Fairy Tail/Tropes Q-Z

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: One for each major arc. Some of them even have names (Element Four, Seven Kin of Purgatory, Raijinshu And Trinity Raven).
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The whole guild of Fairy Tail.
  • Raised by Wolves: Natsu seems capable of intelligence. He probably could stand next to Lucy as a rare island of sanity in Fairy Tail if he'd had human parents instead of a dragon dad.
  • Random Power Ranking: Erza is essentially as strong as she needs to be, powerful enough to match up against some of the Ten Wizard Saints and probably actually stronger than at least two. She's also not the most powerful of the S-Class wizards in the guild. Erza and Makarov have also noted that the presumably A-Class ranked Natsu is on par with Erza when he gets angry. Which... isn't really true when you've seen the two fighting their opponents, but still throws the whole ranking system into question.
    • Both justified. Being one of the Wizard Saints is a title granted by the Magic Council, which is a political body, so obviously they must be perfectly impartial. S class is also granted by a test, and involves more than just fighting ability. While Natsu is Erza's equal in combat, he's far more impulsive and generally much worse at handling any situation that can't be solved by beating someone up than she is.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Vidaldus.

Lucy: That's some long hair!

  • Redemption Demotion: Gajeel and Juvia were both S-Class wizards in their introduction. Possibily justified in that Makarov's standards for S-Class are much higher than other guild masters'.
  • Redheaded Hero the series has two redheads in the Five-Man Band, one of which got her last name from her hair.
  • Redshirt Army: Whenever the military of Fiore tries to dispose of villains, they're often utterly curb stomped, or forced to retreat.
  • Really Dead Montage: Jellal gets one coupled with Never Found the Body.
  • Really Gets Around: Gildarts names twelve women off the top of his head that he's slept with, then two more when trying to guess which one he fathered Cana with.
  • Red Baron: Erza the Titania, "Demon" Mirajane, "Beast Arm" Elfman, "Salamander" Natsu, "Sky Scorceress" Wendy, "Black Steel" Gajeel, Juvia of the Deep, and "Darkness" Fried. And that's only the people in Fairy Tail itself.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Done for Jellal... twice.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The anime gives these to Dragon Slayers Natsu and Gajeel when their faces are shadowed.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: One possible explanation as to why when Laxus summons a barrier that bars anyone over the age of 80 from exiting, which was meant for Makarov, Natsu and Gajeel couldn't exit it either. Which may explain why their ages were not given on their bio cards.
  • Reformed but Rejected: Hoteye and Jellal. Sure, they had a change of heart, but the law still holds them responsible for their past actions.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Alzack and Bisca after the timeskip.
  • Retcon: Multiple.
    • Destroy the Lacrima in each of Nirvana's six legs to stop it? OK, but it had eight legs the first time we saw it. In the manga, at least it had seven legs at first not eight. In then repeatedly changes between eight and seven. Chalk it up to lazy author/assistant not counting right.
    • So Lisanna is alive. She was in Edolas the whole time? It was implied that she was killed by Elfman's Demon Form.
    • When Gajeel and Juvia joined Fairy Tail it was said that they were instantly promoted to S-rank wizards. As of chapter 201 they appearently aren't... That one can actually be explained: they were considered S-Class before joining, but have to retake the test to be S-class in Fairy Tail.
    • Natsu's motion sickness is extended to be a universal trait of Dragon Slayers. Even acknowledged as a retcon; Gajeel was actually surprised when this one kicked in.
  • Revealing Hug: Jellal does one after Erza "defeats" him and "removes Zeref's influence". Obviously he wasn't in control, and used the hug to place a binding spell on her
  • Reverse Mole: Gajeel, Ivan's mole in Fairy Tail, was actually a double agent.
  • The Rival
    • Gray and Natsu.
    • Gajeel and Natsu.
    • Erza and Mirajane in the backstory, in a way that directly parallels Gray and Natsu.
    • Lucy and Juvia... one-sided as it might be.
    • Gray and Lyon.
    • Lucy and Sherry (once again one-sided. Seriously, what is with Lucy attracting these kinda girls to her?)
    • Edo-Levy and Edo-Lucy
    • Laxus and Mystogan, before Laxus was excommunicated.
    • Makarov and Jose, although this one one-sided on Jose's part.
  • Running Gag
    • Lucy's inability to seduce anyone, despite having large breasts and being stuck in very fanservicey clothing much of the time.
    • Juvia's Imagine Spots about her and Gray.
    • A visual gag: Erza and her luggage.
    • Gray unconsciously stripping.
    • Recently, Happy's shipping habits in the anime.

Happy: He lllikes her!
Gray: What kind of running gag is that?!

Natsu: HAPPY's NOT A VEHICLE!

    • Whenever Lucy comes home, she is greeted by one (or more) of her comrades nonchalantly sitting on her couch having broken into her home. Every time. Without fail. Usually Natsu, with Gray and/or Erza accompanying him from time to time.[1]
    • Everytime Team Natsu comes back to Fairy Tail, eventually it will end up in a Bar Brawl. Always.
    • Erza Taking everything way too seriously.
    • Natsu scaring the crap out of a monster and is called one.

Natsu: I'm not a monster.

