How else did you think we were going to start talking about characters? Now that the basics of the series are over with, I can finally talk about the main cast of the series. And who better to start with than the face of the Strongest Team and this blog’s namesake.
One of the most common complaints I see about Natsu is that he's generic. Sure, he beats major enemies and spouts off about his friends. So does every other shonen action protagonist. (Yes, I refer to him as a protagonist for the sake of this post.) What makes him so special?
Incidentally, Mashima was asked this question on his last trip to the States during NYCC 2017. HIs response was beyond disappointing. He said that Natsu is unique because he has pink hair and motion sickness. I wish I was joking. While I think that this is actually probably true (at least of what I know about), I'm going to need a bit more than that. If the series is partially possible because of him, there has to be something about him.
I talked about this when I talked about Team Natsu, but one of the most important things about Natsu is his search for Igneel, I think that it's hard to talk about him and not address this. (At least, I'd like to think that.) Natsu wanting to find his dragon is more important to him, even among dragon slayers. Gajeel seems to have mostly given up on the search. Both his and Wendy's arcs deal with other issues. Sting and Rogue thought they killed their dragons up to Tartaros.
On its own, that's fairly interesting. Usually, the protagonist's journey in a story similar to Fairy Tail is about trying to become something. Naruto Uzumaki wants to be the Hokage. Ichigo Kurosaki wants to become strong enough to protect the people he cares about. (WHICH IS THE ENTIRE POINT OF BLEACH, YOU-) Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero. Asta wants to be the Wizard King.
In contrast, Natsu's goal is about trying to find something, or technically someone. Of course, this isn't all that unique on its own. After all, something, something One Piece, blah, blah Luffy, whatever, whatever treasure. And, of course, Gon in Hunter x Hunter goes through his quest in order to search for his dad.
This comparison will be relevant later on, but the interesting thing about this from Natsu's perspective is how it deals with its end goal. Natsu's search actually does end with him finding Igneel. But his discovery is tainted by two big things.
First, the fact that he was searching for not reason as Igneel was always inside him. Even just saying that should show how Natsu's search became almost immediately invalidated. No matter where he went or how hard he searched, he wouldn't find him. That's almost as if Luffy were actually to find out the One Piece was the friends he made along the way. (I understand this not to be the actual case, so that's a thing.)
Second, and most obvious, Igneel was killed by Acnologia. Of course, it's not like their reunion was bound to last long given the circumstances. However, is it that hard to see the difference the other dragon slayers seeing their dragons fading into the distance and Natsu seeing Acnologia tear into Igneel.
From this perspective, I think that what makes Natsu special is that he is searching for something, but he isn't allowed to get it. At the same time, in searching for Igneel (what he considered to be his family) he found Fairy Tail (what would be a new type of family). If you remember back in Part 1, this lines up perfectly with my own interpretation of the never-ending adventure.
That's pretty cool, right?
Well, there are some issues with this.
When it comes to Hiatus x Hiatus, every single arc relates to the search for Gon's dad in one way or another. The positions Gon finds himself in connect to his search for his dad in some way, as I argued in the first part.
This is not to say that this aspect can't or doesn't already matter to Natsu. After all, he does want to become S-Class because he thinks it will help him find Igneel. He goes to ask Acnologia almost instantly if he knows where the other dragons are. His being in Fairy Tail, as a whole, could be attributed to making it easier for him to search for Igneel. However, I don't think the idea that Natsu wants to see Igneel gets explored enough.
This was part of the reason behind a few different changes made so far. With the separation of The Strongest Team, Natsu has some more freedom to go out and look for Igneel than he would be in a formal team. With the time skip being shortened, Natsu has more time to dedicate solely on searching for Igneel.
With these changes in mind, why not just restructure Fairy Tail so Natsu can go on long extended searches for Igneel on his own, not unlike Gildarts? As tempting as that is, there are two big reasons I can't do this.
The first is that as per the rules I've set up for making this rewrite, doing so would fundamentally change Fairy Tail into something too different. Despite no formal team, Natsu still has to be around for most arcs to happen anywhere near as close to how they happen. Imagine most other arcs, manga or anime, (note that I don't say "every single arc") without Natsu's presence. It can be reasonably fixed in a few spots where his presence may not be as important other characters, but not having Natsu in most arcs would be jarring.
