Lucy Heartfilia (Japanese: ルーシィ・ハートフィリア, Hepburn: Rūshii Hātofiria) is a fictional character from Hiro Mashima's manga series Fairy Tail.

Journalists have praised some of her fight scenes and have regarded her as sympathetic, but they have found her development lacking and have generally criticized her relationship with the celestial spirits.

Three alternative hairstyles included a bun, a short haircut covering her right eye, and a side ponytail similar to the one Mashima ultimately picked for her.

Following Layla's death and her own later estrangement from Jude,[12] Lucy leaves her home to join the Fairy Tail guild, which she admires in spite of its members' inclination to cause unintended property damage.

[11] She is rescued from a criminal by members Natsu Dragneel, a fire wizard and Dragon Slayer, and Happy, his Exceed companion, who invite her into the guild after learning of her goal.

[18][19] While Lucy is present on Sirius Island for Fairy Tail's S-Class promotional exam,[20] former guild master Mavis Vermillion places the island in suspended animation within the defensive spell Fairy Sphere to protect the guild from the dragon Acnologia;[21] Lucy regains her love for Jude after discovering his death from overwork shortly upon her release seven years later.

[22][23] During the Kingdom of Fiore's annual Grand Magic Games tournament, Lucy's future self uses the magical time travel gate Eclipse to return to the present and warn her friends of an impending assault conducted by dragons from the past,[24] later dying while shielding her present self from fellow time traveler Rogue Cheney's attack.

[25] Lucy is then able to prevent the crisis by closing Eclipse using all twelve zodiac spirits belonging to her and fellow celestial wizard Yukino Agria.

[30] She and the rest of Fairy Tail then participate in a war against the Alvarez Empire,[31] which is led by Natsu's brother, the dark wizard Zeref.

While reviewing the manga, Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network (ANN) regarded Lucy's relationship with her celestial spirits as "awful".

[83] Nevertheless, the writer described Lucy's confrontation with one of Dragon Slayer Laxus Dreyar's allies as "breathtaking"; Silverman elaborated on this aspect by saying this battle had "a combination of emotion, intellect, and good old fashioned brawling to maximize the reader's involvement in the story", adding that no other major fight in the series contained the same mixture of elements.

[84] Silverman further wrote that Dragon Slayer Wendy Marvell took over Lucy's role as the main female character of the story for a limited amount of time.

[86] A. E. Sparrow of IGN compared the way Lucy was drawn with how the characters Nami and Vivi were portrayed by manga artist Eiichiro Oda in the One Piece series.

The reviewer regarded Lucy's ability to summon celestial spirits as "great" and thought it would be fun to see what other keys she could collect in the future.

[87] Dale North of Japanator felt that Lucy had the widest variety of facial expressions among the Fairy Tail characters and described her as "cute".

[88] Richard Gutierrez of The Fandom Post said that Lucy had become a stronger person following Fairy Tail's fight against the Phantom Lord guild.

[92] While the reviewer described Lucy's partnership with Natsu and Happy as odd, he thought of their teamwork as the main part of the story's "action ensemble".

[100] While reviewing Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess, Kimlinger mentioned that there were "little spikes of melancholy" in the story when the plot focused on Lucy; he praised Hirano's "emotional intensity" in the film and stated that Leigh's performance sounded "childish in comparison".