    • Lucy walking home from the guild on top of the guard rail next to the river, while someone on a boat in the river warns her about falling in.
  • Sadistic Choice: Laxus imposes one on the Fairy Tail members: to get out of his magic traps and rescue their True Companions whom he had taken hostage, they must fight each other.
  • Sarashi: One of Erza's swordswoman costume.
  • Say My Name: Erza and Edo Erza do this to each other a lot.
    • "SCARLET!"
    • "KNIGHTWALKER!"
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Natsu
  • Sealed Evil in a Can
    • Subverted with Deliora, as being covered it special ice seems to just be sealing him, but turns out to have killed him.
    • Black Wizard Zeref plays this role. Subverted too, since he was never actually sealed. He just went into self-imposed exile after he got tired of killing people.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Sting and Rogue killed the dragon that raised them.
  • Sexy Mentor: Gray's mentor, Ur. She was the one to give him his habit of stripping after all.
  • Sheathe Your Sword: Natsu's battle with Gildarts. He applauds his bravery but was trying to teach him that sometimes its better to stay your fist than to keep fighting.
  • Ship Tease: Used so much that a case can be made for practically any character falling for any other one. To try to figure out who is supposed to be an Official Couple is to submit yourself to madness. But Jellal×Erza is heavily implied.
    • Lucy falling to her death yet having absolute faith in Natsu, and Natsu appearing right on time catch her, and Lucy was very, VERY happy to see him. Natsu×Lucy teasing check.
    • The special chapter/episode 50 "Watch Out For That Guy" is full of Natsu×Lucy ship tease.
    • Heavily injured Natsu carrying Erza on his arms, with him walking like a badass and her crying on his chest and add a Headbutt of Love. Natsu×Erza teasing check.
    • Any arc closure event with Erza and Jellal next to each other. Jellal×Erza teasing check.
    • The very fact that Lisanna came back; Natsu×Lisanna teasing check.
    • Chapters 207-210 provide a case for both Elfman×Evergreen and Levi×Gajeel. In all honesty, though, that last one was kind of expected.
    • When Levi leaves "Iron" for Gajeel to eat... the "o" has a heart in the middle. Just saying, not subtle.
    • Any time Juvia and Gray are together has Gray×Juvia teasing, if only on Juvia's part. Though he didn't seem unhappy about dressing up as a king to her queen for the Fantasia parade. And Gray gets pissed when Lyon tries to ask her out.
    • There's also some Gray×Lucy teasing every now and then, from Lucy being impressed by his scar to her crying to him during Erza's dream funeral. During the Nirvana arc, Gemini (copying Gray's appearance, thoughts, and abilities) reveals what Gray thinks of Lucy: "newcomer to the guild, looks are pretty much to his liking, somewhat interested in her, more naive than she appears, and a Celestial Spirit Wizard."
    • Macao and Cana had a bit of Ship Tease in the Phantom Lord arc, which is helped by Cana having been stated to have once had a crush on Macao. This was expanded on in the anime's depiction of the arc, featuring among other things Macao Taking the Bullet for Cana and Cana crying to him when the guild is destroyed.
    • A lot of the time when Lucy and Loke are together. Especially when they are saving each other. He even says "I love Lucy" at one point.
    • Lucy×Loke teasing are strongest when they first meet, where she actually blushes and stammers to his advances. Afterwards though, its mostly one-sided on Loke's part. May have to do with the fact that she is used to his playboy attitude and may not be taking his confessions and advances seriously anymore.
    • Erza and Jellal gets this the most by far. Their relationship is so close though, that many would argue that those moments are far beyond just simply teasing.
    • Natsu and Lucy comes in 2nd place, though it is mostly on the part of Lucy since Natsu is an Idiot Hero who seems to be Oblivious to Love. Lucy does seem to be the girl Natsu is most affectionate towards, especially as shown in the extras. Their teasings are everywhere, just not anywhere as blatant as Erza×Jellal. Juvia and Gray would be 2nd except for the fact that it is made blatantly obvious that Juvia is into Gray, which may not make her actions count as teasing.
    • Gray used to follow Erza everywhere when they were little, and he eventually promised that he would make sure she never cried again. Gray×Erza teasing check.
    • Taken Up to Eleven with Jellal×Erza in chapter 264. Over the course of the chapter, Erza fiercely tells Jellal not to give up on living in order to atone, and the two of them share a Kissing Discretion Shot (which may or may not have just been an Almost Kiss) that extends over three pages, which is stopped when Jellal claims that he's gained a fiancée over the seven-year Time Skip. But then, at the end of the chapter, it is revealed that he was lying because he didn't think he was worthy of her, and she was completely aware of this... Within a single chapter, the two of them come within inches of becoming both an Official Couple and a sunken ship, without becoming either.
    • Ultear implies that Jellal's willingness to risk exposing himself in public has less to do with wanting to help Fairy Tail win the tournament and more to do with showing off in front of Erza.
    • Episode 45 gives a very small bit of Ship Tease for Freed X Mirajane, from the heartfelt speech reminding Freed that he has friends to Mirajane saying "How about next year, we can just enjoy the harvest festival together?" while blushing.
  • Shipper on Deck
    • Gildarts ships Natsu×Lisanna.
    • Happy is a major offender here, but his favorite couple seems to be Lucy×Loke. It's a bit of a stretch to say that Happy actually ships them though. Its more like he's making fun and teasing Lucy because Loke couldn't have made it more obvious that he wants Lucy. Some argue that Loke wants all girls.
      • Chapter 281 has him pretty big on Jellal/Erza too. He clearly saw their private moment at the beginning of the arc.
    • In the Oración Seis Arc, Virgo comments about Natsu having a crush on Lucy, but she could just be imitating Happy.
    • Mirajane ships Natsu×Lucy once. Cut to Natsu dancing on a table making a funny face.

Lucy: Even if it was true, I wouldn't go for it.

Lucy: Um, why did they strip?

    • During the Oración Seis arc, Gray and Lyon rip off their shirts as they try to hit Racer with their ice attacks:

Racer: Why are they stripping? And wow that was fast.

