Fairy Tail/Headscratchers

The fight against Vithaldus Taka

 * Okay, when Lucy and Juvia fights against Vithaldus Taka of Trinity Raven in the Tower of Heaven, he uses his guitar magic to turn Juvia into a "Succubus". When Lucy asks him why he didn't turn her into one too, he replies that it's because he wants to see them have a catfight. Lucy of course was very reluctant about this. So I wonder, if he turned Lucy into a Succubus, wouldn't she enjoy the fight more? This way he could be the spectator of a much more passionate catfight. And in all circumstances, as a Succubus is like a slave, he would have nobody opposing him. The fact that Lucy stayed normal was the only reason that they actually defeated him.
 * It's possible that he could only turn one person into a "Succubus" at a time, and said that to distract Lucy from that fact. It's also possible that he wouldn't find a catfight as amusing without one of them being genuinely reluctant and out of his control—breaking her without the magic. Some people are douches like that.


 * It doesn't align with any of the others, seeing as his age has been confirmed and we know he has family. Not only that, but the other Dragon Slayers are according to the Law Barrier, whereas is in his 20's.
 * We've seen only seen two other Dragon Slayers. Too early to assume an orphan only policy. Also Natsu and Gazille were confused as to why they couldn't go through the barrier. I'd assume they know how old they are, so there was probably an undisclosed condition.
 * There is also the fact that Dragon Slayer is a type of magic that can be learned by anyone. The father of might be the one to have taught it to him. Nothing says that you have to learn Dragon Slayer magic from a dragon.

Laxus in the latest chapters.

 * Not the fact that he's a, but the way he's handled as a villain. Chapters of showing how he's willing to kill everyone, making friends fight friends and trapping them in a diabolical death magic...and then it turns out that . That's enough of a wall-banger on it's own, but then he's cool with trying to kill Natsu again. The hell?
 * It's the for the whole Nakama thing that's shoved down our throats at every available moment with the subtlety of a brick presented to us as a open and positive thing that transcends all boundaries and motivations.
 * Actually, while the bit about Nakama is indeed correct, the issue in question has to do with that spell he uses. It's specifically designed as an attack that only works on those that you deem an enemy, and since for some reason deep down he still thought of them as Nakama, it didn't take effect. This does not change the fact that he was still willing to kill and harm them, but note that you don't necessarily have to be fully willing to do something to actually go through with it (hence why people harbor regrets and such). Basically the spell not working was a kind of wake up call that Natsu was right all along, which he didn't take well. Least that's how I interpreted it, and certainly makes sense in theory.
 * I saw it as Laxus wanting desperately to be his own person, since he saw himself as always being in his grandfather's shadow, and simply allowing those negative feelings to build up way too far. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but the frustration that had built up over the years was just far too great for him to resist.

Why do  Dragons teach people Dragon Slayer magic in the first place?
== Maybe I'm using Pokemon logic too much here, but Dragon Slayer magic is said to change the user's body constitution to that of a dragon when used. As the name implies, it's also said to be super effective against Dragons. So shouldn't using Dragon Slayer magic against another Dragon Slayer fuck them up more than normal magic would? ==
 * Especially since it seems that Fire Dragon Slayer magic seems to meant to hunt down fire dragons, and Natsus 'father', a Fire Dragon, taught it to him.
 * I doubt that Fire Dragon-Slayer magic is used to hunt down fire dragons; rather, I would think that the people that know it, use it to hunt down other types of dragons. Maybe because having other types of human followers helps out a dragon in some untold manner, or maybe dragons have been geased to prevent them from fighting one another directly, and use mortals trained in powerful anti-dragon magics attack draconic enemies.
 * Except that Natsu would be all but immune to a fire dragons main attack, its fire breath. And considering that he can actually absorb fire and get stronger - in all aspects it seems - he is the prefect person to hunt down and kill a fire dragon.
 * Except fire dragons would, logically, also be able to absorb all of Natsu's fire attacks, rendering magic from either party useless.
 * Lampshaded in Chapter 1, actually. Lucy remarks on how odd it is that a dragon would choose to teach a human how to kill dragons, so Dragon Slayer/Interception magic was probably never intended for a human to learn. Further supported by the fact that almost all mages are surprised that Natsu can use it. If other mages didn't know it was possible, it must be an extremely uncommon thing.
 * It's an ancient (and assumed mostly dead) magic, so many mages probably either aren't aware of its existence or believe it's something forbidden.  uses another ancient magic (the manipulation of time), which was also assumed to be extinct, and maybe forbidden. I think, essentially, the idea of all these arguments is that Mashima really needs to explain the Dragon Slayers.
 * As I saw it, Dragon Slayer magic wasn't specifically invented for slaying dragons - it was an extremely powerful brand of magic that could kill dragons, and hence got the name because of that. So it wasn't really Igneel purposefully handing Natsu to key to his own demise. Until we get the full story, though, who knows.
 * Also, as shown in later chapters (and somewhat in the early ones too), Dragon Slayer magic seems to give the mages Dragon-like powers, so perhaps this will ultimately transform such mages into dragons in the future? Also, I could make a bet with ya that the reason why the dragons disappeared is that 'cus they live on as the Dragon Slayers' magic, guardian spirits or something like that. Seriously, does it really seem to be so different from this?
 * The same question was asked on some forum that I saw, and someone came up with the idea that dragon slayers are actually dragons (or at least not human). The part where Natsu and Gajeel can't pass through the barrier might support this.
 * Am I the only one who sees a modicum of sense in only teaching magic that is, if it not deliberately designed to kill you, at least VERY good at it to people who have been specifically vetted to like dragons a lot?
 * I imagine that the original dragon slayers learned their magic themselves by imitating dragons rather than being taught by them. As for why 3 immensely powerful dragons have decided to adopt random kids and teach them magic normally used to kill dragons, it probably has something to do with Zeref and all the dragons dissappearing. The chapter where we saw Igneel has him saying something about how they have to trust the humans.
 * Dragon Slayer magic is taught to children raised by dragons. By doing that they insure the Dragon Slayers look at dragons as people and not vicious monsters. If they come across a truly evil dragon they destroy it.
 * Maybe the dragons just wanted their (adopted) children to know magic and thought them the only one they know. Dragon Slayer magic is supposed to imitate dragons so it kinda makes sense.
 * Rogue and Sting, the new Dragon Slayers from the Tournament Arc, . They're also Third Generation Dragon Slayers, meaning they were taught by actual dragons and have Slayer Lachrima in their bodies, so that might have something to do with them being able to do that in the first place.
 * It does. Every time you see Dragon Slayers fight, they cause massively more damage to each other than compared to when they fight other kinds of mages. Take a look at the Natsu-Gajeel fight and compare it to pretty much any other fight Natsu gets into.

What about Igneel?

 * When we first met Natsu, he was wandering around, trying to find Igneel. Now, not only does he never go looking for him, he doesn't even talk about it. Does he just not care anymore, or were things just THAT boring before Lucy showed up?
 * Lucy is a hot piece of tail, besides I think this is one of those things where he is looking for him, while not fighting, i.e. off-panel. Or he is hoping to gather information while out on missions.
 * True, she is, but I don't really think he cares.
 * He needs to leads to follow. When we first saw him, Natsu was on a lead about a Salamander that didn't match his description. Presumably, he just hasn't heard anything about other Salamanders or Dragons since then.
 * Doesn't he bring it up when he fought Gazille? He still looking for Igneel. He just doesn't have a clue where to look.
 * He questioned Wendy about Grandine's disappearance too.
 * First thing he does when he sees Acnologica is scream at it to tell him where Igneel is.

Raijinshuu eyes.

 * What bugs me is that Bixlow mentions during his fight with Lucy and her stellar spirit  that all the members of the Raijinshuu have a secondary ability with their eyes, though Evergreen uses hers as a primary. So, what was Fried's eye ability? And does Evergreen have a secondary ability, or are her petrification gaze her only ability?
 * Evergreen had that exploding dust/needle thing. Fried's eye changed color whenever he used Yami no Ecriture (Dark Script)--his power that made it so if he wrote something on someone (like pain, death, demon, etc) it became true—so I guess that's what his eye power was supposed to be.
 * Orrrr...maybe it just hasn't been shown yet!

Slayer Lachryma in general piss me off.
== Brain   ==
 * If the Lachryma are supposed to be solid spells, and according to Cobra humans shouldn't be able to normally learn Dragon Slayer, how are they made in the first place? Not only that, but they cheapen the Dragon Slayer's awesomeness. It's like how everybody and their mother have a Sharingan in Naruto
 * Slayer Lachryma is just a cheap knockoff of real Dragon Slayer magic (which Cobra claimed humans couldn't learn because he thought Dragons were extinct). And since  the existence of Dragon Lachryma doesn't cheapen the Dragon Slayer magic at all. Kind of like how the existence of saccharine and Equal doesn't cheapen the awesomeness that is real sugar.
 * Except it took two real dragon slayers to beat Luxus (and "beat" is hardly the right word since their injuries were worse than his), and Cobra ultimately won that battle (Natsu was completely paralyzed by venom which was going to be fatal even if left alone; even if it took Cobra two days before he felt well enough to sit up, Natsu was gonna die and he wasn't), though only barely and he had help from the giant "snake" he was riding while Natsu only used Happy as a pair of wings. Luxus is the most powerful dragon slayer by a wide margin, the rest seem to be about even. Though it's possible they just shoved too much Lachryma into him.
 * I don't think Laxus or Cobra being stronger than Natsu was them having stronger Dragon Slayer power, I think it's just because they're stronger mages (more talented, more experienced, etc.). Also, it seems being an artificial Dragon Slayers only gives you any power when using Dragon Force, and judging from Natsu it seems a real Slayers version is much stronger.
 * Cobra "beat" Natsu only because he had his snake around to boost his powers at will. And in the manga, he puts up a less awesome fight. Laxus, on the other hand, is just more experienced, well-trained, and older. It's an adult Dragon Slayer beating up two runts, even if he's only an artificial Dragon Slayer.
 * The wiki explains it as being that the so-called “New Generation” Dragon Slayers automatically activate Dragon Force when they activate their Dragon Slayer powers. Which makes the lachryma-implanting sound just all the more unnatural, to be honest. They can’t use the basic powers without shooting straight up there and, presumably, using a crapload of their magic in the process.
 * I think it was supposed to be similar to how the chick Lucy defeated got up, it wasn't going to last long (Given both the fall and the super hearing overload), and that Blaine didn't have one of the lines disappear after he shot him seems to support that. But yeah, that's a stretch no matter how you look at it.
 * From a villainous point of view, it makes sense. Cobra's severe injuries had screwed him over completely (injuries from the fall and possible brain damage due to the overload). Even if he did finish off Natsu he would have been useless to Brain afterwards. Brain probably killed Cobra both to punish him for failure and to save Natsu. Brain was impressed by Natsu's power and wanted to use Nirvana to turn him into a suitable replacement for Cobra.
 * Defeating Cobra released one of the seals on his Zero personality, it's probably for that same reason that he impersonated Hoteyes and ask them to defeat Midnight.
 * No, "defeat Midnight" was a lie. He sent them straight into a trap he had planted before hand.

Erza's fake eye. If it works as a normal eye, does it really makes sense that it isn't affect by magic that attacks one's sight?

 * We haven't really gotten the mechanics behind it to be honest, but I'm totally willing to buy that since the elderly forest woman made it, it doesn't work like a normal eye would. That it decreases the capabilities of magic that attacks sight was established before with the petrification gaze. As long as it doesn't start doing crap like copying people's move sets, view tiny microscopic bombs in your bloodstream, see through several feet of dirt to find hidden bombs underground, trapping people in illusions, or subsequently more powerful illusions that allow you to do whatever you want to them in a time frame they perceive as 72 hours, casting black flames that burn through anything, summoning an invincible god like body to do your bidding as well as apparently granting immortality and teleportation and instead just makes it so that sight based magic will have less of an affect on her, it certainly can't get too bad.
 * Here's a question about it: how did it see through Midnight's illusion when the "illusion" was not a magically generated phantasm but an actual projection of light, just one that was made using magic. Unless the fake eye sees on some sort of different wavelength than a regular one, it should still be seeing something since the thing was made of real light. The only way I could see this working is if the eye could somehow dis spell any magic that was affecting light, but given that the thing was still there, and Erza just saw through (although what the perspective of that panel was is debatable).
 * I'd again go with the assumption that the sight granted by the manufactured eye isn't the same as what's granted by a regular eye. We really haven't been given enough information to understand what is really going on with it, nor how exactly what's her name's petrification works either. So long as whatever the hell it does STAYS limited to magic that operates based on sight in some manner, I really can't see it getting too bad though.
 * Maybe she did see the illusion but it was semi-transparent to her. Her magic eye and her real one don't work the same so maybe she just saw the difference between the illusion light and the real light.

