YMMV / Fairy Without Wings

• Arc Fatigue:
  • While still good arcs, the Sindel and Envoy from the Future arcs suffers from padding a lot of their story out with constant fight scene after fight scene^*Especially the former having Fairy Tail fight no less than THREE Dark Guilds before the actual antagonist shows up with only tiny bits of plot thrown in here and there.
  • The next arc consists of nothing but everyone from the X791 G.M.G. arc fighting a dragon, which already took up plenty of chapters on its own, but the arc drags on even longer when Mordred just keeps overpowering everyone and refuses to die, in the end having to be taken out by Morrigan... When he's already defeated Lelouch, Erza, the Future counterparts, and anyone other character that could possibly overpower him.
  • The Guild War is even longer than all previous arcs combined! It starts off with V.V. blacklisting Knightmare Frame and Fairy Tail, which results in them having to get ready for an upcoming battle in the Heartfilia Konzern, but then they all get attacked by the Rune Knights. After they take out the first flock of Rune Knights, they then spend even more time preparing for the fight in Era, where almost every fight ends up following the same pattern^*Two people fight someone, get overpowered, and then someone else shows up to finish the fight, and that's not even going over fights that are never finished.^*Jenny VS Adrian and Jura VS Izanami When it seems like those fights are concluded, V.V. uses Mass Hysteria, which pads out the arc with even MORE fights until Irene and Acnologia show up to FINALLY kill V.V. By that point, the arc had long overstayed it's welcome.
• Archive Panic: This series is twice as long as Soul Chess and very likely only halfway done. DAMN!
• Ass Pull:
  • Some fans see Minerva's power-up as the new war god of death in chapter 234 as this, especially given her win-streak in said chapter.
  • During the Cracked Gemstone arc, Kallen and God Serena are tasked with finding a candidate that can keep V.V. away from being a Wizard Saint. So, who they choose? Paluesta Sorahime^*A character that wasn't built up, mentioned, or even foreshadowed once throughout the entire arc. The reasoning for choosing her, while solid, is too perfect for anyone to believe.^*She runs an orphanage, is both a duchess of the royal court and a private tutor, is both a former teacher and Rune Knight, and even saves kittens from trees and puppies from abusive owners While possibly an Invoked Trope as it's lampshaded by V.V., that still doesn't excuse how convenient the ending for that conflict was.
• Audience-Alienating Era: The Cracked Gemstone Arc is considered this by most of the fans. Most of the arc can be described as Lelouch crying into Erza's lap as comforts him, both acting Out of Character. The arc quality is also not helped by the fact that the arc ultimately ends in a "Shaggy Dog" Story where all of Lelouch's actions amount to nothing, with no new information pertaining to the Myth Arc being revealed, making the arc come off as Filler. The only unanimously agreed upon positive of the arc was its leading up to chapter 208. Not helped by its rather vicious killing off of the titular group was seen as Disproportionate compared to nastier characters. The author comes across as petty over who they were Captain Ersatz of^*Particularly, RWBY Villains Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Adam, Neo, and Roman, with only the latter two being spared, which he makes no attempt to hide as he freely admits to being quite bitter over them. It's especially bad since many fans feel that those characters weren't developed enough, and that they were underserving of their fates. What causes further contention is how some fans think Lelouch is becoming more of a Sociopathic Hero, with many of his actions and reactions to events.^*Such as his killing of Ember without even listening to her reasoning before killing her and his total apathy to the complete slaughter of Cracked Gemstone's elite. It makes Lelouch come off as Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
• Badass Decay:
  • In his first appearance, Bismarck was able to hold his own against Suzaku, Schneizel and Cornelia all at the same time. Come the Grand Magic Games, he gets his ass soundly handed to him by Asura, Shimon, and Erza.
  • Thanks to the increased power scale of certain characters and the addition of new powers which can counter others from canon, several canon characters are much less of a threat than in canon. A standout example is Lyon, who was a case of Always Someone Better than Gray when it came to Ice Make Magic, but is a case of Can't Catch Up here.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Mordred. Is he a fair representation of what Lelouch could turn into if he lost all of his Morality Chain and morals, or is he a disservice to the character we call Lelouch, and little more than a Wangst filled Jerkass that combines the worst of Sasuke Uchiha and Crazy Steve?
    • The revelation that Mordred is the name of the demon within Future Lelouch and was manipulating him, thereby lessening the impact of seeing Lelouch at his darkest. The author even acknowledges this drawback, defending that he feels the pros simply outweigh the cons, even finding that he made Lelouch too evil. Of course, his fanbase is split on this.