  • Shout-Out
    • In addition to all the Fake Crossovers, the play that that characters do in one chapter is riddled with Rave Master references.
    • The day all the dragon disappeared and Lucy's mom died is Haru and Lucia's birthday.
    • In the first episode of the anime, the fake Salamander calls Lucy "Lucy-Chwan". Stealthy, but not that much.
    • On the request board in episode 2 of the anime, there is a request on the board that says Legend of the Holy Sword. As we all know, his His legend began in the twelfth century!
    • When donning her disguise in Edolas, Wendy looks suspiciously like Lenalee Lee from D Gray Man.
    • The large penguin in the casino at the beginning of the Tower of Paradise arc looks suspiciously like Ruby
      • Not to mention that it say Rave on every single slot machine there.
    • When a mushroom grows out of Natsu's hair in episode 9, it makes a very familiar sound.
    • Vidaldus from the Tower of Paradise arc pretty much looks like a member of KISS.
    • A fish that strongly resembles the Pokémon Magikarp appears flailing on the ice in episode 15 of the anime.
    • Edo!Erza's spear has the same name and powers as Haru's sword
    • Lucy's summoning incantation (and the animation in the anime) is awfully similar to Kuromi's in Onegai My Melody.
    • This ought to look very, very familiar to most tropers, as should Evergreen's power setup.
    • Goldion Ice Make Hammer!
    • The outfit Erza dons during Fantasia in the anime and in an extended chapter is an outfit Resha is on occasion during Rave Master.
    • After knocking out Erza Natsu turns and gives Jellal a pissed off look, letting him know he's going down. Haru has this exact same expresion with the exact same background when threatening Sieg in Rave Master.
      • It also happens that Haru gave Sieg that same face and threat just after setting down an unconcious ELIE, and that in both manga the guy with the blue hair and tattoo across the right half of his face ended up using a spell with the same name which would have killed the hero, had the girl not regained conciousness and tried to save him (though a third person got involved in Fairy Tail), and that both arcs begin with the girl having a winning streak in a casino and end with fireworks.
    • This one is anime-exclusive. When infiltrating the duke's manor during their very first job, Natsu dresses up as a ninja, degozaru.
    • In the preview of episode 59 Happy says to stop squiddling around and Natsu says that it's the wrong show.
      • In actuality, Natsu just says something akin to "That was a good one, Happy!" in reference to Happy's unintentional pun, and so this comes down to Crunchyroll referencing a show they did as well.
    • To Metalica of all things: Phantom Lord is the name of one of their songs, and the dragon who raised Gajeel is the band's name with two letters tacked on afterwords.
    • Gray has a necklace that looks like the first Rave.
    • During Natsu's fight with Gajeel, the latter shouts out "Who the hell do you think I am!" before launching an attack. It doesn't work as well in the Fairy Tail universe.
    • During episode 59, Lyon says "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
    • Fried's latest glyph encases him in metallic armor with an expressionless faceplate, and it's called Zetsui.
    • The third and final set of dolls that Bickslow uses in his fight against Lucy are identical to the Black Airs from Mashima's 2006 manga Monster Soul.
    • Happy's parents are voiced by Tomokazu Seki and Ayako Kawasumi, the same people who voiced Haru and Elie. This is most likely a shout out to Rave Master but it could also just be a coincidence since those two often voiced characters who are romantically linked.
    • In chapter 247, Lily steals a sword from a mook. Said mook mentions that his Musica sword cost a lot.
      • The mook also looks identical to Bis, who was the main mook of the Rave Master arc starring Musica.
    • Not a Rave Master reference, but bizarrely, if you look closely at the floating letters in chapter 9, when Daybreak is being rearranged, you can see the line I SEE DEAD PEOPLE. See here: to the top right of Lucy, in the second panel.
    • The "Hidden" game in Chapter 269 is identical to Assassin's Creed: Revelations multiplayer.
    • During Erza's Fight with Evergreen, when she summons a ton of swords to threaten her opponent, at least five of the Ten Commandments swords from Rave Master can be seen; Explosion, Silfarion, Mel Force, Rune Save, and one of the Blue Crimson swords, as well as Lucia's Dark Emilia.
    • The Jiggle Butt Gang makes an appearance in the eleventh opening.
  • Slapstick Knows No Gender: It says a lot that Lucy is the show's biggest Butt Monkey, as team Natsu can attend to. To be fair, Erza asks someone to hit her when she thinks she screwed up. They're all just too afraid to do it. It's also goes both ways with Erza causing the most damage.
  • Sleep Mode Size: Pantherlily, Gajeel's new cat from Edolas.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: As you might guess, this manga is quite far on the "idealistic" end of scale.
  • Shounen
  • Shower Scene:
    • Erza Scarlet has a Shower of Angst after retreating from the battle with Phantom Lord.
    • Lucy has one just before the beginning of her Bathtub Bonding Scene with Cana.
    • Lucy has a Shower of Angst after losing her fight against Flare Corona in the Grand Magic Games.
  • Social Darwinist: Laxus
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted. The threat levels of the Big Bads of each arc are all over the place:
    • The first major Big Bad was a soul-devouring Artifact of Doom.
    • The next one turned out to be Gray's Rival Turned Evil who wasn't really any stronger than him.
    • Then he was followed by a foe of Master Makarov himself that was hellbent on destroying Fairy Tail.
    • After that came Jellal, a member of the same organization Makarov belonged to and arguably the strongest Big Bad so far, whose goal was nothing less than the resurrection of the Ultimate Evil of the setting, the Black Wizard Zeref and only lost because of the setting's equivalent of Super Saiyan, a conveniently-timed injury acting up, and the fact that Zeref was never dead, and therefore could never have been resurrected in the first place.
