It is no secret that I am a gruvia fan, in fact gruvia is my OTP and Juvia is one of my favorite Fairy Tail characters. So it always saddens me when I am perusing the gruvia tag (as I do daily) and I see hate not only for the ship but for Juvia.
Now I am in no way saying you must like the ship or Juvia-far from it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and everyone has their own taste when it comes to what ships and what characters’ appeal to them, and I respect that. Not only that but I love open and constructive conversations about why we like or dislike a certain character or ships. Some of these negative posts are simply nasty and cruel. I understand this is the internet and people can be very vicious, I’m not that naïve. This post is not about chastising those who have a different opinion from me, because I think there’s enough of that.
Instead I’m going to try and look deeper into my favorite character, Juvia, to try and get a better understanding why she behaves the way she does. This is not to excuse some of her behavior (because I agree it can sometimes go too far), but trying to understand why she’s the way she is.
Please note that I am not a profession psychologist, nor have I studied it beyond a class in high school and personal curiosity. This is just my view on Juvia’s character and is pure speculation. This was written just for fun (and to wake up my brain after I took a nap so I can continue reading a novel in German).
Okay, are we ready? Let’s do this!!
The best place to start is from the beginning. This is tricky, as there is not much known about Juvia’s past (at least that I’m aware of). However there are a few things we can infer. Like many of the main characters of Fairy Tail, she probably has a dead parent, no parents or absentee parents. I’m leaning more towards having no parents, as I remember in a manga spin off about Gray’s journey to Fairy Tail, she was heading to a relative (I think it was her Uncle). We know for certain that she did not have friends growing up and was bullied and excluded because of her powers. This means she had limited interactions with children her age, and that interaction was negative.
This did not give her a chance to socialize properly, and this is where I think the biggest problem stems from.
There are certain people I know who for one reason or another did not get a lot of socialization with children growing up, and they’re… well they’re a little different. I don’t mean that in a cruel or mean way it’s just true. They’re not as skilled in reading other people’s body language and emotions or just being socially aware. What I mean by that is they’re not completely mindful of how their actions are perceived by others. This can result in people not being as aware of other people’s emotions and being blunt and rude.
So how does this idea effect Juvia? Most of the time she is not rude, so that part does not apply to her. Everything else does. Juvia is very blunt about her feelings towards Gray, to the point of being a nuisance at times (note that I said at times because there are times where Gray enjoys her presence and is comfortable with her). Juvia is also not aware of how her actions effect Gray and others until someone out right tells her or her well-meaning intentions blow up in her face. This can best be seen in the episode 413 Days. Yes-one of my favorite episodes that also happens to have one of the worst Juvia moments (washing herself with Gray soap…. just…. just why?).
It perfectly shows how unaware Juvia is of her actions and how they affect Gray. Now to be fair Juvia did not know that day was the anniversary of Ul using ice shield. However, when we see Gray, it was clear that he was suffering and grieving. Juvia either didn’t or could not read his body language and there for fell upon him with a tsunami of joy and happiness. This results in Gray snapping at her, but it brings Juvia back to reality and she does apologize in the end. The point is though it took Gray snapping at her to bring her back to her senses, to get her to admit that she was a selfish fool. In my opinion that is very positive, as she is learning that she is not as mindful of other people’s body language and emotions as she should be, and that this can have consequences.
But you know she tries to thrust a body pillow at Gray so… there’s that.
Baby steps people… baby steps.
So now that we covered a possible reason why Juvia is so oblivious and blunt, let’s try and examine what many people see as not only Juvia’s biggest flaw but one of the biggest flaws in Gruvia, and that’s Juvia’s obsession and attachment to Gray.
I think if we want to even begin to understand her obsession and attachment, we need to look at her past relationships people.
As I mentioned before the manga and anime shows that Juvia was bullied in her childhood and most likely didn’t have a stable home life. Not only that the one romantic relationship shown ended with the jerk brushing her off because of the rain. That kind of treatment can scar a person. I myself was a victim of bullying from childhood until my mid-teens and it affected me. I was confident, outgoing child who would smile even when she got beaten up (that actually happened). By the time I entered middle school I put myself in a shell and it took me until high school to come out. I’m going to be twenty-two in about two months, so I’ve pretty much put what happened behind me.
However, I cannot pretend it hasn’t shaped me into the shy, reserved person I am today. I also had a lot of help to overcoming the bullying. I have a good family support system, and I went to a childhood therapist a saw a school consoler once a week from six grade until I graduated high school.
Juvia did not have that kind of help and support. So when someone showed her just a little bit of kindness she latched on to that person. Add to the fact that she is naturally an emotional and imaginative person, and that she was not socialized properly, Juvia does not know how to act properly when she likes someone. She also does not know how to handle her overwhelming emotions and imagination (which even she admit was getting out of hand), so in the end you get someone who gets way to attached and is more than a little obsessive.
All right, I guess there’s only one other point to touch on.
Knowing that Juvia has all these issues (and lord knows Gray has his own host of issues) why do I still ship Gruvia so much?
