Eight guilds enter, but who will be The One?
Chapters: 258-340, Episodes: 151-203
Short Summary
Wanting to regain their status which has dropped over the years, Fairy Tail enters the yearly Grand Magic Games in hopes of doing so, but face stiff competition against other competing guilds including rival guild, Raven Tail and the current number one guild, Sabertooth. All the while, a dark conspiracy lurks in the background.Main Summary
Grand Magic Games Arc has the following tropes:
- Amazon Brigade: The all-women guild, Mermaid Heel.
- And This Is for...: Laxus names off all of the Fairy Tail members who suffered due to Raven Tail's cheating as he beats them down.
- Apathetic Citizens: All the civilians in the kingdom completely brush off the dragon attack and go back to their everyday lives. Though, it's implied that some of the people were completely oblivious to the dragon attack entirely.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy:
- Almost all of Sabertooth.
- Ivan counts as well due to his braggart characteristics.
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: When some of the soldiers who are fighting the dragons get stripped naked by Zirconis, they freak out and decide to hightail it out of there.
- The Atoner: Jellal, Ultear, and Meredy who form a secret crime-fighting guild, Crime Sorcière. As of chapter 298 possibly Flare.
- Bad Boss: Ziemma is a dreadful master leading Sabretooth.
- Bad Future: There's two!! We get a glimpse of it as Levy is writing a letter to Lucy.
- To be specific, Future Lucy says that Fiore will be completely decimated by 10,000 dragons. The anime even gives us a glimpse of it with Natsu and Lucy the only survivors after the dragons are unleashed on the world and Natsu fighting a hopeless battle against them.
- Future Rogue says in his timeline, Acnologia will Take Over the World.
- Beach Episode: A training chapter takes place on a beach.
- Hot Springs Episode: In the same chapter.
- Because Destiny Says So: Future Rogue tries to justify killing Lucy with this trope, saying that time already establishes everyone's fate. Natsu, on the other hand, doesn't take it well and attacks him.
- The Bet: All of the battles on the second day:
- Toby vs. Kurohebi: If Toby wins, Kurohebi has to reveal his real name. If Kurohebi wins, Toby has to reveal his "super secret". Kurohebi wins, and the secret is that Toby has spent 3 months looking for a missing sock that's on his necklace, which Kurohebi rips right after showing it to him.
- Bacchus vs. Elfman: If Bacchus wins, he gets Mirajane and Lisanna for one night. If Elfman wins, Quatro Cerebus is renamed Quatro Puppy. Elfman wins.
- Mirajane vs. Jenny: The loser has to pose naked for Sorcerer Magazine. Mirajane wins.
- Yukino vs. Kagura: The two bet their lives. Kagura wins, only to simply tell Yukino that she now owns her life.
- Big Bad: A time-displaced Rogue from X798 is the villain the heroes need to defeat to prevent the disaster that will wipe out Fiore.
- The Big Bad Shuffle: You'd be surprised at how many times the focus on the main villain switches to reveal that there is actually an eviler antagonist yet to come.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Raven Tail and Sabretooth are nothing compared to Future Rogue.
- Bittersweet Ending: The disaster that would have wiped out Fiore has been averted, the Eclipse gate is permanently destroyed, Raven Tail is no more, Saber Tooth is reformed for good, and Fairy Tail wins the games and once more recognized as the strongest guild. What's more, history in the future is altered: everyone in Fairy Tail is still alive. Unfortunately, their victory came at a price: Lucy's X792 counterpart is dead for good, Ultear sacrifices her youth to help the heroes and cannot see her friends anymore, and the final battle with the dragons leaves a sour taste in everyone's mouth as none of the Dragon Slayers were able to defeat one, and these ones aren't even as strong as Acnologia, who according to the X798 version of Rogue will take over the world in time. So it might not bode too well... at least for the next year. There's also the fact that Lucy lost out on her reconciliation with Jude, who died one year before she returned home.
