Fairy Tail / Tropes F to I

Tropes A to E | Tropes F to I | Tropes J to P | Tropes Q to S | Tropes T to Z

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Fairy Tail provides examples of the following tropes:

F

• Face–Heel Turn:
  • In the Fantasia Arc, Laxus goes from being a jerk who doesn't get along with his guildmates to actively trying to set them against each other and depose Makarov.
  • The entire reason Oración Seis seeks Nirvana is the ability to cause these at will in whoever they want.
  • Gray in the anime exclusive arc, though he's more of a Fake Defector. It turns out that Natsu forgot a promise to the villager that was sealed by Daphne and he kind of wanted him to destroy Daphne's artificial dragon.
    • Although now it seems like he actually has gone bad. He has joined the Zeref worshiping dark guild "Avatar" and has been revealed to be the one who killed Frosch in Future Rogue's timeline. Like above, he is a Fake Defector.
• The Fair Folk: Laxus embodies the principle of why fairies were called "the fair folk" within the eponymous guild, as few things make him angrier than people who insult Fairy Tail as a guild in his presence, regardless of which side of the Fighting Festival/Sirius Island divide one is on.
  • Played with during the Phantom Lord arc: Cold Iron is traditionally considered the bane to fairies, and Gajeel, who was Phantom Lord's ace when we met him, is an Iron Dragon Slayer.
• Fake Defector: Gajeel. Also Gray in a filler arc. Gray does this a second time, along with Levy, in the manga's Avatar mini-arc.
• Family of Choice: The Fairy Tail guild's primary strength is how the members all rely on each other. Makarov also has a tendency to refer to the members as his children, and given how many orphans have grown up in the guild...
  Makarov: Lucy. Though we may not be able to share our feelings of happiness or sadness entirely, we do share them to some extent. That's what happens in a Guild. One person's happiness becomes everyone's happines. One person's anger becomes everyone's anger. And one person's tears become everyone's tears. There's no reason for you to feel guilty, so don't cry - you should already know how much everyone here cares about you. Hold your head high, my dear, because you are a proud member of the Fairy Tail family.
• Fanservice: Oh dear sweet Lord, where do we start?! The Most Common Superpower is so in effect you'd think it was a 90's comic book, and nearly all of them dress to show it off sooner or later. The anime even has a unique sound effect just for the fanservice moments. (Wow!) And it gets plenty of use.
  • Every female character provides some. Seriously, it must be a requirement to join Fairy Tail, or any wizard guild for that matter.
    • Not to forget, whenever the opportunity arises, the feet of the female cast are shown to the audience ^Examples 1, with Erza and Lucy being the greatest offenders.
  • The male cast members are no slouches in that department, either. To start with, the male lead wears only a vest and scarf above his waist, and the other main male character has a habit of stripping to his skivvies at a moment's notice. Pretty much every male whose character design wasn't made for laughs is about equal to the ladies in being easy on the eyes.
  • Then there's the "Welcome to Fairy Hills!" special chapter. It IS fanservice in forty pages with a little plot in between, though it has plenty of Character Development for the female members we don't usually get to see.
    • Curiously, this is exactly the special chapter they chose to make an OVA. Also, as unbelievable as it sounds, it seems that they chose to add even more Fanservice, notably for the female crowd.
  • The battle between the two Erzas in Chapter 193 turned out to be one part You Are Not Alone, one part Reason Your Ideas Suck Speech, and two parts Fanservice with some creative positions that would look like Twincest out of context thrown in.
  • The Sirius Island Arc starts with Lucy in the bath, then Cana in the bath, then with everyone going on a ship under the hot sun so they're sweaty and in tropical wear, and Lucy and Cana spend their battles in only a bikini!
  • Absolutely the only reason why Gray forgets every part of his waiter's outfit except the bow tie.
  • Lampshaded repeatedly by Lucy whenever Natsu fights. As quoted from the Phantom Lord arc when he was fighting Gajeel:
    Lucy: They're amazing...and they're both practically half-naked, too!
  • Chapter 279 is what happens when nobody is here to restrain Mashima. The entire fight between Mirajane and Jenny is, for some reason, a swimsuit contest, until the very end of it.
  • Chapter 298 has pretty much every female character in skimpy beachwear, except for Cana who just wears lingerie.
  • Chapter 341 took things to even greater heights.
  • Chapter 355 gives us yet another Hot Springs Episode, with plenty of fanservice from Gray, Natsu, Wendy, Lucy, and especially Erza.
    • Beautifully lampshaded when Natsu and Gray barely react to the situation, saying that they've seen the girls naked so many times that the novelty has worn off.
  • Several of the OVA episodes are dedicated to bringing the Fanservice to life with lovingly detailed animation. Some even throw in massive amounts of Ship Tease to go with it. Due to these episodes, nearly every member of Fairy Tail gets a moment onscreen in a swimsuit or outright naked.
  • Chapter 365 might count, as it's filled to the brim with Ezra in the nude throughout, as she's being tortured by Kyouka.
  • Dimaria's use of Time-stopping ability is to... shred her opponents' clothes.
  • Brandish and Lucy's talk in a bathtub with water only on the surface, both naked.
  • Brandish again, treated like a dog by Aquarius.
• Fanservice with a Smile: Team Natsu briefly work in a cafe at one point. Lucy and Erza have ridiculously sexy outfits, and Gray forgets his uniform save the bow tie.
