Fairy Tail’s celestial wizard fell far short of the stars
NOTE: This article contains spoilers for the 2009 anime series “Fairy Tail.” As it is an adaptation of the manga by the same name the series shares many of the same events, spoilers for the manga are ahead as well.
Lucy Heartfilia is one of the main characters of the 2009 anime “Fairy Tail” which is an adaptation of the manga of the same name. The series begins with Lucy, an aspiring wizard, meeting Natsu Dragneel and Happy, two wizards who happen to be members of Lucy’s dream guild, the titular Fairy Tail.
The series portrays Lucy as a well-developed and multi-faceted character. She’s not only a wizard but she’s smart, an author and a bookworm. She is also the most objectified character in the series but she’s also someone who is clearly comfortable with her sex appeal and using it in various schemes throughout the show.
Lucy is kind and caring, her personality is developed well, but the series fails while developing her as a wizard, which is a shame, because even without being a powerful wizard like Fairy Tail’s “strongest female wizard” Erza “Titania” Scarlet, Lucy could have shone as a competent and integral part of the Fairy Tail guild, but she falls short.
At its start, the series establishes Lucy as a young celestial wizard with potential as she already possesses multiple golden celestial spirit keys; she summons Aquarius during the first episode, who displays great power by creating a giant wave.
Very quickly in the series, though, Lucy is relegated to a damsel in distress and someone who appears afraid of combat. Lucy’s main tactic seems to be running and hoping that someone else saves her; even her magic works by summoning a spirit to fight for her. Without access to her spirits, and sometimes even with her spirits, Lucy has relatively little fighting capability and is unable to challenge other wizards and compared to the team she fights with she is unable to keep up.
Having characters who aren’t as strong as others is fine, but the series squanders Lucy’s potential time and time again as she relies on others to fight for her while she runs or hides. Adding to Lucy’s mishandling is how she shows little growth or attempts to grow stronger, relative to her guildmates and other characters.
In a standalone episode, “Transform,” Lucy attempts to learn transforming magic so she can become stronger outside of her celestial magic, but again, Lucy’s attempts to train and become stronger are treated for comedic effect and her attempts to use other magic fail completely and at no other point of the show she attempts to become stronger without relying on celestial magic.
Though “Transform” was not adapted from the manga and is a standalone episode, it represents the mishandling of Lucy as wizard which is consistent throughout the series.
Continuing the trend is “Lucy vs. Flare,” the first episode featuring serious a one-on-one fight with Lucy. Lucy shows that she is acapable fighter as she summons and keeps the gates of two spirits open for the first time in the series and quickly gains the upper hand against Flare.
But even in this fight Lucy isn’t allowed to shine on her own; in this one-on-one fight Natsu has to come to the rescue to stop Flare from threatening Asuka. Once that’s out of the way Lucy again gains the upper hand, but again she falls short as Flare’s guildmate nullifies Lucy’s power while she’s casting a spell. Lucy loses the match, even though this is the first time in the series when she should have won of her own ability; she deserved the victory yet she wasn’t allowed to shine.
In the last portion of the series Lucy develops a new ability which increases her individual power with Star Dresses, which allow her to use her celestial spirits’ power herself. She even gives an impressive display of power against Brandish, but overall this new ability is underutilized as Lucy is put against opponents whom she has no chance of defeating or against opponents she can defeat very easily. She is either crushed easily until someone saves her, or she barely has to use any effort to fight. Lucy isn’t allowed to have hard-fought battles where she struggles and overcomes those conflicts herself.
There is one episode where Lucy truly shines, as “Tartaros Chapter — A Strike from the Stars” displays the full potential which is constantly wasted throughout the series.
In this episode Lucy is alone, as all of her allies have been incapacitated by the spell Alegria inside Cube, the floating island which serves as Tartaros’ home base. Mard Geer realizes that there is a lone survivor of Alegria and sends all of what remains of the Tartaros guild to eliminate her.
Lucy is attacked by multiple members of Tartaros, and she struggles and uses strategy as she tries to get away, all while hoping to find a way to free her guildmates. Lucy manages to keep the demons at bay as she outwits them and summons two spirits to fight alongside her.
Lucy quickly finds that she is no match for the demons of Tartaros, however, and even though she summons three spirts at once for the first and only time in the series she is no match. As Aquarius holds back a demon, she tells Lucy something about her situation, a situation which should’ve occurred sooner and more often: “Natsu isn’t coming! It’s all on you!”
Aquarius’ words speak to how Lucy is used in the entire series: in her fights she basically is just holding her opponent off until Natsu can swoop in and have the serious fight. But this episode doesn’t do that. Lucy is alone, and to survive she makes a (temporary) sacrifice to break Aquarius’ key and summon the Celestial Spirit King.
Lucy deals a devastating blow as the Celestial Spirit King strikes from the stars and forces Cube to crash in one blow. This episode is emotional, Lucy struggles and uses all her ability, and then to survive she has to sacrifice. It’s Lucy at her best, and unfortunately no point in the series before or after comes close.
Notably, in the next episode when she is first bestowed the Aquarius Star Dress, she uses its power to great effect in defeating one of the Tartaros members.
Lucy didn’t have to be strongest or smartest, but she had a well-developed personality and had the potential to be an amazing, well-rounded character, but she fell short as her role as a wizard was mishandled throughout the series. “Fairy Tail” spent too much time making Natsu save her from situations which weren’t suited to let her shine.
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