- Boom, Headshot!: Gray suffers one from a dragon. However, thanks to Ultear reversing time he dodges it.
- Break the Cutie:
- Lucy receives a humiliating defeat from Flare, due to her guild's interference and the audience goes so far as to boo her to the point of tears.
- Lucy gets broken again when Minerva beats her half to death in the naval battle.
- Millianna suffers Cold-Blooded Torture at the hands of Minerva.
- Natsu, Lucy, Happy, Wendy, Carla, Pantherlily, and Loke all break down in tears after witnessing the X792 Lucy shielding her present self from the X798 Rogue's fatal attack.
- Break the Haughty: Saber Tooth ends up having all its guild members get their egos seriously deflated throughout the competition.
- Brick Joke: When trapped in the Kingdom's Underground Dungeon, Natsu's plan to escape is to simply beat up guards and force them to tell them the way out. The others shoot down this idea as being silly. This is what ends up happening.
- Broken Pedestal: Sting and Rogue initially help Ziemma uphold his Might Makes Right beliefs to the point where they ridicule Fairy Tail, even extending it to Dragon Slayers lower than them. However, once the duo realize the abusive relationship between Saber Tooth and its master after Natsu defeats them, they eventually turn on Ziemma and help rebuild Saber Tooth for good.
- Bullying a Dragon:
- While battling Erza, Minerva thinks she's cornered prey due to her shattered foot, but this ends up being a bad idea.
- Beating the crap out of Sting and lecturing him for crying over Lector's disappearance wasn't going to end well for Ziemma.
- Call-Back: Natsu using his flames to spell "Come On" to taunt the Twin Dragons calls back to him doing the same for the Vanish Brother in Chapter 7.
- Close-Enough Timeline: Fairy Tail learns from Lucy's X792 counterpart that two possible timelines are leading up to their current time. She attempts to make sure that the "better" one occurs, but is killed by Rogue's X798 counterpart in the process. In the end, Natsu and his team help save everyone in Fiore and destroy Eclipse for good.
- Cool Versus Awesome: All of the battles between different wizards could qualify.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Many of the minor battles but the most notable: Rufus to everyone during the Hidden game, Mirajane vs. Jenny, Kagura vs. Yukino, and Laxus against the entirety of Raven Tail.
- And don't forget, the climax of the Battle of the Dragon Slayers. Natsu defeats Sting and Rogue, both using Dragon Force, without using Dragon Force himself. He even overpowers their Unison Raid.
- Erza vs. all one hundred of the monsters set up for the third day's challenge. This is special because the proctors set up the challenge with the thought that all eight participants would have a shot with at least some of the monsters, but Erza, having drawn first dibs, took on all one hundred monsters at once and won in an Offscreen Moment of Awesome. The proctors were shocked she would choose to challenge all of them at once and even more so when she won. Of course for the FT members, it's par for the course.
- Dark Messiah: Future Rogue returns to the past as an alleged hero trying to save the world, but it's revealed that he truly desires its destruction.
- Death Glare:
- Sting after thinking Lector is dead and he blasts Ziemma in the chest.
- Erza after Minerva wounds Kagura during their battle.
- Natsu after Future Lucy dies and he goes into his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Defeat by Modesty: A dragon dispatches an entire army and Lucy by making their clothes vanish.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Sabertooth accepts Fairy Tail after losing badly to them.
- Designated Girl Fight:
- Lucy vs. Flare and Wendy vs. Chelia. More humorously, Mirajane vs. Jenny. Later Juvia vs. Chelia and Erza vs. Kagura vs. Minerva.
- This arc is a particular offender of this trope. In fact, the only official opposite-sex matchups in the entire game were the incredibly minor Millianna vs Semmes and Lyon & Yuka vs Kagura and Millianna, both of which got expanded in the anime.
