English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “When the Fire Dies”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Now that Zeref and Acnologia have been successfully vanquished, everything starts to return to normal. Mavis and Zeref have a long scene where the first guild leader deals with her conflicting feelings towards him. They end up using the Curse of Contradiction on each other, and they pass on together peacefully.

Jellal has survived and is being tended to be Erza, Wendy, and the crew of the Blue Pegasus. And Lucy, Gray, and Happy seem to have rescued Natsu by rewriting his demon book. But just as everything is wrapping up nicely, Natsu vanishes and a crack appears in the sky as Wendy looks on.

Our Take:

When the Fire Dies is a very low-key kind of episode. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but there are definitely pros and cons. It doesn’t have a whole lot of action to keep viewers interested, but it does provide a little comedown after a few weeks of intense storylines.

Mavis and Zeref take up the first half of the episode. It’s a cool dynamic they have, and one that has plenty of conflict in it inherently. You can really feel for Mavis as she’s listing the reasons she hates Zeref, while also simultaneously admitting her love for him. Like many lovers, they’ve had a complicated history. I’m not exactly sure I agree with her overall acceptance of what Zeref has done, but it’s a very human kind of ending, putting her own feelings for him above the feelings that he deserves justice for his evil actions. Regardless of how we feel about their relationship, I’m glad they get to live together in peace now. Thanks, Curse of Contradiction!

After the episode wraps up their arc, we return to Lucy, Gray, and Happy. Lucy has finished writing in Natsu’s demon book and is feeling pretty woozy. Gray uses his demon-slaying powers to cleanse her body of the demon streaks. (Which to me begs the question, why didn’t he just do this before?) They reunite with Natsu and everything looks to be finishing up quietly. I love Lucy’s enthusiasm about having some downtime to catch up on her reading and writing! But lo and behold: Natsu disappears into thin air. I’m a bit confused about where he’s gone, as the demon book solution seemed to have worked. Guess we’ll find out next week.

The dub was pretty solid this week, even if Mavis’ crying felt a little too overdramatic at times. “Natsu is a force to be reckoned with… but so naive.” Zeref’s statement is accurate. “I felt conflicted, not compassionate!” Mavis and Zeref’s relationship probably deserves an entire essay of its own. “I wrote down our memories. What we’ve shared with him. We know who Natsu truly is.” Knowing this makes it even more depressing that it may not have helped Natsu survive in the end. “It’s not snot, Natsu. It’s emotion juice!” Happy is cute, but a little gross.

This episode of Fairy Tail may not have been the typical action-packed extravaganza it normally is, but it was still a nice breather after a long series of densely-packed and plotted episodes. Mavis and Zeref’s scenes dragged on a bit too long for me, but I’m glad they got a peaceful end together. If only Natsu and his friends could say the same! Join us next week as Lucy uncovers where Natsu has gone.