  • Natsu. Many fans are upset that he's winning fights that he shouldn't be able to win, especially with Lelouch losing some of his fights. Some even accuse Natsu of being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad. Others think the fans need to calm down, and are open minded to the writer's attempts to re-invent Natsu into a more interesting character.
• Broken Base:
  • Kagura and Jellal as a pairing left fans divided. Some consider it much better written than the canon Erza/Jellal, while others find it just as bad if not worse.
  • The Guild War caused this for the fandom. Supporters enjoy the battles and conflict between Lelouch and Suzaku, whereas detractors feel the Suzaku is once again thinking without sense and letting VV get away with everything, and that the overall "war" is one sided in terms of strength.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: CC being Morrigan, as plenty of people had caught onto the author's plentiful hints throughout the narrative by the time it was revealed in chapter 248.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Sindel and Airy were well-received by the fans, even voting them into Fairy Tail's B-Team for the Grand Magic Games more than the canon cast.
  • Emma Jaeger is a very popular villain, due to her status as a Wake-Up Call Boss during the Sindel Arc, and the first-non Arc Villain to give elite members of Fairy Tail trouble. Even in her subsequent appearance, she doesn't suffer a case of Badass Decay and remains tough to take down. Fans can't wait to see her come back. Her entire involvement in the Envoy of the Future arc is described by Draconic-Hero as Fanservice since he had no intention of originally putting her in the arc until fans asked for her. Emma in particular could even be considered an example of this trope within the context of this fanfic, given a survey request by the author. When asked for favorite OCs, most commentators listed her as number 1 out of their top 5, including in some people's top 10 characters overall.
  • Enna Elsa was quite a hit when she had her first serious appearance. Being a hilarious Troll Ms. Fanservice that's strong enough to completely beat Natsu effortlessly certainly helped.
  • Major General Adrian Bluecorn was an instant hit with most for being a competent threat to Fairy Tail and cementing that, yes, the Rune Knights are a case of Adaptational Badass. It helps that she's a Blood Knight in an otherwise good organization, but manages avoid being the Token Evil Teammate.
  • Alice Amakusa is a major hit with fans. As she herself is a bit of a Walking Spoiler as to why she's so beloved, she's a character that's better experienced than described. However, her quirky personality that somewhat stands on par with Erza levels of ambiguous disorder certainly help with that.
  • Supreme Commander Yamato Hayabusa is a fan-favorite despite his little screen time and plot relevance. This is likely due to the fact that he went toe-to-toe with Gildarts briefly, and fought in a 3-way match between God Serena and Juren Rakkan without didn't lagging behind. Oh, and he's based on Asura.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: At the end of 243, the author proposed the possibility of Flare/Meredy as an alternative to Ultear/Meredy for fans who might be a bit squicked out by the idea of the latter due to its Freudian implications. What was a simple question was met by a massive amount of support for Flare/Meredy over Meredy/Ultear. Only time will tell if the fans get their way or not.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • When Nani first meets Blue Pegasus, everyone crowds around her wanting to adopt her as their little sister, in typical Blue Pegasus fashion. After Shu, her real older brother, is killed by Jenny that same chapter, Nani proceeds to kill well over ninety percent of the guild.
  • The reveal that Irene is Erza's mother given that Morianna supposedly killed her parents here. Fortunately, the author is never one to fail to try and make things work. After the release of Chapter 515, he plans to turn her into the Big Good.
  • Acnologia's canon element makes Mordred's entire plot this.^*Mordred forces Lelouch to absorb the element of every Dragonslayer in Fiore so he can counter Acnologia. Chapter 528 reveals however that Acnologia doesn't use any specific element, but eats and uses magic itself as his power. So no matter how much Mordred collects, his goal is doomed to fail. It did not help the fact that even if Lelouch succeeded in gaining every element, he would have likely been cut down on spot by Acnologia like what happened to God Serena, who has eight elements, in Chapter 470. Everything Mordred did, all the lives lost, the pain and misery of the victims loved ones, along with Lelouch's own Sanity Slippage, is All for Nothing.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Kallen's Red Right Hand became this after Mashima published a chapter with Mirajane having the exact same thing for her take over magic. As a result, the author retconned things to fit better.
  • The Author stated in the AN at the end of chapter 59, where it was revealed Morrigan is Zeref's sister, that he thinks Zeref probably doesn't have siblings. The end of the Avatar Arc reveals he not only has a little brother, but that its Natsu.
