YMMV / Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest

• Adorkable:
  • Kiria of all people becomes this in Chapter 116 when she swallows her pride and helps the guild out, telling them not to get the wrong idea and that she’s doing it for Suzaku, who’s a friend of hers. Laxus gives her headpats, saying she has a really cute side to her, causing her to give one of the most memorable examples of a Crush Blush in the whole franchise. Best part is she doesn’t even realize it.
  • As it turns out, Misaki has similar adorable qualities when she calls Erza and Selene "girlies" and even sweetly offers to help them both wash off.
  • Even Selene herself gets in on this during bath time when Misaki helps her wash herself, at which point she beams and shouts "Ahhhh!" with a heart appearing.
• Anti-Climax Boss: See here.
• Arc Fatigue: It's very easy to fall into the illusion of this given the series runs on a bi-weekly schedule rather than Fairy Tail's weekly one, which to those used to the latter can end up making events feel stretched out, despite the in-universe pacing being roughly the same. For example, the below-mentioned Water Dragon arc is only 24 chapters, which is comparable to the swiftly-paced Phantom Lord arc (23 chapters) but in real-time took nearly twice as long to get out due to the different release schedules.
  • The Water Dragon arc has been known to test some readers' patience. While some like that it gives the character more development, others are annoyed since the arc basically amounted to meeting said water dragon, getting sidetracked by an opposing guild, and then having to come back and fight said dragon when he goes berserk.
  • The Wood Dragon starts off with the main characters fighting with the White Mage and the brainwashed Fairy Tail members, another brawl with Diabolos in the middle that fight, the dragon awakening and then having to fight what could be considered anti-bodies on it.
• Ass Pull: See here.
• Better on DVD: Many readers have noted that, with the series only releasing a chapter once every two weeks, the pacing can be rather abrupt and cause events to feel unsatisfactory, but when read together as per reading a Volume of a manga, the pacing flows better.
• Bizarro Episode: Chapter 25 focuses on the group meeting the celebrity guild "Fairy Nail", a group of Identical Strangers that make many tongue-in-cheek jokes about the dynamics in the guild, culminating with Erza swapping places with her doppelganger Erkis so that Erza can take her place in a theater performance, leading to cringe comedy. For that matter, no explanation is given as to why the doppelgangers exist, unlike Edolas, which was an Alternate Universe, and their occupations are rather odd.^note Elkis, Erza's aforementioned counterpart, is an actress and rather bashful. Natsu's counterpart is an actor with his manager being Lucy's, and the two are in a relationship and frequently have sex at the guild. Gray's counterpart is a pole dancer and seems to be in a relationship with Juvia's, a swimsuit model who jokingly called herself a topless dancer. Wendy's is an acting prodigy. Carla's is human with a pet cat serving as Happy's counterpart. Levy's and Gajeel's are a married couple that perform a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine, with their own pet cat serving for Lily. Mirajane's and Lisanna's are models with Elfman's as their makeup artist. Laxus' and the Raijin Tribe's are a band. Cana's is a foot model. And Loke's is a porn star.
• Continuity Lockout: As a sequel to Fairy Tail, 100 Years Quest picks up right where the original manga ended without skipping any beats, with its first chapter playing out more like the overall 546th chapter of the series.
• Complete Monster: Aldoron, the Wood Dragon God, regained his health and power by leeching off the lives of innocents in the towns upon him when asleep. Upon awakening, Aldoron devours the life of 300,000 innocents before attempting to kill Fairy Tail and torture Natsu, intending to sweep over the land of Guilitina and destroy all of it. Aldoron announces plans to consume the other four Dragon Gods and take the world, mocking any other who believes in peace with humankind.
• Designated Villain: The Diabolos Guild. Despite their confrontations with Fairy Tail and the deplorable behavior of their Guild Master (and Kiria), they’re a legal guild who haven’t actually done anything illegal and are said to be the best on the continent. This is acknowledged by Team Natsu, even if they make it clear they won't just let Diabolos walk over them if they start another fight, and is key for their Enemy Mine and eventual ceasefire after the events of the Labyrinth of Dogra. Even Kiria turns over a new leaf and starts truly respecting the guild during and after the whole Labyrinth ordeal.
