Jellal was thrown at the end at Acnologia when Mashima realized he couldn't give Jellal another fight after the abysmal performance against Neinhart.
Mira got nothing in Alvarez. Seliah soul on fodder?? Two sword girls that she used her ultimate form on? Then get wrecked by Irene? An off panel, fanservice Jacob fight? Get out of here with that Mashima.
@Gabo Lucy got good moments in Alvarez around her star dresses and later fairy sphere but she fought less then she did when she summoned her spirits. And also you mention Boku's spinoff, that's why I like the spinoff because Lucy and Juvia shine.
My issue with star dresses was how the amount of spirits was promoted from beginning as a big thing and we don't know how many Lucy can summon now. Can she still summon only three like in Tartaros? Four? Five? What about them all like during Loke arc? I had always hoped for a battle summoning all the spirits at once to make her character come full circle from her nonbattle moment in the Loke arc. Star dress is really more like Erza's requip while Fairy sphere is Mavis's spell. Neither really showcase celestial magic. Where's Yukino? Angel? Anna? How are you going to inteoduce a whole new character that is the strongest "celestial make" as Anna then do nothing with her?? Yukino also hasn't used her spirits in battle since Gmg. She didn't even get to fight the fodder soldiers. You had elements for a huge celestial brawl before the series ended.
Also some like
@Asorx wanted CSK and more expansion on star dress and Capricorn's magic. While
@Star Frost just wanted to see her current strength as Lucy never got to fight all out. In Jacob's fight as soon as it got tougher, Natsu appeared. In Brandish fight, as soon as Brandish started making a comeback Dimaria appeared. She was never pushed the whole arc.
Wendy had three big fights and on the surface it looks like Mashima was wanking her this arc but if you actually look at what he did to her.... in the Dimaria fight, Wendy's DF got wrecked to hype Dimaria while Ultear canceled the time stop and gave third origin, then Chelia actually was the one who fought Dimaria and Wendy got demoted to using her support shields like she did in Edolas and Tenrou; same thing with Irene's battle, Wendy Belserione gave Wendy a fight but it actually was Irene in Wendy's body, Wendy's shining moments came with undoing Irene's enchantment and giving Erza dragon slaying magic (both supporting feats); then Wendy in the Acno fight she didn't get as many hits in against Acno as the male Slayers but she was used to enchant Natsu. So each time she was used for support without actually defeating anyone.
And as for Gray, he was the main character with the least feats this last arc. He did get a squirmish against Historia Ur but nobody counts that as a fight. His big battle was with InVel but that was laziness as Mashima stole a lot from first Lyon vs Gray and then Musica being crazy rage and beating people bare handed over Nagisa's beating in Rave. Plus by the time Gray got through wrecking the poor guy, Invel's credibility as a fighter also got hit. Not to mention how much of fight devolved into pure shipping. While Natsu vs Gray had actual good choreography but it was forced af and cut way too fast (Like Brandish vs Lucy) to give Erza a family moment before her battle with Irene started.
Tl;dr The fan favorites coming out of Tartaros got screwed in Alvarez.
