5 Point Discussions – Fairy Tail (2018) 19: “What I Want To Do”

Brandish explains to Lucy the truth about her mother. But is Brandish even aware of what really happened the night that her mother died? 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. You gotta give Brandish an A for her follow through. All too often in anime characters will make dramatic proclamations and talk about how they hate someone, but nothing comes of it. Heero told Relena (…and everyone, really) he was gonna kill her in like the first episode of Gundam Wing and nothing serious ever came of it.
After being rescued from Marin’s grasp, Brandish explains to Lucy that her mother Layla killed her mother Grammie to recover the Aquarius key. And so despite Lucy not being her mother, despite her having saved Brandish’s life, despite having sealstone locked onto her wrists so she can’t even use magic, Brandish decides she’ll kill Lucy with her bare hands.  She’s crying as she does it because her solution doesn’t solve anything, but she doesn’t know anything else than to try and find some way to pass the pain inflicted on her to someone else.

2. Even though we know Lucy broke the key to summon her, Aquarius’ return is brick obvious. Her name is mentioned, then as Lucy and Brandish fight we see a water spill draw nearer and nearer to the both of them until…boom.  She arrives just in time to save Lucy from getting her neck snapped. From there, we learn two facts. One: her relationship with Brandish was…interesting, to say the least.  Brandish refers to her as “master”, which is odd given it was her mother who had the job of being Aquarius’ caretaker.  Then we learn Grammie having moved to Alakitasia/Alvarez is what led to Lucy’s mother dying to begin with.  Without the key to open the Eclipse Gate, Layla used her own energy and life force.
Blaming Grammie for Layla’s death, Zoldeo (of Grimoire Heart) would take his rage out on her, taking her life by stabbing her to death. Aquarius uses her abilities as a Celestial Spirit to allow both Lucy and Brandish to witness these events, hoping to put an end to their quarrel. This could’ve actually been a strong moment in Lucy’s development, but unfortunately…the plot gets in the way.

3. The last episode left us with the cliffhanger of Natsu unconscious in Happy’s arms as he tried to carry him back to the guild. You’d think that would be the most interesting plot point here, but when they follow up on it it feels like it’s intruding into Lucy’s story needlessly. Yes, it helps get across that there’s a war going on and things are meant to be hectic, but it also feels like Mashima was in a hurry to finish this arc. This couldn’t have happened in another scene? Lucy doesn’t even have time to deal with learning about her relationship to Brandish before Happy bursts in with Natsu in arms–neither she nor us as viewers have the opportunity to get to sit in the emotional aftermath of the knowledge we’ve learned, and the show is poorer for it. I love the speed that we’re dealing with things, but this feels over the top even for me.

4. I’m following along as an anime-only viewer, so I had no idea the other mage groups were going to catch the work from the Alvarez Empire. It just felt like the most obvious outcome after going through so much trouble to make them seem impressive. At one point or another, Fairy Tail surpassed them all and even though they’ve done their best to try and catch up…if Fairy Tail is having trouble with these enemies, then it’s not a surprise when they prove they can’t quite match up. Presumably sooner or later the reinforcements will arrive and help change the tide for all of these fronts, but for now we get to watch Mermaid Heel, Blue Pegasus, and Sabertooth all fall back without even showing us much of a fight. Well, almost.

5. Is there a group more useless than the Wizard Saints?  In hindsight it’s obvious these were going to be the guys who would lose the worst. They’re the least developed of any characters we know, facing one of the most powerful enemies.  But was it necessary for them to get washed like this? We never even saw the fight, bringing me back to my original point: they made such a big deal out of the Wizard Saints, but they’ve been completely worthless almost since their introduction. From getting tricked by Jellal’s “other side” to allowing the Face bombs to be used against them, they’ve never indicated they’re anything more than a barrier to team Fairy Tail, but if they have to deal with anything else?  Well…this is the result.
Fairy Tail is available for streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.