I'm new to the manga (currently at vol.8), but what the hell is up with this gratuitous amount of Fan Service?
== Love the series, love the art, love the characters, but the one thing that always confuses me is that if Fairy Tail members are prone to destroying private property and generally reeking havoc while doing their jobs, why do they still get so many requests? Sure they're powerful, but there're other guilds... == == When Natsu was attacking the Phantom's Base On Legs why did his motion sickness only kick in when it turned out to be a Transforming Mecha; how is one any more of a vehicle than the other? More importantly, why did it effect him at all when both forms were pretty much completely stationary when he was in them? == == I understand why Natsu can't eat his own fire (or rather that this wouldn't do him any good) as it's like trying to breath recycled air, but why can't he eat fire that he just started with his own fire? There would be more heat that he put in from whatever burning. ==
 * Once in a while is okay, since I'm a guy too, but seriously, almost once in every 5 pages or so is no. The worst offender got to be Erza. Her armors' designs are plain damn ridiculous.
 * Because Mr. Mashima really likes drawing fanservice.
 * Actually, Erza's normal armor is quite modest and practical. It's the magic armors—which she did not design, by the way—which are fanservice-y.
 * Recall most of the requests they actually get. Erase a book owned by a scumbag rich guy, crush one of the three main dark guilds in that alliance, destroy the freaking Moon. Sometimes people don't just want the job done, sometimes they want it done so well that it also happens to be done to anything also in the remote vicinity.
 * There're still other jobs that I wouldn't really trust Fairy Tail members with. One job once was to teach a bunch of little kids magic...do you really want a Fairy Tail member to corrupt your young?
 * YES.
 * The Galuna Island job wasn't for Fairy Tail specifically. It went to every guild in the country. They probably get a good number of requests that way. And a job like teaching little kids sounds like a local thing. Fairy Tail is the only guild in Magnolia, and the townspeople seem to turn an eye on their destructive tendencies. I could see them not thinking much about it.
 * The townspeople don't just turn a blind eye to the destruction caused by Fairy Tail, but seem to see them as some kind of well-loved celebrities.
 * And remember that the majority of property damage that Fairy Tail is blamed for is apparently mostly caused by Natsu.
 * Another point to consider is that while they do have a reputation they are also highly principled. You want to be certain the mages who come to help have good, honest intentions and will try their best? Fairy Tail.
 * Honestly, I think his motion sickness is as much mental as physical. Remember, it only affects him when it involves vehicles, not all forms of non-walking motion. He gets sick on a train, but once it stops or should he be carried by a friend (like Happy), he is instantly better, without any residual symptoms from his motion sickness.
 * I remember from one of the first volumes, of Lucy being called a "transportation device". And also, as the end of a chain of traveling in things (It said "Train+Carriage+Lucy=Death Blow" or something of the like).
 * Same thing, still his fire.
 * My theory is that just like how a Dragon Slayer's constitution is changed to that of a dragon, the properties of the element that was eaten are changed as well, so while he can eat fire, he can't eat Dragon-Fire.
 * The whole POINT of dragon-slayer magic is he can eat dragon fire, just not his own. A more logical conclusion is a fire started with magic remains magical in nature, and Natsu cant eat his own magic.
 * It could be that in order to eat his own fire, he would have to make it, which would expend it. Maybe the fire expended would be equal to the fire gained, so it wouldn't help him. Like pouring water out of a bucket to fill that bucket.

I might be the only one, but I think Natsu's pushing The Determinator trope too far that it's too predictable. In my opinion he's few steps from becoming a Boring Invincible Hero.

 * Any particular reason for this line of thought? It's not like he hasn't lost before, though granted MOST of the time it's due entirely to his motion sickness, but given this is coming right after a fight that at best he fought to a draw and would have died without outside interference, and more importantly right after he, at best, was brutally slaughtered the timing for such a statement seems a tad odd.
 * If you are bothered by the good guys bringing themselves back from the brink of death and winning through sheer force of will and the faith of their comrades, you're probably reading the wrong genre.
 * There are limits, even to Shonen. The more you do it, the less meaningful and/or impressive it is.
 * Hence why it makes less sense to bring it up with Natsu. He's experienced at least two instances he could not 'win' that were not due to his one weakness just recently, and even the number of times he has been able to do it with more powerful enemies than him (Luxus and Gerard off the top of my head, and even with Luxus Gazille's aid was critical) comes no where near the sheer number of times people like Ichigo have stupidly managed to pull that kind of crap.
 * How is he Boring or Invincible if the Big Bad nearly wins every single time? He's fighting people who are way over his head. The whole eating mechanic is designed so that there's a lore-based way he can pull a victory out of his ass.
 * You know I haven't seen that many fights where he won by himself, most of the time either his opponent was already tired out by someone else or he had to have someone else help him in fact he almost seems to be suffering from the Worf Effect

If Happy is (kind of dark) blue, why do the manga pages shown him as white?

 * This seems to be an issue a lot of manga have, particularly so here as Gerard also has Blue Hair (theatre) and is of a darker shade than Happy in the manga. Meh, best I can tell is that they simply choose what's easiest to use consistently with characters more central to the story and just roll with it. Worst case I've seen thus far is with Kishimoto's completely random choice of shadings for Red Hair and similar coloration's, with Garra and Roushi being outright white while he completely flipped it all the way around with Nagato and Karin by making it freaking black, so that for the longest time people thought their hair color actually was black until a color page of them was released.
 * This happens so often in shonen manga that I've just kind of mentally blocked colored images out of my mind. No need to look at the colored anime of Fairy Tail anyway since it's kind of horrendous.

Racer...stops time? In a certain area? What?

 * OK, Racer's power being slowing down movement/perception of time that everyone perceives as Super Speed is just full of Fridge Logic. First of all, is he slowing down everything but himself, everyone but himself (body and mind), or just the minds of everyone else? Either way, there are some problems with how that could work.
 * It's probably more along the lines of the first one, as we have things like Natsu jumping off a cliff and such that would really make it all too obvious what his power really is, to say nothing being able to catch and ride the motorcycles. I think it's more along the lines of everything in a certain range as things like the wind and leaves falling to the ground and the like would probably give him away all too quickly. Though yeah, trying to wrap your head around it brings in all kinds of issues.
 * I thought it was probably that, until I remembered Racer failed to dodge Gray's attack because it started from out of his range—but still went into his range on the way there. So what, does it only affect what objects were in range when he started using it or does it take a while for objects that enter his range to slow done after the initial activation?
 * Yeah, like I said, there are all sorts of kinks to it. My assumption on that was that since the magic was formed and launched outside his range he couldn't just affect it instantly, as opposed to all Gray's other spells that formed basically at the same speed as normal to his own perception prior to that. WAY too many issues to adequately explain with the little information given.
 * It's simple: Grey was not slowed down when aiming his attack, so he struck true. A bow and arrow shoots its payload far faster than a human being can dodge, by a large enough margin that a thoroughly surprised Racer was apparently unable to dodge it. Had Grey been slowed down as well, aiming and executing any such attack would take long enough for Racer to notice and dodge.
 * What I don't get is how the hell he got Gerard so fast. He isn't moving any faster and even if the range had anything to do with it, the world is still outside his range. Logically he wouldn't be moving any faster with or without the power. The only argument I could find is that he used his motorcycle, but you see him zipping there and back like he ran the distance. I recall his comment upon coming back is that it slowed him down carrying it there. The other members while being still as fast as an average human, has more physical strength than he does.
 * We don't know quite how far he was, but frankly the motorbike is a very reasonable answer. For zipping out, the bikes have to be stored somewhere. All he has to do is get them, go there and get Gerard, come back and get within the set distance to Blaine for his ability, and then bam, he 'zips back in' as you put it while carrying the thing. Nothing remotely out of place for that to say the least, particularly since he had like four of those bikes.
 * It was never said how far it was, but it was said that it would take him an hour at least, it was also mentioned that the coffin slowed him down, we don't know that he actually got it any faster than anybody else with those motorbikes would. While Brain comments on "No man being faster" than Racer, it's possible that no one in that guild actually knew how his magic worked. I mean, if I were him I'd keep a few things secret as insurance.
 * Racer's magic works to slow down the perception of time in a person's mind. He doesn't affect the actual time of anyone or anything, which is how Gray was able to beat him (he could see Racer more clearly and take careful aim in order to hit him).

Issue 164

 * What the FUCK? Just what. The. Fuck? How is treated as anything other than a Moral Event Horizon? What kind of lifelong trauma would a realization like that leave? It is quite possibly the most heinous act of deception and psychological abuse I've ever heard of, and it's not even worthy of note to the rest of the cast.
 * While I see why someone could think that, there were a lot of issues going on after that whole fiasco, it's not even a day after they just fought for their lives, and really whether or not you hold such an opinion is really up to the individual. While the impact literally should be many degrees worse, the methodology behind it is really kinda similar to why parents go with the whole Tooth-Fairy-and-Santa-Clause-are-real route, which while it doesn't make things any less severe certainly shouldn't make it just as bad as the usual standards people hold for a Moral Event Horizon.
 * I saw it as, yes, traumatizing, but not in an abusive way. The guild master's ghost wanted to do whatever he could for Wendy, and to that point, created illusions of all of the comrades he'd lost so she wouldn't be lonely. In the end, he sees that she has the potential to join another guild and make real friends, so he decides to be honest and tell her the truth, showing that he did it all out of love for her, but now it's time for both of them to move on. Him to rest, and her to join a real guild and begin growing up. It's entirely possible that this is how the cast saw it, which is why they weren't freaking out about it.
 * There's another thing too... it's that the reveal turns all the drama build-up moot. See, 10 and more strips before building on the drama and tension of Cait Shelter being hit by the Nirvana, but if it turns out, it wouldn't really matter, would it? It's a lot of anti-climax, when you think about...
 * Well, if you think about it, the ghost was absurdly powerful. If I recall, everyone was impressed with his illusion abilities, because making sentient, self-sufficient illusions was unheard of. Not to mention just being a ghost in the first place has to be some sort of crazy magic. Then you combine that with his absolutely good nature, and Nirvana would completely warp that to something that might rival Zeref in evil-ness if not outright power. Plus if they can't stop one shot, what's stopping the bad guys from shooting more, taking advantage of the ghosts knowledge to recreate Nirvana, etc. I didn't see it as an anti-climax at all.

Gemini and Lucy

 * If Gemini can command Lucy's spirits when Lucy summoned them, why can't Lucy command them when Gemini summons them? She/they only have the power to mimic her abilities, right? For that matter, why can Gemini summon her spirits at all—isn't she still holding the keys? We know well by this point that she can only summon while holding the keys (except for Loki, but Gemini doesn't summon Loki) and that there's only one of each. Does Gemini get a duplicate set of keys? If she/they handed one to Angel, would she have been able to summon Lucy's spirits herself? Would the key disappear when they turned back?
 * Dunno about the first part, but Gemini does get a duplicate set of keys. They were shown holding the key for Sagitarius just before they summoned him. And seeing as Sagitarius got dismissed as soon as Gemini left Lucy's form, I'd say that these duplicates disappear when they turn back.
 * Gemini can literally copy powers. They just copy Lucy’s ability to summon. It’s pretty unlikely that they can just hand this power over, since they specifically are the ones doing the copying...does that make sense?

If Natsu beat Gajeel, why is Gajeel an S-Rank mage but Natsu isn't? Yes, I know Natsu had Lucy/Sagittarius's help, but Natsu also just had another fight before this one.