- Didn't See That Coming: Lucy and Yukino joining forces to close Eclipse when Future Rogue believed that Lucy is the only one capable of closing Eclipse.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- The X798 Rogue thought that by traveling to the prime timeline to start the catastrophe in Fiore and kill Lucy Heartfilia, it would stop the heroes from interfering with his plans to Take Over the World. But he didn't take into account that there would be another celestial wizard by the name of Yukino Agria or that there would be another version of Lucy from the future.
- Hisui tested her future ally's claims by waiting until the end of the Games to see if his outlandish prediction for the final outcome would come true. She never stopped to consider that him genuinely being from the future doesn't mean he isn't lying to her about other things.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Future Lucy dies in the arms of her prime timeline self after taking the blast meant for the latter.
- Disc-One Final Boss:
- Ivan is taken down almost effortlessly after being built up as a serious villain.
- Ziemma is dispatched by Sting halfway through the arc.
- Disney Death:
- Lector when it seemed Ziemma had disintegrated him. Minerva, however, revealed she saved him at the last second.
- Gray when he's actually killed Taking the Bullet for Juvia against the smaller dragon spawn. Thankfully Ultear's Reset Button fixes that so they can avoid the attack in time.
- Dragon Ascendant: Sting takes over Sabretooth after rebelling against Ziemma.
- Easily Forgiven: Following the Grand Magic Games, Yukino is welcomed back into Saber Tooth at Sting's request, proving there's no bad blood between her and her fellow guild mates.
- Embarrassing Nickname: After Elfman wins against Bacchus, as per the conditions of their bet, Quatro Cerberus changed their name to Quatro Puppy for the duration of the games.
- Engrish: In its original Japanese, anime-Yukino pronounces Pisces* as "piss-kiss".
- Evil Counterpart: Many of the guild members of Sabretooth serve as darker versions to Fairy Tail members during the Tournament Arc.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Raven Tail and Sabertooth enjoy making others suffer.
- Exact Words:
- Yajima keeps the Council agents from arresting Mystogan despite him being identical to Jellal by explaining to them that Mystogan is simply the Edolas version of Jellal. This is true, with the minor omission that the man they are trying to arrest actually is Jellal disguised as Mystogan.note
- Future Rogue justifies his attempts to kill Lucy since she's the one who closes the Eclipse door. He lets everyone present believe that means she'll stop Eclipse from saving the world when, in fact, she'll stop Eclipse from destroying it.
- Face–Heel Turn: Future Rogue pulled one a long time ago and grew from the Token Good Teammate into the arc's Big Bad.
- Fanservice: Some of the Beach / Training chapter, Mirajane and Jenny's battle, and the Naval Battle. As well as all of Chapter 298. The first two get expanded in the anime. Also when Zirconis strips Lucy during the climax with the dragons to show his perverted side.
- Faux Action Girl:
- A rare male example. Ichiya's exceed counterpart from Edolas is built up to be a great badass warrior for Blue Pegasus, only for him to suffer a One-Hit KO.
- Future Lucy traveled back to X791 to save the world from an impending disaster by herself, but the only amazing thing she accomplishes in her mission is pulling a Heroic Sacrifice. Justified in that she doesn't seem to have any of her keys, is missing an arm, and her plan seemed to just be to warn people about what would happen rather than do any dramatic heroics.
- Flashback-Montage Realization: Towards the end of her match, Kagura thinks back to when Erza rescued her from the Zeref cultists during Rosemary Island's destruction, to the point where they rekindle their friendship.
- Foreshadowing:
- Every so often we get quips from Levy talking about the current events as if looking into the past. Not to mention Carla's vision of Mercurius Castle, the King of Fiore's castle, falling to the ground. Guess what happens when the seven dragons go through Eclipse in the present timeline?
- The hooded woman, aka Future Lucy, makes several of them as she predicts she knows what will happen on a certain day.
- When Future Rogue confronts Lucy and her friends, he notes that Lucy will be the one who will close Eclipse. Guess what Lucy does with the gate towards the end of the arc?
- Cobra vowing to free the rest of Oracien Seis from prison.
- Hades mentions that Last Ages would take a severe toll on the user's body. Later, Ultear doing so to help stop the dragon invasion results in her becoming an old woman.
