu, You will never have that..

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 29, 2023, Original Post Date: Jan 29, 2023 ---

The whole reason of DeS was to make him a true rival to Natsu and look what happened, He became really irrelevant after Tartarous, Simply because it was forced. Mashima says Gray was supposed to be Natsu's rival and tbh i never felt like that. Natsu is always ahead. I'd say Gajeel has more elements in his characters that makes him a better rival for Natsu, and he is more of a side character than Gray.

The very settings of Gray has to change to make him a better rival for Natsu, His assests need to change, Like he should be a dragonslayer and have a similar respected power source like Natsu. Natsu is ancient and his powers comes from a top rank dragon while Gray was just an ice user who randomly got a power up from his father. They didn't have equal footing to begin with so don't expect equal treatment, IMO Gray is a cheap rival hence getting cheap treatment.

 

[Nemispelled]

Very good thread actually.

In my opinion, Gray's role as a rival has always reached its peak when he had been temporarily operating solo. In other words, he didn't have to worry about restrictions/attachment to his guild, which gave him more freedom/creativity to come up with unconventional plans and strategies aside from the usual themes of guild pride or PoF.

His reconnaissance and observation skills are top-notch, even better than the Magic Council's Infiltration Unit imo.

With that said, I believe that the greatest potential for a Gray/Natsu rivalry during the series would have been when he infiltrated the Avatar guild while FT had been disbanded. If Mashima had moved forward with that plot at the time, it would've given Gray a chance to delve deeper into his DeS magic, which is inherently dark in nature.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Gray would have to betray his guild. He has always been good at keeping his morals straight, but his methods rely heavily on extracting information and exposing the series' antagonists.

Basically, Gray's approach would be to destroy his enemies from the inside-out while Natsu's specialty is the use of external/brute force. Both are different techniques, but can lead to the same goal.

If Mashima really wanted to underscore the rivalry between Gray and Natsu, he could have them operate under a two-pronged approach where Natsu would be the main powerhouse and Gray would seek out the enemies' vulnerability/weak points.

 

[SleipnirX]

Frankly they were always too friendly (underneath a veneer of arguing) to be proper rivals that actually pushed each other to go one better. The fact they were always pulling in the same direction overall, and often relied on one another, or certainly had each others backs. Proper rivals need to be at least neutral, if not in competition over something.

combine that with the fact Gray has usually not really been on Natsu’s level power wise (and certainly not consistently enough) as noted by others above makes him a poor fit.

 

[Darklord#10]

Natsu and gray rivalry has no importance in the story apart from the end bs. It's just for show off or something like that. It's not meant to be taken seriously like most stuff in the manga

 

[sharkai]

I think the question is wrong.
Gray failing to be credible rival is not gray's fault. its mishma arc template.
i would degrade natsu. not upgrade gray.
the big problem starts with natsu and gray fighting normal foot soldier and than natsu fuks the story up by fighting the main boss. thus gray can never compete.
if big bosses were normally handled by others or team work, with gray some times included, natsu wont outshine gray like this.

Also remove dragon force or give other mage equivalent. df natsu is on whole different level and unrivalable.
and also dragon slayer ability to power up and only ones who can damage a dragon, sets more problem in the story.

technically wendy should be in overpowered df form all the time. since wind is everywhere.

 

[Anime VORTEX]

I think the question is wrong.
Gray failing to be credible rival is not gray's fault. its mishma arc template.
i would degrade natsu. not upgrade gray.
the big problem starts with natsu and gray fighting normal foot soldier and than natsu fuks the story up by fighting the main boss. thus gray can never compete.
if big bosses were normally handled by others or team work, with gray some times included, natsu wont outshine gray like this.

Also remove dragon force or give other mage equivalent. df natsu is on whole different level and unrivalable.
and also dragon slayer ability to power up and only ones who can damage a dragon, sets more problem in the story.

technically wendy should be in overpowered df form all the time. since wind is everywhere.

Natsu is the main character while Gray isn't and their rivalry has never been the main focus of the series nor those it has any relevance to the overall story unlike other rivalry like Naruto and Sasuke or Asta and Yuno

 

[Darklord#10]

Natsu is the main character while Gray isn't and their rivalry has never been the main focus of the series nor those it has any relevance to the overall story unlike other rivalry like Naruto and Sasuke or Asta and Yuno

Exactly it has no meaning. It's just mashima's way of saying "ah guys look gray is cool too he's as strong as natsu". Suzaku is more of a rival

 

[sharkai]

Natsu is the main character while Gray isn't and their rivalry has never been the main focus of the series nor those it has any relevance to the overall story unlike other rivalry like Naruto and Sasuke or Asta and Yuno

sure, but the main character doesnt need to start shining the very first day. there should be some progress.