    • The one that followed (Laxus), while certainly very powerful, wasn't really on the same level of power or threat.
    • The Algorithm may have returned in the Oración Seis arc with the Big Bad Zero, Brain's Ax Crazy Omnicidal Maniac Super-Powered Evil Side, wanting to use Nirvana's power to destroy everything and who managed to one-shot Jellal, though it could be argued that Jellal is still the stronger considering that he had amnesia at the time and had taken a rather severe beating beforehand.
    • The Edolas arc originally had the Exceed Queen, who is described as being a god, but it turns out she was never a threat and the real Big Bad is King Faust, who's only power is operating a Humongous Mecha.
    • The S-Class Exam arc has many things coming together at once, since recurring villains are finally putting their master plans into motion (like reviving Zeref, the Big Bad and Ultimate Evil of the entire series). Even the Quirky Miniboss Squad has members quite a lot stronger than previous arcs' Big Bads, and Elite Mooks nearly defeated Gajeel and Levy.
    • The arc's Big Bad, Hades, destroyed Makarov without even trying.
    • And now in the Magic Tournament arc, we got Rogue and Sting who are both "third generation dragon slayers", what means that they have both learned how to use the dragon magic with dragons and have a dragon lachryma infused into their bodies. The big deal? They both killed the dragons who taught them how to use magic. And I think I don't need to mention the power level of a dragon after Acnowlogia, right? .
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Every episode ends with the credits music starting up a bit before the the ending credits actually start rolling. Considering that episodes tend to end on cliffhangers, this results in some...interesting shots (read: really dark) running to cheerful music.
    • And with the third ending we have scenes like an incensed Natsu ready to fight Gajeel running to a maddeningly calm piano piece.
    • Most of the second opening is sickeningly sweet and is just general shots of guild members doing things that looks cool... until you get near the end where it shows the aftermath of Gajeel's attack, then Gajeel himself standing in front of shadow outlines of Element 4, and then Gajeel fighting Natsu, and the music is still sickeningly sweet.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Oh hell yeah. Though now that there's an official English translation with names supplied by the author, the number of characters with such names decreases more and more... until the next big arc anyways.
    • Yet some still insist that those fan-translation names are the correct ones. *Sigh* It's "Ur" and "Ultear", guys.
    • Things like this don't help matters much.
    • Some fan-translations still insist on using "Loki" (Norse trickster god) over "Loke" (a somewhat muddled anagram of "Leo").
      • Note that Loke is the original spelling in Old Norse.
    • Jellal, Jeral, Gerard...
    • Some people insist Laxus is Luxus, "Lux" being Latin for light, lightning; not "Lax," as in easygoing.
    • It's understandable though. Even if the official name translations from Hiro Mashima himself say that their names are Juvia, or Gajeel, or Erza, a check of the background shows that he himself seems to flip-flop on how their names are spelled. Erza's appears several different ways in handwritten form over the course of the story.
    • Freed/Fried and Bickslow/Bixlow. In the case of Fried/Freed, this might be due to the official translators deciding that Viewers are Morons and thinking that people might mistake his name as being pronounced with the long "i" sound instead of the long "e". "Fried" is an actual name, as well as a common suffix for both surnames and first names.
  • Spoiler Opening
    • Juvia is shown fighting alongside Gray (and others) before the conclusion of her battle with him during the Phantom Arc. This may not matter as much as other examples, since said fight makes it obvious she's vulnerable to a Heel Face Turn.
    • Really the near-entirety of the third opening is spoilers, although aside from the above mentioned example you wouldn't figure them out yet.
    • You'd notice that the guy under the hood has the same tattoo and hair color as Siegrain.
    • Also, the second opening showed the destruction of the Guild Hall long before it happens.
    • The fourth opening is basically a montage of important scenes of the arc following the current one.
    • The fifth and sixth openings have Wendy standing in group shots that are otherwise only members of Fairy Tail. The fact that no one from Blue Pegasus or Lamia Scale is in any of these is a dead giveaway that she joins Fairy Tail later.
    • Subversion from the sixth opening: you see a young(er) Wendy walking around with a young Jellal, and she insists that he saved her life at one point, although he can't remember it due to his amnesia. It's actually Mystogan, who doesn't appear anywhere in the entire arc except for in Wendy's memory.
    • The 8th opening and ending spoils a lot of things about Edolas arc if you watch closely, such as the face of Queen Shagotte way before she actually appears onscreen, hints of the final boss of the arc, and the return of Mystogan. But the worst of all is the new ending heavily focused on Lisanna, who we barely see during the Edolas arc, and the friggin end of said arc, in which Lisanna run into her brother and sister at Magnolia's cemetery. Really? Spoiling the very last scene of Edolas arc ? Really ?! What the heck?!.
    • The 10th opening has a few spoilers of varying severity. Laxus is back, a brief shot of Romeo (who hasn't had an important role since episode 2), A big dragon, Hades' "Demon" Eye, and a mysterious woman near the end. She's really Mavis, the 1st leader of the Fairy Tail guild.
      • A couple of the more minor ones include Gildarts fighting Bluenote (which wasn't really a surprise, because who else had the power to take Bluenote on?) and Natsu having an aura of lightning and fire in the opening shot (which doesn't really stand out unless you know to look for it).
  • Spoony Bard: Visitor Echo, whose primary magic is dancing, though not Dance Battling, it's more of a Buff/Debuff magic.
  • Squishy Wizard: Lampshaded and mostly averted.