- Future Rogue warns Natsu that something will happen in a year, resulting in Frosch's death.
- Freudian Excuse: Ziemma treats his fellow Saber Tooth guildmates like crap, including his own daughter Minerva, and beat their entire outlook into them, with humiliating punishments and violent beatings should they show even an ounce of weakness or compassion.
- From Bad to Worse: Towards the end of the Grand Magic Games, Hisui plans to launch Eclipse 2 based on advice she was given from the alternate timeline Rogue. Future Lucy meets up with her friends from the past and warns them of the impending dragon invasion, but the alternate Rogue turns up and kills her. Worse, the Eclipse Gate is actually connected 400 years into the past where dragons were once alive. Yukino and Lucy's attempt to remedy this ends up making things worse when some of the dragons arrive in the main timeline to cause the catastrophe in Fiore. Even worse, the dragons end up killing quite a few wizards, including Gray. If it wasn't for Ultear using her Last Ages spell, everyone would have been all but wiped out and the alternate Rogue would have won.
- Future Badass: Future Rogue is lot more intimidating compared to his younger self.
- The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: Throughout the whole arc, it's Fairy Tail as the good, Sabertooth as the bad, and Raven Tail as the evil. After Raven Tail is disqualified, Sabertooth, particularly Minerva, shifts toward being more evil. A smaller example exists in the Mêlée à Trois fight between Erza as the Good, Kagura as the Bad, and Minerva as the Evil.
- Good Versus Good: The heroic guilds also combat each other in the tournament.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Several characters are gruesomely murdered by dragons, slightly out of view. Thankfully, Ultear reverses time so none of these deaths occur.
- Government Conspiracy: There's one going on with the staff of the Fiore Kingdom.
- Graceful Loser: Sting comes to grips with the fact that he's not fighting for the right reasons and admits defeat to Fairy Tail.
- Great Offscreen War: 400 years ago, a war erupted between the dragons who wanted to try coexisting with humans and the dragons who only saw humanity as food. The former group was eventually able to turn the tide in their favor by enlisting the help of humans, creating the first Dragon Slayers. However, some of the Dragon Slayers abused their power and began killing Dragons regardless of their attitude toward humanity, with one in particular exposing himself in so much Dragon blood that he gradually turned into a Dragon himself: the Dragon King, Acnologia.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Future Rogue warns Natsu that there was someone so horrible that he caused him to become the villain that he is.
- Hate Sink: Raven Tail is actually so horrible that they make Sabretooth look like saints in comparison.
- Heel–Face Turn: The entire guild of Sabretooth changes for the better after losing the tournament.
- The Hero Dies: The X792 Lucy dies after rescuing her present self, who is one of the main protagonists of Fairy Tail, from the X798 Rogue's powerful attack. She dies content, knowing that Natsu will protect the future.
- Heroic BSoD:
- This is Played for Laughs with Natsu and his team. They suffer one along with Levy and Juvia after it's revealed that one day in the Celestial Spirit World is equal to three months in Earth-land, which they should have spent training for the Great Magic Games.
- Lucy goes through a brief one after losing to Flare from Raven Tail.
- Lucy's X792 counterpart went through one after watching her friends die during the catastrophic attack in Fiore.
- Yukino gets two in quick succession. First, she has a major one when she gets expelled from Saber Tooth for disappointing Ziemma, finally letting her emotions come out when Natsu simply shows her plain human decency. Then, she falls into despair after she learns of what happened to Fiore in the future. It only takes a Cooldown Hug from Mirajane to snap her out of it.
- Natsu, Lucy, Happy, Wendy, Carla, Pantherlily, and Loke all go through a major one when they see the alternate Rogue murdering the alternate Lucy to the point where Natsu instigates a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Hisui falls into a brief one when the dragons begin pouring out of the Eclipse gate, given how she opened the gate in every single timeline imaginable. Lucy has no choice but to grab her by the shoulders and shout just to get her to speak clearly.