 * Juvia is apparently an S-Rank mage too. Thus, what about Grey?
 * Gajeel is S-Rank? I don't remember that... Anyway Juvia is essentially invincible save for very select opponents, Grey being one of them. Her entire body is made of water, you can't physically damage her with anything. Grey won because firstly he could freeze her, and secondly because she fell in love with him and knocked herself unconscious. Really, it's mainly bad luck that she hasn't essentially been pwning everything since she joined, matching up with the worst possible opponents with abilities that bypass all her advantages.
 * There was a color-spread of all the members of Fairy Tail that also showed which ones were S-ranked members. That's how it is known that Gaeel and Juvia are S-ranked members. Of course now with the revelation of SS-Ranks and above, S-rank may no longer be as awe-inspiring.
 * Also remember that S-rank is solely a rank to show how powerful you are so much as it is 'your qualified to take on S-rank missions by yourself." Remember that initially, S-rank missions were solo missions, and then that changed, although you still need an S rank member with the group. In that case, Natsu is, for lack of a better term, far too idiotic to be S-rank yet. Remember, Gajeel is not only fairly powerful, but also quite capable of handling dangerous solo missions and generally keeping a slightly calm mindset, looking at how one of his current ongoing missions is infiltrating the dark guild that Luxus's father runs as a double agent. While Natsu is powerful, he doesn't have the leadership/judgment skills needed to be S-rank yet.
 * Gajeel isn't an S-rank mage, it's confirmed now since he complained he wasn't chosen for the exam. Though we don't know whether being S-rank in one guild would automatically give you the honor if you switch to another guild. The guilds might even have different systems for all we know.
 * Actually, he was an S-class mage back when he was in Phantom Lord. Same with Juvia and the rest of the Element 4. But when Gajeel and Juvia came over to Fairy Tail, that rank was taken from them, since they have yet to pass Fairy Tail's specific S-class exam. And also probably because they both started out as enemies. They had to prove themselves as being trustworthy first.
 * I think it is because Phantom Lords' S-Class is really only the equivalent of Fairy Tail's A-Class. None of the Element 4 or Gajeel were as strong as Erza, much less Laxus, Mystogan, or freaking Gildarts. The fire guy was pretty week, being defeated easily by Natsu once he gets around the problem of using his flame. Sol was defeated by full body takeover Elfman pretty easily. Juvia was about equal to Gray. Aria managed to sneak attack Makarov and was owning Natsu, but was easily defeated by a weakened Erza (Natsu was probably losing because a) fire is weak to air and b) he couldn't summon his real power). Gajeel was about equal to Natsu, and he was the strongest in the guild.

How does Fairy Tail make money?

 * Presumably they do, or they wouldn't be able to buy so much beer or rebuild their HQ so quickly. If they get funded by the Magic Council, where does the Magic Council get its money? It'd make most sense if the guild gets a cut of the reward for completing a job, but the characters have never factored the guild's cut in when they split up a reward and nobody's ever complained about the Natsu Gang's tendency to not accept rewards.
 * Regarding the quick rebuilding of the guild, one of the guild member profiles tells us that one of the members uses wood-based magic and she was essential to the reconstruction process. With the wood easily manipulated into the correct shape, a lot of time and labour could be saved. Also, if other members with different powers work together to do different things, they could save money on materials.
 * Also about the Council, I'm assuming that it's connected to the government, so likely it gets funding from taxes and whatnot. On the other hand, guilds may be funded by the local government, i.e. the cities/towns they reside in. Heck, for all we know, Fairy Tail could essentially be running on it's dormatories (if one assumes that there is a boys one like there is a girls one). It's never really specified except for a couple times just how much food and drink cost, so it might not even be all that expensive.
 * Possibly the guild factors its cut in before posting the reward, and asks for that sum as a deposit.
 * The guild doubles as a bar, don't forget. Natsu also mentioned once that he just pays to eat there rather than cook himself (meaning he probably just doesn't know how to light a match). Heavy drinkers like Cana are probably a huge part of the guild's income.

Loki

 * Wasn't the bargain for being allowed to live was to always automatically come to Lucy's aid? Loki has shown that he doesn't even need to be summoned, and is implied that he has a gut instinct for whenever Lucy's in danger. So why did he send Virgo to Lucy's aid when he had a date? I'm sure he would've gladly canceled it in light of the circumstances...and the fact that it looks like
 * I think he didn't come because he couldn't. He was probably on a date in Magnolia... so he's stuck in the lacryma with everybody else. Virgo got the message, and since he still hasn't returned, she concluded he was still on his date (which is plausible, what with him being a Casanova and all).

What happened to Elgior/Erogor/whatever the heck his name is?

 * After Natsu beat him, everyone arrives and gets distracted by Kageyama jacking the Lullabye. Then Elgior (screw it, that's the first spelling I read) was gone without a trace, and is never mentioned again. Where did he go, and what's up with him now? I'd say the author forgot about him, but what with how much he doesn't forget the little things, I'm guessing Elgior's supposed to be an eventual Chekhov's Gunman... or something.
 * Actually, he IS mentioned again. AT the start of the chapter/episode where Erza and Natsu fight Lucy does an epilogue to that arc wherein she mentions that every member of the dark guild got arrested EXCEPT for Erigor, who was never captured. Lucy than worries about the possibility of him coming back for revenge.
 * If it makes you feel any better,

What's up with the character names?

 * A lot of the names were cooler before we got the official spellings. Which would you prefer... Gajeel Redfox or Gazille Reitfox? Juvia or Lluvia? Laxus Dreyar or Luxus Dreher? (Seriously, 'Laxus' sounds like a diarrhea medicine, while 'Luxus' sounds like 'lux' which means 'light'... it's much more fitting.) Erigor or Elgior? Mystogan or Mistgun? (Admittedly, that one's not so bad... sounds kind of like 'mysterious eye', which is appropriate for an illusion specialist. Mistgun still sounds cooler though.) Jellal or Gerard? Loke or Loki? Natsu Dragneel or Natsu Dragonil? (Hm... drag or dragon, I wonder which sounds more badass?) Vijeeter Ecor or Victor Echo? And I'm sure we'll just get more as time goes on.
 * It's gotten to the point that most fans only refer to the characters by their originally scanlated names, not the official ones, because they're so much better.
 * I would imagine that the anime should vindicate some of these (not that they should really need vindication to begin with), since in the cases of Laxus and Gajeel so far, you can hear the "ja" and "la" sounds when their names are spoken, and the same will probably be true for some future names as well.
 * I can shed a little light on the Gazille vs. Gajeel one. Apparently what we might romanize as "z" in our alphabet's characters still makes a "j" sound in Japanese. I remember first being confused on this issue back when I still watched the subbed Pokémon anime, and Denzi's name was pronounced as "Denji" despite the romanized spelling. Some research later, and boom, understanding.
 * This also applies to pretty much all 'official' translations, but it seems to be partly because of 'professional' pride. If it's the official translation, it's whatever they say it is, and in some cases they change the names entirely, just not as much anymore. Some of it seems to be a little bit of spite though, since you translate the name phoenetically, that is spelling it the way to sounds. The official translators do just this and then decide to throw in a few errant letters or alternative spellings because hey, they are the 'professionals', and can't be seen to be the same as the so called 'amatuers'. While some names are spoken the same, the spellings make it hard for some people who don't know how to pronounce the more exotic forms of a given name. An english example would be taking a phrase like 'Adam Prince of England' and making it unique by changing it to 'Ahdum Prince of Engelun'. Both can be pronounced the same (mostly), just the one is more awkward just to make it more fantasy oriented.

Scanlated names

 * Sorry to cut in front of someone else, but I felt this needed to go right after the other complaint. What the hell is so hard to accept about the official names? Sure, some of them aren't quite as cool, but they don't totally suck either. I actually prefer Gajeel and Jellal. Besides, Hiro Mashima is the one who translated them into English. Saying the other names are the right ones is like saying Dumbledore isn't gay.
 * Gajeel is fine, but Jellal? Really? The truth is that Del Ray shouldn't have consulted Mashima on the names because he clearly doesn't understand the Roman alphabet well enough.
 * As the person who wrote the preceding IJBM, I feel obliged to point out that I never said the official names totally suck. I said that many of the scanlated names are better, which you actually agreed with. I also note that you didn't bother to justify your opinion with any serious thought other than "Word of God", which was not even the subject of the debate in the first place. Yes, he said that's how they're pronounced and spelled. Yes, that's how they're pronounced in the anime. No, they are not as good as the scanlated versions. Also, I never said they are the RIGHT ones, I said they are BETTER. As in Better Than Canon, which is a trope for a reason. It is a matter of opinion, and since everyone knows who you're talking about, it's not a big deal.
 * On a side-note, I think it would be a good idea for manga authors to consult with actual English speakers (NATIVE English speakers) before deciding on character names or using Gratuitous English. The same applies for any other Gratuitous Foreign Language. I would actually be willing to be such a consultant for FREE, except that I 1) have no way of contacting said authors, 2) don't speak Japanese to communicate with them, and 3) really only have complaints about shows with already-established character names.
 * According to the official manga translations, Hiro Mashima gave them the English spellings.
 * actually I think Mashima knew what he was doing when he picked some of those names.
 * Everyone's a critic. Which is fine. But I also feel Mashima-sensei knew full well what he was doing. I tend to prefer his choice of names. But thinking he, or any mangaka should consult with any kind of specialist in the interest of suiting your tastes, well, live and let live, eh? No one wants to be told how they should tailor their own creation. Takes the fun out of it, you know? It's obviously not a big enough deal to stop reading the manga over, which is why it's on the JBM page.
 * Mashima uses actual name from other languages, many with a deeper meaning connected to the character (including the two mentioned), so it is kinda weird to see people complain about those names.

Does someone relatively important will die at one point?

 * Yes, it's a Shonen. Still, some of the characters got injured pretty bad and still come back. Makarov could have died two times already. Every little bit of what was once Gerard was destroyed at the end of the Tower of Paradise arc and he still came back. And Erza had made a pretty epic Heroic Sacrifice before Natsu saved her. Don't get me wrong, I like both Makarov and Gerard, and Erza is my favorite character by far, but if everyone is always saved (except Simon/Shimon) it will lose it's impact pretty fast.

Wendy's Burp Attack!

 * Okay, so a Dragon Slayer powers up or heals by 'eating' their element. Wendy's element is 'sky' or 'air'. Except she can't just breathe to power up... she has to 'eat' air. However, swallowing air is what leads to gastrointestinal bloating, leading to... burps and farts. So all ow Wendy's attacks as a Sky Dragon Slayer should be a variation on Fartillery. And yet we never see her so much as hiccuping, let alone the cruder burps and farts we'd expect.
 * That's like saying Natsu needs third degree burns on his intestines. It's just magic, for God's sake.
 * Actually, I was making a joke about the fact that Wendy's attacks would literally be burps, as they are "bursts of gas expelled rapidly from the lungs or stomach through the mouth". I wasn't seriously complaining. Take a chill pill, already. (On a side note, I find it amusing how worked up people get over some of the questions I post, since they seem to take it far more seriously than I do, yet complain about me taking it to seriously...) :P
 * Well therein lies the crux of your problems, kiddo. You're in the Just Bugs Me page. Take your act to the WMG if you want a better reception.
 * /clap

Gajeel's third nosebolt/piercing/whatever it is
== What is the legal drinking age in Fiore, if there is one? We have yet to see anyone object to a person drinking, no matter what their age, and though only certain people explicitly drink alcohol, it's implied that almost everyone does. ==
 * Somewhere between the one-sided Laxus beatdown and the Harvest Festival clusterfuck he lost one of his nose things. What's up with that?
 * There actually is a canon answer to this! Though I can't be bothered to find it. At some point (maybe Kana's introduction or info sheet) it's mentioned that the legal drinking age is 15 (as I remember, don't quote me on that) and then Kana (or her info sheet) mentions that she'd been drinking for longer than that. If you really want to know for certain, the answer is in there, I just can't remember exactly where.

