imo Nirvana was one of Fairy Tail’s weaker arcs but some points were stellar
1. the official guilds decided they needed to create an alliance and show a united front against the dark guilds, so which wizards does Makarov choose to send in the name of unity and cooperation? Natsu and Gray, who share one braincell when in the same room and fight constantly; Erza, who’s fascist on accident unless it's on purpose; Lucy, whose local nickname is “the Blonde Devil”; and Happy, who thrives on chaos and the annoyance of his comrades.
2. Brain is somehow under the impression that Jellal being revived will go well and cause no problems for him whatsoever. After Wendy is forced to heal Jellal, he wakes up and--in true Kikyo form--blasts the shit out of anyone who attempts to breathe in his direction. Then, without missing a beat, he ambles gothly through the woods to make a suicide pact with the gate to entropy without a single thought in his head--quite literally, as Cobra explicitly confirms. Intermittently several people scream at him that he’s a huge piece of shit and they hate his guts and they're going to kick his ass and the entire time he’s like
3. Gray and Lyon fighting together
who brags literally every single second he's on-screen about how he’s faster than Lightning and even goes so far as to claim he’s "the fastest man alive"--only for it to turn out that he moves at aggressively average speeds and just makes everyone around him move really slow lmfao
4. Angel's entire character design. I'm not denying it's fanservicey and normally I hate that but I just can't make myself dislike this look. Made me wistful on my last rewatch because I personally think her character design goes to shit by the end of the series
5. The foreshadowing of how Wendy is bound by fate and history to both Natsu and (even moreso) Erza. Natsu recognizes Wendy even though he didn't recognize Gajeel. Erza and Wendy notice each other right away. Wendy ignores everyone else's protests and follows her own moral code to revive Jellal, the love of Erza's life and the mage who would wind up up playing a crucial role in helping Natsu defeat Brain/Zero & ending the potential threat of Nirvana. When the Cait Shelter's secret is revealed, Erza is the first one who understands what this will mean for Wendy, and she's the one who offers the girl comfort in her own grief.
6. Debut of the "wouldn't you like to know, weatherboy" Dragon Slayer, AKA Cobra.
7. Celestial spirits go on strike finally. Even though a lot of things immediately leading up to this were kinda stupid imo it was both sad and inspiring to see Gemini and Caelum refuse to attack a mage who treated them with respect and compassion instead of like slaves. These guys need a union. Urano Metria was cool, too, but I don't love how Lucy learned it tbh.
8. I actually thought Natsu accepting Jellal's Flames of Rebuke to beat Brain was a really good poignant moment. Brain said something to the effect of, "The recipient of those flames accepts the sins of the caster," as Jellal was offering them to Natsu, not-so-subtly indicating that Natsu's acceptance of the flames was him taking the first step to forgiving Jellal and accepting him as an ally.
