Whoo boy, have we had some reveals the last few chapters. Remember how it turned out that Star Wars was actually the story of Darth Vader? Well, it's beginning to look like Fairy Tail is actually the story of Zeref, the black mage. Spoilers below the fold.

A bit more than 400 years ago, a dragon attacked the Dragneel family (father, mother, and two sons). The older son was named Zeref and the younger son was named Natsu. All but Zeref died.

Zeref had a great deal of talent for magic despite being quite young (maybe 8?) and entered a magic academy. But he never forgot his parents and his brother and did a lot of forbidden research into ways of bringing them back. In doing so he eventually tried to cast a certain spell -- and brought the wrath of the God of Death down on him. He now carries a great curse: he himself cannot die, but anything or anyone he comes to care deeply about will die or be destroyed. This is hellish in the extreme.

He met Mavis, and the two spent a lot of time together. His curse didn't activate (his feelings weren't strong enough) and he taught her a lot of black magic. She used Fairy Law to defeat a dark guild which controlled the city of Magnolia, but she didn't do it right, so she herself got the same curse as Zeref. That's why she looks like a kid; she can't change.She fell in with Pureshito, Warrod, and Yuri Dreyar (Makarov's father) and they founded Fairy Tail. And she eventually ran into Zeref again -- and Zeref's curse finally activated to destroy her.

Except her curse was in the way. The result was that she ended up neither dead nor alive, with her body in some sort of suspended animation inside a giant crystal, and her consciousness as a ghost. The two of them lived like that on the island until just recently.

Now, as to the most recent revelations? We finally know the story of the Dragon Slayers. 400 years ago the big threat was Acnologia. He is a human dragon slayer who bathed in the blood of every dragon he killed because it gave him more power, and eventually gained the ability to become a dragon. (He can change back to human form, too, but he mostly spends his time as a dragon.)

This was during the dragon-human war, when some of the dragons sided with the humans. Five of those determined to stop Acnologia, but there wasn't enough Ethernano at the time. In other stories these days that's often referred to as "mana" -- it's the fundamental power behind magic.

Five human orphans (Sting, Rogue, Wendy, Gajeel, and Natsu) where chosen by those five dragons, who raised them and trained them -- and then they each used "Dragon Soul Seal" and embedded themselves inside their respective apprentices.

And then a sympathetic human Celestial Mage named Anna used her power to open a gateway into the future, to a time when the level of ethernano was high. And in that time, a celestial mage named Layla Heartfilia opened the other end of the gateway, allowing the five children to pass through into her time. It was July 7, 777.

The kids remember that day as the one when the five dragons disappeared. It's actually the day they did their time jump, and none of them remembers that.

Unexplained for the moment is this: Layla's tombstone says she died in 777. Also we know that she gave away her three gold keys to other mages to use, on condition that they in turn give those keys to Lucy when she was old enough to use them. The mages who held the Cancer and Aquarius keys did their duty but Zoldeo (holder of Capricorn's key) did not. Did Layla deliberately sacrifice herself to open that gate? And gave away the keys because she knew she was going to die?

A different question you may be asking yourself: if Natsu died, who is the Natsu we know? Well, Zeref decided he wanted to die, even though he was immortal. He started creating demons in hopes he could create one that could kill him. And the greatest of them all is Etherious Natsu Dragneel, known as E.N.D. That book is the essence of Natsu, who is a demon, and if the book is destroyed Natsu will vanish. Also, if Zeref dies, Natsu will vanish.

That's what Zeref just told us. He might be lying, of course, but I don't believe it.

So... things to do:

1. Destroy Acnologia. That's why the dragon slayers exist, and if all seven of them work together, after powering up a bit more, maybe they can do it.

2. Kill Zeref. This is harder since he's cursed to be immortal, but maybe they'll come up with a way to do it.

3. Don't kill Natsu when Zeref dies. This is a real problem; obviously.

4. And maybe, kill Mavis.

Resources available to us:

1. Ask Crux for what he knows about this.

2. Ask Cancer and Capricorn for what they know about this. (We can't ask Aquarius because she can't be reached any more.)

3. Mavis's body can potentially provide immense amounts of magical power, possibly infinite amounts. It is known as "Fairy Heart". This could be a blessing or a curse, or even be both.

4. The "One Magic", which has been mentioned on occasion. Pureshito was looking for it after his face-heel turn. Layla talked about it to Lucy; we see one scene in which she talks to Capricorn about it. Lucy said that she concluded that it must be love, and Capricorn didn't contradict her. It's no secret that she's in love with Natsu. If he's about to die, can her love save him?

5. Gray gained some sort of new special ability from his father. What is it, and can it help?

6. Lucy still has the broken Aquarius key. Can it be used again to summon the Spirit King?

7. Has Lucy learned Galaxion Blade? (That's the last thing the Spirit King used, which was a general "Dispel Evil" which freed the rest of Fairy Tail from captivity and purified Minerva's soul.) We know that in the year since the Tartaros arc that Lucy has been training hard, and has become a hell of a lot more powerful and gained some new abilities (e.g. Stardress, which is turning out to be really impressive). I think it highly likely she can now do three summons at once without distress, and I think it almost certain that she can now do Urano Metria without help and without collapsing afterwards. So maybe she can do Galaxion Blade, too.

8. Wendy can now achieve Dragon Force at will. (It's basically a dragon slayer Super Saiyajin.) Sting and Rogue already could. Can the other dragon slayers also attain that level? (Natsu has achieved Dragon Force a couple of times, but they were exceptional.)

8.B. Natsu gained the power of electricity from Laxus, and Gajeel gained the power of shadow from Rogue. Can Wendy gain a completely new power, too? Say, the power of light from Sting? Maybe she can give him the power of wind in exchange...

9. Kana is a wild card. Mavis keeps saying that she has tremendous untapped power, and Mavis has let her use Fairy Glitter during the magic games. If Kana can tap into her true power, and Mavis gives her that spell permanently, she could be a major factor in whatever happens.

10. Someday Gildarts is going to return.

11. If Lucy and Yukino get together, with the 12 remaining gold keys (minus Aquarius but plus Ophiuchus) can they do something incredible?

12. There's a different possibility: instead of killing Zeref (and Mavis) maybe the solution is to free them from their curses. Then Zeref remains alive, and so does Natsu.

And... 13. Can the Aquarius key be restored? If so, what can Lucy and Yukino do with all 13 gold keys at once?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 12:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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