Well there are a few things I like to keep in mind:
1-All of the major ships have something off or disturbing about them. Gajeel attacked Levy and seriously hurt her and her team mates. Jelall tried to and came close to killing Erza. Natsu is constantly entering Lucy’s apartment without her permission and gives her no privacy (I can’t keep track of how many times he’s seen her nude). I don’t dislike these ships any less for these issues (particularly Nalu… dear god I love Nalu). Gruvia’s biggest issues are Juvia’s attachment to Gray and Gray being somewhat emotionally closed off. Remember, Erza mentioned that there’s more to than underneath that “cool guy” persona, and what’s underneath is a lot of grief and pain. The point of the matter is none of the relationships are perfectly normal or healthy, but we still love and ship them anyway. That is probably the number one reason I get annoyed when people say Gruvia is unhealthy, because even though I don’t think they are entirely wrong, the other ships also have major issues that would never be acceptable in the real world.
2-Fairy Tail has been around for quiet some time and has well over 200 episodes and over 500 manga chapters. This means there is a lot of time for the characters to grow and develop, and Gray and Juvia are no exceptions. People always claim that Juvia has no character outside of wanting Gray, and while I could understand why they would think that I would have to politely disagree. When we first meet Juvia she was cold and emotionless until she got angry. Despite claiming Phantom Lord gave her a home and understood her, you could tell she wasn’t happy. In fact I would say she seemed down right miserable. It took her some time, because in the Tower of Heaven arc she was still a little cold and haughty. It is when she joins Fairy Tail that we see development. She becomes happy and much more open and loving. Yes I said loving and not just to Gray. She has shown that she cares not just about other guild members but the guild itself. Remember when she willingly got struck by lightning so Cana could fight and to keep the guild safe? That’s insanely dangerous for a normal person, but I imagine having a body made completely of water makes it even more dangerous.
Not only that Juvia’s more… eccentric tendencies have calmed down. It is important to keep in mind that the anime took the stalking gag and ran with it. In the manga the gag only lasted for an arc or two. I also think she is coming out of her own little world more and more. I remember reading a post somewhere about how selfish Juvia was when she told Gray about killing Silver, because she said she didn’t have the right to love him and was more focused on her relationship with him than him. Once again I can understand why someone would think that, but I must politely disagree. Yes I believe she was concerned for her relationship with him, but I don’t think it came from a selfish place. She knew how much losing his father a second-time hurt Gray, and that it was her who killed Sliver. I can’t begin to imagine how guilty she must of have felt. In fact, she felt so guilty that she was willing to let him go because of how much pain she caused him.
Now what about Gray? How has he changed?
The biggest way I would say he changed was becoming more open and slowly by slowly dropping the “cool guy” persona. The first moment we really see this is when Juvia is telling him about Silver. In the beginning of the show, during the Galuna Isalnd arc, when Gray started to cry in front of Natsu and Lucy he quickly stopped the moment they saw and claimed he wasn’t. He kept most of the pain and loss he suffered to himself, at least until a situation forced him to talk about it. If I remember correctly, on the anniversary of his masters demise he drank his pain away (which… I don’t even want to think about that it’s too sad). Basically he was one closed off, stubborn little tsundere.
That changed after that conversation with Juvia.
Gray balled his eyes out to Juvia, something he would have never done before. That was the breaking moment in my opinion. After that we see a Gray who is willing to cuddle and Exceed and gush about how cute he is. We see a Gray who’s more open with his emotions and more content with himself (you know… when they’re not fighting for their lives and trying to save the world). It seems like he’s becoming less and less of a tsudere, and more in tune and at peace with himself.
Again when the world isn’t crumbling apart and in peril. Poor baby is probably going to have a whole new batch of trauma to get over, like the rest of the guild.
3: Recently, I read a post critiquing Gruvia shipper’s argument that because Gray accepts Juvia’s feelings that makes the ship okay and healthy, and said that the ship is still unhealthy. On some level I agree with it, two people can love each other and be in an unhealthy relationship. Again I understand that there are some elements of an unhealthy relationship in the ship, and a big part of it was that Gray was a little bothered by Juvia’s attention in the beginning and rightfully so. I would say if Juvia had not calmed down and grown, and had Gray continued to show his discomfort I would not ship them.
However the fact of the matter is Juvia has calmed down, and Gray has started to reciprocate Juvia’s feelings. Again that does not necessarily make a healthy relationship, but if you look deeper you will see that it is. For me the biggest clue is in the year time skip after the Tartaros Arc. Gray and Juvia lived together for six months, and there was no indication that there was anything unhealthy about that situation. In fact it seems like they lived a very normal life. They shared their meals together and trained together, and created what seemed like a very calm and peaceful environment.
Now I understand Juvia is “persistent” for lack of a better word, and there have been times when Gray has said no to her and she hasn’t listened. I’m not denying that or saying it’s okay. On the other hand, Gray has shown he’s not afraid to tell her no and show his displeasure at her actions. If he was really bothered by her presence he wouldn’t have lived with her for six months. Now I don’t know if they mutually decided to live together or if she just showed up and didn’t leave-but judging by what we know about their time together I’m leaning more towards the former than the later.
I hope you all liked the post, and please remember that I am not criticizing those who are not fans of Juvia or Gruvia. This was simply an exploration as to why Juvia is the way she is and why I love Gruvia. It was just written for fun and I hope you’ll take it that way.
Now time to watch more anime and pretend that I don’t have half a novel in German to read by Monday.
Ah the blissful joys of procrastination.
