Summary Key Points:

[spoiler]

• Erza is able to take out all the Lacrima with the help of the rest of Fairy Tail (With a bit of help from Lucy and Gray in rounding them up)
• Natsu faces off against Laxus, but is beaten down
• Gajeel interferes and saves Natsu and they form an alliance for the battle
• Using all their attacks in tandom, they unleash a deadly barrage of attacks on Laxus
• Laxus is unphased however, and reveals that he too is a Dragon Slayer, the Dragon slayer of Lightning
• Laxus begins to unleash Fairy Law, Makarov’s most powerful and dangerous spell
• Levi interrupts, and begs Laxus to stop as his grandfather is about to die
• Laxus seems to be surprised for a bit, but it actually turns out that he’s glad more than anything
• Natsu is horrified at the news, and everyone looks in horror as Laxus completes his spell
• The Episode ends with Laxus initiating Fairy Law

[/spoiler]

Opinions: (B+)

So this was a pretty epic episode! I have to say… it does seem like every episode of Fairy Tail seems like its wasting time on the mundane stuff and just as things begin to get good, the episode ends. I realize that mundane stuff is actually pretty important, and I applaud the animation team for not skipping over it and making the fights longer instead, but I do feel like the pacing is a bit uneven in episodes.

My nit-picky complaints aside, this episode saw Lucy revive the spirit of Fairy Tail and get everyone together to take out the Lacrima. I really do believe that it was impressive how neither Gray nor Erza could convince everyone to stop fighting and focus on the ask at hand, and then Lucy swooped right in and got everyone to get going. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Lucy would make an epic Guild Master herself, a few years down the line.

That said, the meat of the episode, which was the second half, was the much anticipated fight between Laxus and the duo of Natsu and Gajeel. The fight was a bit of a letdown to me personally, but I’ll acknowledge that it was a good one. Seeing Natsu and Gajeel unleash their attacks in that combination was pretty sweet. It would be nice to have them actually work together as partners. Sad fact is that Gajeel is more of a spy than anything else. Sad, the Dragon slayer combo was definitely the highlight of the episode, even it didn’t do much to Laxus.

Speaking of Laxus and Dragon Slayers… he turned out to be a Dragon Slayer too! This  should have been quite the shock and surprise for most, but Fairy Tail pulled another one of its trade mark blunders and spoiled the big reveal in the episode title: “Triple Dragon”. Still, Laxus being a Dragon Slayer was pretty sweet, and it seems that he is totally in control of his powers and has mastered the use of them. Gajeel and Natsu were pretty weak in comparison.

What really did put the final nail in the coffin for any sort of good character Laxus had was how he was actually pleased to learn that Makarov was going to die. For a moment, I really believed he was shocked, but he actually didn’t care an inch and continued on to cast the Fairy law spell. Teaching such a powerful spell to an explosive and volatile kid like Laxus was definitely NOT the best idea for Makarov. If anything, Makarov is definitely waay too trusting as a Guild Leader. Letting Gajeel in, and then teaching Laxus Fairy Law.

That said, Fairy Law was initiated, and it should pretty much wipe everyone out if casted correctly. I doubt it was though, and I’m sure that Natsu, rather enraged by the fact that Makarov is on his death bed, is going to power up again and save the day, like he usually does. I’m hoping for a grand epic battle next episode! =D

Preview:

Next episode its Natsu versus Laxus, for the epic finish! See you in 6 days (since I posted the review a day late XD)