NaLu analysis: hype vs. hype

 Original post: October, 2020

After getting NaLu crumbs too small to make a proper analysis about them, chapter 65 of the sequel is giving us a lot of material!

Whether fans and/or shippers realize it or not, this subject is pretty relevant for their respective fandoms. The excitment, and the anticipation surrounding current scenes or future events in their favorite stories is something that gets them invested in manga/anime.

When it comes to pairings, there are two kinds of hype. There’s the hype created by the way a story unfolds, and there’s the fanhype, which consists of fans getting overexcited and blowing things out of proportion because their favorite character(s) did something…

If we talk about the first kind, Fairy Tail is now a special case given the author’s twitter activity.

Back in 2017, Mashima made a draft of NaLu’s daughter, and later twitted a finished version of the possible children of both NaLu and Gruvia. At that time, they weren’t part of the official story. But, chapter 65 of the Fairy Tail sequel changed that a little bit…

…Team Natsu is back at Edolas, and they found out their (now older) alternate versions married with kids: Edo Natsu and Edo Lucy had “Nasha”

While Edo Gray and Edo Juvia had “Greige,” the Gruvia son:

Why did the Edolas version of NaLu and Gruvia give us offspring, while Earthland Lucy is still embarrassed at the prospect of a romantic relationship with Natsu, and Earthland Gray is pretty embarrassed about having a kid with Juvia?

After the events of the Tenrou (Sirius) Island arc, Most of the main cast of the titular guild spent 7 years “frozen” in time. Meanwhile their Edolas counterpart didn’t undergo such a experience, so they’re 7 years older thatn their Earthland counterparts, and then and during that time span, Edo Natsu and Edo Lucy married and had Nasha.

But, several readers probably figured that much. So, what does this have to do with hype?

Well, we know the author had been making a lot of NaLu twits…

…and he’s been doing it for ages, long before the idea of a manga sequel.

Flashfoward to chapter 25, and we get introduced to Fairy Nail. An alternate version of the Fairy Tail guildmembers, in which Nack (Natsu’s counterpart) and Lucia (Lucy’s counterpart) are in a very spicy relationship. And Gruvia is canon there too.

Now, we got to chapter 65, and we see Edolas NaLu happily married with a child. There’s a clear pattern here, but the Edolas version of the pairing brings something new to the table

If we take into consideration the fact Edolas didn’t have an Acnologia-like event, we can conclude that during the span of those 7 years, each relationship evolved, reached marriage, and had kids who may be within the range of 5-6 years of age. You can probably figure out where am I going with this

While it’s true that only two alternate versions of NaLu are canon, if we combine all of these elements, and all this teasing, we see that Mashima had been building anticipation in the readers. He’s creating hype

If we factor Gruvia, the fact Gray already admits he wants to improve so he can be with Juvia shows we’re getting closer to the relationship upgrade their Edolas counterparts had, which probably happened 7 years ago. What makes this so hype is how it revolves around the story put into context.

How is this different from fanhype? While this NaLu and Gruvia hype had been deliberately created by the author himself. Fanhype exists because of the exaggeration of interactions and moments without any actual meaning.

This kind of hype is developed by those who wank their favorite character and/or premise, blowing everything around them out of proportion.

And chapter 65 not only gave us NaLu/Gruvia hype. It also has a couple of panels that several wankers exaggerated as something romantic for a pretty weak premise. 

When Team Natsu returned to Edolas, Lucy found herself completely naked, and Gray offered his coat so she could cover herself…

…this panel was hyped as a romantic gesture even by several NaLu shippers. But, is it really something unique or special?

It’s certainly not unique for we’ve already seen Lucy far more often with Natsu’s clothes in the manga:

The sequel:

And even in Mashima’s twitter:

So, it’s not something unique. Still, shippers couldn’t care less about these other moments; they prefer to build their own hype around Gray’s coat while completely dismissing the fact NaLu’s daughter (and Gruvia’s son) became part of the story.

The coat is not the only thing shippers love to wank. They relished on Gray blushing when hearing Lucy was naked, and claimed his reaction is a proof of his desire for Lucy. An argument that completely ignores the characterization, story, and context provided until now

Let’s backtrack to the chapter 26. Right before making the promise to improve himself for Juvia, he had a strong reaction at seeing the naked body of Juvia’s lookalike, not only he was blushing, he was also far more expressive here:

I can even mention shippers using commonalities or one-chapter gags to try proving their premise is valid. But, that would be overkill. And that leaves one final question: difference between story-based hype and fanhype?

Hype created by the author is based on the progression and/or development of one or multiple elements within their work’s narrative.

While fanhype is based around moments taken out of context and blown out of proportion.

That’s why the Nasha/Greige hype is real, and the hype created by shippers is only a bunch of headcanons foreign to the story.