And even if I could fix that, the second issue comes from OVA 3. Gray mentions that Natsu was searching for Igneel years before the series started but stopped after not being able to find him. Is that enough of a reason to stop him from searching at all? Not unless Natsu is so myopic to think that he'd only find him around his immediate area. What that could mean is that he'd keep his ear to the ground and see if Igneel does show up around him. He might be waiting somewhere he hasn't heard of yet. Heck, the entire reason he goes to Hargeon at the start of the series in the first place is that he was told that Igneel might be close by and it turned out to be a bum lead.
Ultimately, the issue becomes creating enough space for Natsu to search for Igneel more as well as justifying his not searching for him at any specific moment in the series. Considering enough time has been spent on discussing the first part of this issue, some time should be spent on the latter: explaining why Natsu isn't currently searching for Igneel. If the issue with this isn't clear enough, I have to justify Natsu not trying to achieve his character goal at a specific moment. Thankfully, this isn't impossible.
An easy way to justify Natsu not searching for Igneel is physically not being able to search for him. One of the more interesting changes I've been playing with involves keeping Natsu out of the Galuna Island arc. After the Natsu vs Erza fight, they both end up in jail. Considering his action was arguably worse than what Erza was in for, not to mention past actions, he gets held for a few days longer than Erza does. That might not sound like much, but that effectively means he misses the arc. It also means that he can't search for Igneel during this arc.
Another way to do it is a matter of threat. Here, we have some good canon explanations for not searching for Igneel during specific arcs. He has to go through with the Sun Village mission because it's coming from a founding member of Fairy Tail. Makarov chooses to send him and the Strongest Team to take out Oracion Seis. And I can imagine attendance during an event like Fantasia being beaten into Natsu.
Canon also presents somethings as more immediately important. Again, there is the S-Class trial being seen as a necessary break in order to potentially help him find Igneel faster. However, this can help explain why he doesn't break away from the guild to search for Igneel whenever someone like Phantom Lord attacks the guild or Tartarus starts targeting Magic Council members.
However, I feel like one of, if not, the most important reason for Natsu to not search for Igneel is becoming or being emotionally bound to the guild. This sounds like a weird thing to say, but consider the implications of changing the nature of the time skip. With the guild landing in trouble, there would be little reason to stay with Fairy Tail, to begin with. The reasoning that being in the guild could help him with his search holds less weight if the guild is in financial trouble.
The line of reasoning itself, which could even be explained as protecting a child from hurting himself, would probably ring as less true as a young adult. What's to stop Natsu, as he searches for Igneel, from dissociating himself from Fairy Tail, either in joining another guild or eschewing guilds entirely?
What I think should happen is that Natsu makes an important connection to the members of the guild that makes him want to stay. Ultimately, he should recognize that the guild has become his family and, similar to Igneel, he cares about their best interests. If you can't tell, the idea of family is already something that is important to Natsu in canon. In canon proper, however, it is implied that this connection is made before the series starts. This is evident as early as the end of the first arc.
One of the big changes I want to make in regards to Natsu's character is having this process during the span of the series. That means Natsu will start out not caring too much for too many of the guild members but end up thinking about all of them like family. I don't want to make the journey too long and drawn out. By the end of Phantom Lord, it should be clear that Natsu thinks of members of the guild, at least Lucy in particular, differently than he did during Macao or Daybreak. After Tartarus, he should consider the guild to be his family.
I know this may seem like a controversial change. I was a bit iffy on how far I was bending the rules to make this change. However, in doing this, I want to give Natsu something he had admittedly little of in canon proper: character progression. As much as I clearly enjoy canon proper Natsu, I think this change will give him more room to grow as a character.
Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
If I ever wondered the longest time I’ve ever held on to potential character names, the answer is apparently 10-12 years, which is how long I’ve been sitting on Finola, waiting for the right character to bestow it upon. Finola Begby’s been in gestation for a very, very long time without me even realizing it.
Traffic Light. Info: Photos from “Perfect World” MV shooting at a resort today ☀️ Mizuki did the choreography, so you will be able to see the dance in the video✨ Just a little bit left until we upload it!! Hope you’ll enjoy🌺
Fairly certain I experience a more acute psychosis during migraine. I had one today and felt like I was something else again. Like a worm or something. Something rudimentary so that can comfortably process the pain I'm in. I even more readily do not recognize myself as self and I don't think it's getting worse so much as it's becoming more identifiable. I hope it's not getting worse, because that means it's probably bleeding into my everyday life. Yeah, I like to think I'm just getting better at recognizing it.
