Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest

Episode 14

After taking a break for a recap episode, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest is back for another cour, and with a new opening song. Unfortunately, since Fairy Tail OPs have almost never been anything but enhanced clips of upcoming fights and characters, there isn't too much to appreciate other than the song itself. Still, it's at least as decent of a bop as the last one, so I'm at least glad the show didn't take a downgrade in that department. I'm a lot more mixed on the episode attached to it, though, as we get the climax to Wendy's fight with the spider guy, and while it does have some decent payoff, the path to getting there feels a bit shakier than it needed to be.

Before I get to that though, we should at least check in on Erza and Laxus, who were previously mere seconds away from becoming Kiria's dinner. Just as she's about to make a meal out of Laxus, the Dragon Eaters decide to retreat, since Natsu “defeated” Wraith, and they no longer have the manpower to defeat the Wood God Dragon. It's a little anticlimactic, but they do at least tease that they'll be sending in their heavy hitters for their next operation. Kiria makes it clear that she isn't done with Laxus quite yet, so there'll at least be something to potentially look forward to the next time they make an appearance.

But while the rest of his guild decides to back off, the spider guy still wants to eat Wendy, who decides to settle the fight by using Dragon Force. However it turns out that he can also use Dragon Force, and when a fifth-generation Dragon Slayer like him uses it, they become much more dragon-like at the expense of losing control (it also basically just turns him into Venom and gives him the Symbiote Suit, but between the long tongue and the creepy bug-eyes, I probably should have seen that coming). This transformation ends up being too much for Wendy to handle and causes her to conclude that she hasn't really gotten any stronger like she thought she had, and has only really come this far because of the people surrounding her.

I'd usually be all for this kind of realization in any other context, but in this case, it feels really unnecessary. While I've complained before about how much Lucy tends to get shafted in her fights compared to the rest of the show's female cast, Wendy has typically been an example of how well they can be handled when Mashima is firing on all cylinders, as we've seen her gradually grow in both confidence and combat skills throughout the series. If anything, she's probably had the most upward trajectory in terms of character development of pretty much anyone in Fairy Tail's ensemble (well besides Gajeel, anyway) so it feels a little weird to hit pause on that just so we can get a moment of weakness that doesn't really feel like it adds anything, since it's not like Wendy's ever been lacking in humility. Of course, it really doesn't help that this bit of self-reflection happens while her clothes get partially shredded and she's pinned down with sticky webs, and while I'm usually pretty indifferent to most of Fairy Tail's usual brand of fanservice, it doesn't ever not feel weird when Wendy gets subjected to it, and this instance borders on coming off as particularly uncomfortable.

Fortunately, this all basically ends up being a build-up to Wendy showcasing a new ability in the form of a magical girl transformation, and while I can't say it was worth all that, it's at least pretty neat on its own. Specifically, we learn that she's figured out how to channel some of Irene's enchantment magic into her own thanks to that time she possessed her during their fight, and it also comes with the side effect of turning Irene into a (Dragon) Force Ghost to aid Wendy in how to best use her powers. Cool as it is, though, it did lose some points for me when Irene seemingly tried to compel Wendy into killing the spider guy only to make him lose his ability to use magic instead. Figuring out how to keep Irene's ruthlessness in check seemed like it would have been a good trade-off for the power boost, so it is a bit of a letdown to just have Irene be unambiguously on Wendy's side after trying to take her over in their last encounter. Still, having Wendy needing to keep all this secret from Erza does at least seem like something that could have some serious consequences later on, and while it's hard to guess if the show will actually commit to that, there's enough potential there that I'm interested in seeing how it plays out.

Speaking of letdowns, I somehow hadn't realized till now that Mest hadn't made an appearance throughout this whole sequel up to now, and since I've never really been a fan of his whole double-triple agent shtick, or his whole thing with Wendy, I think it's benefited from his absence. While he isn't up to any of his usual shenanigans in that regard, his first appearance here does show that he still sucks as much as ever. He seems to be even more brainwashed by the White Mage than the rest of his guildmates, and the White Mage realizes she could have just used his teleportation magic to destroy the orbs this whole time and save on the last few episodes' worth of fights. I'm sure he'll be brought back to normal eventually, but I'm in no rush to see him back with the guild, so as far as I'm concerned, the show can take all the time it wants to with that. With him destroying the last of the orbs, it seems like the White Mage has succeeded in her plans to strip the Wood God Dragon of its powers, but I get the feeling that's not gonna work out the way she thinks it will and it seems way more likely she's probably accomplished the exact opposite. We'll see how that pans out in next week's episode, but with how wonky this arc has felt, I'm just glad that it looks like the end of it is finally in sight.

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Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.