Fairy Tail Similarities to other characters NOT COPYING

 * Is it me, or does Gray seem like Ace from One Piece, since
 * Both are [walkingshirtlessscenes]
 * Have a brotherly relationship with The Hero
 * Very self-sacrifcing
 * Cool-headed personalities
 * I know Gray is supposed to be an expy of Musica from Rave, but there are just these similarities.
 * To stick to the comparison between the two series, Gildartz and Shanks would be the more obvious comparison. Red hair, known for being powerful even as far as their overpowered worlds go, missing an arm, mentor figures...

Sugarboy's "bluff"
So... Will it kill everyone in Magnolia Town, or save them?
 * The thing about the key and the Dragon Cannon don't make sense. If Edoras is planning on firing it at the lachryma, they said that it would fuse them together with the magic of Exteria. But Sugarboy told Gray that it would turn the people back to normal. I suppose we have to assume Sugarboy really was bluffing, but he seemed really serious about it, especially after the key was destroyed. But even if he WAS bluffing, then Gray went ahead and made a replica, so we can only assume he plans to use it.
 * The plan wasn't to aim it at the lachryma, the plan was to aim it at the floating rock the lachryma is on and then guiding it to crash into Extalia. As shown here: https://web.archive.org/web/20100627061810/http://mangastream.com/read/fairy_tail/83663107/18

Why Natsu didn't become sick when he rode that Giant Flyer thing during the Exteria Arc?
By that time it's been established that he's still prone to carsickness at all kinds of vehicles other than Happy. When he was heading out for the giant lachryma, he looked fine when he rode Coco's... uhhh... demon rabbit... thing.
 * He doesn't get motion-sickness on Happy because Happy isn't a vehicle, so either riding living things doesn't cause it... OR it has something to due with the fact that Happy and the flying thing are both from Edoras.
 * It could be that both creatures are living and thus not actual vehicles. Has Natsu ever rode a horse-or-the-like in canon? The "both from Edoras" theory is a hella interesting theory, though. I like it.
 * Natsu DID ride on Simon's back during the Tower arc, and he got sick.
 * He rode on Lucy's back, too, with the same results. I think we can just chalk it up to Series Continuity Error, because Mashima was probably too caught up in the situation to have Natsu comically falling ill again. Sometimes it just ruins the mood.
 * As one of the IJB Ms above said, Natsu's motion sickness is probably mental as well as physical. Natsu only gets sick on things he considers to be a vehicle. He doesn't consider Happy to be a vehicle because he thinks of Happy as a 'friend'. That's probably why he can get sick on some things and not others.

The Double Standard surrounding Nirvana's alignment switch abilities.

 * It bugs me that the character's find Nirvana's ability to do a forced Face Heel Turn to be morally reprehensible, but they're just fine with a forced Heel Face Turn. Likewise, Sherry is depicted as being possessed by an evil spirit whereas Hoteye is depicted as just changing his mind. He even says that "People's hearts shouldn't be manipulated by magic" but that reeks of Fridge Logic since that's exactly what happened to him. Hoteye's Heel Face Turn was still forced upon him. He had no choice in the matter.
 * I had that exact same concern with the whole Nirvana thing. I mean, being angry because your friends are in danger is not supposed to make one do a Face Heel Turn, as is the case with Natsu. But Sherry was angry only because Leon died, which is pretty much the same thing. So, I just took Hoteye's Heel Face Turn as him actually being good deep inside all along. And I just chanted the MST3K Mantra.
 * Maybe it's because Natsu was trying to protect people and Sherry was aiming for revenge? Two fundamentally different reasons for their rage mean two different reactions to Nirvanna I would assume.
 * Remember that at that stage it only switches over people who are "wavering between good and evil." Hoteyes was already capable of turning into that person eventually, Nirvana just gave him a push.
 * During his conversion (in the manga), Hoteye actually declares that his ORIGINAL GOAL was to find his brother. And for that he needed money, and he was eventually consumed by greed instead. His brother is, of course, the only OTHER person in the series with a polygonal face. We've already met him.

How does Urtear's green orb work?

 * I can understand that reversing time on the orb can mend it when it's shattered. But how does sending it into the future cause it to fly forward and attack someone? I'm progressing into the future at a rate of one second per second right now and so far have shown no inclination to fly around and attack people. Is she really using telekinesis and just lying to Natsu about her Time Arc magic?
 * I always saw her as launching the orb as an attack, target dodges it, she reverses the time of it, hit from behind for example. then again it could be some combination of telekinesis and chronokinesis.
 * Actually explained by Urtear as a sort of (non ad-absurdum) form of quantum superposition. She sends the orb into POSSIBLE futures, going as far as to duplicate it endlessly.

Lisanna being alive

 * First off she got sucked into Edolas via the anima portals that the King was using to steal magic from Earthland, so why was she not turned into Lacrima like everyone else who was not guided there by Mystogun? Why was she not picked up by the palace when they forced her into coming remember that was anima caused by the palace not by Mystogun.
 * These were just a bunch of little Anima, so it's possible that the Anima used back then were just prototypes, which would explain the discrepancies.
 * While that could be the case we know that Mystogan was already in Earthland at that point in time because he helped Wendy after she lost her dragon and Natsu was already part of the guild when Lisanna "died" so the idea that it is still super underdeveloped when a child saw the need to travel to a different world to stop it seems doubtful but not beyond all realm of reason I guess.
 * He tried to prevent Anima. Simple as that. Some people won't let the problems manifest first. In fact, there could have been successful uses of Anima, but it might have not been consistent enough until recently.
 * That still does not explain why she did not turn into Lacrima like every other non Dragon Slayer or native to Edolos does when they go through anima.
 * Err, it does. Like I said, the Anima Edolas was previously using could have been just a prototype. Also, Lucy didn't turn into Lacrima as well.
 * Lucy was sent by Mystogan and that at least makes sense. Anima's entire purpose was to take magic from Earthland and turn it into usable magic, Lacrima, for Edolas. If its prototype did not do that it would be like testing a prototype car with no engine or wheels which just does not make any sense in the slightest.
 * Ok, wrong about Lucy. However, Anima is supposed to 1) take magic and 2) convert that magic into lacrima. Simply put, what if the prototype could fulfill function 1 but not function 2? Alternatively, there was a glitch in the Anima prototype that spared Lisanna from becoming a crystal. Besides, Mashima runs on Rule of Drama more than logic.
 * Secondly it's such a huge cop out. It mocks everything that Elfman and Mirajane went through after her death. Also did they not find it at all suspicious that her body disappeared? Is this common in Earthland? Seriously what the fuck.
 * Uh, this is a world of magic. Anything can happen. Anything can kill you in all sorts of ways. And I don't know about you, but I certainly don't feel cheated for mourning someone who's not dead, in fact I'd be more than happy. What, just because your reason for Character Development was ultimately invalidated doesn't mean it was ultimately pointless. If something should bug you it should be the fact that Mira and Elfman just readily accepted Lisanna's alive.
 * Yeah A Wizard Did It. Which means someone did it not just a random happenstance. To the best of my knowledge there has been no wild magic in Earthland, just humans and animals that can use magic. So when my she disappeared that meant that someone or something took her. That's not the time to completely write her off as dead, she has been kidnapped. You don't ignore a kidnapped child you try and find them, even if all you may be looking for is a corpse. Hell, Natsu has been looking for his disappeared dragon for years, how would looking for your disappeared sister be any different?
 * We don't know what Mirajane and Elfman did after they saw their sister disappeared. All they knew was that she was really injured and then she went poof. For all we know they did try to find Lisanna, but they gave up in the end. Letting go prematurely, so to speak.
 * That does not mesh well with Elfman's character though he just would not give up so long as their is the slimiest of a chance. I don't really know enough about Mirajane to say that it is out of her character, but Lisanna's "death" scene feels like an after thought with how, at least Elfman if not them both, with their development since that time.
 * It does mesh well with Elfman's character though—Elfman was shy and timid in the past, very much like his Edolas counterpart. If I remember correctly it was Lisanna's "death" that pushed him into wanting to be a man amongst men, hence his current attitude.
 * This is really the only thing that bugs me about Lisanna's return, but I DO have a very mildly plausible explanation (VERY mild). In the manga, we never actually see her death, and what happens to her (I don't count the anime stuff, because I haven't watched it). All we know is that Elfman went berserk, Lisanna tried to stop him, and she failed, 'dying' in the process. Now, considering that seeing you little sister die is incredibly traumatic—especially if, like Elfman, it's basically your fault—it's not implausible that both Mirajane and Elfman blacked out at some point after she was 'knocked unconscious/killed'. If their memories of the exact moments of her 'death' are blurred and incomplete, and they simply woke up to find her gone... well, one possible, but tragically plausible (to a damaged psyche) conclusion is that Elfman literally ripped her to tiny, tiny pieces, so there was no corpse left. Maybe they didn't see her 'vanish' at all.
 * Lisanna DID die. Edolas! Lisanna, specifically. They were switched for some A Wizard Did It reason. Which is why Lisanna hesitates to reveal she's not the Edolas Lisanna.
 * Third this also implies that Edolas Elfman and Mirajane just let someone THEY KNEW WAS AN IMPOSTOR pretend to be their dead little sister for years. How could you live with that lie tainting all of your interactions with her? Never even confronting her in the slightest. It's just unsettling to say the least.
 * Same thing with Wendy. She grew up talking to illusions, so her life from when she entered Cait Shelter until she joined Fairy Tail was basically one huge lie. For you it might be unsettling, but personally I think honesty is overrated. Lisanna had no idea how to get home, so she adapted to her new life. Edolas Mirajane and Edolas Elfman knew she was a fake, but she's not saying anything about it, so they might have believed that their suspicions are wrong or decided to be selfish.
 * I am not blaming Lisanna, besides from pretending to be someone's dead sister, she did nothing wrong in adapting to her new life. I guess the best way to describe how I feel about what Edolas Mirajane and Elfman did would be saying they decided to live in a Lotus Eater Machine instead of the real world, and that always deeply disturbs me when that choice comes up and it's even considered. You are right though it is a subjective deal. Which is true for just about all It Just Bugs Me.
 * Yeah, I can see why people would be disturbed by something like that. Still, their actions were plausible, because there are people that will do something like that. It's not ridiculous.
 * Nothing Lisanna did was for selfish reasons. Even impersonating Edolas Lisanna was, in a sense, an act of kindness, because she didn't know that Edolas Elfman and Mirajane knew her real identity, and thought she was saving them the pain of losing their sister by being a substitute, to the extent that even when she saw Earthland Natsu and realised there may be a way to return home she still wanted to stay with her Edolas siblings. She certainly treated them like her real brother and sister, and they treated her like theirs.
 * On a side-note: We DO get to see her dying in the anime, in Mira's arms even, right before Mira turns into Satan Soul for the first time. Granted, the anime staff didn't expect to get much farther than that, but this'll call for another gigantic ass pull.
 * Not really. As mentioned above, they watched EDOLAS! Lisanna die. The two were switched somehow at some point.

Mashima Hiro forgot how much time has passed in his story.
Lucy has been in the guild one year as of chapter 158, and the side stories are cannon they are mentioned in the regular stories some times, but in the latest chapter she has only been in the guild six months. Maybe it's just a translation issue but man this irks the hell outa me.
 * Even if the side stories are canon, they don't necessarily have to be shown when they normally happen in the timeline. It's simple, that particular side-story won't happen for 6 more months. Also, while some side stories are canon not all are, so there's that too.
 * Anachronic Order is also how I viewed it, but what bugs me is that this side story includes . If it's canon, it spoils the whole.
 * There was never any suspense. A few pages later, Mira reassures Lucy that goes through that phase every year.
 * Since the end of the S-class arc sort of happened, and that omake is never actually mentioned in the main story, it's probably not canon.