• Die for Our Ship: Touka hasn't gone over well with Natsu and Lucy shippers, who view her introduction as serving little more than to drop a cog in the wheel. Much of that quickly subsided when the story started dropping hints that she's more than she's letting on. It later completely subsided when it was revealed that Touka was an Exceed (possessed by the White Mage), who was actually in love with Happy through a case of Mistaken Identity, and the White Mage's true identity, Faris, is not visibly interested in Natsu either.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Selene is the Moon Dragon God and the most recurring one out of the five and has proven herself to be one of the most popular and memorable characters of the sequel due to being a combination of The Chessmaster, The Woman Behind the Man and a Physical God with an interesting motivation. Her seizing control of Diabolos is easily one of the most spectacular moments in the history of both the original manga and the sequel. She won third place in the Most Popular Character polls (beating out Jellal, Natsu, and many others from the original series), which also means she scored first place out of all the new characters by a staggering amount.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • When it was first revealed that Touka is the White Mage, a great witch whose power rivals Zeref the Black Wizard, fans connected the two to an old fable told by Irene in the main series about a battle between two "angels", one black and one white, over a man that could potentially reference Natsu, Zeref's brother and Touka's apparent object of obsession. The hang-up is that both "angels" are specifically female in the Japanese version^note more specifically tennyo, or "heavenly maidens", which are angelic beings in Japanese Buddhist culture. This died down with the latter revelation that Touka is actually an innocent bystander being possessed by the White Mage, and the "White Mage" herself isn't actually the real one.
  • The revelation that Dragon Slayer Lacrima are the hearts of dragons has caused much speculation as to where the various Lacrima were obtained from, and who they belonged to. The general consensus for Sting and Rogue is that their Lacrima were the hearts of their adoptive fathers given to them before hiding in their bodies, but people still speculate the origins of both Erik's, the Quantum Army's, and, especially, God Serena's Lacrima.^*God Serena had within his possession eight Dragon Slayer Lacrima, all of which were identified upon his return but only six of which were given specific names. Meaning he possesses the hearts of eight Dragons, including the Cavern (Earth), Purgatory (Fire), Sea King (Water), Gale (Wind), Diamond (Stone), and Flash (Light) Dragons, as well as a Thunder and Darkness Dragon.
  • Due to his somewhat enigmatic nature, Mysterious Past, and willingness to allow Diabolos to join the 100 Year Quest despite their attacking the Strongest Team and already having kicked Georg out of it, a subsection of fans question the legitimacy of Elefseria's motifs behind the titular quest, and wonder if he's gonna turn out to be Evil All Along. This was furthered following the battle with Dogramog, whereupon the Strongest Team come to the realization that, with Diabolos now trying to protect the injured Selene from them, they look like the bad guys in this scenario, with Diabolos pointing out that even if Selene did some shitty things, she still helped everyone against Dogramog when she didn't have to, leading Natsu to conclude that all parties have been in the wrong, that they need to judge the Dragon Gods not simply as "dragons" but by their hearts, and that means talking with Elefseria again. Upon doing so, while it's made clear Selene has no remorse for what she's done, Elefseria is cast in a less charitable light, Selene rebuking his anger at dragons killing innocent humans by asking him by what right humans had to kill innocent dragons, further casting doubt on whether Elefseria is on the up and up in the eyes of the fans.
• Franchise Original Sin: Some fans balked at how suddenly Fairy Tail became allies with Selene and Diablos in the Labyrinth arc and after, despite being antagonized by both for much of the prior story. However, early in the first series, Laxus and the Thunder Legion were quickly forgiven despite having tried to destroy Magnolia and potentially the citizens in it, even if Laxus couldn't go through it. However, the Thunder Legion was established to not actually be excited about the idea and only went through with it due to their Undying Loyalty to Laxus because of how he improved their lives, and Laxus himself ultimately didn't kill anyone and took a long absence from the guild after, making it easier to justify him reforming enough to be accepted by the Guild again. Selene and Diablos, however, don't have such excuses, Diablos having been established to do everything they did for pride and Selene herself even rejected the chance to do a My God, What Have I Done? when she was basically given a chance to do it when confronted about her actions towards humans, pointing to the humans that did try to hunt her, making it much harder to justify.
• I Knew It!:
  • Some fans predicted that Lucy would search for Aquarius's key in order to fulfill the promise she made at the end of Fairy Tail. They were proven right, since this very search is one of the sequel's subplots.
  • When the final chapter of Fairy Tail was released, many people guessed that Levy was pregnant with her and Gajeel's child. Sure enough, 100 Years Quest confirmed their suspicions.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Aside from Suzaku, Diabolos were subjected to a lot of humiliation following the Labyrinth arc and the fact that none of them won a single battle against Fairy Tail, and in fact the Dark Dragon Slayer Knights that weren't Suzaku all lost their first onscreen battles. Kirin at least got his fight with Laxus cut off for a while and was winning at the time before they were separated. Misaki and Haku both get dropped by their respective opponents without ever having any fights beforehand to give them the credibility they sorely needed. Almost all of them humiliatingly end up on the ground, looking like burnt corpses, and are not shown or acknowledged again until they randomly show up again near the end. Some of them don't even get the opportunity to make up for their embarrassing losses.
