I continue to have mixed feelings about this 100 Year Quest sequel series. There are both things that I like and things that I dislike, unlike the original series, which was mainly things that I liked.
******Beware of spoilers*****
Like the introduction of Ignia, the Fire Dragon God, for instance.
On the one hand, the fact that he is the blood-son of Igneel feels like a re-hash of the “Natsu’s evil brother” plot-line like was done with Zeref. Like it’s not enough that he’s part of this grand quest or even that he holds a grudge against Natsu for being the one to slay Acnologia (with a team-worth of help) when he wanted to be the one to do it, no, he had to be Natsu’s brother-via-adoption. That’s a lot of backfill, which brings the climatic fight with Mercphobia to a grinding halt while at the same time makes Ignia feel less like a ‘god’. We’ve seen Igneel fight Acnologia, and he lost. It wasn’t a curbstomp but how can someone born of a non-god be a god? It sounds off.
On the other hand, the actual introduction of Ignia and what he actually does when he arrives is fantastic. He arrives by way of saving Natsu and says that he is here to help Natsu defeat Merchobia, which adds more wrinkles and complexities to this One Year Quest than the Gotta Slay ‘Em All start out with, continuing one with those introduced with Mercphobia. Then he says that he is not going to /fight with them/ but rather give Natsu a temporary power boost, which, in contrast to what I wrote above, does a great deal to hype up the “dragon gods”.
According to Ignia, Mercphobia is only using about 50% of his full power and is not even fighting strategically, given that he is being remotely controlled by the White Witch. Even then, Team Natsu can’t defeat them; they need a leg-up from a different dragon god to do that. The power boost is so great that it overwhelms Natsu’s mind and compels him to burn a defeated enemy to ashes, which not even becoming E.N.D. did that (fortunately, Lucy intervenes).
As for being the son of Igneel, I have reasons to like that besides disliking it. Connecting to previous lore is generally better in my opinion then creating new stuff, and it can hardly be considered a retcon. It makes perfect sense that Igneel might want two sons to grow strong enough to defeat Acnologia, a dragon in addition to a dragon-slayer. Acnologia didn't find Ignia because Ignia was deliberately hiding from him, on a different continent, in a human guise, waiting to become strong enough to challenge him; a several hundred year-long training montage! ^_~
On a side note, the Fairy Nail talent agency is a hilarious idea, which then turns around into a catalyst for the advancement of a character arc for Grey, which was unexpected and well done.
Trickster Eric Novels gives Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest volume 3 a C+