Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail is a hugely popular fantasy shonen series taking place in a world of wizards and magic. Most of the main cast belong to the Fairy Tail guild itself, including the fire dragon slayer Natsu Dragneel and the celestial wizard Lucy Heartfilia, and anime fans will spend over 300 episodes with these characters. A lot happens to them, to say the least.

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In all that time, plenty of Fairy Tail's characters evolve and change with their character arcs, such as learning to forgive others or overcome their own personal demons. Laxus Dreyar had a fascinating redemption character arc, for example, but not all characters are like that. Plenty of others had underwhelming, weak, or nonexistent story arcs, and they deserved better.

10 Juvia Lockser Was Too Attached To Gray

Juvia Lockser in Fairy Tail.

The water wizard Juvia Lockser joined the Fairy Tail guild not long after Phantom Lord's defeat, and while Juvia's character arc had some interesting moments, her personal story really isn't that compelling in the long run. She learned to embrace friendship and love and was ready to die for those things, but that's just standard Fairy Tail business.

Juvia was mostly defined by her megadere, borderline yandere attachment to Gray Fullbuster, and her character became rather skewed as a result. Almost everything she said or did was based on her obsession with Gray when her character could have been explored in other ways, too.

9 Lisanna Strauss Came Back, Then Went Stale

Fairy Tail - Lisanna smiling

The youngest of the three Strausses, Lisanna, was already deceased when the main story of Fairy Tail began. Then, the wizards of Fairy Tail found her alive and well in the parallel world of Edolas, and to their delight, Lisanna returned to Earthland with them. She had been gone for two whole years.

Lisanna reunited with her friends and made a few new ones, and she fought more than a few battles, including against the Tartaros dark guild. But her character arc totally stalled out in the process, with her character having nothing interesting to say or do once the novelty of her return wore off.

8 Jude Heartfilia Needed To Be Fleshed Out More

jude heartfilia

Lucy's overbearing single father, Jude, didn't appear much in Fairy Tail, and he is the reason Lucy ran away from a life of luxury and wealth to begin with. Jude did have a minor redemption arc after he sent a heartfelt letter to Lucy apologizing for everything, but the anime could have done more.

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The basic premise of Jude's character arc is solid, but his tragic death would have hit harder if Fairy Tail fans could have seen more of him and explored the world through his eyes a bit more, what really made him who he is, and how he acted and spoke around other people besides Lucy.

7 Levy McGarden Was Just The Book Girl

Levy McGarden background

The bookish Levy McGarden is in a roughly similar position as her guildmate Juvia. Both characters did have moderately interesting personal arcs when they fell in love, but too often, Fairy Tail simply gives a character an obligatory romance arc to give them something to do. It's not always the best strategy.

True, Levy's relationship to Gajeel Redfox is fun to watch, but it's the only thing moving Levy's character along. The anime ought to have given Levy more goals, challenges, and interests beyond books and Gajeel so she could become a little deeper. Getting a whirlwind romance doesn't always make for a deep, compelling character arc.

6 Elfman Strauss Soon Became Irrelevant

Elfman Strauss, fairy tail

Elfman Strauss didn't have much better luck than his little sister, Lisanna. Like Levy, Elfman got a minor boost to his character arc when he got involved with his guildmate Evergreen, but that's not saying a whole lot. Once again, getting an obligatory romance is nice, but it can only do so much for character development.

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Elfman is most interesting when he grapples with the Strauss family's dark powers and the strain it puts on them, such as Mirajane being a widely-feared demon and Elfman himself accidentally killing Lisanna with his uncontrollable powers. His character arc should have focused more on that, but it sadly didn't.

5 Ichiya Kotobuki Vandalay Was Just Comic Relief

ichiya vandalay

The obnoxious womanizer Ichiya Vandalay leads the Blue Pegasus wizarding guild, a friendly rival and sometimes ally of the Fairy Tail guild. Ichiya's magic is based on perfumes and scents, and he fancies himself a total stud, but he's quite wrong about that. And this leads to some truly tedious scenes with him.

Ichiya is like that the entire time, but Fairy Tail could have done more. Instead, the anime could have made him more self-aware and humbled him, all so he could reinvent his image and become a respectable wizard and person. That would have made him more likable overall, but it didn't happen.

4 Bickslow Was Totally Forgettable

bickslow in fairy tail

Bickslow is part of the Thunder God Tribe, a squad led by Laxus Dreyar himself. Bickslow is little more than a gimmick of a character, though, and he has practically no character arc at all. He is known for his puppet-based magic style and sticking his tongue out, but that's not a substitute for a personality.

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Bickslow had some impressive fights in Fairy Tail, but there's not much else to say about him. Little is known of his background, his personal interests, or his dreams aside from serving Laxus loyally, and that's a shame. He could have been more than a scene filler.

3 Evergreen Felt A Bit Shallow

evergreen fairy tail

Another member of the Thunder God Tribe is Evergreen, a vain wizard who fancies herself the queen of fairies, a title that actually belongs to Erza Scarlet. Evergreen was an antagonist during the Fairy Tail civil war sequence, then re-emerged as a hero alongside the rest of the Tribe.

Evergreen is yet another Fairy Tail character who relied almost entirely on her obligatory romance to get some development, but that alone isn't quite enough. The anime should have explored Evergreen in greater detail and fleshed out who she is on the inside, and not just who she is in relation to Elfman or even Laxus.

2 Ivan Dreyar Was A Cheap Villain

Ivan Dreyar

The minor villain Ivan Dreyar is the estranged son of the Fairy Tail master, Makarov Dreyar, and the father of Laxus Dreyar. Even by Fairy Tail standards, though, Ivan's character arc is pretty bare-bones, and most of it is just an excuse to watch the Dreyars fight one another in the Grand Magic Games tournament arc.

Ivan is evil for its own sake, and he just wants power and authority at any cost, including putting a lacrima in his son's body to make the boy stronger. All this felt like a waste of Ivan's character and the potential for more substantial family drama between the three Dreyars.

1 Lyon Vastia Was Gray's Token Rival

Lyon Vastia with ice

Most shonen heroes have an obligatory rival, and in Fairy Tail's case, Gray Fullbuster has a rivalry not just with Natsu, but his fellow ice-make wizard Lyon Vastia, who belongs to the Lamia Scale guild. Lyon was a mildly interesting antagonist in an early story arc, where he had some drama concerning Gray and their deceased mentor, Ur.

After that, Fairy Tail didn't have much use for Lyon aside from helping fill Lamia Scale's character roster and giving Gray another rival to deal with. He also has a one-sided crush on Juvia, but nothing came of that. Clearly, Fairy Tail had already run out of good ideas for Lyon when he could have been much more compelling.