Yes Fairy tail hasn't finished, but it almost has the same amount of chapters as RM. I'm really not seeing the bigger picture for FT, its just like one wave of bad guy after another it doesn't even link in to well from my perspective.oh my how did you know that my opinion is based on FT fan service ?
my opinion is based from experience of watching hundreds of anime since 90's
and with all that i find RM is utter BS after the king died,(note that i read RM first before FT)
the series start pretty good and haru meet various people from his journey typical shounen theme nothing special and they introduce the
bad guy well its some BIG evil organization(can't remember the name since i never read this manga again for years)
and then after countless fight and some great plot finally haru defeat the king and then shit happen when the oracion what ever you called it attack then after that the son escaped from jail ??? and suddenly he have that OP power that even the king don't have how lame is that ?(thought i know you think its not lame but for me and the majority fans think it was utter BS)
true there are dozen of anime that got axed but most of the anime that i see got axed never indicated that the manga losing it popularity like what happen with RM, it simply because RM is losing it commercial value in manga then they decided there is no point to continue it.
and i will say it again, FT is still ongoing that's why even with randomness that happen in the manga, there is still possibility for the show to rival WSJ aced manga like naruto for example,
so we can't conclude that FT is BS not after the manga ended, while RM is ended and we can say anything and i say its BS and you say its not but i have solid reason for that with majority fans think alike like me.... even the anime studio agreeing with me that's why the anime ended
note that natsu travel from unknown forest through magnolia city, do you think the town is just across the forest ?
that was introduction chapter to show what the main character goal.......
and above all that, hiro is showing us a hint about for the dragon with some side arc that happen in the manga.U_U
Also after King died, it was the underworld power-struggle first, where all the small timers tried to make it big like Doryu and Ogre, then the Oricion seis were re-introduced, they didn't suddenly just show up, it took them 6 months to show up again. You can't honestly expect the Oricion seis to go down that easily, although the reason why they escaped "We felt King turn and new he had gone soft" was utter BS, to some degree their escape made perfect plot sense. Also it wasn't Haru who brought King down, it was his father Gale. Also I feel that Lucia surviving was likely, if your marching into what could be your death even though you have the upper advantage, you're not gonna be shooting towards feet level, hell no I know I'd be spraying bullets at eye level to make sure I survive. Lucia probably ended up collapsing from shock rather than actually being injured. Though it makes no sense that Lucia was taken to prison instead of being killed but who knows? Its Hiro he does this random stuff, he did it in FT too. So while I agree that the reasons for those two events could have been better, what happened after wasn't BS or LQ.