What's Up With the Ten Great Holy/Saint Mages?
According to the various arc, there is pretty much a "top ten list" of mages - the biggest, strongest, and most skilled. The only ones speciffically named are Gerard (when he was still playing The Masquerade), Fairy Tail's guildmaster, and Phantom Lord's guildmaster. The last two, whose names I cannot recall, Seem to deserve their titles, both supposedly being nearly invincible when compared to other mages. However, other characters are shown to easily be just as strong if not stronger than at least two of these three.
 * These include: 1)Laxus, who is a freaking strong, is is capable of using the legendary class spell  . 2)Erza, who can withstand a blast from the building-destroying jupiter cannon, defeat the (relatively) powerful mage  , and give the Phantom Lord guy a bit of a challenge; she can also take a lot of punishment and still go toe-to-toe with Gerard, though he pretty much beats her. 3)Ur, who dukes it out with Deliora, though she cannot actually defeat it; Gerard even mentions that she could have gained a "Great Mage" title. 4)Gildartz; oh lord, Gildartz. He can destroy nearly any normal substance - and does so on a regular basis becose of his absent-mindedness - survives a surprize dragon attack, scares the crap out of Natsu even though he   in that attack, and Natsu thinks of merely pushing Gildartz back a few feet to be a major sign of progress.
 * Gereard, however, doesn't seem that strong - his most powerful attack is the Abyss Break spell, which any really skilled mage can use. All of the other guys could easily defeat Gerard in one-on-one combat; but are any of these guys in the top ten? Nope. What the heck is up with that?
 * Maybe it's not about strength, but skill? Also, I guess if you have a bad reputation, such as FT's tendency to cause property damage, you probably wouldn't be granted a title. Also, 1) Laxus was probably hiding his true strength, since he was planning to eventually take over Fairy Tail, 2) Erza withstanding the cannon and beating Aria wasn't much of a surprise (Aria seemed like a sneak attack kind of guy). Also, Jose was just playing around with Erza, though he does mentioned Erza would have made a formidable foe, and Gerard is just weird (seriously, his power level's all over the place), 3) Ur could have gotten the title, but we don't know enough about Ur's strength or skill, 4) Gildartz probably won't get a title seeing that he has a tendency to let his magic run wild, plus property damage.
 * It's not so much that Gerard's power is all over the place, it's that various circumstances were always playing against him. His first fight against Erza he had to deal with 1) His magic power split in half to sustain the psychic projection (which was apparently enough to get him into the Ten Wizard Saints at at least half of Jose's age, who Makarov had said was unusually skilled for his age) 2) Even with half power he couldn't go all-out against Erza since he needed her alive to be the sacrifice and he was buying time for Etherion to fire. Then Etherion fired and Gerard's power returned to full capacity and Natsu showed up. Gerard still couldn't go all out against him because 1) he couldn't risk destroying the tower, and 2) he did take a beating holding back against Erza. Then Gerard killed Simon and pushed Natsu's Berserk Button, and Natsu activated his Shonen Deus Ex Machina Eleventh Hour Super Mode and got taken completely by surprise. When he finally had enough and decided to destroy everything in sight, the injury Erza gave him conveniently acted up and Natsu took the opening. In the Oracion Seis arc Gerard had amnesia, which apparently still left him with enough magical knowledge to 1) offhandedly one-shot Natsu, 2) collapse the cliff Brain was standing on, and 3) place a spell on the entire Nirvana structure to destroy it. Midnight showed up after 1) Gerard had taken damage from the destruction spell he put on himself, 2) he still had amnesia, and 3) he probably let his own power get blasted back into his face. Is it Worfing if you Worf yourself? Even if it wasn't his own power, he still manages to 1) get up, 2) interrupt Natsu's fight against Zero, and 3) give Natsu enough power to make the Super Mode Natsu awakened against him look like a hiccup next to a hurricane. So yes, in my opinion Gerard definitely deserves the title "Wizard Saint".
 * Oh, and being officially the strongest doesn't necessarily mean they are.
 * While I agree that being a "Wizard Saint" means nothing (since it's stated that Erza has the potential to become one, but there are lots of mages that are stronger than her) and it's just a mere title, Jellal is definitely one of the most powerful mage in the series so far. At the age of 19 (he started learning magic since he was brainwashed, meaning for only 8 years), Jellal has mastered the most variety of spells so far: Telekinesis, flight, super speed/strength, nuke, clone, sealing, elemental spells (fire, Flame of Rebuke, Abyss,...), Darkness, Heavenly, etc. It's just that he has never had the chance to show his full power and is quite underrated . In the Tower Arc, he fought Erza, wounded, then curbtomped Natsu while still holding back A LOT to keep his tower, his attack again was blocked by Simon, then was interrupted by a stupid convenient wound before delivering the final blow. In the Nirvana arc, because having amnesia alone is not enough, he has spent most of his power trying to destroy Nirvana and also heavily wounded due to the Self Destruct on himself. The only hint of his true power is casting Abyss Break in 2s without any problems (which needs the Element 4 and Jose TONS of time to cast) and it's stated that the spell can destroy half of the Magnolia or the whole tower that the Council needed to use the Etherion to destroy. I'm kinda sure that Abyss can definitely kill Dragon Force Natsu, or else the author wouldn't need to bring up the wound to stop it, which again surpasses Zero (one of the 3 strongest Dark guild's master)'s ultimate spell Genesis Zero, and there is nothing proving that Abyss Break is his ultimate spell either....

Fairy Law and the Phantom Lord Arc

 * At the end of said arc, we learn of the Legendary spell Fairy Law. Anyone who can use this is a  to their enemies. Let's recap on the specifics:  . And after Phantom Lord kicks the dog a few times, even going so far as to hurt some Nakama - which Fairy Tail can view as crossing the Moral Event Horizon - almost all of Fairy Tail mobilizes to have a smack-down with their rival guild. Now, Makarov could have gone in and just nuked the entire guild, thus preventing the hardships of the entire damn arc. But he doesn't. Why not?
 * But then we wouldn't have an arc! Also, even if Makarov did do that, I think there's a pretty high chance of the guild members laying the beatdown anyway. I guess Makarov realized his guild needed to let off some steam?
 * Maybe you need to absolutely hate the enemy to use Fairy Law on them, and not just be very angry at them. Makarov did make the 'I-won't-forgive-you-anymore-there's-no-turning-back-now' speech before using it, so I just assumed he didn't view them (or at least all of them, rather than the guild as a whole) as enemies before that. Judging by the way Laxus couldn't use it even though he felt that he's have no regrets about it, and the way Fairy Tail forgives villains all the time, he might've known that he won't be able to kill off a whole guild just like that. You just might have a point there, though.
 * There's also the fact that they were just a regular guild, not a dark one, and one would think the mass murder of every member of a guild would kind of make things bad for Fairy Tail
 * You should reread the very first line that Makarov says when he comes back to duke it out with Jose. "Too much blood has been spilled. The blood of Children." Which is referring to the guildm embers on both side. His goal was to take down the guildmaster and at that point he was the only one left still standing and it's not like Phantom Lord Guild was evil, maybe Jose and Aria, they just took it too far.
 * Other than the above mentioned mass murder out of the blue, it's not Makarov's way to attack somebody out of the blue. Remember his speech before he uses Fairy Law, counting to three and all.

What's with the Stellar Spirit magic?

 * I mean, why is there a world where all creatures are supposed to work for humans? Maybe I missed something, but I really don't get why the spirits would become mage's tools in the first place.
 * Short answer: we don't really know why they're doing it. However, stellar spirits work for their mages as long as they abide by their respective contracts. So, essentially, they're kinda like hired mercenaries. Just don't know what the spirits gain in return.
 * Maybe they get energy, or whatever ki is called in that world?
 * Maybe they were created for the specific purpose of helping out humans?
 * I got the impression it was that if a mage is strong enough to summon them, the spirit would be impressed enough to allow a mage to form a contract with them. I don't think the spirit gets anything out of it other than the satisfaction of helping out someone who deserves their help. Of course, this isn't necessarily true, as Aquarius demonstrates: while Lucy may have been capable enough to summon her and form a contract, Aquarius just plain doesn't like Lucy, so while she is contractually obliged to turn up when summoned, that doesn't mean she won't end up taking her frustrations out on Lucy, and won't stop her from telling Lucy not to summon her next week because she's going away with her boyfriend (though I assume in that situation, Aquarius would come if called, but would not be happy in the slightest).

Anybody know why Mystogan came to Earthland in the first place? It didn't seem like joining Fairy Tail serves a real porpuse.

 * To meet Dragon Slayers, I suppose.
 * His original purpose was to seal up the anima before Edolas could steal mana with it. Apparently the palace did not let a few failures deter them, or the just kept [More Dakka making more]] until one man could not possible seal them all up. Why he joined Fairy Tail? Maybe being in a guild made moving around easier, or he just liked the company? Humans sometimes do things just because they want to even if they do not make them closer to their over all objective.
 * He didn't actually interact with anyone other than the master, so I doubt that.
 * I can actually think of tons of reasons. First off is money to pay for general expenses like food and clothes and traveling expenses, unless you really wanna say that Jellal could just have easily stolen clothes as he grew and walked to each anima spot, second would be information since Guilds are well connected around the world. As for why Fairy Tail, the abolishment of guilds could have started before he left to seal the anima in Earthland, maybe Fairy Tail stood out to him.

Why does Lucy never have enough money (other than Rule of Funny)? Her rent is less than the other girls and they seem to distribute the money from their jobs evenly.

 * Actually mentioned somewhere that most of her profits go to paying for Natsu's collateral damage during missions.
 * In that case, the same should happen to their own profits. Nobody ever mentioned that they take her money first, and judging by the way she usually acts, she would've complained about them getting more money in the end.
 * The recent special chapter implies that Natsu has fewer living expenses than most people.

Why does Lucy not learn a simple Fire Magic spell?

 * She is always teamed up with Natsu, and that would make him more powerful.
 * It would give people a suprise who manage to steal her keys, which seems to happen pretty often. All in all it seems like a wise thing to do even if it would require quite a bit of effort to learn one spell.
 * This can actually apply to most of the mages in this series; most tend to rely on one type of magic instead of being versatile in several. You can probably to chalk it up to the fact that if too many people have the same magic spells the fights would probably get more confusing, or more boring. Besides, Lucy has a good whip now.
 * There's also the fact that she just might not be good at it. In one of the omakes, Natsu was able to do a body perfect transformation of Lucy but she couldn't do one of him. Even Happy could do a partial transformation spell. Lucy probably isn't really good at any other spells besides those related to Celestial Magic.
 * She's lazy. That's all. She notes in the beginning that if she were to train, her spirits could even surpass Natsu (granted, even without training they're absurdly strong). IF. Meaning she doesn't even train her Stellar Spirit Magic.
 * Not quite. A bonus chapter has Lucy trying to learn other types of magic, and demonstrates that because she usually casts spells through items she struggles with magic that doesn't rely on tools.

Why does no one die?

 * I really don't understand when you have a bunch of super powered mages around, one who can make f*cking Ice Spears to impale people, another who can magically spawn swords and toss them at you and another who can literally set you on fire, yet nobody ever kicks the bucket. Hell, even the whole  ruined a ton of character development for Elfman and Mirajane. I understand this is a Shonen manga/anime, but so is Naruto and there are tons of people that have been Killed Off for Real.
 * So... are you seriously looking for a serious answer? Because there isn't really any real reason as to why no one dies. The author might simply prefer it that way. Heck, the whole reason Trinity Raven exists is because Mashima felt sorry for the guys who were supposed to go down.
 * I've always believed Simon's death was nothing more than a cheap way to subvert the trope considering

How many zodiacal keys exists?
I don't mean the 12/13 signs, but how many copies, I though they were pretty rare to see Lucy with so many of them already. And she started with most of them already.
 * I always assumed they were one-of-a-kind.
 * They are one of a kind. Lucy said herself there are only 12, but fans theorize that there may be a 13th, Ophiuchus.
 * Chapter 280 reveals that there are 13. Lucy's 10 keys (Aquarius, Taurus, Scorpio, Leo, Cancer, Aries, Gemini, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Virgo) and Yukino's 2 golden keys (Pisces and Libra) plus Ophiuchus, who Lucy states to have been mysterious and is said to be more powerful than the others.