• Fan Disservice: A hilarious in-universe example with Ichiya in chapter 293.
  • Whether chapter 365 is this or thinly disguised fan-service is a point of debate in the fandom.
• Fat and Proud: Risley Law, while she has the ability to slim down when she uses her magic, she prefers her normally chubby form. Her Catchphrase happens to be, "Never underestimate chubby power!"
• Fantastic Firearms: Wally Buchnan uses a "Polygon Rifle," which uses "polygon magic" to make objects (ie, the rifle and its projectiles) out of shapes of Hard Light (like a 3-D model on a computer). He uses a real gun in the manga version.
• A Father to His Men: Master Makarov is very much this. Phantom Lord kidnapping and hurting three of his "children" was what finally drove him to defy the law against guild fights and teach those belligerent jerks a lesson they never forgot. Gajeel has had roughly ONE MOMENT of Oh, Crap!. This is a guy who taunts Natsu for fun. What makes him brown his trousers? Angry Makarov. What was he doing? Inviting Gajeel to join Fairy Tail.
  Gajeel: But I hurt your guild members.
  Makarov: AND THAT IS UNFORGIVABLE.
  Gajeel: [Oh, Crap! face]
  Makarov: But so is abandoning a young man surrendering himself to darkness.
• Feed It with Fire: Dragon Slayers can regain energy by eating their given element (though not any that they create). Some, such as Gajeel the Iron Dragon Slayer and Wendy the Sky Dragon Slayer, are more fortunate than, say, Laxus (lightning) and Cobra (poison). Though, Cobra was smart enough to keep a poisonous snake so that he wouldn't have to rely on luck to refuel.
• Fiery Redhead: Definitely Erza, and Natsu too if you count pink.
  • Flare Corona is a literal Fiery Redhead—her magic not only manipulates her hair, it ignites it.
• Filler:
  • An entire filler episode at Episode nine? The only reasoning for this is that they wanted to showcase the music again before they moved on to the new arc.
  • Episode 19 seems to confirm that we'll get filler between each major arc. But at least it means more Fanservice and Character Development for secondary characters.
  • There's a long string of filler between the Fighting Festival and Edolas arcs. Some are one-and-done episodes like Episodes 9 and 19 mentioned above, but one noteworthy filler here is the first multi-filler material seen in the anime; the 4-part Daphne arc in which Natsu gets forced into a mechanical dragon.
  • Fairy Tail finally delves into seasonal filler shortly after the 7 year timeskip with the Key of the Starry Sky arc thanks to almost being subject to Overtook the Manga. It should however be noted that the arc was written with Mashima's assistance, and the events of the arc are considered canon to the manga.
• Final Boss Preview: Done very often. Zero's first act is to beat the shit out of Natsu. Laxus did the same thing, although he was only stunned. Reitei Lyon's first appearance has him using Gray as a soccer ball. Hades' first fight is curb stomping Makarov. Subverted with Phantom Lord when Jose turns out to be an illusion, and Makarov is taken out by Aria's sneak attack.
• Finger Gun: Hades does this after he shrugs off Team Natsu's combined efforts. Naturally, he kicks the crap out of everyone with it.
• Fire/Ice Duo: The boisterous, hot-blooded, red-haired, fire-wielding hero Natsu (Fire) and his serious, level-headed (most of the time), ice-wielding foil Gray (Ice).
• First-Episode Twist: That goofy pink-haired guy that Lucy ran into is not only a wizard, but he's the real Salamander from Fairy Tail.
• Flanderization: Rampant in the fillers. Gray is all Juvia talks about, and Fried is unable to make a simple decision without wondering what Laxus would do.
• Floating Continent: Edolas has several, the most prominent being the one where Extalia lies.
• Fluffy the Terrible:
  • Arguably, Mystogan, an S-Class wizard on par with Laxus who's name suggests that he's useful for watering your houseplants. In the second OVA he literally carries squirt bottles.
  • Also, Pantherlilly, who is one of Faust's generals.
  • Also Elfman and the name Fairy Tail in general.
• Foil: All over the place.
  • Laxus and Mystogan are both S-Class wizards that don't spend much time in the guild. Laxus is a flashy Jerkass Social Darwinist who thinks he's too good to hang around the weaklings in Fairy Tail, while Mystogan is a Shrouded in Myth Master of Illusion who is ashamed of where he comes from and wants to thwart his father's plan to turn this world's wizards into Lacrima. Laxus dresses in flashy clothing, such as a fur lined jacket and a royal purple shirt, while Mystogan wears baggy clothes in black and gray.
  • Another foil for Laxus is his grandfather, Makarov: A wise and humble old man with the power to flatten a city and who prefers not to fight except as a last resort. Makarov has a habit of downplaying how much of an effect his guidance has on his highly successful guild, and attributing it all to the members.
  • Natsu and Gray are an obvious example. They're quite similar in age and temperament, but use opposing types of magic, and Natsu is Hot-Blooded and impulsive while Gray is more thoughtful and methodical.
  • Erza and Lucy. They're both young, attractive, and want what's best for their friends, but Erza is a calm and collected S-Class wizard who fights with melee weaponry ^note Though sometimes she tends to take things way too seriously and Lucy is a summoner who's always freaking out over something. They even have opposite running gags; every time Lucy tries to use her sex appeal it fails but Erza always succeeds at seduction. Also Lucy had a privileged upbringing but Erza was Made a Slave when she was a young girl.