- Juvia falls into despair when Gray rescues her at the cost of his own life.
- Heroic RRoD: Ultear uses everything she has to use the "Last Ages" spell. Once the spell finishes, Ultear keels over before rapidly aging to an elderly woman by the end of the arc.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Future Lucy ends up taking Future Rogue's attack to save her X791 self.
- In using her ultimate magic to save everyone, Ultear undergoes Rapid Aging as the price for doing so.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Ziemma's own Social Darwinist doctrine ensured that once Sting took him down, he will be unable to remain in Saber Tooth any longer.
- The time-traveling Rogue from X798 ends up crashing into Eclipse, the very gate he used to summon the dragons into the present and cause the catastrophe in Fiore.
- Hope Crusher: Raven Tail wants to be this towards Fairy Tail, but ultimately fail thanks to Laxus.
- Humiliation Conga: Quatro Cerberus really goes downhill during the tournament.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Kagura gets wounded when Minerva runs her sword through her back.
- This is also how Lucy's future counterpart dies: when Future Rogue tries to kill the X791 Lucy, her future counterpart jumps in the way and his blade runs right through her.
- Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Upon being bested by Kagura in her first match, Yukino is forced to rub off her Saber Tooth guild mark before she gets expelled.
- Irony: None of the Dragon Slayers can slay a dragon.
- It's Personal:
- Fairy Tail to Raven Tail for attacking Wendy before the games even start. It only gets more personal as the games go on.
- Fairy Tail to Sabertooth for Minerva's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Lucy.
- Natsu to Future Rogue when he (unintentionally) kills Future Lucy while trying to take out the present one.
- Kick the Dog:
- Raven Tail attacking Wendy before the games officially even begin.
- Flare taking Asca hostage.
- Kurohebi destroying Toby's sock.
- Future Rogue tries killing the X791 Lucy but kills her X792 self.
- Kill the Cutie: Future Lucy ends up horrifically murdered by Future Rogue.
- Manly Tears: All the males in Fairy Tail break down crying upon hearing that their guild has won the tournament.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!":
- The audience witnessing the tournament has many of these while watching the wizards duke it out.
- Everyone in Saber Tooth besides Ziemma are utterly shocked when Natsu storms their hotel lodgings and curb-stomps a bunch of their guildmates.
- Lucy and her friends shortly after her future self takes the fatal blow from Future Rogue.
- Everyone in the kingdom of Fiore when the army of dragons are unleashed.
- Mêlée à Trois: Erza, Kagura, and Minerva engage in one in the final round of the Grand Magic Games.
- Mirror Match: Wendy against Chelia as both use sky magic.
- Morality Pet: Sting and Rouge's close friendships with their Exceeds, Lector and Frosch, are their biggest redeeming factors. This is shown when Sting gets pushed to his Rage Breaking Point after seeing Ziemma blast Lector.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Millianna tells Kagura about Simon's death while the latter is searching for him. This causes Kagura to plan her seven-year-long Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Jellal.
- Even without Future Rogue's involvement, the Eclipse Plan would have brought the dragons to the present anyway. In Future Lucy's timeline, she failed to close Eclipse in time before 10,000 dragons got through, resulting in the catastrophic annihilation of Fiore. Hisui has no one to blame but herself for causing it to happen.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Minerva gives one to Lucy in the Naval Battle. She even prevents her from being knocked out of the ring early just to prolong it. As you can imagine, Fairy Tail isn't amused.
- No-Sell: Nothing the guilds throw at the dragons has any effect on them and even when the Dragon Slayers take them on, they barely even put a dent on them let alone cause any major damage. Everyone's only saved due to Ultear's rewinding time for a few minutes and the Eclipse Gate being destroyed which sends the dragons back to the past. But the Dragon Slayers are dejected with the results due to not even managing to defeat even one of them. Making them realize if they can't beat any of the "minor" ones, then there's no chance they'll be able to take Acnologia.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Sting can only watch in shock when Ziemma blasts Lector for defending Sting. Barely an instant later, everyone in Saber Tooth has a Mass "Oh, Crap!" just after Sting is pushed to his Rage Breaking Point and blasts Ziemma in the chest.