  • Spot the Impostor Heroic version: the Earthland Erza manages to trick Faust and his soldiers before the Edolas Erza shows up. Edolas Erza cuts her hair later to keep it from happening again.
  • Stable Time Loop: What happens in end of the Memory Days OVA.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Juvia
  • The Starscream
    • Faust is this to Queen Shagotte.
    • Ultear to both Jellal and Hades.
  • Staring Kid: Erza gets a crowd of them after accidentally breaking into a public bath.
  • Stock Footage: More powerful magics from recurring characters are given this treatment. Natsu suffers from this with every single move he intends to use more than once: even his most basic attack, which is just a glorified punch.
  • Storm of Blades: Erza can do this by summoning lots of swords with her Ex-quip magic. If she has enough time to set it up, she can even launch 200 swords at once, each set to hit a target across an entire town.
  • Story Arc
  • Strictly Formula: The endings have seemingly fallen into this. All of them have: the appearance of a clock-like object somewhere in the ending, chibi versions of the characters, and a single character (usually the main focus of the current arc) running into either the background or foreground[2].
  • Stripperiffic: Around 98% of the characters use only a few garments of clothes at best in battle. After 100 chapters you find weird (or impractical) people beating each other in only a scarf and pants, boxers, coctel dresses, schoolgirl outfits or technically naked, you are watching it wrong.
    • Some of Erza's armors. And how.
    • Edolas!Erza even more.
    • Most of Lucy's outfits might be acceptable (if skimpy) in town, but not for roughing out in the wild.
    • It's canon: the more naked Gray is (and Lyon and Natsu by default), the stronger they become.
  • Strong Family Resemblance
    • Hoteye/Richard and Wally, who turn out to be long-lost brothers, both have impossibly polygonal faces. Wally's is presumed to be the result of his magic, since his entire body is polygonal, but who knows about Richard..
    • Ultear looks enough like her mother that Gray thinks he's seeing Ur when he first sees her.
    • Also Lucy,Happy and Carla look like their mothers.
  • Stupid Evil: Cobra basically won his battle with Natsu. And yet Brain still pulled a You Have Failed Me... on him, even though he didn't fail, apparently just because he didn't succeed well enough. You know, just in case we haven't hammered home that he's a bad person yet.
  • Summon Magic
    • Known as Celestial Spirits. Lucy can summon them.
    • Inverted by Caprico, a.k.a the possessed Celestial Spirit Capricorn, who can summon human beings.
  • Super-Deformed: Pops up every now and then, especially in the endings.
  • Super Mode: "Dragon Force", the Dragon Slayer equivalent of a Super Saiyan transformation. Apparently much easier to induce if you're not an "old style" Dragon Slayer, but not as powerful as the real deal.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Brain is revealed to have a Superpowered More Evil Side that only shows up when all six members of Oración Seis have been defeated, taking him from Mad Scientist to Omnicidal Maniac.
  • Superpower Lottery
    • Midnight of the Oración Seis has the ability to reflect and distort things, including magic and light. So he can render himself untouchable, reflect attack magic back at the caster, apparently use Razor Wind, and even project illusions (by bending the light that reaches a person's eyes). He basically has a combination of the powers of Accelerator and Aizen. Too bad he can't use it directly on living things.
    • Although it's hard to set up, Fried's power is basically "make an area where anything I want to happen does". Lampshaded when someone says that's like a kid playing a game and making up rules as he goes along.
    • Wendy. Think about it. Dragon Slayers power up from eating their element, and Wendy's element is air, which pretty much gives her a limitless supply of power in most situations. She hasn't learned most of her offensive magic yet, but the one spell she does know is shown to be very powerful. And if that isn't enough, she can heal. That kid is gonna be scary someday.
    • More like that kid is gonna be the most haxed member of FT in the future.... although we probably won't see much of it since she's too gentle to fight directly unless she's really pushed.
    • Rustyrose can create anything he wants from his imagination. Elfman and Evergreen stood no chance against him.
    • Basically, the point being hammered home in the S-Class arc is that to join Grimoire Heart at all, you are basically required to have won the lottery. Luckily Fairy Tail isn't a series where the only answer to Story-Breaker Power level magic is more Story-Breaker Power level magic!
  • Sure Why Not: Sugarboy's explanation on why he can glide.
  • Surprisingly Good English: Most of the character's powers are in English, pitch perfect English.
  • Sword and Sorcerer: Despite both of them being wizards, Gajeel and Levi fit this trope.
  • Tagalong Kid: Wendy may become this, and you can see Romeo among the other Guild members in later chapters; averted in the past, where the kids formed their own magical teams distinct from the adults.
  • Taken for Granite: Evergreen's power.
  • Taking the Bullet
    • Jellal does this for Natsu in chapter 159. This is what convinces him that the taker can be trusted.
    • Which causes a flashback to when Simon takes a bullet for Erza and Natsu.
    • Gajeel does this as well for Natsu against Laxus in his arc.
      • He seems fond of this trope. Before that he takes it for Levy when Laxus attacks her.
    • In the Phantom Lord arc, Erza does this. More like taking the Wave Motion Gun though.
  • Taking You with Me: Racer to Lyon. It didn't work.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Averted. As the Quirky Miniboss Squad is introducing themselves in Chapter 32, Natsu hurls two giant fireballs at them mid-sentence. [1]
  • Talking the Monster to Death: Lucy gets this at least twice. Once in her fight with the rock-and-roll assassin in the Tower of Paradise, where she specifically talks Juvia out of the Mind Control that she has been put under, and later in the Oracion Seis fight, where Lucy convinces most of Angel's Celestial Spirits to defect.
  • Talk to the Fist:

Jellal: Pathetic, (Evil Laugh), how utterly foolish. Now, that's called Dying in vain, Simon! The situation hasn't changed one bit! No-one can leave this Tower Ali--
Natsu: *POW* SHUT UP!!!

    • And again

Ultear: I'm the head of the Seven Kin of Purgatory. Someone like you is no match for the likes of--
Gray: *POW!*

  • Technical Pacifist: Fairy Tail guild as a whole.
  • Tempting Fate
    • Non-lethal version: there is an amusement park inside the king of Edolas's freaking huge castle, to the shock of Lucy, Natsu and Gray. Natsu was pleased.
    • Lucy also does it earlier in the same arc, complaining of boredom and wanting something exciting to happen. And then all of Magnolia Town gets sucked up by Anima...
    • "You'd be a really scary enemy, Juvia!" Time for Rock of Succubus. Lucy, you've really got to stop doing this.
    • And again. Dammit, Lucy!!
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill
    • Jose is not happy with just firing a Wave Motion Gun at the ruins of Fairy Tail's base and its wounded members. He then turns his own base into a Humongous Mecha Wizard, which proceeds to draw a magic seal that will wipe out an entire town.
    • Likewise with Laxus attempting Fairy Law during his arc.
  • There Was a Door: Gildarts loves to do this. Side affect of his destruction based powers and general ditziness.
  • Third Person Person: Juvia
  • This Cannot Be!
    • Jellal screams this before being defeated.
    • Same with Cobra when Natsu stops thinking.
  • This Is Unforgivable!
    • Natsu in the Edolas Arc (justified considering the humans there are ready to not only kill all Fairy Tail members, but even to slaughter a whole species just so they can continue using magic for amusement purposes). Cue Unstoppable Rage.
    • Also Natsu when battling Zancrow after seeing that Grimoire Heart's Master Hades had given Makarov a giant buttkicking.
    • The general guild reaction to the attack by Phantom on Shadow Gear.
    • Black Wizard Zeref tells Hades that making him forget his compassion is an unforgivable sin. Then he kills Hades in cold blood.
  • Time Skip: Gets one after the S-Class exam arc, of seven years, no less. And the series actually manages to subvert this trope. Those who were on Tenrou Island were frozen in time, so they didn't age one bit and feel like a few hours have passed, while the rest of the world is seven years older. Also "Those who were on Tenrou Island" consists of the entire main cast (Natsu's team) AND nearly all the important secondary characters (Juvia, Gajeel, the Take Over siblings, Cana, Makrov etc). Only a small handful of characters experience the skip.
    • There is another one just a few chapters later, but it's only three months. Hilariously enough, the main characters go through a similar subversion again, spending a day in the Celestial Spirit World while the three months pass in the real world.
  • Time Stands Still: Racer's power is not super-speed, but slowing down everybody else's time perception to make him seem faster Which causes some Fridge Logic. Earlier, Brain ordered him to fetch Jellal's coffin, and he said it would take at least half an hour. If his powers basically allow him to slow the perception of time of everyone in a determined range, then he was as good for this task as everyone else. However, this could be explained that he used his Dead Gran Prix motorcycles to do it. Also, maybe he'd fooled his own allies about the nature of his power.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl
  • Tomato Surprise
    • Loke is the celestial spirit Leo.
    • Also, in the Cursed Island Arc. Turns out the villagers weren't humans cursed to turn into demons, but shapeshifting demons who were cursed into forgetting what they were and start to think they were humans. But, fortunately, Our Demons Are Different.
    • Mystogan turns out to be Jellal's look-alike.
    • Everyone in Cait Shelter but the leader, Wendy, and Carla were illusions the leader created so Wendy could have friends, and the leader himself is only a spirit.
  • Too Dumb To See: After Natsu screams out fire, after seeing Makarov lose his trunks, Gray and Gajeel looks through the telescope anyway.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Strangely averted for Lucy, the main character. She is getting better with her celestial spirits, but she's still not at the same level as Natsu, Gray, or Erza. Then again, those three are pretty damn powerful.
    • Lucy officially takes a few levels after unlocking her Second Origin. She can now summon multiple spirits at once, combine their attacks, and double her magic power with Gemini to cast Uranometria on her own.
  • Tournament Arc: The S-Class Trial arc.
    • The Grand Magic Games qualify as well.
    • The S-Class Trial is put on hold after barely 10 chapters however, and what follows is the (as of yet) longest arc in the series with the regular formula of unorganized fights against an evil Dark Guild. Also, the Grand Magic Games are strongly implied to be Not Just a Tournament.
  • Tragic Dream: Jellal's dream of a world of freedom may count, in a sort of twisted way.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: Averted in the manga -- Erza is known to be exceptionally fast with her Exquipping. In the anime, they play it straight when she's bringing out the big guns.
  • Transformation Sequence: Erza when she Exquips her more powerful armors in the anime. And is later averted.
  • Transforming Mecha: Jose Porla can transform his entire castle in a giant mecha.
  • Traumatic Superpower Awakening: A flashback shows Erza first using magic after seeing a friend die.
  • Trojan Prisoner: Erza, who is the one Dressing as the Enemy, "captures" Natsu and Gray to lead them to the King.
  • True Companions: The cornerstone trope of the entire series.
  • Tsundere
    • Edolas Lucy
    • Used gender-reversed and hilariously here. [dead link]
    • Levy towards Gajeel.
    • Carla, whom Happy [3] has a crush on.
  • 24-Hour Armor: Erza borders on this as a psychological hang-up. She gets better.
  • Ultimate Evil: Not Zeref, who's more of a Bigger Bad. The Ultimate Evil of Fairy Tail is the Black Dragon Acnologia, which even Zeref is afraid of.
  • Unconscious Objector: At one point, Natsu fights with Gray while sleeping. Characters around them promply lampshade it.
  • Unholy Nuke
    • Jellal's magic Altearis consists of an extremely devastating orb. In the anime it sucks all the shadows in the room towards it and makes Natsu sick just by standing near it.
    • Later, Brain / Zero's spell "Genesis Zero" is pretty much this, only with a tsunami of black shadows.
    • Grimoire Law.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Jellal, though not in the usual sense. (Probably.)
  • Unsound Effect
    • Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a sound effect for fanservice (as evidenced at 5:34 here and at 17:10 here.)
    • There's also a dark version of it.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Aside from Lucy, no one really cares about the council envoy's appearance.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Jellal is victim of this twice. He spends eight years as Ultear's pawn, and then Brain uses him to awaken Nirvana. To a lesser extent Retei Lyon and his entire group, everyone working under Jellal in the Tower of Heaven, the first magic council. Basically, if you've spoken to Ultear, assume you're being used.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means
    • Jellal (subverted in that he was being manipulated) and the Kingdom of Edolas who used magic to suck up lands made up of innocent people from an alternate universe and turn them into crystallized magic. Just so his kingdom could continue using magic. The king, Faust, takes it a step further by being willing to sacrifice even his own subordinates just to achieve his goal.
    • Mystogan as well, in case you didn't believe he really was Jellal's Edolas counterpart.
  • Verbal Tic: Too many characters in Fairy Tail.
    • Almost all of Lucy's celestial spirits have one based on the animal they resemble. Amusingly, Sagittarius (who looks like a human wearing a costume) adds "Hello Hello (Moshi Moshi)" to everything he says, and Cancer suffixes everything with "ebi" (a.k.a. prawn). That last one really disappointed Natsu and Happy, who were certain that he was going to say "crab" as his tic.
    • Looks like all the male cats in Extalia do this as well. Happy's dad says "Kaah!"
    • Ichiya and Nichiya say "Men!"
    • Hot Eye/Richard and "Yes! (desu ne/Desu yo!)"
    • In the anime, Hughes and Sugarboy qualify as well too.
    • Kinana says "-kina".
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: Erza, in an omake chapter.