  • Erza and Mirajane: They're both the same age, a little off and were constantly bickering with each other and later they're both the relative Team Moms of the guild. Erza is the stern one while Mirajane is the bubbly one. They are also both the guild's "faces" in their own way; Mirajane as Fairy Tail's poster girl and Erza as one of their most active S-Class Wizards and thus a symbol of Fairy Tail's strength. They also have equally tragic pasts. Erza was Made a Slave when she was young, while Mira was banished from her home for her magic. Oh, and they're both major badasses, with their combat skills nearly matching each other's.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The biggest since the first chapter. The aura of Igneel is often shown in Natsu's battles. During the battle against Faust, we also see the aura of Metallicana and Grandeeney. In the Fighting Festival arc, Natsu and Gajeel can't pass through the barrier around Fairy Tail (Fried set up an enchanted barrier that prevents anyone over the age of 80 from leaving the guild hall). Chapter 400 reveals that Igneel was in Natsu the whole time, as was Metallicana in Gajeel. They couldn't leave the guild hall because they had centuries-old dragons inside them.
  • Wendy is shown in some Fairy Tail group shots well before being invited to join.
  • Gemi and Mini show up in a couple chapter covers long before they are ever introduced. Though, since they just look like a couple of odd creatures (never too surprising in Mashima works), it's easy to just pass over them.
  • In Chapter 24, Mirajane mentions that there are only five mages (only S-Class members) allowed on the second floor. She only names four. But since the master is the one doing the allowing, who is the fifth one? Well, in chapter 25 we clearly see her on the second floor without trouble from anyone. She gives Laxus an angry face when he teases Fairy Tail that they'd all die. An angry face he claims "he hasn't seen in a long time".
  • In the last shot of the anime's second opening, Loke is seen standing behind Lucy and next to her Celestial Spirits. Turns out Loke is a Celestial Spirit himself.
  • At one point in the third opening, there's a shot of Natsu with Gajeel and Laxus leering in the background.
  • Episode 4 ends with scenes not in the manga, including a battle with enemy wizards, one of whom is a fortune teller who predicts that Gray "will have problems with water and women." *cough*Juvia*cough*
  • Added scenes in Episode 26 hint toward Loke being a Celestial Spirit.
  • During the Battle of Fairy Tail, Freed sets up a barrier around the guild that won't let anyone older than 80 pass with the intention of keeping Makarov out of the fighting. However, Natsu and Gajeel can't get through, either. It takes a whopping 357 chapters to find out that all the Dragon Slayers, save for Laxus and Cobra, are actually from 400 years in the past.
  • If you notice the cover for Chapter 197, Edolas Lisanna isn't part of the Edolas Fairy Tail guild waving goodbye. Why is that? She's actually Earthland Lisanna!
  • Remember how Gajeel wanted a cat before the beginning of the Edolas arc? Guess what he gets at the end of the Edolas arc? In extension, the anniversary of Lisanna's "death" just happened to be arriving right before the Edolas arc. Guess who shows up while Mirajane and Elfman are visiting her grave at the end of the Edolas arc.
  • The anime adds in a scene where Gajeel's action figure has a place on its stand for a small cat. The Natsu/Happy and Wendy/Carla figurines are sold in pairs, so they figure that Gajeel is eventually going to get a feline companion.
  • Natsu telling Zalty (Reitei Lyon's Dragon) that he smells like a woman. Zalty is actually Ultear in disguise.
  • Episode 117 is titled "Thunder Crashes," and there's a thunderstorm over Sirius Island and astraphobia (fear of lightning) running rampant among the Fairy Tail mages present. When our heroes' battle with Master Hades takes a turn for the worst, and Hades is about to finish Natsu off with his Bullet Magic, Laxus makes a Big Damn Heroes moment, surprising both mages by jumping down in-between them, to the unpleasant shock of Hades and joyous relief of Team Natsu.
  • The last page for Chapter 234, a seemingly out of place page with a boy, who resembles an older Romeo, staring at the sea; he appears again in Sirius Island arc's ending marking the beginning of a 7 year Time Skip, the year is X791, this date could be seen in the boy's next appearance on the newspaper next to him.
  • During the Tower of Heaven arc, when we learn about Erza's backstory, you see the Oración Seis members, who were slaves.
  • The cover photo of Chapter 325 had Yukino with angel wings, fueling speculation that her sister Sorano, is Angel from Oración Seis. Chapter 365 had Jellal refer to Angel by her first name: Sorano.
  • There's some sort of relationship between Gray and Silver
  • There have been hints that Natsu is E.N.D. throughout the series.
    • Natsu is not affected by Curse Magic, which is fatal to humans. Him actually being a demon mitigates that quickly.
    • E.N.D. has been stated to be a flame spirit.
    • Natsu manages to tag along with Lucy to the Spirit World, a place where humans can't tread. Being a demon? Not that much of a problem.
    • Zeref asks Natsu, oddly, if they meet for their next fight, would it be Natsu facing him or E.N.D.? Seeing as he's Etherious Natsu Dragneel, this probably hints to a Superpowered Evil Side.
    • Oh, and then there was the cover page for chapter freaking 1!; see, what is under the "R" of "Fairy Tail"?
  • In episode 96, Makarov mentions how the members of Fairy Tail are like his children. During that, there's a scene that focus a bit on Gildart and Cana. A later episode would revealed that the two are actually father and daughter.
  • There are a couple of hints before the reveal that it is August, not Larcade, that is Zeref and Mavis' son.