  • Gold Owl as a whole have been getting relentlessly mocked more and more as their arc goes on for embarrassingly short fights and humiliating one or two-hit defeats, especially the Signario Sisters, who God Serena had proudly stated were both far more powerful than himself, yet Erza dealt with them both consecutively on her own (with a grand total of 3 strikes on them by the end, 1 for Rousseau and 2 for Enny) without any time to breathe in between, plus she beat the two of them faster than Jellal defeated Serena in a one-on-one and she didn't even use any new requipping powers or abilities, just her usual old favorites along with attacking very fast. This is especially glaring considering how easily Rousseau toyed with her, Jellal, and Minerva all at once the last time they encountered each other and used various techniques that she did not perform later on.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Acnologia sucks at dragon hunting^ExplanationWhen it was learned that the premise of the series was hunting down five "Dragon Gods" all alledgedly as strong as Acnologia, many began mockingly pointing out how easily Acnologia overlooked them despite his claims of wanting to hunt down all dragons. While this was somewhat mitigated when it was revealed several of them used methods making it nigh-impossible for Acnologia to have found them, it returned in full force with the origins of the 5th Generation Dragon Slayers, revealing dragons had apparently still been walking around about 30 years before the story yet were somehow missed by Acnologia. God Serena's survival originally further put this into question, since it seems to indicate Acnologia couldn't be bothered to check a body, but later revelations from Irene make it clear the indicated did die and he's somehow been resurrected.
  • Natsu's Harem^ExplanationChapter 71 had Natsu and Gray facing against Hakune, who used her magic to make snow clones of the women important to the two of them that would then try to seduce them. Whereas Gray only had a clone of Juvia, Natsu was surrounded by clones, specifically Lucy, Erza, Wendy, Mirajane, Lisanna, and Cana, with him shortly after destroying them thanks to knowing they weren't real. While it's easy to understand that Natsu loves them in a familial sense, many were quick to point out that the situation made Natsu seem like a harem protagonist, especially since each of the girls fulfilled an archetypical haremette role while Natsu had the archetypical Oblivious to Love trait. As a result, whether jokeningly or not, many say Natsu now has an actual harem.
  • Mold Foul / Jobber Owl^ExplanationDue to even the strongest members of Gold Owl getting their clocks cleaned by the protagonists despite how much they were hyped up as massive threats, especially the Signario Sisters and Master Duke as said by God Serena himself.
• Salvaged Story:
  • Fans were disappointed that the original series ended before Lucy could fulfill her promise to find Aquarius' key, and her leaving on the Century Quest with her team made it dubious whether or not that would happen. The sequel rectifies this by not only making this reunion her primary motivation for committing to the quest, but also dropping hints that it will occur in this series.
  • Sorano/Angel has happily reunited with Yukino and made the most of her time with her sister as a member of Saber Tooth in the sequel, appeasing fans who felt let down by the sisters' rather stifled reunion in the original series.
  • A number of fans were irritated by the series ultimately doing Maybe Ever Afters with most of the primary romances, instead of offering conclusive answers. The sequel fortunately provides less ambiguity on the status of a number of the relationships.
    • Levy's pregnancy with Gajeel's child is fully clarified here compared to its ambiguous presentation in the original manga's ending.
    • Chapter 26 fully explores Gray's feelings toward Juvia, revealing him to be a closeted Insecure Love Interest who ultimately resolves to be more direct with her, which has pleased readers who were left unsatisfied with his awkward and half-hearted confession of love at the end of the main series.
  • The "Beta Heaven" scene in Chapter 37 helped address two huge concerns readers have had with the main series and the sequel itself:
    • Although it's generally ambiguous whether or not it's All Just a Dream, the scene confirms that Zeref and Mavis—who seemingly appeared in the final chapter without any memories of their past lives—are indeed dead as far as we know them, and may or may not be communing with Natsu from wherever their souls have gone. It also shows that they've discovered August to be their son, something Natsu had no pre-established knowledge of^note discounting the possibility of Natsu picking up on August's scent when they met and subconsciously connecting the dots, which went wholly unaddressed in the main manga, and are now happily raising him alongside a younger version of Larcade, who died craving and being denied Zeref's fatherly love. The scene also acknowledges that Zeref doesn't feel he deserves to have his sins forgotten, and is certain he's someplace where he's being judged, with Natsu's heart serving as more of a place of respite from his torment than anything.