  • While there's nothing exactly funny about Margaret by any stretch, she was still a mom of a canon character, incredibly powerful, and a villain. Enter Irene, who is a near canon Margaret, the key difference being her Dark and Troubled Past making her a Tragic Villain, while Margaret has no such redeemable qualities.
  • Yamato Hayabusa having God Soul magic is this since the author had this planned long before Dimaria, who wields that power in canon, was revealed.
  • Sorano joining Sabertooth is this now. Due to her now being apart of the guild in canon according to Chapter 5 of the 100 Years Quest sequel.
  • God Serena's Dragon Slayer powers are this. In this story, he displayed Hybrid Dragon combined attacks alongside the elements of electric, midnight, snow and solar. In the 100 Years Quest, some of his elements are actually diamond, spark, darkness and lightning, and he uses the Eight Dragons combined attack.
  • Mordred's hunt for Dragon Slayers to gain their powers is this as revealed in the 100 Years Quest, there is Diabolos, a Guild of Dragon Eaters/5th Generation Dragon Slayers who seek out any Dragon or Dragon Slayer to kill and claim their powers, having clashed with Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayers; Natsu, Wendy, Gajeel and Laxus.
• Ho Yay:
  • The author wasn't even trying to be subtle with the scenes between Orochi and Hibiki, at one point describing Hibiki stripping in front of Orochi as an uke giving into their demanding seme.
  • Kallen and Sachi certainly had their moments...even if they lasted for all about one chapter. Nonette and Cornelia get this a lot and even Milly and Shirley have a touch of this. Right now Nina seems to be one-sided regarding Euphemia.
• I Knew It!:
  • Fans have been calling Lelouch being Mordred since the day the character was introduced. They were right.
  • Pretty much no one was surprised by Morrigan and CC being the same person and the chapter this is revealed in is largely overshadowed by the absolute brutality both Fighting Spirit and Sabertooth suffer during the course of it.
• Like You Would Really Do It: As if anyone expected that Erza jumping in front of Acnologia's attack would actually get her killed off, thereby sinking the driving ship of the narrative between her and Lelouch.
• Moral Event Horizon: Many reviews for chapter 193 followed a pattern of "any sympathy I had for Mordred went out the window for attacking Nunnally", doubly so given that Mordred is Lelouch from the future.
• The Scrappy: Suzaku's Lawful Stupid nature in chapter 74 has made him this to a lot of readers. Some Suzaku haters have even said that they hate this verison more.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: While the ever popular Lucy and Lisanna debate over Natsu is backed by the first letter of his future wife's named being L, Phoenix Grave mage Legretta Upton is gaining traction thanks to her and Natsu numerous similarities, despite the fact the two had not interacted at all since Legretta's introduction when this information was brought to light. As the two have had interaction since then, it may veer more into Crack Ship territory, but only time will tell.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Fake Zero in the Cracked Gemstone arc. What many saw as a good way to see some of the negative repercussions of Lelouch's actions as Zero was just background detail and justification for Lelouch to kill Ember. What makes this particularly grating is the fact that this detail was overall useless to the arc as a whole and its removal would likely change nothing. As if that wasn't enough, the writer had the gall to resurrect Ember via Tartaros only to kill her off again. The writer calls it therapy for having a bone to pick with Cinder Fall in RWBY, but fans were not amused, accusing him of Author Tract.
• Too Powerful to Live: Ushiora's curse made any mages in her area of influence lose magic at a much faster rate. Add her natural regeneration, and its no wonder Kasumi killed her relatively early in the Tartaros arc.
• Tough Act to Follow: Considering the scale and hype that was Tenrou Island, making bigger and grander arcs would be difficult to say the least. Knowing this, the writer spent the next two arcs solely on character development.
• The Woobie:
  • Outside of Knightmare Frame you have Undine Celeste, the guild master of Mermaid Heel who was taken in by Erubay, the water dragon. Erubay, an otherwise Human hating dragon, took her in and raised her, but when Undine ran off after discovering another human, eventually being asked for her hand in marriage, Erubay killed her fiance and Undine became so enraged that she wound up killing her own mother. If that wasn't bad enough, since she doesn't have the dragon anti-bodies that were given to the other dragon slayers in canon, she is slowly turning into a dragon, her arms being the start. She's regretted that day of her life for the last 23 years and counting. At least one reviewer of the story has admitted to wanting to give Undine a hug.
  • Nani from Tartaros is this to quite a few fans. Despite killing dozens of people after Shu was killed off and collapsing the entire infrastructure of Blue Pegasus, a lot of fans felt sympathy towards her and kind of write off Jenny as a heartless monster.