    • First is that, given the timeline, any child of theirs should be much older than Larcade.
    • Second, August describes the child as having "a power that is neither light nor dark". This doesn't fit with Larcade's white magic but it does with his own ability to copy whatever magic he faces.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Subverted. Though Simon and Ur both seem to quickly vanish from memory after their arcs, Simon comes up whenever Jellal plays a key role in an arc, and Ur's fate ends up playing a role in resolving Ultear's story roughly 200 chapters after she was last mentioned.
• For the Evulz: Edolas!Erza admits that she hunts people down solely because she likes causing pain.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: At the end of each volume there's a Q&A corner that Lucy and Mirajane take part of with occasional visits from other characters.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Episode 19, involving all the True Companions... and Loke.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: Natsu does this to Erza after rescuing her from Jellal the first time.
• Friendship-Hating Antagonist: Exaggerated; because the show is Anvilicious about The Power of Friendship, every Big Bad (and most his minions) dismiss friendship as an obstacle to power.
• Fridge Logic: Invoked with the name "Fairy Tail". Seems like the name was chosen because the question of whether fairies actually have tails inspires a mage to think and grow.
• Frivolous Summoning: Lucy's Zodiac summons have been on the end of this more than once.
  • Back in the past when Lucy was little, she was given Aquarius's key and would often summon her just to have a playmate to Aquarius annoyance. This is the reason why she's usually so belligerent to Lucy in the present time of the story whenever she's summoned as Aquarius held a bit of a grudge for it despite Lucy having long grown out of her childish mentality.
  • Lucy ends up taking a quest to help a town who need water as their central fountain has been broken. Lucy summons Aquarius to fill in by having Aquarius stand in the middle of the broken fountain and using her urn to produce water until the town has their fountain fixed. While the town is understandably happy that they got water again while Aquarius ends up being less then pleased at being used by Lucy as a temporary replacement for a broken fountain.
  • While Lucy has summoned Cancer on several occasions to help, one notable incident stands out as this. Lucy near the end of the Tartaros arc summons Cancer to make Wendy's short hair long again after the latter cut it earlier in the arc. While Cancer is perfectly fine doing this it wasn?t something Lucy had to do for Wendy and could have just let Wendy grow her hair out again normally.
• Funny Background Event: Repeatedly, and most prominent in scenes with the entire guild.
• Furo Scene: Happens quite a lot, almost all of them with Lucy.
  • Most notably the first ones are in Episode 3 and Chapter 4.
  • Lucy has three more as filler scenes in Episodes 21, 29, and 42.
  • Lucy and Cana have two together near the beginning and end of the S-Class Trial arc.
  • The Fairy Tail special, Welcome to Fairy Hills!, has one with Erza, Evergreen, Levy, Bisca, Juvia, and Laki.
  • Chapter 261 does it in an Onsen, this time with the "guys trying to peep on the female side" part (led by Natsu of all people!) Naturally, Erza sees no problem in telling them to join...

G

• Game-Breaker: Invoked in the Grand Magic Games arc with the choice of how many monsters to fight in one of the games in the Magic Tournament. The game has a house ("Pandemonium") with 100 monsters inside, whose strengths vary from scary (D class) to not-even-mentioned (S-Class). Each competitor picks the number that they want to fight at one time, but only gets 1 point per monster (regardless of class), and can't leave until either they or the monsters are defeated/dead. This game gets repeated until either all monsters are defeated or all eight contestants run out of magical energy. A contestant who gets defeated during a round will be eliminated and only the points of the previous successful rounds will be counted. After no less than 6 pages spent laying all this out, answering contestant questions, and demonstrating how powerful the monsters are, Erza picks all of them. Even though she only needs 51 to win. When she's done, the other 7 competitors are reduced to punching a device to measure their power level. She lampshades this when she finds out she's going first by saying "with this, it's no longer a game."
• Gecko Ending: Fortunately averted. The anime-only Daphne filler arc was supposed to be the anime's ending at 72 episodes.
• Gender-Blender Name: Mashima has something of a habit of this: Charles (localized as "Carla"), Panther Lily, God Serena, Eve of the Tri-men. Mavis was going to be a man until Mashima found out it was a feminine name, implying it's the result of his unfamiliarity with western languages at work.
• Genuine Imposter:
  • Carla claimed to be the Exceeds' princess to prevent Edolas!Erza from arresting her and Happy. Turns out that she really is Queen Chagot's daughter.
  • It had another case pop up some time after Carla's. In the Sirius Island arc, a Fairy Tail member named Mest is introduced in a Remember the New Guy? fashion. The Remember the New Guy? thing eventually turns out to be justified when "Mest" turns out to be a member of the Magic Council named Doranbolt with memory manipulation powers, who infiltrated Fairy Tail and manipulated everyone's memory to have them think he had be there for years. After the arc ends, Doranbolt resumes being a Magic Council member. At the end of the Tartaros Arc, Doranbolt discovers he's actually a member of a wizard guild who infiltrated the Magic Council to get information for his guild master and wiped his own memory and that of all his guildmates except his master to reduce his chances of being discovered. His real identity: Mest Gryder from Fairy Tail.
• Genius Loci: The Mirror Mansion in the Drama CD, which gained a soul through the magic developed by its former occupants.
• Gentle Giant:
  • Makarov is an inversion. He's normally kind and gentle, when he's two feet tall, but when he uses his Titan Magic, it means he's about to kick someone's ass.