- Minerva has a moment of slack-jawed horror first when Erza actually hurts her, and later when Erza cuts through her magic and defeats her.
- Hisui has a brief panic when she realizes too late that she's responsible for causing the catastrophe of her kingdom in the first place.
- Juvia when Gray saves her from a dragon attack at the cost of his own life.
- The brief look on Future Rogue's face when he realizes that Natsu Dragneel is about to send him crashing into Eclipse says it all.
- One Woman Army: Erza challenging all 100 monsters during the Pandemonium game.
- Percussive Shutdown: Even with the Eclipse gate closed, dragons have still come through and will inevitably destroy the continent. The only solution seems to be: break the gate in the present, erasing it's existence in the future, preventing the X798 Rogue from instigating the disaster in the prime timeline, so the dragons can never cause the catastrophe in the first place.
- Pet the Dog:
- Played With. When Ziemma tries executing Lector, Minerva immediately teleports him away to blackmail Sting. Later, she's shocked at Sting powering up and one-shotting her father, meaning she didn't have any ulterior motive for saving Lector.
- After the Grand Magic Games, Sting successfully invites Yukino to return to Saber Tooth for good.
- Put on a Bus: Ultear at the end due to her magic causing her to rapidly age.
- Race Against the Clock: The heroes have a limited amount of time to try and stop Hisui before she opens Eclipse, thus causing the disaster that wiped out Fiore in the timelines where Lucy and Rogue's future selves came from.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: As Saber Tooth's guild master, Ziemma willingly gives a verbal beatdown to anyone who doesn't uphold his The Social Darwinist ideals or failing him one too many times, regardless of their intentions. Just ask Yukino.
- Red Herring:
- The latter part of the arc goes out of its way to tease the idea that Yukino would become a member of Fairy Tail after getting kicked out of Sabertooth. She specifically bonds with Lucy, Natsu, and Mirajane. She ultimately ends up rejoining Sabertooth.
- Twice with Arcadios, the captain of the royal guard. He's initially built up as a doomsday villain planning to destroy the world with Project Eclipse, only for him to be revealed as leading a well-intentioned if morally dubious plan. Then it's revealed that Princess Hisui was the driving force behind Eclipse and Arcadios became the face of the plan to shield her from reprisal.
- Then, it seems as if Ivan and his guild are going to be the main villains of the Tournament Arc, only for Laxus to effortlessly defeat them all.
- Ziemma is also made out as a possible candidate for the arc's Big Bad, only for him to end up dispatched by Sting.
- Arcadios notes that Future Lucy's story doesn't match up with what Hisui has told him about their ally from the future and concludes she must be lying. Later he comes to trust her and realizes that Hisui must be the one who's lying. It turns out neither of them were lying, Hisui was talking about an entirely different person.
- The Remnant: With her friends all dead by the time she shows up, the X792 Lucy is the only surviving member of Fairy Tail.
- Reset Button: Ultear uses the ultimate form of her magic to turn back time a few minutes when the battle against the dragons takes a turn for the worst. While she intended to try and go back a few days and thinks she's failed. The magic allows everyone to see the enemies' moves in advance once time is rewound, allowing them to make pre-emptive strikes and ultimately save the world.
- The Reveal: The person inside of the blue bunny suit working for Blue Pegasus is Ichiya's Edolas counterpart, Nichiya.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After witnessing the alternative Lucy get killed trying to rescue her present counterpart, Natsu goes berserk and exacts revenge on Future Rogue.
- Screw Destiny: After being sent past his Rage Breaking Point, Natsu shuts down the X798 Rogue's ideology on how destiny works and fights him.
- Self-Disposing Villain: A rare heroic example. When Milliana takes on Lyon by herself he tricks her into running away from his ice tiger and straight into a brick wall, knocking herself out.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The Eclipse Plan as well as Future Lucy's motive.
