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Mirajane, Lisanna, and Elfman make up one of the few magical families that viewers know of in Fairy Tail. Mirajane and Elfman are still around in the guild by the time that Lucy and fans join up, but Lisanna unfortunately is not. The circumstances surrounding Lisanna are extremely tragic and shape the rest of the family dramatically. However, viewers don’t even initially know that there is a third Strauss child as hints of her existence aren’t dropped until quite a ways into the show. After the first hints of her past are revealed her entire backstory doesn’t come until a few episodes later. And while it is a dark and sad story, it is well worth the wait to know what happened to the Strauss family.
Fairy Tail follows Lucy, Natsu, Erza and Gray as they complete missions for the Fairy Tail guild. The overarching plot is that Natsu is looking for his foster father, a dragon named Igneel. However, in a multi-episode arc, viewers were treated to an in-depth look at the Strauss history and what made the remaining siblings the mages that they are today.
Mirajane Strauss
Mirajane is a beautiful mage who has more than a little magic at her disposal. Her role in the guild is largely to assist the master and to pose as their centerfold model. She is an extremely kind and empathetic individual who is willing to put her life on the line for others. Her primary form of magic is take over magic which allows her to take over the form of a demon who she knows well.
As a child, she was far more tomboyish and more aggressive with her magic. It is unclear whether or not she was any more powerful back then or not but as a child she was constantly at odds with Erza which implies that they had similar power levels. Instead of her adult soft-spoken and feminine personality, her younger self was nearly goth and outspoken.
Elfman Strauss
Elfman is a large man who is fairly obsessed with what is manly. This does not give him a misogynistic or sexist bend, but rather feels like a sweet quirk, since even crying for friends is manly to him. Elfman also uses take over magic, but unlike his sister not completely. He is only able to use Beast Arm and not a full body take over. After he comes to terms with his family’s past he is able to do full body takeovers again.
As a child, he was fairly meek and weak compared to his two sisters. Where they both have a certain amount of confidence it is clear that he does not. His caring nature was far more obvious as a child, both in the parakeet incident and how he helped to take care of Happy’s egg. However, as an adult he is still very caring, but more driven to be powerful and thus it is not as easy to tell.
Lisanna Strauss
Lisanna is where the family’s story takes a dark turn. She was the youngest sister of the family but still had quite a bit of power. She showed far more mastery of the takeover magic than either of her siblings but largely used it to turn into a strange large bird as far as the viewers were shown. She was extremely caring and sweet, but not much of a pushover as a small child. She and Natsu were also extremely close, with her expressing a wish to be his wife when they grow up.
Unfortunately, when the Strauss siblings took on an S-class mission in the mountains, Elfman still believed that he could handle full body takeovers. The beast that they fought was too strong for him and took control of him instead, leading to him attacking Lisanna. He launched her far into the distance and the next visual we have of her is simply her tombstone in the rain. Both of the remaining siblings promised to live their lives for her. Presumably, this is why Mirajane became more soft-spoken and feminine, as Lisanna had been. It is also why Elfman becomes so obsessed with strength, he wants to be able to protect Mirajane.
The Strauss family has a deeply tragic backstory, none of the members were truly evil in it and yet one perished, one was forced to live with the guilt of murder, and one was left having lost basically both of her siblings. The fact that Elfman and Mirajane were able to continue to fight to try to make the world a better place by continuing in their role as mages, and the fact that both siblings were eventually able to work through their grief, in the fight with Phantom Lord, and finally move forward with their lives is a testament to the emotional strength that the Strauss family members possess.