  • Also Gildarts, a tall and strong man with a gentle and laid-back personality.
• Gilligan Cut:
  • Chapter 309: The leader of the Hungry Wolves tells Natsu he will repent his for his sins by dying, with Natsu responding he never did anything bad. Cue to a Gilligan Cut with Makarov having a face full of dread because he suddenly remembered all of the apology letters he had to send to due to Natsu's antics.
  • During the side chapter "Natsu and Asuka", Natsu and Asuka are in a shooting competition, with the stakes being that the loser has to do what the winner says. Natsu gets worked up and declares that he'll win, but after a panel of Lucy and Happy commenting on his immaturity, the next panel cuts to Asuka, victorious. It ultimately turns out that Natsu let her win.
• Girlish Pigtails: Has become Lucy's signature hairstyle after the Time Skip instead of the side ponytail she used to have. Wendy also usually wears her hair in pigtails.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Loke does this to Caprico before their battle, as seen on this masterpiece
• Giving Up the Ghost:
  • This happens to Mira during the guild brawl in Episode 2, and to Kageyama in Episode 8.
  • Also to Makarov during the anime, when contemplating the property damage team Natsu caused while taking out Lullaby.
  • In the anime, this happens to the Element 4's Sol against Elfman, only for it to be grabbed, stuffed back in, only to be given again.
• Godzilla Threshold: There are multiple instances of this, but probably the most tragic example is Lucy having to sacrifice her Aquarius gate key to summon the Celestial Spirit King. Doing so will give her a chance to escape the incredibly dire situation she's in, but she also permanently loses access to the spirit she's been contracted to the longest.
• Gonk:
  • Duke Everlue. And Virgo while she was contracted to him.^note Virgo explains that she takes whatever form pleases her master...implying Everlue had weird tastes.
  • Mirajane's Imagine Spot of Elfman and Evergreen's child.
  • Wally, Richard, and Ichiya.
• Good Costume Switch:
  • Bickslow loses the skulls on his shoulders and gains a tuft on the back of his hood, making him look more like a knight.
  • Juvia is debatable, as her before and after outfits don't look particularly good or evil, just gloomy vs. cheerful.
  • Similar to Juvia, Laxus' gaudy outfit never signified him as evil, just prideful. His new one when he returns to fight Hades is a simple hooded traveling cloak.
• Gratuitous English: The worst examples are in the opening songs, especially "S.O.W. Sense of Wonder".
• Gratuitous Spanish
  • Oración Seis, "Prayer Six".
  • Juvia's name is taken from "Lluvia," which is Spanish for rain.
• Green Thumb: Droy, Lucky, Azuma, and Beth.
• Green Rocks: Lacrima, which are used to store different types of magic.
• Griefer: Raven Tail's strategy in the tournament appears to be this; they don't seem that concerned if they actually win as long as they make sure the Fairy Tail wizards lose as badly as possible. One of this guild's members, Flare, even gets beaten up when she almost loses her battle with Lucy if not for one of her guildmate's intervention.
• Grievous Harm with a Body:
  • During the Grand Magic Games, Natsu slams Rogue into Sting in the Dragon Slayer doubles match.
  • In the Avatar arc, Lucy grabs an enemy mook with her whip and briefly uses him as an Epic Flail against the other nearby mooks.
• Groin Attack: Lucy goes all out with this one. She convinces Jose that yes, she is in fact going to use a bucket as a toilet if he's not going to let her use a washroom. Then she winds up and kicks him in the balls from behind in an attempt to escape.
• Growling Gut: It Happens Alot on Episode 9.
• Guns vs. Swords: Erza and Bisca use the same kind of magic and the latter admires the former, although an extra chapter/episode reveals that they met when Erza tracked Bisca down as a criminal who impersonated a Fairy Tail member.

H

• Handicapped Badass:
  • Gildarts, who can still toss other guild members on their ass even if he loses an arm, a leg, and "some organs" to Acnologia, the Black Dragon.
  • Ur is this as well: having lost her leg to Deliora due to protecting Gray/Lyon, she simply makes an icy prosthetic and goes on to kick the demon's ass. "Don't you think molding magic is wonderful?"
• Happily Married: Alzack and Bisca, after the Time Skip. With a kid, too.
• Hated Item Makeover: When Natsu first meets Zeref on Sirius Island, Zeref's death curse activates with Natsu only surviving thanks to his scarf absorbing the miasma which involuntary turns Natsu's white scarf black. Once Natsu realizes his scarf is now black he's less then pleased and intends to find Zeref and beat him up for it, with Natsu temporary wearing his jacket inside out in order to solve his fashion dilemma. His scarf is later turned back to normal by Wendy thanks to her removing said miasma, with Natsu being very happy about it.
• Heal It With Fire:
  • Natsu does this to Macao in order to keep him alive long enough to reach treatment towards the beginning of the series (manga only).
  • Natsu suggests doing this to Erza when she is poisoned and they think they need to cut off her arm, but luckily Wendy arrives in time.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: Right before Zeref kills Zancrow.
• Heel–Face Return: When Natsu and his friends return from the Tower of Heaven, they suddenly discover that Gajeel has joined their guild. They are not amused.