- She's All Grown Up: Several characters that Fairy Tail encountered in the past return more mature than before.
- Ship Tease:
- Natsu collides with Lucy while she's naked and accidentally gropes her breasts.
- Gray teams up with Juvia to take on Lyon and Sherria.
- Several characters are seen dancing with one another at the grand ball.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Overworking can cause serious health problems that can eventually lead to death, as was the case when Jude, who tragically died not long before Lucy returned home.
- Losing a battle against a powerful opponent won't always earn you some leniency. Ziemma expels Yukino the moment she loses the match, even calling her a disgrace to Saber Tooth.
- Raven Tail gets expelled and eventually dissolved for cheating in the Grand Magic Games.
- Since Ziemma has used harsh tactics to keep Saber Tooth in line, he gets removed from the guild the moment Sting blasts him.
- Hades makes a point that Last Ages will endanger the user's body. Wizards are powerful but still mortal. So towards the end of the arc, when Ultear uses her Last Ages spell to reverse time and foil Rogue's plans, she rapidly ages into an elderly woman due to the effects of the spell.
- Take a Third Option: Natsu's group learns from Lucy and Rogue's future counterparts that there were two ways the timeline would go. Option one was Fiore being destroyed by the dragons emerging from the Eclipse Gate regardless of Future Lucy's efforts to close it. Option two was when Future Rogue traveled from X798 to X791 using the Eclipse Gate to cause another catastrophe in Fiore after Acnologia took over the world so he could take Acnologia's place. In both options, many people, including the Fairy Tail wizards, are killed. However, since Natsu is against all the lives that were lost in the timelines, he and the other wizards help Lucy destroy Eclipse, so that the disaster never happens.
- Taking the Bullet:
- To rescue her present counterpart, the X792 Lucy jumps in the way of the X798 Rogue's fatal attack meant for her.
- Also Gray does the same for Juvia when the dragon tries to blindside her.
- Tears of Joy: Yukino's reaction, who a few days previous had nowhere to go, when the best guilds in Fiore start fighting over her.
- This Is Unforgivable!:
- Jellal is seen to have crossed the line by Kagura, having killed Simon seven years ago.
- Understandably, Sting has this reaction when Ziemma seemingly kills Lector for showing his guild mark in Sting's defense.
- The moment Rogue's alternative self murders the alternative Lucy in cold blood while completely brushing off her death is what causes Natsu and his guild to lash out at him without hesitation and destroy Eclipse for good.
- Tickle Torture: Jellal loses his fight when Ultear does this to him through Meredy's Psychic Link.
- Time Travel:
- Ultear saves multiple people by sacrificing her life to rewind time temporarily.
- Future Rogue travels from X798 to X791 to help cause the catastrophe that would obliterate Fiore.
- Tomato Surprise:
- Porlyusica being the human Edolas counterpart of Grandine.
- All Dragon Slayers suffer from motion sickness. It just varies depending on the user.
- Chelia using Sky God Slayer magic.
- Princess Hisui is the one behind the Eclipse Project
- Kagura is Simon's little sister. Also, they came from the same village Erza once lived in. In fact, Erza was the one who had to save her from being kidnapped by Zeref's forces at the cost of getting caught herself.
- The hooded woman turns out to be a future Lucy.
- There turns out to be another from the future, Rogue. He came back to kill Lucy and stop her from closing the Eclipse Door as he claims she was the reason the attack on the dragons failed.
- The alternate timeline's Rogue is actually evil and the Eclipse Gate is actually connected 400 years into the past where dragons were once alive.
- Took a Level in Kindness:
- Saber Tooth becomes a much more noble guild after Sting chooses to reform it.
- Kagura grows into Erza's friend and admits that she wants her as a sister.
- Tournament Arc: As the name of the arc suggests, this arc focuses on the Olympic-style Magic Games where the top six guilds fight to be named the strongest guild in the country, though in the background it's Not Just a Tournament.