  • Villain Ball: The ONLY reason Vidaldus doesn't ultimately win is because he'd rather use his powers to watch a Cat Fight between Lucy and Juvia rather than hypnotising them both.
  • Villainous Breakdown
    • The realization that he is alone, his underlings are defeated and everyone else in the guild are risking their lives to stop him completely shatters Laxus' composure. Unfortunately, instead of collapsing, he goes into Unstoppable Rage.
    • The Oración Seis seems pretty prone to this. Both Racer when Lyon figured his powers out and Angel when Gemini disobeyed her in favor of Lucy's kindheartedness towards celestial spirits have broken so far. Brain has a pretty good one here too, with eyes bulging out and everything.
    • Edolas-Erza when she's screaming about how Edolas will suffer without magic. Like Laxus, she also goes into Unstoppable Rage, not that it helps.
    • After his defeat, Faust becomes completely horrified when he sees images of Igneel, Grandeeney, and a hungry-looking Metallicana staring down at him. His face completely breaks down, and eyes bulge out, before fainting from sheer shock.
  • Voice of the Legion: Lullaby in the anime.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Gray, and to a lesser degree Natsu (he wears a vest, but it's not covering much).
  • Walking Wasteland
    • Gildarts' power causes everything around him to be destroyed if he doesn't pay attention and control it. He is also The Ditz. The town Fairy Tail is based in actually changes shape to accomodate his presence by elevating all the houses and creating massive straight roads leading directly to the guild.
    • Chapter 200 introduces a new character who drains the life out of everything around him. He seems to have even less control over his power than Gildarts. He's Black Wizard Zeref. Fuck.
  • We All Live in America: The supposedly Spain-like country of Fiore has some pretty Japanese tendencies.
  • Weaksauce Weakness
    • Natsu suffers from an extreme form of motion sickness. Lampshaded when it was first revealed. Oddly, the fact that he can use Happy to fly does not cause this. This is pretty ridiculously HandWaved by Natsu simply stating that "Happy isn't a vehicle!". This from the guy who gets nauseous on top of a still raft. Also, Happy isn't a vehicle, but apparently Lucy is.
      • Turns out, ALL Dragon Slayers have this weakness eventually, apparently including both 1st and 2nd Generation.
    • Edolas!Natsu has the exact opposite weakness. He's only Badass while he's in a vehicle. Otherwise he's a complete wuss.
    • Fried really cannot handle himself around fanservice. Too bad for him then that not only are his opponents in chapter 204 women, not only are they in bikinis due to the temperature, but both of them can summon even more women. Subverted in that he was faking it all along as an excuse to lose to his opponents out of guilt about nearly killing them in the past. Bixlow even calls him out for choosing such an unbelievably ludicrous weakness.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist
    • Jellal is basically the living embodiment of this trope before he loses his memory.
      • Even afterwards, he always seems to retain extremist solutions to various problems, making him a semi-heroic version of the trope.
    • Laxus has shades of it as well.
  • Wham! Episode
    • Wait... the guy who's got the killing magic... is ZEREF?! Oh jeez.
    • And again in Chapter 215, where we learn Master Hades, the leader of Grimoire Heart, is the previous leader of Fairy Tail.
    • And in 216... as Makarov is curb stomped by Hades, after he reveals that Zeref is "the essence of magic."
    • In 221, apparently Grimoire Heart intends to use Zeref to kill all of the Muggles in the world and remake it as a world of wizards... and they've just caught the final ingredient ...dammit.
    • In 235, [[spoiler: Azuma uproots the entire Tenrou Tree, and it is revealed its magic was boosting Fairy Tail's magic, and keeping them alive under the Kin's onslaught. In other words, with it gone, not only are the Fairy Tail wizards being further drained of magic, but it also heavily implies that Makarov and Mirajane really are going to die now.
    • In 252 Acnologia appears
    • And 253... oh my God, the 253rd chapter... To elaborate, Acnologia destroys Tenrou Island seemingly along with the entire core cast and many extras, and then has a 7 year time skip. Watch out for the wall!
    • Personal Wham for Lucy in 256: Her father has been dead for an entire month.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?
    • Pillow fights are taken a little bit too seriously by Natsu, Erza and Gray.
    • Natsu and Lucy fixing their hair and Happy putting on his sack right before they fight Urtear and Kain .
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Jellal, in the Nirvana arc especially. Crucifix? Yep, his coffin's shaped like one. He gets revived from the "dead" and in addition uses Heavenly Magic.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?
    • What the heck happened to Erigor "the Shinigami" from the Lullaby Arc? Erigor showed up again in Episode 55 of the anime, only be beaten easily by Natsu and have his clothes stolen by Jellal.
    • Where the hell was Angelica during the Nirvana arc?
    • Whatever happened to Gray's smoking habit from the first few chapters??
    • Those people Sho sealed in cards. Were they ever freed? What about the one who saved Lucy? She owed him. They're not even mentioned in passing. It's given a Hand Wave in Episode 34 of the anime: Gray, Lucy, and Juvia alerted the council's soldiers before they ran off to rescue Erza.
    • Also, In episode 48 of the anime the guy trapped in the card is one of the cameos for the Fantasia Parade, they got out one way or another.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Sugarboy informs Gray that the key to the Dragon Cannon can be used to change everyone back from Lachima, and then freaks out after Gray destroys it anyway. Subverted when Gray reveals that he can duplicate the key out of ice.
  • Whip It Good: Lucy sometimes carries a whip, typically one that ends in a spade/heart shape.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: Mirajane, Lisanna, and Angel.
  • Wild Card Excuse: Happy's answer to questions such as "Why are you blue?", "Why can you fly?", or "How come you can talk?" is always "Because I'm a cat!" cheerfully and likely intentionally ignoring the fact that these questions are because he is a cat.
  • Will They or Won't They?
    • Alzack and Bisca are this trope personified. It's their main character trait, even. The ultimate answer? They Do.
    • Not as prominent, but there's plenty of this between Erza and Jellal as well.
  • The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Erza, despite not being a queen. Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
  • The Worf Barrage: A sustained assault against the Big Bad of the S-Class Exam arc, from a united front of various Fairy Tail members using some of the most powerful techniques seen in the series so far, successfully destroyed his cape and made him mad (maybe he liked the cape).
  • Worf Had the Flu: According to the author, the reason Midnight beat Jellal so easily was because of the self-destruct spell that had damaged Jellal a few chapters earlier on top of his Laser-Guided Amnesia. Alternatively, some fans have pointed out that, if you consider Midnight's ability, it's highly possible Jellal tried to one-shot him with one of his Game Breaker spells and had it reflected back in his face.
    • Zeref also gives one to explain how Ultear beat him. His explanation can be sumarized as "becuase I didn't want to kill her, my magic was ineffective. Now that I'm out for blood I'm back to full power."
  • World of Badass: Actually subverted. Despite the fact that there are loads of Badass characters, who tend to hog the spotlight, only 10% of the Fairy Tail world's population can use magic. But Grimoire Heart plans to use Zeref to create such a world, where only the badass can survive
  • World of Buxom: Along with 99% of all males having either an Heroic Build (and ShirtlessScenes) and/or Bishonen, for a Fanservice Family Pack.
  • Would Hit a Girl
    • Gajeel, who spends a good few minutes just beating Lucy silly. And he would have kept on doing it if Natsu hadn't shown up, rightously pissed off. He's doing it BECAUSE he knows Natsu is coming.
    • This seems to be in effect for the entire world of Fairy Tail, actually. There doesn't seem to be a distinction made between genders at all, at least as far as fighting goes.
    • Natsu actually invokes this when he suggests a round of fighting to find out who is the strongest wizard in Fairy Tail.