• Heel–Face Turn: Kageyama, Lyon and most of his underlings, Juvia, Shou, Simon, Wally and Millianna, Gajeel, Fried, Laxus, a Nirvana-influenced Hoteye, Jellal (though he was mind-controlled by Ultear), Merudy, Ultear, Sorano, and the Celestial Spirits Virgo, Gemini, Caelum, and Capricorn (though the last was possessed by Zoldeo). In short, Fairy Tail loves this trope.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Jellal, though a lot of the times it only looks like he's changing sides at the time.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend:
  • Lucy, whenever Happy or someone else eggs her on about her relationship with Loke.
  • Also happens with Virgo egging Lucy on, only about Natsu. Poor girl never catches a break.
  • And a variant whenever Juvia accuses her of being after Gray.
  • A more recent example is occurred during the S-Class Trial with two of the minor characters, Elfman and Evergreen.
• Helpless Kicking: While being held by the dragon Zirconis, all Lucy can do is flail her legs in empty air out of fear of his intent to eat her alive after dragging (err flying as it were) her into the sky. Even after narrowly avoiding being eaten alive by him thanks to her friends intervention, Lucy knows that Zirconis still intends to eat her, but all she can do is flail her legs in the air out of terror while still trapped in his grip.
• Hero Antagonist: The magic council, especially Doranbolt and Lahal.
  • Every competing guild in the Tournament Arc save, Raven Tail. Yes, even Sabertooth.
    • Then came Chapter 281, it shows that Sabertooth isn't so good after all.
• Heroic BSoD: Gildarts does this to Natsu (the local Determinator and Idiot Hero) in the S-Class Trial arc by putting the fear in him. That's right, what dozens of obscenely powerful villains, near-death experiences, and assorted demons could not do in 200+ chapters, he did it in the span of five panels and he did this simply by getting serious. That how badass Gildarts is. It should be pointed that this is a more benign example than usual, for he does it to help Natsu grow as a wizard.
• Heroic Fantasy: Fairy Tail as a manga is inspired by European tales of old from various cultures, but is set mostly in a town in the middle of a world fabricated completely by the mangaka where magic is commonplace, and there are parallel universes. Time is measured in centuries that haven't reached 4 digits yet, and yet 20th Century inventions exist, and everyone wears some degree of classical costumes and modern designer clothes for some reason! Swords and sorcery are present in many forms.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Ur and Simon. Erza, Juvia, and Lyon all try at some point, but ended up surviving.
• Heroic Second Wind: How Natsu wins virtually every battle with an arc villain. He'll get kicked around a bit, either make a speech about who he's fighting for or obtain a magic power up, then defeat his opponent easily. This is subverted in the fight with Hades, where even the second wind isn't enough and it takes his whole team attacking while the Exceed destroy Hades' special power source to stop him.
  • Inverted in the Tournament Arc. Gajeel and Natsu spend a chapter creaming Sting and Rogue without even breaking out any noteworthy magic. The two then force themselves to stand back up, Sting declares that he has to win for Lector's sake, and both of them invoke Dragon Force.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Performed mid-battle by Juvia while a member of Phantom Lord. She is one of only two characters who changed guilds at the end of the Phantom Lord arc, the other being Gajeel.
• High School AU: The entire premise of the second OVA. All the characters retain their basic personality traits, but they manifest in different ways. (e.g. Natsu has Tabasco sauce and hot rocks instead of fire magic, Gray eats snow cones and has his stripping fetish, Lucy uses her cell phone to call in favors from friends). The plot for the second half is essentially a truncated Phantom Lord retelling.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The Alvarez Empire is built up as far stronger and far more evil than anything Fairy Tail has ever faced - such an insurmountable force that Makarov disbands the guild rather than face them. However, we later find out that the Emperor of the Alvarez Empire is a villain we already know quite well, Zeref.
• Home Field Advantage: Sirius Island, the holy land of the eponymous Guild where any mage with the Fairy Tail crest is given a large boost in magic power as long as they're on the island. Well, it WAS that way anyway...
• Hope Spot:
  • The whole battle with Grimoire Heart is a sequence of these. Gajeel defeating the first arriving Grimoire Heart members, nearly killing himself in the process? These are only scouts, and the real enemy fighting force, the Seven Kin of Purgatory, are far more powerful. Makarov getting serious from the beginning and nearly destroying Grimoire Heart's airship? The airship is restored in seconds and guild master Hades steps up to curbstomp Makarov. Fairy Tail members on the island managing to defeat most of the Seven Kin, thanks to the power of the Sirius Tree powering up everyone in the guild? Hades' second-in-command, Bluenote, steps in and blows most of those still standing away with no effort. Cana managing to bring and use one of the 3 secret magics of Fairy Tail, Fairy Glitter, to bear against Bluenote? It doesn't work because he's just that much more powerful than her. Gildarts, Fried, and Bickslow returning to the island and seemingly overpowering Grimoire Heart members for a moment? Azuma seizes control of the island's magic so that instead of protecting Fairy Tail members from death, it instead drains their power. Natsu, with the combined power of his and Laxus' respective elements, proceeding to kick Hades' ass before finally knocking the guy out? Hades gets up without a scratch five minutes later and whips out his strongest magic.
  • The arc's ending gives us the ultimate Hope Spot: Hades defeated? Island back to normal and no one died? Cue giant black dragon which proceeds to No-Sell all of Fairy Tail, right before appearing to blow up Sirius Island with everyone still on it. Ultimately a subversion thanks to well-executed writing which revealed the final of the three great Fairy Tail spells, Fairy Sphere, but it wasn't revealed until seven years later in universe.