    • Many readers have complained of Natsu undergoing Flanderization in the sequel, with his forgetfulness, oblivious perversion, and general idiocy getting cranked up to eleven. Chapter 37 helped mitigate a lot of that when he has a Near-Death Experience and breaks down in a rare display of Tender Tears upon discovering that Igneel and everyone he and his friends know who died—even Zeref and other enemies—are a part of his Personalized Afterlife, revealing that he's still as much of an All-Loving Hero deep down as he always was, which is an aspect of his character that's hardly ever focused on. This also addresses concerns of Natsu being unsympathetic towards Zeref in the main manga by showing that, despite some lingering hostility on Natsu's part, he's still willing to accept Zeref as his brother.
  • Amidst complaints of being a wasted character in the original manga, it came as a welcome surprise to fans that Irene survived her suicide by copying her consciousness onto Wendy before her death, giving her the chance to return.
  • One of the complaints about the series' premise was that, for all his Dragon hunting, Acnologia somehow missed the existence of five dragons all as strong as him. As the series introduces each dragon however, reasonable justifications are given for why he couldn't find them: Mercphobia specifically refrained from using his powers in favor of remaining in a human form; Aldoron largely slumbered so as to regain his power after losing to Acnologia, said power kept restrained via five orbs on his body, and only actually moved his body a little bit each day; and Selene is a Dimension Traveler, capable of leaving Earth-land and traveling to other worlds, namely Elentir and Edolas.
  • One of the most common criticisms of the Alvarez Empire arc when it was supposed to be the Grand Finale of the series was that Natsu being END ended up not being of much consequence, with him not turning into it until near the end, then reverting back a short while later after an off screen fight with Dimaria then a short fight against Gray, and afterwards it being fully removed from him, making it overall a short period of time, with some feeling it ended up being They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot, especially since it ended up not really factoring into his fight with Zeref and eliminated the dilemma of a possible Mutual Kill. In the Water Dragon arc, a power up caused Natsu to lose control of his Dragon Force and gave him an appearance similar to END, and he almost vaporized the water dragon with the implication that he would have destroyed more after that had he not been stopped with a Cooldown Hug from Lucy, thus bringing the concept of Natsu losing control of himself back into play with the potential of more exploration of the idea, especially with Lucy narrating that it was the first time "his flames" scared her. Even Dogramag during the Labyrinth Arc alludes to this by stating Natsu's scent is that of a dragon or even demon, not a human.
  • Lucy has a great deal more to do in this series to show off her growth as a mage and as a fighter, along with developing more self-confidence, whereas in the original series she was often sidelined or Overshadowed by Awesome.
  • God Serena was considered by many to be the epitome of Too Cool to Live and They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character, infamously getting one-shotted by Acnologia (understandable at least to fully establish Acnologia's threat level) and Gildarts while not even getting to show off all eight of his Dragon Slayer Magics or to fully show off his credentials in a fight. Here, he's back and gets to reestablish his threat level by utterly crushing Gajeel in a battle while finally showing off all his elements.
• Squick:
  • While Kiria is treating Erza like a dog after "cutting her strength", she makes Erza eat rotten food, which leads to her retching.
  • Chapter 71 had Hakune create snowclones of the women important to Natsu and Gray trying to seduce the two of them, aided by being butt naked. Problem is, this included the clone of Wendy trying to seduce Natsu, and her position made it look like she was humping Natsu. Many couldn't help but express uncomfortability at the idea of Wendy depicted like this, even if it was only a clone.
  • Kiria in chapters 103 and 104 looks like a charred smoldering corpse with Blank White Eyes after Lucy is finished with her. Thankfully, this does not last and she gets back up to help her former enemies stop Dogramag.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Most folks who follow this series admit it's a lot more coherent then the original series and does a good job addressing some loose ends while serving as a continuation of the franchise. This is likely because there is a main goal for the heroes to focus on and not as many plot switch ups as the original did. However, lots of fans argue that it runs into serious issues and even blunders right back into some old ones from the Moon Dragon God arc onward.
• Take That, Scrappy!: While Juvia's single-minded obsession with hunting down Gray like an overly possessive girlfriend has made her a Base-Breaking Character rather than an outright Scrappy, some found it refreshing that Touka would call her out for not simply waiting for Gray to come back on his own.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: See here.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: See here.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Of all the returning characters, who was expecting another trip back to Edolas and seeing the alternate Fairy Tail, the Royal Military, and Mystogan again?
  • Chapter 114 ends with the reveal of God Serena, seemingly having returned after his death at Acnologia's hands.

---