Natsu vs Zancrow

 * Am I the only one who thought Natsu's victory was a major Ass Pull? Gazille, Natsu's equal, would have been killed without Levi's help by what could be described as Elite Mooks at best. So Zancrow, who is a member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad, should be levels above them, and let's not forget they were personally taught magic by Hades, the man who curb stomped MAKAROV. Natsu landing next to Makarov to get his Eleventh-Hour Superpower of all places when the island is humongous was a huge Contrived Coincidence. IT WAS SPECIFICALLY POINTED OUT NATSU COULD NOT EAT ZANCROW'S FLAMES AND THAT HIS MAGIC WAS INFERIOR TO HIS. Then he eats Zancrow's fire by nullifying his magic. What. The. Fuck. I know it's magic but seriously?! Wouldn't not using your magic leave you as a HUGE TARGET for the enemy's attacks? How does that even work in the first place? Canceling out your magic allows you to eat substances you could not consume previously... Yeah, I can totally buy that. This also brings up the uselessness of Zancrow's so called "God Slaying" Flames. He said his flames don't burn, they destroy everything. So how are they flames in the first place? His flames which are supposedly capable of killing Gods (or at least Hades) couldn't even eliminate a totally defenseless Natsu. Or cats, for that matter. Plot Armor at its best. And where did Natsu even get the idea to nullify his own magic? It wasn't his talk with Makarov, that's for sure. Total Deus Ex Machina, anyone? The worst part? Gildartz gave Natsu a whole lecture on how fear and knowing when to give up is a good thing. And what does he do when confronted with an opponent who has him scared out of his wits and completely overpowers him? HE IGNORES WHAT GILDARTZ TOLD HIM and said "This is a different fear from what Gildartz was talking about. These shivers are coming from the fear that whoever did this to grandpa might be finished off by someone other than me." It's official. Natsu will forever be a Flat Character. He'll just win every battle through some sort of Deus Ex Machina and never change as a character. It's really sad when a character as minor as Leon has gone through more development than the main character.
 * Except, no, he hasn't. Leon has gone through one shade of change, from bitter and demanding of recognition/proof of his superiority to Ur, to back to using the style Ur taught him, and accepting of Gray again. Natsu has always been a fiesty, hot headed character but he has been changing. He's learned to be more clever with his magic and at the same time, has kept the recklessness that Fairy Tail is famous for. Natsu running into Makarov isn't that contrived. Natsu has had his ass handed to him by Gazille, Jellal, Laxus, Cobra, Zero, Doruma Anima, and Gildartz before. Natsu has also always been stronger than Gazille, and eating the Aetherion and Golden Rebuke Flame must've only added to that.
 * I don't see it. Natsu was introduced as reckless, not too bright, cares for nakama, motion sickness, and looking for Igneel. Current Natsu is reckless, not too bright, cares for nakama, motion sickness, and mentions Igneel every 80 chapters. If anything, he's gone back a step. The point is Natsu in the end has defeated all of his opponents except Gildartz, even though they were all much stronger than him. I'm fine with the weaker fighter winning a fight, as long as the process they use to win makes sense. None of Natsu's victories have made any sense except Elgiore or whatever his name was. And no, Natsu and Gazille are even, in Phantom Lord they fought equally until Gazille ate his iron and even after Lucy got fire for him, Natsu couldn't move at all at the cost of defeating him. Lastly, Etherion and Flame of Rebuke were one-time power ups, he went back to normal strength right after he finished his battles.
 * That mage pretendind to be Salamander was the only lead Natsu's had to go on in a while. Igneel seems to not want to be found, and Natsu knows enough about his own dad not to look aimlessly. Nobody goes back to normal strength after fighting, you only get stronger. Natsu went from using simple Fire Dragon attacks in the beginning to more powerful and advanced forms building up into supposedly the "ultimate DS Attack".
 * If Natsu knows Igneel doesn't want to be found he wouldn't be looking in the first place. Oh, so Lucy can use Uranometria again any time she wants to? Natsu has never shown the kind of strength he had compared to the fight with his power up after that fight was done. Or else he wouldn't have been beat into the ground by Luxus before Gazille showed up when he was previously destroying Gerard. Also, Natsu used his ultimate DS attack to defeat Gazille in Phantom Lord, so no, he didn't gain that from his power up against Gerard.
 * As to "not using magic makes you a huge target", uh...Natsu was already on fire. There was no "targetting" necessary. What he did was a last resort, and even Makarov said it was incredibly stupid, but again, it was a last resort. Natsu seemed to let out all of his flames before trying to eat them the final time. Concerning the whole "fear" thing, it has ALWAYS been a big part of the story that the guild members are family. Natsu has always been the type of character to hunt down and eliminate whoever hurts who's close to him. That part of him hasn't changed as a character. What HAS changed is how he handles it. Gildartz told him that fear means to know ones own weakness, and that's just what Natsu learned. He knows his own weakness, and even so, he will fight because, as part of his already established character, he will do ANYTHING to protect his family. And personally, I don't want that part of him changing anytime soon. There is a difference between ignoring fear and acting on it. Natsu acted on the fear of other terrible people getting away with nearly obliterating his family.
 * Flames that are supposedly able to destroy anything, a flame that is supposed to be a magic closest to the source of all magic, which Hades spent years training Zancrow; couldn't reduce Natsu or even those goddamn cats to dust. You're also ignoring where Natsu would even get the idea to cancel his magic, even if the process makes sense there's still the issue if a character is capable of using. Natsu who has never been an intelligent fighter, could come up with the perfect strategy on the spot? Plausibility is also okay to throw out the window as well as character development? You want Natsu to stay this dry Luffy/Goku Expy who wins all his battles and never grow as a character? Hell, I think admitting he can't win for once and running away would make him want to protect his nakama even more. He's failed them and he wants to make sure it would never happen again. But nope, we get the same thing we get each and every arc.
 * Excuse my rudeness, but you seriously believe the things Zancrow said? I mean, really? Dragon-slayer magic, I can accept, but god-slayer? He's probably only exaggerating.
 * You must not ever read One Piece or you'd know Luffy is growing as a character. Natsu has as well, just a lot more subtly. Natsu HAS been an intelligent fighter. He's clever when he needs to be and when he doesn't he just goes all out. It's just that his solutions are both smart and reckless. When in a life-threatening situation, are you going to dismiss a possible solution merely because it might kill you? That doesn't seem right.Him eating Aetherion: he's out of magic, he needs magic but there is no fire, there's stones combined with magic, might as well fut out the middle-flame. The negating of his own magic wasn't a perfect strategy. It was a last ditch attempt. It was the only thing he could try and he didn't know what would happen because he never had tried. Isn't that how a lot of fights are won, though? Figuring out some small aspect and taking advantage of it? That's a pretty basic Shonen battle turn. Do you expect Natsu to just become some sort of Shikamaru character and plan everything out ahead of time? That would be character derailment.
 * You're right, Luffy is a bad comparison. He has developed (as glacial as that process was) while Natsu has not at all. And no, Natsu is not an intelligent fighter. He does stupid and reckless things and it works by sheer dumb luck (and plot). Canceling out your magic is the most random and out of nowhere thought to pop into your head when you're on fire and trying to get out. And I repeat myself, where the hell would he get the idea to do it?
 * The encounter with Gildartz taught him not to be controlled by his overconfidence and desire to fight but to also be able to use his head, for example by recognizing when a fight is hopeless. This was another example of cool thinking during a fight. Natsu was also shown in previous fights to be able to eat elements he's not supposed to be able to, albeit with damage for his own body. He did it with Aetherion, doing it with special flames isn't too surprising. And he basically had to put his life on the line to do so by fully removing the flame aura that protected him and focus all his concentration and abilities in attempting to swallow the black flames. If he hadn't succeeded, he would have been incinerated but the gamble paid off and as he did succeed, the black flames immediately stopped harming him while they were swallowed (due to the vortex-like manner it happens). And he has now been shown to have suffered from this anyway.
 * Lastly, his victories are never Deus Ex Machina. His fight with Erigor was won because he thought ahead and around Erigor's shield. His fight against Gazille was won because of a combination of rejuvenated magic through Lucy, who only managed to make fire, and the fact that emotions do rule magic, and while Gazille had the passion of battle, Natsu had the will of battle as well as the will to protect his family. His fight with Jellal was won because he did something both clever and stupid by eating Aetherion, but it gave him a good boost and he managed to pull a victory, despite the severe consequences afterwards. He only barely won against Laxus with Gazille's help and through reemphasising the message of family to Laxus. Against Cobra, he was very clever in thinking of his attack in a specific way against a telepath, but he still suffered heavy damage. He won against Zero due to Character Development of Jellal, who had reformed and wanted to help, and the best way to help was through a super-flame. He defeated Doruma Anima through help from Wendy and Gazille,and by surpassing his magical limit. When put up against Zancrow, he again had to think outside the box. His manner of thinking was simple and effective: Oh shit, I'm on fire. Well, I can't eat the flames if my magic is inferior. I'll just get rid of it. Ohshit, Gramps is in trouble! Like hell I'm gonna let him do this! and tried to eat the God Flames. And he seems to have passed out from his stupid attempt. He's a Dragon Slayer, so there might me a strange reason behind why it worked. Maybe the Dragons are close to the source of all magic and this was he logical power-up? Characters don't always need to change to be interesting, especially if they have good qualities from the beginning. Also, this is just my theory, but the scale scarf Natsu has could be the reason why. In contact with Zeref's magic it turned black, and there could be a link between Natsu and he scarf, and the reason he could eat God Flames. It's just my speculation, but you shouldn't chalk things up to an Ass Pull when it's just happened before a proper explanation could follow.
 * ALL of Natsu's victories besides Gazille and Erigor have been Deus Ex Machina. He could eat Etherion despite the majority of it wasn't fire. So... as long as anything has some fire in it, he can eat it? Natsu is beaten so bad he can't even stand on his legs, all he can do in front of Luxus' spare is to kneel and wait for it kill him (Yes, it was affirmed that it was going to kill him). But Gazille decides to receive the attack, and Natsu, who before 2 seconds couldn't even stand on his legs and had no magic left, suddenly gets power from thin air enough to cast SIX spells, one being the Ultimate DS technique. Cobra was just horrible, that "roar" wasn't even explained. The Flame of Rebuke was just too convenient and why would Gerard even be carrying around gold flames to power up people to use fire? Natsu specifically said he had no magic left against the dragon mecha but he still used a spell anyways. "hurr summon tomorrows powerz lols ipwnzu." Makes perfect sense. And Natsu eating the God Flames is no different. Explained? You mean like his "roar"? Until explained; not using any magic letting him eat the flames, coming up with the idea on the spot, and surviving the flames are Ass Pulls and I have every right to call them that.
 * The Laxus fight ended pretty logically. Natsu is emotionally driven. He had just taken a massive attack, and saw one that dwarfed it heading straight towards him. His legs didn't give out from physical exhaustion, they gave out from "Oh shit, I'm really gonna die, aren't I?". And then he watches someone take the bullet for him, and grunt out "Get him" before he passes out, and Natsu revs himself up to avenge his friend.
 * He is a Dragon Slayer. The thing where he couldn't exit Fried's rule of only "stone statues and age 80+" is probably gonna be explained, but it shows that magic doesn't act normal around him. He survived in the Stellar Spirit Dimension, however brief it was, but that's just proof he's unique. He has the ability to eat fire. Yes, "magic is just magic" is no excuse, but there's been plenty of proof that Natsu just is special. You're allowed to call it an Ass Pull, but it isn't really. We've slowly been seeing Natsu become more and more dragonlike, hence the whole him-as-a-dragon illusion. Natsu took advantage of Cobra's incredible hearing while he was so close and gave off a legitimate roar. Hearing as sensitive as Cobra's would've caused incredible, headsplitting pain from being in such close proximity. We don't know if the Aetherion or Golden Flame didn't enhance his power further, after all, they were super magic, beyond regular flames. His defeat of Doruma Anima was just another show of how determined he is. Him summoning "tomorrow's share" of magic isn't ridiculous, especially in a world where the same guy can eat fire. Magic is fueled by emotion and determination, and Natsu's determination to put a stop to King Faust was intense enough to muster just enough to keep fighting. Him taking a step back as a character would mean he wouldn't be able to persevere. All the Slayers are capable of taking amazing amounts of punishment and keep going, it's part of their Dragon nature.
 * Dragon Slayers are not dragons. They are mages that learned magic from dragons. Roaring is not magic, it's something you do with your lungs and last time I checked Natsu didn't have dragon lungs. Surviving the Stellar Spirit Dimension is nothing special, Loki said humans can survive in there just like he did in the human world. Taking tomorrow's magic is a load of bullshit. That's using magic that hasn't been produced, in other words: HE'S USING MAGIC THAT DOESN'T EVEN EXIST YET. I would have been fine with Natsu just surpassing his limits but no, he has to use future magic to win. So you'd be okay with Natsu using up all of next year's magic to one-hit kill Hades? And determination can only go so far. A determined 8 year old can't defeat a healthy 15 year old in a straight up fistfight. Even if Happy wanted to win with all of his soul, he would never defeat Makarov.
 * Dragon Slayers' bodies clearly no longer are similar to regular mages and they can take a lot more damage than them. They do incorporate dragon-like traits such has the pointy teeth and the element of their dragon (Gazille body turning into metal), something that is even more apparent in Dragon force mode. And yes, there's also the fact that his and Natsu's bodies are apparently older than 80 years,not your regular mage body, then. And you can argue that the roar was there precisely to show that compared to fake Dragon Slayers who have a copy of the elemental aspect of the Dragon Slayer magic, true Dragon Slayer are able to do more due to their bodies having evolved changed when mastering the DS magic, making them more dragon-like.
 * Why would Happy even be fighting Makarov in the first place? And you don't know he couldn't win. There's a difference between determination for you and determination for others. Fighting for your family's safety brings more strength than simply fighting for your own. And when did Loki say that? The reason Loki could survive on Earthland is through his own magic, but a mage's magic doesn't mean much in a place said to have no air. The whole "surpassing your limits" is what the "tomorrow's magic" means. We don't know how the magic works or anything. Mages just can use magic from within themselves. We don't know how it's made, or if it's even produced so much as regained. I'm fine with the "magic is just magic" up to a certain extent, and Fairy Tail just hasn't reached that. I'm not bothered by the flawed logic because we just shouldn't know some of the inner workings of magic. Guren isn't the utimate DS technique, because we haven't seen Wendy or Gazille use them. In fact, we've just seen Gazille use something similar to what Natsu did. Gazille just used "Karma Demon: Iron God Sword" only 8 chapters ago. Next, Natsu uses "Fire Dragon God's Brilliant Flame". And we don't know the inner workings of the Dragon Slayers. They use magic that makes them more draconic. Hence the scales? And I'm not Natsu, so I don't know where he got the idea. He was already on fire, it wasn't going anywhere. We don't know much of anything about anything and you just immediately chalk it up to crap. I hate to be that kinda guy, but I have to ask: why are you still reading? It seems that since the very beginning you've hated his victories. I'm not bothered by anything that hasn't been explained because it's part of Shonen that the main character does win by whatever odds. I like Fairy Tail, and I'm not bothered by anything in it. You're free to keep bitching about stuff but, seriously, relax, and just enjoy it. Things seems to be moving towards explaining magic so you may get your answers, or more to complain about.
 * We've actually discussed this in the forum thread for Fairy Tail, you're welcome to poke around. I was similarly disappointed with this particular fight but it wasn't as much an Ass Pull as Aetherion was, in my opinion.
 * It's easier to swallow if you consider that Zancrow could have just been talking out of his ass, because it seemed to me that him naming his own magic God-Slayer was just his ego talking. Doesn't answer how Natsu got the idea, but does give credence to Natsu having the ability to eat the flames.
 * Ok I'll try to sheet some light into this.
 * 1) First of all the whole Etherion eating complains is just bugging me, Natsu can use and eat fire, Gazille metal and Wendy air, what does that tells us? that humans can harness the power of close to if not everything, but it damages the body so what Dragons actually taught them was how to perfect these abilities, it was pretty much, first I'll teach you how to absorb the power of other things, but yeah I'm a "insert type" dragon so I can only teach you how to perfect the use of this type. It was said that Natsu ate Laxus lightning and got sick so he already knew he could, just that it was a terrible idea because of the large drawbacks unless you were in such a desperate situation.