• Hot-Blooded: Natsu.
• Hot Springs Episode:
  • During the Loke arc with Lucy and Erza.
  • There is another one in Chapter 261 with Lucy, Erza, Wendy, Levy, and Juvia. Natsu, Gray, Jet, and Droy try to do some Outdoor Bath Peeping.
  • Yet another in Chapter 355, courtesy of Walrot Seeken, supplying Erza, Lucy, Wendy and Carla with the location of a secret spring. They don't notice Natsu, Gray and Happy until after they get in and talk about how it's probably not their thing. Then their host joins them too.
• Hotter and Sexier: Over time, the ladies have developed larger, rounder breasts and hips. Their curves are also put on display more often, either from Clothing Damage or from already revealing outfits.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Fairy Tail completely falls apart after the tragedy of Sirius Island and is now a nearly defunct guild that can't get any jobs. The few members who remain are haunted by the loss of their friends and are constantly harassed by the town's new dominant guild.
  • Because of this, the Grand Magic Games is presented as a way of winning back their previous spot at the best guild in Fiore. Which they do, but it's definitely far from easy.
• Humongous Mecha: King Faust owns one called Doroma Animu, a mecha dragon.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Levy and Gajeel, as partners for the S-Class exam. Levy stands about five feet tall, and Gajeel is tall enough that he can — and does — use Levy's head as a convenient elbow rest.
  • Elfman, with everyone. Most of the women around him aren't actually tiny, it's just he's so stupidly huge. He's in the running for largest Fairy Tail member, even standing a good head taller than most of the guys.
• Humans Are Bastards: Zeref believes this. It's why he wants to wipe out humanity. Turns out being Really Four Hundred Years Old lets you see some rather unfortunate and recurring traits of human nature, and with his Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds personality, it was the perfect storm to create a Misanthrope Supreme.
• Hyperspace Wardrobe:
  • Erza sometimes uses her power in this way. She loves being dressed for the occasion.
  • In Chapter 183, Natsu and Lucy find a machine that can change a person's clothing magically and surprise surprise, it's used for more Fanservice.
• Hypocrite: Fairy Tail criticizing Raven Tail for cheating. While they're NOWHERE near as bad as they are, they haven't exactly been adhering to the rules very strictly either.
  • To be fair to Fairy Tail, the stated objective of Jellal posing as Mystogan during the Grand Magic Games is to investigate the strange magic Crime Sorcerie detected. The fact that he had to fight as a contestant was just gravy to him. Now Makarov's intentions on the other hand...
  • Miriana apparently hates people who dress up as cats since they're not "real" cats. And yet she's a human-cat hybrid (it's not explained why she's like this or if there's any explanation after all). Natsu appropriately calls her out on this.
  • After the second time skip, Natsu complains about Fairy Tail disbanding in his absence, when, as Lucy points out, he'd left while only leaving behind a letter. She largely forgives him, but reminds him about it when he complains about Gray leaving Juvia behind without even leaving a note.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Lullaby calling Natsu a Monster. It's become a Running Gag.
  • Gray telling Natsu to put a shirt on or Lyon telling Gray to put a shirt on despite not wearing one.
    Lyon: Gray, do something about that stripping fetish.
    Gray: I don't wanna hear that from you!

I

• I Am Spartacus: After seeing that the Earthland versions of Hughes, Sugarboy, and Coco have no idea what Lucy looks like, Michelle, Natsu, and the other guild members invoke this in order to let Lucy escape safely.
• If It's You, It's OK: Erza's not one to let random men, and especially not FT members, grope her, but in chapter 298, Mystogan does accidentally, and she says it's ok. Because she knows it's actually Jellal, who's broken out of prison to atone for his sins at the Tower of Heaven by taking out dark guilds as a member of Crime Sorcière.
• Immortality Inducer: During the Sirius Island arc, Hades' source of power and life is a device called Devil's Heart. The good guys have one too in the form of the Sirius Tree growing on their sacred island.
• An Ice Person:
  • Gray, Lyon, and Ur with their Ice Make magic.
  • Eve with his Snow Magic.
  • Ultear.
• Idiot Ball:
  • Team Natsu (and even Carla and Lily) charging into Hades' ship while exhausted and with the knowledge that Hades defeated Makarov. They didn't even need to since Hades wasn't going anywhere and his objective (Zeref) was elsewhere. Grabbing Zeref (Gray even knew where he was) and leaving would have been infinitely more intelligent and was never even considered. This is more an example of Honor Before Reason. Perhaps Natsu wouldn't have considered running with Zeref under any circumstances, but he'd be the only one of that group. No, Grimoire Heart had kicked in their door, basically invaded their home and trying to kill them all off, on top of successfully destroying the island. It wasn't that they were unable to consider tactics, it was that they were pissed.
• Idiot Hero: Natsu's actually a subversion. He's quite intelligent, he's just too impulsive to actually use his brain.
  • And that actually becomes a key element in his fight against Cobra of Oración Seis. "This can't be...! This guy...! He isn't thinking at all!" To be fair, that was in the heat of battle... and only when he realized he had to, as until and after that point he was continually trying to use clever strategies only to have them thwarted via mind reading.
• Ignored Enemy: The anime occasionally Lampshades this by cutting to the opponent's nonplussed reaction while the main characters are ignoring them to argue amongst themselves.
• I Let You Win: How Cana and Lucy were able to defeat Fried and Bickslow so quickly during the S-Class exam.
