No it's not that Civil War.
Chapters: 103-130, Episodes: 41-48
Short Summary
Laxus makes his move for the position of guild master of Fairy Tail, unleashing a plot that forces its members to fight one another in order to defeat him.Main Summary
Fighting Festival Arc has the following tropes:
- Break the Haughty: The Thunder Legion gets their egos seriously destroyed after their defeat in their war. Laxus gets a double-whammy of it from not only being defeated, but realizing that he really wasn't much of a Social Darwinist as he thought he was.
- Cat Boy: Makarov dresses up as one while celebrating the Fairy Tale parade.
- Civil War: Albeit the whole guild against Laxus's group. They're only forced to fight against one another due to Freed's runes.
- Creepy Doll: Bickslow has an army of them powered by souls.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Mirajane vs. Freed. Needless to say he finds out exactly why she was called the "Demon" and a former S-Class mage.
- Death Glare: Evergreen and Bickslow both have literal ones. Evergreen's turns enemies into stone while Bickslow's can instantly kill them.
- Double Agent: Gajeel, though at first it's thought he was on Ivan's side. But at the end, turns out he's spying on him for Makarov.
- Easily Forgiven: Quite jarringly, Laxus and the Thunder Legion are forgiven one day after trying to kill all the guild members, though Laxus still receives banishment for it with the Thunder Legion only spared presumably because he took the heat for them. Probably had to do with the fact that no one died anyways and Laxus couldn't kill anyone despite possessing a spell that would attack anyone he saw as an enemy.
- Enemy Mine: Natsu and Gajeel against Laxus.
- The Exile: Laxus' ultimate punishment is being exiled by his guild.
- Fanservice: The Miss Fairy Tail contest at the beginning of the arc.
- Faux Affably Evil: Laxus, Bickslow, and Evergreen are playful with their enemies while crushing them.
- Heel–Face Turn: Gajeel joins Fairy Tail in this arc, though he grudgingly admits he only joined at the behest of his fellow ex-Phantom Lord member, Juvia, and Makarov.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When trapped in a rune of Freed's that meant to pit them against each other, Juvia sacrifices herself to help Cana escape. She gets better at the end.
- Holy Hand Grenade: Laxus attempts Fairy Law at the climax of the arc, but it fails as in his heart he doesn't have it in him to kill anyone.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: Laxus turns the female Fairy Tail members to stone and only agrees to change them back if Makarov surrenders his position of Guild Master to him. When they get rescued, he switches to using the whole town as a hostage.
- I Have Your Wife: After Erza beats her, Evergreen attempts to invoke this by threatening to kill the other girls unless Erza bows to her and begs for mercy. Erza immediately calls her bluff.
- Kill Sat: After Erza forces Evergreen to change the girls back to normal. Laxus switches to this tactic by making a spell that will fry the whole town unless his demands are met.
- Love Makes You Crazy/ Love Makes You Evil: Alzack immediately turns on his own friends when Bisca's life is on the line.
- Manly Tears: Makarov, Freed, and even Laxus have emotional moments in the arc.
- The Mole: Gajeel is really working as a spy for Makarov against Ivan while posing as Ivan's spy on Fairy Tale.
- Mood Whiplash: First we have the light-hearted, fanservicey Miss Fairy Tail contest. Then Evergreen steps in...
- Shout-Out:
- During the fight with Lucy, Bickslow switches body of his spirits to toys who resemble characters from Monster Soul, a previous manga of Mashima.
- Young Laxus is dressed in the same outfit as Billy Batson.
- Smug Snake: The Thunder Legion is full of overconfident Darwinists.
- The Social Darwinist: The Thunder Legion think that only the strong can survive. None are more surprised than Laxus himself when he realizes that deep down he's not much of one after all.
- Taken for Granite: One of Evergreen's powers, which can turn anyone who looks into her eyes without her glasses to stone.
- Token Good Teammate: Freed to the Raijinshuu, especially after his fight with Mirajane. He breaks down in tears after he's defeated, admitting he didn't want to go along with Laxus's plan.
- Tomato Surprise: Laxus's magic is Dragon Slayer related (albeit artificial).
- Traitor Shot:
- Gajeel has one when Raven Tail guild leader Ivan Dreyar contacts him through a shikigami, and thanks Gajeel for spying on Fairy Tail guild for him.
- Gajeel gives Makarov a letter detailing the location of his son Ivan, revealing him to be a Double Agent.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Laxus is shown to have idolized his grandfather back when he was a child.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: According to the Thunder Legion, they started this civil war to make their guild stronger and redeem their good name. However, they were okay with brutal fights to the death between its own guild members in doing so.
- Worf Had the Flu: Coincidentally, when the guild needs him the most, Makarov unexpectedly has a health problem and requires serious treatment while Laxus is destroying his guild.
- Worthy Opponent: Freed views all of his combatants this way.