 * 1) The flame of Rebuke incident, Jellal was shown 2 minutes before to be capable of using fire type magic (and it's clear he pretty much just uses different types of magic instead of focusing on one thing) it's not an Asspull that he had it simply because it's never said it can't be used to attack, he just figured, well fire dragon slayer who gets stronger by eating fire, or single powerful fire attack that might not one-hit-ko the bad guy, miss, etc.


 * 1) And finally the battle with Zancrow, seriously? are we really doing this? Natsu's a fire user, he eats fire, he battles using fire, is it so unbelievable that he learned a better fire eating method? I fear the day when Gazille extends from just eating iron to eating other metals.

Ultear. Just Ultear.

 * Brainwashing of my favorite character aside, she's become downright creepy as of chatper 222. Beating is one thing, I can totally let that slide for the sake of plot, but snuggling with the body of a man you beat unconcious is downright wrong. She'll be in my nightmares.
 * Yandere

What happened to deconstructing/reconstructing Determinator?
I really liked the fight between Gildarts and Natsu because it took that damn Shonen trope and pointed out some of its flaws (sometimes it's just not that serious, sometimes you really ARE just incredibly outclassed, sometimes it takes more that just power to win...) And then came the fight between Natsu and Zancrow and it's like Natsu has learned NOTHING. And now he wants to take on the guy who  out of vengeance. While one of the things this arc is supposed to show that power isn't everything, has Natsu just NOT thought about the implications of his declaration? Something else that bothers me but I kinda get is the refusal to let Doranbalt remove people from the island. Yes, Doranbalt has some 'splainin' to do but he's right: there's injured people on the island and they need to be moved and put somewhere sorta safe before they're attacked again. In summary, I want Natsu to actually have a plan besides "ATTACK!"
 * The scariest part? Mashima's going to run with it. Gildarts's lesson will be forgotten forever. Yes, the fact that our hero has just doomed his entire guild to be blown up to atoms will be ignored. As much as I don't like to say it, Fairy Tail is a shounen after all and is doomed to jump into the same level of mediocrity.
 * Now that's just unfair toward the other good shounen series...mind you, Fairy Tail isn't among them.
 * Wait, last time I checked, everyone who talked to Doranbalt pretty much agreed to risk getting hit by Aetherion. So everyone is an idiot.
 * Sorry if I offended anyone(second post's author here), but i'm really can't get over it that a competent main character for shounen is like a treasure. No matter how moronic, reckless, and just plain wrong hero is, he's forever has God on his side. No serious consequences, no anvils dropped, no rightful defeats, only repeated victories and the whole adventure's like a walk in the park. At this point I won't be surprised if the Council will drop the whole Aetherion thing and decide that this was all just a joke.
 * Or they could, y'know, remember what happened the last time they dropped Etherion on something related to Zeref. Because that didn't end well for them, although granted it wasn't the same them.
 * Um...hello! Who said they're going to fire Aetherion? Doranbolt stealing the communication Lachrima was specifically so they couldn't report that Zeref was there, and if they don't know this then they won't fire Aetherion.
 * The recent chapter confirmed that cutting that Lachrima was useless and there is no way to stop the attack. Besides the obvious way.
 * Well, I'm personally holding out for Natsu being set up for a major fall at the end of the arc, with his stubborn recklessness blowing up in his face, whether it be a curbstomping from Hades or Bluenote, the destruction of the island thanks to Etherion, the vision coming to pass, awakening Zeref, or any combination thereof.
 * Original poster here again. I'm not against Natsu winning. I just want him to think above "Throw some courage and fire at it." Maybe some painful character development will push him in that direction. Though now that I think about it, Gildarts has been missing for a bit since he . Maybe HE'LL be the reason they win.
 * In 231 (the latest one out as of my typing this), Rustyrose just parroted Gildarts' advice. Mashima hasn't forgotten.
 * I'm reiterating what someone answered in one of the previous questions above: Natsu did learn something from Gildarts, but it is, after all his personality to protect his friends and loved ones. Zancrow was threatening to kill Makarov and the Fairy Tail members on the island, while Bluenote revealed that they plan to wipe out . They have   too, and the council have proved themselves to be incompetent ungrateful bastards. Under these circumstances, it's understandable that Natsu chose to fight.
 * Also, Natsu is actually fairy intelligent and can be quite cunning when he wants to. I recall the fake dragon slayer, the one that can read/hear thoughts, said something along the lines of "You have four very clever plans, but those won't work because I already know yaddayadda."
 * To which Natsu's response was "Oh, you can hear my thoughts with your super-powered ears? Point blank dragon's roar!" He's not stupid, he just doesn't consider anything further than five minutes into the future.
 * I think that Gildartz's lesson was "don't be a reckless idiot for your own sake". Don't possibly kill yourself over your own pride. But if there's other, bigger things at stake (like say, your Nakama), oh yeah, keep fighting until the end!
 * Frankly I took it like this too. The lesson is about what it means to be an S-Rank mage. To go on missions where not only power may be necessary, but skill in thinking outside the box and challenges that might not be as obvious as fighting the strongest baddie you can find and beating him until he stops. If there's anything the main S-Rank mission the group went on showed us, it's that the mission isn't necessarily over if you win. However Natsu is a person who regularly challenges strong people just because he can, wanting to prove something to himself over everything else. Granted he also does this when the chips are down, but the basic point of the lesson was this from what I could tell: There are people out there who can always outmatch you, just like there are people there who you also completely outmatch. You must know when is the time to fight and when to stop and let your lust for battle go. Fighting just for the sake of fighting is not something that should be tolerated from the strongest of the strong. In knowing your weakness, you can be aware of your fear, and in turn be aware of the fear of others. As Gildartz said directly, in learning the lesson he must be both strong and kind which is necessary of an S-Class mage. <-This bit in particular was key. Basically if you are granted the S-class ranking, you must know when to stop beating the ever loving crap out of people, as well as when to avoid a fight you can't win when other options are available. This interpretation has the added benefit of tying into both the reason why Natsu in particular had to learn this lesson, the dude doesn't know when to quit sometimes even when it's simply not the time, as well as tying into the lesson Erza learned about not dying but living for her comrades.

What was Meledy thinking?
Using magic to link feelings of you and your enemy is already a double-edged sword as it is, but using it on Fairy Tail members, who are known for relying heavily on their feelings, is downright idiotic. It is not like it is a secret that Fairy Tail uses happiness bombing and are unorthodox, Hades was Macarov's predecessor after all. "Meledy: If I die, he dies too. So, you can't stop me. Perfect plan! Juvia: Hey, ever heard of happiness bomb?"
 * I think she forgot about that.


 * It seems as though she wasn't expecting the link to transfer emotions as well. That is, no thought transfer, and simply physical senses. Another possibility is that she simply didn't expect Juvia to have that kind of emotion, after calling it a "dead end of despair".
 * How old is Meredy at this point? From the way she looks, probably not older than 14. Young teens aren't exactly good at thinking things through.

No school system??

 * Lucy is first introduced as a 17-year-old. Surely in any country (excluding UK) 17 year-olds are still required to go to school. Granted, she may have been home tutored what with being a rich heiress but what about Wendy, who's 12?? Do mages not have the need to go to school like normal people?
 * Seeing as how no official school has ever been shown just yet...perhaps not. The story isn’t exactly clear on that.
 * Actually, most countries don't require 17 year olds to go to school. In America I believe you have to go till 16, not sure on Japan. The series seems to be sorta medieval anyways, it is possible that there are no schools, just guilds and apprenticeships. It is also possible that mage guilds, which seem to start teaching kids magic at a young age, also handle general education for their young mages like Wendy. As for Lucy, she is a runaway after all.
 * There's gotta be a school somewhere. How else would Gajeel have taken a job from one? It's probably just not that inforced.
 * Most children probably just learn a trade from their parents or a guild. In that way, you wouldn't need to go to school unless you're becoming a scholar in a particular field. And Wendy probably got a lot of her education from Grandeeney anyways.
 * A lot of shonen battle manga don't mention schools. This is obviously not Earth, and since mages can get jobs from guilds, an education was probably not considered necessary in this world. Who knows what the 90% normal people are doing. The general rule in fiction is that if it's never mentioned, it probably isn't an issue.

