Growth, and Trauma in Fairytail
I love fairytail with all of my heart unfortunately it’s my special interest so I’ve overanalysed the hell out of this series and one thing I have noticed with mashima’s writing is the way characters process their trauma. (This post will contain anime spoilers) ALSO TRIGGER WARNING FOR S AND VIOLENCE
Aka, non-existent. For the most part at least. However there are some exceptions to this like with Gray. With characters like Gray, it’s very clear to see why and how he copes with traumatic events take what happened to Ur as example. Gray believes Ur’s death was his own fault (my guess is probably because he was the one who brought up the deliora situation to her causing her to come to rescue him but as a result having to nope out if life), as a result he believes he doesn’t deserve to live as it ‘should’ve been him’. His actions show this as early as Galuna island arc with our boy using iced shell against Lyon. And multiple other times, he always tries to dish out that spell as a sacrifice because he believes his life is worth nothing more.
This is proof that mashima can and does write trauma well sometimes however his writing can also pale in comparison like with the death of igneel. Specially in the Alvarez arc. Natsu was absolutely traumatised by what had happened and we can see this with him running off for a year with happy. He needed his alone time and yet once he returns its as if nothing had happened, he’s his same old smiley silly self. If you told me to look for the differences in natsu’s character between the first episode and the final season, I would have a very very hard time. There was no growth to his character apart from getting ‘stronger’, we don’t get to see how he comes to terms with the fact his one life goal is void or how he deals with the aftermath of tartaros. Afterwards he is back to his smiley goofy self again like nothing ever happened. There’s no signs at all of Natsu even being affected by it apart from getting stronger. His one life goal is now six feet under ground and he has no visible signs of being depressed over that. He’s capable of smiling, being happy, and his usual self. Even during alvarez arc he’s just as fearless and unchanged as ever. During the alvarez arc Natsu had come face to face with this killer once again and instead of showing any signs of fear at all he looks acnologia in the eyes and takes him head on as if he were a weaker oponent or something.
Realistically acnologia should have terrified natsu. Just like how natsu had been afraid of gildarts seeing his raw power, and acnologia is ten times stronger than gildarrs. Especially considering that dragon had KILLED natsu’s dad. Ripping him in half right in front of him, someone Natsu probably viewed as the strongest and indestructible torn apart just like paper. I understand everyone processes trauma differently but we’ve SEEN first hand Natsu showing fear to stronger opponents like Gildarts. So why is it that all of a sudden when Natsu is faced with acnologia in person once more there is no signs of fear, no memories of the trauma, no nothing rather this cookie cutter hero moment again. Where he takes aconologia on as if he were a weaker foe, even laughing to himself and making witty remarks. We’ve seen at the face of truly terrifying power Natsu shrivels up into a stuttering sweating mess. So it doesn’t make any sense that he feels nothing seeing acnologia again. Saying he did the healing during the one year time skip through tartaros doesn’t even make sense because he challenged gildarts to a fight during the manga and you can see him shrivel up in fear unable to speak once more as soon as gildarts destroys a mountain to save him.
Natsu can feel fear. Yet why not with acnologia? Someone who should have traumatised him.
This happens so many times throughout the series. Trauma being swept under the rug like its just another tuesday. I dont get why he can write trauma fine with Gray, but when it comes to people like Lucy or Natsu suddenly its void.
I just wish the characters in this series were given more growth but time and time again it feels like im watching the same characters from episode one over and over again.
But anyway that’s just my two cents on fairytails writing of trauma. This is my first real post on tumblr so it’s probably dogwater, but yeah im open to hearing other peoples thoughts on this and thank you for reading this low effort post.