- True Final Boss: Future Rogue Cheney is actually the real villain.
- Unstoppable Rage: After the X792 Lucy dies, Natsu is sent past his Rage Breaking Point and instigates his Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the X798 Rogue.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Hisui opening Eclipse in every timeline imaginable led to some disastrous long-term results even she could not foresee. Not only does it destroy Fiore in the first place, but it also factors into the alternative Rogue and Acnologia's plans to Take Over the World in the alternate timelines, as well as the X792 Lucy's death via Heroic Sacrifice.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left:
- Minerva leaves with Ziemma after Sting reforms Saber Tooth towards the end of the Grand Magic Games.
- Towards the end of this arc, Obra's real form escapes arrest to join Zeref, but hopes to come back for Fairy Tail someday.
- We Will Meet Again: The imp swears revenge on Fairy Tail, right before it runs away after his puppet is defeated.
- Wham Episode:
- The reveal not one but two people came from the future (one from X792 and the other from X798). And the X798 one who warned Princess Hisui about the upcoming danger was actually a man.
- Future Lucy being killed by the alternative Rogue in front of everyone present.
- What's more Future Rogue is actually evil and the whole plot surrounding the Eclipse Gate was a gambit by him to have dragons enter into the current timeline and take over the world!
- Gray takes multiple shots from the mini-dragons pushing Juvia out of the way of them.
- Ultear, who has been part of the series since chapter 1, has become an elderly woman effectively taking her out of the series.
- Fairy Tail returns to Magnolia to find a cheering town and a rebuilt guildhall, having finally earned their happy ending... oh, is that Obra running away? and he's meeting up with Zeref who effectively declares war on Fairy Tail.
- Wham Line: Hisui telling Arcadios that her friend from the future is a man, i.e. Rogue.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After Fairy Tail wins the Grand Magic Games, Obra leaves with Zeref and disappears from the story, never to be seen or heard from again.
- The Worf Effect:
- Poor Lucy ends up as Minerva's punching bag. The poor girl has no luck in this arc.
- Yukino loses to Kagura to show other guild besides Fairy Tail can match Sabertooth.
- Quatro Cerberus gets hit with this pretty hard. They start as one of the most challenging guilds entering the tournament, but ultimately end up losing at every turn.
- Mermaid Heel suffers this in the final battle royale. When Minerva tries to force Erza and Kagura to duel to the death, she tortures Milliana and takes out Kagura the minute her back is turned, perfectly orchestrating their powerful guild to lose badly.
- Worf Had the Flu:
- Lucy only lost her fight with Flare because of Raven Tail's cheating.
- Jellal pulls out his big guns in the fight against Jura, after Mystogan's tricks don't work, only for Ultear to disable him via Meredy's magic so he doesn't blow his cover.
- Would Hit a Girl: Rogue's future counterpart was more than willing to try and kill Lucy to stop her from interfering with his Evil Plan. It doesn't work.
- Would Hurt a Child: Raven Tail has no qualms about attacking and hospitalizing 12-year-old Wendy before the tournament even starts.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: A minor one as after the group come from the Celestial Spirit World, they find that time moves about three months faster in the real world. This winds up costing the group precious training time.
- You Can't Fight Fate:
- Despite the X792 Lucy closing Eclipse and traveling to the prime timeline so she can forewarn her friends of the invasion, the first part of the catastrophe still occurs on the same date the kingdom would have originally been wiped out in her timeline.
- As for Lucy's X791 counterpart, she still closes Eclipse just as history dictated... but with Yukino's assistance.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Fairy Tail fails to stop the dragons from arriving in Fiore. Still, they foil Future Rogue's plans.
- You Killed My Father: The reason why Kagura's determined to kill Jellal is because he was involved in Simon's death seven years ago. However, she gets better upon realizing the truth.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Yes, Fairy Tail finally wins the Grand Magic Games! But there's one problem: Future Rogue just tricked Hisui into summoning the dragons into the present.