What were Hades' followers thinking?!

 * Tying into the "90% of people don't use magic" above, the whole idea of eliminating everyone who can't use magic is patently ludicrous. Even in an extremely advanced society with equally-advanced agricultural methods, it takes at least 30% of the workforce actively producing food to support a society anywhere close to realistically. And that's just food, not even counting all of the various other jobs besides magehood which make up 98% of everything required to run a society. In a more archaic society (Magitek notwithstanding, they still have a monarchy and a noble class if "Duke Everlue" is any indication), it was closer to 70% of the population just making food, much of it subsistence farming. So if they succeeded in making a 'world for mages', they would all starve to death relatively quickly, as from what I can tell most mages don't have any major training outside of their magic and/or fighting.
 * That isn't even taking into consideration that they'd have to conquer the entire world to complete their objective, not just Fiore, which is implied to be one small country out of many, though a powerful country. I mean, they do travel the country's entire width on the train in less than a day. And not even on a bullet train or anything. Plain old steam locomotives. They don't travel much faster than a car, and in fact averaged about 50 mph. So Fiore's probably not much bigger than, say, Texas at the most. And while Texas is pretty big, it isn't even close to "the whole world". So even if they achieve their objective here, they'll have to face the rest of the world with no reliable source of supplies, no people to create those supplies, and no one to take care of the zillion other things that make a society a society. And the more they conquered, the worse their condition would get.
 * Apparently the "World of Magic" would boost the powers of mages like Hades' followers so they wouldn't need the normal people anymore. Meredy for one was under the delusion that she could restore her Doomed Hometown in the World of Magic. Urtear also thought her Time Master powers would be enhanced so she could get back her lost childhood. And it's not like Grimoire Heart's members are particularly sane anyway.

Seriously, Luxus should be dead.

 * Okay, this may take some explaining. I have a theory about why people seem to take insane amounts of magical damage without dying, which explain (to a decent degree) why the people have survived up to this point. The way magic is explained (the flow from within meeting and mixing with the flow from without), implies that mages have the ability to take in energy from outside themselves and redirect or change it in some way, which would in turn imply that they have some kind of buffering or dampening system in place to keep them from being harmed by their own magic. This is supported by Ultear's past, which claimed that her magic power as a child was too great for her body hold, and this could be theoretically fixed. This also makes Dragon Slayer more credible as a magic anyone could theoretically learn, since it's really just an enhancement of this intrinsic ability in mages. That would explain both how Dragon Slayers eat their own elements and convert it into magic, and why they're far more resistant to magical damage that doesn't come from another Dragon Slayer. It also explains why raw physical force or damage is not blunted in the same way as purely magical attacks. This explains why Visca Moulin survived the magical backlash of shooting the lachryma crystal Luxus had set up as part of his Thunder Palace or whatever. Her body automatically absorbed and deflected the worst of the damage. But. In the last chapter, Luxus took an extremely powerful magical attack without the buffer of his own magic. He literally gave his magic to Natsu (not going into that particular implausibility right now), leaving himself defenseless. And he survived the attack well enough to grin and explain his motivations. Erza was shocked that he would take the hit without his magic... implying that yes, having magic power left in you actually does protect you from other magic to a degree. And it's not like magic can't kill you, or that Hades was trying to not kill Luxus, or even holding back at all. So. What the fuck?
 * Luxus is just that awesome? There doesn't really seem to be another explanation.

Lucy being a Celibate Hero
Is there any known reason over why she wants to avoid love as much as she has? Trivia says that her favorite type of guy is an assertive one, but (in an omake) she chose her friends over a possible romance.
 * I think it's more about Mashima not wanting to depict romance in the story, even if it goes against the characters.

The guards around the heart
Hades had 7 uber mages, the ability to make nigh indvunerable demons, and that Blue Note creep. Why send them out or hold them back and leave nameless fodder to guard his heart?
 * He probably figured the Seven Kin would be more useful out on the field. Blue Note was doing his own thing looking for Fairy Glitter. Hades himself was staying near his heart and probably thought nothing would go wrong if he was nearby. And it's not like the fact that he receives unlimited magic from the heart is common knowledge—Happy and Charle didn't even know that it was Hades' power source when they destroyed it. Still, it would make sense to install better security measures to protect your own source of power than a bunch of nameless mooks.

Loke teaming up with Gray
The rules stated you had to team up with a member, which Loke claimed to be, but didn't he sorta quit the guild in his arc? He was returned to the spirit world before he could rejoin. Did they just decide to let him become a member again in spite of being Lucy's summon? When would that have happened anyway?
 * Well guilds or at least Fairy Tail doesn't have restrictions about species given that Happy and Charle are members, so I guess there is no problem with a Stellar Spirit being a member. And Leo/Loke is capable of returning to earth any time he wants using his own powers.

I'm really glad, I really am. But... was foreshadowed or something? I know this is a manga about mages after all and weird things happen all the time but come on! It wouldn't taken a lot of panels to foreshadow or anything. You're better than that, Mashima!! I'm not even confused about the magic used. I mean, Fairy Law and Fairy Glitter exist for crying out loud. is a mostly logical step up from those. But it still could have been implemented better.
 * BTW, when I say I mean . I'd actually believe without any problems at all that they were protected just because  was there. Hell, it'd even make sense why Makarov chose Tenrou Island as a base for the exam: to minimize fatal injuries.
 * appears for a full page in the chapter where
 * Before Makarov attacked the Grimoire Heart ship, he and he.

Spirit World Time
For the sake of the joke, I'll let it slide that the time difference happened to coincide with the time the cast had, but if time passes slower in the celestial/stellar world, then what about all those times Aquarius went on dates. She had a two week vacation once. Either she was trying to talk Lucy into giving her over three years off or she was really only spending a couple hours with Scorpio.
 * Knowing Aquarius, I wouldn't put that last part by her.

Fairy Tail's team lineup
So the team for the new Tournament Arc is Natsu, Gray, Erza, Lucy, and Wendy. Laxus and Gajeel being too late to enter is understandable; shit happens. Why couldn't they get ahold of Gildarts? I'm sure he'd drop whatever he was doing to help out for a few days; despite never being around, he loves Fairy Tail and will do anything he can to help his guild. And Mira is readily available! Why doesn't she take Lucy's spot? Seriously, why is Lucy even there to begin with. Yeah, she's got enormous potential, but she is useless under pressure.
 * Raven Tail is gonna be there. can't be there because for story purposes, it would sort of be conflict of interests. Who knows, though? Maybe they'll show up anyway just Rule of Drama.
 * Gildarts had no interest in the Games and left the guild to go on another long journey. He even said it was their responsibility to make the guild respectable again. Mirajane didn't come back until Elfman and Lisanna did, but Elfman beat her to joining the team in Wendy's absence. And as for Lucy being "useless," that's an entirely different debate altogether.
 * Lucy is capable of doing a lot of things. Her problem is that when the fight isn't going her way, her brain just stops. That, or some one steals her keys.
 * As it turned out, Lucy was very capable of battling in the Games,
 * Turns out that those characters (aside from Gildartz) are

Wendy's healing magic
She run's out of magical power quickly from using it to heal wounded characters... then why not eat some air and recover the power you just lost and go back to healing?
 * I figured it's not slayer magic. She can do roars and such like the other dragon slayers, but none of them can use support magic. My best guess it that Wendy is using two different types of magic, and eating air can only affect one type.
 * But she is a sky dragon slayer, her healing magic was described as sky magic. And even if it can only boost her sky attacks, it should still recover her magical power.

Raven Tail a legal guild
Considering the how the council is concerning Fairy Tail. How the hell were Raven Tail made a legal guild?
 * We don't know yet. We just have to assume they pulled some legal trickery and have friends in high places. Besides, the council mainly dislikes Fairy Tail due to their destructive tendencies, and we've seen no evidence that Raven Tail is anything like that.

Flare holding Asca hostage
Not that I'm for the beating of innocent little girls but if Flare actually HAD hurt Asca, certainly she could have been openly disqualified and Lucy would've won the round. If Makarov and Alzack had reported the incident, there's no way it wouldn't have carried weight.
 * Because the judges are too dumb to realize what Flare's doing, and she's probably just holding some sort of Batman Gambit, knowing that Lucy will halt her attacks if she saw an innocent about to be hurt.
 * I think she cares a lot more about Asca getting hurt, than wether or not Raven Tail would had been discualified for doing so.

Ultear's Backstory
Many of my problems with Fairy Tail fall in the "good idea, bad implementation" route, as i enjoy the series as a whole, but the plot holes could sink the Royal Navy. My case in point is a specific moment in Ultear's backstory where she escapes the Magical Research Facility, goes to see her mother, gets within sight of her, sees her with other children, then immediately loses all hope, starts hating Ul, and turns around to go submit to testing with her new life-goal of committing matricide. She was in sight of her mother! A simple spurt of rage and going "what the hell, mom?" would have called Ul's notice to her and fixed her entire life. The stranger part is it would have been easier to just have her captors show her images of Ul with Gray and Lyon and have Ultear reach those conclusions while in their care. It just... makes your brain hurt.
 * Is that all? well, I guess that anger makes you do stupid thing, and I know that from personal experience. I think that she was so angry and upset at seeing Ur/Ul with other two "sons" that she immediatly assumed the worse and decided to storm off.

Jiemma and Sting
Ok, mister Douchebag Bozu Jiemma, the master of Sabretooth, kicked Yukino out of the guild for losing a fight against a much more powerful opponent. Then, if he's so strict, why doesn't he at least scold Sting as well for quitting the Chariot challenge and ending last? Ok, I know that probably Sting's a better resource than Yukino, but still he did failed his challenge.
 * He did, he's been warned that he wont be forgiven next time, after all no one knew what the challenge was going to be, and Jiemma told Yukino that it wasn't just that she lost, but that by making such a bet, she made their reputation decrease even furder.

Why doesn't Erza win every fight?
She's been shown on at least two occasions to be able to surround a target with innumerable swords and control the movement of any sword she summons. She should be able to turn any opponent into hamburger meat within 5 seconds, or at least bind them (hands and feet). No matter what the opponent's magic, every fight with her should be over in less than a minute. Other than Rule of Drama, why does she still have drawn out battles?

Why did Mystogan feel the need to hide his face
He looked like Jellal. Yeah, that's kind of a problem. It wasn't when he first showed up, though. He didn't bother to wear a mask around Wendy and really there's no reason he should have ever started. Makarov acted as though Mystogan was one of their veterans, and Jellal, no matter how skilled he was, could't have been much younger when he managed to convince people that he could totally hold a major political position. He probably hadn't even been a councilor for a year, so there's no reason Mystogan should have been worried about people thinking he looked like someone else until then-at which point everyone would have known anyway. Even if he was worried about the offhand chance of meeting someone who knew Jellal it's not hard to say "Oh, there's some guy who looks just like me? Wow. Weird." He couldn't have even hid himself for Erza's sake, since he'd have had no way of knowing about her relation to Jellal until after the tower incident since he threatened to kill everyone if she ever said a word about it. Really, the only way he could have known looking the same as Jellal would be a problem was if Erza saw him once and flipped out, but she didn't, because she had her moment of shock during Laxus's arc.
 * Mystogan didn't wear a mask around Wendy when he first met her because he was still a newcomer to Earthland and had no idea there was a parallel version of himself running around. Presumably, once he settled in and got to know Earthland a bit more, he figured it was a better idea to hide his identity just in case. We can assume that  did the same once she first arrived in Earthland, and continued to do so until.
 * That's the thing though. What 'just in case'? There's absolutely no harm in looking like someone else. He'd only have needed to bother if he knew Jellal was evil, and there's no way that he could have known. Jellal kept himself a secret (at least in the manga) until the Tower arc started.
 * I don't know about you, but if I ran into a completely identical version of myself - whether good or evil - I think that'd raise quite a lot of questions. Mystogan probably just wanted to avoid that.
 * He probably got to meet parallel versions of people he knew in Edolas, some maybe with enough diferences to make him think the "just in case my parallel turns out to be a psychopath or something"