i can't be the only one that hates juvia lockser
TW: Criticism against Fairy Tail and Naruto
You're not. *cracks knuckles* I absolutely LOATHE Juvia with a immense passion, she isn't even a character to hate. Just a cheap tired old replica of "Obsessive annoying ass female character with zero depth is attracted to handsome male character for reasons? Unknown". She's not funny, she's not entertaining, she's not plot relevant and really was my biggest issue with Fairy Tail outside the obvious annoying fake out deaths and plot armor deus ex machina moments. I can give those a pace for the tone Fairy Tail has set but Juvia? Oh boy is she an obnoxious painful "character" to suffer. She's the equlevant of what Spongebob is to Squidward for Gray. Endless Torture Porn that waste the audience time. The only reason JuviUGH is popular is because she's hot. That's it. If you hold someone at gunpoint and ask them to name more reasons WHY they like Juvia or make a logical explanation for why Gruvia is a healthy non-codependent relationship. Their taking the bullet to the head. Lord knows I will.
Juvia stans only defense for Juvia's stalker ass tendencies is "It's just a gag" similar to Sakura's stans justification why her abusing Naruto or simping for Sasuke "is a muh gag". I missed the part where that was okay or funny. Idgaf if it's a gag, I hate it. I hate Juvia's entire existence. She's a random character they cherry picked from a evil guild who had "lust at first sight" for Gray. She had no legitimate reason outside his looks to love him, that isn't okay or healthy. This character made my blood boil and heart seethe in pain every time I saw her pop up because you know what you were getting. Another annoying fucking painful moment of her reminding us she loves Gray like we got the first 150 times in 4 episodes. Did we need anymore? Ofc not! She never has a character arc, she has no relationships with other characters, they never properly flesh out any potential dynamics like the one with Meredy & Lucy & Gajeel because they are all flushed down the drown the moment they press the hard reset the moment Juvai shows an ounce of growth.
They can't help themselves hitting that "character reset" to boomerang any progress of her character regressing and demoting it back to "Generic Gray love interest with no other characteristics or depth of quality" sounds familar? She's just a more violatile Karin with extra screentime. These characters do nothing but be cheap fanservice for fangirls with low self-esteem and personal insecurities that have insane infatuations with men that could not give one single fuck. Juvia honestly should have died at the final series(honestly someone fucking should have-cough Makarov). That would have at least made it worth it and validated her "love" for Gray. She's willing to die for him to set him free of her cahins that hold him back. PERFECT Metaphor, it was right there yet the writer just could not find any pair of balls to kill any characters attached to these overrated ships. The main popular ships are all terrible even Gajevy but Gruvia will forever go down as the most appalling mainstream fictional ship in the anime world OAT! Hands down because of how long you have to be exposed to it, how much it just suffocates you and you drown in it's mediocrity. I can't stand it because it gaslights me, it gaslights the audience and eventually Gray into thinking it's a relationship that should go somewhere.
I would love to do a disection on Gray but I don't wanna trouble you with another paragraph and taking any more of your time away. To keep it short,sweet and simple: JU-GRUVIA absolutely ruined Gray's character beyond repair. Gray's agency, his existence, his screentime, story and depth are all sacrificed in favor of Juvia's pointless romance that never actually goes somewhere because the writers of these eh shounen anime never consider tapping into any possible romance until the tail end of the series(which I always thought was fucking stupid). I seriously fucking hate Juvia for ruining my goat, my boi, my normal icy glorious king and stripping away what could've been the greatest character in Fairy Tail for me(that title went to his dad and Zancrow🤷🏻♂️). If you take Juvia away from the story, it feels 50 times better and most of the problems go away along with her. The best question any Fairy Tail can ask themselves is did we need shipping to carry the show? No we didn't. We didn't need pointless romances in a comedy shounen that is too damn safe,predictable and comfortable. The better ships aren't even popular or mentioned often because of toxic ship stans that gaslighted closeted rarepair stans into the shadow realm. IFYKYK. Gray is my biggest what if. What if he was treated by a writer that actually gaf about him in the middle and later part of the story. Gray OWNED early Fairy Tail. Pre-Juvia!Gray is the best character in all of Fairy Tail and I'll die on that hill.