If you read some of the comments in this thread, you can already understand some of the hate.
"I heard"
"Apparently".
etc.
Second hand knowledge. Don't listen to stuff like this. The opinion of people who actually don't even know themselves what they are talking about, by default isn't worth that much. Also FT is very popular, if it was bad, how is it possible it's that popular?
I really never understood most of this nonsensical hate FT gets to deal with. That there are people who don't like the series, that I can understand as each person favors different genres and character types. But with FT it really comes often down to or you hate or you love it and the arguments of people who hate it, are often pulled out of proportion and are made out to be as 'absolute'.
Take this 'fanservice' for example. In the 2nd half of the series it really becomes something that regular appearance and I admit that sometimes it's just too much. But then someone says in this thread it ruins the plot. That's just not true. A regular FT chapter has already on average more pages than series like OP, Naruto and Bleach. On top of that Hiro makes sure he uses all his space effectively. Also the amount of breaks he takes are far less than normal. Finally he regularly writes extended chapters or even two chapters for the same week. It even has happened he created no less than three chapters for a single week! This provides more then enough stuff to get yourself satisfied. But no then there are people who solely focus on the fanservice. This actually means that the ones who complain the most about it, are the ones that are focuses the most about it. With other words they seem to want it the most and try, subconsciously or not, to deny it by emphasizing the opposite.
As said before sometimes it was a bit too much, but it's not like there was nothing else in the chapter so I focus on that. I mean a while back a character got tortured nude. Normally you wouldn't call that fanservice, but still there were people who said it. But that recently in a HxH chapter a monster with a hundred bare breasts, huge nipples, a vagina-face with a penis-nose appeared, no one in his right mind is going to consider that "fanservice".
I mean same thing with FT supposedly not losing. Someone said in another thread that he couldn't even remember them losing, while they did not that long ago and if you read the entire series, they lost more than once. Of course in the end they always win. Why? Because good guys always do that, but that's no different from Naruto, Bleach, OP etc.
These complaints about FT seems to have started living a life of their own, among others due to people saying stuff like "I heard" and "apparently". They are just repeating something someone else said without even questioning its supposed objectivity. Read the series for yourself and decide yourself what you think of it (I always prefer a manga over its animated series).
Do you know what I believe the real reason is for this hatred of many people for FT? Fear. Fear that they actually like it, but then would feel dumb about it. I consider OP the best manga in existence, it has an incredibly complex plot that keeps getting more layers and layers while the OnePieceverse gets more and more depth. But that's also something that weights on you after a while. I will never consider FT better than OP, but sometimes you just want to have some simplistic variation. It's the same with Naruto where Kishi keeps focusing on Sasuke and Naruto and their destinies. He keeps hammering on that Yin/Yang dualism and in Bleach Ichigo has to carry everything. The faith of SS, the faith of the World, the faith of Hueco Mundo.
And then you get Fairy Tail: simplicity. No complicated explanations of plot stories. They go on adventure, finish and go back to their guild. Then leave on another adventure, finish and go back to their guild. Even though there are always a few characters sticking out, Hiro focuses on the guild and as a result many characters get screentime. And each arc you always get some small amount of a deeper lying plot, but you never feel "heavy". FT is a simple series, Hiro does many things that I'm pretty sure many people have imagined or even wanted a character doing it, but was never done by other mangaka as it would ruin their complex plot.
However when something is 'simple', many people will associate that, subconsciously or not, with being 'dumb', 'childish' and not worth their time. Same thing that when, and I'm sure many of us once encountered such a situation, you say to someone you like watching cartoons and such and they say you should grown up or that's for children.
But what is the most popular anime of all time? DBZ, a series that in fact is messed up on all levels. It's power scale makes no sense, it has some of the biggest plotholes in existence, there isn't much real character development and its fights are extended to last an infinity. And still it's pretty much the arch father of manga & anime. I mean what would you call a Super-Saiyan? Is that a sensible power-up? Let alone SS 2, 3 & 4? And why did Goku go SS the first time? And Gohan? Against opponents that should have been far stronger than them? Friendship, nakama. Hiro never made a secret out of it that he and his entire generation were inspired by Dragonball and Goku. It's the simplicity of this series that made it so popular despite all its major flaws and it's the same with FT: simplicity. However when you have to choose between something simple and something complex, many people would go often for the latter just because they think it would make them appear greater or smarter or mature.
Frankly I find people who keep hating on FT as they do while pulling things like 'nakama powers ups' and 'they never lose' father murderers. There's also a thread in the MAC section where someone was comparing FT with HxH and asks people to have 'mature' responses...while the makes comments about how HxH shits and stomps on FT.
I mean Hiro know even started several monthly spin-off series which are also canon.
Nakama was too much... Let's say Lucy had cancer and natsu and pals told her that they're all friends and will get through with it together.She would heal of all cancer.That's what it is like.the only cool thing about it was acnologia.
That's just a horrible analogy.