Happy: Natsu... I don't think you should go picking battles with girls...
Natsu: Guys or girls has nothing to do with it!!

  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Brain in his plan to obtain Nirvana. He originally intended to get it by himself, but when he realized that Wendy was with the group sent to stop him, he used her to make his plan move faster, having her heal Jellal, who would in turn fetch Nirvana for him. When Jellal attacked him, instead of going This Cannot Be! he ordered Cobra to follow him. His assumption was right, as Jellal restarted Nirvana... With the intent of destroying it. But, instead of breaking down or trying to force Jellal to obey him by any meaning, Brain simply deactivated the self-destruction spell Jellal cast on Nirvana, succeding in his plan at last.
  • Year X: The story takes place in "X784". X791 after the Time Skip.
  • Year Inside, Hour Outside: inverted in the Celestial Realm, where one day in there is equal to three months outside.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Natually, Jellal is the first that comes to mind here. Other people with unrealistic hair colors include Natsu, Levy, Juvia, Wendy, Bisca, Fried, Erza and Cobra (you can have somewhat red hair, but not that red), and Mirajane, Lisanna, and Elfman, since their hair seems to have always been white.
  • You Have Failed Me...: Brain gives Cobra this treatment after Natsu nearly beat him with a single roar.

Brain: (after shooting Cobra in the shoulder) I don't need the six demons if such an average guild can defeat them so easily, you trash!!

  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle
    • Edolos Arc: Team Natsu manages to keep the Lacrima from crashing into the Exceed homeland and Mystogun suddenly arrived to warp the Lacrima back to Earthland, back to their original forms. Everyone begins to celebrate and things seem peachy... then Erza Knightwalker fires a shot at Pantherlily and comes after the group with the Edolas army in tow!
    • End of the S-Trial Arc: Fairy Tail manages to repeal Grimiore Heart despite taking some serious wounds. All the members come out alive and are healed. Laxus is back even though no longer a member and Cana reveals to Gildarts that she is his daughter who accepts her. All seems right with the world...wait whats that ominous evil looking dragon over the island?
  • Zero-Approval Gambit: Mystogan decides to unite Edolas... by draining it of its dwindling magic and offering himself up as the villain that Pantherlily will kill, thus making him the new king. Pantherlily has some complaints with that plan, and wants to turn it around so that he'll be the villain, and Mystogan, who is Edolas' long-lost prince, will be the hero. Things hits a serious snag when both of them realize they can't bring themselves to kill the other. Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy manage to salvage the plan by posing as rampaging demons for Mystogan to defeat, and the reverse anima convenient sucking them back to Earthland makes it look like they "died" by his hand.
  • Zettai Ryouiki
    • Seems to be a theme with the female villains.
    • Virgo
    • Also, Lucy as a maid.
    • Erza as a Goth girl, and a few of her other outfits.
    • Even Wendy sports this in Edolas and onwards.
    • Juvia as well.
    • One of the members of the recently introduced Mermaid Heel guild sports these as well, combined with Underboobs and an exposed belly.
  1. ↑ It's revealed in an omake that Mirajane gives them the spare key.
  2. ↑ The only exceptions are Mirajane and Gray, who both walk, and the former doesn't go away or towards the camera at all
  3. ↑ a non-tsundere voiced by Rie Kugimiya
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