5 Point Discussions – Fairy Tail (2018) 16: “For Whom The Parfum Flows”

The guild faces off against a member of the Spriggan 12 who can exploit everyone’s weaknesses! And elsewhere, Cana and Lucy face off against Brandish. Remember, if you like this article and 5 Point Discussions, please share it on Facebook or Twitter! It really helps. And if you’ve got any comments or questions, please hit me up @SageShinigami.

1. When you abuse a comedic moment to solve a dramatic situation. Anime has a habit of embracing mood whiplash–shows will counterbalance serious portions with some humor to keep things from becoming too overbearing. But there’s usually something of a divide–the villain or hero will do something funny, then you’ll get back to the actual fight.
This episode, Fairy Tail’s resident drunken spades player Cana decides that’s a stupid rule. Just as she and Lucy are getting ready to throw down with Brandish, they find the Alvarez magician unable to fight thanks to a sudden sneezing spell brought on by the dust kicked up from Ajeel’s sandstorm.  She’s so distracted, she doesn’t even notice when Cana sneaks up behind her and knocks her clean out.  Lucy calls her horrible, but honestly I’m not even sure how either of these two matches up against a magician who can shrink them at the drop of a hat. Plus there are still ten other mages with powers matching or exceeding hers, so why waste extra effort?

2. Wall, the next member of the Spriggan 12 to challenge the guild, is the winner of the “best idea, worst execution” award. Arriving in the middle of Magnolia, he boasts a unique ability: analyzing a mage’s weakness and instantly inventing robots who can utilize that weakness to fight them.  He shuts down the Elfman family along with Gray and Juvia with this ability, then proceeds into the church where Freed and the Thunder God Tribe are holding up a barrier to keep soldiers out of the city.
It’s an ability bordering on overpowered–if you can ALWAYS counter someone’s weakness then you shouldn’t ever lose a fight. Unless someone can play “swapsies” on your robots and pulp one without their weakness while someone else handles theirs. I assumed surely he’d have something to render such an obvious tactic impossible, and the guild would have to simply “overcome” their weaknesses, but nope. Strategy (over their usual stubbornness) wins the day.

This week’s episode kills it with the humor, though. Apparently Mirajane’s weakness is a lookalike of her brother Elfman, while Ichiya (who’s been trapped in Magnolia while his guild’s ship recharged) has so many weaknesses Wall initially can’t figure out which one to use.

3. This series hasn’t quite gotten as dark as it did during the Tartarus guild arc, but this is the closest it’s come. Despite Evergreen and Bixlow figuring out how to destroy their weakness robots, Wall still gets to Freed, who’s unable to fight back due to holding up a barrier over Magnolia. But after Natsu and the others finish off the forces outside the city, Freed destroys Wall’s robotic body and they’ve successfully taken down a third member of the Spriggan 12.   Or so they think, until we learn Wall only sent a robotic copy of himself, while his real body remains on the forces sailing into the town’s harbor, and lets the head of the copy explode.  The Thunder God Tribe take a lot of damage narrowly protecting Ichiya, and presumably they’re taken off the field for awhile.
As things go, the two groups so far are evenly matched–Fairy Tail’s losing members but Alvarez is losing giant chunks of their army and their twelve generals at an even pace.  Now let’s see what happens when someone introduces a curveball.

4. Considering the Ten Wizard Saints were looking at this as a major issue early on and the Alvarez Empire is invading with their entire military force, this seems like it really should’ve happened sooner. After we learn Wall was actually safely on a ship miles away the entire time, the mage decides to test the guild by sending a “playful” attack their way…by transforming into a giant cannon and shooting a concentrated magical blast at their guildhall, 400 kilometers away.
It’s an absurd shot to take, and it would’ve been better if he’d simply missed because no one’s aim is that good. But of course you can’t build a threat that way, so it nearly hits the hall until Ichiya guides his ship the Christina directly into the path of the blast.  Inspired by the Thunder God sacrificing themselves to save him, he points out how this isn’t simply a matter Fairy Tail alone should have to handle, then gets the attention of all the major guilds in Fiore and summons them to the battle.  Considering beating just one of these guys cost Fairy Tail one of their most powerful mages, and they don’t exactly have eleven more Erzas lying around, that’s probably the smartest thing they’ve done.  Plus as cool as it was to see seven mages from Fairy Tail take out three thousand members of a dark guild, if they did it with the final threat of the series it’d be incredibly anti-climactic. And if they wiped out an entire country’s opposing forces, what would even be the point of these other guilds anyway?

5. Next Episode: Next week’s episode is titled “Natsu vs. Zeref”, which is either a feint and something else will happen, or the combat encounter is going to result in Natsu’s loss. It’s far too soon for this to happen, short of some kind of massive curveball.  I did say there’s zero chance Natsu’s little “one shot” plan works, so maybe they waste it in the next episode?
Fairy Tail is available for streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.