  • Also turns out to be used by Mest in the same event.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Gray and Makarov.
• Implausible Fencing Powers
  • Erza, naturally.
  • Ikaruga even more so. She cuts through dimensions.
  • Edolas Mirajane, though without the Implausible Fencing Powers.
  • Kagura can cut with her sword still sheathed.
• Important Haircut:
  • Fried Justine, after Laxus is excommunicated from the guild, gets a buzz-cut. Which sucked because he had such pretty long green hair... It's alright though. It grows back between then and the end of the Nirvana arc.
  • Edolas!Lucy does this as well to differentiate herself from Earthland!Lucy, though there's a minor subversion, in that she claims it isn't important because the people in Edolas are too focused on trying to survive instead of their appearance. It's still viewed as an Important Haircut by the others, though.
  • Edolas!Erza also pulls this stunt for the same reason as Edolas!Lucy. Erza knocking her out, stealing her clothes, and impersonating her probably helped in that decision.
  • Juvia after joining the guild.
  • In the middle of the Tartaros arc, Wendy chops her own hair off in the midst of a self-directed Rousing Speech.
• Imagine Spot:
  • Lucy pulls this a few times.
  • Juvia sometimes gets this after misinterpreting one of Gray's comments as a come-on.
  • Natsu, Happy and Wendy each imagine what Edolas Erza would be like. They're all DEAD WRONG.
• Imagine Spotting: Juvia's Imagine Spots are either visible or everyone just knows her too well. Carla being able to see them is probably due to her having mild psychic powers.
• Incendiary Exponent: For Natsu a typical meal is usually something like a chicken leg, a plate of spaghetti, and a drink; only everything is on fire. Even the drink. With regards to the drink, maybe it's not so impossible if we consider one of those flaming cocktails◊.
• Inconvenient Summons: Defied. One of the first things a Celestial Wizard must do when bonding with a spirit is to work out a schedule for when they can be summoned.
• Indignant Slap: After Lucy hears that Gray wants nothing to do with the Fairy Tail guild as it means nothing to him anymore since joining the Avatar cult, Lucy is so upset by this that she promptly walks up to Gray and slaps him in the face.
• Informed Ability:
  • Erza says that Ichiya is a powerful wizard, but thus far he's been beaten up for comic relief, got taken out by a party of nameless thugs, and the only useful ability he shows are perfumes that can act as a painkiller and temporarily boost his strength, both of which have only been used once.
    • As if to underline this, his stats given for the Grand Magic Games are downright pathetic, leaving him outclassed not only by his own teammates, but by everyone else participating in the tournament.
    • Chapter 293 finally sheds light on the extent of his strength.
  • Not counting Irene and Acnologia's flashbacks where random Dragon Slayers and Acnologia himself are shown slaying dragons and the movie Dragon Cry where Natsu was able to take down Animus, none of the present day Dragon Slayers in the series proper are shown to actually be able to kill a dragon with their own power despite possessing the formidable title that implies as much, particularly when they fight the Eclipse Dragons and do varying degrees of damage but can't really finish the job. Mavis and several of the Dragon Slayers themselves acknowledge this fact and even towards the end when Natsu kills Acnologia, he could only truly finish off the dragon by being powered up by all the other Dragon Slayers by his side and having all of Ishgar in the outside world restrain him by trapping his dragon body in Fairy Sphere.
• Innocent Fanservice Guy: Gray.
• Instant Allegiance Artifact: Nirvana, arguably.
• Instant Runes: In the anime any overt use of magic creates this—noticeably, Dragon Slayer magic has a dragon head as the central design.
• Instrument of Murder: Zeref's Lullaby demon flute, as well as Vidaldus' guitar.
• Interactive Narrator: Subverted. Horologium becomes this when Lucy is inside him, relaying whatever she says in third-person narrative.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: With Flunk Punk Rumble of all series (apparently because it's Mashima's favorite series, done by a former assistant). And apparently the author of that series's favorite author is Mashima, so that probably helped things along quite a bit. Most stunning of all is despite the WTF, it ain't half bad. The joint attraction of having both series' voices of reason in the same place being just one hilarious example.
• Invisible Jerkass: In a filler episode. Lucy isn't the worst offender out there, but the first thing she does when she reaches Fairy Tail is get everyone to fight one another.^note She does this after they made fun of her.
• Ironic Echo Cut: Season 2, Episode 86.
  (while trying to find way through the labyrinth-like castle)
  Lucy: "It honestly wouldn't surprise me if there was an amusement park here as well."
  (cut to Gray, Natsu, Lucy looking stunned in front of an amusement park)
  Lucy: "What? There really is an amusement park!"
• Irony:
  • Meta example: Happy has a crush on the Tsundere Carla. He's voiced by Rie Kugimiya. Furthermore Carla is voiced by Yui Horie whose Star-Making Role was also a Tsundere, Narusegawa Naru. Twin tsundere attack?
  • Another meta example: The attack Natsu uses to finish off Laxus has "Gurren" as part of it's name.
• Is It Something You Eat?: Natsu's response when Lucy asks if he knows what joints are: What are those? They sound tasty.
• It's All My Fault: Gray does this during the Galuna Island arc. As a child, he set out to defeat the demon Deliora, who had killed his parents. His mentor Ur saved him by sacrificing herself to seal Deliora away. He's lived with the guilt ever since.
  • Jellal. Even though he was Brainwashed and Crazy at the time.